Smiler's Miscellany: Part Three

Currently reading, listening to,
and slowly browsing through:
On Cats by Doris Lessing
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
♫ Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

      



12/12 Challenge
1. The First Half 1901-1951 1/12
2. Tea with Georgie, Vickie & Eddie - 18th & 19th Century Classics 1/12
3. Picked for me - chosen from my shelves at random by LTers 1/12
4. Guardian Knows Best - Guardian 1000 0/12
5. The Dark Side - Crime & Mystery 1/12
6. Going Places - International authors & places 3/12
7. Young at Heart - Children/YA/Fantasy 3/12
8. Hot Off the Press - Published since 2011 1/12
9. Visual Treats - books on art, photography, design, or just beautiful books 1/12
10. Beyond Fiction - non-fiction 3/12
11. Litérature Française (read in French) 1/12
12. From My Treasure-Trove - off the shelf (acquired before 31/12/11) 1/12

Books completed in February
18. L'Assommoir by Émile Zola ★★★★½ (review) ☀
19. ♫ The Quiet American by Graham Greene ★★★ (review) ☀
20. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole ★★★★ (review) ☀
21. ♫ The Difference Engine by William Gibson ★★½ (review) ☀
22. The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck (rating & review coming soon) ☀
23. ♫ Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (rating & review coming soon) ☀



My rating system:
★ - hated it (may or may not have finished it but listing it for the trouble)
★★ - it was just ok
★★★ - enjoyed it (good)
★★★★ - loved it! (very good)
★★★★★ - all-time favourite (blew me away—will read again)

⅛ ¼ ⅓ ½ ¾ ⅞

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
☀ = TIOLI

Suggested reads for February (a very ambitious list...)

☛ The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon, TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book whose author's surname has a "Scrabble value" of 12 or more, 12/12 The First Half
☛ ❉ Le vieux chagrin by Jacques Poulin (TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word—Mister/merits, 12/12 Litérature Française, 187p)
☛ ❉ La traduction est une histoire d'amour by Jacques Poulin (TIOLI Challenge #3: Affair/raffia, 12/12 Litérature Française, 131p)
❉ Jimmy by Jacques Poulin (12/12 Litérature Française, 180p)
☛ ♫ Études de Femmes by Honoré de Balzac - Picked by bucket yell (TIOLI Challenge #6, 12/12 Picked by)
☛ ♫ The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark (TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word, 12/12 Guardian)
☛ ♫ Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book that has the Letters in TIOLI as doubles in the title or Author's Name, 12/12 Guardian)
☛ ♫ Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (TIOLI #13: Island Challenge, 12/12 Guardian)
☛ ✔ Walkabout by James Vance Marshall (TIOLI Challenge #6, 12/12 new edition) - short novel
✔ Berlin Stories by Robert Walser (12/12 new edition) - short novel
☛ ✔ Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (Challenge #6: Read a book whose author's surname has a "Scrabble value" of 12 or more, 12/12 Category #12)
☛ ✔ The Secret River by Kate Grenville (TIOLI Challenge #3: Secret/erects, 12/12 Category #12: From My Treasure-Trove)
☛ ✔ Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story by Michael Allin (TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book with an Ungulate in the title or on the cover, 12/12 Category #6: Going Places)
✔ Le Grand livre de la tendresse by Jacques Salomé - Picked by LauraBrook (12/12 Picked by) - get started on it
✔ The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson by David P. Silcox (12/12 Visual Treats) - get started on it

Additional Fantasy February Suggestions

☛ ℮ The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word, 12/12 Young at Heart)
☛ ❉ The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles #2) by Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi (TIOLI Challenge #3, 12/12 Young at Heart)
♫ The Difference Engine by William Gibson (Fantasy February, 12/12 Young at Heart))
☛ ♫ The City & The City by China Mieville (TIOLI Challenge #6, 12/12 Young at Heart)
♫ Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (TIOLI #19 Nebula Award, 12/12 Young at Heart)
☛ ♫ Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (TIOLI Challenge #3: Castle/cleats, 12/12 Young at Heart) - unfinished
☛ ♫ Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (TIOLI Challenge #6, 12/12 Young at Heart)
♫ The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (12/12 Young at Heart)
☛ ✔ Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (TIOLI Challenge #15, 12/12 Young at Heart)
☛ ✔ Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (TIOLI Challenge #3: Frost/forts, 12/12 Young at Heart)
☛ ✔ Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (TIOLI Challenge #6, 12/12 Young at Heart)
✔ In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster (12/12 Guardian)
✔ Orlando by Virginia Woolf (12/12 Guardian)
✔ Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (12/12 Guardian)




* = must read
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library
℮ = eBook
☛ = TIOLI

2012 Planning

Steinbeckathon:
January: Cannery Row (208*) - Ilana/Smiler69**
February: The Wayward Bus (288) - Mark/msf59
March: The Winter of Our Discontent (304) - Lynda/Carmenere
April: The Moon is Down (112) - Linda/lindapanzo
May: The Grapes of Wrath (496) - Ellen/EBT1002
June: Of Mice and Men (112) - Brit/weejane
July: East of Eden (640) - Ellen
August: The Red Pony (112) - Ilana
September: In Dubious Battle (384) - Mark
October: Tortilla Flat (224) - Tania/wookiebender
November: Travels With Charley and The Pearl (256 + 96) - Ilana
December: Sweet Thursday (288) - Mark

* approximate # of pages
** names indicate who will be heading up the threads.

Anyone is welcome to join in at any point, for as many or as few books as is desired.


Group Reads
January: Orange January, The Secret River by Kate Grenville (75ers), Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
February: Fantasy February, The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
March: Christine Falls by Benjamin Black, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (12/12), The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
April: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (12/12), David Copperfield (75ers), The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
May: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (12/12), A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor (Virago Modern Classics)
June: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (12/12, tutored read), Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
July: East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon), Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks (12/12), Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (Virago Modern Classics)
August: The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon), Middlemarch by George Eliot (12/12)
September: In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon), Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (12/12)
October: Blindness by José Saramago (12/12), Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
November: Travels With Charley and The Pearl by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)
December: Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (Steinbeckathon)


Books my fellow LT pals picked from my shelves for 12/12:
Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood - Picked by MickyFine
Études de Femmes by Honoré de Balzac - Picked by bucketyell
The Global Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger - Picked by msf59
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Branddon - Picked by avatiakh
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré - Picked by casvelyn
Arabian Nights: Four Tales from a Thousand and One Nights by Marc Chagall - Picked by Donna828
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Picked by DragonFreak
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver - Picked by calm
No Great Mischief by Alasdair MacLeod - Picked by KiwiNyx
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer - Picked by DeltaQueen50
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk - Picked by Deern
Le Grand livre de la tendresse by Jacques Salomé - Picked by LauraBrook
Blindness by José Saramago - Picked by Whisper1
Caravan of Dreams of Idries Shah - Picked by PiyushChourasia
The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1) by Jonathan Stroud - Picked by -Eva-
Candide by Voltaire - Picked by Fourpawz2
Native Son by Richard Wright - Picked by EBT1002
Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman - Picked by bohemima

Books Read in 2012:

January
1. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin ★★★★⅓ (review) ☀
2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett ★★★★ (review) ☀
3. ♫ Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson ★★★ (review) ☀
4. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi ★★★¾ (review) ☀
5. ♫ Fight Club by Chuck Palaniukh ★★★½ (review) ☀
6. The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary by Reading Is Fundamental ★★★★ (review)
7. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck ★★★★⅓ (review) ☀
8. ♫ To Fear a Painted Devil by Ruth Rendell ★★★⅓ (review) ☀
9. No One Noticed the Cat by Anne McCaffrey ★★★¾ (review) ☀
10. ♫ Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick ★★★★ (review) ☀
11. From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón ★★★ (review) ☀
12. ♫ On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry ★★★★½ (review) ☀
13. ♫ The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo ★★★ (review) ☀
14. ♫ Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson ★★★★⅓ (review) ☀
15. ♫ Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd ★★★★½ (review) ☀
16. Paris: Made by Hand by Pia Jane Bijkerk ★★★★ (review) ☀
Madlenka's Dog by Peter Sís ★★★★ (review)
Madlenka Soccer Star by Peter Sís ★★★ (comments)
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling, Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney ★★★★ (comments)
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say ★★★½ (comments)
17. ♫ The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West ★★★⅞ (review)

Unfinished
♫ Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
♫ Soulless by Gail Carriger

Books I'd like to read in 2012

(coming soon)

Books Acquired in 2012




January
1. ♫ Persuasion by Jane Austen (Au)
2. ♫ Just Kids by Patti Smith (Au)
3. A Murder of Quality and Call for the Dead by John le Carré (CI)
4. ♫ Soulless by Gail Carriger (Au) - Unfinished
5. The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck (BD) - Read February 2012
6. An Ermine of Czernopol by Gregor von Rezzori (BD)
7. A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck and Cornell Cappa (BD)
8. The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey (BD)

February
9. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck (BD)
10. ♫ Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Au)
11. ♫ Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (Au)

Au = Audible
BD = BookDepository
CI = ChaptersIndigo




Books Read from My Shelves in 2012




January
1. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin (entry date: 2011-09-09)
2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (entry date: 2008-12-16)
3. ♫ Fight Club by Chuck Palaniukh (entry date: 2011-03-09)
4. ♫ Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (entry date: 2011-09-18)
5. Paris: Made by Hand by Pia Jane Bijkerk (entry date: 2009-05-20)

February
6. L'Assommoir by Émile Zola (entry date: 2010-10-15)
7. ♫ The Difference Engine by William Gibson (entry date: 2011-06-11)
8. ♫ The Quiet American by Graham Greene (entry date: 2011-10-30)
9. ♫ Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (entry date: 2011-06-16)

What, am I first, Ilana? Checking in after being very quiet on you last thread.

Welcome Roni! You are indeed my first guest in these new digs. Make yourself right at home! :-)

I LOVE the painting! Especially the adorable little kittens. And those ladies have awesome hair. Mine's about that length, but so straight and coarse that it won't take curl. I've always wanted a 1920s or 1930s hairstyle. Or the 1940s. Ladies back in the day just had such good hair.

No problems then with the continuaton. You don't need any help to keep your spot in the league table - being so informative you added 7 posts at the beginning.
Topical picture at the beginning with all the cats. xx

Hello Ilana - just checking out the new digs!

wow them's some lists you've got up there! No wonder you were apprehensive about setting up a new thread with all it involves (was just on Paul's thread and saw you mentioned it there).

You keep good records :)

ETA- Bill Bryson is a funny guy, Id like to check out his Shakespeare one one day....*sigh*...if only my dishes would do themselves and my crazy eldest boy would stop having tantrums and doing random middle of the night bedroom visits, Id have more energy to put into reading :)

Ilana- Love the new stylish thread and the great picture at the top. The 2 William Boyd books I have, are Any Human Heart & Ordinary Thunderstorms. NEED to get to them.
Thanks for supplying the Group Reads of the year. I forgot about Christine Falls and I think I'm hosting it.

Ilana, I envy your organizational skills! If I visit more often perhaps some of it will rub off on me :}

"I'm speechless really. Don't know what to say..."
LOL!!!!! Hahahahaha!
I knew you'd come up with something - silly lady!
Ilana speechless? Never! ;-)

Snow showers here this am - pretty - but I'm trying to get a group of old ladies together to mail out our newsletter. I may be doing it alone? or tomorrow? Oh well.

Do you mean to tell me you are going to France and NOT Paris?
You can't take a train in to the city for at least a day? Though that would be such a tease... oh dear. Well, see? That's a great thing about being young and in your prime - you have plenty of years left to go in the future. :)

Don't despair about how far you did or didn't get with your painting. You spent some relaxing time and are closer to your goal. You just need to pace yourself - somethng I am still trying to learn. I admit, I am one of those "all or nothing" people. Hard to fight your own nature. :P

Beautiful and fascinating lists!

#10 I'd have to agree with you, but would also say that ladies generally had much better style back in those days too. There's something to be said for being comfortable, but it doesn't do much for glamour!

#11 Paul, it was either cats or dogs, and the cats won out in the end, since they're on our minds so much, as you well know. Maybe dogs next month. And yes, you've found me out... if I could have justified 20 messages to begin my thread, I would have done that, but it might have looked suspect to have that many more blank sections. ;-)

#12 Hi Brit, make yourself at home!

#13 Megan, sounds like you're the perfect candidate for audiobooks. You could listen to Bryson while doing housework. Would sure make doing dishes more interesting—I know that from personal experience! :-)

#14 No problem, come on over and consult the lists anytime you feel the need Mark—free of charge! I don't remember if you said you were hosting Christine Falls, but I do know I read about it on your thread, so it's very likely. You're going to be a busy host this year!

#15 Lynda, I wish those organizational skills would rub off on me too; in real life that is!

#16 Ah yes... pacing. I've always been an all or nothing kind of person too, and I know I'll be trying to find a more balanced approach for the rest of my life. Hugs to you Claudia.

#17 I aim to please Lucy! ;-)




Right. I promised myself I'd be ready on time so I wouldn't have to spend on a cab again to get to my watercolours class today. It's not looking too good at this point, and I blame it on LT! So off I go! Beautiful outside today by the way.

Thank you all for dropping by!

Thinking of you today and sending love

From your last thread: I'm not safe from book bullets even on my own thread. LOL. Ain't that the truth!

Love the painting too, just checking in.

Ilana, I love when you start new threads because I get a chance to read all your lists again which are fascinating and so admirable.

>22 phebj: ----and IMPRESSIVE!

Hi, Ilana - just a heads-up: Madeline and I have realised we can slot The Castle Of Otranto into this month's "famous for something else" challenge, if you'd care to join us??

What a great picture for the new thread, Ilana.

>22 phebj: and 23 --and DANGEROUS!

No time, really, but wanted to stop by. Found that you've already moved on to a new thread! Yikes!

Love the picture at the top. Women and cats. My favorites. Except no books? Oh well, can't have everything.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage has been added to my list.

Gotta run.

xo

#19 Linda, your little guy puts a smile on my face every time I look at him. Thank you sweet lady. xx

#20 Especially when the likes of you comes traipsing about here. But don't mind me, I actually love getting hit by book bullets (just don't tell anyone!) ;-)

#21 Hi Kerry!

#22 Thanks Pat. It's really not as much work as it seems!

#23 LOL!

#24 Liz, thanks for that, but I doubt I'll finish it on time to enter it into this month's challenge...

#25 I'm glad you like the image Caro, I quite like it too!

and DANGEROUS!

Means I must be doing something right! :-)

#26 Hi Ellen. I'm rushing by too, so no worries!

Class was great today. Was a good day in general. Just finished watching Downton Abbey and shed a tear or two. But otherwise, all is well. Sorry if I'm being really boring—I'm mostly ready to plop down into bed at this point!

Oh yes, started listening to the audio of The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Very good indeed.

Nothing much to say this morning and tired of talking to be honest as I was called upon to read the riot act to our contractor for the Helicopter centre who seems to think a programme of work is only there so as to be placed on the portacabin window to keep out the bright light. Now nearly 2 months delay and I had to do my Al Pacino bit and extemporize on their failings and the consequences of their failings to the project (the Employer and End-User were both in attendance so my acting skills were tested to the full)! Anyway got that off my chest so just remains to wish you an especially nice evening and end to January.

You've joined the Downton Abbey faithful! :-)

#28 You're right, it is so boring to hear that one of your friends has had a good day! ;-) (Turns off sarcasm)

I'm so glad I have Downton Abbey now and can finally find out what everyone is talking about!

#29 Paul, I would love to see you doing your Al Pacino bit. There isn't any chance someone could film you next time?

I'll see what I can arrange Heather but I would much prefer the contractor catch up and then I can do my Justin Beieber bit!

xo

Hi Paul, Ellen, Heather, & Paul & Ellen (again!)

It's a very low energy day today, so I'm taking things nice and slow. Was supposed to go the the cinema with my dad, but we put it off because even that seems like more effort than I can muster. I always feel better staying home when I'm not at my best.

Has anyone seen this Game of Thrones Season 2 trailer? (takes a moment to load). I can't wait for it to air in April, it looks amazing.



#29 Hi Paul. I too am glad you got that off your chest. Like Heather, I'd love to see you doing the Scarface Al Pacino thing. I'm not sure if I'd find it scary or funny though. ;-)
Happy end of the month to you too! xx

#30 Oh yes, I was there from the moment the introduction started on the first show.

#31 I'm really happy you can now take part in the Dowton Abbey mania. I'm sure you'll love it.

#32 and then I can do my Justin Beieber bit

Oy! Please spare us!

#33 ♥🐶 (that's a very tiny puppy)

Definitely not scary enough. Ilana

Hey Ilana - just stopping by. My wife got me hooked on Downton Abbey. We're a couple episodes behind though. I'm reading Game of Thrones right now.

Hi, Ilana! I saw the latest, Game of Thrones trailer. It gets your blood pumping doesn't it? Sorry to hear about your low-energy day. Bummer.
Did you see DA? Stop by my Thread and leave a comment. Hugs!

Hi Ilana! Found your new thread!
I am also having a low energy day. Just trying to catch up on threads (I am incredibly behind!), reading and perhaps will watch some Downton Abbey. I'm partway through season 2 now. It's very addicting!

Hi Ilana, I usually find your new threads much quicker, but I actually took some time off LT over the last couple of days to try and catch up on some other things.

I love your opening picture, and I admire your ambitious list of planned reads for February. I got a little carried away with my February planning, but I just found so many appealing TIOLI challenges being put up for the month. I had to force myself to quit listing books, as I could have still added more.

Ilana - thought you may be both interested as well as surprised to note that you were the only one to make top ten in both my "league tables" 7th (as always) in the posts table and 6th in books read. Well done (I think).

Hi, Ilana. Like the new thread!

Hi Ilana, I just love that watercolour at the top of the page, really great. And I have to say thank you for alerting me to the new Game of Thrones trailer, it looks very good and I can't wait. They are playing the Downtown Abbey christmas special on TV here at the moment so I recording them and will watch all at once next week. Looking forward to it!

>34 Smiler69: Ilana: I'd love to see you doing the Scarface Al Pacino thing
>35 PaulCranswick: Paul: Definitely not scary enough. Ilana
maybe the Beiber act would have worked better ;)

Just discovered if I move the high chair over to the computer table I can feed Lenny and LT at the same time! I know, Im a slow learner, I really should have put that one together a long time ago. Each post is taking me 5 minutes though as I keep getting distracted making funny faces at the cauliflower covered monster before me (no not the computer...the kid!)

We don't have regular TV and I've been desperately waiting for the Game of Thrones DVD to come out. I'm seriously thinking of renting a room at a hotel this time, or 'dropping in' on friends with cable.

Greetings to Paul, Brit, Mark, Chelle, Judy, Joe, Leonie, Megan and Lucy!

I've been away from the computer most of the day. Finished L'Assommoir by Zola, which was pretty heavy going, so felt like connecting with relatively well adjusted and happy folk right here on LT. I'll answer your messages individually soon, but Coco is desperately signalling it's time for his walk, so will do so when I get back.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share this image. I came across it when I was looking for a cover image for The Castle of Otranto, which I'm currently reading, I uploaded so it would show up in my library. I suspected it was by John William Waterhouse (it was), did a bit of a search to find a larger version of it and made it my new profile image. There was a Waterhouse exhibit here in Montreal a few years ago which I very sadly never managed to get to, being very unwell at the time, but I do hope to see his paintings "in person" someday. I know he has quite a few fans in this group, so enjoy.

Hi Ilana!
Love the Waterhouse picture. I wish I could figure out how to get images on my thread this clear and detailed.
Hope you are well...
hugs!

Beautiful painting, Ilana. I've never seen it before.

I love his work, and that one is just gorgeous.

Ilana, I have been asked about last years Mystery March and if it's going to be held again. I just checked last years thread and you are the one that originally set it up. Are you planning on setting up a Mystery March for this year as well? If you are too busy, either I or someone else can start it up for those that want to participate.

#36 Brit, I'm surprise it took you this long to get hooked on Downton Abbey! I was hooked from the moment the intro started!

#37 As you've seen by now, I left comments as requested. I'll have to drop by to see what's been said on your thread since.

#38 I'm not sure how many episodes are left in season 2 of DA, but I don't look forward to getting to the end! It'll be a long wait till season 3 starts up again!

#39 & 48 Judy, I know for sure there is no way I'll get through all the books I've listed for this month. But I can't help wanting to read that many. No harm done one way or the other, right?

As for Mystery March, I'll gladly join in, but must say I'm surprised that I was the one who set it up. I just went and checked in "threads started by you" and it doesn't show up there. Hmmmm... in any case, since I've got the Steinbeckathon going all year, I would be happy to let you or someone else take care of that.

Glad you like the painting. :-)

#40 LOL. Paul, thanks for sharing the news here. I'll have to make my way over to your party line to see with mine own eyes!

#41 Hey Joe! Make yourself at home. Tea?

#42 Hi Leonie, I thought there'd be some Game of Thrones fans who would appreciate that trailer. I watched it a few times when I found it. Something to look forward to!

#43 Megan, sounds like you've got the multitasking thing down pat! Just make sure the food stays off the computer... sounds like there might be a danger of contamination there! ;-)

#44 Lucy, I just checked on iTunes to see when it would be released and it looks like beginning of March. You're more than welcome to come over and watch season 2 here, though it might be a bit of a treck just to watch a tv show, even if it IS GoT!

#46 I wish I could figure out how to get images on my thread this clear and detailed.

Claudia, that's very simple: your original image (the one you want to post) has to be a good resolution to begin with (i.e. cleare and detailed). Posting it here doesn't change it one bit. For example, when I searched for this Waterhouse painting, I looked at a bunch of available sources in Google images and chose the largest one which seemed also to be of the best available quality, and... Voilà! Now you know all my secrets. :-)

#47 Pat, eI hadn't seen it before either, until I searched for Castle of Otranto book covers. I'm glad I found it though!

I finished listening to Graham Greene's Quiet American tonight, and can't say it's my favourite of his. Somehow... it just seemed too hopeless and bleak, even though it does have a happy ending of sorts.

Started on The Difference Engine. I have no idea what to expect with that one, and reading listening to it in the context of Fantasy February.

This evening, I received a package from the BookDepository containing:
The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey, which I gobbled up as soon as it came out of the box
A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck
An Ermine in Czernopol by Gregor von Rezzori

Not doing too well as far as book purchased vs books read off the shelf, with 9 books purchased so far vs 6 books read. But then, I didn't set a specific goal either. I'd settle for a 1:1 ratio at this point.

I'll be starting on The Wayward Bus tonight.

I finished DA season 2 and the Christmas special yesterday. *sigh*
I think season 3 comes out this fall. It's going to be a loooong wait!

Ilana - thanks for sharing your secret with me. I just went searching for a bigger picture of "Merry Go Round" and I think it looks a little better now. Not perfect... but I will work on perfecting your technique in the future ;-)

Ooooooooooooooo, The Gashlycrumb Tinies! You lucky girl, you. I am green, even lime-toned, with envy.

Looks like you're having a great reading year, Ilana. Wish I were doing as well. But...it's early yet. Thanks for pointing me to Cannery Row; I loved it; so very gentle and yet completely down-to-earth. A very nice read.

Hope you're doing well, Dear Friend.

You're finding some interesting reading material these days, Ilana. And starting The Wayward Bus this evening...... It may be a week or two before I get to it. I'm looking forward to it after our wonderful experience in January! I don't expect this to live up to that, but who knows? :-)

Hello lovely Ilana - my favourite William Boyd novels are A Good Man in Africa (strongly recommend), and Stars and Bars which I thought was hilarious. I have a couple of his also wallowing on the Shelves of Shame...must get to them, as I see he has a new one out to some acclaim Waiting for Sunrise.

Adore the Icart at the top - though I prefer his naughtier ladies (and have two of his nudes in prints on my Melbourne walls)

If you like Icart, I wonder if you have every look at the illustrator, Leyendecker? I have an amazing book of his work for magazines and advertisements - all very subtlely homo-erotic...fantastic skill...

Can't wait to see what you thought of The Quiet American. mwah mwah cherie

More visitors, yay! Thanks for the late-night visit Chelle, Claudia, Gail, Ellen and Prue. I'm bone tired right now, and still must take out Coco to do his thing... Cinema with my friend Kimmy tomorrow evening: Dangerous Methods. Interesting topic, mixed reviews; we'll see how it goes. Haven't been to cinema in ages.

#51 Chelle, I'm feeling kind of smug right now, knowing I've still got a couple of episodes of DA to enjoy... but how did you manage to watch to the end of the season??

#52 Claudia, I posted a link on your thread which I hope will be helpful. xx

#53 Gail, I don't want you to stay green, so if you like, I'd be more than happy to send it to you... just let me know, it can be arranged. xx

#54 I don't expect this to live up to that, but who knows?

That's the trouble with starting out on such a strong note, isn't it? I was going to pick up another book today, i.e. maybe one that I planned for last month and wasn't able to get to, but since TWB came in today, I felt it was a sign that I needed to pick it up right away. Looking forward to it. I can't imagine Steinbeck being bad ever, but even bad Steinbeck would be pretty great, I'm sure.

#55 Prue! A Good Man in Africa was on one of my many wishlists, and I was sure I'd start with that one, so I'm glad to see you confirm my first instinct (it was highly recommended by 'best of' lists I'd looked at I think. I'll add the others to the wishlist, many thanks.

I only discovered Icart in 2011. I've always quite loved Vargas and enjoyed pin ups, and did collect several other Icart images on my hard drive, though stuck to the not too naughty ones as possibilities for my threads. Came across one or two sites that had LOADS of his work. I'll post the link for you to have a look at soon.

Never heard of Leyendecker, but will look him up asap, i.e. tomorrow, as am dropping dead with fatigue at this point. Nighty night. Or g'day, I guess, in your part of the world. ;-)

Is Graham Greene an author you would recommend?

Hi Ilana - just realised I hadn't posted on this thread:(

Beautiful pictures, great lists - hope you have a good day.

Don't tempt me Ilana! So if it comes out beginning of March when is Season 2, will we have time to watch Season 1?

Hah! I love the offer of tea, Ilana! Yes, please. :-)

We're DA converts thanks to you and others like Mr. Mark.

I've written you separately about Zola, who has eluded me thus far.

Thanks so much, Ilana, for your helpful post. I'll get the hang of it one of these days ;-)
Now I have done so much "fooling around" on the internet this AM - and nothing much accomplished. C'est la vie!

Hope you have a great day and enjoy your evening out...

Hi Ilana, I will be starting up a thread for Mystery March toward the end of this month. I will get back to you with a link.

Take care.

Mystery March. Sounds good to me!

Sorry Ilana, I cheated and got it off the internet. I can't get it on cable here so I found it a different way ;)

Definitely, I bought some Agatha Christie and a Ruth Rendell last year that might fit the bill nicely.

Ilana, that Waterhouse image is stunning, thank you for posting it.

Thank you all for your visit. Right now, I want to KILL someone over at Yahoo. I hate Yahoo. I HATE YAHOO. I HATE YAHOO.

I've been trying to renew my pro account with Flickr.com and there was a glitch. I got an error message telling me to contact Yahoo. Finding a "contact us" form on Yahoo requires a lot, A LOT of patience and effort. They make it really, really hard. Spent about an hour trying to find my way there, then their site kept having bugs. FINALLY got the g*ddamned form, then had to go through twenty other contortions to fill in all the info required. Sent the form, and it didn't go through. I was missing something. More work. Sent it again.

"Sorry, there was an error on our end. Please try again later.

I HATE YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right. Time to take Coco out for a walk and cool off for a bit.

I'll be back in a more sociable mood after a walk and some dinner.

Oh yes, I've been blogging. Feeding my two woefully undernourished blogs. It takes me absolutely FOREVER to put together posts. I was hoping to do a bunch of things today, but seems my whole day's been gobbled up. My magazine training really gets in the way when I blog because I totally go into publishing obsession mode. Argh. Anyway,

there's this:
http://fromsmilerwithlove.com/2012/02/02/inspiration-of-the-day-dahlov-ipcar/

and this
http://createthreesixty5.com/2012/02/02/warmup-exercise-stella-nudes/

"It takes me absolutely FOREVER to put together posts."

That's because you are a perfectionist, my dear, not happy with mediocrity - and the results are absolutely beautiful!

Nice sketches, too! :)

Ilana - I hate Yahoo too - no particular reason - just supporting a good friend!

Hey Ilana, now just so I'm clear, how do you feel about Yahoo?

As you know, I'm just kidding. I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience with them! I hope the walk with Coco helped --

and..... I hate forms!!!

Hello Ilana - My wife was hooked before she even watched an episode of Downton Abbey!

love love love your warm up exercises. Cant they just be artworks though? They seem beautifully complete to me: slap a frame around one and call it done!

#57 Is Graham Greene an author you would recommend?

Most definitely Piyush! I of course knew about him for many years, but only actually started reading him a couple of years ago, and have A LOT of reading ahead of me to get a good sense of his overall approach; if there is one, because he tends to be very eclectic. The first book I read by him was The Tenth Man, which isn't that well known, relatively speaking, but is truly excellent, imho. Another one I recommend is Brighton Rock. Our Man in Havana is quite funny and quite kooky. That's about as far as I've gotten with him, and I look forward to discovering much more of his work.

If you're looking for an opinion by a true GG connoisseur, then head Paul's way and I'm sure he'll set you up properly!

#58 Hi calm! Not to worry, I'm woefully behind on your thread. Will have to rectify that very soon, before you get on to thread #2!

#59 Lucy, you'll definitely have time—season 2 only starts in April (not sure of the date).

#60 Joe, what kind of tea do you like. I'm sure you need to take a break from serving others over at your busy café!

I don't mind brining the Zola discussion over here by the way. I've only read about 7-8 of his books from the Rougon-Macquart series. We studied a couple of the novels in high school, but I can't for the life of me remember for sure which titles they were. As you may or may not know, I've taken on the challenge of reading the 20-books series in publication order, as they are all inter-related, since the idea for the series was to show the effects of heredity and social conditioning on individuals, by observing several generations of the Rougon-Macquart dynasty. Of course, each novel can be fully enjoyed if read individually too.

I suppose the most popular of his novels is Germinal. I think this is one of the two I read in school, but don't know for sure. I haven't re-read it yet, and it'll be a while before I get to it, since I'll only be getting on book 8, and that one is book 13. I do know that Zola meant it to be the positive and hopeful response to the hopelessness of L'Assommoir. I quite liked the first book, The Fortune of the Rougons as well as the second, The Kill. I've read Nana a few times as it's a great favourite, but wouldn't say it's exactly light reading either. I wouldn't put Zola in the light reading category in general, though he is eminently readable.

Here again, if you'd like more expert advice, I'd refer you to Paul, as he seems to be much more familiar with the series than I am.

#61 Now I have done so much "fooling around" on the internet this AM - and nothing much accomplished. C'est la vie!

That's pretty well the way I've spent the equivalent of at least half my life Claudia...

#62 Judy, I'll happily participate in Mystery March and will start planning for it very soon.

#64 I figured it must have been something like that Chelle. Care to share your secret sites with us?

#65 I'm glad you enjoyed the Waterhouse painting Leonie, I did post it so my visitors could enjoy it after all! My problem with Mystery March will be resisting the urge to plan for every single book in the mystery category that I currently have in my stacks!

#68 Thank you dearest Claudia. You do have such a nice way of encouraging and supporting my efforts. ♥

#69 You're awesome Paul. I say we should instate a worlwide "I HATE YAHOO!" day. What say you?

#70 Ellen, the worst part? (and I hate forms with a passion) is that I kept the form open in a window so I could re-send it at a later time, as they've suggested, but my computer had a snag and I was forced to reboot and guess what? The form didn't reload like all the rest of the stuff. So not only do I have to fill out the whole thing again, but I actually have to go hunting for the "contact us" section to start with. I would cry if I wasn't in denial about ever needing to use any of their services again.

#71 My wife was hooked before she even watched an episode of Downton Abbey!

That sounds completely reasonable to me Brit! :-)

#72 Thank you Megan, I do appreciate your comment quite a lot. In fact, I'm rarely satisfied with anything I do, but the first sketch of Stella on the blog is one of my favourite things I did this year. But the teacher encourages us to start on scrap paper for the warmups so we won't feel too intimidated to make a mess, and that one was done on newsprint paper, which as we all know, is just about the worst kind of paper out there, so it's likely to deteriorate sooner rather than later. Very typical that one does one's "best work" during warmups; when you're not worried about doing something "good", it takes off all the pressure, which in turn makes it likelier to actually DO something "good". Heh.

I hear you Ilana, it makes perfect sense really. Maybe you could use high grade paper for warm ups too and for everything. Or would the cost be prohibitive? Oh what we would do if we were rich eh?

eta: just had another look. still love them :)

Bonjour Ilana - I think your nudes are fabulous, too - love how confident and bold your strokes are. Shall we call them you Blue period? Oh and I saw (was it on another thread?) that fabulous floral painting. Made me smile just to look at it! Mwah mwah. What's Yahoo? (seriously, it's one engine I NEVER use)

Hi Ilana, I've just enjoyed looking through your blog and of course your great artwork. And yahoo, psheesh, who are they again?

#75 Megan, the thing about using high-grade paper for warmups is that consciously or not, one wants to create great art on great paper. It's just one of those things. The only way out of that conundrum is to keep producing all the time to increase the chances of good work ending up on a good support. I'm still struggling with that, but I'll get there eventually! Thanks again for your kind comments about my work. Actually, sketch #2 is a perfect example of why I'm often really happy I've stuck to 'bad' paper!

#76 Bonjour Prue! A floral painting? There have been quite a few, so I'd be curious to know which you're referring to. As for blue periods... let's just say there have been lots of those, but figuratively and otherwise! :-)

As for Yahoo, I never use them either. NEVER. But the problem is that they run Flickr, which is a photo archiving site which I DO use, and like gazillions of times better than Photobucket. But it looks like they might lose me as a client if they don't make paying for their services an available option to me!

#77 Hi Leonie, I'm always happy to know people actually do look at my blogs sometimes. Makes as the effort seem like it's NOT a royal waste of time! As for Yahoo, see my note above. xx

I need to get going. Finally off to see the Lyonel Feininger exhibit at the museum of fine arts with my friend Liselotte (aka my adopted 93-year-old grandmother!). She's off on a 6-week cruise next week, so this is our last chance of seeing each other and going together before she leaves. Lots of plans keep getting made and unmade in my world (especially when it comes to movie dates...), but this one's a go!

It should be an interesting show. I don't know that I can say I'll love all his work, he went through a big cubist period which really isn't my bag, but interesting it'll be for sure.

Here are a couple of pieces found on google that I do like quite a lot:

    

  

Funny, I just realized after looking at the preview that they actually have a lot in common!

eta: after viewing the paintings, I tried to adjust the colouration, since the originals are a lot brighter and much more vivid. The colours still aren't right, but as you can see, there's already a big difference.

Okay, I'll post something while my notebook is unsuccessfully trying to open the blogs. My internet connection at home is getting worse by the day (maybe due to the storms?), and I am still avoiding the new one at work. This last week I spent half of the nights staring at the screen waiting for LT threads to finally open, so I could at least read up if not post...

I'll comment on the picture above once my notebook decides to show it to me. And it still refuses to open the blogs. You hate your yahoo, I hate my vodafone! :-(

And hours later...
The Ipcar Greyhounds are incredible!! The others are beautiful as well, but I could look for hours at the Greyhounds and still find something new.
The Nudes - I like the bodies! The face is also very well done, it just reminds me so much of a famous German who I'd rather not see without clothes. :-)
And I can finally see paintings in #79. The first one might look nice on my wall, the colors would fit very well.

Hi Ilana- Hope you had a nice time today! I love the watercolors! I need to pick your brain, on a few suggestions for artists, you would think I would like. I think these burst of colors adds a nice start to any thread or just to gawk at. Hugs!

Enjoy the exhibit!!! The samples you posted look like work I would like to be able to see in person.

Love the Nude #1. Just love it. Then I clicked back and so "So Square". Of course my non-artist self took in the general impression of "oooo, pastels, pretty, no greens" and then I started looking for patterns, then back at the whole thing again...very interesting. I could look at art all day (well, some art), the same way I can read a single poem for several hours. Thanks very much for providing the links.

Like the Feininger's as well. They seem to be similar in content and..I guess you'd call them shapes...but very different in execution and detail. So fascinating.

Let's see...you started this thread yesterday...and I'm MSG No. 85. Doesn't anyone around LT read books anymore? lol.

Hello lovely - just nudging you to look up Leyendecker - would be very interested to know what you think!

Ouf! I'm glad to be home. I've been back for a couple of hours, but now sitting here within LT so to speak, I feel like I can finally relax. Had a very nice time with Liselotte. When we met up, she said we only had 90 minutes to go through the show since she needed to be somewhere after, so we more or less breezed through, which was just fine with me because it gave me an idea of what was there. I'll go back on my own to look more closely at the things that caught my attention, but a good half of the show didn't do much for me since he delved into cubism for a large part of his life, and that's one art movement that I've never been able to appreciate, beyond the intellectual aspect of it.

After the show, she needed to go pick up a pair of shoes for her trip in a shop which was just outside of town. When we got there, she didn't like the shoes she'd reserved and we stayed there for a couple of hours while trying to find a pair of suitable shoes. Everything they were showing us looked like nursing shoes, and in fact they told me they were bestsellers with nurses. That's fine if you intend on wearing them in a hospital, but on a Caribbean cruise, not so much. Meanwhile, I spotted a pair of cute red canvas slippers I liked (always wanted red shoes!). Then, I saw a shoe I knew she'd like and she LOVED them, but they didn't have her size (of course). They were Mephisto shoes (a very good brand and made for comfort), and I happened to know there was a store downtown that distributed those exclusively. After lots of futzing about with me sending the other store a photo of the shoe we were looking for via my iPhone, we decided to go see what they had there. About an hour and something later, she finally found something she was happy with. Two pairs of shoes actually. This is in no way unusual behaviour, because I'm also very particular about what I like and typically end up trying at least twenty pairs of shoes before I either find the ones I like, or do like we did today and go on to another store. But it's E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-N-G. But still—fun. I just love spending time with her. And I ended up with the red canvas shoes, which Liselotte insisted to partially fund with a $20 deposit she'd paid the store for the original pair she'd reserved. Heh.

She also suggested to me that I should inquire at the museum about volunteering work and I think that's a great idea, so I'll be looking into it next week. She said "I completely see you working in the museum, with you talents and skill set" and I must say, the thought had crossed my mind in the past, but I'd sort of forgotten all about it, as those things go.

#80-81 Nathalie, sorry to hear you have trouble opening threads and blogs. Mine do tend to take longer usually since I post quite a lot of visuals obviously.

Just to be clear here, Yahoo and I have nothing in common. I don't use them. Never have, never would if I could help it, but they do run sites like Flickr which I like to use. But I stay well clear of them usually. (can you tell I really can't stand them?)

The painting you've pointed out as liking Nathalie is part of a series done in 1910, which is probably among my favourite work of his. As expected, there were a great many cubist paintings, which didn't do much for me, but these early ones were quite delightful.

#82 You can try picking my brain all you like Mark, but I must tell you if it's suggestions you're looking for, I don't know that I can be of much help. I have the worst memory for names ever, and unfortunately haven't developed a system for keeping track of the artists I like with the surprising result (for someone so interested in visuals arts) that I too have to go searching far and wide to find work I like. But still. If I can help, I will, gladly.

I'm not sure which watercolours you're referring to. Is it the Feininger paintings I posted in #79? I agree the second one especially looks like watercolour, but it's actually oil on canvas.

#83 Hi Ellen my dear! I did enjoy seeing the second part of the show where they were displaying that period in his career. It started with his illustration and caricature work which was featured prominently in some major newspapers (which is how he initially gained fame), then works from the series I've shown above which were loads of fun, then A LOT of cubism. It's well worth a visit. Or two. Or three. I want to go back with pads and pencils and do some sketches next time I go. Always a fun way to spend a day!

#84 Bless your heart Gail, I can't deny your comment about my work was most pleasing. Especially when you mention poetry in the next sentence. ;-)

Funny, because when I chose those two paintings above, I had no idea they were executed around the same time, and turns out they were. I thought that whole section of the show was incredibly inspiring. His colour palette during that period, to mention just that, was simply stunning and incredibly vivid and modern looking.

#85 Books? What's that?

Seriously though, I started this thread five days ago, so it's not quite as crazy busy as that over here. For that you'd have to go over to the top five busiest threads, which I find incredibly hard to keep up with, but such fun!




I interrupt this message to say I've edited message #79 with the paintings, if anyone is curious to see the adjustments I've made.

#86 Prue: Oh, THAT Leyendecker! If you'd mentioned the Saturday Evening Post, I might have clued in sooner. Love it. He's so camp. I have a feeling his work was camp even in his day. Thanks for pointing him out to me. Don't be surprised if one of my threads ends up featuring one of his illustrations as the opening image... xx

        

Whoa. There's a difference! What do you think those round, wheel-like shapes are in the bottom painting? I noticed them because they seemed to be continuing the idea/shape/design of wheels, without actually being wheels, if you know what I mean. Do you think they might be sort of hills with fall grass or hay or something? I hate it that I know so very little about art; that's just another reason to love your thread, and, one hopes, soak up any art knowledge that might be hanging about...

eta: cross-posted. Whee---more art to look at. Love the Arrow Shirt advert.

Gail, that's pretty amazing that you've spotted those wheel-like shapes. You know more about art than you realize for sure! I don't know what they are specifically, probably as you say some sort of hills, though as it happens, we looked at that painting, then Liselotte moved on to something else, and I dragged her back to point those out. This painting was to the left hand of a smaller painting with very different coloration and subject matter. Feininger had used a lot of stripes in it as a motif, and those shapes appeared also appeared at the bottom of that smaller painting and were similar enough that I felt sure that he'd been inspired by it to use that particular motif again. I couldn't say which one was painted first, but it's a great example of an artist referring back to his own work to develop an idea, something our watercolours teacher and many other art teachers have often encouraged us to explore in our own work.

Ilana- I did think the 2nd one was a watercolor but regardless I loved the look of both of them.

Hi Ilana!
Sounds like you had great fun with Liselotte! Turned out good for her to have you along. And now that you have red shoes, you can click your heels and go anywhere!

When I look at the Feininger pictures in #79, I get long-leg envy. Interesting there are no pedals on the bicycles...
And w/o doubt, my favorite Leyendecker above is the circus horse... love the colors and details. May 14, 1932! Wow... even I was not born yet ;-)

Glad you had some fun!

Hi Ilana. I always love what I learn about art from your thread. And I really enjoyed reading about the shoe shopping. You have more stamina than you think!

#88: I want to go back with pads and pencils and do some sketches next time I go. That sounds like fun. I occasionally fantasize about being able to sketch/draw or paint with watercolors. There is a huge art supplies store on Capitol Hill and I wander through it imagining using all the wonderful colors of different media to create art. It's never going to happen, but an art supplies store is almost as much fun as a bookstore! Almost. :-)

#90 & 91: Interesting discussion.

In March, we have tickets to see the Gauguin exhibit at SAM and I hope to be as curious and observant as you both are. I'm really looking forward to that show.

*sigh* always wished I could draw. My attempts have always been, well, sketchy at best. Pun intended. :)

How I always enjoy visiting here! Waterhouse is my favorite Pre Raphalite artist. I have so many Pre Raphalite books that they fill the top of one of my tables.

I'm controlling myself, but so want to buy...and heck, I think I will...purchase a book about his exhibit at the Tate.

In the meantime, you might enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6SIW_WgEq4

Love

Ilana, your Waterhouse image in post 45 is Lamia and the Soldier and is currently housed at the Auckland Art Gallery because I was standing in front of it last night just speechless. It is very beautiful. Just thought you'd like to know.

Leonie - you bring home just how small the world is nowaydays - Ilana posts a picture in Montreal and you see the real mccoy in Auckland with all of us looking in from the four corners.

#92 You've got good taste Mark! :-)

#93 Claudia, those legs are astonishingly long—anything's possible in a painting obviously. I saw a photo in the J Crew catalogue of a model with such astonishingly long legs that I felt sure they were photoshopped. If not, I absolutely hate her! lol

#94 I was wondering whether I wasn't going to bore my visitors with that shopping story, so glad you enjoyed it Pat.

You have more stamina than you think!

I'd say... yes and no. I wasn't doing very well today. Exhausted and a migraine which made me hate the sunny day we had. Put off my movie date too. Seems whenever I put out a burst of energy, I need a day to recoup afterward. I'm just lucky that I can do that!

#95 I know what you mean about art stores Ellen. To me, the are as much fun as bookstores. I think you should treat yourself to some wonderful art supplies with colours that inspire you next time you're in an art store and just have a stab at making a mess. You might be surprised with the results. Or not, but it can be a lot of fun and is certainly very relaxing.

I so wish I could come over to see Gauguin with you. I'm sure that'll be an amazing show.

#96 Jim, see my comment to Ellen above. There's no rule that says the a person has to be a Leonardo or a Picasso... or a Waterhouse to enjoy drawing.

#97 So did you end up getting that book Linda?

I did well remember you saying Waterhouse was your favourite and was looking forward to you coming across the painting I've posted here. Thanks for that YouTube link. I'll watch the whole thing soon, but meanwhile, I watched a few minutes and there's such a wealth of work. It's astounding how prolific he was, considering the level of detail in each of his paintings. Obviously, there was no LT back then to distract him away from his art. ;-)

#98 Leonie, that is almost unbelievable! What a strange coincidence. Is it a large painting? I had no sense of what the proportions might be.

#99 What you said, Paul.

Ilana, you and other LTers posting art work on threads has been a real education for me. Words are wonderful but pictures reach out to the emotions in a way that goes beyond words alone. I would love to see a Waterhouse in person...and I didn't even know who Waterhouse was until Linda enlightened me on her thread a year or so ago.

I hope tomorrow is a high energy day for you!

I decided not to count the following books toward my 75. I don't have a system yet to decide what picture books I'll count and which one I won't, so it'll be a case by case thing. Still, here are a few comments on each.






Madlenka's Dog by Peter Sís ★★★★

The follow-up to what was one of my favourite pictures books of 2011 is a lot of fun. Madlenka's parents refuse her the dog she longs for, so she makes use of the powers of imagination and goes walking her make-believe dog around the block. Is it make-believe though? Each person Madlenka and her dog encounter shows her and the viewer the first dog they had as a child. Gorgeous illustrations of course, here there were flaps on every page that revealed the dogs, and a central part where Madlenka and her friend Cleopatra take a trip through time with their imaginary friends. Beautiful good fun.







Madlenka Soccer Star by Peter Sís ★★★

Another celebration of the powers of imagination. Madlenka's gotten a soccer ball and is dying to play with everyone she encounters. Pretty soon she's playing with the mailbox and the neighbourhood cats too. Not quite as elaborate as the first two books, this tribute to soccer fans didn't grab me as much as the two first books in the series, but is still worth a look if you liked the first two.






Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling, Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney ★★★★

This is one of several books illustrated by Jerry Pinkney that I borrowed from the library for the pleasure of perusing his gorgeously detailed watercolour illustrations, after discovering him in The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary. Two other books I recommend by him are the Caldecott Medal winning The Lion and the Mouse based on the Aesop fable and Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo. I predict more books illustrated by Pinkney in my future.








Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say ★★★½

Allen Say is a new-to-me illustrator who tells the story of his grandfather's journey from his homeland of Japan to California. It's a heartfelt tale with beautiful, more contemplative watercolour illustrations. I recommend this book, another Caldecott Medal winner, but I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I might have since I had preceded it with the much more elaborate styles of the above-mentioned illustrators. I also borrowed his Drawing From Memory, which I look forward to.

Hi Ilana - I also saw the Waterhouse on a visit to the Auckland Art Gallery a couple of weeks ago. I'm fairly sure that it's quite large, almost lifesize.

Great stack of picture books you've had on the go. I've been looking at a few by Irish illustrator P J Lynch whose style is similar to Pinkneys. Also currently have a cute wordless one 'The Conductor' by Laetitia Devernay which won the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima for first work last year. There's a link some of the artwork here - http://arepreading.tumblr.com/post/9877305351/conductor

17. ♫ The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West ★★★⅞

Chronicling two years in the life of upper crust English society in the first decade of the 20th Century, the novel's principal protagonist is Sebastian, a young duke and heir to the grand estate of Chevron. His widowed mother Lucy's purpose in life is to throw lavish parties for her aristocratic friends. During one such party, she invites an unusual guest, the famous adventurer Leonard Anquetil, recently returned from an Arctic expedition. Anquetil takes a great liking to the young man, and asks Sebastian to accompany him on his next expedition, which offer Sebastian of course refuses, but all the same, the explorer has opened up a world of different possibilities for the nineteen-year old Oxford student. When Sebastian takes up an affair with his mother's best friend, Lady Roehampton, no one finds this unusual, least of all Lucy, who believes he's chosen his first paramour well. Sylvia Roehampton is celebrated as the greatest beauty in London, and her exquisite features have been immortalized by John Singer Sargent and other famous painters of the age. But as he flits between Chevron to London and from party to concert to other mistresses, Sebastian can't find satisfaction, and has not forgotten Anquetil and his offer. Sackville-West knew the world she described in this novel intimately, and wrote the story as a criticism of the lifestyle of the Edwardian aristocracy, amid which she spent her own cosseted childhood. I was especially pleased with my timing for this book, being a fan of Downton Abbey which similarly describes the lives of the residents of a grand English estate and which I've been watching every week with rapt attention. Because of this, I was able to vividly imagine the world and people discussed in the novel, which greatly increased my appreciation for it. It was a pleasant read, though it offered little surprises, perhaps because as a classic it must have influenced many other novels since it's publication in the 1930s. All the same, wholeheartedly recommended. The audiobook is narrated by the excellent Carol Boyd.

Hi Ilana - catching up!

#45 Thank you for the Waterhouse image - I love his paintings. It does look quite appropriate for The Castle of Otranto.

#87 Loved your shoe shopping story and volunteering at the museum definitely sounds like something worth investigating.

#104 I'm hoping to read my first Vita Sackville-West this year (I have All Passion Spent).

Hi Ilana, thanks for the reviews of the Peter Sis books. I didn't realize there were more Madlenka stories. I'll have to look for the one about her dog.

I also think you'd make a great museum volunteer and hope you get a chance to do that.

I love coming to your thread and seeing all the illustrations.

Have the Edwardians on my shelves somewhere. Incredibly accurate marking system - don't recall anyone else giving 7/8ths of a mark before!
Hope you are enjoying what is left of your weekend. xx

Thank you for the recommendation of Grandfather's Journey, Ilana. I'm definitely adding this to my obese wish list.

Your review of The Edwardians would have definitely tempted me into adding this to my obese wish list if it weren't already on there. It is, however, making me consider getting a copy sooner rather than later, though.

I love the 7/8ths of a star. Just not quite good enough to get the full four stars! :-)
It does sound like timing contributed to your enjoyment of the novel, Ilana, what with DA fever being so rampant right now.

hello lovely lion (#102)
Wow, there are so many pictures on this thread its taking some time to load. Yours is the first thread to do that to my computer Ilana! All that lovely artwork.
Gives me another chance to put on my sad face and say that I wish our art gallery was up and running. Its such a beauty, and I still get to look at it thank goodness, but it's out of bounds due to earthquake work needing doing.


Somewhat ironically (I feel) it was the civil defense HQ during the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes as is a "safe" building, even though all those angled glass panels look very non-safe-in-an-earthquake to me!

Today was a low energy day, but I ended up doing quite a bit, considering I was only up and around in late afternoon. I made apple crumble, I took out my paints and fooled around some. Didn't spend much time on the computer, so am horribly behind on most everybody, even though I did lurk on quite a few threads, but that's the rule and not the exception in these parts. Still haven't been to the cinema, but that's just something more to look forward to.

#101 Words are wonderful but pictures reach out to the emotions in a way that goes beyond words alone.

One reason that art is just as important as literature (among many obviously) is that images literally make us use another part of the brain. Most of us are used to using mostly the left, analytical brain, but art encourages us to use our right, sensing brain, so it's definitely a good balance to have an appreciation for both words and images.

As you see above Donna, it wasn't a hight energy day, but it was a good one in the end and that's all that matters. :-)

#103 Thanks for the link Kerry. I know I can always count on you to introduce me to more and more illustrators. So wonderful. I'll have a closer look at the link tomorrow as want to get to bed and get as much reading done as I can before sleep.

#105 Heather, I have All Passion Spent on my wishlist already, but I'll be looking out for your comments about it.

#106 I'm glad I was able to introduce you to more work by Sís, Pat. I have another book of his on my coffee table which I really look forward to getting to soon (and will of course give my impressions about it).

#107 Paul, I don't know how accurate my marking system is, but it helps me be a bit more precise in my ratings I guess. A lot of people use decimals here, and I was too keen on keeping the stars (that visual thing again), which is why the fractions. I'm glad someone took notice though! ;-)

#108 Caro, I actually really look forward to the other book I got by Say, which I've been meaning to get to all week. I'll write a little summary about it when I finally get to it.

#109 Ellen, I was going to give it four stars, but then, the fact that the novel didn't offer much surprises made it lose that 1/8th! I look forward to seeing the latest episode of DA, which I expect should be available on iTunes tomorrow.

#110 Megan, is my thread already taking a long time to load? Goodness, and I'm only just getting started! That's a gorgeous art gallery you have. I know not the first thing about architecture, building engineering, or earthquakes either, but I'm guessing that the curved design of the facades make it more resistant to impact maybe? Just thought I'd throw that out there. Which gallery is it and do you know when it'll be accessible again?




Right, I can't say it's been an especially long day, but I'm still bone tired and want to get in plenty of reading time before sleep, and also want to be in shape for watercolours class tomorrow, so off I go.

Hi Ilana. You're currently reading some things of interest to me: The Wayward Bus, of course, which I am thinking I will save for the flight to Kauai in eleven days. But also On Cats and Ex Libris look interesting to me. I don't own either, though.

I hope you have a good week. I'm presenting to the Regents of my university later this week, so I'm kind of anxious. Wish me luck on Thursday......

My dearest Ellen, I left you a message on your thread regarding your presentation. I was a little cheeky about it, hoping it would make you smile. I'm about halfway through The Wayward Bus and think it's brilliant. Completely different from Cannery Row of course, but then I was expecting that. So far, no two books by Steinbeck I've read were anything alike, which is part of the appeal.

I'd like to write more, but I've managed to make myself late for my class again, so have to run! xx

Ah SHOES, they are my other weakness - not fancy ones -- I guess it is the quest for the 'perfect' shoe that grips me, one that might work for EVERYTHING.

Hi Ilana,
Our gallery is called the Christchurch Art Gallery (perhaps not that innovatively!). It's looking at re-opening to the public mid next year.
Bizarrely the shop is still open, and that is housed within the glass walls, so it cant be a huge structural problem keeping it closed.
Maybe it was a safe building to operate civil defense from as it is relatively new, and Council owned, and spacious. My partner was working at a desk in there under some artworks for a time, he remembers a very eerie feeling being ushered through the red zone cordon by army personnel.

Hope the watercolour class goes well!

Hello beautiful! I love the way you bring us along on your artistic travels! I have a fairly small collection of art books, but they bring me great joy - but nothing beats seeing a work of art in the flesh!
Wasn't able to dodge The Edwardians as I've never read any of Ms Sackville-West - though I have been several times to Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. Gorgeous! Hope you are having a wonderful day!

#114 Lucy, if you want to go there, I can certainly keep talking about shoes till the cows come home. I have a passion for all categories of footwear; boots, sandals, walking shoes, house slippers, high heels, ballerinas, wellies (i.e. rubber boots), hiking boots, kitten heels, designer shoes, comfort shoes... and socks too while we're at it (I have three pairs of cashmere socks I got from J Crew that are perfect for those nights when one's feet just won't warm up). I'm into it all. In a big way. Probably one of the reasons I can't afford to buy my own place is because of shoes. Well that, and cashmere sweaters, and (recycled) fur hats, and scarves and (more) hats and mitts to go with every outfit, and cute little dresses (no so much there days, but once upon a time), and jeans and t-shirts galore, of every kind and style and colour. You name it, I'm into it! ;-)

#115 Megan, the watercolour class went great. I really had fun with it today. Might post some of the stuff I did on my blog sometime this week.

#116 I did indeed have an all-round great day today, thanks so much Prue! I have molto art books, but never enough time to actually look at them, which is a source of constant guilt. But I'll slowly make my way through them all and hopefully will keep looking at them through the years. That's my intention, anyway.




Great day today, but too tired to give any detail. I had a great class, and a great talk with the owner of the health food store where I do all my groceries afterwards. Don't want to say anything about it, because it's too early to talk about it, but I may or may not give her a bit of a hand with things. We'll see how it goes. Mum's the word for now.

On the reading front, I've only got 20 minutes or so left with The Difference Engine audiobook, which I'll finish as I take Coco outside in a moment. Can't wait to just finish it. Won't say why, because I think my *review* will only take about a sentence, or two MAX, so I'd best save it. I'll probably start on Rebecca when I'm done, which I suspect I'll like quite a lot more, if only because... never mind; I'll save it.

The Wayward Bus on the other hand is a wonderful surprise filled with interesting characters and plenty of tension and DRAMA. Fascinating.

I'm reading On Cats by Doris Lessing very s-l-o-w-l-y as I've put it in a spot where I'm only likely to read a few pages at a time (yep—the bathroom). The first two or three chapters were kind of discouraging because most of the cats she talked about ended up being very dead, but I think (hope) things will start looking up for those beloved creatures from now on. If not, that'll explain why this books isn't more popular!

And that's a wrap-up for tonight!

Hi Ilana,
Love that you had such a great day yesterday! Do it again! Do it again!

I don't have a truckload of shoes, etc. but I did buy black sequined flats when I went to NY with my fashion conscious daughter, Wendy. Everyone thinks I'm nuts - they don't go with a dang thing. But, jeans and sparkly shoes make me feel pretty cool! Haven't scared away any wildlife or domestics yet.

Can't wait to see your new work :)

Ilana -lovely to see you enjoying yourself so replendently! Are all ladies whose name begins with "I" shoe fanatics. Sounds like you would run the late but not so lamented Imelda Marcos close in the shoe department although you would beat her hands down in every other way and have not consorted with tin-pot dictators to the very best of my knowledge.

On Cats sounds like the other half of Doris Lessing. Love half her stuff but the other half....

Ilana, I'm laughing out loud as you recite the various clothing items for which you have such a weakness. I'm a bit of a clothes-horse, myself, but I tend toward more t-shirts than I can ever wear (I seem not to have gotten it through to that part of my brain that I'm no longer in graduate school and, really, must wear work clothes more than jeans and t-shirts). Comfortable shoes: the only way to go. Flip flops are my fave, but I can't wear those to work, either.

So, I'm anxiously awaiting your one-sentence review of The Difference Engine.

If I can't stand stories in which animals suffer, would I have a hard time with Lessing's On Cats?

Oh Ilana! You read on the loo!!! Nooooooooooooooooooo! That is such a guy thing!

Oh lookeee.... another shoe addict. Me too, Ilana. I dress for work mostly in business casual here, but when I travel I have to wear suits. My shoes always either make a statement if I'm wearing simple dresses or skirts and a top, or they're quietly elegant if I'm wearing something something that could be a conversation piece. Then there are the sneakers for work outs, boots for the winter, comfy flats, shoes to travel in, and shoes for special occasions. Oh and flip flops for the beach and sandals for the summer and sundresses.

#118 Claudia, I think sequinned flats are just perfect with jeans. In fact, just about any kinds of shoes go with jeans really. Just depends on the jeans though; the cut has to be flattering and there are so many options of styles as far as that goes these days.

I also have a wonderful pair of Pretty Ballerinas* sequinned flats in a paisley design that are just to die for. The ones shown in this post were the first pair I got. I hardly ever wear them because... well mostly because my main outings these days are taking Coco around the block, but when I do wear them, it's usually with jeans. I have what is becoming a small collection of Pretty Ballerinas flats, which is an indulgence I can definitely not afford, and quite a lot of shoes that I haven't worn in years, though I did sell quite a few pairs a couple of years ago when I was trying to get rid of surplus stuff I never wear via eBay. I wish I could say I got decent money for it all, but no. But at least my closets are less cluttered!

#119 Paul, God forbid I should be anything like Imelda Marcos! It's true I've always loved to shop, and I don't know too many women who don't have at least a tiny bit of a shoe fetish (be they flip-flops—which I also love—or designer high heels), but I also think that there is such a thing as going overboard. Unfortunately, there was a time (that would be most of my life) when I compensated for things by shopping. I love to shop for just about anything, and consider myself a professional shopper. Should find a way to get paid for it really.

But when I was working at my job as an executive art director, Friday evenings when I could get out before 9 p.m., I'd blow off steam not by going to pubs and getting drunk, but by going to one of my favourite shops—BCBG say, or Club Monaco and drop a half grand every week on new clothes. I did have to look good for my job, but that was definitely excessive and one of the reasons I'm now still in major debt. I guess you could say I was still somewhat reasonable, because at least I didn't go to Armani or Donna Karan as I would have preferred to, so all things considered, I'm quite sensible for a shopping addict! :-)

On Cats: I really enjoyed the last three chapters and she does write so wonderfully. I haven't read anything else by her yet, save for a few chapters of The Golden Notebook, which I then abandoned because wasn't at all in the right frame of mind for it at the time, some 2-3 years ago. I just keep dreading that this latest cat she's been describing in great detail will come to some horrible end as most of the others have. So, I'd say definitely not a bad book, but with a title like that, it would of course only attract cat lovers, who on the whole would probably balk after the first horrifying chapter. Good thing I also happen to have a healthy sense of the macabre, which keeps me reading on against all odds!

eta: * I take no responsibility for creating a Pretty Ballerinas ballerina addictions, so click on that link at your own risk!

#120 I seem not to have gotten it through to that part of my brain that I'm no longer in graduate school and, really, must wear work clothes more than jeans and t-shirts

I know just what you mean. When I was working and had a wardrobe stuffed to the gills with "adult" clothes, I still preferred by far to wear t-shirts, and usually did. In fact, I often ended up wearing a uniform of (designer) jeans and some t-shirt or another, usually with cute shoes, but knew full well that I wasn't playing the corporate game with that getup. Flip flops to work? I wonder if I ever did that? Possibly on location at a shoot in the sweltering heat, which would have been completely acceptable—working with other creatives does give one quite a bit more leeway in that sense.

Difference Engine: I was hoping to get to it, along with the other few books I'm late reviewing today... but as time wears on, it's looking less and less likely... unless I can punch out those reviews in just a few minutes, which I'm tempted to try doing. More comments than reviews really in that case.

Would I recommend On Cats for you? I'd say probably no at this point. But when I've finished the book I'll be able to take a full measure of it and ascertain whether it'll have been worth enduring the difficult parts or not.

#121 That is such a guy thing!

Is it? I didn't realize. In my family, there were books absolutely everywhere, including the WCs. I suppose they were strewn about because we all tended to be buried in a book at any given moment, no matter what we happened to be doing, so it seemed just as natural to have them there as anywhere else. That being said, I fear I may have overstepped the boundaries and landed firmly in the TMI zone when I made that comment, so my apologies for my lack of discretion my dear Prue.

#122 Yes Caro, isn't it wonderful to have all these different occasions to wear different styles of clothing? I almost forgot I had a whole separate wardrobe of workout clothes—yoga wear mostly as I was big into yoga, so would quite literally travel with a suitcase full of Lululemon apparel. And then another suitcase for everything else! Definitely an overpacker. Now that I'm in limbo land and don't have any obligations, I'm mostly just a slob. A slob who wears cashmere mind you, but a slob all the same. Last year, I became a J Crew "preferred" customer, and instead of being happy about the little thank you gifts they sent me to thank me for being such a good customer, I was horrified to realize just how much money I was spending there. I put a kibosh on that for now, but their cashmere is great, and really cheap, all things being relative! I remember getting dressed up like a real adult for important meetings and when I was working with VIPs, on photoshoots, say. It always felt like I was playing dress-up, but it was quite fun!

ack- shoes.
Unfortunately my Latvian-potato-farming feet plus my resistance to shopping in general make for a poor shoe selection at my place :(

Hello gorgeous - oh God I would love some cashmere!! I hate shoes - I'm a size 9 (no idea what that translates to overseas but it is bloody big!) and I seldom find shoes I love that fit me....Must look up J Crew on the net - though I may be sorry.

Working from home means I can be a complete slob most of the time (though I never work in PJs).

Totally forgive you reading on the loo - but only because you otherwise display such class! (and I suspect you are the epitome of chic)

Just received - courtesy of Bood Depository) a copy of Rober Mapplethorpe's Perfection in Form. Sigh. Drool - he copuld really light the human form in balck and white. Drool in many ways!

Hi Ilana!

I want you to know - when my granddaughter (apple of my eye) goes in the bathroom she reads... she spends tons of time in there and I'm not even sure she remembers to do anything else while in there ???? She's been doing this since her potty training days. I have a cute picture of her on potty, wearing Easter bonnet and reading picture book :)
I'm guessing it's a nice quiet place where little brother doesn't bother her ;-)

Me too! Me too! Just like Prue, love cashmere - hate shoes.

I used to spend lots of money on clothes/shoes when I was younger, had more money and a decent figure. Now :P
I don't like what I look like when trying on clothes anymore, so I'm rarely tempted to buy. Jeans work well in Maine - flattering or not :)

I generally like what Doris Lessing writes - of what I have read. I love cats. Not sure I want them all to die on me. Is it the normal progression of life and death? or do they have horrible events?

Ilana - note the (she doth protest too much) explanation on footwear. I was told by a chinese friend that it was extremely unlucky to buy a friend or loved one shoes as feng shui wise you were telling them you would like them to walk away. Worked actually as I bought a pair of boots for my chinese girlfriend years ago and we never met face to face again!

#125 Megan, my girlfriend Kim's 15 year-old daughter has size 11 feet, and I suspect quite strongly that she's not a big fan of the subject of shoes either, poor thing.

#126 I suspect you are the epitome of chic

Prue, that is very much open for interpretation of course. For one thing, I only get out of PJs when I absolutely must, which always happens sooner than I'd like since I have to take Coco out for walks—if it makes me chick that I don't take him outside wearing my PJs, then yes indeed, I'm very chic! ;-)

#127 Is it the normal progression of life and death? or do they have horrible events?

Well in the first chapter she talks about growing up in Africa out in the country and having dozens of cats which overtook their compound and had to be kept under control at a time when evidently, people didn't have their cats and dogs neutered. So that part is very depressing. Then another cat gets taken off to a pound to be put down by an irate janitor. After that, I don't know as I'm not very far along in the story given I don't spend very much time reading it...

#128 I love all those feng shui interpretations. Now I'm trying to remember if anyone ever bought shoes for me and if I ever saw that person after...




Went to see Dangerous Methods with my friend Kim tonight. Can't say it blew me away, and can't say I'm a huge fan of Kiera Knightley's either. But it was nice seeing my gf for the first time since before Christmas. Poor thing went to spend Christmas in Prague with her partner and daughter to visit some family and was sick the whole time. I've been to Prague once and know from experience how beautiful it is. The prospect of being sick on a trip is always depressing but in this case I find it really sad because Prague is such a gorgeous city to walk around in. At least it was far from her first time there and she's bound to return often (her partner is Czech), so it's not like she's missed a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Other than that, not much to say for myself. I started lurking on threads a little while ago and then just got discouraged by the sheer volume of post there is to catch up with, it's kind of depressing. Just too tired for that now, so I think I'll just go finish the last few chapters of The Wayward Bus, which I've really enjoyed, and then start on another book before calling it a night. Plenty of options according to my monthly planning, don't know what I'll choose yet.

I'm almost halfway through the audio recording of Rebecca and really enjoying that. It's a great story, beautifully written, and it does help that it's narrated by Anna Massey. What a wonderful reader she was, and a great actress in general I'm sure. Too bad she's gone now.

Um, I sometimes read in the loo......

Hey Ilana - love Rebecca and I can't tell you how pleased I am at all these people re-discovering Steinbeck. What an amazing writer!! Everything he wrote is wonderful. And yet one only finds The Grapes of Wrath and maybe Of mice and men in most bookstores. Shame on them!

Hi Ilana- Sorry, "The Dangerous Method" didn't knock you out. I'll see it once it comes out on DVD. I should be done with The Wayward Bus tomorrow. I've been reading it in small chunks. It's been terrific.

Caught up once again!

Love the Ipcar greyhounds (and that usually isn't my kind of thing).

Don't read in the can - not books anyway. But that is the place where the catalogs go. Am constantly being deluged with catalogs. Hardly ever go to a store - except for my bookstore - so can't bring myself to stop the catalogs. Right now the dang things have pretty much taken that room over. Must do a big clear out so as to make room for the Spring/Summer ones.

Have The Edwardians around here somewhere. Probably will rise to the top in about a year, year and a half.

I can so see you in a museum, Ilana. Bet you'd be really good at that.

And OMG - I must get me a pair of those Pretty Ballerinas! So Pretty!!!! The only trouble is - how will I choose?

Flip flops are not a problem at work - even though it is a law office. If I worked in Boston I think f-fs would be on the definitely banned footwear list, but down here in the armpit of the state it is not so important. Also my bosses are beaucoup reasonable re: what we wear.

Really liking The Wayward Bus. Reading Steinbeck this way was such a good idea!

Your adopted grandmother sounds so nice and interesting. And tireless! I got to get me one of those.

Hope you are doing well, Ilana - sounds like it. My best to your room-mates.

Reading in the loo? Why not? I read everywhere anyway (once tried to read a book I had strategically placed, through the glass partition while I was taking a shower - didn't work). I know people who have loo books. Friends of my parents always had the Reader's Digests in their bathrooms.

Can't participate in the shoe discussion. My feet simply don't look good in nice shoes, they look especially bad in Ballerinas. One of the good things about winter is that it brings me boots, so my feet are well-hidden.

Reading in the shower is surprisingly easy. I do it in every single shower I take. I'd get so bored otherwise! I do only take in books that are already a bit tatty, and mine, though.

Reading in the shower...not for me. Reading in the tub, however, is a different issue entirely!

>136 Dejah_Thoris: Ah! Reading in the tub! Don't do it anymore as a few of the books I took with me came to a bad and very wet end :(

>135 lunacat: I could not figure out how to read in the shower!

I'm trying to picture that too, avidmom. Tell us, Jenny - how do you do that???

#130 Ellen, I didn't realize what a big can of worms I was opening when I made that offhand comment. Get it? "Can"?? Eesh. I might need to start a new thread. This one is getting kinda lame.

#131 Prue, I hope you'll come in and join our discussions as we work our way through a dozen Steinbeck books this year. I think we did a good job of mixing up him most famous works with some of his lesser known ones, such as The Wayward Bus this month.

#132 Mark, I didn't expect Dangerous Methods to be all that great based on some of the reviews I'd read about it by theatre goers. I was just happy to be at the cinema with my best friend and eat some popcorn. It was Orville Redenbackers which I brought from home to save some $$$ and I felt like a big outlaw doing that, since it's well known cinemas make the bulk of their revenue through the concessions.

#133 Charltote, I only discovered Ipcar last year after someone here mentioned going through one of his books. Wish I could remember who it was now. As you've probably figured out by now, I have quite eclectic tastes, so his stuff does appeal to me in small doses.

You've just reminded me that I haven't done anything in the way of making any steps toward that museum volunteering idea yet. I guess I should get on the phone asap and see about that. Will you remind me again?

I haven't bought any Pretty Ballerinas online—haven't had to, because I discovered them when they opened a store on Victoria street where my art school is. Which made choosing a bit easier since they obviously don't have quite such a huge selection.

My room-mates return your salutations.

#134 Nathalie, I don't think anybody can look bad in ballerinas, except for guys maybe. Besides, every time I get out of the house, I see people with get-ups so incongruous and unflattering that I figure I probably worry too much about what suits me or not. For instance, now that leggings have come back in full force and that girls are wearing them like pants (as opposed to the way were were wearing them in the 80s, which was more like wearing tights) which makes them look basically naked, I'm always shocked to see women who really shouldn't, wear them with pride. I don't really get that, but if they can do that, then surely ballerinas can't be offensive to anyone.

#135 I don't think I've every tried reading in the shower. It never occurred to me to try. You're the first one I've ever heard of do that, but then I guess that shouldn't shock me here on LT! :-)

#136 I used to love reading in the bath too. But my bathroom is so small that they put in a small tub which makes me feel claustrophobic, so it's a pleasure I've gone without for a very long time.




I'm really bummed out today. My mum wrote me in an email today that my dad had gotten in touch with her to tell her that I wasn't doing well and that our lack of communication between my mother and I was causing me grief and that I'd been withholding things from her that needed to be said.

I shared my apprehensions about going to visit her with him, since he keeps bringing up the trip, and most recently said he'd like to give me spending money as well as paying for the plane ticket, and I just had to tell him I don't know if I'm quite ready to go yet. I wish he hadn't done that. I don't feel able to say anything to my mum at this point and now I feel like I've been painted into a corner. Instead of making me mad, as this kind of situation normally would, it's just made me more depressed and mistrustful. I wish I knew what it is I'm supposed to do and how best to do it, but I just feel paralyzed by fear instead.

I finished reading The Wayward Bus last night and went ahead and read the intro to the book in the Penguin edition which was also very interesting, though I'm glad I had to good sense to leave it till after I'd finished reading the story what with spoilers galore. I suppose I should be writing reviews now as am seriously behind again. I'll see if I can muster up the enthusiasm. Meantime, I've started on Secret River by Kate Grenville.

eta: I just saw that other comments were posted while I was deciding whether or not to share the above. Please ignore me and keep carrying on. Reading about reading in the tub is much more fun than my moping.

If I keep putting off writing reviews they'll just keep piling up and it won't happen at all, so I'll just write whatever comments come off the top of my head and get it out of the way.

*pats Ilana and extends very large ear for pouring problems into*

18. L'Assommoir by Émile Zola ★★★★½
(Read for TIOLI #1: Read a book with an animal on the left hand page, a beverage on the right hand page, and the number 3 in both page numbers, 12/12 #11: Litérature Française)

Zola can't be said to be synonymous with light reading, and this novel in particular is probably one of the bleakest in the Rougon-Macquart twenty-novel series, though also one of the most memorable and hard to put down. Gervaise Maquart is only twenty-two years old at the start of the novel. She is living in a hovel with her two small boys and her lover Lantier, the father of her children, who takes every cent she makes and at the first opportunity leaves them all to their own devices and takes up with another woman. Gervaise, with her willingness to work hard as a washerwoman manages to pull through and for a while resists the advances of Coupeau, a roofer and a neighbour of hers who professes his love for her and begs her to marry him with every chance he gets. Gervaise is understandably mistrustful of men, but she eventually gives in and agrees to the marriage; Coupeau after all is a hard worker and unlike Lantier, is also a teetotaller, and she is hopeful that they can have a good family life; after all, all she wishes for in life is to have food to eat every day, a clean place to live and not to be beaten by her man. The couple works hard and manages to put aside enough savings so that eventually, Gervaise is able to realize another of her dreams and opens her own laundry business. For a number of years, there are good times to be had by all, until Coupeau has a bad fall. Encouraged by Gervaise to take his time to recuperate from a badly broken leg, Coupeau takes to spending all his time with his former work friends, who like to hang out in drinking holes, and he eventually turns to drink himself. The second half of the novel describes the couple's slow but steady decline into alcoholism and debauchery. Though very bleak, Zola has peopled the novel with a cast of fascinating characters, among whom are the Lorilleux couple, composed of Coupeau's sister and her husband. These two take an instant dislike to the young woman and are blinded by their envy and avarice which makes them hate Gervaise's success all the more and then celebrate her decline with glee. The couple's daughter Nana is also introduced, she of the eponymous 9th novel in the series, who shortly after her sixteenth year runs away from her parent's debauchery only to land in a mess of her own making. This is a stinging portrayal of the horrors of alcoholism and of the victims it leaves behind. It exposes harsh realities and shocking violence, even by today's standards, but the reward is a fascinating story extremely well told.

Hi Ilana- Looking forward to your thoughts on "The Bus"! I'll finish up tomorrow. I also have the Penguin edition and also decided to read the intro last.
Enjoy The Secret River. It's a terrific read.

Ilana sorry to hear about your concerns, frustrations and disappointments regarding your situation with your mum. For what it is worth dear girl my view is that you should make the effort to get to La Belle France this year as you had hoped but maybe without the extra pressure of having your Dad with you (budgetary considerations allowing of course). The best way of sorting out issues with your nearest and dearest is face-to-face and without external pressures.
L'Assommoir review reminds me of what a great book it was and that I still have a few more of the series to read. xx

19. ♫ The Quiet American by Graham Greene ★★★
(Read for TIOLI #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word - Quite)

Thomas Fowler is a middle-aged British journalist who has been living in Saigon for a number of years to report on the French Indochina War. He's left behind a wife in England from whom he's been separated for a long time, though she refuses him a divorce on religious grounds. This shouldn't be a problem for his current lover, twenty-year-old Phuong, who doesn't ask for anything and is content to live with Fowler and prepare his opium pipes, but Phuong's older sister wants her to get married to secure her future. Then a young idealistic American called Alden Pyle appears on the scene, makes friends with Fowler, and also falls in love with Phuong and decides to ask her in marriage. When the novel opens, Pyle has been found murdered, and Fowler proceeds to recount his relationship with the young man and their conflicts, both political and personal, which have somehow led to the young man's death. I can't say I was taken with this novel. It's tone was very serious and it had quite a plodding pace. The love story, such as it was, was obviously on the forefront of the narrator's mind, but the real story was about the war and the conflict between the French colonists, the communists who wanted to oust them, and the foreigners who were either there to report the war and bent on not getting involved, like Fowler, or on the contrary, invested in bringing about change according to their own agenda, like Pyle. My own disinterest in politics is to blame for my lack of appreciation here, as I can objectively say it's a very good novel, but it didn't quite satisfy this reader.

This tidbit from wikipedia was quite interesting: "The book draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina 1951-1954. He was apparently inspired to write The Quiet American in October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from the Ben Tre province. He was accompanied by an American aid worker who lectured him about finding a “third force in Vietnam”. Greene spent three years writing the novel, which foreshadowed US involvement in Vietnam long before it became publicly known. The book was the initial reason for Graham Greene being under constant surveillance by US intelligence agencies from the 1950s until his death in 1991, according to documents obtained in 2002 by The Guardian newspaper under the US Freedom of Information Act."

Ilana - Good review of one of my favourites even though the score of 3 stars had me shaking my head sadly!

20. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole ★★★★
(Read for TIOLI #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word - Castle/cleats,
and 12/12 Category #2: Tea with Georgie, Vickie & Eddie - 18th & 19th Century Classics)

The novel is purportedly reproduces an ancient manuscript, and tells the story of Manfred, the Prince of the Castle of Otranto, who had only one son and one daughter from his wife. Manfred's sole preoccupation was to continue his bloodline so that the estate should pass on to his descendants, and so he had arranged for a marriage between his son and a young noble maiden who's father had been killed in the crusades and who had been living in the castle with them. But when on the wedding day the Prince's son is bizarrely killed by a giant helmet fallen from the sky (thus crushing him), an ancient prophesy "That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it." and which the Prince had hoped to overcome begins to take effect.

The story in and of itself is entertaining enough; I had picked it up in preparations for reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, as an example of a Gothic novel, a style which Austen mocks in her own book. Otranto, unlike other classic novels of the Gothic genre has the advantage of being short, and I especially enjoyed reading it while following a tutored read thread in which many of the more obscure aspects of the story, including the unfamiliar words and expressions were explained, as well as what the conventions of the 18th century Gothic novel were exactly. But the biggest surprise of all was to find out via this tutoring thread that strictly speaking, this book isn't after all a proper Gothic novel!

Heh! Yeah, I also discovered *after the fact*, that The Castle of Otranto wasn't really a "gothic" novel after all. It was a fun read anyhow, even though it was quite different from my usual contemporary novels. I'm finally starting to get the hang of these classics that I formerly used to avoid. It really does help me to have some coaching.

Are you planning to do a tutored read for Northanger Abbey with Liz? I very much hope so because I'd like to see how your experience of reading it under her tutelage will be different from my own.

#141 Thank you my dear Gail. I may very well share some of my burden privately with you. For now, I haven't got the strength to even think about it. It's all too oppressive, so I do what I do best and dig my head into the sand...

#143 Mark, I have yet to come across an intro that doesn't give away too much. It's almost as if it's assumed that one has read the book before the way those are written. I must say I have no idea what I'll say about the book. Don't think I'll review it tonight, but I know for sure I won't be reading any other reviews till I'm done with mine either!

#144 & 46 My dear Paul, I was thinking of you as I was writing both reviews. I knew you'd be disappointed by my rating for TQA, but I'm sure you'll survive. I may revisit it eventually, when I'd done the rounds of all the other Graham Greene novels I want to read. Including Travels with my Aunt of course!

#148 Madeline, I don't know if I'll go in for a separate tutoring of Northanger Abbey with Liz. I might just follow along on your thread again, when I'm ready to read that book, which may not be before a couple of months. As I said to Liz, you're such a thorough tutee and you ask so many more questions that would even occur to me to ask, but then I end up learning more about even those things I thought I knew about before. But I do intend on taking her up to myself at some point! :-)

21. ♫ The Difference Engine by William Gibson ★★½
(Read for TIOLI #19: Read a book that won or was nominated for the Nebula Award and 12/12 Category #7 Young at Heart)

I wish I could say what I think about this novel, but in order to do that, I'd have to know what it was about, and I honestly have no idea. It's set in an alternate past in the 19th century, there were plenty of interesting bits, there was a lot of talk about engines, which as I understood are precursors of modern computers, but mostly, I was just lost.

> 150

I think that everyone reads a book from a different perspective, and each one of us has different things to learn from the same book.

I just ask the questions that pop into my head. Some may seem really silly. I ask many questions about the classics I am reading because I am unfamiliar with the customs of that time. History was always my least favorite subject in school. Now, when I have to apply history to a fun pasttime, such as reading a novel, the knowledge I lack is obvious.

That's not a problem for me, though. I hope, by doing this, I am encouraging others to give tutored reads a try.

Reading in the shower? Im not sure I could manage that....last night I stormed into the lounge with a brainwave and stated in no uncertain terms to my nearest and dearest: "Im going to have a long bath and you're in charge of any waking children. OK?". So i did. And it was great. And I read a lot of words. Aaaaah.

Sorry about your dilema with your mum Ilana, family stuff can get very intense. I hope you have sorted something out in your head now. Will you still go? It could be good to have a face to face. Not having the time to compose your responses in writing could lead to speedy resolutions maybe?...keeping it real etc.

What a lot here! I can't do it justice, but I can say I enjoyed reading about your encounter with The Quiet American and The Castle of Otranto.Great stuff!

I'm so sorry about your parental difficulties and confusions; it sounds as though you are keeping a little distance from it, which seems wise.

Ah cashmere, I do love it.

#152 Madeline, history was not a favourite subject of mine either, and I mostly was taught history of Canada and Quebec, and of Israel too of course. Which doesn't really come in handy when reading most classic novels. But having read quite a few classics, one just picks up stuff as one goes along and eventually, it all starts coming together. I like to read English classics, but know very little about British history... still just enough to get by, and when I need help I look up wikipedia. I do want to read Wolf Hall and other novels set in the Tudor period, of which I know even less, so am definitely going for a tutored read on that one.

#153 Hi Lucy, thanks for dropping by. I need to go over to your thread and read about your various encounters too lately!

Loved your review of Castle of Otranto, Ilana.

I didn't like history in school, but the interest developed in my final year of college, I think because I was doing quite a bit of backpacking by then and traveling to different countries. I found I wanted to learn more about interesting events that took place in the cities I'd visited. That interest hasn't left, I'm very glad to say, and I'm still enjoying the subject.

Hi Ilana - I'm thinking of you. {{{hugs}}}
I guess it might be hard to deal with family problems in a foreign land where you can't run home, jump in bed, and thrust your head back in the sand. Scary stuff. But you would have Coco, no? Do you talk to your mother on the phone? Does it help or make things worse?
Cuddle up with your Coco and kitties. Live fur always helps me to make better decisions.

Great reviews above! I'm gonna get Zola for my Kindle... will have to be in the right mood for this one. Sounds harsh, but you make me want to read it.

>>#147, 148 Hmm... Perhaps this time I didn't actually say "It's not a Gothic novel!!" to anyone. Probably for the best, since in past experience saying it tends to lead to people not reading The Castle Of otranto at all, rather than reading it with adjusted expectations.

Two bites of my tongue, two people enjoying their read--- Yup, definitely a lesson there!

Hello Ilana! I'm sorry about the trouble with your Mom. My Mom can sometimes be difficult too.

As far as reading in the tub goes, it's absolutely one of my favorite ways to enjoy a good book.

What you're 'suppose to do' is exactly what YOU feel able to do. If you are not comfortable doing something, and you know it would be more negative than positive to push yourself into it, don't do it.

I know that sometimes external pressure can make it easier to do something that you 'need' to do. That push means you cannot back out of it even while the demons in your head want you to. But a situation as emotionally involved as this requires you to be on board with it, as least as much as you could be while facing such a thing.

Perhaps make a list of why you don't feel ready to take this step yet. And a list of reasons you 'should' be doing it. If the 'should' reasons are weighted more with other peoples needs in mind than your own, then it doesn't sound like a good idea.

Looking at the list of reasons you don't feel ready might well clear things for yourself, and give you things you can work on, to get yourself to that point, IF that is where you want to be.

I hope some of this made sense anyway. While I was not estranged from a parent, I was estranged/am estranged from my father's side of the family. There is a lot of bitterness still there, but my regret in not having kept in contact with my grandfather when he died is far FAR outweighed by my continuing anger towards the whole family's behaviour. So I can understand a few of the complexities involved, though of course not all of them.

Ilana - as I said I enjoyed the review of Graham Greene's and we wouldn't be such fast friends if you didn't have your own individualistic take on things!

I hope you have "slow" friends as well, Ilana, as I think I would fit that category better. Paul is definitely suited as a "fast" friend! lol

Wishing you a pleasant day, my friend. xo

Lots of interesting reviews, Ilana. Thanks. The Difference Engine is the one William Gibson book I haven't read; the subject matter just didn't intrigue me, and your review bears that out. I'm a fan of his other books.

> 158

Probably for the best, since in past experience saying it tends to lead to people not reading The Castle Of otranto at all

I, for one, would have probably skipped it. Now that I've read it, I'm glad I did - gothic novel or not! :)

#156 - I also find it hard to read about a place I know I am going to visit, but once I've been there (or am there) I become obsessed with reading about it. It's like the physical connection changes everything.

#156 Caro, I think as I'm maturing a little, and as my reading accumulates and expands, I'm gaining a greater appreciation for history. I didn't like history the way it was taught to us in school, because all they did was talk about wars and how everything revolved around that, and we were expected to memorize the dates of the wars, which seemed nonsensical to me back then and utterly failed to capture my interest. Then, when I studied art history in college I was hooked—here was an angle from which I could look at the past from a much more interesting perspective. I didn't read very much that wasn't directly connected with my studies for a long time, but now that I'm back to reading in a big way, literature also has opened up new vistas from which I'm interested in finding out much more about the history of the world.

#157 Claudia, I followed your advice last night and cuddled with my furry kids while reading from The Secret River.

The situation with my parents is very complicated. They separated when I was just a baby, and my mum took care of me, with my dad mostly gone to Israel, or just having me over for weekends when we were on the same continent. Both my parents, for their individual very valid reasons are certifiably mentally unstable. My shrink recently used the adjective "pathologically" when referring to them, which strangely enough, had the effect of reassuring me that I'm not exaggerating their influence in making me the insecure adult that I am. There is serious mental instability on both sides of my family and while my mum did her very best to raise me decently, she was going through plenty of personal trauma which inevitably rubbed off on me. This had some very serious repercussions in my teens, when my rebellion took on incredibly self-destructive proportions and left me forever scarred. There are things for which I never forgave either of them, but my father allowed me to vent all my resentments towards him, while with my mother, I've always felt like I couldn't/shouldn't/wasn't allowed to speak my mind.

There's always been great love and appreciation for each other, but I can't help but resent that she chose to expatriate herself, and then bemoans the fact that we are so far away from each other. There is no denying that my current state, with this prolonged depression, has a lot to do with my past, but my mother doesn't accept that I've more or less given up and become an invalid as opposed to pressing on, rallying all my strength and forging ahead to new territories, as she would do and has done. And that's just barely scratching the surface, as you can imagine.

She is convinced that when we see each other, everything will fall into place and we'll just be able to enjoy each other's company and have a lovely visit. Me... not so much. For one thing, I'm unable to put my feelings aside; depression and migraines pop up at any given moment, and I don't know how she will/would react to that. Then there is the fact that neither one of us wants to make the visit about airing all our grievances, but given the context, and the fact that we both want to be in avoidance mode, I hardly see how things can run smoothly. The situation practically begs for outbursts and breakdowns, wouldn't you agree? Especially given how we both have strong personalities, like to have our own way, and that there is a lot of resentment on both sides for how we choose to live our lives, with me in relatively great comfort and security, and her life having been a self-imposed hardsrcabble from day one.

Oh my. I'm not sure I should post this or not. I wish I had the courage to just copy/paste what I just wrote above and send it to the person concerned (with some minor editing of course), but I dare not. Which just puts me in an impossible situation, from which I don't know how to extricate myself. My greatest fear is that she'll have some serious health problem and we won't have had the opportunity to see each other with both of us still mobile and able to do things and express appreciation for one another. Ok. Sorry. I'll stop now.

To answer your question, no, we don't talk on the phone. Instead we use Skype once in a while, but for some reason it doesn't work well and she just ends up getting really upset, which makes the whole think an ordeal which I mostly try to avoid.

Ok. Sorry everyone. Guess I really need to air all this.

Off to walk Coco and prepare some food. I shall be back to respond to other messages soon.

No apologies! One of the hardest lessons of life seems to be that some important relationships simply aren't .... feasible, fixable... not quite sure what the right word is. And that your life is yours.

Ilana - glad you got that off your chest and that you didn't hit the delete button.

Certifiable or not your mum may be onto something. Don't see how you can get over all the issues impacting you and your relationship with her unless they are confronted face to face but in as reasoned manner as possible. You are one of the most eloquent people I know so I cannot conceive that you would be unable to get across your feelings in such a way that they cannot be misconstrued or thrown back in your face. Not an expert by any stretch of the description and have had my share of parental screw ups. Always solved them though by looking them in the eye and telling them what is on my mind. Take care. xx

Ilana, that certainly provides some context for your anxiety around visiting your mother. Don't be sorry for posting it! People can read it or not read it, and comment or not comment. Im sure you feel at least a little better for (a) encapsulating your thought into a few paragraphs, and (b) sharing.
All I can say is that relationships are complicated at the best of times, let alone without throwing in the term pathological as well. It could turn out ok when you are with your mum, and you will probably not regret seeing her because, as you say, your greatest fear is that she'll have some serious health problem and we won't have had the opportunity to see each other.

{{{Ilana}}}

Sticky, complicated; one of those tough-to-work-out situations. Mothers are especially delicate emotional territory.

I'm glad you felt free and brave enough to get this out in the open with some caring friends.

#158 Liz, you're right, it was probably better that you didn't say anything, because otherwise I would probably have said that I'm overbooked and don't have time for Otranto. I'm listening to Rebecca right now and don't really see what makes it Gothic, but it probably isn't according to you, right?

#159 Thanks for your sympathy Brit.

About reading in the tub: maybe I'll try to overcome my reservations and give my tiny tub a try again. The more reading spots the better, right?

#160 Jenny, I really appreciate your feedback. I haven't done the exercise of writing down the pros and cons, so guess that would be a good next step. The last thing I want is to be estranged from my own parents, though I know for some people it's unavoidable. My family is completely broken up, so it's important to me to keep up whatever connections I can, however tenuously.

#161 Paul, I still consider him as one of my favourite authors, just as we friends can agree to disagree, I can also live just fine with not loving all of an author's oeuvre in it's entirety.

#162 Claudia, I'm happy having you as any sort of friend, be it slow or fast. Mind you, I've never really understood that expression, so it's all good to me!

#163 Joe, someone over on my 12/12 thread summed up The Difference Engine to me like this: "its basically about how with the invention of the Analytical Engine, the Computer Age arrives about a century earlier than in "our" history." Sounds just about right. There's all kinds of action that happens around that, which I'm sure makes for a great read for lots of people, so don't let my lack of appreciation stop you from reading what you might find to be a great novel.

#164 Completely agree with you Madeline!

#166 Lucy, the best version of that is to actually read a book set in a specific locale when you're actually there. I'll never forget reading Zorba the Greek when I was staying in Crete. It made me understand and appreciate that novel in ways I would probably not have done had I not been immersed in the experience of that part of the world.

#168 Of course you're right Lucy. These are the kinds of situations which have us looking for a higher purpose to life. In times like these, I've often turned to the I Ching, and may very well do so this time too, as soon as I feel ready to deal with that particular brand of wisdom of the ages!

#169 Thanks Paul. It's easy enough to be eloquent on a computer screen, when you can take all the time in the world to write, then edit and re-edit as needed, not to mention use the dictionary and thesaurus to polish everything off. But face to face with someone you find intimidating is a whole other story. We shall see... we'll see.

#170 Im sure you feel at least a little better for (a) encapsulating your thought into a few paragraphs, and (b) sharing.

Megan, you're absolutely right, it does make the load a tiny bit easier to bear. And yes, I figure those who are interested in reading about my personal life can do so and no harm done to those who'd rather stay away from all that heaviness and complications. And yes, as you say, relationships are complicated at the best of times. But then, if they weren't, we wouldn't have so much wonderful literature to read, would we? ;-)

#171 Gail, couldn't agree with you more: mother/daughter relationships are fraught with challenges even in the best families I'm sure. I guess I chose to write about it here out in the open as opposed to privately because there are so many wonderful supportive people on LT, that I figured I'd just have to type it out once and not have to keep repeating my story with my good friends. It took a lot out of me to get it out there, but I'm feeling kind of relieved too. Now those who are interested in knowing more about me have a little bit of context to explain my current life situation I guess.

Ilana, just stopped by and read through your thread. I was so far behind.

I won't dwell, because I know (and completely understand) that you want to be able to share your experiences and feelings without your thread becoming "all about" them ---- but know that I'm sending you a virtual hug. I think you sound much wiser about the situation with your mum than you give yourself credit for. And, frankly, I think you sound like you've found some compassion for her and for your dad, which can be hard to develop. You have spent enough time getting to know yourself and becoming more authentic that you can't just go visit her and pretend there are not tensions in the relationship -- and you know that, for you, spending the whole time allowing those tensions to take center stage would be lousy. You sound like you know what you can handle, and I (for one) believe it's important to listen to yourself on such matters. I do hope you are able to give yourself the space to do what you are up to --- and if you do decide to visit her, think in advance about what you need (from yourself, in particular) in order to make the trip something you can own and survive -- and maybe even enjoy. I don't mean to be glib there; I truly mean that, if you do go, I encourage you to think about what (over which you have control) you can do to give yourself some pleasure while traveling. This is one of the reasons I go for runs -- it's how I get away and give myself alone-time and some space, and it's more accepted by others than the overt statement that I need to be by myself for a while.

Your reviews are, as usual, interesting and intriguing. I have not yet started The Wayward Bus but I'm glad to know that I should save the introduction until last (I think I have the same edition you have). I look forward to reading your review when you get to it.

Take good care, my friend. You are so wonderful; you deserve and you get to make the choice that is right for you. And never fear that your personal musings don't belong here. It's your thread. :-)

*worries that she "dwelled" even though she said she would not do so*

(mostly) Books: I'm three quarters of the way through Rebecca and have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's beautifully written and the mood du Maurier sets is very unique. On the other, even though I know the narrator is very young, I just want to scream at her to just stop moping about and stand up for herself. But maybe that's just my own issues getting in the way. I knew the novel was worlds apart from the movie version by Hitchcock I saw eons ago, but didn't know what to expect and sometimes wish the novel didn't happen almost entirely in the narrator's head. And also, based on what Liz taught us about Gothic novels, I'm struggling to see what makes this particular novel fall in that category...

It's an excellent book all the same, but I'm also looking forward to finishing it because the heaviness of it all is a bit much to take at this particular juncture for me.

The Secret River is an excellent story. I've now reached part 3 and looking forward to continuing with it. I only wish I could connect with it more. The writing is very good, but somehow, I fail to connect with it. Not sure exactly why that is, but it won't prevent me from finishing the book; just doesn't make it as brilliant an experience as it could be.

Please don't worry Ellen. Obviously, by posting my musings here, I was inviting feedback, even though you're absolutely right that I don't want my whole thread to be about *woe is me*. That being said, your comments in particular are always more than welcome. xx

eta: edited for clarification

I like the words of wisdom people have put down here for you Ilana.
*thinks about compiling a book for publication with all the gems*

I agree Megan, there are lots of wonderful, beautifully supportive comments here and I'm so grateful for that. It really does help alleviate some of the distress I've been going through, to feel like I am understood, appreciated, and that people want to share their thoughts on the matter with me.

That being said, I'm logging off for tonight. Time for some reading now. Good night one and all!

Megan the Kiwi entrepreuner!

Ilana I see the secret to being so eloquent is keeping a thesaurus handy?! I wondered why I was always stuck for words and made so many typos. Seriously facing up to our parents and getting across our message to them is always difficult. When my father called me on 28 December cock-a-hoop at having ousted my brother by using lawyers from the company they had founded together and Peter was running superbly under difficult circumstances it wasn't so easy to tell him exactly what I thought of his actions but I sure felt better having done so - he hasn't spoken to me since though!

xo

Sleep well, Ilana.

The Secret River is on my TBR stack. I really want to get to it. Mark loved it, you're enjoying it.....

I don't have much to add beyond what I already said, other than your explanation makes your situation more understandable.

Personally, and reading between the lines, I would say that it seems you desperately want to continue to have some form of relationship with your mother, but only once you have spoken to her about the problems between you two.

The fact is, avoidance will not achieve anything. You know that, but perhaps your mother doesn't. I think you need to put it out there, however way you choose, whether it be by phone/email/whatever. Saying that you do want to visit her, and you want to continue to have a relationship, but only if/when you are both able to sit down and talk about things. If talking through the situation isn't something that your mother wants/is able to do, then you've answered the problem, and a visit will achieve nothing. But you need to discover whether she is open to the conversation. She might surprise you.

Sorry if this sounds a bit like preaching, or therapy, but I'm only talking from my own experiences, and hope it doesn't come across that I am telling you how to live your life. I just know how bewildering and overwhelming it can feel, and someone else's view can help clear the water, or at least help you to think, so you can settle your own mind.

Something someone said to me once about my own teenage years, and how my mum coped with both having lost a husband, and a troubled teen. She said "Sometimes, people do the absolute best they can, and it just isn't good enough". I know my mum gave all she had to me, but in those moments, I needed more than she had.

Hi Ilana, I'm so glad you are liking The Secret River. I need to read the other two books that continue the story. Such a good one.

You know, I've never read any Graham Greene. Something else I need to fix. I hope to find some of his books at the spring library sale.

We are having some of our coldest weather this weekend. I thought Ol' Man Winter was going to bypass us. It looks like a good time to snuggle up with some books. I hope you have a good week end. Sorry about the parental difficulties. Family dynamics can take some of the fun out of life for sure!

Some parents are able to stop the cycle of abuse such as my mother and we have a good relationship now. Other parents are unable to stop the cycle such as my father and we have not spoken in 15 years (my choice.) It took my mom and I some time. She needed to learn new behaviors and I needed to accept that she could only change so much. What we both understood from the beginning was that we loved each other very much and were both doing the best we could.

I don't know if any of that helped, but I wanted to reach out to you. I can sympathize with how difficult it can be when there is dysfunction between parent and adult child.

*hugs*

Wow, your thoughts on your parents are beautifully put, Ilana. Seems like a major step to be able to look at something like that straight on and identify it for what it is. If the goal is to some day let it go, that can't be done if you can't find it first.

Sending lots of positive thoughts your way.

#181 "someone else's view can help clear the water, or at least help you to think, so you can settle your own mind"

Yes, I completely agree. This is why I chose to put it out there, and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and advice with me. Sometimes I'm not entirely clear on whether I truly want to air things out with her or not. I did that with my father and the consequences were rather disastrous at the time, but now I know at least not to go there with him anymore.

"I know my mum gave all she had to me, but in those moments, I needed more than she had."

That's very well put Jenny. I've never quite known how to express that thought before, so I'll borrow it from you if you don't mind. I've always felt horribly guilty about not being content with what she did give to me, but I know I have to stop that because it only makes matters more complicated.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts here with me and others as well.

#182 Donna, I completely agree you need to get your hands on some Graham Greene novels. It's hard to decide what to start with, because he's written so many books and each one is so different from the next. I just plunged into whatever became available to me and am enjoying exploring his multifaceted world.

We had some snow last night, which I'm very happy about. A nice clean white blanket making everything pretty again. And Coco is always a fan too.

#183 "What we both understood from the beginning was that we loved each other very much and were both doing the best we could."

I can absolutely relate to that thought Morphi. Sometimes I think that that is already a lot more than some families are willing to do, and it does give me a great measure of comfort knowing that we care enough to try. Sending hugs your way too.

#184 "If the goal is to some day let it go, that can't be done if you can't find it first."

Absolutely Joe. And I do hope I can indeed let it go eventually. Judging by other people's experiences, I understand this can take an entire lifetime. But in the end, all those experiences, good and bad, are what make life interesting, and if they encourage us to reach out to each other and give support to one another, even among relative strangers, then the bad parts certainly can't all be bad, can they?

>a great measure of comfort knowing that we care enough to try

Exactly. My mom was willing to try, my father wasn't. It's easier to forgive and work with someone if you know they are trying.

>185 Smiler69: That's the truth, Ilana. Those experiences make life interesting, and we learn from them, and if they encourage us to reach out and support each other, that's a good thing, for sure.

Alright, I feel a responsibility to steer this thread back to books, and since I'm not quite ready to do my writeup about The Wayward Bus, I thought I'd share the following quote from Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. I'm reading it excessively slowly and am only up to the third essay now, but here is something from the first essay on "Marrying Libraries" that I found very amusing:

"After five years of marriage and a child, George and I finally resolved that we were ready for the more profound intimacy of library consolidation. It was unclear, however, how we were to find a meeting point between his English-garden approach and my French-garden one. At least in the short run, I prevailed, on the theory that he could find his books if they were arranged like mine but I could never find mine if they were arranged like his. We agreed to sort by topic—History, Psychology, Nature, Travel, and so on. Literature would be subdivided by nationality. (If George found this plan excessively finicky, at least he granted that it was a damn sight better than the system some friends of ours had told us about. Some friends of theirs had rented their house for several months to an interior decorator. When they returned, they discovered that their entire library had been reorganized by color and size. Shortly thereafter, the decorator met with a fatal automobile accident. I confess that when this story was told, everyone around the dinner table concurred that justice had been served.)"

Here are more books organized by colour

I loved that part of the Fadiman book too!!!!!!

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader loved that at the time ........ Read most of Willam Gibson books not sure now if I read difference Engine but can grab his others are definitely worth reading esp if you enjoy cyberpunk.

I hope the above wisdom is helping you .... I won't add anymore as I can see you want to move the discussion back to books :)

Hi Ilana- Ooh, I love the electric bookshelves. Pretty groovy. I'm not sure you meant it it to be funny, but your msg on my thread cracked me up anyway. LT has an uncanny way of slapping a smile on my face. Poor Lady Mary!

#189 Lucy, I loved that entire excerpt for various reasons. For starters, the analogy to English Gardens vs French Gardens struck a chord; I remember as a child having borrowed a book from the library which compared France and England on various aspects of their histories, such as dress, architecture, types of food and so on, which were all beautifully illustrated, including their radically opposite gardening styles and ever since then, that comparison has often come to mind as applied to a wide variety of topics.

Then of course, there's my penchant and appreciation for aestheticism, and the reminder that one should never let that aspect alone take over in the decision-making process!

#190 I'm entirely new to cyberpunk and only learned about this genre when I joined this group last year, when a few people recommended The Difference Engine as a good example of the genre. I do have one other novel by William Gibson, which is Count Zero. I started on it some time last year and didn't quite get through the first couple of chapters as wasn't in the mood for it at the time, but will definitely try it again some other time.

I greatly appreciate people sharing their points of view on things that happen to be on my mind, but find I can only stay focused on disturbing issues for short stretches of time. I mostly try to avoid all that unpleasantness by staying occupied, and wish I was as good as others at not letting these things bother me so much. I try to keep a balance, and the only way I know to do that is to keep switching from one thing to another.

#191 Mark, I did of course mean that rant to be taken in jest for the most part. But it DOES bug me to see them dress Mary the same way over and over again. Part of the pleasure of period dramas, including Dowton Abbey, is seeing the actors wear period outfits, and women of a certain class should be seen wearing one gorgeous outfit after another, as befits their station, so two measly dresses for beautiful Mary is definitely NOT satisfactory.

Went to the library with Coco today in the frigid cold and brought back the movie version of The Grapes of Wrath, which I don't believe I've seen before.

I had brought back Jacques Poulin's Translation is a Love Affair last week, and now also got Mister Blue and an early novel (his second) called Jimmy, which is about a little boy. Not sure when I'll fit them in, but that's half the fun.

Rebecca has taken a very interesting turn. Only 2.5 hours left, some of which I will now spend on some much-needed vacuuming. Volume will have to be very loud of course to drown out that blasted machine, by my ears are already wrecked from years spent in clubs dancing on top of speakers, so it's no big deal. Would you be shocked to know I didn't spend much time reading back then? :-)

Those color-co-ordinated bookshelves are so pretty - but it must be nightmarish trying to find anything. Of course, to me, they seem worlds better than the ones where the spines of the books are turned toward the walls. Those are just cruel!

Hope you find the time spent reading Rebecca worthwhile. It's one of my very favorite books - can't imagine not loving it. I've read my copy practically to rags. I really ought to buy a replacement. Will be interested to see what you think of The Wayward Bus. I'm in the middle of Chapter 14 right now. His characters are so flawed, but I do love how he writes.

One tiny thing re: your proposed trip to see your mother ("Shut up, Charlotte, she doesn't want to talk about this anymore!") I'd get it established well-beforehand that you mean to talk about the elephant in the room as I think it would be just dreadful to travel all that way and come home with nothing but more bad feeling and no sense of accomplishment. Of course, you should probably not listen to me as my mother and I had nothing that could be called a relationship and I have no business giving anyone advice. Shutting up now....

>>#172, #175, #193

Since I'm so late to the party, I'm glad you gave me my cue by mentioning Rebecca again!

"Gothic" is a term thrown around rather loosely these days, I think. I also think that it used most correctly to refer to the mood of a work, not just its structure.

As I commented on the Castle Of Otranto thread, the real Gothic Novel - that is, those written to a particular pattern by Ann Radcliffe and her followers / reactors - didn't last much longer than a decade; after that writers put its tropes to other purposes.

Jane Eyre marks a new era, with the Gothic tropes put to serious thematic uses, rather than just being window-dressing. This novel also took the critical step of merging The Hero with The Bad Guy - thus inadvertently kicking off a whole sub-industry of romantic-suspense stories ("Does he love her or does he want to kill her?"). Of course, the difference with Jane Eyre is that Jane knows she can't trust Rochester. :)

And Rebecca is a throwback to Jane Eyre, which I guess makes it a Gothic novel twice removed. Again, if you look carefully the Gothic tropes are there: a naive girl being taken to a mysterious house where danger threatens her, and there's a secret to be uncovered - while Du Maurier follows Bronte by including an untrustworthy hero. But when you displace these tropes into contemporary society (i.e. the 1930s) it automatically puts a different sort of spin on them.

As to whether either novel is actually Gothic--- Strictly, no; atmospherically and thematically, yes.

British TV keeps things at a very reasonable budget, maybe that's all the outfits they could afford for poor Lady Mary.
The film version of Grapes of Wrath is excellent. Incredible casting. Of course, much is left out, but for a Hollywood production it was nearly perfect.

Hi Ilana, I have been running behind on your thread recently, don't have much to add, just a big hug.

Rebecca is one of my all time favorite books, so I do hope you enjoy it. And I agree with you about the movie version of "The Grapes of Wrath" being just about perfect.

#194 Charlotte, your message made me smile. If I bring up something on my own thread, then it's fair game to comment on it. I didn't say "I don't want anyone to comment on this anymore"... I just thought I'd bring in books again so that the ENTIRE THREAD need not be taken over by my personal woes.

The thing about the elephant is that I'd rather we acknowledge his presence before I set off travelling over the ocean. We've not been brilliant at staying in touch for a good while now, and I guess what makes me most uncomfortable is I don't see how suddenly being face to face will make communication easier. Physically, of course it will, though we all know that when there are communication problems, the issue hardly begins and ends with physical proximity. Maybe I haven't been clear about something: I don't actually want to have it out with her—I'm in avoidance mode too, and after making many failed attempts at trying to find closure on issues from the past (which just ended up bringing about new hurts and frustration for us both), I'd rather just focus on the here and now. The trouble is that in the here and now, I'm suffering from clinical depression, and though I'm better than I've been, much better, I still react very badly to stress and to being put on the spot and I worry that I won't be at my best when I go visit her, on top of which I worry that me not faring well emotionally when I'm with her will add even more tension than there is already. I don't know if this makes sense? "Heavy" conversations with my mum tend to quickly become nightmarish for me, because it quickly starts to feel like we're creatures from completely different universes. She's quite the brainiac and I just don't understand her brand of logic, especially since she tend to deflect things either by going into denial mode, or by bringing up things that I would never have imagined would come into play. The last thing I want is to go through any of that when I'm thousands of miles away from the safety of my cocoon—even though I will have Coco with me, which is why I'm leaning more and more toward delaying the trip. I figure, if my mum really does want to see me, she'll need to make an effort to try and bring us closer too—it just doesn't work for me that I have to do all the work of getting myself there physically when I have no idea what to expect. I'm willing to accept that perhaps my own logic is flawed too. Most likely is, but so be it.

I'm almost done with Rebecca. Just two chapters left and must say that the second half of the book really turned things around. I'm enjoying it greatly and can see myself wanting to return to it. I can't emphasize enough how great it is to have it performed by Anna Massey who has a gorgeous voice and communicates the tone of the thing perfectly.

#195 Liz, I hardly expected you to wade through all the content on my thread, so very grateful that you've come to these parts to share your vast knowledge and remind me of the basics of what the main elements of a Gothic story should be. Naive girl taken to strange house, big secrets and perhaps a Byronic love interest as a bonus. Check. I guess I'll be considering any book that fits this trope (first time I've used that word!), or that conveys the kind of mood as being Gothic novels, since it's unlikely that I'll be plunging into the genuine articles in 18th century literature—I can see me finding that setup pretty wearisome after just one book!

#196 I don't know Mark... I don't buy that budget thing given what a lavish production it is. But nice try anyway. ;-)

Grapes of Wrath: I'm having second thoughts now and wondering whether I shouldn't just save the movie for May, when the Steinbeckathon will be covering that novel. Since I'm not likely to read it again so soon, the movie might be just the thing to refresh my memory so I can participate in the discussion. As I mentioned to Katherine on one of the threads, I'll likely read the thematic The Worst Hard Time during that month too; seems like a great fit!

#197 Judy, please don't worry about being behind here. I'm always behind on everybody here, and in fact need to come over and visit you too, beyond which all of us are struggling to keep up with each other. Definitely a case of too much of a good thing with us 75ers! :-)

Wow Ilana so much riveting conversation over at your place I think I'll ditch chez Paul and come and lodge over here with you!

Reading all the immensely insightful, intelligent and caring comments posted in response to your open heart surgery of yesterday I was struck again by the fact that LT provides a wonderful sounding board, support structure and advice centre for its constitiuent members. As you noted all the posts yesterday included eminently quotable passages - wonderful - you are a lucky lady to have so many here so obviously caring about you!

Some great reading/listening too with Rebecca almost having bitten the dust. Not one for genre stereotyping but I don't think that one era or group of writers can claim copyright or monopoly on a particular style, dependent as it is on the writer's art and expression. I would not however class Rebecca as a gothic novel - how about atmospheric suspense? All made even better I'm sure by Ms Massey's dulcet tones.

BTW what books did Coco lend from the library?!

My dearest Paul, feel free to come over and crash here for as long as you like! I know these open heart conversations aren't for everybody, but I also know you have no trouble plunging into the depths of things from time to time either. I do consider myself very lucky that there are so many wonderful people here on LT who are willing to read with an open mind and share from their own heart some very touching messages which bring me hope and make me feel that I don't have to go through my difficulties completely alone. Of course, my furkidz bring me lots of consolation, but there's nothing like being in touch with other caring human beings.

I've read some of these messages a few times and will return to them in the comings days to be sure. So much wisdom and comfort to be found there! And as you can imagine, this issue tends to be at the forefront of my mind when I let my mind wander around freely, which is something I do as little of as possible (enter LT and audiobooks!)

Were you familiar with Anna Massey before? I see via wikipedia that she won a BAFTA award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac. This was a five-star read for me when I read it in twenty-ten, and one I intend on going back to again and again—easy to do as it's such a puny books. I wish they had that DVD available at the library, but no, so I might have to go to the next best thing and get the audio version narrated by her.

Coco... he's kind of secretive about the books he gets. I don't know what's up with that. Do you think I should be worried? I don't know where he hides them, but when/if I find any, I'll gladly report my findings to you.

Well Ilana, I managed to kill the last hour catching up on your thread. Lots of interesting stuff. Love all the artwork you post and particularly love the angel at the top. Haven't read Graham Greene in years but I did read a few of his books eons ago and liked them so I should pick up at least the one on my shelf The End of the Affair. Loved the review of The Edwardians so onto the teetering tower it goes. The only other Sackville-West I've read is All Passion Spent which I loved.

I hope you manage to make the right decision for YOU in re: to your visit to see your mother. I can't really add any advice to all that's already been offered so I'll just wish you the best.

Anna Massey - lovely voice as I remember - as a small kid remember watching the Pallisers which she was in and she narrated British history on radio on a programme which was really good but I can't remember the name of.

Bonnie, I must admit that I get an evil kind of satisfaction knowing I've hit others with book bullets, considering how often I get hit myself! Sackville-West's All Passion Spent is already on my wishlist and will likely be my next book by her as I've had several recommendations for it at this point. I'm quite honoured that you chose to spend an hour on my humble little thread. I must return the visit soon!

#203 Paul, that radio programme was This Sceptred Isle by Christopher Lee, and I know this because I looked up all the available recordings by Anna Massey on Audible once again tonight, and they seem to have that whole series on offer. Since I've been complaining recently about knowing too little about British history, I wishlisted quite a few episodes and will likely start listening soon. Some narrators can make me listen to almost anything, and Massey is one of them!

Thanks Ilana...course it was my brain is a bit slow on Sunday.

Hi, Ilana ~ Trying to catch up. A hopeless cause, I fear! Still, I enjoyed your reviews. I'm putting Castle of Otranto on my wishlist, not least because of the wonderful cover art. About the bookcase organized by color: pretty, but I am too hopelessly disorganized to ever attempt such a feat. It's enough just to get the books into the bookcase.

Cheers!

he he he, I'm laughing at Coco sneaking books from the library to hide and read secretively in the house.

The vivid colours on the colour-coded bookshelf wouldnt be able t be replicated in my house unfortunately....I have to many white spines, and I wouldnt be able to cope with authors not being together! It would drive me crazy :)

Hi Ilana- I think those are both excellent ideas, in regard to prepping for the Grapes of Wrath. Watching the film version and reading or listening to The Worst Hard time. Perfect.

So what's the difference between an English and French garden?

The english one has less garlic.

The frogs feel safe to roam

In a french garden the sun retreats if there are german (or english) visitors - the english garden has a waterway leading to a small green island where the garden owner can paddle furiously if his french and german visitors get into an argument.

Ilana, a close friend of mine has gone through something similar with her parents. While she eventually managed to work out a tolerable situation with her mother, her relationship with her father was always uneasy and verbally volatile. She finally found a way for them both to sit down and discuss things without it dissolving into loud recriminations, hurt and someone storming out of the room. She engaged a counselor who mediated their sessions, and helped them ease into the topics that were important to her, and managed to translate her hurt and anger in terms that her father could understand, and vice versa. She accepts now that she's never going to have a close relationship with her father, but she's also contented now that he finally seems to understand his part in shaping her insecurities and inability to communicate in relationships.

My view now is fairly simple. If YOU do not feel ready to try and push forward with the things YOU feel you need to do in order to make the relationship work, then don't.

If a visit isn't something you feel at least 90% able to do, and if it would dramatically affect your mental health in a negative way, then don't do it. Do what you have to do in order to take care of yourself.

I moved out of home and distanced myself from my mum for several years before integrating myself back into the relationship we have now. Our relationship never ceased altogether but it was certainly less than it is currently. While I know my 'selfish' behaviour was difficult for her, I couldn't carry on the way we were. Now, with her having faced a few of her own problems, and making as much of an effort as I do, we are much much better.

But it took me creating that distance to get to where we are now. And me also doing what I needed to at that time.

I know you and your mum might never get to that point. But in my experience, there comes a time when you have to put everything aside and simply do what is right for you. If that is saying 'no visit right now', then go for it.

Thankfully my mum has always recognised, and supported, all my decisions regarding my father's side of the family, and our estrangement. She also acknowledges the hurt and anger I still have, but I know she would help if I did want to renew contact.

Families. They are so difficult.

At the end of the day, I hope you are able to do the things that will make you happier, and enable your life to feel easier. Those days that don't seem suffocating are few and far between sometimes, and the more we can do to help them along, the better!

Take care of yourself. And make sure you let yourself have lots of 'escape' time from the thinking. It's as important as the thoughts you've been sharing.

And p.s - thank you so much for stopping by my thread. I hope anything I say can be of help. Depression is so isolating and lonely, the main thing I wanted you to know is that while you, and only you, can deal with these things in your life, you are not alone on the path.

We can't take the steps, but we can be with you while you do so.

#205 No worries Mate.

#206 Mary, I don't think I considered organizing my shelves by colour for more than 1.5 seconds. So impractical... but pretty!

#207 I wouldnt be able to cope with authors not being together! It would drive me crazy :)

I don't have much shelf space, but those books that are shelved are arranged alphabetically by author. But then I have so many stacks all over my side tables that at this point it's more an illusion of organization than the real thing!

#208 I knew you'd approve Mark! :-)

#209 So what's the difference between an English and French garden?

Morphi, this should clarify the matter better than words can:

French Gardens:

  



English Gardens:

  



#210 The english one has less garlic.

You silly silly boy! :-P

#211 The frogs feel safe to roam

LOL!

#212 In a french garden the sun retreats if there are german (or english) visitors - the english garden has a waterway leading to a small green island where the garden owner can paddle furiously if his french and german visitors get into an argument.

LMAO! Please DO keep going, this is very entertaining! :-)

Ah. I see. Well, I'm definitely an English garden gal.

It's amazing to me that nothing ever seems to happen in a vacuum. I am gaining insights and support myownself from reading your thread.
Avoidance and Denial are my friends. They make it hard for me to solve problems - but sometimes it's not the right time to try.
I am immersing myself in everyone's comments along with you, Ilana. There are many pearls of wisdom here, I believe.

Hope you have a great Sunday!
I love the image of Coco visiting the library with you! He is such a great friend! And it doesn't hurt that he is handsome!

hugs and more hugs!

eta: Hilarious garden talk!

#217 Well, I'm definitely an English garden gal.

I think that probably goes for most of us. Or so I venture to guess!

The snails also rest much easier in an English one ;)

#213 It seems like your friend went to great lengths to try to solve the issues Caro.

My own father is what is referred to as a "crazymaker", meaning: he creates situations and says things which he thinks—according to his very 'unique' way of looking at the world—are completely reasonable, but which are enough to drive the most stable person completely mad. I'm not the most stable person, and I have turned into a raving monster more than once after attempting to have calm, reasonable conversations with him. I think seeing a counsellor might have worked, but for the fact that he's convinced there's absolutely nothing wrong with him or his way of dealing with things and that he doesn't believe in therapists (though he thinks it's definitely a good thing that I'm being followed professionally, because I'm the crazy one). Anyway, long story short, after the last time I quite literally went into a murderous rage and made him leave my home before stabbing him to death, I sat down quietly to explain that to him this only happens when he doesn't respect my boundaries and that if he doesn't want to get scared out of his wits again, it would be better for both of us if he didn't do it on purpose to bait me. I also thought long and hard about whether I want to spend the rest of my life in prison for manslaughter. Things have considerably quieted down between us, and while I try not to see him too often, we tend to be very good to each other and now speak on a daily basis, very briefly mind you, but on a daily basis all the same. Helps that he lives just three or four metro stations away from me too.

#214 If YOU do not feel ready to try and push forward with the things YOU feel you need to do in order to make the relationship work, then don't.

I guess that's the bottom line, isn't it? Both my shrink and therapist also keep telling me that I need to take things at my own pace and not push myself too hard, so it only makes sense that I listen to myself on this issue too, which is far from being a minor one.

Those days that don't seem suffocating are few and far between sometimes, and the more we can do to help them along, the better!

You know Jenny, I'm lucky enough that I think I can say with confidence that I tend to have more good days than bad these days. Good days being the ones that I don't feel the need to sleep for more than 12 hours just to cope, bad days being the ones when even being around my animals feels like too much socializing. Most days are a mixed bag, and most days are one long session of procrastinating too (as per the discussion on Lucy's thread), but just feeling like being alive is a reasonably feasible thing and that there are not enough hours in the day to do all I want to is what I consider a huge improvement.

We can't take the steps, but we can be with you while you do so.

That's so very lovely. Thank you. xx

The snails also rest much easier in an English one ;)

That's probably all too true! :-)

#219 It's amazing to me that nothing ever seems to happen in a vacuum.

Couldn't agree with you more. And I'm thrilled that you're finding many of the comments here helpful. I've always been convinced that sharing my own problems can help other people deal with their own issues as well. I didn't invent that concept obviously, far from it, but when I started blogging, I hesitated to share my difficult moments, but when I did, I found I was not only getting lots of helpful and supportive feedback, but also comments from people thanking me for helping them feel they were not alone with their own issues either. Of course we're all individuals and no two situations are alike, but feelings are universal and on the whole, human experiences tend to be also. I think as assiduous readers, we tend to exposes ourselves to a wider range of human experiences than the average person does, and whether that's because we have that capacity to start with, or whether we develop it the more reading we do, I'm sure it increases our capacity for empathy too. Right. /end of soapbox session.

Handsome Coco: what can I say? I always have been into handsome men. Which usually meant I fell for the gay ones who knew how to dress. That's all over now, since I'm happy to go with dogs. But only attractive ones mind you. And I get to pick out all his clothing without argument. ;-)

Hi Ilana,
I can't catch up, but I did skim through. I'm laughing at the little side-bar about Coco sneakily checking out books from the library. I'm sure he reads very macho dog books like Call of the Wild but he might also like the old Kate Shugak series with the inimitable wolf/dog named Mutt. I loved Mutt, so I'm sure Coco would, as well.

I'm glad I read The Worst Hard Time in January because I do feel like it gave me some education as I prepare to tackle The Grapes of Wrath in May. (why does a novel by John Ford show up first in the touchstones instead of the obvious John Steinbeck???).

I'm at work getting some things done before the week starts, then I'm going to stop in at the bookstore on my way to the bus. If they have a copy of Losing Battles. I'm going to buy it because the copy I'm reading from the SPL is in tatters. I may also just peek at whether they have a copy of Ex Libris since everyone has been talking about that!

Hugs to you and your furkidz.

Hi Ilana. So glad you enjoyed Otranto!

#147 "But the biggest surprise of all was to find out via this tutoring thread that strictly speaking, this book isn't after all a proper Gothic novel!" - Ha! Yes, I'm not sure I knew that either until I read Liz's comment on the tutored read thread.

#167 I'm also glad you did post that and hope it helped to get if off your chest in some sense. Hugs. It sounds like a really tough decision to have to make about a horrible situation - I'd like to say something more helpful but I can't really think of the right words. I'd like to somehow get your mum to read this thread though so she can understand the situation from your point of view...

#214 "Families. They are so difficult." Hell yes.

#215 "We can't take the steps, but we can be with you while you do so." Yes, yes, yes.

Oh dear, I guess my mind belongs in the gutter! Instead of picturing Coco reading Call of the Wild or even the latest Rin Tin Tin memoir, I pictured him sneaking in doggy porn.

#225 Ellen, if you loved Mutt, then it's a sure bet that Coco does to. He'd better, if he knows what's good for him! If he does read Call of the Wild, I hope he passes it on the me after, because I've yet to read that one, and then maybe we can start having conversations about books between the two of us too—that's sorely lacking in our relationship at the moment.

#226 Yes, I did enjoy Otranto Heather. I'll never know if I would have appreciated it as much reading it on my own, but that's quite ok. I think as far as not classifying it as a Gothic novel, Liz is basing herself on a very specific period and set of criteria, so the rest of us mere mortals can probably go on considering it a Gothic without getting into too much trouble.

I really did help me get it off my chest Heather to post about my latest woes, thank you Heather. I don't know if mine qualifies as a 'horrible' situation exactly, since we're both still in relatively good health and do have a lot of love for each other, and the best of intentions if not maybe all the right tools to deal with things, though it's true it's taken on a nightmarish quality over the years by virtue of it continuing unresolved over the years, with not much in the way of circumstances to make things easier for us. I think my dad perhaps meant to provide on such circumstance when he offered to pay for my trip, though I'm sure he didn't anticipate that this alone would create a whole separate set of problems. Leave it to a family of neurotics like us to turn even the seemingly simplest thing—like a trip to Europe to visit mum—into a major drama!

#227 Judy my dear, it's not for me to say whether your mind belongs in the gutter or not, but that's sure where it seemed to have dipped, at least momentarily! To think that my poor, sweet, innocent, toy-like, princely little angel could stoop down to doggy porn! But then... you might have a point. No matter what, he's still a DOG who goes about sniffing other dog's butts whenever he gets a chance! ;-)

As long as he sticks to sniffing, you're ok ;)

#229 LOL!




Book Confessions

So. The latest damages really couldn't be avoided. I mean... those $4.95 sales at Audible.com... I'd be outright stupid not to take advantage of those, right? And then they threw in a $10 coupon on top of it all, well! I couldn't let the thing expire unused now, could I? Anyway. I only got 4 audiobooks instead of the 7 I originally had in my shopping basket.

Then, I've had a gift certificate from Better World Books for a good while now. I hadn't used it yet because I hated the thought of spending it all on just a single new book, when I usually buy them at half the price on other sites like BookDepository... even if it is for a good cause. Up until now, I've only seen their used books described as being in just "good" condition, which I didn't find encouraging, given how picky I am, but yesterday I was inspired to look up some Anita Brookner books and found they had quite a lot in "very good" condition. I only got 2, so still have money left on that gift certificate.

But none of these really count as purchases really, do they? Certainly not the ones paid for with gift certificates and coupons?? I wonder how Caro's gang over at the "Read More than You Buy" challenge would rule on that...

Anyway, here's what I got:

The Bay of Angels by Anita Brookner
Leaving Home by Anita Brookner
♫ Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
♫ The Warden by Anthony Trollope
♫ Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
♫ Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Audiobooks I did NOT get:

♫ The Face of a Stranger: A William Monk Novel by Anne Perry
♫ Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
♫ The Ritual Bath: The First Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman




In other book news, I finished Rebecca last night (so exciting at the end!), and have started on Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones for Fantasy February.

Now I'm off to paint so I'll have something to show in class tomorrow.

I'm so glad you ended up enjoying Rebecca -- it's one of my (many) favorites.

I hope you get to Her Royal Spyness sometime -- it's a fun series!

Loved Rebecca, and what a great ending. I went right back to the beginning after I read it, just to connect the two up. I've read other Dianna Wynne Jones but not that one. I'll be interested to hear what you think. The Miyazaki movie based on it was pretty good.

You definitely are way too smart not to take advantage of those $4.95 sales and you absolutely could not let that coupon expire! I mean, this is all just a no-brainer. And, regarding the ones you purchased, I think you chose well. To the degree that I know about that.

*busses Ilana on the cheek, scratches Coco behind the ear, rubs Mimi and Ezra down their backs, and puts away the darn computer to read an actual book*

If it's paid for with a gift certificate, I don't think it counts! :D

And really, if you have a coupon, you MUST use it. It would be nearly a crime not to!!!

#231 Dejah, I must say I'm relieved that I liked Rebecca, or I would have had to contend with a large crow of irate fans! :-)

And... I listed those audiobooks I didn't get in case someone spoke up in their favour, in which case I may just have to go and pick them up while they're still available for a song! (sort of a bad pun, not really intentional)

#232 Joe, I've done that too—gone back to the beginning to link the whole thing up, but in this case I decided not to, so that when I listen to it again it can all become clear again. Read Howl's, see my note below.

#233 Thanks Ellen, I knew you'd approve!

#234 I think I'll deduct two of the audiobooks (covered by the coupon) as well as the two Better World Books from the tally when adding up books purchased on my ticker up in #7, since you're confirming what I was suspecting. ;-)




Books Update: I gave up on Howl's Moving Castle after two chapters and switched over to Doomsday Book by Connie Willis instead. Interestingly enough, both are narrated by the same reader, Jenny Sterlin.

Looks like the gardens have inspired the old English vs French vs German fight'n talk. Even sounds worse than the NZ/Asutralia fight'n talk (which Im told is similar to the Canada/USA fight'n talk).
Enough fight'n, and more read'n please :)

Tell Coco to let me know when she's finished Call of the Wild as I just received that as part of my "for my children (yea right)" Puffin Classics collection. If she rates it i'll bump it up to the top of the TBR pile!

>234 dk_phoenix: ex-ACT-ly
All you say is true.

>235 Smiler69:

I believe that had you come out publicly as disliking Rebecca, it's entirely possible that someone would have borrowed some of the Mrs. Danvers collection from the Fforde Thursday Next novels and sent them to track you down...you have made a wise decision....

#236 What I'm not sure about is how the Germans fit in. We never have the Canada/USA thing (that I know about) because that would be an unfair fight, since us Canadians are far outnumbered—I don't dare speak my mind! LOL!

To let you know whether Coco likes The Call of the Wild Megan, I'd have to first know whether he's reading it, but as he won't let me see what he brings home, and seems to do his reading when I'm away or asleep, I can't be sure I'll be able to help you out on that score. ;-)

#237 Dejah, you've forced my hand, so now I have to admit that I'm not a Fforde fan—and if you're still speaking to me after that, will you let me know what the Mrs Danvers collection is?

Megan / Ilana - looks like yours truly is at fault for fanning the flames of GBR/France/German historical friendships. Do we need to change that to the difference between a US/Canadian garden or a Kiwi/Oz garden?

The US garden is a big garden with extremely fertile areas and some small patches of infertile areas where they allow the original owners to stay...the Canadian one is an even bigger garden with a fence sufficiently small such that they can gaze in wonder at the US garden neighbouring their own? No?

The Australian garden is becoming overrun with crocs and snakes and the Joeys are eating all the vegetation put there....the Kiwi garden is a reproduction of Eden where they have tried to remove the snakes and replaced them with sheep.

Any friends left?

BTW I did poke fun at the Brits first.

(Dejah, you are FUNNY!)

Ilana, I have a special extra deep bathtub for soaking in bubble bath and reading, and I use it frequently! Lovely. Haven't dropped a book in yet, although there have been a few close calls.

I also have a couple of books you might be interested in reading--some wonderful insights. Neither is particularly new. The original Peoplemaking by Virginia Satir was excellent, but she expanded it in The New Peoplemaking. Talk about a lady who saw some crazymaking people, and some wonderful reading as well. The other book is Harriet Goldhor Lerner's The Dance of Anger. Although she continued her writing with The Dance of Deception, The Dance of Intimacy, and The Dance of Connection, I still feel the place to begin is with her original book on anger. I learn more about myself every time I reread any of these books, and feel you would find them really relevant right now. Let me know if you end up picking up any of them--I can feel the urge for a re-read right now.

Roni I have nodded off a couple of times and got the edges of my book wet. No complete immersions though fortunately!

Doomsday Book is good, if a little depressing.

Hehehe - oh dear.........too true!

"The US garden is a big garden with extremely fertile areas and some small patches of infertile areas where they allow the original owners to stay"

Not bad at all Paul!

Hi Ilana- Another nice book haul! Congrats. I have been seriously limiting my book purchases. Off the shelf books is such a major priority.
I had some big problems with Doomsday Book, even though I ended up liking it. I hope it works better for you. I know others love it.

Oh no! But Howl's Moving Castle is such a good book... perhaps it's just not conducive to the audio format...

>237 Dejah_Thoris:-238

In the Bookworld side of things in Fforde’s Thursday Next novels they have a large cache of clones of the Mrs. Danvers character. So many, in fact, they use them for shock troops, crowd control, quashing of the Mispeling Vyrus, etc. I don’t see why they couldn’t be borrowed to discipline difficult readers or to frighten small children.

I like Fforde’s Thursday Next novels (although I still haven’t read all of them) but have never gotten into his other work. And while I like Jane Eyre, I’ve met those willing to excoriate me because I can’t stand Wuthering Heights.

How dreadful it would be if we all liked the same books!

What a great haul, Ilana. Over at the reading more challenge, we don't count books acquired through gift certificates ... well heck, that's like receiving books as presents .. you just get to pick the ones you want. :-)

Ilana, I am too slow for your thread! Well, you know I am following the discussion and will comment when I have something useful to say, here or via PN. Take all the time you need to come to a decision which feels good for yourself. Sending hugs!

***
Okay, some other things: great book haul - and I know what it means to remove books from the basket again. That was very brave and Ellen is absolutely right in #233!

Somehow I missed how the Germans got into the English or French gardens, but I guess we just invaded them? Would be understandable because we don't have nice gardens ourselves. No space for flowers, with all those potatoes and cabbages. :-(

Rebecca: I loved the book, especially the writing ,but at some point the male protagonist (names... I'm hopeless!) creeped me out and I started wondering if he could ever be trusted.
For me this added even some more depth to the story, but also made it scarier.

>238 Smiler69: Shame on me, I called Coco a girl! I was thinking of Coco Chanel of course....sorry Coco (and Ilana).
I was thinking the Canada/USA thing might be like a big and little brothers friendly play fighting. NZers and Australians love to do that. Give each other shit but actually quite like each other when it comes down to it.

>239 PaulCranswick: chuckle chuckle, what a garden can say of a people ay?
I like your description of the NZ garden! I would say an NZ garden would be a paddock. But in reality, we are a very British country, so our gardens reflect that.

Sheesh, while the cat's away the mice will play!

I'm having an especially lousy day after a particularly lousy night of sleeplessness interspersed with weird dreams/nightmares, which Mimi kept waking me up from as I was apparently talking out loud or screaming or both! Yikes. I can't sit at the computer long, but it's a nice surprise coming to so many messages.

#239 Paul, I see you've been having a great time in the gardens of the world. Where is it did you say you poked fun at the Brits first?

#241 I see they have The Dance of Anger at the library. Thanks for the great recommendations Roni.

#243 I don't know about depressing yet, Piyush, but as I just said over on the FF thread, I wish they'd just get on with the story already. I'm at chapter 5 and they keep having the same argument over and over again... I get that they're scholars, but it's starting to get on my nerves!

#246 Mark, I'm proud of you for managing to make you off the shelf personal challenge a priority. I would too if I wasn't so undisciplined!

#247 I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to enjoy Howl's Moving Castle. I'll give it another try some other time.

#248 I haven't read Wuthering Heights yet, that I can remember, but it's on my TBR (another audio). I love your description of what they did with Mrs Danvers in the Thursday Next series, just great!

How dreadful it would be if we all liked the same books! = too true!

#249 Awesome news, thanks for confirming that Caro! Makes perfect sense.

#250 Nathalie, no worries, I'm too slow for my thread too. Especially today!

With Rebecca, I was expecting Maxim De Winter to do something horrid right up to the very end! Talk about atmospherics!

#251 No worries about Coco Megan, neither one of us is particularly offended. He thinks he's a big macho man, but with his appearance and a name like Coco, it's hard to take him seriously as such.

I've been to Oz (a very small part of it for just a few weeks), but not to NZ. I hope to make my way there someday. It's true it looks like the garden of Eden!




The only thing I can stand to do right now is watch Downton Abbey. It should cure all that ails me. Then I'll settle down for some reading. Should start a new thread. But "should's" don't hold much ground with me today.

Hugs to all my lovely visitors. On days like today, it means so much to me to know that there are caring people all around the world!

Hi Ilana!
I trust you have found something soothing to do. I have many nights of terrible dreams. Stress. One night I WAS screaming - and I even heard myself as Ron was trying to wake me. It sounded so unearthly to me - very weird.
Cats do decide at certain times that you need to be awakened - and they are usually right!

Wayward Bus is great - how did it become so obscure?
Subtle Knife is pretty good too - I'll be sad when this trilogy comes to an end.

Peace and more hugs to Ilana, Coco, Ezra and Mimi! Stay warm :)

Ilana - post #212 I have a gentle dig at our British Dunkirk spirit. Sorry to see you have had problems sleeping. Had about 1.5 hours only myself what with problems between my warring brother and father and SWMBO's deteriorating mood.

can't keep up

Hope a good dose of Downton Abbey gets you feeling chipper again Ilana. I dont watch it myself but am seriously green with envy at the notion of a lie down in front of the TV....or just the lie down actually.

Im staring down the barrel of dishes (dinner already made at 3pm yay), a huge house de-clutter (all kids things), washing to go out then in, and the usual feed/clean/dress/cajole to bed for the kiddies. THEN I shall de-camp to the couch with my now daily vino and (more than daily) book.

Stirring as Normal I see Paul ........ almost had me off my chair with laughter!

I hope Downton Abbey helps, the new thread can wait.

Watched DA last night. For me, the show recovered from last week's lapse. Now I want to strangle Matthew.

Happy Valentine's Day, Ilana!

Once again, I'm trying to catch up with threads... Impossible to do yours justice; it's the ones with lots of substantial posts that I get further and further behind on...

173: t's easy enough to be eloquent on a computer screen, when you can take all the time in the world to write, then edit and re-edit as needed, not to mention use the dictionary and thesaurus to polish everything off. But face to face with someone you find intimidating is a whole other story. We shall see... we'll see.

Indeed, and with family especially it's extremely difficult to remain calm and reasonable and articulate, because the issues are so deeply embedded. A difficult situation you're in, and I admire how much you've managed to work through so far.

199: Re The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan says that the people in Grapes of Wrath were further east, and moved primarily for economic reasons, while most of the people in the Dust Bowl stayed put.

#253 Hi Dearest. I managed to get a much better night's sleep yesterday, but then woke up with a screaming migraine. Oy. The good news is it's not as debilitating as it was this morning, so I'm able to do things like... well what I'm doing now basically.

I wondered the same thing about The Wayward Bus. Maybe with our group effort we'll help put it back on the map? I felt the same way about the His Dark Materials trilogy, but then, when I finished it the first thing I thought was that I looked forward to reading it all over again with my newfound perspective now I know where it's headed. I saw Genny made some very interesting comments about the religious aspect of it on your thread. Will drop by so I can at least let her know I appreciated them.

Hope you're having a good day m'dear!

#254 Thanks Paul, I guess I missed the reference because I'm not quite as up on WWII or any history as you are. I don't know how you manage to function on 1.5 hours of sleep—I certainly couldn't! I hope you get the rest you need very soon. xx

#255 I know. I feel the same.

#256 Megan, Downton Abbey proved to be just what the doctor ordered yesterday. So much melodrama! Sometimes I cringe as I watch because of how contrived it is, but I guess it's part of the appeal.

I have huge respect for mums, sounds like such an unending job, and I know I would never have the requisite energy!

#257 Paul does have quite the sense of humour—helps keep things lighter around here.

#258 Thanks Heather. I think I'll start up the new one shortly, every new thread feels a bit like starting over—a good thing in my book.

#259 You're a doll Cee, thanks for that. Big smooch to you.

#260 Thanks Ellen. As you can imagine, I don't really celebrate Valentine's, but it's always nice to be remembered by friends. See my note to Megan above re: DA. I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to watch soap operas since I was a teen and even less discuss them! I bristled a bit when Mark used that terms "soap opera" to describe the show, but really, take away the period costumes and that's exactly what it is, isn't it? Albeit an excellent one, to be sure. :-)




So yes, the day started with a screeching migraine, which seems to be slowly subsiding with the hours, thank heavens. I had an appointment with my banker which I would normally have cancelled under the circumstances, but for the fact that I'd already cancelled a couple of months ago and that February is the last chance to invest in RRSP's, which help me avoid paying additional income tax. I've known Claude for close to 25 years and we actually knew each other before he became my banker (quite a titillating story behind that actually), and he's helped me through thick and thin over the years. He suggested we consolidate my various loans and spread the payments over a longer period to give me a bit of a break, and I do believe that it's quite literally given me breathing space so that I feel like there's less of a burden on me. Amazing how those things cause pressure that we aren't even conscious of, isn't it? Anyway, all this to say that I'm glad I made the almost superhuman effort to go to that appointment.

I celebrated by getting an audiobook—it's a British radio programme that I've been discussing with Paul called This Sceptred Isle. It comes in several parts and covers British history through the ages. I'm starting with Volume 1: 55 BC-1087 Julius Caesar to William the Conqueror, and if it's as good as I think it'll be, I'll make my way through Vol 4: Elizabeth I to Cromwell 1547-1660 and beyond.

Also in books, I'm getting very annoyed with Doomsday Book. I believe I've gotten to chapter 9, or 4.5 hours into the 27 hour recording and so far very very little has happened with so much stomping around the same ground over and over again that I'm wondering whether it's worth continuing. Is it? Will anything actually happen? Or is it all like this?

A few things to do, like order groceries, but I'll probably start my new thread soon.

Doomsday Book definitely takes its time, but it builds. I think I remember feeling that it was a slow start too.

Happy V. day!

262: It's well worth continuing. Though I said the same about Unbroken. Maybe an audio thing. I probably didn't even notice that I was skimming when I was reading.

Ilana, I just posted a message to you about Doomsday Book over on the Fantasy February thread. Don't give up yet!

I love how you've all rallied to encourage me along Doomsday Book. A big THANK YOU for that! :-)

#263 So far, you're the only one who's confirmed my impression of the slow start, so extra thanks to you Lucy!

#264 You're right, you did say that about Unbroken, and I didn't listen to you and just gave up all the same... For sure it's not possible to skim on audio, but I very rarely skim when reading a print book either... maybe it's something I should add to my reading tools! :-)

#265 I saw your message over there Dejah, good stuff and very encouraging. Thanks again.

Hi Ilana, nothing to add to the Doomsday read as I haven't got round to it yet but have the audio version too. Regarding Revelation Space which I commented on a couple of times over in Fantasy Feb, there is a bit of hard science about black holes etc at the end of the book that I sort of glazed my eyes over but it did not interfere with my overall enjoyment of the book. I've done audio for all 4 Reynolds books that I've 'read'.

This Sceptred Isle sounds interesting, my library has the first volume of the Empire series on audio so I'll probably get that to look at.

Can't say much about your family relationships except that a trip to France will take you away from your comfort zone/support systems and that concerns me.

Kerry, I wish my library had This Sceptred Isle, but not. I forgot to mention that the narrator is Anna Massey, who is the reason I looked up this series to begin with. Thanks for the warning about Revelation Space too. I'll just space out and think of other things when I get to that part I guess. Easy enough to do on audiobooks—it just becomes background noise!

a trip to France will take you away from your comfort zone/support systems and that concerns me.

Yes, I think that's the bottom line really and what concerns me most too.

I'm not one to ask about Doomsday Book as I thought like you. I finished it but doubt I'll read anything else by Willis.