Tiffin's 3rd for 2012

The last of the peonies--I can change this as the garden moves along.

EVALUATION SCHEME
Although I am hesitant to evaluate books, when I do, this is what it means:
0-1.5* = disgusting use of a perfectly good tree
2-2.5** = meh, don't bother
2.75 = somewhere between meh and ok
3-3.5*** = quite creditable and not a waste of time, liked it
3.75 = just a scritch more of *something* and it would have been really good
4-4.5**** = a really, really good read, enjoyed it thoroughly, would recommend it happily, wish I'd written it
5***** = knocked my socks off, blew me in to the next stratosphere, turned me into a molten puddle, sheer perfection and no you can't borrow it, this one stays right here




BOOKS READ

JANUARY 2012
1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4.75 stars
2. Persuasion by Jane Austen 4.5 stars {reread}
3. The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley 2.75 stars
4. The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht 4.5 stars
5. The Eliza Stories specifically "Eliza" by Barry Pain 3 stars
6. As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil; The Impossible Life of Mary Benson by Rodney Bolt 4.5 stars
7. The Unquiet Bones by Mel Starr 2.95 stars
8. A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel by Mel Starr 2.95 stars
9. A Trail of Ink by Mel Starr 2.95 stars
10. Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford 4 stars
11. High Rising by Angela Thirkell

FEBRUARY 2012
12. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien 5 stars {reread}
13. The Quiet Gentleman by George Heyer 3 stars
14. The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer 2.75 stars
15. Winter Heart by Margaret Frazer 1 star
16: A Double Affair by Angela Thirkell 3.5 stars
17. Mrs. Ames by E.F. Benson 3.5 stars
18. Part of the Furniture by Mary Wesley 4 stars
19. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 4 stars
20. Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor 3.5 stars
21. A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd 3.5 stars
22. The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart 3 stars
23. Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart 2.75 stars
24. Another Self by James Lees-Milne 3 stars
25. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 4.5 stars {reread}

MARCH 2012
26. Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill 4 stars
27. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill 4 stars
28. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill 3.5 stars
29. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill 4 stars
30. Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill 3 stars
31: Red Bird, Poems by Mary Oliver 4.5 stars
32. A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor 4.5 stars
33. The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill 3.5 stars
34. Evidence by Mary Oliver
35. The New Moon with the Old by Dodie Smith 4 stars

APRIL 2012
36. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 3.5 stars
37. A Place of Secrets: A Novel by Rachel Hore 3.75 stars
38. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka 4 stars
39. Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear 3.75 stars
40. Gone West by Carola Dunn 3 stars

MAY 2012 - gardening season so things dwindle down until the dog days of summer hit and it's too hot to slave & toil outside
41. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 4.5 stars
42. Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver 4.5 stars

JUNE 2012
43: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 5 stars
44. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton 3 stars
45. Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry 2.95 stars
46. 1222 by Anne Holt 3.5 stars
47. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton 2.75 stars
48. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain 4.25 stars
49. Road to Valor: A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist who Inspired a Nation by Aili and Andres McConnon

JULY 2012
50. Blood Ties Book I of the Castings Trilogy by Pamela Freeman
51. Deep Water Book II of the Castings Trilogy by Pamela Freeman
52. Full Circle Book III of the Castings Trilogy by Pamela Freeman
53. Manna from Heaven by Carola Dunn 3.25 stars
54. A Colourful Death by Carola Dunn 3.25 stars
55. Scotched by Liss MacCrimmon 2.95 stars
56. Grendel by John Gardner 4.5 stars
57. Look Back With Love by Dodie Smith 4 scant stars

AUGUST 2012
58. Death of a Kingfisher by M.C. Beaton
59. Beastly Things by Donna Leon
60. The Missing Will by Michael Wharton
61. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri - the 1st Inspector Montalbano Mystery

JOURNALS, ETC. READ
1. Slightly Foxed, Winter 2011
2. Slightly Foxed, Spring 2012
3. Slightly Foxed, Winter 2008 (I'm ordering back copies to have the entire collection)
4. Slightly Foxed, Summer 2012

First!!! Good morning from a very cold Wellington. OK, not by your standards. But it's 4 degrees.

It's hot and humid here, Cush--and I'm baking a carrot cake for my father-in-law's 94th birthday, so the oven is on. As you head into the depth of your winter, I'm heading into the dog days of summer. Our summer's are relatively short affairs (although global warming is changing that), so no grousing about the heat from this quarter!

Here are the June need to finish culprits:

World and Town by Gish Jen - it just didn't grab me and hang on tight. Half through it, though, should finish it.
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff - it's good but I petered out on it. Just a bit dry for my mood right now.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain - this was a reread and I know what's coming (the War, deaths) and I wasn't in the mood for it. I might abort this one.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - her writing is wonderful but I just wasn't in the mood for a post-apocalypse story in the bleakest part of winter.
Look Back with Love by Dodie Smith - I ran into some horrific animal cruelty in this one and cast it aside in disgust. It has been long enough now that I should be able to move past it to finish the memoir.

Here are the ones I've picked up and am enjoying:

Grendel by John Gardner
Road to Valor: A True Story of World War II, Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation by Aili and Andres McConnon - an Early Reader ARC which I have begun and which looks to be an excellent story about Gino Bartali, one of the great Tour de France winners and a resistance hero.

I have a feeling that the culprits might straggle into July.

Lovely peonies--I can't grow them here in San Diego, and I miss them.

Testament of Youth and Oryx and Crake on the same reading pile? Yikes, that's bleak. You need some "beach reads"!

I agree with Laura...and I think I'd pick 2 of those books to finish and put the others aside with no regrets. If they call to you again someday, start fresh. If they never do, so be it. As there is no crying in baseball, so there should be no guilt in reading.

That is kind of a bleak gathering of books -- I do that sometimes, never by design, but suddenly I do find things other than reading have more appeal...... so then the books drag on.

Maybe it was the bleakness that had me setting them aside. Well, heck, no "maybe" about it.

When I was in my teens, I could go for a good wallow in things like La Peste by Camus or some of the bleak Russian writers and thoroughly enjoy the read. I'm finding now, in my middling years, that I've seen enough of the mess and misery humanity can dish up. What I yearn for now is hope, comfort and a bit of joy. Oh not one of those Pollyana type things--too cynical for that. But when you reach that point where, realistically, you only have so many years left (and you don't know how many), you want to pack as much wonder and happiness in as you can and that includes in what I read.

Take Hilary Mantel, for instance. Even though she is writing about some gawdawful things, her writing is just so splendid. So good writing, a great guffaw or two (Wodehouse!), some crisp and crackling little English mysteries--bring it on! Maybe I'll take off the hair shirt and reshelve the books.

ETA: hi Roni--no, they'd be burnt to a crisp there. But I can't do tropicals up here in Canada, eh, so there you go.

I feel the same way about bleakness in reading (and movies) - I used to be able to take it and just shrug it off, but as I get older, I get more emotional and bothered about such stuff. I need more happy now than I did then!

Amber, when my daughter was a little girl, it was impossible for me to read the heavy stuff---it just hit me too hard. I read Sophie's Choice when it first came out---before I was a mother. And then tried to watch the movie when my daughter was a baby in a crib----could. not. Life circumstances have a lot to do with our responses to things. Maybe when Charlie is older and you worry less (oh, yes, you do worry a little less at some points in their lives), you'll also be able to read some of those tougher stories again. I just finished Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley, and although it has some pretty grim subject matter, it is affirmative in a way that makes me very glad I read it. What kills me these days, Tui, as you may understand, are the ones about aging.

Excellent point, Linda, and I think a correct one. I simple can not endure stories (fiction or otherwise) about children being harmed in any way. Puts me right into the Crying Fits. Good to know that I have a bit less worrying in my future, though...

Tui - signing in for your latest thread. Excellent chat on bleakness in reading - sometimes a good old cry whilst reading is just what the doctor ordered but I must agree that books like Sophie's Choice are, when you have kids, bordering on the masochistic.

>12 laytonwoman3rd:: Linda, I think you're right about "life circumstances" affecting our reading choices--although I've never been able to read about cruelty to animals, at any age. Nor can I read about gratuitous violence, and yet I could read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because there was a deep compassion for women and a fighting back against the wrongness. I don't want to live with my head in the sand but I sometimes wonder if all the spew and ghastliness being reflected back at us by the media doesn't create a form of social moral despair, so good people give up and 'borderline' folk go over the edge. I haven't read any books about aging recently but I think I know what you mean. I don't know if I could read The Stone Angel now. And I sure don't want to read anything about losing one's marbles!

>14 PaulCranswick:: there are "good old cry" stories where a beloved character dies and the sadness is right and appropriate but I need that kernel of hope in there now, Paul. Do you find that? I want to believe that good can triumph over evil, that the world can be saved with intelligence and good science, and that the human race isn't utterly vile. So these post-apocalypse books of Margaret Atwood's are just going to go back on the TBR pile, I think.

ETA: Amber, when my lads were young, all I could read was science fiction and certain kinds of fantasy. I was up to my eyeballs in reality and didn't need to read about anyone else's!

#15 And there it is....when we're "up to our eyeballs in reality", there's always something out there to read that can take us away. The trick is finding the right something at the right time.

#16 Linda: Agreed. Sing it, sister!

I'm trying to write about what kinds of books I can't read, and I can't even bring myself to write it out. Suffice it to say: animals, children. In special circs. I can - but it has to be, as Tui says, a book that transcends 'story'.

46. 1222 by Anne Holt



Library hardbound
Why I read it: new in on the new books shelf at our village library and looked interesting

A pretty good mystery by a Norwegian crime writer. Nice read for a hot summer day, as a trainload of people get derailed in a snowstorm and are forced to hole up in a mountain lodge, while the snow piles higher and higher, as do the bodies.

your peonies are looking great! Love the color

Hi Chelle! I need to get over to your place to see how the move etc., is coming along. Thanks for dropping by.

Hi Tui, I am so far behind with everyone's 75 Challenges. Not to mention not getting much reading time at all this year so far. Ah well, will have to make up for it in the summer (she says, optimistically).

Love the peonies by the way.

Hi Caro, that's ok, it's the summer doldrums for most of us, especially with this heat wave we're having here. Although I did pick up Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, which the Library managed to reserve for me, so I'm looking forward to that. But my visiting has been very limited as well.

Took a peek at Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain and it sucked me right in. She begins by looking at the growth of the cult(ure) of the extrovert in the U.S., starting with Andrew Carnegie, moving through advertising, and (at this point) at the Harvard School of Business. It used to be that the cultivation of Character was what defined a person in the late 1800s, early 1900s: quiet, refined, dignified. But with the cultivation of Personality in American culture, there has been a switch to valuing the extroverted, confident (even when it's fake), and always speaking up & out kind of person. Gurus of this Culture of Personality, like Tony robbins, make millions exhorting people to leap, yell, bounce and exude energy if they want to matter as people. I am finding it somewhat terrifying so far, especially reading about the Harvard School model.

The school even hosts live informational sessions and web pages on how to be a good class participator. Don's friends earnestly reel off the tips they remember best.
"Speak with conviction. Even if you believe something only fifty-five percent, say it as if you believe it a hundred percent."
"If you're preparing alone for class, then you're doing it wrong. Nothing at HBS is intended to be done alone."
"Don't think about the perfect answer. It's better to get out there and say something than to never get your voice in."
p 46-47

It's a message which seems to value form over content, show over substance...ergo the ghastly reality tv shows we have now, where the shallow and vacuous are celebrated as *stars* and politicians have gleaming whitened teeth through which the word vagina will never pass.

Read on, MacDuff!

I enjoyed your comments about Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Tui. It's on my list of books to buy next week.

simply stopping by to say how much I appreciate your review of Bring Up The Bodies. I'm 120 pages into the book and just when I thought there could not be another book to cover Anne Boleyn, whala...here is a fresh perspective from Cromwell.

Thumbs up!

What drew me right in, Darryl, was that she began the book with acknowledgement to Rosa Parks, a quiet, dignified woman who simply said "no" when asked to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Rosa Parks has long been on my top 20 list of most admired people.

She makes a distinction between shyness and introversion (although introverts can also be shy). Introverts simply prefer environments that are not overstimulating. We're the ones at parties who quickly reach that point where we'd rather be at home in our pyjamas with a book--and leave.

Here's her informal quiz to determine if you are an introvert or not (pgs 13-14), true or false answers:

1.-----I prefer one-on-one conversations to group activities.
2.-----I often prefer to express myself in writing.
3.-----I enjoy solitude.
4.-----I seem to care less than my peers about wealth, fame, and status.
5.-----I dislike small talk, but I enjoy talking in depth about topics that matter to me.
6.-----People tell me that I'm a good listener.
7.-----I am not a big risk-taker.
8.-----I enjoy work that allows me to "dive in" with few interruptions.
9.-----I like to celebrate birthdays on a small scale, with only one or two close friends or family members.
10------People describe me as "soft-spoken" or "mellow".
11------I prefer not to show or discuss my work with others until it's finished.
12------I dislike conflict.
13------I do my best work on my own.
14------I tend to think before I speak.
15------I feel drained after being out and about, even if I've enjoyed myself.
16------I often let calls go through to voice mail.
17------If I had to choose, I'd prefer a weekend with absolutely nothing to do to one with too many things scheduled.
18------I don't enjoy multitasking.
19------I can concentrate easily.
20------In classroom situations, I prefer lectures to seminars.

The more often you answered "true", the more introverted you probably are. If you found yourself with a roughly equal number of "true" and "false" answers, then you may be an ambivert--yes, there really is such a word.

I think most introverts know that they are, without a quiz. But it's affirming, somehow, to see so many of one's own traits there in a row.

>26 Whisper1:: thank you, Linda! We both love reading about that era, don't we--how refreshing to read something that isn't hackneyed.

It's a message which seems to value form over content, show over substance...ergo the ghastly reality tv shows we have now, where the shallow and vacuous are celebrated as *stars* and politicians have gleaming whitened teeth through which the word vagina will never pass. Scary isn't it Tui! I do wonder at the future for those of us who desire any kind of breadth, depth and authenticity.

She makes a distinction between shyness and introversion (although introverts can also be shy). Introverts simply prefer environments that are not overstimulating. We're the ones at parties who quickly reach that point where we'd rather be at home in our pyjamas with a book--and leave. - yup, this happened to me recently.

As for your quiz, I am 13 true, which very much agrees with how I see myself, finely balanced, with a slightly stronger leaning to introvert, although most of my friends would say they were surprised at that. But then they only see me with people I like and trust, they don't see me with people I don't know well, or with strangers.

All very interesting Tui.

I had 17 yes answers - fairly conclusively introverted then!

17 for me too, SandDune. It might have been 18 but I didn't know if others thought my voice was soft spoken and mellow or not. Also, I was ambivalent about multitasking as I had to do it for almost 30 years as part of my job and still seem to be doing it now that I've retired, so I can't remember if I disliked it or not and I just don't think about it.

I really differed on the lecture/seminar one though. My undergrad uni was based on the small group seminar system and it was a brilliant model. We were each responsible for doing the research for a topic then presenting it in the seminar, where we would then discuss it. I learned so much from my fellow students. The lectures were excellent, as the profs got to strut their stuff, but the seminars were wonderful explorations.

Caro, the pyjamas/book thing is my favourite state of being. Parties aren't. And I love your use of the word "authenticity": yes!

Yes, there were 2-3 I didn't add because I wasn't totally sure either way.

Authenticity is very important to me Tui. I think a lot of younger generations will struggle even to understand the concept if how they are being schooled, as mentioned in your book, is widespread.

>>#31&32 My outcomes exactly - scary, yet reassuring!

Every now and then I force mystelf to go to something I don't really want to because I'm constantly being told, both directly and through social pressure, that I "should". Sometimes I enjoy it, but never as much as stepping through my front door afterwards. :)

I tried that quiz earlier this year, and I was an ambivert. I think I'm a situational introvert, overall; I can be very quiet around people I don't know or aren't comfortable with, if others are dominating the conversation, or if I don't have much to add to the discussion. Otherwise I can be moderately extroverted.

I like that Darryl, situational introvert! I scored about 14 - I think because I have some attentional issues, so that I tend to zone out in lectures, for example, and I rather like multi-tasking as I am restless. I can also be 'the life of the party' when I'm 'on' - in a group of people with whom I feel comfortable.

Fascinating, this conversation....I guess none of us should be too surprised to find that, as book people, we focus inward, eh? I score 17 on the quiz. I simply cannot let calls go through to voice mail----that means I have to take affirmative action and call someone back; it's much easier for me just to take the call initially than to place the call back later. I don't concentrate as easily as I once did, and no one has ever accused me of being soft-spoken!

>33 rebeccanyc:: I was a very inquisitive child who asked tons of questions, which might not be classic introvert behaviour? That curiosity got repressed and squelched by high school. I learned to "stifle it, Edith", particularly in the company of really extroverted peers who liked making others look stupid. I had a social component as part of my job, so it really WAS part of my job to help others enjoy themselves. I did it with perfectionism in the details. Always ran high anxiety before events, however.

>34 lyzard:: You sound perfectly normal to me. ;)

>35 kidzdoc:: me too--with my friends and family, I can be fairly whacky. But even with them, I get overloaded and need down time.

>36 sibylline:: I completely understand that restlessness, which is why there are partially read books and half-done projects everywhere.

>37 laytonwoman3rd:: when I was overloaded and stressed to the max at work with deadlines, I would let calls go to voicemail but I always cleared them before I went home because I didn't want to start the next day with them there. With certain things like budgets, etc., I needed to focus and not be derailed.

Cain is getting into a discussion of the productivity of introvert CEOs vs extroverts: introverts work well with self-directed work teams and promote team creativity better than extroverts with their tendency to talk better than they listen. It's still all around business models so I don't know if it's going to go into anything else at this point or not.

I scored 13, and Lucy's comments in #36 describe me well, too. I don't think I've ever been described as soft-spoken or mellow! And I enjoy public speaking and the times when I've been a sort of "emcee" for a group activity (running a large meeting, for example). But I dread most parties, and really need my down time.

Interesting stuff.

Laura, I asked Himself if I was soft-spoken or mellow and he said no. hehe

I should make it clear that Cain isn't pitting introverts against extroverts. She is just saying that the culture of the U.S. and then other parts of the Western world have swung heavily in favour of extroverts. Her main claim, as far as I can tell so far, is that introverts have much to offer, just a different style of delivery and that it would behoove companies and corporations not to overlook the potential there. She has touched on the extrovert phenom in the evangelical church so I'm hoping she moves out into a social perspective, and doesn't stay focused on a corporate one.

Interesting quiz. Apparently I am an introvert. I told my fiance after I took the quiz and he said "I could have told you that!". I guess it was only a surprise to me ;)

I answered yes to all of those. However, I'm a complete extrovert when I'm in the classroom (as the instructor). Weird, eh?

When I have an official role I can be astonishingly gregarious - that's the 'on' mode and somehow having a 'role' gives me confidence or something????? Without it, I'm as retiring as can be.

That's interesting, Chelle!

I can do that too, Amber and Lucy -- it's putting on a performance persona and knowing what to do in that context. That doesn't make it natural or entirely comfortable, however. I never did take to lecturing which is why I didn't feel a lot of pain about aborting my Ph.D. I knew there would be a big component of lecturing to undergrads and that I was anything but a natural at it. After big social events at our college which I frequently had to host, I'd come home just gassed.

Cain has just gone through looking at open concept offices, as well as working in groups, with the consensus being that they actually destroy productivity and creativity. The conclusion of most researchers is that brainstorming doesn't really work, that the best ideas come from private and undisturbed contemplation. I like that she gives the history of these idea--who came up with brainstorming in the first place and how it gets used. She had some interesting stuff about how peer pressure can alter how we think about things in groups and how our responses can be swayed from a correct answer about a problem to an incorrect one by group pressure. It actually alters the part of the brain being used.

So now we're heading into "Is Temperament Destiny". Not very far in yet but she is discussing the work of Jerome Kagan, a developmental psychologist at Harvard. One experiment involved a group of four-month old babies to various stimuli: "The infants heard tape-recorded voices and balloons popping, saw colorful mobiles dance before their eyes, and inhaled the scent of alcohol on cotton swabs. They had wildly varying reactions to the new stimuli." p. 99 Kagan predicted that the babies who reacted wildly would grow up to be the quietest young adults, whereas the ones who took everything in would be the confident, outgoing ones. He was right.

This was fascinating to me because my brother had made a mobile for my twin lads when they were babies which was a hot air balloon with a basket hanging from it, stuffed with stuffed animals looking out of the basket. We hung it above them and put them on the floor on a blanket to see it. Both lads burst into tears and were obviously really upset by it (all those eyes looking at them? a big looming shape above them?). Both have grown up to prefer quieter, more individual pursuits like cycling for hours or reading. hmmmm......

Fascinating Tui.

47. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton



Library hardbound
Why I read it: others seem to like her writing...

Kind of a sordid story. Didn't enjoy it very much.

De-lurking.... I am currently on D is for Deadbeat - listening to the audiobook as part of my walking workday commute - and while it isn't holding my attention so far like the first three books did, I am a little concerned about your two sentence comment on F is for Fugitive.

Hi Lori: I'm trying to read them as our village library gets them in, so I've missed B, C and D. This one had sad or seedy characters, with sad stories. I have heard that later on in the alphabet, Grafton really hits her stride and they get good (someone said after G). So sorry about that! I felt that I should read them in order but am starting to wonder if I can skip a few letters.

I'm right there Tui, our daughter had similar responses. The worst was when you thought they'd love something and they totally loathe it because it is too stimulating.

Sometimes I have to admit Tui, after reading a post, it is all I can do not to jump in the car and drive to Toronto in time to have tea with you. Just tea, then I would go away again.

Well, Lucy, you'd have to drive another 2 hours north east of Toronto but the kettle would sure go on! Posey welcome too, of course.

Well, I've finished Part Two of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking: "Your Biology, Your Self?" with the chapters "Is Temperament Destiny", "Beyond Temperament: The Role of Free Will", "Franklin was a Politician, But Eleanor Spoke Out of Conscience", and "Why Did Wall Street Crash and Warren Buffett Prosper", which was all very interesting in its look at the role the introverted temperament can play in business and politics.

Cain talks about buzz prone people (extroverts), also known as being reward-sensitive. Reward-sensitive people get energized and excited when they get something they want; they go all out to get things; are affected strongly when good things happen to them; have few fears. Introverts are much more immune to being directed by "the buzz". Threat-sensitive people are hurt by criticism or scolding; get worried/upset when they think someone is angry with them; get worked up if they think something unpleasant is going to happen; are upset by doing poorly at something important; hate making mistakes. Cain feels that each type can be both but that these didn't fit her own characteristic of doing her work simply because she loves it.

So she explores the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi involving what he calls "the flow". The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings. .... that there are some activities that are not about approach or avoidance, but about something deeper: the fulfillment that comes from absorption in an activity outside yourself.

Remembering how lost I used to get in research, how I could read, think and write for hours, barely coming up to eat or sleep, I think getting in to "the flow" is how it works for many of us. It was a similar feeling back when I used to paint. I remember the deeply introverted former Canadian champion figure skater, Toller Cranston, now a professional artist, talking about how he loses all sense of time when he paints and has to have a housekeeper to bring him back to reality.

Part Three: Do All Cultures Have an Extrovert Ideal is an interesting look at Asian vs. American cultural norms, especially seen through the eyes of young folks who straddle the two cultures. Heading in to Part Four: How to Love, How to Work.

Thanks to you and Lucy, I don't think that I'll need to read this one. Very interesting and helpful, Tui!
(Again, I say, "Try Paretsky!")

I'm enjoying your write-ups and analysis. The flow really is the key. It's really what I live for, but it's not the easiest place to get to and stay in.....

hah, Peggy, and I don't need to do a review of this one! I'm taking one for the team.

The flow is a seductive and magical space but the two edge sword can be the havoc it can wreak on relationships. Now that the lads are raised and out on their own, I'm turning the tap back on in experimental amounts. It isn't as wild a place as it was when I was younger, thank heavens! I'll be interested to read what she says in the next section.

I'm also enjoying your comments about Quiet, Tui.

Yes - flow and children do not go together at all -- I always feel my dau. KNOWS when I've gone into that mode and engineers a mini-crisis to bring me back down to earth.

Finally finished "Quiet". Part Four: How to Love, How to Work was comprised of "When You Should Act More Extroverted Than You Really Are", "The Communication Gap: How to Talk to Members of the Opposite Type", "On Cobblers and Generals: How to Cultivate Quiet Kids in a World That Can't Hear Them", and "Conclusion: Wonderland".

There wasn't a whole lot in this last bit which stretched my awareness out to new places but there were some interesting bits: "prolonged acting out of character may also increase autonomic nervous system activity, which can, in turn, compromise immune functioning". In other words, if you are having to act more extroverted than you really are for prolonged periods of time, you kind of burn out. Some of the examples were interesting, e.g., Prof. Little, a seemingly extroverted professor who gives his all to his students in lectures and in person but who is a bona fide introvert who had to learn to nurture his true self, giving himself lots of down time in his home, by the fire, reading with his wife.

The section on cultivating the introverted child in your life wasn't of particular use to me as I've already done my damage to my lads and sent them out in the world. However, it might be of real interest to anyone with an introvert still living at home.

On the whole, I think this is a really well researched book on the topic but more importantly, it is putting the subject out there so that teachers, employers and introverts themselves can see that who and how we are is not only just fine, thanks awfully, but actually is of tremendous worth to society. Judging from how well this book is doing on the book lists, I'd say it's a book whose time has come and that many are connecting with it. It is written in a very approachable style with enough reference to studies of the matter to make it credible but not so many that it overwhelms and makes it pedantic. It might not teach you anything (it didn't for me) but it is affirming. A worthwhile read.

48. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain



Library hardbound copy
No. of pages:
Why I read it: how could I resist a title like that when I spotted it on the new books shelves?

See all the comments from 24 - 57, instead of a review.

49: Road to Valor: A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation by Aili and Andres McConnon



My Review for Early Reviewers

Paperback (my son made off with it, so I don't know the publisher just yet)
NO. of pages:
Why I read it: Early Reviewers book, which I requested

I can recommend this book as an interesting read.

A small tetchy point that is niggling: on page 14 of Road to Valor, they say "...and in the meantime he snuck in rides on his father's....". Now I was raised to believe that "snuck" isn't a word. The past tense of "to sneak" is "sneaked". But it seems to be accepted in American dictionaries. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

>59 tiffin:: Tui, your niggling point sent me to Dictionary.com. They define "snuck" as "a past participle and simple past tense of sneak," and include this:

Usage note
First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak : Bored by the lecture, he snuck out the side door. Snuck occurs frequently in fiction and in journalistic writing as well as on radio and television: In the darkness the sloop had snuck around the headland, out of firing range. It is not so common in highly formal or belletristic writing, where sneaked is more likely to occur.

I love this stuff.

It isn't in the OED. And my mother would have bopped 'em over the head with her OED (the complete version, on a stand, with a magnifying glass). hehe

ETA: thanks, Laura!

I'm holding out against "snuck", myself. My inner language snob won't let me forget the elementary school teachers who railed against it, along with "ain't" and "should of" and "me and Bobby".

I'm okay with 'snuck' myself. When a language stops changing, it dies, and although I'm a great fan of dead languages, I'm not keen on English becoming one, so I try to roll with the changes. *shrug*

I'm with Amber. Languages change. I resist usage changes when they result in confusion or even lack of precision. (And, maybe, in formal, academic, or professional situations if they make you "sound dumb" because of nonstandard usage.) "Snuck" is recognized by many good dictionaries as acceptable (though some, like my third edition American Heritage Dictionary--which is getting a touch long in the tooth when it comes to usage questions--still note that it is "nonstandard" and "less preferred") and is perfectly clear. (And I think the usage is wide enough that while some people may think it sounds wrong, few would think it sounds dumb.)

I just don't like the sound of "snuck". I don't know if I think it sounds dumb but it does sound cowboy to my ears. "Ah snuck out of the barn afore he could see me, Shurruff."

OH dear. Sneaked/Snuck. I'm old and I'm not going to get any younger. I would always correct "snuck" in academic or business writing. It ranks right there with "bust" - as, "He busted out the window to rescue the dog from the hot car." Amber's right about changing language, and when I die, it won't matter.
(Tui, I can't imagine how you'd react to my drawl - worse than cowboy probably. But I wouldn't say "snuck.")

*laughing here* Peggy, I don't mind REAL drawls. You would probably think I have an accent too (although I don't). ;)

Here's my review of Road to Valor so no one has to click on the link:

Road to Valor: A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation by Aili and Andres McConnon

My Review for Early Reviewers

I requested this book as an Early Reviewer thinking that, as a fan of cycling and the Tour de France, its content would interest me. In addition, my father served part of his duty in WWII in Italy so there would be further interest from that perspective. I wasn’t prepared for how the story of the humble and astonishing Gino Bartali would sweep me away, leaving me grateful that Aili and Andres McConnon saw fit to tell his remarkable story.

Gino Bartali was born 18 July 1914 to a poor family in the little village of Ponte a Ema, just outside of Florence in Tuscany. He was a small boy with little inclination to work hard at school but his family was a nurturing one, which valued decency and honesty, so he had a good start in life in non-material ways. The McConnons do a lovely job of setting out his childhood and development into a cyclist, as young Gino road around the vineyards and dusty roads of Ponte a Ema in the 1920s with his beloved brother, Giulio.

When Bartali won his first Tour de France in 1938, Italy was in the thrall of fascism. The discussion of how Mussolini tried to turn all sports and his Tour victory into glory for the fascist state was very interesting. But as Europe degenerated into full scale war, it was the story of how Bartali used his cycling talents to act as a courier for the Resistance, to save the lives of hundreds of Italian Jews which was the truly fascinating part of the book, for me.

As a long-time fan of the Tour, I was dumbstruck reading about his post-war second Tour win in 1948. Watching the Tour today, we have no idea what those early road warriors went through, physically and mentally. It takes a certain kind of personality to withstand the rigours of the grand Tours, especially of the Tour de France. The ability to ignore pain and body deprivation, to fight through rain, mud, snow, cold and hunger to defeat the vast Alps are not in the fabric of most people.

It was this same character that allowed Bartali to ride miles and miles around northern Italy with forged documents in his seat stem, facing constant discovery by the Nazis and Fascists. At times I read with my heart in my mouth as this one or that one faced being discovered or caught. I remembered my father’s stories about what the Italian people went through and this formed a backdrop to the images of Gino riding miles alone to deliver hope to a persecuted people, with barely enough to eat himself.

Bartali would never talk about his war efforts. As he would tell his son Andrea, “If you’re good at a sport, they attach the medals to your shirts and then they shine in some museum. That which is earned by doing good deeds is attached to the soul and shines elsewhere.” Because he was so reticent about what he had done, there isn’t a true estimate of how many lives he saved but it is suspected to be in the many hundreds.

So if you aren’t a follower of cycling or the Tour de France, would this book be of any interest to you? Are you interested in history, especially of World War II? Read it. Do you have Italian heritage? Oh, do read it! Are you interested in the Holocaust, either historically or personally? Read it, please. Are you moved by stories of incredible courage by humble and otherwise ordinary people? Read it. Do you like to read non-fiction every now and then, moving outside of your usual comfort zones, especially if the life you are reading about inspires and moves you? Read it. In other words, I think this is a read most would benefit from and enjoy.

#64 We had this out on the phone....I think we agreed to disagree. But what Tui said in #65 is very close to how I feel about it. We were discouraged from using hick colloquial expressions in school. That teaching stuck (why is THAT ok, I wonder? Should it be sticked? What a language!) with me. But I fully understand how language does change, and I embrace some of it. If everyone forgot to care about when to differentiate between "who" and "whom", I'd be fine with that. And "snuck" is absolutely correct in a Faulkner novel or coming out of Festus Hagen's mouth.

You know - thinking about it over - one would say 'The son of a gun just snuck up and bit me." but otherwise one (oh, that would be me, wouldn't it?) would say sneaked as in, "We sneaked out after we heard Dad snoring." It must be, therefore, sneaking into common usage through idiom.

I just sneaked Quiet into my Amazon basket, along with Road to Valour Tui!

BTW: I agree with the thing about acting more extrovert than you are. As I said above, many of my friends find it odd I come out 'introvert' but I do find long periods with people exhausting because I have to work harder at that aspect of who I am. I tend to feel the extrovert part of myself is only possible because of the introvert. I have to have long periods of time alone, or quietly with others in order to function in the world which is extrovert.

I also totally agree with doing a job or project for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and getting into the flow. I am both someone who is very methodical (with work that requires it) but can also work within chaos for creative ends. But I have to have the time to fall deep enough into the flow.

@ 69, 70

See, I disagree about "who" and "whom." While I will concede that using "who" when it should be "whom" is usually not confusing, I find proper use of "whom" provides clarity and precision, especially in complex sentences. I'm also interested in a possible generation gap with some usage changes. I remember being drilled on several grammar points in elementary and middle school, but "sneaked" as appropriate and "snuck" as wrong and/or uneducated was not one of them. To me, "sneaked" sounds wrong. It hits my ear as a regularization of an irregular verb. I wonder when "snuck" became more widely used and if it predates my language acquisition (my dictionary says "snuck" was a regionalism that became more widespread, but it doesn't say where it started or when it started filtering out of whatever region/s it started in).

>69 laytonwoman3rd: & 70: I think that's the bias I have against it as well, that early imprinting against sounding like a person who hadn't had the benefit of schooling. And that imprinting was fierce, reinforced both by my family and my grade school teachers. But I completely agree that it works in certain contexts. I admit to loving colloquialisms (you should hear some of them in these parts), so would never want those to disappear for "proper" English.

>71 Caroline_McElwee:: I have a feeling people will be sneaking sneaked into the conversation for a while! I can completely understand that extrovert/introvert duality: both school and work required that I assume the extrovert role more than was comfortable at times and "exhausting" is the word. It's almost scary at times but since I have retired, the introvert has reared her head and seldom wants to venture out to see people in person. Communicating in writing is totally different, however, as you can control the degree and thank heavens for on-line shopping!

>72 lycomayflower:: as our language in Canada becomes more and more Americanised* because of tv and movies, I think things like "snuck" are sneaking into our way of speaking more and more so they are sounding right to younger ears than mine, but "sneaked" sounds right to me, whereas "snuck" sounds like a clanger, so it's funny how that works.

*There is a car salesman in Oshawa, about 45 mins southwest of here, who talks with a fake Texan accent on his car ads. For the life of me, I can't figure that one out. Our way of speaking seems to have swung away from Britain in the last 40 years.

I wonder if Huck snuck while Tom sneaked.......

>70 sibylline:: To me, "sneaked" sounds wrong. ... I wonder ... if it predates my language acquisition
Same with me, and I'm about 10 years younger than your mom.

This is intriguing!

So we need some 40-year-old to weigh in on this subject....volunteers?

>77 laytonwoman3rd:: I know where I can find one. But wait ... I'm perfectly OK with "snuck," and feel like that's the way it's "always" been. But your experience is different. Don't we need to find someone between you and me? (note that I'm staying well away from numbers here, but I think you know ... )

I just got the Oxford Compact Dictionary from the Folio Society today (along with the boxed set of Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit). *sigh*

snuck informal, chiefly N. Amer. past and part participle of sneak

I feel so sad.

ETA: it isn't in my trusty Oxford Concise Dictionary but it's older.

* pats Tui gently on the back *
There, there, dear friend. It will be all right.

#78 I was looking for someone between you and my daughter, but you're right, if she's ok with it and you're ok with it, then it happened somewhere between you and me, not between her and you. Eeek. And I'm sorry, Tui. That is a big disappointment, isn't it?

Well, it confirms what Amber and Laura the Younger were saying: it has become part of an accepted norm, even if "informal". I guess I'm just an old fuddy duddy when it comes to my sneaking.

And I was feeling quite youthful, being in the company of Amber and Laura the Younger and all.

You're Laura the Sock Knitter.

Better than being Roger the Shrubber, I guess ("Yes, shrubberies are my trade. I am a shrubber. My name is Roger the Shrubber. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies.")

Ok, I am reporting for duty as a 41 year old (that will have to do you for a 40 year old!) Snuck sounds wrong to me but it's very common here. I'd say sneaked. And now that I've offered my opinion I'm off to read the whole conversation!

Edited to add that now Road to Valour is on my WL. Sounds really inspiring.

I vote for sneaked, but I'm a member of that older group, I think. I can live with snuck, especially colloquially, but I do regret the disappearance of adverbs.

I vote for sneaked, but I'm a member of that older group, I think. I can live with snuck, especially colloquially, but I do regret the disappearance of adverbs.

I can live with snuck. Couldn't possibly live with Snookie, though. :)

I'm 31 and snuck sounds fine to me. Sneaked sounds odd to me.
I always have trouble with "saw" and "seen". I think the younger generations tend to do things different, not necessarily right though ;)

I think the younger generations tend to do things different Differently, surely? ;>)

>90 laytonwoman3rd:: ha ha ha! Especially funny following "I do regret the disappearance of adverbs." !!!

hahahaha Jim--it's ok, I think she's an expletive deleted, not a verb.

A trick for Saw and Seen:
Saw is a simple past tense which doesn't need another word to help it out. "I saw the ocean when I went to Nova Scotia." A nice, short, tidy word to describe something that happened, is done and over, and definitely in the past.
Seen needs helper words: "I have seen the ocean covered with fog." It can't stand alone by itself as a verb so it always needs has, have or had. Seen is needy (two ees, just like seen), so always has to have those helpers. When you have seen something, there is a link from the past to the present: at some point in the past you saw the ocean covered with fog and you might be standing there again with the fog rolling in. It isn't as stuck in the past as "I saw".
Hope that helps. It's a hard thing to describe!

Ok, it seems that the snuck/sneaked preference is also cultural, not just age related. I'm sticking with sneaked unless I want to sound like a cowboy or do car commercials. ETA: or pretend I'm under 40!

ETA: Laura, you have no idea how hard I laughed at Roger the Shrubber.

I just read a wonderful idea at lycomayflower's blog (crumb, I don't have the link but she has it posted here on her 75 thread), about packing for a reading retreat. She packed three kinds of books: new to her, old favourites which she might like to reread, and rereads which she loved and has already reread. So what would I pack for a reading retreat? Let's say I had three weeks to myself, totally undisturbed, in a cottage by the lake with a fireplace to take off the evening chill and a superb latté machine which required little manipulation....oh, and someone to do the cooking.

New to me but sitting here on the TBR shelves for several years now: Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, plus any 3 of the unread green Viragos collecting dust
Old favourites: always Lord of the Rings by Tolkien for the wonder of the tale and the perfection of his language
Rereads: some of the Chinese northern poets; The Tempest by Will the man; the Mapp & Lucia Series

When do we go?

ETA: here's the originator of the idea: http://lonelyquietconcert.blogspot.ca/2012/07/packing-for-reading-retreat-volume...

Sneaking in to say that the ear is a funny thing. I can't tell you how many times I got, "Are you sure???" either verbally or from the eyes, when I corrected a "had saw" or a "he seen" in papers from high school kids. I always said, "Look it up."
I'm trying to have a reading retreat this summer right here since I won't get off to any other place. Some days it works; some days it doesn't. Somehow, I'm glad that you haven't read Stones from the River either, Tui, but want to. As for the Viragos ---------- always!
My choices would be something I'm already reading; something brand new that I bought for the retreat; a wonderful reread; something Dickens. (I'm not sure now when I'll reread Mapp & Lucia series. I meant to do it this summer, but it's already July, and I'm overwhelmed with my self-imposed commitments.)

Mapp & Lucia is so good in January. It'll keep.

@ 93

Oh, good, I'm glad you enjoyed that blog post. I was doing "Is anyone really going to want to read this?" while I was composing that one, so it's great to hear that, yes, someone does.

I, too, have Stones from the River sitting about and have never read it.

HA! I, myself, have read Stones from the River. You all ought to get on it. It's very good.

As for that reading retreat, if I had a week in that cabin Tui described, I'd read almost anything and be thrilled. I'd even do the cooking. Did you hear that, m'dear? You bring the latte machine, and I'll man the stove.

One further comment on the sneak/snuck debate. I asked my former student (amandabryan33, as a matter of fact), who is (duh) 33 what was natural to her. She said, "I'd probably say, 'snuck." "Would you write 'snuck?' I asked. "No, I'd probably write 'sneaked.' No. Wait. I'd look it up or I might try 'snucked.'"

I too am in the Stones from the River on the shelf but unread club. I mooched it ages ago after reading about it here.

I know that I've posted this link several times in this group when a discussion of language comes up, and so, in the event that people are just outright sick of me doing so, I've tried over the past day to fight the urge to do so again here. Fought the urge and lost:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY

I pleases me to no end that Stephen Fry feels this way. So do I. Please to enjoy. :)

@ 100

Oh, S. Fry, how I does loves him.

>100 scaifea:: oh Amber, I absolutely LOVED THIS!!!! Thank you so much for not resisting. I adore Stephen Fry but had never heard this.

Another one is got and gotten. He would have got more jujubes but they were all sold out. vs He would have gotten more jujubes.... I think this is another case of common usage, with the Atlantic as the dividing factor.

Ok, I ignored my own edict to finish up the half-read books lying around because Lucy's reviews of the trilogy she is reading by Pamela Freeman just sounded perfect for an overly hot July. I raced through the first book and have started in to the second. It has been many years since I've read a fantasy and I am enjoying this one very much so far.

50: Blood Ties by Pamela Freeman (The Castings Trilogy)



Kindle book
No. of pages:
Why I read it: Lucy (Sibyx) was enjoying it so much and I felt in the mood for something not real life-ish

Book One sets out the characters, their back stories, the story of their land and its history. The characterisation is excellent: Travellers, folk of the Lake, healers, horse whisperers, bone throwers, warlords, folk of the towns, folk of the villages, the damaged, the brutal, the insane, the courageous and the old gods. They're all here and it's a lot of fun so far.

OK, maybe 'new to me': should be Blood Ties - it is many years since I read fantasy. Essays by Bertrand Russell - just bought 2 volumes. Ice Museum by Joanna Kavenna. Swallows and Amazons, amazingly I've never read it, but just bought it.

'Old favourites': Flappers and Philosophers the short stories of F Scott Fitzgerald.

'Reread': Emma and Wuthering Heights both long overdue a retread.

Poetry: Jorie Graham and, a friend recently reminded me of my tome of Les Murray, which has long been winking at me.

I'm such a mood reader, that I'm not sure how much of this will get read over the summer, but one or two perhaps.

Actually, Caro, an ideal retreat would be to a phenomenally well stocked library in a pastoral country home with the services of a good cook and a bathroom on the same level. Then we could mood read to our hearts' content!

Amber, the Stephen Fry is delightful, but I'm not quite there yet. I must say that what gets me sadder than apostrophes and lesser/fewer is that the sound of the language I knew is disappearing. Listen! The long a and short e will be a things of the past if the current trend continues. Yah, were going to peent the kitchen this weekend. "Yeah, we're going to paint the kitchen," isn't better; I just miss it. (I do realize that I'm on a Canadian thread and objecting to "yah.") And while I'm highjacking Tui's thread, I'll say that I'm trying really hard not to hate "you know" as a verbal tic. ("What's the price of that book?" "Well, you know, it's ----.") (No, damn it, I don't know; that's why I asked.) I have given up on "as well." It's here to stay as well.
Sorry, back to you, ma'am. I'm itching for my copy of the P. Freeman to arrive. It's going to be exactly what the summer ordered!

I love having my thread highjacked. I know exactly what you mean, Peggy. I grew up in a family which delighted in language, particularly language well spoken and well turned. There are some newscasters I can't even understand now as they slur their words together and put odd intonations in for emphasis (especially this one woman sportscaster on TSN).

I love discussions about language and thoroughly enjoyed Fry's take on things. Like you, I'm not in complete agreement with him but doesn't he say it well!

I forgot, A Tale of two Cities is on the list too.

>>105 tiffin:. Tui, I am booked into Gladstone's Library for the first weekend of my summer break (and to attend lectures on Rumi). then mid-Aug off to a country house retreat in Suffolk for 5 days reading!

So glad for you, Caro, but am a bit pea green about the Rumi and the retreat! How absolutely wonderful, m'dear. I do have the Pshaw to look forward to week after next, however.

51. Deep Water by Pamela Freeman (Book II of the Castings Trilogy)



Kindle edition
Why I read it: the first book was so darn good, had to keep roaring along with it

Well, I stayed up to 2 a.m. to finish the second book in the trilogy, after having read it ALL DAY! Too hot to garden, no need to go out for anything = I didn't have to be an adult, I could revert to glorious childhood where I would get lost in a book and everyone else would look after reality. I think I kept reading simply because I could. Fun to get lost in another world and not have to deal with anything going on in this one.

>106 LizzieD: & 107: If I didn't already completely agree with him, he would have sold me just by using "farting" as an expletive. Ha! Otherwise, I'm happy to agree to disagree with you lovely ladies. :)

A DNF:
N is for Noose by Sue Grafton

Well, I read about 4 chapters and then I sped read it to the end, so I'm not counting it. I'm going to give up on these books. I've tried four of 'em and I just don't like her seedy, loser characters. I get nothing from them. No lessons, no pleasure, no laughter or joy, nothing. Not going to spend any more of my precious life's time with Kinsey Millhone and her low life zombies. Pah.

Tui - I'm just back from my weekend away and am so delighted to see you enjoying yourself so - I only had time to read about twenty pages of book 3 this weekend so I wouldn't be surprised if you finish ahead of me although I do hope to give myself a very quiet day tomorrow!

52: Full Circle by Pamela Freeman (Book III of the Castings Trilogy)



Kindle edition
Why I read it: it was the 3rd book of a trilogy--I had to!

Well, that was a rip-snorter of a series! Sometimes with a story like this, it can gather so much momentum that it gets away on its author and either rides madly off in all directions or sags in on itself like a disturbed soufflé at the end. The Castings Trilogy doesn't do this: Pamela Freeman keeps control of her story at all times, tying up all loose ends satisfactorily. I read from the middle of the last book to the end so quickly that I'm going to back over it to reread it for a better sense of the details but I will say that the series was a lot of fun and kept me reading until I finished it.

I liked the world she created, with old gods lurking around, old powers like the Lake, her use of the elements (air, fire, water and earth), a world where magic was still alive, and yet the old human attributes ranging from love to hate still were a force (rejection is a powerful one of these). And it's a small quirky point but she didn't make her characters all airy fairy but had them getting up in the morning to have a piss or getting so hungry they got headaches. I like a fantasy which acknowledges the needs of mortality and doesn't make the characters seem like impossible sugar spun meringues.

The battery in my Kindle died at 2:03 a.m. last night, leaving the last few pages of the ending dangling until I recharged it this morning! I took it as a sign from the gods to reread the last half of the last book less voraciously and more carefully. At the moment, I'm quite satisfied with how she wraps it all up. If anything changes after the reread, I'll post it.

53: Manna from Hades by Carola Dunn



Library copy
No. of pages: 305
Why I read it: a mystery set in Cornwall!

Eleanor Trewynn, retired, widowed, practitioner of Aikido, lives in Port Mabyn, Cornwall, the owner of a Lon*Star charity shop which supports the international work undertaken by her late husband. When a body is found in the stock room of the shop, her quiet life is turned upside down. Aided by her niece, Detective Sergeant Megan Pencarrow and the curmudgeonly, irascible DI Scumble, Nick the neighbour who is a painter, Jocelyn the vicar's wife and a cast of Cornish redoubtables, Dunn provides a perfect summer escapist mystery. I think this qualifies as a cosy, even though the cosiness is being provided by air conditioning.

Orange long-list to remind myself, even though I know The Song of Achilles won:

Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg (Quercus) - Swedish; 1st Novel
On the Floor by Aifric Campbell (Serpent's Tail) - Irish; 3rd Novel
The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (The Clerkenwell Press) - American; 4th Novel
The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel (OWN)
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Novel
The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki (Headline Review) - British; 5th Novel
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (Quercus) - American; 4th Novel
Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (Faber & Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - British; 2nd Novel
The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy (Jonathan Cape) - British; 6th Novel
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker) - American; 1st Novel (OWN & READ)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel (OWN & READ)
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel
There but for the by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) - British; 5th Novel
The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard (Alma Books) - British; 2nd Novel
Tides of War by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus) - British; 1st Novel
The Submission by Amy Waldman (William Heinemann) - American; 1st Novel

Well I have 12 of them Tui, and of the twelve, have read one: Cynthia Ozick's Foreign Bodies Which I liked, but didn't wow me.

The only one I have is Night Circus, which I may read this month. I'm intrigued by Gillespie and I, but none of the others has crept onto my wish list yet. I know there's a lot of buzz about The Song of Achilles, but I'm not sure if it's one I'll get around to or not.

@ 118

I'm reading The Song of Achilles right now. You should get around to it.

>119 lycomayflower:: I agree. I loved it -- 5 stars!

#119 This is your very own copy??? As in, I could borry the loan of it one day?

I read and really enjoyed The Song of Achilles but it didn't quite kick into the 5 star zone for me. But incredibly impressive for a first novel.

A shipment landed in from Slightly Foxed: whooo hooo! Two back issues--I'm trying to build up the back issues so I have the whole collection--and The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley. Lovely bedtime reading ahead.

I succumbed to the temptation to buy the SF edition of The Flame Trees of Thika too. I just loved the PBS dramatisation of that long ago.

It might seem silly but when I read their journals and books, I feel that something is right with the world. I need that injection of comfort and wonderfulness.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking: is now on my tbr list.

Also, I highly recommend Stones From the River. The author is an incredible writer!

@ 121

No, is liberry copy. Prolly pick up a copy for myself sometime soonisly if the second half is as awesome as the first. And then you could borry.

54: A Colourful Death by Carola Dunn



Library hardbound
No of pages: ?
Why I read it: mysteries and hot summer days seem to go together

This was the 2nd in her new Cornish Mystery series, starring Eleanor Tregwynn, who was thankfully less ditzy than in the first book. It was very predictable (I knew right away who had dunnit) but had the perfect degree of mindlessness that I wanted while being in the throes of a heat wave. Tootling around the Cornish coastal area was one of the happiest things I have ever done in real life, so doing it in a fictional setting suits me just fine as well. Very much the English village type mystery.

>121 laytonwoman3rd:, 126: I haz a copy you can borry if Young Laura doesn't give into temptation.

I love it that we know how to talk in Pogo.

Thanks for the recommendation of the Hegi book, Whisp.

>128 lauralkeet:: I'm bilingual. Mine was Pogo combined with LOLcats.

And mine was more Faulkner, I thought.

I hated Sue Grafton books after a while and also stopped reading the series.
I loved The Painter of Silence and thought that it should have won. I did like Song of Achilles but had trouble getting into it at first.
I also liked Gillespie and I , Half Blood Blues and The Night Circus.
Tides of War was good but not in the category of the above books.

>130 lauralkeet:: oh, of course! hahaha
>131 laytonwoman3rd:: one of these fine days I'll read that guy
>132 torontoc:: Cyrel, I actively dislike them now and won't read another. What a waste of time. Must read The Painter of Silence (no touchstone).

Hi Tui, love your Orange Longlist, great places for ideas longlists are :)
I have barely heard lf any, only read The Night Circus and have to say I disliked it, but would be keen to read Gillespie And I and maybe State of Wonder.

Thanks for that Orange longlist posting, Tui. I've read nine of those books (all of the shortlisted books, along with Gillespie and I, There but for the and The Submission), and I own but haven't yet read Lord of Misrule and The Grief of Others.

55. Scotched A Liss MacCrimmon Scottish Mystery by Kaitlyn Dunnett



Library hardbound
No of pages: 263
Why I read it: thought it would have more of a Scottish aspect to it than it did

Ok, we're in the middle of a heat wave and drought here, so light, easily ingested, not too taxing mysteries are the order of the day. The only thing Scottish about this book, however, is the fact that Liss MacCrimmon runs a Scottish shop in Moosetookalook, Maine. A mystery writers' and fan gathering, the First Annual Maine-ly Cozy Con is being held at the local hotel (owned by Liss's fiance's family). A particular nasty blogger and reviewer is found dead at the bottom of Lover's Leap and things unravel from that point on.

Apparently this is a series with some kind of progression to it but I just hauled this off the new releases shelf and dove in at book 5. It isn't fascinating enough to go track down book one. It goes beyond cosy to twee for me. Cosy is still and always something set in England.

I'm going to finish Grendel up tonight. I don't know why but I just stopped reading it at about the 7/8th mark...I got all bogged down with wondering what on earth he was doing with the character of Grendel, who he meant him to be and why, so it all ground to a halt. I need to just FINISH it.

I'll be quite interested to hear what you have to say about Grendel - I didn't particularly 'get' it, I have to admit - and this after a good friend said, "Oh you must read this, it is so extraordinary."

56: Grendel by John Gardner?



Vintage paperback
No. of pages: 174
Why I read it: I have been wanting to read this for several years, so when a good friend sent it to me as a gift, I dove right in

In the earlier part of Grendel, I was enchanted as Gardner portrayed the world of the early Danish Scyldings with their wily leader, Hrothgar, who built his wealth and holdings through guile and might until he had a great gold-filled mead hall high on a hill. In the early days Grendel had no language, was just the offspring of some inchoate form who had given him birth (although no father is mentioned or perhaps even needed), and he was simply a brutal force who killed and ate and retreated to his cave to sleep.

But when he heard the Shaper, Hrothgar's harpist, sing words which woke something in his mind and imagination, Grendel too formed language and with it, philosophy, although he still remained a brute and monster. There were times when he didn't kill, amused by what he was being told by his human prey or fascinated into a kind of yearning (could it be called love?), as with Hrothgar's young and beautiful queen.

I struggled to determine what Gardner meant Grendel to represent: some kind of primal force of violence, the brute in all of us which resists being tamed and must have its blood, humanity without the taming force of language and philosophy? None of these seemed quite right but then Gardner gives a kind of answer near the end of the book (p. 158):
--I embody--the vision of the dragon: absolute, final waste. I saw long ago the whole universe as not-my-mother, and I glimpsed my place in it, a hole. Yet I exist, I knew. Then I alone exist, I said. It's me or it. What glee, that glorious recognition!

Frankly, I didn't like the character of the dragon, that cold, pompous, academic who made his pronouncements in philosophical bafflegab. Nor did I like the 'hero' (that would be our Beowulf) who killed Grendel at the end, the leader of the Geats with his Arnold Schwarzenegger muscles and great white wings which only Grendel seemed to see, as Gardner presents him. Primal, mythical figures created out of the swirling universe: destruction in the form of Grendel and order in the form of the Geat, with puny humans with their futile religion and equally futile acquisition of earthly goods seeming almost inconsequential beside them...well, what to make of it all? There is something here, something perhaps profound that I feel I'm not quite getting. I wish Gardner were still alive so I could ask him.

One thread I could grasp is that language both shapes and holds back the chaos. The nameless Geat (but we know who he is) whispered to Grendel that Grendel whispered the world into being. That Geat whispered Grendel out of the world, making him sing of walls while he tore off his arm.

An interesting book, one I've wanted to read for a long time but, oh my, a slippery one to grasp.

Booker long list announced:

Nicola Barker, The Yips (Fourth Estate)
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident (Sceptre)
André Brink, Philida (Harvill Secker)
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Michael Frayn, Skios (Faber & Faber)
Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Doubleday)
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
Sam Thompson, Communion Town (Fourth Estate)

Gosh, I have only read the Mantel.

I've read Narcopolis (very good, but with flaws, and probably not Booker material) and plan on reading the Mantel soon.

I haven't even heard of any of these other than the Mantel, which I read. Some of the authors are familiar names. I will be seeking guidance.

Oi, Linda, I finally finished Grendel...didja see, didja see?

I did see..you make me want to re-read it. And Beowulf. It's been a long time. I'd have given that review a thumb, if it were posted.

Thanks, Linda, but I just didn't feel comfortable posting it because of that *something* I felt I wasn't getting.

57. Look Back With Love by Dodie Smith

{plain blue cover Slightly Foxed Edition}

Slight Foxed Edition, hardbound
No. of Pages: 272
Why I read it: I am collecting the Slightly Foxed Editions as they come out, if I think they will be of interest.

I have slightly conflicted and ambivalent feelings about this one. I was chuffing along nicely until pages 155-56. Dodie Smith's hitherto benign and lovely uncles committed an act of animal cruelty which left me completely shocked and really upset. I put the book aside and couldn't continue on with it for a few months. In my July project to finish off some books lying around with bookmarks in them, I flipped a page or two past this episode and carried on but it tainted the book somewhat for me.

Sometimes reading the autobiography of an author you enjoy can be a dangerous thing. I loved I Capture the Castle, absolutely adored the narrative voice in the book, which was supposed to be based on the young Dodie herself. So I was a bit surprised that I didn't feel quite as warmly about how Dodie Smith presented her actual young self, from toddler to 14 year old. A spoiled and indulged young girl living with her widowed mother, her grandmother and several uncles, she seemed just a bit too full of herself at times, bossy and controlling with school chums--although she admits this quite openly--and overly given to drama at home. Perhaps her egocentricity was due to a sensitive artistic nature, however, and she did seem to improve nearer the end of the book as she acknowledged her arrogance from the perspective of an older age.

It was a very interesting look at the late 1800s, early 1900s. Her family took a lively interest in music and the theatre, always carting her off to this or that performance, which likely fostered her own playwriting career: e.g., Dear Octopus. Her uncles participated in amateur theatre and had her read their lines out to them as they memorised them, which tuned her own "ear". They all seemed a creative bunch, from her musical book-writing grandmother on down. She was convinced that she had the most blessed of childhoods; it certainly was a unique one for its time and occasionally her take on things had me nodding in accord. We agree completely, for example, that the anticipation of Christmas Eve is much better than the "flat and stodgy" Christmas Day. I could relate completely to her need to have a space of her own where she could be alone to indulge her imagination. A beautiful small child, she "lost her looks" at around 7 years old and was very conscious of this herself. Her mother said in later years that the family wondered if she knew!

A worthwhile read, on the whole.

You're not the first to have been appalled by the episode with the animal (I have not read the book) - I think if I ever read it I will skip those pages. Is it also her attitude toward what the uncle did? Your description made me think of Angel - but it sounds as though Dodie became more responsive and toned down as she grew up. Perhaps Cruella was an alter ego of some sort? Interesting too that she became plain. My mother-in-law's mother was a beautiful child and plain as plain can be - big teeth, receding chin (or was it lack of braces?). You can barely connect the radiant child, the tentative teen and the grown-up. All completely different looking.

Hmmm no, it wasn't that for me, Lucy, because she was shocked and very hurt by it. But the family as a whole didn't seem to have the kind of feelings for animals which I and my friends have, so perhaps there was a different attitude in that era, particularly to cats. Dodie and her mother seem more akin to how we feel but others around them didn't seem to share that.

I think many of us go through an ugly duckling phase in our pre-teens to early teenager years. I know I sure did, all gawky and gangly. In the adult photos I have seen of her, she has a strong face, eyes a bit wide, a straight firm nose but it is the awful hairstyles which don't flatter more than her face being unattractive.

That's good to hear -- Lots of folks STILL don't consider animals worthy of much concern, as regards pain and suffering.

I went out with a guy once (and ONLY once) in high school, who thought it was amusing to try to hit animals that scooted across the road, be they squirrels, possums or cats.

Oh Linda, that would be the kiss of death for some of us, wouldn't it. One of the things that attracted me to Himself the most when we were first dating, was how excellent he was with his dog (who went everywhere with him) and when I saw his family's farm for the first time, seeing him hug the horses. How someone treats animals says something really important, doesn't it.

Indeed it does.

We even stop for frogs on frog nights. I've been known to get out of the car to chivy them along.

Saw the dearest thing today on the way to the pool: an elderly woman stopped her car, got out and coaxed a little bichon frise type dog off of the middle of the road where it was standing, on to the sidewalk. She also halted traffic both ways until the little thing was safe. I could have hugged her.

Lucy, it's turtles in these parts. They tried to build culverts under the roads for them but sometimes they want to go the hard way.

Every summer there are a few warm nights when the frogs roam.... it's gruelling.

My sister, when running, once came across a rabbit that had been hit by a car and was limping but otherwise OK. She came back with a car and box and took him to the wildlife rehabilitation place.

>136 tiffin: I had to google Moosetookalook to see if it was a real place. lol, imagine, a real place called Moosetookalook, what was I thinking?

Megan, it is possible though, honest. We have some daft names like that in Canada, so I imagine Maine would be no different.
Punkeydoodle Corners, ON
Medicine Hat, AB
Moose Factory, ON
St. Louis de Ha! Ha!, PQ
Climax, SASK
Come By Chance, NFLD
Dildo, NFLD
Tickles, NFLD
Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump, AB

Newfoundland is a gold mine, actually.

Then there's Pennsylvania....with Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, Blue Ball, Climax, Hop Bottom, Honey Pot, Punxsatawney, Bull's Head, Chinchilla, Gravity, Hazard, and Lookout. Lookout is in my home territory, and my Dad always referred to it as "Watchit".

Arkansas had a few nice ones, as I recall, when we drove through. Oil Trough, being one of the more memorable. Vermont goes in the British trad sometimes of Bump's Four Corners, Bump's Mills, South Bump, Lower Village Bump, Bump Fall, Bump Crossing, Bump Center--- it can go on and on and on. Our 'Village' contains Huntington Lower Village, Huntington Center.... and..... Hanksville. But it's really all Huntington.

>159 laytonwoman3rd:: OK, I live in PA and only knew about half of those. However, if anyone would like me to sing a Beach Boys song, I'm on it.

There's a town in West Virginia called Flinderation. Always loved the sound of that when we sailed by the road signs on our way south.

That would make a great cuss word, Linda!
*snort* Laura--like me and the Beatles.
Lucy, we have Upper and Lowers around here too, as well as Little and Bigs. Heavy Brit influence in these parts. Many villages are just named after places in Scotland, Ireland (not so much England): Ennismore, Douro, Cavan, Tweed, Stirling, Fergus, Culloden, etc.

It's my lads' 31st birthday today. Doesn't seem possible!

Felicem diem natalem to the (not so) wee ones!

(Did you get those socks finished in time?)

Just closed the last toe, Amber, thanks! We'll have their birthday tomorrow evening with them so I hope to get pics of the socks with feet in them then.

Nate just did a traffic stop at work the other day and the person's drivers licence said "Dildo, NFLD" on it and Nate thought that was hilarious! He was laughing like a school boy when he told me about it

I have enjoyed the series set in Moosetookalook. I think I won the 3rd or 4th one in the Early Reviewers and then I went back and slowly caught up. I do think this is one of those series that you need to read in order to fully appreciate it, but I did okay with it. There's a little humor thrown in. There is one book in the series that really has more of a Scottish flavor than the rest, but I can understand why it didn't work for you. It's one of those series I pick up when I need something on the light and fun side.

Did you read this latest one, Lori? Was it one of the weaker ones? I know what you mean about reading it in order: helps you build up an affection for the characters, which I didn't have coming in cold.

I haven't made it to that one yet. It looks like my public library has it though. I'm not sure if I'll get to it this month though. I've got a lot of others ahead of it, and I'll be at a conference most of the week before Labor Day.

>158 tiffin: Oh- em-gee
That is hilarious! I cant stop laughing.

>159 laytonwoman3rd: Lookout is in my home territory, and my Dad always referred to it as "Watchit". love it!

My dad would always joke about the town of Fairlie. Whenever we got close he would say "we are fairlie close now..." and generally try to use the word in every sentence til we were at least 50 kms out of the town. It was so funny but we'd still say "aw Daaaaaad!".

We have a Dummer township just north of us. There was a one room schoolhouse on the way to our cottage and my dad would ALWAYS say "That's where the Dummer kids go to school" and we too would groan.

#171, 172....Our Dads....here's to 'em. 3 finer men never lived, eh?

This year's birthday socks for Les Deux, posed by themselves:



>173 laytonwoman3rd:: Amen, Sister Linda, sing it out! I think corny dads are one of the great blessings of life.

Love the socks, Tui! I wouldn't mind a pair of those myself.

Oooh, stripey - my favorite kind! They turned out lovely.

Tui, did you use self-striping yarn for those?

Hi Stasia...neither would I! Thanks, Amber. Yes, Laura, those are self-stripers but the grey ones are a lighter weight than I expected, more an early autumn weight.

What darlings! What lovely socks, Mrs Weasley!

Do you know, Lucy, I think I have more than a touch of Mrs. Weasley about me...very perceptive of you! *grin*

Ha, I love the Mrs Weasley reference, that's perfect!

Why am I not surprised?

Haha Mrs Weasley, yup, I can see that!

Sooo long since I grazed by your thread, but lovely to catch up. My thread is pitifully unupdated, maybe tomorrow I'll at least update the list of read books.

As for the Booker long list, I am not allowed to buy another Will Self book until I have read some I own. He is a writer whose early works I read and kept buying but not reading. He has a great voice and sardonic wit, I've heard him speak several times. good brain too, despite the drug scrambling it got.

I am also interested to see Deborah Levy on the list, as there has been nothing for a while.

Caro, I find I'm not reading at all these days. Was knitting large socks like a fiend while watching the Tour de France and now the Olympics. Got some much needed weeding done today too although there is a good week's worth of solid slogging still to do out there. By time I hit the hay, I read two words and bonk. August is going to be a slim month, methinks.

I'm reading Swimming Home by Deborah Levy now; it's very good so far.

#184: Glad to know that I am not the only one enjoying the Olympics!

Stasia, just watched the closing ceremonies and feel slightly verklempt that they are over! Maybe now I'll get reading again, though.

I think corny dads are one of the great blessings of life.
lol
My dad used to trick me so often, I think its because I am the youngest, the most gullible innocent and trusting. He would always toss a coin to see who would win, and he'd call "Heads I win, tails you lose". I would go along with it, and be resigned to the fact that I just always lost! It seriously took me years and years to catch on to it, I was about 14! And boy was I cross! lol

>187 tiffin: I enjoyed the Olympics this time too. I dont recall ever seeing them before (Beijing I boycotted, Athens I had no TV, Sydney I was travelling in South America, and before that I have no idea what I was up to, but I wasnt watching the Olympics). Ill be into it next round too I hope.

58. Death of a Kingfisher by by M.C. Beaton



Typical Hamish Macbeth fare, although with more bodies than usual, including one being catapulted skyward by a rocket attached to her wheelchair. Drug barons, greed and psycopathic children feature largely. A very quick and easy read. Some might say "twee" but it's more like eating ice cream for me, i.e., goes down easily with no chewing involved.

Oh I like the wheelchair with rockets - that one didn't make it into the tv show. Too bad!

59. Beastly Things by Donna Leon



Another good Inspector Guido Brunetti mystery set in Venice. When an unidentified man's body is found in one of the canals, Brunetti has only the man's appearance to go on to begin unravelling the mystery, the victim obviously suffering from Madelung's disease. What unfolds is an exposé of greed, which Brunetti and his right-hand man, Vianello, feel is at the base of most crimes. I always enjoy the character of Signorina Elettra, the computer whiz at the Questura, as well as the look at Brunetti's family life with its comfortable emphasis on food and love.

Darn, I wrote a paragraph about book # 59 and I can't see it under the pic. LT is up to its tricks again. Can anyone else see it?
ETA: forgot the quotation marks at the end of the book cover. All fixed!

I'm happy to be catching up with you, Tui! Love the socks! Love the pose!! Love the place names! I looked up N.C. and found (besides Nags Head and Kill Devil Hill, which we all probably know), Luck, Star, Whynot, Fork, Duck, Tomahawk (my DH's mother spent a year or so of her childhood there), and Conetoe. Now, "Conetoe" is pronounced "Co-nee-ta," and corny dad #3 (or is it 4?) would always announce that we were about to go through "Pin-ee-tops." (Is it clear that we were approaching Pinetops?)
*sigh* I need to try a Donna Leon.........

Hi Peggy, good to *see* you. Now I would have said cone-toe, so I'm glad you gave the pronunciation. I think it's Dad # 4.

With the Donna Leons, I think this is a series which benefits from being read in order, as the characters develop.

I'd love to know how Kill Devil Hill got its name. Bet there's a story there!

60. The Missing Will by Michael Wharton

plain grey Slightly Foxed Edition cover

Well, where to begin with this one? Michael Wharton was a writer of satirically humorous articles with the Daily Telegraph for many years so I expected his memoir to reflect that humour. Although there were twinges of it and the odd wry twist of the mouth with a good delivery, this first volume of his memoirs was a relatively straightforward look at his life up to the time when he began to work for the Daily Telegraph (with dollops of self-deprecation all the way through).

Wharton was born into upper middle class comfort which morphed into tremendous wealth for a while, but his family degenerated into uncomfortable poverty because of his father’s carelessness with his investments and relatively young death. His birth name was Michael Nathan, with Jewish blood back a generation or three, which gave him some trouble at school as a result of anti-Semitism, although his parents didn’t follow Judaism at all, with his grandmother actively anti-Semitic herself. His parents had immigrated from Germany in the 1860s and had become both rich and quite Anglicised.

His own mother was a Wharton from the West Riding near Bradford, which is why he elected to use that name later on in life. She was convinced that they were connected to the ancient Wharton family and that somewhere there was a lost will which would have and should have left her branch of the family with wealth and treasure. That is one interpretation of the lost will of the title.

The other is Wharton’s personal “lost will”, a directionless affect which never had him actually deciding to do anything but rather plunked him in the stream of life and floated him along. Later in life he battled debilitating bouts of depression which, in this first book of his memoirs, he never particularly seemed to explore or understand.

He floated through his schoolboy days, through university and into enlistment in WWII, when he astonishingly (to himself, not the least) ended up as an officer who was shipped off to serve in the “forgotten front” in India, in case Hitler made it through the Himalayas.

The one thing he seemed to have a tremendous will about, if lacking in all other areas, was getting into bed with willing young women. He was two marriages and two children in by the end of the book, and scores of lovers along the way.

At times I almost didn’t like him but something pulled me on through the book. He writes very well, so there was that. But something about his character didn’t attract, at least in how he wrote of himself, although I found his life and times fascinating, if that makes sense. However, by the end of the book, as I began to understand that he really did suffer from a debilitating depressive disorder which was neither understood nor treated, I began to view him with a bit more compassion. There is also an honesty about him, about his look at himself, which I found compelling, even if I also thought him a prat at times. The part of his life spent in India was fascinating.

Worth a read and one with more depth to it than I am conveying.

Just noticed that I only have 15 to go to make it to 75...much better year than last year. Ebbs and flows.

If you're the hare, I'm the tortoise for 2012 and no hope of catching you either. I just hit 40 books which is way behind my pace for previous years. But I'm knitting socks ... :)

I'm totally with you about the Wharton book -- I mean -- about the angle of a memoir about a person you can't quite like but feel compassion for by the end.

More or less my father's story, even though he did find a place for himself as a Dean at a good college, and eventually mended his philandering ways and limited himself to 'just looking' - but all of it from the squandered wealth, the sense of futility, the undiagnosed and severe depression...... that was my Dad in a nutshell. He had so many great qualities but they were all obscured by the gloom he lived in most of the time.

Laura, my reading falls off in direct proportion to doing other things, so I understand completely.
Lucy, his "missing will" seeped into his writing about his early self, to the point where I wanted to bop the book over his head. Handsome, charming, funny but somehow disengaged on any kind of worthwhile level, which made him a bit of a user. I think I've dated guys like that.

61. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri



Oh ho ho, this promises to be a good series if the first instalment in the Inspector Montalbano mysteries is any indication. Set in fictional Vigàta, Sicily, with its Mafioso creating mayhem, Camilleri gives us pasta and garlic, dark coffees, corruption and secrets, and, of course, murder. Other things too, of course, but to state them would be to give spoilers. Inspector Montalbano isn't a white knight kind of cop but one who follows his neck hairs and isn't above disposing of red herring evidence when it suits him. There is a gritty humour in here too, Italian puckishness. Read it in one sitting, almost forgetting to eat. Thanks, Rebecca!

Catching up...

I have been to Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump and have a T-shirt from there! Next up: Come-by-Chance. I have always loved the name, and would move there for no other reason...

Re introverts: I fail the introvert test on some interesting questions -- I'm not sure I'm a good listener; I don't know that anyone would call me mellow (?!?!), I should think more before I speak, and I definitely prefer seminars, because I learn better when talking through things than I do being "instructed" from a podium.

It's shameful, how American I have become. Not only has snuck sneaked into my vocab, but I say "zee" instead of "zed" constantly. I argue that I have to, because I'm constantly spelling my name, and don't want leaving a message to turn into a big debate over my origins, whatever they are.

</i>one who follows his neck hairs Excellent--I love it! I must get to this series.

#201 Thanks to my daughter's Anglophilia, we've moved toward British English expressions in this household over the years, so we're balancing you out! (I always say "zed")

Glad to see a good review of The Shape of Water. I plan to read it next month.

The Montalbano books are marvelous --

My mother was 'Mummy' and I had no idea that was considered affected and an anglicism until I went to college and people would laugh at me. Her parents were a lot older, and rather staid Philadelphians and that's what she called her mother - I don't think it was an affectation on her part. My husband, on the other hand, his mother wanted them to call her Mummy and they teased her mercilessly until she dropped it. I did learn to drop it down to Mum, but none of us ever called her Mom.

Hi Suz, Linda, Lori and Lucy. Thanks for dropping by.

My English friends all call their mothers 'Mummy'. An ex-pat friend always referred to her mother as Mummy--it sounded like a child's term rather than affected, as past a certain age no one here says that in Ontario. I always spelled it Mommy or Mom because it's Mother, not Muther....had quite the argument with my grade 2 teacher about this and have stuck to my guns about it ever since. She told my mother that I told her that a mummy was an Egyptian corpse and didn't want to call my mother that. It changed to Mom and Dad when I was about 7.

We say chuffed, bloody hell, gobsmacked, etc., in my family. Dad was a Scot, so I think we all make the Och sound a lot, without even knowing it.

#205 Delurking to quote from a section on English linguistic class codes when it come to using 'Mum' or 'Mummy' - from Watching the English by Kate Fox.

If they are 'common', these young people will call their parents Mum and Dad; 'smart' children say 'Mummy and Daddy' ... When talking about their parents, common children refer to them as 'my Mum' and 'my Dad' (or 'me Mam' and 'me Dad'), while smart children say 'my mother' and 'my father'. These are not infallibles indicators, as some higher class children now say Mum and Dad, and some very young working-class children might say Mummy and Daddy, but if the child is over the age of ten, maybe twelve to be safe, still calling his or her mother Mummy is a fairly reliable higher-class indicator. Grown-ups who still say Mummy and Daddy are almost certainly upper-middle or above.

As a British (rather than English) person I find this book fascinating. It looks at English behaviour (not just class codes) from an anthropological background - for me it highlighted a whole range of behaviours that I had but had never really noticed before, rather I'd just assumed that it was the only was to do things.

Rhian, that's fascinating! I just love things like this. Are you one of the Cymru?
ETA: giving this further thought, I always referred to my parents as "my mother" or "my father" outside of the house. Speaking to them at home, they were Mom and Dad BUT my mother always called her father "Daddy" and her mother "Mother". Funny. So I'm neither smart nor common. Canadian, eh?

Another fan of the Inspector Montalbano series here, Tui. What you liked in the Shape of Water continues in the rest of the series. It's a standout. I just read the newest, and can't wait for the next one.

Thanks, Joe--I wonder how many there are? Rebeccanyc, who is a most reliable reviewer in me 'umble opinion, was enthused about the series and that got me going on it. I love books where the people love food. hehe

Hm. I wonder what it means with an American background...... something snotty, most likely.... a huge portion of my family were Welsh Quakers, emigrated to Dublin from thence to around the Phila. area where, frankly, they thrived a bit obscenely for many generations. My grandfather was the first to 'marry out' of that group - into a proper Boston type family. Nobody should get too excited though - all that is well over with and I mainly inherited some beautiful furniture and stories. The Mummy bit definitely came from the Boston grandmother....... I'm sure of that, she was a bit of a snob, well, my mother said she was hugely snobby and a bit silly that way, obsessed with the Mayflower etc. In fact, nobody was ever good enough for her daughter until my grandfather who was a dashing 45 year old bachelor - pretty much the most eligible fellow in the city - announced after a bit of courting that they were to be married and the date of the wedding, unfashionable mid-August because it worked for himself and his friends. (My grandmother was already a bit over the hill at 37 - at least three proposals had been turned down.) What is sweet is that he grew up with thee and thy and thine and they used that form between each other and with their children. My father would have nothing to do with it, but some of my cousins grew up with some thee-ing and thy-ing. We do have a saying when we go to bed and are too lazy for kisses, "Consider thyself kissed" which is something handed down.

Okay I went on and on, but if I erase it, then that's even worse. Forgive me, Tui.

I don't know enough about Quakers - I didn't know there were Welsh Quakers, and I've got Welsh in me.

Looks like there are 14 Montalbanos published in English so far, Tui, with The Age of Doubt being the most recent. Five more have been written in Italian, hopefully with more to come, although Camilleri is up there in years.

I love the food scenes, too! I always wish I was there with him, it all sounds so good.

Thy post was delightful, Lucy. Consider thyself hugged.

I'm trapped indoors with a lower back problem, so am loving getting these messages. Thanks, all!

I know, Joe, re the food scenes (except for the octopus...). A huge fan of Mediterranean food here.

#207 Are you one of the Cymru? Yes I am, but living in England for a very long time. For the record, I say Mum and Dad and always have done, but I do know some people who say Mummy and Daddy. My son (age 12) still says Mummy and Daddy quite often, but I'm expecting that to go quite soon. I'll miss it when it does but if he was still saying that when he was an adult it would sound wrong to my years!