Richardderus thread 31 *sigh* for 2012

Posted by Jolly Pickle-Pants.

“Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

My 2012 NEW books ticker:




Previous reviews:

Book 1...thread two.
Books 2 & 3...thread three.
Book 4...thread four.
Books 5 & 6...thread five.
Books 7-10...thread six.
Books 11-24...thread seven.
Books 25-31...thread eight.
Books 32-34...thread nine.
Books 35 & 36...thread ten.
Books 37-42...thread 11.
Books 43-53...thread 12.
Books 54 & 55...thread 13.
Books 56 & 57...thread 14.
Books 58-60...thread 15.
Books 61-64...thread 16.
Books 65-68...thread 17.
Books 69-71...thread 18.
Books 72-74...thread 19.
Books 75-77...thread 20.
Books 78 & 79...thread 21.
Books 80 & 81...thread 22.
Books 82 & 83...thread 23.
Books 84-86...thread 24.
Books 87-90...thread 25.
Books 91-98...thread 26.
Books 99-102...thread 27.
Books 103-105...thread 28.
Book 106...thread 29.
Books 107-109...thread 30.

My 2012 ORPHANED books ticker:




Pearl Ruled:



14. Beautiful Ruins...thread 18.

15. The Lies of Locke Lamora
16. The Hunger Games...in my Orphans thread.
18. Keeper of Light and Dust...Orphans thread, #196.

17. Equal of the Sun...thread 21.
19. Superclass...thread 23.

20. Narcopolis...thread 24, post #297.

21. Strings Attached...#255.

22. A Place Beyond Courage...#36.
24. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?...#184.

25. The Crossing Places...#178.
26. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared...#184.

Books are reviewed in post:

110. Tell the Wolves I'm Home...#41.

111. Howl: A Graphic Novel...#83.

112. The Sea...#121.

Haha! Another one:
Elvis Peppermint here, proud mother of Buddy Angel-Pants and Twinkle Pointy-Toes.
Elvis Peppermint is very busy this time of year!
LOL!

I love this meme! Stasia posted it on Facebook, and I couldn't help myself, I had to steal it.

Perky Sugar Socks here. I probably should start another thread, too, as mine is approaching 350 posts, but I just don't want to, plus, hopefully (unless the stupid snow jacks our plans) we'll be away starting tomorrow until Jan.2, so not much will be happening on my thread, I think. Oh well.

I hope you had a wonderful day today - Charlie, Tomm and I certainly did, even though the local Chinese restaurant was CLOSED and that was going to be our dinner! I mean, really? Sigh.

The ham, cornbread apple and sausage stuffing, collards, and *sinful* scalloped potatoes are all eaten. It was a delicious if fattening dinner. All in all, a wonderful day!

What's this about Chinese being closed on xmas?!? In the city, the Chinese places make boatloads of money off the delivery biz that day. I can't imagine it being otherwise, frankly, since no town on earth is *that* whitebread.

xo

I know! We were shocked. It's just poor business management, that.

Like leaving a ten-dollar bill in the gutter instead of bending down to get it. *shrug*

Jolly Monkey Buns? Pleeeaaaase!

Roni!! HA!!! But isn't it too bad it's not short for "Veronica" so you could be...drum roll...GINGERBREAD MONKEY-BUNS!

Oh oh the laughing it hurts the laughing does

You are right--that would be worse!

Sugarplum Sugar-Socks checking in. Ow. That name makes my teeth hurt.

Merry Christmas, Richard!

Merry Christmas from Jolly Sugar Socks! I am three threads behind Richard, but Mom is very sick with complications from aspiration pneumonia. Christmas in the ICU sucks!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and that you are feeling at your best! I am sending lovely thoughts your way.

Twinkle Toe-Bells reporting in. The feast sounds fabulous!

Nipper Peppermint chuckling in the corner - told you you'd have to have a new thread. Muahahaahaha!

Bubbles Peppermint! Oh well I suppose it could have been worse:)

Happy New Thread Richard.

Charlie would be Bubbles PicklePants - hahahaha!!

Morning RD- Hope you had a nice Christmas, my friend. Congrats on the (sigh!) new thread.
BTW- I'm Twinkle-Sugarplum! Sounds very manly, right?

I'm Buddy McJingles.

>12 ronincats: Nothing is so bad that it cannot be made worse. --Me, looking at the Holiday feast dishes

>13 tloeffler: Permaybehaps we have found TLo's true name...Miss Sugar-socks!

>14 luvamystery65: Oh boo hiss, Roberta! That's very unpleasant. Aspiration pneumonia is terrible indeed. Healing and health for Mom in 2013 *whammy*

>15 Crazymamie: 'Twas, Twinkle, 'twas. *smooch*

>16 BekkaJo: You were right! I couldn't make myself let the count get that high, Nipper.

>17 calm: Bubbles! Heh. I do love "Bubbles" as a name. So high-culture somehow, after Beverly Sills had it.

>18 scaifea: Oh that's priceless! You'll have to start calling him "Pickle-pants"!

>19 msf59: Thanks Mark, I had a lovely day. Yeah, well, I suppose everyone but me knew it was inevitable.

>20 norabelle414: That's about perfect for you, too!

I hesitate to even post here. Here's my list of books read last year, in case you are interested. http://www.librarything.com/topic/145153#3773187

Sincerely, Cookie Monkey-Buns

Bubbles Floppy-Feet reporting in, dear Mr Pickle-Pants.

Looks like I will sadly not be making my way over to gatecrash your Boxing Day recovery party given that we are still in MA. Boohooooo...

>23 maggie1944: I shall peruse anon, good Monkey-Buns. *smooch*

>24 cameling: Oh BOO Bubbles! I was hoping you'd bounce your Floppy-Feet down for a few days. Well, better that Edd keep the RSV to himself given that his parents aren't young and resilient any more. *smooch*

...like reading Chuckles the Dick...

Elvis Floppy-Feet reporting in... though I still think that's a contradiction in terms.

Sad that yr knee took you away from the gathering, and that I had to leave without bidding you farewell. But the dinner, esp the ham and the stuffing, were fab. Although I have to report to the group at large that Richard attempted to persuade me that I didn't want to eat my appetizer before it was on the table, so that it could be devoted to a worthy cause -- specifically, Mr. Pickle-Pants's stomach. Happily, I'm stubborn, and was able to devour the avocado & shrimp...

Is Stella still enamored of her new octo-duck toy??

Heh...next time I won't give warning, I'll just serve your avocado stuffed with curried shrimp to myself and remind all and sundry how you hated the first one.

I adored the meal, and the potatoes and I are going to be in a happy relationship for a while. There's nowhere near as much stuffing left as I'd planned hoped. *sigh* It was a good'un though. We're so pleased you were here!

Stella, I will have you know, hasn't put Dick down since you left! She's whapping it all over gawd's creation. It's hilarious to watch her drag it around because it's as long as she is!

Knee's worse. Much grumpiness. Bright red and super-tender, growlgrowlgrrr. I got out of bed to get coffee this morning, and haven't been back out since.

This SUCKS.

We had so much fun with our new Elf names at our Christmas Eve dinner. I see lots of Sugar-Socks here. Just call me Happy!

Richard, it is so true what you stated in your intro on the 2013 thread. It is never boring on your thread! And now I have delurked two times in the past few days. Going back to my quiet little corner...

Sorry, sorry, SORRY to hear about the knee! *smooch*

Our feast was restrained: a 10 pound prime rib roast (for the two of us), mashed potatoes, and roasted broccoli-garlic-walnuts. The roast turned out perfectly, however. Still, I would have loved some of yours, especially the appetizer.

>29 Donna828: Ha! Well, Donna, to be boring one must be bored, and I am never bored. Too much to learn!

>30 ronincats: Thanks, Roni, it's not a lot of fun today.

But 10lb of prime rib doesn't sound at all shabby!! In fact y'all's feast sounds darn good.

Hello RD! Twinkle Peppermint here :)
Hope your Christmas was awesome!

>32 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Twinkle! Heh...this is a fun meme.

Cookie Peppermint checking in :)

Cookie darling! How's the snow treatin' you? Everyone get out okay?

nope.. not a one o them..

Oh dear. That's not good.

Happy to have the kids home... but I am getting a wee bit tired of cooking!
:-/

Laughing at the visual of Ms. Stella. You should have seen her last night, cuddled up to that thing as if it were her (long, yellow, plush) puppy... I think G. has a pic on his phone; shall try to get it from him as & when.

Bubbles Pointy Toes. MMM sounds like a ballet stripper. lol

Review: 110 of seventy-five

Title: TELL THE WOLVES I'M HOME

Author: CAROL RIFKA BRUNT

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Description: In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them.

1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.

My Review: Maybe it's the fact that I saw too many families like Finn the fag painter's to think Danni, his homophobic scum-bitch of a sister deserves any sympathy at all, while I was an AIDS volunteer in the early 1980s. Maybe it's my age and gender making me pretty much not in sync with the awkward coming-of-age of a plowhorse girl with a pretty sister.

Maybe it's just that I'm a mean old man.

I wore down fast in this debut novel, whatever the reasons, and while I yield to no one in my appreciation of Carol Rifka Brunt's phrase-making prowess, I found myself reading more for the lines than the story. I haven't thought that books about AIDS were groundbreaking since the 1980s. I haven't thought that gay uncles being their niece's pals were daring since then, either. I don't care much for the coming-of-age genre anyway, but read this because it has a lot of pretty writing in it. And in that way it lived up to the billing! In spades! What a pleasure it is to rock along the river of Brunt's words. She is a strong craftsperson of language.

Straight people probably like the story more than I do. No issue there, it's not written for a gay audience. So I give it stars for sheer word-pleasure.

Tinker Peppermint checking in here too (instead of just goodreads), to keep up with your shenanigans well-mannered goings-on for the rest of the year. Also sending a Pain-Be-Gone *whammy* along with a plate of that yummy-sounding avocado curry shrimp and a charming young man to help you feel better and keep you current with your reading!

>38 mckait: I can only imagine!!

>39 Chatterbox: Oh I hope so! I love it when she (so rarely) goes all mooshy instead of her usual persona, Killerdawg. Such a poochums!

>40 cindysprocket: Ballet stripper! OMG you've invented a new career! heh

>42 LauraBrook: Ooo he's YUMMY! Thanks Laura, you can drop him right there, I know what to do from here. *smooch*

Twinkle Pickle-Pants is what I am, but Frisbee Floppy-Feet is what I call myself these days ;)

>41 richardderus: What a pleasure it is to rock along the river of Brunt's words. She is a strong craftsperson of language.
That, for me, can override a so-so story. Only a bad story can eclipse good writing. So all in all, not a waste of your time. good.

Sigh. I guess I have to fess up to the elf name Puddin' Angel Pants.

In spite of that, I hope you get some relief from your knee pain soon, and enjoy a happy new year.

>44 LovingLit: Nope, not a waste of my time, but not An Awakening either. Twinkle. heh

>45 ffortsa: Puddin' daaarliiing! So lovely to see you! heh

Thanks for the wishes, Judy, I'll do my best to live up to 'em. Hugs!

I got an early start on reviewing story collections for my 2013 challenge, reading Better Living Through Plastic Explosives and posting my review of it too.

It got a cumulative 3.5 stars.

I was interested to see you'd read Tell the Wolves I'm Home and your thoughts - I still have to write some sort of review - I thought it was a really good read but blurbs of the sort you quoted always put me off a little - I don't like feeling that I'm being told how to react to a book.

>48 elkiedee: It's just that sort of book, though, isn't it Luci? It invites people's strongest praise, and that's almost always couched as an exhortation to read a book.

I'm apparently a deeply contrary person, since that's my cue to stiffen my knees, dig in my heels, and get an ornery expression on my mug!

*whipping through on my way to bed, to read*

Happy Boxing Day and I hope tomorrow is less pain filled, and more fun filled. What are you doing for New Year's Eve? I'm usually sleeping.... with two dogs.

>50 maggie1944: That sounds like my plan, one dog fewer than yours. *smooch* sleep thee well

Party Animals, we be not. But Happy New Year we will have nevertheless!

I get bored in rooms full of amateur drunks. I like the pros, and the pros stay home on New Years.

Ah, yes, the pros. I've known a few. And yes, many do stay home. The rest, god help us, drive around imagining they are invincible. That is one good reason right there for going to bed early.

Aside from the all-fired stupidity of this invented holiday, yes, that's a good one.

Silly man, starting another thread so close to the end of the year. Still, I expect it will roll along toward (and past) 200 posts by New Year's Eve.

I hope you had a swell Christmas and are enjoying these last days of 2012.

Hi Richard, very interesting review on TELL THE WOLVES I'M HOME now I am even more curious to get my hands on it. BTW I am checking in a Nipper Floppy-Feet and my son is Perky Superplum. Thanks for that list :) All the family had lots of fun looking up there elve names *grin*

RD - Back and see you've been busy dodgy knee notwithstanding. Hope that the leftovers from what sounds like a splendid feast assuage somewhat the grumbles.
I would have signed in a Jingle Pickle Pants had I been in time for the party.

Sorry to hear about the knee. Hope you are able to rest with a good book and the delightful Stella.

I just saw on the GoodReads blog that you're one of the six most popular reviewers of 2012!

Oh wow! Coolio! Thanks for letting me know, Zoe.

I'm bed-bound again today, dammitall, with these knees. One's just a major agony. The other resents me limping on it. This is a giant pain in my lily-white one.

Still, I have plenty of time to read! Oh boo hoo, poor widdle me, right?

60> Of course he is. :-)

Richard, I'm so sorry to hear that your knees are giving you fits today. Damn and blast.
I know you can entertain yourself with reading, but having less choice about how and where to do that is no fun.

Hoping the pain subsides soon, my friend.

>62 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen, from your keyboard to the goddess's inbox!

Oof - sounds nasty hun. Sorry you're in such pain. Hope you have some good ones to read and nothing for the pearly oubliette.

I managed to grab The girl who circumnavigated whilst at the library today - so far (all of three pages) so good.

So sorry about the flaming joints, Richard. I wish my magic wand worked for that kind of thing. Tinker Pointy-Toes

>64 BekkaJo: I re-read something! The Hundred and One Dalmatians...the original novel, not the movie stuff.

As always the book beats the movie.

>65 laytonwoman3rd: Thank you most kindly, Tinker-pooh! I mean, Linda3rd!

I've finally re-read and written a love letter to Dodie Smith's kid's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians over in my thread...post #299.

A healthier and happier New Year is wished for you, Rdear, by Merry Floppy Feet.

Happy 3rd Day of Christmas, from Merry Pickle Pants!

I hope your knee eases up soon.

I read your words about 101 Dalmations - powerful stuff. Did you ever read The Starlight Barking, the sequel - I don't remember it as well as the first book, it is probably one of those where she should have stopped with the first one.

>68 Matke: Thank you, dear Floppy-Footed one!

>69 gennyt: I have not read The Starlight Barking, and as I'm well past the initial glory of the story, I think I'll leave it that way. Somehow I don't feel drawn to it.

Reverend Doctor Pickle-Pants.

Heh.

RD Books will always beat Movies ( its the ultimate game of Rock, paper, scissors) .....

Not good about you knees but least you can read without guilt that you shd be doing something else !

#67 Awww - lovely. And it really is a wonderful book. I love her YA novel I Capture the Castle - there is just a wonderful quality to her writing.

Hope you're feeling better today *smoochies*.

Just plain pissed off that you have to suffer this way due to bureaucracy...&^%$$%&*^( !

>73 mckait:: Echo

>71 roundballnz: I have zero guilt about being in the supine posture! Much pain when I'm not, so pfah.

>72 BekkaJo: I wish I was, too, Bekka. I'm glad you liked the review.

>73 mckait:, 74 Thanks, Cheering Section! I want y'all with me when I have to go and talk to these folks f2f.

Flaming joints of course made me think of the recent legalization in Washington. Wish that was what you were talking about. I hope it's improved a bit for you. And hope the bureaucracy stops being stupid. (Odds are slim on that last one).

I've got Tell the Wolves I'm Home, and I'll retain some hope it'll be good based on your comments on the wordsmithing.

- Puddin Superplum

How is the knee today? It's a miserable rainy day out today ....so much for forecasted snowstorm ... so I trust you will stay in and supine?

>76 jnwelch: The bureaucrats aren't stupid, Joe, they're just limited. They can't go outside their heavily proscribed by rules little patch, and can't think much for themselves even within it.

I would do, and have done, extremely poorly as a bureaucrat.

>77 cameling: Apart from walking the pooch, that's the plan! O lemon bar taker-awayer. *sniff*

xoxo

They can't go outside their heavily proscribed by rules little patch, and can't think much for themselves even within it.

Are you talking about bureaucrats or Vogons? Like here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENgdM87Cqjg (esp. at the 44 second mark there ....)

Vogons, bureaucrats, pas du difference....

79> Perfect !

I've reviewed my first 2013 book (yes, I know, I know, it's still 2012)! It's a literary novel called Janey by Richard Matturro, and I gave it four whole-hearted stars. See why in my thread...post #96.

Review: 111 of seventy-five

Title: HOWL: A Graphic Novel

Author: ALLEN GINSBERG
Illustrated: ERIC DROOKER

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Book Description: First published in 1956, Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" is a prophetic masterpiece--an epic raging against dehumanizing society that overcame censorship trials and obscenity charges to become one of the most widely read poems of the century.

My Review: This comic book...oh dear do pardon, Graphic Novel...was a Yuletide gift, so I sorta hadda look at it and oooh and aaah.

Thing is, I meant it. The film of Howl with yummy-looking intellectual James Franco as Allen wasn't all that well received. I liked it. I thought, long as you're making movies out of poems, why not pick the one that's best in show. Howl is exactly that...a howl...and it's the one incisor left in the toothless, rotted, stinking jaw of modern American poetry.

Ahem. Not that I have a prejudice, you understand.

Drooker's artwork might be familiar to the graphically inclined, and it will please or it won't on its own merits. I happen to like it quite a lot. But the crucial point here is whether the art and the poem mesh, combine, in such a way as to create something that's different from either of the parts, whose sum is greater than the parts by virtue of synchrony.

Yes. Indeed yes. The parts are a lovely object, some pretty artwork, and a major poem of the last century. The sum is a wallop between the eyes with a padded, velvet-covered crowbar.

Finally! A graphique nawvell that's better than a comic book!

Sigh. you got me again.
I wonder if my library has a copy of Howl.

If I read enough graphic novels in 2013, maybe I can make it to one hundred books.....

Heh, it's a time honored technique for padding the numbers. I say go for it.

RD- WTF? I loved your review of HOWL: A Graphic Novel. And you earned a Big Fat Thumb! I have never read the original poem. Does this contain all the original text? Yah, for comic books!

It does contain the whole poem, and it's probably a lot more likely to go down well with the smooth-edged poison pill of the artwork. I never gush over comic books, but this...well...it's out of the park wonderful.

Thanks, my friend! I added it to my GN WL!

>88 msf59: *evil Muttley laugh* My work here is done.

Ha. I know better than to trust you to rest on your laurels. You'll be after us again. I know it.

*shifty glances*

Who, me? Why madam I will have you to know that I am a veritable MONDADNOCK of probity!

*sidles for the door*

One of my favorite undergraduate experiences was listening to Allen Ginsberg read Howl on a spring day on a terrace by the shores of Potter Pond.

Okay, definitely picking that one up sometime. I still haven't *cough* read the actual poem by itself (though I have the iconic little book singing to me from my bookshelves, of course), but I DID enjoy the film. James Franco's a frickin' chameleon, I don't know how he does it. Brilliant.

I'm also going to look out for Howl. I really liked the movie as well, James Franco can do no wrong. I should read Franco's short story collection, Palo Alto.

>83 richardderus: your eleventy-first review! Congrats ;)

Glad you loved the comic book, a huge success it seems, you almost make me want to check it out. But I think my days of the GN are done.

Good morning Richard, I hope you are feeling better today. I very much enjoyed your review on the graphic novel, it does sound very interesting.

Congrats on being one of the six best reviewers on goodreads, also no surprise there.

I wish you and Stella a HAPPY, WONDERFUL and MAGICAL NEW YEAR!

Just wandering in to see whats happening in this neck of the woods....
I am clearly already behind for 2013, as I am sure that lots of threads have been begun..
and I have yet to even look in that direction. Not good.

Hope today is a good day,

I'm still shocked that you LIKED a graphic novel, and that I could load this thread with minimal issues. It seems my elf name is Elvis McJingles...hmmmm, maybe, but I must say most of the time I feel like a "Perky Pickle-Pants."

>92 ronincats: That's a wonderful memory, Roni! What a great gift from the universe, to see a major poet in full flow.

>93 elliepotten: Hi Ellie! Well, you have an excuse for not reading it. You were an English university student. I doubt Murrikin queer poets loom large in y'all's curriculum!

>94 avatiakh: I recommend it, Kerry, my review is pretty laudatory.

>95 LovingLit: If you don't check out any others, this is a good comic book to look at.

>96 drachenbraut23: Evening Bianca, where you are, and thanks! I was a bit surprised by that ranking, but what the heck, I'll take it.

Happy, wonderful, and magical right back at'cha!

>97 mckait: Hello sweetness, yes it's over 120 posts in the 2013 thread. Stuff moves quickly around here.

>98 Ape: I know, I'm astounded too. I liked a comic book! Howinahell'd that happen? I don't like 'em EVER! And here we are, Elvis, here we are.

I hear Perky Pickle-Pants got married, and on his honey moon with Squeezy Pickle-Pants Perky disappeared. It's very mysterious.

*waving as she pops in for a quick check-in*

I am reading a ER book about the WWII invasion of Italy and it is reminding me of all the war movies we watched during the 1950s. Sal Mineo, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Ernest Borgnine, who else?.....

>101 Ape: And Pinky Peppermint is on the case!

>102 maggie1944: Monty Clift and Henry Ford and Jeffrey Hunter and...ummm...

If I don't come back here tonight ( yes I am working today on new years eve) Have an excellent New Years whatever you may be doing ......

Thanks, Alex! I'll be quietly at home, exactly as I like it. Hope you'll have a great celebration!

Thumbalicious review of the graphic Howl, Richard. Although normally I spurn such comic book exercises (yeah, right), I'll look forward to reading this one.

>106 jnwelch: Thank you, Joe, and believe me when I tell you the artwork in this piece will make you gape. Just wonderful! It was the base for the animated segments of the movie.

One more review for this thread and I'm done with 2012 reviews. Three more 2013 reviews to do before 12/31/12 11:59p and I'll have made my goal of having 700 reviews posted before 2013 starts!

That is an insane about of reviews, man!! You are an inspiration and I look forward to more of the same in 2013. Big hugs my friend.

Splendiferous joustings with you dear fellow in 2012. Happy new year and I hope we can do more of the same in the coming years. Will patronise your short story challenge eagerly next year. If I make it to NYC next year I'll make sure that Caro piggy-backs you to a suitable watering hole.

Splendiferous being a very jolly word....

>108 Berly: I add about 13 a month on average, Kimmers, and have since ~2008...they mount up. *smooch* I guess I should go look for your 2013 thread now.

>109 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul, and I agree! We've had fun this year. So glad you're here to stay!

I hope we'll be able to meet f2f...oh, and the watering hole selection, I'll warn you, is likely to be a drawn-out process.

>110 mckait: Among my favorites. Along with "jolly." When I had my house in Austin, it was in Jollyville. No joke!

Jolly is a great word... not that I think this because it was my maiden name at all... (well Jolley anyway!).

Happy New Year, Richard! Thanks for all the great reviews, book porn and ensuing hijinks in 2012. :-)

for some reason, this made me think of you! LOL

Thanks for the heads up...FABulous 2 hours....

Awesome Kath! Just awesome. : ) Oh, and no 2013 thread yet.

Happy New Year, Richard! Looking forward to following your thread (and hopefully keeping up with it) in 2013.

Happy New Year Richard. I'll be seeing you in 2013:)

>114 mckait: Kath, I LOVE that!!

Richard, darling, that is a fabulous review of Howl up there, which is why I am giving you a thumb and adding it to my WL. Wishing you and Stella a very Happy New Year. Thanks for helping to make this one so fabulous for me- love the reviews, the humor, the wit, the snarkiness...Looking forward to all that and much more in the coming year- no pressure! Wishing you freedom from pain and idiots. Leaving you a barrel of G&T and a cigar box full of Valium for when you are plagued by both.

Happy new year, dear Richard. I'm looking forward to another year hitting you with delicious book bullets and maybe driving over to deliver some lemon bars that escape Edd's fingers.

MONDADNOCK

You did that on purpose.

Happy New Year, my friend!! (unstarring this thread and moving on to the next.....)

Review: 112 of seventy-five

Title: THE SEA

Author: JOHN BANVILLE

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Description: When Max Morden returns to the coastal town where he spent a holiday in his youth he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma.

The Grace family appear that long ago summer as if from another world. Drawn to the Grace twins, Chloe and Myles, Max soon finds himself entangled in their lives, which are as seductive as they are unsettling. What ensues will haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that is to follow.

John Banville is one of the most sublime writers working in the English language. Utterly compelling, profoundly moving and illuminating, The Sea is quite possibly the best thing he has ever written.

My Review: The experience of reading Banville is akin to the experience of going to a whole museum dedicated to Renoir or Monet: At first, the awestruck lip-smacking chin-drooling moaning of readerly joy:

They departed, the gods, on the day of the strange tide. All morning under a milky sky the waters in the bay had swelled and swelled, rising to unheard-of heights, the small waves creeping over parched sand that for years had known no wetting save for rain and lapping the very bases of the dunes. The rusted hulk of the freighter that had run aground at the far end of the bay longer ago than any of us could remember must have thought it was being granted a relaunch. I would not swim again, after that day. The seabirds mewled and swooped, unnerved, it seemed, by the spectacle of that bowl of water bulging like a blister, lead-blue and malignantly agleam.

(p3, Picador hardcover edition)

This gorgeous, sumptuous repast, this unsettling, foreboding atmosphere, this unbearably tense muscle in the brain MUST be leading to some cathartic, catastrophic release! There is a great change coming, there is something to contrast this soft and lovely tone, this unsettling beauty, this pastry cream in a pool of custard frosted with whipped cream with. Well, now:

Could we, could I, have done otherwise? Could I have lived differently? Fruitless interrogation. Of course I could, but I did not, and therein lies the absurdity of even asking. Anyway, where are the paragons of authenticity against whom my concocted self might be measured? In those final bathroom paintings that Bonnard did of the septuagenarian Marthe he was still depicting her as the teenager he had thought she was when he first met her. Why should I demand more veracity of vision of myself than of a great and tragic artist?

(p218, Picador hardcover edition)

And there it is, the catharsis. Sorta kinda, anyway. As much as you'll be getting, so take it and like it. There's a backstory to the catharsis, but it's all written in the ever-so-much of a writer's writing, and like the sugary sweetness of Renoir and Monet, in large doses it simply doesn't wear all that well. One longs for a smudge of dirt on the painting, or a misplaced modifier in the sentence, or even no modifier at all. But no. No indeed, there is no surcease, and therefore there is surfeit.

Now if the assembled company will pardon me, I am off to eat plain Zweiback, drink tap water, and stare at a blank wall for a while, until my senses are defatted.

>112 BekkaJo: Jolley?! How wonderful! I wish that had been my maiden name!

>113 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe, and much the same returned unto you. We've all had a wonderful year in the cafe. Thanks for making it the happenin' spot!

>114 mckait: HA! Perfection! I love that...*smooch* and I feel the same way about you!

>115 Berly: Happy New Year, Kimmers! *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>116 phebj: Oh another Moomintroll picture! Thank you, Pat!

>117 calm: I certainly hope so, calm, and much happying in your New Year!

#122 Add in that my mother's maiden name was Rogers... what do you get...?

>118 Crazymamie: Mamie dearie-me-lurve, I send each of those kind words back with a smile and a smooch!

>119 cameling: Inform Edd that lemon bars plus thieving fingers equals slow and agonizing death by voodoo in 2013. Or I will come and hide a dozen durians in your ductwork. Take your pick.

>120 EBT1002: Heh. You're right, I did. *smooch* for noticing!

>124 BekkaJo: Aaarrrrh, matey!

And there it is, the catharsis. Sorta kinda, anyway. As much as you'll be getting, so take it and like it.

and

one longs for... even no modifier at all

SO right on!!

*sweeping bow* One does one's poor best to do the side proud. Thanks, Ellen!

As I haven't managed to make it over to your 2013 thread yet, Richard, I am stopping here to wish you a Happy New Year and all the best in 2013!

>121 richardderus: and i quote Ted Gioia's review:

In Banville’s The Sea, winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2005,
every page is dotted with words such as assegais, horrent, cinereal,
knobkerrie, prelapsarian and mephitic. Where others would
mention the quiet, he refers to the “flocculent hush.” Our author—
or is it the narrator—especially likes medical terminology, so the
reader confronts references to adipose tissue, erythema,
climacteric, strangury, eructations and the like. Clauses such as “the
declivities of my shoulders on either side of the clavicle notch” or
“the taut concave integument below his breast-bone” are par for the
course. And a garden description won’t deign to mention a shrub,
but will call attention to “Lupinus, a genus of the Papilionaceae.”

If Banville can’t find a term sufficiently esoteric, he invents one.
When I looked up “avrilaceous” on the web, I was surprised to learn
that the only author to use this term is John Banville. I guess that is
what happens when you exhaust all the existing five-syllable words
in the dictionary . . . you get to create some new ones . . . .

Yet I can’t help approving of a book—and, yes, an author—that takes
language so seriously, and fearlessly pushes characters into even the
darkest recesses of their own psyches. This is not a story for the
faint-hearted, but so be it. In the midst of a mainstream culture that
is all too often glib and noisy, The Sea is as refreshing as . . . well, as a
flocculent hush.

*chuckle*

Gioia is new to me and his reviews remind me rather eerily of yours.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, sweetums.

Happy New Year, R.D.!! Another year, my friend! It feels like we've been LT Chums for ages! No reason, not to continue...

>129 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! Happy all the bestness right back to you!

>130 mirrordrum: Wow! My goddesses, he DOES sound more like me than me! Thanks for that, it was a hoot.

>131 msf59: No, it's like a bad habit. Too much effort to change now.

;-P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's to a great new year ahead, Richard!

OOooOOoo! Cool photo! Yes indeed, a happy and well-read 2013 to us all, Roni! *smooch*

I enjoyed surfeiting on your Banville review, characteristically exuberant and persuasive - must try the book itself one day!

Wishing you good reading and all the happiness you can handle in 2013 - see you over on the new threads...

>135 gennyt: Thanks, Genny! See you there.