Markon peeks into 2013

Waiting, trusting, hoping

I look forward to this year with some trepidation since I anticipate some big changes in my life in the next twelve months. And while many of them will be changes for the better, I hope, change is not always easy. Also this will be the year I say good-bye to my mom, a very hard thing. I hope to fly up and visit once a month while she is still present. I suspect “comfort reading” may be higher on my list than it is some years.

I’m not setting any goals for reading this year; I will just be posting periodically about what I read, and hopefully visiting many threads and commenting as we go.

Highlights from 2012 reading are listed below.

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin (non fiction about the US Supreme Court, from Rehnquist to Roberts)

Behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo (non fiction about a the people living in a slum in Mumbai, India)

Eye of the wolf by Daniel Pennac (juvenile fiction about a wolf and a boy and seeing with the inner eye)

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (juvenile fiction about loss, about how things change and something we took for granted is gone for good and how that affects us; a retelling of Hans Christian Anerson's Snow Queen fairy tale)

River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (historical fiction, 2nd volume in trilogy about India/England/China and the opium trade)

The Last talk with Lola Faye by Thomas H. Cook (fiction, how people see the same event differently)

The secret river by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (picture book, a story about hard times)

The Penguin anthology of twentieth century American poetry, edited by Rita Dove (poetry, arranged chronologically with discussions of history and schools of writing)

Link to2012's final thread.

Lists

May 2013
53. Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby *** J fiction
54. The woman who wouldn't die by Colin Cotterill *** mystery
55. Another man's moccasins by Craig Johnson *** mystery
54. Dressed for death by Donna Leon *** mystery
55. River of stars by Guy Gavriel Kay *** historical fiction? fantasy?
56. Haunted ground by Erin Hart *** mystery
57. The Night circus by Erin Morgenstern **** fiction (fantasy?)

April 2013
44. White heat by M. J. McGrath (mystery) ***
45. A necessary end by Peter Robinson (mystery)
***
46. Deep down by Deboarh Coates (paranormal) ***
47. A room full of bones by Elly Griffiths *** (mystery)
48. Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon (mystery) ***
49. Tender by Toi Derricotte (poetry) **** (3.75)
50. Kindness goes unpunished by Craig Johnson *** (mystery)
51. City of dragons by Robin Hobb (fantasy) ***
52. Moonlight downs by Adrian Hyland *** 3/4 (mystery)

March 2013

31. The lathe of heaven by Ursula LeGuin (reread, sci fi) ****
32. A turn of light by Julie Czerneda (fantasy)***
33. The telling by Ursula LeGuin (reread, sci fi) ****
34.Island of bones by Imogen Robertson (mystery) ***1/2
35. Shadow gate by Kate Elliott (fantasy) *** 1/2
36. The abundance by Amit Majmudar (fiction) **
37. Daughters who walk this path byYejide Kilanko (fiction) ***1/2
38. Firethorn by Sarah Micklem *** (fanatsy/historical fiction)
39. Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Roberston *** (mystery)
40. Baker Towers by Jennifer, Haigh *** 3/4 (fiction)
41. The cold dish by Craig Johnson *** 1/2 (mystery)
42. Anatomy of murder Imogen Roberston*** (mystery)
43. News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh **** (fiction)

February 2013

22. Tender morsels by Margo Lanagan **** (fantasy)
23. Jhegaala by Steven Brust *** (fantasy)
24. Breath, eyes, memory by Edwidge Danticat *** (fiction)
25. The garden of evening mists by Tan Twan Eng **** (fiction)
26. A game for swallows by Zeina Abirached *** (GN, non fiction)
27. In the shadow of the banyan by Vaddey Ratner *** (fiction)
28. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay *** 1/2 (fantasy)
29. Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott *** (fantasy, 1st of 3)
30. Beautiful mystery by Louise Penny ****

January 2013

1. The Innkeepers Song by Peter S. Beagle****
2. Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper ****
3. Bound for Gloryby Timothy R. Botts and Patricia Raybon**** (nf)
4. A brief political history of the Middle East by John Davenport*** (juvenile)
5. Bloodline by Felix Francis *** (mystery)
6. Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear ***3/4 (mystery)
7. No talking by Andrew Clements *** (juvenile)
8. Oddly normal by John Schwartz *** (non fiction)
9. Folk of the air by Peter S. Beagle ****
10. The Gathering by Kelly Armstrong *** (fantasy, YA)
11. Deep Church: a third way beyond emerging and traditional by Jim Belcher *** (non fiction)
12. Crowfield curse by Pat Walsh*** (juvenile fiction)
13. Looking for yesterday by Marcia Muller *** (mystery)
14. Radiant shadows by Melissa Marr *** (Y fantasy)
15. House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths *** (mystery)
16. Muy Bueno by Marquez-Sharpnack et al *** (cookbook)
17. Singer in the snow by Louise Marley *** (Y fantasy)
18. Grave mercy by Robin LaFevers ** (Y fantasy)
19. Mastiff by Tamora Pierce *** (Y fantasy)
20. Palace of stone by Shannon hale *** (Y fantasy)
21. Milo: sticky notes and brain freeze by Alan Silberberg *** (J fiction)

Ratings
My ratings are:
5 stars = excellent read and excellent writing!
4 stars = good to excellent read and/or writing, something about this book really pleased me
3 stars = good (or informative) read and writing, worth reading
2 stars = something about this book kept me reading, but it wasn’t very good
1 star = don’t read this! (I didn’t)

(I'm not sure I've ever posted a book as a 1, if it's that bad it goes on the reject pile and doesn't get mentioned.)

Since I often have more books available than I can read, I’ll sometimes list abandoned books. Abandoning doesn’t mean they aren’t worth reading, just that I had something on my plate that I enjoyed more.

Abandoned:

The eighth continent by Peter Tyson - good content, the writing can't keep my attention.

She is the darkness by Glen Cook (fantasy, Black company, just can't get into it)

American Bible by Stephen Prothero

A poet and Bin Laden by Hamid Ismailov

The secrets of Jin-shei by Alma Alexlander (alt-history, wonderful until about 1/2way through when two hot-button issues raised their heads: sexploitation & a nonforshadowed evil character/event)

Benighted Kit Whitfield
Black House Peter May
The devil in silver Victor Lavalle

My WikiThing (Ugly, but functional until I figure out how wiki markup works)

Hi Ardene! I've starred your thread and look forward to following your reading this year.

I'm so sorry to hear the sad news about your mom's condition. We're here for you. Take care.

Hi Ardene, just popping over here since you were so kind to visit my 2013 thread. I'm sorry to read about your mother's condition. LT is a wonderful place to turn to for support. My parents both had to move this year and my dad's situation was pretty dire for a while but right at this nanosecond things are stable for both of them. Like you, I live far away and that makes things more difficult, too. Thinking of you ...

Welcome back!

Glad to see you here, Ardene.

Hi Ardene. I've seen you on your 2012 thread and look forward to keeping up with you this year. I've got you starred now. Thanks for welcoming me on my thread.

Will be keeping you & your mom in my prayers.

Glad to see you back with us again, Ardene!

Ardene, I am very sad to learn of your impending farewell to you mom. I hope you'll treat yourself gently and swaddle yourself in all the comfort reads and friendly chatter that you need while making the adjustments in your life.

Going away sometimes is good, too. No one in this group puts pressure on his or her friends, I've noticed.

Absolutely surround yourself with comfort reads, Ardene! I spent the entire month of December (and most of November, I think) wallowing in comfort reads to take my mind off real life, and it worked pretty well.

4: Hi Kerri, Thanks for stopping by! I discovered (and devoured) William Kent Krueger's mystery series set in Minnesota last year. There are a few that my library doesn't own that I hope to pick up someday.

5: Laura, thanks for the help with the wiki thing. I'm off and running. Yes, the distance thing is hard. Looks like some plane rides in my future. Hope you enjoy the William Kent Krueger books as much as I did last year.

6: Jim, thanks, good to see you!

7: Lori, great to see you here. I'm having trouble finding your thread - on the threadbook it goes somewhere else? Here you are!

8. Tina, thanks for stopping by, and for your support.

9. Stasia, great to see you!

Hope you had a good visit with your family, all things considered. I know it must have been a comfort to be there physically even for a short while--and so hard to leave. I know.

Suggested comfort reads:

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Od Magic by Patricia McKillip

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

10: Richard, thanks. Comfort reads are high on my list this year. I'll be in and out as I need to be.

11: Julia, glad to hear that comfort reading helped you out. Some days it works, and some days I have to do something physical (Milo loves walks).

Ooh Roni, those are good authors for comfort!

Bridge of Birds! How wonderful, yes Ardene I'd say hang out with Number Nine Ox for peace and contentment enhancement.

First book up is Innkeepers song by Peter S. Beagle. (Side rant: I cannot believe my library system does not own a copy of The last unicorn! The only copy we own is a graphic novel version which I have reluctantly ordered for a group read over at the green dragon, ‘cause I don’t own it either. Sigh.)
I wish Beagle were more prolific. But then maybe he wouldn’t write as well as he does. He tells this story from multiple points of view (9 total I think) and yet I didn’t get lost, and I loved the story. Yes, much of the action takes place in and around the inn, but this is really a book about loss and secrets and friendship.


Beauty by Sherri S. Tepper is a reread for me, one I probably read in the mid 1990s after it came out. It has held up well, using several familiar fairy tales to weave a story of disaster and loss and hope. I am puzzled this time around with her retelling of the story of the garden of Eden towards the end of the novel linking wisdom and creativity with pain and death and loneliness on one side and immortality and peace on another. Immortality and peace weren’t what came to faerie in the end, but then wisdom and creativity didn’t suffice for humans either . . .


Bound for Glory by Timothy R. Botts and Patricia Raybon is a feast of color for the eyes. The words of African American spirituals accompanied by reflections and brilliant calligraphy and pattern. ****


Timber Wolf by Caroline Pignat didn’t work well for me. Yes, it’s a juvenile novel, but in my experience juvenile novels can be just as good as adult ones, and this one wasn’t. I was ¾ of the way through before I could decide if this was fantasy or historical fiction (I vote for historical fiction) and I’m uncomfortable with the resolution.

****Spoiler alert****
If you want to read this and form your own opinion, don’t read any further.
The main character, a 10? 11?-year-old Irish immigrant, awakens with no memory in winter in a North American forest. As he struggles to survive and begins to grasp at wisps of memory, he meets a wolf, an Ojibwe (I'm guessing) boy and the boy’s grandfather, who become instrumental to his survival. I guess, in part, I simply didn’t like the main character. I also find it frustrating that in the story the thoughtless actions of the Irish boy have consequences for others, but not for the boy himself. And these actions and consequences mirror the actions of his elders in logging out the forest with the consequence that the Ojibwe people are starving. And yet the Irish boy gets the Indians to rescue him from starvation and the wolf to rescue him from the Windigo (who is really a crazy white man). ** stars, read in 2012.
****End spoiler****

So I didn't enjoy it, but it is giving me something to think about. So maybe I'm glad I read it.

ETA: I can hear my friend Mina saying, so isn't that like real life? 1/7/13

Take care of yourself, Ardene. Books accompany me on all my ups and downs and often change genre or topic wildly depending on how I feel. I know of only a couple of people who don't seem to need comfort reads, but perhaps they just don't record them for others to see! ;-)

Bound for Glory: Celebrating the Gift of African American Spirituals through Expressive Calligraphy sounds beautiful. (I had a hard time finding the right touchstone until I put in the subtitle.) Unfortunately our library system doesn't carry it.

Hey Ardene. Catching up and sending you warm thoughts and prayers for you and your mom.

I loved Innkeeper's Song too, Ardene.

Dropping by to say hello and to wish you well in the coming year. The photo at the top captures the gist. Well chosen.

Hi Ardene

It is great to know there is another YA reader in our group.

Hej Ardene

Found your thread, too. I see that you have read and are going to - juvenile fiction. I did some myself, but by German speaking authors. And I have seen that you have Deep Church: a third way beyond emerging and traditional by Jim Belcher on your list. Did you read it already? You starred it but I didn't find any comments on it (maybe I am just blindish). Let me know what you think of it.

Hi Ardene. Somehow I missed the start of your 2013 thread. Despite a difficult year coming up you've started out well on the reading front. I'll be thinking of you and your family and checking in to see how you're doing. Take care.

19-23, 25: Lisa, tina, roni, Monica, Linda, Pat - thanks so much for stopping by. Lots of easy comfort reads so far this year.

24: Hi Paul, another reader of juvenile fiction, yay! I haven't posted comments on deep church yet, but here goes.

Deep church by Jim Belcher is a freebie I picked up somewhere. It caught my eye because I’d heard the phrase “emergent church” from some people I met at the Unitarian Universalist congregation I attend. I’m not the audience that Belcher is writing for, namely people in the evangelical branch of the church that are struggling with a divide between two wings that Belcher calls the traditional and emerging church. Belcher is trying to articulate a way that adopts what is good from both camps.

I guess I started this because I wanted to learn more about the emerging church, and because I periodically look for an opportunity to “go home” to the Christian tradition that shaped me (United Methodist with an evangelical twist in college and two years in intentional Christian social justice communities in my 20s).
The book was interesting theoretically, though I think chapter 2 should be renamed – it’s not a definition of the emerging church, but rather sets out seven areas of conflict between the traditional and emerging camps. The book then proceeds to explore each area in more depth, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses in both.

I did like Belcher’s use of C.S. Lewis’ metaphor from Mere Christianity of Christianity as a hall with many rooms opening off it, and the author’s emphasis on needing to know and understand the history of the church theologically and culturally.

3 stars, recommended only for those with some interest in this area.

Hey, Ardene, just checking up on you! Eleven books already--you've been busy.

As you can see from my list in post #3, I’m reading lots of comfort reads and not commenting on most of them. I do want to comment on a book with more substance that I’m starting to read,The American Bible by Stephen Prothero.

I know, politics and religion, eek! I remain fascinated (sometimes attracted, often repelled) by the ways Christianity and politics in the USA interact, so I had to pick this tome up.

And my biggest bone of contention with the author so far is this sentence on page 3:

This conversation is spirited because the United States is not just a country, it is also a religion of sorts. (pg. 3, my emphasis)

Say what?! The United States is a religion?!#&^?

So what’s the author’s definition of religion? I haven’t found one – and he’s a professor of religion. The only thing remotely close to a definition in his introduction is the sentence following the one above:

In the hearts and minds of the faithful – those whose belief in America is storng and whose doubt marks a spiritual crisis – this land is sacred and its people are chosen.

What about those of us, citizen or not, who don’t believe that this land is more sacred than any other, or that it’s people are chosen?

Back to definitions.

Dictionary.com gives the following definition of religion:

1) belief and worship of God or other superhuman agency, 2) particular system of these beliefs

This, I think, is the definition that pops up first for most of us when we run across the word religion. And calling the US a religion in this sense is repugnant to me.

There are other definitions of religion. I liked one of my college professor’s description of it as what (re) connects (and sometimes binds) people together, from the Latin re – ligare.

The anthropological definition of religion found in Wikepedia’s discussion of the word may be the one Prothero is using, but I wish if it was he would say so.

a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic (Clifford Geertz quoted in Wikepedia’s discussion of religion)

Using this definition the assertion of a particular view of the USA, or advocacy of a particular policy or political position may be (or become) religious. But the USA as a religion? Blech!

OK, rant over.

So what’s the book about? Prothero argues that the USA is a constant conversation, not about what constitutes “America,” but about how to translate central symbols and ideas about the country into public policy. He also states that

there is no American Creed. What brings us together is a common practice. To be an American is not to agree with your fellow citizens about a set of propositions. It is to argue with them, and to argue passionately. (pg. 3 also)

This book is Prothero’s attempt to pull together in one volume core texts about the USA and conversations/commentaries on these texts. Thus, the book is divided (in parallel with the Christian Bible) into sections such as Genesis, Psalms, Gospels, Acts . . . Each section contains one or more texts, introduced by Prothero (and, I hope, placed in historical context), followed by the text (or excerpt), followed by commentaries.

So what should I start with? Genesis? (the exodus story and the declaration of independence among others) Psalms? (Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, This Land is Your Land)

ETA: Corrected touchstone.

28: Roni, it's called escapism.

Although The American Bible would probably drive me insane, and therefore I will avoid it assiduously, I find your comments about it fascinating. I hope you continue to share.

P.S. The touchstone goes to the Tao Te Ching, which I find particularly humorous.

the American Bible sounds horrid--everything I don't like about this country rolled into one. But if your blood pressure is too low, maybe this will help.

27> Thank you, Ardene, about commenting on Deep church. I am member of an evangelical church and I am quite interested on what is going on in 'new' churches. There many smallish churches which have no affiliation with the 'established' denominations. Some are growing - but how and for how long? I think, the book is in the Bible school library here, so I could go and lend it from there (I did help them with setting up a library system and cataloging).

29> We had a 'simple' definition of religion: If a system answers to three basic questions it is a religion: 1) Where do I come from? 2) Where do I go to? 3) What am I here for? But the USA as
one single 'thing' call a religion? Okay, I will stay clear of that book. (I also like where the touchstone leads us to...)

>31 labfs39:, 32: well said, both of you. But keep it coming, Ardene! You save me the trouble of reading it and it's interesting even if I don't agree with it.

Interesting reviews, markon. Deep Church doesn't appear to be a Kindle freebie at the moment, but perhaps I'll download it if it becomes free again.

Muy Bueno by Marquez-Sharpnack, et al
Sneaking in a note here so I can come back to this cookbook. The recipes take some time, but the chicken tinga (I made it with pork) was wonderful, and I want to try some more down the road. This is a cookbook created by three (or four, depending on how you count 'em) generations of a Mexican-American family, and I found the family stories interesting as well as the food.

31: Lisa, I've corrected the touchstoneabove, although I thought about leaving it as it was.

32: Rhonda, love your comment about blood pressure.

34: Laura, glad you think it's interesting. I do too.

I don't know that I'll get through much of The American Bible, as I got very frustrated with Prothero's lumping of ongoing discussions of United States polity as religious discourse. (And there goes the touchstone to the Tao Te Ching. I think I'll leave it this time.)

I do wish that we could somehow tease out, or talk about, the ways in which the nation’s founders used and didn’t use Christianity, and how this religious tradition continues to be appealed to directly and indirectly by a variety of groups today. It’s both fascinating and frustrating to me.

33: (27) Paul, if you do pick up Deep Church, I'll be interested in what you make of it.

(29) That's an interesting definition of religion. The US is definitely not a religion by that definition. But I think one could definitely be "religious" without believing in a god with that one, right?

Lori, I really went to town on those, after not commenting on all my comfort reads. But then, those two books were the ones that engaged me somehow.

>38 markon: sure, the definition would include atheists since they try to give answers to these questions, too.

Stopping by and waving hi.

Thanks, Ardene, for stopping by while I was sick--it was appreciated. I'm excited that you are going to join me for both Jhereg and Tigana. Do you realize that they are both going to be group reads, if you want to follow the threads?

29: Say what?! The United States is a religion?
Huh. Doesn’t bother me. :-) I can kinda see a professor of religious studies taking on national symbols. But he should define the word.

41: Linda, thanks for the lovely flower.

42: Roni, you're welcome. I've got the Jhereg thread marked so I can find it when I'm ready to comment. Tigana I will have to look for.

43: Kathreine, as a religion major (undergrad), I'm all for talking about the ways religion and politics intersect, but I think we need some definitions so we can (hopefully) start off talking about the same thing.

Books read but not commented on yet:

Jhegaala by Steven Brust *** for Feb. group read
Breath, eyes, memory by Edwidge Danticat ***
Tender morsels by Margo Lanagan ****

Currently reading: The garden of evening mists by Tan Twan Eng

ETA to correct Brust title

Hi Ardene! Glad to see you posting. I was wondering how things were going.

One of these days I will get to my unread copy of Tan Twan Eng's book The Gift of Rain which I've seen alot of LTers rave about. Hope you like The Garden of Evening Mists.

Hi Ardene! I hope you're doing well.

I've not read any Sherri S. Tepper, but I have The Gate to Women's Country on my radar. Have you read that one?

46: Hi Pat, thanks for stopping by. I give The garden of evennig mists 4 stars. Hopefully I'll remember to post comments at a later date.

47: Hi Kerri, good to see you. I read The gate to women's country years ago. I think my favorite Tepper books are Grass and The family tree.

I have to give a shout out to the public library where I work - we are one of 800+ libraries and state humanites councils awarded a Muslim Journeys bookshelf by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. For a list of items that will be added to the collection, click here.

Congratulations on the NEH/ALA award. Looks like a great addition to your library.

Congrats on the award. I like the mix of fiction and nonfiction. Interestingly it seemed as though a far amount of the latter was written by westerners. I've bookmarked it for future reading ideas.

Congrats! That's great, Ardene.

Pat, Lisa, Roni - thanks! Although i had nothing to do with writing the grant, I am excited that we got it!

Tender morsels by Margo Lanagan
Incest, rape; refuge, healing; reality? Tender morsels carries motifs from Snow White, Rose Red, but stands on its own as the story of Liga and her daughters Brenza and Urdda. Fantasy, ****

The garden of evening mists by Tan Twan Eng

Meditative. Memory. Coming full circle. Learning something new (and disturbing).

Set in the country we know as Malaysia, the story drifts back and forth between the present and the 1950s as Yun Ling Teoh retires and returns to the titular garden where she began to find healing after her internment in a Japanese war camp during World War II.

As she approaches the end of her life, Yun Ling’s encounter with the literal garden of evening mists comingles with memories of her stay with family friends Mangus, Emily and Frederik, and her tutelage in Japanese gardening from Aritomo. But there are still new revelations to arise as Yun Ling seeks to put her inheritance from Aritomo in order along with her memories. These memories provide a metaphorical garden that is as elusive and changeable as the earthy one.

Fiction, ****, shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2012 and the 2012 Man Asian prize.

I'm glad you enjoyed The Garden of Evening Mists, Ardene. I thought it was quite beautifully written. I have The Gift of Rain checked out from the library, but I haven't started it yet.

I'm also glad that you enjoyed The Garden of Evening Mists, Ardene.

Lisa, I enjoyed The Gift of Rain, but slightly less than his latest novel.

44: A definition of religion that everyone agrees to may be a bit tough, though a working definition for the sake of coherent discussion is a useful starting point.

Lisa, Darryl, yes, I think I enjoyed the writing as much as the story.

Katherine, you're right, agreeing on a definition is the trick. But since it's my thread, I will probably make one up when (I hope this weekend) I do a 2nd post about the book in question (post 29).

I'm planning a display at work for the month of April "Food Matters" and in addition to the normal suspects (cozy mysteries featuring food, cookbooks, gardening books, books on food politics and environment), I'm looking for some good fiction (or movies) featuring food or hunger as a theme.

Here are a few I've come up with:

Hunger by Elise Blackwell
The edible woman by Margaret Atwood
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Babette's Feast (DVD)
Adams Apples (DVD)

Any suggestions?

Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout has his normally housebound detective Nero Wolfe not only leaving his beloved brownstone but leaving New York City to travel to North Carolina to attend "a meeting of great chefs, The Fifteen Masters, at a resort in West Virginia, and jealousies among them soon lead to strife; then, one of the chefs is murdered. Wolfe sustains his own injury in the course of finding the culprit but also obtains the secret recipe for saucisse minuit." (The quote is from Wikipedia.)

Then of course there is Chocolat, both the book and film, and Like Water for Chocolate (likewise both a book and a film, I think).

#48 - Hi Ardene! Thanks you for the Sherri Tepper recommendations!

#55 - Nice review! I was trying to read all of the Booker longlisted books last year and only got to four. I'm hoping to fit this one in this year, as it seems to be universally loved.

#60 - Unfortunately, I can't think of anything to add to your food fiction list. Good luck!

I'm not much of a foodie, but I read a farcical story about a so called experimental gourmet chef that was rather witty and entertaining. It's called Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton - Paterson.

What about Hunger by Knut Hamsun or The Mistress of the Spices by Chitra Divakaruni?

Julie, Lisa, Paul - thanks for your suggestions - those all look good and will go on my list.

Kerri, good luck with reading the Booker nominees. I would never get through all of them, just try the few that look interesting to me.

Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott
fantasy, 3 stars, 1st in a trilogy and I will read more

Tender by Toi Derricott
What I really want to post, is I think I'm going to love this one.

From the preface to Tender by Toi Derricott (©1997, University of Pittsburgh Press)

Tender is not to be read in linear fashion. Rather, it is a seven-spoked wheel, with the poem “Tender” as the hub, each “spoke” or subdivision radiating out from that center.

Violence is central in our lives, a constant and unavoidable reality. Experience is not a linear construct moving from one point to another – childhood to maturity, “bad” to “good,” beginning to end – but a wheel turning around a point that shifts between hope and despair.

“At the still point of the turning world,” the job of the artist is not to resolve or beautify, but to hold complexities, to see and make clear.

and the poem itself:

Tender

The tenderest meat
comes from the houses
where you hear the least

squealing. The secret
is to give a little
wine before killing.

Wow, Tender sounds really unique and interesting. I hope you love it!

Wow--Tender sounds like it will pack a punch!

Pat & Rhonda, it is punchy, or gritty, or something along those lines - and I like it.

Abandoned: American Bible by Stephen Prothero Heading out of town to visit Mom this week, taking back library books I'm not actively reading.

What are you taking along to read?

Lisa, in addition to Tender, I've got a couple of ER books: Abundance and Daughters who walk this path and Ursula LeGuin's Lathe of heaven. Not getting a lot of reading done while I'm here, but it passes the plane ride/wait well.

I agree. I always have a hard time deciding which books to bring as I have to anticipate how much time I will have for reading, what my reading mood is going to be, and how much space I have. I never want to be without a book!

A Poet and Bin Laden by Hamid Ismailov

I wanted to like this book better than I did. It appears to be two things juxtaposed. It's a fictional account of the poet Belgi's flight from Uzbekistan in the late 1990s; he ends up involved with the Taliban in Tajikistan. This part on its own I might have read and enjoyed for its portrayal of men caught up in politics and the rise of Islamicism. But it is interspersed with (purported? real?) documents (transcripts, press releases, . . .) and I found the form jarring and confusing. Jarring in that the reader is tossed from narrative to dry reports and back again. And confusing because it's hard to tell what is "real" and what is "fiction."

I know this could give rise to interesting discussions about reliable versus unreliable narrators, but I simply don't have the energy to plow through this one.

For some it will be worth reading for its portrayal of individuals and the wave of Islamicism; anyone who doesn't know the history & culture of Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in particular, will find it confusing without some reference material to set the context.

1.75 stars, early reviewer book

Women Reading

Nice pictures!

Love the pics, Ardene.

Hi Ardene. I hope everything is ok. I know that must be a very difficult trip. Take care.

#72 - I was just telling someone else that I must get to more Ursula K. LeGuin. The Dispossessed is one of my favorites and I also loved The Left Hand of Darkness.

Great photos, Ardene!

Ronni, Julia, Kerry, Darryl, thanks for dropping by!

I'm back from Iowa, hard, hard trip and that's all I have to say about that. I have two early reviewer books to comment on, so I'm putting up markers for them below.

Glad you are safely home. Relax and settle in.

Welcome home, Ardene! Sorry the trip was so hard.

welcome back, hope you can relax now

Take care of yourself. Thinking of you.

Roni, Pat, Paul, Lisa - thanks for the welcome. About the time I thought I was settling in, I got a call from my sister, and am heading back up on Saturday. Got to spend some time with a RL friend last night to recharge my batteries.

Sorry to hear the trip was difficult and it sounds as if more is in store. Take care Ardene, we're all here thinking of you. That battery-charging stuff is important so it's good you're making time for it.

Positive thoughts coming to you from me, Ardene!

books finvished, no comments yet.

a turn of light by Julie Czerneda

the telling by Ursula LeGuin (reread)

island of bones by Imogen Robertson

shadow gate by Kate Elliott

Hi Ardene - Just stopping by to say hello. I hope you're doing ok. Take care.

{{hug}}

(((Hugs)))

Love to you & yours!

Hey! Glad you enjoyed Garden of the Evening Mists! That was one of my favorites last year. I've been thinking of reading Tender Morsels...it looks interesting.

Thanks all for your hugs and well wishes. I suspect I may not be posting much here the next month or two, as I don't my energy is focused on day-to-day tasks and my family's needs right now.

Just stopping by to say I was thinking of you Ardene. Hope life isn't too stressful these days.

Completed recently:

The Abundance by Amit Majmudar *** (ER)
Daughters who walk this path by Yejide Kilanko ***1/2 (ER)
Firethorn by Sarah Micklem ***
Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson *** (mystery)
Cold dish by Craig Johnson *** 1/2 (mystery)
Baker Towers by Jennifer haigh ***1/2

Abandoned: Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander

Sending warm thoughts your way. Glad to see you are able to escape into a book occasionally.

Hope you are having a good Easter weekend, Ardene.

Abandoned

Benighted Kit Whitfield
Black House Peter May
The devil in silver Victor Lavalle

Hmm. Three books abandoned. Either you're having a really bad streak of luck with book choices or a really bad week in general. Hang in there, and I hope you find something stellar soon.

Bad week in my head. I did finish one book I liked - a collection of short stories by Jennifer Haigh, News from heaven. 4 stars.

Here's wishing for some better reads to come your way this month, Ardene.

Julia, Lisa, Roni, thanks for stopping by. I'm probably abandoning as much as I'm reading right now; reading seems to consist of comfort/easy reads more than anything else.

As an experiment, I'm going to just comment occasionally on what I've picked up and read for the day. as opposed to what I've finished. So, for example, today I read a few pages of Mistressclass by Michèle Roberts during my lunch break. I picked it up because the author has a book on the longlist of the Women's Prize for fiction My public library doens't own the long-listed book (Ignorance), but does own two of her earlier works, so I'm trying one out.

Last night I finished a comfort read, Tony Hillerman's Fallen Man and started Heading out to wonderful by Robert Goolrick. The writing on Wonderful is smooth and pulling me in.

ETA, unfortuantely (fortunately?) I'm taking home several titles from the library this week, 4 recommended from LT threads I've browsed:

The fiddler on Pantico Run
Marmee and Louisa
Deep down
Faith (audiobook) Jennifer Haigh
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
A taste of honey by Jabara Asim
White heat by M. J. McGrath

And, I dabbled in all of the above - Deep down by Deboarh Coates was the one that pulled me in to read all the way through. Genre: fantasy

Paradise by Gurnah came a close second. I read the beginning and the end and skimmed through the middle.

Fiddler on Pantico Run and A taste of honey (Asim) are bding returned today. Content is interesting but the writing isn't holding my attention.

The Abundance by Amit Majmudar
I liked this book, but didn’t love it. The novel explores family dynamics when the mother of two adult children is diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s readable, does a good job of portraying the layers of love, insecurities and competition that exist in families.

(3 stars, Early Reviewer book)

White heat by M. J. McGrath
Genre: mystery
The setting is Autiak/Ellesmere Island in the Arctic. Complex characters & the plot kept me reading to find out what would happen next, but the writing left something to be desired. 3 stars

Sorry your last couple of books haven't been more compelling. Hope you find something that hits the sweet spot soon!

Hi, Ardene! I lost you for a while . . . quite a while. . . you've done some interesting and varied reading so far this year!

Sending best wishes!

Lisa & Terri, hi. I think my state of mind these days fits the title of a book of poetry I've been reading: Tender by Toi Derricotte. In the sense of sensitive to touch, injury, insult. So I'm reading a lot of genre fiction because it's predictable. But it's also unsatisfying.


I'm giving the book 3 1/2 stars. The content is powerful, but the form is not always pleasing - I don't like what I call prose poems, and several of the poems fit that structure. But then there are some, the title poem, Bird, Clitoris, The Body Awakens, that I like much better. These are poems delving into the poet's inner landscape, and are often painful or angry. I'm intriguted by the book's structure, with "Tender" as the center around which the other sections can be read.

Finished two genre books in the last two days.


I'm intrigued by the Rain Wild world Robin Hobb has created in her dragon series, but am disappointed in the characterization, and the plot does not have me on the edge of my seat either. I reread City of Dragons (volume 3 in the series) and now am waiting for a library copy of the final book, Blood of dragons. ** 3/4 stars


I'm enjoying Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series a lot. Mystery/western, though the 3rd book in the series, Kindness goes unpunished, actually takes place in Philadelphia instead of Wyoming. Character and pacing are the strenghts of this series. The action is over the top, and I'm not completely comfortable with the spirit world, but I'm willing to go along for the ride. *** 1/2 stars.

ETA - just noticed I rated the mystery less than the fantasy - and actually I enjoyed the mystery more. Huh.

Re: The Abundance - I love the cover of that book, but all the reviews I've seen have been mediocre.

Glad to see you enjoying the Walt Longmire books.

Yes, Lori, Walt Longmire is a lot of fun.

I've run across a new paranormal author that I'm enjoying: Deborah Coates, author of

Deep down and Wide open.

Faith by Jennifer Haigh, fiction
Set in the first decade of the twenty-first century, this is a novel about the reactions, connections and missed connections of a family whose oldest child, a Roman Catholic priest in his fifties, is accused of molesting an 8-year-old boy.

Haigh has created a group of complex believable characters: Art, the accused, Sheila and Michael, his sister and brother, Art's mother, Mary, and the child's mother, Kath. The secondary characters are drawn well also – Aidan (the boy), his grandmother (and the housekeeper at the rectory), Art's stepfather, and to a lesser degree, Art's Uncle-Father Fergus, also a priest.

I liked this novel because it deals with questions of truth and doubt and connections between people.

What I found confusing was the shifts in point of view. The preface is in third person and the story itself alternates between 1st person (the voice of Sheila), third person (where we learn about Mike and Kath and Arthur) , and third person where Sheila is telling us what she learned about what her brothers think, know, do. I struggled to figure out who was telling the story each time there was a new section, and kept wondering, 1) how does Sheila know this went on in Xs head? Or 2) who is this omniscient narrator? I think the multiple characters/points of view were a good device to shed light on
what was going on, but it didn’t flow smoothly for me.

Three ¾ stars

P.S. Complaint: I listened to this on audio published by Dreamscape Media. The reader was good, but instead of a new track every 3-4 minutes, the tracks were long - 8-10-14 minutes. Even with a hold function, this made it difficult to start without a lot of backtracking.

Roundup (Jan - April)

52 books read

Standouts
Lathe of heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (science fiction) 4 stars - this was a reread and I liked it much better as an adult than I did as a teenager.
Tender morsels by Margo Lanagan (fantasy) 4 stars
The garden of evening mists by Tan Twan Eng (fiction) 4 stars
Jennifer Haigh - The standout is News from heaven, but it wouldn't have had as much impact without reading Baker towers alongside it. Faith was also interesting. (fiction)

Favorites
Tender by Toi Derricotte (poetry) 3 3/4 stars
Beautiful mystery by Louise Penny (mystery) 4 stars
Moonlight downs by Adrian Hyland (mystery) 3 1/2 stars
(new to me author)
Baker towers 3 1/2 stars and News from heaven 4 stars by Jennifer Haigh (fiction)
The innkeepers song and Folk of the air by Peter S. Beagle (fantasy) 4 stars (each)
Beauty by Sherri S. Tepper (fantasy) 4 stars

Honorable mention
(new mystery series I've begun)
Adrian Hyland (Emily Tempest)
Donna Leon (Comissario Brunetti)
Craig Johnson (Walt Longmire)

Deborah Coates (paranormal series)

Sadly, no 5 star reads and very little non fiction

An interesting aside - Toi Derricotte is mentioned in the acknowledgements of a new paranormal series by Deborah Coates.

Read in May:


Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby *** J historical fiction
Solveig, her beautiful older sister and her younger brother (her father's heir) have been sent to a fortress up the fiord for the winter to keep them safe from their father's war. But are the servants and soldiers sent to care for them trustworthy? Part mystery, part coming of age story.


The woman who wouldn't die by Colin Cotterill *** mystery
Another fun entry in the Dr. Siri series set in Laos in the 1970s.


Another man's moccasins by Craig Johnson *** mystery
We get some of the Vietnam backstory of Walt Longmire (and Henry).


Haunted ground by Erin Hart *** mystery
1st in a series set in Ireland. An archaeologist & a pathologist are called in when a head is found in a bog. The policeman investigating is also still looking into the two-year-old disappearance of a woman a child.


Dressed for death by Donna Leon *** mystery
Another Comissario Brunetti story.


River of stars by Guy Gavriel Kay *** alternate history?
Set in Kitai 4 centuries after Under heaven. Good, but not great.


The Night circus by Erin Morgenstern **** fiction (fantasy?)
Listened to the audio narrated by Jim Dale.

Abandoned: Remember, abandoning doesn't mean the books aren't good.

Broken Harbor Tana French Didn't like the characters well enough to keep reading

Heading out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick Liked the writing in this one a lot, just need to be reading more escapist fiction.

Paradise of the blind by Duong Thu Huong Just couldn't get to this one before it was due

Red moon by Benjamin Percy Page turner about werewolves, I expected more from it because of blurbs on the back by James Lee Burke & others.

You've gotten a lot of reading done this month!!

you've done some good reading this month

Hi Ardene!

I hope your doing well. I apologize for being so behind.

I'm very glad you enjoyed The Lathe of Heaven. That's one I'd like to eventually get to. I have the Donna Leon books on my list too.

Hi Ardene,

I just found out that Colum McCann will be speaking at the Carter Center on Monday June 10th at 7 pm about his upcoming novel TransAtlantic. I'll be working that day, but unless I have an especially bad day at work I should be able to attend. I've mentioned his talk to Tina (TinaV95), and I'll post a message on the Atlanta Bibliophiles thread as well.

http://www.acappellabooks.com/event/colum-mccann-book-signing

Well folks, summer is here, so my energy level is elsewhere. I'm still reading, but probably won't be posting here for awhile, though I may visit other's threads periodically.

See you round!

Have a great summer, Ardene!

Hi Ardene... Just stopping in to say hello.

I guess you're still summer-ing! :)

Hi Ardene. I just saw your name on the list of members who have Daniel Alarcon's new book At Night We Walk in Circles. I was entering it in my library since I was just notified I won it as an ER for September. Anyway, I realized I hadn't seen your thread in a while and found it somehow had become un-starred.

I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing. I hope you had a good summer and will be back to posting soon but I also realize there is a lot going on for you this year.

Sending you some hugs! Take good care.

Pat

Also stopping in to say hi and sending you best wishes!

Not sure if you are currently reading The Glass Palace or if that selection is old, but I'm curious to hear what you think of it. I haven't read that one yet.

Edited to add: Thank you for your review of Wandering Star. Your review put it on my wishlist a couple of years ago, and it's taken me this long to get to it, but I liked it. Haven't written my review yet...

I had no idea when I decided to take a break this summer that it would last this long! But I'm back and cooked some really good food a couple of weeks ago and am hoping to do it again this weekend. Pear crisp - would you prefer it with fresh ginger or with cardomom?

Tina, Pat, Ronni, Lisa, thanks for visiting!

Although I still kept reading, I didn’t keep track, so . . . here are a few things I’ve finished recently.


Still midnight by Denise Mina (mystery, audiobook). I loved it right up to the end. It ended with less closure and more lightness than I expected. There were a couple of missteps plotwise in my opinion, but Mina writes interesting characters, and the bumbling kidnappers provided black humor where Mina is often gritty & gloomy. Looking around on the web, I see that this is the first in a trilogy about Morrow, and the third book was published recently, so I have two more to anticipate. 3 stars


My favorite was the dark fairy tale Sea change, a first novel by S. M. Wheeler, about monsters and monstrousness, friendship, memory & loss. 3.5 stars


I can’t seem to finish Tash Aw’s book, Five Star Millionaire, an ER read. The writing is good, and I get interested in the characters while I’m reading it, but when I put it down it’s weeks before I pick it up again. Too bad, because I enjoyed The Harmony silk factory. 2.75 stars


My mother’s secret by J.L. Witterick was, I’m sad to say, a bland, boring ER read. I didn’t get involved with or care for any of the characters. There are other books better at conveying character and emotion during World War II. The bones and structure are there, but not the flesh. 1 star

125 Lisa, I like Ghosh's novels because they have such rich characters and background. This saga of India and Burma is not his best, but I still liked it. It covers three generations in hmmm. . . if memory serves three families: one Burmese, one Indian, and one British. The weakness is it is telling history without plot driving the book. Since I like characterization and find history much more palatable in fiction, this didn't bother me, but some readers may find it hard to keep the cast of characters straight and feel like there isn't a lot happening.

Welcome back, Ardene!

I really liked Sea of Poppies, but didn't like the second one in the trilogy, River of Smoke, as much. I wonder when Ghosh will write the third one? I have both The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide on my TBR shelf.

Darryl, Lisa, thanks for stopping by! I haven't heard anyting about the third Ghosh book, but I'm looking forward to it. (I also hope Tahmima Anan publishes her third volume in the next few years.)

Currently reading:


Ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman (audiobook)
Being with Dying by Joan Halifax
Calumet City by Charlie Newton

Hi, Ardene! How are you liking the Gaiman? It's been on my radar since it arrived at our library.

131: Hi Terri, nice to see you here! My experience of the Gaiman is being negatively influenced by the fact that I'm listening to it at night as I go to sleep. I'm liking it well enough to keep reading, but I'm experiencing it as disjointed since I end up listening to some parts more than once. It's an OK read, but not a great one.

Hi Ardene! Welcome back! I have added Sea Change to my huge and growing wish list based on your recommendation. :)

You may want to fix your touchstone though, as it goes to the Robert Parker version currently (just FYI).

Sea Change touchstone fixed. Thanks Tina!

Finished several fantasy novels this week. These are in order from best liked down.

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis (YA)
I loved this lighthearted romp through a variety of fairy tale tropes, primarily the princess & the frog.


Ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman (adult)
Fantasy shaded darkly.


Handbook for dragon slayers by Merrie Haskell (J)


Shadows by Robin McKinley (YA) seems choppy to me. Maybe it's simply because I want the sequel to Pegasus, but usually her writing and her worlds seem more organic than this one did.

For fantasy lovers, is anyone following A More diverse universe this year?

Women and religion are hot topics these, days, so I was pleased when I won a copy of Vatican Waltz by Roland Merullo. While well written and fairly straightforward as a story, it has left me with questions and disappointment. What is the author saying? He treats Christianity and Roman Catholicism with respect, raising the issue of women as priests, yet does not address any of the theological arguments for or against ordaining women or the arguments that they may have been ordained in the past. And what’s this about the “dark side” of the hierarchy murdering people?

Cynthia is a devout Roman Catholic who experiences visions from an early age. She says she doesn’t want to be a priest, she just feels called to be one and keeps knocking on doors. The two priests she first talks with are both flawed but spiritual men. She’s taken seriously by some within the Roman Catholic hierarchy. And yet at the end of the book, she is called to spoiler deleted? This twist made no sense to me.

Part of me wants to say Cynthia is too naïve, too straightforward, but . . . that’s not exactly it. She’s innocent in a way I find hard to believe in an adult, but she is young and I was willing to suspend disbelief in the pages of the book. Unfortunately, the book was ultimately unsatisfying.

(Early Reviewer copy)

Here are some other books I've read recently:


Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi
This is the one I liked the best out of this set. Well written, occasionally the jumps back and forth in time were irritating, but overall I liked this novel about the identity of Ifemelu, a Nigerian woman, her travel and adjustment to life in the US, and her return to Nigeria where she struggles to slip again with identity - how much has she become the spoiled "Americanah" returnee?

This novel explores issues of race in the US as seen from outside by an African (Ifemelu ultimately earns her living in the US by writing a blog and speaking publicly about race.) It also addresses issues of opportunity and the roadblocks to opportunities, both in Nigeria & the US. ****


The age of miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
A melancholy look at what happens in suburban California when the revolution of the earth slows, causing the lengthening of days and nights and a disruption of the magnetic field around the earth from the perspective of a tweener. (Written for an adult audience.) ***


Tiger writing by Gish Jen
Jen's Massey lectures, delivered at Harvard in 2012, are a meditation what she thinks of as independent Western (read US-Asmerican) and interdependent Eastern (read Chinese) culture and how these may have influenced her writing.


Calumet city by Charlie Newton
Gritty mystery set in southside Chicago.


Dodger by Terry Pratchett (audiobook)
Light YA "historical fantasy" Tosher (sewer rat) Dodger rescues a young woman on the streets of London, catapulting him into an adventure where he meets several historical persons, including Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria.

I had been vaguely interested in The Age of Miracles, but it sounds fairly meh. I think I'll pass.

139: Lisa, yah, I'm not sure it explored new ground. I had to read other things in the middle of it, cause it obviously wasn't going anywhere fun, and the writing didn't run away with me.

Two more finished:


The death of bees by Lisa O'Donnell is a darkly funny & poignant tale about two sisters, Marnie, age fifteen & Nelly, a few years younger, who bury their parents in their backyard and try to keep the authorities from finding out their parents are gone so that they can stay together. *** 1/2 stars


Detroit: an American autopsy by Charlie LeDuff is a combination of memoir and reportage on the city of Detroit in the early years of the 21st century. LeDuff and his family move back to his hometown. Sometimes funny and sometimes wrenching, it ends well before the city filed for bankruptcy. With stories of his extended family interspersed with stories of politics, finance, and the deterioration of city services, it makes interesting reading. ***

Did the girls murder their parents? I hope the parents deserved to die. Although at fifteen, I think all kids wish their parents dead at some point... Luckily my daughter is only 10. I have a few years left!

I've considered reading the Detroit book. Glad to see you found it interesting.

142: Lisa, the parents were very neglectful (& alcoholic), though you'll notice I'm not responding to the question of whether anyone was murdered and who did what, just in case someone wants to read the book.

143: Terri, I did find the Detroit book interesting. For me if was better than something that simply laid out what's happened economically/sociologically, because that would probably simply make me angry. The personal stories and dark humor broker it up.

I'm in Iowa visiting family since I will be working Thanksgiving weekend. The good news, which we have all received with mixed feelings, is that Mom is coming off hospice care! That's good news because it means she is stable. The anxiety is in making sure that staff at the care center she is at don't try to push her to "get better", since she has Parkinson's a neurological disease that means she will not improve from where she currently is. I know in my head it will be fine (she gets good care where she is), but change is always challenging.

I've read a few books this week between travel & staying with my Dad. My favorite so far was a reread of Mary Doria Russell's Children of God the sequel to her science fiction novel The Sparrow. The others were a mystery set in South Africa, one set in Ireland The book of Killowen, and one set in Minnesota (Tamarack County), & Boy 30529 a memoir of a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia. I'm now reading Bitterroot Landing by Sheri Reynolds.

Gotta go run some errands with my Dad.

Ardene, I'm glad your mom is stable, and I understand your concerns about her care. I do think it will be fine, as I'm sure staffers there understand that Parkinson's isn't something that just gets better. But, as you say, change is always challenging.

Sounds like you've done some good reading lately!

145: Thanks Terri. I am feeling much better after our meeting with hospice staff.


Dad & I tried to go to the art museum yesterday morning, but they were having trouble getting the building open, so we went instead to the brand new library building, pictured above. In 2008 the city of Cedar Rapids (and much of eastern Iowa) had a major flood. The public library was a casualty (see photos below). The new downtown branch is impressive with lots of light and space.



The American Library Association chose the Cedar Rapids library as the librarian of the year in 2009 because of the way they worked with the city during the flood and because they were so proactive in getting a temporary branch set up and running in a local mall shortly after the flood. 5 years later, the community has built two new libraries, one downtown, and one on the west side.

My Aunt Daisy lived in the Cedar Rapids area until her death. I think she would be pleased to see such a lovely library there! I have great memories of visits to her home.

Ardene, I knew you were in Iowa but I didn't realize you were so close! The new Cedar Rapids library is really lovely, isn't it?

It's a shame that the old library was so damaged, but impressive that they built not one, but two new ones to replace it. I wonder if they were able to save any of the books, or if they all got moldy.

Hi, Ardene. That has to be good news about your mom, and I'm glad you are able to have some family time this week.

Congrats to Cedar Rapids on the lovely new library! So sad to see the photo of the old one flooded, but I'm impressed at the comeback they've made.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ardene!

Happy Thanksgiving, Ardene!

Stolen from rosalita's thread to play with later.

I love the green stars!

Lori, I'm glad to know you have some good memories of Cedar Rapids.

Julia, I'll be headed back up there at Christmastime.

Ronni, it is good news. We'll enjoy while it lasts, & I'm headed north for Christmas too.

Lisa, the valuable old stuff got moved upstairs before the flood so it was OK. Unfortunately, the flood crested much higher than expected, so that stuff on the 2nd floor was pretty much destoryed. Their collection looks great now because it's all new.

Terri, thanks for stopping by.

I'm sure you will be kept busy when you are back in Iowa, but if you'd ever want to take a short break to grab coffee/tea or something, let me know!

157: Julia, thanks for the invite! Might take you up on it in the summer when the roads are good.

Hi, Ardene, hope you are doing well.

A few more:

The bookman's tale by Charlie Lovett
Liked it well enough to read it, but didn't think it was very good.

The valley of amazement by Amy Tan .
Historical fiction, set in China during first third of the 20th century. Told primarily from the point of view of a half American, 1/2 Chinese girl then woman who grows to adolesence in a courtesan house owned by her mother and a Chinese friend

The golem and the jinni by Helene Wecker .
Historical fiction with some fantasy elements. Set in New York at the turn of the twentieth century, Chava & Ahmed are both immigrants in a place that is new to them.


I finally broke down and bought the first two books of N.K. Jemison's inheritance trilogy. The hundred thousand kingdoms and Broken kingdoms. I've devoured them and will have to buy the third, maybe for my next plane trip. Wonderful use of myth, well developed characters and relationships, strong female progagonists in both volumes. I loved it!

That would be great, Ardene!

Hi Lisa! (159)

I remember hearing about The Golem and the Jinni when Tad reviewed it a while back. I think he gave it about the same rating. But this is the first I've heard about the Inheritance Trilogy. The reviewers posting on LT either loved it or hated/were bored by it. I'm glad you were in the former camp. I like books with strong female protagonists. Next time I'm in the mood for fantasy, I'll look for it.

Lisa, I enjoyed the first book, The hundred thousand kingdoms, but after reading the 2nd, The broken kingdoms, realized the author created a complex world that holds together with humor and pathos and cracking good fun. And Egyptian? mythology as well I think.

Two more finished. I've totally lost count this year.


Cushion in the roadby Alice Walker .
Essays, some more pertinent to me than others.


My Antonia by Willa Cather.1/2
Brilliance audiobook. Though the ending of this one seems a bit weak to me, I do enjoy Cather's writing. I read and enjoyed this one, but am not doing any analysis, though I think it would be interesting to explore Cather's (and her character Jim Burden's) view of small town life and women's roles.

Two others I'm slowly working/writing/meditating my way through:

What we ache for: Creativity and the unfolding of your soul by Oriah Mountain Dreamer (with my Artist Play group) What we ache for

&


Being with Dying: Cultivating compassion and fearlessness in the presence of death by Joan Halifax

I've totally lost count this year.

It's nice to be less obsessive about lists. Good for you.

Oriah sounds like an interesting person. I checked out her website briefly. How is the book?

167: Lisa, I like the book. There are exercises in the back of each chapter to try practicing some of what she suggests, so there are practical applications. And I like discussing it with people in the group, because there are some semantical distinctions that many of us think aren't clear in the book. (Primarily a distinction between sexuality & sensuality)

I picked up The everything store: Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon because I wanted to try and understand Amazon’s business from a larger perspective than the online retail space where, yes, I am a customer. This book did help me get a better understanding of how Bezos (& co.) have positioned Amazon as a technology company (pioneering providing cloud computing/server space to businesses, developing a user-friendly ereader and driving publishing into ebooks, etc.)

Given the description of working conditions at Amazon, I remain puzzled about why anyone would want to work there, but my job/career has never been the defining character of my existence. I would make a lousy executive. I have mixed feelings about the intersection of innovation & efficiency of businesses like Amazon with the needs of the workforce. The creativity and innovation is great, and of course who doesn’t love lower prices? But I am afraid it sometimes comes at the expense of treating employees like human beings. I’m also curious about what percentage of Amazon’s revenues come from retail and how much comes from other sources.

I had to turn this back into the library before reviewing, so here is what I remember about the book. It is divided in three sections:

Faith describes Bezos early life and career and the beginnings of Amazon.com.

Literary Influences describes the growth of Amazon, the strategies they used to improve logistics and move themselves beyond functioning only as an online retailer and into becoming a publicly traded company. Bezos apparently started with books because no one was selling them online, but retail was never his long-term goal.

Missionary or Mercenary? Is the final section, don’t remember the focus of this section. I think this included the discussion of maneuvering regarding sales tax, and some guessing about where Amazon might go in the future.

.1/2

Timely read, Ardene, given the current strikes in Germany by Amazon workers. There was a strike of support in Seattle in front of corporate headquarters yesterday.

Yes, Lisa, I heard about the support in Seattle. But I don't think the strike is hurting Amazon enough to get changes made at this point. We'll see what happens.

I'm in Iowa with family, and it is currently snowing. We had our extended family Christmas yesterday, and chose the right day since everyone was able to get to my brother's and back safely before the snow began. Hope you and yours are safe and warm, and if Christmas is your holiday to celebrate, enjoy it!

Merry Christmas, Ardene! Lovely weather we're having, eh? At least it will be a white Christmas this year. Then it can all melt away on the 26th, as far as I'm concerned. :-)

Merry Christmas Julia! I'll enjoy the white stuff since I don't have to shovel it.

My daughter would love to have a white Christmas, but I'm afraid the best we can hope for is freezing fog. Not quite the same.

Enjoy the time with family!

Best wishes to you, Ardene!


glitter-graphics.com

Merry Christmas, Ardene. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

Merry Christmas, Ardene!

Thanks Lisa, Terri, Tina, Roni!

I had a good time with family, and am now back in Georgia. The book that kept me company on my flilght back is


Carnelians by Catherine Asaro, the third in a trilogy. It was OK, and I'd like to read another by this author since she's won a Nebula twice, but I wasn't wowed by this story. Asaro also edited the Nebula awards showcase for 2013.

Copyright/Year of original publication: 2012
Series: Saga of the Skkolian Empire (book 3 of 3)
Publisher: Baen Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster, Inc., part of CBS Corporation)
Date finished:: Dec. 2013
Source: public library
Genre:: Science fiction
My Rating:

Two others that traveled with me:


Hammerfall by C.J. Cherynh
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Publisher: Harper Voyager >Harper Collins Publishers > News Corporation
Date finished:: Dec. 2013
Source: public library
Genre:: science fiction
Series: Gene Wars (#1 of 2)
My Rating:


Border songs by Jim Lynch
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2009
Publisher: Vintage Books > Random House, Inc. > Bertelsmann AG
Date finished:: Dec. 2013
Source: public library
Genre:: fiction (Canadian author)
My Rating:


Just one evil act by Elizabeth George
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2013
Publisher: Dutton > Penguin Group
Date finished:: Dec. 2013
Source: public library
Genre:: mystery
Series: Inspector Lynley/Barbara
My Rating:

It's time! Here is a link to my 2014 thread.