Cammykitty's Reads of the Year

I'm new to the 75ers, but not new to library thing. My first group was "What are you reading now." I still love that group but don't spend much time there. Then I started the Books off the Shelf Challenge, and then the 11 in 11 and 12 in 12 category challenges. I'm still doing the category challenge this year (went nuts with 17 categories), but I decided this is where the real action is. I've envied your group reads for a few years now.

As for me, I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, both YA and adult. I participate in a convention, Diversicon, every year. This coming year I'll be on a panel about Mexican/Mexican American SF&F - not that I know anything about it!!!

I'm also a volunteer dog trainer going on about ten years now at a local obedience club. I'm working with puppies and tweeners now. I've got a crazy Irish Water Spaniel named Sage. He's a bit over 2 years old and I got him this June. He's afraid of his own shadow even after two rounds of Scaredy Dog Class.



I'm not sure I'll really make it to 75 books this year. I write, and I'm afraid reading is what I do when I'm avoiding writing. ;) There's a shock!!! & as for the count, my other rule for self is any book over 400 pages counts as 2. This is to keep me from freaking out, and from avoiding long books. I'm hoping to read The Count of Monte Cristo this year, so the rule is quite important!

reserved

reserved 2

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reserved 4

Welcome to 75-land!! This is where I spend most of my time... but thanks for being such a frequent visitor to my 12 in 12 thread!

Glad to have you join us, Katie!

Hi Katie! *waves*

Hello! Got you starred. :)

Welcome Katie! It's wonderful to have you here! I look forward to following your dog and book adventures in 2013!

Weehee!!! Good to see people here, both old and new faces!!! Right now, I'm on Chapter 2 of Sabriel which is an all time favorite of one of my friends. I feel I've put it off too long, and can already see why she loves it. We've resurrected a bunny in less than 30 pages.

As for Sage, he's already knocked the book out of my hands twice because he thinks it's cutting into his belly rub time. ;) Really, I can multitask.

Ah! I've found you!

Welcome!

Yay, you're here! *does happy dance!* Consider your thread now starred so I can locate you again in the sea of 75er threads!

... and, before I forget, Happy New Year, Katie!

Happy New Year Katie!

Hi, Katie! Happy New Year and welcome to the 75 book group! I really like your counter too. Very clever ~ where did you find the Sage atavar? I didn't notice it when I made my own counter earlier today.

Welcome to the 75ers Katie!
Dog and book adventures are always some of my favorite things...
So glad you decided to join us!

Hi Katie, so glad to see you over here.

Hi Everyone!!! Glad to be over here too. It is obviously where the cool kids hang out. ;)

@17 I love your sun avatar and almost used that one, but a dog on the beach is always good too. It was on Page 1 of the avatars. The sun is on page 2. I swear it opened right to page 2 and skipped page 1 until I went looking for it. I'll bet that's why you didn't see the dogs. I wish I could stretch the tail a little on my virtual pup, but he is pretty Sage-like, right? Except for being perhaps a MinPin... ;)

Sage looks adorable! Sometimes when I'm petting my kitties and reading, they will move and lay on top of the book because clearly I was not giving enough concentration to the petting.

Good to see you here, and great picture!

Yes, I saw right away why you chose the dog avatar! Very Sage-like!

Happy New Year Katie :) This group will also take up alot of your time - we are a chatty group :) welcome :)

*Waves hello* !!!

Well, finished book 1-2 (over 400 pages) Sabriel I nice little story about on-the-job training. A girl finds out her dad is stuck in the underworld when a ghoul brings her his tools of the trade. She decides to go to the underworld hopefully to save him, but on the way there she realizes the family trade is to save the country (and the country next to it) from the dead who are over-running the place. Quite a page turner.

Book #3 Blacksad: A Silent Hell. The guys in the category challenge turned me onto this series. This is the first one I've read but it won't be the last. Kitty Noir! Here's Blacksad chasing our villain. Do you think he'll have much luck?

Blacksad looks like a pretty interesting GN, I'll have to check it out. I've read the Sabriel books but so long ago that I can hardly remember what happens. Are you going to continue with the series?
Have you checked out the January TIOLI challenges in this group yet? It's fun trying to fit what you've just read or are about to read into one of the challenges.

Have made sure I've starred you and looking forward to seeing what you read, as I like sci-fi and fantasy as well, though not exclusively :)

Kerry, I haven't checked out the TIOLIs yet. Will soon!!! I'll definitely read more Blacksad but it looks like there isn't a lot of it available around here. The library has one of the volumes in Spanish so I'll check that one out in a couple months. Hopefully my Spanish is good enough.

Hi lunacat!!! I love science fiction and fantasy, but read a lot of different things too. That's why I love the category challenge. Are you doing both the 75 and the category challenge?

Katie - As promised on my challenge thread, have sought you out to provide my own humble welcome into the group! Look forward to keeping up with you on both sides of the fence.
I haven't heard of Blacksad and graphic novels and I have a chequered history, but looks interesting nonetheless.
Kerry is right you should look up the TIOLI pages, it is good fun.

Welcome to where the fun kids hang out... That being said, I'm not much into alternate species (unless Terry Pratchett is writing about them) so I've dodged some book bullets for now! :-)

Hi Katie! I also recommend the TIOLI challenges. It seems a bit odd at first, but then becomes a most wonderful addiction.

Oh no! Talking cat creatures! I'm having Chanur flashbacks! Ha!

Hi Katie, add me to the list of long time TIOLI participants. It's a great way to whittle down all the books on the shelf. Got you starred now so I can come back and see what you're reading:)

@30 I know what you mean about the graphic novels. A lot of them are too simple, or they just set the groundwork in one volume so you have to buy three more to get anyway. Ppphhhttt! I'm not doing that!!!

@31 Suzanne - only Pratchett I've read is Good Omens which is great. I need to read more - I've heard he has the most traditionally nasty faeries in modern fantasy. I'm all for traditionally nasty faeries. I have to say though, they're human in Sabriel and Blacksad is a man in a cat suit. ;) I know what you mean though. You're into past reality instead of alternate or not even reality.

@32 As long as you don't get an audio version of Blacksad, I think you may be safe. ;) He doesn't do much talking. The talking goats are far more disturbing.

@33 Bonnie, Yeah!!! Thanks for stopping by.

& I'm off to TIOLI land!

Guys, there's so many TIOLIs for this month that it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Challege 1 - book w no duplicate letters in tittle Sabriel done (or for 8 or 12)
Challenge 3 - book not by one of big 6 Her Smoke Rose Up Forever Tachyon Press done
Challenge
Challenge 7 - a B in title/author: Black Irish
Clallenge 9 - 13 letters Nothing, Nobody done
Challenge 10 - aboriginal group & crime - The Bone Tiki done
Challenge 14 - Author with 3-part name Letters to a young novelist by Mario Vargas Llosa - done
Challenge 20 - new to me method of reading - Pedro Paramo done
Challenge 21 - meant to read in 2012 Devil in the White City done
Challenge 22 - book mostly pictures Blacksad

Does anyone ever hit all the TIOLIs in a month???

Book #4 Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. This is a 500+ short story collection so I read the odd numbered stories. I'll read the even ones after I read the biography that is out on her. Yes, James is a her. James Tiptree, Jr is one of the first women to compete successfully with the Golden Age Science Fiction writers. She did it, obviously, while hiding behind a pen name. This and the fact that gender became a compelling theme for her has lead to a Science Fiction award that explores gender to be named after her.

Ironically, all the stories in the collection have male protagonists. Some of the stories are quite phallic. I dare you to convince me (you can tell me all you want, but that doesn't count) that "On the Last Afternoon" is not quite phallic. In it, some anthropodic behemoths threaten to destroy a human colony that built on a lovely clearing, of course not realizing that it was a clearing because the behemoths mated there every thirty or so years and were big enough to hit with the force of a tornado.

We were talking about feminism briefly on another thread. These stories span a few decades, and it's interesting to see how she begins with male characters and no particular focus on gender. Then feminism appears and men are the enemy. I'm assuming these were written during the time period people were saying war would end if women ruled the world, (never mind we've had women rulers who were warriors before). After that, the stories are still quite feminist but gender and sex is explored more carefully.

That said, the last story I read, "Slow Music." Blech. Maybe I was just needed a break from Tiptree. At this point, I'd realized she leans towards horror, meaning her plots tend toward dissolution rather than resolution. "Slow Music" was a post-apocalyptic mash-up of Yeats, the garden of Eden and the rapture. It had talking goats in it. DorsVenabli, maybe it was the talking goats that got to me.

Lol, I think hitting all the TIOLIs has been achieved twice! It's quite a social little offshoot of the bigger 75 group and shows up how obsessed we all are with our books! And the 'leave it' part is quite important as a few of us list too many books on the off chance that someone will do a shared read with us.

I think @sibyx (Lucy) was reading Tiptree last year.

Kerry, that makes total sense. Shared reads are fun! A lot of the challenge ideas are cool and stuff I've thought of, author born in January, book from year reader born etc. Might not get to those ideas though!

I'll have to find sibyx. It sounds like we may have similar tastes.

I am adding Blacksad to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Katie. I hope my local library gets copies of the books in soon.

BlackHole is a great name for the Wishlist!!! Yes, it's nice to be able to get GNs from the library. The store price is $19.99 for Blacksad here. For a splurge, that's okay but buying the whole series would definitely eat up a person's book budget. I'm at the library right now, and trying hard not to go see if they've got another one! I want to space them out throughout the year.

Unfortunately my local library does not carry a lot of graphic novels, so I either have to buy them myself (not happening right now!) or just live without reading them.

:( That's sad. I think mine has quite a few, but they aren't often on the shelf.

Hi Katie, I've followed you over from another thread. Welcome to our group! It's really fun around here, but be prepared to see your reading wishlist rage out of control! I'm a fellow Sci-Fi lover, and look forward to seeing what books you read this year.

Welcome! I love your pic of your dog! Dogs always seem so joyful when they are running and playing. I saw your post on mstrust's thread about art forgers and looked for your thread here.

I really don't read sci-fi at all, but it's my hubby's favorite genre. Still, looking forward to seeing what you are reading.

Sandy K

Welcome Hannah and Sandy!!! Glad to see you here, and I know about that wishlist!!! The people at the category challenge have been slipping books into the list for a few years. Now I'm sure it will double in size!

I love action pics of dogs!!! They are so expressive, and their body language is so quick and fluent that sometimes I have to have a still picture to catch it!!!

Book #5 for TIOLI #21, a book I meant to read last year (and the year before) Devil in the White City has the ex-honors of being the book that has languished on my wishlist for the longest time. I'm glad I finally got to it. This White City, the world's fair in Chicago, for good or bad was the inspiration for Disney World. Walt's father worked on it. The book is replete with details. If that's your thing, history with minutia plus a bit of true crime on the side, this is the book for you. When the book ends, it's a bit like the White City has died again. I would've loved to have seen it - complete with all the exhibits that would look so patronizing to us today - although I don't think I'd love tasting shredded wheat for the first time. Shredded wheat really does nothing for me. ;)

I've been wanting to read Devil in the White City. It's been sitting on my shelf for years!

#36 - Um, perhaps I'll skip that once, especially as there are talking goats. : )

My goal is to sign up for all of the TIOLIs, but there's no hope that I'll ever read all of them.

#47 - Glad you enjoyed it. I'm about 2/3 done at this point. I do think the construction details get a bit tedious, but overall it's really well done.

Hi! Dors, you're right. It is really well done. Hibernator, I hope you can dust it off and read it sometime this decade. ;)

Every TIOLI??? Wow! I still haven't done much with the TIOLI thread, but it is kind of fun. Since I'm doing the category challenge too though, there's no hope that I can even do a third of them! Right now, I'm more worried about hitting my categories evenly while reading mostly books I already own.

Good start on both challenges so far - but I fear I'm getting *gasp* obsessive!

#47: I really like Erik Larson's books. He is one of my favorite nonfiction writers. His Isaac's Storm is also excellent, if you are in the mood for trying more of his stuff.

@51 Thanks! I'll have to keep my eye open for Isaac's Storm. Another friend of mine is telling me I must read In the Garden of Beasts. I probably won't read another Larson book this year, but he is definitely an author I will read again.

#6 Black Irish ER book I'm liking less and less the more I think about it. My official review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/13258057/93196789 Some people said Gone Girl got a bit hard to believe. Check this book out if you want a mystery that's even harder to believe. It started out great: sensible yet interesting female protagonist returns to police department of her tightly knit and closed mouth Irish-American community where there are some murders going on that seem to have their roots in IRA activity going back into the 70s and 80s. I loved the community, it's distrust of outsiders and even bare-faced prejudice especially against Italians. As for characters, the protagonist Abbi (initially - she goes a bit whack by the end) and her father who is fighting Alzheimers but still has moments where his old cop self returns are both interesting. Then the details start to slip and the characterization starts taking a back seat to the plot. If it hadn't started out well, I wouldn't be so frustrated. I feel like this could've been a good book with a few more revisions and a little suspension of disbelief. Instead, it felt forced and sloppy. Wah!

at least Black Irish works for a TIOLI - challenge 7 - starts with a B. I'll change Blacksad to challenge 22 - a book filled mostly with pictures.

Popping over here to say Welcome!! I am quite sure you will have fun over here. The good news is we are a very social bunch and you will have LOTS of ideas for reading. The bad news is you will have lots of ideas for reading and we are a very social group. : )

LOL Berly!!! You have spoken the truth! ... er I should say typed the truth.

: )

#7 works for TIOLI #9 13 letters Nothing, Nobody is a journalistic account of the devastating earthquakes that hit Mexico City in 1985. Wow. This was an emotionally difficult book to read so I hurried through it. It doesn't spend much time explaining the geology of the quakes, the area damaged, even the official politics of the quake. Instead it follows tales off survivors - people who were rescued from collapsed buildings, the volunteers who dug the people out of the buildings with whatever they had, people who helped families search through the bodies to find their loved ones. My official, and much more detailed review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/book/92872378 and there are many images from the aftermath that will stick with me for a long, long time.

I just thumbed your terrific review of Nothing, Nobody Katie. It sounds very powerful and will probably end up on my teetering tower. Have a great weekend!

Thanks Bonnie! It's worth reading. I had visited the city a couple years before this happened, so it felt very personal to me.

#58: Adding Nothing, Nobody to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Katie!

@61 Yes, the BlackHole is an apt name for the wishlist! You're welcome.

#8 works for TIOLI #14 author known by 3-part name. Letters to a Young Novelist by Mario Vargas Llosa. Very abstract bit of literary criticism, quite enjoyable. He doesn't look at the parts of the novel the way it is taught in North America, that's for sure. Then he ends the last letter by saying those are the techniques I know. There might be more, but most fall into these few. I started sputtering. The book isn't terribly long, and certainly there are several more techniques. He didn't touch psychic distance... and then I thought. Yes he did, but he called it something else. He didn't touch plot. Well, he's coming at it from a literary point of view, so plot isn't terribly important, or perhaps he doesn't consider it a technique. I don't know! So, for him, these brief 100+ pages actually do cover the whole of writing. LOL!!! As though anyone ever could.

Hi Katie! Nice to see you over in the 75ers too! Hope you're staying warm today. :)

The Letters to a Young Novelist sounds good--thanks for your review!

Good to see you two, too! Banjo, if you like Letters to a Young Novelist, you'll like this one too. Perfect illustration of everything Vargas Llosa was talking about.

#9 Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo fits into TIOLI #20 for me, read a book in a new-to-you method. I've read several short stories, poems and novellas in Spanish before, but this is the first time without my training wheels on. I didn't have an English translation to check my understanding against. And I picked Pedro Paramo to start with? I must be nuts! It had several regional Mexican words in it that weren't in my Spanish dictionary. I found myself scratching my head "escusado"-I should know what that means. Oh! toilet! I remember now. That makes sense, sort of, "Get off of the toilet or you'll be bitten by a snake." Outhouse, I can see that. But he's in bed?

The language wasn't too difficult though. I got through it, but with the nagging suspicion that I was more confused than I should've been. After all, the season kept changing. The father the character was going to see had died three weeks ago. His mother had died a week ago. But his father had died years before she had died. Huh? The narrator kept changing. There were long stretches of dialog, and while I was reading the dialog, I had the feeling that the person speaking had changed but there was no indication except what was being said. & yes, the weirdness continued. & by the way, this suited the book. I can't tell you much about it without giving you a spoiler, but of all the books in the world, this "confusion" suited it.

Then I followed up my reading by looking at a dissertation written circa 1975 about Rulfo's short stories and the techniques he used to disorient the reader. Everything I mentioned above, he mentioned in his dissertation. !!! Go me! I successfully read a Mexican classic.

Wow! You are really cranking out the books and reviews here. Well read and well done. I think I have to skip the latest one though. I can only read English and French! N'ablo espagnol. Or however you spell that!!

Adding Letters to a Young Novelist to the BlackHole. I have read several of Vargas Llosa's books, but not that one.

@67 I'm actually surprised at how many I've read. Pedro is widely translated, but I couldn't find it in English as an e-book and I've got a new e-book and read the first few pages and was deceived by the "simple" Spanish. French scares me!!! So many letters to make so few sounds!!! & your spelling sounds right even if it doesn't look right. ;)

Stasia - If you've read a lot of Vargas Llosa, you'll probably love Letters when and if you get to it. Beware though. It will add another dozen or so books to your black hole. Eventually, your black hole will become a singularity, will blow up and then will spew forth more books into the universe.

Book 10 also fits #10 of the TIOLI challenge, which makes 9 tiolis. That's a lot of tiolis for someone who didn't plan to try to read any tiolis. What's up for February?

#10 The Bone Tiki is an adventure story from New Zealand. A modern half-Maori boy finds himself compelled to take the bone tiki off his dead aunt's corpse before his father and his father's client can take the ancient talisman. Thus starts a chase across two New Zealands, one current and one mythical. Quite a fun, face paced YA read with enough battles to keep most boys happy.

& FYI - There's a group read of Zoo City starting soon in the 2013 Category challenge. Main thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/148951 Please join us! Zoo City is the first novel written by Lauren Beukes, a South African journalist become novelist. Her first novel published was Moxyland which is a fantastic cyberpunk, corporate dystopia novel set in Johannesburg - that takes many disturbing trends of today to even more disturbing lengths. I'm sure Zoo City is an equally good read.

I see that:
1. You like Good Omens, which is fantastic. I adore it as well. I've read it at least four times, and I always laugh. You should try some Discworld by Pratchett. I've cried laughing!

2. You have Ready Player One on your wishlist. I read that this month and can't stop recommending it to people. Make sure you get it posthaste :)

BTW... hi there. I'm Esquiress!

I definitely want to read some Discworld! Good to know about Ready Player One. I'll have to try to get to it soon.

>73 cammykitty:. Yeah, I'm trying to get to Graceling as part of Fantasy February, but the library is currently out of it. That means I have to read something between now and, say, Tuesday. Think I can fit in Shades of Grey? I sure hope so :)

Graceling has been hot. I've only read the first 20 or so pages for it. I was doing a crash talk on the latest YA sf&f so had to look at a lot of books quickly. It looks well written and dark. Shades looks like a fun, quick read. You can do it!

Cammy,
That crash talk sounds fun. What was it like? Why were you doing it?

Yeah, and I want the Cliff notes or you could come give the talk in person...!

LOL - the talk is a couple years out of date. I was doing two things that year. I was working as a para at summer school with a teacher that wanted to switch places with me, so we team taught and I did daily book talks for the kids - using this website to find the hottest and newest books for them. http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook

I also attend/volunteer at a really small SF&F convention Diversicon and usually am on a panel there. That year, I was on the What to read in YA fantasy panel with David Lenander who is one of the judges for the Mythopoeic Award and Michael Levy who is a professor at Stout, reviewer for Publishers Weekly. If you're doing a panel with Michael, hey, there's nothing to fear. He's fantastic. The book we had the most interesting discussion on from that particular year was Demon's Lexicon - which was a first novel by Sarah Rees Brennan and David said what I was thinking and too polite to say - the main character had autism, if you want to use real world terms.

Cammy,
That sounds AWESOME!

@79 It was lots of fun. A few of us have been planning a panel on Mexican fantasy for the next Diversicon, and I'm starting to get cold feet.

#11 - The first ten short stories in The Weird: Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. The Weird is so long it almost has to be read as an e-book. It does exist in paper, but it's about the size of the Oxford English Dictionary. So I'm taking it in chunks.

The editors propose that "Weird" is a sub-genre of fantasy and science fiction, and I thought I understood what they meant - something kind of like Slipstream or Interstitial. If you're part of "fandom" you'll know what I mean, if not... hmmm, not an easy way to explain. Slipstream and Interstitial describe stories that have a fantasy element, but either not a strong fantasy element or it could be interpretted both ways, or it includes works that cross genres.

The Weird is organized in chronological order, so the first ten are from the early 1900s and are from all over the world, the most surprising inclusion perhaps Rabindranath Tagore who is a Nobel Prize laureate from India (Bengali). The first ten stories were quite good although I would cry no tears if I relived my life and skipped reading "The Dissection" by Georg Heym. As for "weird" being a sub-genre of its own, I'm not seeing it yet. These stories were basically gothic horror. If you've read J.S le Fanu of Algernon Blackwood, you know exactly the kind of stories I'm talking about.

Wow Katie, I'm just getting my feet wet with fantasy for the first time. I read and loved Tigana last year and I'm planning to read The Lions of Al-Rassan this month for FF but you certainly sound like an old hand at it. The Weird sounds fascinating, to say the least.

Popping over to say hello. Glad to have you join us. What a wonderful picture of your doggie above. I am working on getting my pictures on here, but always encounter an issue. I have 6 dogs, 4 American Bulldogs and 2 mini dachshunds so I have lots of pictures I would love to get on here. You are off to a great start! I'll definitely be back to read your reviews. I am a writer also, so I do understand the way reading can be an excuse to keep you from writing. But what a lovely excuse! Good Reading in February to you! You have inspired me to take a look at TIOLI but I already have quite a bit going on this year! Not sure I should start another challenge. See you on the posts! Mary Beth

>80 cammykitty:: Wow! What a cool topic! Rock on with your bad self. No cold feet :)

@82 Bonnie - yes, fantasy has been my top genre most of my life. I wouldn't touch it for awhile when I was in college and several years after. I've never read Guy Gavriel Kay though, and my Category Challenge friends say I need to fix this. Tigana was the one I picked for the WL, but when I realized how long it was... They're telling me I should pick up Lions instead, especially since I have a little background knowledge on Spain. Little - it's all from reading those dual-language Spanish anthologies that start back in the 13th or 14th century and then stop at Unamuno. Have you started Lions yet?

@83 Hi Mary Beth! I saw your cute dachsie on your profile. What a sweetie. I can't wait to see your pack. TIOLI is fun, and I know I haven't explored it fully. Looks like it's a way to encourage tandem and trio reads which I'd like to do more of. But yes, category challenge takes precedence. This year in the Cat challenge, I listed everything I meant to read last year and didn't, but still wanted too. It made me realize I need a certain amount of focus to get through what I want to read. Ooo, shiny... What was I saying?

@84 Thanks! It's just such a broad topic!!! I could research it for my entire life! We were supposed to discuss Three Messages and a Warning last year, which is a new anthology of Mexican fantasy short stories, but the anthology was sloppily edited and a bit inconsistent. & my other panelist had a family crisis, so we cancelled. This year, Eric is planning on joining us. He's a librarian, very well read, and is also the main organizer behind Diversicon. Since Three Messages was so hot & cold, we figured it wasn't enough to base a panel on. If it happens, we'll be discussing Aura for sure, and I'm sure someone in the audience will stray a bit off topic and ask about Magical Realism. One of the frustrating things about the topic though, is I know if I was fluent and could cross the border and cruise around Mexico City for awhile, I'd find plenty to talk about.

Hi Katie--Sigh. Okay, then I call dibs on a personal presentation of whatever your next talk is! The motto for Portland is "Keep it Weird" which seems to fit with your latest category of reading. Perfect fit, right?

@86 LOL! Berly, great idea. Sounds like I should gather psutto who started me on the Weird, Eric and perhaps a couple others and we'll invade Portland for a talk. It would be fun, but alas not likely to happen. If you're interested in Weird, the author to watch is Kelly Link, and the press to watch is hers, Small Beer Press.

Hi Katie!

How are you enjoying Zoo City? I remember liking that one quite a bit. I really have to read Moxyland one of these days too.

Dors, I liked Moxyland better. I'm expecting Zoo City will pay off, but I'm on page 200 and have the feeling she's still warming up and getting all her game pieces into play. One person pearl ruled it in our group read. Totally agree, if someone isn't getting into it, quit reading - but I also feel a bit bad because I'm the one that suggested it. So far, it seems like it's a much simpler and much more conventional novel than Moxyland.

One thing I love about it though, is you can totally see how her magic system developed. She read His Dark Materials and started asking herself what if what if what if.

#12 Help for Your Fearful Dog: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Your Dog Conquer His Fears by Nicole Wilde 5 star read only because I badly need this book. It made me realize my dog is not afraid of everything. He's not afraid of the leash, stairs, airplanes and thunderstorms. He is afraid of cars, even my car if the engine is running and he isn't in it, dogs, almost all people, election campaign signs, boxes that weren't in that exact location the day before, the freezer door when it moves too fast... You get the idea. I've read tons and tons of dog books on fear and related issues over the last year, and I've assisted in classes from puppy to intermediate obedience with a several year stint in the fear-aggressive dog class, which we called "growly dog class." So, yes, I've used DAP spray before, calming caps, TTouch, wraps, targets, desensitization and counterconditioning. Not much in this book wasn't already familiar to me. However, I do badly need some sort of structure for dealing with this four-footed creature that has moved into my house. He's looking innocent right now, trying to sleep and keep an eye on me at the same time. I've got tons of little post-it flags sticking out of the book. Next step is to go back through my notes on the book to make a BIP for Sage - a Behavior Improvement Plan. Sigh... thinking about all the work ahead of us just makes me tired.

I am so impressed with what a good dog-owner you are! We are always intending to work with our dog--but somehow it never happens.

Well, that's the thing. It's so easy to let it go until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I don't do nearly as much with Sage as I should. For example, no walkies today. It's cold out!!! And we haven't done any training yet either, but I'm going to make him do hand touch & eye contact for his pills tonight. We almost always get that much in. But sad to say, often it's not more than that. - One of my friends from Spain says there is a saying "The cobbler's children have no shoes." It tends to be true with dog trainers too. We spend so much time training other people's dogs that we don't do enough with our own.

He did get a nice long session of TTouch - he wouldn't let me stop, but I was trying to work on his hindquarters and tail and he insisted on belly instead! Isn't that just like a dog.

Book #13 (and #25 of TIOLI - book where animal figure prominently) Zoo City.

Ya know, the suspension of disbelief is a fine art. Yup, for the sake of a good story, I'll believe that a murderer's guilt might manifest itself in a symbiotic animal of the person's unconscious choosing. Of course I'll believe these people would live in slums, and the life there would be exactly like Lauren Beukes says. Scammers, sure. Drug dealers, sure. Sangomas/voodoo-type medicine men, of course. That stuff already exists. I was with her, even though my little brain was thinking things like "oh, it would've been better if she'd put one of these murders earlier in the book" or "why did so-&-so see her to see that creepy guy when he wasn't that important, and it was conceivable that she would've consulted such a person on her own as part of her investigation. Yup, my critical mind never shuts up, even while suspending disbelief. Still okay. But when people who are human, except for their animal, take damage that would've slowed down Clark Kent but survive, maybe even thrive, despite first aid that would make any Red Cross instructor cringe? No, you lost me. & when the law doesn't do what the law always does, well maybe, if this were the only thing, but by this time, yes, you lost me.

boxes that weren't in that exact location the day before

My cat does that. Is it wrong that I find it funny? She comes trotting in the back door, and if I've put a bag down or moved something, the reaction in body language is something along the lines of, "OH MY GOD THE UNIVERSE AS I KNOW IT HAS CEASED TO EXIST!!!!"

...for about five minutes and then she remembers that she's hungry. :)

LOL!!! Evil human!!! I'll bet you move furniture just to make fun of her!

No, you aren't evil. I laugh at Sage all the time because he totally deserves it. Afraid of a pizza box? For reals? So the yummy smell coming from it is just a trap?

Afraid of pizza boxes!? Okay, now the universe as *I* know it has ceased to exist! :)

Is Sage a dog that you got from a shelter or a previous owner? Do these issues come from any kind of abuse? Of my 4 AB's, one is super-skittish and I can promise you the princess has never been abused so I think it can just be something they develop based on their personalities. My male (Remy) is very different in temperament than my females, although, that said, not one of them is iffy in the aggression department with humans, dogs walking by the house, though, that is another story, sister! So, anyway, my skittish girl, Darla, is afraid of the dark and has to be let out with her sister, Rae, at night. She is long-legged and gawky and if something scares her she skitters all over the floor, running in place, bumping into everything, leaping over the dachshunds, in full panic mode, while everybody else (including dogs) just stands there and watches her, wondering what the hell the commotion is about. Having said that, in usual canine fashion, she redeems herself, by kissing us like a human, with a closed mouth,pecking us repeatedly on our mouth, turning her head for another kiss, she dances in place with sheer delight when we come home to her, and she runs like the most graceful gazelle in the backyard. All of them smile, wrinkling up their already wrinkly noses, showing their teeth, wiggling their butts and tap-dancing over to us for loving. So, while Darla just seems to have that skittish personality, she was the runt of the litter, born without a sac, bled from her umbilical area a bit, and had to be revived by me, and fed by us, because her mommy rejected her, not completely but she did have nine puppies and I guess she sensed the vulnerable one. She did eventually accept her, and she thrived. I was very proud to say that Lyla (the mommy) and I delivered all nine puppies, the first time for both of us and didn't lose one! My daughter, Cara helped too, because initially I did collapse to my knees crying, in a panic, "I can't do this, oh my God!" She told me to pull myself together, I did, and the rest is history. I promise I won't take up your page with my meanderings, I just thought you might appreciate the story, and certainly, skittish animals are sometimes just born that way, but I'm sure they can be helped at least partially, by training and steady, comforting, love.

@96 Hey, some of those boxes are big! ;) & in his defense, when the box is on a table, open, and full of hot pizza, he has no fear of it at all.

@97 Darla sounds a lot like Sage. He certainly wasn't abused. He was very much loved, and his previous owner calls me once in awhile to check up on Sage. I know he's been following Sages progress online too. Sage had been the breeder's pick of the litter but once he was older, a few flaws showed up. The breeder eventually decided to rehome him with me because I had recently lost a dog and the breeder thought Sage wanted more one-on-one human time. I think Sage was born a bit shy but then didn't get out much. He had a sheltered upbringing so a lot of things are new to him. & he also grew up with a litter mate who he relied on to decide what was scary and what wasn't. & yes, Sage really does want to be an "only" but he isn't used to making the scary/not scary decision on his own. I haven't even had him a year yet, so some of this is perhaps new home trauma. He's getting soooo many new experiences right now. I try walking him with friends' dogs, and we sometimes have Irish Water Spaniel house guests and that seems to be helping.

Isn't whelping a litter cool and scary too! I've only assisted a whelping once. It's magic.

#14 Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter. Alas, not a TIOLI. This little collection of short stories went down too fast. I've read Angela Carter's fairytale based short stories before and was blown away by them. These are a little more of a slow burn. I didn't know what to think of the first story "The Fall River Axe Murders" which is a very atmospheric telling of Lizzie Borden's little freak out. I felt very uncomfortable reading it because it almost seemed as though she was saying the murders happened because of the heat, the ridiculous Protestant clothes, the indolent and trapped role of the wealthy women, Mr. Borden's miserliness and a bunch of pigeons. Part of me starts fighting that, saying lots of women wore wool in the summer and stayed at home but they never took an axe to someone! But that of course wasn't the point of the story. It isn't about justifying why she did it or telling how she did it. It's more about recreating a town, a lifestyle and an environment that included these murders.

It actually took me a few stories to "acclimatize' to her style. Once I did, I found these pieces to be rich character, setting or period sketches. She often uses historic events for a starting point, but the facts isn't what she's after. Some of the pieces are tragic, some are humorous. All are thick with atmosphere and worth reading.

The 1975 TV movie The Legend Of Lizzie Borden does an excellent job in telling the story, obviously believing her guilty but scrupulously presenting the case for the defence as well. While it insists that the overriding issue was the inheritance, there is also a suggestion that the straw that broke the camel's back was Mr Borden's refusal to install an indoor toilet, which...I find strangely persuasive, psychologically speaking. :)

I'll have to look for the movie. I haven't read much about her historically, but the detail I've run into before that blows me away is that she was acquitted mainly on the grounds that she was a woman. Mr Borden sounds like he was a piece of work.

Since I grew up in Massachusetts, quite near Fall River, I heard about Lizzie Borden a great deal, especially when my brothers wanted to tease me. We lived in a 4 story house so that means basement and attic, both of which were very scary. If I was in either place my brothers would take the opportunity to recite, "Lizzie Borden had an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks, when the job was nicely done , she gave her father 41", and then chase me, screaming, all over the place. I have read many versions of her story and I have to say, more than a few of them seemed to use the same contention that you are mentioning, that she was driven to it by outside forces that sort of conspired to compel her behavior.

Re: Sage- I just love his picture and what a cool breed! What is their temperament supposed to be like, and is he like that? I find my AB's to be pretty much what their breed is supposed to be, at the same time, each of them have very distinct personalities. The one thing I find odd is that they like the cold weather and are very lethargic in the heat. They will wear their coats without a problem, but they are so active and peppy in the cold. Rainy days, though, they sleep and sleep and sleep, it's downright funny that they recognize the weather changes so distinctly that it affects their behavior. My doxies,well, they are very true to type, stubborn, one is the alpha female, the other, Kaia, is a loner, but they are so independent and wily, and they absolutely never give up if you are preparing food or eating. Boston will stand at my feet for literally hours if perchance a crumb may come her way, and of course they do, so she hangs in for the next one. Just don't drop anything you really want, cuz chances are, it's history.

I think I have one TIOLI read, because it is an ER book, but it seems a bit confusing to get started. Everybody on here is so helpful, though, I have no doubt they will help me if I screw up at all.

*98 "Isn't whelping a litter cool and scary too! I've only assisted a whelping once. It's magic." I've never been present at the birth of puppies, but I can appreciate how marvellous it is, having been present at a few lambings, and most memorably, a baby cow being born that I had to help heave out with birthing ropes. I was just a young girl, and staying on my friend's parent's farm, in the stable in the middle of the night in my jim jams, and all on a school night! Most thrilling. It did make me think though - if I lived on a farm I'd probably end up becoming a vegetarian - all those little animal lives to get caught up in, and then....gulp.
Glad you enjoyed the Angela Carter. She's a favourite author of mine, and one that doesn't get enough kudos, in my opinion. I added that collection to the wish list, as I own a lot of her books, but didn't even know about that one, so thanks!

@103 Wow!!! Helping birth a baby cow! Cool. & I agree. I'm not vegetarian, but after reading as many animal behavior books as I have, I'm kind of a reluctant omnivore.

I love Angela Carter too, and am hoping to read The Bloody Chamber later this year. I've dipped into it from time to time, but haven't read it cover to cover. She is very overlooked, and seems we lost her much too young.

@102 Ha!!! You should've been the one running after them with the imaginary axe!!! Did you ever go see the Borden house? I read something that said it had been turned into a bed and breakfast. It has to have been changed beyond all recognition to be a B&B I'd be willing to stay at! The authentic Lizzie Borden experience wouldn't be up to either modern health or modern fire codes. It was one of those houses with no hallways.

He he! Sage loves the cold and snow too, and Dillon did even though he had the Irish Water Spaniel bare belly and bare butt. You'd think he'd be cold, but he wasn't. Sage would have a typical IWS if he had confidence. As far as conformation goes, he doesn't have the bare neck they are supposed to have. Water Spaniels are supposed to be a bit aloof with strangers, but the Minnesota ones share a lot of common ancestry and they tend to be quite outgoing. IWS are super smart and often decide if they want to do what you have asked them to do. They love food, but only certain foods. My vet tech used to tease Dillon by giving him the "wrong" treat first. Dillon would take it, spit it out on the floor, and then ask her for the right one, which she would give him. Then he *might* deign to eat the wrong treat. They are retrievers (ie Thievers) and always want to have something in their mouths. Sage is a big squeaky toy fiend. He's always running outside with his squeaky, and I have to remind him to bring it back in. (There's a pink pig frozen into the yard that we won't recover until spring.) Great agility dogs, great obedience dogs - but ring savvy. ie you might get the perfect performance in the ring but not in real life. & if you're a bit tense in the ring (or tense anywhere) they turn into clowns. They want to cheer you up. It's a great goofy breed.

#15 Day of Tears by Julius Lester for black history month. It is about "The Weeping Time," the largest slave auction in the history of the United States. It lasted for two days, each one in heavy rain. This is an odd little book, written much like a play. There isn't a main character. Instead we hear a chorus of characters as we see families broken up and trusts betrayed. It's a very quick read, meant for a YA reader. As slavery goes, it's a kind book and a good introduction to the subject. It puts human faces on the tragedy and describes it quite well without either minimizing it or going into the more gory details. Definitely a 5 star read.

I'm glad to read your review of Saints and Strangers Katie as I have the book and would love to read it sometime soon. I recently read the first page to see what it was about (I didn't even realize it was a ss collection) and was immediately drawn in. I've never read anything by Angela Carter.

Ooo Bonnie, you have to read Angela Carter. I might recommend starting with The Bloody Chamber but if Saints and Strangers is already on your shelves, go for it.

#16 Bimbos of the Death Sun ROFLMOA!!! 5 star read for me. I'm not sure someone who didn't know "fandom" would think it was so hysterical. (& btw not all fans are incompetents with heavy social skills deficits. She hit that a bit heavy, but wasn't completely off. Every Con has that person who sits in the corner of the Con Suite eating doritos, eavesdropping and shunning everyone there. Every Con has the unskilled author who either is badgering all the other authors for the "magic key" to writing, or worse has a ream of manuscript papers he/she wants you to read.) At Diversicon, our "magic key" author has been asking for years about w w why is Jjjj Kkkk Rowlings so popular. We were relieved when he started asking about Stephenie Meyer too. & he has a code name "That Guy" which I hope he doesn't know about.

So, I should get to the point. Bimbos of the Death Sun is a murder at a Science Fiction/Fantasy convention. The victim is a mash up of perhaps Harlan Ellison, Robert Jordan, Gordon Van Gelder, Terry Brooks - Not meaning to insult anyone but Harlan. Harlan is the only one I know for sure is as irascible as the GoH who is the obvious murder victim about to happen for much of the book. Not a spoiler there, because you know the minute he enters the Con someone has to kill this guy. Not much love going around. Matter of fact, the kind of love going around is the love of a good story. They want to see how naughty/whacked/abusive the GoH is going to get. (Yup, this is what a Con with Harlan is like. Lots of fun, hysterical as a matter of fact, but certainly not suitable for polite company.)

& of course, favorite moment is when the editor thinks to himself "I'll have to get Harlan Ellison to do the eulogy." - which blows me away because that line was written long before Harlan was pilloried for eulogizing Octavia Butler as "a King Kong of a woman" to his Faye Wray. She had been a student of his and he was extremely fond of her. I actually saw him start sniffling while he was talking about her. He just is too... Harlan... to realize/care that what he said would be seen as racist. Oh, and it's Harlan Ellison Circle R. His name is a registered trademark.

>108 cammykitty:: That sounds hilarious :) Book bullet caught.

ETA: I just ordered it from PaperBack Swap!

LOL!!! Glad you could find a copy so fast!!! Hope you enjoy it.

Bimbos of the Death Sun doesn't sound at all like the type of thing I usually read, and I've never been to a SF convention (although I'd like to) but you do make it sounds like near-irresistible amounts of fun.... onto the wishlist it goes!

@111 Hope you like it! It's almost as fun as being at a real Con. ;)

I actually don't do much SF anymore, but I have in the past. I really liked Bimbos of the Death Sun when I read it -- Sharyn McCrumb is really a good writer.

#90 - I've put the dog book on my wishlist. We're still having issues : (

#108 - I've only been to one X-Files convention, back in the day (and that's probably too lame to count), so I'm not very familiar with this scene, but I may give this a try anyway. It sounds fun.

@113 Yes, Sharyn McCrumb is fun. I think the first one of hers I read was Paying the Piper. Ingenious way to kill people. ;)

@114 Ooooo, hope the book helps with the issues. I so want every dog to be a confident dog. - an X-Files Con? Didn't even know they had them! Back in the day, that would've been fun. & it probably gives you a good idea. I wonder if it had a sceptic's panel. Those can be fun if the panelists are masters of sarcasm. They go through every supernatural thing ever thought up and debunk them thoroughly. Every Con has it's own flavor of course, but some things never change.

#115 - It was apparently in April of 1998, but the 90s are a blur, quite frankly, so I couldn't tell you if there was a skeptic's panel....

http://www.ink19.com/issues_F/98_06/live_ink/xfiles_expo_nf.html

you find yourself going through a smoky maze of file cabinets to simulate the atmosphere of the show. LOL - I'll bet. It does sound quite different from the average Con. This sounds like it was a low budget X-Files amusement park. They had an episode named "Chinga?" For reals??? Didn't Stephen King and Chris Carter know what that means??? I'll bet King knows and Carter doesn't. So I'll have to quit telling my Spanish speaking kids that inappropriate words are inappropriate regardless of whether they are said in English or Spanish. Guess it's okay if it's Spanish.

#17 The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by Justine Larbalestier takes us to the more serious side of fandom and science fiction conventions than Bimbos of the Death Sun. SF fandom has always had a vague agenda (several agendas from time to time, but this one is always there) to improve the world through science including the sciences of anthropology and sociology. Women especially have been behind the push to include the "soft" ha ha sciences of anthropology/sociology/psychology in along side the "hard" science of astronomy and physics. For example the K in Ursula K LeGuin's name stands for Krober. Her father, Dr. Krober, was a well known anthropologist of his day who studied in particular the last member of a particular Native American tribe. If that isn't an idea germ for science fiction, I don't know what is.

The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by Justine Larbalestier is a short book (under 250 pages if you don't count the notes and bibliography) but it takes some time and emotional energy to read it properly. People like Joanna Russ and Ursula LeGuin had already changed Science Fiction by the time I became a reader. I always knew women had a long way left to go, but this book shows the origins and the context of the "battle" in a way I hadn't thought of before. I hadn't thought of the fact that women had just won the right to vote in the United States at the time that the first Science Fiction magazines, fanzines and pulps were getting their start. Of course I knew the farther we go back into history, the more of a men's world it was. I hadn't thought of this as "segregation" though, which in many ways it was.

And, annoying as it is, one of the charms of this book is the many original letters reprinted from mainly the 30s. We get to hear a young Isaac Asimov (18 or 19 and never been kissed) go on about how there is no place for romance or women in science fiction because swooning damsels just get in the way and only two science fiction writers have the chops to write female characters well. Yup, he gets into a snail mail flame war.

I loaded up my nook with cheap $2 anthologies of Golden Age sf so I can see where we've been, and I'll be mulling over The Battle of the Sexes for awhile.

Why do the IWS's have the bare spots on them?

@119 - they're bred that way, kind of like the poodle cut on a poodle only it doesn't have to be cut. It's supposedly for water dynamics, which makes some sense, neck & tail - but then they have a beard to protect the neck, ha ha ha. Even the grrls.

Wow, I can't believe I've never heard of The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction! That's one I'd love to track down ASAP, despite the fact that it sounds like it'll add a gazillion books to my TBR list once I've read it.

Found you! I can't believe I didn't have you starred, but I've remedied that. I've also added The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction to my TBR list (thanks!)

Karen O.

@121 - like every book that has ever won a Tiptree Award? She talks more about short stories than novels, so yes it will make you want to run out and read more, but it isn't as bad as some literary criticism books where it makes your library double in size. ;) After all, some of the stories she discusses I'm grateful she told me about them so I won't ever make the mistake of reading them.

@122 Karen, glad you found me!!! & that Battle interests you. It's certainly worth reading.

#18 Well this makes up for my last stinky, nose-clip on nose, ER book I received. Under Shifting Glass surprised me. At first I took at as another fairly artless first person YA novel about grief that dabbles into fantasy since that's so hot now.

Oh no no. I was wrong. That artless voice? It was quite planned and well done. Our narrator is a young, often confused, girl who is a gifted pianist and quite imaginative. That fantasy element - is it? I say this is not a fantasy. Instead her "magic bottle" is the way Jess, our protagonist, sees the world. It is mysticism that belongs more under the category of religion than fantasy. The book explores mysticism, superstition and skepticism, all while our protagonist is dealing with a bigger issue. Her mother has just given birth to conjoined twins, and statistics show that their future is precarious.

My real review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/book/94065589# if you're interested. I gave it 4 1/2 stars.

Great review of Under Shifting Glass. I thumbed it :) I might even think about adding it to my wishlist!

Under Shifting Glass sounds terrific! I gave your review a thumbs-up, and I've added the book to my "to read" list.

Karen O.

Thanks Karen!!!

#19-20 The Book Thief My heart is breaking.

The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction looks interesting Katie but I will probably err on the side of caution given that I am losing my own battle of the sexes on a daily basis in the non-fiction section!

Have a lovely weekend.

Paul, thanks for stopping by! Sorry you're nonfiction section is ganging up on you! Unread books will do that. ;)

Hi Katie, I'm one of the few people who haven't read The Book Thief but it is on my shelf so I'm one step closer to reading it. I'll look forward to your review.

@131 I'm not sure I can review The Book Thief any better than other people have. It is about a girl, Liesel, orphaned by Hitler's Germany who is sent to live with a family on a poor street just outside of Munich and not to far from Dachau. She has nightmares and can not read. Her new father is very kind to her, stays up with her each night after the nightmare and teaches her to read. - This is just a small portion of the plot. It's a very scattered plot including a Jew in the basement. What makes the book stand out though is the loving detail spent on each of the characters. We come to care for so many of them, even though from the very beginning we're told it isn't going to end well for most of them.

The flaw of the novel, as a YA novel, is that it requires a fair amount of background knowledge about WW II. Many things are alluded to and not explained. Liesel is only 7 at the beginning of the book, and many things go over her head. She doesn't know what a Communist is except that her father is one, doesn't know where her mother went but has over heard "what will they do to her." She doesn't know who "they" are, let alone what they might do to her mother. Dachau is mentioned, but what happens there is implied. For an adult reader, this is great. We know. For the 6th grade girl I know who tried reading this, it was an insurmountable obstacle. By 8th grade, when they learn more about the War, a lot of the kids are already reading adult novels.

#21 Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - A very quick read with a big emotional punch. This is cartoonist/humorist Bechdel's memoir on growing up. She compares her family to the Addams family - goofy mansion, funereal clothing, off-limits coffins, her father was a mortician - but to be honest, the Addams family fit the ideal of average American family of the latter half of the 20th century more closely than hers did. The story revolves completely around her father and the tense-to-toxic atmosphere around him because of his dishonesty over his sexual identity.

A telling thing about this memoir? There is very little dialog, and when there is, it is extraordinarily brief. Hers was a family that didn't talk. She calls it a tragicomedy. I found little to laugh about. Yes, much of it was absurd as life is. Instead, it is rich with conflicting emotions.

>132 cammykitty:: I really like what you have to say about The Book Thief.

Hi Katie!

#117 - I just looked up "Chinga." Ha! Oops!

#133 - I read Fun Home yesterday and was blown away by the brutal honesty. So well done, and good point about the dialogue.

@134 Thanks Esquiress - it is a really beautiful book about love and caring, even if it is in the middle of Nazi Germany.

@135 Seems like a lot of people have been reading Fun Home recently. I thought it was a new book, but when I got my library copy it obviously wasn't. Someone had spilled water all over it. Either that or they weeped buckets, literally. Copyright 2006. Brutal honesty is right, and it was so required. How could you discuss a man like her father without speaking plainly. Did you notice in the acknowledgments that she thanked her mother and brothers by name for "letting" her write the book. Obviously there was discussion among the family about whether or not these particular memories were too painful to share.

Hi, I was just wondering how Sage was doing and how his training was going. I have finished a few books so I will have the reviews up over the next few days if you want to check them out. I have seen many reviews of The Book Thief but you made some points that I thought were quite important and seemed to have been neglected by most of the other reviewers.

@137 Thanks Mary Beth. I've been getting a bit discouraged with Sage lately but I shouldn't be. I just got home from a walk with him and his grrrfriend Lila. Lila is the same breed as he is so he became pretty comfortable with her pretty quickly. He was soooo excited when she came to the door, and while we were on the walk I fed him cheese or freeze dried stuff whenever we saw a person or person with a dog coming. He sniffed every single one of the people just as they were leaving. Some people talked to him and he acted a little shy, but not really fearful. He sniffed butts with the mini golden doodle. Huge improvement!!! How are your dogs doing?

Brutal honesty is a great way to describe Bechdel's approach in Fun Home! Sorry to learn that you are getting discouraged with Sage lately, but it sounds like there is some progress in the training.

Sage will get there - and poor thing is getting compared to Dillon a lot lately because we're coming up on the anniversary of his death - this Wednesday - we're going to go to his favorite dog park to honor him - without Sage. Sage can't handle dog parks yet, but he will. I'm really proud of how well he did this weekend, but today has been tough for him. They were using nail guns or something to put the roof on the house down the block. :( I don't think any dog would like that!

& yes, brutal honesty is about the only way to describe Fun Home.

#22 Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language as in anthropological study of the hereditary deafness that was common on Martha's Vineyard for three hundred years. Four of the original settlers of Martha's Vineyard came from the same area of Kent in England that was isolated enough that the recessive gene for deafness was common in the population. Groce did an excellent job of putting together a picture of the past through genealogical research and interviews of the few people then alive on the island that remembered the deaf. What she pieced together was an amazing picture of a low tech isolated agrarian/fishing community and how they adapted to what we consider a disability. On the island, it wasn't a disability. People with hearing were so used to being around the deaf that the community became bilingual, most people learning sign language as babies slightly before they learned speech. Outsiders would come into the general store in the evening where everyone was sitting around swapping stories in sign, and then find out that only 4 of the 20 men were deaf. One outsider went to a dance and as she was leaving remarked that her partner hadn't spoken to her. Then they explained, oh you're talking about so-&-so. Of course he didn't speak. But he'd managed to keep up with the rest of the dancers even though he hadn't been able to hear the music or the caller. I've done country dancing. I can't do that, even with the music and the caller. Tons of small town stories, but sadly, not much about the actual sign language and whether or not it had an impact on the spoken language. The bilingualism was dying out by the time Groce did her research.

#141-Wow, that was something I don't remember ever hearing about and I grew up not far from there in Brockton, Mass and visited Martha's Vineyard as I got older.It sounds like an interesting book but I agree that there should have been more about the sign language itself.

One of my females is very friendly, the other is very stand-offish. That is the two puppies. They are about 2 years old now. I think I will try the treat giving with Rae when she meets new people. They are the same with new dogs also. One friendly, the other, not so much. Do you have any other suggestions for helping them to be less wary? Their mother is what I would not call aggressive but unfriendly, not shy, so I tell people not to bring their dogs close. She is fine with people though. And my male is friendly with people and okay with other dogs but since they are so big I don't take too many chances. People say their dogs are friendly and then I can see by the dog's body language that it is not friendly. Since I have bulldogs they can potentially lock onto the other dog and cause a great deal of damage if not death on a smaller dog. Again, I don't feel my dogs are aggressive but I am leery about other people when I don't know them and they say their dog is friendly but that is not what I am seeing. We try to socialize our dogs but the winter keeps us in a great deal and they lose some progress.

Is Sage's grrrfriend Lila with a long I? My female is Lyla. The male is Remy and the two puppies (they will forever be the puppies) are Rae and Darla. Remy and Lyla are named after 2 characters in Any Given Sunday

@142&3 Yes, Lila with a long I and it's an acronym for something like Lucky Irish Little Angel. I can never remember if she's lucky first or little first. ;)

I know what you mean about people saying that their dog is friendly, but you can tell it isn't. I remember being with Dillon at Petco and a woman had a jack russell that "was friendly" in a shopping cart. Dillon was very curious about the terrier (or perhaps he liked tormenting it - he seemed to enjoy setting off reactive dogs and then looking around saying in dog "who, me, I didn't do anything. That dog is the crazy one.) Anyway, this "friendly" terrier was in the shopping cart, and I could see an invisible rectangle around the cart and knew that anytime Dillon's nose went inside the terrier's rectangle, it would explode. That's not friendly behavior. That's "I'm stuck in this cart and can't defend myself against you so go away now. See I'm big. See I have teeth. Teeth I say Teeth!!!"

The treats will help a lot. Watch yourself and make sure you aren't sending off stress signals like holding your breath. My only other tip is to remember to work with them without the other dogs around sometime. Hopefully they'll gain some confidence, and I totally know what you mean about the winter!!! I feel bad that I haven't been able to get Sage out much to experience new dogs, people, places etc but I think having some lower stress non-working, bond with me time has been good for him too. Some "fear" behavior books recommend that you give your dog a "vacation" from anything stressful for a week before starting a program with them to try to lower the stress hormones in their body. - How's that for an excuse to be lazy in the winter! ;)

#23 The Changeover by Margaret Mahy fits in March TIOLI #21 - read a work by an author who works in multiple styles/genres. Mahy is a childrens fantasy author from NZ, but her books are so varied I believe they count as different styles and different genres. She's written picture books, early readers, funny short stories that drip with alliteration The Chewing-gum Rescue and other stories with Florence, Flora, Felicity and - I can't remember the last girl's name? - being my favorite collection, as well as brainy middle-grade books and dark YA romances. The Changeover is probably her most well known and most successful of the Dark YA. It's a relatively simple plot - a girl must rescue her brother from a being that is sucking his essence out by becoming a... - but the characterization, and the romantic tensions within and without of the family are what makes this novel above and beyond the average YA fantasy.

Google is my friend. Mahy's Chewing-gum girls' names were Florence, Flora, Felicity, Fenella and Francesca and I had it on audio at one time. Great way to get rid of the worries of the day before falling asleep.

>132 cammykitty: Interesting comments on The Book Thief... I believe it was originally published (in Australia) as an adult novel, and one of the marketing changes in the U.S. was to make it a YA novel. It doesn't read like a YA novel to me, either, and our adult book discussion group at the library had a really interesting discussion about it last year.

>141 cammykitty: That sounds fascinating, though I'm glad to know going into it that there's not much about the language, or I would be disappointed. ASL is a blend of the French Sign Language brought here by teaching techniques for deaf students borrowed from France and the indigenous language (? not sure that's exactly the right phrase) used on Martha's Vineyard, and I think more about that would have been really interesting. (I was a Deaf Studies major once upon a time...hardly an expert, but definitely still interested.)

@147 Definitely not a YA novel - it's more like an Alex Award winner, which is a US award (American Library Association) for an adult novel that appeals to young adults. It did receive a Printz award, which is also an ALA award, but it is for a YA novel. The Printz award almost always goes to a YA novel that is suitable for the older end of YA. But here's one of the issues. When kids are ready for the older end of YA, they tend to start reading adult novels. They get a bit of pride out of being in the adult section. Marketing is really weird in the US, but I'm not sure taking a book like the book thief and making it YA is really helping it find it's readers.

& yes, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language is fascinating. I handed it off to a friend of mine who was a medical anthropologist. Happy squeals when she saw it. Friends are telling me Talking Hands has more about the actual sign language, so I'm hoping to read that at some time too.

>148 cammykitty: Ooh, thanks for that! Is Talking Hands the one coming up on the touchstone about Israeli sign language?

@149 Yes, that's the one. Looks like quite a mix of languages in the area they're discussing.

Hi Katie! I hope you're doing well!

#141 - That sounds like a fascinating read. I had never heard of that phenomenon either.

@151 *waves*

I'm halfway through the Count of Monte Cristo so probably won't be popping in to say I finished a book anytime soon. My version is 1252 pages long! It's getting painfully intense. I just wish the Count could let go of his purpose long enough to build friendships and enjoy himself. No - I can tell we're heading to a tragic finish. We've got a fatally flawed hero going.

I can tell we're heading to a tragic finish. We've got a fatally flawed hero going.

The Count is such a deliciously dark read. Happy to see you are already at the half-way mark!

Thanks Lori! Deliciously dark is a good way to put it.

Hi Katie, I am getting closer and closer to picking up The Count myself. Sounds like you are really enjoying it.

Totally loving the Count!

Hi there! Just swinging by to see what I missed.

Esquiress - good to see you! We missed you while you were ill.

Finally have your thread starred! And finally have my review of The Colour posted, which you had asked about. Oh I see that you are a dog trainer!We could have certainly used your skills when we adopted a Bichon Friese rescue nearly 5 years ago. We'd had a Border Terrier for 15 years prior, from the breeder. He was such an easy going guy - perhaps a little stand off ish. Well - Daisy came with an enormous amount of separation anxiety! Oh my! We live in a townhouse and of course we could not leave her to bark, which is how her anxiety manifested itself. Luckily it was September when we got here and when I had to go out grocery shopping etc I could take her in the car. We found a pet sitter too, and tried every behavioural technique we could find. Finally after 8 months or so, she let us leave the house without a fuss. sigh! She runs the household now! ;)

Deb !!! I would've thought your Border Terrier would've trained you in enough to handle anything! As a breed, they've got quite a feisty reputation, but I'll confess to having fallen in love with a Border Terrier named Iggy that came through my classes. He was the sweetest! & super smart! Years later, I was at a dog show and there was a boy sitting in the row behind me. He has a BT that was trying hard to get my attention. Yup, Iggy! I considered getting one before we got Sage. If I'd gotten a BT, I would never have to worry about the mice trying to come in for the winter again. & they're so cute in that dignified "don't call me cute" sort of way.

So glad to hear your Bichon Friese got over the separation anxiety! Sage has a good bit of that too. I haven't had him 8 months yet. He's starting to accept my friends and he's carrying his tail a little higher every day. Your story gives me hope.

I'm going to swing by to see your review!

#27 (yup, I'm counting this 1254 page novel as 4 books) leaves me speechless. The Count of Monte Cristo. What an amazing novel. What a plot!

So, I'll just have Sage say Happy St Paddy's day to you. He celebrated by seeing my old dog Dillon's Grandma Kris for a shave 'n bathe.

Hi Katie - Congrats on finishing The Count of Monte Cristo - I agree that it should be counted as 4 books.

Sage is adorable! He has an 80s metal band look. I love it!

Yup!!! Totally metal band. He's trying to get an Irish metal tribute band together. ;) Last week though, he looked more like Bunny Wailer.

#163 - Ha! I had to look up Bunny Wailer, as I'm not very well-versed in reggae.

Sage is a darling! I grew up with a White Highland White, two Cairn Terriers ( they are a handful! ) and then when we got our Border Terrier, he was amazingly laid back. I think maybe he was unusual for his breed. He made a fabulous jogging partner for me and he was great with the kids. But oh - our Bichon Friese - she is smart as a whip and she knows how to run a household!!!!!!! :) I'd gladly get another Border Terrier - he was such a good looker and so easy going. But Daisy - she is so affectionate. Yes, I am used to bossy dogs!:)

LOL Deb! Yes, you've been blessed by bossy dogs! Mine are Rude Boys. ;) Hence the dreadlocks.

Dors, don't feel bad about not knowing Bunny. He was a bit eclipsed by Bob Marley - but ya know, I'd love to name a d'lock dog Bunny after him. Sage's mother's kennel name is Dreadlocks, but she's got a nice tame name - Lilly.

#28 The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. We read this in a 6th grade class, and the kids mostly loved it. I wasn't sure. It's a quiet book and I knew a lot of them were sad in the very sad part, but they weren't so obviously engaged in it like they were with Crossing the Wire which is a Mexican/US border crossing adventure and therefore relevant and intense to our kids. When we got to the "big reveal" in the last chapter though, you could hear little gasps around the room as the kids caught on. One boy got very soft-eyed, and later he told me he had been adopted too. I didn't get into it as much as the kids did, but it was a well-written, enjoyable book that covered early Ojibwe/Minnesota history faithfully. We actually have a handful of Ojibwe kids in the school, so it's great to have a chance to read a book that covers that part of the past in a way that the kids emotionally connect with. They all understood chores, stuck-up big sisters and annoying little brothers even if they knew nothing about harvesting wild rice. ;)

#29 Just finished an ER novel I badly wanted to Pearl Rule Wolfhound Century. I feel guilty. & of course, the minute "I want to Pearl Rule this but it wouldn't be fair to the author" pops into your mind, you know the odds are against you liking it again and you'll read it with a jaded eye at best. So, sorry first-time author. I didn't like your book. So much violence, which is okay, but you killed off the one character I liked like he was a rodent in a fairground game. I didn't care about the other characters and didn't feel one side was particularly better than the others until the last hundred or so pages, which is far too late.

I'm reading Wolfhound Century and understand. I'm going to hang in there at least until halfway and see.

Majkia, I hope you like it better than I did. I've still been thinking about it - the stakes were so high that on some level it felt like there were no stakes at all and that the characters were there for the purpose of being killed. Talk about saturated plotting!

It's the worst when it's an ER book that is so awful.

@171 I know. If it hadn't been an ER book, I would've just pearl ruled it and rehomed it. No big deal. Now I feel guilty for not liking someone's novel that they probably worked on for years.

#30 Was one of the last works if not the last work of the much missed Carlos Fuentes who died last year. Vlad! Yes, this is unabashed horror. I always knew Fuentes had it in him. ;) In this, Vlad the Impaler-undead comes to Mexico City because the food source in his Balkan homeland has become a bit scarce and stale. What makes this version fresh and worthwhile is that our vampire hits our hero where he is weakest, his love for his family.

#31 also sort of in the psychological horror vein. Kindred by Octavia Butler is listed in the book 500 Great Books by Women. Even if it hadn't been listed, I would've found it. Octavia Butler is spoken of with awe in the science fiction circles I hang out in. I read her Wild Seed years ago and fell in awe with her too. Kindred was a slow burn for me; I knew the set up. African-American woman goes back in time because she has to rescue her ancestor, and the ancestor - ick - is the son of a slave owner. The set up isn't that original, but what she does with the story is. The book is not a horror novel. It is speculative fiction, but there's certainly an element of the horrific that goes all the way through it, even affecting Dana's sweet white husband, Kevin.

Kindred sounds interesting based on what you've written here, Cammy. I'll have to add it to the wishlist!

Ohhhh isn't Sage absolutely adorable, Katie! I understand completely about lousy ER books. That is always the pits. It's so hard to work up enough energy to put together even a scathing review.

Esquiress - I'm sure you'll like Kindred if you get to it. I know how those wishlists are! So many books, so little time!

Bonnie - Thanks! Sage is a sweetie and he's getting better with the shyness. Tonight he *tolerated* my friend's westiepoo that wanted to play, and then curled up right behind my friend and started sniffing her braid. ??? He's never gotten that cuddly with someone other than me before.

As for the ER book, it's over. :) Never to be thought of again. Yeah!

Hi Katie -

Wow, you've been reading some great books. Too funny about Good Omens - someone mentioned it to me over lunch on Wednesday and I've already requested it. I love Bimbos of the Death Sun - what a hoot! The sequel Zombies of the Gene Pool is fun in a different way, but it's still picking on SF fans and writers.

I've been meaning to get to Devil in the White City and I've never heard of Everyone Here Spoke Sign - I will definitely be giving that a try!

Can you suggest a good, basic dog training book for the clueless? I've taken in two strays recently with the hope of getting them into a placement program. Ha - no luck so far. They're driving me crazy (I'm a cat person who had already taken in one stray dog who is wonderful). Any help would be appreciated.

>177 Dejah_Thoris:: As soon as I found out there was a sequel to Bimbos of the Death Sun (from this post), I went and grabbed it from PaperBack Swap :)

Esquiress, You'll have to let me know what you think of Zombies of the Gene Pool. I'm tempted, but it obviously isn't as well loved as Bimbos.

Dejah - You'll love Good Omens and yes, there's a very special book store in it. Figures. Every well read F&SF person has to know that one. Otherwise people will be talking about Agnes Nutter around you and you'll think it's some new peanut butter cookie brand. ;) As for dogs, the basic books that have been popular lately are The Loved Dog by Tamar Geller and How to behave so your dog behaves by Sophia Yin. If you're working with rescues though, they come with their own issues. I swear training a puppy is easier than training a dog that got off to a bad start. (not just a goofy parent spoiled dog bad start - I mean no socialization or harsh training methods etc.) If you're looking for one that talks about rescue issues Do-Over Dogs by Pat Miller is great. Good luck with your strays, and if you're trying to find a rescue for them, be careful! The rescue I got involved with turned out to be super bad news. If you have a rescue in mind, you could shoot me their name. I know a few people to ask who know a lot of the rescues and their reputations. Wish I'd known these people before I got involved in a rescue.

#32 The Best of Cordwainer Smith was an odd collection of science fiction short stories mostly from the 1960s. All of them were set in the same world, a world where people have left earth to terraformed new planets and Australia has discovered a substance that prolongs both life and vitality. However, the stories span thousands of years and the earlier stories are referred to in later stories as sort of a mythology. One was quite Martin Luther King Jr inspired. Slavery does and then again does not exist in the later time period of this collection. I really enjoyed most of the collection, but one story made me want to slap him around a bit.

Otherwise people will be talking about Agnes Nutter around you and you'll think it's some new peanut butter cookie brand. ;)

This amused me to no end!

How did I miss Good Omens before now? I'm looking forward to it. And here I thought I was reasonably well read in SF....

Thanks for the dog book selections. I don't know what I'm going to do about these dogs. I can't even get anyone from a rescue organization to talk to me....

Dejah - as you can see from Esquiress's giggles, Good Omens is quite the source of inside jokes. ;) Hope you'll enjoy, and you'll be forewarned and forearmed the next time you walk into an SF con.

Sorry the rescues won't talk to you. Rescues tend to demonize the American Humane Society, but at least they have a specific location and the average person can always find them and get help from them. Of course the main complaint is that the AHS does euthanize animals - but they have to since they don't turn any animals away. No-kill rescues avoid that situation by being highly selective as to what animals and how many animals they take. You're having trouble reaching a rescue because of two reasons:
1. they are run almost completely by volunteers and thus sometimes get very disorganized and it isn't always clear whose responsibility it is to call people back, answer emails etc. They can be quite decentralized and the ones that are successful are the ones that have a small handful of volunteers that are very energetic, take the lead and run with it. To an outsider, it's often difficult to figure out how the organization runs and how to get attention. If you have a name of a person within the organization, it helps tremendously.

2. Since they are no-kill and volunteer run, they are often very limited in the number of animals they can help. The need in the US definitely is overwhelming compared to the resources out there to meet this need. In other words, most rescues work by placing the dogs in volunteer foster homes. The foster parent often foots the bill for everything but medical attention. They usually have there own pets and are often pushing the limit of the number of animals allowed in their specific communities. Because of this, many organizations request a donation of $150 to $300 to people who want to place an animal with them. If they don't have available foster families, often they'll blow off anyone trying to place an animal with them, which can be frustrating. It would be nice to hear "sorry, we can't handle another dog right now" directly from them. If you are willing to foster the strays yourself but want an organization to help you, I might try applying as a foster first and then telling them "I have these strays that I'd like to be my first foster dogs. How do we get their initial vetting started?" Back door ways are always good. ;)

You can also try showing up at an adoption event with the dogs. They'll have to talk to you then.

Another back door route - on facebook, there are a lot of "LOST Dogs - state name" organizations. They use fb to post notices of lost and found dogs. You can report the dogs there, and if you need further help, plenty of rescue people watch these pages and someone will step up.

#32 Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison is a great follow up to Kindred in a way, although novels written by African-Americans is not in the scope of Morrison's lecture. I'm not in the mood to write a review about it, so I'll just give you the premise and a few quotes. The premise is that the national literature of the United States, looked at as a canonical thing, is a representation of the white male imagination and ideals of autonomy, wealth and power that is, often times unconsciously, dependent on the existence of a black underclass that has none of these things but makes autonomy, wealth and power possible. I can't argue with her premise.

Quotes:
Writing and reading are not all that distinct for a writer. Both exercises require being alert and ready for unaccountable beauty, for the intricateness or simple elegance of the writer's imagination, for the world that imagination evokes. Both require being mindful of the places where imagination sabotages itself, locks its own gates, pollutes its vision. Writing and reading mean being aware of the writer's notions of risk and safety, the serene achievement of, or sweaty fight for, meaning and responsibility.

The scholarship that looks into the mind, imagination and behavior of slaves is valuable. But equally valuable is a serious intellectual effort to see what racial ideology does to the mind, imagination, and behavior of masters.

A criticism that needs to insist that literature is not only "universal" but also "race-free" risks lobotomizing the literature, and diminishes both the art and the artist.

Race has become metaphorical--a way of referring to and disguising forces, events, classes, and expressions of social decay and economic division far more threatening the the body politic than biological "race" ever was.

I'm currently reading Kindred! I should finish it up today. Have you read her Xenogenesis series? It's my favorite and I figured if anyone's read it here, it would be you.

I'll have to check out that Toni Morrison essay collection. I actually think it may be on my wishlist.

#177 - Dejah_Thoris - Perhaps there should be a support group for cat people living with dogs. Gosh, I love my dog to pieces, but deep down I'm a cat person and it's often hard to deal with the neediness (bless Geezer's goofy, hound dog heart) after nearly 20 years with my two cats (both of whom died within the last three years.)

LOL Dors, you're right! Cats and dogs are sooooo different. Some people assume I understand cats because I understand dogs and it's totally not true. Even after Sid and Cameo, I still don't understand cats. There's even a book by Stanley Coren that has a chapter that compares dog body language with cat body language - and a lot of it is opposite. For example, when a dog rolls over on its back it means either scratch my belly, or it's a tap out, or it means oh dog who is greater than I you may sniff me now. When a cat does that, it's likely to mean I have four paws all with claws and they are ready for you.

I'll look forward to seeing what you think of Kindred. I haven't read Xenogenesis. The series I'm in right now is her Patternist series. It seems like the one most people are familiar with is the Parable of the Sower series though. I wish I had enough time to read everything she ever wrote, but alas, not this year for sure!

Hope you like the Morrison lectures if you gt a chance to read it.

Katie, such an interesting discussion about rescues vs the SPCA, - we have both in here in Canada. Our dog Daisy comes from a rescue no - kill facility that is paid for by the city where I live. I think I can see the pluses and minuses of both. I think where we got our Daisy was in many ways a lovely place, but did tend to demonize the SPCA, which also a valuable place. At the " hybrid rescue" facility that we got Daisy from I felt that perhaps they took in dogs that were not really adoptable and also went out on hunts for feral cats and kittens, which is good -but perhaps not as wise with the money , since perhaps they should focus on the animals coming into the rescue. The other thing is that they did not give us any information on Daisy's behaviour problem, whereas the SPCA here does behaviour testing and warns you about issues that you might face with your adopted pet. The rescue place also believed only in giving the dogs and cats raw food - like raw chicken etc and lucky for us, Daisy refused that food and only would eat dog food, as I think for sanitary reason we would have not wanted to serve Daisy raw chicken .

Anyway, both places have their pluses and minuses.

Happy Easter!

>183 cammykitty: Thank you so much, Katie, for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply. I suspect that no one has replied to my calls of desperation because they have no homes for the dogs to go to. In my calls I offered a generous donation, but still no response. I've managed to make a few connections; I'll keep trying.

I have to admit I didn't really want a dog - much less a 50lb rather scary looking dog! The first one we took in is a keeper (she's reddish and we call her Rufie). She showed up starving - and frightened, all though I was pretty frightened of her, too. We fed her for a few days and let her sleep in the garage and then she disappeared. When she returned several days later, she had a broken leg.

I took her to the vet - her leg had been broken, he thought, by another animal, probably another dog. She also had heartworms. So, we got her in a cast, crated her (in the house) and gave her the heartworm eradication meds. Eight weeks later, she was fine. She's very good with the cats and is a real sweetie.

The two recent additions are a problem. One is a little older, I think, and I'm game to try to keep him as a companions for Rufie, but the other one is younger, rambunctious, apt to violently attack the other older male, wants to play roughly with me, jumps on people, nips (he's put holes in two of my tops), chases cars and UPS trucks, barks, rips things up and worst of all, chases the cats. The older male has a few of these bad habits, but to a lesser degree. I have no idea what to do to correct these issues. At some point I will have to do something about the younger male. Sometimes I'm still scared of him (both males are about Rufie's size so 50lbs or so).

Sorry to vent.

It'll all work out - things always do. I'll give those books a try.

I used to work with cat rescue organizations but stopped. Now I'm sort of a one household cat rescue. The cats are the priority, but I couldn't bare to see starving dogs.

I'll stop now.

@187 Deb, I totally agree. They both have there good points and flaws, and if Canada is anything like the US, there's enough need to keep them both busy. And that raw food diet! Eeyou!!! I know a lot of people swear by it, but I agree, it isn't terribly sanitary. I know dogs can handle a lot of spoiled or contaminated food that we cant, but ya know, you're living with the dog and the food and I'm sure you get dog kisses. I've also heard a raw food horror story. A breeder was taking care of a pregnant dog and the owner had requested this really elaborate raw food diet for her. 3 pups, two of which were horribly stillborn, and the vet muttered something about the raw food diet. Apparently dogs can get salmonella without getting obviously sick and he believed that was why the two pups were stillborn. & that's for a breed that usually has litters from 7 to 12 pups.

Dejah - this is a good place to vent. I don't mind at all. Poor Rufie! Obviously she needs you! As for the other dogs, you're right to put your cats first - if you don't mind me being an Ann Landers here, one of the problems anyone involved in rescue runs into is that there is so much need that it is hard to draw the line and say I've got to take care of my animals and my family first. A house with cats and one rescue dog is a lot to take on, especially one that comes with medical issues. Three? Wow! You've got my admiration and sympathy! That's too much to handle. I hope you find a rescue organization to help out, even if only with advice. My advice is to try to find someplace else for the younger male to go to as soon as possible, but I'm sure you've already thought that yourself. It will be hard to work on the older male's issues while you've got the younger one with more extreme issues.

How old is the younger dog do you think? 6 - 8 months which would make him an obnoxious teenager? What breed? It sounds like he may just need tons of exercise to wear him out plus some house rules, but it may be more. Hard for me to say when I can't actually see what he's doing. Attacking the older dog concerns me, and chasing and barking concerns me. Is he a resource guarder? Fear aggressive? Does he snap at people or is it more attention seeking "nips?" Does he just have bad manners or is he exhibiting risky behaviors that indicate he might not be safe in some situations? Do you still know some of your cat rescue people? I'm wondering if they have any dog rescue contacts for you.

#34 The Tain is an Irish epic that was recorded by monks in the 11th or 12th century, which of course means the epic itself is much older. Lots of blood, and at times even humorous bloodshed. And there were a few strong female characters, or so I thought. Medb and her husband lead the men of Ireland to battle against the men of Ulster, albeit for a stupid reason, her husband the King has one bull more than she does so they decide to take a comparable bull from the men of Ulster by force. They are fighting Cuchulain, so if you know your Irish lore, you know they didn't fare well. And after the rout:

Mebd said to Fergus:
'We have had shame and shambles here today, Fergus.'

'We followed the rump of a misguiding woman,' Fergus said. 'It is the usual thing for a herd led by a mare to be strayed and destroyed.'

Mebd totally deserved that comment, but alas, so much for ancient strong female characters.

>189 cammykitty:

Katie, I've read your post several times and it's given me a lot to think about. Unfortunately, I've come down with some bug and I feel to rotten to write the reply I want to. Give me a few days, and I'll be back. I really do want to thank you, though, for taking the time to help me out with my dog troubles.

No problem Dejah! You can always pm me too if you've got questions or want to vent. It takes a community to save a dog!

#186 - Oh, yes! Cat/dog body language is a fascinating topic.

I gave Kindred four stars and plan to write a quick review at some point this week. I'll have to check out the Patternist series.

Glad you liked Kindred! I'll keep my eyes open for your review. (It's about 3:00 am now, so I'm not saying my eyes are open at the moment.

Finished #35 a few hours ago - La Tia Tula en espanol. I'll say this. Ya know ya should've pearl ruled a book when on page 120 you think at the main character "so just die already then." I don't think this novel aged well. Unamuno was trying to portray a saintly, virginal woman who throws her heart into mothering her sister's children. I viewed her as controlling, not saintly. I know families were completely different back then, especially since they were expected to have one breadwinner - the man - and if the man was unlucky, he'd be taking care of his wife's unmarried or underaged siblings as well - but even with that being the case, I had difficulty seeing Tula as saintly when SPOILERS - when she hears the doctor may have to chose between saving her sister or the baby she thinks save the baby because there are always more women - when she swoops on each new born baby and begins raising them while shooing her sister off to "take care" of her husband, ie his carnal needs. - when she finally confesses that the husband had proposed to her first, which is why she rushed the marriage of her sister to said husband. - All sorts of weirdness.

#36 Pierre and Jean by Guy de Maupassant - nice, subtle work of realist fiction, even if some people have said it isn't a novel. I say that because my copy of Pierre and Jean is prefaced by a marvelous rant by de Maupassant where he answers his critics about his "plotless" artistic vision for Pierre and Jean. I'm hoping this ends my string of not-quite-my-favorite reads. This one is either a 4 or 5 star for me, I haven't quite decided how much I love it. I think I'll be thinking about it for the next few days. Refreshing view of women compared to the sainted aunt in Tia Tula.

What it is about? It's an evil twist on the somebody rich dies and leaves an unexpected ton of $ on an unexpecting heir plot.

#37 Blacksad Alma Roja en Espanol. What can I say? It was great fun - increased my knowledge of Spanish insults. Sadly, I think this is the only episode in Spanish our library has. I think I may have to do a few interlibrary loan requests! As I described Blacksad earlier, this is Kitty Noire, and the femme fatale of this episode? I think she was a cat stand in for Ayn Rand. Seriously. Allen Ginsberg makes a few appearances too, under another name but as a dog reading "Howl" to his friends at a bonfire. I wasn't 100% sure who the other celebs were, but I'm sure we could identify them if we put our heads together.

#196 - Wait. What is going on here? More humanoid cats?! A cat stand in for Ayn Rand?! This sounds like a nightmare on so many levels. Ha!

It was great fun - increased my knowledge of Spanish insults. I suppose it's all worth it then.

@197 Well, the apartment belongs to a dog. That's why it's so sloppy, right? ;)

And just to get a little more dog-balance onto this thread ;) Here's Sage showing you our fresh April snow on the top of his head.

Sage is so cute!

Oh still fresh snow! You poor dear! You know, on the topic of re-homing animals, I was reading that the SPCA has much more trouble re-homing black cats and dogs! I thought that was so odd, as I think black is a lovely colours for pets, but yet apparently some have a superstition about it. So odd!

I think I recall reading that one reason black animals are more difficult to find homes for is because they are harder to photograph. If you're looking through photos online for a shelter, people tend to skip the black ones because you don't get as much detail and expression. And it's hard to get good snapshots of your own of a black pet.

We got some snow too, but our dog Penny wasn't as excited about it because it was so cold out. I think she's ready for spring, although she loves snow!

Deb, Ursula is totally right about the photography issue. They usually skip over dark dogs for commercials, tv shows, movies and ads too - even just dark brown like Sage is. They are much harder to photograph - trust me. You haven't seen the number of photos I've deleted because they are just too dark.

I have a friend who coordinates the English Shepard Rescue and she says the same thing about all black dogs. She doesn't think it's a superstition thing. She thinks it's a subconscious prejudice that multicolored or other-colored dogs are cuter. She says even a splash of white on a black dog makes all the difference in the world.

We used to have the prettiest black cat, and yes, it was so hard to get a good photo. Personally, I don't at all understand why people care about the color or look of a pet--for me it's all about personality.

Of course it's personality, but when you've got a whole litter of totally cute puppies jumping on ya... They all seem to have great personalities.

Personally, I don't see it myself. I think the Belgian Shepherd is an absolutely gorgeous breed, and I have a soft spot for black poodles (because of Teddy, a friend's therapy dog - may he meet his people at the rainbow bridge and do a "puppy carwash" as a greeting some day). However, I prefer the Landseer (black & white) and brown newfies mainly because they are more unusual. & I'll confess to wanting a black&white standard parti-colored poodle - which of course would make a "real" poodle breeder cringe because the parti-poodles are strictly against breed standard.

Apparently the "black" thing doesn't hold true for black labs from what I've heard from shelter people. There's the black dog legend in Irish Lore - it is both frightening and protective. It used to be tradition to sacrifice a black dog and bury it in a grave yard before any humans were buried there so the dog could protect the souls of the people. I have a friend who has taught her children this and they sleep sounder knowing a black dog is in the house (but hers aren't all black - they are black, tan and white shelties with enough black to comfort the children).

As for the bit of white anywhere making a difference, I totally believe it. I've seen so many people coo over a puppy's white stockings or the blaze down the middle of his chest. & btw, some puppies grow out of their white blaze on the chest.

Here's an interesting article about why they are shipping black dogs from one province in Canada to my province - B.C. ( she say proudly! ). According to the article a number of things may come into play - superstition, anxiety about black dogs being " stronger" and harder to control. I'm sure that the photography issue comes into play -but this short video and write up says that people pass by black dogs even in the pound or rescues.

Interesting stuff, and very sad that people operate on such strange ideas!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/04/04/bc-black-dogs-va...

They have a black cat adoption day in Portland, I think. That Irish myth creeps my out! I always assumed we'd end up with a black lab-mix if we got a dog, but we fell in love with a scruffy off-white girl. Probably for the best, she has that terrier independence which is a good fit in our household.

Great article Deb. I've read lots of books by Stanley Coren. He's a great dog behaviorist. But his quote scares me:
Noted dog psychologist Stanley Coren said black dog bias is rooted in culture and based on our human psychological response to colour.

"Black is associated with the notion of strong, perhaps violent, perhaps evil," he said.

So, what does that mean on the human level and race relations???

Deb, you should be proud of BC!!! & Banjo, yeah Portland!!! Yes, the Irish myth is pretty creepy. The practice of sacrificing dogs isn't a myth though. They truly did it. The myths also include meeting a black dog on the road, often with red eyes. It is often a harbinger of death, and even if it isn't so ominous, they say if you touch such a dog, it can cause paralysis. There are a lot of fairy myths that sound like they are explanations for stroke. I have a friend who swears she ran into a supernatural black dog in Pere Lachais. I don't know if the French share this folklore, but if I ever meet a black dog, I want it to be in Pere Lachais near Jim Morrison's grave. ;) In which case, the dog will probably be smoking a cigarette.

#38 from the Concord Free Press A Handbook of American Prayer. It his been getting some odd ratings and reviews on LT, I think because some people didn't know who Lucius Shepard was (respected horror writer) and they were taken in by the title. No, this book should not be shelved in the Christian or Christian fiction section. It isn't anti-Christian, but it certainly isn't Christian fiction either.

Wardlin Stuart wrote A Handbook of American Prayer while he was in prison for manslaughter. When he gets paroled, he finds his message of "you can pray for all the self-centered little things you want and get them, and you don't even have to bother Jesus" is just the thing the American public wanted to hear - but he's not sure he likes the message or being the messenger anymore.

My review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/book/96913151

& since this is a Concord Free Press book, if you would like it, PM me.

We have three black cats. They are not as photogenic as our grey one or orange one. But I adore them all equally. My bunny is black too.

:) Yeah for happy animal families! & who needs to be mugging for the camera all the time anyway?

#39 After the Apocalypse is a collection of near future science fiction stories, leaning toward horror. Most of the stories take something that is present, example Mad Cow Disease, and then puts a twist on it and sets it in a story. Avian Prion Disease - which makes the story "The Effect of Centrifugal Forces" a SF version of teen dealing with divorce, addiction in one parent and dementia in the other. All the stories are well written, and the first story "The Naturalist" is brilliant. The characters were often in dehumanizing situations, but for my taste, her plots often took that one step too far into the cynic zone.

#40 is my 100th book off the 1001 list - but the list keeps changing so who knows really. The Nun by Denis Diderot was a disturbing little read about a girl who is sent to a convent because she is illegitimate and distracting suitors from the legitimate daughters. It was common practice at the time to ship your illegitimate daughters off to the convent, whether they wished it or not, but Suzanne was naive enough to believe that she could not be forced to take vows against her wish. This isn't an anti-Christian novel as some have supposed, and it isn't really a libertine novel either. Instead it is more a look at what happens in a society where you are forced to be something that you are not, and you are forced to be with others that you can't get away from. Not a happy read, but an interesting one. - as for the 1001 list, the review made some comment that made it sound like people's reactions to The Nun completely change depending on the prevailing morals of the time period it is being read in. Figures, huh?

Congrats on having read 100 books off the 1001 list, Katie! I won't even mention the very dismal number that I have read off that list...... ;-)

:) You'll have to write your own personal 1001 list then. I'll have to admit, there are some books on the 1001 you couldn't pay me to read, but the ones I've chosen have been good.

> 215 - Not sure I really want to find out what is on the complete list! I did go check the LT version of 'the list' (what I have based on my collections) as I was assuming my read count would be low. I am more encouraged now that i know u have read 38 books off the list but I still consider that a dismal number, compared to your 100. It looks like I have another 31 books waiting for me on my TBR bookcase. I would have never known that if it hadn't been for the LT list!

Katie, I've just been over here exploring since there's no way I can catch up. When you read the even-numbered Tiptree stories though, you should talk to Lucy or Roni. I think they read them all last year. And I read the biography just because it was supposed to be such a good one. It was!
I'm attracted to O. Butler but have never gotten around to her, more's the pity. And I'm another who was in love with *Bimbos* and *Zombies*; it's probably time for a reread if I can ever get back to them.
AND our May is the blackest of all black dogs from our no-kill shelter. (I now write the thank you letters for them in thanks for her.) She even has a blueberry tongue (a little chow in there somewhere, I guess). Sage is very handsome!

Hi Katie, bias against black dogs?? That's crazy. Although my Buddy is not black, my son and his wife have two of the sweetest and blackest black labs in the world. And congratulations on reading 100/1001 Books to Read Before You Die. I'm off to see how many I have read:-)

@216 Lori, I haven't deliberately set out to read the 1001. They just seem to happen because so many people are talking about them. Recently though, I've been sitting at B&N with the 1001 book while I'm board and looking up different things on my nook. Dangerous. Now if I were a compulsive person... ha ha ha... I'd never want to know this list existed because I'd feel compelled to read them all. :( It's a pox upon us!!!

@217 Lizzie, good to see you! I know what you mean. So many interesting threads! I will swing by Lucy & Roni's threads, especially when I get around to reading more Tiptree. Soon up is Troll A Love Story which isn't Tiptree, but it's a Tiptree Award winner. I hope you get to read Butler soon. & yeah May!!! Sage has a little "blueberry" dot on his tongue too - it looks like he tried to eat a Sharpie.

@218 Hi Bonnie - my English Shepard rescue person says the anti-black bias doesn't seem to hold for Black Labs. & there are certainly plenty of them!!! Who on earth could think an approaching Black Lab was the Dog of Doom. They wiggle their whole butts when they wag their tail and the first thing they ask is very clear, even though it's in dog body language. It's always "Got food? Whatcha been eating? I smell cheese on your hands. Any left?"

Okay, I just came from puppy class and was working with several black labs and one wiggly, mouthy rescue golden labamutt. Yup, they were all mugging me for attention and treats. :) Great way to end a day that didn't start out so good.

#41 was a little collection of poems, Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore and translated into English by Tagore also. Tagore was an Indian novelist and poet who received the Nobel prize for literature. This collection was originally published around 1918. The poems are all quite short, and often read more like aphorisms than poems.

My version is a horrible free e-book, complete with some amusing errors caused by the scanning thingie. Example "GOB's right hand is gentle, but terrible is his left hand." I guess if you want to find God you have to pay. Otherwise you're stuck with GOB and his son Blob. Sigh. Despite this, there were still quite a few poems that touched me. Here is one.

The stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies.

and

While I was passing with the crowd in the road I saw thy smile from the balcony and I sang and forgot all noise.

*waving* at Katie

220: I guess if you want to find God you have to pay. Otherwise you're stuck with GOB and his son Blob.

Katie, those are the two funniest lines I've read on LT. Thanks for the laugh!

I've just been dogsitting for Cassie my Black Lab granddog for the past four days. She is so sweet and gentle compared to our Lucky a Yellow (actually blonde) Lab who is great around us but a bit cranky around loud and antsy kids and many dogs. He and Cassie get along well together but I don't have good luck with pictures because of Cassie's coloring. I'll have to try one outside in the green grass. So, are you a dog trainer? Lucky was kicked out of obedience class at PetSmart because of his aggressive behavior. He's a rescue dog and must have been mistreated. Duh, he was dumped!

Congratulations on reading 100 of the 1001 books to read before we die! I track mine as well and have read 163 from the first edition and 18 from the new edition. I'm not bragging...I've just had more years to read than you have. ;-)

Stasia, good to see you!

Donna, you're welcome. I couldn't resist commenting on that particular typo, and it happened at least 5 times!!! - I volunteer as an assistant trainer at a dog school. I suppose PetSmart doesn't really have the resources to deal with a dog with issues, but that makes me sad. Being kicked out of obedience always makes people feel their dog is untrainable when the truth is the class wasn't working for that dog. I used to assist the aggressive dog class, so I know what you're probably dealing with. Is Lucky doing better? & of course a book rec. Right now I'm reading Brenda Aloff's Aggression in Dogs. Aloff is sort of a trainer's trainer, but the book is pretty thorough and I'm finding it helpful for working with Sage who isn't aggressive, but very fearful. & yes, most dogs who are aggressive are aggressive because they are fearful so a lot of the information is applicable. I hope you can get a good picture of Cassie and Lucky together!!! If the sun shines, that ought to do it. & I'm impressed at your 1001 book count! You've obviously read tons of good books.

I'm impressed too with the 100 number mark on 1001 Books :)

I've been following this list since 2007 - but are ignoring all the new editions and stick to the first edition - otherwise it would be too confusing. In 2010 I passed 100 books. There are many books on the list I don't want to read or have given up on - have just given up on Salingers Franny and Zooey - although one of the short novels it was very boring. But it's a very good list for inspiration.

>224 ctpress:: Have you read Salinger's Nine Stories? I enjoyed it, and I was told to read it instead of Franny and Zooey. I guess I'm glad I did :)

Heh - the one in particular that I say "couldn't pay me to read" of course, I've read so I know why I say so. Confederacy of Dunces - people seem to either love or loathe that book. I remember thinking the book was funny at first, but then the main character started getting annoying, and then downright repulsive.

I haven't read Franny and Zooey but it hasn't been calling my name either. I read Catcher in the Rye in high school and remember liking it, but not enough to seek out his other books.

As for the latest reading, this isn't on the 1001 #42 Flygirl I think I am in a bit of a reading funk because I should've enjoyed this a bit more. I enjoyed it, but read it most of the time during testing at school where I had to stop and growl at kids to keep quiet. They were done testing and couldn't get it through their heads that even though everyone was done, they still had to stay quiet because it was state test and they've got strict rules and fine schools/invalidate test results if they aren't followed. That might have something to do with it. ;) Flygirl is about a young woman who badly wants to join the WASP in WW II, but they don't take blacks, so she decides to try to pass as white. Very interesting, and I actually enjoyed the psychological tension of denying your family more than I enjoyed the WASP stuff - although the stories about what it was like to be a WASP was interesting and engaging, and Smith managed to slip a quiet little romance in too. It's just I already knew a bit about the WASP, especially thanks to Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers that we were talking about on another thread.

#42 Troll A Love Story I'm totally at a loss as to what to say about this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the recipient of both the Finlandia award and the Tiptree award. It's a folklore novel. Sinisalo intersperses quotes, both real and made-up, of references to trolls. I'm not sure this should really be called a "Love" story, but it is very much about sexuality and the connection between sexuality and power.

I have to say, I hope I never do smell a troll. Especially not a female troll.

>227 cammykitty:: Funny troll lines Katie. Hmmm, I wonder what a female troll smells like. I suppose we have to read the book to find out. I love your sense of humor.

#227 - Hi Katie - While trolls don't usually interest me, I'm intrigued by this novel, so I'll put it on the wishlist. I have a vague plan to explore some of the Tiptree winners and I have you to thank for introducing me to it.

Hi Katie - just dropping by to say hello. I'll add I'm very fond of black cats, but tend to keep them safely inside on Halloween. Just in case.

Hi Donna, Dors & Dejah! Apparently a male troll smells like the forest plus a little Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men. So the female scent? & Dejah, apparently trolls look like rather large black cats. If your cat was the size of a troll, I'd let her loose on Halloween. No one would ever pick on a black cat in your neighborhood again! - sadly, I know what you mean though. Our local humane society always sends out a warning to keep black pets inside on Halloween.

#44 was Shadows in the White City, a murder mystery obviously inspired by Devil in the White City although the murderer and the murders were completely made up. Too my chagrin, I enjoyed it thoroughly even though it had the sloppiest writing I've encountered since about book #13 Zoo City or Black Irish. The characterization and the plot was interesting enough to overcome the odd word choice, the occasional factual or consistency error (example 3 bullets in his gun but a few pages later he's shooting bullets off in rapid succession. & btw, do pistols circa 1890 work if they are wet?)

As for the characters, they weren't convincing specimens of 19th century thinking. Jane, our hero's sidekick and love interest, has her doctorate and is an accomplished surgeon but she isn't allowed to practice. So she cross-dresses. Nice borrowing of a steampunk trope. However, Jane seems to have confessed to several men. ??? And no one except for Ransom, her beau, seems to be too upset about this. As for Ransom, he's upset because 1. he can't control and protect her as much as he'd like (ha ha, I love this) 2. once in awhile he worries someone will think he is gay. And as for the crime, Sweeney Todd comes to mind. April seems to be my month for books that talk about human flesh as food. Not even cooked.

I usually am driven mad by books where the characters are 21st in thought and action while the plot lies in the 18th, 17th, 14th or whatever century. Sometimes, though, I manage to go along for the ride and enjoy it anyway. Willing suspension of disbelief, right?

ETA: Never been a big Sweeny Todd fan....

OMG! I couldn't watch Sweeney Todd. First song, the worst meat pies... and I'm gone. & I totally agree about the 21st century thought stuck back in the past. I don't think the author really tried to get into the 19th century mindset.

As a theater person I know many people who just love Sweeny Todd but I can't stand the thought of it! That's one musical I'll never audition or work tech for.

I think a lot of authors just want to plunk their characters in a historical setting without bothering to make them period appropriate - and apparently many (possibly most?) readers don't mind.

Dejah - that's just it. I know tons of people who love Sweeney Todd too, and usually I can handle quite a bit of gross, and quite a bit of dark humor but for some reason that one just hits me in the gut, but more on the same lines as The Jungle. So, does that mean I'm more opposed to mystery meat than to murder???

That's a good question - I suppose I should ask myself that, too!

#227: I will have to give that one a try just because of the name of the book!

Stasia - I hope you'll like Troll. I keep thinking about it. Like Shadows in the White City, it isn't for the weak of stomach. ;)

#45 Destiny and Desire by Carlos Fuentes. I really admired this novel, one of the last Fuentes ever wrote. It's highly political, highly Mexican - very theoretical. If you are reading because you want to identify with a character and his emotions, don't read this book.

Set up - We follow two abandoned boys into adulthood. They have an unknown benefactor and a very polemic education. Once they are of age, one is put in a position of power in the President's office. The other is placed in a position of power in the Mexican version of Bill Gate's office. Stir in a little Machiavellianism, and you've got Destiny and Desire.

#46 Underwater Welder in the graphic novels section. I wasn't as enchanted with this book as many people are. It's about a 3 star for me. The artwork wasn't "pretty." Long, depressed faces - kind of Grant Wood-like. Detailed, but not the amusing homey details that Bechdal would use. I admired the artwork, but didn't love it. As for the story, I never felt very emotionally connected to Jack, our main character. Jack is an English major who has returned to his hometown in Nova Scotia and become an underwater welder - the closest occupation he could find to his father's. His wife is pregnant and about to burst, but he finds himself needing the solitude his work provides. His wife needs him, but he can't be there for her until he is able to confront the death of his father, twenty-some years before.

I think I'll be skipping both of your recent reads - sorry they weren't better.

I found and starred your thread. The conversations are lively and wonderful; you've read some great books and your reviews are superb!

I added the Angela Carter book to my collection. A few months ago I read Nights at the Circus. It haunts me still.

#241: Sorry that one was not better, Katie. I hope you enjoy your next read better!

Hi Dejah, Linda & Stasia - the next book is already more interesting, at least to me. It's my latest ER novel, Girl Trouble: Panic and Progress in the history of young women. At first I was disappointed because it focuses on England, but it's quite interesting and starts by backtracking to the Victorians and their almost over-zealous attempts to protect young women - in contrast to the suffragette movement that was happening at the same time.

Whisper, thanks! I'll look forward to seeing you around. I remember seeing your review on Nights at the Circus. I actually hope to read most of her short stories some day. A few of us are planning on reading The Bloody Chamber together later this year.

Please do let me know when the reading group decides to start The Bloody Chamber. I'd like to join in.

Hiyah, Cammykitty, I read through your thread last night but was too tired to comment. I think it is great that you help so many people with your advice about their furkids. I will be starting a blog soon and I plan to include advice about pets (with a disclaimer, of course, that it is only an opinion based on my own experiences, or quotes from books that will be credited for the information.) I would love it if you would stop by to chat occasionally and give us some input and even some pictures of handsome Sage. It is also going to be about my attempts at art, crafts and trying to grow my craft business, and just surviving life's daily challenges. Also, I'll include my reading and writing adventures. Anything you feel you want to contribute will be welcome. I'll post my site on my thread here, of course, but I hope everybody reading this will check it out and feel free to contribute something.

Kudos on your reviews, they are fun and informative. I don't read SciFi much but lately have delved into it a bit. Certainly your reviews have suggested some titles for me. Right now I am reading 2 books that are SciFi-ish, one titled American Elsewhere, a mishmash of aliens and horror, and The Miniature Wife by Manuel Gonzales, though I am not sure I can categorize it as Science fiction. Are zombie stories considered SciFi? His short stories are strange to say the least, and the title story, about a wife made miniature by her husband, is what led me to believe it IS SciFi. He is a very smart fellow, I can tell you that, but unfortunately, the stories are not consistently good. I'll be reviewing a bevy of books over the next few days as I am quite far behind in my reviewing. Real Life has a way of interfering with the things I enjoy doing.

Sorry about the lengthy post, I'll stop now and come back later with more about the dogs.

#225 & 226: No I haven't read Nine Stories but maybe I should. Actually Franny & Zooey are two short stories combined - and the first one was pretty good. Didn't finish the other, which were a more lenghty one. But I loved Catcher in the Rye. Have to read that again sometime.

Hi everyone!!!
Linda - we've been talking June for The Bloody Chamber. I'll send you a message when we're ready to start on it.

MaryBeth - I totally understand the too tired to comment feeling!!! I'm getting a cold and almost there tonight. :( Your blog is a great idea! I'll pop by and always happy to give people advice on dogs. They are so much a part of our lives! & they can be almost (almost) as challenging as kids. I haven't heard of American Elsewhere. Did you get it as an ER? It looks interesting - although the reviews look all over the board. Yes, zombies are science fiction. As a broad category, science fiction, fantasy and horror are generally lumped together. It can depend on the zombie book and how they approach it. A zombie book can be any of those three. If they talk about viruses causing zombieism or some scientific cause for the condition, it can be SF. Most of the time, they're more horror. Zombie romance? Fantasy - but I can't really see that one. A sexy zombie??? I had The Miniature Wife as an ER novel. Definitely Science Fiction and Horror. I loved his fake little biographies, but totally agree. The stories are inconsistent. Some sound like he's trying to imitate Borges, and some are something altogether different.

Carson, I didn't realize Franny & Zooey are two stories. I'm thinking I should pick it up sometime.

As for the 1001 list - I think I've found it! The book on the 1001 books to read before you die list that is also on the 1001 books to avoid before you die list. The Jungle! The 7th graders are studying the Industrial Revolution now, and The Jungle hit a testing day so my schedule was all screwed up so I got to be in 3 7th grade Social Studies classes instead of the usual 2, and it was the day they studied the Chicago Stockyards and The Jungle. I ate vegetarian for a few days after that.

& for my reading, I almost Pearl-Ruled Kavalier and Klay today. I just haven't been getting into it, and on page 47 some prostitutes show up for no apparent reason. Plotwise, they could've been women of no specified profession. I'm getting a little tired of male authors throwing prostitutes into their novels for no significant reason. I don't see women throwing gigolos into their novels for no significant reason. I gave it another chance, and probably will finish it... but he has a high tension plot that takes f o r e v e r to unfold and I've got no patience for casual sexism right now.

Hi Katie!

#241 - Oh no! This is towards the top of my graphic novel TBR pile. Sorry it was a bit disappointing.

#249 - I actually love The Jungle. I was already a vegetarian when I read it, but I'm pretty sure it turned me into a communist. Ha! Powerful book, I guess.

I'm sure being vegetarian before you read it helped tremendously!!! And yes, the work conditions were pretty appalling, and yes, it would be enough to make me a union supporter if I hadn't already been one. - LOL, I'm reading my ER book Girl Trouble and it has an anecdote in it about a woman who lost her job working as a maid in a college for talking with a male undergraduate, and as she left, she sang "The Little Red Flag."

Hmmm every time I come over here it seems I get a hankering to read The Jungle which has been sitting on my shelf for a long, long time Katie. It wouldn't take much to push me into the vegetarian camp as I don't eat much meat anyway.

As far as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay I'm a little over 200 pages in now and, although I never considered Pearl Ruling it, it wasn't really calling to me---until now. Now I'm finding it very compelling. I wasn't as offended as you were by the prostitutes. It seemed to be a way for Joe, who was a virgin, to grow up as his character then proceeded to change from the boy he had been depicted as, to the man who will be featured for the bulk of the story.

I'll say there was a certain group of boys in class that usually tune out most everything who were paying plenty of attention when we were showing pictures of the stockyards and reading from The Jungle. Think of it as a nonfiction gothic horror novel with a big vat of sausage filling in the middle. ;)

Hmmm... Bonnie, I think you may get me to pick up Kavalier again. The "e-reader" copy just came in from the library, and my e-reader is new enough that an e-copy adds a bit of pleasure to reading - especially on a book that weighs three pounds. If you look at the ratings page, some people hated it, but it's solidly in the 4 to 5 star range - and I mean solidly by thousands of ratings. As for the prostitutes, more annoyed than offended. My previous book Destiny and Desire had the Whore of Babylon in it, no less. So I've been perhaps whored out, plus I'm reading what people thought of women in the Victorian/Edwardian era right now. Trivia: the word "flapper" meant prostitute before it meant woman who bobs her hair, wears short shapeless dresses with lots of beads and likes to dance the Charleston. Coincidence? I'd say not.

Hi Cammykitty, American Elsewhere had quite a bit going for it but the sad truth came at the last 50 or so pages of the novel. It was like plodding through quicksand!I don't understand why an author repeats the novels main points as if we have not had them shoved down our throat relentlessly throughout the book already. I did not feel this way prior but I was so disappointed by the end of this novel. I don't want to discourage anybody from reading the book because it may have a lot to do with my not being acquainted with SciFi already. There was a great deal I enjoyed about it, so read it and make your own decision.

I have a question about the behavior of one of the puppies (reminder-they are over a year old but they will always be the "puppies" to differentiate from their parents) Rae, who is very laid-back with us, shy with strangers, a bit stand-offish even, but never threatening, very affectionate and cuddly with his family, both canine and human, has begun to physically attack our small dogs! If a crumb falls on the floor and both go for it, or if a doxie gets in the way and yelps when she gets stepped on, or on one occasion, for no apparent (to us) reason, Rae will go after the doxie, growling and biting, stopping only with difficulty, like pulling her away or throwing a cup of cold water on her. Upon inspecting the doxie, I realized she didn't even have saliva on her, which made me feel that it was a bit half-hearted on Rae's part. It looked and sounded scary but both times, upon inspection I found not a drop of saliva. It has happened two times, enough for us to be concerned (really, once is enough). It is impossible for us to keep them separated and that is not really a solution in my opinion. Everything has been peaceful for several weeks now, but I don't like the feeling of having to be on high alert all the time. Is there a way to solve this in terms of Rae not feeling she has to dominate or protect or whatever is going on in her doggie mind?

Bummer about American Elsewhere. Sounds like perhaps it was just a bit overwritten.

About Rae - that's a tough one. My gut instinct is to say that Rae has decided she is an adult now and wants a bit more respect from the pack. The crumb on the floor thing sounds like resource guarding, which is difficult to deal with but not the end of the world. Usually it shakes itself out. The dogs will decide that dog #2 cares the most about food, so dog #2 can have it. Sometimes it doesn't work so easily, and in that case I'm not sure I have great advice. First thing I'd do is try to minimize situations where they are together around a guard-worthy resource. If they start guarding, resource goes away (if you can safely do this. Sounds like no one is guarding from you.) Also training, like a good leave it command, or demanding sits or downs before they get treats or dinner sometimes helps.

I think you're probably right that Rae has been half-hearted about it. I've watched puppies playfight several times and it sounds like they are in it to the death, but if you watch closely, you realize that the jaw snaps end at least two inches away from the other dog. Sometimes if I think a puppy is going over the top, I'll pick it up and hold it until think it's calmed down. General rule of thumb is if the puppies go back to playing with each other, it wasn't a serious squabble. So I think if your smaller dogs are forgiving Rae, you aren't in too much trouble.

If they aren't forgiving Rae, or if you feel like Rae might erupt unpredictably, then I think you've got something you need to deal with. Whatever you do, react calmly. If Rae is crate trained, you can put her in the crate if she's getting irritable and needs a time out.

Of course, it's possible something else is going on. In which case, I'd look for some more advice. Check out this link: http://www.dogwise.com/Browse/SubCatList.cfm?SubCat=Multiple%20Pets Patricia McConnell is awesome, but I think Feeling Outnumbered is just a pamphlet - so it will give you a crash course on how to handle multiple dogs in household issues. Dogwise publishes great dog books and also has reprinted some of the classics it's a good place to look. If you can get a copy of Brenda Aloff's book on dog aggression from the library, I would but it's an expensive book and just off the top of my head, I think it covers more on issues of dog aggression outside of the household.

Good luck! Keep me posted.

Heh! I have The Jungle on my list, too, but haven't worked up to reading it yet. I have read Sinclair's The Wet Parade, and while it's basically a pro-Prohibition polemic it's also a fascinating social document.

The Wet Parade sounds like it's probably more palatable. Actually, that does sound really interesting. Prohibition was a wild time period, and it certainly didn't accomplish what it was supposed to.

Definitely setting aside The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay right now. I just don't have the patience for his style. I'd really like to like it, and there were lots of elements in it that interested me - the part where Kavalier tries to earn his way into the Magician's supper club with a little trick in the river - makes a brilliant stand-alone short story. Maybe another time, but other books are calling me much more loudly.

Got stuck at a garage sale today manning it far more alone than I'd expected. Hadn't brought my book but found Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block in the car. Perhaps I let too much time go between reading the first book in the series, Weetzie Bat. I remember loving crazy, frenetic Weetzie Bat and Witch Baby is a troubled, individual, restless character every bit as strong as Weetzie. However, this one didn't quite do it for me. Many deep(ish) subjects blew by really quickly (total opposite of Chabon) and then the story ties up with a feel good moment of unity that just didn't quite do it for me. Maybe my real issue was with the narrator? In Weetzie Bat the narrator/voice felt more like a 3rd person version of Weetzie. In Witch Baby Weetzie is older since Witch Baby is now a teen, but it felt like the exact same breathy narrator so I always felt like I was seeing Witch Baby from the outside. Her story, but not her struggle.

I had intended to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay this month but I haven't even picked it up - there seem to be mixed reactions to it. Maybe in June. Maybe.

Don't you hate being stuck someplace without your current book? At least you had a book, but I'm sorry it wasn't more rewarding. I'm not sure that having an e-reader will help with this - after all, I still have to have the Kindle with me.....

Dejah, I know! My e-reader was at home, but I always want it to be the current book. I tend to have more than one book going at a time so starting one that was unplanned just makes things go out of control!

As for Kav & Clay, I'm interested in the statistics on it. If you look at the ratings chart for it, the 4 and 5 stars are overwhelming! It seems like a lot of people are dropping it though. I wish they had dated on started but didn't finish.

#48 Silver Moon by local author Catherine Lundoff was a fun little romp with a bunch of menopausal werewolves. :) Seriously. Guess you're never too old for romance and adventure.

#49 Girl Trouble, my latest ER book was quite good but still not what I had hoped. I'm not really sure what I'll write for my review on it. G T is a brief history of the women's movement in England as it affected the progress of young women and girls. Thing is, the goals of women have been diverse and shifting. At times the focus was on physical safety. Sometimes on education. Sometimes on sexual freedom. Dyhouse hit many of the main points and waves in the history. The book was filled with interesting facts. However, the history itself is so... what... amorphous that I don't really know what to make of the book.

Does still sound kind of interesting, though. I think what you've said here, a little more fleshed out, would make an excellent review!

Crazy behind, but stopping by! I'm very impressed by your reading 100 off the 1001 books list. I think I may have read maybe 40 so far? As Carsten says, it's often worth it, but you do have to pick and choose!

It can be tricky to know what to say about ER books sometimes. I'm sorry Girl Trouble didn't live up to expectations!

Deb, yes, I love the 1001 list, but certainly not every book. I'd actually worry if I found a reviewer that I liked every book they picked. It would mean either they were being safe, or I'm a clone.

Esq & Dejah - I liked Girl Trouble. It just, like you said, didn't live up to expectations. Sometimes I read something with an idea of what the book should be in my mind, and since I'm not the writer, it usually doesn't match. Review written, same thoughts a little more fleshed out, just as you said. I'm taking a quick break from ER books to read Jitterbug Perfume and then it's Karen Joy Fowler's new book, which I'm excited about. I've heard a lot about Fowler, but never actually read her. She was one of the women involved with getting the Tiptree award started, so I know she won't be a "normal" writer, whatever normal means.

Katie, pretty good going to be in 3 figures already on the 1001 books which is actually 1,239 books over the different editions!

From the first heavily thumbed first edition I have managed to finish 217 of the titles there and I am currently reading 3 more: What A Carve Up!, The Grapes of Wrath and Sunset Song.

I do notice that certain writers seem over represented in the first edition; Paul Auster for example and I dislike as many as I like in the list in truth.

Have a lovely weekend.

Paul, Wow! 217!!! I agree, he over-represents some authors. 1001 books really isn't that many when you think about how many books are in print in the world. I'm surprised that any author is allowed more than one book. Some have three! I think there are some with even more than that listed.

#51 Aggression in Dogs by Brenda Aloff. Aloff is a dog trainer's trainer. This book is the creme de la creme of dog aggression books. It's been popular for the images showing various warning signals and other body language. It took me forever to read it because I don't find this subject matter a light one. I had borrowed the book from a friend, but will probably end up buying her a new one because I've got all sorts of flags in it, marking exercises I'm working on with Sage. The exercises are bother for preventing and addressing aggression issues, and fear is at the base of most dog aggression. Therefore even though Sage is not aggressive, most of the exercises will still work for him.

As for the usefulness of this book to a non-dog trainer? I don't know. A lay person might get something out of it, but if that person was working with a dog already presenting aggression, I certainly wouldn't use the book in lieu of getting professional help.

Hi Katie! I am long overdue for a visit. I love reading about dear Sage -- what a sweetie, and how wonderful that you are willing to give him so much love. Interesting comments about black pets -- I had never thought of it before. We had a black and white cat we brought home with us from Cyprus who was our Cat Extraordinaire forever and died a couple of summers ago. We went to a nearby animal shelter *just to look* a few months later, and came home with a cat, of course, a one year-old glossy black cat we named Orion and love dearly. Alas, we seem to have chosen the most allergenic cat there is -- only after we brought him home did we learn that some think that black male cats are more allergenic than others. My daughter became so sick, despite every measure we took, and finally Orion went to live at my husband's office, where he is pampered and adored. Sweet boy.

Great reads this year! I am adding to my list.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Hi Katie- Just checking in. I hope you had a nice long weekend and got some prime reading in.

Hi Anne & Mark! Orion is a great cat name. Too bad about that allergy thing!!!

& yes, great reading weekend. It rained, so Sage got a walk in the rain and a lot of cuddle with Mom while she reads time. Di thinks Sage is much braver when he is wet, and she may have a point. ;)

As for reading, I just finished #52 Jitterbug Perfume. This is such an odd little novel. I loved it, but I'm sure it's an either you love it or you hate it book. The style is quite - imagistic? Robbins reminds me of Richard Brautigan's essays that were almost poetry. The story itself is a raunchy little romp through time as two lovers decide that the circumstances of death just aren't fair. Where else can you find the god Pan and Albert Einstein in the same novel? And yes, there are smells all over the place - from the perfect taco, Cajun food, the Mississippi river, incense from India, jasmine from South America, but most of all goat funk. Hey, at least goats smell nicer than giraffes.

Sage is braver when he's wet? That's a new idea. I feel pretty confident in say that none of my cats feel that way and Rufie doesn't mind being wet, but I haven't noticed any upswing in self confidence....

I've had Jitterbug Perfume on the shelf for years - I guess I need to try it and figure out if I'm a lover or a hater!

Well, Sage is a water spaniel. Dejah, when you get a water cat, we will find out. Aren't there fishing cats? Yes, its time to find out if Jitterbug Perfume deserves shelf space in your place or not. My ER novel We are completely beside ourselves is equally weird.

Hey, it's time for our group read of women. Yah! I think it's on the Category thread.

I'm supposed to be cut off from the internet now - but am not. My provider is out of the business, and my wi fi (wi fi!!!) hasn't arrived. I'm assuming my computer is wi fi compatible, but that may be rash. Just because I have a wizard for wi fi doesn't mean it's wi fi compatible. Anyway, if I'm scarce, you'll know why.

Oh dear! Good luck with the wifi - that's what I use as well. No DSL or cable where I live, although why that's the case isn't entirely clear.

I think there are supposed to be Turkish swimming cats - I've always found that idea appealing. Several of mine like to stand in water, but I've witnessed no voluntary swimming.

I've got my fingers crossed that your wifi will arrive quickly and your computer has what it needs for you to hit the ground running!

The wi fi has appeared, and I did several things to try to install it. None of them worked. So I gave up and restarted the computer and I seem to be on wi-fi. It is working???

Yes!!! It most work! I just found a ton of pictures of Turkish Swimming Cats! without the message saying my connection may be slow!

Congratulations! And aren't Turkish Swimming cats cool? I only have rescues of one sort or another, but I'm tempted to find myself a swimmer. I have a nice pond.....

That would be really cool!

What a great thread! Good Omens is one of my all-time favorites, the Larbalestier is on my wishlist at the library, I loved the McCrumbs when I read them years ago. I was also iffy about Zoo City--while I liked a lot about it, I thought the climax scene was ridiculous. I'll be following you from now on. Thanks for visiting my thread.

LOVE Good Omens.

Hi Roni! Zoo City - The climax scene was WAY ridiculous. Moxyland was much better!

& yes Esquiress, Good Omens rocks!

#53 I finished We are all completely beside ourselves. I hated the title but enjoyed the book. The book is a non-chronological story about a girl who was raised as a "twin" with a chimpanzee. When they turn about five, the experiment goes horribly wrong and the girl spends her college career onward trying to figure out what happened to the family and what it means.

The thing that makes this book is that Karen Joy Fowler is a genre-hopping science fiction writer. She's hopped genres to right in what is most like the literary genre, but current psychology and animal science run through the novel - not just a little bit. Without the science and psychology, the novel would be like half brother by Kenneth Oppel that doesn't have nearly the subtlety nor the teeth that We are all completely beside ourselves has.

Not sick. Just reading The Mists of Avalon and it's taking forever!!! & I'm getting sick of Lancelot and Guinevere moping after each other. Wish they'd just get on with it! It's not like they're fooling anyone.

LOL!

#54 - Finished a team-read of The Bloody Chamber with lkernagh. It was a great team read. The Bloody Chamber is a group of fairytale-based short stories, mostly set in the 1800s. Lots of virgins. Lots of original folklore of werewolves. Heavy on the mood.

It was a great team read! Makes me want to revisit the original fables and fairy tales all over again to look for more subtle connections between the stories.

Yes! It was a great team read. I'll definitely read Angela Carter again, and I'm really sad that my folklore category is finished in my category read now because there is soooo much more to explore there! I'm reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu which is similar, very folkloric but more on the nasty fairy lore than the werewolf lore. It's going to have to finish up my short story category though.

#55 The Ladies of Grace Adieu made a good companion piece to The Bloody Chamber. Instead of Red Riding Hood, the traditional tale was Rumplestiltskin. No virgins running about, or if they were virgins it was just because they hadn't found a worthy partner yet. The tales were quite meandering, in a way that could either be annoying or charming, depending on what kind of a reader you are and the mood you are in that day. & the women were quite steam-punkish, meaning plucky modern women set back in the 1800s. Quite a charming collection, but not sweet charming. Well, slightly sweetened. ;)

I've had The Ladies of Grace Adieu in my tbr pile for slightly over two years now. Someday...

@290 LOL! The Ladies of Grace Adieu have been in my TBR pile since 2006! I bought it when it had just come out and I had just started working at Borders. I got thicker skin about interesting books after I'd been there longer.

We are all completely beside ourselves sounds fascinating. I actually love the title, myself. Thanks for the review!

Banjo, hope you get a chance to read it!

#56-58 Mists of Avalon Sigh. This was a just there sort of read for me. How disappointing. Perhaps I would've liked it more if I'd read it in the 80s when The Chalice and the Blade was every college-age feminist's reading. I have higher standards for a book that long than I do for a 100 or 200 page book. If it had been 200 pages, the portrayal of this time period as a losing battle between a feminist religion and St. Patrick might have been enough. As it was, the characterization wasn't strong enough to carry me through the book.

I've been overdue for a visit, and now I see you've read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I've had my eye on it and think I need to move it up the list....

Katie, that's a good idea. I don't think you'll be disappointed with it.

#59 Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks wasn't as good as her The Reformed Vampire Support Group, but it was a fun adventure story full of manipulation. Cadel, a genius being raised by Awful Step Parents (ya trope) bonds with his psychiatrist who encourages his obsessions - computers, traffic patterns, social patterns - and encourages him to show he's mastered understanding by bringing them down in ways like a 4-hour traffic jam etc etc. Once Cadel is ready for college, he goes to a very special boarding school - one where instead of wizards teaching all the magic classes they have criminals teaching all the classes. Cadel's classes include embezzlement, computer hacking, forgeries, etc. Stick a boy with his hobbies in such a situation, and you've got an adventure that spills out all over Australia.

I'm sorry I didn't join in on the group read of The Bloody Chamber. By the time I rec'd the book, I thought it was too late.

@297 I figured that! I hope you got a chance to read it though.

#60 I hate to admit this but I thought Siddhartha was just a meh book. I was listening to it on audio, and perhaps that has something to do with it. I also thought it was a fictionalized biography of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, but it was not. It was too interior for me with ideas I increasingly struggle with. Also, I'm very aware that in Buddha's society, a man could go off and become an ascetic but the role of women was very different, and this was clear in the novel. So I felt a little shut out.

#61 Recollections of Things To Come by Elena Garro was a tale of a small town in Mexico that is being occupied by soldiers. Their entire fate hinges on Julia, the mistress of the General. Things go well, not much happens. Julia and the General fight, people are executed in the night. Throw in some magical realism, and you've got a real strange read.

"and you've got a real strange read."...Does this mean you like the book, or the "strangeness got in the way?

Oh, I hope that you liked it, because it sounds really interesting.

Hi Katie! I hope you're doing well!

You've got me interested in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I'll put it on the list.

I'm sorry Mists of Avalon was a disappointment. It's always sort of on my radar, but the page count keeps me away. Apparently I'm not missing much...

@301 - 302 I liked it, but didn't love it. I think I was missing some of the background on the Mexican Revolution. I know they had two - one to overthrow the royals, and one to overthrow Porfirio Diaz. Recollections takes place in the second revolution. I know bits and pieces about it, but it's still a mess in my mind. I also had some very distracted reading and suspected it was being told by the Virgin from the first, but I didn't know until the end. That made me a little uncomfortable while I was reading it. I also didn't know which character to keep my eye on. If you're going to read it, it's Isabel. It received a major book award in Mexico, kind of the equivalent of the Pulitzer in the US. I'm thinking a reread would move it up higher in my estimation.

Kerri - I'd go for We Are... before Mists! That page count thing! Unless you are a real Arthur buff. Someone was talking about it recently and said that Guy Gavriel Kay wrote an Arthurian novel that is much better but owes a lot to Mists. I'd advise digging that one up first, although knowing Kay, it's likely to be just as long.

#62 The Hunger Games - don't need to say much more about this. Interesting how they are able to make Katniss seem cold, yet a reluctant killer, throughout all of this. I was surprised to agree with all the hype. I can completely see why the kids are so intrigued with this, and can completely see why all the violence makes adults uneasy. I really enjoyed it.

#305 - I honestly wish I would have read The Hunger Games before the movie and all the hoopla. Now I'm just so sick of hearing about it that I'm afraid I couldn't enjoy it properly. Do you know what I mean?

Also, are you aware of the thread police? :- )

!!! The thread police? What infraction have I done? Too long? Do I need a new thread? :)

Dors, I totally know what you mean about The Hunger Games hoopla. I was interested in it when Mockingjay came out, right before all the buzz started. Then the buzz started and I didn't want to read it anymore. Then I realized it's become so big that I can't be on a ya sf&f panel without some familiarity with it. Besides, having read it gives me some street cred with the middle schoolers. But yes, I don't need to add much to what has been said about it. I think I might read Catching Fire but I've heard the end of Mockingjay already and don't feel a great need to read it.

Hi Katie, oh I'm glad to see the good marks for We Are Completely Beside Ourselves which I've had on my "Read soonish" list ever since Mary Doria Russell sent out a newsletter (which I regularly receive) raving about it. If you've read her The Sparrow you know she has a soft spot for SF although everything else she's written has been straight fiction.

Hi Bonnie, I'm surprised Mary Doria Russell read it, and raved about it. I don't know why I should be though. I knew of Karen Joy Fowler because of her involvement in a Feminist Science Fiction convention, WisCon, and Mary Doria Russell has participated in WisCon too. They probably know each other. I'm glad other people, even established writers, are raving about it. I hope you get to read We Are Completely Beside Ourselves soon!

#307 - Yes! You need a new thread, Woman! 250 - that's the limit. :-)

You have excellent points as to why reading The Hunger Games was important for you. I may still listen as an audiobook one of these days.

Dors has spoken!!! New thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/156855