LizzieD: 2013*1 (January into February)

I'm upping my books goal and keeping the pages goal that I didn't meet in 2012. Good luck to me. (I don't much like the way that lady bug looks like she's attacking the tree, but I'm too lazy to change now.)

BOOKS READ IN 2012: 88

Fiction: 77
Non-Fiction: 11

Fiction (Classifiable)
Classics: 5
Mystery: 12
Science Fiction: 12
Hard: 2
Space Opera: 6
Fantasy: 4
Orange (Winners and Nominees): 16
Booker Winners: 2
Virago Modern Classics: 4

Non-Fiction
Biographies/Memoirs: 6
Diaries: 2
Travel: 2

*Best of the Best* - in the order in which I read them
Fiction
Fall on Your Knees
The Broom of the System
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Lord of Misrule
The Bone People
Bring Up the Bodies
Doc
A Place of Greater Safety

Non-Fiction
Means of Ascent
The Diary of a Country Parson: 1758-1802
Our Hidden Lives

I'm happy that I read a book or two more this year than last. I'm not displeased with my fiction/non-fiction ratio: that's how I am. I am a bit unhappy that I did not read one straight history book all year. The historical novels, diaries, and biographies seem to have fed my love of history. All in all, I'm happy and looking forward to 2013!

READ IN JANUARY
1. The Bell
2. Island of Wings
3. A Plague of Angels (reread)
4. A Question of Upbringing
5. The Sisters Brothers
6. Above All Things
7. Precursor

New in January
1. Private Battles - AMP - GC (Thank you, friend!)
2. Aurora Floyd - AMP - GC (Ditto!)
3. The Good Parents - AMP - GC (And again!)
4. The Inbetween People ✔ - ER ARC
5. Thirty-Three Teeth - AMP - GC
6. 100 Years of Vicissitude - Kindle Daily Deal
7. Peter the Great ✔ - AMP - Thingaversary #1 and the first ever to arrive in a clear plastic mailer
8. Above All Things ✔ - ER ARC
9. Catherine the Great - AMP - Thingaversary #2
10. Religions of Rome ✔ - AMP - Christmas money!
11. The Blackhouse ✔ - AMP
12. The Way of Kings ✔ - Kindle
13. The Rose Garden - Kindle Daily Deal
14. The Feast of the Goat - PBS

Happy New Year, Peggy. I'll be following your reading in 2013.

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread, Peggy!

Hi, Peggy - starred!

Happy NY, Peggy. Here's to 2013!

Happy New Year, Peggy. Here's hoping for a wonderful 2013.

Here you are Peggy. Happy New Year to you! 90 books eh? I got to 86 but I'm planning to read more chunksters in 2013 so I think 90 is probably out of reach for me. Good luck to you and Happy, Happy New Year.

You're here! Happy New Year Peggy and happy reading.

Found, starred and Happy New Yeared dear Peggy.

Hi Peggy, Happy New Year!

I wish you a very Happy New Year 2013 and many wonderful reads, Peggy!

Any Dickens re-read planned yet?

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a happy 2013! I'll try to be a bit better about delurking this year.

Starred and ready to go! Happy 2013 (again!)

What's your first book?

Great way to start the new year! Thank you for leaving a message, Beth, Ellen, Nancy, and Liz, Bonnie Linda, Peg, and Paul, Anne, Susan, and Ginny, Nathalie and Katherine too.
Bonnie, I'm nothing if not an optimist. I read 88 last year and figure if I press a little harder I can get to 90. On the other hand, I didn't get close to the 40,000 pages, but besides optimistic I'm also stubborn, so I figured I'd try again.
Nathalie, I haven't planned a Dickens, but I'll likely read at least one. I need to read Nicholas Nickleby again, but I'll see what calls me when the time is right.
Katherine, I always like when you delurk. You have the ability to cut to the chase.
Genny, I've started a whole pile of things: The Bell, Precursor, Island of Wings, The Thinking Reed, and Imprimatur, while continuing The Brontes very, very slowly. If Nathalie is already reading A Question of Upbringing, I'll probably start that too. I've read most in The Bell, but what I finish first I dare not predict.

Happy New Year, Peggy! I got very close to my page goal of 35,000 pages last year. I decided to leave my ticker open-ended this year to see what happens.

I'm looking forward to reading A Dance to the Music of Time with you. I've never done a year-long book group before. Should be fun!

Happy New Year Peggy!

Just marking my spot on your new thread to watch your various and interesting reading!

Happy New Year Peggy!

Peggy - I've starred your thread so that I can follow along with your reading this year! Looking forward to good things!

Happy New Year, Peggy! I've got you starred and look forward to keeping up with what you're reading.

Found your thread and have you starred now! I also really enjoyed We Need to Talk about Kevin but missed it on my 'best of' list somehow. I think it evoked such a dark emotional place for me that I just skipped right over it in my head. It was an incredible book though.

Happy New Year, my friend.

Stars all over the place, but I couldn't leave your thread unstarred, ma chere! bienvenue en 2013...

Just catching up here!

Found and starred. Happy New Year, Peggy!

Looking forward to following your 2013 reading Peggy (and your comment on the ladybug made me chuckle).

I've got you starred, Peggy. I'm looking forward to following your reading this year, as always.

I'm looking forward to following your reading this year, Peggy. We share a lot of books in our libraries!

I like your page count ticker , Peggy! Maybe I'll try that this year too!

Hi Peggy, I was looking through my photos last night, found this and thought about you :) Unfortunately, I still haven't found the beautiful photos of my beloved Max together with Alex in her basket.
But here she is Max. I loved all my dogs, but I have to say she was the best one out of all of them, because she was such a great character. She died almost 5 years ago and I still miss her dearly.

Finding visitors warms my heart! I'm sorry I don't have any reading comments yet, Bianca, Deborah, Julia, Becky, Heather, Joanne, Roni, Suzanne, Lucy, Tina, Stephen, Mamie, Anne, and Donna. I'm glad you found me anyway!!
Bianca, that is one sweet-looking dog. I know how you love them all, but one is secretly dear - for me it's our Cubbie. I've said before that we seem to have the same dog again and again in different suits, and that's mostly true. Cubbie was special though.
Donna, I got pretty close to your page goal too and would have pushed to complete it had it been mine. Not being one of the rapid, constant readers, I wasn't going to get through 5,000+ pages in December though. We'll see.
I'm still flitting and sipping from several books but I do read a little of The Bell and like it a lot. It's prime Murdoch territory with all kinds of storms brewing for our very serious characters - not a sense of humor among them!
I've started Imprimatur, set in the last part of the 17th century in Italy. I know I heard about it at LT, but I can't remember where. Anybody?

Max does look like perfect dear.

Just to report that I will be on the receiving end of a copy of The Inbetween People from ER. I asked for four in December, I think, and I'm happy that this is the one that they chose for me. I don't know a thing about Emma McEvoy, but it sounds good.
I'll also note that I'm still waiting for my December book about Everest...Bonnie, did you get it? My November book never came either, and it's been long enough to mark it "not received." Even if they were all to show up the same day, I'd be happy to get them.

Found you. Happy New Year.

(Wonderful pic of Max)

Just flying past to wish you a great weekend Peggy.

Many thanks, Linda, Susan, and Paul for dropping in. I'm happy to say that it's my 4th THINGAVERSARY. What a life-enhancing experience it is to be at LT daily and among 75ers! Thank you!!!
You know, I am curiously uninterested in scouting out my 5 Thingaversary books that I'm allowed. I'm sure that that will change. I know that I'm going to get The Passage of Power when it comes out in paperback so that I'll have a nice matching set - or earlier if I read Master of the Senate sooner and the pb still isn't available. That's all that springs to mind although I guess a troll through my wish list might set me off. We'll see.

Peggy, I'm here, I'm here *dropping books and holding bathrobe together*! A belated but most sincere Happy New Year to you with all the attendant good wishes that go with it, especially good health. I love your yellow lab Max--Winston was my yellow lab and no one has ever topped him in the dog section of my heart, so I do know what you mean about that.

And happy Thingaversary! Amazing how this place has expanded our horizons, isn't it.

HAPPY THINGAVERSERY TO YOU TO!!! Don't you get one to grow on?

Happy Thingaversary to you, Peggy!

Hi, Tui. Thank you for good wishes. Actually, Max is Bianca's lab. Our May is black.
Lucy, same back to you! Yep, I'm counting one to grow on - this is anniversary 4, and I'm entitled to 5. Yippeee!
Thank you, Julia. I hope that I'll have read something and be able to talk about it if you'll come back again. Sort of slow going these days.

Happy buying of five books!

No worries, Peggy. I just finished my first book today and am relieved to have it over with. You will finish one in your own good time, and I will be back when you do!

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy! So glad you found LT and are here, part of us.

You can run, but you can't hide!
Bianca's Max looks like our beloved Abby Labby who is 4 now.

Whoa Peggy; I am reading Island of Wings in March for Darryl's 'An Orange a Month' Challenge. We (U & I) are so psycho together.
How far are you from Philly? I am going to the meet-up and was hoping you were planning to go as I am just champing at the bit to meet you. But I didn't see your name on the list. I think I have talked christiguc into going; I hope, I hope. So many people that I want to meet will be at this one. Of course finances could get in the way and that is almost clear across the country from here but I am thinking positively. I already have plans to visit with four friends who live just out of Cincinnati for a few days in the Spring anyway. Anyhoo, shall see.
warm hugs,

Happy Thingaversary!! And don't forget to post what you choose to add to your shelves...

Adding my "Happy Thingaversary" wishes to everyone else's!

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy! I didn't buy a load of books for my last one in October, but I most definitely acquired the requisite number of books by the end of the year. Take your time!

HI Lizzie, Happy Thingaversary! Very new concept to me, although to get myself new books + 1 on that day sounds very tempting.
Wish you and your family a lovely Sunday.

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy!

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy! I have bought a ridiculous amount of books since acquiring my Kindle on Friday but most of them were under a pound!

Happy Thingaversary! It took me more than a month to decide on the 3 books I wanted to acquire for mine--not because I couldn't think of anything to buy but because the number 3 (somewhere between 1 and an armload) induced a paralysis of indecision.

Happy New Year, Peggy!

Best wishes for a good reading year, too.

It's gotten to where I don't even bother clicking through with an Amazon order unless it has at least a half dozen books. A very bad habit.

Happy Day and thanks Roni, Belva, Julia, Linda, Bianca, Suzanne, Stasia, Laura, Nathalie, Dee, Anne, Karen, and Katherine!
I'm still Thingapondering but am almost committed to buying a copy of Catherine the Great, which will be a great boost to my pages read at least! Belva, you funny! I can't think of anybody I'd prefer to be psycho with! I have to agree, Anne, that 5 is a much more propitious number than 3. I"m not sure what the delay is about. Katherine, I don't know about you, but I buy exclusively used books, so the shipping really mounts since each book ships for $3.99 even if it comes from the same seller. Anyway! I finally finished a book - and I'll have to step it up to meet my newly self-imposed goal of 90, but at least I have something to talk about.

THE BELL by Iris Murdoch
This is Murdoch's fourth novel from 1958 and maybe her break-out one. By this time she already had in place the cast of characters: partners in a troubled marriage, a fallen religious character or two, a beautiful boy, a beautiful girl - and this time, a convent full of nuns. The action commences when an erring wife returns to her husband, who is temporarily living in a lay community attached to said convent while he does research using some of their manuscripts. The community is planning an event to usher a new bell from the world into the sequestered convent. The head of the community Michael Meade had once hoped to become an Anglican priest, but a brief homosexual encounter with a student ended that dream. Michael with his religious fervor and his internal musings is at the center of the novel. Most of the philosophy is couched in Christian vocabulary, and Murdoch wends her way through the convolutions of thought and feeling that may arise in a person of faith living in an isolated community that invites contemplation.
Everybody takes himself very, very seriously, and I was famished for a bit of real humor which I finally got when the bishop arrives to dedicate the bell. Of course, the complications and denouement involve very, very serious events, but it's hard for me to identify with a Murdoch character or to feel that any of them are real people. That doesn't prevent my coming back to her again and again though. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'll be back in a Murdoch in February.

Happy Thingaversay, Peggy! Lovely review of The Bell. #55 I laughed out loud at the number 3 (somewhere between 1 and an armload) induced a paralysis of indecision. I SO get that!

Happy Thingaversary Peggy. Nice review of The Bell. Murdoch is one author I want to read this year. It's been awhile since I picked up any of her books.

Happy Thingaversary! Hope you enjoy Catherine the Great. It's one of our book club picks for this year -- not until June, which means I will be done with school and actually able to attend a meeting (Friday mornings). I look forward to your thoughts.

Great review of The Bell, Peggy, and Happy Thingaversary.

This may be the first I've heard of an LTer feeling unmotivated to use their thingaversary as an excuse to purchase books, but I daresay it won't last.

Happy thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary peggy! Is that the Massie bio of Catherine the Great that you're looking for? That was a five star read for me last year. As far as ER books go, I never requested one on Everest but I am still waiting for my September book!

#58 There was a very good BBC TV adaptation in the 80's, which was what led me to read The Bell. I think those characters also informed my reading and helped them to become real people to me. I normally prefer to read a book before watching an adaptation but occasionally it's better the other way round.

>58 LizzieD:: great review of The Bell, Peggy. Most of Murdoch's characters seem unreal to me, and I'm not even sure what it is about her writing that I like so much, but I do!

And: "Thingapondering" -- that's an excellent new word.

Thank you, Nancy, Beth, Anne, Ellen, Chèli, Bonnie, Kerry, and Laura! It's great to have visitors and especially complimentary visitors. I'm sure that I can't say anything very real about IM; like Laura, I like her a lot and am not sure why. I can see how IM acted might carry more conviction as to the reality of characters that IM read.
I definitely caved and bought the Massive Massie *Catherine*. I'm now sort of Thingapondering his *Peter* which is truly massive. Never mind. I just did it, so that's book 2. Going fast!

Hi Peggy, finally getting around to dropping off a star and catching up.

Happy Thingaversary!

I've added The Bell to my tbr pile.

Happy Monday Dear Peggy.

Oh, that is such an excellent review, so concise and 'on it' Peggy. I say it again and again, but you are so good at writing up what is in a book.... I get so tangled up in my responses, it's always hard to just say what is there.

A *very* late Happy New Year and Happy Thingaversary!

Great review Lizzie, although I don't think that the book would be my cup of tea :). However, I hope you are going to have a great week!

Very nice review of The Bell, Peggy. I found your comment about Murdoch's characters to be interesting:

it's hard for me to identify with a Murdoch character or to feel that any of them are real people. That doesn't prevent my coming back to her again and again though.

I agree--I feel the same way about her characters. Admittedly, I haven't read much of IM--just the one book, The Black Prince. I don't mind if a writer has a group of curious, eccentric, even whacko characters; however, I do look for at least one sort of "normal" type that acts as a touchstone and helps ground the story. Or maybe a narrator that helps to keep the motley crew in check.

And it's not even so much that I don't relate to her characters--after all, Dickens for example--I can't say I relate to many of his characters, either. But I like Dickens' wacky crew in a way that I don't like IM's characters. I find their oddnesses unappealing, which makes it difficult for me to care very much about what happens to them.

And that brings me to my question for you: What is it that draws you to read IM "again and again"?

I'm not really a Downton Abbey fan yet, but I took the quiz anyway (Which Downton Abbey Job is Right for You?), and it turns out that I'm Isabel Crawley.......is that right? Anyway, it was fun and you can try it here.

Becky, I have really tried to think about your question; in fact, I was thinking about it before. I'm not sure what brings me back to IM again and again. At least part of it is that she is so immediately identifiable - I've been in this place before and have had a good time, so here I am again. She's intellectual and serious enough without being ultimately serious and sometimes funny, always interesting and discussable.
You are echoing my hunt for a norm. In The Bell I thought for a bit that it might be the journalist friend of Dora's, Noel. He was outside the intensities of that community and urging her to be her own person. He turned out to be more demanding than he had presented himself though, and he pretty much sacrificed his friendship with Dora for a story, so he doesn't reflect IM's making love the ultimate good. I read Dickens for his prose although some of the characters touch me. With IM I guess I'm just a bit fascinated by the mind that conceive of such people.
That's not a very good answer, but it's the only one I have right now.

Peggy...I'm not surprised to learn that you and I are both Isabel Crawley.

Henry James is another novelist who I can deal with in his television/film adaptations more readily than in his prose. That said, I'm going to brace myself for more of his work this year...

Thingapondering.
Nice.

I, too, seem to be Isobel Crawley. How marvelously unromantic.

Oh, btw, I'm the Dowager Countess...

Technology and other tedious obstacles don't concern you – you are best suited for the Dowager Countess' job, and as such, you have an empire to run. Through brutal honesty, tough love, and stealthy intervention, you protect those in your charge...whether they want it or not. With high standards and an iron rule, you have a long career of leadership ahead of you. To ensure its success, however, consider the fate of the mighty dinosaurs, and allow for adaptation.

Hmm, not sure this is right, but then most of the multiple choice answers didn't fit me terribly well!

I did just egged on to do the online version of Myers Brigg and another personality test that reveal me to be anti-social and arrogant. Oh dear... *grin*

A belated happy thingaversary Peggy and adding my compliments on your review of The Bell. I might make that my next Murdoch later this year.

Hello Lizzie, I never watched DA, but have taken the quiz as well and as it turned out I am Isabelle Crawley as well. According to Mark a very annoying character.

Suz, antisocial and arrogant? I don't see it.
What's your MBTI "type"? (asked the ENFP)

Hi Peggy!

Whooo! Fun to have visitors, and I thank you for stopping by Linda, Suz, Ellen, Heather, Bianca!
Allow me to doubt the antisocial and arrogant too although I guess you have a lot to be arrogant about if you chose. I remember that I'm INFJ for whatever that's worth.You will have guessed, Suzanne, that Henry James is another favorite - or at least, that I read almost everything he wrote in the years before I discovered Iris Murdoch. My only recent reread was The Portrait of a Lady, and I was still enthralled.
So the rest of the cast doesn't like Isabel Crawley? Aww. I like us.
Thank you, Heather, twice!

What about Toby, ultimately, being a kind of norm in The Bell? - Toby and Noel (with limits). I thought Noel was pretty normal though, and that he had a right express his irritation and had been hired to write a story (and, as he said, not the worst of them).

>74 LizzieD:. Loved your answer. Thanks, Peggy.

Fun DA quiz. I am Lady Edith. Apparently I am always dressed for the occasion, whatever it may be. LOL Like now, sitting at my computer in my sweat pants. :)

Like Laura and Ellen, I picked up on your newly coined word, "thingapondering". Love it!

Peggy, I thought you answered Becky's question quite well. Sometimes we just feel comfortable with an author and want to spend more time with them. I must give Iris Murdoch a trial run this year.

Peggy, I am very late getting over here. I don't know how I missed your new 2013 thread. Well, you are firmly starred now. Happy Belated Thingaversary. Are you still thingapondering? :)

Yes, inquiring minds want to know how the thingapondering is going!

Becky, you are patient with the random and so is Donna! Jenn, that's what I'm wearing; maybe I need to re-take the quiz?!?!? Hi, Pat and Stasia. Great to see you both here! I'm trying to put the thingapondering on hold so that I'm not spent out when something I really want appears on the horizon. I was going back and forth about getting a print copy of The Broom of the System, which I greatly enjoyed listening to last year - and it came into PBS and I was #1, so I'm getting it! And I'm thrilled that I waited!!
Meanwhile, I can't seem to start my newly arrived ER ARC, The Inbetween People, and it looks good. Maybe tomorrow or tomorrow or tomorrow.... That has a nice rhythm, doesn't it?

Hi Peggy, I'm another Isobel Crawley. She's not the most glamourous character but has a social conscience and is the one I would like most in real life.

I was wondering how you were getting on with Island of Wings. I've just bought it in the Amazon.co.uk daily Kindle deal and have heard wildly different reports.

I'm Isobel too - and I haven't even watched DA - although I like that actress - she was great in Doctor Who!

Dee, since I don't watch *DA*, I'm glad to get back a positive report about Isobel. If she has a social conscience, I'm happy to be her! I don't know the actress; I don't watch much of anything really.....
As to Island of Wings, I think a lot of my displeasure with the book is just my mood and I wouldn't be so picky if it were something else equally flawed but suiting this time better. The writing is pretty wooden - no real rhythm; just lots of subject-verb-object sentences strung together. Occasionally, a nice figure of speech or description; on the other hand, some of those similes aren't similar and don't surprise happily. Then, I just read about the new young maid sneaking into "the master bedroom," which is a concept that I don't think goes back to the 19th century. And I hate being told about a character without seeing and hearing him live out his motivation. So. I'm not a happy reader, but I will go ahead and finish. Your reaction may be extremely positive. I do love the setting!

Thanks Peggy. Those things would probably jar with me too but I'll try the book one day, when I think I'm in the right mood.

#91 I bought Island of Wings too :-) Sorry to hear you're less than happy with it Peggy. I decided the subject matter interested me enough to risk it.

Interested in your remarks about Island of Wings. I have that on my list; wonder how I'll find it.

I appear to be Isabel Crawley. I wonder if my wife knows I'm a woman?

I wonder who I would have been had I been able to answer "none of the above" to all of them as I wanted?

I should like to have been Bates...or, perhaps, Anna if I must keep the gender the test assigned me.

Peggy, I know how much you enjoy Dickens. For that reason, I think you might like a book I'm reading now: The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson.

The book is about the 1854 cholera epidemic in London. They couldn't figure out how to stop it, and it was horrific. I'm only as far as the first chapter ("The Night-Soil Men"), but it already reminds me of a Dickens novel.

I suspect that Isobel is the 'normal' as we've been calling the characters in Iris Murdoch novels that seem grounded...... I know I'm a bit on the dull side, but it can't be helped!

In other quizzes I have been men - George Washington, for example (in a Founding Fathers quizz that is a hoot).

Heather, the natives could almost be my ancestors except that Barra is not quite so OUTER as St. Kilda and they were already over here in the 1830s. Even so, I'm fascinated and appalled by their lives. Nancy, I hope you both read it and tell me in the end that I'm full of it - in the nicest way possible, of course.
Tad, "none of the above" would have been my best answer to a number of those questions too, so I suspect Lucy is right. I haven't ever been a man --- except at Ancient Sites way back when. I couldn't bear to have a feminine praenomen with a masculine clan name (grammar, you know), so I made myself Primus Horatius, hoping that the Primus would be a clue. It wasn't. (In familia girls were not given individual names but were called by birth order, so Prima Horatia would have been the first-born daughter. Does anybody care?)
Lucy, a bit on the dull side? For shame! Not at all!!
Becky, thanks for pointing to The Ghost Map; I'm on the scent of it at once!

100: FYI, there will be a group read of The Ghost Map in Feb-Mar: http://www.librarything.com/topic/146538#3825278 .

Oh. Many thanks, Ms. Q.

#95 i've just bought Island of Wings too, but I have had it on my Wishlist for ages and I am pretty interested in the subject matter.

#100 Lizzie have you ever been to Barra? IMO it is the prettiest of the Outer Hebrides so at least your ancestors had that going for them. But I think you're right about the living conditions - when we visited the Outer Hebrides many years ago we visited a 'black house' which was the standard housing until the start of the twentieth century, and I remember being really shocked as it was the sort of house that had been abandoned in other parts of the UK hundreds of years earlier.

Peggy - I am so pleased to see that you enjoyed The Bell. I really enjoyed the first half a dozen or so novels by Iris Murdoch with The Sandcastle possibly my favourite.
Adding my (very) belated Happy Thingaversary greetings to the stack already amassed and I'm interested to see what you add to your collection as a result. Have a lovely weekend anyway as I prepare to slip home to begin mine.

*waving* at Peggy

Peggy, if The Ghost Map looks like something that would interest you, check out the website for it that includes a detailed map (more detailed than the one found in the book) and an interesting interview with the author.

http://www.theghostmap.com/

106: Oh, thanks. I don't have the book yet for comparison, but books without decent maps drive me nuts.

>107 qebo:. Yes, it's a pdf file with a lot of detail.

Rhian, I haven't been to Barra or anywhere else in the UK or Europe or west of the Appalachians, and at this point in my life, I guess I won't. I must say that for me the most fascinating part of the book was the description of the clachan: walls seven feet thick with the byre before the human living space, a hole where the straw roof meets the wall for ventilation, and cubbies dug into the wall for sleeping. That was only the beginning of the horror of it.
Paul, as soon as I decide on my remaining 3 Thingas, I'll be chortling about them here.
Hi, Stasia!
Becky, I add my thanks to Katherine's for the link. I know I'm interested, but I don't know if I'm interested enough to order the book immediately. These things sometimes take time!

#109 the most fascinating part of the book was the description of the clachan: walls seven feet thick with the byre before the human living space, a hole where the straw roof meets the wall for ventilation, and cubbies dug into the wall for sleeping.

That's what the black house we visited was like - animals at one end in the winter and humans the other - beaten earth floor - thatched roof going onto the top of the walls so that all the rainwater would trickle down into the wall to insulate against the wind (but what about the damp). The one we saw was the last of its type that was lived in - I think in the 1950's or 60's - but I assume that they'd moved the animals out long before then. It really brought it home to me just how remote it would have been in the past.

Peggy, Downton Abbey is a marvelous series.

eeek, no clachan for me...

Peggy, I'm an INTP, if I recall correctly.

I do think I'm closer to Bates. Prickly, with a temper, but reasonably sane.

>112 Chatterbox:. I'm an INTP as well. That's 2% of the population. I messed up the DA survey and didn't do it again, so I don't know who I would be, but undoubtedly it would not be not flattering--certainly not one who was socially aware. Ha.

>111 Whisper1:. And I second Linda's assessment--wonderful series. I love their hats.

Oh, re clachans -- just received "The Chess Men" by Peter May, set on the Isle of Lewis, which features these kinds of dwellings! Concluding volume to the trilogy, so it will fit neatly into my own TIOLI challenge.

Becky, I always knew I was an anomaly/oddity!!

Hi Lizzie, still nothing to contribute anything to your book discussions. So, I just will wish you a lovely weekend *big smile*

It would surprise me if the majority of LTers were not Introverts. This doesn't mean asocial, but it does mean one gets re-energized by alone time rather than by interaction with others. It also means that one considers data internally and tends to share an opinion after it's thought through and fully formed. I'm an E (with a healthy dose of I, influenced by the fact that my job involves almost constant contact with people). Being an Extrovert means that I get energized by people and I tend to process information out loud. The first thing I say is rarely the last thing I think. :-)

I just read about INTPs, Becky and Suz. Sounds a lot like me...... And, Suz, The Blackhouse just got plunked down on my wish list. If I were not saving two spots for Thingaversary, I'd go ahead and buy a copy. How strangely the mind works! Becky, I think we talked about Meyers-Briggs once on your thread, didn't we?
Linda, I know I'll eventually watch *DA*, and Bianca, talk or no talk, you're always welcome here and Lovely Weekend to you too!
So I finally finished -------

ISLAND OF WINGS by Karin Altenberg
I so wanted to like it and I so disliked most of it. You've already read my displeasure if you read my maunderings. It's very much a first book with some good points - description and.....well, description - outweighed for me by unforgivable points. The worst thing for me is that the wife of the missionary, for whom Gaelic is the first language, never learns Gaelic although they live on St. Kilda for 13 years. She apparently understands his sermons and makes close friends of the women, but the author tells us very near the end that she never learns the language. She is, however, so remarkably intuitive that she magically understands some basic motivations that the author is then never forced to explain or otherwise account for to her less sensitive reader. For example, when her husband finds a mutilated bird which he considers evidence of pagan sorcery, his wife knows that it was done by a pregnant woman to protect her unborn child from the eight-day sickness. Wow. She also knows that her husband's coldness stems from guilt over something that happened before they met. In fact, it does, but how the wife hit on this from the evidence given is way beyond me.
Then too, the writing is pedestrian at best although she has flashes of something more. A middle section of romance of a sort puts this book into the romance category for me, and I guess that's where it stays in quality. It could have been very good. It wasn't.

Here's a nice quotation from A Plague of Angels, reminding me of one of the many reasons that I have loved Sheri S. Tepper!

"...No oral tradition, rejecting literacy as unmanly. It's a decadent tongue, Abasio, an impoverished tongue. As vocabulary is reduced, so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of things you can identify! Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. Man grows by language. Whenever he limits language, he retrogresses!" Or, as I used to tell my 11th graders, "If you have a sixth grade vocabulary, you can think only sixth grade thoughts."

One of my favourites by Tepper!

I can never remember what M-B profile I am, which probably should reveal to you all what I am.

>118 LizzieD:: The astonishing thing (to me) is that I've actually heard that sentiment expressed in real life, i.e., that reading is somehow unmanly. It's not phrased that way, of course, but that's the sentiment behind it: a contempt for choosing the written word when one could be watching some R-rated action flick.

A whole sector of the population find that 'the arts' are unmanly, Tad. When I was teaching at a Community College I had to struggle with adult learners resisting learning...... I guess it feels kind of scary and threatening. With a few notable exceptions, like tattoo artists. That sounds more obnoxious than I mean it to be - appreciation of certain things does seem, as Peggy says, to be dependent on reaching a certain level of conceptual understanding. Not everyone gets that far. But everyone seems to need something, be it designs on their cars, tattoos, a fancy Christmas light display, whatever. I'm amazed how much the creative urge oozes out and makes a place for itself at whatever level.

118: "If you have a sixth grade vocabulary, you can think only sixth grade thoughts."
Love it!

INTJ, though near the middle of T/F.

>118 LizzieD:: Peggy, I've been thinking about your statement, "If you have a sixth grade vocabulary, you can think only sixth grade thoughts."

Here's an interesting...well, I hope it's interesting...story.

Back when I was taking a Probability & Statistics class, the professor trotted out the old chestnut that goes something along the lines of: Why bother to learn a lot of words? Shakespeare did just fine with 14,000-ish. The average college student nowadays knows somewhere around 45,000. Therefore, they are already 3 times as articulate.

Then he smiled and introduced us to the concepts of estimating total populations from known samples. Without trying to recreate the math, the results were that the 14,000+ distinct words Shakespeare used in his writings represent, with a high degree of confidence, a total vocabulary of about 65,000 words, or ~45% better than the average college student. These kinds of calculations have been tested against living writers and found to be rather accurate.

He went on to point out that the disparity is probably vastly greater because so many of the terms the average person knows today are simply nomenclature terms due to the explosion of everyday technology — i.e., we know what a tachometer or a cell tower is, Shakespeare didn't — but it doesn't make you much more expressive to know this.

Prof. Geigen would have agreed with your assessment, I think.

ETA: To my nerdy brain, the really exciting part of this lecture was the statement that these calculations show some 50 giant (bigger than a human) sea creatures statistically remain to be discovered, based upon the I-don't-remember-how-many that had been discovered over the years. *grin*

Peggy - we're pretty close on MB - I'm an INTJ.

Have a super day and thanks for the link about The Ghost Map - I got it on bookmooch recently and it might be the time to read it as part of a group read.

INFJ with the F very near the T. They "did" us at work one year.

Lucy, Tad, and Katherine, I immediately thought of my young black men when I read the Tepper - the language of her gangers and ghetto-speak are pretty similar. I suppose she based hers on the RL argot. The very bright kids could and did switch from one to the other with perfect ease. I wished that I could have mixed some standard usage into their academic-speak, but that didn't work. And Tad, I was fascinated by the P&S discussion. If I had known it might be like that, I might have tried to take a basic course or so. I'll wait for the next giant sea creature expectantly!
And there are Katherine and Karen both INTJ. WAH! I thought that I thought too!!!

I've taken the test twice at work. Once I came in INTJ and once INTP.

Peggy, unless you're just in love with math, the key to a P&S course is a teacher who can make it fun, because it's a lot of math. :-) Trotting out the Birthday Problem or the Monty Hall Problem make things more fun because they relate to the real world rather than just endless number crunching.

ENTJ here, but very close on the I/E.

ENFJ here. Totally E. No indication of I whatsoever. It worried me a little, until my son ended up totally I. It's a wonder he & I even get along...

ENTP.

#116--I think you are right, ie that a lot of LT members are introverts. I developed a persona of extrovert for many reasons. As a child I was so introverted that I felt like a walking toothache. Social interactions were difficult. I felt (and still do feel) people and their emotions and I can immediately sense if I feel comfortable or not in social situations.

I abhor loud mouths who spout platitudes and I don't like to be in large crowds with loud noise.

I search for a middle ground, but truly while I love deeply, I also would rather be with my books, a cup of tea and a cozy chair.

>116 EBT1002: Ellen, I somehow missed your post. I think that I agree that lots of LTers are introverts or we would be doing our socializing in person. Of course, even extroverted readers would not have an easy time finding other readers here in my home town. *sigh* Linda, I think you're speaking for a lot of us too.
Tad, I am more not in love with math than I am not in love with about anything else in the world!
Laura, Terri, and Lori, I think that it's interesting and maybe significant that you three extroverts are all intuitive. I don't know what that means, but I find it interesting.
Meanwhile, I'd like to announce that I heard the World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra tonight right here in my home town! I was thrilled to hear that original sound and I'm still bouncing around and singing the tunes and yelling "Pennsylvania 6-5-0-0-0" from time to time!

Being around other people actually drains me of energy. I have friends who can't function well when they are on their own for too long; I'm the reverse! After a while, I desperately need to be on my own, or at least just in a corner with someone else in another corner. See Anneli Rufus's book, Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto.

Tad, isn't it also the case that Shakespeare introduced more words into the English language than any single other writer? Either I read that somewhere or someone has made that point to me recently/repeatedly enough that it has stuck in my brain.

I wonder if the reason that the arts are seen as unmanly is that they are subjective in many ways -- there is little "right" or "wrong", just varied interpretations. Even when talking about books, I tend to find men are a bit more dogmatic about a book being good or bad, or worthwhile or not -- of course, this is horrible gender stereotyping on my part.... *slinks sheepishly away...*

I went and muddled around in my files - INFP - it looks like.

Linda/Whisp, I think many of us had to learn the veneer of extrovertism to survive in the working world but like you, being home curled up in our favourite reading spot with a cup of tea is where it's at! Suz, yes, it does suck the marrow out of you, doesn't it. Quiet fills me up and restoreth my soul. I don't go to many parties but always come home from them just exhausted. Perhaps that's why a 'place' like LT works so well for us: we can have human interface more under our own terms than in social situations?

Peggy, much enjoyed your comments on Island of Wings. It's been on my list but I may move it further down the pile. I laughed out loud at Tad appearing to be Mrs. Crawley. Indeed, I wonder if his wife knows : ).

Adding Island of Wings to the 'Do Not Read' portion of the BlackHole. Sorry the book turned out so poorly for you, Peggy.

I'm still bouncing around and singing the tunes and yelling "Pennsylvania 6-5-0-0-0" from time to time!

I love that image, Peggy!

Hi Peggy. Despite your review I think I'm going to read Island of Wings this week. Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment but I downloaded it to my kindle and it intrigues me. Hope your next book is better.

Interesting discussion. I am generally ENTP, and it fits fairly well. I do find though, that the older I get the more I treasure quiet time to recharge the batteries. :)

Also INTJ, although with age I have come closer to the F and P dimensions than I did as a "pure" young 'un.

Peggy, Sensing (S) and Intuition (N) are the two perceiving or information-gathering preferences. S is more relying on hard data, concrete, what is there, while N tends to be more abstract or theoretical, focused on what is possible.

Just delurking to say this is an interesting discusstion!

Must run off to find the test...oh, yes. I came out as Isobel as well. Huh.

136... I think it is very true that many introverts (like me) have had to learn to "pretend" to be an extrovert for career reasons.

Have any of you read The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron? This discussion reminds me of many of her points. Namely, that about 25% of the population is wired differently in the central nervous system. This makes the HSP much more sensitive to sounds, sights, and all other stimulation. In return, the HSP needs quiet time to recharge and function properly... It's a very interesting concept (for me, anyway).

I have read it Tina, and gave it to my daughter too, to encourage her to stick up for herself. A couple of years ago my dentist came home from a conference and said, "Guess what? There are other people like you who apparently have more nerve endings in their mouths." We'd already worked out that I have to come in 15 minutes early and have at least two extra numbing shots, and she used to give me grief for it (friendly grief, she's a great person) but now she doesn't.

145: It makes things make sense doesn't it??? I had an epiphany when I read it! I'd be curious to know how many LTers would fit into the HSP category?

Hi, everybody! I'm going to run in a minute, but I am very much enjoying the conversation here. What strikes me as I read, is that none of us - not one - has confessed to being an S in Meyers Briggs. Now what does that mean, do you think?
Lucy, I seem to remember your commenting on having read *THSP*. It must be totally reassuring to have that nailed down as REAL. I'm pretty sure that I'm in the other 75%.
Stasia and Nancy, we'll wait eagerly to see what Heather thinks of *Island/Wings*. She may make you move the book back to its previous position.
Suzanne, I'm pretty sure that Shakespeare coined more English words than any other individual ever. At least, it's one of those factoids that's out there that gets passed on as truth. I think I heard it last in The Story of English.

Terri Tym. and others have done such a fantastic job with this meme, that I decided to try it again with my books from 2012.

Describe yourself: The Tiger's Wife
Describe how you feel: Thirteen
Describe where you currently live: Up the Country
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? A Trip to the Stars
Your favorite form of transportation: Run with the Horsemen
Your best friend is: Jenny Wren
You and your friends are: The Magicians
What's the Weather Like: Pictures from Italy
You fear: The Bone People
What is the best advice you have to give? Hide Me Among the Graves
Thought for the Day: We Need to Talk About Kevin
How I would like to die: No Mark Upon Her
My Soul's Present Condition: Loitering with Intent

Very nicely done, Peggy. :)

#146 Tina, the Elaine Aaron book was my epiphany moment too and I definitely think of myself as an HSP now. I think I tend to conflate being an HSP and being an introvert although I guess they may not be the same thing.

#147 My Island of Wings update: I'm about a third of the way through and I agree with Peggy's criticisms but they're bothering me less than they bothered her. Flawed but interesting.

I've never taken MB but I'm interested to know how I'd come out after all the discussion. I'd be surprised if I wasn't I though.

Love your meme Lizzie - so it's the tiger's wife and you fear the Bone People. *smile*

I still have got The Bone People on my wishlist, your meme just reminded me to get it .

Wish you a lovely week!

In reverse order, Bianca, you should read The Bone People as quickly as you can. It is not for the weak, but it is everything that a novel should be. Heather, I'm glad that you are able to read *Island/Wings* more easily than I did. I guess my disappointment never let up. Of course, at a third of the way in, you haven't come upon the romantic interlude yet. (VAST irony). And a curtsy to Becky and Bianca.
My week is made. In the mail today I finally got the first book I ordered with Christmas $, Religions of Rome: Volume 1. I'm ecstatic because it's such a nice copy - sold as used in good condition but looking brand new to me. Lucy and Roni, I came across this on the first page, which I wish I had had when you were discussing Pagans and Christians: "Throughout this book we have used the word 'pagan' or 'paganism' to refer to traditional Roman religion. We do this fully aware that it has been derided by some historians as a loaded term, in origin a specifically Christian way of describing its enemy.... No doubt an ideologically neutral term would be preferable; but we have found 'traditional civic polytheism' (and similar alternatives suggested) more cumbersome and no less - if differently - loaded."

Hi Peggy, I just found your thread. A happy 2013 to you! I just finished Catherine and thoroughly enjoyed it. It always surprises me when I read biographies of historical persons just how wrong my very general impressions are. Catherine is a fascinating character.

I'm a huge DA fan so of course I took the test. I'm Isobel Crawley too! Is the test skewed or is there something about your thread that draws all us Isobels?

Oh! I hadn't thought of it that way, Jan. I was simply thinking that most right-minded people around here are Isobels. ; }
Glad to see you back!

Hi Peggy, love your meme! My Soul's Present Condition: Loitering with Intent, LOL.

Hi Peggy, somehow I've been "ignoring" you. I blame the iPad and fat fingers but I hope to keep you in my sights now. Interesting conversation about personality types. I'd like to read the Cain book about introverts but need to shoehorn it in somewhere. I'm definitely an introvert and always have been but I don't necessarily think many of the 75ers are. The Ghost Map sounds good so maybe I'll check out that GR although February and March are already pretty full. So you feel Thirteen? What's your secret;-)

Your meme is so perfect!

I used to get teased about being the princess and pea, but now it turns out it was true.

156: Oh do! There should be a thread soonish...
157: Oh, hah, me too, by my mom when I was a kid because I was always complaining that the collar is scratchy or the sock is lumpy or...

Hi Peggy, I think this is my first comment on your thread. I agree with you about Island of Wings - I wanted to like it but didn't, but your review has helped me think about what I didn't like, instead of my usual yes/no approach!

Bonnie, my mental and emotional state is Thirteen; the old body is definitely 68!
Lucy, I think I'm somewhere above the norm in physical sensitivity but not on your level. I don't remember anybody princess and pea-ing me, but I suspect that was more benign ignoring. (You've made me think of the father of one of my friends whose nose was so sensitive that he could tell which of his three children's diaper needed changing when he walked in the door. Eeeeyew. Sorry.)
I am so weak. If you keep talking about The Ghost Map, I'm sure to go ahead and get it and I really don't need it now. Really.

Good Morning Peggy!

Good morning, Peggy. Very interesting discussions going on over here re Myers-Briggs types, HSPs, and vocabulary. I love Tad's story about using Shakespeare's lexicon to illustrate a statistical concept/process.

I mentioned that I'm an extrovert. My overall type is ENFP. The T/F is pretty marginal but the N is off the charts. I'm definitely not a detail person.

I took the MB in college but that was forever ago.... No idea what I was then but maybe I can do a current one online...

That's very funny Peggy, about yr. Dad. I'm always the one that walks in the house and says, "What's that awful smell." And everyone else looks at me as if I'm mad. Some of you may remember from my first year in this house (when it was total chaos) and on LT the dead mouse episode - the others pooh-poohed my unhappiness until it got really rank. I found it in a box full of copper wire eventually....... It is usually the kitty litter though - turns out a radiant floor is not the idea setting for kitty litter, the warmth makes it, uh.... well you get the idea.

turns out a radiant floor is not the idea setting for kitty litter LOL!!!!

>165 EBT1002:: that made me laugh, too!

*crossing radiant flooring off the list*

The Ghost Map is very good, Peggy. Just saying...

And also nixing the radiant flooring...

I do remember the mouse episode, Lucy! It wasn't my father with the sensitive nose though since there was only one of me - although I might have smelled like 3. I'm not sure that there is a perfect setting for kitty litter although a screen porch may approach it. Greetings to Linda, Ellen, Tina, Laura, and Tui. Is it just me or has the level of discourse lowered itself a bit? And wonder who started that process??
Tina, do take the MB online when you have time and let us know whether you learned anything about yourself.

Will do!

I have kitties, so I will also mark radiant flooring off my list ;-)

Yuck!

You just have to get the litter box up off the floor...or a layer of insulation under it.

Great meme answers, Peggy! Your soul is Loitering with Intent, huh? Love that!

Ah, Myers Briggs. I was INFJ when I took the long version during career counseling, though on a shorter version, I once tested as INTJ. The F/T score was always close, and probably represents my constant inner battle between logic and feeling. The questions on the inventory to which I have the most difficulty choosing an answer clearly relate to that aspect of the test.

>134 Chatterbox:: I don't know the answer but I can easily believe he did. Having said that, David Foster Wallace is doing his share in Infinite Jest! :-D

Another INFJ!!! Yay! I think my F/T score should have been close too, but I did it online and if I saw that breakdown, I wasn't paying attention. On the other hand, I always score high on feeling; I'm thinking of a worship-style quiz that I did not so long ago. That rather displeased me, but I'm pretty sure that it's correct.
Tad, I'm pretty sure that Shakespeare coined words. DFW uses an OED full, but I'm not sure how many he made up...... Oh dear. I'm really not ready to reread *IJ* yet. On the other hand, I have a print copy of The Broom of the System on its way to me. I listened to it, and I'm afraid I'll be tempted to read it just for fun. FUNNY book, but then you know what happens in DFW after you've laughed your head off.

>174 LizzieD:: He uses both arcane words from the OED (e.g, apotropaic) and quite a few neologisms of his own (e.g., hypophalangial). This, of course, is a challenge to a reader not sitting with an OED. *smile*

The built-in dictionary in the Kindle has definitions for about 50% of the words I don't know, mostly medical terms. I was consulting my giant Webster's and then finally Google for the remainder. However, I found a list entitled "Words People Don't Know in Infinite Jest". It helps because it gives a short description plus a note about whether it's an OED word or a DFW word.

In my notes from the Meyer Briggs testing they did at work, there is a note saying that the tester told us that INFJs were the rarest bunch, representing only about 1% of the population. Well, we all seem to have ended up at Peggy's place!

As a side note, I find myself having to eat a little crow about a previous review...except not really.

Back in 2008 I got an Early Reviewer book, Richard Bangs' Adventures with Purpose. One of my main complaints about the book was that Bangs spent an inordinate amount of energy displaying his vocabulary. Now, I'm not really going to eat crow about that because I still think that this kind of thing has absolutely no place in a book intended as a popular-reading, non-fiction story about adventure trips. Seriously, does it really improve that particular type of book to say "horripilation" instead of "goose bumps"? No!

However, I must admit that previous reading experience did afford me a bit of satisfaction in my current endeavor when I didn't have to stop and check a dictionary when encountering DFW's use of aperçu, fetial and the like. :-)

I do like the word horripilation though. Off to look up fetial.

>177 TadAD:: Yes, it's a neat word. My problem was that it was in the wrong type of book. We're talking about a rafting adventure and environmental impact...it doesn't seem to me that is the type of reading where you want to be stopping on every page (I'm exaggerating only very slightly) to look up a word. It would be like explaining a bit of physics in a romance novel: an interesting thing in the right context but horribly out of place in the wrong one.

I might horripilate on a raft, especially if there was a waterfall within hearing distance, but I wouldn't raft with a dictionary, so I do take your point.

Love it, Tui! Tad, thanks for the DFW information; it I noticed "hypophalangial," I thought that it was an already-recorded word. It certainly sounds realer to me than "apotropaic." I confess that I looked all those medical terms up in the Kindle built-in but soldiered on if they weren't in there. I do take your point too.
Tui, I somehow missed your little post identifying you as a fellow INFJ. I feel that it may be a good thing that we're rare.
I'm still waiting for for a person with an *S* to show herself here.

Good point, Tad - good discussion too about when unusual vocab. is appropriate and when it isn't and I agree a book about a rafting adventure, where, let's face it, things move quickly, so the work should, in some respect reflect that.....

Oh, that DFW is a sly one.

Gasps... So both you and Heather were not keen on Island of Wings. I am shocked! ;) I really loved the book. It was 4 1/2 star read for me. And I see that Nancy aka Lit Chick might move it further down her pile. Say it isn't so! LOL ! I really loved it! I found it so fascinating . I didn't read it as a romance at all. Those puffins among other things fascinated me so much that I credit myself with my mom's trip to Iceland last year that she took after reading the Island of Wings after me, and she took a Puffin tour.. Hmmmm.... ;) Well you know, one mans poison and all that.

I do know about poison and elixir, Deborah. I truly, truly loved the descriptions of the island and the glimpses into the villagers' lives. I've lent the book to my mother too, and I know that she'd be excited to take a Puffin Tour too - as would I.
Apparently, this is a book that evokes extreme responses although I haven't checked that out on the book page.

Have we not yet had an "S" chime in?

Ellen, I haven't seen an "S" although I could have missed one easily. Wonder what that means?

A PLAGUE OF ANGELS by Sheri S. Tepper
What happens when mankind has messed up himself and his world so badly that things look irretrievable? If you're Sheri Tepper writing the book, you throw in assorted monsters, a talking animal or two, a guardian angel, and send an archetypal orphan and a half-hearted ganger on a quest. I remembered this as not one of my favorite Teppers, but I enjoyed it hugely rereading it this time. As always, Tepper lectures and preaches about the environment, religion, and the relationship between the genders. As always, she takes an idea and pushes it to its logical conclusion. Agree or disagree, I find it hard not to be royally entertained.
On the other hand, I reread this one in order to be ready for its sequel, The Waters Rising, and now I think I'm going to wait.

Peggy I haven't read anything at all by Sheri Tepper but you make a genre of fiction I normally avoid like the plague seem quite enticing.

On that note I want to wish you a lovely weekend.

Are you waiting because of other books?

Paul, I'm not sure that this is the first Tepper to read. SWMBO would probably laugh out loud at The Fresco (I did) and Grass is certainly the better book.
Lucy, I'm waiting because of other books and because I don't want Tepper overload. Also, SST is aging a bit, and I'm afraid that it may show in The Waters Rising.
Meanwhile, I forked over the big bucks and put Roni's The Way of Kings on my Kindle. Wooo. Hoooo.

Now that is one of my favourites of hers but I read it so long ago that it isn't coming back to me.

Happy weekend, Peggy!

I missed so many interesting discussions here on your thread...
Just spending a Saturday afternoon/ evening not somewhere outside with friends, but happily inside with tea, books and - finally again - LT. Definitely very much introverted, and it took me very long to develop the fake extroverted personality that makes me function when I leave the house. I used to be that strange kid that preferred reading to playing and talking.
As an adult it took me many years to stop feeling guilty for needing that much alone-time.

Vocabulary: is it normal to have very eloquent days and days where it seems half your vocabulary has suddenly disappeared? Happens to me also in German. E-Mails take me forever on such days, but talking is even worse and even thinking seems limited. Not a sign of aging, it has always been that way.

The Bone People is still not available on Kindle, so it'll stay on my WL.

Oops, Peggy, not MY The Way of Kings! Warbreaker is the one and only Sanderson I've read and that recently.

LOL, Peggy, enjoyed your wonderful comments on A Plague of Angels: throw in assorted monsters, a talking animal or two, a guardian angel, and send an archetypal orphan and a half-hearted ganger on a quest.

>191 Deern:. the fake extroverted personality that makes me function when I leave the house

I have a friend who has always been much into Myers-Briggs because of his business. He was the one who administered the long form of the test to me. He would call it "compensated extrovert" rather than fake. I kinda like that.

Another INFJ!!! Yay! And one more checking in here! Also borderline T/F, I seem to recall. But I spent most of the 2-day course arguing with the presenters, because I hated being forced to choose between x and y in the initial questionnaire, and wanted to say 'it depends' to most questions, and therefore was not sure how far to trust the results.

#185 It is notable that there has been no-one identifying themselves as 'S' rather than 'N' - are avid book readers more likely to be 'N' types, I wonder? It does make some sort of sense - but we are such a diverse bunch in this group you would think there would be one or two at least to disprove the generalisation?

Love the discussion of vocabularly, and all sorts. And of Island of Wings which I was keen to read after Deb's review last year and hope to read still despite your less enthusiatic response, to see where I fall on this one!

And your response to the meme - it's tempting me to have a go even though I should be working...

Nathalie, I have days when I can't say "chair" or "door" - really. I'm afraid mine is a little the function of age. And sometimes here I have to just sit when I'm responding and wait for a word to float out of the mist. This morning, in fact, I asked my mother (much to her enjoyment) whether she had read the "head section" of the newspaper since that was as close to whatever you call the front page + as I could come. I realize that none of this makes you feel better, but confession is good for the soul. Anyway, I'm glad that you're here, and now you're making me wonder how much of my teaching persona was "compensated extrovert." Thanks for that, Becky. I have loved being at home alone in retirement and now resent much time spent out and away. Since my DH is also an introvert, we sometimes seem to live parallel lives although I like it when those lines do meet.
Shoot, Roni! Did I get the wrong one??? Oh well. I'll look forward to this one and save yours for later.
Nancy, I'm glad to please you, but that's exactly what Tepper did in this book. And did you see Deborah's comment begging you to push Island of Wings back up where it was? I can't find the place on the book page that identifies the extent of dissension about a book, but this one does seem to evoke strong opinions both ways.
Genny, now we are four! I wanted to say "it depends" too, but then I always want to say "it depends" when taking a multiple choice test. My cousin, and now I can't quite remember why I thought he would be an expert, says that what M-B does is confirm what you really think about yourself. I can sort of see that, but I still find the whole thing fascinating. Anyway, I'll look forward to your reaction to Island of Wings. I think that Heather ended up in the middle between my negative and Deborah's positive. I'm about to finish A Question of Upbringing, and I don't think I'll have anything to say about it except that it will be hard not to start A Buyer's Market right away. On the other hand, I have an ER ARC that I'm really enjoying so far, Above All Things. I know that somebody else in our little group got it too, but I can't remember who it was. As usual, Suzanne is right - she really liked it.

The only problem, Peggy, is that yours is the first of a trilogy, and more than twice as long at 1254 pages. You can blame david (tapestry) for being the one to mention The Way of Kings, which is in fact sitting on my tbr shelves, but not the one I read.

*sigh* I also love being at home alone in retirement, but MY DH is an extrovert, and is always nagging at me to come do stuff with him. Some of which, like going for walks, I am glad to do but other, such as just accompanying him on his errands, I would really prefer not to. I need my me time.

I hear you ladies. My DH gets antsy if he's home all day so always wants to be going somewhere and prefers me to go along. The things he wants to do are fine, it's just that I too am busy with things I like doing and like to have time to devote to them.

>196 LizzieD:. Peggy, I was going to tell you what word I forgot today, but now I can't remember what it was--no joke. I love what you said about your mother enjoying your senior moment.

Ah, Reba. I wish my DH wanted me along sometimes. He knows he's more likely to have to stop longer to talk to people if I'm with him, so I'm usually invited when he's going somewhere peopleless.
Becky, I'm so with you. It took me more than a day more than once to think of "titmouse" - although why I wanted to say "titmouse" more than once escapes me. At 91 my ma is sharp, and I'm more grateful than I can say.

A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING by Anthony Powell

This is at least a third reading of this first book in *A Dance to the Music of Time* for me, and I'm easily drawn back into that world. It's the period between the world wars in upper-class England, and the narrator Nick Jenkins is first at his public school and then at the university. Or, actually, he is recalling that period. He is at pains to introduce some of the people who weave their way in and out of his life and to hint at those things that he didn't understand then. If you find the characters interesting, this is fascinating. I do and I am.
Otherwise, I don't have much to say about this one, but I'm enjoying the discussion over on the dedicated GR thread. This is a really short little book, as are the other eleven volumes, so I invite interested readers to join us!

Peggy, I'm glad you're enjoying Above All Things. I also got that as an ER book. It just arrived a couple of days ago and I'm at one of those points where I could easily start about 4 books and I need to pick which one(s) to concentrate on. Very hard to do these days.

I will have to check out the Powell group read thread. I have the first volume which I got after Laura reviewed it but of course haven't read it yet. You're tempting me though by referring to it as a short little book.

Now that I have all the volumes of Powell's Dance I am sure I will pick it up again - I've only read through the whole work once, although I've read the first two or three more than once, not sure why that is.....

I have always, my whole life, had times when the 'accepted' word for a thing has not been available. It has something to do with the way my mind works, not the size of my actual vocabulary......

I've never ever been able to deal with questionnaires Genny..... actually I can't even write a resume for myself. I really really hate them, which is funny, because sometimes I copy edit them for other people.

Oh Peggy I felt the same way about the first book in Dance....I wanted to just keep on. I hope I can follow the prescribed method (one novella per month) but I can already see that I will want to go on with it at a faster pace. The characters are interesting and I loved the dry sense of humor especially during the time when Uncle Giles is introduced:-)

I'm half-tempted to read The Way of Kings with you since I have it on my Kindle and have liked the Sanderson I've read so far. However, I hesitate to have 2 books over 1000 pages going simultaneously. :-(

Re unavailable words, I can set writing aside for awhile with I-know-there's-a-normal-word-for-this placeholders, but I can't do so in conversation.

>152 LizzieD: but we have found 'traditional civic polytheism' (and similar alternatives suggested) more cumbersome and no less - if differently - loaded more cumbersome indeed!

You are making me feel a whole lot better about returning Island of Wings to the library unread--twice!

I am about halfway through A Question of Upbringing and appreciated your review. I haven't yet checked in on the GR thread but I think I'm far enough in now to make it worth a visit.

ENFP, last time I did an MB test--though I'm pretty borderline between the E and I, and also between the F and the T, and I often wonder if there isn't a J trapped inside and struggling to get out. The only letter that's remained absolutely constant over the years is the N.

I recently substituted porto potty for porto filter on the espresso machine, much to my lads' delight. Apparently those are the turquoise outdoor terlets at cycling races. Like you, Peggy, the search for certain words seems to have come on with age. Most of the time if I just stop dead and let the mental rolodex do its thing, I can get the one I'm searching for but sometimes--and I hate this--it stays lost in the brain swamp forever. So I just throw in something else and carry on.

ETA: another one who hates choice questions because nothing is ever cut and dry.

I love to see you here, Pat, Lucy, Bonnie, Tad, Katherine, Anne, and Tui. Lost words are not the same thing as insufficient knowledge and caring about a subject. (Tui, you're fortunate to be able to stop and have the word come up; it's if-y for me.) Sometimes my ma delights me in a manner that makes me think of Thurber's malapropping maid, was she?.....for example, after Michael Jordan graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, Dean Smith recruited another tall person (I'm not even going to try to remember who) and Mama, talking to some Tar Hell cousins said, "They say he's going to be the next Michael - - Jackson!"
One more thing on the M-B. My psychologist types in Sunday School this morning said that no S people will show up here because S-es don't join things. I also typed my DH for myself since I know that he is never going to take the test and doesn't remember whether he had it when he was younger. When I read about ISTJ and how one of those and an INFJ interact, it was a miracle of recognition.
(Anne, devote the time that you might have spent with *Island* to *Dance* and I think you'll finish sooner and be happier although Genny is not loving the writing. I definitely think that Powell may be an acquired taste. I also read in my Willard Espy that the name is pronounced in one syllable "Pole" not two, "Pow -ell." Maybe everybody else knew that.)

I thought it went one step further - more like Pool.....????? Or Poo-ul? My, that looks awful! Welshfolk.... we need you. I do know how to make the double L sound, someone taught me that somewhere along the line.

Lord Baden Powell is pronounced close to 'pole' as well. There is kind of a faint u sound before the l, like you're shoving off the o up to the l.
Here you go: beɪdən ˈpoʊ.əl

But I spent most of the 2-day course arguing with the presenters, because I hated being forced to choose between x and y in the initial questionnaire, and wanted to say 'it depends' to most questions, and therefore was not sure how far to trust the results.

Oh, that is so much like me! I kind of think that the "J" part of our personalities is part of that tendency, though I may not quite understand that correctly.

Hi Lucy, Tui, and Terri!
I have to say that I'm thrilled that it's close to Pole with a little "u." I hate (and I'm sorry if I'm stepping on any toes here) the valley-girl "swimming poo-wul" or "I'm going to skoo-wul" from people who make fun of a Southern drawl.
Terri, I don't understand much about M-B at all, but I do so have that same reaction.
Meanwhile, overnighting in Columbia, S.C., having taken my ma to spend a little time with her brother there, I was able to make my way into The Sisters Brothers. It was the one on its Booker list (last year's or the year before?) that most appealed to me, and I'm liking it even more than I thought I would. Eli Sisters has an endearing narrative voice although he, himself is pretty disgusting. I guess I'm only a third of the way through, but so far, so good.

Is your mother's brother younger or older?

Peggy, in regards to Eli Sisters, any man who loves his horse that much can't be all bad. :-)

Oh, Peggy, I also enjoyed The Sisters Brothers much more than I thought I would! At times, I couldn't help but chuckle aloud. Isn't it wonderful to be tickled that way by a book?

Valley-girl outing: I prefer the sound of Pole (incl. little u) over Pow-ell, but would have said Pow-ell without thinking. I'll need pronounciation training - there's an expression for it, but my brain is still too sleepy... is it elocution? - before I ever meet any of you native speaking LTers...

I learned many new expressions by reading English books, but when I use them later in a conversation, English speakers sometimes don't understand me because I pronounce them incorrectly. "Anxious" vs. "anxiety" is an example. Which confirms something my English teacher told us back in high school: there simply are no real rules for pronounciation and you should always hear a word being spoken before using it yourself.

#210 Lord Baden Powell is pronounced close to 'pole' as well. I haven't heard Baden Powell pronounced in this way - but maybe I pronounce pole differently!

#209 I do know how to make the double L sound, someone taught me that somewhere along the line. it wouldn't have a double 'll' in Welsh. It is an anglicisation and contraction of 'ap hywel' which means son of hywel (Welsh surnames were patrynomic until about the end of the eighteenth century). You can see the same thing in the surname Pugh, which originally was 'ap Huw'.

I've been tracing my family history in South Wales and the surname change makes it quite complicated as people didn't all change to the English way of doing things at the same time. And it means that having the same surname is a much less reliable indicator of families being related to each other than in England.

Oh yes, I know that, I wasn't even thinking about the ll at the end of the word - I just meant that I can say (or slightly spit) Lloyd or Llewelyn correctly --

I like the Pole with the little u..... the ap hywel info is going into the random info bin that passes for a brain!

Hi, Becky! My uncle is a bit younger than Mama - maybe 88. You'll also be happy to know that my copy of The Ghost Map has arrived even though I'm not allowed to look into it yet......well, maybe I'll just look, but i can't read.
Julia and Nancy, I've realized that if I start underlining everything insightful or funny or characteristic that Eli says, most of the book will be underlined. He doesn't let you forget who he is for very long though, does he?
Nathalie, I was the child whose passive vocabulary so outweighed her active one that she eventually learned not to try to pronounce (or spell) words that she understood until somebody else said them in her presence. I remain mortified when I make an egregious mistake; I can't imagine knowing a second - and third - language well enough to have the problem. *sigh* You just make arrangements to visit here; we'll be so thrilled to have you that we'll give you all the supportive help you could wish!
Rhian, I join Lucy in finding that fascinating. I knew that "ap" was the equivalent of "mac," but it never would have occurred to me in 10,000 years that the initial P in Welsh surnames was a contraction or elision or whatever you call it. I certainly can't pronounce the Welsh "ll." I've never heard it, but I bet I can at least find it on the Internet, and I'm going to track it down and listen now.

Embarrassing pronunciation moments: giving a speech about Robert Louis Stevenson in grade 7...had never heard Adirondacks said out loud before so said Ad-eye-ron-dacks instead of Ad-er-on-dacks.

>219 LizzieD:. Well, Peggy, sorry to say you will be unhappy when you read my thoughts about the book upon finishing. I don't know if you'll like it or not. I liked the first 50% or so of it and thought it was going to be a 5-star book. Oh woe. I guess I shouldn't comment on the books I'm reading until I finish them.

I like it tui - in our family we like to say bye-cye-kle. I might add Ad-eye-ron-dacks to that.

Is that the worst you ever did, Tui? I've firmly repressed mine, but I know I could dig out some howlers. I do remember hearing a kid reading off a list of names and pronouncing GilLESpee "GILesPIE." You and Lucy may have that to go with those iron mountains and the cycle.
Uh oh, Becky. No, don't stop commenting as you read. I always enjoy that. I'd want to read the book anyway since you brought it to my attention. No harm; no foul.

I went through a stage in the third grade of being unable to pronounce the word adjective correctly. I kept putting the emphasis on the middle syllable: ad-JEC-tive instead of AD-jec-tive. I have no idea why. I could pronounce it correctly before that and eventually retrained myself to say it correctly again, but for some reason I had a little spell there. I've always wondered if it had something to do with just having moved from Long Island (New York) to rural Illinois and getting incessantly teased about my accent. Not that anyone was mean about it; it was more the kind of annoying 'now say x' stuff that I have to restrain myself from doing with people who have Irish or Scottish accents. :-)

#219 it never would have occurred to me in 10,000 years that the initial P in Welsh surnames was a contraction or elision or whatever you call it

Welsh does that a lot. It likes nice soft sounds and even in formal written Welsh it is grammatically correct in many cases to change the first letter of words to makes things flow better with the preceding word. So p changes to b, c changes to g, m changes to and so on. I remember spending hours trying to learn them all when I did Welsh at school.

Mispronunciation often leaves the listener not knowing how to respond too. While out to dinner with some friends the other night, one woman was talking about her son and daughter in law going to Columbia to adopt a child and kept referring to the capital as Buh-GO-tuh instead of BO-guh-tah. I have to say, I didn't know what she meant but she kept saying it over and over.

Uh oh, Julia. You've made me recall one of mine from the third grade - "heroine." I had to say it for my part in an operetta, and I'm not sure I ever got it right. (I was Aunt Polly in Tom Sawyer, a character role, no doubt.)
Rhian, I found what I hope was a reliable site and listened to Welsh a little - lovely, but I'd never master it.
Bonnie, don't you wonder whether it would be a kindness to pull the offender to the side quietly and suggest the proper pronunciation? Of course, if you couldn't make out what she was saying, you wouldn't know that that was an option. Congratulations, btw, on your hot review!

Not that I've had occasion to say it that often, but I used to struggle with "Episcopalian": I always got halfway through the word and then realised that I'd put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Episcopalian is tricky, Liz! Knowing where the emphasis goes is the major cause of most of my mispronunciations, I think.

Peggy, I don't think I could ever just outright tell someone they were pronouncing something wrong. But if I knew what word they meant, I would definitely try working into my response so I could pronounce it correctly and give a gentle hint that way. Of course, that wouldn't have worked for poor Bonnie who had no idea what city her friend was talking about!

That's my general method too, Julia, but self-confident people, I think, assume that I am the one who is mispronouncing the word.
My favorite was "Minneapolis" which had me confused well into my teens because of an aunt who said, "Minneeanapolis" or "Minnununapolis." She was never sure either.

SLEET in my front yard right this very minute!!! It's been a year or two or three since that has happened. It will be 51° tomorrow.

#230 SLEET, Peggy, good grief! Our world weather is so mixed up, it doesn't know what to do next ...

I was at a meeting this morning and afterwards talk turned to books. Someone starting talking about Ken FollETT -- I thought it was FOLLett -- now I'm unsure. Does anyone know?

>232 RebaRelishesReading: I wasn't sure either, now that you bring it up, but apparently it's a common enough question that he tells you how on his website!

"How do you pronounce your surname?
My surname rhymes with ‘wallet’."

Sleet, Nancy! Now it's just raining, but it's below freezing. I would like to add for the rest of the world that we've pulled two ticks off our dog already this January. Enough said.
Welcome, Reba and Ursula. I'm happy to have my guess at FOLLett confirmed.

THE SISTERS BROTHERS by Patrick deWitt
This one sort of sneaked up on me, and before I knew what was happening, I had read it. I also appreciated it. Eli Sisters is a pretty complex character for a hired killer, and I loved his narrative voice. Charlie Sisters is much less appealing, but understandably so in light of his upbringing. This may not be a best choice for somebody with a very vivid imagination combined with a very weak stomach; otherwise, I recommend it strongly. Their story is funny appalling, touching, and thoughtful. Here are a handful of favorite quotations:
"To me, luck was something you either earned or invented through strength of character. You had to come by it honestly; you could not trick or bluff your way into it."
"Why and how do flies make this noise? Does it not sound like shouting to them?"
"---the pigs became seasick (only the pigs became seasick), and I found it necessary to take in the air topside."
"The creak of bed springs suffering under the weight of a restless man is as lonely a sound as I know."

Hi Peggy. I've been winging my way through the threads and just saw someone else raving about The Sisters Brothers but of course I can't remember who. Probably time to put this one on my PBS list.

Hope your weather improves. January seems to be bad for almost everyone this year.

TSB is already on my huge wishlist!! Glad to have that confirmed by another pleased reader!

Peggy, so tickled you enjoyed The Sisters Brothers as much as I did! Love the favourite quotes you've chosen. I had so many marked, too, by the time I finished reading!

233 Thank you Ursula. Never occured to me to check for a website for himi. Now I can continue to say it with confidence :-)

"misled" was the one for me. Always read it as mizzled in print.

>238 RebaRelishesReading: Always feels better to know for sure!

As for mispronunciations, I was probably an embarrassingly advanced age when I realized that "invalid" was pronounced differently when it referred to a sick person.

Hi, Pat, Tina, Nancy, Reba, and Roni! Roni, you have at least this in common with my DH. When he was a child, he heard, "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, you'll go down in history" as "Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer yoogled down in history." "To yoogle" a verb meaning "something that happens in history." "To mizzle" means -----?
I'm back into Above All Things. I really like it, but it's very sad since we all know how it turns out. I like her manipulation of time. We get a lot of details about climbing Everest - we go with George through his whole expedition. However, the time we spend with his wife Ruth is one day. It's an interesting way of helping the reader identify with the length of her wait as opposed to the drama of his time on the mountain.

>240 ursula:: oh cripes, you sure don't want to be made invalid while an invalid!

Mispronouncing was a normal part of my life. I was taught to read phonetically at the age of 4. I grew up in California too. Words like Conejo, Tehachapi, Yosemite, San Jose .. and my father was terrible at hiding his delight when I slipped up. It helped when I finally got some Hispanic friends. LOL

I have many friends for whom English is a second language. You have to give credit where it's due. Coming to a new country and assimilating, language and all takes courage and energy. Especially with English. Good grief. I have a Kindergartener who is being taught the "rules" but trying to explain to him why one is not spelled won and that there is another word that is spelled that way and means something completely different...

to mizzle--a precipitation that is a mix between mist and drizzle.

As a reader who never heard many of the words in my vocabulary in real life, mispronouncing was also a normal part of my life.

Oh. Mizzle. Like the weather in the Pacific NW. Good word.

Hi, fellow-mispronouncers all! Roni, I think that "mizzle" in a sentence like, "I'm sorry I mizzled you," probably doesn't mean that dreary precip.......
(Somehow I missed the "invalid"/"invalid" comment. That's a good one!)
Jenn, you'd love the NC town Conetoe which is fairly close to Pinetops. However, it's "Con-EE-tuh" and "Pine - tops," although "Cone-toe" and "Pin-EE-tops" are more fun. I think I remember putting that one on somebody's thread of fun place names last year.

Those are trip-ups for out of towners. Our local one is Monaghan Road: out of towners say it the Irish way, MonAhan, but the locals know it's MONagan. Toronto has Etobicoke: locals say Eh-TOE-bi-co, out of towners pronounce the k.

Mispronouncing is so common when the vocabulary you have read far outstrips the vocabulary you have heard. My daughter had some doozies too, although I can't remember them at the moment.

Place names are always weird. When I moved from California to Colorado, I found I didn't really know how to approach some of the names here. I would eventually hear them on the news and find out I'd been saying them wrong. Street names in Denver of Galapago (gala-PAYgo) and Zuni (ZOOneye) were ones that I'd assumed were pronounced more ... well, correctly.

When I was a kid growing up in Denver in the 1950s and early 1960s, I rode the city bus a lot. Bus drivers back then called out the names of the streets, like the trolly car drivers evidently did in the years before the city had buses. So I grew up hearing those names pronounced the way a native of Denver would pronounce them, over and over. But I don't remember ever confusing the pronunciations of those words when learning about the Galapagos Islands or the Zuni Indians.

"Yoogled" is simply brilliant!

Have a good weekend!

"As a reader who never heard many of the words in my vocabulary in real life, mispronouncing was also a normal part of my life." Me too - or perhaps sometimes people were pronouncing the word as it should be, but it sounded so different from how I'd imagined it that I did not recognise it as the same word for some years!

Misled was one of mine too, only I pronounced it "Mi-zle-d with a long i rather than mizzled with (I presume) a short i. (It's hard enough even trying to describe how we pronounce things since we have quite a range of different ways of pronouncing the same sounds thanks to national and regional variations in English - I agree I don't know how Nathalie and others for whom this is a second or third language know where to begin!)

Deny was another of mine. For some reason I thought the stress would go on the first syllable, more like 'denny'.

Out-of-towner traps in place names must be rife everywhere. Northumberland gives us Prudhoe (pronounced Prədə with stress on first syllable and both the u and the oe pronounced in a dull way like the 'e' in 'the') and Ponteland - pronounced Pont-ee-land with the stress on the long 'e'. Never would have guessed those when I moved up here and had a few embarrassing moments until I'd worked out how to say them. The sat nav on my phone has great problems with them, of course.

Oh, place names!

Australia's a mine-field - anyone care to pronounce Goonoo Goonoo? :D

Yes, place names are fun. We love to listen to our southern California news announcers pronounce, on the rare occasions when it is in the news, Salina, Kansas--just twenty-odd miles from where I was born and raised. Suh-LINE-uh is not what comes to mind here where Spanish place names are so common.

Oh yes new news announcers always can be spotted a mile away. They pronounce Olean as O-lean instead of its proper name O-lee-ann. Or Medina as Med-eena instead of Med-ina. It doesn't help newcomers that we're overloaded with Indian names like Cheektowaga, Tonawanda, and they can never pronounce Scajacuada (skuh-jack-wuh-duh).

Hi, everybody. I tried every one of the place names before I got the phonics, and I missed every single one of them. Bonnie, where on earth is the accent in Scajacuada?????
I'm back from another musical program, this time David LaMotte, singer, guitarist, song-writer. Quite a talent! I think that his new children's book White Flour belongs in every public library in the country. It's a delightfully funny rhymed account of a KKK rally in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2007.
Goonoo Goonoo????? Would it help me to have gone to school with Mary Lou Poot, pronounced "Pote"?

OK, I am only 100+ messages behind here :) You are a popular lady, Peggy!

Would it help me to have gone to school with Mary Lou Poot, pronounced "Pote"? Too much! Thanks for the chuckle, Peggy : ).

Mary Lou Poot? Oh ow ow ow.

Place names are the most fun, for sure. Near Rochester NY is Chili - pronounced Chai-Lie - pretty much equal emphasis on both syllables.

Stasia, glad to see you! I need to get over to the Acre for a reading update!
Hi, Nancy and Lucy. Wouldn't that be a curse? I love place names, but I think I may love given names more. If your last name were Blue, would you name a child "Navy"? When my mom worked as the county's vital statistics clerk, she was always bringing home shockers like that.

We went to school with a Donald Ducker.

Hi Peggy: I've enjoyed following your discussion. The only audio book I ever listened to was a Sara Paretsky book narrated by a British woman. As a lifelong Chicagoan, I know that, in Chicago, Devon is pronounced Di VON, not Dev in, as she pronounced it. Soured me on audio books forever.

Linda, you remind me of one of the few dud audiobooks I remember listening to. It was one of Edna Buchanan's crime novels, featuring a Cuban-American reporter and set in Miami. For some reason it was narrated by a British woman, and at one point she pronounced Geraldo Rivera's first name with a hard g, like a j, instead of the proper h sound. It drove me right out of the narrative and I don't think I ever recovered. It baffles me how such an error could not be caught at some point in the recording process. He is a public figure, after all, so no mystery about how he pronounces his name.

I went to school with a Sandy Beach

Oh, Reba and Tui, NO! Poor children. Who knew that parents would Major Major Major's mother as an example? Linda and Julia, I've heard only one audio book, but it was a dandy --- Robert Petkoff reading the DFW The Broom of the System. I don't know if he's well-known, but he can really read, and I'm sure I'll hear his voice when I read my hard copy. I don't understand about the British reader. Do publishers think a British accent is so posh that nobody cares how they're used?
On another note - I couldn't stand the guy, but I encouraged my friend to marry Rick Finch so that she could use her maiden name and call their son Ricky Dickie Finch. I also tried to get a student to marry a boy about four years her junior so that she could be Suzie Berube Duby. ("Berube" obviously has 3 syllables.) So, that's some of my best thought ever here for your edification.

>256 LizzieD: Bonnie, where on earth is the accent in Scajacuada????? Scajacuada is pronounced skuh-JACK-wuh-duh Peggy.

I went to school with a Jack Fink and in Chemistry class when his experiment caused a minor explosion one of the other students told him he was living up to his name. haha

HaHa too, Bonnie.

ABOVE ALL THINGS by Tanis Rideout
I really, really enjoyed this book. O.K. That's a lie. I didn't enjoy enjoy it exactly, but I was mesmerized by it. It appears that I no longer have patience to write the kind of review that gives enough specifics for a potential reader to know what she's getting into, but this is what I wrote for this one on the book page because it is an ER ARC.

Above All Things is an excruciatingly difficult book for the reader who knows that Mallory and Irvine did not survive their attempt on Everest. Rideout's descriptions of the effects of cold and oxygen deprivation on the human body carry conviction. I forced myself to suffer with the members of the expedition, whom I came to care about, and to wait with Mallory's wife at home.

Rideout's writing is smooth and accomplished. Her decision to follow Mallory from beginning to end with insertions of a day in Ruth's life is effective. Time has stopped for Ruth. She can't sleep; she acts the part of mother for her children, but she is simply marking time until she hears from her husband. Mallory, on the other hand, is completely alive as he and his comrades assault the mountain, fail, question, regroup, and try again. Memories haunt George, Ruth, and Sandy Irvine, and add depth to their characters.

If I have a quibble, and I always do, it is Rideout's decision to change some facts, including the time of George's brother's death. She explains her decision in an author's note, which left me with a bit of doubt about the rest of her research. I'm sorry for that because otherwise, this was an outstanding novel.

First thumb from me, Peggy. And I am so glad you loved it. Like numerous other books these days, I started it but then got distracted. I'm really looking forward to getting back into it after reading your review. I know what you mean though about changing some of the facts. It's so hard to remember what's real and what isn't with these kinds of books.

I got a lot out of your review of this book, Peggy. Thumbs up to you, and the book is going onto my wishlist.

Another very good review - this fact-changing thing - it's does both distract and worry me as you end up not knowing what happened and what didn't.

Oh, superb review, Peggy. I'm going have to put Above All Things on my radar. I read Into Thin Air some years ago, also about an Everest expedition gone bad. It was, as you say, mesmerizing!

Peggy - I am another one who invariably enjoys your reviews, your latest a case-in-point. Authors have a problem writing "faction" don't they because they get blamed for sloppy research when it may have been their intention! If you are writing a novel based on fact better stick to the story or change all the names and just make it the basis for your tale.

Pat, Becky, Lucy, Nancy, and Paul, you are such lovely friends! This was a seriously good book, I thought, and well worth the reading.
Now I'm happily engaged with C.J. Cherryh and Precursor. I doubt that I finish it before the month is out, but I may give it the good old college try.

Great reviews of The Sisters Brothers abd Above All Things!

Love the discussion of (mis)pronunciation. Place names are a real minefield sometimes, because sometimes the "proper" pronunciation is NOT how the local pronunciation has evolved. For instance, in an area of New Jersey where some relatives used to live, there was a town name Buena (which the locals pronounced "BYOO-na") and a Maurice River (locally pronounced "MOH-riss"). Not quite what an outsider would expect!

Hi, Terri! I didn't mention my own county, which is ROB -e- son, not ROBE-son as outsiders would have it.

PRECURSOR by C.J. Cherryh
Oh man, nadiin-ji! This is another really, really good one! In fact, I am so in love with this series that I have to go right into *Foreigner* #5, Defender. I had hoped to get to some other scifi or fantasy in February. Probably not happening.
For non-proficients here's a brief synopsis of the set-up. A human starship arrived in unknown space was forced to off-load colonists to the native planet of the Atevi - very large, black, golden-eyed aliens. Following a war, the humans have occupied an island continent with the Atevi on the mainland. The one link between the two some two hundred years later is Bren Cameron, a human, and trained diplomat who comes to owe his loyalty to the Atevi overlord. Then the starship comes back with a tale of yet another hostile alien race who may be following them. Bren now has to make a 3-way deal and is sent to the space station that the starship humans have started to reclaim in order to do it. Politics, betrayals, rebellion, skulduggery, and wonderful fun for the reader ensue.
Cherryh is intelligent, sensitive, somewhat elliptical, and just plain brilliant in creating aliens who are believable characters yet definitely alien. I loved #4, and it's off to #5!

Hmmm. I further note for the record that I'm not keeping up with my reading goals, but that I'm not so far behind that I can't recoup. We'll see.

Peggy, isn't it wonderful to come upon a series we can't put down! I'm not a fantasy reader, so I envy you in that regard. That said, your review does sound most enticing : ).

Nancy, it's not really fantasy. It's "speculative fiction" - somewhere between science fiction and fantasy. That said, I'm not sure whether you'd like it.....

When we lived in Oregon, there were so many opportunities to mispronounce place names. Aloha (uh low uh), Willamette, Tigard, Tualatin (To-AHL-uh-tin), then all the names of places heading north to Seattle on I-5. My personal favorite was Pe Ell, Washington, actually a mispronunciation of Pierre (who knew?) but I always thought it sounded like a person in one of David Eddings books.
I still fall prey to the learned Spanish pronunciation from growing up in Southern CA. I always want to pronounce Limon (Lymun), CO like limon (lemon) in Spanish. While we're on the subject of Limon, CO (well while I am) make a note that when we have severe weather alerts, it's always, ALWAYS red in Limon. Don't move there if you don't have to.

Lots of fun reading here, Peggy! Going back to the M-B test, apparently I'm the elusive S person you've all been looking for. And, it's true, I don't like joining things (except for LibraryThing). I'm rather like Groucho about most everything else, though.

My contribution to the unfortunate names discussion comes from an old girlfriend who swore that she knew twins named Phil and Doug Uptegrave.

>278 nittnut: I'd forgotten about Limon. I spent a while wondering about that one when I moved here. As a kid, I lived for a few years in SE Kansas - there it was Goodland, KS that always had the severe weather warnings. Now I see it's only about 100 miles east of Limon. That area is definitely not the place to live!

>279 TomKitten: (and above) That's interesting about S'es not being joiners. My husband is like that, and I'm pretty sure he's my polar opposite (ISFP to my ENTJ). I join everything, he has to be coaxed repeatedly ... and even if he does join something, he's usually a consumer rather than a creator.

Jenn and Stephen, I'm laughing out loud at Pe Ell (really???) and especially Phil and Doug Uptegrave. Surely not!!! And, Stephen, our first S!!!!!!! Welcome!
Ursula, I'm positive that my husband is an S for more reasons than the one. And I promise you and Jenn both that I'll never, ever even visit Limon, CO, much less move there!
I'd be very happy if you all would come over to my brand new thread. That's where' I'm going.

Hi, Peggy! Thanks for dropping by my profile and such :) I see we share over 200 books in our libraries!