LizzieD: 2013*2 (February!)

Falling into line with other threads, here is part of my hometown as I remember it from the 50s. Notice that we're in the Land of the Blessed Mcs. You would have been welcome then; you're welcome here now!

The BEST of January
The Sisters Brothers
Above All Things
Precursor

READ IN FEBRUARY
1. *The Thinking Reed
2. Defender
3. Hotel World
4. The Dogs of Riga
5. The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors
6. *The Inbetween People
7. A Buyer's Market (reread)

(*review on book page)

NEW TO MY HOUSE IN FEBRUARY
1. The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the secret Mission of 1805 - Kindle Daily Deal
2. The Englishman's Boy - PBS (Thanks to Nancy for the suggestion)
3. The Lifeboat - Dee with thanks!
4. The Amber Witch - Kindle free
5. Blackcollar - Kindle Daily Deal
6. Nightfall ✔ - Kindle Daily Deal
7. Midnight - Kindle Daily Deal - same day
8. Nightmare - Ditto
9. The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst - Kindle free (Thanks to Helen for the suggestion)
10. Jaran - AMP (Thanks to Lucy for the suggestion)
11. Life After Life ✔ - ER ARC
12. The Cider House Rules - Kindle Daily Deal
13. Van Loon's Lives - AMP (Thanks to Jan for the suggestion)
14. The Knox Brothers✔ - AMP (Thanks to Kermit for the suggestion)
15. Breakdown - Sam's some time ago
16. Far to Go - PBS
17. The Cat's Table ✔ - PBS
18. The Paladin ✔ - PBS

So here I am having saved one more comment than I need to start the thread.....
I know that I'll read A Buyer's Market this month and my ARC, The Inbetween People. I have also re-picked up The Thinking Reed, so I'll try to keep that going. The Brontes is ever-present; I have read half of it, counting the footnotes. I have Defender and The Philosopher's Pupil to work on and my Religions of Rome. That's quite a hefty bunch, but I also have another ER ARC coming, the latest Jill McCorkle (She's from my hometown - see above - and was very generous to come talk to my AP English class when I was teaching her niece). And the truth is that I want to start something from the heights of Mt. Bookpile and I'd also like to give myself a surprise like The Sisters Brothers.
This doesn't constitute a plan, but I do love the beginning of the month when possibilities shine.

Nice pic, Peggy! I love your plan vs. possibilities strategy. It seems like a darned excellent plan to me!

Nice photo (is that furniture store still there or has all changed?). And a good plan for the new month...

BTW, I just posted on your old thread... Oops :)

Happy new thread, Peggy! I read and loved The Sisters Brothers last month also - what great fun that turned out to be! Wishing for you a weekend full of fabulous!

I love that photo. The cars the cars, I'm such a sucker for the cars.

Marking my spot on your new thread, Peggy. Love the photograph of your home town from so many decades ago. Wonderful that The Sisters Brothers has a place of honour here, too : ).

I miss thriving downtowns. Life was so much simpler back in those days. McDuffie was a pharmacy instead of a furniture store in a neighboring town when I was young.

Great new thread Peggy (and terrific photo).

Your photo looks a lot like my hometown's downtown back then as well, Peggy.

I love photos from the 1950s!

Welcome to the new thread, Becky, Genny, Jen, Mamie, Lucy, Nancy, Lori, Peg, Roni, and Pat! Chestnut Street looks pretty much the same except for different business names (McDuffie's Furniture is long gone) and different cars. Those big white houses in the background are also gone, replaced by brick businesses. Ah, nostalgia!

The '50's were a unique time! I lived in a small town and my friends and sisters and I trolled along the streets and playgrounds all day long with no fear of being snatched away or harmed.

Peggy, this is a nice new thread with new possibilities. I can't wait to get home tomorrow so I can set up my new thread. It is much easier on the laptop. I just brought the iPad to KC where I am babysitting three of my grandchildren.

I am looking forward to continuing the Dance with you and the rest of the group this month.

Lead on, McDuffie! Love that photo, Peggy. Small town Ontario is not unlike small town U.S., it would seem. The car culture has killed many downtowns, however. Ours (in the nearest town) struggles to stay vibrant because of parking. People don't want to walk 20 feet.

I am loving all the photos people are posting of their hometowns in the good old days. It's so fun to look back.

>19 rosalita:: me too, Julia. I'm feeling the urge to do the same on my next thread.

Hi Peggy, I'm with you on the idea of the new month presenting new possibilities. I'm trying to allow for some spontaneity in my reading, or at least more than in the past. I just finished the lovely Barchester Towers so I'm ready to join in on the GR of Dr. Thorne next month.

I love seeing your hometown up at the top. I bet you've seen pictures of my hometown already, many times. I was born and raised in Niagara Falls LOL.

That's a great pic! And re: introvertism and reading... I'm and ENTP, and I still prefer being curled up with a book :)

I'm envious of all of you who seem to plan your reading so effortlessly. Mine is all spontaneity, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. I have enjoyed a few wonderful GRs though : ) -- I guess that's "planning."

Nice pic, Peggy! I recently got an e-mail link of photos of my hometown - Los Angeles - and although it's huge and there weren't exactly any photos of my neighborhood, I still was happy to see the ambiance and memories of places we went to.

I have July 7th by Jill McCorckle and it looks fun. Perhaps I'll try it next - after the newest Ian Rutledge by Charles Todd. I like the idea of July 7th because it's my mother's birthday.

What'cha think of July 7th?

Oh, The Sisters Brothers! Now that was unique in my reading experience. Loved it.

I've overplanned for this month; don't think I can get to all of them...of course, I got off the computer, it might help1

Have a wonderful week.

Great photo! I'll have to see if I can come up with something for my next thread. Although, my parents moved so often I am not sure I have a "home town." Is it where you were born? Where you spent the longest? Where you identify with the most? I really don't know. LOL

Peggy, I look away for a day or two and here you are with a new thread and 26 messages. You've inspired me to make a plan for my reading instead of just grabbing the nearest new book!
I love the picture of your home town in the 50's. It looks like mine also. I actually grew up in a small farm town in California near San Jose, where we would go to shop on Saturdays. I remember my mom dressing up in a dress, hose and heels to make the trip.

Linda, I'm amazed at the freedom we had as kids......we walked all over town and played all over the neighborhood until dark shut us down - and sometimes after. Long ago!
Donna, I'll be looking for your new thread here in a minute!
----and damned be him that first cries, "Enoughie!' Somehow it just doesn't have the ring. I think little towns must be pretty interchangeable, Tui. Julia and Laura and Bonnie, Susan and Jan, I'm glad that you like mine. Bonnie, I've seen a billion pictures of the falls but never of the town, I don't think.
Nancy, my only planning is that I picked most of those up last month and didn't finish them! I love the "stick a hand on the shelf and see what jumps out" thing myself. I'm looking forward to our Powell a month and Doctor Thorne in March!
Susan, are you sure you're an extrovert??? I guess you must be. I think Laura scores E too and several others.
Karen, July 7 is a McCorkle that I haven't read. Algonquin brought it out at the same time as her other first book, The Cheer Leader, which is really, really based on this town.
Gail, I don't worry about your computer time. You still get through an amazing amount of good reading!
Jenn, I was born here and married a hometown sweetie, so any knowledge of the wider world I have comes from books.
Jan, we dressed up in dress, hose, heels, hat, and gloves to shop in bigger places. Elm and Chestnut Streets didn't deserve such finery.
Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying The Thinking Reed. I don't know why I'm so late to R. West. She could really write! I like these quotations, for instance.....
"In the very middle of the square an old dog lay asleep under its flies."
"Surely in each human being there is both a hungry, naked outcast and a Sister of Charity, desolate without those whom she can feed and clothe and shelter; and these cannot minister to each other. That is the rule which has been put in to make it more difficult. They must find a stranger outside the skin to whose Sister of Charity the outcast can offer his sores, to whose outcast their Sister of Charity can offer her pity." (I love the "stranger outside the skin" part.)
"But however explicable Poots's proceedings were, Isabelle could not see that they constituted any reason why she herself should spend any of her limited lifetime with her." (Obviously, Poots's outcast does not appeal to Isabelle's Sister of Charity!)

Peggy - The lead photo is very atmospheric. Congratulations on your new thread.

What Paul said!

Peggy, Lovely photo. You're motivating me to find a photo of my very small hometown.....

>28 LizzieD:. I'm amazed at the freedom we had as kids

I grew up in the 1950s in Denver, and since my mother didn't drive, my world consisted of the few blocks around our house and the walk to school. We kids played outside constantly, and in the summer we had to be dragged in after dark from our games of hide and seek. There were days when my mother actually locked us out of the house during the day so she could get some peace and quiet. I honestly don't ever remember my mother coming to find out what I was doing (trash-can hunting in the alley--she would have been horrified--ha).

Looking back, Peggy, I share your amazement at the freedom we had back then, but mostly I feel sad that children today don't have the freedom we did. I understand why the parents in my neighborhood all walk their kids to and from school, but I also feel sorry for these kids who never have a minute of unsupervised, unstructured time.

It's bewildering how it got this way. I mean, how dangerous is it really? We see predators and danger in every shadow and unknown, but are we imagining it? How was it when your son was young?

Chiming in to say that I agree that it is sad that today's kids don't get to enjoy outdoors free time like we had. Although I do believe that most of the time one of our mothers was keeping an eye on us from the window, we had the illusion of it being unsupervised.

>33 sibylline:. My son was little in the early 1980s. I always knew where he was, who he was playing with, etc. He walked to and from school without my thinking about it very much--I was very happy that we lived close enough for him to walk, since I had happy memories of doing that when I was a kid. I think parents of young children have a hard time of it these days--just my perception, but I watch the young parents in the neighborhood "hover" over their children, and that's how it seems. I can remember that when we were called to come into the house and didn't come right away, our parents' voices sounded angry. Now the parents sound terrified when they're calling for their kids and don't get a response. The headlines of children simply disappearing--two girls riding their bikes together, just snatched off the earth--no, I don't think it's an imagined fear.

I'm happy to see you Paul, Stasia, Ellen, Lucy, Becky and Lori! I know that I wouldn't let my kid out of the neighborhood here if I had one now, so I have to feel sorry for both parents and children. On the other hand, I'd want to have a better eye on them than our neighbor has on her four who can get into what looks like dangerous devilment right in their own yard.....tiny little things climbing the mini-van and jumping from the top, for instance. I would have made my children into freaks of some kind, I'm afraid. And sometimes we did dangerous stuff - like getting into an abandoned hospital, for instance, where a lot of medical waste and equipment had been left behind. We also got into the nurses' quarters and found a bed made up with a jar of Cheese Whiz (!) and crackers on it. I sort of shudder to think who might have been holing up there. We did have sense enough to get out of there and not go back.

>35 labwriter:: our lads are the same age. When they were 8, we made a conscious decision to move into a more rural area. They had the freedom of the woods and fields all around us (within hailing distance), as well as the lake at the bottom of the hill (no swimming allowed unless accompanied). They came home on a school bus, so had no option to hang around malls or corner stores. It was as close to the carefree childhood we enjoyed that we could give them. But I agree, it's not an imagined fear now.

Oh Peggy, that's kind of creepy!

I certainly find it creepy now, Tui.
You reminded me of my grandmother and her four boys. She told them, "Don't you go anywhere near that river until you learn to swim." Guess where the only place to learn to swim was. (They all learned to swim.....)

I'm one of those hovering moms, I'm afraid to say. We live within walking distance to a couple of the schools to which Charlie will be going (unless we move in the next couple of years), but if I can't manage to become less of a worry wart, he won't be walking it. And I don't know if I'd be any less worried if we moved out into the country and he had to ride the bus, at least not after following the current hostage standoff going on right now in, what is it, Alabama? Sigh.

Oh - the little boy is safe and his kidnapper is dead now down in Alabama. The standoff ended yesterday.

Hi, Amber and Lori. I shrink from imagining that child's trauma. I sort of hope that 5 is young enough not to have permanent psychological damage, but I certainly don't know. Amber, I don't blame you.
I happened to see a 60 Minutes feature (maybe) where children of parents who were sure that they had taught "Don't talk/interact/get into a car with stangers" were left alone in a front yard beside a busy street. They sent a guy in an ice cream truck to stop and offer them ice cream and a chance to look at the truck. Every one of them went eagerly into the back of the truck. The best one stood just inside the truck and got down and ran when he got his ice cream. These were 8-10 year-olds.
I married into a super-cautious family from way back. DH's great-grandfather walked his daughters the 6 blocks to school in their little whistle-stop town until they graduated from high school. I still get directives when I go out: "Don't have a wreck." "Don't let the wind blow anything into you."

I grew up beside my grandparents and I remember that their biggest fear was that one of their little girls would be stolen from them. They, too, were very cautious, Peggy. And the world was a much different place then. The horrors we hear about all the time now ... well, enough said.

The 50's weren't perfect, by any means, but the freedom my brothers and I had...oh my. Outdoors all day, in for lunch, out till called for dinner; walk fast or very very slowly to and from school, discovering bugs and flowers and weird plants; hours spent in a meadow or in the woods, book in hand in case of boredom, just watching the sky and birds, etc. Wonderful.

And the apple fights, falls from the bike, falls from the trees, falls on the ice, the broken arm, the chipped heel, numerous cuts, scrapes, bruises, sprained ankles, glass in the foot (I told you not to go out without shoes!!!!). It was a simpler time, but I was a child then with a child's perspective.

I'm glad we live on a dead-end street, mostly surrounded by woods and marsh, with the kids outside all day. If one falls in the street, any one of us, parent or not, will run out to console and bandage.

Books are my refuge from daily nastiness.

I was a hovering mother and now am a hovering grand mother.

And, I'm proud of it!

I do think we have to be careful, and I don't let my grandkids out of my sight when they're with me. That said, however, I'm not sure the world is all that different from when I was growing up. It's just that we have international news 24/7, and they have to fill that time, so we hear about all of it whereas before we only knew a small part of it all.

Welcome, Nancy, Gail, Linda, and Reba. I know that there were predators in the 50s - I was certainly warned to stay away from strangers. In fact, when I got lost at the beach when I was about 8, I finally got into the car with the nice couple who took me to the police station simply because I could see that they knew I was worried about getting into the car with strangers, and I didn't want to hurt their feelings. Oh dear. They did take me to the police station and my mother was there, so all was well. (She hadn't been negligent. She had let me walk up the strand with the older boy whose house we were visiting to get ice cream. He hid from me on the way back, and I couldn't find the cottage.) Having ubiquitous news does change things, but I don't think that's the whole answer, not that you were suggesting that it was. I'm also remembering my father's reaction to a visit from a man whom he had known when they were children. The man's father had beat his whole family. Daddy was ashamed that everybody in the area had known that it was so and nobody had done anything about it because it was "his" family that he was abusing. So evil is always with us, but wearing different faces according to the times. (How profound is that?)

THE THINKING REED by Rebecca West
I did review the book a little on the book page since there wasn't really another review there. I think I've commented enough here for anybody who cares to know that I enjoyed the book. It was my first West, and I'll look forward to getting back to her, but I do feel the need for something different now.
Yippeee! I'm going to finish my short ARC or maybe Hotel World, and then I can give myself permission to start something new!!!

Hi Peggy.

Happy day to you.

Hi Peggy, wonderful review of the West book. I've only read Return of the Soldier which I loved so I'm not sure why I didn't explore her work further. Similar to others, we would go outside to play from morning to night, coming in only for lunch and supper without a worry. It's just not the same now. Not only do you have the worry about predators but there are too many things that keep kids in the house. In the 50s all the fun was outside. Who wanted to stay in the house?

Peggy, fab review of The Thinking Reed. I've WL'd that one. I've also only read Return of the Soldier. That was the first one recommended here on LT when I joined almost a couple of years ago. It was SOOO good that I, like Bonnie, wonder why I didn't read anything else by West.

Hi, Linda, Bonnie, and Nancy!
I'm glad you both think that you'll read more West. I'm afraid that I'll be like you and forget her for a year or so, even though I really enjoyed *TR*. So many wonderful books --- both glory and despair!
I haven't really settled to anything else. I dislike the writing of my ARC so much that the 176 pages are feeling like 476. It's not hard to follow, but the modes of narration: 1st person present tense for the present; 2nd person present tense for one man's past; 1st person past for the narrator's past; the narrator's father's letters in the 1st person present (sounding exactly like the narrator ---- I hate it when letters are as literary as and undifferentiated from the general narrative) for his part of the past - all of these interweave without any plan that I can make out, and I just get tired of the trendiness of it. (The book is The Inbetween People. Did anybody else win it? Is "win" a misnomer?)

Hi Peggy, I know what you mean about getting an ARC that you hate. You can't just set it aside. I recently received the memoir of Grace Coddington (artistic director of Vogue) and can't imagine what I was thinking when I clicked 'request'!

Well, my mom had to push me outside sometimes because otherwise I would stay inside and read, but living on a farm, I got loads of outside play as well.

>51 Oregonreader:: I agree - it's the worst. I wasn't a huge fan of What I Did, but I had to plow through it b/c I had to do the review.

Most of my others have been really good, though. I was scared for a bit with Mania: The Story of the Outraged and Outrageous Lives that Launched a Cultural Revolution, but it picked up and became an awesome book for me.

Hi, Jan, Roni, and Esquiress! I just plowed through 10 pages of my ARC. I reckon that's about what I can manage in an average day. I'm willing to do it though, to get a shot at the good ones and the good surprises.
Roni, I was the same about having to be released from the book sometimes. Besides that, I played the piano, and that's not an outside activity. I could, however, play and read at the same time, but my mother wouldn't count that as practicing.

Hi Peggy, just spotted on Anne's thread that you've started Dogs of Riga. I quite enjoyed that; hope you will, too : ).

I second Nancy's recommendation of Dogs of Riga. Great atmosphere to it! I really enjoyed it!

Hi, Nancy and Deb. I have high hopes for it. I liked the first Wallander, but I expect the series to get better and better!

I'll be interested to see what you think of Dogs of Riga. I read Faceless Killers and liked it but I'm very bad at following through on series.

I'm here, reading everything with great interest, but without being able to think of anything worth saying!

What Lucy said. :-)
Enjoy The Dogs of Riga.

I am going to have to get to more of Rebecca West's books. I have only read The Return of the Soldier and I loved that one. I will check to see if the local library has The Thinking Reed.

What Stasia said.

Added another thumb to your review of The Thinking Reed Peggy. The introduction to All Passion Spent mentioned Rebecca West's writing (along with Vita Sackville-West's and Virginia Woolf's) so RW is on my list of authors to investigate now. I have both The Return of the Soldier and Harriet Hume in my TBR pile - hopefully I will get to at least one of them this year.

It's more than nice to come back and find visitors. Thanks for stopping by, Pat, Lucy, Ellen, Stasia, Gail, and Heather! My thanks for thumbs and wishes that those of you who are attracted to R. West may like this one! I haven't read a lot of *Dogs*, but I like it. More of my time has gone to those blessed Brontës and Defender. I think this afternoon finds me in the mood for Religions of Rome. I say that I'm currently reading it, so it's about time!
Otherwise, I have nothing to say either.
Come again!

As I was finally putting away my xmas books I noticed I have a Rebecca West...... title escapes me now, but hmm...... maybe I'll pretend it's a Virago for next month.

Doing what Richard calls 'making social noise' and wishing you a wonderful week!

Oh, and I have a question: for when is the GR of the 4th Trollope/Barchester novel Framley Parsonage planned? I made it through books 1-3 last year and would like to continue the series in 2013.

Sorry you're struggling with the ARC book but I love is "win" a misnomer?
I've just joined you in reading The Dogs of Riga but I've only finished two chapters.
Rebecca West is on my "must read" list but I haven't managed it so far.

Just dropping by to say hi, Peggy!

I read and thoroughly enjoyed July 7th by Jill McCorkle. I'll be looking for more of her books for sure.

The book was detailed and authentic, funny and philosophical.

Hi, Lucy, Nathalie, Anne, and Karen! I appreciate the greetings.
Lucy, I think a great many R. West titles were republished by Virago, so you shouldn't have to pretend too hard. I'm eager to see which one you have.
Nathalie, I don't know when Framley Parsonage is up. We're doing Doctor Thorne in March, and if we proceed as we have in the past, it may be June or so before we get to *FP*. Heather and Liz are the ones who know, but it will be really good to have you aboard any time you decide to read.
Anne, I just have to make myself go ahead and read the doggone thing. I have only 100 or so pages yet to read. It could be quite a good book, I guess. The writing is O.K. I'm just so put off by the affectation of it that I may just be too old. I've looked at the reviews from other recipients who seem to be quite enthusiastic. I haven't read but 3 chapters of *Dogs*, so you'll soon pass me. I like it, but my light reading time seems to be eaten up by Defender, a C.J. Cherryh *Foreigner* novel. I am well and truly into it!
Karen, it's been a long time since I read any of Jill's work. I do like her short stories for what they are (if you don't know, I don't really like short stories as a form), and they are the last of her work that I read in preparation for her coming to speak to my class. I had the kids read a few too. "Detailed and authentic, funny and philosophical" - I'm sure that she'd be thrilled with that description!

#69 "Heather and Liz are the ones who know" I don't think we do, because I don't think it came up when we were discussing the DT group read :-) Based on my previous readings of Trollope, I predict that I will want to start FP as soon as I've finished DT. I don't know what tutored reads Liz has on her books after she finishes her current one though.

And of course we will be thrilled to have you join us Nathalie!

I like to let plans develop as they will, Heather.
I spent my reading time today about to go into space in Defender and with the Brontës as Branwell and Emily die within three months of each other and Anne is diagnosed with consumption too. Incredibly sad and touching to read about in their own words! I'm afraid that I'm going to have to widen or deepen my Brontë reading. Their novels were condemned as being vulgar and brash and common. I didn't remember that; how times change!

...only after the critics found out they were written by women. :)

Well --- not according to Julia Barker, Liz. There's a letter from Charlotte to her publisher, I think, or maybe Mary Taylor, before Emily died in which she chortles at the tiny meekness of the two brash Bell brothers as they sit before the fire sewing.

#71 Their novels were condemned as being vulgar and brash and common. I didn't remember that; how times change! Indeed!

I believe the quite a number of the first reviews of their novels were written in the belief that the Bells were men; the tone of the later reviews changed abruptly when the truth came out. The same thing happened to Elizabeth Gaskell when she initially published Mary Barton anonymously: at first the novel was praised as "powerful" and "confronting" but then they found out it was by women and the reviews started to focus on the love story instead of the social criticism.

Stopping by to say hi!

76... Ditto! Hi from me as well :)

Hi, Nancy, Liz, Deborah, and Tina. What I've learned so far about Charlotte's reaction to Mary Barton is that she was afraid that Barton had stolen a march on her own Shirley, set in the same place, dealing with sort of the same situation - and Shirley wasn't nearly finished at that time. I'm about to get to Charlotte's coming clean to the world about her gender. Apparently, Emily had been the hold-up.

DEFENDER by C.J. Cherryh
So I thought, "O.K. I'll just start this one to see where it's going and read a little bit every day for fun and get to other more serious reading." That's what I thought. Then suspense builds and I learned a new thing about the atevi, the fascinating aliens, and I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I really enjoyed it! So now, I'm just going to pick up #6, Explorer, and read a little to see where the story's going. I can do a little every day, and that should leave me some time to finish my ARC and do some other serious reading. Really.

#78 Hi Peggy, I LOVE it when a book grabs me so that I cannot put it down! Yay!

It is the best, isn't it? I hate finishing up. i think it's why I hoard ones I'm pretty sure I'll love, so I won't run out and suffer a hopeless let-down. Greatest reading fear..... running out of books I'll just disappear into. I'm willing to read all sorts of books, but now and then I like to fall down the rabbit hole.

I love this place because people (Nancy and Lucy to be exact!) get it!!! I won't mind finishing the *Foreigner* series because she's still writing them and because I can then start over. #14 comes out in April, but I own only the first nine, so I have quite a way to go. In fact, I probably won't live long enough to read everything that Cherryh has written. Prolific doesn't even begin to describe her output. I'm happy with these though!
(Shhhhh. Don't conjure up the Great Worldwide Book Famine.)

Add me to those who love falling into a book and just letting it overtake me (and my life) Peggy. That's what happened with my last book which was just a spontaneous read that I grabbed off the shelf. LOVE when that happens. The fact that it doesn't happen with every book makes it that much better when it does happen.

I have got to start that series, Peggy--some day!

I wish I had the time these days for a book to overtake me - but since I am lucky if I get to read a chapter at a time, it just is not happening. I miss those days!

Hi Lizzie, loved the discussions of the different character types on your previous thread, apparently I am an I with a tendency for S and J which makes me perfect for the job I am doing. Haha, I had a test with 50 questions which almost cracked me up.

I also enjoyed your comments on Tepper and I agree a lot with your assessment of her. I also still have got The Waters Rising on my TBR and so far I couldn't get myself to pick it up due to similiar reasons as your own.

Greetings, Bonnie, Roni, Stasia, and Bianca!
Bonnie, I have to run over and see what you just read in case I don't know it...
Roni, you have read so much more scifi than I have, but truly, you have a serious lacuna if you haven't gotten into *Foreigner*. I think that you will be swept away.
Stasia, you are amazing to read as much for pleasure as you do. Better times are coming.
Bianca, I have been a true Tepper fan, and I hate to see her failing with age if that's what's happening. Did you read her mysteries? Shirley McClintock is a real favorite (written as B.J. Oliphant.
So you're IS_J, eh? Do you know whether you're Feeling or Thinking? Inquiring minds and all that!

Sorry, Peggy, I don't mean to hijack your thread (which is, of course, another way of saying "I'm about to hijack your thread, Peggy"), but after what we were saying about the Brontes and Elizabeth Gaskell, I just came across this about the Australian author Miles Franklin:

Stella Miles Franklin did not want readers of her novel My Brilliant Career to assume that its author was a woman. She wrote to its publishers, asking for the ‘Miss’ to be removed: she intended readers to believe it to be written by ‘a bald-headed seer of the sterner sex’. When Henry Lawson first read it he was flummoxed by the gender of the author. He wrote to Franklin, asking her: "Will you write and tell me what you really are? man or woman?" This confusion is nowhere apparent in the preface he wrote for the novel’s publication in 1901. This preface outed Franklin as a woman writer and stated, in a bald-faced lie, that upon first reading the novel he could tell the gender of its author immediately:

"I hadn’t read three pages when I saw what you will no doubt see at once—that the story had been written by a girl. And as I went on I saw that the work was Australian—born of the bush. I don’t know about the girlishly emotional parts of the book—I leave that to girl readers to judge; but the descriptions of bush life and scenery came startlingly, painfully real to me, and I know that, as far as they are concerned, the book is true to Australia—the truest I ever read."

As Franklin had feared, gender inflected the critical reception of her novel...

the story had been written by a girl
Grrr. Bad enough he disregarded her request to keep her gender under wraps, but then to go ahead and call her a girl! I know, allowances for the times, but still. I can't help muttering "Jerk!" under my breath.

Girlishly emotional... Funny how he didn't notice that the first time he read it.

That's - I don't know what that is, Liz. Maybe he was more in touch with his inner girl when he read it the first time, but not realizing that he had one, he was confused.......... Nope. I have to agree with Julia. "Jerk!"
I'm off to read another page or so of my Brontës. I'd like to see a print copy of this book because I have to flip pages 20 or 30 times in the smallest Kindle font to get through 1%. Hmmm. I'll bet I could look at Amazon and see sort of what the book looks like. Off to do that little thing.

>90 LizzieD:. I have to flip pages 20 or 30 times in the smallest Kindle font to get through 1%

Uh-oh, Peggy. That must be a HUGE book. Are you enjoying it? I'm very tempted.

Brontës? Which? Grumble. I missed something... it must be long, because it sounds like how often I had to flip pages to get through 1% of Anna Karenina. Speaking of girlishly emotional.

Good morning Lizzie, oh I forgot the fourth letter it was T - thinking. The result told me that I am best suited for jobs such as nursing *grin*. Well, excactly what I am doing.

Stopping by to say hi! Hmm I've seen those ISNF sort of tests. I can never decide exactly where I land. Maybe I'll go and have a look at your test.
Well, I could not find the ISNF test on your thread, but I did find the Downton Abbey test. Fun! I'm another Isobel Crawley. I guess there are a lot of us!

>87 lyzard:: good grief.

Found the DA quiz, too. I'm Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, LOL. Apparently, I "almost always get my way." That works!

>96 lit_chick:: me too but I confess to seeing which way the questions slanted and answering them accordingly.

Becky, Jenn, Bianca, Deborah, and Tui! YAY! Happy Valentine's Day to one and all!!!
I gave my DH a big box of Snickers and he gave me a big jar of biscotti. Sweet.
Jenn and Becky, the book is The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors. I am enjoying it although I'm happy to have gotten through the l-o-n-g section on the juvenilia. On the other hand, I'm not likely ever to read any of it, so I was interested in the complexity and length of their fascination with their characters....really, an astonishing blend of silly romance and canny politics. I was looking at the Amazon reviews yesterday and might have been scared off by the second one that sounds convincing but doesn't reflect my experience with the book. That person accuses Barker of many unwarranted conclusions, but I read her extensive documentation and reach the same conclusions by myself. Of course, she is the one who provides the documentation, but when I say "extensive* I mean extensive. She also accuses her of favoring Branwell and damning the older woman, and I didn't read that section that way either. To continue, I'm a bit sad at how little she was able to write about Emily and Anne; the material just isn't there. Charlotte, though, has emerged as a decently fleshed-out person although my jury is still out as to whether she is a person I would care to have known. All in all, I've found it worthwhile, but it is a great investment in time at 1184 pp. End notes do start around p 854, but I'm reading them pretty carefully too.
Bianca, I'm glad that you put yourself into a job for which you are well suited!!!
Deborah, I've taken only the online form of the Meyers-Briggs, but there are plenty available and it's fun and instructive, I think.

Fascinating and growl-making about My Brilliant Career. I wish she could have kept it secret and kept him flummoxed a bit longer, the way Tiptree did.

I agree Lucy. She was right about the result; she should have had the courage to just ignore him.

I've caught up! Like several others, I've read and enjoyed only The Return of the Soldier so far of R W's. One day I'll read some more... How are you getting on with Dogs of Riga? I read that one out of sequence before I was quite so concerned about series order. Really enjoyed the setting especially. I've since gone back to read the first book, and had previously read a couple more later ones, so now I'm intending to fill in the gaps ... eventually!

That's awful about Miles Franklin. The Brontes book sounds interesting, but probably not one I'll ever get round to reading myself, so I'm grateful for some idea of what you are learning from it. I read Gaskell's biog of Charlotte, 30 or more years ago!

Hi, Lucy and Reba. I skimmed through My Brilliant Career, and since I knew a woman had written it, I didn't think to question the gender. It's been a long time since I've had to think about whether or how gender affects writing. I remember a reading uncle saying that women's writing was too flowery and descriptive for him. Even as a young teen I was able to deal with that as claptrap from my own little experience. We've come a long way from a place we never should have been.
Genny, I'm liking *Dogs* a lot. I too read Gaskell's bio of Charlotte 30+ years ago. Barker pretty much says that EG was wrong all the way down the line, relying too much on Ellen Nussy (I guess --- I haven't gotten to that part yet) and other hagiographers rather than tracking down documentary evidence. I find JB quite persuasive.
Actually, I don't know why I'm reading this. I'm not a Brontë fan, but it yelled at me until I put it on the Kindle and got into it. (Sometimes just the act of putting something on the Kindle is enough to make a book lose its imperious call, but not this time.)

HOTEL WORLD by Ali Smith

Even though I read it by fits and starts, I really enjoyed this book. It is highly experimental so that I don't mind the lack of quotation marks or present tense narration or no punctuation for one chapter at all. What I do appreciate is the quirkiness and suggestiveness of the writing. The whole book is a song of joy to life, even life with loss and suffering. I'm reminded of Emily Webb in Our Town, and nothing could be less like this book in style.
Be prepared for a wandering spirit who is quickly losing words, a homeless woman who is losing vowels, a teen who has lost her sister, a hotel employee who is about to lose her job, her health, and maybe her mind, and a journalist of sorts who is just lost. I'll be reading more Ali Smith!

It's snowing in my home town!!!!! It's not sticking, but that's still definitely snow falling even as I type.

How often do you get snow, Peggy?

I don't remember snow that I could see falling and certainly not that stayed around for a day since Mr. Obama's first inauguration.

Peggy, I'm stunned that you get snow at all -- ever. Woot, Hotel World sounds like an excellent read. Booker and Orange recognitions, too!

If you see snow that rarely, Peggy, I'm not surprised that you are so excited about it!

It makes you feel less far away, knowing you have snow.

Peggy - I've heard so many great things about Ali Smith that I want to pick up something by her soon. Hotel World sounds like a good place to start.

"Enjoy" your snow. I'd be happy to give you some of mine.

Enjoy the snow! I'm hoping we've seen the last of ours this year and we certainly haven't had much compared to some.

Your comments on the Bronte bio make it sound compelling. I was thinking of making 2014 a Bronte year (yes, I know it's only Feb 2013) and reading the bio slowly and rereading the novels.

Nancy and Julia, snow is a rare thing around here. Even though it was very cold last night, not a flake remained this morning. Lucy, we're pretty far away after all, but I appreciate the feeling.
Beth, we did enjoy watching it fall, and I hope that you find Ali Smith to your liking when you try her.
Heather, I can't remember who in the Virago group recommended the Brontë bio, but I'm glad I'm reading it. If I pressed, I guess I could finish it this month, but I don't know that I'm so taken with it that I want to read it only. I'm looking forward to trying the novels. I know that Wuthering Heights got some bad press here last year - Suzanne, I think, said it didn't stand up to a reread for her. I haven't read any others except Jane Eyre, and I will love that forever whether I really do or not. I didn't know that the character Shirley is how Charlotte thought Emily would have been in other circumstances, and I'm reading about many of the originals in Villette. Anne's novels I don't know at all, so I have a lot to do.
Meanwhile, I must finish The Inbetween People this month; I've decided. The more I don't read it, the less I want to pick it up again. Discipline!

I'll bet the kids in your area were excited to see the snowflakes!

It's interesting--it's been the 50s since snow was seen along the coast, but several times a winter, there is snowfall in our mountains--50-60 miles inland--and families drive up to play in the snow for the day. In fact, our next storm in two days should bring snow down to 2500 feet--about 35 miles inland.

Stopping by to say hi! Enjoy the snow! Hotel World sounds quite interesting!

Enjoy the snow, Peggy! We've also had some last Monday, but it was gone again within hours. It's always so nice and quiet outside while it's falling (unless you're sitting in your car, stuck in the ensuing traffic chaos).

I am very tempted by Hotel World. No Kindle version yet, but it goes onto the WL.

#112 I'm pretty sure it was CurrerBell who recommended the Bronte bio. I haven't read any of the novels for such a long time that I am a bit worried that I might find I love them less. I really liked Anne Bronte - especially The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

I enjoyed Wildfell Hall too - haven't read any of them since I was about 14 so I don't know how they would all hold up now.

I think that The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall is an amazingly brave book; not without flaws, but they are outweighted by all the taboo-breaking.

Hi to Roni, Deb, and Nathalie! We did enjoy watching the snow fall, but as I say, it didn't stick at all. Roni, I remember friends who lived in California talking about going to the mountains for a day of winter. Unbelievable!
Heather, it does make sense that CurrerBell would have been the recommender of the Bronte bio. I'm interested that you and Genny and Liz all pick out *Tenant* as the one to comment on. Charlotte tended to discount Anne's ability when compared to Emily's singular genius. (I'm tempted to use quotation marks, but I didn't.)
I now have a little more than 12% of the text to read. If I can keep up this pace, I'll finish this month, and I would so love to start March unencumbered...........I guess I mean free to encumber myself with something equally unwieldy.

In 2004 or so I was driving from New Jersey to Georgia right after Christmas and got stuck in the most horrible snow storm in North Carolina. We started seeing cars with snow just south of Washington DC and thought they must have been coming down from the mountains but it just kept getting worse. We finally decided we had to stop for the night and then had a terrible time finding a hotel. Quite a night!!

That sounds like a nightmare, Reba. My biggest snow memory was in March (I think) of 1974 (I think) where a massive storm came up from the south and we were already very cold. We had over 2 feet, and cars were stranded on I-95. The big town churches sent their church buses out and brought in countless travelers who either stayed in people's homes or camped out in the church gyms. I was teaching in a county school about 25 miles south of home, and it started snowing there first. The authorities didn't close the schools until the storm reached the northern part of the county a good 50 miles away, so we already had 6 or 7 inches before I set out for home. It took 2 hours, so that was quite a day!
An interesting sidelight - (or it was to me) .... A local young woman was in NYC and realized that she had left her credit cards at home. She went into several banks and was refused check-cashing service. At the last one she demanded to talk to the bank manager, who also declined to cash her check or make a call to her local bank. As she left, she said, "All I know is that if your daughter were stranded in ________, N.C. the way I am here, any place that she asked for help would give it to her. The manager said, "Wait a minute. Did you say ______?" It turned out that he and his family had been rescued and given a bed in the home of a family that my friend knew. He then treated her to a great visit in NYC, and that particular chicken came home to roost very happily. Isn't that a nice story?

That is a nice story (love happy endings). We were caught sometime in the early 90s driving to Florida to see the inlaws, in what Americans were calling "The Storm of the Century" and ended up stuck in Corbin, Kentucky for a couple of days (happily, we had prebooked there at the Holiday Inn as a stopping point). It wasn't that much snow by our standards but when there is no infrastructure to support its removal, and with the wind, it was deadly. The highways were closed. Trees were snapped like matchsticks. We saw cars burned out in the medians or hanging off guard rails off mountainsides. They only had graders, no snow ploughs, so the banks of snow would get pushed for a bit and then left in the lane, a serious hazard. And no power. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel near Georgia and people were shovelling sidewalks with rakes and dust pans. Black ice under bridges in Georgia, with cars flying out of control because folks weren't used to it. What a nightmare! I can't speak highly enough about the graciousness of the folks in those States when they were having such a hard time themselves.

I'm enjoying all the posts regarding The Bronte sister and wayward brother Bronwell.

I have three all time favorite books. These books have remained on that list for many years. They are
Jane Eyre, To Kill A Mockingbird and A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Peggy, it is always a joy to visit here.

Hotel World is now on the tbr pile.

Happy Tuesday to you my dear!

>121 LizzieD: Great story. Glad the poor thing finally found a place to stay. We did too, after driving 20 miles or so east from I-95. By that time there was nothing open for dinner but the clerk in the hotel gave us microwave popcorn and there was a microwave in the room so that's what we had for dinner. By morning the snow was melted enough that we could make our way back to I-95 and keep on going south. It was a mini-adventure and imprinted on my mind that it CAN snow in NO. Carolina :-)

Tui, you are so right about the dangers of snow in the South. We are mostly unequipped for it and have no idea how to handle ourselves in it. We are mostly eager to do the right thing for folks, though.
Linda, I love to see your footprint here, so there!
I'm glad at least that your experience with North Carolinians was a little positive, Reba.
My Kindle is going to do me in. The Daily Deal is most often bad, but even so, I'm accumulating far too many downloads ever to be able to read them all!

THE DOGS OF RIGA by Henning Mankell
This has more the flavor of a spy novel, set as it is mainly in Riga 1990, than of a police procedural. Wallander is lent to the police department in Riga following the murder of two Latvians whose bodies wash up on the shore of Sweden in a lifeboat. Wallander finds himself in touch with the Latvian resistance, and he returns to Riga in hopes of discovering the evidence that led to another murder.
I liked it O.K. It certainly picked up suspense even if I'm not sure that the story is all that likely. On the other hand, Mankell says in an afterward that it could have happened exactly as he wrote. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I look forward to more Wallander back at home.

Back to The Brontes.

>>#119

Anne's writing is less romantic (in the broader sense of the word) and more realistic, so I guess it's a case of what floats your boat. :)

#125 by @LizzieD> Oh, the Kindle Daily Deal is a tool of the book-hoarding devil, I tell you! I can't count the times I've found myself thinking, "Well, it's only $1.99 ..."

Glad you enjoyed Dogs of Riga, Peggy. You are doing well with The Brontes. The only thing I know of Branwell comes from a short passage in Literary Guernsey and Potato which made me laugh out loud when I read it:

Isola Pribby, my favourite, has “a fondness for the Bronte girls. Poor lambs! To think all five of them had weak chests and died so young. What a sadness! Their pa was a selfish thing, wasn’t he? … And their brother, Branwell, he wasn’t much either – always drinking and sicking on the carpets. They were forever having to clean up after him. Fine work for lady authoresses! It is my belief that with two such men in the household and no way to meet others, Emily had to make Heathcliff up – out of thin air. And what a fine job she did! Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life … I didn’t like Wuthering Heights at first. But the minute that specter – Cathy – scrabbled her bony fingers on the window glass, I was grasped by the throat and not let go.” (2/7)

I've been in NC several times and always thought it beautiful and enjoyable. It's just that the snow storm was a surprise and an adventure which made it quite memorable.

Liz, in that case I wonder whether Anne won't hold up better now. I'm like Linda though; I don't think anything can make me less fond of Jane Eyre than I am.
The thing about it is, Julia, that even a Kindle has limited space. I keep fearing that I'm going to fill it up with $1.99 specials and then not being able to refuse them. After all, it's only $1.99.
Nancy, I had forgotten that commentary on the Brontes. I did love *GLPPPS*.
Reba, the next time you're on I-95, you should let me know! That goes for all you LTers. I have a cousin in Castro Valley, but I will never get out there to visit.

Oh, I love Jane Eyre! - but The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall speaks to me on a different level. Wuthering Heights I have some issues with but mostly in reaction to too many people trying to tell me it's "a great love story". {*tears hair*}

I listened to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall last year - a very good reader (not one of the outstanding ones, but those are rare) and I felt also that the story was much more interesting and dramatic (as opposed to melodramatic) than Wuthering Heights. At least as well written with a more absorbing story, frankly.

Popping in to join the Jane Eyre fan club. I also agree that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a courageous book and a great read. I am rather less than fond of Wuthering Heights. Not a single redeeming(?) character in the entire book. So dysfunctional and creepy that I still get a shiver down my spine just thinking about it. *shiver*

We are expecting snow today. About 8 inches, finally. We've had a dry winter - only one or two "shovel-able" storms. It's probably a little less exciting to get snow at 6200 feet than at 2500 feet, though. :) Usually we are prepared. We did have an odd surprise storm last month. Went to bed at midnight and woke up to about an inch or so of totally unexpected and unpredicted snow. It was a little dodgy getting out that morning as the snow plows were just as surprised as we were.

I must confess that, although I found and love Jane Eyre early on, I have never read Wuthering Heights. From the comments of readers here on LT, I really don't miss the lack except for knowing I'm not appreciating the full satire of Jasper Fforde's therapy group for the characters of WH in one of his Thursday Next books (talk about dysfunctional!).

O.K., Liz, Lucy, and Jenn, you have persuaded me that I should read *Tenant* as my first foray into Brontëana (I do love to make umlauts!) after I finish the bio. I have just killed Charlotte off; she apparently was too frail at nearly 39 to withstand horribly acute morning sickness. I've found her to be quite an interesting character, tiny with a caustic tongue when roused and formidably able to manipulate situations to get her own way - at least if her biographer knows what she's talking about.
Roni, I should really reread *WH* soon too. I read it so early that it was beyond me in a way that *JE* never was. Like you, I don't know that I will.
Snow!!! Elevation: 6200 feet? 2500 feet? Try 131 feet!

Well. Snow at 131 feet is more than exciting! I grew up in Southern California and I remember it snowing once. It was a big deal. :)

It is snowing right now, 34 F, and my son (14) and his friend just got home from school. They turned right around and left to walk to the store and get frozen yogurt. Whatever. So glad I went to the trouble of picking them up...

I barely survived acute morning sickness, and I at least had the benefit of zofran and IV fluids. I can't blame Charlotte for calling it a day. I do hope you read *Tenant*. It is well worth the time, if only for the thrill of seeing how far Charlotte pushed the edge of the envelope.

Ahhh the danger of the Daily Deal. I know it well Peggy although I can't say I've bought much recently although I did just purchase The Curse of Chalion for $.99 as per Roni's tip.

We get our share of snow here as you know but haven't had a real blizzard in quite awhile and I really think if it's not global warming then there must be some other reason that we just don't get the snowfall that we used to get when my children were small and school would be closed for as many as 5 or 6 days a year. And we were always prepared for it with snow fighting equipment but when the wind is blowing and you have zero visibility you just have to stay home.

I loved the Bujold Chalion's - great purchase!

You won't regret it Peggy - I know I read Wildfell ages ago too, little bits would float into place as I listened, so I've liked it twice now!

Hello, Jenn, Bonnie, and Lucy! Snow and Brontes!
Bonnie, I'm very glad too that you have The Curse of Challion. It's a totally different experience from GG Kay, and I'll bet you enjoy it just as much!
O.K. O.K. I'll read *Wildfell* but probably not yet.

Sadly, we have not had one flake of snow this year. I miss it when we get none.
On the other hand, the tiny early iris and the snowdrops are already blooming and the daffodil stalks are a good 8 inches tall with buds starting to form.

I thought Jane Eyre was a magnificent novel but the Jasper Fforde series didn't do much for me.

I hope you are well, Peggy!

Ellen, our two hearts beat as one. 1. I miss seeing snow when it doesn't happen. 2. I love to see flowers bloom. 3. Jane Eyre is a life favorite. 4. I was not interested enough in the next Thursday Next to read it or anything else from JFf.
Thanks for your good health wishes, and I think I'm finally past the last episode. Yesterday I wasn't sure, but today is much better!

I finally won a bid on E.F. Benson's biography of "Charlotte Bronte" (no touchstone) and look forward to reading it.

Loved the comment upthread about making 2014 a "Bronte year" even though we're still in February 2013. So typical of myownself.

You've prompted me to get the Bronte bio., Peggy. And Liz has me thinking about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Re: J. Fforde: I read the first book--meh--started the second, and said, "Well, let's get back to the real things." I know many love him, but I'm not one of them.

Trying hard and often failing to avoid the "Daily Deal", obviously a ploy be the Book Demons.

Gail, I had a similar experience with Fforde. I read the first one and didn't like it for about the first two-thirds of the book. Then I got into it, and ended up really liking how it all worked out. So I started the second one, but only got maybe a third of the way into it and decided that was enough. I'm not sure why they didn't work for me, because it seems like I should have loved them.

OOOOOiii, Tui! I didn't realize that EFB wrote a CB biography. Now my interest is whetted!
Gail and Julia, if LTers were not such a nice group, we'd have to circle up back to back to defend ourselves. Like you, Julia, I'm not sure why the Ffordes didn't work for me. I should have loved them, but I felt very like I do when I try Pratchett. I'm going to try Pratchett again someday, but not Fforde.
(I had to download The Cider House Rules today because I didn't have a copy, and Lucy and Becky love it. I don't feel bad about that one. I should add that I was feeling bad about the Jack Nightingale books, but I've started Nightfall, and it's undemanding and fun and well done - exactly what I want right now!

De-lurking to say The Eyre Affair didn't work for me either, it just felt gimmicky. Gimme the real Jane anytime.
Peggy, I think you'll enjoy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall!

Peggy, I collect E.F. first editions (I have no idea why, just because) and this one has always either gone really quickly or has been out of reach. I was chuffed! I quite like his biographies (but not his ghost stories or other more romantic novels--very dated imho).

My fave Ffordes are the Nursery Crime ones. They are just so silly. I do enjoy the other ones, but only in smallish doses, I couldn't imagine reading more than one every year or two.

Funny - http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6872071/8-new-and-necessary-punctuation-mark...

Thanks, Jenn! I especially love the hemi-demi-semi-colon; it brings out the musician in me too!
Never tried a Nursery Crime, Lucy. I like silly, but I guess I have enough silly already.
Tui, I think a collection of EFB first editions is enviable.
Laura, having 4 circled back-to-back is a lot more effective than 3.

Good morning Lizzie *smile* wow I missed the part where you had snow. If you usually don't have snow I seriously can understand how much you enjoyed it.

I belong to the group who prefered Jane Eyre to Wuthering Height.

I am glad to hear that you start to feel better, but hope that you still will take things easy :)

Many thanks for your good wishes, Bianca. My life is arranged to be EASY!!!

THE BRONTES: WILD GENIUS ON THE MOORS by Juliet Barker

Oh rejoice and be glad! I have happily finished this exhaustive biography of the Brontë family, and I'm very happy to have it under my belt!
I've probably said enough about it on my thread as I read not to need many further reminders. I don't know how long Ms. Barker did her research, but I'm convinced that she looked at every single sheet of paper that deals with the Brontës written in English. One of her main concerns was to right the version perpetrated by Elizabeth Gaskell's highly romanticized biography of Charlotte. I've read that too, and it's quite compelling. The problem is that her major source was Charlotte's school friend Ellen Nussey, who apparently resented Charlotte's husband Arthur Bell Nicholls for replacing her as Charlotte's most intimate companion. Barker produces the documentation to prove that Patrick was a loving and careful father, that Branwell was instrumental in spurring the girls to write (Branwell is portrayed as a brilliant, indulged, Preacher's Kid with a small man's inferiority complex), that Charlotte was a complex, fascinating, human being, and that her husband was devoted to her and eager to have the world see her as she was and acknowledge her genius.
Other readers might have trouble plowing through a hundred pages or so devoted to the juvenilia - at least, that's where the book lagged for me. Otherwise, this is a five star book, and I'm mostly glad to have read it on the Kindle. It has a great index that I didn't know about until I finished. The links to the end notes are good. It does not have an active table of contents and it does not have the many illustrations of the tree book. If the price of that ever drops, I'll likely get a copy.
(Oh! I was vastly amused to find the word "lingering," which Barker uses many times consistently printed as "linGéring." Other scanning errors occur, but not so much as to be distracting. I just sort of liked that one.)

Superb review, Peggy! I'd be happy to have The Brontes: Wild Genius under my belt, too. Portrayal of Branwell is very interesting, and how fortunate that Charlotte's husband was so devoted and appreciative of her genius. Well done!

Why thank you more than kindly, Nancy!
It's my first biggie of the new year, and I'm itching to start another. I won't even tell you what I'm contemplating at the moment! (Not Clarissa, Becky.)

Not Clarissa

Coward. :)

Yellow on Yellow!!!!!

Lonesome Dove??

I need to read Lonesome Dove, I confess, but I'm torn between Catherine the Great, We Are at War, and Life and Fate. Or it might be Life and Fate plus one of the other two.

I am going to leave this mortal coil without reading Clarissa. It wasn't a have-to as an undergrad, thank heavens, but I watched/heard one of my lads grind his way through the thing and thought uh uh, no, never.

Oh Peggy, I'm also planning to read Life and Fate but probably in April. First I plan to read Anne Applebaum's Gulag in March mostly because it's been sitting on my iPad for a long time but also because it's a history of the same time period that the Grossman book covers. (I hope I'm right about that.) It may turn out to be too much of a bad thing and then I would probably put off Life and Fate.

I loved Catherine the Great if it's the Robert K. Massie you're talking about. Hmmm, I was actually thinking of attempting Clarissa (at the rate of one book a month) after reading an article in The Guardian that described it as "unputdownable."

I think I am likely to join you Tui in resisting Clarissa. I have read some Richardson as I did read Pamela and that will have to do.

Tui and Lucy, I won't say "never' to Clarissa because I own it, and in my morality, if I paid good $ for it, I want to read it. Oops. I see that I own Pamela too. Instead of *Catherine* or the WWII diaries, I settled on Cleopatra because it's shorter, people here have liked it, and I own it.
Bonnie, I can assure you that I will likely still be reading Life and Fate in April! I've made a tiny start, and it's very readable.
I also added Straight Man to my list since I've been sneaking a peek into it from time to time and am finding it enjoyable.
So the plan is to finish my excessively trendy ARC and A Buyer's Market this month so that I can start my hometown girl's ARC, The Acceptance World, and Doctor Thorne in March. I'm nothing if not ambitious.

I'm nothing if not ambitious. Well said, Peggy. It's one of the things I love about LT; we all seem to be so inclined!

Since you've mentioned it, I've had a word with Heather and we should be good to go with Dr Thorne from the 1st March; I'll be setting up the thread in a few days.

Frankly, I think too much is made of the length of Clarissa, and I've been just as guilty of doing that on these threads as anyone else. War and Peace in the Penguin edition is 1440 pages (Clarissa is 1499). Les Miserables in the Signet Classics edition is 1463.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it "unputdownable," but I would say that I'm thoroughly engaged with the book (at page 1204/1499). My recommendation for reading the book is to have a strategy and stick to the strategy. I had to put the book away for 15 weeks while I took a genealogy course, so that forced break has made this read a very long road (since January of 2012). I think the book is brilliant (mainly due to the many distinctive voices that Richardson created through the letters), and I know that it will stand out as one of the major reading experiences of my life. I also know I'll hate to see it end.

I think people tend to come to Clarissa with a sort of "siege mentality", and that that some of the reading strategies adopted in order to "cope" end up making it seem much longer than it actually is. (Not that I'm suggesting it's short!)

>167 lyzard:. a sort of "siege mentality"

That's a great way of putting it.

I definitely have the siege mentality, Liz and Becky. However, if he actually uses different narrative voices in the different letters, I might be more attracted. My ARC includes a series of letters written by the main narrator's father. No difference at all in the letters and the other narration. I see a pan in my future.
Liz, I'm up for Mr. Trollope, and Nancy, I'm in good company, I know. I'm in better company than I am since so many of you read your ambitions in decent time.
I'm going to try a homemade meme here to see whether anybody else finds this interesting. My old online reading community did something similar and enjoyed it. Starting Van Loon's Lives brought it back to mind. Assume that the people whom you invite can all communicate with you and each other. This gets to be fun if you invite a crowd of mystery writers, for example. I'm socially unambitious (!), so I'm inviting only two first time out.

INVITE AUTHORS TO DINNER
Authors
Reason for these choices and this pairing or combination
Other guests
Seating
Menu

INVITE AUTHORS TO DINNER
Authors Quintus Horatius Flaccus and Jane Austen
Reason for these choices and this pairing or combination I love them both. They wrote about love at different times in a person's life, and they were both witty and wise. Horace was also quite a political animal with his poetry while Ms. Austen didn't acknowledge any politics beyond the personal. I think they'd like each other.
Other guests Any two LTers who would care to be at the table
Seating Peggy, Horace to my right, LT volunteer, DH, JA, LT volunteer
Menu Stuffed mushrooms, shrimp and grits with green salad and yeast rolls, Earl's limoncello dessert ~ I'd have to read about wines to know what to serve when.......

If you invite Horace, you'd best have some Falernian wine on hand, and I hope the dinner is more successful than the one Nasidienus hosted (although, of course, Horace wasn't even invited to that one)...

Right you are, Amber..... I don't know.... He'll expect whatever he gets to be watered, and I may just have to let him do it himself. I'm eager to see what he and Miss Austen think about the grits. I think that Horace will understand them better than she will.
As for Nasidienus and his party, we're not likely to talk about the food....at least the hosts won't.

THE INBETWEEN PEOPLE by Emma McEvoy

This was an ARC, and I have struggled with it. I said in the review on the book page, and I'll say it here that these 176 pages felt more like 671. Young people (I assume that they are young) seem to find it beautiful and profound. I panned it.
Happy day! I can move on!! I notice that Iris Murdoch writes occasional sentence fragments. She knows what she's doing. I'm not sure about McEvoy.

I see that I just won the Sarah Dunant Blood and Beauty from the February list. It will be my first Dunant, and I'm curious about the Borgias, so maybe this will be a good match!

I'm going to work on that meme, it might take me some time...... meanwhile I enjoyed the idea of Jane and Quintus Horatius. What will she make of his get up I wonder. Will you all eat lying down?

I mean' reclining'.

Now, that's a nice thing for you to come by, Lucy. I was feeling neglected (and wondering whether the meme was so silly that people were embarrassed to reply).
Quintus will have to suck it up and sit up. I'll assume that he and Jane have met in that great writers' paradise in the sky. I wonder whether her older self will have sympathy with his middle-aged self. I will love them both!

I don't think the meme is silly, Peggy! It's just taking me some time to make sure I get the right group. It's fun to think about!

I"m also putting in some think-time on the meme, Peggy. I'm thinking Neal Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for two of the contemporary authors so far--I rather believe it will be a large dinner party.

Well I thought of Mikhail Bulgakov and Mark Twain for a bbq but that's as far as tiny brain got with it.

Julia, and Roni, and Tui, you make me feel a LOT better!
Roni, Gaiman and Pratchett would be a great combo - I don't know right off hand who else you might invite ..... Piers Anthony and Glen Cook and Robert Silverberg? CHINA MIEVILLE???
I haven't read Bulgakov, Tui, although The Master and Maragarita is somewhere in the foothills off Mt. Bookpile. (Now why isn't the Touchstone working?)
I'm thinking about women mystery writers --- I'd sort of like to have Elizabeth George, Deborah Crombie, and Martha Grimes in together to talk about Americans writing British, but I don't much care for Grimes anymore, and I haven't read George's last two because of recurring disappointment.

Hi, Peggy. Just as you don't do movies, I don't do dinner parties. But it's fun to come to your thread and see what's going on here.

Peggy, The Master and Margarita is one of my top ten lifetime most favourite books. Higher praise have I none!

Thanks for reading The Inbetween People for me, Peggy. I'll definitely pass on that one. As to the Borgias, I confess I didn't know of the books before I started watching the TV series. It is fabulously done! Jeremy Irons rules as the corrupt Rodrigo Borgia. So, after you've finished reading ...

I'm afraid my imagination is failing me on the dinner party front too - it's been so long since I've had the energy to organise one... and having a potentially unlimited range of guests to choose from is just too much for my poor brain to cope with. But I'm enjoying seeing other people's suggestions!

Uh, Becky and Genny, I don't DO dinner parties either except in my imagination. We have so rearranged the house in our curmudgeonly later years that we don't even have a table where more than the two of us could sit. I guess I could unarrange, but I'm awfully, awfully lazy.
Tui, you are tempting me. Funny with depth sounds like my dream.
Nancy, I'm amazed at how many younger reviewers found the writing "poetic" and the characters fully developed. I hope that she'll try again, but I think that I took one for the community.
I know next to nothing about the Borgias, but I doubt that I'll study before I start the book. I did read an ER ARC that included material about Cesare and his father the Pope, but that's about all I have. I just hope that S. Dunant can write.

I'm so stymied - the thing is - I know I would feel intimidated by any number of the writers I love the most..... I would be fascinated to be a fly on the wall, but terrified, say, by Virginia Woolf or John Cowper Powys and on and on the list is really endless....... William Carlos Williams I bet would have been pleasant company, but oh oh oh E.B. White, now there is a person I would love to spend time with. I'm veering somehow towards writers I loved as a child, like Elizabeth Enright. Still mulling.

I'd want some women to balance them, Peggy. Connie Willis--her dry humor would fit right in. I'm still working on the guest list.

Oh, and I would want a separate afternoon tea with Elizabeth Goudge, Karen Armstrong, Joan Chittester, Madeline L'Engle, Bill Moyers, John Shelby Spong and Joseph Campbell.

Lucy, I hadn't thought about having to say anything myself beyond, "Welcome!" I'm going to ignore the intimidation factor which is HUGE. I'd like your three, but I've never even heard of Elizabeth Enright. I think that I had a deprived childhood.
Roni, Connie Willis is perfect. I'd also like to have a very small party with the Luthers, the Martin of the table talk, not to mention my guy CD. He's one whose ego wouldn't allow other literary lions, I think.

It's a really difficult challenge you post, Peggy. My first cut for guests included David McCullough but from there I kept thinking of women so I think it's going to have to be an all-female evening: I think I'll go with Barbara Kingsolver, Geraldine Brooks, Rachael Carson, Isobel Coleman, and Roni's two great ideas Joan Chittester and Karen Armstrong. (Actually my table seats 8 so why don't you come too, Roni?) They're chosen because of their interest in the environment, social justice and women's welfare. Since we're dreaming here, I think I'll have Alice Waters cater the meal and leave the menu up to her.

I don't have much imagination Peggy but I was thinking Hilary Mantel and Guy Gavriel Kay, two of my latest favorite authors. I wonder what Mantel thinks of historical fantasy?

Reba, that sounds like a fascinating evening - at least with the women I know. I don't know Isobel Coleman, and I haven't read J. Chittester or K. Armstrong. I could be perfectly happy with Kingsolver and Brooks....and having A. Waters cater is a stroke of genius, which I will copy!
I don't know about imagination, Bonnie, but I would never have thought to invite Mantel and Kay together. I'll bet you would have some surprising conversation there.

A BUYER'S MARKET by Anthony Powell
I find myself regarding this as more introduction to *Dance*. We meet some old friends and lose one. For some reason I'm less pleased with AP's style this time, but I know I'll be in love again in another book or two.

Hmm a dinner party with authors? I think that sounds scary! I'm not sure who I'd invite. As for the giggling on my thread - really , I was just an innocent 7 year old who thought the book was a thriller or something like that, so that is why I bought it for my dad. You can see my reasoning? :)

Glad you like my party, Peggy. If you're in the neighborhood you're welcome to come too. I've heard Coleman, Chittester and Armstrong speak at Chautauqua in addition to reading them -- Coleman is very interesting the other two are amazing women.

Peggy, I've been giving your meme a lot of thought. It's been a lot of fun mulling this over. I've finally narrowed down my party list. Though I love the authors on this list, they aren't necessarily my all-time faves. Those folks might be too sad, depressing or angry to spend an evening with. So here it is:
Authors: Ann Fadiman, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Wechsberg, IB Singer, Richard Russo, EB White, Daniel Barenboim, and Moss Hart.
Reason for these choices and this pairing or combination: These authors all have a sense of humor, are entertaining (at least their writing is entertaining), have fascinating worldviews, are themselves well-read, several are musicians and all bring an appetite for examining life and the world around them. I don't believe any of them take themselves too seriously, though some of their works are serious or at least address serious issues. I think the conversation would be great!
Other guests: LTers of course!
Seating: No pre-arranged seating. Who chooses to sit next to whom would itself be interesting.
Menu: Since Joseph Wechsberg wrote for Gourmet (and the New Yorker too) and wrote a wonderful book of essays riffing on foods of Europe called Blue Trout and Black Truffles. I would want him to have a hand in the selection of the menu.

OK, this guest list is probably why I don't do dinner parties!

INVITE AUTHORS TO DINNER
Authors: John Irving, Mary Roach, Mary Doria Russell
Reason for these choices and this pairing or combination: I strongly suspect these authors have nothing in common except my love for their work, which might make for a weird dinner vibe. But if nothing else, I could talk to Irving about wrestling and writing (two of our favorite topics), and Roach and Russell could compare notes on ETs and talk about Doc Holliday's TB symptoms (and chime in about the writing). The most important thing is I think they all have good senses of humor, which can help save any gathering.
Other guests: Maybe Olympic wrestling legend Dan Gable since he lives right here in town. I've met him, so I know he would be a good chatty guest.
Seating: Here's the problem: I want to sit next to everyone! But failing that, I'll put myself between Irving and Roach, and put Gable on the other side of Irving and Russell on the other side of Roach.
Menu: Depends on the time of year, but probably something Italian.

Hi, Deborah and Reba and Peg and Julia! I want to go to ALL of these parties - especially the one with Oscar Wilde and Anne Fadiman. In fact, I might just want to invite those two by themselves; I'm sure that Anne would be as fascinated with Wilde as I would be.
Here's the problem: I want to sit next to everyone! Isn't that the truth!!! I haven't read any Mary Roach yet, and John Irving was a long time ago although I've put The Cider House Rules on the Kindle this month. Maybe I'd just included MD Russell in another party.
Anyway, I'm fascinated by this. Thank you all for responding!

Oscar Wilde is a stroke of genius. And I LOVE Richard Russo's books -- he's one of my favorite authors. I wonder what he's like as a person. Would be interesting to sit next to him and find out.

INVITE AUTHORS TO DINNER
Authors Naom Chomsky,Lionel Shriver, Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, Naomi Klein and Patti Smith

Reason for these choices and this pairing or combination
I want to talk about the state of the world! Noam, Naomi and Barbara will have a lot to say about politics and the economy, and social justice. And Lionel is so smart, Ill have her chiming in too. Cormac and Patti just have to be there as they are favourites.

Other guests The table is too crowded already, I want these guys to myself!

Seating Ill be between Naomi Klein and Cormac McCarthy, and I'll have Noam Chomsky and Patti Smith across from me.

Menu Catered, I aint fussing with a meal when I have all my literary prep to do, I fear that with the combined IQs of all my guests, I will need to do some serious homework :)
We will have 4 small courses though, and they will be small as I dont want to get sleepy with such scintillating company. There will be a lot of red wine (but I wont get drunk and embarrass myself, no I wont).
Thanks Peggy- that was fun!

Thank you, Megan! I don't know Patti Smith or Naomi Klein, but the other choices are inspired...and yours is doable --- aren't those people still alive???!!!??? That's pretty exciting. Just think! You might win a sweepstakes or lose an unknown billionaire aunt who wills you her estate. Then you could offer this group a trip to NZ and the chance to sit and talk together; I bet they'd jump on it! And you could send for me too just because I'd adore to meet Kingsolver and Shriver would be such a fascinating person................. In that case, would you be willing to have Keri Hulme too?

Hmmmm. I see that I need another post to get the thread continue, so here it is. I've realized that I've started way too many things for March. The result will be that I'll read a number of pages and finish very few books. Where have I heard that before?
It's just that I have so much and everything is so good! No self-discipline at all in my old age!

Have another post just in case! :)

No self-discipline at all in my old age! Oh, Peggy, I'm with you all the way!

I'm with you all the way there too! But isn't that okay?

Great dinner party suggestions! I still haven't had the time to think up my own combination of guests yet... But I'd share Megan's choice of Barbara Kingsolver as one of them. She's one of the few authors that I have wanted to send a letter of appreciation to on finishing one of her books. Being a great one for having ideas and not putting them into action, I never did actually send a letter, but I really did want to thank her! It would be great to have a conversation with her.

Adding to the post count Peggy but I have to say the prospect of inviting a few authors to dinner has me completely overwhelmed. More mulling required...

Thank you for the extra post, Tina. I did need it!
Ah, Nancy and Roni, it will have to be O.K. I watch my friends devote their retirement to good works and such and am ashamed, but not enough to change yet.
Genny, I'd love Barbara Kingsolver for a meal too, and I think I'd like to have her with Rose Tremain. Oh! And Hilary Mantel. Wouldn't that be fascinating??? And it's actually a possibility, which is amazing. Somebody could actually do it!
Oh dear. Oh dear. I haven't thought about what I want for my March thread, and it's time......