Richardderus 2013 thread 8

I need a new bedside lamp...maybe if y'all want to save up and get this for me for my birthday?

Artwork by Jessie Dodington

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”

― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I have a category called Orphans, which will still catch all the other reading I do in 2013. Thinking 60 reviews as my target.

My 2013 ORPHANED books ticker:




I want to treat the Short Story collection challenge as a ticker-to-itself thread, thinking 48 reviews as my goal. I'll keep the thread over in the Short Stories forum.

My 2013 SHORT STORY collections ticker:




I'm going to keep a mystery-genre thread over in Crime, Thriller, and Mystery forum, with a goal of 50 reviews. Way way way too many of my reviews this year, in all forums, were mysteries and thrillers, and while I love them, I don't want to get too rut-ified and read only those books while keeping up my self-made review writing census.

My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:




THIS THREAD is the 75 challenge for 2013, which will be non-fiction and non-genre-fiction books published in 2012 and 2013, plus recommendations from other 75ers.

My last thread of 2012.

My 2013 NEW books ticker:




Book 1...thread one.
Books 2 & 3...thread two.
Book 4...thread three.
Book 5...thread five.
Books 6 & 7...thread seven.

Books are reviewed in post:

8. Persecution: The Friendly Fire of Memories...#242.

9. Learning to Swim...#259.

10. The Might Have Been...#261.

11. Defending Jacob...#268.

I've just put up my review of Under the Hill: Bomber's Moon, a gay urban fantasy that I actually liked, over in my thread...post #302.

I'm here! *smooches*

Richard, I was thinking of contributing towards that lamp. But then I thought that it's not a good idea. The scary looking octopus would keep you scared and probably would frighten you every day when you woke up. Sorry.

Ooh, The Kraken! Very awesome!

Love the kraken!

That is a very unique lamp! I wonder how big it is though....It seems largish from the pic.

Hi RD- Congrats on # 8! I have 5 bucks to gip in on the bedside lamp. Will that help? Good review of Under the Hill: Bomber's Moon, was just hoping for more sex. LOL.

Hello Rd! Smooches from horrible.

Made me think of the Octopus Society in Gail Carriger's books!

Hello all!

>5 luvamystery65: *smoochings* for Roberta the Speed Queen

>6 xieouyang: Hi Manny, glad to see you here! I think I can manage not to fall into a terror every time I see it...it's about 5ft tall, so commands the room.

>7 tloeffler: And with those lanterns even more so. *covetcovetcovet*

>8 tiffin: Ain't he spiffers? So sinuous.

>9 Cobscook: Hi Heidi...about 5ft tall, I think. Perfect for a bedside lamp!

>10 msf59: Heh, you devil you. Lessee with your $5 and Manny's $50, only $4945 to go!

>11 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>12 ronincats: Oh ha! I am fascinated by octopodes and squid and cuttlefish.

So I'm completely hooked by Alex Beecroft's "Under the Hill" series and am devouring book two. See y'all later.

Come on you cheap-skates, help a brother out!

Love the man (you!). Love the lamp. Elves away!! : )

Just a kiss before I sleep...

'Night, m'dear.

Curse me for losing track of my threads! I missed over a hundred comments on your last thread. My supervillain name is Blue Reindeer, apparently. Very intimidating.

And oh, your poor knees! D: I hope you are feeling a wee bit better today. Thank you for letting us all know what is happening with you. Your pain is our pain, even if we could never be close to feeling it the way you do. *hug* Here, let Sexy give you some power and strength straight from the TARDIS:

Wow - amazing lamp!

Pleased you have found something good to read.

Hope you and Stella have a great day.

*smooch*

If you get the lamp, then you clearly need to get this matching little gem for your master bathroom:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/112064415/release-the-kraken-toilet-bowl-art?ref=sr_...

Good morning to you rdear. I woke earlier than I wanted to... le sigh. Hope you had a good night? Also hope you have a good day :)

Ah, I do like the Thursdays. They give me the gift of "tomorrow's Friday!". I'm feeling the tiredness today and think I'll probably cop a nap mid morning but otherwise, all is good. Have been off the reading, and need to get back to it. I enjoyed your last review. And as always I'm throwing the good mojos up in the air in an easterly direction so that eventually they'll accumulate and arrive chez toi, and you'll be all good again!

But not books.

>16 msf59: Amen! Amen! Preach the Gospel of GIving, Brother Mark!

>17 Berly: Elves away indeed! *smooch*

>18 MerryMary: Cheerie-pip, M'Lou, hope the dreams were sweet. *smooch*

>19 ErisofDiscord: Thank you, Eris! That GIF of the Tardis is priceless, and I feel better already. No really!

>20 calm: Hi calm! Thanks for the well-wishes. We're in the midst of a sunshiney bright and warm morning. *happy sigh*

>21 scaifea: PRICE. LESS! I love that! Thanks for putting it up.

>22 mckait: Old habits die hard. It will be some time before you manage to adjust the sleep schedule. It's a pretty day and I have every hope for it to stay that way, so life is good.

>23 maggie1944: Why thank you, Karen44! I wondered how a pine-scented tumbleweed got into our driveway. *smooch*

28th post!! Not too far behind on this thread. Maybe I can keep up better with this one :)

How's the knee?

Good coffee is black as night and sweet as love.

Mikhail Bakunin

>28 TinaV95: It's still bleeding, and it hurts. Not unusual, this has happened before. The main priority is avoiding infection.

29. Great description of coffee as it should be consumed. (Though I usually go with "black as the devil, hot as hell and sweet as sin" or liken it to a certain hot black guy I'm quite fond of loking at.)

>30 PawsforThought: I don't sweeten my coffee at all, preferring hot milk and warm coffee in combination. But where most have a sweet tooth, I have a fat tooth.

A five foot tall Kraken lamp? Who could resist? Now, if they'd just make a big one that holds the bed in its maw, that would be exciting.

31. Coffee should not be sweetened (there is absolutely no sugar in my coffee, EVER!), but it should be sweet (or smooth, as I prefer to call it) in and of itself. Not bitter.

Synesthesia humor...the next big thing.

>32 jnwelch: Interesting idea...there's someone out there who'd love to buy that, betcha.

>33 PawsforThought: I've never equated sweet and smooth before. Interesting.

Mmmmm, you're making me hunger for coffee. The tea in my cup is feeling jealous. I usually put a wee bit of sugar in my coffee and tea, as I'm a bit of a sugar nut. However, I'm proud to say that I have lessened the sugar I put in it. When I was a kid I dumped in two tablespoons. I can't do that anymore.

#24 - Yay, the Dowager Countess and her pithy words of wisdom! :D That woman guides my life.

"I am a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose."

>34 richardderus:: Ohohoh! I have that! Synesthesia, that is.

ha cool kraken lamp! Nate loves Kraken rum and I always admire the artwork on it because the Kraken is a cool looking beast

Coffee coffee coffee black no sugar coffee coffee coffee...

*ferrets off to find some*

No sugar for my coffee, but I do like to add steamed milk occasionally. Lovely new thread, Richard! And the lamp up top is awesome! I can contribute $10. So now you only need $4935. Sweet Thursday to you, dear.

>35 ErisofDiscord: Yuck! I've never liked sugar enough to put it in my coffee. Back when I was drinking 12-14 cups a day, I took it black only. Tum-tum objects to that much acid now, sadly.

>36 scaifea: For realz?! Cool!!

>37 ChelleBearss: I love kraken-themed stuff because I think cephalopods are going to replace humans when we finish effing the landmass of the planet up. My money's on cuttlefish, though.

>38 BekkaJo: Yum...I've had my limit for the day, though.

>39 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! Happy Thursday and I'll post a pic of the lamp when I get it.

I've never said nice things about this child before. Looks like I'll have to start. I hate that.

>41 richardderus: That is hysterical. And the lamp at the top of your wonderful new thread is, um, ugly. Or weird. Or both.
I miss being around and tracking how you're doing and what you're reading, but know that I send my *smooches* to both you and Stella.

greatly impressed by the lamp but not sure i'd want to awaken with it looming over me. however, lessee, ferreting about in my pocket i find . . . hmmmm, a bit of lint, some dirt of unknown provenance and a ponytail thingummy. not much help there. piggy bank, when shaken, makes cupric clinks. oooh, here's a sawbuck in my wallet. so i'm figuring i could contribute easily $10.32 to your lamp. :)

if you'll excuse me, that Gaga comment is just, well, gaga!

synesthesia, Amber? what senses, if one may ask? i had a friend who heard colors. plaids made her absolutely crazy. she said it was far more a curse than a blessing, especially in groups, as she couldn't think for the dissonance.

*gentle octo-embrace*, RD and accompanying smooch. er, minus the beaky part.

As much as I love you, RD, I just couldn't bring myself to contribute to that lamp. Sad, but there it is.

Other than that, smoochies and hugs from your own one-tooth-less Horrible!

octopi, at least the small, tidepool variety, are wondrous. they feel marvelous moving over the hand. extraordinary creatures. lovely, i think, despite the looominous quality of the specific lamp.

>42 EBT1002: Weirgly? Shall we make a new word? *smooch* from me, *slurp* from Stella

>43 mirrordrum: *smooch* for contributing DESPITE YOUR RESERVATIONS unlike some who shall remain nameless.

>44 karenmarie:

>45 mirrordrum: They're amazing creatures, aren't they?! And SO intelligent.

>45 mirrordrum: maze oy! beautiful, sensuous, smart, mesmerizing. in motion, not to be believed.

>40 richardderus: & 43, Richard & Ellie: I have always, as long as I can remember, associated a specific color and personality to every number and letter. And I have a way of picturing the month-to-month calendar in my head that is, apparently, peculiar to people with synesthesia (I see the months lined up in a sort of ellipse shape, oh and the months have personalities, too).

>48 scaifea: *blink* How completely fascinating.

I too find synesthesia endlessly fascinating. I feel slighted that I don't have it.

March: The Little Women month.

It's all my mind has room for. Like Kath, I feel a little left out. It sounds like a really neato-keeno way to live life to me!

>48 scaifea: fascinating that it's to numbers and letters but not other symbols. suggests some kind of learning-related response. not the synesthesia per se but the connection between the symbol and the color.

when you read, where are the "colors" appearing? i assume the letters aren't colored but that the sense of color and personality, however you define that, are located internally. do know how large a letter or number must be before it's interpreted as a color/personality? if you glance at a page of writing quickly, do you get a rainbow? a mix of colors? ??? so you mind my asking all these questions?

>eta a not uncommon synesthesia, apparently, the numbers/letters thing. i wonder if, for example, synesthetics who speak Hebrew as their first language only have a synesthetic response to Hebraic characters but not to, say, English or Arabic characters. i've got to stop. my fascination and consequent list of questions is, as usual, endless.

.

Richard: Yeah, it's kind of a cool 'condition' to have, and not at all a harmful one, which is nice, too, of course. Apparently it's very common for people not to have realized they have a defined condition at all; I, for example, just thought I'd always been a little, uh, different, for thinking the way I do about these things, and only heard of synesthesia a few years ago. It was so neat and liberating in a way to find out that there are others out there like me.

Ellie: I don't mind the questions at all, although I may not be very adept at answering them all. I don't really *see* the colors that I associate with letters and numbers when I read. It's mostly when I think about them individually. Oh, did I mention that they all have genders, too? Example: 9 is an older female, pearl-colored and is slightly uppity; 7 is male, mint-green, and well-meaning if a bit shy. A is female, red, and a strong character yet very nice lady. Very interesting question about synesthesia in other native languages. I can tell you that when I started learning ancient Greek in college, the colors and personalities were there from the beginning, without me having to think about it - indeed without me thinking much about it at all (it was just situation normal for me, after all) - in the Greek alphabet. Same thing with the Roman numeral system (in which they are different than when they are letters).

Hi RD- Just checking in! Love the Lady Dowager quote. How fitting! Anymore donations?

Just the coolest, Amber!

Mark, well, I think the last $4800 is gonna be a slog....

>53 mckait: perfect!

>54 scaifea: thanks for all that. i'm now doing a bit of reading about this wonderful phenomenonemom. it's exciting that people who have synesthesias similar to yours and find it wonderful. i've always worried a bit about people with this b/c of my friend's difficulty with dissonant chords when certain colors were paired so this is only good news.

and last night my computer guy, who's very good, was explaining to me his out of body experiences and astral bodies and things of that sort. it's certainly an interesting life.

now i must get back to The return of the native narrated by Alan Rickman. the coolest part is that i can visualize him doing it. he's perfection.

Wait a minute. You mean not everyone sees the months in color? What about days of the week? I mean, they really appear in my mind in color. There is a name for this?

>31 richardderus: I dont sweeten my coffee at all either, I just eat a whole lotta cake alongside it!

Id chip in $5 for the octopus lamp too, maybe you need to start one of those internet donations page!!?? That is one freaky looking undersea thingy.

If we get 4 people total* we really could have an octo-hug!!
*disclaimer: people must be double-armed in the usual manner.

ETA: >58 EBT1002: Ellen, there is a name for it! My boss had it and she "couldnt" have a phone number that wasnt a pretty colour combination. Funnny!

52. Lots of people have synesthesia, but to varying degrees. I have it too, but it's not as if my field of vision becomes tinted every time I come across certain numbers and letters. It's more like if I close my eyes and someone says a number (it's numbers more than letters for me), I'll see a particular colour. Also, if I'm faced with a bunch of crayons or pens and am supposed to make a list (for myself, not if it's something official or work-related), I'll switch the colours to match "my" colours.

ETA: ARGH! Misspelled! Fixed now.

RE: synesthesia

Fascinating. I had never heard of this phenomenon....off to Google....

Good morning rd.... Friday! yay!
Hope you're feeling okay today?

Not sure what all is going to happen for me, but I do need to go into a store. My swiffer won't spray :(
And yesterday, my ( very cheap) every day pan broke. I will probably get that at ammy though.... but still..
What is your plan?

Synesthesia: Way back when, I really enjoyed The Mind of a Mnemonist by Aleksandr R. Luria. A study of a man with an amazing memory based on synesthesia.

Found something for your parlor:

Hi love.... I'll match Mamie and contribute $10 as well! We'll get you that lamp if it takes us a couple of years! :)

Interesting discussion of synesthesia; I don't believe I've ever heard about it before this thread!

>58 EBT1002: No, not everyone is so gifted, Ellen. *pouts*

>59 LovingLit: I like that story, Maude! As to the lamp...well...*sigh* maybe for my sixtieth birthday in *mumble* years.

>60 PawsforThought: Intriguing how common this is on a reading site.

>61 Cobscook: I'm gobsmacked at how many people I know with it!

>62 mckait: Good morning sweetness, no plans just walrusing in bed and reading other people's books. *aaahhh* Sending hugs

>63 jnwelch: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I love those lamps! Love love love! Cool, and thanks. When will they be arriving?

>64 TinaV95: Hi there Tina, I've seen NOVA programs about it, and I've heard of the phenomenon, but until Amber said something I had no idea I knew anyone with it! So jealous.

*sigh* maybe for my sixtieth birthday in *mumble* years.
Sorry RD, I didnt quite catch that....how many years did you say?
;P

>67 LovingLit: I *said* I will be sixty in exactly years. Clean your ears! Can't hear even when I shout!

Okay, I can handle being ignored, just because I won't contribute to the hideous lamp. I won't cave to pressure.

How about a contribution to a special book you've been hankering for? Would that buy my way back into your heart?

*smooch*

here's a lovely little lethal, blue-ringed or blue spot octyparse to tide you over till a lamp comes. scare it enough and the blue spots light up. also it doesn't do ink, so no blotches on your books.



i like Joe's lamp alternatives, too. are they cheaper than the looming one?

hope you have a pleasant Friday and manage not to knock your knees. please.

ohmigod! i just saw this amazon.com ad for Kindle and now am afraid to buy a Kindle or shop amazon.com. what if exposure to the ad, the kindle or amazon.com makes me go straight?

>69 karenmarie:...
...
Oh alright.

>70 mirrordrum: Aren't they beautiful? That intense blue...the sheer grace of their locomotion...and yeah, Joe's lamp finds are graceful and cool, but since he's sending them to me anyway...

>71 mirrordrum: HORRORS!!! *packs Kindle in lead box*

>71 mirrordrum: Nah. If it were that easy to change us all, they'd have done it a long time ago.
Not amazon.com, mind you, but you know, those other folks.
Amazon has taken over the South Lake Union neighborhood of downtown Seattle, by the way. When one drives around there, one must be careful not to accidentally hit an amazoid. :-|
They are the young, hip, and beautiful computer engineers walking to their expensive condo with many tech accessories visible.

>73 EBT1002: *sharpens flensing knives*

*buys train ticket to Seattle*

You know I'll pick you up at the airport, Richard, and we'll head right for SLU.

When they first put in the streetcar, they made the mistake of calling it the South Lake Union Trolley.

Airport security...nyet. The SLUT!! I wanna ride the SLUT!

They made t-shirts. "I rode the SLUT."

Then they started calling it the Streetcar. :-|

Actually, I see why. But c'mon, NOBODY saw that one comin'?

Good morning Richard! How's the Kraken fund going? I could chip in $10, I'd that will help. I think I prefer the other stylised octopus lamps myself though.

I how the knees are not too bad today.

Good morning Richard! How's the Kraken fund going? I could chip in $10, if that will help. I think I prefer the other stylised octopus lamps myself though.

I hope the knees are not too bad today.

75. You just made my morning. I'm glad I'd finished my coffee when I read your comment.

78. I'm pretty sure SOMEONE saw it coming. Someone who had the day of their lives when it dawned on other people.

It's amazing how much people can miss when not looking for it... when I had Will there was a little girl who had been born the day before - her parents called her Scarlett. Okay, so not my cup of tea, but fine. Except when I saw on the white board at the ward entrance that the surname is Bush. Scarlett Bush??? Really???

82. Oh, that reminds me... In Sweden it's fairly normal (though quite old-fashioned) to be called Inge (man) or Inga (woman). They're Old Norse names but in modern Swedish mean "none" or "notihing".

There was someone in the paper ages ago named Inge Köhn (Anders and Eva will immediately get this).
Köhn is a German name, I believe but not unheard of here. Unfortunately for everyone called that, it is spelled almost identically as "kön" (which can mean either "the queue" or "the gender/genitals").
So this poor guy was basically called "No genitals". Cruel, cruel parents.

Hey, is anyone interested in a mini-read-a-thon this weekend? I feel like I need a bit of a push to get me started this month and the last read-a-thon really helped me.

Anyone?

When they first put in the streetcar, they made the mistake of calling it the South Lake Union Trolley.
Ohdear! LOL

I simply cannot add to the Kraken fund. I am so certain that you will come to your senses one day and say WTF?

The other lamps are nice though....

Good morning to you. I hope that you are warmer than I am! I may have to attach the heating pad to my back any minute now. That might even help the ouchies :P
But, have to peel potatoes soon.. boo!

Oh yes, Lady Gaga, our secret sister.

And here's one for your dining room chandelier

I wish I'd learned this word in 2012. The campaign season is a brilliant opportunity to use it!

Happy Independence Day for Texas and its coterie of crazies!



March 2nd is "National Old Stuff Day" too!

AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
puppumspoochiewoochie!! *schnuzzleschnuzzle*

Awwwwwww, sweetie!
Happy weekend, Richard. x

RD - I think a pledge of a few bucks (or should that be books?) is in order for a pal with a dodgy lamp.

The octopus is fetching but with someone as accident prone as you it looks rather heavy for a surefire collision with your joints. How about this book lamp:



Have a great weekend anyway and hopefully with little in the way of eye strain.

>79 gennyt:, 80 Thanks, Genny, I think I'm only errrmmm $4780 away now. Knees are still unpleasant and bleeding a bit, but last night it was a fever from a little coldlet that made my life unpleasant. 101! Yech.

>81 PawsforThought: Heh, you know, I hope that's true. I'd love to think that someone got that big a chuckle out of it.

>82 BekkaJo: Oh dear. Oh no. That child needs to be taken into care and renamed.

>83 PawsforThought: Oh NO! How awful for him!

>84 PawsforThought: I don't have space for that this weekend, we've got guests. I need to do one, though, there's so much built up to read!

>85 mckait: *hmph* See if I send you any DVDs and tapes! Heating pad good, potato peeling nahsomahch. *smooch*

>86 sibylline: It skeeves me a little bit to have to admit that.

>87 cammykitty: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Love that! Want that!

>91 wilkiec: Thanks, Diana! *smooch*

>92 PaulCranswick: That's cool-lookin' too, but I still want my 5ft tall bronze walking octopus. Point well made about the probable accidents, though....

Stopping by to say Hello!!! :)

Hi Monica! *smooch*

Pretty much sums me up.

>87 cammykitty: ohhhhhhh! as many of those as i was stung by during my years in the surf, i still find them exquisitely beautiful.

they do pack a wallop though. one landed on my back when i was still rafting, before i graduated to surfboards, and that was very exciting. only real cure is wet sand rubbed fiercely on the burning places.

one year they were so bad that i formed the "jellyfish brigade." i was the leader of a band of about 10 boys (summer camp for boys part of which my father ran). i was about 8, i reckon. i made a frame with wood and wire and we would go up current, put the frame under a jellyfish, lift it, take it out of the water and bury the poor thing. of course, the important thing was to keep the water that drained through the mesh from running down one's arms as it was the equivalent of being directly stung.

i'm very sorry to have the deaths of so many of these gorgeous creatures on my hands, though in truth, there were so many that for a period of a few weeks, the sea itself actually burned slightly. still, they were just doing what jellyfish do. they weren't being vicious.

anyway, it's lovely and if RD doesn't want it, i do.

#87 - Oh, yes, me wants it! I've been researching jellyfish for a novel I'm working on (jellyfish aliens + ocean planet + a quest for the stars = my beloved in-progress novel), and I can't get enough of them! Such beautiful, eerie creatures. Richard, if you and I pool our money, we can share it! I wish I could get you your octopus, though, slightly creep as it is. XD

I my ownself am partial to unusual lamps. But the ones here extend beyond even my unusual taste....
oops! movie back on...

>99 mirrordrum: We all have our secrets we'd prefer no one knew. *mental note rename the Satan character in the Cthulhu, god of the cephalopds, story "Ellie"*

And back! back! I want it!!

>100 ErisofDiscord: Awww, thanks Eris! *YOU* see how byoooofeefooool it is, don't you, unlike *some* people.

>101 mckait: Oh look. Some People. Hello there.

Yeah, I agree, Richard. Mostly smart people here in Seattle. How they missed the trouble with South Lake Union Trolley is beyond me.

Meanwhile, I've posted this on a couple of other threads, but it's Saturday evening and I'm feeling ornery.
Kitten spam for you because I love you.



I figure at least you can fantasize about how cold this kitten's paws are.

...let me see...eye surgery GIF or eternal bad-book mojo...

whoopie! le Cthulhu, c'est moi!



and check out the full-sized one

love deviantart.net.

jeez! Lovecraft was a long time ago in my reading history.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. " H. P. Lovecraft The call of Cthulhu

>103 EBT1002: hey, Ellen, would you PM me the link to that image? i want it for my desktop wall. i am Cthulhu. i gets what i wants. please.

As someone I know would say......

*smooch*

Heh.

Speaking of that, Richard, I much desire your Lovecraftian expertise. How does one pronounce Cthulhu? I pronounce it "kah-thu-lu," but I am not sure that is correct.

108. I think it's more like "Kuh-tuu-luu". Pretty sure the t is supposed to be a hard sound and not a "th" sound.

Good morning to you rdear. Whats on the agenda? More writing I hope?
I am rooting you on from back here in the cheap seats.

Happy Sunday, RD!

I like the jellyfish lamp.....

Morning RD! Love that puppy pic! Adorable. Hope you have a nice and pain-free day!

It is now my life's very purpose to resurrect this word. Too perfect.

This poor soul clearly needs to read more. Kind of a Kindle person's liberry, this one. Still...I'll take it.

A Sunday *smooch* to you, Rdear! Aside from deep water, the only other thing I'm afraid of are regular or giant squid and octopi. *shudder* Even recently tried to watch an hour program on trying to capture images of a live giant octopus somewhere in Japan, and when I nearly vomited when I saw it moving, I knew it was time to give it up and stop torturing myself. While I appreciate and am amazed by them, I think I'll politely pass on the giant Kraken lamp. I will, however, donate $20 to your gracefully sinuous and loverly lamp.

I've got a bit of synesthesia too! Mine is more musical, however - as in, when I hear a song, it often appears as a color/pattern in my mind. Didn't think it was a thing until I heard about someone being synesthetic (word?) in college. As someone who sees spirits/ghosts and is quite sensitive, I just lumped it all together into my self-identification as being differently abled than most others. :)

Hope you are feeling as spiffy as possible today, and even though I know it's late, I could use an excuse to laze around and read all day. (In between many many many loads of laundry, that is.) I think I'll soon have to hit the couch, grab the nearest book and lose an hour or two in Literature Land.

114 I LOVE that couch! Those shelves need a few more books on them but it's cool how they are above the windows. I bet the light in that room is great for reading!

Happy Sunday smooches!

>105 mirrordrum: That's a good Cthulhu image, Ellie, very evocative.

I think Lovecraft's prose is, to put it mildly, overheated; but it sure is fun!

>106 mirrordrum:, 107

>108 ErisofDiscord:, 109 I have no idea the "proper" pronunciation, but I suspect that Lovecraft never thought it through. He wasn't after pronounceable, just cool-lookin' words. Look at "R'lyeh"...howinahell does one say that out loud?!

>110 mckait: Mornin' apple fritter...done writing for the day. Too much else going on after the others wake up. Got in two hours before that happened.

And, madam, I beg to inform you that in THIS venue there are NO "cheap seats." *frosty stare*

>111 karenmarie: Pretty ain't it? So when am I getting The Art of Florence two-volume set as your apology for bein' all snarkoleum over the gorgeous walking Kraken lamp? It's only $249 at Amazon.

>112 msf59: Thanks, Mark! First of two days off for you, so I hope the weather's *perfect*...for reading.

#114 I want it!!!!

>115 LauraBrook: ...I am feeling seriously left out...the goddesses didn't give me this gift and so many others got it! *waaah*

Spiffy is a good idea! I hope to do some world-class lazing here pretty quick, with a very interesting book called Gay New York that has some very new-to-me facts to help my current story be better.

>116 ChelleBearss: I know, Chelle, those shelves are *tragic* but the look is divine! I think the window idea is stellar.

>119 MonicaLynn: Heh...lots of competition!

Of course, I thought of you...

Hilarious! I love it!

Thank you, Paws and Richard, for the Cthulhu pronunciation advice! 'Tis a hilarious word.

And I shall help you bring back the word "splatherdab"! What an amusingly descriptive word. I think I'll name one of my aliens that. :D

*smooch*

Piñatas for the bookworm.

Take two novels and call me in the morning.

>123 ErisofDiscord: I'd love to see an entire alien society made up of splatherdabs...or one of their three genders is 100% splatherdabs and the other two can't reproduce together...so many possibilities!

I'm liking the word splatherdab a lot. Seems like you can count on splatherdabs to get themselves into a kerfuffle sooner or later. Not sure how the alien reproduction thing will sort out, but I look forward to hearing.

I have just asked Tomm if he'd make one of those beds for us and he said that he would. YES!!

>127 jnwelch: Great word indeed! Eris might not choose one of those ideas, so we'll have to see what she reports as time goes by.

>128 scaifea: *vibrates with intense Day-Glo orange envy and hatred*

Oh how LOVELY that is, Amber! And such a *lucky* lady to have a husband like that! *coos sweetly while sharpening axe*

>114 richardderus: So, how do you get the books off the shelves?

>130 plt: There's a white stepstool in the far upper right corner of the photo, Peg.

#126 and #127 - *rubs hands gleefully* This is going to be rather fun! A whole alien race of gossping splatherdabs... this has potential. I think I even have a theme song for them! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWDykU_upw

>132 ErisofDiscord: coolio! And oh how loathsome Umbridge was. Well captured in the music. Imelda Staunton did a great job in that role.

Urgh! Professor Umbridge! I get chills down my spine just thinking about her. And the skin on the back of my hands feels very tender...

Love the bed bookshelves but I might never sleep again!! ;)

I thought you might appreciate this one!

>134 PawsforThought: She was *horrifying*!

>135 TinaV95: I dunno, would that be so bad?

>136 msf59: "I'll have a Bud Light" is a sentence I have never, ever, ever uttered, and I don't intend to say it out loud now, either.

I thought so...chuckling softly.

Wonderful stuff since I was last here, that room with the wraparound sofa, despite paucity of books on shelves is really something. And I very much like the use of shelfspace around that bed...... and and and.

Replace the violin with a netbook, and there I am...

I know so many, many splatherdabs....such is the hazard of small town living. I have mentally added it to my vocabulary. Thank you sir!

>132 ErisofDiscord: An evil alien splatherdab! Now the story is really starting to take shape. Woo, Imelda Staunton sure was creepy in that part.

*slithering past*

*trying to not be seen*

*whispers* I'm caught up for now....

>141 Cobscook: Most welcome, and isn't it ironic that you can use the word to the splatherdabs' faces with complete impunity!

>142 jnwelch: I really like the evil alien splatherdab idea. Eris will win a Hugo and a Nebula with that one!

>143 maggie1944: It's quiet today. You can revel in the sensation for a while.

But I shall give you full credit, Richard, and I will dedicate the book to you. Just wait and see. :)

>140 richardderus: ooooooooh! love it. more?



MWAAAAAAH!

>113 richardderus: haha, MIL= splatherdab incarnate.

>114 richardderus: OK Ive got a new fave liberry/lounge (removal of nick-nacks mandatory though). I love the sunken sofa area. It could double as a hacky sack arena on rainy days!

>124 richardderus: that is how I would have an outdoor wedding decorated! But my lovely other hasnt "put a ring on it" yet, as the crass Beyonce so grossly put it. (fancy referring to yourself as "it" anyway!!?)
The hanging books look fantastic.

Just tiptoeing through the tulip of your thread..bit unsettled today...

>145 ErisofDiscord: aaaawwww how sweet!

>146 mirrordrum: aaaawwww how sweet!

>147 LovingLit: The song's perky enough, but it's always seemed sorta, well, weird to me...on WHAT should one place this ring, precisely?

>148 mckait: Unsettled? Why is that? *smooch*

Stopping by to give a gentle hug. Honestly, I don't know how you do it...How you bear the pain of gout and still have time to reach out to others. You are a wonderful person! No doubt, no doubt!

I am throwing in a hug from me, too. I don't doubt your character at all. You are a character, that is true.

I hope you feel much better today. And further, that something very good happens...
Hey.. was that order of yours ever delivered? Curious.

Oh the pain, the pain!

>150 Whisper1: Thanks for stopping in, Linda! I appreciate the hug. *smooch*

>151 maggie1944: I guess a character like me is inevitable in this bunch, isn't it?

>152 mckait: No sign of the order. It's just gone.

Happy Tuesday, all!

I'll be the first to say it: That chair is out the door. But the shelves are sturdy enough not to sag under the weight of my collection!

I would sob uncontrollably if someone said this about me.

*smooch* for you, Richard.
Happy Tuesday!

eeeuuurrrgh do I screech in revolted fury about the #*!&%$%!P&^^$&&*#^%R cat or aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww abut the puppypweshusschmoozleschmoozle?!

Good morning, Richard. I got you this gif of Mark Ruffalo:

>159 norabelle414: *click*

bubble machine goes into overdrive

...if anybody needs me, I'll be in my bunk

153. Painful indeed. Though for me the worst thing is when you're about 20 pages from the end of the book and you start stressing out about it almost being the end.

Yeah, I thought that might pose a dilemma for you.

#156 - Ouch. Add that to my repetoire of insults.

#160 - *cackles* What you just said makes me think of Jayne from Firefly... OH DAMMIT RICHARD, NOW I'M SAD! :(

>163 ErisofDiscord: Shoulda known you'd be the one to get the ref...

...what do I drool over first...?

Hi RD! Are you still drooling?? LOL

How's your knee doing now?

Still drooling in the bunk? Funny, I thought the same thing about that funky chair & desk in #155. Got to go!

Hello there, dear. Thanks for the pancakes - what a delightful surprise! I am all caught up here, but now I feel like I should pout a bit because I do not have synesthesia. Of course now that I know that I don't have it, I WANT it! Luckily, I kept reading and Ellen's remarks about the SLU trolley totally cheered me up.

Good morning rdear... hope you can do some less dry reading today...a brief respite of something fun..

Morning Richard dahlink! Here's a hankie. Missing you. Life should be less hectic after Saturday, but I wanted you to know I was still thinking of you. Smooch.

>166 TinaV95: *swigs more water* ...what was that? I couldn't hear you over this sloshing...

>167 msf59: heh, well, they're cool too.

>168 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! I know, I feel so left out. I want it too! Those wacky Seattle city solons...gotta love little lapses of attention like that.

>169 mckait: *peers from behind 7-foot wall of tumbleweed*

What's that, dear? Dust clogging the ears, sorry.

>170 Berly: Hi Berly! You're so busy it's scary. But it's all good stuff, as in good for the community and therefore the rest of us...but don't forget the YouTime.

>171 jnwelch: OOOO COOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!

#165 The books! I want a book alley too.

*wanders about in a daze* I have no idea what is going on in here. Richard? Richard? Are you here?

*wanders off into the horizon, looking for a good book*

>174 BekkaJo: I want a book alley with a dimpled rumpled glasses-wearin' hawttie.

>175 maggie1944: Hi Karen44! I never know what's going on much of anywhere. Read happy!

I honestly wish that academics would get points counted against tenure for making interesting topics as boring as unbuttered cream of wheat.

....passing through.... xo

>177 mckait: ...as she wandered lonely as a cloud...

actually...kinda...

>179 mckait: awww.......

Richard, must the hawttie wear spectacles? Picky, picky......

*sips third cup of souble-strength french roast*

It's not even worth asking.

Hi Richard, that is a silly question indeed.

xo

Total agreement on coffee. What on earth is the point of decaf?!?

My favorite name (a true one): a student I had was named Brandy Alexander. I mean, srsly? Who would do that to a child? Also had one named Tapico. When I asked her where her mum got the idea, I was told, "Um, she wanted to name me Tapioca, but didn't know how to spell it." Okay, then, moving right along...

>179 mckait:, 184 *smooch* for a lovely day

>180 EBT1002: I ain't that fussy. The dimples are important to me....

>183 wilkiec: Hi Diana! Hope you're well.

>185 Matke: Went to school with a girl names Azalea. Pronounced "Aza Lee." *sigh* People.

City of Eros is so boring I want to slice my veins open and bleed on it to give it some semblance of life. Gay New York is damn near that dull. Incredible New York is chock-full of tidbits that never go anywhere and end in muddled non-conclusions, but at least the author TRIED to be entertaining. I need the information in the books or I'd've heaved them into the charity bin at Pearl Rule Point.

Meanwhile, the internet seethes with cool stuff, and lures me into its dark alleys to mug my attention...like the Sahara burial site excavated to show more than 4000 years of continuous use. How amazing is that?!

"...That floats on high o'er vales and hills,..."

Morning, Dear! I thought you said that you didn't like poultry. It's Thursday, which means that tomorrow is my favorite day! I'm not sure where this week went - if you find it, let me know.

Morning Mamie! Not liking something is no excuse for not learning about it. (Except calculus.) I've read the Bible, too, and I dislike religion. Knowledge is different from agreement, as my father taught me, and without knowledge all one ever has is prejudice.

The week, heck! Where's the YEAR gone?! It's almost the end of the first quarter of TWENTY THIRTEEN! 1990 was only ten years ago, right? Never mind that my young gentleman caller was born in 1991 and is an adult. It *was* only ten years ago. I'm sure of it.

That's so true. And I know exactly what you mean about the year and the um...last decade. My oldest will be twenty-one next week. Twenty-one! I hope I survive it.

That's another Rubicon crossed. Wait'll the one at thirty. I'm dreading the one at forty...and my oldest grandson's high-school graduation will freak me out that year too.

Did someone say calculus??? Oh, joy!

I am tiptoeing through the thread. Waving Hello and blowing smooches your way, give Stella a hug too.. ;)

>191 kidzdoc: ...funny, there's a blank space there. How very odd.

>192 MonicaLynn: Hi Monica! Stella's fresh from the rain/snow mix, so I'll hold off for a while, if you don't mind.

>193 richardderus: Oh. Sorry about that.

*off to search for more advanced calculus equations*

>194 kidzdoc: ...another void! This is eerie...

>195 richardderus: Curses! Maybe Jim will help me with my calculus problems.

>196 kidzdoc: Now this is downright terrifying! Another complete blank.



Sometimes the liberry isn't enough.

LIKE!

LIKE squared! While I am making much more use of the library these days, thanks to computerized online catalogs and hold requests, the books you absolutely love you just want to have on your shelves to cherish!

>190 richardderus: I freaked out when my brother turned 40 as I remember my dad turning 40!

*back to that gif of Mark Ruffalo*

Oooh err... I was going to make a comment about something or other, but that pic of Mark Ruffalo just wiped it out of my head.

What Roni said in #200. :-)

>197 richardderus: oyez, oyez!

>198 Crazymamie:, 199, 200, 202, 203 About the clearest statement ever of what I really think!

>201 LovingLit: I have to speed past that GIF or an hour goes by with the bubble machine on high....

>197 richardderus:: Thank all gods. At last someone understands.

#191 - ...

I cannot believe I'm doing this. The GIF you are about to see is my response to the reading (slogging is a better term) I've been doing:



SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BOOOOOOOOOOORRRED

What are you slogging away at? I finished a book last night that made me feel faintly queasy and unsettled, so I haven't been able to pick anything up all day.

ETA: about having to own certain books because you must, there is also that thing where you have to replace a well-worn and humble copy of a book you love with a Very Special Edition, spending a bazillion dollars to do so, because you want to have it enshrined on your high altar shelves.

>208 tiffin: The list is in #186...can't bear to type it again.



To get the kitten-stink off me.

Damn. I missed the calculus. By the way, the answer's 42. I'm sure of it, I think,

>209 richardderus:: aha, ok. New York stuff.

>159 norabelle414:: Ah, Nora. That is a wonderful piece of the internet that you shared. I could look at that all day. Thank you.

simply checking in to say hi and continue to think of you in the hope you will be pain free

Richard

I'm attending a college media adviser meeting in NYC at the Sheraton on 58th st. I'll be in the city from Saturday-Tuesday.

I know you are struggling with pain. I'm not sure if you are able to meet me, or how packed my schedule will be with conference details...but, I can dream. I can dream....

http://www.cma.cloverpad.org/

You must really need that information in those books. Bright side, I'm sure you'll be able to get to sleep when you want to.

*waves*

I am rushing through the threads this morning because it may be the only time I have today to be here. *sniff* But I'm glad to read you are alive, and still mining the interwebs for fine explanations of our books nerdish behaviors and attitudes! Inspires me!

Good Morning, dear one! Sorry about the slog through the books as of late. Are you anywhere near the end?

Good morning rdear.. although it feels like nearly noon to me!
Nothing exciting to report thank goodness.. I am still smiling over hearing good things yesterday..
and freezing because spring is never going to come, I am pretty sure.

Richard who posts a cat... *jaw drops*

Have a good weekend!

I see I picked the right thread to post Mark Ruffalo on :-)

Salve, my love! I'm still reeling from shock because you posted the cat gif. Does that mean we all get to post cats here now? :D

Morning, Rdear. Is there still coffee? My eyelids are drooooooping...

So: chilly here, reading going well, anxiety level high but semi-controllable. About average for me.

Except for this damned headache...

Terrible terrible to be bored by your reading. Hope you get through it and on to something better soon.

>208 tiffin: about having to own certain books because you must, there is also that thing where you have to replace a well-worn and humble copy of a book you love with a Very Special Edition, spending a bazillion dollars to do so, because you want to have it enshrined on your high altar shelves.

Yes. Exactly that. *hugs*

>210 drneutron: ...how odd...another blank space...

>211 tiffin: Which should, based on my degree of interest in the subject, be fascinating! It is so so so so so academic...in the worst possible construction of the term. I understand about citations and footnotes and proof of research done. I don't think that should preclude writing something that causes more of a reaction in the reader than somnolence.

>212 alsvidur: meee toooooo *bubble machine*

>213 Whisper1:, 214 Pain free is nothing I aspire to in the near future. I'd guess it could occur somewhere around fifteen minutes after I die...but the thought is lovely. PMd a response re: visit.

>215 cammykitty: I do indeed, there is a lot I don't know about the history of vice in NYC and even if this is the least salacious reading I've ever done, I know enough to fake the rest now.

>216 maggie1944: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* for dear Karen44 as she races through!

>217 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! *smooch* I'm not going to read the entire work in either case. I suppose I *should* but I just flat don't wanna. So I ain't a-gonna.

>218 mckait: Hello sweetness! Yeah, no excitement = good given recent events, eh what? We've got two or three inches of snow from last night, and tomorrow it'll be 50...I'd say spring's pretty close to normal here.

>219 wilkiec: Thanks, Diana, you have a good one too! I know, I know, it's a rare sight. Don't expect a repeat!

>220 norabelle414: I think he's a very interesting actor, and a hawttie. What else can one ask for in life?

Smoochies from me too. I naughtily tucked into the beginning of the second Fairyland novel last night. Only a few chapters in but fun so far.

>221 ErisofDiscord: NO. YOU. MAY. NOT.

>222 Matke: *pours a double for Danvers* Headache is a sign of insufficient caffeination! Drink up. xoxo

>223 sibylline: I think I'm about done. I'm certainly almost done with the time period I am most interested in, and honestly that is just about all I ever plan to read in these boring tomes.

>227 BekkaJo: Oh boy! I hope it's as wonderful as the first one was. I'm looking forward to your review.

#228 LOL - might be a while. I'm, well...juggling... as usual. 5/6 main reads on the go :)

>206 ErisofDiscord: LOL!!!
Seriously, that is funnn-eeeee

Back to #153 -little book things - heartbreaking - I felt that way the other day in a tangential way. I pulled out the last disc of an audiobook (The Casual Vacancy) and said "Awwwwwww........."

It sure doesn't take long to get way behind reading your threads. It's fun to catch up. Kitty gif very cute.

Lots of smooches to you, RD!

Perhaps we should start a list:

Boring Books, Not to Be Read Except on a Desert Island

Oh I like that!

#233 looks particularly good to me, too. That makes for a great Saturday.

Yup! That would be a perfect Saturday, no debate allowed.

>229 BekkaJo: *pats foot impatiently*

>230 LovingLit: I agree, Maudie!

>231 karenmarie: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>232 Matke: Holy crap! I ain't takin' no boring books to no desert island! Nobody got time for that. These books would merely ensure that whoever eventually found my skeleton would find it with a noose around my neck and the words "toxic books beware* carved in the rocks.

>234 sibylline: Thanks, cuz!

>236 jnwelch: Agreed, Joe.

>237 maggie1944: Agreed still more, Karen44!

Running through for a quick Saturday smooch!! *smile*

>239 TinaV95: *smooch* Hiya Tina!

Richard sweets I was over 200 posts behind. I hope those knees are getting better. Please stay away from infection!!! Mom comes home next Friday!!! It's been almost 3 months.

I will contribute $10 to the lamp.

Review: 8 of seventy-five

Title: PERSECUTION: The Friendly Fire of Memories

Author: ALESSANDRO PIPERNO
Translator: ANN GOLDSTEIN

Rating: 3.9* of five

The Book Description: In a sprawling villa on the outskirts of Rome, the members of the Pontecorvo family have gathered for dinner. Leo Pontecorvo, an internationally revered pediatric oncologist, is forty-eight. His wife, Rachel, is a physician and the loving mother to Filippo and Samuel, two amiable pre-teens. The evening news is on in the living room but nobody pays it any attention until Dr. Pontecorvo's name surfaces from the background noise and a news item airs that will change the lives of the Pontecorvos forever.

Leo Pontecorvo has been publicly accused of a vile crime. A spotlight is turned on him that reveals the mistakes, regrets, and contradictions of a lifetime. Every detail of his private and professional life is about to come under scrutiny, to be debated by both friends and foes, by ravenous reporters and punctilious prosecutors. But Leo could bear all this if it weren't for the suspicious gazes of his wife and children. Surely they, of all people, believe in his innocence!

Alessandro Piperno is widely acknowledged as one of today's most talented European novelists. His voice is singular and shocking at times, yet always possessed of tenderness and enormous generosity of heart. His vision is broad and encompassing, his psychological insights penetrating and undeniable. In this deeply felt family drama, Alessandro Piperno paints a broad canvas and fills it with psychologically complex characters whom readers will instantly recognize and never forget.

My Review: Words can not only hurt, not only damage...they can kill. They can annihilate, destroy utterly the target of the carelessly spoken or maliciously uttered or calculatedly disseminated words. They can blow up a life, a family, a career, a vocation, they can eviscerate the worthy and worthwhile work a person has done.

And what if they're true? What if they're not true? Half true? He said, she said? It doesn't matter at all. Words, when spoken, can only be forgiven but never forgotten.

Piperno's novel of a Jewish pediatric oncologist's fall from the pinnacle of his life-saving profession is profoundly unsettling. It is discursive in style, and it is peculiarly intimate because of that. Very few paragraphs lead directly to the subject allegedly at hand, but all of them, each of them, serves to build the image of the Pontecorvo world, that of Dottore Leo, la signora Rachel, the pre-teen boys, Telma the Filipina maid...all these intersecting, interlocking worlds are completely and finally and irrevocably smashed and cannot be restored, only re-formed. The tracks in the thickets of words Piperno creates are like the game spoor a hunter follows, requiring patience and attention to interpret and encouraging the reader, the hunter, to look around carefully, to attend to the landscape as much as the path.

Ann Goldstein ably translates the Italian text in such a way as to suggest the varying uses made of familiar and formal address. It's a very hard thing to do, and it's impressive to see the job done so well. Part of the job of a translator is to create the mood of the original in a different idiom...never does Goldstein do this better than in the passages where the snobbery and class-consciousness that Leo faces when others refer to or speak to his wife, daughter of an observant Jew who also happens to be a businessman, in contrast to his more assimilated, haute bourgeois background.

I was transported in the reading of this novel, though not to a lovely sweet cotton-candy land of milk and honey. (Frankly, that's always sounded revolting to me. Not to mention sticky.) I was immersed in the life of the disintegrating Pontecorvo family. I emerged after a catharsis feeling, oddly, buoyed up, able to see the shore and feel the water of the sad existence below me support me as I started for solid ground.

Europa Editions provided this copy in a Goodreads giveaway.

Oh, I'm glad you found a book which seems to have provided a very satisfying read! Good for you.

I spent today doing "this and that" and am gearing up for a day of photography field work tomorrow. Sunny days! Spring! Yard work is calling.....

A cup of coffee big enough to bathe in; yes please.

RD; admiration extended for your review of the book by Piperno. I haven't read it but I sure want to now.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend dear fellow and I do hope that your comical kitty gif doesn't rebound by cats being posted willy-nilly to this most excellent of normally cat-free zones.

>242 richardderus: well, you have me interested in that book. And see the ratings so far, so spread! I find that interesting too, and may just see if the library has it, Id say not on account of its newness.

Thumb for that tantalizing review Richard. I'm always attracted to Europas anyway but along with that review it's pretty certain to land on my bookshelf. Thanks!

>233 richardderus:: perfection!
>242 richardderus:: that sounds like a difficult read content-wise. But lovely review, Richard.

Excellent review, Rdear. On the WL for serious study.

So, how's your week-end been? Mine's been crazy, but my life is quite crazy lately...quite crazy. Hope the knees have at least eased up. And when does the med. ins. kick in?

Great review of Persecution: The Friendly Fire of Memories, Richard. I've enjoyed the Europa Editions books I've read so far, so I'll add this to my wish list and look for it later this month.

Morning RD- I love the man on the book mountain. I can relate to that one. Good review of "Persecution"! sounds like a winner. Have a good Sunday, my friend.

Added to my wishlist, too, RD!

Have a wonderful Sunday.

*smooches* from your own Horrible

Ain't it the truth?

Happy Daylight Misery Time. I resent this monkeying with the clock.

>243 maggie1944: Thanks, Karen44! Hope the photography day is a good one, in spite of DST.

>244 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, and no worries about the kitty-posting. Anyone who posts kitties will get grisly eye-surgery pics and hatemail. I think I'm safe.

>245 LovingLit: Oh goody good good, Maude! I hope it intrigues you.

>246 brenzi: Very glad to be the near occasion of book-sin, Bonnie...it's a very interesting book, and a very divisive topic.

>247 tiffin: I think it's not a book you'd enjoy, Tui. It's got a dark edge, yes, but it's curiously unemotional.

>248 Matke: Hi Gail! Knees are not better, but I don't expect them to get better until the (undetermined) day I can go to a doc and not have to pay an entire month's pension for the privilege. I muddle on.

>249 kidzdoc: I suspect you'll find it interesting, Darryl, though not a yodel-and-whinny read. Be fun to see if I'm right.

>250 msf59: I think that's a gorgeous image...I guess because, like you, I relate to it so viscerally. Thanks, I liked reading Persecution but I'm sure it's not for everyone.

>251 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

252. You start Daylight Savings today? We don't start until the last Sunday in March.

Did you see my good news?! #242? Are you trying to get me to contribute more towards the lamp? Alright! I'll give you an additional $10.

ETA: *gently tosses RD a box of Thin Mints*

#%^* phone posts!!!! Sorry I had a moment with the phone. :/

>255 PawsforThought: Why we need to change at all is an enduring mystery to me.

>256 luvamystery65:, 257 I don't acknowledge donations under $100....XP

Review: 9 of seventy-five

Title: LEARNING TO SWIM

Author: SARA J. HENRY

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Description: “If I’d blinked, I would have missed it. But I didn’t, and I saw something fall from the rear deck of the opposite ferry: a small, wide-eyed human face, in one tiny frozen moment, as it plummeted toward the water.”

When she sees what looks like a child tumbling from a ferry into frigid Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives in without thinking. When she gets the child to shore she discovers that his name is Paul, he speaks only French—and no one seems to be looking for him.

Her determination to protect Paul pulls Troy from her quiet life in a small Adirondack town into an unfamiliar world of wealth and privilege in Canada and then in Vermont. Her attachment to him—and the danger she faces when she tries to unravel the mystery of his abandonment—force her to evaluate everything she thought true about herself.

Sara J. Henry's riveting, award-winning debut will keep readers engrossed right up to its shattering conclusion.

My Review: This book is not oversold by its jacket copy. I was indeed riveted. The melodramatic ending wasn't a surprise, but it was *intensely* satisfying. Shattering, well...ya know, in a very basic sense, yes. I cannot in any part of me comprehend the actions of the perp in this story. I was so outraged and so lividly furiously angry at the perp for doing what was done, that the Big Reveal Moment (while not a surprise) had me hopping from foot to foot with a desire to hurt and kill and then resurrect and hurt and kill the perp some more.

Any more would be spoilering.

Sara Henry did a fine job making the book an intense emotional experience. That is a LOT to say of a debut novelist. But she also made me feel about six hundred years old...in a late chapter, she mentions "the OLD TV show Sliders and goes on to explain the premise of the "old" show.

Old. The Nineties are old? They were yester-goddam-day! OLD is when my late mother was young! The Twenties! That's OLD.

I'm gonna go rock in my chair and eat Farina for supper now.

I agree, Richard. Daylight Savings Time does nothing for me, and I hate it when our clocks are dinked around with. :P Usually Daylight Savings doesn't start until April! Why it's at the start of March is beyond me.

Oh, well... TWENTY DAYS TILL DOCTOR WHO! :D

Review: 10 of seventy-five

Title: THE MIGHT-HAVE-BEEN: A Novel

Author: JOE SCHUSTER

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Description: For Edward Everett Yates, split seconds matter: the precise timing of hitting a low outside pitch, of stealing a base, of running down a fly ball. After a decade playing in the minor leagues—years after most of his peers have given up—he’s still patiently waiting for his chance at the majors. Then one day he gets called up to the St. Louis Cardinals, and finally the future he wanted unfolds before him.

But one more split second changes everything: In what should have been the game of his life, he sustains a devastating knee injury, which destroys his professional career.

Thirty years later, after sacrificing so many opportunities—a lucrative job, relationships with women who loved him, even the chance for a family—Edward Everett is barely hanging on as the manager of a minor league baseball team, still grappling with regret over the choices he made and the life he almost had. Then he encounters two players—one brilliant but undisciplined, the other eager but unremarkable—who show him that his greatest contribution may come in the last place he ever expected.

Full of passion, ambition, and possibility, The Might-Have-Been maps the profound and unpredictable moments that change our lives forever, and the irresistible power of a second chance.

My Review: Is it a function of aging that one becomes more and more interested in stories about the roads not taken, the chances unchanced, the opportunities unseized? Maybe it is. Maybe there is nothing more interesting ahead in life than the other paths left behind.

That is the most depressing, miserable, sad, and most of all untrue, sentence I've ever written. And this novel explains why.

I'm a disabled fifty*mumble* year old who lives mostly in cyberworld because it hurts too much to do things like sit in chairs and ride in cars. Gawd...doesn't that sound horrible? But you know something...it's not. It's a road I'm traveling, and it's got wonderful rewards...how many busy, active people bustling around their "real" lives have the time or the ability to make good friends on every continent of the planet, maintain and grow those friendships, come to care a lot for those friends?...so I don't feel deprived, or "less than," or pitiable.

This book is about a man with functioning body parts and no cognitive impairments who can't break free of the deeply narcotic dream of his youth, to excel at one and only one thing. It is unbearably sad. No amount of proof to the contrary can fill the hole in him that's labeled "FailureMan." No amount of life lived feels real enough to round the stabbing edges of The Moment It Changed.

How deeply, deeply sad and pathetic it is to know that there are millions if not billions like him, people for whom the present is a shadowplay and The Past is the only real thing. It's not a question of moving on from past pain, a phrase I detest for its implicit judgment of the hearer. It's a case of building something from the rocks and bricks and dirt around you, something you want to look at and live in, even though the rocks and bricks and dirt around you are the ruins of something you once had, or dreamed of having.

That's not "moving on." That's moving in to the home you've made from the mess the world makes of all of our dreams. It's what Schuster, by anti-model, shows us is so vitally necessary.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the baseball setting of the novel made me smile every page or two. The stakes, for my baseball-fan self, were so much sharper for being set in a world I love.

This book was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers win.

I have no problem with daylight savings. It's fantastic in the spring when all of a sudden the evenings are much lighter.

I've reviewed Ashes to Dust, the third Icelandic thriller featuring Thora Gudmundsdottir, in my Crime, Thriller, and Mystery group thread...post #45.

>261 richardderus: Great review of The Might Have Been, Richard. Always better to live in the now than in the then and the "what ifs" 'cause it'll make you nuts (I oughta know!) Or, as a very good friend of mine said, "You can't spend your life looking behind, you'll turn in to a pillar of salt!"

>262 PawsforThought: I have a terrible time adjusting to the "lost" hour of sleep, but I love the extra sunshine.

The Might Have Been - I loved this review.

Books books everywhere. You'd think you were obsessed or something!?
Ah well, its better than being hooked on drugs (as my sister used to say)

>264 avidmom: Thanks for saying so!

>265 Dianekeenoy: And thank YOU for coming here to say something so nice, and on your first visit too!

>266 LovingLit: Obsessed? Moi? Je ne comprends-pas.

Another catch-up review getting done...a friend of ours has started work at a very small library, with few resources, and I'm catching up on reviews so I can send the books to her new job for them to shelve. So much better than the donations going into the Friends of the Library sale pile! This way they'll be enjoyed by more people for longer.

This book is The Brief History of the Dead, a lovely and very spiritual semi-SF novel about memory and love. The review is in my Orphans thread...post #96.

Review: 11 of seventy-five

Title: DEFENDING JACOB

Author: WILLIAM LANDAY

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Book Description: Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

My Review: Courtroom legal thriller. Nothing new there.

Redeemed from two-star basement by two things: The ending, which I am surprised to say I didn't see coming. It was a gut-punch.

And also two quotes, things I closed the book and nodded sagely after reading, things that were So Well Said I had to take a pause for absorption:

It was as if there was a place called After, and if I could just push my family across to that shore, then everything would be all right. There would be time for all these "soft" problems in the land of After.

Yes, yes, anyone who has ever lived through A Tragedy knows this feeling intimately, knows how this sentence encapsulates the aching need to be normal and better and fixed...that never comes....

And this:

At some point as adults we we cease to be our parents' children and we become our children's parents instead.

Anyone who has read some of my more dyspeptic posts on Facebook will realize how little I think of the adolescent exceptionalism that pervades our adult culture. You don't have a *right* to own a gun, unless you're in a "well-regulated militia," you have a stupid-ass paranoid fear that results from imaging They are out to get you. It's a symptom of a brand of stupid arrogant vanity, a sense of self as Uniquely Valuable, that is ridiculous and borderline mentally ill.

No one is so damned important that They are Out To Get You. And that sentence, that piece of Landay's wisdom, explains why it should be okay to say "Oh just STFU and grow up!" to more people more often.

Anyway. Up from a rocklike two all the way to three and a quarter stars. An enjoyable read redeemed by surprise and wisdom...helluva job, Landay!

Love that review of the Schuster.

Hi Richard. I enjoyed catching up on your reviews and just put Learning to Swim and The Might Have Been on my library list. I've picked up Defending Jacob several times in the bookstore but put it back. Your review makes me think I might like to read it after all. I liked the quotes you cited.

I'm sorry your knee continues to give you problems but your mind is in tip top shape. Your reviews were all excellent. (The only one I didn't thumb was Learning to Swim because I didn't see it posted.)

>269 sibylline: Thanks, Cuz! I appreciate that.

>270 phebj: Eeep! I forgot to post the darn review! It's taken care of, and thanks for noticing. Oh yes, the good ol' knee is painin' me right along today. So much fun! Oh my, yes indeed, fun!

Not.

oh, lordy, would you please stop reading! i was sold on Learning to swim. miraculously, it's on audible.com and on sale. sounds as though it's worth 10 smackers. naturally, i thumbed it but then my eyes ran out of lateral moveability so i stalled on the rest of my attempted catch up on everything that followed after.

*smooch*

p.s. this has been running in my mind for days. do you really, seriously hate this because it's poetry? just had to ask.

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W. B. Yeats

Review: 12 of seventy-five

Title: COME IN AND COVER ME

Author: GIN PHILLIPS

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Description: A specialist in prehistoric ceramics, Ren Taylor launched her archaeological career with the unearthing of a stunning set of bowls in southern New Mexico. The bowls seem to belong to one remarkable 12th-century artist, and Ren is convinced they hold the secret to understanding a woman who died a thousand years earlier. Now in 2009, archaeologist Silas Cooper invites Ren to the remote Cañada Rosa, where he’s discovered more evidence of her artist.

Ren has an unusual connection to the dead, a connection that’s revealed during her stay in this lush canyon disconnected from the outside world. When she was twelve years old, her brother was killed in a car accident. Yet he did not vanish completely. Ever since then, he has been a not-quite-concrete presence, inserting himself into the quiet, still moments of the day, nothing more than the snatch of a song or a silhouette in the moonlight.

Ren is someone who lives with her ghosts. And now, at the canyon, she starts to see her artist, a young woman with dark eyes and strong hands, shaping bowls and tending fires before she disappears into the wind. She sees a woman in a macaw-feather skirt walking barefoot through the sand. The ghosts are holding out clues, and Ren is tempted to immerse herself entirely in their past. But then there is Silas, a man who has reached Ren in a way no one has managed since her brother died. Ultimately Ren begins to suspect that she must choose the ghosts or Silas, the past or the present.

Ren’s story explores the ways we connect to each other and the ways we keep each other at a distance. The novel revolves around our bonds to those we’ve loved and lost, the bonds of family, and the bonds we have with those who have come before us.

My Review: Great Literature it isn't. Great Writing likewise. It's a fun way to spend a day.

Phillips does something I haven't seen before: She makes Ren, her heroine, respond to the ghosts that clutter up her life exactly as one does to the teenagers that clutter up parents' lives...slightly impatient, slightly amused, mostly befuddled by behaviors that seem to us, the observers, so self-evidently self-defeating. That gets the book a quarter star.

Then Phillips creates the swoon-worthy Silas. My favorite porn star is "named" Silas. It was the work of but a moment to slot him in the mental movie of the book, the one I always cast and direct with every book I've ever read. *swoon* Another quarter star.

The ghostly Kaffeeklatsch of pot-ladies made me grin. A half-star for making them all so cute.

And a half-star added to the baseline chick-lit two for the pots, the archaeology, and the artistic trappings. Loved those.

I liked this entertainment. Provided you don't approach it with some outsized expectations, you might too.

I liked COME IN AND COVER ME....
how was your dinner?

Wow, nice burst of reviews! And they all sound interesting, especially the Brockmeier, an author I have had on my radar for awhile.
Good review of Defending Jacob. I liked that book too!

Very busy putting your sharpened reviewer's pencil to good work in the last day or so to ensure no felines are posted as the likely candidates are, instead, enthralled in your reviews. Very much like the look or Learning to Swim. It is getting dangerous around here with so many book bullets flying around.

Richard, I saw this video and thought of you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCInr5KeKak

It's the ideal cat video! Mwahahahaha! XD

Good Morning Richard Dear.. I hope this is a wonderful start to your week and I hope you are feeling well this week.. Sending Smooches to you and Stella :)

Good Morning Richard,
Catching up on your posts and wanted to let you know that I love, love, love your reviews. I hadn't heard about any of these books, but your reviews make them irresistable. They are all on my list now!
Hope you're feeling better these days. (Too bad ole Hempstead General doesn't exist anymore - would have been convenient for you I think - I grew up around the block from it :) ).

>272 mirrordrum: Hi Ellie! Sorry, no, won't stop reading...reviewing happens in spurts but reading is ongoing and on it shall go. Nyah.

Oh, and yep. Hate it.

>274 mckait: I did too! I liked it! See? I gave it a lot (for me) of stars!

It was a lovely dinner. I got stinkin' drunk, so I made it through without killing anyone.

>275 msf59: Hi Mark, thanks! I think the Brockmeier will really speak to you. Good good book.

>276 PaulCranswick: Don't resist, Paul, you'll love the book. It will keep you awake nights calling to you. SWMBO will file for divorce, it will coo so seductively at you. So buy it already! Avoid all these problems!

>277 ErisofDiscord: HA!! Eris, that is wonderful! Thanks.

>278 MonicaLynn: Hi Monica, Stella sends a solid slurp. We're still houseguested to the gills, but they're all leaving around noon.

>279 plt: Why thank you, Peg! That's lovely to hear on a Monday morning. I hope you'll enjoy the books.

Monday, Monday....

Swinging through to wish you a happy and enjoyable day, Richard!

#282 My coffee went cold not once, not twice, nay three times today. And a client had the affront to ring me the second I got in to work before I had had the first one.

Outrageous! Heads nearly rolled.

>283 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori!

>284 BekkaJo: I am amazed and impressed that they didn't!

>207 richardderus:
Oh sure, you wait until you know I'm awol and then you post kitten adorableness! When you know I'm not around to slobber and drool about said kitten adorableness!
Hmph.

Anyway, I'm back now. xo

It was an Evil Plot indeed...*mwaaaahaaaahaaaaa*

#285 I'd had to take Cass into work since her school was closed for the snow - so I didn't even get to spew curses like normal. Grrrrrr...

Just gave The Might Have Been: A Novel the big thumb. Not a book I'll read probably but I loved the review!

You know, Richard, I was thinking: many of those libraries are lovely but a lot of them kind of fall down in the chair department. Maybe we need some reading chair porn?

>282 richardderus: ya ha!

Hi RD,
This may be my last visit to you on this thread, dont be scared, Im not doing anything rash! Just making a three course meal in the time it takes for your thread to load on my hamster powered computer.
*grrrrr*
I dont hold it against you though, and as you can see, I made the effort to get here before the thread police ;)

Yes to reading chair porn!

Thumbed your Defending Jacob review. I've been on the fence about this one, but now must put it in the queue. SIGH.

*snerk* I shall, out of respect for your advanced chronological status, refrain from doing The Happy Dance.

Until you're out of sight, that is.