LizzieD: 2013*3 (March: National Reading Month)

Hail, Alma Mater! Cheers to thee we raise!
Let's lift our voices in a rousing and a happy Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!
Thy honor ever calls us forth with praise.
Thy spirit calls and leads us on to win the best for thee.

A picture after my time. Alas, it is no more.

The BEST of January and February
The Sisters Brothers
Above All Things
Precursor
Defender
Hotel World
The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors

READ IN MARCH
1. The Philosopher's Pupil
2. Straight Man
3. Explorer
4. Dr Thorne
5. Life After Life
6. Nightfall
7. The Acceptance World (reread)
8. Cleopatra: A Life

NEW to my house in March
1. The Ministry of Special Cases - PBS
2. The Cellist of Sarajevo - PBS
3. The Life of Andrew Jackson - Kindle Big Deal
4. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation - Kindle Big Deal
5. She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth - Kindle Big Deal
6. Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard of Bingen - Kindle Daily Deal
7. Diaries, 1942-1954 (James Lees-Milne) - PBS
(I also got a copy of A Bear Called Paddington today, but I'm taking it to the first graders in the country, so it doesn't count.)
8. The Sheltering Sky - Kindle Daily Deal
9. Iris: The Life of Iris Murdoch - AMP
10. Austerlitz - PBS
11. The World My Wilderness ✔ - gift (Thank you, Elaine!)
12. Blood & Beauty ✔ - ER ARC
13. Troubles ✔ - Kindle Daily Deal!!!
14. Lamb ✔ - Kindle
15. The Beggar King - Kindle Daily Deal
16. The Poisoned Pilgrim - Kindle Daily Deal (available July 16: prepaid at 99¢)
17. Ignorance ✔ - AMC
18. American Cassandra - PBS (with a nod to Becky for the recommendation)

NEW to my house in April
1. Finity's End - PBS
2. Tripoint - PBS

Well, then, I'll wait for the furnishings to be put into place. *sits down with a book in the corner*

Will you have a thread-warming party once you are properly settled in? I'll bring a bottle if so.

Roni and Genny, you are fast! (Whatcha reading, Roni?)
I've done all the settling I intend to do, so let's break out the wine and/or single malt. I have some nuts and cheese straws and cheese..... YAY!

That was quick on your part too, Peggy!

Single malt sounds good. I'll contribute a half-finished bottle of Tormore that I have handy. And my next WW weigh-in day is not till next Friday morning, so bring on the nuts and the cheese straws!

Marking my spot, Peggy. Am thoroughly enjoying the old photographs you are opening your threads with.

Oh, yum. I'll contribute some old vine zinfandel for the wine aficionados and bring peanuts (in the shell) for snacks.

I didn't know that March is National Reading Month. Well. I bet we can do something about that.

I was enjoying the meme discussion on your prior thread, Peggy. I may spend some time tomorrow, as I tour around Salt Lake City (including a visit to the local indie bookseller) thinking about whom I would invite to dinner.

New thread! Huzzah on making enough posts to get to the continuation feature! :)

Hi there Peggy! I can empathize with having taken on too much for March. I believe I've done the same, having committed to several reading things all in the same month. I'm just going to dive in and do what I can!

Huzzah on making enough posts to get to the continuation feature

Thanks for making my new thread a happy place, Ellen, Es, Laura, and imm!
I can't remember whether I said that yesterday was NEA's READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY, being Dr. Seuss's birthday. I read a little book to a class of first graders out in a little country school. If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have read a Dr. S too, but as it was, I chose Crazy Hair Day. They had heard it before, but they got sucked right in, most of them. I'm pretty sure I'll go back and take them a few new books for the end of the year.
Anyway, Ellen, I'll love to see your dinner list.
Laura, you can probably do it, and I'll probably manage a few, but I just can't seem to get my bottom to stay in one place long enough to get serious reading done. I'm really liking my current Iris Murdoch, The Philosopher's Pupil. I think it may turn into my favorite IM so far. I recognize so much of myself and my thoughts in several of the characters. (The little boy, for instance, bugs his mother to buy a beautiful jug with a crack in it and give it a good home. He knows that the jug is so hopeful that the nice lady will take him.....and then the mother in the silence of the Friends' meeting thinks about her son and the jug and can't wait to get back to the store on Monday to buy the thing. That's me - both of them.) (Then the philosopher, who is a really dreadful man, thinks about how sick he is of his own mind, and I can relate at some level to that.)
Since I'm talking about my reading, the other current ones are Straight Man which is really funny, Dr Thorne, which I'm just starting, and whatever else on my huge list I think I'm in the mood for when I've read in those three. Mighty fine, really!

Great reading you're doing, Peggy. That building in your photograph looks like my first elementary school, which actually still exists as a school in the same district--amazing. It's a shame that so many of those beautiful old buildings are no more.

Hi, Becky! Those halls of ivy were beginning to drop plaster when I graduated in 1962, so a new building was needed although it was used as a middle school into the 70s.
I have a brick and the door knob from the teachers' lounge, which I managed to rescue. No wonder my house is such a mess!

Lovely new thread, Peggy! I thought you'd like to know that I re-posted your meme on my thread and have gotten some interesting dinner parties from various folks. I hope you'll stop by and check them out since it was all your idea in the first place!

Hi, Peggy! I got too far behind on your last thread to catch up, but I hope to do better (maybe) with this one!

Hi Peggy, nice new thread you've got here. It's sad that your alma mater is no more; neither is mine. My sister sent me a picture on FB of it in its heyday and asked me if it brought anything to mind. I said, "Yeah, the produce department in Walmart."

That's what's on the spot where my old high school was. Sad.

Lovely new thread, Peggy! Such a wonderful black and white photo - are you sure that's not my dad's old station wagon parked out front? ;)

My old high school closed last year after over 130 years of service. It was a beautiful old building, with high pressed tin ceilings, lovely wood floor halls, marble staircases, etc. The community had huge rallies and protests to try to save it as a school (it's located downtown, across from city hall) but despite going to court twice, the school board won and was able to keep their decision. Very sad.

My old junior high school was a beautiful old building, too. And chock full of the old asbestos, too. It is also no more.

I occasionally return to my old high school for nephew & niece events. It's a little freaky.

Welcome, Julia, Terri, Bonnie, Deborah, Tui, Amber, and Katherine. It's such a shame when old buildings go. We've managed to tear down almost all of our old ones, and we are not such a terribly old community at that. I don't really know when that one was built - in the 30's, I'd guess - but it was typical of its time and place. We have managed to save and refurbish a very few of our treasures.....a Carolina Theater (built by a chain, I guess you'd call them, in the late teens and twenties for vaudeville and movies) which is truly a little gem, an old brick law office, and a cast-iron front business where our museum is housed. All the ante-bellum houses are long gone. *sigh*
Amber, our new high school has asbestos in the old wing where I taught, but since it's intact, it's apparently O.K. Katherine, I subbed in that old building a few times, and it was the least bit freaky.

Our high school was relatively new when I went to it, so it is still standing, but the oldest schools in town are gone, the old brick buildings. I'm going to start my next thread with a picture of our Andrew Carnegie Library--they did a renovation/expansion a few years ago that really increased the utility of the library while preserving the charm of the original.

Enjoyed the dinner guests on the last thread -- I thought you could only have TWO - so i am delighted to see one can have way more....

Vermont's been lucky - so little population expansion until relatively recently (80's really) when people are/were already somewhat conscious of value of older buildings in a town (in a state that depends on being cute, of course, that makes a diff) so we have lots of re-purposed older buildings that used to be schools - the oldest schoolhouses are mostly homes now, and the old high schools are usually town offices or offices and such. Of course, plenty of good old buildings HAVE been torn down, but less, I think than in some places.

Peggy - nice to see you enjoying the Iris Murdoch along with your new thread. Don't think she ever quite got the credit that her very strong body of work fully deserved.

Instead of hosting my own dinner, could I please just attend all of yours?

Hi Peggy - Nice new thread. Fun reading you're doing - especially Straight Man. Enjoy!

>28 nittnut:: Ditto! Especially the ones with Mary Doria Russell.

Hi, Roni, Lucy, Paul, Jenn, Peg, and Esqs. Glad to see you.
Jenn, and Esqs., I think you may have the right idea. On the other hand, this wish-entertaining is the only kind I'm likely to do, so I'm enjoying the plan. Right now I'm trying to decide whom to invite with Lionel Shriver, Anne-Marie MacDonald, and Keri Hulme to add something not so mordant to the mix. On the other hand, those three might be just fine - I certainly laughed my head off as I read Fall on Your Knees.
Paul, I may risk the rage of IM fans, but in some circles I think IM may get too much credit. I must say that she makes the same old characters fresh every time, and I always approach an unread IM book eagerly. The Philosopher's Pupil is certainly the best I've read. I say so with some authority at this point, a little more than half through it. She's just thrown a real spanner into the mechanism! (How's that for a British-ism?)

I'd love to be at a dinner with Margaret Atwood too :)

If I invited authors who wrote a book who made me who I am, that might be fun (of course, several are no longer with us...). The list would be:

Hermann Hesse
Aldous Huxley
Sylvia Plath
Mary Doria Russell
Robert A. Heinlein
Jostein Gaarder
Harper Lee
Elliot Perlman
Aidan Chambers
Paulo Freire
Elizabeth Wurtzel

That's quite a list, Esqs! I had to look up the last 4, and that's always fun, and you're perfectly welcome to bring authors back from the dead.

>33 LizzieD:: Elliot Perlman is amazing. I'd add Atwood to the list too, probably.

Ah - that is a great idea Esq. If I made a dinner party list of those who formed me it would be a very odd party indeed. Dr. Seuss withVirginia Woolf, JRR Tolkien with Elizabeth Enright, James Hillman with Edith Wharton, E.B. White with Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov with Henry David Thoreau, William Shakespeare with Thomas Pynchon, Catherine MacKinnon with James Boswell & Samuel Johnson with Rosemary Sutcliff actually some of these are pretty great pairings. Probably disastrous, but interesting.

Hi Peggy- in response to your question to me from the last thread....that maybe Keri Hulme could attend my dinner, and you too. OK! You are both in. As soon as I win lotto- you'll be the first to know.

Hi, Esqs, Lucy, and Megan! I don't know who formed me; I'm a little afraid to think about it. Lucy, I don't know Catherine MacKinnon although she sounds as if she could be from here --- wouldn't it be super to invite Rosemary Sutcliff to meet a historical character or two? Megan, do you play lotto???? I really hope you win.
This feels like a bit of a lost day for me. I had an out of town committee meeting and didn't get to read anything all day. I'll take a book to bed, but I predict that I'll be out before I've read a page. Tomorrow! (I taught Tom Morrow, but I wasn't the witty one who sang, "Tom Morrow! Tom Morrow! I'll love you, Tom Morrow!")

I dont do Lotto sorry Peggy- in my mind its a fools game :)

Well, I wondered, to tell you the truth, Megan. Oh well...........back to the unknown, wealthy aunt.

Oh- I (hope I) have an unknown wealthy aunt too! Or uncle, Im not fussy :)

All right, I don't do much entertaining, but all of you have given me some ideas: Margaret Atwood and JRR Tolkien, Beatrice MacNeil and Alistair MacLeod, Ann Marie MacDonald and Ami McKay, Virginia Woolf and Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Gaskell and Edith Wharton. Enough already, I don't cook (well, I cook as little as possible). Take out?

Take out is great, Nancy! And interesting pairings!! I had thought of Beatrice MacNeil (whom I haven't read) and Alistair MacLeod together too, but I included Anne Marie MacDonald in that party. I'd really like to hear what VW and AT might have to say to each other. I guess I could hunt down my *Common Readers* to find out whether she ever discussed him.
An uncle would do just as well, Megan. Good luck to you! Given your family history, you might have one lurking somewhere!

Happy new thread! I'm still thinking on my dinner party & have promised Julia I'd post it! :)

Hi Peggy, still mixing up the dinner party guests I see. The more I read of Trollope the more I would like to have him at my dinner party.

Yay for Tina and Bonnie!
I'd want Trollope at a small party so that his sly wit didn't get overshadowed by somebody flashier. At least, I would expect him to be less on display in company than Dickens, for instance.

Mackinnon is a rabid feminist lawyer who wrote the book Toward a Feminist Theory of the State that explained to me the assumptions men (and women) make about rape and culpability. It was a revelation, once understood, never forgotten. Sorry to be so serious, but it was huge for me.

Thanks, Lucy.
Meanwhile. Did anybody know (and if you did, why didn't you tell me?) that Jane Gardam has made an *Old Filth Trilogy* with a new book coming out in April, Last Friends???

Trollope's coming to dinner? Count me in!

I did know about the newest Gardam book, Peggy, but I haven't read Old Filth or The Man in the Wooden Hat yet. Looks like I've got some good reading to look forward to.

I love Old Filth so I guess I'll have to seek out #2 and then #3!

I think you should invite Samuel Richardson. I'm sure he's learned by now which fork to use.

I didn't know Old Filth was to be part of a trilogy either, so thanks for that Peggy. It's one I still have in my eReader and need to get to! Best get started, if it's followed by two more; I've read such wonderful reviews.

Hi, Donna, Lucy, Becky, and Nancy! I'm curiously glad that I am not the only one who didn't know that Gardam had been busy with book 3. I haven't read *Wooden Hat* yet - I'm a bit scared that it will somehow diminish *OF* if I don't like it as well. This new one is supposed to be the story from the pov of Terry Veneering.
Becky, I'm not worried about SR's using the wrong fork ---- I am a bit afraid that he'll go on and on......

Oh boy, another in the Old Filth set/series! Also have Crusoe's Daughter sitting on the tbr shelves. And *guffaw* about Richardson going on too much.

Hi, Tui! My extra Gardam is The Flight of the Maidens. Always happy to amuse...

THE PHILOSOPHER'S PUPIL by Iris Murdoch

What to say? What to say? I absolutely decline to follow IM's tantalizing paths through philosophical, symbolic, thematic wildernesses. A person could get lost. I do look forward to discussions of this book, my favorite Iris Murdoch, in the biographies that I plan to read. I might even pick up some general criticism that I own.
Told by an observant narrator, N who steps into the story from time to time, the book is set in Ennistown (Get it?), an English village with a restructured circle of standing stones and a very active hot spring. The whole town is crazy for swimming, and this is a very watery book. If people are not swimming at the baths, they are at the ocean or it is raining or about to rain or the rain is just stopping....

You know, this is shaping up to be a sort of review, so I think I'll post it on the book page because nobody there has get given an idea of the general particulars of the book.

Peggy - belated congratulations on the new thread and on finishing The Brontes!

And to go back to the conversation of Clarissa I thought Richardson did an extremely good job of giving each letter writer a different voice and sustaining those voices throughout the book.

I have a mental block on the authors to dinner meme. I know it's not really going to happen but my brain keeps rejecting the concept because it knows how intimidated I would feel if it happened.

If I think of it as authors I would like to watch talk to each other then I can think of some possible combinations that might be interesting:

Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins - I expect the conversation would become outrageous very quickly but it would be fun to watch :-)

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte with Jane Austen - Charlotte was not a fan of Austen's works and whilst Austen never had the opportunity to read the Bronte's books, I think they may well have ended up being something she parodied if she had read them. So, another interesting conversation to watch.

And a party with the queens of golden age detective fiction, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie might be fun.

Hi Peggy -- I'm sorry I have not visited in too, too long. I love the photo at the top, and I'm intrigued by the dinner party. I've enjoyed Muriel Spark so much recently I think I'd love to include her. I'd have to think on others.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. We are having a snow day, though because it's Saturday, it's not a "real" snow day in the sense that we get to stay home from school. Still, I have a lighter-than-usual homework load this weekend, and tomorrow is one of my favorite Chorale performances of the year (and true to Springtime-in-the-Rockies, it will be 50 degrees tomorrow after 10 inches and counting today). Cheers!

Welcome to the thread, Heather and Anne! I like to see you both here.
Heather, I wonder whether CD would let WC talk at all! I'd love to hear them too. I'd be a bit afraid to expose dear Jane to Charlotte and Emily although Anne would probably be nice. But I would love and adore to sit in on your party with MA, DLS, and AC. I'd want Josephine Tey there too and maybe, stretching it a little, Ngaio Marsh. I think you've done your part for this meme.
I neglected to say that keeping the same voice for a variety of narrators or letter writers is one of my very least favorite things that an author can do. You're making it harder not to start Clarissa; maybe next year....
Anne, Muriel Spark would be a great choice all alone, but I'll be interested to see whether you think of another guest or two to join her. I am having a lovely Saturday, thank you. I'm reading since I won't get to do any tomorrow. I can't imagine 10"+ of snow today although I can well imagine temps in the 50s tomorrow. Enjoy the concert!
And one more thing. Does anybody understand why people are (suddenly as far as I know) stealing air fresheners???

Peggy, I have thumbed your wonderful review of The Philosopher's Pupil. Loved your lines: This begins, and only begins, to describe the widening net of characters who twine and intertwine in a mosh of emotions and intellect gone mad. IM must have had so much fun writing this. Aha, and I hazard to guess that you had just as much fun reading it!

Peggy - I did notice that "dead" authors were allowed to the party. Trollope would be fine of course but he may be a little long winded at it generally takes him a good 600 pages to get his tale across and he could have certainly done with a shave.

I would want as my guests:

Somerset-Maugham, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. As other dinner guests we'd have Mr. Derus for sure as I would love to see him face Chuckles and denounce him for verbosity. Then I would probably take Anne Hathaway and Penelope Cruz as I would stand a better chance with only Charlie bringing a roving eye!

Thank you, Nancy. I had a GREAT time reading that one.
Paul, what a party! I'd be willing to listen to Trollope's longuers because he is so witty. I hadn't thought about Maugham, and I'm not sure what I'd expect of him in a party with OW and CD. Inviting Mr. Derus is a stroke of genius. I'd sort of like to see that show-down too, and if you'd let me come, I wouldn't object to your having Anne and Penelope on each side of you. What you would do with SWMBO in that context, I leave to you, but then, this is fantasy, isn't it?

STRAIGHT MAN by Richard Russo
I completely enjoyed this one. I love academic settings, and this has to be one of the funniest novels I've read in years or maybe ever. I haven't read Lucky Jim yet, but this one may be funnier to me because Pennsylvania in the 90s is a lot closer to my experience than England in the 50s. I also have immediate sympathy with an English professor of creative writing in a less than prestigious university.
It's not all laughs though. Hank Deveroux is something of a professional bad boy who is actually trying to act with integrity both as he pokes fun at his position as head of the department and does his best for his less than inspiring students. And his wife is away visiting her father and interviewing for a better job. And his daughter has left her husband. And budget cuts mean that he is being asked to recommend members of the department to be fired. And he doesn't have a budget for the new year. And he has a physical problem. And and and. I laughed; I didn't cry, but I could have.
Read the book!

Oh, that does sound good, Peggy! Onto the wishlist it goes.

>60 LizzieD:: I feel like I've read this one...is this the one where the guy gets a coil ring from a spiral notebook stuck in his nose when one of his department members whacks him in the face with it?

I loved Straight Man when I read it eons ago Peggy and it may even be my favorite Russo, although they're all pretty good. The Philosopher's Pupil is your favorite IM? I may just add this one to the WL. Thumb!

Peggy - SWMBO would be strictly limited to catering duties!

Peggy, wonderful review of The Philosophers' Pupil. One of these days (it's still March, so I'm OK) I'm going to start the biography. When I get back to the fiction, I think this one will have to be the next IM I choose.

I'm glad to hear your good report of Russo's Straight Man. I had such a terrible time with Empire Falls, but I was assured by you and Lucy (or just Lucy? I don't remember) that his other stuff was better. I have Nobody's Fool on my shelf, but it sounds like SM would be a good one to try.

52: I didn't love The Man in the Wooden Hat nearly as much as Old Filth but it was interesting to find out more about Betty and Edward's relationship. My advice would probably be: if you don't have that feeling you absolutely must read it, then don't!

Hi Peggy - I've had Straight Man on my pile forever. Great review -- maybe I'll have to move it up and read it sooner. I loved Empire Falls but the one that followed that one, not so much (I can't even remember the title).

Peggy, delighted you enjoyed Straight Man so much : ). Chuckled at your comment, I also have immediate sympathy with an English professor of creative writing in a less than prestigious university.

I'm so happy you loved Straight Man - We read it aloud and we did end up laughing so hard we couldn't see straight. It's his only truly funny book, different, really from the rest in many ways.

I'm excited about The Philosopher's Pupil. Of course, I haven't got it, but I think I'll have to acquire it sooner than later. Great review, of course.

What fun to see that visitors came while I was out!
Julia, it won't hurt to have it on your wish list! It has heft enough to be worthwhile at the same time that it's funny, funny, funny!
Tui, that's the one. I think I'm more likely to remember the time in the upper crawl space with urine-soaked pants.
Bonnie, I read it because I haven't ever heard anybody say that she didn't like it. Have you read other Murdoch? This is a long one, and I'm not sure for that reason that it's the one I'd read first.
Paul, I think you are dreaming!
Becky, this is my first Russo, and the only other one I have is Empire Falls, but Beth loved it, so we shall eventually see. I'm expecting my copy of the IM bio any time. I have the John Bailey memoir and could be reading it, I suppose, but I think it will be the bio first. I'll be interested to see how you rate *P'sP*.
Dee, I bought a copy of The Man in the Wooden Hat, so I do feel that I have to read it someday. I'm warned not to expect too much.
Thanks, Beth. Get to Straight Man when you need a palate cleanser!
Hi, Nancy. I think that everybody who reads will sympathize with Hal as he deals with that particular class of writing students.
I've gotten to read a very little this afternoon before heading out to a church meeting. First I was trying to make a little progress with my Religions of Rome, but then I gave up to catch back up with my space-faring humans and atevi in Explorer. I signed it up as a TIOLI, so I do need to spend time there! It will be Dr. Thorne when I get home tonight!

Peggy - Great review of Straight Man. I remember reading this book on public transportation and laughing out loud - pretty embarrassing. He's a terrific writer and I think this is surely one of his best.

Thanks, Peg. I don't think I could have read it in public. I couldn't even eat a snack while reading it.

Peggy, I wonder if it was so much more hilarious because there was so much truth in it? I have always wanted to write a novel incorporating my years at the uni, as there were characters there so rich, so Dickensian, so unbelievable. It would have to be a satire/comedy.

Plus I think it is quite likely that the creative writing teachers see a side of the 18-21 year old best left unseen......

Hi Peggy-

>60 LizzieD: I am lining up to read Richard Russos Pulitzer winner, Empire Falls this century decade.....I hope ;)
Is Lucky Jim supposed to be like the one you just read? I also (no surprises there) want to read that one!
Looks like I have a reading frenzy coming up!

Megan, I'm in a reading frenzy now. I have my much-loved characters in a serious bind out on an unfriendly space station in the 6th of C.J. Cherryh's *Foreigner* series, and I can hardly put them down. At 300/523 pp, we all have a lot yet to get through.
Lucy, I think it is quite likely that you are right. You have some experience, don't you? Tui, what are you waiting for??? Somehow, I haven't been able to get enough distance from high school yet to want to write about it. Besides, nobody would believe it if I wrote it. Satire/comedy seems to be the right tone for an academic setting unless you want to do a murder mystery - that could be quite believable.
Megan, I've been led to believe that Lucky Jim is the single funniest novel set in a college in the language. I need to get to it and Empire Falls too. This decade would be very nice.

Totally not caught up here, but just wanted to say hello and give a big wave :)

Hi, Esqs! Come back when you can stay --- and I'm not caught up anywhere these days, but I did just this minute finish a good one!

EXPLORER by C.J. Cherryh

Oh nadiin! These are so good, and this is maybe my favorite of the *Foreigner* series so far. Bren and Company, company including the aiji dowager Ilisidi and her great-grandson Cajeiri, are in space on a rescue mission to a space station, manned by the sinister Pilot's Guild, and damaged in an alien attack. One may expect lots of intrigue, statescraft, treachery, humor, courage, invention, another brand of alien, and surprisingly good science.
My only quarrel is the usual one that we spend too much time in Bren's head and the additional one that we hear much too little of Banichi's commentary on people and events. Mostly, I loved it, but I am going to try to take a short break before going on to number 7 so that I can possibly read something else for a change.

I would say the Lucky Jim is fabulously funny. Funniest? I can't say since that is subjective, but it is pretty damned funny. All three of the funniest novels I've read take place on college campuses. Now what does that tell you about academic life? Straight Man and Moo being the other two. I've read it twice and since it has been about 10 years since the last time, I could happily read it again. Lucky Jim is a must, Peggy.

Make that four - Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm is a hoot.

I see Intruder, the 13th book in the series, came out on the 5th. So you don't have to worry about running out of them to read for a while.

#79 by @sibyx> I've only read 'Moo', sibyx, but I thought it was very funny. Of course, living in Iowa and working at a large state university (though not the agricultural university) probably helped. I definitely need to read 'Straight Man' and 'Lucky Jim' to compare.

Hi, Lucy, Roni, and Julia!
I've read all of Lucy's funny college books except Lucky Jim, and I have a copy - it's just a matter of getting to it. I do need to reread *Zuleika Dobson* - it's been a good 45 years! Anyway, I loved Moo too!!!
Actually, Roni, it's 14, Protector that is coming out in April. You're right; I'm not going to run out any time soon, and I own only the first 9. That's a good thing. I STRONGLY urge you to put the series on your reading schedule soonest.

It must have been the paperback version of Intruder that came out this month, then. It is on my plans, but I need to catch up with the previous series first.

You're making me want to unpack my boxed up Cherryh books!

Stellar review of TPP! I've added a thumbs up! :)

Hi, Roni, Tui, and Tina!
I can nose around a little and find out what CJC series you're currently reading, Roni. Like anybody else, she's not completely consistent, but I remain amazed at how much high quality stuff she turns out and turns out and turns out. Tui, if you liked her before, you'd probably like her now. She's just a bit overwhelming.
Tina, you're a generous person. Thank you!
I'm off to Trollope, being sadly behind and to read Iris Murdoch: A Life. And I have the Jill McCorkle going although it's hard to read with a 91 year-old mother who is doing amazingly well right now. This Body of Death is also calling me, so we'll see because I really want to read the other things on my "currently reading" list right now.

My cousin just sent me this little video from France. Enjoy!!!

EMMA

>87 LizzieD:: hah!

>60 LizzieD:: I do so love Russo. I have Bridge of Sighs here on the pile awaiting some sunshine and warmth to read by the pool.

>82 LizzieD:: I cannot wait for April. I need my Cherryh fix!

Ohh, Peggy, wonderful video, EMMA. Thank you for the morning chuckle!!

Eh? Oh, it's Cyteen. I bogged down about 50 pages into the first Cyteen book when it came out and never got back to it. If I weren't all tied up in Vlad Taltos and Barbara Hambly rereads at the moment, I would already have started it.

Glad you enjoyed EMMA, Nancy. I did, and I love my Kindle!
Roni, do keep reading. It took me 269 pages, but then I couldn't put it down, and it remains my favorite Cherryh....I think that bears repeating every now and again.
I'm happy that my latest ER ARC arrived today, Sarah Dunant's Blood & Beauty. I may start it now since I'm more in the mood for it than I am for the nursing home.

Just stopping by to say hi, Peggy! Enjoy your new ER ARC! Glad that there is still some mystery left in your 42 year old marriage! Good for you! :) I've been married for just about 30 years - so hard to believe, and yes there is still mystery left. I was a * child bride* cough , cough erhem. I'm sure you were too!

Indeed. You probably don't look a day over 30 yourself, Deborah. I probably don't look a day over 65 or so.....

Love the Emma video Peggy.

Also loved the Emma video, Peggy. I'm all over Cyteen--after my mom and sister leave next Thursday.

#87 I love the video! I don't understand why we have to be on one side or the other though. I love my kindle and I love my paper books.

>87 LizzieD:. Emma! Love it, Peggy. I'm trying to catch up a bit on the threads. I agree with soul, except that I don't go so far as to say I "love" my Kindle. I now have one that's backlit, so I can read it in bed without the light and not disturb Mr. labwriter--one more thing to feel guilty about when I read a paper book. Haha.

Bonie, Roni, Heather, and Becky, I'm glad that you enjoyed EMMA as much as I did. I think for me it's more about the woman power. Like Heather, I love both my paper books and my Kindle.
I especially love my Kindle on a day like today when Troubles is the Kindle Daily Deal, available for $1.99. The cheapest used copy at AMC would be $7.98 in pb. I've been waiting for it to show up on PBS, so I'm delighted to have it securely in my hand!

I just grabbed 'Troubles' myself, Peggy. Great minds think alike, I guess.

Ooh, I thought Troubles was excellent - I hope you both enjoy it.

I'm glad to hear that, Heather! It sounded good, but it's always better to hear from someone whose book opinions I trust.

Amen. A lot of the time the Kindle Daily Deal is no deal at all for me, but sometimes (like Troubles) it's brilliant! Good for us, Julia!
Heather, have you read his other two? They aren't linked in any way are the? Does it matter which you read first?
Back to the Readathon and AT!

#103 I haven't read the other two Peggy, although I've been meaning to. As far as I know the order doesn't matter - it's s trilogy by theme (the decline of the British Empire I think) rather than by story or characters. Troubles was the first one published so I don't think you can go wrong starting with it. I was rather intimidated by it because it sounded very 'literary' (won the Lost Man Booker Prize) but it was a very engaging and humourous read.

I really liked Troubles as well. I agree Peggy, usually the daily deal is schlock but once in a while there's a winner!

So, when are you starting Destroyer? *sly smile*

Heather, thank you for that explanation. I thought the three were linked somehow but hadn't cared sufficiently to try to track the link down. I'm encouraged since I now have all three. Glad you liked Troubles too, Laura.
Tad, I am fiercely resisting a start for Destroyer until next month. I do have other things to read even if I'm not quite half through the *Foreigner* opus yet!
I'm making progress with Dr Thorne - yay! Otherwise, I'm in pick-up-put-down mode.

Another Troubles fan here Peggy, I may have even given it 5 stars. It's been a long time since I've seen any great Kindle deals but there have been a few offerings that I already own so I guess I should take that into consideration.

>107 LizzieD:: Bah! By next month Protector will be out and we should be reading it together! :-D

Thanks for stopping by my thread; it's been a bit of a monologue.

I do notice that too, Bonnie. How dare they offer good stuff that I already own!!
I didn't notice monologue so much as a LOT of reading being reported,Tad. I'm flattered at your assessment of my reading prowess. Tell you what: you reread the series so you'll be absolutely on top of #14 next month, and I'll catch up with you. Speaking of Kindle deals, I've downloaded a lot of trash lately that I want to get to in the hopes that it's good trash.
But first, *Doc Thorne*..... I'm almost within 100 pp of the end thanks to Deborah's readathon and a couple of doc's appointments this morning. (I'm very healthy and full of Reclast.)

"Troubles" wasn't available for the bargain basement price up here in Canuckistan. Pah.

Most of the time, Tui, I'd trade our daily deal for the UK's without even looking. I don't know about Amazon Canada. I'm sorry.

Hi!
If I have to have my own dinner party, I will have Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Pearl Buck and Harper Lee. The first two might be plenty for one party, but you never know. I want to ask Harper Lee about so many things...

I want to ask Harper Lee about so many things...

Me too!

Hi Peggy, here's to good trash and pick-up-put-down mode! I'm with you entirely on both counts, LOL. I love that about LT ...

Stopping by enjoy the humour on your thread. "Troubles" wasn't available for the bargain basement price up here in Canuckistan. Pah. You know, I'm not sure if we get any daily deals here in Canada. Oh well!

Deborah, surely Amazon wouldn't shortchange (and miss an opportunity to milk) Canada! I'd say to check with Tui. Glad you visit!
Nancy, hello reading sister!
Es, I'd like to talk to Harper Lee, but I'd reallyreallyreally want to attend a party with Tolkien and Lewis - great pairing, Jenn! If we could add Dorothy Lee Sayers to the mix, I'd be happy just to sit and listen. Or why not revive all the Inklings? Or maybe I just want Charles Williams along.
I have an empty mind, so I'm moving on.

>117 LizzieD:: I've been surprised at the differences in what is available at amazon.com and amazon.ca. I first noticed it when I wanted a copy of The Sentimentalists and had to go to the .ca version. I suppose it's due to publishing rights.

#118 Yes, there is a huge difference, Tad. I hadn't thought about publishing rights, but I expect you're right about that.

Hi, Tad and Nancy. I expect it's all about publishers and publishing rights too, but I wish it were not so.

DR THORNE by Anthony Trollope
I don't feel any need to review this one for anybody but myself. I enjoyed it, but wasn't as taken with it as with Barchester Towers. My hat is certainly off to AT for writing a book whose central issue is now so much a non-issue with a great majority of the population, but which still commands attention. (Of course, the issue was never a concern for most of the population although it might have been for his contemporary reading population.) I suppose I should try to think out my reason for still preferring Dickens, but beyond the wonder of CD's language and passion, I'm not willing to think about it tonight. Anyway, I'll look forward to Barchester 4 when the time rolls around.

Peggy, glad you enjoyed Doctor Thorne. You're right that the book's central issue is now so much a non-issue, but it certainly commanded attention (or scorn, or both) in Trollope's time. I think it's perfect that you are so taken with Dickens, and his language and passion are great reasons!

Hi Peggy -- loved your review of Straight Man. On to the WL it goes. Happy weekend!

No Kindle version of Straight Man, at least not for me. I put it on my audio WL for now, I could do with some funny in that dark and rainy weather.
Happy week, Peggy!

I have awfully neglected my own thread here this past week. I wish it had been because I was reading so much, but that isn't the case. Anyway, thank you for dropping by, Nancy, Anne, and Nathalie.
Nancy, I don't know whether I've said, but I inherited the love of Dickens from my paternal grandmother. When she was beyond reading for herself or really knowing what was read to her, she would sit with a copy of A Tale of Two Cities in her hands. Other women are comforted by baby dolls. I think I'm going to continue to be like Grandmother.
Anne and Nathalie, I hope that you laugh out loud at Straight Man when you're in need of a good laugh - or anytime, really.

LIFE AFTER LIFE by Jill McCorkle
As I say in my review of this ER ARC, Jill is from my hometown. I don't know whether that means I'm easier on her or harder as I think about her book. I enjoyed it even though I was a bit wary of reading something set in a nursing home at my time of life. She doesn't pull any punches about what being old may be like. Were it not for a misstep at the end (from my point of view), I would have given it four stars.

And it's on to the next!

Peggy, all the more special that you inherited your love of Dickens from your paternal grandmother. I love the image of her sitting with A Tale of Two Cities in her hands.

Interesting that you read something by a hometown author, and almost 4*, too! Yes, the reality of nursing homes takes on greater significance with age, does it not?

A thumb for your review, Peggy. I love that image of your grandmother. My grandmother lived only until age 65 (the other one died when she was 30, so I didn't know her). The image I have of Grandma Margie is of her watching As the World Turns, her favorite "story." When she was visiting us, even I knew enough not to bother her when that was on.

Nancy, Mama wants to read the book, so I've given it to her. The author's mother was on the same nursing care hall as Mama was when she was recuperating from her fall last year. (I think I said.) Pine Haven does recall Wesley Pines a bit, I guess. The biggest thing I saw was the women in assisted living dressing up for meals, which were served early just as in the book.
Thank you for a thumb, Becky. I think I've said that I remember as a young child watching my grandmother churn butter in a 5 gallon jug while reading with a book in her lap. My other grandmother (Grandmama, to be exact) lived to 102 and loved the stories. Well, she never loved them as much after they killed off Sarah in "The Edge of Night," but she was a faithful viewer. Early on, her questions were of the , "Do they know we're watching them?" variety. Later, they changed to, "What's he to her?" She read mostly the newspaper, but she had a sister who read like we do, who would order books into the wilds of this poor county back in the teens and twenties. I come by the addiction honestly.

I like the reading while churning butter image, my kind of woman!

That is a lovely image, Peggy!

Peggy, I love your memories of both of your grandmothers. I barely knew the one on my father's side as she died when I was eight (and we had lived the previous three years out of the country), but she was a librarian which is a good thing. My other grandmother had a killer sense of humor and had a ladies' poker group in her home. I'm not sure that she had much time for reading with seven children. My mother was the big reading influence in my life. She didn't churn butter but she always cooked with a book in one hand and a spoon in the other. Thanks for the memories!

Life After Life is already on the WL. I'm glad to know the background about it. You've got me curious about the "misstep at the end."

My paternal grandmother died when my dad, the oldest of 6, was 11, so I never knew her. I don't remember ever seeing my maternal grandmother reading (she was always busy with her hands, sewing and crochet and embroidery, and taught me), although my grandfather loved westerns and had a lot of Zane Grey in their bookcase, but Ienjoyed pulling some of my mother's books out of the bookcase when we visited them.

Following up on the lists of authors we would like at dinner. I'd choose:

a) Emily Dickinson
b) Harper Lee
c) John Irving
d) Charlotte Bronte

Oh, that's a very nice list, Linda! I would like to just sit quietly in the corner and listen, please. :-)

Wait! Where is my post before Roni's? I thanked Lucy and Tui and Donna for liking my granny stories (I love to tell them). They were both remarkable women and very different. Both had 7 children, but my father's older sister died of whooping cough when she was about 2, a great sadness for that grandmother. I love Donna's poker-playing grandmother! And, Roni, I had an uncle by marriage who read only Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, but he read and reread those.
Linda, I'd love to come to your party, or maybe I could be the maid who served. I wonder what Irving would have made of those three extremely individual women!
I have fallen into a 99¢ Kindle deal - a mostly straightforward P.I. story with an occult twist. It doesn't move very fast, and it's not terribly scary or graphic most of the time, but I'm enjoying it. The P.I., an ex-negotiator for a London police force, learns that his birth father has just died and left him his estate - and unfortunately, sold his soul when he was born to a devil (not THE Devil, you understand) to be claimed on his 33rd birthday which is only three weeks away. Trash, but entertaining trash at least to me right now.

That sounds like possibly fun, Peggy. Let me know what you think at the end--you could tempt me.

O.K. Here it is, Roni. See what you think.

NIGHTFALL by Stephen Leather

I was shamefully entertained because this is just trash - but it's fun trash, and it's only the first of a trilogy. Jack Nightingale, once a police negotiator, is now a private investigator in London working divorce cases and mostly unable to pay his assistant Jenny. Through a lawyer he learns that he was adopted and that his genetic father has killed himself and left his entire fortune to Jack. A DVD made by his father before he died also informs Jack that Dad sold Jack's soul to a devil before he was born. The deal goes through when Jack turns 33, and when the book begins, that's three weeks away. Jack doesn't believe in devils or Hell or God or Heaven, but then people start to die. Other strangers look at him and say, "You're going to Hell, Jack Nightingale," in flat voices and with no recollection of having said that. Jack is curious and concerned.
I thought that this one was a bit long, but I didn't mind reading because Leather's writing is quite competent, and I was apparently in the mood for something quirky but not overwhelming. Most of the time this reads like a run-of-the-mill detective story, but it's a good one. I'll certainly get to the other two books which I bought for my Kindle as part of a monthly deal at 99¢ apiece. If you read stuff like this, you'll likely take to it.

"Fun trash" sounds tempting, but from me they're asking $8.60. I wonder if I get daily/monthly deals when I finally switch to the Italian amazon for my Kindle.

I was shamefully entertained because this is just trash - but it's fun trash. Amen! Tickled you enjoyed, Peggy : ).

I'm not going to get it right now because a) it's $3.99 on Kindle, b) I just spent $60 on books at Mysterious Galaxy yesterday, and c) I am so far behind on books to be read at the moment. But if I see it come up on a Kindle sale, I'll be all over it!

Nathalie, Nancy, and Roni, I'm sure that it's not worth the price that they're asking for it normally. I'm guessing that it will show up again in the monthly deals or something here or that you can bump into it in a used bookstore sometime. I am very carefully NOT looking at the 2nd one. I really want to finish the Cleopatra biography this week, and I'm going to have to concentrate to get that done, assuming that I find the time.

Well I passed up that Kindle Deal Peggy but I fell for another one the other day. Before I Go to Sleep which the tags describe as a psychological thriller. Good escapist fare, I hope.

Hi Peggy- just flying by but have managed a catch up on my way. So what are you going to talk about with Tolkein and Lewis? Theology, Im thinking, would surely be on the agenda.

Hi Lizzie, just whizzing by to wish you a fabulous Easter weekend *smile*.
I love your grandmother stories and I personally belong to the lucky group of people who has grown up with two grandmothers and one greatgrandmother. One of my grandmother's is still alive and I loved all of them dearly, but in particular the mother of my mother. She was such a hoot, my siblings and I virtually worshipped the ground she walked on, that is how much we loved her.

Have a Happy Easter, Peggy.

>136 LizzieD:: Just getting back to read your reviews. That one sounds like fun...just what I need to fill in the tiny cracks of free time!

Hooray for flying visits! Thank you Bonnie, Megan, Bianca, and Tad!
Bonnie, to each her own escape! Hope you enjoy Before I Go to Sleep which I was willing to pass up.
Oh yeah, Megan, theology and LITERATURE. No doubt about it.
Tad, I certainly picked it up and put it down at will. It's always nice to have something undemanding to go on with.

THE ACCEPTANCE WORLD by Anthony Powell
OH yeah. Now I remember why I liked *Dance* so much. By the time book 3 rolls around, I've read enough to have a good idea who people are when they turn up again, and I can greet them as old friends. It's almost true that there are no incidental characters in these books. It's necessary to remember everybody. We learn more about Nick Narrator and see much less of Widmerpool, and it's all good. I'm glad that Monday begins April so that I can get along to *Lady Molly*.

Ah, another wonderful endorsement of Dance to the Music of Time. The list continues to get ever longer ... Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Peggy!

I hope we'll get a bit more of those Widmerpool/ Nick dynamics in Lady Molly.

I would hope Tolkien and Lewis would talk about 'world-building' - making up a whole place..... We've been reading The Silmarillion aloud lately and while it certainly isn't fare that many would care for, from the pure aspect of creating an entire world, complete with creation story and deep legends, it's quite incredible. So consistent, so thorough.

I will be back early and often to move your thread along.

I suppose one could ask them what they read for fun - but the answer might be discouraging......

Hi, Nancy! I, of course, think that I am the discoverer of *Dance*. I read it first in the early 80s and have remained loyal to AP ever since. And thank you for the blinking bunny!
Nathalie, I can assure you that Widmerpool assumes a more prominent place in the Dance as the series progresses.
Lucy, trust a writer to want to listen to two practitioners talk about world-building. I'd also be fascinated to hear Tolkien on language-building, but I don't know whether our friend Jack would feel left out in that case. I suspect that it wouldn't be difficult to find out what they read for fun, and I suspect that you're right that it might be discouraging.
I'm back to Cleopatra today, and I'll simply say again that Schiff is a most entertaining writer. This is very competent scholarship winsomely displayed, and I'm loving it.

Hi Peggy! I've finally gotten caught up here, I don't know how I got so far behind?!
Great conversations about dinning with authors. There will be some great dinner parties going on!

Glad you enjoyed your "trash" book. I've been on a vampire fluff kick. It's so fun to read crap sometimes! ;)

Yes, I can imagine one couldn't very well play Dictionary with Tolkien!

LOL!! If a so called " trash book " entertains, then I think it is a great book, Peggy! :) Happy Easter!

Schiff's Cleopatra is going on the WL Peggy! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Chelle, glad to see you. I now know that I'm never going to catch up. I read and read and read and that's all my LT time, and I still will not have finished with one thread - even though I'm skimming most of the speak-and-leaves. I'd truly like to know what's going on with people, but I just can't keep up.
Hi, Lucy.
Deborah, by that definition that was a great book. I maintain that there's good trash and trash, but everybody gets to decide for herself which is which.
Becky, I hope you like it as much as I do when you get around to it. I posted a brief sentence or two over on Lucy's thread and also the info that I ordered 2 more Schiffs cheap at AMP. I really like her! And thanks for the weekend wish --- I spent a lot of today reading Cleopatra, so I should be able to finish tomorrow afternoon, and that's my definition of a wonderful weekend!

Happy Easter, Peggy! Glad that Cleopatra is so entertaining.

I managed to get a good, cheap copy of Cleopatra: A Life. I look forward to reading it.

Thanks, Roni! OOOO, Esqrs! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have. What a woman - even if we know only what the Romans wanted us to know about her!

>159 LizzieD:: If you enjoyed it, I'm sure I will. Then I can pass it along to a friend who said he loves Cleopatra and was fascinated by my purchase :)

Happy Easter, Lizzie!

Happy Easter Peggy!

Here to say Happy Easter!

I think I'll say it twice.

Happy Easter to all my dear friends! Thank you for the wish, Bianca, Linda, Lucy (Lucy!)!!!
Esqrs, I am in love with this book. I took off half a star just in case Ms. Schiff was a little too in love with her own interpretation, but I'm not really sure that's a valid criticism.

CLEOPATRA: A LIFE by Stacy Schiff
The truth is that the Romans gave us what we know about Cleopatra, and the Romans had no reason to be unbiased. She was quite a woman - brilliant, capable, cunning, charming, and so much more than a champion seductress. I am happy to have what we do know about her under my belt and to have some of my misconceptions and ignorance corrected. I didn't, for example, realize that the interval between the Battle of Actium and her death was measured in months during which time Cleopatra made various plans and sent envoys to various kings for help against Octavian. Although Octavian brought in psylli ("Libyans believed to enjoy a magical immunity to snake venom") to revive a dead Cleopatra from an asp bite, the description of her body and her dead attendants suggests rather poison than snake.
This is a book as elegant and witty as its subject, and I join with the chorus of other LTers in singing, "Read it! Read it!"

Love your reason for taking off half a star, Peggy!

Happy Easter, Peggy!

If you loved it this much it must be truly wonderful, the Cleopatra. Obviously I must gracefully give in to the inevitable.

Starry Person, I'm amazed to find you here! What a treat!!!
Thank you, Roni, and a Happy Easter to you too.
Lucy, I think you'll be glad you did.
So now I have picked up Master of the Senate. The others were big; this one's HUGE!!!! And I'm off!

I saw your name and had to check. Frankly, I don't know what "75 Book Challenge" really means, but I'll follow you anywhere!

You are a stellar character, Mr. SE!

Happy Easter Peggy! The Cleopatra biography sounds like a good one.

Hope you also had a happy Easter, Heather, and I'm pretty sure that you'll like Cleopatra if you ever get to her. I'm back from a flying trip to see my uncle in Columbia, S.C., my mama's baby brother, and she's always eager to spend time with him. I managed to read a little of At Lady Molly's and A Discovery of Witches. The latter has kept me entertained so far for at least the $1.99 that I spent on it when it was a Kindle Daily Deal. That's just the right amount!

Any more than 1.99 would be too much!

Glad you are home safe and sound.

You get a whole lot of pages for your $1.99--but I agree with Lucy that any more would be too much. I'm reading this series from the library. I actually liked the second book better.

Hi Peggy, I loved Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life when I read it last year too, and I was lucky enough to find Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) in our local used bookstore...well, not her actually, but the book;-)

Hi, Lucy, Roni and Bonnie! I am such a Scot that I like getting lots and lots of pages for my $; on the other hand, I want them to be wonderful pages.
Bonnie, I'm impatiently waiting for a copy of Vera to arrive from AMP. I don't know why I'm impatient because I can't possibly read it right now, but I just want to have it in my hot little hands. Good for both of us!
I almost never put this many books into TIOLI challenges, but this month seems to fit what I'm reading, so I'd better list them so that I don't forget.

Challenge 3 about words within words in the title: Master of the Senate (aster and ate)
Challenge 4 with two people pictured on the cover: Blood & Beauty
Challenge 9 with a 4-syllable word on page 13: This Body of Death (evidently)
Challenge 10 (from Bonnie) about double letters in both title and author's name: At Lady Molly's by A. Powell
Challenge 12 (I think) about a prize-listed book: Ignorance (Orange)
Challenge 15 about starting a trend (from christiguc): A Shutter of Snow

Are lots of people reading A Shutter of Snow? I've read it, but I have to go and remind myself what I thought of it.....

Oh my yes, that was a very very very good book. Let's indeed have a trend.

Peggy, I posted this on Lucy's thread and I'll double-post it here:

I'm dying over here on this Iris Murdoch thread, trying for the third day in a row to finish chapter 17 of the biography. Somebody please come keep me company--please!

Hi to Lucy and Becky!!!
Did y'all notice that Lucy is valiantly trying to boost my #s so that I can start a new thread automatically? What a good friend!!!
Lucy, I think that a number of Viragoes have read it already and mostly like it. I can't start it yet though.....Have to finish *Dance 4*, and I'm not quite half through.
Becky, I'll gallumph over there. I pick it up because I really do want to read it, but then I don't make any headway. I'll go over there to tell you where I am.
And in the meantime, I have read the intro and started Caro's *LBJ * which is going to be about the recasting of the Senate into something more than a conservative obstructionist body and about the use of power, and how LBJ managed to do both.

Oh, so you're trying to get to 200 posts, are you? Let me see if I can help you along just a bit. I'm impressed at all your TIOLI challenges this month, Peggy.

We did that with Lucy last week, so we can do it here too. {{Boost}} And thanks for your post on the IM thread!

Many thanks for the boosts, Julia and Becky. It just seems neat to have one thread per month - and this may be the only place in the world that I can be said to be neat....
So I've finished the first chapter of Master of the Senate in which Caro writes a tour de force chapter on the history of the U.S. Senate to the beginning of the 20th century. I really had no idea.... For instance, I had never connected the "Gilded Age" as meaning a thin veneer of the real stuff over brass. So here I am 50 pages into the book on the 4th day of the month. Doesn't look like I'll finish this one, Julia, so you need not be overly impressed with my TIOLI ambitions. It will get easier when LBJ makes his appearance, but I have another 50 pages before he comes in.

I'll de-lurk to get you over the hump for a continuation thread. Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra has been on my wishlist for a while. I really need to find a way to work it into my reading plans.

You have some interesting books on your April TIOLI list. I'll look forward to seeing what you think of them!

I just finished in March A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night the second book in the series. I actually agree with roni, I also prefered the second book.

I think that eventually, after all the good reviews here, I will get to the Caro books on LBJ. Probably not soon, however.

Hi Lizzie, I noticed over the past year how much you enjoy descriptive writing - ahem, I hope I didn't notice wrong :) However, I am currently reading The Great Gatsby and absolutely love his writing. I thought I share this with you *smile*

This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight . Chapter 2

Peggy, Just to get you a little closer to 200!

Peggy, I have not yet read 'Master of the Senate' but I know what you mean. I started the first Caro book on LBJ and before it had to go back to the library I had read more than 100 pages, learned an awful lot about westward pioneer migration, Davy Crockett, and the weather patterns of west Texas, but LBJ had not yet been born!

Ooo! Thank you, Julia, Jan, Bianca (twice), Roni, and Carrie!
In reverse order, Julia, one thing I like about the Caro is that he doesn't write only about the man, but he fills in the world that he lived in. They are such rich books - I don't think I've ever read better! Anyway, I hope you and Roni get to them eventually.
Jan, I posted earlier on your thread. Why don't we discuss *Master* over there?
Bianca, I am one who is a great *Gatsby* fan. I think it's very fine. I don't know that I will end up liking *Witches* enough to try the second one unless they make it a Kindle Daily Deal too. I haven't read any more of that since I got back from my trip.

Well this is very fine indeed - I have been laboring mostly on my own over here on the boosting - and we have some real discussion which is even better! I am an FSF fan from wayyy back. Gatsby is one of 'those' books - every time you go back to it, it goes deeper and hits harder. Those books, in Gatsby's library, real but uncut, observation and detail of pure genius.

You are getting so close, Peggy! One more little push should do it!

Here one more push before I go to bed :)

The second book is more of a historical fantasy. The couple travel back to Elizabethan times so she can get the training that is unavailable in modern times, with a cast of characters from that time period and a trip to Budapest and Rudolf II thrown in for good measure. I love books with John Dee and Kit Marlowe and the rest as background cast. Check your library if you get interested--I'll bet they have it.

I totally agree, Peggy. I was fascinated by everything I learned about the early Texas settlers and all of the other stuff. I will definitely read them, and probably buy them so I can take my time and really dive in.

Almost there ...

BOOST!

I love having a thread for each month.

*nudge*

There you go :)

>151 LizzieD: I, of course, think that I am the discoverer of *Dance*
I think of myself as the discoverer of many classics, Peggy.
Im pretty sure no one else in the world (bar publisher and author) knew about either My Name is Asher Lev and White Noise before I read them ;)

>192 LizzieD: I am past chapter 3 in The Great Gatsby now, and its like reading it for the first time as it was soooo long ago the first time, I am really liking it.

YAY!!! I get by with a little help from my friends!
Thank you all - I'll make a real reply tomorrow, and I'll also get to set up APRIL THREAD!!!!

Hooray for your April thread, Peggy. I'm glad you're enjoying the Caro. I think the one you're reading was probably my favorite because I found the workings of the Senate so fascinating--and the way that Johnson worked everyone. Caro makes the reader feel like they're in the hands of someone they can trust--that's how I feel when I read him.

Trying to catch up here Peggy. See you in your April thread!

Thanks to Lucy, Bianca, Roni, Julia, Nancy, Esqs, Megan, Becky, and Peg!
I'm off to sew a new thread. (Megan, I'm equally sure that you were the first to appreciate *Asher Lev* and *White Noise*! I've read the first but not the second, so you may need to do a little more cheerleading for DeLillo. I even have a copy.)
I do trust Caro, Becky. You're absolutely right.
And on to the NEW!

Just a wee note to say I was here.