Richardderus 2013 thread 25

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent van Gogh

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 8-11...thread eight.
Books 12-19...thread nine.
Books 20 & 21...thread 10.
Books 22-25...thread 11.
Books 26 & 27...thread 12.
Book 28...thread 13.
Books 29-31...thread 14.
Book 32...thread 15.
Books 33 & 34...thread 16.
Books 35-38...thread 17.
Books 39-42...thread 18.
Books 43-45...thread 19.
Books 46 & 47...thread 20.
Book 48...thread 21.
Books 49-52...thread 22.
Books 53-56...thread 23.
Books 57-61...thread 24.

Books are reviewed in post:

62. Jeeves and the Wedding Bells...#134.

63. The Sound of Things Falling...#179.

64. The Tide King...#264.

65. Ask Not...#276.

Love the thread topper! Snagging my spot on your latest thread - don't want to miss anything! Happy Sunday, BigDaddy!

>4 Crazymamie: Happy Sunday back, loveycuddles! It's blustery here today. I love reading on days like this.

Lovely opening picture Richard. Hope you are having a great coffee filled day.

Thanks, calm, it's a beauty isn't it? I found it on Pinterest and immediately knew I had to thread-top with it.

Happy Sunday evening to you! I hope the St. Jude's Storm did no damage to you and yours.

Congrats on the new thread! Love the topper. Love the quote.

>8 msf59: Thanks, Mark, it's an amazing image...have you ever seen the video of the earth from the ISS, where the night side is always being struck by lightning somewhere? Very beautiful seen from space, and a reminder that we live on top of a dynamo, a planet-sized induction coil.

Sobering and reassuring all at once.

Cool lightning!!

Hi Ellen, welcome! Glad you're home and recuperated, for the most part. I love that image. I wonder if the photographer sells it as a print.

Richard I am beyond behind on your threads. Awesome you are having a nice reading day. I'm still in my pjs reading away and trying to play catch up around these threads.

xoxo to you and Stella

>12 luvamystery65: Thanks, Roberta! There's no such thing as caught up when it comes to threads, always keep that in mind. Stella sends slurps, and I'll content myself with a *smooch*

Great opening photo, Richard; I love the symmetry of the lightning bolts.

I'm glad that you loved The Teleportation Accident; I plan to read it before the year is out. I'll thumb your review, although I won't read it closely until I've finished the book.

Only fourteen posts? I can handle that! Always glad to see you around and reading, Padre.

Great opening photo Mr D.

Ooh and ahhhhh for the awesome image atop your thread.

I was listening to an episode of Literary Disco whilst taking my walk earlier and learned this interesting tidbit....Americans use 'nonplus' incorrectly. The correct definition is surprise and confuse (someone) so much that they are unsure how to react. Americans typically use it to mean that they are unexcited by something. Huh....who knew. But then I thought, I bet Richard knew this!

I'm here!

Read a book or two today.. catching up nicely with "must reads".

someone called off.. and I have to go in tomorrow. Grr.

>14 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl, it's a dramatic statement of a photo so of course I like it. I hope you'll enjoy The Teleportation Accident as much as I did.

>15 London_StJ: It won't last, but nothing good does...hiya Crypto! *smooch*

>16 johnsimpson: Thank you, John!

>17 Cobscook: I gave up correcting people. Misused words now cause mild flinching or, at most, a self-snort. Nobody died and left me gawd, so I move away from that deep-seated urge.

But it damn near kills me.

>18 mckait: Hi! Oh how...special...that she would do that on a Monday. Such a lovely lady. *sharpens ninja stars*

I've tried off and on for years to get a good lightning pic - it's really not easy. That one's awesome!

That is a gorgeous picture, Richard. One of the things I miss about the Midwest is having spectacular lightning and thunder storms. In my childhood home, my room was the only on the second story and had 15 windows, a wonderful observation post. In San Diego, we're lucky to even hear thunder once a year.

>20 drneutron: I'm sure it's supremely difficult, since lightning's such a complex phenomenon. Equipment and skill are trumped by luck and position!

>21 ronincats: It is, isn't it Roni? I missed thunderstorms whenever I visited Cali. I remember, when I was about three, experiencing my first-ever thunderstorm in Los Gatos...mama, a Texas gal, brought me outside onto the front porch and knelt behind me, arms around me, explaining how thunder was just noise and lightning wouldn't hurt me inside our house, and after that I was too fascinated to be scared!

Wow RD that is a really striking start to your thread. Have a great week.

Staggering to Amazon with The Teleportation Accident book bullet right between the eyes.

>23 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, I'll try to do just that.

>24 tiffin: *heeheehee*

>24 tiffin: he he, love it :)

Hi RD, happiest of new threads to you. Cool and dramatic lightening photo- I do love a good thunder storm. We rarely get them here unfortunately. The best I ever saw was in Darwin.

Thumbed.
29F wth?

Hey, thanks for the song, it was haunting and I love it!

hi ho

<3> - Coffee. Ah, yes. I'm a coffee snob, I guess. I buy my beans unroasted, roast them myself and brew them to perfection. If you've never tasted coffee handled properly, you don't know coffee. For me, it's a culinary experience, not a caffeine delivery system.

Hi, Richard. My real estate saga continues. Open House finished and done with! I'm now facing the prospect of having to keep picked up after myself just like my mother told me to do, every day. Vacuum will work over time. Sigh. But the O.H. went well, so said the agent, and she believes there were at least a couple of parties who seemed "very interested". Hope so.

#28 reminds me of something I heard on The Splendid Table yesterday: roasted carrots on a bed of coffee beans. The oils come out of the beans and infuse the carrots. Sounds interesting….

I am looking forward to doing some reading. Hope your Monday goes well, sir.

Heh.

>26 LovingLit: Hi Mildred! I can imagine Darwin got some amazing thunderstorms, since the heating-to-cooling gradient is so dramatic in tropical places.

No thunderation on the South Island? I guess it's too cold, no tropical waves to spark it off.

>27 mckait: Thanks, and you're welcome! I thought the tune was very interesting.

>28 mldavis2: I've had coffee like that, Mary Lou, and yes indeed it's a culinary experience. It's a lot like wine in that sense, the more care and attention lavished on it from sprout to spout is directly proportional to the religious ecstasy of the consumption experience.

I want caffeine. Drip is fine. Preground will do. Decaf is unconscionable, and instant is revolting but I will drink it when no other caffeine is available.

>29 maggie1944: eeeeeeeeeeccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I'd rather move out and let them show the place empty. I'd be a crazy person if I had to do that! Well, craziER person. I hope this nets offers!

I appreciate all the hoping I can get. Thank you. I want offers, too, right about now.

Actually "homicidalo" is more like it.

#30 LOL - excellent pic :) I asked Cass who lived in the moon the other day - expecting her to say the man in the moon - you know, something normal. Instead she said Daleks... this is her fathers influence.

Though he solidly denies it is - and states that if it had been his fault she would have said Cyber-men...

#32 Agree so heartily.. Hoping your day is lovely.. Hugs and Smooches from Angel and I to you and Stella

>33 BekkaJo: Smart lassie, your Cass, and give deaddy his due for making it possible for her to be a fan!

>34 MonicaLynn: AMEN!!

OFF-TOPIC: The Story of an Internet Revolt

Collected from Goodreads Censorship Protestors

Rating: 5* of five

I'm rating others' contributions to the book, not my own.

If resistance is futile, like I've been told over and over again by people who're bored or impatient with protest reviews and continued commentary against being surveilled by the site owners here, then what exactly is the point of this book?

Resistance isn't futile. The Borg can't be beaten by force, so hide among them and trip them up.

Demand transparency. Okay, they're going to collect data, which is fancy talk for watch your ever mouseclick and cursor twitch. Demand to know what they're doing with the data, and what data they're collecting, and what criteria they're using to evaluate that data.

Being a citizen makes demands of you. Shirking them because it's not fun or it's boring means nothing except you'll get what you deserve...less and less.

Your at-cost copy can be had here. No one involved in the project sees any money whatsoever from your 99-cent purchase.

I clicked, and got "Sorry but the page you've requested can't be found" or something like that. Also, it said "please check the URL"

I would love to support your Off-Topic, but …..

I'm having a down day, and have read about 1/2 of Housekeeping. It is luminous and depressed, perhaps depressing. It is about how life rots; and does not speak of human's efforts to keep the rot out. I'm going to go back to it in a minute. I just needed a break.

Richard your link in post #36 sent me to a black hole.

>30 richardderus: PffffffffT

>37 maggie1944:, 38 Serves me right for copying the URL without checking. It's 148 characters long, so I made a tinyurl unbreakable link and it can now be reached via the hyperlink. Sorry, y'all!

Speaking of photographs, go look at this lady's Still Life With Book series! I love them enough to overcome my Flickr distaste and scroll scroll scroll. Beautiful!

#41 ooh and ahh. Those are lovely!

>42 Cobscook: Ain't they just!!

Previously announced NaNovel is no longer under construction. Instead, a parallel-universes time-traveling academic came to me in my afternoon nap, sat down, and said, "I've killed Dick Cheney thirty-six times. It never gets old. Shrub now, I think it was fourteen times before I got sick of hearing him blubber and beg."

Now I need a title.

Wait! You can't change lanes now! I already liked the idea of first effort. Bummer.

Well, have a good one anyway...

>45 richardderus: I kinda hafta because Gwinnett wants to fall in luuuuuv with someone he can't. We'll see how he likes being locked up for a few months.

#43 Love it! Gotta love when they completely change track on you. I'm in the slough of despond today... hoping to get out of it with some moderate peril and some sand dragons.

Sand dragons sound most promising. Nothing livens things up in a book like the peril of being eaten by a large, scaly tooth-ful ambulatory appetite.

So true!

xoxo to you and Stella

From your last thread, I LOVED your review of The Teleportation Accident! I've added my thumb to your review and added it to my wishlist! :)

And thanking you in advance for Sookie!!!! ;)

>48 luvamystery65: AMEN! *smooch* from me and a slurp from the somewhat somnolent Stella. Cloudy days make her sleepy.

>49 TinaV95: I hope it arrives before the 21-day maximum. They usually do, I've observed.

Thanks for the thumb!

I'm glad Tina mentioned your review of The Teleportation Accident, as I somehow missed your review, Richard. Sounds great; onto the wishlist and thumb from me, too.

>51 jnwelch: AND the paperback's out today! Only $16~worth every damn dime.

Speaking of out...I have to out myself as a serial bibliobinging bibliopurger. I sent a box of books to Kath's liberry in Pennsylvania, so I felt comfortably justified in adding two books (hey! I got rid of five or six!):

American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells

Okay, they were preordered months ago, but I *did* send the box of books to the liberry!

The inflow always seems to exceed the outflow at our place.

Can't wait to hear what you think of the Jeeves book. I doubt he can reach the heights of the originals, but maybe he can come close.

43: "Pruned"

>53 jnwelch: I've closed all the other books and am preparing to devour it even as we speak. *fingers crossed*

>54 magicians_nephew: Heh...I'm leaning towards "A Dick Dilemma," but that feels more subtitle-y. Permaybehaps I'll marry the two!

A Pruned Dick Dilemma? Scary, but I see major sales.

xo

I love your lightning photo! I just downloaded The Story of an Internet Revolt. I'm currently reading The Circle and desperately need to step back into the data privacy world!

>41 richardderus: *oh my eyes*
So may spine-bending book horrors! And amongst so many beautiful book shots too :)

^ I want to read The Circle too....once it reduces in price from its just-published-mega-uber price of over $40.

>56 jnwelch: Your keyboard, the goddess' inbox!

>57 mckait: *smooch*

>58 LoisB: I agree, it's a beaut all right. I asked for a copy of the book, but when I didn't get one, I lost interest. Is it good?

>59 LovingLit: Heh. Poor Maudie, such a cruel thing I did not warning of the occasional bit of book-torture.

Heh.

Forty bucks! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>59 LovingLit: Megan! I am so glad that I'm not the only one who had that reaction!!!!OUCH the books :P

It's morning again! I checked our election results rd... not posted online yet.. lol Surely there weren't too many to count, so ? Maybe the machines broke. Or something.

The Circle is very interesting. I'm 75% through it and will likely give it a 4 star rating. To me, the core theme is data privacy - be careful what you wish for, you might get it!

ETA: The Kindle edition is $6.50

Every time I pay bills I think, am I an idiot that I am still opening envelopes, writing checks, paying for stamps.... and then I think...... nah. The blithe financial use of the internet creeps me out, in fact. Does that make me an old f...? So be it?

I'm the same way, Lucy.

Good Morning, BigDaddy!

Which yes!

>61 mckait: Hi smoochling. Why ever am I not surprised that the results aren't up? So glad the comcast outage is over!

>62 LoisB: Hi Lois, well, Mr. Eggers can make do without my money. I have liked exactly one of the three books I've read by him, so I'm not inclined to hand over any more dosh.

>63 sibylline: Good morning, cuz...I certainly see your point about using the internet for financial transactions. I don't worry about it because I don't have any money.

>64 Crazymamie: *smooch*

Book porn!

>67 richardderus:: I can almost smell that room just from looking at the photo.

The door looks too flimsy RD. I'm not sure how the books in the leaf of the door are supposed to inhabit that thin space. The idea of the room is marvellous mind.

>68 tiffin: Me too. Lurvely.

>69 PaulCranswick: They're sideways, not spine-out.

Someone's expensive radio-controlled toy helicopter crashed on the roof the evening, scaring me and the dog half to death. We found the thing because its flashing lights looked weird in our andromeda bush. I left it in the middle of the boulevard until now, when Stella and I came in from our last walk. It's in the garage now, though I wonder why I bothered since evidently them as lost it aren't lookin' too hard for it.

Or its now spying on you ..........

Good grief! Well, it was a night for the not so usual but not quite interesting. Our neighbor stepped outside ( probably to talk on the phone, as I have seen her do that ) and her 3 year old locked her out. They must keep all the door locked tight at all times. Also, they have a Comcast security system.. ( so maybe it wasn't the child.. :P but Margie called the police to get her in, and three towns responded. Slow night in the valley, I guess. No one is in the garage. ( a far as I know )

>71 roundballnz: Heh. It WAS a black helicopter.

>72 mckait: Paranoid fool. Deserves what she got. These people lock the screen doors AND the doors. I pointed out that, if one was for some reason locked out and the power was off, there would be a devil of a time getting in, and much property damage.

Silence, as usual, and still locking them. I run around as soon as they leave and unlock them.

*aaahhh*

Explains that famous mysterious smile.

Espresso, or possibly a plate full of pasta alla Alfedo.

I saw what I thought was smoke first and figured she would be smoking something. Guess that shows how my mind works! And the books on the door are sideways!!! That explains so much! I kept trying to figure that out, but now that you explained it, I can see it clearly enough. I think maybe I need to go back to bed.

>74 richardderus: mahvelous.

how ya doin', lovey?

*smoochimus maximus*

>77 Crazymamie: That back-to-bed idea has a lot of charm, but then again it's almost 9p now. I've had all I can take of Rock Hudson in A Farewell to Arms, though.

>78 mirrordrum: Hi Ellie! Doing as well as I can expect to be doing. You?

Almost 9 30. Sleepy

sweet dreams

Nighty night. I'm not far behind you.

Good night, sweethearts. Tomorrow is another day...

As it turns out, it *is* another day! Oh well. Better than no other day, I suppose, though there are times I wonder about that.

Yes, but it is Friday, which is a favorite of mine. Good Morning, BigDaddy!

It's Friday! No sense worrying about productivity today.

Yeah! You've inspired me to be unproductive and lost in la-la land. I'll get right at it.

I live to serve.

*waves*

TAMARA! heavens, haven't seen you in an age. I hope you're well!

yes I am! Thanks for the well wishes! How are you?

Hangin' in there. Mostly just happy that it's Not Summer.

It's particularly challenging today.

92.... So very, very true!!!

Just dropping in for a catch up and some extra smoochies. Give Stella a smooch & a hug from Wicked! :)

I delivered the hug and the smooch, but she fanged me. Smart pup.

xoxo

>92 richardderus: Yes.

>85 richardderus: That describes me today!

I knew they would be, so I stayed at home and hid.

Hi RD- Thanks for all the grins & giggles today. I hope you can join us on a couple of the American Author books next year. You made a couple good suggestions.

Pleased to have been of help! I love quite some several of the authors on the list. So relieved there was no room for Lemmingsludge.

I might re-read Ethan Frome, since it's one of my all-time fave-rave top-o-the-pops reads. Plus I've got the movie version in the Netflix queue and I want to be sharp and fresh for nitpicking purps.

Good morning rdear
I am frustrated to see that we have lept from summer to winter with very little of autumn in btween.
brrrr, and may I say brrr? That 70F day had me fooled.

It's 28° now. Better'n 78° any day. Still, a mite chillers.

I woke and went to the bathroom at 6 am. I turned on the heat, and decided to go back under the covers for ten minutes. Sadly, I realized that I had clicked the wrong button and turned it down, instead.. so I gave up. Got up. And started my day. Thank goodness for that bathroom heater!

Good morning, BigDaddy! I'm looking forward to a very lazy day filled with coffee and good books.

>102 mckait: *eeep* NOT a happy discovery! I'm shivering from the luxurious depths of my 66° bedroom.

>103 Crazymamie: Ooo! Sounds perfect. What day *doesn't* that sound perfect, really?

I got up early to attend to my mom's morning routine. Now she is napping and I am still in the pjs drinking coffee, playing on LT and ready to read a good book. Life is good right now.

xoxo to you and Stella

sending good sleep whammies for tonight

>105 luvamystery65: *slurp* from Stella! We're having handburglars, fried frenchpeople, and beer for dinner tonight!! *excited*

Book porn!

Whoa, that's just plain beautiful. I'm daydreaming right there today.

Perfect: plain, simple, perfect.

>108 jnwelch:, 109 Ain't that a doozy? The window makes me all jelly-kneed and drooly.



Especially in a space like that one!

LOVE that one. Favorite one ever!

The quote or the nook?

Do you have any pics of Miss Stella, Richard? Its been getting cold here too- I have had to run for blankets several times! Good reading and hot beverage weather though. :)

Oh post that one of you and Stella again.. the one where you look like Gandalf

#107 That's my dream library room right there...gorgeous!

Just popping over to say Thank you very much for the tentacle-y treasure I received in my mailbox yesterday! I am excited to get to it very soon. *SMOOCH*

>113 leperdbunny:, 114 My profile pic is of Stella, and the one where Kath says I look like Gandalf (is that a good thing?) is lost somewhere. *whew*

>115 Cobscook: Oh goody good good, it arrived!

I've read and Strike from the Deep...reviewed here...our own Tina Branco's (tututhefirst) husband's new thriller novel! Thank goodness I liked it. The Kindle edition is free right now, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate Veteran's Day than read a real-life veteran's exciting novel.

Hello Richard!
I love the book porn in 107 -- just the kind of space I like, including the lovely wood.

I finished reading We Need New Names and probably liked it better than you did, although I haven't been able to find your comments.

Is there a particular reason yesterday was such a grumpy one for folks? You know me, head in the sand half the time......

>117 EBT1002: I have no inkling of the grump-source to share with you, Ellen, I just know there wasn't a soul I encountered who was less than a widge twitchy. Some days are just like that. *shrug*

Here is my review of the book. Color me unimpressed.

Happy three-day!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/148880

that pic

mmm

Gandalf, eh? He was a bald guy? Good likeness of poochie!

Well, Gandalf if he wasn't in his Gandalf duds.

Why do you think he wore hats?

And had a weave

Thanks for the heads-up on Strike from the Deep....I just Kindled it!

Awwwww! Well, what kind of dog is Stella? what a cutie!

>121 mckait:, 122 Fair point. Hats are worthy investments. I ain't about to spend actual United States dollars on hair, though.

>123 Cobscook: Oh goody good good! I hope you'll like it.

>124 leperdbunny: Stella is a Jindo, a Korean hunting breed. A vicious killer of men, an eater of the flesh of the dead! Ask anyone who's met her! She terrorizes whole rooms of adult humans, lunging for throats and snarling viciously!

Thanks for the link to your review, Richard. Now I remember reading it back when you wrote it. Interestingly, I identified some similar pros and similar cons to this, her first novel, but they led to different ultimate responses. Kind of cool, actually.

I loved reading about Jindos over on the Xmas Swap thread. I heart Stella even more. And I think you might enjoy the chapters in Hyperbole and a Half that describe the author's dogs. Or Stella might, anyway. *smooch*

Guess what I received today from the most generous and tender-hearted, yet self proclaimed curmudgeon that we all love and adore?!?!?

A lovely book...After Dead by Charlaine Harris! Insert boisterous hugs & numerous smooches for the gift!!

Love you, Richard!

Gandalf. Yes. The beard I think. And the floor-length white robes ;)

^ I didn't have time to guess before I read the answer! No fair. RD- you will have to send something else so I can play the game again ;)

Tina... I found that one to be both satisfying and sad. I hope you like it too!

Good morning rdear. Nothing much going on here... hopefully it will stay that way ! How's life up your way?

>126 EBT1002: It's all in how things strike us as readers, isn't it Ellen? I'm endlessly intrigued by such wide variability of response to the same stimulus. I even accept that Kath, normally a fine and sensible reader, somehow read the Catherynne Valente September in Fairyland books and not liking them one little bit.

Of course my admiration for her is dimmed quite considerably, and I've re-thought that xmas gift I was planning to send....

>127 TinaV95: Good heavens, what?! And from whom?! Sounds like a lovely person, can I get on their xmas list? *smooch*

>128 LovingLit: Wait for Secret Santa, then I'll do it again.

I'm thinking about going egg-bald for a year or so...

>129 mckait: Why, good morning, you Valente resistentialist you. It's a beautiful fall day, crisp and bright, and the Gruesome Twosome are leaving at 2p. The junior set will be back this evening sometime.

*happy sigh*

Good morning, Richard. I'm doing some house showing and bed shopping today. Busy busy busy but I did get started with my newest huge book: The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism. Teddy Roosevelt's time has many parallels to ours and part of his success at putting people before corporations was the support he received from courageous journalists. Should be an interesting read.

Hope you have a lovely day planned for yourself.

LOL Richard! Come stop by my thread and have a cuppa!

Good morning, Richard.
So, I'm not sure it's at all wise for me to get into a philosophical discussion with you, but I have found myself thinking about the following assertion in your review of We Need New Names:

Which is it, all experience is human, or gender creates a special and different relationship to the world? Both cannot be true.

Can they not? Can't it be true that we humans have some strains of universal experience and that identity or association brings with it nuance of human experience that is specific?

Review: 62 of seventy-five

Title: JEEVES AND THE WEDDING BELLS

Author: SEBASTIAN FAULKS

Rating: 3.9* of five

The Publisher Says: Bertie Wooster (a young man about town) and his butler Jeeves (the very model of the modern manservant)—return in their first new novel in nearly forty years: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks.

P.G. Wodehouse documented the lives of the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster for nearly sixty years, from their first appearance in 1915 (“Extricating Young Gussie”) to his final completed novel (Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen) in 1974. These two were the finest creations of a novelist widely proclaimed to be the finest comic English writer by critics and fans alike.

Now, forty years later, Bertie and Jeeves return in a hilarious affair of mix-ups and mishaps. With the approval of the Wodehouse estate, acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks brings these two back to life for their legion of fans. Bertie, nursing a bit of heartbreak over the recent engagement of one Georgina Meadowes to someone not named Wooster, agrees to “help” his old friend Peregrine “Woody” Beeching, whose own romance is foundering. That this means an outing to Dorset, away from an impending visit from Aunt Agatha, is merely an extra benefit. Almost immediately, things go awry and the simple plan quickly becomes complicated. Jeeves ends up impersonating one Lord Etringham, while Bertie pretends to be Jeeves’ manservant “Wilberforce,”—and this all happens under the same roof as the now affianced Ms. Meadowes. From there the plot becomes even more hilarious and convoluted, in a brilliantly conceived, seamlessly written comic work worthy of the master himself.

My Review: I first encountered Bertie Wooster and his fantasy England in 1972. My sister's bookstore, located on a weird little corner near the old-money part of Austin, stocked a good deal of then-living P.G. Wodehouse's books because the older ladies who patronized the place loved him. I was sitting around there one day, a little bored, and picked up Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, then the most recent book in the series. Came time for me to leave, I begged and pleaded and promised to do actual work if I was allowed to take it with me.

And thus began what is, to date, an unabated addiction. Jeeves and his endless fund of arcane knowledge became my hero immediately. Clearly he loves dimwitted Bertie...now that's not fair of me, Bertie isn't dim. Bertie is...limited...yes, that's better, Bertie has a limited intellectual scope. He's utterly dependent on Jeeves because he's never going to be able to keep up with the crowd, and he's got such a loving and generous nature that it's impossible not to see which way that parade is headed, and it's not a nice part of town.

A co-dependent relationship? Yes, probably so. Is that a problem? For whom, might I inquire? It suits Jeeves down to the ground and it's survival for Bertie. Need one's manner of living pass any other test?

Of course it raises the question of the future of each of these men. Are they locked in an eternal stasis, doomed to be each other's closest living companion? That could get claustrophobic. But hell, these are silly fantasy novels!

I see from the delights of Jeeves and the Wedding Bells that I was not alone in having these vaguely disquieting thoughts. Bertie and Jeeves are, through a combination of Bertie's yearning for his vacation romantic entanglement and Aunt Agatha's threatening to invade Berkeley Mansions' sacred precincts, compelled to quit London's fleshpots and rusticate in Melbury-cum-Kingston in aid of Bertie's pal "Woody" Beeching's romantic designs on one Amelia Hackwood, presently gone awry. it is, of course, the merest chance that Amelia Hackwood's best friend and her father's ward happens to be Georgiana Meadowes, Bertie's erstwhile vacation romance....

And we're OFF! Let the slamming door sex-farce, without the sex, commence. It is a delight to return to the world of commodious country houses staffed by efficient and tolerant worker-bees, owned by irascible, kind-hearted curmudgeons, generous if financially precarious, in need of a certain ward to make a monetarily advantageous marriage to a bland, unpleasantly parented drip so the family manse won't be sold to make a private school....

The formula is, for those susceptible to its music-box intricacies, still robust, and in Sebastian Faulks's capable hands, burnished to a new and warming glow.

Faulks has chosen, by placing Bertie in the (rather incredible) role of Jeeves' valet, to emphasize the Upstairs, Downstairs qualities inherent in the Woosterverse ab initio, but left almost entirely alone by Sir Plum Wodehouse in the original stories. We hear of the General Strike, a development that anchors the series in a specific year...1926...which Wodehouse never did. It also gives a small insight into Bertie's and Jeeves' characters, in that Bertie is utterly oblivious to the existence of the Strike and Jeeves' précis of the events is wholly favorably received by Bertie. The plot twist involving Bertie in the belowstairs world is, well, unbelievable in the extreme...Bertie wouldn't know the first thing about how to behave or what to do while waiting at table!...but all is, as usual with a Wodehousian plot, brought into satisfying retrospective focus by Jeeves' summation of the actual events, seen from a nuts-and-bolts perspective.

It is this that defines the appeal of Wodehouse's novels and stories for me: Like music boxes or magic illusions, it's all a matter of perspective as to what one sees of events. From the front of the house, there is an illusion of seamless and inevitable progress from set-up to resolution; at the end, the illusionist allows us to see the mechanics of how he fooled us into seeing only what sustains the seamlessness.

That said, there are areas of story development that are sadly deficient in this effort. I found the Venables family, in particular, received short shrift. As Venables junior is Bertie's romantic rival, it seems to me that the odious swine should be developed to be more odious so that the audience may fully despise him. Promising starts are made with his *ghastly* book-writing career, but not used nearly enough. Venables senior and mater are underdeveloped for the freight they must carry, too.

I know that, when a book is billed as an homage, it must nod frequently to the preceding works on whose developmental shoulders it stands. The many mentions of the inhabitants of the Woosterverse are inevitable. The cameos and walk-ons are as well (loved the brief appearance of Esmond Haddock, for example). A few fewer of these, given more substance, would possibly have worked more to spice and enliven the Woosterverse; as it was, the sheer bulk of the passing references gave the book a slight feel of the soap-opera farewell after a beloved actor dies and the character must be retired. Many poignant memories are evoked, but the effect can be to bring the reader out of the present book, which is the place one wants to be. After all, I paid my twenty-some dollars to be in this exact spot, didn't I?

And I love it. I batten on it. I've missed the deft and skilled application of wit and humor to novels of manners, morals, and fun. Thank you, Sebastian Faulks, thank you, Estate of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, and thank you, Saint Martin's Press. I am refreshed and uplifted and very grateful.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

sweet!

Oh my! Oh my, my, my! You know I am a confirmed Wodehousian so I must give this a look see. Thankee, brother Richard.

Morning RD- Love the Hornby quote! Should be a future topper. Thanks for your recs, on the American Author Challenge. I am still deciding on Wharton. I would love to do a reread of Age of Innocence. I loved both Ethan Frome & House of Mirth too.

>135 maggie1944: I know, right?!

>136 tiffin: I won't do or say anything at all to dissuade you, Tui. I had a marvelous time reading it.

>137 msf59: It's a beaut, isn't it? I think it's very much topper-worthy. Since you've read all those before, Mark, howzabout you try The Custom of the Country for your Whartonizing?

Thanks RD! I am not familiar with that Wharton, so I just added it to my Bookmooch WL and will add it to my AAC Challenge.

Good morning, Richard! I loved your review of the new Wooster and Jeeves - thumb from me. I have never read any of those books, but I know that I have at least one of them on the shelves. And my oldest sister adores those books - she doesn't read a lot anymore, but I bet she would read that one, so thanks for the great Christmas idea. Hope Sunday is treating you well.

I have only read one of the Jeeves and Wooster series (but love the old BBC productions). Your review of Jeeves and the Wedding Bells gets a thumb from me. Delightful.

>139 msf59: I live to serve. Plus that book should, I feel confident, appeal to you.

>140 Crazymamie: Yay! I love when that happens! Ticking an item on the xmas shopping list is a joy unbounded, isn't it? *smooch* for a beautiful, relaxing Sunday like mine.

>141 EBT1002: Thank you, Ellen! Give it a read, g'wan, it's good to reacquaint oneself with the fondly remembered past.

^ I will add it to the burgeoning wishlist. :-)

I hear jingle bells....

For you coffee hounds, I just received an order for replacement beans: El Salvador Majahual – Tablon Tempisque, Rwanda Karenge Coffee Villages, Nicaragua Acopio Suyatal, Ethiopia Organic Suke Quto, Sumatra Aceh Mandheling, Brazil Sertao Carmo de Minas, Rwanda Nyamasheke, and Guatemala Antigua Finca Retana, Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca Rosma, Burundi Kirimiro Teka, and Peru Organic Lot #86. Any good? Does a bear ... well, never mind. Folgers, Keurig? Never heard of 'em.

Nice review of the newest Bertie and Jeeves book. I have only read some of the short stories but found them delightful.

Happy Sunday!

>145 mldavis2: I'll be there in an hour. Can I have 60% Nicaragua, 15% Sumatra, and 25% Guatemala Antigua? Perfect for a leisurely evening coffee.

>146 Cobscook: Thank you, Heidi, and a happy new week to you! I hope you'll be off on Veterans' Day...?

House Whammie Works! Full Price Offer Accepted.

Crazy Book Lady Pack Her Home and Moves, all in 3 weeks time, and then Flies Off To Hawaii ! (to sit by the pool and read)

Yay!

>148 maggie1944: YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Sebastian Faulks is an imitative dab-hand. I enjoyed his take on James Bond a couple of years ago and now it seems as if he has hit pay dirt with Jeeves and Bertie Wooster.

Yup! Yay! Yay!

OMG, now I have to spend three weeks packing.

Congrats to you Karen!

Wake up rd... it's morning. Have coffee... ya know. Morning stuff.

Never forget the price others paid that you might call yourself free.

>150 PaulCranswick: He has such an august rep after Birdsong and Charlotte Gray that it surprises me he'd be up for these pastiches. Still, a writer's gotta eat, I suppose.

>151 maggie1944: Packing! EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Still, SALE!!!

>152 mckait: Morning it is. Stella wanted to be up and at 'em at 6.50. Turns out the young Palladio was getting ready to go into the city for her first day at a tremendous new job!

Sending *smooches*

Today being Veterans' Day, show your support for a real-live US Navy veteran and read my review of Strike from the Deep by Bob Branco. He's the husband of our own tututhefirst, and delivers a debut naval thriller that shows he's ready to fight for all the Tom Clancy readers drifting unmoored by the master's death.

Read all about it! Kindle edition only $4.99!

99: My book group wanted to read The Custom of the Country instead.

Its one of Whartons New York society novels and its just wonderful. Sharply observed, great characters, great period detail.

and a sting in the tale.

134: Nice to see a new Jeeves and Bertie. But boy is that tossed of slightly wacky-whimsical stuff hard to do!

I loved The Custom of the Country! It's up there with House of Mirth. She really took the "write what you know" nostrum to new heights, didn't she?

It is indeed hard to achieve suspension of disbelief in that style. I'm pleased to say that Faulks did a creditable job of it. Also not a little amazed, if I'm honest. I found Birdsong a bit heavy, although I liked the read quite a bit.

Morning RD- We are going to have a touch of winter today and tomorrow. Ugh! But then it gets back to around 50 later in the week.
I have to get to Faulks. I have Birdsong on shelf and "Jeeves" sounds terrific.

>158 msf59: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells is indeed terrific, and deserves a slot on the TBRs for sure. I hope you'll enjoy Birdsong...a lot of people adored it, but I'm more modulated in my admiration for his vision. I liked it, but wish he'd been helped to tighten up the focus.

I am rather bemused by watching the whole American author thing. Bemused I tell you!

Whatevah

Back to reading trivial tripe because I want to.

Wow to the Navy book! and hooray!

Lovely review of Jeeves and the Wedding Bells, Richard. "Bertie is . . . limited." Ha! Yes, indeed.

I liked Birdsong a lot, and this pairing surprised me. Not without some deficiencies, but overall a refreshing revisit - I'm on board.

Off to thumb.

>160 mckait: The American Authors Challenge has taken on a Frankensteinian life indeed. Anything that gets people up and eager to read beyond their comfort zone is good by me, but like always, tell me I *must* read something and my hackles go stratospheric.

Farb is good.

>161 jnwelch: I'm glad you liked the review, Joe! Thanks for the thumb. I expect you'll enjoy the read, when you get around to it. Wodehouse would, I think, enjoy the modern take on his immortals.

Good morning, Richard! It is still morning here. Your book loft caused me to commit the sin of green-eyed envy--simply gorgeous. But Long Island sounds too chilly for me right now. (There's a non sequitur, if you like.)

These collective Group Reads & Challenges are strictly for fun and completely voluntary. I would never want to "have" to read something, especially with the volumes stacked in my TBR pile.
I really love sharing the book reading experience with others and that's what makes this place so damn special.

I need to remember to sing more often.

>163 ronincats: Hi Roni! Envy and chills...yes, that sounds right.

*smooch*

>164 msf59: Exactly, Mark, which is why I don't do the group reads. Whenever I try, I get so ornery about "having" to read something that I just don't.

Since I started doing the group reads I have read books that were at times difficult but often rewarding. It took me almost four months to read Lolita. Will I read it again? Probably not. It's not for everyone. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was another difficult one. I read it in a whirlwind but it was very sad. She writes beautifully. I would read it again and recommend it.

ETA: Nabakov writes beautifully too but that trip in the car. Ay Dios Mio! Too much!

107 (I think it was) the book porn - that is just so beguiling - and I usually like a little more eclectic clutter than that, but still. It looks perfect.

>167 luvamystery65: And that's exactly what a group read should do! I am not built that way, though, since any kind of group activity breaks me out in hives. Parties are best kept under 20 people and centered around dining, without music blasting my eardrums out. A polite string quartet on CD at volume 1 or 2, and off once food is served. No one singing. Hate that.

I have never gotten what I want that way.

>168 sibylline: Isn't that lovely? I think it's the most popular one I've ever posted.

#165...LaLaLa love it!

>170 tututhefirst: So agree, Tina.

Well, everyone knows that I don't do group reads.. that has nothing to do with it. It just brings back a discussion I had here a year or three ago....

I find them too tough.

For all the Pat Barker fans of LT:

On Thursday 5th December 2013 Pat Barker will be talking about her novel Regeneration on World Book Club.

We need questions to be emailed from outside Britain and if you’re in the UK we need guests to be part of the audience at Broadcasting House, W1 at 12.30pm

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and now recognised as a modern classic Regeneration is the hugely acclaimed exploration of how the traumas of war brutalised a generation of young men.

If you wish to attend please send in your name for our guest list (we don’t issue tickets) and if you have a question please send it to worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk

Best wishes,
BBC World Book Club

I do find group reads difficult, because I feel I am under-read. Case in point, I have not read any of these authors. I try to pick the easier titles until I am sure a particular author is one I can "handle".

>134 richardderus: Came time for me to leave, I begged and pleaded and promised to do actual work if I was allowed to take it with me.
Actual work! :)

Sebastian Faulkes though, I was very put off by On Green Dolphin Street which I found fairly inexplicable. His only other I have read is Birdsong.

>167 luvamystery65: I love how reading-outside-your-comfort-zone does this. You try something new, and find rewards you wouldn't normally have had.

>174 leperdbunny: Under- or over-read, either end is problematic.

>175 LovingLit: Actual work, yes, which shows you how much I wanted the book. I've never read On Green Dolphin Street, I don't think, but it sounds perilously close to Island of the Blue Dolphins, or am I thinking of Island of the Sequined Love Nun....

hmmm no book bullets here...

Good morning to you! Coffee'd yet?

Barely. It was 33 last night and has been steadily spit-snowing since before midnight. Nothing, of course, is sticking since it's 39. But walking the doggie was...fun. Mmm. She hated it as much as I did and accomplished both tasks as quickly as her canine constitution would permit.

Review: 63 of seventy-five

Title: THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING

Author: JUAN GABRIEL VÁSQUEZ
Translator: ANNE MCLEAN

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In the city of Bogotá, Antonio Yammara reads an article about a hippo that had escaped from a derelict zoo once owned by legendary Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The article transports Antonio back to when the war between Escobar’s Medellín cartel and government forces played out violently in Colombia’s streets and in the skies above.

Back then, Antonio witnessed a friend’s murder, an event that haunts him still. As he investigates, he discovers the many ways in which his own life and his friend’s family have been shaped by his country’s recent violent past. His journey leads him all the way back to the 1960s and a world on the brink of change: a time before narco-trafficking trapped a whole generation in a living nightmare.

Vásquez is “one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature,” according to Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, and The Sound of Things Falling is his most personal, most contemporary novel to date, a masterpiece that takes his writing—and will take his literary star—even higher.

I received this ARC from the publisher as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program

My Review: To every rule its exception: This book is praised highly by a writer whose work I abhor, Jonathan Franzen; and ordinarily that means I will avoid the book so as not to read even a Pearl-Rule 46pp of something I'm bound to hate.

Ha ha ha, rules. I liked this book a lot. Well, "like" is a weird word for the emotional resonance of the book. I responded to the book like a tuning fork responds to a smack.

The fact is that I am a fan of Latin American literature because, like this book and author, most of the translated works are political and tendentious in their natures, and so are the authors. So am I. So it's usually a good fit.

This story, which feels as personal as the blurb suggests it actually is, made me very uncomfortable, as I watched Colombia's descent into warlord rule and civil failure. I suspect I'd feel the same fearful anger if I were to visit Montana or Idaho or Wyoming, places that white supremacist/apocalyptic christian cultists have claimed for themselves. When nutball extremists take over a place, it's a failure of civil authority, and that is a crime. The net effect is the same as the drug cartels' takeover of Colombia in the 1970s or the current failure of civil authority in Mexico today or the Cascadian separatist movement here.

These are not positive developments, they have tremendous costs in personal misery, and they are much to be deplored. Vásquez does his deploring by focusing tightly on the emotional and psychic costs of civil failure to a small group of friends, Antonio's friends and his good self. It's a sad, sad chronicle of horror and rage. And it's wrapped in beautiful words expressing solidly grounded truths:

Adulthood brings with it the pernicious illusion of control, perhaps even depends on it. I mean that mirage of dominion over our own life that allows us to feel like adults, for we associate maturity with autonomy, the sovereign right to determine what is going to happen to us next.

Translator McLean has done a marvelous job of making poetry in the English, and while I haven't read the original Spanish text, I can only say that she is unlikely to have made such handsome bricks without good, abundant straw.

If I must pick a nit, and I must, it's that the structure of the novel is a tad more complex than is strictly speaking necessary to tell the author's very involving story. It's not hard to follow, but it's just artificial enough to pop the reader out of the narrative flow. That's almost never a good thing. (Okay, it's never a good thing, but I've learned not to make absolute statements because some little twidgee or another will come along and say something tiresome about my opinions and frankly I'm over it.)

I hope, that issue aside, that you will all race out to your local bookeries and procure copies of this book. It's got something important to say to us in the USA about the incredibly high cost of allowing dissent to become dissolution. Colombia failed its citizens, and their agony only slowly passes. Mexico is mid-failure, and is much closer to us. And yet we allow our own idiot rebels a far freer hand in obstructing and undermining our governmental institutions and shredding our social fabric in the name of some illusory "right" they assert that they have to do this to us all.

Read the book. Learn the cost. The price of the right wing's version of freedom is too goddamned high, and Vásquez knows it first hand. Please listen to him.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

*sniff*

Great review, Richard! I studied Spanish in high school and college and I did take a couple of culture courses where we read literature *in Spanish*. It is nice to read something in the original language to keep my skill up to snuff. I love that quote, hermoso lenguaje!

Thanks, Tamara!

>176 richardderus: I see one of the tags for Island of the Sequined Love Nun is organ-harvesting. Hm.
What a varied knowledge of book titles you have RD!

>180 richardderus: why is the book on fire? Cremating said good friend maybe? *titter*

>183 LovingLit: Amazing, isn't it. Like an encyclopedia! xo

I wondered about that too. I decided to imagine it as the Ghosts of Good Books Past.

I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed the new Jeeves and Wooster. I'm always trepidatious when someone attempts to take up where a master left off, but thrilled when they manage to succeed at it.

I have heard your advice and so added The Sound of Things Falling to WL. It sounds difficult but important. Also, I haven't read much South American literature and I should try to correct that.

This just in: in a race for city council seats in Seattle the socialist female is beating the incumbent male. Socialist, I"m telling you. She's openly a socialist. I love it!

>185 laytonwoman3rd: Oh me too, Linda3rd, me too! It's not easy to make a set-up this antiquated resonate with 21st-century sensibilities, either, and I think he did it as smoothly as anyone could.

>186 Cobscook: It is difficult, on the level of hard to read about these matters, but the prose is so big a treat that it doesn't seem like labor.

>187 maggie1944: ::gobsmacked::

Maybe, at long last, the world I knew is coming home to roost. Maybe! Just maybe! the long exile could be over.

One hopes

I am carefully avoiding adding anything remotely important to my tbr. Not gonna do it. I want pure entertainment... and am striving to find it!

So did you really make those lemon/lime confections? I can't get them our of my head! lol. I am hoping Kim makes them and then shares .. lol

Good day to you.

>189 maggie1944: One does, indeed.

>190 mckait: I did! The youffs are fans, and I am pleased. I can see, however, that lemon would be more The Thing than lime was. *smooch*

Who needs a day planner? Here it is.

Oh yes to #192! I am off for six days. It is nice and cool here today. I'm wearing a long sleeve pajama. Yep, still in pjs drinking my coffee and about to eat a little something and waiting on Doña Elena (Mom) to finish up her breakfast. Plus I have three little pooches to keep me company. Life is good.

xoxo to you and Stella

Perspective check.

>193 luvamystery65: Six days off sounds like a gigantic treat! Enjoy them, and smooch on your doggies. It makes everything better, no matter how good or how bad things are.

>194 richardderus: perspective indeed!

>165 richardderus: - LOVE that!

Okay, I am finally all caught up here. Lovely trip, as usual. I really liked that review you wrote for The Sound of Things Falling - excellent quote you chose! Thumb from me, and I am adding that one to the giant WL.

It is actually chilly down here in the Deep South today - only going to 56! I'm in heaven. Unfortunately these big weather fronts that are accompanied by drastic temperature changes mess with my head - literally. Major headaches, which is why I have been mostly absent from the threads these past few days. Feeling better today, so I am hoping to do some catching up. And Of course I started with one of my very favorite people - happy Wednesday to you, BigDaddy!

Al Roker is talking about freeze warnings over 3/4 of the nation, and we are going to have an 80 degree day. Beach day! Not for me, though. I have to work on jewelry production, and then a class tonight to produce fused glass pendants. *sigh*

>196 leperdbunny: Yeppirz, made me stop and catch my breath.

>197 Crazymamie: Hiya smoochling! Glad you're not dead, just in intense agony. So much nicer, isn't it?

>197 Crazymamie:, 198 It's 38° right now, and we're not going any higher...but tomorrow it's back to more seasonally appropriate 50-ish. But it is bright and sunshiney! That makes it so much nicer.

>192 richardderus: I'm writing that on every day of my calendar, just in case I forget.

>194 richardderus: Perspective is everything, and the older I get, the more of it I have (at least I think I do).

So I've been raiding the bookswap shelves in my apartment building - 10 books! And good ones at that. Go look at the list.

>200 jnwelch: Ha! Perfect place for it.

>201 ffortsa: I hope I've got better perspective now that I'm older. I don't know, but it feels that way, and so I'm a-goin' with it.

Where is the list? Profile or thread?

Black Lawrence Press published THE TIDE KING by Jen Michalski, a well-published veteran of the small press world, which I review for The Small Press Book Review today.

High-quality prose, a creative idea, and lots of lovely images. Check it out!

Hi RD- Great review of The Sound of Things Falling. I loved it too but once again, failed to review it. I've done an awful job at that lately.
Vasquez is a very strong writer and I am looking forward to reading his earlier work.

Thanks, Mark! It's quite the journey, and Colombia is an amazing place. I found the whole experience very transporting. I hope to dig deeper into his catalog next year, too.

Good to find good books.. You are doing a great job of it! Thank you for the books... The "Dog" books are going right to the shelf. She is mulling over the others.. Impressed by them, but mulling...

I'll have my morning Hemingway, please.

As she should, of course, but I have so little faith in her book-judgment. Still, they're there.

Hi dear. Thank you for reminding me of my Thingaversary. You're great! xx

Happy First Thingaversary again, Diana!

Hiya RDear! Thanks for the reminder on perspective....always good to keep that in mind.

Ain't it just, Heidi. Very worthwhile.

#207 Perusing this my instant comment was to say 'Hemmingway please!' then I saw your comment... doh! I'll go with 'Hemmingway for me too please'. :)

Those coffee quips are a bit unsettling...... I am sure that Ernest would have a good cup of joe and keep it simple.

Well, 2 are on the shelf. The rest are in a pile next to her computer.

I have no comment about today...but at least there are only 6 hours of it left.

>207 richardderus: Too funny!

Me, now.

>213 BekkaJo: Heh, who doesn't want a Hemingway?

>214 sibylline: I kinda doubt it, cuz, he was a hard drinker.

>215 mckait: *there there, pat pat*

>216 ronincats: Agreed!

The only thing that Hemingway kept simple was his writing! I'm thinking he would have both.

Good morning, BigDaddy! It's Friday!! And I LOVE that mug - I need one of those for Abby.

Morning sweetness! I think I should come with a large, easily visible warning label with that on it.

Hemingway's stories are the shazizzle. The longer-form stuff isn't.

Good morning rdear... hope you are having a good one so far.. and that it carries through the weekend :)

make it so

THEY arrive the evening, and are here until Monday. So at best ~meh~ but at least it's not Thanksgiving yet.

mmmm turkey and best of all, STUFFING! Cause, with the food... it's all about the stuffing and gravy, really.

No turkey here, ham; stuffing, yes! Lots o' stuffing. Also roasted brussels sprouts, *shudder* sweet potato ooze, pecan pie, apple pie, and punkin pie. Oh and southern mincemeat pie. I'm sure there will be some salad, which I can't eat.

A nice dinner!

Good morning!

Who wants salad on Thanksgiving anyway? Like rolls.. not necessary.. because there is stuffing! yum

>225 leperdbunny: Hi Tamara!

>226 mckait: I know, right?! Who needs it?

I'm off on the long and winding road to Johor Bahru this evening RD to visit the MIL and her dodgy ticker. Won't be around much this weekend so I'll get in early and wish you the best of ones.

Have the best possible time, Paul, under the circs. I'll be beaming wellness whammys to Johor Bahru. Don't blame me when, come August 2014, there's a population boom there.

Hangry, yup, I know that one.

Look out, Johor Bahru. Need to start thinking about building more schools.

I hope you and Miss Stella are setting up well for the weekend, Richard.

The Internet told me to, so I must obey!

It's going to be cooler and drizzly here, so YES. Read all weekend. Oooh ... and eat something good (but not necessarily good for ya').

223,226 Yeah stuffing is my one downfall during the holidays. Well, that and pie.

231 Ain't that the truth!

232 Oooh ... and eat something good (but not necessarily good for ya'). Yeah!!! I second this :)

This weekend brings an experimental pumpkin caramel pie test. Boo hoo.

I adore stuffing, and eat it with greedy glee.

Oh, stuffing...*sigh*

Last week I made some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies (a lot of them!). They must've been good 'cause they're gone.

> 236 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies? *drool*

yeah, pie. Love pie. >237 Thebookdiva: Once I was "having a moment" and desperately wanted pumpkin chc. chip cookies. I had no pumpkin.. I cried ( hormones) and my neighbor took me to the store so I could get pumpkin. We laugh at that around this time of year. :P

>235 Crazymamie: I make cornbread, then when that's dried out, combine it with shredded carrots, diced onions, chopped celery, and sausage, and bake it with 1 egg per pound for moist and lots of chicken stock for dry.

>236 avidmom: With butterscotch instead of chocolate, I'd've simply eaten every single one before you were all the way done baking them.

>237 Thebookdiva: Does sound like somethin' else!

>238 mckait: Ha! Pumpkin Emergency Truck!!

Thanks for that - totally trying that this year!

>237 Thebookdiva: - *waves at Abby*

>238 mckait: - My niece had that exact same experience, only it was popsicles! We still laugh about it (she's 30 now).

>238 mckait: *fell head first onto keyboard laughing*

>239 richardderus: re: 235 i'll be dropping by to sample the stuffing. a medium sized turkey's worth should suffice for me. oh good grief. i've drooled onto the keyboard i just head-butted. poor thing. it's looking aggrieved. all your fault.

>240 Crazymamie: It's well worth a try, cuddlemuffin.

>241 mirrordrum: I make 2-9x13 pans of stuffing every year and am roundly criticized for it...too much no one eats it...and I end up with about 5 servings as leftovers every year. Huh.

Perkins! A medium turkey's-worth of stuffing for Miss Ellie set aside this Thanksgiving, if you please.

Yeah, dammit!

240> I was about 45 when it happened.. I still had a hormone or two left in those days. Nice to see Abby around :)

So, off to work today.. have a nice relaxing day and think of me watching the clock :P

Morning RD! I wish I could follow the game plan in post #231. Sad Mark. I am nearly finished with The Martian Chronicles. What a gem. Over 60 years later, it still dazzles. Have a great Saturday.

Saturday morning book porn!

Getting caught up:

#85 Looks like a young Raymond Burr.

#155 - okay, bought. Yay tututhefirst's huband.

#164 - I'm in a bookclub that meets monthly, but I've only read about 60% of the books. Too many books, too little time to read sludge. I still go to the meetings for the conversation, food, and wine.

#226 - we don't have anything green at Thanksgiving except pickles and olives. Everything else is either protein, my fantastic turkey gravy, or serious carbs.

#242 - tried to get Aunt Ann to NOT make her dressing for Thanksgiving - like my own sourdough bread dressing better. Didn't work. We'll have soggy/dry (yes, soggy AND dry) cornbread stuffing. One of the disadvantages of having family members bring food for Thanksgiving. And don't get me started on the Cool Whip on the homemade banana cream pie that Cousin Rebecca brings. Makes me weep.

#246 - one of your best book porns yet. Books on shelves, all higgledy-piggledy, empty shelves, and unopened books. Drool.

Happy Saturday, RD! *smooches* from your own Horrible

Soggy/dry stuffing, eccchhh. I don't like turkey, or any bird meat, because it's always dry, greasy, and stringy. All at the same time. YUCK!

Cool Whip puzzles me. What on earth is so hard about whipping cream? Do you not have a hand mixer? They're $9.99 at the grocery store. Unless it breaks after the first use, it's cheap.

Enjoy Strike from the Deep! Tell the world. *smoochings* for my dear Horrible

Kath - that is hilarious! You just made my morning!

> 243 Love that!

I know, right? Isn't that funny, and yet so true.

Like MacArthur, I have returned, albeit with considerably less fanfare, flag waving, and fulsome self promotion.

Read *entire* thread, smiled, laughed, became moderately enraged about politics yet found a ray of hope in the socialist election, and distributed well-earned thumbs.

Stuffing is the real reason for Thanksgiving, isn't it? I'm a little unsure about this year as I'll be eating with a strangely-assorted group of in-laws and outlaws. The novelty may help to overcome my mild social phobias on what might be the hardest T'day ever. If not there's always meds and/or wine.

So glad to be here. xo, Young Man.

Danvers my dear, I couldn't be more pleased to see someone here than I am to see you.

This will be a rough ride of a Thanksgiving, indeed, and I am hopeful that copious swillings of wine and liberal ingestion of pills will make it surreal in the funny way, not in the funhouse way.

Thanks for the thumbs! *smooch*

Hi RD, hope you are having a lovely Saturday!

#243...YES SIR MR. HAPPINESS FAIRY. Smiling as ordered. You are TOO MUCH. Sending back smooches.

#246...my kinda slovenly book porn

Saw the Tom Hanks movie last night....really well done, and has Bob hyped up to write another story about Capt Jason.

>253 leperdbunny: Hi Tamara! Glad to see you, and it's a very pleasant day, thanks.

>254 tututhefirst: He'd best get on it, me deario! Momentum is easily lost. I'd hate to see Bob get a step behind when he has a great opportunity here.

That book porn is one of my all-timers too. *smooch*

“The only thing better then the smell of a new book is the smell of an old book, jacked in dust, soaked in memories, waiting to be remembered. ”
Josh de la Bruere (whoever he is)

Good Morning! Want to join me? The only thing missing, is reading material. Hope you have a fine Sunday.

ooooOoOoOOOoo pancakes!! YUM! I've got a book. Oh wait, it's not one I want to risk syruping. Hmmmm permaybehaps it's time for the Kindle!

I think we might need some meat, as well. Links, perhaps? And that is a big hunk of butter!

There isn't a way to get too much butter for me. I'll ALWAYS eat sausage!

Maybe it is cheese, but that would be a weird side. I love snausage!

I hope it's not cheese. I can't envision what that might be like.

Hi - My name is Leslie & I have been lurking on this thread for a while now. I thought you might enjoy this:

Review: 64 of seventy-five

Title: THE TIDE KING

Author: JEN MICHALSKI

Rating: 3.5* of five

I received this book from the publisher via The Small Press Book Review, where this review first appeared

The Publisher Says: Stanley Polensky and Calvin Johnson serve in Germany during World War II. Calvin, near death after being shelled, is given a bewitched herb by Stanley but then left for dead. Each soldier returns from the war and years pass. Calvin, discovering that he cannot age and cannot die, searches for Stanley to get answers.

Michalski's The Tide King is the story of burnette saxifrage, an herb rumored in Polish folklore to provide those who eat it with immortality, and its effects on three generations of a Polish family over two continents beginning in 19th-century Poland and ending in 1976 America.

But it is also the story of young men’s sacrifice during great wars, of a young child's experiences during the holocaust and being a war orphan, of the curiosities of the American century, such as 1950s country music and smoke jumpers in the Montana mountains and 1970s New York. Just as Viking king Cnut, who was rumored to be so powerful that he controlled the tides at his feet, discovered “how empty and worthless is the power of kings,” Calvin Johnson and others cursed by the herb find in The Tide King that the power of youth and immortality is an empty gift, for they will continually witness the death of their families, lovers, dreams, and ideals.

My Review: Magic, real magic, carries a price that must be paid, and requires a coldness of spirit that can't be faked. Amateurs cannot fathom the horrors they unleash by assuming that magic fixes things, makes things better, creates rather than destroys.

Jen Michalski knows this. She writes her fable of eternal youth and perpetual healing as the painful, costly thing it is. Michalski offers this modern take on The Picture of Dorian Gray as a parable of kind intentions gone metastatic. Stanley Polensky means well when he curses the dying Calvin Johnson with eternal youth. Calvin Johnson means well when he offers his "gift" to the one woman he's ever loved, as she is old and dying. Heidi Polensky, daughter of a mother who wanted nothing to do with her and a father who didn't sire her, means well when she curses herself with eternal youth to keep her one true love, Calvin, company.

And none of these good intentions have the slightest effect on the painful reality: Control is an illusion, and control of death is fraught with so much unknowable baggage as to be a terrifying power much to be avoided.

Michalski, much published and well versed in the narrative arts, gives us a chilling ride through the blasted emotional landscape of life's losers. Stanley and Heidi are the people one sees walking to the bus stop, hunched and defeated, going...well, I've never known where they're going, can such sad faces actually have jobs, or families, or lives? Surely they're actors, characters...but here they're alive, and yes they're as sad and defeated as their faces. But they're also human beings longing for more, and tragically, they get it.

Like characters from myths, the Polenskys haven't learned what to hope for, wish for, or how to use a gift (sparingly and after much thought!), because no one anywhere ever has believed they could have a gift at all. But Calvin, the recipient twice over of the Polenskys' gifts, is possibly more to be pitied than even they are. A golden boy who will eternally be a boy, grows into an angry and desperate man, choosing dangerous and difficult things to do with his unearned life, and "succeeding" at every turn.

But alone. Always, forever, beautiful and accomplished and alone. It is so unspeakably frightening to imagine being beautiful and isolated by a secret no one could possibly dream is true....

Had the novel focused on these three characters, and spent its time exploring their realities, I'd give it my highest recommendation in spite of copyediting problems ("$230 dollars" is one tooth-gritting example). But the introduction of a magical elder, Ela, and her Holocaustic childhood plus the portentous attempt to draw the herbal curse from a misty past, falls very flat for this reader. The ending, a journey undertaken to fix that which the characters' "gifts" have broken, is a hollow clanging hatch being shut on a well of wonderful ideas.

The very real pleasures of Jen Michalski's writing are enough to make the novel well worthy of your book-buying dollars. It makes me feel sad that I can't be passionately warbling paeans of encouragement to you. But I am sure that, if you buy the book, you will spend pleasurable hours savoring its mellow, lovely prose. And that's enough to make it worth you while.

>263 leslie.98: Hi Leslie! That's a wonderful graphic...I think the Stoker one made me snicker the hardest. Thanks for posting it!

How is the day so far, rd?

eta

off to read and thumb..I'm sure..

eta 2

wow... sounds compelling.

The minions have mailed it to you. I think you'll like it.

The day is what I expect a day to be: Too many people doing things that get in the way of me doing my own things, making food I hate and not being happy when I use "their" ingredients to make food I like, and generally making noise while I'm trying to read.

I need to win the lottery so I can live alone and have servants.

Amen, Vincent.

Aww you're so sweet! Thank you. I too, wish that you would win the lottery so you could live alone.
Servants? Well, maybe one.. a driver, housekeeper ?

Servants? More like a harem of luscious young men to coddle you and cater to your every whim. And a large home with room not only for the above, but a wing for visiting LTers to stay over for a few days when you have your time-limited open houses for wine and good discussion and to show off your actual right-there-in-your-home book porn. There, I've spent all your lottery money--well, I left you enough for upkeep and taxes--and that's what I envision for you. *smooch*

yeah.. we don't wanna kill him, do we roni?

Servants, in this case, means "porn stars looking to retire." In exchange for a years' work, they'd get $250K net of taxation. Renewable by mutual consent. One driver with bus, a la Whoopi Goldberg, so I can visit as the spirit moves me.

I think I'd fund the Tome Home, too. I still like the idea of doing it in Olympia, at that old brewery. Pretty place. The latest Powerball winner was in Brooklyn, for $130MM. *sigh* That would make a nice start on the Tome Home funding, eh what?

Yep, thass me.

@268: Hear, hear.

Hope Sunday's going well.

I've spent mine in the garden, mastering the roku, this and that. Off to read now.

273 Bwahahaha! That should be a religion, too. Hope you are having a lovely Sunday!

Review: 65 of seventy-five

Title: Ask Not: A Nathan Heller Thriller

Author: MAX ALLAN COLLINS

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Chicago, September 1964. Beatlemania sweeps the nation, the Vietnam War looms, and the Warren Commission prepares to blame a “lone-nut” assassin for the killing of President John F. Kennedy. But as the post-Camelot era begins, a suspicious outbreak of suicides, accidental deaths, and outright murders decimates assassination witnesses. When Nathan Heller and his son are nearly run down on a city street, the private detective wonders if he himself might be a loose end...

Soon a faked suicide linked to President Johnson’s corrupt cronies takes Heller to Texas, where celebrity columnist Flo Kilgore implores him to explore that growing list of dead witnesses. With the blessing of Bobby Kennedy—former US attorney general, now running for Senator from New York—Heller and Flo investigate the increasing wave of violence that seems to emanate from the notorious Mac Wallace, rumored to be LBJ’s personal hatchet man.

Fifty years after JFK’s tragic death, Collins’s rigorous research for Ask Not raises new questions about the most controversial assassination of our time.

My Review: I am a big believer in Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation that fits the facts is almost always the correct one. In the case of the JFK assassination, the simplest explanation isn't the Warren Report one, it's the conspiracy theory. I suspect we'll all be dead before the truth comes out, and even then it most likely won't be the whole truth, but eventually the zombies of the facts will rise and stink up the Body Politic. Usually I think conspiracy theories are silly, for one major reason: The Gummint can't keep secrets it *wants* to keep very well. So all the leaks and the murders and deaths surrounding the assassination, in my mind, make it more not less likely that they're still trying to keep a lid on whatever really happened.

Okay, so that's out of the way. This novel is the third by Max Allan Collins, an incredibly prolific writer, dealing with JFK's assassination. (As a side note, it's extremely weird to me that the publisher AND Amazon do not make it easy to find the other two titles, and not one database groups the titles in a convenient, easy-to-reference way.) It's amazing to me that Nate Heller, Collins' Forrest-Gump-esque PI character of what, thirteen or fourteen novels so far, who is at every single important crime anywhere ever, isn't the star of a movie serial franchise a la Bond or TV series by now. In a world that gobbles up Mad Men it would seem to me to be a no-brainer.

Go know from this.

As I read along, I realized that I was being fed an angled view of the motivations and purposes of the assassins, a slant on the facts that brought certain facets and shapes into sharper relief than the Official Version would have us look at. As any actor can tell you, lighting matters. The same face, the same lumps and bumps, look very different seen from an angle and spotlit as opposed to head-on and strobed. I kept looking stuff up. I mean to tell you, my Google history is causing fantods at the NSA data farm even as we speak. I am amazed at the sheer breadth of Collins' scope. I am impressed at his precise eye for which piece of what conspiracy theory to use in weaving his tale. This is some intricate construction, folks, and deserves its own round of applause separate from any other praise merited by the book.

Does the book itself merit some praise? Yes. It's a given that Nate Heller will be a self-deprecating wisecracking noir hero. You like that trope or you don't, and I do. What's not a given is the way that the fictional exploits of Nate Heller enhance and augment the historical record of the day and time under discussion. Collins does that job very well.

The book is a beaut. The story is one central to our country's image of itself. The long, long tail of conspiracy theories proves that. And now, fifty years after that hideous, agonizing day, the perspective of a people who went through Watergate, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the sheer passage of time provide us with a new angle from which we can view the idea that our government can lie, cheat, steal, and kill in our names while pursuing selfish, disgusting, wrong, and venal aims.

Will Nate Heller bring to mind Edward Snowden or Pope Francis? No, more likely he'll bring to mind Bond and company. He's got a lot of knowledge about stuff that scares powerful people. He's willing to trade silence for comfort (his and ours). But that's not a surprise. This isn't a character whose morals we're in doubt about at this late date in the series. But he's our eyes and ears on the scene, and he's invaluable to us as readers because he's got no illusions at all. So he blows our comfy little illusions all to hell.

Where they belong, and where clinging to them will lead us. Go on this trip. Collins takes us to the heart of one of the most important moments in twentieth-century US history very very plausibly.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Ask Not sounds wonderful. Nice review.

Hi Richard. I hope you are doing well and enjoying the gradual slide toward Thanksgiving. I see that folks are already slavering and sharing recipes and raves and such. I will be in Tennessee for this, my favorite holiday, eating too much food in the company of my favorite (only) sister and my favorite aunt and cousins. I suspect there will be dressing. And gravy. And wine.

#268 - Ol' Vincent nailed it.

Book porn! Dallas mansion's library. On the market for only $10MM!

LOL @ review ( NSA etc )
off to thumb

>277 EBT1002: I think it was a very very worthwhile read, Ellen, and the series is...ummm...it's, well, it's...yeah.

Pumpkin caramel pie last night was just exactly like every other pumpkin pie I've ever had. I don't care if I never eat another one, but I won't turn it down if it's what's for dessert. The youffs made a pork roast with onions and carrots and rosemary, very very yummy, served with asparagus and roasted potatoes. As it was a dank and clammy evening, this made for a near-perfect dinner. A glass of sauvignon blanc, pie, espresso...nothing not to love.

>279 mckait: Thanks, Kath! I endeavor to please.

>278 richardderus:: but I'd have to live in Dallas. ;) Do like the reading table with the light for reading those chunksters. #107 is still my all-time favourite.

>281 tiffin: That part gives me pause as well. I figure, though, that there being sufficient funds to buy a $10MM residence, there's no lack of funds to get the !(&%^^!% outta Dallas from April through October.

Hell, I'd spend the $10MM on the Tome Home, who'm I kidding?

Haven't de-lurked in a while but thought I'd drop in a dirve by smooch. Hope you are drier than we are - I swear the air is wet here even when it is not actually raining. Ugh.

Hi Bekka! Dry as a bone here, with a goleor of sunshine and a strong sea breeze. Heaven. Don't mildew, dearie, crank up the heat and dry the air out.

If I win Powerball, I'll give some thought to that Dallas mansion.

Good review of Ask Not. I'm resigned to our never knowing what really happened with JFK, but it sure doesn't make sense that it was Oswald acting alone.

Thanks, Joe. I agree, no sense at all, and frankly it's puzzling how they imagined they could sell such a notion in a place like Dallas was in 1963.

But we'll be long dead before the truth is known, so it won't matter to us!