Prue continues to plod along

Happy New Year, everyone - hope to be more active this year

Favourite Reads of 2013:

Train Dreams
Nothing to Envy
The Republic of Love
The Devil and the White City
Alys, Always
How to be a woman
The Sisters Brothers
May we be forgiven
Rock Springs
Montana 1948
Where'd you go, Bernadette
Burial Rites

Great to see you here, Prue. Looking forward to following along during 2014.

Well there is a huge sigh of relief. Oldest pal on LT running for the hills? Nah she's back and life is better. xx

Do hope you follow up on being more active this year - miss the fun and insight you impart so naturally. xx

Have a wonderful 2014, my dear Prue.

2014 Books read

1. Old Filth by Jane Gardam*****

2. The Privileges by Jonathan Dee***

3. Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski***1/2

4. Fresh Kills by Bill Loehfelm***

5. The Warden by Anthony Trollope****

6. Still Life by Louise Penny***1/2

7. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt****

8. The Fault in our stars by John Green***

9. The Photograph by Penelope Lively***1/2

10. We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson****

11. Down among the dead men by Michelle Williams***

12. When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson***3/4

13. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman***1/2

14. The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven by Sherman Alexie *****

15. Star Island by Carl Hiassen***

16. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer***

17. Silence of the grave by Arnaldur Indriaason****

18. The Martian by Andy Weir****1/2

Currently reading:

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Gawd but you guys were quick! Judy, Paul - THANK YOU SO MUCH. As two of my favourite folk on LT it is a real pleasure to hear from you. Hope you both enjoyed a wonderful holiday season!

Welcome back!

Hey thanks, Jim - I love this group!

Hi Prue! Glad to see you here. What did you think of Old Filth? It was one of my top reads last year:)

Happy New Year to you!

I love that Book meme - last spotted on Megan's thread - here is mine (remember I didn't have a lot to work with!)

Describe yourself: Nothing to Envy

Describe how you feel: The Good Doctor...oh, I thought that said describe **who** you feel

Describe where you currently live: The republic of love

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Joyland

Your favourite form of transportation: Train Dreams

Your best friend is: The Little Sleep

You and your friends are: Excellent Women

What’s the weather like: A crime in the neighbourhood

You fear: A death in the family

What is the best advice you have to give: Let’s pretend this never happened

Thought for the day: More baths less talking

How I would like to die: Before I go to sleep

My soul’s present condition: A trick of the light

Oh hello Anne! Happy 2014 - I absolutely adored Old Filth and cannot wait to get to the others in the trilogy! I am giving it Five Stars!

Happy new year, Prue! I loved Old Filth and the other 2 as well. Great to start the year with a 5 star book.

Hi Prue! Glad to see you back. Hugs!

Hi Prue, it's great to see you back!

Hi Prue! it's great to see you. I have Old Filth on my TBR shelf. Must get to it soon.

Enjoyed your meme replies.

Best advice given is priceless! Takes me whizzing back to my college days and waking up still not yet sober and wondering looking at the young lady next to me whether I had or I hadn't and gleaning from her smile that I most probably had....but just to make sure....

Have a wonderful weekend, Prue!

Prue, I told Mark that I was the plodder of the group, but it looks like there are two of us. Do you mind if I plod along with you again this year? I'm so glad to see another fan of Old Filth. The rest of the trilogy is both poignant and illuminating. I loved Betty's story!

It seems then that I have a soft spot for plodders.
Have a lovely Sunday, Prue and please enliven my days more often by your presence.

Welcome back, Prue!

Hello Cushla - yes it was good to get off with a bang!

Hugs to you, Richard!! Thanks for stopping by! And new year hugs also to you and Dianna, Donna, Paul and Katie. (and a lol to Paul). And Donna - always happy to keep pace with a fellow plodder.

Sorry to have been so remiss but I have spent the past week in bed with a horrible horrible summer flu. Back at work today - not because I feel that much better but because work has aircon and it is 40 degrees centigrade plus today and set to stay that way for the rest of the week. Groan.

Am really enjoying The Yellow Birds which I hope to finish before week's end, before diving into Death comes for the archbishop and then The Goldfinch which is my first RL Book Club read for the year.

Sorry to hear that you've been under the weather, Prue. Hope you are well on the road to recovery. Wow, that's definitely too hot for comfort, hope you are able to cool yourself down someplace other than work.

Hi, Prue! There seems to be something making the rounds amongst the 75ers lately. I hope you start feeling better soon!

Hi Prue! Flu is horrid no matter the season, and 40C temps are an abuse of our civil rights. Feel better soon!

I brought you a little something that I found on Pinterest:



An Oz pocket watch!

Get well soon dear lady. Always lovely to see you back in the saddle so to speak. xx

Oh Richard! For me? That is absolutely beautiful - thanks for thinking of me! I absolutely love it.

Paul - thanks for the good wishes. Still only feeling 80 per cent fit, but did a gentle training session at the gym and will go again on Saturday for a heavier workout. And Happy Thingaversary, Paul!

Have I said how much I love living in Melbourne? The grand boulevards, the fabulous food, its laneways, its complete obsession with all things coffee-related? Four days over a hundred degrees - not so much to love there. But, I wanted to call out a great idea by the local council - they have placed 26 brightly coloured pianos around the city for people to play. And every time I pass one and children are up having a go at tickling the ivories, it makes me feel happy. Cool huh?

Very cool! Oh, I'd love to go. Are you living there now?

Hello Anne - we have been living in Melbourne for the past 23 years - excepting a two-year hiatus in New Zealand and my time at the farm with my mother. It is a very liveable city with a very 'European' feel to it - huge Italian and Greek populations, as well as long-standing Chinatown and vibrant Vietnamese, Indian and Korean communities - it is a very multi-cultural city.

Hey Anne, BTW, can't find your 2014 thread...can you post me the link? Hate to not follow along with you this year...

Prue - I do want to visit Melbourne one day soon and return the favour you paid on me by your visit to KL. Pianos on the street sounds like great fun.

By the way if you go to the main work page and click on the threadbook section at the top it will take you to an alphabetical listing of all the threads.
Or just click here:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2014Threadbook

Oh Anne - can't find your 2014 thread - can you post me the link please so I can continue to follow along with you?

Hi Prue. Dropping a star so that I can find my way back!

Hi Prue,

Here's the link to my thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/163123

I would love a visit when you get a chance.

I guess I was thinking of you living on the farm with your parents, and I didn't realize you weren't living there anymore.

Happy weekend!

Argh- I have only read 2 from your favourites list of last yer. I intend to have a few more of them read by the end of this year though.

And what is with me only finding you now? I can answer that, I saw you on other peoples threads and came a looking. :)

So you are living in Melbourne now!?? Heat wave-wise how are you faring? It sounds horrendous.

Hi Prue! Founded and starred. Wish you a lovely weekend.

Prue - Hope you are still tickling the ivories down there this Sunday!

ooohhh visitors! How lovely!

Anne - got you starred!

Megan - yes I have been back in Melbourne for the past year and more, now. And the heatwave was absolutely horrendous! Thank goodness we are back to a perfectly lovely 25 Celsius today. But four days in the mid-forties? Ugghhh. Just ugghhh. Of course, overnight it cooled down to 30. Ghastly.

Hello Ameise - glad to have you stop by!

Hey Paul - hope you similarly had a wonderful weekend.

I am trying to be a bit more frugal in my book-buying this year. Still, so far my new arrivals have been:

American Mirror - the life and art of Norman Rockwell

The Accursed by the ever-prolific Joyce Carol Oates

Now that I have my new bookshelves, I am acutely aware of just how overcrowded they are already; now I need to save for two matching book units to go each side of the fire-place and hopefully I will be able to house all my books without any annoying stacking.

I picked up The Accursed last year! and it's on the pile for early this year. Let's compare notes!

Hello Jim - yes, let's! I chose it because it had a fantastic review in the New York Times Lit Review by someone whose pov I respected...can't remember who it was now.....

Oh, I know the problem of stacking books, Prue....There's a need for some "pruning" on my bookshelves :)

Prue, The Accursed is on my TBR list (local library).

I also bought The Accursed this year, Prue. Don't know if I'll read it just yet but it cuts a brooding presence from its vantage point on the shelves.

Melbourne sounds lovely, Prue. I love finding out more about the world through LT friends. There will never be enough bookshelves! Even with my ongoing pruning, I have noticed several stacks of books here and there. Now, how does that happen?

I've only read Zombie by Oates and it was good but not great. Have you read others by Oates or is The Accursed your first?

Morphidae, I've read My Sister, My Love - An Intimate Story Of Skyler Rampike (4 of 5 stars) and The Museum of Dr Moses (3 of 5 stars). I love her spelling style and I'll read some more of her.

Hello Morphidae - I have read a few by her. She is so prolific that it is inevitable that some will be better than others. The Accursed seems to have been really well-received. Not so long ago Iread The Gravediggers Daughter which was ok - I can't recall others of hers I have read off the top of my head...

Hi Prue, I hope you have a great weekend and I wish you a marvellous start into the new week

Hello Ameise! Thank you for the very Australian budgerigar! Did you know that we call those very tight men's 'speedo' swimming trunks 'budgie smugglers'? I haven't read either of the two JCO books you mention, though I have We were the Mulvaneys on my shelves, and Black Water is on my BD Wish List.

Speaking of Wishlists, I was able to knock a couple of my Book Depository list by purchasing a few titles from the $5 Bookshop in the city.

My haul was:

Holidays in Heck by P J O'Rouke
The Paperboy by Pete Dexter
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Absolution by Patrick Flanery
Home by Toni Morrison

So at $5 each they were at least 50 per cent cheaper than Book Depository. Yippee I ay!

Hello Donna - like wire coat hangers, books copulate and reproduce when our backs are turned.

Nice book haul, Prue! I love a good, diverse stack of books - especially when they are cheap.

Some good books in your latest haul, dear lady.

How are you faring with The Yellow Birds and The Goldfinch ?

Oh lordy - I am so far behind in my reading list - thanks to the chunkster The Goldfinch. Really well written - otherwise I think I would have chucked it in. Nothing much has happened yet! But Donna Tartt can write - thankfully. I have no idea where this is heading...and that's a good thing. But I do wish it wasn't as long...

Prue - I just started The Goldfinch. It's going to take me a while, I think, but I'm liking it so far. The writing just pulled me in.

*snorts at "budgie smugglers"*

Hi Prue, about time I made my way over here. Hope things are as well as can be. xx

Hi Prue, I wish you a lovely weekend.

Hi Prue, hope all is well with you. "Budgie Smugglers" is a very picturesque name for those "show-everything" speedos. Australians have such colorful names for things!

Prue, I wish you a lovely Sunday

Hi Prue, dropping by to leave a *smooch*

Hi Prue, how are you?

*Happy weekend wave*

Thought I stop by and see if I can prise one of my oldest LT buddies out to play. Miss your presence around here.

Hope that you have had a great weekend thus far and will enjoy what little bit of it you have left.

I'm with Paul. Where are you Prue? You are missed! xx

Hello Prue, haven't seen you around lately. Hope everything is okay. We miss you!

Thank you everyone for visiting! I have had a very busy and emotional month. If you know me, you know that I am a farm girl. The back story is that for 120 years my family has occupied a place called 'Carrakoorte'. Now that my parents have died we had to sell this property. As the youngest - at 58 - of four older brothers, none of us were in a position to buy out the others. It took a long time to sell for various boring reasons, but now it is done. And we had a massive clearance sale last weekend. It is heart-breaking to see your heritage sold off in boxes. It is just so damn sad. So that is why I haven't been in touch. But I did purchase mementos and I have wonderful memories. Carrakoorte was my home and now I wonder if I have a home. If home is where one's friends are, then LT is definitely my dwelling place.

Oh, Prue, I really believe you that this was a very emotional time. I'm glad to hear that you have all those wonderful memories which you can take with you where ever you are.

>67 PrueGallagher: Very moving post Prue - that's why I love you being around here; I can get touched so easily.
Of course I recall distinctly your last months with your Mum and your struggles with the old place thereafter.

It is heart-breaking to see your heritage sold off in boxes.

and

If home is where one's friends are, then LT is definitely my dwelling place.

Touching in the extreme and a reminder why your presence is so missed here by myself when you are not around. xxx

Oh Prue, I feel for you. I can well imagine how sad that must have been. You'll always have the memories to keep in your heart though, and that's quite something too. {{{hugs}}}

>67 PrueGallagher: {{{Prue}}}

Change at that level is hard. I am so saddened to learn of this loss atop your others.

Prue, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to see the end of an era with the selling off of the family home. I am glad that you were able to secure for yourself a few mementos. Just remember, we here always have the "Welcome Home" sign out.

(((Prue)))

Prue - Carrakoorte sounds like an amazing place. I'm so sorry that you had to say goodbye, but I know your memories will stay with you, and I hope they bring you comfort.

Oh bless you all for your lovely thoughts and kind wishes - Amy, Katie, Judy, Richard, Paul, Ilana, Ameise, Diana - big hugs returning to you all. How fortunate I am to receive such comfort of strangers (only in a real world sense, of course). As Paul and I once commented - we are the best friends we have never met. The are photos of Carrakoorte in my profile library as I find I haven't a clue how to load images to threads. It is amazing to me how far one can get in a computing technology company without actually understanding computing. Anyway, I drowned my sorrows in a massive order with BD (well, massive for moi - but not by your standards, Paul). And some of the furniture I purchased at the auction arrived a day or so ago. I know exactly where I will put it - but alas I need to get rid of what's there. EBay here I come.

Not doing much 'real' reading - Still Life is keeping me entertained in a very 'Midsomer Murders' kind of way. After that I am definitely up for something meatier.

Oh, I see that Burial Rites by Australian writer Hannah Kent is longlisted for the Baileys prize this year. I urge all of you to read it - it is wonderful and (unlike the Luminaries) blessedly brief.

I loved Burial Rites too when I read it last year, Prue. Inquiring minds insist on knowing what you ordered from Book Depo!

I have Burial Rites on my Kindle. I'll have to move it up the TBR list given two glowing recommendations!

Took your advice my dear and bought Burial Rites today. I do buy one or two now and then I suppose.
Have a lovely weekend (good friend that I met once and hope to again). xx

>67 PrueGallagher:: Prue, that was a hard thing to bear. I've been homeless all my life it seems as I grew up in a military family. LT provides a comforting place where we are accepted as we are. Sounds like home to me!

I will promptly add Burial Rites to the list of "orange" books I want to read, sounds like my kind of book!

I bought Burial Rites a few months ago, Prue, but haven't read it yet. I'm glad to hear it's a good one!

>75 PrueGallagher: a massive BD order sounds like just the thing to help you out at this time. It is a terribly un-grounding thing to have your home no longer available to you!
(((hugs)))

>67 PrueGallagher: Prue, I've been thinking of you since I read this a few days ago, but am just now realizing that I haven't said so here yet. Well, I am (thinking of you) and will continue to do so. I love this group and all of the folks in it, and it *is* a home, isn't it? It certainly feels like one.

Hi Prue, I wish you

Hi Prue- How are you? Somehow I lost your thread. I miss seeing you around. I hope you are doing well and reading very fine books. How is The Goldfinch coming?

Happy Weekend, Prue.

Happy Easter!

Miss my oldest LT buddy (in terms of length of time known, of course, silly!) around here.

Have yourself a wonderful Sunday and Happy Mother's Day. I hope you manage to speak to your daughter today.

Happy Mother's Day Prue, though I imagine it must be hard being so far from your lovely daughter.

I hope you'll come out to play on LT some more, it's been so nice seeing you in these parts. xx

Just stopping by to say hello :)

Prue, I've missed you this year, similar to everyone else. I'm sorry to learn of the selling off of the old homestead--my late Dh was upset in a like fashion. It's difficult to see all those memories sort of lose shape.

But, my dear, you have many, many friends here who are all too glad to make LT home-like for you.

{{{{Prue}}}}

Happy weekend, Prue. I hope you are fine.

Dear Prue - my oldest LT friend (in terms of span of friendship!) I want to wish you only an ever slightly belated Happy Birthday! It is still your birthday in LT time. xx

Happy Birthday, Prue! Hope you received a lot of BOOKS!

Belated Happy Birthday.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes - Mark, Ameise, Paul. And thanks everyone else for their kindnesses. Case of too much bloody RL, of late. Too much work and weekend busy-ness. Barely even time for reading! (SHOCK! HORROR!).

Steve and I went out to dinner for my birthday to a beautiful Vietnamese restaurant a short drive from home. Vietnamese is one of my favourite Asian cuisines (actually ALL Asian cuisines are my favourite!), and the food was lovely - if a bit over-priced for a relatively 'humble' style of cooking. Considering how rarely we eat out (or even have take-away these days) it was still a treat.

And no one buys me books anymore. NO ONE! They are all too afraid that I will have read it or own it or not want to read it.

And I confess to being in a bit of a reading 'funk' at the moment, where I just can't settle on something that seems right for my current state of mind. Started The Elected Member but that feels a bit too serious so I have put it down. Read The Photograph by Penelope Lively which sort of suited but once I finished I didn't feel like tackling the other book of hers I have on my shelves. Then I raced through The Fault in our Stars which I found a little predictable though I really enjoyed the smart-ass dialogue (do teenagers actually talk like that? Not in my experience!). And now I am knee-deep in We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson. I am loving the writing in this - and the oddity of the narrator. But I fear I already know 'the secret' and possibly even the ending. It's the journey, it's the journey I am telling myself.

So, any suggestions for my next read? Something light but substantial, easy to read but engrossing, sense of humour preferred. Fiction or non. No fantasy please. Feel free to browse my library and see what jewels I have yet to plunder!!

I NEED HELP!

Ah Merricat! Such memories.

Above All Men...excellent! Post-apocalyptic and yet still manages to be fresh and interesting.

The Martian...positive, upbeat, and never saccharine or phony.

My dear Prue....not in the finest form to be recommending books but can't resist all the same. If you can find a book Strumpet City, I would prod you (politely) to read it....nary a strumpet in sight though!

Hi Prue, good to see you posting. Sorry RL has been so hectic for you, hopefully it will slow down and you will pick up that magic book that's perfect for you. Fingers crossed. :)

Just waving hi, Prue.

I've been in a reading funk too - well, not funk, just that I keep picking ENORMOUS heavy non-fiction reads about Leningrad/the Middle East/WW2 and not finishing them. Today I have bought the first Sookie Stackhouse vampire novel, Dead Until Dark for a whole $8, and it is GREAT (50 pages in). No sentence more than about 20 words, lots of vampires, and a Very Fast Read. No idea if it'd work... it is totally not my usual fare but I am so tired I thought I'd give it a go.

Hi Prue, after visiting your library here my suggestions for your next readings:

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
The Sea by John Banville
Ordinary thunderstorms by William Boyd
Blindness by José Saramago
Silence Of The Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason
Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow

Happy Sunday!

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions!

Richard - I have The Martian on order - sounds great!

Caro - thanks, but vampires not my thing, though I am putting it on the WL for consideration!

Ameise - you totally reminded me that I have two unread by Kate Atkinson and I am now half-way through When will there be good news? which seems to be doing the trick! Perfect for my current funk! So thanks so much.

Paul - Strumpet City? With no strumpets? I feel robbed already but I am putting it on the WL because you never steer me wrong, my friend. xx

After perusing your library I would go with some of the classics.

E. M. Forster's A Room With a View
Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat

Both enjoyable, warm hearted and funny reads. They spring to mind because I have just considered them as possible rereads for this summer.

Just finished another one of Indridason's ScandiCrimes, number four in the series, The Draining Lake - very good - but not much humor in that one :)

Oh good thinking! Thanks Carsten

Prue, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

We have always lived in the castle has been a favorite read for years...!

Well, I know you are around somewhere (saw you on FB) ;)
Just thinking about the books, anything happening with reading lately?