What Are You Reading the Week of 1 February 2014?

Dame Muriel Spark, DBE (1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006) was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945" at #8.

She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Maud (née Uezzell) and Bernard Camberg, an engineer. Her father was Jewish and her mother had been raised a Presbyterian, as was Spark. She was educated at James Gillespie's High School for Girls (1923 – 1935). The family lived in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh. In 1934–35, she took a course in "Commercial correspondence and précis writing" at Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time and then worked as a secretary in a department store.

On 3 September 1937, she married Sidney Oswald Spark, and soon followed him to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Their son Robin was born in July 1938. Within months she discovered that her husband was manic depressive and prone to violent outbursts. In 1940, Muriel left Sidney and Robin. She returned to the United Kingdom in early 1944, taking residence at the Helena Club in London; years later the club would be her inspiration for the fictional May of Teck Club in The Girls of Slender Means. She worked in Intelligence for the remainder of World War II. She provided money at regular intervals to support her son as he toiled unsuccessfully over the years. Spark maintained it was her intention for her family to set up home in England, but Robin returned to Britain with his father later to be brought up by his maternal grandparents in Scotland.

Spark began writing seriously after the war, under her married name, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. In 1947, she became editor of the Poetry Review. In 1954, she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church, which she considered crucial in her development toward becoming a novelist. Penelope Fitzgerald, a fellow novelist and contemporary of Spark, wrote that Spark "...had pointed out that it wasn't until she became a Roman Catholic... that she was able to see human existence as a whole, as a novelist needs to do." In an interview with John Tusa on BBC Radio 4, she said of her conversion and its effect on her writing:

I was just a little worried, tentative. Would it be right, would it not be right? Can I write a novel about that — would it be foolish, wouldn't it be? And somehow with my religion — whether one has anything to do with the other, I don't know — but it does seem so, that I just gained confidence…

Between 1955 and 1965 she lived in Camberwell, south-east London. Her first novel, The Comforters, was published in 1957. It featured several references to Catholicism and conversion to Catholicism, although its main theme revolved around a young woman who becomes aware that she is a character in a novel.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) was a more successful publication. Spark displayed originality of subject and tone, making extensive use of flashforwards and imagined conversations. It is clear that James Gillespie's High School was the model for the Marcia Blaine School in the novel.

After living in New York City for some years, she moved to Rome, where she met artist and sculptor Penelope Jardine in 1968. In the early 1970s they settled in Tuscany, in the village of Civitella della Chiana, of which in 2005 Spark was made an honorary citizen. She was the subject of frequent rumours of lesbian relationships from her time in New York onwards, although Spark and her friends denied their validity. She left her entire estate to Jardine, taking measures to ensure that her son receive nothing.

During her lifetime, Spark refused permission to publish a biography of her written by Martin Stannard. Penelope Jardine approved the book for publication and it was published in July 2009. On 27 July 2009, Stannard was interviewed on Front Row, the BBC Radio 4 arts programme. According to A. S. Byatt, "She Jardine was very upset by the book and had to spend a lot of time going through it, line by line, to try to make it a little bit fairer."

Well then, since she had read the damn thing, why was she upset and surprised? *snort*

Spark's Novels
The Comforters (1957)
Robinson (1958)
Memento Mori (1959)
The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960)
The Bachelors (1960)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
The Girls of Slender Means (1963) my own favorite of her novels
The Mandelbaum Gate (1965)
The Public Image (1968) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize
The Driver's Seat (1970)
Not to Disturb (1971)
The Hothouse by the East River (1973)
The Abbess of Crewe (1974)
The Takeover (1976)
Territorial Rights (1979)
Loitering with Intent (1981) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize
The Only Problem (1984)
A Far Cry From Kensington (1988)
Symposium (1990)
Reality and Dreams (1996)
Aiding and Abetting (2000)
The Finishing School (2004)

Other works
Tribute to Wordsworth (edited with Derek Stanford) (1950)
Child of Light (a study of Mary Shelley) (1951)
The Fanfarlo and Other Verse (1952)
Selected Poems of Emily Brontë (1952)
John Masefield (biography) (1953)
Emily Brontë: Her Life and Work (with Derek Stanford) (1953)
My Best Mary (a selection of letters of Mary Shelley, edited with Derek Stanford) (1953)
The Brontë letters (1954)
Letters of John Henry Newman (edited with Derek Stanford) (1957)
The Go-away Bird (short stories) (1958)
Voices at Play (short stories and plays) (1961)
Doctors of Philosophy (play) (1963)
Collected Poems I (1967)
Collected Stories I (1967)
The Very Fine Clock (children's book, illustrations by Edward Gorey)(1968)
Bang-bang You're Dead (short stories) (1982)
Mary Shelley (complete revision of Child of Light) (1987)
Going Up to Sotheby's and Other Poems (1982)
Curriculum Vitae (autobiography) (1992)
Complete Short Stories (2001)
All the Poems (2004)

A wonderful biography! I have to admit that I have never read any of her works although, like many others, I've seen the movie of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The Girls of Slender Means is going into my TBR pile.

>2 TooBusyReading: Oh goody good good! I hope you will enjoy it.

I've read half a dozen of her novels. I really enjoyed them.

I'm reading Nick Hornby's Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in the Great Books. It's a compilation of his monthly column of the last 10 years for Believer Magazine, in which he details which books he's bought and which he's read with criticisms of the latter. He buys much more than he reads which will appeal to many LTers. He's hilarious as he criticizes himself, popular culture, and the books.

In the summer of 2010 he introduced himself to Muriel Spark: "I can't remember the last time I read a book by a well-established writer previously unknown to me that resulted in me devouring an entire oevre", calling her "dry, odd, funny, aphoristic, wise, technically brilliant".

Okay, that's not funny but much of this book is. But beware: Nick will have you adding to your TBR pile at an obscene rate.

Just past the halfway point of The Meaning of Night: a Confession by Michael Cox. It's an absorbing, though long, faux-Victorian crime novel.

Thank you for another fascinating bio, Richard! What a wonderful way to start off each week! When I saw that you had chosen Muriel Spark as your subject this week, I just knew it would stand out, even among all the interesting, unusual, atistic, bohemian lives many writers seem to lead. That seemed to come through in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

I have The Finishing School that has been sitting on Mt. TBR for a while, and, reading mojo and juju permitting, will move it up - if I don't need extreme fluff and feather-light fare.

Right now, I'm still reading and loving Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple., which is definitely ogng on my "favorites" shelf.

I am still working on Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton. This is not one of the better biographies I have read in the last year, but I am learning something from it so will continue.

I am also actively reading Cutting for Stone. This is a very gripping novel.

I am close to finishing listening to Saving Fish From Drowning. This book didn't have great reviews and I tend to concur with them, but have to admit that, right now, I am not in a very forgiving mood, which has probably carried over into my judgement. Still I am within about 50 pages of the end so it can't be all bad?

What a coincidence! I am re-reading A Far Cry From Kensington and I'm remembering why I've kept it all these years. I re-read Symposium a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed. It seemed a bit dated and a little pointless. I read Momento Mori for the first time last year and thought it was brilliant.

I am also currently reading The Sun King by Nancy Mitford. At some point I picked up this edition which has a ton of photos and illustrations and it really adds something.

I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie a couple of years ago and loved it and I have Loitering With Intent on my shelf. She was certainly prolific.

I'm reading Robert Harris' new book An Officer and a Spy and it's totally unputdownable.

I finished a LTER book Oh, Tamu! by Kanai Mieko. I found it interesting that it won a prize for Women's literature in Japan. In my reading it seemed that the men were irrelevant and powerless. Their ties to their mothers full of longing due to little attention and their role as fathers never clear enough to be identified. The men were left aimless, lonely, finding their solace in haphazard relationships with each other. The book is also full of tongue in cheek references to literature and the arts and of course the cat. It's a short, humorous, and intriguing book.

I've just finished Kim Stanley Robinson's latest novel Shaman and have recently started the very interesting (but a little once-over-lightly)* Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell.

I have Shadows of the New Sun - a book of stories by Gene Wolfe and other authors set in the universe of his Book of the New Sun series - and The Divine Comedy, Vol II: Purgatory - waiting in the to-be-read-next pile (quite distinct from the main TBR pile).

*Actually, I'm just annoyed that octopi are relegated to the footnotes.

>7 bookwoman247: Errrr ummmm uuuhhh weeeellllllll I might tend towards maybe considering a quiet word in favor of retaining that one for the pleasure of another day. It falls on the less-than-fluffy and more-than-unkind quadrant of our reading graph.

It features some of the most manipulative characters I've ever read NOT excluding that horrible woman in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Only they're acerbically limned by a very world-weary writer as opposed to Flynn's hit-the-reader-with-a-brick style.

Im still working on the 2nd half of S. and I'm loving it. In a few days I will start The Swan Gondola.

Finished Depths and started The Eye of the Leopard by Henning Mankell.

I"m still working on Eggs in a Casket by Laura Childs

Loved the biography - strange because at the library yesterday when I was choosing the newest audio books to bring home I'd considered a Muriel Spark - but instead went with The Memory Keeper's Daughter as that was actually on my TBR list already. Depending on what's on the shelves next time, I might just pick one of MS's up next time around.

As for my reading, I'm still making my way through Thud! by Terry Pratchett and The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody and listening to Splintered by A.G. Howard although I expect to finish that in the next couple of days and then I'll start on either Brethren by Robyn Young and/or The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. I've got Brethren on tape rather than CD which limits the places I can be while listening whereas TMKD is on CD so can go in the car or on the laptop, which is more portable.

I finished the first Flavian de Luce mystery last night and lived it. I started The Death of Bees which I'm liking so far and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry which I'm liking as well.

I am still dipping into Seeing George by Cassandra Austin, I am an afternoon reader and I have just taken up playing Canasta two afternoons a week (and loving it) so I have to settle back to organizing my reading times.
I may have to trawl around for evening Canasta!!

It's Faulkner February in the 75er group, so I'm reading a Faulkner novel I'd never even known existed before! Mosquitoes, his second novel. After the, well let's be honest, disappointment of Soldiers' Pay, I'm keeping my expectations modest. Still, it's very exciting to find a book by a dead favorite author that's completely outside my experience!

Oh Richard, why must we disagree? I was just going to recommend that Bookwoman go ahead with The Finishing School because it's so humorous. Well, yeah, the people are manipulative, but their situations are funny for that reason.
I hadn't known about Muriel Spark's long term partner. There's a challenge to read a book by or about an LGBT character or author. I'd listed Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea, but now I think I have to add Spark's The Bachelors.
Right now I'm reading the tiny little delightful novel The Tiny Wife and when I finish will go on to the not so tiny The Flight of Gemma Hardy
On Audio I'm about to finish What's a Dog For? which I'm liking much better than I thought I would (this man doesn't allow his dog on the furniture or in his bed!)
I'm also well into The Valley of Amazement, past the description of training a first class courtesan and have decided not to apply for the job.
I just finished Five Days at Memorial - what great investigative journalism and her suggestions for disaster planning are excellent.

I'll probably finish Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (75er group read) this weekend. Started The Picture of Dorian Gray (One LibraryThing, One Book. Started The Bean Trees, a library book due next week.

>21 Citizenjoyce: I think Spark would've bridled at being described as a lesbian. I think the ladies were in what was called, Back in the Day, a "Boston marriage." I myownself have never seen the difference, given the legendary existence of Lesbian Bed Death.

The Bachelors is cherce, to use Spencer Tracy's description of Hepburn. Lean, lithe, and acerbically funny.

Until my poochie Stella came into my life in 2009, I've never allowed one of my dogs in my bed, or on the furniture *unless* invited. The bed I've given up on, and the furniture comes pretty naturally to Stella. She's a very well-mannered dog.

Unless you're a squirrel.

Awesome biography!!! I cannot wait to read some of her offerings.

I am listening to audiobook The Last Rhinos by Lawrence Anthony and it's great, but boy, I have just come to the conclusion I'm not, overall, and audiobook person (save road trips where I love them). So I'm anxious for my post-PRK reading vision to re-emerge which, due to the natural course of healing, may be another few weeks to a month. I'm a far cry from where I was, but cannot read unless the font is the size of my head.

I sure have learned a new breed of patience, mindfulness and meditation (and I live at the gym). Sort of fascinating how much I really DID read!

I had to put The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer aside because, ironically, it is not very interesting.

I started reading Something Missing by Matthew Dicks which my book club is reading. It's about a guy who breaks into homes and steals things he thinks people won't miss, such as a roll of toilet paper. I really like it so far because the robber becomes so attached to the people he robs.

When I finish I'll go back to The Interestings because I always feel compelled to finish books I've started. I keep hoping they'll get better and I'll like them in the end. Fingers crossed.

I finished Reynolds Price's memoir Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back which was a special pleasure for me -- I've read so many of his books, and I enjoyed reading about the writing of his first novel, A Long and Happy Life, one of my favorites.

Next up: A reread of Sons and Lovers.

Reading The Conduit of Saint by Christopher Davis, his first novel in 23 years and up for a number of awards including The National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Amazing control of language, and such a joy to read. But, his subject matter in this book leaves me cold. Still I continue on.

I finished Richard Powers' Orfeo last Sunday in a sprint. Not my favorite, but still quite good. I'm currently reading The War in Eastern Europe by John Reed. I'm not very far into it yet even though its a very easy read. Thus far it's been more of a travelogue than anything. Reed seems blatantly antisemitic. His occasional comments are very jarring.

Slow reading week. I am listening to Doctor Sleep in my car and Zero Hour at home, while still reading Epitaph of a Small Winner.

I finished What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! by Agatha Christie last night. It had quite an unexpected twist toward the end. I always think that one should be able to figure out who the murderer is (and in this case, who the victim is) before the end, but Christie has a habit of withholding facts. I think I'd be disappointed if I were able to figure them out anyway.

I started F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited and Other Stories a few evenings ago. The first story, "The Ice Palace" is really neat. It's about a southern girl who gets engaged to a northerner and travels by train to visit him in the middle of winter. I kept wanting to yell: "Go home! Go home! You're going to hate it!"

In print, I just finished This Dark Road to Mercy. I need to let it simmer in my brain before I rate it, but it's at least 4 stars. I am now starting The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon.

On audio, I just finished The Invention of Wings. It was just okay. I am now starting The Goldfinch. I chose it because it seems like everybody is reading it and giving it 5 stars. That usually doesn't work out for me, but it's hard to ignore the imagined peer pressure, so here I go again.

And I am still reading Hannah's Dream aloud with my son. This is a re-read of a favorite, and I'm loving it all over again.

I finished listening to the recorded version of Saving Fish From Drowning. It might have been my mood while driving this trip, but this was my first Amy Tan book and I was looking forward to it. Despite the warnings of reviewers I listened to it anyway. I found it to be average. It started out good, but it should have ended about 50 pages before it did. By the time the author got to the end of the book I didn't really care about the characters. I am now listening to the very good Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff. Even though this one is set in Victorian England, a historical period of which I am not fond, I am enjoying this book.

I'm starting Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich

>27 Travis1259: Hi David! So disappointing when someone's first-in-forever book falls flat, even if there are good things about it.



I woke up with back pain and allergy schnerkles at about 4am. Watched David Attenborough nature films and couldn't bore myself back to sleep. Took a Bendaryl and slept until noon! Then I decided, since the coffee would need to be reheated, that I'd do without today.

Ha. At 2:10p, I caved and nuked my usual mug of coffee with milk. It is almost 3p and I am finally headacheless and no longer feeling as though they could make a serial-killer movie with me as the star.

Not helping matters is the fact the Consider Phlebas, a much-touted SF novel by the late Iain M. Banks, isn't all that and a bag of chips.

I started Defending Jacob for my RL book club today. It's about the death of a 14 year old boy. Jacob is the son of the ADA investigating the case. Riveting so far.

Reading The Color Purple in tandem with Out of the Deep, as the former is great but not too upbeat. Some mystery-reading makes a good change of pace.

You need to be careful of that Benadryl. They gave that to my father in the hospital and he went crazy and literally tore the room up. Afterwards, we were told that some people have that kind of reaction to the stuff. Clearly you are not one of those.

>I've had that reaction to a much lesser extent to Benadryl. They had had to give me a large dose and it just made me very antsy. I could not stop squriming and moving around. I'm fine with a regular dose. Perhaps that was the case with your father. I had a much worse reaction to Ativan, which was much like you describe,so if he ever needs it, excercise caution!

Finished The Burn Palace, which started off slow but got more interesting as the book went on. I was hoping for a more dramatic twist at the end, but it was still a satisfying mystery/horror read.

Yikes! I had no idea Benadryl could do that. I've been taking it for what, forty or so years, so no surprises for me.

The Bean Trees is $1.99 today on all ereaders!!

I finished and REVIEWED Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.

I am totally absorbed by An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris which may turn out to be the best book I've read yet this year and that's saying something as I've already read some terrific books.

Finished listening to the well written Zero Day by David Baldacci. Next up for my listening pleasure is Americanah.

<27 Richard, hope you feel better.

#28> Fred, I know what you mean about Reed's seemingly anti-Semitic comments in The War in Eastern Europe. By the end, though, although his observations on that topic remain rough, they become a bit more even-handed. The chapter near the end, "The Betrayal of the Jews," makes up for a lot.

Holy cow re: Benadryl. I had no idea. I've never taken it, but the vets seem to prescribe it (far too often) for many of our rescue dogs with various (suspected) allergies and such. My eye surgery place offered Ativan before PRK and I declined, mostly because I was afraid it would make me nauseous/barf while I had a laser pointed at my eyeball. But people were popping them like candy.

We've had to have dogs on Benadryl, too, for allergies and for my dog who had a rather virulent cancer, and some vets recommend it as a mild sedative. It has the opposite effect on some dogs as well as some people, but you don't know which way it's going to go until you try it.

Last night I finished listening to Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and I didn't enjoy it as much as most other readers did. Now I'm starting the nonfiction Trapped Under the Sea, but will probably start a fiction as well. Oh yeah, I almost forgot I need to read The Picture of Dorian Gray for the LT group read, so I'll probably pick that up again.

The Lion and the Rose by Kate Quinn
Her 2nd novel on the Borgias

#38
He also had a reaction to the Ativan. It was supposed to make him sleepy and instead it made him antsy and restless. They are trying one other kind of sedative tonight, and we said it that doesn't work, perhaps he doesn't need one. My Aunt had a severe reaction to Ambien. She literally went all over the bed, and tore out stitches from her recent hip surgery. Then couldn't remember any of it. After that episode I believed the politician who was arrested for drunk driving and didn't even know he had been out driving. He too had been on Ambien.

Benadryl is commonly used on pets and children. The whole thing has made me wonder about the efficacy of drugs of all kinds. Just because it works on one person it may not work on another, and then getting people to believe that it is the drug and not the person is really hard.

I am reading MANISSA John Fowles. LIFE AFTER LIFE kate atkinson and Confederates IN THE ATTIC by Tony Horwitz

I just finished reading the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

The Snowden Files is an ebook from Faber & Faber via the Guardian newspaper. Considering the source, you can bet it's a leftist view of the subject. It's available now, for any who might be interested.

I bought The Goldfinch peer pressure is a horrible thing lol. But everyone seemed to love this novel! I just could not get interested, found my mind wandering. So I picked up a book that has been on the shelves for quite some time Forever by Pete Hamill and am loving it!! I will give The Gold Finch another shot at a later date, sometimes you just have to be in the "mood".
:) To all my New England neighbors drive safe tomorrow!

I've abandoned Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini for now. It just seems ... a bit long and the language isn't quite clicking right now.

I've moved on to A Lesson Beforer Dying by Ernest J. Gaines for my annual Black History Month read. The subject is a difficult one, but the book is short, and the language is easier for me, for some reason.

Captain Blood! One of my real boyhood favorites! I have to try that for a re-read on of these days.

I have to say that I enjoyed Scaramouche after I finally finished it, but the style and language is different. Maybe it will "click" later. I also have to admit that sometimes the stories seem so cliched and then I think that these books are the ones that started the cliches. That one thought made me look at them in a whole different light.

(55: My father liked to joke, "I don't like Shakespeare. It's so full of quotations.")

I finished and REVIEWED Robert Harris' new espionage thriller. In a word: unputdownable.

Now I'm reading Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. Wells.

I'm now reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan and The seven secrets of the Turtle by Aljoscha Schwarz

I'm nearly done with The Goldfinch. Her writing feels like flying. Very, very good. I'm reading it on a Kindle and only saw the hardback at a bookstore over the weekend. I was amused by how I had no idea that it was so massive. It flies by.

As soon as that is done, onward to Americanah for me. I had it on hold at the library and it's come through. I know lots of folks are waiting so I want to finish as soon as I can. I adored Adichie's other books so I'm very eager.

59> "I'm nearly done with The Goldfinch. Her writing feels like flying."

Terrifying and claustrophobic? Yee gadz!

Both The Goldfinch and Americanah are in the near future for me. The Color Purple was great, and now I'm reading Cress.

Did I mention that I've started Hild--another LT find? I like it, but it is going to be slow going. I'm not making much more than 20 pages a night (large pages, small print, a lot of trips to the glossary). My usual pace is between 30 and 50, depending on book format.

Meanwhile, The Hare with Amber Eyes is intermittent daytime reading. This personal and family history combines a number of areas of interest to me.

The Goldfinch is on my library request list, which is counting down slowly. I saw the painting when the "Girl with the Pearl Earring" exhibit was in San Francisco last spring. The exhibit catalog explains its background and ideas about its composition.

Currently Reading: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han...I am enjoying it more than I expected to. :-)

I finished Happy City which briefly explores what makes us happy and then shows how our cities as presently configured, particularly in the dispersed city, does not foster happiness. Plans and examples of how the city can be made happier make up the second half of the book. It is good and further supports the prescriptions of Jane Jacobs and her followers.

Next up We the Animals.

Another current read is Stoner. I'm trying to be patient and see what made other LTers call it "a gem" and "beautiful," but it seems not to be happening for me.

I'm now reading Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. I had a bit of trouble settling on my next book, so I figured it was time to pull out the very lightest fare ... children's fantasy adventure, and it's working like a charm!

>65 Meredy:
I read Stoner a few months ago, and I thought it wonderful, but I can see how it might not be happening for you, and might not be everyone's cuppa. I loved the character, but the story is not exactly action packed and the character is not at all flashy. Still, I fell in love with his low-key attitude and his perseverance.

67: That's the thing, TooBusy: I have a very high tolerance for a slow pace, I don't require action or flash, I can handle George Eliot and Walter Scott, and I've given high marks to some very dense tomes. But with Stoner I almost feel as if there were no character there. He seems like more of a void than a presence. Is that the point? I'll keep on with it a bit, but I always allow myself the freedom to ditch a book that isn't earning my attention.

>68 Meredy:
Perhaps that is the point, but if so, I missed it, something not at all unusual for me. But I agree -- ditch the book if it is not working for you.

I can't remember who among my friends likes Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series (The Black Echo, The Last Coyote, The Black Box). Whoever it is, go to Amazon and watch Bosch! It's a new filmed series based on the novels and exec-produced by Connelly himself. Titus Welliver plays Bosch very well, IMO:

starting Seven Up by Janet Evanovich

I finished The Last Rhinos on audiobook and really loved it. Highly recommended for any conservation and/or Africa buffs. There is a lot of surprising and unique information on the DR Congo, Ugandan politics (including the Lords Resistance Army) and life in Zululand, South Africa. And LOTS of cool insights into the minds of elephants, rhinos and a sundry supporting cast of warthogs, bush babies and spitting cobras. But mostly, it was an education to me on how in the U.S. we are spoon fed media which tends to support whichever (generally ill advised) African politician/situation our country chooses to support. The reality behind much of that bears no resemblance to what we, as U.S. citizens, hear and see. Anyway, Anthony was a wonderful, interesting guy and this one is worth a gander.

I am now able to read large print, albeit slowly, so am now reading the wonderful NF book The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch - very fun read so far!

>72 CarolynSchroeder:: The Last Rhinos sounds like it might be my cup of tea. I'll have to search it out.

As for the media, I agree. Not only are we spoon fed pap, but it's 99.9% marketing and fluff ... the kind of "news" that used to be fit only for The Enquirer. I find that the BBC does a much better job, especially when it comes to covering the rest of the world.

>72 CarolynSchroeder:
Last night our local news reporter at the Olympics was reporting that she "heard" about an unverified event, and passed along gossip. She implied that there was more to the story, still unconfirmed, and the newscaster in the studio said she'd have to talk to her off-air to get the rest.

So, news is gossip, and the newscasters on air giggle about more gossip but bits that won't be aired.

This passes for journalism?

The Last Rhinos has intrigued me, but I have a really hard time reading about the awful things people sometimes do to animals, so am not sure I could handle it. I'm glad to see that you liked it.

And congratulations on slowly being able to read again!

Carolyn, congratulations on graduating to large print.

Hello again, everyone! :) Well, starting on Friday, January 31st, I began reading The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe. While this was an extremely interesting and very well-written book, it was still very slow reading. It took me a week to finish reading. I finished it on Thursday, February 6th! :)

On Friday, February 7th, I started The Miracle at St. Bruno's by Phlippa Carr - a reread from three years ago. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Thanks as always, Richard. Carolyn glad you can "read" again. On the docket, The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser. On assignment for promotion of the Friends of the Roslindale Library's "One Book" program kicking off soon.

Started The 5th Wave, which is exceeding all of my expectations so far! I'm a little skeptical about the romance angle, but then again, this is YA so it's not like I didn't expect it.