Chatterbox reads -- and reads, and reads, and reads: Chapter 3

Rupert Brooke was an early casualty of the Great War; he died of septicaemia from an insect bite en route to Gallipoli, before ever seeing combat. That almost certainly explains the romantic tone of his "war poetry"; a tone that had vanished from the works created during and inspired by the war long before the bloodbath of the Somme. This poem is perhaps his most famous, and offered a way for those on the home front to blot their eyes to the reality of conflict.

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Wow, only a month into the new year, and I'm already on a third thread! I'm trying to read more books this year than I did last year, but why not shoot for the moon??




I usually keep tabs on my books one by one as I read them, and probably will finish five separate batches of 75 books over the course of the year. When I wrap 'em up, I'll post a mini-review or other comments here. I'll also post comments on the essays that I read for the categories challenge, but these will NOT be included in the total # of books read (unless I complete an entire book of essays.)

Anyone curious about the essays can follow that thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/161117




I'd like to keep re-reads to about 25% of my total reading, and the target for non-fiction is about the same. So roughly 50% of the books I read this year should be "new to me" books, whether by authors I've never read before or old favorites. I'll mark all re-reads with an asterisk (*), and note whether a book is fiction or non-fiction, and also whether it's an audiobook.

A guide to my highly subjective ratings system. Don't treat it as gospel or anything more than my opinion. I'm not trying to second guess the rest of the world, just chronicle my own experience with a book. With fiction, I value strong and compelling characters, a convincing plot (that doesn't have to move at the speed of light) and what, for want of a better phrase, I can only characterize as unpretentious writing. By which I mean, I have a strong and ever-growing aversion to authors whose primary goal seems to be to demonstrate how clever they are, rather than to write a great and convincing story. Clear and elegant prose trumps convoluted and overly structured Big Themes and Ideas every time.

Genres? Well, I'm an avid mystery fan; I read a reasonable quantity of chick lit, and have taken some baby steps into fantasy, mostly via dystopian lit. I also read a reasonable amount of "classics" and literary fiction, although I tend to take a wary view of the "insta-classic": the novel by a previously unknown writer who is suddenly hailed as the next Salinger/Kafka/Bellow/Thomas Mann/Tolstoy/whoever. The publishing industry has a strong incentive to promote this kind of stuff; I've got an equally strong instinct telling me that about 75% of this stuff will be merely OK reading and only some of it will survive to earn the title of classic in 50 years' time. In the world of non-fiction, I look for a strong narrative arc and a clear, coherent voice and thesis -- and readability, above all. I tend to shun polemical stuff -- there's enough of that flying about elsewhere. I'm somewhat reconsidering my aversion to memoirs, although not the "I had a tough and horrible life event/disease/abuse situation, and I'm writing about it now because memoirs make money" sub-genre, which I loathe with a growing passion. The grief memoir is a prime example of this. At the other end of the spectrum are books about books, history tomes and books that make me look at the world in new ways and via a different prism.

The Ratings!
1.5 or less: A tree gave its life so that this book could be printed and distributed?
1.5 to 2.7: Are you really prepared to give up hours of your life for this?? I wouldn't recommend doing so...
2.8 to 3.3: Do you need something to fill in some time waiting to see the dentist? Either reasonably good within a ho-hum genre (chick lit or thrillers), something that's OK to read when you've nothing else with you, or that you'll find adequate to pass the time and forget later on.
3.4 to 3.8: Want to know what a thumping good read is like, or a book that has a fascinating premise, but doesn't quite deliver? This is where you'll find 'em.
3.9 to 4.4: So, you want a hearty endorsement? These books have what it takes to make me happy I read them.
4.5 to 5: The books that I wish I hadn't read yet, so I could experience the joy of discovering them again for the first time. Sometimes disquieting, sometimes sentimental faves, sometimes dramatic -- they are a highly personal/subjective collection!

The Books! (Being the First Chapter of Suzanne's 2014 Reading Adventures...)




1. Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd (3.9), STARTED 1/1/14, FINISHED 1/2/14 (fiction)
2. *Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst (3.75), STARTED 12/26/13, FINISHED 1/2/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
3. Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang (4.1), STARTED 1/1/14, FINISHED 1/4/14 (non-fiction)
4. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam (4.2), READ 1/4/14 (fiction)
5. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (4.75), STARTED 1/2/14, FINISHED 1/5/14 (fiction)
6. My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead (4.1), STARTED 1/2/14, FINISHED 1/6/14 (non-fiction)
7. No Man's Nightingale by Ruth Rendell (3), STARTED 1/4/14/, FINISHED 1/6/14 (fiction)
8. Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo (3.85), READ 1/7/14 (non-fiction)
9. Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel (3.2), STARTED 1/6/14, FINISHED 1/8/14 (fiction)
10. The Eternal Wonder by Pearl Buck (1.6), STARTED 1/5/14, FINISHED 1/9/14 (fiction)
11. *Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard (3.9), STARTED 1/6/14, FINISHED 1/10/14 (fiction)
12. A Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth (4.3), STARTED 1/2/14, FINISHED 1/12/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
13. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (4.4), STARTED 1/2/14, FINISHED 1/13/14 (fiction)
14. *The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (3.9) STARTED 1/1/14, FINISHED 1/14/14 (fiction)
15. Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France by Nicholas Shakespeare (2.8) STARTED 1/14/14, FINISHED 1/16/14 (non-fiction)
16. Death of a Nightingale by Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis (3.4) STARTED 1/13/14, FINISHED 1/15/14 (fiction)
17. Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo by Anjan Sundaram (3.4), STARTED 1/5/14, FINISHED 1/13/14 (non-fiction)
18. The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith (4.3), STARTED 1/16/14, FINISHED 1/17/14 (fiction)
19. Bluffing Mr. Churchill by John Lawton (4.3), STARTED 1/15/14, FINISHED 1/18/14 (fiction)
20. The King's Hounds by Martin Jensen (3.75), STARTED 1/17/14, FINISHED 1/18/14 (fiction)
21. The Shadow Tracer by Meg Gardiner (3.5), STARTED 1/18/14, FINISHED 1/19/14 (fiction)
22. *Archangel by Robert Harris (4.1), STARTED 1/12/14, FINISHED 1/20/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
23. Last Friends by Jane Gardam (3.8), STARTED 1/19/14, FINISHED 1/20/14 (fiction)
24. A Play of Lords by Margaret Frazer (3.4), STARTED 1/20/14, FINISHED 1/22/14 (fiction)
25. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (3.85), STARTED 1/19/14, FINISHED 1/23/14 (non-fiction)
26. Alena by Rachel Pastan (4.1), STARTED 1/23/14, FINISHED 1/24/14 (fiction)
27. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (4.2), STARTED 1/24/14, FINISHED 1/25/14 (non-fiction)
28. The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard (3.75), STARTED 1/20/14, FINISHED 1/26/14 (fiction)
29. The Salinger Contract by Adam Langer (4.2) STARTED 1/25/14, FINISHED 1/26/14 (fiction)
30. Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett (3.7), STARTED 1/6/14, FINISHED 1/29/14 (fiction)
31. Year Zero by Ian Buruma (4.2), STARTED 1/19/14, FINISHED 1/30/14 (non-fiction) (audiobook)
32. The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players by Stephen Cooper (3.8), STARTED 1/24/14, FINISHED 1/30/14 (non-fiction)
33. Night Shall Overtake Us by Kate Saunders (3.5), STARTED 1/17/14, FINISHED 1/29/14 (fiction)
34. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz (3.8), STARTED 1/21/14, FINISHED 1/28/14 (fiction)
35. Gossip from the Forest by Thomas Keneally (4.6), STARTED 1/19/14, FINISHED 1/31/14 (fiction)
36. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee (4.5), STARTED 1/30/14, FINISHED 1/31/14 (fiction)
37. The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths (3.8), READ 2/1/14 (fiction)
38. The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette van Heugten (1.4), STARTED 2/1/14, FINISHED 2/2/14 (fiction)
39. *The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth (3.5), STARTED 2/1/14, FINISHED 2/2/14 (fiction)
40. And then there were Nuns by Jane Christmas (3.6), STARTED 2/2/14, FINISHED 2/3/14 (non-fiction)
41. Through a Glass Darkly and other Stories by Kate Charles (3.3) READ 2/3/14
42. The King's Mistress by Emma Campion (3.75), STARTED 1/24/14, FINISHED 2/3/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
43. Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits by Kevin Roose (4.5), STARTED 2/3/14, FINISHED 2/4/14 (non-fiction)
44. Accused by Lisa Scottoline (3.7), STARTED 2/4/14, FINISHED 2/5/14 (fiction)
45. A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith (3.3), READ 2/5/14 (fiction)
46. Cairo: My City, Our Revolution by Ahdaf Soueif (4.4), STARTED 2/4/14, FINISHED 2/6/14 (non-fiction)
47. The Apartment by Greg Baxter (3.3), STARTED 2/6/14, FINISHED 2/8/14 (fiction)
48. Deliverance of Evil by Roberto Costantini (3), STARTED 2/7/14, FINISHED 2/10/14 (fiction)
49. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (3.4), READ 2/10/14 (fiction)
50. Dark Invasion by Howard Blum (4.5), STARTED 2/3/14, FINISHED 2/11/14 (non-fiction)
51. On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee (4.35), STARTED 2/8/14, FINISHED 2/12/14 (fiction)
52. Longbourn by Jo Baker (4.7), STARTED 2/12/14, FINISHED 2/13/14 (fiction)
53. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (4.3), STARTED 2/3/14, FINISHED 2/14/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
54. The Winter Garden by Jane Thynne (4.1), STARTED 2/13/14, FINISHED 2/14/14 (fiction)
55. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell (3), STARTED 2/5/14, FINISHED 2/15/14 (fiction)
56. The White Lie by Andrea Gillies (2.8) STARTED 2/11/14, FINISHED 1/15/14 (fiction)
57. *Greek Wedding by Jane Aiken Hodge (3.4), STARTED 2/15/14, FINISHED 2/16/14 (fiction)
58. The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena (3), STARTED 2/10/14, FINISHED 2/16/14 (fiction)
59. The Corpse Reader by Antonio Garrido (3) STARTED 2/15/14, FINISHED 2/17/14 (fiction)
60. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (3.6), READ 2/17/14 (fiction)
61. *The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden, (3.8) STARTED 2/15/14, FINISHED 2/18/14 (fiction)
62. Stay by Nicola Griffith (4), STARTED 2/18/14, FINISHED 2/19/14 (fiction)
63. Decoded by Mai Jia (3.9), STARTED 2/16/14, FINISHED 2/20/14 (fiction)
64. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (4.2), STARTED 2/12/14, FINISHED 2/21/14 (fiction)
65. The Book of You by Claire Kendal (3.6), STARTED 2/21/14, FINISHED 2/22/14 (fiction)
66. *The Sparks Fly Upwards by Diana Norman (4.1), STARTED 2/18/14, FINISHED 2/23/14 (fiction)
67. *The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough (3.8) STARTED 1/29/14, FINISHED 2/24/14 (fiction)
68. Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin (4), STARTED 2/23/14, FINISHED 2/25/14 (fiction)
69. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (3.75), STARTED DECEMBER 2013, FINISHED 2/26/14 (fiction)

*- re-read

Some other goals & objectives:

I'm setting myself some sub-challenges here: to read or re-read 20 books with a theme that revolves around World War I, its causes or its aftermath. These can be any kind of fiction or non-fiction. I'm also going to try to read 20 books published by Europa Editions. These are starting to pile up on my TBR mountain and it's a shame as they often are very good and a way to discover new to me writers.

Herewith, the tickers and the place I'll log these in addition to the "main" list. I'll list the books I intend/hope/plan to read, and check 'em off as they are completed. Subject to change!!!

World War I: The Great War, its Causes & Its Aftermath




1. The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
2. The Final Whistle by Stephen Cooper FINISHED 1/30/14, 3.8 stars
3. The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P.S. Duffy
4. The Archduke's Assassination by Greg King
5. The Unending Vigil by Philip Longworth
6. The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard FINISHED 1/26/14, 3.75 stars
7. *The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
8. *The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
9. Vimy by Pierre Berton
10. Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn Macdonald
11. Death's Men by Denis Winter
12. Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden
13. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning by Jay Winter
14. Peacemakers by Margaret MacMillan
15. *Night Shall Overtake Us by Kate Saunders FINISHED 1/30/14 3.7 stars,
16. The Wars by Timothy Findley
17. The First Casualty by Ben Elton
18. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
19. *Regeneration by Pat Barker
20. Rising Above the Ruins in France by Corinna Haven Putnam
21. At Break of Day by Elizabeth Speller
22. Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson
23. Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan
24. Fallen Soldiers by George Mosse
25. Stella Bain by Anita Shreve
26. The Happy Foreigner by Enid Bagnold
27. The Absolutist by John Boyne
28. Wake by Anna Hope
29. The Forbidden Zone by Mary Borden
30. Gossip From the Forest by Thomas Keneally FINISHED 1/31/14, 4.5 stars
31. Empires of the Dead by David Crane
32. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz FINISHED 1/29/14, 4 stars
33. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, READ 2/10/14, 3.4 stars
34. Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War Against America by Howard Blum, FINISHED 2/11/14 4.5 stars

Europa Editions: Old Friends & New Discoveries




1. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam READ 1/4/14, 4.2 stars
2. Last Friends by Jane Gardam FINISHED 1/20/14 3.8 stars
3. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
4. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
5. Zeroville by Steve Erickson
6. Lazarus is Dead by Richard Beard
7. The Have-Nots by Katharina Hacker
8. The Dream Maker by Jean-Christophe Rufin
9. Bound in Venice by Alessandro Marzo Magno
10. Summertime All the Cats Are Bored by Philippe Georget
11. Garlic, Mint and Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo READ 1/7/14, 3.85 stars
12. Bone China by Roma Tearne
13. The Thursday Night Men by Tonino Benacquista
14. Dispute Over a Very Italian Piglet by Amara Lakhous
15. Last Train to Paris by Michele Zackheim
16. Cecilia by Linda Ferri
17. The Frost on His Shoulders by Lorenzo Mediano
18. Heliopolis by James Scudamore
19. The Nun by Simonetta Agnello
20. Twelve Who Don't Agree by Valery Panyushkin

Woo! New thread! I've got lots of catching up to do on the last one, but it's always nice starting fresh. I brought home two other Echenoz novels from the library today, Lighting: A Novel and Running. I see both were your least favourite among his books though... oh well.

Suzanne, so sorry I missed your birthday--belated happy birthday wishes for you!

Yes, Ilana, my favorite by far was Ravel. After that, I liked Piano, for sheer creativity and an almost playful approach to the material. Then, probably I'm Gone. Other than those, I've found his style distances me from his characters and ultimately even the narrative line. Occasionally there's a pitch-perfect moment; an observation or turn of phrase that is sans pareil, but as a whole...

Thanks, Roni!

The three books I've gotten by him are on audio, but I'll make a point of reading the two you recommend. There was an interview with him at the end of the recording of 1914: A Novel, which I found very interesting as he speaks about his approach to writing and what interests him (objects) and doesn't (psychology). Do you read him in French or in translation?

I've only read him in translation; it's very difficult to find books in French here. I have to order from Amazon.fr, and pay the shipping. I've got a full basket over there... *sigh* Echenoz is easily translated. Yes, I can see that he's interested in objects and not psychology, but that translates into the very problems I wrestle with in his books. Books are read by people, and are about people. There's no contradiction, in my opinion, between including psychology as part of a novel. I wouldn't want to rely on it -- at the expense of other elements -- but abandoning leaves a novel a shell, about only objects.

Happy belated birthday, Suzanne, and happy new thread too.

Happy late Birthday to you! And congrats on thread three for the year as well.

I have never read J.M. Coetzee. Your review sounds interesting. I think this should be a library try just to see if I like the style.

Suz, Happy Birthday and happy new thread! I'm glad to be caught up on your thread now. :)

Love the sparkly new thread (and happy belated birthday!)

Happy new thread, Suz. I was over 90 messages behind on the last thread but am now all caught up. The Kenneally sounds excellent and I'm glad the latest Griffiths mystery is a good one. I'm looking forward to it.

Like minds and all that Suz - I started one of my threads this year with "Soldier", too. I wonder if he would have remained so upbeat had he got through the Dardanelles campaign?

Paul, it's hard to imagine he would have continued to hold such a romantic view of war and glory. My question is whether he would have continued to write poetry at all, or whether the disillusionment would have been so acute that he simply stopped writing. Brooke had had some kind of nervous breakdown in 1913; it's true that Owen and Sassoon suffered from variants of shell shock (as Pat Barker chronicled in Regeneration), accentuating and intensifying a trend they had already shown itself in their poetry, but I don't think they had ever been as romantically-inclined as Brooke, or part of that same Cambridge circle.

Katie, it's very hard to keep up with threads. I always feel as if I'm scrambling, and failing, to do so....

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes. A friend took me out for brunch today and I discovered an entirely new (to me) corner of downtown (now, remember how relatively tiny Providence is!) that I hadn't discovered simply because I had never ventured a block or so over from my usual paths. A nice brunch place, and I noshed on what they called Tomatoes Florentine. Like Eggs Florentine, with the bacon or back bacon replaced by a lightly sauteed spinach, and the English muffin replaced by small squares of crispy polenta, really incredibly delicious eggs (local organic/free range, with giant dark yellow yolks) and a chipotle hollandaise. yum yum yum. Grocery shopping, and home to do a bit of reading. Very short day, it has felt like!

Happy New Thread, Suzanne!

LOVE the polenta-not-muffie substitution! Must try this.

Happy new thread!

Must remember to ask you about that place for brunch if we ever come to Providence.

It's called Circe, Judy. It's upscale compared to the two or three places to eat in my local 'hood (where the food can be good, but as Katie will testify, the ambiance is definitely on the casual side). The kind of place that thinks it's in NYC but it isn't. Service, even though it was less than 1/3 full, was lacksidaisical, and my friend's Bloody Mary came with a wilted, browning stalk of celery, torn at the bottom, that still had bits of dirt stuck in it. (She sent it back, needless to say). Richard, hard to describe what made it so good -- the polenta definitely, but the eggs were just excellent, the tomatoes very flavorful for midwinter and the chipotle hollandaise gave a great tang to the dish. I'll definitely go back.

A random assortment of books finished; all of them better than the dreadful The Tulip Eaters, even if none were absolutely stellar.

39. The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth: the Miss Silver mystery stories occasionally pop up at a discount during big Kindle sales (eg Thanksgiving) and I've been adding them slowly to my Kindle. I think I've only read this one once, maybe in the late 1980s, but the premise stayed with me: a deaf woman particularly adept at lip reading "overhears" a conversation about a heist and a murder in an art gallery; she is later found dead, under a bus -- and then a heist and a murder are committed. But before her death, Paulina Paine had confided in Miss Silver... Miss Silver is more than just a shadow of Miss Marple; indeed they made their literary debuts almost simultaneously. That said, Wentworth's crime novels are far more formulaic than Christie's; Miss Silver is always knitting; she constantly quotes Tennyson; the crimes she solves clear the way for True Love between the ingenue and the hero, sometimes by clearing one or the other from suspicion. That said, there's a reasonable degree of suspense involved. While I hadn't remembered the details of this plot beyond the opening, I still managed to hone in on the culprit(s) (Wentworth doesn't make it all that hard!) but still found the climactic scene suspenseful. Kind of like comfort food for the mystery afficionado. 3.5 stars.

40. And Then There Were Nuns by Jane Christmas was a book I got courtesy of NetGalley: the idea of someone taking refuge from a cluttered, noisy world intrigues and appeals, especially someone in her 50s aware of how invisible we become en masse. Now, I'm hardly likely to follow Jane Christmas's lead and contemplate becoming a contemplative Anglican nun (there's the little issue of faith to get over, for starters), but questions of faith/lack of faith continue to intrigue and perplex me, and I'm intrigued by the way that religious communities resolutely turn their backs on the noise of modern life. It is liberating, as Jane Christmas discovers, to simply never think about makeup or looking one's best, but to focus on what is inside -- just as it is demanding to always think of others and respond to the drunken disoriented man (like the guy urinating in the snow outside my home this very minute) as one of God's children. (And yes, I, like the author, am well aware of the history of religious communities being less than the idea, from the wealthy, sword-swinging, heretic-slaying knights templar to the abuses of the Magdalene laundries, etc.) Jane decides to test her vocation, and the book is the chronicle of a year and a half of searching, including a week spent as a visitor to a guest house of a Catholic convent in England (where she's told she belongs to an "invalid religion") and three months at the Holy Paraclete, an Anglican order based in Whitby that has adopted St. Hilda as their patroness. It's interesting, even if Christmas is occasionally a tad dogmatic about stuff that is more personal reaction than of major theological importance. Yes, it's slightly unfocused, but overall intriguing, if certainly likely to be more appreciated by those who are still believers in churches with monastic traditions. Genny would, I think, find this particularly of interest -- Christmas comments extensively throughout on the role of women in religion & her time in England dovetailed with the synod debates about women bishops in the Anglican church and her views on the issue are sharp and take no prisoners -- and LTers like DorsVenabili who enjoyed Hild might find a bit of a glimpse into her (Hilda's) religious legacy in the second half of the book. 3.6 stars.

41. Through a Glass Darkly by Kate Charles is a collection of half a dozen stories that seems no longer to be available -- I got it as a Kindle book last year and it had been sitting unread since then. I had hoped to read it last month, and the book above pushed me to go to it, since Kate Charles is a mystery writer whose clerical/ecclesiastical mysteries I first discovered back in the late 1980s/early 1990s; she has two series now, and several stand-alone books although she hasn't published anything recently. These are a rather amusing collection, even if nothing in them really makes them standouts. There are some obvious themes -- the title story is pretty clearly going in a particular direction, and my interest in it was that it featured Charles's character, Callie Anson, before she appears in a series of three full-length novels. The twists are too well telegraphed, but the writing has a tinge of humor and is never banal or cliche. Fun to read, if not memorable. 3.3 stars.

OK, now, after a dose of intensity (Coetzee, Buruma, et al) and some mindless stuff, I'm now ready to go back to some serious reading. I'm also just about to finish my audiobook, The King's Mistress, which has been entertaining enough.

Hi Suzanne - (From previous thread): My favorite Coetzee is Disgrace, but a very, very close second is In the Heart of the Country, a wonderful madness tale. I have a brief review posted on the work page.

... and one more.

42. The King's Mistress by Emma Campion is a sympathetic reimagining/retelling of the life of Alice Perrers, real-life mistress to Edward III in the monarch's final years, in the late 14th century. I had first encountered the character of Alice in Katherine by Anya Seton, where the conventional and decidedly unsympathetic view prevails -- she is portrayed as arrogant, grasping and cold. Campion devises a back-story for her: daughter of a merchant family, married young to a family whose fate is entwined with that of Queen Isabella, the French wife of Edward II who, with her lover, had deposed and possibly murdered him. The Perrers family keeps Plantagenet secrets, and Alice is forced to take refuge at the court in the service of Queen Philippa. As the queen's health fails and the attraction between Edward and Alice grows, the May/December love affair begins. It's very detailed and convincing in many ways, although the repetition of "when could I have done anything differently?" and Alice's naivete are sometimes wearing. If you've read Katherine and are interested in more novels set in that era, this is a must-read; other historical fiction buffs may also enjoy it. I have had an ARC kicking around for ages, but finally ended up listening to it on audiobook. 3.75 stars.

Has anyone had a chance to read the new Anna Quindlen novel yet?

I've been nibbling away at the following; one of them will doubtless capture my full attention soon:

Dark Invasion by Howard Blum (Amazon ARC)
The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen (due back at library soon)
The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor (really should have read it by now!)
Accused by Lisa Scottoline (ARC from BookExpo last May...)
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee (Amazon ARC)
Young Money by Kevin Roose (NetGalley)
The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer (LT ER book)

And I will have to select my next audiobook now, too!

I can't believe you haven't read the PLF yet, Suzanne! It isn't quite up to the others, but still . . .

I'll be interested in what you think of On Such a Full Sea because I've read reviews that loved it and reviews that disliked it, so I'm on the fence about buying it or waiting for the paperback.

Rebecca, nor can I! I have a tendency to hoard stuff that I'm looking forward to most -- I suppose it's a legacy of years living in places where English language books were scarce and had to be rationed. I've read the first chapter of the PLF now, however, and am immersing myself in it...

I think I'll wait another day or two before I go back to On Such a Full Sea. Had it not been an Amazon ARC, I wouldn't have it as high on my list; it's as high as it is because it must be reviewed by the 20th!

You liked And Then a There Were Nuns better than I did.

Lori, quite possibly. It doesn't compare to Karen Armstrong's look back at her life experiences, not by a long shot, but it was moderately entertaining. The author herself wasn't the most endearing of personalities, and I doubt I'd want to hang out with her IRL, but it was interesting enough to keep me engaged. That said, I'm coming to it from one possible perspective. I don't know how I would feel if I were a religious Episcopalian, or a Catholic, or more familiar than I am with questions of theology and religious vocations. Thinking about it now, I'm not sure how to reconcile her dislike for dumping of the Book of Common Prayer (which I happen to share, given the beautiful language) and her insistence on inclusiveness in the church; it doesn't strike me as a logical and consistent pov. I did find the comments with respect to parishes a little obnoxious, but then, I'm not a part of that world and have no basis on which to form a judgment.

Rapidly finishing Young Money by Kevin Roose; it's a VERY good yarn. I read his first book, The Unlikely Disciple, which he wrote when he was still in college, and thought he'd make a great journalist. I seem to have predicted correctly, at least IMO!

I'm interested in your comments and follow-up about And Then There Were Nuns, Suz, because I'm caught in the middle of a 19th century theological novel war at the moment, and your remarks dovetailed into that rather well, particularly your observation about the inconsistencies expressed. (I might add that in the particular novels I'm reading, women are completely invisible!)

That is interesting, lyz... I seem to have been engaged recently in a series of debates about women's invisibility in general (and/or the transactional nature of relationships with women) and specifically as it pertains to middle-aged and older women. The Guardian ran a v.v. interesting profile of Kristin Scott Thomas, who had some thoughtful remarks on this, too.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/31/kristin-scott-thomas-interview

In the memoir, Jane Christmas is very outspoken/opinionated on the role women are asked to fill -- noting, for instance, that women religious are the ones found serving tea and suchlike, and that one never sees monks or priests doing that. I don't know how true that is, and how much is how her own sense of occasional alienation from church (vs God/spirituality) contributes to that perception, but it was an observation that recurred. On the one hand, she bashes the Anglican church for its inability to come to deal squarely with issues like women's ordination/gay rights within the church and its rather "limp" (my word, not hers) approach to serving the community; on the other, she clearly cherishes its tradition of independence vis a vis the Roman Catholic church and pooh poohs the latter's sole claim to apostolic legitimacy. It's enough to make one want to turn Lutheran. (For context: my mother was raised in the United Church of Canada; my father had very little religious upbringing at all and today would define himself as an atheist; he became more hostile to organized religion of any kind as we got older, so that while we attended a Unitarian church when I was a young child, after moving to London, the family didn't attend any church although for six years I was educated in an Anglican tradition, although my father refused to permit me to be baptized or confirmed. My mother is, I would say, an agnostic; my brother, I'm not sure, but my sis-in-law is Catholic and my niece and nephews were all baptized as Catholics although they're now attending some kind of interdenominational Protestant church. How's that for confusing?)

I was raised Episcopalian, and at least from my experience and what I know from my brothers and their families, the Episcopalian church is pretty equal opportunity.

It may have been true and probably was when I was in high school that women's roles were limited to serving but I think that was more of the culture of the 70s than anything. I was acolyte at several of the churches I attended.

My mother has been a lay deacon for many years and if I remember correctly delivers communion to those who cannot attend services to receive it.

Women have been ordained as priests and bishops and a few years ago had a gay bishop, Gene Robinson.

The only recent world wide Anglican controversy has been over the acceptance of openly gay congregants who wish to be married. Several branches broke away because they refused to allow equal rights for gay people.

Of course, Episcopalian is the US version of Anglican, so there may be some cultural differences. And, it has been years since I considered myself a member of any religion.

But honestly, she just sounds crabby to me.

I saw the Thomas interview somewhere else, or a similar one. I've always liked her a lot.

It matters much more, I expect, if you've relied on your good looks. I'm nearly sixty, never was a beauty, just OK, never wore any make up, not fabulous at dressing up (terrible in fact), used to be thinner, now hanging in there at the high end of acceptable medical parameters etc. I find most men - young or old - respond to me exactly as they always have. I intimidate a some, am invisible to many, and am noticed and appreciated by a very small and discerning percentage for my charm and brilliance.

Beauty and youth is biology, innit? And in the bad old days, not so very long ago, when women were either pregnant, ill from various childbearing-related problems from miscarriage and depression to anemia and fatigue, overwhelmed with children, or untimely dead of childbirth they couldn't DO much of anything, could they? - There were some very hardy individuals who managed better than others, but that was a rarity, I think. Freedom from this cycle - not oppression mind you -- an unavoidable reality with no birth control, no antibiotics, no understanding of safe medical practice has changed everything for women, but I think all cultures, including our own are still in the throes of making an adjustment to the change - possibly the most enormous since homo sapiens bounced onto the primate scene. The convent was a choice that made some things possible, like staying alive, like being able to think about things, express your faith etc. Of course, men used it to stash away inconvenient sisters and mothers and so on too, but now it is quite a different choice. Modern medicine has changed everything. Everything.

I see most women's issues from beauty to fulfillment from this very pragmatic angle. Reliability and availability were not something adult women could offer until now. Naturally men are reluctant to give way after centuries - millenia - of rationales for 'how things are' have to be overcome. Even things that we in the west take quite for granted now, have made a huge difference. For my college essay for Sarah Lawrence the question I chose to answer was "What innovation do you think has been most helpful to women?' I wrote about the tampon. My freshman year I had some contact with admissions and the head told me they were all in hysterics when they read it, one of the favorites ever. They loved it. But I was totally serious. I used to ride horses a lot and before I figured out how to use the things it was agony and often disastrous when I had my period and had to use pads. Rags must have been a million times worse, plus washing them. Ugh.

One of the best books on this topic is by Susan Hrdy The Woman that Never Evolved. Incredible book is all I can say. Changed my view of everything.

By the way, the name Christmas? Names like Dangelo, Christmas, Esposito, Navidad?- all of these were names given by nuns to infants left at convent doorsteps. From the 14-16 centuries many convents had a special place where you could put a baby sort of like a revolving door. You could open your side of the hatch, put the baby in, close the hatch, ring the bell and run off.

I find 50+ freeing; don’t have to try to be something I’m not.

26: I'm not sure how to reconcile her dislike for dumping of the Book of Common Prayer (which I happen to share, given the beautiful language) and her insistence on inclusiveness in the church; it doesn't strike me as a logical and consistent pov.

From my very limited and ignorant experience, I can kinda see this. I’ve sporadically attended Unitarian churches (beliefwise it’s them or the Quakers *, and given an hour of silence I’d rather read than meditate), but the music makes me cringe; everything un-PC has been removed, and the result is an insipid we-should-all-be-nice-to-each-other. Surely there’s a better way?

* Actually some years ago I attended a lovely Christmas Eve service at an Episcopal church where the (British) minister talked of biblical verses as “a language”, far removed from literal interpretation. This is a system I could live with, had I grown up with the language, but I didn’t, and it comes with too much baggage.

The Woman that Never Evolved
Sigh. Wishlist.

Lucy, fascinating! I think today, if I wrote that essay, I'd argue the computer and the Internet. Using it, it's possible to mask one's gender completely and to be evaluated on one's merits. Or at least to get a sense of what that might be like: liberation from assumptions, from any way of responding to someone that isn't tied to something in their personality or character. From many forms of preconception, perhaps, ranging from gender to age and appearance on the attractiveness scale.

Katherine, LOL re the hour of silence!! I spend large chunks of my days in silence, but usually having a conversation with my brain, if that makes sense. And I think that approach to the Bible is fascinating. For my part, I'd love to read a Bible/New Testament that contained ALL the books for which there is valid argument that they are contemporaneous with the ones in there now, and not just those selected to present a coherent narrative.

Stephanie, each national association of Episcopal/Anglican/CofE churches has their own rules, and we here in North America are quite far ahead of the English mother church, which thus far hasn't moved on ordaining women as bishops. Some congregations there have refused to accept communion from a bishop who has ordained a woman as a priest or even deacon. Genny could provide more details on this, but it is radically different. A friend of mine is a member of the Anglican/Episcopal church and indeed has even been employed by them, and attended synods as a journalist, and we've talked a lot about these issues over the years.

Whoops, had meant to make notes on another book, but I'll do that separately!

43. Young Money: Inside the World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits by Kevin Roose is an excellent book, and I'll take full credit for recognizing this young guy's talent when I read his first book, The Unlikely Disciple. At that point, I think I said in my Amazon review that I hoped he intended to make his way in journalism -- and was delighted to see his byline pop up on the pages of the NY Times business pages. I just didn't realize that this was part of his research for his next book, which follows eight young men and women who make their way to Wall Street in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and discover a changing Wall Street even as they grow up and start asking themselves what part money plays in their own sense of what an achievement is, etc. And of course, while the money on Wall Street looks lavish relative to other jobs, in absolute terms it's not what it used to be, even as the tradeoffs seem to become more dramatic. Roose does an excellent job of blending insight into the specific experience of the most recent batch of recruits with some more general and broader topics, such as the impact of new regulations. I also think it's very accessible. I confess that as someone older, I found that a (young) author writing about young subject sometimes slipped into predictable territory without realizing how predictable it would appear -- I'm not all that interested, frankly, in the agonizing of 22 year olds, and their recognition that the world is a tough and sometimes hostile place. That said, it's still an interesting and insightful book, and a new and different way to look at what is becoming a tired old topic: whither Wall Street? 4.5 stars.

Thanks for your comments about And Then There Were Nuns. I'm planning to read that one this month. The Unlikely Disciple is another I hope to read for my Religion and Sprituality category over in the category challenge group.

The Unlikely Disciple is one of my many have-but-haven't-read books.

Loved this discussion and have wishlisted The Woman That Never Evolved (even if I think it should be the woman WHO never evolved). The King's Mistress sounds interesting.

ETA: oi! Did I miss your birthday? How did that happen? Many belated and abjectly late happy returns, Suz!

In the 19th century there was a lot of inter-factional Anglican brawling, with clergyman eventually turning to the novel to state their cases - using the term "novel" loosely, since most of them are just thinly disguised lectures. Last year I read a Low Church novel called Steepleton which apart from promoting its own agenda took the time to explicitly attack an earlier High Church novel called Bernard Leslie (which I am reading now), accusing it of misquoting the Catechism to support its own position. Both novels consist of intense, analytical (we might say obsessively nit-picky) readings of the doctrine that manage to be completely inconsistent with each other. As someone outside of both, it's strangely fascinating.

I'm also caught by the overwhelming tone of smugness that invades the High Church novel, the absolute certainty of right. It is very easy to see how nearly 200 years later the line would be held on such matters as women in the church: to be flexible, you have to doubt your own infallibility.

ETA: Sorry, I'm sure this is really TMI, but this passage from Steepleton illustrates what I'm talking about...and gives me the giggles: 300 pages of this, folks!

    “Ah! I perceive,” said Faithful, “that you have learned the Catechism from your friend, Mr Gresley, and not from the Prayer Book. It is remarkable that twice over in his “Bernard Leslie” does he profess to quote this answer of the Catechism, in proof of his notion that the Church holds the doctrine of regeneration by baptism, and both times does he misquote it, substituting ‘thereby’ for ‘hereby’ (pages 68 & 173). Now my argument upon this is, either Mr Gresley did not know the difference between ‘hereby’ and ‘thereby’, and therefore unconsciously made the mistake, because the sense which he would put upon it required it; or he knowingly changed the word in order to deceive. You may hang him upon which horn of the dilemma you please.
    “But I don’t see,” replied Mr Roodstock, “what difference it can make, whether it be ‘hereby’ or ‘thereby’. Will you explain what you mean?”
    “Readily: ‘hereby’ means ‘by this’, the last thing mentioned, and that, in this case, was the ‘inward and spiritual grace’, for that is the subject of the question to which this answer relates, and not to the outward part or rite: ‘thereby’ means ‘by that’, the former thing mentioned, and that would be, as Mr Gresley makes it, Baptism. ‘Hereby’ refers to the death unto sin, and the new birth unto righteousness, which is the inward and spiritual grace; and it is hereby we become really children of grace; but not thereby, that is, by baptism, ‘which is only the outward and visible sign’.”

I LOVED the Kristin Scott Thomas article Suz, thanks so much for sharing. I really admire the stance she's taking in such a public way. Goodness knows I've not reached maturity yet (will I ever?), and I'm still 'only' in my forties, but the article resonated with me in many ways. Some of us wait till a major breakdown and/or illness forces us to question our choices and make major life changes, and I don't know if that was the case for her at all, but that was definitely what happened to me. Religion isn't part of my package, so I very much doubt I'll ever become a nun, though I have 'retired' from conventional life now and have often had conversations with one of my good RL friends, now in her late 40s and mother to a young adult of 17, about how women become invisible once they're out of the first flush of youth and hit their 40s.

Responding a bit to what Lucy said above in #30, I'd say things have drastically changed for me in the last decade. I've never been supermodel material, but for most of my life relied on charisma and then sexual appeal when I hit puberty. I liked to get noticed and sought attention, typical behaviour for a woman with a bad role-model as a father. Anyway, hard to tell now if there was one major contributing factor but I imagine it was a combination of things. Up till my late 30s I was quite vain and image-conscious and spent an inordinate amount of time on my appearance (makeup galore, etc). Then, the breakdown came, then the major clinical depression, then the meds, then the long-term disability and one thing leading to another, I really can't be bothered anymore, though I'm sure completely losing my libido to meds has something to do with it too. Sorry, confessional hour here. The upshot being that while women in our modern Western civilization can pretty much choose to do whatever we like, ageism still affects females much more than men. Back to KST, I like what she says about finding women who have lived through major upheavals so much more interesting than the 20-something set, and it's probably no coincidence I've found so much satisfaction from this particular group of people here on the 75ers, where I would venture to guess a good proportion of us are over 40, and as voracious readers, tend to be more prone to inner-reflection than the average guy. Once your main focus on all the exterior attributes makes way for a deepened inner life, things become so much more interesting. But still, there are many many more 60-something year-old men dating 24 year-old women than the other way around, and it seems women just keep getting more interesting with age and men... not so much, on the whole.

I don't go to the cinema much these days, but will make a point to see The Invisible Woman. How about you?

I don't think I'll be reading And Then There Were Nuns, though glad I read your review. However, you've mentioned Hild a few times now and I guess I'll have to get my hands on that one. Where would I find your review? Once again, I do wish you'd post your always on point reviews on the book pages... Hoping to wear you down with constant requests!

Gosh, lots of religion and C of E talk... I might have to look out for And then there were nuns - though the author does sound as if she might be annoying. I know the Order of the Holy Paraclete in Whitby (the OHPs - that used to amuse me in the days when we still used overhead projectors) a little - I've stayed with them on retreat a few times. Living in a religious community myself at present (though not as a prelude to joining the order!) I keep finding myself reading books about monastic life, sometimes quite inadvertently: one of my favourite reads late in 2013 was The Land of Spices, a Virago Modern Classic that fellow Virago readers had highly recommended; only once I began to read did I discover that it is set in an Irish convent - a very fine study of character, loneliness and friendship within community.

A Time to keep Silence, by Patrick Leigh Fermor, which I read at the end of January, would probably be more to your taste, Suz, than the Christmas memoir, though it is of course from the male perspective. He writes of his experiences as a visitor in a couple of French Benedictine monasteries and in a (much stricter) Trappist monastery, writing as a non-believer conscious of being an outsider, who finds the whole experience extremely strange at first but soon warms to the Benedictine way of life and apparently returned frequently as a visitor.

Continuing a similar them, I'm currently reading In This House of Brede - which I see you've got in your Library with a 4 star rating - and enjoying it. Its depiction of a woman entering a Catholic Benedictine community in the 1950s shows a world closer to the kind of community Leigh Fermor was visiting than the kind in which I find myself today - though there are underlying shared values and fundamental approaches despite the different denominations and the changes of the past 60 years in church life. The place where I am is very much smaller, and has the challenge of trying to preserve some room for silence and stillness while also being actively engaged with the wider community and welcoming visitors right into its heart.

Re Lucy's point at the end of post #30, the leaving of babies on convent doorsteps and their receiving religious names continued, at least occasionally, in much more recent times... My nuns, who are the ones that feature in the Call the Midwife books and TV series, recall at least one baby boy left outside their door in Poplar in the East End of London, back in the 1960s. They called him John, since they are the order of St John the Divine. At least John is a fairly ordinary name which would not immediately betray its unusual origins... Apparently this rarely happened in Poplar; it was an area of great poverty but very strong social cohesion, and they mostly 'looked after their own'.

But the tradition continues - with a twist - even to this day: on 20th November last year, one of the sisters opened the door early in the morning and discovered a Pampers box on the doorstep, with the message "Please look after me" written on the side. Inside they found... a delightful little black and white kitten, which they promptly named Edmund (Eddie) since it was St Edmund's feast day. A home was soon found for little Eddie within the wide network of community associates - though we were very tempted to keep him in the house ourselves.

As for women in the church of England - well this has been a long post already so better not get me started! Things are improving - have been for decades - and in many contexts gender is no longer an issue, but where there is still structural inequality, the lingering pockets of misogyny and old patriarchal assumptions continue to be legitimised or remain unchallenged, so we are still very much work in progress.

Thanks for the long & thoughtful post, Genny! (LOL, re Eddie, whom I WOULD have kept, thus proving I am not made of nun material, ready to renounce worldly ties...)

I have read both the PLF book and Godden's novel; I'm surprised that I rated it only 4 stars and probably would give it closer to 4.5 stars today, with the twin caveats that (a) Godden has a distinctive style that you will either like or loathe and (b) part of that rating is that it's a sentimental favorite for me. I first read it when I was about 14; it was the second Godden book that I read (after The Peacock Spring) and I have read and re-read it so many times over the subsequent decades that I probably know entire chunks by heart. Every time I pick it up, I know the characters and the plot. Of course, what distinguishes the monasteries (and Godden is writing about a monastery for women, if I recall correctly) is the fact that these not only are Catholic but contemplative and enclosed orders, thus a dramatic contrast to yours, not only theologically but in experiential terms. I think what intrigues me most about these groups is that the idea of community is a very different one than we would have: it is secondary to a life of prayer and service. Yes, life with others is important, but MUCH secondary to building a life with God in the context of the community. I think that's where the author of And then there were Nuns ends up stumbling; she hasn't realized that fact or appreciated what it might mean in reality. I think I appreciate it in the abstract, but would still find it tough to live with in reality (even without taking into consideration the very essential question of religious faith at all in this context!!)

Here's an article written by a long-term friend of mine about the Vatican & their struggles to try and rein in nuns' independence. Abby is Catholic, and observant in ways that many Catholics today are not, but you'll see her views come through in this, I think!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/01/american-nuns-fight-back-agains...

Ilana, I'm definitely going to make time to see the Dickens/K Scott-Thomas movie. It was already on my radar screen, and is "coming soon" to the arts movie theater on the East Side, over near Brown University's campus. The other movie theater in town is the mall's multiplex, which is good for Big Hollywood Drama.

Lyz, I'm simultaneously chortling and rolling my eyes at that dialog. Kudos to you for slogging through it at all! That would cause me to shriek and run for, oh, I dunno, a Harlequin romance??

Finishing up Accused by Lisa Scottoline, after which I'll be moving on to Ahdaf Soueif's memoir of Cairo three years ago -- the revolution that toppled Mubarak -- and a novel, which really should be one of my stack of ARCs but may not be. I'm setting myself up for a big scramble in the next two weeks... I've got a baker's dozen of them to read and review.

Now, can anyone tell me WHY it's so difficult for someone to comprehend the request for "half a dozen" of something (slices of ham, for instance) or "half past 3" when they ask what time it is? Does "six" and "3:30" NEED to be spelled out using only numerals???

On invisibility, I'm so glad to read this conversation yet am completely saddened by it. All my life (literally), I have been mostly invisible and was pooh-poohed by others when I tried to explain it. Most of the time I embrace the "their loss" attitude and have become my own best friend. It frees up a lot of time to do more reading or photography or ... something more interesting than wondering why my world doesn't see me.

The sympathetic male perspective.

I think both sexes in the supposed flush of youth largely miss the point. There is much more to love and caring than libido and bedroom gymnastics although these of course have a place too. A fulfilling relationship is more possible with the benefit of maturity and what we seek in partners in our teens and twenties are not entirely the same twenty to thirty years hence.

Ladies have too often been seen as objects and esteemed in large part because of the pertness of her nose, the roundness of her bottom or the presence of an impressive cleavage. Men generally mature at a slower rate than women do and whilst we all like to be attractive to each other it takes a little more to look beyond the first glance sometimes.

People have too often been cast aside as less useful or not relevant after their forties and guys feel this too, I can confirm.

I am an old romantic and still very much a creature of my sensibilities, shall we say, but things are deeper when we are less shallow.

Interesting and brave insights from the ladies (Ilana in particular) on subjects that are difficult to open up on. It is often not the case that you become invisible it is just that eyes need to adjust, including those looking in the mirror, to see the lovely being standing there.

I love this conversation - great posts from Ilana and from Genny, and thank you Paul!

In answer to your question Suz - It requires a moment of reflection for most people, like a puzzle. This is sad but true.

My spousal unit LOVES that way of putting things (in context, basically) - we HAD to get married at half past four because he HAD to put that on the invite. So our guests had to be willing to puzzle it out!!!! Endearing. I mean, it's about the only thing about which he was adamant.

Paul, very thoughtful comments. Of course, one of the biggest areas of "invisibility" is gender-related and to some extent, I suspect biology is at work. After all, in our 50s, we're not suitable reproductive material any more while men can still father children if they select younger women, so in strictly biological terms, it would make sense that we become more invisible to men who are selecting partners. (And I suppose in very long-term marriages and relationships, there's a natural tendency to take one's partner for granted, if one isn't very careful.) I do see something different, though, and it's specific to generations: the people that bump into me on streets (and the woman who actually sat down on top of me on the subway in NYC last week, literally not seeing that I was occupying the seat already) all appear to be in their 20s/early 30s. I suspect that part of that is the narcissism of the young -- I remember in my early 20s, coming out of clubs and being completely blind to people on the streets who weren't part of "my group", if you will.

Part of it might be (ongoing) social indifference and more focused on women. Men can be and are power players in their 40s/50s/60s -- the silver fox phenomenon -- regardless of how they feel internally. Women? It's more difficult. There's a general tendency to want to stick us into categories/labels -- mother, wife, etc. -- that intensifies in the late 30s/early 40s. That's when I first began to notice a level of discomfort that people couldn't readily slot me into those categories. I think that's something that both genders struggle with -- and men's struggles aren't really recognized as much by us, I fear; I've known lots of men who feel frustrated and overwhelmed by shouldering the entire burden of being the breadwinner, paterfamilias, etc. But I think that women's actual options are more narrow. A small example: I'm growing my hair out now to its "natural" shade after spending more than 20 years coloring it to maintain its original dark shade. (I spotted my first gray hair at the age of 16.) Do I worry about the consequence? Worry would be too strong a word, I think. But I'm aware that people will draw conclusions about my ability to do work for them based on their perception of my age. I have always looked younger than my age; now I'm likely to look older than my age. I suppose it also winnows out the array of men who will be interested in me, too, though that's a pretty small subset anyway, and the probability is that the Venn diagrams of men who are put off by my white hair and men who I would be interested in at all don't intersect at all in the first place!

At 52, I'm not going to be anyone's "starter wife" or mother to clutch of young children. That door has closed, and I feel quite neutral about it. The upside is that the expectation that is what I will or should do is vanishing, too. A new set of expectations emerges on the part of others, and my hope is that just as I have with every decade of my life to date, I'll find a way to focus on what I want for myself rather than what I think others want me to do. I simply care less about the views of others, and my actual challenge is to avoid letting that morph into selfishness or a soul-destroying isolation. In my 20s and into my 30s, it was painful when I felt that I didn't "fit in", or when I didn't find others who fit in with me. By my 40s, I was largely indifferent to that, and remain so. One quasi-friend called me cold and arrogant. She was someone who wanted to be a closer friend than I felt comfortable with -- always calling and wanting to chatter and gossip and do this or that -- but I felt exhausted by so much conversation and chitchat and stuff with so little substance or interest. Sigh. Life. People. L'enfer, c'est les autres.

ETA: Lucy, I LOVE that anecdote!!!!

A separate post for the book report:

44. Accused by Lisa Scottoline is the latest in the mystery series revolving around the women lawyers at Rosato & Associates; it's the kind of novel I enjoy reading but these days would never want to spend money on. It's amusing but not at all memorable. A mystery, amusing? Sure, because Scottoline goes overboard on the cracking wise, the flippant comments, the eccentric characters like The Tonys from attorney Mary DiNunzio's neighborhood. The plot? Mary is hired by 13 year old Allegra, daughter to an ultra-wealthy establishment couple and a girl genius and budding apirarist, who is convinced that her older sister wasn't murdered by the young man who ultimately pled guilty and who has been imprisoned for the last few years. Allegra just inherited a trust fund, and can hire the lawyers over her parents' objections to prove that Lonnie is innocent -- but can Mary and Judy trust her view of events? Is she obsessed, and why? And who might have done it? The solution is a bit rushed and perfunctory, and the final family scenes not really convincing, but overall it's entertaining enough -- and besides, I got an autographed ARC at last May's BEA BookExpo. 3.7 stars.

Bravo Suz! I am mystified by the hair coloring thing, must be my Quaker geneset! I noticed, moving back to Vermont full time, how many people I knew in Philadelphia must have been coloring their hair. Very very few women bother up here. And we all look great!!!!!!

You have wonderful thick hair (I've seen you on the teev!) so it will be gorgeous and give you added authority. Je te promets!

41: All my life (literally), I have been mostly invisible and was pooh-poohed by others when I tried to explain it.
I felt invisible for much of my teens and twenties, and actually had moments of freakout if someone bumped into me in a crowd; what if I really am invisible.

46: I am mystified by the hair coloring thing, must be my Quaker geneset!
I actively like gray hair. I’ve never worn makeup either. Or jewelry. I enjoy decorating my house, but a daily ritual for myself would be far too much trouble. Some of this is dependent on profession; fashion is not expected of computer programmers. I don’t have to make public appearances or schmooze with corporations; I’m strictly behind the scenes.

Katherine, yes, part of my anxiety -- indeed, a large part of it -- is because the media is generally a young profession and one in which image, to some extent, matters. I've already challenged conventional wisdom by bolting from NYC, and by letting my hair go grey/white will be running some degree of professional risk. It's not as if I can fool anyone about my approximate age. Even if someone thinks I actually joined the WSJ when I moved to NY (while in fact I had worked there for nearly six years previously), that still means that I have to be in my mid-40s, at least. And I'm clearly too old to be considered for a lot of jobs -- they can hire someone younger and more energetic for fewer $$. It's all going to be a matter of "wait and see" as to how much risk exists and what that is.

Then, too, there's also the shock to my own system! All my life I've had very dark hair -- indeed, coloring it has made it lighter. I'd argue that the darker your hair, the more significant change you see when you look in the mirror. It's less about age than your overall physical appearance. If you're blond, pull on a dark wig and you'll see what I mean. Or imagine yourself with red hair. Some kind of dramatic change to your coloring.

A bit boggled by anyone having problems with half past anything or half a dozen, as those are the terms I use all the time. There's none so queer as folks.

Re nuns, have you read The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner" I really enjoyed it, but then I know nothing about nuns, C of E, etc. I liked A Time to Keep Silence too (it's PLF, so how could I not?).

Rebecca, yes, I think I read this last year. I liked, but didn't love it. I think many folks here enjoyed it more than I did.

Grrr. I thought I had some leftover Indian eggplant curry in my fridge but I CAN'T FIND IT. I am jonesing for Indian food, but there's nothing that delivers and the weather outside is truly nasty. And I'm upset by actually losing food. Could I have simply thrown it out instead of putting it in the fridge? There's no room in the freezer, so that's not a viable alternative. *perplexed*

Midnight snack while sleepwalking?

Please see the very last part of my message #38.

Ghosts.

Ilana -- sorry, I just don't post reviews unless I feel really motivated, or if I have to do so. It's just one more thing to do. I've already pretty much abandoned my blog, reluctantly; the more I have to do, the less gets done and the more grumpy and irritable I feel. I don't see these comments as reviews, but just my comments on finishing a book, which I initiated largely because people were not believing that I had really read the books I claimed to have read. I spend 10 plus hours a day on work, and want to spend more time on reading, connecting with friends and then have to run errands, deal with meals, laundry and all kinds of other stuff. So if taking the time to move reviews over & expand them so they read like reviews suffers as a result, well, that's something I think I need to be able to live with.

I quickly located my comments on Hild from last year & here they are:
I was at first deterred from reading this because there just seemed to be so many details of 7th century life in Anglo-Saxon England that the author just assumed I would be familiar with -- rarely have I felt so out of my depth reading in those initial pages, some of which may as well have been written in a foreign language! Happily, I discovered that the ARC has a glossary of terms (hurrah) even though it lacked a map, and combining that with a quick Google of St. Hilda of Whitby gave me a big jump forward. This is Hilda/Hild's life, told through her own eyes as a young girl of royal blood, who is dangerously close to the throne of Edwin king, her uncle. As Edwin's power grows, so does Hild's, as she becomes his seer, channeling her observation and intellect into what those around her view as something almost supernatural. She becomes a woman and a warrior almost at the same time, occupying an awkward middle ground even as the power of the Christian/Roman church grows and conversions become mandatory. This is a fascinating novel and one in which the author really almost inhabits the era about which she is writing about -- the smallest details are vivid and we understand the significance of receiving spindle and distaff and being paired with another young woman of the same age as lifetime friends almost as Hild would have done, thanks to her writing skills. Once past the initial hump, it's a compelling read. 4.3 stars.

Nothing enlightening to add to any of these discussions, so merely delurking to assure Madame that my eye is upon her.

Ok, ok, I relent, won't bug you anymore about posting what are to you mere comments, but for the rest of us require real time and effort to approximate and then proudly call reviews. I understand that as a professional writer and published author you have your own standards to meet. I used to feel the same way when clients wanted to use my initial sketches as their final artwork. Only in this case, I'm not trying to save on fees... just greedily wanting to have easy access to all those great notes of yours when I'm perusing any given book which, 75% of the time, you've already read. But that's the end of it. :-|

Thanks for reposting your impressions on Hild. Very useful, especially as I was strongly considering getting the audiobook, but since you say the glossary is more than a bit useful, that might not be such a good format. Your comments about being utterly lost when reading about 7th century Anglo-Saxon England is pretty much how I used to feel when reading anything about Tudor England, or anything by Jane Austen, for that matter, but thanks to those very helpful tutorials by you and Liz, that is now a thing of the past. :-)

56: what are to you mere comments, but for the rest of us require real time and effort to approximate and then proudly call reviews
Hah, yes. I can spend hours writing a paragraph, then look at it a few days later and oh _that's_ the word I should've used, or ew how did I not notice the awkwardness of this sentence, but if I rewrite it'll be another hour so I let it be.

*gulp* Richard's eye is upon me....

Ilana, I'll always try to point you toward when I read it or republish notes for you. But honestly, it does feel more like work to put these in reviews. Sometimes I'll even postpone making the notes because I just feel depleted.

I certainly don't want to make anyone feel bad about what I call notes & others would dub reviews. It's just that I have spent the last 30 years earning my living from writing, so it is relatively easy. (Although, Katherine, every piece I submit gets scrutinized and edited till it's a shadow of its former self, so, not that different really...) On the other hand, I spent 45 minutes yesterday trying to figure out just where on my newish desktop computer, my tech guy had stuck the retrieved Word files from the old PC. It turned out to be very very obvious, needless to say -- but I still didn't find the file of notes that I needed. So, skill sets vary. I can't draw for beans, and I can't even network a printer properly. I can string a semi-coherent sentence together.

Btw, Ilana, meant to say that I watched the DVD of "Dragonwyck" last night -- great fun, and Vincent Price did a great job as Nicholas van Rijn. Yes, it cut back on some of the detail, but it was remarkably true to the plot of the book overall, which I appreciated. Thanks for telling me of its existence!

ETA: I remain irritable as a result of the activities of the food-purloining ghosts. The rice is there. The food isn't. Inexplicable.

I felt exhausted by so much conversation and chitchat and stuff with so little substance or interest.

Oh, God, yes - this!!

I'm both fascinated and horrified by the what I call the "mobile phone generation" way of communicating - as if every random thought that comes into your head has to be transmitted to someone, just because it can be. I hear about astronomical mobile phone bills and all I can think is, "What do you find to say in all those phonecalls!?" As a user of public transport, surrounded on all sides, the answer is "not much". There was one afternoon when I was trapped next to a disgruntled young man unhappy with his mechanic, and reacted by ringing six different people and telling them exactly the same story in exactly the same words.

And sure, lots of random thoughts come into my head, too; but there's also a barrier up reading "Why would anyone care?" that stops most of them exiting my mouth.

While this is just annoying (okay, HUGELY annoying), I think this instant gratification mindest - I must because I can - is behind a lot of the random violence we see these days, including road rage. If anyone has to wait for anything, or if they are thwarted in anyway, it is perceived as an intolerable blow against individual rights - or rather, "rights".

I won't abuse of the privilege, but I may very well ask you to point me in the right direction when I'm seriously considering getting a book I know you've read.

I started listening to Midnight Riot today and was very impressed with the first 20 minutes (the length of my walk with Coco, been on the computer since). I wrote my impressions on those 20 minutes on my thread if you're curious. :-)

Suz, I completely understand your take on posting reviews. You write for a living so writing a thoughtful and/or lengthy review would seem like just more work. When I worked, I too had to do a lot of writing as part of my job, spending most of my working hours at a computer. Even the act of physically being on a computer had that work gestalt. I, for one, am grateful you write as much as you do about your reading. You give me a good sense of whether or not a book would appeal. And never for one moment have I doubted the veracity of your reading record. My mother was of your ilk.

Thanks for the kind words, Tui... :-)

Knocked off another of the Amazon Vine ARCs, and have made big headway on Ahdaf Soueif's book about Cairo, which is excellent. So hopefully by this time tomorrow, I'll be down to only a dozen of these suckers to read. Meanwhile, I have some library books that also must be read and returned. Eeek!

45. A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith is one of those novels at the end of which you're supposed to sigh and say, ahhh, how life-affirming. Because, in spite of the point of the trip on which five widows and mothers embark in 1931, the point of which is to visit the graves of their sons in France in the Argonne, there is clarity at the end of it, in different ways, for all the characters in this novel. So, in that light, it's a pretty simple affair, but thankfully more nuanced and more readable than I had feared initially. (It was in the "romance" category of the Amazon Vine newsletter...) So, predictable but a fast and engaging enough read, revolving around the aftermath of WWI on American women. Nothing too surprising, but reasonably well handled. 3.3 stars.

Popping in to say hello. Hope you've found the curry and won't have to venture out in this snow! I'd just put something on the rice and call it a night, but then I hate going out in the weather...

Interesting commentary re:women and religion. I'm a Lutheran which has elected a female presiding bishop over the whole ELCA and also a gay bishop. My own congregation is on its third woman pastor and is actively open and supportive to LGBTQ members. I'm on my third stint as President of the Congregation, serve on the finance and endowment committees and am a deacon, which means prayer leader and communion server at the altar.

If anything, it seems men are reluctant to take active leadership roles in my church! We have a number of high powered ladies around here who seem to get along just fine.

Loved the way the discussion morphed into Kristen Scott Thomas, aging and women. Must be crazy, but I'm sort of looking forward to my cronehood.

ahhhh, Richard just gave me my new desktop wallpaper *smooch*

Stephanie, I think Richard has just provided ME with fodder for tonight's nightmare!

Marianne, I have had to relinquish the idea of curry. If I can manage it, I'll pick something up on Friday, as long as I get back for the start of the Olympics. My high school chum in Atlanta and I have plans to watch the opening ceremonies "together" -- on the phone, he watching his TV in Atlanta & me watching here in Rhode Island. I have to head to the library on Fridays, and maybe I can find something edible out there...

Confess (ha, no pun intended...) that I'd probably find Lutheranism didn't work for me. Predestination & faith over works irk me a bit. Not that I'm church-shopping.

I'm not sure I'm looking forward to cronehood, although I may be having it thrust upon me. My inner self isn't quite ready for the outer self to be crone-like.

Nightmare?! It's the Eye of Horus! A beneficent, all-seeing protector's gaze, which will repel all ill-intentioned magiqal interference.

Or summat like that.

Okaaaay. If you say so... :-)

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye is personified in the goddess Wadjet (also written as Wedjat, or "Udjat", Uadjet, Wedjoyet, Edjo or Uto).

See? See? All good, Your Royal Mummyness!

Thanks -- and I'll be sure to extend its beneficent power to the resident felines...!

*grumble* ooookaaaay

Don't fall for that oil' male driven concept of crones = hags. A dear friend about 15 years older has converted me to the idea and she's lovely. She's just reached the point in life where she says what she likes, damn the consequences. ;-)

No need to convert. Just mentioned to show not everyone is the same when it comes to the place of women and faith.

I am happily in early cronedom and quite enjoying it. Probably the most free I've been in my whole life.

>73 tiffin: Me too, me too. Happily filled out my retirement papers the day after the Common Core came across my desk. Happy, happy day.

I must completely and wholeheartedly agree with Liz. I certainly don't condone what the out of control enraged former sheriff did in the movie theater to the guy who was texting but I do understand it completely. People are under the mistaken impression that the rules don't necessarily apply to them. I sat in the doctor's office last week while a guy with a phone completly ignored the prominent sign to turn off cell phones and carried on three or four separate phone conversations while the rest of the compliant patients sat and steamed. He was one of those obnoxious loud mouths who disregard not only the rules, but the rights of all the people around him. There are just too many of these morons around, almost daily intruding on everyone else's private space.

They care nothing about your rights, but heaven help you if you intrude on theirs.

Also quite looking forward to cronedom, in the sense of not being required to pretend any more, or defend myself when I don't bother to pretend. I adjusted myself to single life very comfortably quite some time ago, but its astonishing how many other people seem to have a problem with that, or accuse me of being in denial. I'm another hair-dyer: I come from a family of mid-20-greyers. The grey isn't the issue; they are some lovely greys out there; but mine is a horrible dirty silver colour that I just hate, so I'll continue to hide it for the present.

Also quite looking forward to cronedom, in the sense of not being required to pretend any more, or defend myself when I don't bother to pretend. I adjusted myself to single life very comfortably quite some time ago

Hear hear! I don't need to pretend because I mostly keep to myself and see no one from my previous life as a man-eater (by definition, usually not a great admirer of the male sex). Now I'm just content about getting plainer and fatter every day and not having to take daily showers if I don't feel like it. Hmmm, maybe people feel compelled to ignore me because I smell bad?

I dyed my hair once when I was in my early thirties and my hubby said, "Why are you doing that? I love your hair." That was good enough for me. Thirty years later and I couldn't be happier. It hasn't been easy though. You wouldn't believe the people who felt it was their right to comment on the fact that I was so young, why didn't I dye my hair? Like there was something wrong with me that I wouldn't have the sense to realize that I couldn't possibly go through life with hair that looked like that! Practically strangers felt it their duty to inform me that there were options that I needed to be made aware of and they were going inform me immediately. Gah!

Today's Guardian column: attracting a flurry of interest it seems, though not as much on Twitter.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/feb/06/millennials-conservat...

re: hair color. Sometimes changing hair color really does change one's life. Years ago, when I was seeing the first 100 or so grey hairs in my mousy brown, I decided it was time for a change, and went red. The social reaction to that was amazing; as people reacted to me differently, I reacted to them differently. I'm sure it's not the same for everyone. Suz, I will be very interested to see you in your 'natural' color, and I'm sure it will look elegant.

Judy, I think that is VERY true. There def. have been periods of my life when I have looked different, and people respond more positively, and then I respond more positively. I think part of this might be my own body language, rather than anything else. It's all very interesting.

I didn't finish any books last night because I watched too many episodes of an OK-but-not-really-all-THAT-good series called "The Ambassador" on Hulu. The reason, I must confess, was that one of the featured actors is Denis Lawson, on whom I developed a cinema crush back in the 1980s after he played my fave character in one of my fave movies ever, "Local Hero". (He played Gordon Urquhart.) Sigh; there's nothing like the reminder of an old crush!

Have just filed a column so I'm going to take an hour's reading-and-lunch break before venturing back into the shark-infested waters of financial journalism...

79. Oh, hair colour can be such a big change. I've never changed my colour drastically but a few years back I started dying my hair just a couple of shades darker than my natural one and the difference TO ME is huge. The actual colour change isn't big, most people don't even notise, but I can see it and I can feel it and it makes me feel great.

Oh good grief, this is a fascinating conversation, but I just kinda wish that people would indicate what post they're responding to (which might be why the posts are NUMBERED?). It would help not to have to scan through every post, looking for context. My LT hobbyhorse.

I wish I knew the dollar amount that I've saved by not ever dying my hair. I think I could probably go on a world cruise.

>82 labwriter: +1111111111111111111111111111111111

>83 richardderus:. OK, Richard, are you mocking me? That's OK if you are.

#84; I think he might be agreeing with you, Becky....

>85 Chatterbox:. I never know, Suzanne. (grin) I'm just seriously hopeless at this social media stuff.

>86 labwriter: In the heartiest of annoyed agreement!!! I am always irked at having to scroll up and down and up and down for context to responses.

Just read the article and some of the comments. What is QE?

When I was at the same age, we were focused on paying off student loans and saving for a down payment on a home. While we had some investments to take advantage of ER matching in 401k, most of our $$ was in cash, too, to make the house purchase.

Suz, just read your article and the comments as well. Both of my lads have post secondary education and because of the job situation in Ontario are fighting to find decent work. All of their friends are in the same boat, living hand to mouth. They are both looking at retraining with skills as there is employment in that sector. Saving is a long way down the road for them, as is home ownership, if ever. Sad reality up here.

(for those trying to follow, like #82 and #87, the two preceding remarks are in response to #78 & the link to my Guardian column...) :-)

#89, Tui, point taken, and it's a very valid one with youth unemployment running at more than double the rate for 25-plus folks. I think the broader argument might remain intact. If your boys were lucky enough to have adequate full-time jobs in their field, given the situation among their peers and what they have seen their families and friends dealing with in the last five or six years, might they not be more intent on trying to save rather than spend to the extent that that's possible?

#88, Marianne, I'd say that saving to buy a house is a conservative use of your assets, too -- you're saving, not spending; not trying to buy a house with zero down or a minimal downpayment, alert to the fact of an employer match on your 401k, etc. But I would say that among my age group, it was pretty unusual. I bought my house in Toronto when I was 25, using a legacy from my grandfather as a downpayment. I saved whatever I could. Alas and alack, when it came time to sell, because I was moving to work in NYC, it was the spring of 1994 and interest rates were soaring! It sat on the market, unsold and empty, for a year while I paid that mortgage and rent in NYC. By the time it sold, I had lost every penny of my savings AND my equity, since I had to sell at pretty much what I had paid for it, despite the new roof, new windows, etc, etc. Within five years, it had resold for double.... Am I bitter? Only if I choose to brood about it! But that experience, alas, left me jaundiced about home ownership and reluctant to squirrel away $$ to buy, even had that been a reasonable objective in NYC in the 1990s, when housing prices were soaring at about 100x my income growth. But my broader point was that among my late boomer peers, I was definitely an anomaly in my late 20s, with a focus on early home ownership. Many people hadn't thought of saving for a house until they married in their 30s and didn't achieve it until their 40s.

>90 Chatterbox:: yes and they do, as much as they are able. They are also incredibly frugal with everything from heat & hydro to how they cook (from scratch).

#91 -- aha, empirical confirmation of the basic argument of the survey! The demographers who did it argue that their findings would hold true across the age group, regardless of whether this group had assets or not. There's a solid argument here that regardless of the level of affluence today, their experiences have shaped a set of behaviors, in the same way that our grandparents' experience of the depression years did theirs. That said, my grandparents were very fortunate. My maternal grandfather was affected, but my maternal grandmother worked as a nurse constantly, and my paternal grandparents (a teacher and a nutritionist) were in work as young adults, too. My maternal grandfather lost his scholarship to Queen's (half of his post WW1 class was cut each year; too many returning soldiers) and worked in the gold mines, then ended up going to San Francisco after the death of his first wife six months after their marriage. He wasn't stable & settled until the mid-1930s and always regretted not finishing his college education or developing a career that would really have reflected his intellect. He wasn't restless -- but he did teach himself to read German, Italian, Russian and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Really. He worked with the ROM when the King Tut exhibit first went to Toronto. I admired him tremendously.

>78 Chatterbox:, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92 (discussion re: Guardian article)

When we bought our house, our condo was under water and we didn't want sell at a loss. Ended up becoming landlords for two years. Ugh! Never want to do that again! Once we bought our homes, though, the emphasis changed significantly away from cash towards investing.

Absolutely agree that one's early experiences shape one's perspectives on money (and a lot of other things besides!)

But getting back to the comments on your article, what is QE?

I can't talk about home ownership since we live in my DH's childhood house, and I don't choose to talk about women and religion because I could go on all day--- HOWEVER ---
>59 lyzard: I think that this generation has never developed its executive function and probably thinks that having an executive function to prioritize, stand watch, postpone gratification, etc. would be a bad thing. I say so from the classroom where it was a challenge to talk about the construction of a sentence without kids blurting out comments about the content......... just one example.
>72 michigantrumpet:, 79, etc. I'm in the early years of cronedom and they are wonderful! I keep expecting to wake up completely gray one morning, but so far I look like I have a white headband and the rest of my hair is still mostly brown. I push the headband over my ears and pull other hair over the top, so that people do often accuse me of dying it. I don't and won't - too smelly, too expensive, too much trouble.

#93, sorry, Marianne, I had meant to answer but got sidetracked. QE is quantitative easing, most recently in the form of the Fed's purchase of bonds on the open market to keep the money supply "loose" and credit cheap and relatively available.

Peggy -- amazingly, the Guardian piece has attracted far more eyeballs than anything else I've written for them and was the #2 piece for the site yesterday. Clearly, whether we're fans or not, people wanna read about millennials...

46. Cairo by Ahdaf Soueif -- notes TK (that's newspaper-ese for "to come"; used when you need to check a fact but also need to file a story to meet a deadline.)

>95 Chatterbox: D'oh! Of course! Don't I feel a little silly. Don't think I'd seen it abbreviated like that before, but should have figured it out. Nuts.

Following along and nodding, but with nothing pertinent or interesting or remotely intelligent to add...

I'm with Amber! Just popping in for a hello :)

Migraine warning. Exacerbated by being unable to find anything to eat in the neighborhood after 2 p.m. I don't trust myself with knives, stoves, etc. when I'm like this. I have a tendency to be clumsy and disaster-prone. Back when it's over, whenever that happens to be.

Sorry you've been hit with a migraine, Suz, hope you feel better soon.

Oh, dang. I keep hoping that both you and Ilana will find relief soon, but it doesn't seem to be happening. The sending-of-good-healthy-pain-free-thoughts efforts must be doubled!

It's more or less gone, thankfully.

Will be back later, to update the books.

47. The Apartment by Greg Baxter

Meanwhile, here's the latest Guardian column, all about those distressed babies.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/feb/09/aol-retirement-plans-...

Glad to know you've got relief Suz. At least that makes one of us! I returned tickets to watch yesterday's live screening of Rusalka because I just can't imagine listening to opera in this state. Pure torture! Thank heavens though, I don't have deadlines to meet like you do, so I don't really have any right to complain. Fourteen weeks IS getting awfully long though...

Ilana, thankfully I can't compare my mini-hell to your maxi version. I'll have two or three days like that. I used to have weeks, where the headache would ebb and flow a lot, and I more or less found a way to work with it because I had to, but that was when I was in my 30s. I am just VERY relieved that only a single day was that bad. Still, it has completely buggered up my hopes for a peaceful weekend.

Suz, I've found when it comes to pain, there really is no making comparisons. I've had some days so bad that I would gladly have traded in a whole month of the kind of pain I'm in now as a replacement, but then days that seem like the absolute worst to me, I often think of you and what you've described as the kind of pain which has led you to the ER; I've never had pain so bad that I was biting through sheets to find some kind of relief (that image really stuck with me for some reason). If it messes with your enjoyment of life, it sucks, be it for one day or one year. I'm glad you're doing better.

#102 Very interesting article Suz. I find it fascinating how companies try to make it seem like benefits are so costly, all the while profits are soaring. My salary for example, has actually decreased over the last 15 years. I have worked for the same nonprofit for all those years and get no additional benefits. This of course is my own choice and I do it because I love the work and I love my flexible hours. But I do think the fact that salaries are either staying the same or decreasing shows a true lack of sustainability in our economy.

Fascinating discussions on religion, women's issues, and dying your hair!

Sorry to hear about your most recent migraine. I also have issues when I miss meals...people think I am weird cause I try to eat at the same times every day. But I find it helps with reducing headaches a lot.

Probably about time that I updated anyone who cares about the books I've been reading -- slowly -- here.

46. Cairo by Ahdaf Soueif is easily the best of this batch of books. That said, it's still uneven. Soueif is at her best when capturing the uncertainty and excitement of those weeks in January/February 2011 that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak; she brings a sense of immediacy and yet also of context to both the description and the analysis of events. That chronicle is broken up in half, with each half followed by Soueif's own descriptions of events that followed months to a year or more later, when the promise of the revolution has evaporated. She clearly has her own point of view but doesn't always express it as thoughtfully or coherently; at some points, it's almost stream of consciousness. Also, perhaps it's understandable that she equates national self-determination with rejecting political leaders who are believed to be in the pockets of Americans or Israelis, but for my part, I would have been interested in a broader context & awareness that effective political regimes need to serve their people and coexist in a wider world. Perhaps the approach Soueif displays -- of dismayed idealism -- helps explain why the revolution was later hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood (whose organization, as she chronicles, weren't a force in Tahrir Square, although isolated members and Salafists rejected their leaders to show up) and by the next generation of military leaders. When the focus is more on what is being ousted and the ideals of what comes next, it's hard to remember that you need, also, to have a sense of what you'll replace that despised former regime with. (Perhaps not coincidentally, that was my main critique of the Occupy movement: if you urge people to protest against something, you need to have or develop a program or mechanism that will replace it.) 4.3 stars, definitely worth reading, especially Soueif's take on the divisiveness being fostered by Mubarak's heirs. Although this reminds me that I want to see if Mohammed El-Baradei has written anything about these events.

47. The Apartment by Greg Baxter is a short novel that only briefly flares to life, unfortunately. It's an enigmatic narrative, built around a single day in the life of an equally enigmatic man in his 40s, who has chosen -- almost at random -- to live in the rest of his life in an unnamed European city (my guess is it's loosely based on Prague, although it could be any central European city, almost; perhaps Krakow?) The day is one he spends hunting for a new apartment with an acquaintance, Saskia, on a snowy December just before Christmas. The problem? The narrative is almost as chilly as the weather. Occasionally there are flashes that are interesting or telling, but by and large I simply didn't care about the unnamed narrator. There's little to no tension here, even though we eventually discover a bit about what propelled him into unknown territory -- but nowhere nearly as interesting as it should be. Good writing, interesting premise, but nothing that made me curious or interested about the protagonist. Clearly, it's a "post Iraq" novel, but it needed more than that to make it work for me. 3.6 stars.

48. The Deliverance of Evil by Roberto Constantini comes out still lower on my personal scale. It's a sprawling book: 565 pages or so, with 150 pages at the beginning devoted to the buildup to a crime that took place in 1982. Then it takes another 250 pages or so before we begin to understand how that is relevant to crimes taking place in 2005. The main character, police captain Michele Balistreri, is supposedly tortured with guilt, but I never really understood that he felt guilty by his failure to solve the 1982 crime? Sigh. Way too much going on here, moving in far too many directions, with far too little focus. Half the time I spent puzzled and trying to keep track of the plot. Not really recommended, although there are points that are interesting. 3 stars.

Suz, thought you might be interested in the following, which I received by email today.



The Folio Prize shortlist

This morning at the British Library, the judges of the 2014 Folio Prize, headed by Chair Lavinia Greenlaw, announced the eight titles on the much-anticipated inaugural shortlist. As sponsors of The Folio Prize, we wanted to ensure that our members would be among the first to discover this stellar list of new writing. The Folio Prize aims to recognise and celebrate the best English-language fiction published in the UK in a given year, regardless of form, genre or the author’s country of origin. The winner of the very first Folio Prize – worth £40,000 – will be announced at a ceremony taking place on Monday 10 March in London.

The eight books in contention are:

Red Doc> by Anne Carson (Random House / Jonathan Cape)
Schroder by Amity Gaige (Faber & Faber)
Last Friends by Jane Gardam (Little, Brown)
Benediction by Kent Harouf (Picador)
The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner (Random House/ Harvill Secker)
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Galley Beggar Press)
A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava (Maclehose Editions)
Tenth of December by George Saunders (Bloomsbury)

At The Folio Society we are passionate champions of great literature. In sponsoring The Folio Prize, our hope was that we could continue this tradition of excellence and uncover the best fiction of our time, books that will be read and admired for decades to come. This outstanding shortlist, which consists of five US or US-based writers, one British, one Canadian and one Irish, confirms our expectations.

You can watch a video here which explains the concept behind The Folio Prize and our reasons for sponsoring it, and presents the shortlisted authors.

>102 Chatterbox: Yuck. Loathsome behavior.

An Unnecessary Woman was as excellent as your review led me to believe it would be, thank you.

# 108 -- Ilana, interesting, although hardly a list that gives me to suggest that Folio will ensure their readers are the "first to discover" these books. The majority of these books have already appeared on other major award lists, and all but one or two are published by major presses... Not all that revolutionary! I'd love to see an award that focuses on new novels from smaller presses.

# 109 -- Glad that was a hit for you, Richard!

No doubt, but not likely the FS would sponsor that kind of award. They've never claimed, or tried to be on the revolutionary end of things.

I hadn't heard about the "distressed babies" before, Suz. What an idiot.

Also, as an aside, I'm slightly surprised at the details of AOL's 401(k) plan. Seems kind of stingy...? Is it pretty standard? I work for a not-for-profit but our 401(k) plan is pretty good - contributions up to 6% of regular earnings are matched 110%.

Wow, Katie, that's actually pretty generous. I've seen $ for $ up to 3%, then 50%. Most cap out at 6%, but it's not always dollar for dollar. Some employers don't offer much of a match. And the default contribution rate is often set so low that an employee who doesn't actively keep track of this won't benefit from the maximum match (which is just what the employer wants, of course...)

It's all part of the "if you don't save enough, that's because you planned poorly" ethos. Which flows from the inability of many businesses to manage their own pension liabilities... The fact is that we're all living decades past retirement and we need to be able to address that. Perhaps through government plans. Perhaps through pensions. Perhaps through higher salaries. But simply telling people to save more without giving them the tools to do so -- salaries keeping up with inflation -- is problematic.

Ours used to match up to 6%, but they quit matching at all while they are taking care of some issues from previous administration's mismanagement of pensions. Let's just say that some days I think I'll never be able to retire.

Lori, alas, you're not alone. A lot of companies suspended matching at the height of the financial crisis, and while many of them later resumed, that's thousands of dollars of "opportunity cost", and -- more importantly -- the loss of the compounding effect over the years to retirement. Matching is voluntary, as is providing a 401(k) plan. In fact, this may have given me an idea: to compare what has happened to an average executive salary in the years since defined benefit plans shifted to 401(k)/DC plans. Have salaries risen enough (ex inflation) so that companies are enabling their employees to set aside what the company previously would have budgeted in the way of an annual pension contribution? It requires more serious math skills than I possess to figure out what calculations to make, so I'll put in some calls tomorrow...

Hi Suz,

>78 Chatterbox: Your millennial column from The Guardian was in today's Denver Post.

Thanks, Joanne! Apparently, it also ran in San Diego. Sez my editor, "more like that, please". Sigh.

I'm watching the short-track speed skating, which I lurve. So exciting.
ETA: Charles Hamelin is AWESOME. Odd to see "Viktor" Ahn skating for Russia stedda S. Korea, though...

Oh -- almost forgot.

49. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo was interesting but would be a great read for someone younger, I think. It was moving -- told through the eyes of a horse sold into the British Army on the outbreak of war. Think Black Beauty, but much shorter and against the backdrop of war. I think I'm too old to really enjoy it; more a children's book than YA. 3.4 stars, more reflecting my reading experience than the book's inherent merits.

Very interesting article, Suz!

>115 Chatterbox: Regarding 401Ks and pensions:
My company has always matched the first 3%, provided the employee contributes at least 6%.

As of the end of 2013, the company froze the pension (meaning no more contributions, but as it is it will be available to retirees), for those elgible, which means people hired before some date - maybe 2000.

To make up for that, they are contributing in another way to the savings plan, and even more for those over 50 or 55 (I forget, being well above either). So I'm getting about $12000 extra in my 401K plan, but no increment on my pension.

I do respect the management for sweetening the 401K deal, but I would have preferred to have the pension continue to grow. Oh well. Glad - in fact amazed - that I have a pension at all.

Suz, the idea you have for an appraisal of executive pay post-pension, although I'd like it broader than that - it's the non-execs at the lower end who will probably be hurt most materially.

Judy, you're right. Unfortunately, they are least likely to have a 401(k), or to have salaries (vs hourly wages) that are readily trackable. It would be interesting to see whether a standard 401(k) plan (if that was all that an exec got) kept up with wage growth. I suspect not. I'm still pondering how to break down this question.

I'm sorry War Horse wasn't more exciting for you Suz. I'm a bit of a sucker for Michael Morpurgo, and any story about animals for that matter, though strangely enough, Black Beauty, which I only read a couple of years ago, didn't do that much for me. I blame it partly on the audiobook narrated by Simon Vance, who for some reason has become intolerable to me, so a reread is in order. I read up on Anna Sewell a bit (i.e. on wikipedia) and was surprised to find out she had never intended it to be a children's story. Unlike Morpurgo I think, though I guess I'll only know for sure if I read his biography. I don't read all that much children's literature, relatively speaking, but when I'm in the mood, War Horse is definitely on top of the list of my favourites for that age group. Glad you read it all the same because it seems there are no other takers for my TIOLI challenge this month!

I'm hoping to fit in War Horse this month.

For some reason neither myself or J ever really warmed to Michael Morpurgo, which was a shame as I'd bought him a box set of his books before I discovered that.

I loved War Horse and was really drawn in by it. I've always been a sucker for books with animals as main characters. And I loved Black Beauty as a child.

Two fine columns, Suz - the millennial and the retirement matching.

I neither liked nor disliked Morpurgo. I thought the story was well-crafted and appealing, but it just wasn't my cup of tea, for want of a better way to put it. Am I sorry that I read it? Nope. It just didn't feel as meaty or as engaging as other children's books that I have loved. It was a clever story, and well-written, but I couldn't stop my inner critic from muttering stuff like "what were the odds of a horse surviving this, or that, or the other?" So, perhaps some of the coincidences felt too blatant. I dunno.

#121, yes, Simon Vance appears ubiquitous in audiobook land. Glad to have joined you on your challenge -- and it did prod me to read a book that I'd been pondering for some while.

#125 -- thanks, Lucy! Next up will run on Friday instead of Thursday, because it has a V-Day theme.

Sigh, Megabus just canceled the bus to NYC tomorrow because of the latest winter storm. Crisp and cold and bright blue skies out there now, but the forecast is for six to eight more inches, mostly in the morning. Piffle. Train too pricey, so no book circle for me this month.

At least book #50 was a winner:

50. Dark Invasion by Howard Blum is the kind of gripping and fast-paced non-fiction narrative that other, lesser "historical crime" books try and fail to be (I'm think of recent underwhelming books by Paul Collins, and The Great Pearl Heist, none of which have really lived up to expectations.) In contrast, this look at New York in 1914/1915 is simply excellent. When World War I breaks out in Europe, the United States under Woodrow Wilson is intent on remaining neutral. The problem? Its own attempts to be neutral -- selling munitions to anyone who will send ships to collect them, meaning that the Allies can buy but the Germans, blockaded, can't -- backfired in the eyes of the Central Powers. And some of its own citizens' loyalties weren't 'neutral', either: Germans made up a giant part of America's mosaic, along with the Irish (my enemy's enemy is my friend...) So the German government representatives despatched by the Kaiser to create havoc in the United States had lots of willing collaborators in their efforts to sabotage munitions shipment, spread disinformation and generally make life miserable for anyone who might be seen to be supporting their opponents. Revolving around the man whom Blum sees as the first head of "homeland security" a century ago -- a NYPD detective named Tom Tunney -- the chronicle could still have been dry and academic in tone. Instead, it reads like a spy novel, as Tunney and the spies play cat and mouse games throughout the streets of New York and up and down the East Coast. VERY worthwhile reading, and a thumping good read, to boot. 4.5 stars.

Nice review of Dark Invasion, Suz.

I was thinking of you regarding Book Circle and the weather. Have you read The Awakening yet? What did you think of it?

I had started it, Judy, but not gotten very far. Was going to pick it up again tonight and finish it on the bus tomorrow, since it's so short. Now, I may just go back to my Amazon Vine ARCs, since I have eight or nine of those left to read...

>128 Chatterbox: That's a wise decision for how to use your eyeblinks, based on my experience of the book.

ETA solid smack of book-bullet on the Blum, sounds really really interesting.

Yep. Second smack of the book bullet here, Suz. I was just popping in to say hi!

Evil chortle re book bullets.

I live to serve....

Judy, I think book circle is up in the air at present. We shall see... (or hear, anyway)

And one more....

51. On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee is a fascinating book that I, at least, found tremendously intriguing. On the surface, it's a kind of spinoff of a picaresque novel, with the main character being Fan, who ventures out from her community of B-Mor in quest of the love of her life, Reg, who has suddenly vanished. This is the starting point of a novel set in a future North America, in which the tale is told through the collective "we" of the highly collectivized citizens of B-Mor, the settlement populated generations earlier by Chinese forced to leave their now-uninhabitable land, and used to grow fish and vegetables in purified environments for the elites of the "Charter" villages. B-Mor is solidly in the middle of a new kind of class structure: its residents don't have to strive to sustain levels of personal wealth in the way that the highly individual and competitive Charter citizens do; on the other hand, they don't have access to global travel (except for a select handful, once in their lives) or anything but palliative healthcare for the C-diseases to which all will eventually succumb eventually. But they aren't living wild in the "counties", lawless and violent and downright Darwinian. Fan's journey takes her through all kinds of communities, painting a picture for the reader almost by accident: we learn little of Fan herself, except through her actions, her determination to find Reg and protect her secret, and her interactions with those she encounters en route. It's somewhat reminiscent of Never Let Me Go, in that it implicitly asks us some tough questions about what kind of society we value: community or individualism? Do we prioritize wealth or stability? You can read this on the basic narrative level or as a kind of creative allegory, but the more you opt for the latter, the more I think you'll end up enjoying what I found a fascinating novel. 4.35 stars. Not conventional dystopian fiction with lotsa action; this is more creative, both in terms of its sometimes distancing voice and also in its approach, which is relatively cerebral, so probably not for all tastes.

Sounds a god one, Suz. I've had my eye on it...

Glossing over 51 lightly since I have it here...but I caught enough to know you liked it, which is a good sign.

It's worth adding to your TBR, Katie, in some way/shape/form. I'm not sure it's an "automatic buy" decision, but definitely take a peak next time you drop by a bookstore (tomorrow?) and see what you think.

ETA: Now I have to seek out something a little less intense. I'm finishing up the audio version of A Tale of Two Cities, which I'm quite liking, especially the incredibly despicable Mme Defarge. But a mystery is called for, perhaps. I dipped into Longbourn, but even that feels too much like "thou must think and ponder" for me right now.

Great reviews in #126 and #132. I am not sure either is for me but I really like reading what your thoughts were on each!

Bummer that your book circle meeting got ruined because of the latest winter storm. We have not been above freezing more than a few days since before Christmas. It is very old.

Oooh, exciting. The new Parker Bilal mystery just landed on my UK Kindle. Along with the new novel by Jane Thynne, which picks up where Black Roses left off. Still have eight Amazon Vine books to read in a week, but oh, how tempted I am.

Not sure that the whole book circle has officially been canceled, Heidi; no e-mail yet. But it will be a small crowd, I suspect.

Imagine 7 inches of snow followed by 5 inches of rain up here? I confess I'm not unhappy to not sit white-knuckled on a double-decker bus for hours and hours in those conditions, but kinda peeved that this storm didn't wait a week. I haven't seen the ground (grass/mud/whatever) in nearly a month; the snow has hung around in a way that is v. unusual in my experience of the last 20 years. I suppose three years ago is the closest analogy, but that didn't go on for months, just Boxing Day for two weeks or so, and then a bit more at the end of the month.

I am SO not looking forward to walking Stella tomorrow. Ick.

I lost your thread, Suzanne, and didn't even realize it! But I'm back and all caught up now, though I won't attempt to comment on the many interesting topics you all covered while I was gone. :-)

A solid seven inches in the driveway, and Stella thought this was Paradise. She took off for the edge of the front lawn lickety split, whirled around, and went bananas chasing a squirrel. As I had dropped the leash, I was basically praying she wouldn't run into the street and would come when called. She didn't and she did.

And that's my exciting snowstorm story.

Liked the article about AOL. Any blowback from them on the article?

My husband attended an event last week at which former Fed chief Paul Volcker spoke. It was for a bunch of investment executives (plus Hubs who was invited at the last minute.) Volcker talked quite a bit about Income inequality. Pretty funny seeing as the people he addressed were some of the beneficiaries of that trend.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/02/07/volcker-boston-speech-takes-aim-i...

"...During that period, he said, the link between pay and performance got 'entirely out of whack.'"

ETA to add link.

>141 michigantrumpet: Yeah, always interesting to hear what the people in power learned after things got messed up, isn't it?

141/142 -- Marianne/Judy -- yes, AOL responded to the firestorm by basically completely back pedaling. Did I ever hear from them directly? Nope. Armstrong has delivered a couple of "apologies".

There's a VERY interesting story out there that shows they dug this hole for themselves by self-insuring. In other words, they collect premiums and use a health insurance company to process the claims, but they actually aren't buying insurance, because it's cheaper to just pay out of their own revenues. Until, that is, there are some big claims like "distressed babies"... Which is, of course, the reason to buy health insurance in the first place! It's not actually a sleight of hand -- the employees do get the benefits. They just aren't technically insurance benefits at all, but the company taking too much risk and ending up footing the bill.

Volcker is an interesting guy. A holdover from the days when compassionate conservative wasn't an oxymoron, and voting Republican didn't mean having to hold your nose about the anti-gay, anti-woman, one-religion-only, anti-poor people (it's all your own fault) policies and rhetoric. Sadly, there are fewer of 'em out there now. When one of the Republicans I can actually imagine tolerating as a candidate for the White House is Chris Christie (because alternatives are so damn terrifying, like Paul Ryan or Ted Cruz), it's unnerving. Volcker is a smart guy, who has spent decades in the trenches understanding how the economy works, and he's almost rigidly nonpartisan. If he thinks income inequality is something worrying, it's time to worry about it. Or, in my case, worry more. Personally, I don't want to go back to the era of Charles Dickens. And not just because I'd have to wear a corset.

Having a self-declared snow day today and working to fend off a headache. It's not here, but it's not gone, either.

I just finished putting down my thoughts about An Unnecessary Woman. I felt sure I would love this book, and it certainly had all the right ingredients, but ultimately I think Alameddine and I would not have a great time having tea together (I happen to like putting milk in my excellent Earl Grey blends). I know you loved it and your comments on it certainly made me reach for it faster than I might have otherwise, but I think I'll be among a very small minority that is not completely won over by this one.

eta: I think I'll actually add some of my comments above to my 'review' if it can be called that.

Maybe that's the difference between those who don't like An Unnecessary Woman and those who do -- whether or not we like milk in our Earl Grey? Personally, I'm a purist, and don't like milk in any kind of tea! If it's plain old Lipton's, I'll sometimes go for lemon, but that's the most I'll give in.

Richard re 138/140 -- aha, now you see both the upside and downside of cats. I don't need to walk 'em in really nasty weather (and here, there is about 4 inches of snow and 5 inches of sleet on the ground and I dread to think what will happen tonight when temps fall...); just scoop the litterbox containing the easily removed clumps. (So much more appealing than removing doggie leavings from sidewalks or snowbanks...) Admittedly, that's fortunate because if I let Tigger out, he'd go exploring and NOT return when called, despite his other canine qualities. And since has no built-in wariness, just the proverbial cat's intense curiosity, he'd end up as roadkill or kitty stew for Evil People. Molly and Cassie are more fraidy-cats, and that's one reason to be grateful for that fact.

Pondering tuning in to watch some Olympics -- the good side of winter. Have been having fun watching the downhill events, and remembering that my feeble slope skills were taught to me by a young woman (as she was then) in the teeny tiny town of Filzmoos who went on to medal in the Innsbruck games a few years later. Even as a 9/10 year old, I realized that she had the world's biggest butt! (Thanks to all the muscles needed to control big skis whipping down mountainsides.) How she put up with all of us I have no idea. But it makes me kinda sad (a) that I'll probably never go back to Filzmoos again, a little town I loved spending two weeks in with my school friends every January and (b) that it has been years since I went skiing, since no one in my social circle does, and skiing is one of those social events that, unless you live in a ski town, it's hard to bring oneself to do solo. I'm quite happy to venture off to movies, theater, etc etc on my own, or go ice skating solo, but skiing is different, somehow.

Enough rambling. I'm reading Longbourn by Jo Baker and really liking it, and starting the next Amazon Vine ARC. The latter because the clock is ticking away...

Lemon or perhaps with certain teas, a drizzle of honey. That's how I roll. :-)

The only time milk is allowed anywhere near my tea is if I'm drinking chai. And honey and lemon goes with ginger tea. Other than that, it's all additive-free for me.

As in so many things, I am completely random in my tea additives - lemon and honey (but never one without the other) or a spot of milk or nothing.
Many book bullets with thanks.
Migraine, FLY! AWAY!

Ooo! Ooo! So they are blaming Obamacare for the need to cut back when they weren't even purchasing insurance to begin with! That kind of talking out both sides of the mouth just drives me crazy.

The Hubs constantly chuckles whenever companies miss their earnings estimate by a couple of pennies and blame it on the "weather." Bloomberg TV and CNBC talking heads just nod knowingly over this easy yet implausible excuse.

I suspect for 2014, any time someone fails to make earnings, the ready yet implausible excuse is going to be Obamacare (with as little connection to reality than with AOL.) And all the talking heads on CNBC will pound the desk approvingly shouting "Harumph! Harumph!"

Hope you are feeling better.

Marianne, periodically I have pointed fingers at these "earnings scapegoats". If it wasn't the weather, it would be China or emerging markets, or tapering, or something else. Of course, the whole problem is setting up fixed earnings targets and then needing to match them to the penny. Sigh. Otherwise you are blamed for "lack of earnings visibility".

That said, Obamacare might change things for AOL, if it requires them to buy insurance when in the past they had been self-insuring. But probably for the better, since it will make their cost structure predictable and remove the risk.

Feeling OK; thanks for the good wishes. I stayed up v. late last night to write my V-Day column, which will be out today, since I was slightly fearful of a power outage.

And then I read:

52. Longbourn by Jo Baker is an excellent, excellent novel. What if the servants at Longbourn, home to Jane Austen's Bennet family in Pride and Prejudice, were the main story, and the antics of their betters merely the backdrop to their lives? Who brushes the mud off Lizzie Bennet's dresses as she tromps through the countryside; who must clean the dirty clothes when Lydia and Wickham return to the bosom of their family after their elopement? How does Mr. Darcy fare in the eyes of the servants -- or is he so far above them as to be merely a cipher? What might a servant like Sarah, the main character in this novel, think of Lizzie's wonderful catch, idealized and idolized by so many readers over the last two centuries? "Perhaps it was not an easy thing to be so entirely happy. Perhaps it was actually quite a fearful state to live in -- the knowledge that one had achieved a complete success." What I loved about this novel is that Baker somehow blends the Austen novel's events into the main tale, but in her own way. The result may be linked to Austen, but doesn't depend on the novel or Austen's major characters in the way that so many of the Austen fan fiction tomes do. At the same time, my view of some characters was enhanced: Mr. Collins and Mary Bennet become less like caricatures and more like people bemused and struggling to do their best. Wickham becomes more sinister still. Mrs. Bennet becomes more sympathetic; Mr. Bennet less enigmatic. But the reason to read this isn't to learn more about your fave P&P characters -- they're the window dressing to the more prosaic, gritty store of the uncertain and perilous life of those born into Regency lower classes, who deal with dirty and mud, childblains and callouses; stained and dirty clothing. Baker makes them real people, with eerily similar objectives and hopes, but far more realism than those "upstairs". Not for readers who don't want their romantic PBS-fueled fantasies of Austen's world challenged, or who are just looking for a Downtown Abbey re-tread, but for thoughtful readers willing to push the envelope. This could have stood on its own, sans Austen, but Baker's decision to use P&P is likely to win her more readers, and deservedly so. It's excellent. My only real criticism is that the events of the last few pages feel as if the author has hit the fast forward button, which knocked this down to 4.7 stars from a full 5 stars. Read it.

Oooookay ... Longbourn just went on my wishlist. I wish I were a Trill.

A Trill??? Whazzat???

Glad I bought Longbourn last week. Even gladder the wife doesn't know I did.

I'm #270 in my library queue for Longbourn so I'll have to wait till later this year to get it read. Love to see people enjoying their reading choices.

I just read an article about the Monuments Men and how the US pulled out all stops to track down art works but how earlier in the war they dissed on saving the artist Chagall himself. ‘Monuments Men:’ Rescuing Chagall’s Paintings, Abandoning Chagall

#152 Suz,
From Star Trek Deep Space Nine. A Trill is a humanoid host with a symbiont. The symbiont retains all the memories from previous hosts, and passes them on to a new host. The Trill on Deep Space Nine is known as Dax and has had 7 or 8 lifetimes by the time it joins with the young woman Jadzia.

Longbourn was already on my WL but your review is making want to read it even more. I am very interested in reading about the life of the lower classes in Britain in that time period. Sometimes in fiction from that time period its hard to remember that not everyone was a Duke or a princess!

#154 -- Kerry, have you read Villa Air-Bel by Rosemary Sullivan? It's an excellent look at Varian Fry and his often successful attempts to look after stranded artistic figures get out of Nazi-occupied France. Highly recommended. I didn't especially like Monuments Men as a book, although I do plan to see the movie. MUCH preferred The Rape of Europa, which was made into a very good documentary.

#155 -- Stephanie, thanks for the clarification!! I was completely flummoxed, and fearing I was even older than I thought. Relieved that it's Trekkie slang...

#153 -- Paul, LOL....

I'm torn between two ARCs that I'm in the early stages of, that MUST be read and reviewed but that aren't really engaging me, and a new book that I started reading today, The Winter Garden by Jane Thynne, which is far more intriguing. Sequel to Black Roses, which I thought was excellent.

#157 Suz,
I hung up my fandom badges a long time ago, at least in public. Netflix and I have been enjoying watching all the Star Trek episodes from The Original Series now to Deep Space Nine.

I'm one of those people who's too mundane for the fans and too fannish for the mundanes.

I really enjoyed Longbourn especially as I followed up my Pride and Prejudice tutorial with it, so with that novel fresh in mind, had fun making connections between the two while pleasantly surprised by how different Jo Baker's approach was. I've had The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant, and look forward to getting to it eventually.

Lemon in plain black teas, otherwise no additives in my tea, please! I'm glad you like Longbourn too, Suz.

Is heartburn an inevitable part of middle age? Having another attack this evening. ARGH. As if someone has poured acid down into my middle stomach. I used to get this in my 20s, but not so much any longer.

Cat owners and tea drinkers are those widely known to be most susceptible to heartburn. Also scabies. And meteorite damage.

METEORITE DAMAGE?? Good grief.

It was not a great evening/night, and I ended up taking one of my migraine pain killers to cope. Better this morning, though woozy because once this started, I didn't eat much yesterday and as a result feel light-headed. But still niggling. At some point, Zantac has become a household staple, annoyingly.

But Cassie-cat helped. Instead of trying to curl up on top of my torso (normal behavior) she realized this was a non-starter and instead tucked herself into my neck and shoulder and purred. Purr therapy clearly helped.

And the inability to sleep enabled me to finish my latest audiobook:

53. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. OK, when it comes to Victorian novels, I'm NOT a fan of sentimentality and the portrayals of the ideal woman as being intelligent enough but sweet, modest, demure and submissive. And the women in Dickens drive me particularly crazy -- so many of them are ciphers. That said: I loved the basic story here, which doesn't have as many sub plots racing off in all kinds of directions at once as some of his others, and seems to me to have fewer goofy characters like Mr. Micawber, or the Jellyby family, that sometime seem to be there at absurd length so that Dickens can show off. Instead, there's a rapid pacing and a tight focus on Dr. Manette, his daughter, and her eventual husband, Charles Darnay. I won't bore anyone with a recitation of the probably familiar plotline ("a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done") but there's some real suspense here even if you're familiar with that broad narrative. There's a lot to appreciate, such as Dickens' ability to contrast a London mob and their Parisian equivalent. He's no defender of the English establishment, but shows why England never succumbed to revolution in response -- the humor and sense of the absurd, as well as the ability to contain some of the poverty and oppression. One can't imagine the family Defarge thriving in London. Mme Defarge is a wonderful character and utterly terrifying, on the other hand. So the over romantic balderdash about golden curls and tender natures drives me nuts, but the side-characters like Jerry, Miss Pross and Defarge, are completely convincing without being caricatures. 4.3 stars.

Wow, now I've defended both cats and Dickens in a single post. I'm going to need a bomb shelter. Remember, R, I'm still not feeling well...

...which is the only reason I am withholding the MEGAWHAMMY. *shudder*

(Actually, I agree with you about Sale of Two being less offensively Dickensian than the usual maundering gelatinous ooze he troweled onto the pages.)

Sorry you're not feeling well today Suz.

A Tale of Two Cities is my favourite Dickens along with A Christmas Carol out of the seven of his novels I've read so far. Much agreed about Mme Defarge. As I understand it, he didn't have realistic notions about women in real life, so not surprising he turns them into caricatures in his novels. I look forward to reading Claire Tomalin's biography once I finished a couple more of his books.

I know you guys really need these health updates, right? Now I'm starting to feel nauseous. Damn it.

Do you not sometimes get nausea with the migraines Suz? It happens to me rarely, but it has been known to happen once in a while, just to keep things interesting...

yeah, but not like this. This feels like food poisoning kind of nausea, or flu. Except that I really haven't eaten anything that would trigger this.

#157: Suz, Villa Air-Bel looks like one that you've recommended before. I really must read it, it is exactly what the interview was about.
I was looking unsuccessfully in my library's catalog for Louis de Funès films for my husband to watch and came across a lovely sounding film, My afternoons with Margueritte, which came up in the search because it was produced by a 'Louis' Becker. Anyway it is based on a short novel, La tête en friche by Marie-Sabine Roger which hasn't been translated to English but I wonder if you had read it in the original French?

"In a small public garden Germain (Gérard Depardieu) meets Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus), a little old lady passionate about reading. Barely literate and dismissed by those around him as an idiot, Germain discovers a new lease on life when Margueritte introduces him to the magic of books..."

Love that review of Longbourn, Suz. I really enjoyed that one, too.

Happy VAlentine's Day Suz. Just read your latest article with the mention of your bibliophile friend sneaking books into the house past his wife. It wouldn't take any of us long to figure that one out!!

Nicely done. Feel better.

Marianne, I did have his approval, thankfully!

#169 -- Kerry, I've not heard of either the movie or the book! Do you have a multi-region DVD player? (My single best investment...) I'm sure that are lots of Louis de Funes DVDs available from Amazon.fr or .uk, and shipping costs on DVDs aren't all that prohibitive -- about 1/3 of what they are on books.

Tried to eat some crackers but they came right back up again. Sigh. No other signs of a bug, just the wonky stomach.

Happy Valentine's Day, Suz, so sorry to read that you are not feeling well. I hope this is just a 24 hour bug and passes off quickly.

Hi Suzanne. Sorry you are not feeling up to snuff. Longbourn is now sitting atop my teetering tower along with a bunch of other books you recommended. Also, after a slow start I ended up really liking An Unnecessary Woman and thought the ending was just about perfect.

Suz, special anti-nausea whammies sent your way. Along with a shake of the auntie finger. (Get your minds out of the gutters everyone, it's the index finger.)

I think they worked, Stephanie! Feeling better enough to crawl out of bed & watch the Olympics men's skating final. Disappointing -- but wow, the men's slalom course looked like a bear. Judy, you were right -- just a 24-hour bug, or something I ate, or whatever. Noshed on a few chicken nuggets and am going to have some peach sorbet and then back to bed.

#174 -- Bonnie, yes, it's impressive to find a book with such an appropriate ending. Not unbelievable, not anti-climactic -- just perfect.

#175 -- thanks for the canine critter du thread, Robert! ETA for a new thread is another week or so, just in case you want to start lining 'em up...

Am delving back into the Amazon Vine ARCs, which have to be read, even though I have some even more tempting stuff lurking... Just got approved by NetGalley for the new book by Tim Butcher, which is about Gavrilo Princip's assassination of Franz Ferdinand. I've really liked his two previous books, both set in Africa: this one will be a change of pace.

*happy dance* for no more urpies, *finger wag* for reading Vine ARCs first, and *smooch* for being so inexpressibly dear.

glad you're feeling better

Glad you are feeling much better Suz.
Was that a grudging half acceptance from RD that A Tale of Two Cities is passable fayre?

#178, Aw shucks... But I have to read Vine books first, or they won't let me pick any more on Thursday. That would be a Bad Thing. Because you know how much I need more books to read...

#179 - thanks! Still need to get my sleep schedule sorted.

#180 -- Paul, I think it may have been. A very reluctant one...

Yet another winter storm is barreling down, scheduled to hit late afternoon/early evening. I'm VERY tired of this BS. Still, at lest I don't have swans swimming in my (flooded) garden, as in a pic I saw from England. Although the streets are still flooded enough for that to be a theoretical possibility outside; the storm drains just can't cope.

Two more books:

54. The Winter Garden by Jane Thynne: Fans of David Downing's Berlin mysteries should check out this brand-new (UK) novel and its predecessor, Black Roses. Neither has yet been published in the US, but the latter is available from Amazon via vendors. Both are excellent yarns revolving Clara Vine, daughter of a member of the English gentry and his late German wife, who, in 1933, frustrated at home, decides to move to Berlin because she's heard there's a demand for bilingual movie actresses. Needless to say, she gets more than she bargained for... In the first novel, she gets involved with British spies, and in this sequel, set four years later, she is still leading a double life, with her career gaining ground, intermittently mixing in Nazi circles (her English father is a big Mosley fan) while feeding what info she can back to London. But there's now a real shooting war underway in Spain, and in Berlin, a young woman attending an SS "Bride School" is shoot on its grounds; Thynne weaves a compelling yarn linking these events with the Nazi regime and puts Clara in jeopardy once more. This may not break new ground in any sense, and yes, it feels sometimes like a rehash of the previous book (different plot, different circumstances, same woman in jeopardy theme) but I still found it impossible to put down. It doesn't evolve quite as much as the Downing series, but then the events of '37/'38 were about when book #1 of the latter was set, so Thynne's novels start earlier. I think Downing's probably are more nuanced, but if you liked them, you'll probably enjoy these, too! Worth hunting out the first one, especially, and I'm glad I bumped aside some other books to read this. 4.1 stars.

55. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell was one of those above-mentioned ARCs, and gets no more than a broad "meh" from me. It should have appealed -- Vienna, opera, Mozart, 18th century -- but never came alive. The author is busily telling us what people are thinking and feeling, but never manages to take us inside their skin. The result? Strangely unmoving. Such a potentially intriguing setting simply intensified my level of disappointment. Yes, it's rich with detail about the world of opera and singing in Mozart's era (which I enjoyed) and there are occasional vignettes that intrigued me, but overall, it was oddly unengaging. I should have been caught up in it and instead kept putting it down and forgetting about it. 3 stars.

You've reminded I still have Lehrter Station to get to. I had put Black Roses on the wishlist when you commented on it (last year I believe?). Going to the library today, will put in a request for them to get both Thynne books. They have one but in the French translation, which just won't do!

I LOVED Tale of Two Cities, I read it a couple of years ago and just sobbed through the ending.

Hope you are surviving the latest weather blasting through the northeast. Hibernating here.

Sending warm thoughts and happy Valentines Day/weekend wishes...

awww for the purr therapy. What a sweet image. Geesh, Suz, I wish you could catch a break with your head, not to mention having a bug of some sort. I swear, I'd be over with soup if I lived closer.

#185 -- and I'd be drinking it, Tui! I was having a craving for chicken noodle soup earlier today. Headache has gotten bad since earlier today, so I'll update books later. Rather weary of this BS, though I did manage to watch the short-track speed skating and the women's x-country relay on TV.

#184 -- Hibernating is DEF what is called for, Marianne! I'm waiting until tomorrow to do any shoveling. The streets have been eerily quiet all day, and now are so awash with snow that it's hard to tell the diff. between sidewalk & snowbank. I suspect it will be even worse chez vous by end of day. How are you faring??? Further north, you're supposed to get the worst of this particular dump. Can we stop this winter nonsense now, pls??

#183 -- oh yes -- even though that ending is fully supposed to be a tear-jerker, it worked on me...

#182 -- Ilana, do try both. Black Roses is one that I spotted in Hatchard's last June, and added to my UK Kindle once I bought it with Luci's kind assistance. I have her two earlier books on the UK Kindle, too, again thanks to Luci, who had spotted that they were on sale. Those are stand alone novels. I suspect she'll keep following Clara Vine. The second book wasn't quite as good as the two earlier ones.

As soon as I finish my Amazon Vine books, I am promising myself two Big Treats: the new novel by Sharon Penman (also from Vine, but the review not due until March) and the new mystery by Parker Bilal, sitting on my UK Kindle.

56. The White Lie by Andrea Gillies was not worth the bother. It's overly long and overly crowded with characters, and that's annoying in a novel that should be suspenseful. The narrator -- who must of the time lurks in the background -- is young Michael Salter, who has been dead for 14 years, but we're never quite sure how/who/where/when he died -- or vanished. Sure, there's a tale told in the opening pages but is it the truth. We finally got the truth in the final 50 pages of this 450 page novel but by then I really didn't care, having been trudging on a route march through the novel. It's not badly written, just sprawls unmanageably. 2.8 stars, don't bother.

In reaction to the above, I have resorted to two unfamiliar (relatively) novels by two sentimental faves, Rumer Gooden and Jane Aiken Hodge, the latter the author of Gothic historical romance novels that I discovered in my teens. One of 'em, Greek Wedding, popped up as a Kindle sale book last week in the UK and I decided to nab it, since it's set in a relatively unfamiliar period for me, the Greek war of independence in the late 1820s (Byron, Missolonghi, the Panhellenes and all that). What I like about it is that her characters aren't all ambulatory romantic cliches, and some that start out looking like heroes turn out to have dark and complex sides. Both Godden and Aiken Hodge have distinctive and not always straightforward narrative styles (you're either gonna like 'em or not, as recent Godden readers will understand) and in the case of Aiken Hodge, I have gone through phases of tolerating and not tolerating this. It has made me want to revisit some other teen faves, though, so watch out! Will finish that before bedtime, and look for a bit more light & lively & pointless stuff.

Shall go grocery shopping on Monday, and it's possible that I'll do a NY trip Tuesday/Weds for (rescheduled) book circle. My presence has been urgently requested and I should go, but also feel a bit overwhelmed by life right now. We'll see.

I've not read Jane Aiken Hodge, but am curious about her as the sister of one of my favourite authors, Joan Aiken.

Sorry to hear that you've been poorly and have had another big storm to boot! Hibernating is definitely called for, in my opinion.

Today's opus: http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/feb/16/retirement-savings-pa...

Quick book update; very mildly headachey so I want to minimize screen time. Two mediocre books, with one being a sentimental favorite and one leaving me completely cold.

57. Greek Wedding by Jane Aiken Hodge is the sentimental fave, or at least, a novel by an author who is a sentimental favorite. I first read Jane Aiken Hodge's books as a teen, and they're kind of unromanticized historical romances. In this case, the heroine falls for the flashy Greek rebel at first, until realizing he's a jerk. Which is my 21st century reading of the author's mid-20th century historical romance prose. Anyway... What I like about these books are the fast pace and the context -- she tends to emphasize the era of about 1780 to 1830 or so, making this one of the books set toward the end of that era, and the Greek rebellion against the Ottoman empire. Brett Renshaw has been jilted by the woman he loves and is cruising the Mediterranean in his new steamship when he ends up accidentally rescuing a young American woman and her English aunt in the midst of a crackdown against the sultan's janissaries. They escape the Turks only to run afoul of Greek pirates, and what follows is an adventure that is historically accurate and nuanced -- there are few real "heroes" here, just some people behaving ethically and morally. I tolerate Jane Aiken Hodge's style, which consists of sentence fragments and what I now think of as lazy writing -- no "he said", "she said" because that might take too much effort. I do like many of her characters, who tend to mature over the course of the novel, while true love ends up looking a bit grittier and more nuanced than it does in a Harlequin. 3.4 stars.

58. The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena is billed as the author's breakthrough novel but I dunno. I found this a bit of a dull, ruminative trudge. Iris inherits her grandmother's house; goes to live there while she decides whether or not to sell it; cue revelations of the lives of three generations of women. Yawn. Tired formula, and although the writing is sometimes elegant -- especially when describing the setting -- there was little here to grab me or make me want to turn the page. Meh. 3 stars. Some folks might like it; I found it akin to eating blancmange.

But hurrah, that's one more ARC down.

>33 Chatterbox: (yes, I really am that far behind)
This sounds like a very interesting book - I was drawn in by the words Wall Street jumping out at me and I immediately thought of The Wolf of Wall Street. But now, after following your link, I think that The Unlikely Disciple might be even more interesting (to me).

*skim through a few posts*

>190 Chatterbox: The Taste of Apple Seeds has nothing to offer me, I fear. So at least I am spared a BB firing squad.

I hope your headache turns into a non-starter.

#132 Just catching up after being away and glad to know that you enjoyed On Such a Full Sea as it intrigues me but I've read mixed reviews of it. With all the books on my TBR, I'll probably wait for the paperback though, as I always get annoyed when I don't get around to a book I've bought in hard cover before the paperback comes out!

#157 I bought Villa Air-Bel after you recommended it after I read Varian Fry's Surrender on Demand and Anna Seghers' Transit, but I haven't read it yet. Thanks for reminding me of it.

#163 I've been meaning to reread A Tale of Two Cities ever since I read A Place of Greater Safety but likewise haven't gotten around to it. It remains the only book I know the first and last lines of!

Sorry you've been suffering.

Book #57...the blancmange comparo puts it squarely in the bin for me. *shudder*

Jane Aiken Hodge was a guilty-pleasure read of my early teens. Savannah Purchase in particular swept me away! I wouldn't DARE to re-read them. I sense a major major disappointment down that path.

Hi Suz! As always, I'm so impressed of your reading speed and reviewing wonderfulness. With both you and R calling out Jane Aiken Hodge as guilty-pleasure reads of your youth, it's making me curious about her work. Since all I've got brain space for these days is fluff, sounds like it's worth a shot!

Ooh, I just barely started Longbourn myself today, so I'm excited to see the high praise you've given it. Boo on the headache, hope it's a little better today?

#191 -- Megan, hello! I'm waaaay behind on visiting other threads -- too busy trying to race through ARCs that must be read/reviewed by midday Thursday. ARGH. Kevin Roose is both good and lively as a writer; I'd recommend both books highly. If anything, Young Money isn't quite as good, since it misses some of the nuances, but it's still worthwhile if you're looking for insight into Wall Street, and it's preferable to the scamster/bankster memoirs or biographies.

#192 -- I have been in precisely the same position vis-a-vis the Dickens for decades, Rebecca. Obviously, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the Mantel -- Victorian novels of this kind have lost any hold that they might once have had on me, and as I think I mentioned, I have an urge to upchuck at the sentimentality that is a part of Dickens. On the other hand, it's interesting to remember that the events he's chronicling were as close to his lifetime as WW2 was to mine, almost. His parents would have grown up hearing the tales of displaced aristocrats, and (probably) congratulating themselves that they didn't live in such an unstable nation as France. Also, there was the 1848 revolution that despatched the monarchy for good and all during Dickens' adult years.

On Such a Full Sea is one of the aforementioned ARCs whose review I'll have to write this evening. I remain ambivalent about it in some respects, but it's definitely a worthwhile yarn, especially compared to some of the other underwhelming stuff I've been reading as a result of my Amazon Vine ordering binge in December. With #55, #56 and #58 being cases in point...

#193/194 -- re Jane Aiken Hodge, the plots and characters are enjoyable fluff; the style is, to me, what doesn't stand up to the passage of time. It's worth a try! Libraries that have older collections may have many of the books in stock. Isn't Savannah Purchase one of two books that are tied together somehow? There's one about smuggling in England, perhaps Watch the Wall, my Darling, whose title is based on an old song about turning your back so you don't see the smugglers go past, that I might seek out. But my next re-read is The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden, which I think I've actually read only once! Ostensibly a YA title like The Greengage Summer, I don't think it is, really.

Pray for me, or send travel whammies, or whatever. Book circle rescheduled for tomorrow, and I have to get on Megabus at dawn (literally: 6:45 a.m.) I think I have figured out that the flickering light through the leaves along the first hour or so of the trip is responsible for some of my migraines, so I'm going to try to address that.

Meanwhile, yet another underwhelming ARC:

59. The Corpse Reader by Antonio Garrido is the translation of a Spanish novel that won that country's top award for historical fiction when it was published. I'm not at all sure why. Let me rephrase: I'm not at all sure why the writing and nature of the story renders it the best. It's a novel based on the life of Song Ci, the 13th century pioneer of forensics -- a gift from the literary gods for the ambitious writer. And Garrido certainly qualifies as one of those. He's done a heck of a lot of research, and the result is something that clearly is set in the era but that doesn't "feel" like it is. In other words, I felt as if I were reading a very modern adventure novel that just happened to be grafted onto a 13th century Chinese backdrop. It's not anachronisms (there aren't many of those, although Ci says "OK" a lot, and one magistrate is asked if he "dates"); rather, it's the nature and tone. Ci flees his home town, lands in the capital, has lots of adventures, finally lands a place at an academy and is commissioned by the emperor to solve a crime that turns out to be a conspiracy. (This is all on the jacket copy, so no spoilers.) The writing/translation isn't bad, but it's very pedestrian and predictable, chock full of cliches and with no ability to inspire interest or curiosity about characters and their motivations beyond the obvious. In other words: yet another example of an author who "tells" rather than "shows" the reader what's afoot. Deeply mediocre; 3 stars.

ETA: Mary, thanks for the migraine "boos"! Yes, I have mostly fended it off for today, but confess I'm kinda dreading tomorrow, for all kinds of reasons, of which the headache is one. I just have this instinct to cocoon at home, but know that I can't.

Which reminds me, must finish my laundry.

Oh, and I've finally started The Goldfinch, as an antidote to all these ARCs. I promise to be more disciplined this month!!

I see you liked The Slap - just drawing your attention to Barracuda at 99p.

Have a good book circle meeting!

Love A Tale of Two Cities - agree about Dickens and women.

Going to drag Judy to the new movie "The Invisible Woman" which is NOT about the character in the Fantastic Four but a story of Dickens' mistress -- and his wife.

Like with Woody Allen today - is it possible to love a artist's work while still basically thinking said artist is a pig in trousers?

^199 "...pig in trousers" Am in the midst of reading (listening to the audiobook of Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens and what a piggy-pig-pig he is, too.

Just when I dug out from last week's storm, we get version Saturday and then yesterday. Ugh! Hope it hasn't hit you as terribly and you have been able to get to NY for your book club meeting.

We have one at my church tonight. Thanks for the reminder about The Unlikely Disciple -- I enjoyed that and might recommend it for the rest to read.

I love that phrase "pig in trousers!"

Migraine. Back to resume discussions when this is feasible.

Just starting to feel better. Back tomorrow to LT, I hope. Got back to Providence last night.

60. The Awakening by Kate Chopin is proof that a book can be more fun to discuss than it is to read. To me, this felt like a more banal take on Ibsen's Nora or even Flaubert's Emma Bovary (although Flaubert was't trying to write from a quasi-feminist perspective.) But it was written by a woman, which is significant -- writing about the stifling impact of being confined the role of wife-mother, once the awakening of the title has taken place. That said, I found the title character annoying and narrow; her awakening limited to a romantic ideal of love, since it's that that ends up destroying her bid for freedom in the end. If she can't have her romantic ideal, the rest -- independence, freedom to create -- doesn't matter. When I forced to remind myself when Chopin was writing, I could appreciate the book more, and there were vignettes and snapshots of characters that were delightfully sardonic, but as a whole, the slim novel didn't do much for me. 3.6 stars.

61. The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden was a re-read of a Godden novel that I don't think I'd picked up in 25 or 30 years. I suspect my views have shifted somewhat since then; I remember admiring the children as protagonists (they set off -- the book was published in 62 or 63 -- to bring their about to be divorced mother back home from Italy, where she is living with her fiance and reunite the family). Now, I empathized tremendously with Fanny, the mother, even as I understood the bewilderment of the children. The latter emerge to me now (probably not as Godden had intended) as relentless emotional bullies, albeit without intending it. True, the adults have made a muck of things, but the real villain is British divorce laws and the moral standards of the era, rather than their mother. I kept thinking, wait, so when they become adults and want to leave home in four or five years' time, it will be OK for their mother to bring them home? Or to be miserably unhappy for the next 40 years for the sake of those 4 or 5 years? There's no good outcome in this kind of situation, and the adult men certainly don't help matters, but the result is a tragedy for all, in different ways. The final glimpse of Fanny is heartbreaking: she is an automaton, being carried off by the "victor" of the struggle for her love and loyalty. Not going to tell you who that is, though. You'll have to read the book. 3.8 stars; not Godden's best, and not a children's book, although the children are the main protagonists and we see it all through the eyes of Caddie, the youngest at the age of, as Godden puts it, "eleven-twelve". Probably wouldn't resonate with today's YA readers, either, because social mores have changed so dramatically.

Welcome back Suz! Hope you are feeling better. Read The Awakening waaay back in college and liked it then. suspect I would feel similarly to you if I were to go back and re-read now. Apropos of your second review, what a difference perspective can make! ;-D

Agreed that The Awakening *had* to be more fun to discuss than to read; I shall give a respectful berth to the Godden, which sounds sodden, leaden, and deadly to me; a post-migraine happy *whammy* for you.

I think The Awakening is a great book to read as a young woman 'discovering' feminist literature; somehow I bypassed it back then and it didn't resonate that much with me now. It did lead to a lively discussion, at least!

And one more that was much better to read:

62. Stay by Nicola Griffith is the second in the author's series of mysteries featuring violence-prone Aud Torvingen -- but this time, Aud is haunted (quite literally) by the ghost of her lover, Julia, who, it seems, is reshaping her instincts. That doesn't stop Aud from getting into trouble when she goes off to New York to find the girlfriend of one of her closest friends. Dornan is some she cares for, but she never had time for Tammy, but discovering Tammy in a near catatonic state brings out protective instincts in the new Aud that she didn't know she possessed -- and then there's the discovery of the need to bring a new measure of justice to a young girl, as well... Good, if not great. Made me want to re-read the early Jane Whitefield mysteries by Thomas Perry, which feature just as powerful and "righteous" woman heroine, and which offer even more in the way of suspense and intrigue. Indeed, I may have to do just that -- I know that they're all on my Kindle somewhere...

From massive snow yesterday to a torrential rainshower, complete with Big Thunder and lightning today. Never a dull moment around here.

In NY, picked up two freebie books mailed to my old address by the lovely folks at Public Affairs:

Unleashing the Second American Century by Joel Kurtzman
The Bargain from the Bazaar by Haroon K. Ullah (this looks quite readable, so I may delve into it sooner rather than later.

And I splurged on two books for moi at Barnes & Noble.

The News: a User's Manual by Alain de Botton (no point in reading a cyber version of this since his books are always interesting, graphically)
A Place in the Country by W.G. Sebald (spontaneous purchase...)

Thus bringing the total non-Kindle books purchased so far this year to only THREE. (The third was Europe in Sepia by Dubravka Ugresic.)
I have purchased 27 Kindle books, but only 4 were full price; the remainder were Kindle sale books, at prices ranging from 99 cents to $2.99.
My UK Kindle: 40 purchased, 10 of which were full price. (The remainder as low as 56p to as high as 2.49 pounds.)

I have to say that so far, I'm being very disciplined on the book purchasing front!! At least some of that is tied to the fact that I'm awash in Amazon Vine ARCs, NetGalley books and LT Early Reviewer books (well, two or three of those...)

ETA: Used one of my audiobook credits to buy book #4 by Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes. It's the first book that I can ever say in complete conviction that I wanted to listen to, rather than read. Not hearing Kobna Holbrook-Smith read it would have spoiled a large part of the fun.

I loved The Awakening when I read it a few years ago. I hope I'd still like it if I read it today but considering I liked it despite it being full of things I normally shy away from I'd say there's a fair chance I would. I'm sorry to see others didn't think as highly of it as I did.

Very happy for you they finally released Broken Homes on audio. I know you were looking forward to that. I got the second book, Moon Over Soho as soon as I finished the first book, and might be able to fit it in this month, after I'm done listening to Can You Forgive Her?. Thanks again for suggesting these audiobooks. I like Kobna Holdbrook-Smith enough that I think I'll be getting The Memory of Love on audio eventually.

How are you doing on the migraine front with this weather system? I'm in agonies, although I just started taking Migranal, which is basically dihydroergotamine, which the neuro had prescribed in injectable form, but as a nasal spray. So far, after two applications, it's made my headache seem worse, but that may be all the rain and whatnot. I've got nine more days to go and keeping fingers crossed it'll work. The pharmacist was stunned Dr. Aubé had given me that many doses to take.

eta: Your latest comments on The Awakening confirm my suspicions about it. I took a feminist studies course in college a couple of lifetimes ago and really enjoyed the reading we did (was my first time reading The Handmaid's Tale, among others), and I'm surprised we didn't read that one along with the others. Maybe we did and it didn't leave any impression on me?

Suz, i had a fairly similar reaction to you to The Awakening. Actually i think i was rather more irritated by it. Rather than a woman searching for her independence, to me Edna just came over as a spoilt little rich girl.

Glad to see you oot and aboot, Suz! Rain here too. Very unsettling.

Rhian, exactly...

Headaches have been bad, off and on, for the last 10 days, and the last three days were complete writeoffs, pretty much. Better today, and I'm treating myself as if I were a fragile object, Ilana. I do hope that the new meds kick in for you -- could it be one of those things were you need to build up to a certain level in order for them to work well?

#207 -- I hoped I would like it, and had every expectation of enjoying it more than I did. There were these moments where the phrases were so on point and wry that I would literally gasp -- but a novel isn't made up of isolated brilliant moments. It's not that I didn't like Edna, I just felt that she couldn't carry the weight of what Chopin seemed to be arguing on her shoulders. She was defining choice as the right to choose to have an affair with the man she wanted, not as the right to lead an independent life, broadly speaking. She was no Nora; more an Emma Bovary character, but in a novel without the richness of the prose. Et bien...

I'm not sure. When my neuro called I was out to lunch with pain and didn't ask many questions or really understand much of what he told me during the 30 seconds he was on the phone. I'm hopeful it's something like that, though according to the literature that comes in the box, it's supposed to give more or less immediate relief. But I can't expect that in my case given what a stubborn demon this one has turned out to be.

I had a meeting in downtown Providence with the guys who run one of the handful big firms of financial advisors here -- they work with pro athletes (stopping them from investing in restaurant franchises) and inherited wealth. I'd had to cancel a previous meeting with them bec. of migraines, and the guy there with whom I'd had the most interaction offered to try and find me someone to fill in the March/April gap in my medications (I managed to schedule a neurologist appt for April 21.) Turns out he knows lots of neurologists because his son has some kind of mystery illness that isn't ALS but has progressed like that -- he now requires 24 hour home nursing care. I felt so grateful that this wasn't my situation... It turns out that there's part of NIH that is an Undiagnosed Disease problem, and the boy (now 21) is in that. How heartbreaking.

Oh, that *is* sad.

Hoping you find something that can bring you some lasting relief soon.

*heavy sigh* So sad for him and his son.

Two books that I'm ambivalent about, in different ways but for the same reason: the writing.

63. Decoded by Mai Jia is an intriguing but difficult to read novel; the reason is its structure. As we, the readers, gradually come to understand, it's the tale of a man's life as reconstructed by a curious outsider many years later, drawn from family genealogies and written memoirs as well as first person testimonies of those who knew him directly. Does the reader ever understand who Rong Jinzhen was? Nope -- he is as enigmatic as ever, and perhaps that's appropriate, since his eccentric background and youth -- shunned by family, erratically educated, he becomes a genius mathematician with little/no understanding of conventional proofs, etc. When Jinzhen plays chess, for instance, he is unfamiliar with traditional game manoeuvers but captures the concept brilliantly: in every game he plays, it is as if he reinvents game strategies that others simply memorize, from scratch. Jinzhen is taken away from his family-founded college in 1956 to toil not an artificial intelligence -- the field his mentor has said he should pursue -- but on breaking two 'unbreakable' enemy ciphers, PURPLE and then BLACK. The latter eventually destroys him, in a way we only learn in the final pages. This is oblique; a novel of ideas rather than plot; a suspense-less thriller, but it was creative and intriguing in its own dispassionate way. Certainly NOT for every taste. 3.9 stars.

64. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a much harder book for me to write about. As I noted, I have had friends who absolutely adore it; one who says it's the best book she's read in five years. I simply don't agree. And if you want to understand why, go back to Francine Prose's review in the NYRB, where she contrasts young Theo Decker's bloodless description of his drug habit with that of Patrick Melrose, a creation of Edward St. Aubyn: "Heroin landed purring at the base of his skull and wrapped itself darkly around his nervous system, like a black cat curling up on its favorite cushion. It was as soft and rich as the throat of a wood pigeon, or the splash of sealing wax onto a page, or a handful of gems slipping from palm to palm. The way other people felt about love, he felt about heroin, and he felt about love the way other people felt about heroin: that it was a dangerous and incomprehensible waste of time." Wow. Now, to be clear, that's St. Aubyn writing. Tartt's writing, in contrast, is almost banal. "pills were the key to being not only competent, but high-functioning."

The distinction isn't in the complexity of the prose. Tartt, too, is in love with vivid and detailed descriptions. They just rarely rise to that level, where they are felt, viscerally, rather than simply appreciated. At least, in my case. Then, too, there are the cliches; the repetitiveness. A headache is "skull-cracking" or "tooth-cracking". Where is the kind of descriptive power of St. Aubyn, above? In a nearly 800 page tome, with lots of space devoted to description, there's room for it, but it never arrives. We're told a lot about how he hates crowds and reacts poorly to them, but Tartt never shows us.

The story was enticing and intriguing. Theo, aged 13, finds himself in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taking refuge from a downpour as he and his mother are en route to his school to discuss his bad behavior and suspension. A terrorist sets off a bomb; his mother dies; an elderly man whom Theo had found intriguing even before the explosion, dies, but only after passing to Theo a signet ring and a stolen painting, along with an address. (Absolutely; echoes of Dickens all over the place here: the orphan who must battle the world and its authorities before finding his own way to peace and redemption...) When Theo eventually returns the ring, he opens the door to a new world: Hobie, his future mentor, a genius at restoring antique furniture, and young Pippa, who had been with her elderly uncle in the museum and whose dreams of a musical career now lie in ruins because of her injury. Pippa offers him a taste of her morphine lollipop, and so Theo's long, hallucinatory journey begins. Dragged off to Vegas by his ne'er do well father and the latter's girlfriend, he lapses into numbness, tormented by his mother's death and possession of the painting. More events propel him back to New York, painting in tow, where he tries to build a new life for himself, but his inability to be with Pippa, his drug habit, his grief and the painting's shadow all combine to make it difficult. And so on.

As I say, enticing. And I can see why many of those that love this novel are New Yorkers and (in one case) work in museums, because the best descriptions are reserved for the city and for the impact a work of art can have. But plot and intriguing characters of all stripes -- the classic Park Avenue dilettante family, the Barbours; the quasi-young Russian/Ukrainian mafioso, Boris; the upright Hobie and enchanting Pippa -- weren't enough to offset what wasn't there.

Had this not been greeted as a great literary work, I'd probably be less critical. It does reach the threshold of "thumping good read"; I wanted to find out what happened next, and the writing was as smooth as silk, if too often too bloodlessly generic for my taste. It felt like a decent popular writer had set out to tackle themes found in great literary works.

So, for me this was 4.2 stars. Engaging as a page-turner, and memorable. But the final chapter knocked it down from 4.4 or so -- it's nothing less than a preachy sermon on the importance of art, and felt to me like, "just in case you didn't get what I've been trying to tell you for 750 pages, here's what this all means", all wrapped up in the form of Theo trying to sort it out in his own mind. The problem? The closing sermon sounded to me like a trite self-help book, which meant that the novel ended on a note of weakness rather than strength.

This is an ambitious novel, and kudos to Tartt for managing and steering her way through such a complex plot and so many vivid characters. It's immensely readable, and memorable. But it's merely good, not great, in my view. It's not that it's too long, or that Theo isn't a likable character, or anything else that simple to point to. It's simply overwritten (in terms of the sometimes overblown phrases) and simultaneously underwritten (in that all those words don't create the same kind of vivid mental recognition that a brilliant author can create in a simple, well-written phrase.)

Go read Prose's review of the novel in the January 9 issue of NYRB; it captures most of the points I wanted to make. I think I enjoyed the book more than she did, because I wasn't stopping to note all the places where Tartt's turns of phrase annoyed me.

Now, on to something else...

Wow, GREAT review of The Goldfinch. Since I rarely buy books in the same year they were published, I've not yet read it.

Your Decoded touchstone goes to the wrong book. It should be Decoded: a novel (which is also on the 'others' list for Decoded). It is about to go on my Waiting-For-The-Paperback wishlist.

The Goldfinch is already there. I think I felt about her other two novels as you do about this. They are very good to read, and there are some excellent bits, but they fall short of top-notch. To me that is good enough to look forward to.

Robert

Well, The Goldfinch is on my tbr and I'll get to it eventually, but I remember someone in RL recommending the The Patrick Melrose Novels; it hadn't made it on my wishlist then, but it sure as heck has now.

I also enjoyed your review of The Goldfinch which I haven't read and won't seek out. You've enticed me to look up St Aubyn's writings.

I looked out my copy of Villa Bel-Air and hope to read it next month.

I've persuaded myself to seek out St. Aubyn, even though I tend to steer clear of "dissolute and aimless young men taking refuge in drugs" themes. But prose of the kind that Prose cites (pun unintentional and unavoidable...) is too good to pass up.

I've just realized I've got one more Amazon ARC to read before this Thursday, and I'm going to immerse myself in some genre reading to get the hyper-intense tone of these last two novels out of my system.

I did pick up the new book by Lisa Moore, Caught, from the library, and just got the notification that the new novel from Anna Quindlen also is awaiting me.

Wellll.....I have The Goldfinch from when Kindle offered it for a couple bucks, Suzanne, but it hasn't called to me yet and you haven't pushed it up the pile. Your review is eye opening but, although I know absolutely nothing about Edward St. Aubyn, I can't help but wonder how many drugs he's experimented with to write the passage you quoted. Haha. Anyway you've piqued my interest in St. Aubyn

I'm in the same mode as Bonnie. Thanks for the *Goldfinch* review, Suz. I wasn't all that impressed with The Secret History, but I thought that was because I was comparing it to Waking the Moon, which I had just read and which impressed me more. Maybe this summer!
We had a nasty squall line with a couple of tornadoes touching down in the county yesterday, but it's a big county. What weird weather! Hope you can manage to stay migraine free and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

*waving* at Suz

#222 -- Bonnie, I wondered the same thing! But that aside, it's fairly evocative imagery, isn't it?

#223 -- I did like The Secret History more, but can't remember why, now. I recall it felt very Dead Poets' Society-like.

#224 -- waving back to Stasia!

65. The Book of You by Claire Kendal was the other ARC that I had to read & review for Amazon; luckily it was a fast read. It's a kinda formulaic "woman in peril" novel that I picked because there was literally nothing else on offer and I couldn't relinquish the offer of a free book. So, in that light, it's pretty good -- suspenseful and compelling reading. But frankly, nothing new here at all. Yes, I wanted to see what happened to Clarissa, her stalker and the intriguing man she meets while on jury duty. And the writing is several notches above competent. But there are so many "woman in peril" novels out there that once past the suspense, I felt kind of meh about it. The author clearly intends to draw a parallel between Clarissa's grappling with a stalker in her private life and the kind of case she's hearing in the courtroom, but that didn't work. What did work is the kind of intriguing ending, when we read more into Clarissa's notebooks and there's a bit of a twist taking shape... Still, only 3.6 stars.

Back to Game of Thrones, now, and A Feast for Crows. Or something else. Right now I'd love to trip over a novel that was great reading AND a great novel. Sigh.

Hey there Suz -- Have managed to avoid the GoldFinch for a while. On the other hand, St. Aubyn and Patrick Melrose has resided on my wishlist for ages! May have to move that series of books up a bit ...

I too, have The Goldfinch on my Kindle and I am waiting for it to call out to me, which is hasn't so far. I hope you do trip over a novel that is great reading and a great novel and not just for purely selfish reasons either.

I just downloaded At Last by St. Aubyn onto my Kindle. I'm not quite ready to commit myself to a series of four books featuring drug-addled youths (especially after "Goldfinch"), but I couldn't resist that little sample of his style. So, we shall see... But my next 'literary' novels will be In the Memorial Room by Janet Frame and Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin.

66. The Sparks Fly Upward by Diana Norman is the final book in a trilogy featuring her very intriguing fictional character, Makepeace. Born in Boston, in the first book of the series, Makepeace fishes an English nobleman out of its harbor in the years just before the Revolution; they fall in love and she accompanies him back to England, but remains a stubborn and independent woman at a very interesting point in history. I don't want to spoil the series for anyone (I'd recommend it) so I'll just say that by now, Makepeace is wealthy and still an instinctive democrat, at a time when that was rather perilous. The French Revolution has turned nasty, but Makepeace has found a new crusade: abolition. Meanwhile, her eldest daughter, thwarted in love, has ventured off to Paris to rescue Enlightenment thinker de Condorcet at the behest of her friend, his wife Sophie. It's one of the best portrayals of life in Reign of Terror Paris that I've found in popular fiction, and I wanted to re-read this after finishing the Dickens set in the same era. So I did. And I'm glad I did. but it still doesn't fill the "great novel/great read"-sized whole in my reading... annnoying...

I think it was knowing that the book was going to veer into that drug-addled world that turned me off from the first few moments when I started listening to The Goldfinch. I'd pre-ordered it, which I never do usually, and had it on the very first day it came out, feeling I really needed to give it a listen right now, and that just doesn't work for me, mood reader that I am. I've since gotten the same Kindle deal Bonnie did, so I'll attempt it again when I'm ready for it, alternating between the two formats so I won't have to live in that world for too long.

St. Aubin on the other hand, you convinced me I really want to read because of that bit of prose you quoted, which is just so gorgeous I wouldn't have cared if he had been writing a manifesto about pig farming; not my usual fare, but would have attracted me all the same. I'm not making sense. I guess I'm trying to say "thank you for providing that great excerpt".

Back to Tartt, I read The Secret History when it came out and really loved it, but then, I was also barely into my twenties back then, a student, so I felt like it was about a world that was at least dealing with my age group and easy to relate to in that sense.

>216 Chatterbox: I certainly liked The Goldfinch more than you or Prose did! I was utterly repelled by The Secret History and never picked up the second one, assuming I'd be angry as I was with the first.

I'm looking forward to re-experiencing Their Eyes Were Watching God for book circle.

I love your comments on The Awakening. I had the same reaction both times it was required reading. It made me want to poke myself in the eye and then jump off a bridge.

#206 - I loved Stay (aside from the corny device). I found the actual crime/mystery portion more interesting than the one in The Blue Place, although I liked that too. I suppose I should check out the Jane Whitefield mysteries by Thomas Perry...

#229 -- Ilana, I ended up alternating between the audio and Kindle book versions. I think while I read more quickly than I listen, I preferred the Kindle version -- I was able to gloss over some of the "infelicitous" phrases more readily that way. (This is re The goldfinch.)

#230 -- Richard, I remember your comments about The Secret History and was surprised to see that you had picked up The Goldfinch! The reason that it intrigued me was the art world connection, quite frankly. There aren't all that many novelists writing in an interesting way about the connection between art and emotions, and Tartt does quite a good job, albeit in a heavy-handed manner sometimes, with respect to that. I also enjoyed Alena for the same reason, although Rachel Pastan isn't (yet) as accomplished a writer as Tartt; the latter, for all her lack of attention to detail sometimes, is never anything less than even and measured in her writing and pacing.

Re Their Eyes Were Watching God, I confess to feeling intimidated. I'm also not sure that I'll make it to that meeting, just because of timing. I have to be in NYC the previous week, as my closest friend from college and her husband & daughter will be in the city, and I'm not sure I can face two trips in a week. We'll see, though.

#231 -- Kerry, thanks re The Awakening. My response wasn't as extreme; more a moderate degree of irritation.

Re Stay, the corny device may have worked better for me because I've been reading the series of mysteries by Charles Todd featuring shell-shocked WW1 Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge, whose dead sergeant, Hamish, is his constant, invisible companion. That trope is getting old in those books, but it has conditioned me to tolerate such ideas. I would try the Jane Whitefield mysteries: Perry creates a woman who is part-Seneca, part-white and who specializes in making people in danger of their lives disappear from the world and those that are chasing them. At their worst, they can get bogged down in procedural details of how that happens, but there's plenty of suspense. The first four or five are excellent reads. Jane is tough, like Griffith's Aud Torvingen, but she also can make mistakes. Perry does use dreaming as an important tool -- dreams that Jane must interpret, or that show her what the truth is -- based on old Seneca legends, but he doesn't overuse it, and to me it fits into the whole construct of the books, which suggests that the letter of man's law doesn't cover all kinds of justice or, always, protect the innocent. I really should re-read them... Especially as I seem to be undertaking a bout of re-reading right now.

67. The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough is one of those re-reads, that I began last month after finishing The First Man in Rome. Having read this seven-book series before, and re-read it its entirety at least twice in the 25 or so years since book #1 was published (it's amazing; I can still remember buying it at First Canadian Place in Toronto after work one day....) re-reading gives me the luxury to reflect on the themes that the author is exploring. I think now it's the way that various extraordinary individuals began to conflate Rome's fate and wellbeing with their own personal ambitions, correctly diagnosing Rome's maladies (including the fact that a large proportion of the elite in the Senate were only mildly intelligent and not all that capable as leaders) and then setting out to compensate for them with their own efforts. In the short term, this does wonders for Rome, but ultimately comes a clash, and the collective result of all those clashes - which will occur in the seventh and final book -- comes when the Republic itself collapses and becomes a de facto empire under Octavian/Augustus. Right now, we're decades before that happens; Octavian hasn't even been born or dreamt of. Book #2 sees the decline in physical and mental health of Gaius Marius, the hero of book #1, and the rise of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, risen to prominence under Marius and now distancing himself from that Great Man. Sulla is a different kettle of fish: tormented, patrician, and utterly without scruples when it comes to his personal morals, but a defender of the rights of Rome's elite. It's the latter of these that will bring about a clash with Marius -- and disaster for Rome. Julius Caesar is a 13 year old boy at the end of the book; tied via family links to both Marius and Sulla, he is a witness to these events and at the same time is seen -- at this early stage -- as a potential challenge by both men. I'll probably move on to book #3, Fortune's Favorites, sometime next month. 3.8 stars. Not all that well written, but a fascinating (if dense) look at the era and its personalities and very well researched. The only books by this author that I can stand, frankly.

On the reading rostra:

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (finishing soon)
Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin (ditto)
In The Memorial Room by Janet Frame (just started)
The Counterfeit Agent by Alex Berenson
Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak (2/3 finished)
The Ghost Runner by Parker Bilal
The Game by Laurie King
The Dream Maker by Jean-Christophe Rufin

Then it will be on to a real chunkster, A King's Ransom by Sharon Penman.

The current audiobook is Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

Catching up, kinda sorta maybe.

68. Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin is a charming little novel, almost a fable. At one point, the writer whose works the narrator is translating, is quote as saying in an interview that style -- personal style -- is all that matters in a novel. That made me ponder the comments recently about Jean Echenoz, who devotes himself to style/structure, to the exclusion of emotion and character. IMO, that nibbles away at the ability of a reader to delight in a novel: it becomes something to appreciate rather than something to experience. Well, Poulin does a lot better. Yes, this is quirky and an almost oblique story that has elements of a suspense narrative, of a natural history tale, of fable, of romance, and that somehow is none of these. But it's lovely to experience... 4 stars, recommended, although Mr. Blue reminds my fave by Poulin thus far.

And on my essays...

E3. "This is Danny Pearl's Final Story" by Asra Nomani, for the Washingtonian. (http://www.washingtonian.com/projects/KSM/index.html). The author is a former colleague; Danny was a friend and colleague for a decade until his kidnapping and murder. This exhaustive analysis of the crime (based on a long-lived reporting project) as well as Asra's attempts to come to grips with her own variant of post-traumatic shock are distressing but compelling reading. It actually proved a little bit cathartic to read, for me, at least.

E4. "How Much My Novel Cost Me" by Emily Gould, appeared both online and in a just-published book, MFA vs NYC, about fiction writing. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes dismaying, always thoughtful personal essay about the high cost of self delusion. And the ugly economics of a life spent writing. Recommended. https://medium.com/debt-ridden/35d7c8aec846

I should have logged the former a month ago, when I read it. Tsk tsk. The latter I just read today.

Talking to myself, this week!

69. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin is part 4 of the 'Game of Thrones' series, sprawling all over the place in what sometimes feels like an unwieldy mess. In some ways, this would have been better had Martin managed to produce and publish simultaneously several of the next books in the series. Even if that's too much to expect, I found it frustrating that this was so repetitive. I understand that Westeros is racked by violence in the aftermath (or lull) in the civil war; but I felt as if I were being told that over and over and over. Martin really needed to narrow his focus somewhat, for this main series of novels, IMHO. At times I felt as if I was reading waaay too much about sub-plots and peripheral characters who just aren't that significant, or who didn't feel significant. And not every potentially future significant character needs to have his/her story line built into the main narrative, either, I think. Sigh. I think it will be a while before I pick up the next (and final, thus far) book in the series, simply because, based on the reviews, I think the next book will be similarly frustrating. Did I enjoy this? Sure, but to a more muted degree. I missed the story lines of Tyrion and Jon Snow; I couldn't care less about the Dornish narrative, and the only reason to introduce Cersei as a point of view character at this late stage was because there was no one else to tell us about what she was doing, but it removed some of the intriguing uncertainty surrounding her character and motivations and made her more banal and less interesting. I still had fun deciphering Martin's fantasy universe, and drawing parallels to an incredible mish-mash of real life historical events (I even caught myself wondering whether Martin was consciously tweaking an Anne Boleyn-style plot element, or whether that was accidental.) But reading the books, rather than listening to them or watching the TV series, I actually found the violence and casual misogyny (is there any relationship between men and women here that ISN'T founded on either, as well as manipulation of women by men?? Perhaps only Eddard and Catelyn Stark. I confess I find this not only unconvincing but disturbing; I don't need happily ever after but I do need to feel that a range of human experience is reflected in the novels I read, even when it's fantasy.) So, my enjoyment of these novels took a definite dip with book #4. I'll probably keep reading -- or maybe I'll just stick to the TV series from this point onward. At any rate, no intention of forging ahead immediately with book #5. 3.75 stars.

The TV series has the advantage of being pretty. The level of messy is not noticeably lower, IMO. Even sprawling epics need edges.

You're not talking to yourself; I'm listening. Just don't have anything worthwhile to say :)

Yes, and I'm fine with edgy. It's just that this book felt like nothing BUT edges, and the absence of anything against which to set the edgy/messy/violent stuff felt far more striking in this book than its predecessors. Either that, or my tolerance has waned. I had noted the graphic violence in the TV series, too, but it just felt more streamlined.

What I found surprising in my own reaction is that these are issues that usually worry me less if I'm caught up in a story. I'm not one of those readers who responds to a 700 page or 800 page novel by saying, oh, a good editor could have whacked out 200/300 pages of this. I don't need a nice pretty sanitized narrative. I don't even need likeable/relateable characters. So perhaps it's that finally the proliferation of POV characters simply became too much, and left me having to puzzle my way through too much? I also started finding the endless recitation of characters arms and heraldry to be very tedious. That's not a major issue, but it crops up once every 100 pages or so, and every time it did, I groaned slightly. Less compulsion to turn pages this time around, and I was relieved (despite the cliffhangers) when I unexpectedly reached the end on my Kindle. (There are a lot of pages at the end that are lists of characters, etc.)

What I meant by edges, in this case, is more physical edges, boundaries, places where there is a fence and the story stops at it. Stuff like the heraldry repetition should be behind the fence, out of sight. Like reintroducing Cersei...why not leave some mystery, why not put it behind the fence and lead me to the gate when it's again relevant to the main story?

It's messy. I mind messy, when it feels to me like it's not a calculated messy.

Aha, yes, I understand. I like books that leave me wanting more detail -- because then there's room for my imagination to supply that...

>239 Chatterbox: +1!!

OK, I had to share this. With apologies to Cushla, Kerry, Megan and other NZ friends... (This is a FB post by a financial journalist friend of mine...)

Economics and Bovines.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then
throws the milk away

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy
grows.
You sell them and retire on the income

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by
your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption
for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to
produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why
the cow has dropped dead.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have two cows. You borrow lots of euros to build barns, milking sheds, hay stores, feed sheds,
dairies, cold stores, abattoir, cheese unit and packing sheds.
You still only have two cows.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three
cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce
twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and
market it worldwide.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows,
but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive...

>241 Chatterbox: Hilarious!

I'm glad that you also liked Translation Is a Love Affair.

#241> That just never gets old.

I've been reading your too, just lurking in the background. I got that economics and bovines link sometime last year and thought it was great. Didn't know a friend of yours had written it though, very cool.

I think I enjoyed A Feast for Crows more than you did. But then, I'm not a huge fantasy consumer, and Martin got me quite hooked, so maybe I'm less critical on this one, though I believe the HBO series probably has something to do with it. I've been holding off on the last book, though only because I'd rather not have to wait TOO long until the next one comes out. I do wonder if he'll ever finish the series though, at that rate.

#241 Very funny. Caused great hilarity in my household.

>241 Chatterbox: Ha!!

#244 -- I don't think he did, Ilana; he's an American and that's British spelling up there... But, he didn't attribute it, either, which is bad journalistic practice!

Headachey today, bah humbug. Still, I went five whole days... and it's not bad.

>241 Chatterbox: I like the Australian one a lot! I'm emigratin'.

#241: That last one while directed at NZ reminds me of why I had a hard time with the award winning Australian novel, Mateship with Birds.

>241 Chatterbox: Hysterical!

I am quite content with the Australian one. Cross that and Socialism for a perfect recipe for happiness.

I just realized that the son of my "foreign service parents" is now Canadian high commissioner in Australia. His father's final posting was as High Commissioner in NZ in the early 90s. So I can get some first hand intel on this from unbiased sources...

Great post on the bovine economics:

Reminds me of one of my favourite jewish stories:

One jewish chap says to the other "Morty your my very best friend I'd share everything I have with you"

"Isaac, what if you had two houses?"
"Morty, I'd give one to you, you're my best friend"
"Isaac, what if you had two yachts?
"Morty, I'd give one to you, you're my best friend"
"Isaac, what if you had two cars?
"Morty, I'd give one to you, you're my best friend"
"Isaac, what if you had two cows?"
"Morty, now f#@k off, you know I've got two cows".

replace two cows with two beers, and it would make a great "Liam and Paddy" joke...

Suz - It was originally 2 chickens. xx

Irish guy goes for a job on the building site
Foreman asks him "Can you brew tea?"
Paddy answers "Yes, boss"
Foreman asks him "Can you drive a forklift?"
Paddy answers "How big is the effin teapot?"

Paddy goes for a job on a building site
Foreman asks him "What's your name?"
Paddy replies "Paddy Mulligan, Sir?"
Foreman asks him, "How do you spell that?"
Paddy replies, "Stick the job up your arse".

I like your review for A Feast for Crows, a book I've put off reading for a couple of years now as I feel that I might have a similar reaction to the book and the one after. Anyway I'm hoping to read it in the next couple of months as I tidy up a few of the many series I have on the go.

>234 Chatterbox:-239: I got a package deal of four books of the series on me Kindle and am wading my way through book 3. Oh pooh about book 4. It sounds like a publisher's decision to string things out for more money, she said cynically. I'll let you know what I think when I get there. It's already getting a bit messy with wobbly edges and peripheral characters in book 3.

Suz, you just pretty much elucidated why I'm not interested in reading Game of Thrones.

#257 -- Tui, based on the author's note, it was his decision to split the books. I suspect the publishers agreed, if only to get it out the door faster than would otherwise have been possible!

To be clear -- it was still entertaining, and after the first three books, it was kind of necessary reading. That said, if the first book had been as ragged around the edges as this one felt, I probably would have dropped the series. I think that Martin could reasonably have kept the whole narrative more contained. I'm not surprised no editor is reining him in; he's probably subsidizing a significant chunk of other publishing activity.

I do wonder how much of my reaction was a result of the fact this was the first book I confined myself to reading, vs listening to? (The reviews for books #4 and #5 were so bad -- the audio version -- that I shied away completely. Apparently, the narrator completely changes his voice. Given that Audible has a reasonably good return policy, I may decide to do book #5 that way, and if it's still "meh", return it and wait a while to read.)

>239 Chatterbox:: Agreed!

>241 Chatterbox:: *snork!*

Loved the corporation cows!

Also really liked your review of The Goldfinch, but I will not be reading it as I hated The Secret History so very much that the thought of picking up another Tartt book makes me want to do something violent.

I am not sorry to have given up on the Martin "Ice and Fire" series. I think he is an engaging writer, but the thing just started to feel like an endless Ren Faire on steroids.

#262 -- Glenn, you may have coined the perfect description -- "endless Ren Faire on steroids"! I will keep reading. But only because I'm obsessive/compulsive.

I've really enjoyed your comments on A Feast Of Crows Suz. I agree with a lot of your points. With that book, I felt like Martin had lost control of his narrative. A Dance With Dragons did not change my mind. I will keep reading the series, but for me the quality of the story has been heading steadily downhill since book three. I know I am in the minority but I have not been able to get into the Game of Throne tv series at all. I think reading the books give me the distance I need from the violence and the horrible way women are treated.

Snorfling away here at "Ren Faire on steroids". But I'll keep reading too because in for a penny, in for a pound to know how he wraps it all up.

I agree....I have yet to start whatever the last one is, whatever number it is, but I'll get to it eventually just because.

Just a note of books that I have finished and that I'll have to get around to commenting on tomorrow.

70. Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak coulda/shoulda been an automatic "love" for me, but wasn't. I liked Stachniak's novel based on Catherine the Great's early years in Russia, long before she became "the Great" and before she was even known as Catherine, The Winter Palace. This was stylistically different, for starters. While the first novel told Catherine's story through the eyes of a young woman assigned to be her companion and spy on her -- and who later came to spy for Catherine -- and was told as a conventional historical fiction narrative, this one is present tense throughout, and written in flashback mode, as Catherine is lying on her bed and dying. It's devoted to her final years, with about half the book focused on her twin efforts to marry her granddaughter to the King of Sweden and convince her son Alexander to accept the throne rather than let it pass to her dim-witted and demented son Paul. And it's uneven. Parts were fascinating, others simply felt dull & repetitive. I didn't need seven different scenes of her lover, Platon Zubov, sulking because he felt slighted or passed over. I don't know whether it was the POV or the style, but there wasn't much suspense or curiosity for me here; more a disengaged kind of interest. Worth reading? For diehard historical fiction fans, probably. 3.6 stars.

71. The Counterfeit Agent by Alex Berenson is the eighth (I think) novel in this series and it's clear from the ending that there will be a ninth as Berenson clearly has decided to make sure his fans have no excuse to skip the next book by having this one end on a cliffhanger. Which annoys me tremendously, and knocks 1/2 point off the "score". If you've read other books in the Berenson series, this will be familiar fodder: this time out, former CIA agent John Wells is pulled back (yet again) into the fray by rumors that Iran has made giant strides in processing uranium and is about to ship ingredients for a dirty bomb into the US. But can the intelligence be trusted, or is an agent provocateur at work? That's the premise. The rating? 3.5 stars. Entertaining formula fare.

72. The Dark Road by Ma Jian is a different kettle of fish. Even in translation, Ma's novels are stylistically wonderful. The problem? He's so intent on arousing our indignation that the message takes over the novel. This is a problem I'd noted in some of his previous books, and it's even more evident here, as Ma takes on the heavy-handed enforcement of China's one-child policy. Kongzi is a descendant of Confucious, now just an ordinary guy living in an ordinary village. But his one child is a daughter... So when wife Meili becomes pregnant for the second time -- without a permit -- it's logical that both of them, for different reasons, want to keep the pregnancy secret until the baby is safely born. But what might happen if the authorities find out? Or -- horror of horrors -- if it isn't a son? Imagine, if you will, all the possibilities, and you've got a good idea of what Ma throws into the hopper here. He handles it well enough, but it's unrelievedly bleak. Lots of material for thought, including the relationship between China's citizens and their rulers, but clearly this is a book written more to tell us about Ma's message than to engage us in a particular story about particular characters. In lesser hands, it would just be a message novel; a polemic. As it stands, it teeters on the brink. 4 stars.

Loved the cows.

Loved the Paddy jokes.

It seemed that Sophie was hauled into court for throwing her husband Willie out the ten story window.

The Judge sayd "Sophie, why did you throw Willie out the window?"

Sophie says "Well Judge, I came home that day and found Willie in bed with the girl next door".

"And I figured, well if he can f**k, maybe he can fly too".

I did love the cow jokes.

But not the Paddy or Sophie ones, so much, Judy??

(Totally OT, but since you posted over on the Talk about LibraryThing thread):

Ouch! I don't think I should involve myself with script stuff. There are some seriously nasty people over there! Or anyway, extremely argumentative bunch. EEeek!

Nice review of The Dark Road, Suz. It's one of the books by Ma Jian that is on my TBR pile, along with Beijing Coma and Stick Out Your Tongue.

>271 Smiler69: I never do involve myself in that... it's beyond my ken! Nor did I read much of it, beyond trying to figure out what the change was all about.

>272 kidzdoc: I tried to read Beijing Coma a few years ago, but got bogged down in it. I've read one of his earlier books, a memoir that I liked quite a lot, Red Dust.

Some more books:

73. The Best of Connie Willis is a collection of mostly long short stories by the author of some time-travel sci fi that I've really enjoyed, including Doomsday Book. These stories? Not so much. Some are quite intriguing or chilling; others merely "meh". I got the collection mostly to read one that is about one of her time travel characters, but the tone was an almost hallucinatory one, rather than an adventurous one. If you're a sci fi addict, this may be more up your street? Just OK for me; I've been reading the stories one at a time, with days in between 'em, most of the month. No urgency in turning to the next one... 3.4 stars.

74. In the Memorial Room by Janet Frame, on the other hand, was a delight in a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant and sometimes eerie way. Frame wrote this after her stint in 1973 as a Katherine Mansfield fellow in Menton, and it's a satire of the kind of groupies that accumulate around dead authors, trying to preserve their legacy. It wasn't published until after Frame's death, as she didn't want to stir up too much animosity among those she skewers... Her main character is the hapless Harry Gill, who so little conforms to the image of an acclaimed author that his hosts' son is welcomed by the mayor on the train station instead of Harry. If Henry is hapless when it comes to dealing with the depradations of others -- his doctor tells him his growing array of maladies are part of a literal attempt to vanish that is taking physiological form -- he proves an astute observer of the shenanigans around him, and of his setting. It may be frustrating to try and work on his novel -- the room of the title has no light, no bathroom, etc. etc., and after one of the group of expats has "won" him as a paying guest, to the fury of the others, they proceed to make him exquisitely uncomfortable by renovating the premises while he's still there. (The irony: they do it in the name of ensuring he has all comfort, although by the time they finish, his residency will be over...) But Harry watched and comments on everything from the doddery seniors of Menton ("a city of innumerable retirement dreams quietly being wrecked by reality") to the writer/poet who prompted the creation of his residency, Rose Hurndell, "who could be talked about and quoted, but not argued with." I didn't especially like the conclusion, but this is a 4.2 star book for me.

HA!! No book bullets!! I hate Connie Willis with an unruly passion (save for one novella, Inside Job, which I liked a lot) and I've already read the Frame!!

*smirk*

Oh, stop smirking, Richard!! It doesn't suit your Santy Claus look....

Final book of the first 75:

75. A Crooked House by Agatha Christie is a non-Poirot, non-Marple tome by this author, and thus falls into the category of my preferred kind of Christie books. (I had it when the lead detectives quirks are so exaggerated and so limited, and there's no change or evolution in the character; not at all surprised that Christie grew to hate her protagonist, or at least be very sick of him.) Charles returns from WW2 hoping to marry the woman he met in Cairo and loves -- but her elderly grandfather has been murdered. Cue an improbable set of circumstances: Charles's father is high up at Scotland Yard, so he can discover things quickly that the police can't. It has to be one of the family -- but who? Everyone has a motive, but everyone also seems to not have done it, or to Charles, too sympathetic to have done it. The whodunnit is a great little twist, however, and boosted this to 3.65 stars; there are a few pages at the end, in lieu of the standard drawing room confrontation, that are utterly chilling.

... and first book of the next 75:

76. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch is the delightful fourth installment of this series of supernatural police detectives running around London. I simply ADORE the audiobook version, as Kobna Holbrook-Smith transforms adequate prose into a real and distinctive voice. It may be the only case where the narrator is almost as good as a movie, and he does a great job of picking up the various London accents and tones, too. The plot? Oh well, it's rather goofy, and you have to have read the three previous books. Peter Grant is a trainee wizard under the supervision of DCI Nightingale, who doesn't look anything LIKE his real age and is the product of a highly unusual form of public school. Their main adversary -- almost like Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis -- is the Faceless Man, who has uncanny and illicit magical powers and has done dreadful things. They're chasing the wizards he trained in hopes of getting their mitts on him, and stumble across a plot that involves monumental residential architecture (think giant tower blocks of flats), wood nymphs and, of course, the spirits of the Thames and his/her tributaries. Really, you have to read this series. Or better yet, listen to it. It's a delight. Finished it last night, but wanted it to be the first in my new series of 75 books -- just because it's that entertaining. 4.25 stars.

Oho, you're behind the curve: I've shaved all my hairs. No beard, no hair to speak of. (And a grisly sight it is, lemme tell ya.)

It will grow back...Jeremy was speechless, then tearful, now sulky. Thank goodness he's busily flying around the country getting a job.

Congrats on making the first 75!