Richardderus thread 10 of 2014

“Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.” ― Philip K. Dick

I have a category called Orphans, which will still catch all the other reading I do.

My ORPHANED books ticker:




I want to treat the Short Story collection challenge as a ticker-to-itself thread, thinking 48 reviews as my goal. I'll keep the thread over in the Short Stories forum.

My SHORT STORY collections ticker:




I'm keeping a mystery-genre thread over in Crime, Thriller, and Mystery forum. Way way way too many of my reviews have been, in all forums, mysteries and thrillers, and while I love them, I don't want to get too rut-ified and read only those books while keeping up my self-made review writing census.

My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:




THIS THREAD is the 75 challenge for 2014, which will be non-fiction and non-genre-fiction books published in 2013 and 2014, plus recommendations from other 75ers.

My last thread of 2012.
My last reviews of 2013 in this thread.

My 2014 NEW books ticker:




Books 1 & 2...thread 5.

Books are reviewed in post:

3. The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope: A Novel...#186.

4. If Kennedy Lived...#285.

I'm first? Yay!

Great start to a new thread, Richard!

You were indeed first, Jim!

Hi Roni, thanks for coming by! *smooch*

I love the quote by Philip K. Dick.

Congrats on a new thread, dear man. I hope the damnable snow is going away chez vous.

Oh dear..... can I replace science fiction with either fantasy of fiction.... not a big fan of SciFi, but I would like to think I still have an escape hatch from reality.

Happy new thread, Richard!

Love your Thread topper .........

A *smooch* from someone who (usually) can't handle Science Fiction. But I know you love me anyway.

Ooooh... I'm almost first! As close to first as I've ever been on a Richard or Paul thread!!! ;)

Love the PKD quote- He is my son's favorite author - I haven't read much and none for many years- Must pick him up again.

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx, RD!

Sure Roni is going to like a sci-fi kick-off, RD. Very interesting quote from Philip K Dick duly demonstrating that is surname is a complete misnomer.

Have a great weekend, dear fellow.

I love that top quote too. It's a good'un.
And, I like the who's first cartoon :)

I'm with Ellen in *confessing* that Sci-Fi isn't my thang, but am confident you will not disown me for it.

Good morning Rdear. I love the topper and the quote and I agree with it completely. Congrats on your new thread and I wish you a lovely Sunday

Just checking in :) Love the quote and the topper. Have a lovely Sunday.

Morning Richard, have a lovely Sunday.

Morning, Richard!
I'm reading my first PKD just now and loving every page of it.

Good morning Richard. Echo the appreciation of the topper and quote. You do find the most amazing things. Hope you and Stella have a wonderful day.

Ouch, Richard, now I'll have to deal with reality :-) Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Richardmydear.

I love the topper and the quote and SF.

Mine says "biblioholic with a Prime membership" loud and clear.

>7 maggie1944: Thanks, Karen44! It's slowly but surely warming. There's another blast of cold and some snow coming next week. Until then, it's over 40 and sunshiney! I like that.

>8 lkernagh: Hi Lori! Well, if you can't handle SF, is reality that far removed from it? *smooch*

>9 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex, ain't it the truth?

>10 EBT1002: hmmmmmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Weeeeeelllllllllllll

>11 TinaV95: Hi Tina! Things move fast round these parts. *smooch*

>12 Helenoel: Thanks, Helen, and I encourage you to re-experience the weirdness.

>13 alcottacre: Stasia darling! *smoochiesmoochsmooch* So glad you came by!

>14 PaulCranswick: Ha! I suspect his dickness was bone-deep and would've been there no matter what.

>15 LovingLit: I fear there was no hope for you anyway, Maudie. You live in Antipodean climes. The stronger UV rays and the horrors of being wrong-way-round in the seasons, well...

>16 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara, and what a completely adorable GIF!

Good Morning, BigDaddy! Happy new thread to you - I love both the graphic and the quote up top. And also the quote in 23 - wondering exactly what my bookcase says about me. Supposed to rain here today, which is too bad, really, as I loved spending most of yesterday outside reading. Oh, well. Coffee?

>17 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! *smooch* You too, dearie.

>18 johnsimpson: Thank you, John, it's so cloudlessly lovely that it's impossible not to be in a good mood.

>19 scaifea: He's addictive, Amber. Very very addictive. You've been warned....

>20 calm: Hello calm, Stella is bounding about outside at the mo but I'll schmoozle her ears a little extra from you.

>21 wilkiec: Oh well...reality it is...so sad. Just so so sad.

>22 connie53: Hi Connie, thank you for coming by to say so!

>27 Crazymamie: "Coffee" is never a question around here, dearest. It is an offer, or a statement, but a question? Needless. I shall gratefully partake.

Not caught up, just saving a spot for myself....

Wishing you a happy sunday :)

>31 mckait: Hi Kath, happy Sunday back! How's the Dunc today?

Good morning, Richard! Nothing planned today for me but reading and laundry. I hope your day is warm and sunshiny and full of good books!

"Warm" is in the bag, Julia, as it's already 50° and sunshiney! Yay!! I'm about to venture into reviewland. Must get at least a few knocked out.

Morning RD- Happy new thread! Mighty #10. And I like the Dick quote.

Ooh, coffee looks good...

>35 msf59: Hi there, Mark! Happy No-Delivery Day! Sorry about the family birthday. You need to cultivate my solution: Ignore your family.

Book porn!

Happy New Thread and Happy Sunday!

My concern with the Walter Moseley quote is that he uses the singular. Are there people who only have one bookcase? And if so, then he should account for the piles of books stacked on any flat surface that must inevitably be there....

Anyway, here's a new take on the breakfast taco for you:

Love that the "K" in Phillip K Dick's name stands for "kindred".

unusual name unusual writer. One of these days I am going to force my book group to read The Man in the High Castle

>38 katiekrug: ....
....
....

....genius. Simply...genius.

>39 magicians_nephew: It does?! Wow! I liked The Man in the High Castle a lot.

>39 magicians_nephew: Jim: That's the one I'm reading now - and loving it!

#37 yes please!!!

Hallo Richard. *smooch*

I love the latest bookpornpic!

Congrats on the new thread. Out enjoying the 50F+ weather and blowing out a little of the cabin fever!

Very good book porn.

Gorgeous book porn, but the bacon taco trumps. I'll take 2 please....they look small.

>23 richardderus:: True, with the caveat that one would have to look at all my shelves...

Bacon taco? Is there perhaps one left for me?

I hope Sunday wasn't any worse than it had to be. Good weather really helps to lighten the mood.

Must go roast asparagus now.

Smoochings

>41 scaifea: It's a creative book. I liked the idea of the world a bit better than the execution, however. He got so much better as the years went by, though I feel he started from a higher platform than many busy genre writers of his generation.

>42 AuntieClio: I know, right?! Hi Stephanie. *smooch*

>43 connie53: I love that room's look, Connie. So inviting to me.

>44 michigantrumpet: Isn't it something special to *feel* spring at last? Won't last, of course, but it's gorgeous all the same.

>45 johnsimpson: So agreed.

>46 tututhefirst: Two it is! Perkins, Miss Tina desires a brace of breakfast tacos a la Katie.

>47 Matke: Ooooo, roast asparagus! A lovely lovely way to treat yourself and your brother! (He is still there, right?)

>48 richardderus:: Well, I haven't read any other PKD to compare, but I can say that compared to the other Hugo winners so far (that's why I'm reading this one - I'm making my way through the winners chronologically) his writing, his characters seem, well, more subtly drawn? If that makes sense? He's a more nuanced, delicate writer, it seems, than the others. So far, at least. (Can you tell that I can't really figure out how to say what I'm thinking about him? Ha!)

>50 scaifea: PKD's charm lies in his ability to layer a narrative. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an *excellent* example of his deft hand with characterization. In 244pp, he creates a world...amazing enough...but does it by creating people, real-feeling people, who interact believably only if you buy into the world! Wow.

As for The Man in the High Castle, the thing that sold it to me, reading it as I did after an infancy spent in California, was the shopkeeper who muses that being seen in the home of a minor Japanese functionary would advance him socially! OPPOSITE from the Cali I knew and loathed. it's as dense as all the best PKD books are.

>51 richardderus:: Yes! The interaction between the races and the nuances within those relationships is so very well done and is a big part of why I'm enjoying it so much.

PKD - I actually enjoy his short stories quite a lot. Have at least 4 of the collections of his work. Its amazing when you think about how many films are made from his stuff. The afore mentioned, "Do Androids Dream...", Minority Report just happens to be on one of my local channels right now.

So many others, not all very well executed, but the stories they are based on, well that's another subject.

RD- "Ignore your family." LOL! Excellent advice but my wife would never allow that. I muddled through. I actually enjoy talking to most of my family members but the house gets cramped and loud, with kids, dogs and yelling parents.

>52 scaifea: That's what I'm talkin' about! *smooch*

>53 mahsdad: I don't consider Blade Runner an adaptation of Androids so much as a good movie inspired by a book. I like them both, but really...the movie is simple-minded compared to the book and so much is altered that it's not faithful. Minority Report is a bit better, but We Can Remember It For You Wholesale is so so so far above Total Recall as to be outside the pale. That said, I liked the Colin Farrell movie a lot better than the Arnie one.

>54 msf59: *delicate shiver* That sounds like a slice of Hell to me.

Wow! Away from LT a couple of days and what happens? 125+ posts and one new thread behind! Well, I managed to skim through the new thread, so yay me. And yay you for starting a new thread!

>56 Storeetllr: Yay for Mary coming around! *smooch* Have a lovely week. I saw the pics of your Petco event. So cool.

>55 richardderus:: I'm actually book-talkin' with Richard! I'm inordinately excited about that! Woot!

>55 richardderus: I think Screamers is the best (Second Variety). JK, this and I would say pushing 75% of every other movie adaptation, the source material is always better.

Of the 4 collections I have, Minority Report is on the cover of 1, Second Variety on another, We Can Remember it for you Wholesale on the 3rd.

The Short Happy Life of a Brown Oxford is on the 4th. Where is THAT movie adaptation

>58 scaifea: Heh, our reading so seldom overlaps that it's a red letter day indeed!

>59 mahsdad: *smirk* There's a Pixar film for ya.

Smooches, RD. I'm caught up now. I hope all that drama is kaput! *hugs*

>61 leperdbunny: Me. Too!

*smooch*

I can't remember, Richard--have you read John Scalzi's The Android's Dream, speaking of PKD?

Hallo there from the underbelly of the world :)
Just having consumed my deliciouso tomato pasta with chorizo, I can confirm that I am content.

#63 roni,
Oh, I was going to ask the very same thing! Loved it. Sent it on to a friend because he loves fart jokes! bwahahahaha

>63 ronincats:, 65. Scalzi is another one one my list of authors I'll pretty much read anything they write.

Hi Richard! I have nothing to add to the Phillip K. Dick discussion because I have read none of his books, however, I can see I must remedy that. I did see the Arnie version of Total Recall back in the day. So many books, so little time.

Hope your Monday isn't terrible!

>63 ronincats:, 65 No, Roni, I haven't. I've read Old Man's War and Redshirts, both very pleasant reads in their separate ways but in the end pretty forgettable. Though I will watch the TV series of Redshirts. And Stephanie has put her finger on the why...he's often OTT and not to any particular end (!).

>64 LovingLit: Ah! Excellent. Almost nothing isn't better after pasta with sausage and tomato. *smooch*

>66 mahsdad: Interesting!

>67 Cobscook: It's sunshiney and gloriously warmer than freezing. I can cope. Sending hugs Maineward!

Not warmer than freezing here. A lot to do today, including work.
Well your weekend is over, and wishing you a week of goodness.

The loves of my life. They've never disappointed me, unlike people.

Ok, Love the bacon taco, & those floor to ceiling book cases. I agree with the quote about a person's bookcase telling you everything you need to know. I love to see other people's library and see what I can deduce about them.

I took Mamie a plate of this Italian gingerbread/panforte, but I can't help myself, here's more. Soooo goooood

Good morning Rdear. I help myself if you don't mind. It looks marvellous.

>72 richardderus:: Holy. Moly.

>73 Ameise1: Good morning, Barbara, please help yourself. Delicious-looking, isn't it?

>74 scaifea: I know, right?!

I'ma havea piecea that! Thanks, RD! "Happy" Monday to you.

>76 rosalita: Ain't it scrummy-looking, Julia? He'p yo'se'f.

Okay. I can now die a happy, happy man. MARY DORIA RUSSELL snagged a JPEG from my blog. And posted it on Facebook. And credited me with it.

MARY DORIA RUSSELL reads my blog.

*happyfaint*

78> It's a strange feeling, isn't it? I read a lot of ARCs last year, and seeing the authors link back to me from their sites is equal parts unnerving and exhilarating.

That is just so cool, Richard!! Happy Monday to ya!

Richard - Might you provide a link to your blog, so I can follow it? I don't see one anywhere around here.

Also, good morning.

>79 NielsenGW: I know, Gerard! I did an entire summer of Jay Lake reviews and he linked back to them all. It was my homage to a man on the last flight out. But this was just a JPEG! Not even a review, nothing about her, just something she saw and liked! *sigh* The happy, the happy.

>80 Crazymamie: Thanks, sweetiedarling!

>81 DorsVenabili: Good morning, Kerri...I'm at http://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/

>78 richardderus: WOOT!!

#51 Glad to have found a fellow appreciator of the works of PKD. As brilliant as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is, the movie adaptation (though a loosely based one), Bladerunner is *better*, most certainly the best Sci-Fi movie I have watched.

78: Go, Richard! WooHoo!

Jeez, somehow I'm a late arriver, Richard. How did that happen?

Love the sci-fi topper and the PKD quote! He was aces at creating new universes.

Congratulations on the new thread, and encouraging folks to discuss PKD. I agree with your comments in >55 richardderus:.

Just waving!! Be my friend on FB, Richardmydear?

>83 laytonwoman3rd:, 85 I know, right?!

>84 PiyushC: I'm an admirer of PKD's work from way back. I also appreciate the work of true dystopianist Thomas Disch.

I think of Bladerunner as a peak moviegoing experience, too. So beautiful, and still so replete with ideas well-explored! That rarely happens.

>86 jnwelch: Oh, no worries, Joe. *chinwobble* I know I'm a mere blip on your radar. *teardrop* I accept gratefully such small scraps of attention as you choose to spare me. *muffled sob*

>87 connie53: If you've sent me an invitation, I'll accept it of course, Connie.

Haven't read anything by Thomas Disch, being a dystopian fan (Dick, Orwell, Vonnegut, Atwood and what not), guess I should sample some of his works. Didn't care for Huxley much though.

334 and Camp Concentration are good starting points, Piyush.

>88 richardderus: Let me make it up to you, Richard. Here are some chili cheese fries topped with bacon:

NOM!

*gobblegobblechompSLUUURRP*

Oh my.

Yes, "NOM" is le mot juste.

Nom, for sure...

MDR = COOLness

signed,

invisible

>91 jnwelch: They come with BACON? OUCH!!! Oh come ON, Richard...just a taste...OUCH!!

>94 mckait: Hiya Invisible! *smooch*

>95 laytonwoman3rd: *wields Ginsu knives a la ninja* BACK! BACK!!

MDR is a fan of RD?? What took her so long, for crying out loud? That is very cool. I love following MDR on FB. She's a hoot.

*draws back a bloody nubbin* I'll never get married now.

>97 msf59: I know, right?!

>98 laytonwoman3rd: ...except you already are...

>70 richardderus:: I did a course with Northrop Frye. One of the highlights of my formal education!

Hi Richard, those chili cheese fries look just about irresistible. That Joe, tantalizing people on threads unconnected to the Cafe....he's too much;-)

>99 richardderus: Oh, well...then it doesn't matter about the mutilation, I guess.

78... How totally awesome!!

Thanks for posting that blog link. I've never seen that link before, so I'm now a follower too. I'm no MDR, ya know, but I'm not chopped liver either. ;)

Richard, I know Scalzi is uneven. That said, The Android's Dream, once you get past the first chapter, is by far my favorite book of his...and obviously, his homage to PKD.

>78 richardderus: woohoo! That must be a lovely feeling :) I hope she continues to sing your praises.

>82 richardderus:. Thanks for the link.

I could swear that I posted here already this morning.. sheesh!

Well, You have the house to yourself today, I think? Enjoy the peace and sending shoo away the pain mojo!

#90 Thanks for the recommendation, I will try to squeeze one of them in by June.

So cool about MDR! You rock!

>100 tiffin: Oh wow! A whole course with him! I can see that as being a very major highlight in an educational career. I'm jealous.

>101 brenzi: I accept bribes of chili cheese fries at all times, if you're wondering....

>102 laytonwoman3rd: No, post-conjugal injuries aren't a factor in marriageability. Heh.

>103 TinaV95: I KNOW, RIGHT?! I was so excited! Blog followers are always gladly welcomed.

>104 ronincats: Yeah, well, not so eager to rush right out. Uneven and, at his peak, not that impressive to me = better ways to use my remaining eyeblinks.

>105 LovingLit: I certainly can't say she sang my praises, but linking to my blog on a funny post? WOOOHOOOO!!

>106 labwriter: My pleasure, Becky!

>107 mckait: House to myself, a bit of screaming at the computer screen, and now some time to play. It's cloudy and cold, so I've left the draperies drawn to save heating costs. Makes it that much more depressing in here, though. *sigh*

>108 PiyushC: I hope whichever one you can find is a successful read for you, Piyush.

>109 michigantrumpet: It really was cool. If it never happens again, it was exciting and a pleasure.

Word.

Shuffling through to leave you and Stella a Tuesday smooch. :-)

>113 richardderus:: Amen.

>113 richardderus: LOL! Love it.

Our son had a girlfriend who said "Word" after doing her portion of the Haggadah at a seder. Cracked us up. We loved that girl.

>114 EBT1002: It's Zombie Ellen!! Eeek!

*smooch*

>115 tiffin: Preach, Sister Tui.

>116 jnwelch: Oh now, that is *priceless*! You should keep inviting her just for that one.

I've moved my review of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry from the gorram Reavers at Goodreads to my blog.

It seems I've been selected to receive an ER copy of Snow in May, a collection of short stories, by the Sacred Algorithm. I don't remember requesting that one, but it looks interesting!

>118 richardderus:...That actually does look very interesting. Much more so than this bloody Tenth of December that I re-started last night after I got home from the Wiley Cash do (really fun). I'm one of those souls who still feels it is necessary to keep my word that I'll read all the assigned books when I'm on a panel to judge them. I'm also one of those souls who won't review a book I haven't finished. I may comment on it, but not publish a review. Thus, since 10 of Dec somehow made the short list (and I'll say that the batch competing against it was the least sterling of all the 127 on the long list) I must therefore read it before I dismiss it. YUCK!

I am anxious to hear your thoughts tho on Snow in May....looks pretty good. ETA....just found it still available (sorta) on NetGalley. I've requested....we'll see how well they like me.

I do not envy you your starchy sense of honor. I myownself would simply say, "this was so awful that I couldn't finish it and so there's no power on earth that could make me vote for it."

I may get there....you're right ---if it's that bad, I'm not going to vote for it, so why torture myself reading it? YOU DA MAN.

*sweeping courtly bow* I live to serve.

Just popping in to catch up and say Hi, Richardmydear.

Swing by smooch...

>123 connie53: Hi there, Connie!

>124 TinaV95: *smooch* back

So today I got two long-anticipated books delivered:

The Dark Vineyard, second of the Bruno, Chief of Police cozy series set in rural France; YAY

and

The Innocent Mrs. Duff
Death in the Limelight
The Trouble at Turkey Hill
one of those ancient Detective Book Club omnibus editions that I love so much.

BTW, is it my brain tumor acting up, or have the PTB made some sort of cosmetickal glamour enhancement-thing with the way our posted text looks in the moments after we post it? Instead of doing something useless like that, can't they fix it so touchstones with EXACT TITLE MATCHES get those presented first, not the fucking Harry Potter/Twilight books?

I enjoyed Harold Fry a bit more than you did, and a LOT more than the next book she wrote, Perfect. Having trouble with the touchstones today especially.

>127 michigantrumpet: ANYone would've enjoyed Harold Fry more than I did. All it was for me was a slog, enlivened by finding the occasional well-turned phrase. I would not read another book by her.

#104 roni,
Completely agree about The Android's Dream, it got much more interesting after the first chapter. The fart joke was an extremely silly way of setting up the rest of the story. But one of the things I like about Scalzi is that he can be supremely funny and he knows he's being silly.

I'm here! Sorry for causing a small amount of agita for not being more present.

*smooch* You're busy and enjoying your reading. Not to worry.

So what JPEG did she snatch? Inquiring minds have to know.

Love that bacon taco. It meets my absolute requirement of having a bite of bacon with each bite of egg.

No idea what my "bookcases" have to say about me since my "bookcase" is numbered boxes in a closet.

^5 Morphy, that's what my bookcases are too! (Although not in a closet.)

126: I noticed that too. It changes into a very strange shade of pinkish and then back to normal. So don't blame it on the brain tumor.

>78 richardderus: MDR reads your blog! That is indeed swoonworthy! Or, as Amber would say, AWESOMESAUCE!!!

>113 richardderus: LOLOL!

I slipped up and said "awesome sauce" in a meeting the other day. Got some weird looks... :)

Richard, how about inviting MDR to join us? Especially if she's interested in doing meetups!

Jim, LOL!

MDR came to Colorado last year on a book tour for, I think, Doc. Now that Epitaph (no touchstone yet) is almost on the shelf, maybe she'll swing by this way again, and this time I will be here to greet her!

COLD WAR
ADAM CHRISTOPHER
Tor.com
Free novelette, available online only

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Dropped on a frozen planet under suspicious circumstances, a group of marines struggles to discover the true objective of their mission. “Cold War” is set in the same universe as Adam Christopher’s novel The Burning Dark.

My Review: MilSF is a pleasure to some of us, a bane to others. I'm a fan, usually. In the case of this tale, I'm more a fan of Christopher's imagination than I am of this particular story. I'm intrigued by the concept of Psi-Marines. I like the boots-in-the-dirt (well, snow in this case) reality of the PoV character, Kat Grec. I am pleased with the tone of the piece, its matter-of-factness and its clarity. These remind me of Karl Marlantes' wonderful novel Matterhorn, and that's praise indeed.

The aliens, the Spiders...a little 1959 for my own taste. The story itself, being so short, can't give more than a quick hit of the scariness of the Spiders. But really...from Starship Troopers down to Ender's Game, the trope is well, well, well-worn.

That said, it's Adam Christopher, and he's a man to watch. Still...I feel...

Setting sail.

A friend came running into my office one day asking if anyone had seen the facilities guy because there was a huge spider in her office and she wanted them to get it out.

I went over with her, only to find a teensy spider who went scurrying over the edge of the desk, behind it and onto the floor.

Poor friend. I tried not to laugh in her presence because I am terrified of snakes and can imagine turning a little garden snake into a boa constrictor.

So glad I don't work at that awful place anymore because the campus is in a wildlife preserve and the rattlesnakes came out to play during the summer.

Rdear, I wish you a lovely day. I love the book-sailing-boat.

>136 drneutron: Jim: You're clearly working with the wrong kind of people. Any use of the term "awesomesauce" in the workplace should in fact be met with high fives all round. What's with rocket scientists today, anyways? Sheesh.

Morning, Richard!

Good morning rdear. Snow. Boo. Cold.
Hope it's better there in every way.

I think a nuclear warhead is a perfectly appropriate weapon to deploy against a spider. Maybe that's just me.

>126 richardderus:: oh good, it wasn't just me having acid flashbacks.
I laughed at Jim saying "awesomesauce" in a meeting.
>139 richardderus:: exactly how I hope starting a book will feel/keep going. Hate it when it dashes to pieces on the rocks and reefs.

Hope none of you spider fearing folks ever run into an Ontario dock spider. They are harmless but look absolutely terrifying.

And I am there.

>132 Morphidae:, 133 She picked up the Northrop Frye quote. I'm still pleased, a day later.

>134 connie53: It's so silly, but it's harmless and it makes me no never-mind long as I know it's not some dread neurological condition.

>135 Storeetllr:, 136, 137 That she is aware I *have* a blog is pleasure enough for me...and "awesomesauce" isn't, to my mind at least, bureacratic-sounding enough to make the NASArds feel comfies with it.

>140 AuntieClio: Once upon a time, I worked in an office building on Fifth Ave and 20th Street. I went to work very early because our main office was in Milan. I was there about 7am one day and heard a *giant* kerfuffle down the hall from us. Hollering, clanging, the occasional shriek.

Being a man, I waited to see if whoever it was would STFU before I stirred my barely caffeinated behind from my comfy chair. More kerfuffle, a few more shrieks. I sighed, got up, and went down the hall with my trusty-dusty baseball bat. The door of the noisy office was ajar and the cleaning cart was outside it. I shoved the door open and saw the cleaning man hopping around slamming a trash can down at random spots, emitting terrified shrill shrieks every so often.

Ah jeez, hadda be a rat, was my natural thought. Came in, bat ready, and saw...

....

....

...a mouse. On a glue trap.

A MOUSE. Poor little thing. I put it out of its (and my) misery, disposed of it, and went back to my office. The terrified cleaner was never seen again.

>141 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! The coffee is kicking in, I suspect I'll survive to read another day.

>142 scaifea: Morning, Amber!

>143 mckait: Hiya sweetness. Snow, powdery teentsy snow, here too. If it accumulates, I'll be very surprised. It's better than a few inches of the wet stuff! *smooch*

>144 rosalita: Not being spiderphobic, it seems a bit OTT to me.

>145 tiffin: Isn't that a relief, Tui?

As they are called "dock spiders," one assumes they are largely found on docks, which are places I am not frequently found. They may exist in peace.

But then again, I'm not phobic.

>146 richardderus: Thanks for the reminder; I need a second mug of coffee.

I've always kind of liked spiders. They help get rid of flies and other annoying insects, you know? I've probably been influenced in that by Charlotte's Web, too.

Eight foot tall human-eating ones are a different story, of course.

You remind me - I finished The Martian, and had a good time with MarK Watney and the others.

>150 kidzdoc: I live to serve, of course.

>151 jnwelch: Isn't it a thrill-ride? I was left feeling very upbeat and positive.

I suspected they salted my edition with cutaneous-delivery cocaine. I *never* feel upbeat and positive.

Re: spiders, I don't love or hate them, I just find them useful and easily avoidable so I tend towards the live-and-let-live school. Eight-foot-tall ones with murder on their minds, now, I'd be all up in their business to stop 'em.

Darn it. Now I need more coffee too. To the machine! (insert batman 'to the batcave' music in there).

Na na na na na, na na na na na CAF-FEINE CAF-FEINE!!

Exactly.

Hi Richardmydear, I love the picture in 146! I need my coffee too. It's the first thing I do when I go downstairs in the morning, making myself a cup of strong coffee and make a sudoku to get my brains working!

I hope you have a good day!

A Federal judge in Austin has struck down the Texas state law defining marriage so as to exclude gay men and lesbians. Here! Go look! It's not a misprint or a hoax.

A stay has already been issued to prevent actual marriages from being licensed pending an appeal to the Fifth Circuit.

Stay tuned.

#157> Richard, the equal marriage wave is turning into a tsunami and it's a wonderful thing to see. And long overdue.

>155 BekkaJo: :-)

>156 connie53: I don't understand sudoku, and find them utterly uninteresting. I wonder why...they seem like something I'd love.

*smooch* for a happy Thursday!

>158 rosalita: I wish I felt good about it. All I can see is trouble as far as the eye can perceive. The solution to the world's problems is for mankind to kill all its idiots. But then the problem is who decides who's an idiot....

>157 richardderus: That we are even having this conversation in 2014 is beyond my ability to comprehend. Still, YAY!

>160 Storeetllr: Much like the marijuana conversation. Why, in the 21st century, are we still so supine and stupid as to buy horseshit that's been known to be horseshit for more than 40 years?

>157 richardderus: I let out a Hip hip Hooray about that earlier today. Wow! In Texas no less. And most of these Judges have been Republican appointees, too (Although I don't know about the Texas one...)

ETA -- Looks like he was appointed by Clinton.

Watching with great interest the trial which started yesterday in Michigan. Fingers crossed.

Congratulations on the MDR recognition! Honestly, I am impressed. But not surprised, as she has a, um, unique sense of humor and would certainly enjoy yours.

Texas may be forced to allow same-sex marriage? Wonders are still occurring amongst us. You see trouble ahead? Why, because the people in Texas are a bit limited in their horizons?

>139 richardderus:: Sailing away in a book; nothing, not even coffe, is better than that.

Oh, wait, I almost forgot: all the PKD talk has me interested. this a.m. I picked up Do Androids and I'm wondering if you could recommend one or two others that would be especially worth my while.

Bunyon McMuffin.

Warty McTurnips! I *love* it.

>162 michigantrumpet: Appointed by Clinton. I swaNEE. That's a pearl-clutcher.

I'd say the momentum is real behind the sea-change. If this trial fails, it will be on defects in the case made.

>163 Matke: I see trouble ahead because there are still religious nuts in this world. There are people here on LT whose vision of their religious fantasy construct is violated by equal rights. If it can happen among readers, just imagine what the hoi polloi are plotting and scheming.

Humans are hate-generating machines. The only way not to have trouble is not to have humans. As that's not something I can, in good conscience, advocate for, trouble ahead is the norm and the status quo ante.

Anyway, PKD: I'd recommend you start out with The Man in the High Castle, then Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, then Ubik. All, in their different ways, excellent books.

>165 katiekrug: Ooh! Warty dear, how lovely!

Sprinkles O'Bourbon! Perfection.

Hi Richardmydear, At first I was in awe of sudoku's. There were numbers in there, and I don't like numbers. But my brothet talked me into trying one. He said the numbers could be letters, figures, symboles, you name it . So I tried one and now I'm hooked. I start one with my morning coffee and when I come home I solve some on the www.

I'm Warty o'Blaze

I will not even try to follow the conversation about same sex marriage! I'm all for it!

In other news, the Super Bowl Committee is making rumblings about boycotting Arizona if the most recent gay bashing legislation is signed into law.

As a minor FYI, my church is proudly Reconciling in Christ (the Lutheran version of open and affirming). A very good friend is an openly gay Lutheran pastor. I completely understand your feelings because of being hurt by hateful anti-gay church people. Where I come from, we aren't like that.

Thunderous O'Rainbow here signing in (and expecting that slightly annoying bold highlighted post for an instant before it settles into your thread - I'm with you, dear fellow, what an absolutely pointless innovation) - SWMBO is fascinated by suduko and has a couple of those giant incomprehensible books. I can do them middlingly well but the temptation to cheat with the grids shown nicely in the back of the book is simply too much for me. I also like to screw up her games by introducing the wrong number subtlely into the mix - don't really know how and why the poor lady continues to stay married to me. Ok it is probably money.

Sprinkles McTavern here......RD you are just so much fun. I never know what I'm going to find when I get up the courage to dive into your latest thread. Must go finish my daily SUDOKU

Warty McSpud here. My dad, Greenie McSpud, is a sudoku and crossword puzzle fanatic.

>167 rosalita: HA!! I love it!

>168 connie53: You know, Warty O'Blaze, no one who has any basic sense of empathy is ever against equal treatment of all people. It's when Other Issues take over that empathy is lost.

>169 michigantrumpet: No group, no matter how evil in the aggregate, is made up of all evil individuals. There were, in fact, good-person Nazis. Religion is like any other means of social control: To succeed, it must convince people that there is US and THEM. The Saved and the Unsaved. The Believer and the Non-believer. We are Correct. Therefore They are not.

Fine! I'll run with that. Religion is (demonstrably) a force for evil in the world. Therefore it is Wrong and should be extirpated. Isn't that what the battle between Good and Evil in that horrible book full of rape, incest, and Divine Misbehavior says?

I would restate the Problem of Evil, but it's really not relevant just now. I don't think YOU are evil. The belief system to which you subscribe is, based on MILLENNIA of evidence.

I'm no longer a politely silent anti-theist. I've been hit too hard too many times and by too many people I thought subscribed to the (erroneous, but whatever) "love the sinner and hate the sin" doctrine to tolerate positive mentions of the system. It isn't in me to forgive again. hat one doesn't loudly, actively condemn, one condones.

Also Bleary McWoozy, inveterate Sudoku and crossword fan, at your service.

>170 PaulCranswick: HA!! I love that one, Thunderous!

As for SWMBO, best keep on her good side since she owns the shares....

>171 tututhefirst: You do them too, Sprinkles? I just don't get it. I like crossword puzzles just fine, but the sudoku just cause me to hyperventilate and scream.

>172 jnwelch: Warty me lad! Crosswords I get. The numbers ones, nahsomuch.

Greeny McSmelly.

Yep. PErfect ending to my day.

>174 michigantrumpet: Bleary McWoozy!! I love it. That's a keeper for sure.

The sudoku are all yours.

>176 mckait: Is it wrong that I'm giggling like a mad thing right now...?

RD - It is worse than that. Not only does she own the shares, I am in Malaysia on a Spouse Programme visa. Issued every five years, she has to sign to say that we are still married!

Another handbag, Hani dear? Why most certainly! You'd like one of those $20,000 jeweled ones? Yes dear, of course dear!

I can't believe it. My $2 copy of Plainsong has arrived. Amazon might not treat its workers nicely, but it coddles its customers.

Wow! That was quick -- did you see a drone hovering overhead?

P.s. Left you a PM.

Hi RD- Just checking in. Hope you had a good day. Glad to see you have a copy of Plainsong in hand. Sighs, with immense pleasure...

Sprinkles O'Wickless here... :)

Pretty stunned to hear/see the news about Texas, but I am so thrilled!

Hi RD, I have selfishly been chatting to you via my own thread recently so have neglected your fine thread, but I read *on your blog* the following fantastic sentence.
There's no monster in this lake, unless you subscribe to the theory that evil in its purest form is banal.
I like that sentence, and I subscribe to its sentiment.
*smooch*

Megan, that one stood up and waved Kermit arms at me too.

Very envious of the name Warty McTurnips. If I go with my birth certificate name, I'm Greenie McSmelly but if I go with my real name, I'm Blarney McSmelly. My husband's family had a horse named Blarney who would lie down on the track and refuse to race if she didn't feel like it. Works for me!

Review: 3 of seventy-five

Title: THE ENCHANTED LIFE OF ADAM HOPE

Author: RHONDA RILEY

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope is an unconventional and passionately romantic love story that is as breathtaking and wondrous as The Time Traveler's Wife and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

During WWII, teenager Evelyn Roe is sent to manage the family farm in rural North Carolina, where she finds what she takes to be a badly burned soldier on their property. She rescues him, and it quickly becomes clear he is not a man...and not one of us. The rescued body recovers at an unnatural speed, and just as fast, Evelyn and Adam fall deeply in love. In The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, Rhonda Riley reveals the exhilarating, terrifying mystery inherent in all relationships: No matter how deeply we love someone, and no matter how much we will sacrifice for them, we can only know them so well...

My Review: The landscape of a life is common as pig-tracks. All the same milestones, either hit or missed, all the same parameters laid down by minor variations in genetic code, broadly indistinguishable. So why is it we're always so interested in others' lives? Why read novels about marriages that last or love affairs that sour or basements that exude more than the natural degree of fungal fetor?

Because solitude isn't loneliness, which isn't grief. All involve a person not having companions. All are intense emotional states. But they spring from causes not dissimilar with effects radically, wildly different from each other. Just like we, architects of or tenants in or travelers through out life's landscape, are intensely and inarguably different from each other.

Stories moves us through those landscapes at speed. The milestones are there, but rather than majestic sweeping mountain vistas seen while hiking, they're glimpsed from the highway while moving at speed. This is wonderful on many levels. We experience many different lives this way, fiction being a highway through the landscape of another's life; but it can lead to a jadedness and a sense of "been there, done that" as we whip past the wedding night, the first child, buying a house...read this how many times now?

So with this in mind, hear what I tell you now: Adam Hope and Evelyn Roe aren't the usual suspects. Adam comes to Evelyn in a wonderful and deeply beautiful metaphorical blaze. I won't spoil it for you, but it left me both amused and so touched and moved that I was always ready to well up at the oddest moments in the tale, remembering that first contact and putting the moments of a life against it.

And, in the final analysis, isn't that the thing one most often does not get and resents the absence of in a story? An ordinary, relatable life rendered truly and beautifully Other by a simple reorientation of one detail?

So hear me clearly. Understand my urgency in telling you this. Life feels bad and unfocused and unlivable and unlovable sometimes. The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope will, if you let it, shift your perception that bubble off true that makes rain into rainbows.


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

My favorite quote from the novel has all the strengths and all the weaknesses of the book in one place:

“Countless times, I have imagined A. rising through the rivers of this land, to the surface of Florida to be found again, pulled into the air by new hands. The possibilities are endless, but most often I imagine him found by children. Above him, the sky shimmers and undulates blue through transparent springwater. Then four small brown hands break the surface and pull him into the air and into their excited and frightened vocabularies. The delicate bones of their arms and ribs absorb his voice, shattering their knowledge of what is possible.”

>181 michigantrumpet: No drone sightings, more's the pity. I'd like to have that happen. Once.

Sent you a PM too. *smooch*

>182 msf59: It's at hand, all righty all right, in fact presently under the dog's haunch as she snores ever so delicately (!).

>183 TinaV95: Mrs. O'Wickless! Darling! So lovely that you're here. Isn't it startling?

>184 LovingLit: Is that a good one? Just sounds like the inside of my head to me. Well, glad you enjoyed it, and chuffed that you pretended to visit my blog!

>185 tiffin: Really! Go know from this. I don't think it sounds all la-di-da or even oo-la-la. Whatever, I am so pleased it passed the McSmelly test.

*smooch*

Goldie O'Blaze - sounds like a stripper name

Lucky McTurnips? I'm changing my RL name.

Sprinkles McCoppertop is greeting Rdear.

Sprinkles O'Knuckles reports. Hi dear!

>186 richardderus:: Lovely review of what sounds like a lovely book - wishlisted, and thanks!

I am so glad that you loved The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope and wrote such a lovely review. I hope more of our friends here can make time and space in their reading lives for this book. It deserves to fly wide and high.

Now, I must scroll back and find the link to the place where everyone is uncovering such charmingly silly pseudonyms. I must have one, too. I am such a crowd follower.......

ETA: I'm Thunderous McSmelly

Oh, my, I don't know if I can stand for that. Life can be cruel sometimes.

Will thumb Adam... I loved that one..It was absorbing and sad but filled with magic and quiet little moments of joy.

Peeking in from Karen's thread to read your review of Adam Hope.

I got to talk to Rhonda Riley a bit at Booktopia last year. She has the sequel all plotted out, but the publisher wanted to see how the first book did before committing to a sequel.

What she told me about the sequel is a bit spoilerish and absolutely amazing. I can't wait to see if it gets written! The author is definitely an original.

Thanks for the great review of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope. Your writing, as always, is exquisite. It is obvious that you like to write. I've read many of your reviews over the years, still they produce awe.

Interesting review of Adam Hope. Although I'm not sure I trust a publisher which puts The Time Travelers' Wife and Edgar Sawtelle in the same category ...

*Morning smooches*

Doggone it, you've gone and planted another book on my wishlist. I hate when you do that. Adam Hope sounds lovely and rather intriguing.

Good morning, Mr. D. Still liking that review of Adam Hope, which I bethumbed. I'm not sure I would've guessed you'd like that one, as the hippiness of it is a bit of a wild card.

We're frozen here in the midwest, and people have simply stopped moving, while waiting for the spring thaw. There will be one, won't there?

RD...once again a wonderful review. So glad you liked Enchanted Life of Adam Hope. I'm also glad it made the short list for Maine Reader's Choice. Now it remains to be seen if it will be a finalist. We vote in May, and so far, it's still high on my list.

>188 AuntieClio: Oh my yes, it does sound just like a stripper name. I'd never thought to imagine a leprechaun stripper before.

*shudder*

>189 Storeetllr: Hmmmm yeah that's not one I'd love to be lumbered with. "McTurnips" isn't euphonious.

>190 Ameise1: Frau McCoppertop! How lovely to see you.

>191 wilkiec: Mevrouw O'Knuckles! Sending smooches Holland-wards.

>192 scaifea: Amber, I suspect this book will give you a smile and a happy tear or two. I hope it does!

>193 maggie1944: *bwaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa* oh oh owwww

I can't even oh my goodness oh oh

>194 mckait: Thank you, sweetness. It was just exactly all that, and a tonic for a bruised-feeling spirit.

>195 streamsong: Well, don't be a stranger! I am pleased to see you here.

How very fun to be able to know a little something about the future of the characters, eh what? Don't tell me, I'll look forward to the book more if I don't know yet. She seems like someone a person could get right down to business with, chatting away.

>196 Whisper1: I'm very glad you liked it, Linda! Your flattering assessment of my abilities is a balm. *smooch*

>197 michigantrumpet: I often feel these comparisons are cynical manipulations on the publishers' parts. This time, I see the validity and appositeness of the comparisons.

Of course it doesn't hurt that those were popular books with big sales....

>198 rosalita: *smirk*

>199 jnwelch: I would never have predicted that I'd like it, either. I read Kath's review and was swayed; then your review moved me further; Karen's and Tina's reviews tilted me into the wheelbarrow. It's a fine piece of imagination. I was not all the way in luuuuv with it due to some first-novel issues (eg, the dog Hobo and the horse Becky simply vanish; the girls are glimpsed, the parenting glossed; that sort of thing). But I'll read the sequel!

>200 tututhefirst: I'm not surprised it's still on the shortlist, Tina, it's a wide-appeal novel with that something extra that we're always looking for. I love to be able to praise, sincerely and without nose-holding or finger-crossing, a mainstream women's-fiction novel.

For that subset of visitors who are Kindle owners and follow Deborah Crombie's Duncan-and-Gemma mystery series, The Sound of Broken Glass is only $1.99 today, 26 February.

Good morning Mr D, just to let you know that tomorrow is Hannah's baking day and the gorgeous girl is three tomorrow.

I have a copy of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope but was afraid it would be a bit too schmaltzy. Your review is reassuring.

So very behind dear! I never even made it to your last thread. I'm alive and kicking and drinking coffee!

xoxo to you and Stella from

Sprinkles McSmelly

This Steinbeck letter, released or publicized for his birthday today, is his take on falling in love. It is *marvelous* and a quick read.

AND!! AND!! For all ereader platforms, there is a $1.99 sale today on a book I loved immoderately when it was first released: Further Adventures by Jon Stephen Fink. It came before the (distinctly inferior, IMO) Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, telling much the same sort of story...well, with an admixture of Redshirts, the Scalzi novel.

As this was long Before LT, I've never reviewed or rated it, but will soon because I enjoyed it so much in 2000.

>205 johnsimpson: I expect there will be pictures, he commanded politely.

>206 katiekrug: Make no mistake, dearest, it's schmalzy as a Jewish deli. It's also got the "trick in the tail" that makes that very quality so much more than a manipulative authorial choice. It's a darn difficult live to find, still less walk, and Rhonda Riley does it. ::impressed::

>207 luvamystery65: Hiya Sprinkles!! Stella sends slurps! I'm happy to see you're out and about. Means you AND mom are mending. This is A Good Thing.

Oh Thanks for the hint about the Crombie book on Kindle. That is one of the series I'm determined to catch up with. Off to hit the buy button.

Sure thing, I know you like to see what is made.

Sprinkles O'Bourbon

>186 richardderus: Lovely. Thumbed. It's been on Mount TBR for awhile now but I'll bump it up.

So what's the date on your blog of the meme? I can't find it or search.

>208 richardderus: Great Steinbeck letter, Richard. Thanks for the link. I shared it with my MBH. I've never seen a dad call himself "Fa" before. I like it.

>209 tututhefirst: Good luck with catching up, what with the Maine Readers' thing. I'll be impressed if you stay even!

>210 johnsimpson: Thanks!

>211 Morphidae: It was enbedded, I think. I don't remember which one or when...maybe she snagged it from Booklikes...? I dunno.

>212 jnwelch: It's a very Irish sort of thing. My friend Betsy Shanahan called her dad "Fa" and the grandkids called him "Da."

Hi! I'm just flying by!

*ducks under low-flying Connie* Hi!! Happy Thursday!

Thought I'd drop in and drop a *smooch* before I head out to see the chiropractor and some (this time for sure) errands.

Hi Stephanie, happy to see you, though the errands could wait while you read a book....

Stumpy McKnob would be my choice of leprechaun name, as it is much better than the "real" (haha) one.

I love my Irish friend. Independently of the fact that she used to recite the rhyme she was taught at school to help her learn her correct pronunciation of "th". It does like this:

"Dis, dat, deeze in' doze: that is how the "T" "haitch" goes".

LOL- I can just hear her saying it now!!

Blarney McTurnips is chuffed to bits that you now have a copy of The Innocent Mrs. Duff!

I am always astounded at what terms seem ‘normal’ in a meeting and the ones that get the sideways glance – what makes “awesome sauce” inappropriate or unusual when people go around making statements like “out of pocket” or other such jargon assuming everyone knows what they are talking about? *sighs*

Great review of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope.

Happy Thursday, Richard!

^One for RD!

Great review of Adam Hope. I have this one high on my To-Read list. I think I have it on my iPad, which I'll bring out in the Spring, after the Great Thaw!

Glad to hear Plainsong is staying warm & snug!

Actually Richard, I think I'm taking a year off of the Maine Reader's Thing. I'm having great difficulties eye reading (ocular migraines), have wedding, big birthday blowout, a couple mini-vacations planned (including one to Armand Gamache land in late July) so when I finish the three I have left (and maybe a couple quick re-reads) for Maine Readers, I'm then going to settle back and wallow in chick-lit, mystery series, cozies, a couple good bios, some short stories - whatever floats my boat at the time. Many will be audios until I get the eye bit under control.

But I will still be lurking here to see if I have the strength to dodge your BBs at my age.

>218 LovingLit: HA!! That's priceless. "Th" is a challenge for a lot of different native speakers. The rolled Spanish "rr" is damn near to impossible for many English speakers. I myownself can't reproduce *any* clicks from X!hosa. Simply cannot do it.

>219 lkernagh: Thanks most awfully Ms. McTurnips, and an equal-share *shrug* at what people deem appropriate or inapproprate in business. As long as it's not personally insulting, what do you care?

>220 msf59: Thanks, Mark! Awww...doncha just wanna schmoozle his...wait...no, I suppose you don't. Poor, poor you.

Plainsong has been extracted from the dog's purview, shall we euphemize, and waits like Patience on a monument for me to attend to it.

>221 tututhefirst: Sounds like an excellent plan, Tina. Time to retire from retirement activities. Eyegraines are horrible indeed, I get them too.

*smooch*

#217 Richard,
If only. I would love it if I could read while I was getting chiropracted. A few years back, one intern left me alone for so long that I grabbed my book and put it on the floor so I could read it face down while I was waiting. He couldn't stop laughing. I just said, "Well, what do you expect me to do while I'm waiting for you to come back?"

Ha! That *is* a picture, Stephanie.

Oh Richard - what a glorious review of Adam Hope. You sold me and on to the WL it goes. Moi, I am doggedly continuing with The Goldfinch - not that it isn't excellent (it is) but I just find it so hard to finish a chunkster. Hell, I find it hard to even hold a chunkster (as the actress said to the bishop)

Richard, Flattery is insincere. My comments regarding your wonderful writing are indeed sincere.

>225 PrueGallagher: *smirk* at the bishop joke, AMEN to the chunkster pain, and thanks for the praise! I liked the book quite a lot, so I hope you will too.

The Goldfinch was a very satisfying read for me, in that I found Theo an easy character to invest in. I admit, though, that I *liked* Boris better than Theo, and frankly Pippa bored me rigid.

>226 Whisper1: Good point...I use "flatter" and"compliment" interchangeably, and they really aren't interchangeable at all. I *smooch* you for reminding me to be more careful!

226, 227 and thank you to you both for reminding me. I too use "flatter" entirely too carelessly.

Got to agree with you RD - Theo is entirely likeable and full-realised, but I prefer Boris too! Maybe we just love a Bad Boy? Smooches to you!

>220 msf59:: *tsk* I do love a man in a crisp, white shirt. And that hair just begs for fingers to be run through it, eh? Well done, Mark. Well done.

>220 msf59: I just like the view out the window!

I've put up my Faulkner February review of Mosquitoes over in my Homeless Reviews thread, post #250.

It's not the least impressive Faulkner I've read, but it ain't good.

>228 maggie1944: Pays to have the occasional rapped knuckle, eh what?

>229 PrueGallagher: Hmmm I suspect there's some justice to that, Prue. More than I'd like to admit.

>230 scaifea: *sigh* Yeah...mmmmmmm

>231 Morphidae: Heh. You're so *married*, Morphy.

Sprinkles O'Rainbow here! sounds like a knock off of the Lucky Charms cereal

*smooch*

nighty night.

>234 curlysue: Don't it though! *smooch* back

>235 mckait: Sleep thee well, and dream golden dreams.

Your threads run by so fast, kind of like a raging river.

Hi Lori! Glad you came to dip a toe in.

Did you see the new >238 richardderus: doo dad? It helps to point to posts to which you are posting a reply.

Friday. I can't wait until it gets to .......later. Happy Friday to you.

>239 mckait: Thanks for the Friday wishes, sweetness. I don't understand the doodad. Is it automatic?

OIC

Well, I'm very pleased to have it! Finally-at-last we can track back without a ton of scrolling and wondering if/where we missed a post.

>241 richardderus: Yeah, I like the new doodad, too. The first one I came across, I thought the LTer (Morphy) just knew a clever LT trick. But it looks like it's automatic. You're right - a lot easier to track back now. Much more useful than the posting flash folks have been talking about.

"There is no frigate like a book"

Yeah Frig it I say.

The gateway drug for me for Phillip K Dick was The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich which book predicted things like Sim City and other multi-user online universes as well as a heck of a lot of other interesting ideas.

But The Man in The High Castle is the touchstone. If you don't get that one you ain't a gonna get PKD

>186 richardderus:: Got your email review of this and it sounds too good to miss. Lovely review, by the way.

>242 jnwelch: The flash seems to be undergoing refinement. It flashes less and for a shorter time, then back to darker, etc etc. I really don't care, it's a silly thing IMO, but whatever. THIS feature, actual trackback, makes me happy.

Of course any number of folks won't use it, preferring not to refer to people as numbers or some such nonsense. But this even puts in the OP's name!!

>243 magicians_nephew: Your conclusion, she is faultless, M'sieu. That is the one.

>244 tiffin: Why thank you, Tui! It's one that I suspect you'd like a lot.

>186 richardderus: Thank you for the beautiful review, Richard. The book will be on my wishlist in a moment.

Thank you for the lovely compliment, Diana. I hope you'll enjoy the read!

>245 richardderus: I assume that you mean me, since I do not like to refer to people as number ( yech) but since it adds the name I will use it .. when I want to .

PffffffffffffffT

G'morning!

You are very much not alone in your incomprehensible aversion to the simple, polite convention of referring to the post one is responding to at the beginning of one's response. Many, many, many people use names...all very nice, but not very helpful when one person is being responded to multiple times, or there are a zillion people called that same thing...in preference to the easy way. Which is post numbers. Which can't be misunderstood. And are less often typed incorrectly than names are.

Hi Katie!

>251 richardderus: but how did you make the "doo dad"??? I too agree that referring back to the post is the most bestest way to go....especially for exceptionally chatty threads proliferated by some we know. Did you do that linky? How does it work? Does it only work for Richard?

Why oh why can't we get LT to make threads that post responses under the post being responded to ?(sorry about the prep at end of sentence....brain on drugs.)

ETA....aha....me gets it....LT is doing this and at least we're half-way there. Now if they'd just post right under (within?) the original post, we'd be in bidness IMHO.

Oh no. My leprechaun name is Tater McMuffin. Sounds like a particularly disgusting offering from a fast food emporium.

Goodness gracious, so much activity here! Thank you nkindly for the PKD recs. Daughter said to start with The Man in the High Castle too. She admires his work...and she, like you, is much more well-versed in the SF field than I.

I see the new doodad. I think I like it, maybe. Not sure yet.

While I see your points about human nature, etc., nevertheless, this is a sure sign of progress, I think. But I remain the Constant Optimist, however foolish that's become. Like the Monty Python song from "Life of Brian": Always look on the bright side.

>253 tututhefirst: See? So simple, no user effort, so there's simply no further excuse not to use the format.

Absent threading like you propose (which I myownself hate with a vibrating Day-Glo orange passion and shout imprecations about every time I see it since I can never know what the newest post is on a thread that operates that way...a huge reason I don't use Booklikes very much), a toggle feature would be nice.

Click on the new response dingus, go to the message responded to, and there's a little dingus that says "See response in post X". Only the FIRST response would get one of those notices. Others would track back, but not toggle forwards.

>254 Matke: Tater! Dearest! How lovely to see you.

I'm pleased that consensus emerges for starting one's PKD exploration with The Man in the High Castle. It is, I am confident in saying, an excellent book and a very good piece of writing and plotting.

I'd so much rather be an optimist. I've been kicked too many times to think it's worth the pain. I have three living family members and not one of them would do a single thing to assist me. It's a which-came-first kind of a thing, as it always is with families. But frankly the optimistic thing of "family trumps all" is a crock for more people than it's not, and the large majority would be unwise to test it or they'll get their teeth handed to them.

>253 tututhefirst: I'm just testing to see if I can make the new doodad work too......stand by.....

ETA oh hey, now that is clever and soooo user friendly! I give it two big thumbs up!

Happy, happy Friday to you RDear!

Back at'cha, Heidster!

>255 richardderus: Absent threading like you propose (which I myownself hate with a vibrating Day-Glo orange passion

me too, terrible, that... The doo dad is easy, and if you must comment using a number it at least adds a name. Better. Out to Lunch I think?

>259 mckait: Me? Yeah, sorta. I have to take Stella out in about a half hour. It's sunshiney and C.O.L.D. here, but the snow keeps melting so I'm less confident than I would otherwise be. Refreeze is a problem.

:P no me. With Dan.

Oh rapture, oh joy, the unadulterated bliss of it all.

I have to admit, I found The Man in High Castle the hardest to read and understand of the PKDs. Maybe I'd do better now, but it was a challenge. All the others seem simple in comparison.

I think it's the initiation into PKD's uniquely skewed storytelling that makes the book so very good as a first essay into the lists. Maybe the fact that you read it first...or did you?

I read it first of all his books, and was utterly bumfuzzled for a solid 30pp. Then I got into the rhythm of the thing, or got past the Need to Move Linearly in a narrative. Dunno. Something clicked, though.

>251 richardderus:. incomprehensible aversion to the simple, polite convention of referring to the post one is responding to at the beginning of one's response

Thank you, Richard. I've noticed more people using this numbered referencing convention lately. I'm so happy to see it. I have no patience for scrolling through 100's of posts to find the orphan post that someone has referenced. I am an impatient soul, and I simply will not scroll through threads to figure out someone's response.

>255 richardderus:. See? So simple, no user effort, so there's simply no further excuse not to use the format.

>256 richardderus:
I've also encountered many "family trumps all" well-wishers. One co-worker when told I no longer speak to my mother said, "But ... she's your MOM!" And I thought, "Oh like that makes everything okay."

>265 labwriter: I've never understood it, Becky. Any thread of more that 10 posts a day, and that's many many of us now, makes it a real chore to figure out what someone's responding to, and frankly I don't want to go to the trouble anymore now that this system is in place.

>266 AuntieClio: Yeah...I get the same shit when I say I haven't spoken to my father or either of my sisters in a decade or more. Why would I want to? My father knowingly sent me back for more sexual abuse; my eldest sister had a screaming fit when I couldn't pay her back $300 I owed her *while I was unemployed* and screeched at me, "you're just like your (not our) father! You have NO HONOR!"; the other one said, several years later as I was losing the house, "well you can't come here. My husband would divorce me and the kids don't like you."

Points of information: I paid the first sister back within two months of getting a job, later that same year; and I never asked or suggested to the other one that I would *want* to go to her. I wouldn't then and I wouldn't now. I'd prefer to freeze to death under an overpass.

Fuck a bunch of the Sacredness of Family. Most people, while not quite as harshly treated as I was, don't much like their relatives, if they're honest.

Bleurgh. Stella and I have allergy eyes today so I gave us each a Benadryl. She's snoring, and I will be very soon.

I got a book I ordered over a month ago at last. The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco. It's the story of how a hot director and a group of A-list stars made a complete and utter bowser of a movie out of a best-selling book, The Bonfire of the Vanities.

True, I didn't like the book at all. But even with that, I could, and still can, see how a pretty darn good movie could be made of it. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis gave ~meh~ perfomances, but even that shouldn't have made it as bad as it was. So I want to know how it happened, where all that expensive talent went wrong, and thereafter to rub my evil, ill-tempered, curmudgeonly hands together in Grinchly glee at how the Big Names effed up!

I didn't like that book either - and I had enjoyed others by Tom Wolfe. Never did see the movie. Looking forward to hearing what you make of the Eff Up book.

>255 richardderus: Trying to make the message thing work. Guess I succeeded! *smooch*

>269 jnwelch: I liked The Right Stuff just fine. It's still the only other one of his I've read. I think. That I remember, anyway. Come to think on it, I wasn't all that impressed by the film of that book either. But that was 30 years ago(!) and I've never seen it but the once.

>270 ronincats: Ain't they grand?!

I'm joining into the league of those who don't like their family members much. My father just left, and drank himself to death. Not much relationship there. My older brother tried to be nice, but also drank himself to death. Sad. My grandmother retreated to her room and said not much at all. My mother retreated to a beer, an easy chair, and the TV. No relationships there much either. Don't know quite how I got any advice from any one as I grew up. There were some family friends who were helpful. Books. Books were my family many times.

I am lucky now that my older brother's oldest daughter has turned out to be a delightful woman and I do love having her and her kids in my life. Some joy there. The younger daughter has immersed herself deeply in church activities. No help there. She finds family affairs to be distracting from her "real" life trying to find a good man to marry. She sits back and waits for god to give her one. Not likely to happen as she does not much like men, having had a drunk for a father. Sad X2.

>272 maggie1944:
Sad X2 :-(

Coming by to get caught up. . *waves* :)

Richard, that's the nicest thing anyone has said about my photography. *smooch*

Happy weekend smooch!

Rdear,

I love yellow roses!

Morning RD! Hope you have a nice weekend planned, filled with plenty of R & R!

Untoasted Wonder Bread with Velveeta, tuna salad, and cream gravy sound good to you? Here's you a book.

I am laughing at your review of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. I also like the way you explain why you continued to read the book and why you give it 3 stars--which are questions I ask myself about a good number of the books I finish. I'm not really so much into the "50 pages" rule thing that seems popular with a lot of people here, probably because I'm just not that into rules.

It seems to be a convention on your thread to wish you a good weekend, Richard--so have a good weekend!

>267 richardderus:, >272 maggie1944:. My mother is a toxic narcissist. At age 89, she is still on this earth, but she's outworn her welcome with all four of her children. People who grow up with Donna Reed-like mothers simply do not understand, and I no longer try to explain.

>280 labwriter: I understand. I consider my mother to have been narcissistic, too; however, I feel some sympathy for her because she spent the majority of her life never getting over the FACT that the world did not turn out to be the way she thought it was supposed to be. Her life was spent feeling sorry for her self. Now that is sad.

My challenge is to not let her example shine forth in my choices.

Well. Okay. It's heading into the lower 40s Fahrenheit, it's sunshiney, and there's no wind to speak of. And yet my eyes are streaming and my nose is a wee bit schnerkly.

Benadryl. Then sleep. Then wake up. Repeat.

my nose is a wee bit schnerkly. Thank you mdear....you have given me exactly the phrase I've been groping for all week. I 'spect it has a lot to do with all the blasted sunshine bouncing off the snowpack....makes the eyes water and it's trickle down nasal economics from there. Enjoy yur nap.

ETA --damn thread post linkie thingie seems not to be working. Wonder if it's the settings here on the liberry's computer?

Stumpy O'Blaze here, (Are you kidding me? I have the worst luck with these things, some leprechaun!)

Wow I LOVE your opener. As someone on a seriously extended sf/fantasy jag I am so multi-dementia-ionally there with you!!!!

The bacon taco is...... scarier than any giant spider on a frozen planet. So there.

Review: 4 of seventy-five

Title: IF KENNEDY LIVED

Author: JEFF GREENFIELD

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: November 22, 1963: JFK does not die. What would happen to his life, his presidency, his country, his world?

Based on memoirs, histories, oral histories, fresh reporting, and his own knowledge of the players, this book looks at the tiny hinges of history—and the extraordinary changes that would have resulted if they had gone another way.

Now he presents his most compelling narrative of all about the historical event that has riveted us for fifty years. What if Kennedy were not killed that fateful day? What would the 1964 campaign have looked like? Would changes have been made to the ticket? How would Kennedy, in his second term, have approached Vietnam, civil rights, the Cold War? With Hoover as an enemy, would his indiscreet private life finally have become public? Would his health issues have become so severe as to literally cripple his presidency? And what small turns of fate in the days and years before Dallas might have kept him from ever reaching the White House in the first place?

As with Then Everything Changed, the answers Greenfield provides and the scenarios he develops are startlingly realistic, rich in detail, shocking in their projections, but always deeply, remarkably plausible. It is a tour de force of American political history.

My Review: See all those questions in the publisher's copy above? Those are the very ones that Jeff Greenfield, a pundit and powerful columnist, addresses with a great deal of panache and a large helping of nerve. Greenfield was often seen on Nightline during its glory years as THE political chat show.

Greenfield graduated with a JD from Yale before going to work for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy after the president was assassinated. That in mind, imagine my surprise when RFK comes across as a really vicious, very nasty character in this telling of his brother's presidency. Apparently he was no saint. But then again, neither was Jack, as we all now know.

What makes me most happy about this book is its major weakness: If you're not conversant with the politics and personalities of that day, this book will read like a fairly dry novel. Without knowing the name McGeorge Bundy, for example, there's not much point in picking up the book. Better yet, if the name carries with it an image of hornrims and a honking accent, the book will light a little Eternal Flame for Camelot.

And for my own part, I'd LOVE to have seen what Vaughn Meader would've done with a second term! (Yes, I know that went whoooshing over a lot of non-gray heads. So will the rest of the book.)

So why give the serviceable, journalistic prose four stars? Because the prose isn't the point. The tale, the imagining of JFK fighting and winning a very different 1964 election battle and doing so much damage to his own interests...that is what people with memories of that horrible, horrible moment in time when our president was murdered before our horrified eyes would pay the $12.99 for a Kindle copy, or $26.95 for a hardcover version of the book to experience.


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

This book was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers win from August 2013.

*snorp*smack*smack*

Welp...here I am, slightly above unconscious. Dinner tonight is on me, apparently, and I'm ordering in pizza...a white one for me, the usual pepperoni for them.

The mail carrier brought me goodies!

Snow in May, my February ER win
More Than You Know, the Gutcheon that is All {Somebody}'s Fault
Fugue XXIX by my online pal Forrest Aguirre

As if I need more books. I do, however, crave more books.

The first thing that I saw as I popped in was Snow in May. Terrifying thought.

I actually remember that happening..

>285 richardderus: How ironic (for me anyway), I just finished reading Stephen King's 11/22/63 novel which is his science fiction take on exactly that. Trippy read. I'll have to check out this one.

>287 mckait: Perish forbid! Sounds like...oh wait...the Maunder Minimum! Maybe this is the year it'll happen.

Here! Here, not there. HERE.

>288 mahsdad: 11.22.63 is a very different sort of a book altogether, truly, in purpose and in execution. If Kennedy Lived is a lot more of a non-fictional type of book, very little that could be called "rhetorical flourish" even, still less fictional verbiage.

Hi Richard - just stopping in to say hello. I was on vacation last week and finally have a chance today to catch up on threads.

>285 richardderus: Enjoyed your review of the Greenfield book. These type of alternative history musings are just my cup of tea if done well.

Other reason to delurk dear fellow is to inforn that this is post 3,001 on your threads this year. At 5 March 2013 you had amassed 2,348 posts so you are well up on last year.

*ahem* *cough*

>285 richardderus: You had me immediately with the idea of a book that would appeal mostly to those who were alive in those terrible times. It sounds like something I'd love. On to the wishlist it goes.

Pizza for dinner sounds about right. If this were a movie/old tv series day, I'd opt for popcorn. Since it's a read/LT day, not sure what dinner will be.

One day closer to Monday, Sir.

eta: Yes! I managed to use the thingy!
*preens*

>290 SuziQoregon: Hi Juli! Glad to see you.

>291 PaulCranswick: three thousand one?! YOW! It's been a busy year. I think you'd like the Greenfield a lot, Paul, because it's so rooted in his personal experiences and his facts are impeccable.

>292 AuntieClio: Hi there! New around these parts, are you?

*smooch*

>293 Matke: The thingy is a goddess-send! It makes sure we don't forget anyone!

RIGHT, STEPHANIE?

Points up thread to the overnight delivery.

>270 ronincats: Hi Joe!

>272 maggie1944:
>273 AuntieClio: Sad would, to me, be trying to fix or even to hold out hope for those relationships. Sad has hope. Poignant is the release-oriented cousin I feel about such stories.

>274 leperdbunny: Hi Tamara!

>275 AuntieClio: That's a nice flower. What is it?

>276 wilkiec: Hi Diana! *smooch*

>277 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara!

>278 maggie1944: Oh...never mind, Stephanie. That's a rose? Looks like a camellia to me.

>296 richardderus:,
I don't know what kind of flower it is, just something I found while out and about with my camera.

>279 msf59: Hiya Mark! Hope your Saturday was less irksome that the others have been here of late.

>280 labwriter: Thank you, Becky! You have a good weekend too.
>281 maggie1944: My father is a narcissist; mother had borderline personality disorder or I'm a monkey's uncle.

>283 tututhefirst: Hi Tina! Sometimes browser issues crop up, especially on public computers. Hope your schnerkling is over now.

>284 sibylline: Oh dear, cuz, that's a rotten one. You do seem to have bad luck with these silly memes.

Thread 11 is up!

>297 AuntieClio: Since neither of us is a gardener or a botanist, we'll trust Karen44, shall we?

>299 richardderus:
Things which want their picture taken don't often introduce themselves to me.

>300 AuntieClio: Hmmm...isn't that sort of an introduction, letting you know it wants its picture taken? Ah well, it's a lovely thing, and it looks good ornamenting a thread.

>301 richardderus:
Well, yes. Usually it's "Hello, I'd like you to take my picture." Rarely is there "Hi, my name is yellow camellia and I'd like you to take my picture please."