Smiler Marks Her Reading Spot - Part 3

We're all starved for Spring and Colour, so here is a reading spot I wouldn't mind spending time in.
Henry Matisse, Seville Still Life, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg c.1910-1911

Table of Contents:
• Books completed
• Reading Plans
• Picked for Me!
• American Authors Challenge
• World War I Centenary Reading
• Additional Books I'd like to read in 2014
• A Century of Books! 1900-1924
• A Century of Books! 1925-1949
• A Century of Books! 1950-1974
• A Century of Books! 1975-1999
• Ongoing Series
• Booker Prize Books
• Reading Bingo
• Books Purchased
• Girl with Pom-Pom Hat: a drawing

Currently reading, listening to,
and occasionally browsing through:
✔ The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White
✔ The Blue Fairy Book (Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, 1) by Andrew Lang
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (tutored read)
ⓔ The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller
✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 41: Cellmates by Gail Pirkis
✔ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

          

Favourites of 2014: (★★★★½ and up)
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - (reread) tutored read
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (review)
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
Lady Susan by Jane Austen (review)
Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen (review)
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reread) (review)

My 31 Most Memorable Reads of 13

My rating system:
★ - hated it (may or may not have finished it)
★★ - it was just ok
★★★ - enjoyed it (good)
★★★★ - loved it! (very good)
★★★★½ - loved it—must read again! (excellent)
★★★★★ - all-time favourite (blew me away—will read again, and again... and again!)

⅛ ¼ ⅓ ½ ¾ ⅞

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
☀ = TIOLIr

Books completed in March
34. ❉ Goliath by Tom Gauld ★★★★
35. ♫ The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman ★★★★ (review)
36. ♫ Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler ★★★★
37. ♫ Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty ★★★ (review)
38. ♫ The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler ★★★¼
39. ♫ The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov ★★★½
40. ⓔ Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat ★★★★ (review)
41. ♫ All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ★★★★⅞ (review)
42. Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★
43. ✔ The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott ★★★
44. ✔ Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ★★ (review)
45. ✔ Slightly Foxed: 18: The Sensation of Crossing the Street by Gail Pirkis ★★★★ (review)
46. ♫ The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas ★★★★
47. ✔ Native Son by Richard Wright ★★★★
48. ♫ How It All Began by Penelope Lively ★★★



Books completed in February
17. ♫ Longbourn by Jo Baker ★★★★⅓
18. ✔ Nana by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓ (review)
19. ♫ Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch ★★★½
20. ✔ Slightly Foxed: 40: Mellow Fruitfulness by Gail Pirkis ★★★★
21. ♫ The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★ (review)
22. ⓔ 420 Characters by Lou Beach ★★★¾ (review)
23. ♫ An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine ★★½ (review)
24. ♫ Lady Audley's Secret Mary Elizabeth Braddon ★★★★ (review)
25. ♫ Tenth of December by George Saunders ★★★¼
26. ✔ Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ★★★★½ (review)
27. ✔ The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton ★★★★½
28. ♫ Lady Susan by Jane Austen ★★★★½ (review)
29. ⓔ Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen ★★★★½ (review)
30. ♫ Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope ★★★★⅓
31. ♫ Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch ★★★¼
32. ✔ The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West ★★★★⅓ (reread)
33. ♫ The Light of Day by Eric Ambler ★★★★

Unfinished
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Books completed in January
1. ♫ The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell ★★½
2. ♫ Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert ★★★½
3. ✔&♫ Bleak House by Charles Dickens ★★★★
4. ❉ Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett ★★★★
5. ♫ The Weed the Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley ★★★¾
6. ♫ The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★ (review)
7. ✔ Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons ★★★½
8. ♫ Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ★★★★½
9. ♫ 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz ★★★★
10. ❉ You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld ★★★★
11. ♫ Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris ★★★★
12. ⓔ O Pioneers! by Willa Cather ★★★½ (review)
13. ♫ The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard ★★★★⅓ (review)
14. ♫ Hygiène de l'assassin by Amélie Nothomb ★ (review)
15. ✔ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - tutored read with Liz/lyzard ★★★★½
16. ✔ Coriolanus by William Shakespeare ★★★★

Unfinished
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (will try again)
Hygiène de l'assassin by Amélie Nothomb

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
☀ = TIOLI

Reading Plans for March:
☀✔ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - tutored read with Liz, TIOLI#10: a book you consider a classic - currently reading
☀✔The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott - GR, TIOLI #8: a book about an injustice (racism) - Completed
☀✔ Native Son by Richard Wright - shard read with Ellen, TIOLI #8: a book about an injustice (racism) - Completed
☀✔♫ All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy - AAC, TIOLI #3: a word in the title that starts with a vowel (reread). - Completed
✔ The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy - AAC
☀♫ The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas - GR, TIOLI #10 - Completed
*☀✔ A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck - Picked by avatiakh, TIOLI #6: a book about photography
**☀The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller - Extra pick by Kerry, TIOLI #1: red-lettered title - currently reading
☀ Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin - gift from Charlotte - TIOLI #4: predominantly green cover - Completed
☀✔ Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - TIOLI #3: word in the title that starts with a vowel - Completed
☀**♫The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman - extra pick by/with Paul, TIOLI #5: by or about someone who served in World War I - Completed

TIOLI Options:
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell - shared read with Bonnie - #1
*Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz - picked by Polaris - #2
♫ How It All Began by Penelope Lively - #9: initial letter spells out DAYLIGHT - Completed
♫ Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty - #9 - Completed
♫ The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - #18: Read anything Korean
♫ The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov - #15: something in the title that you might give up for Lent - Completed
♫ The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally - #5
♫ Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman - #15
♫ Fraud by Anita Brookner - #15
♫ An Imaginative Experience by Mary Wesley - #3
♫ The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich - #15
♫ A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley - #15

Spur of the Moment:
♫ Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler - TIOLI #2: word in title suggesting the end of something - Completed
♫ The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler - - TIOLI #2 - Completed
✔ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood - TIOLI #20: a book about orphans - currently reading

***

Reading Plans for April:
Toni Morrison - Sula or Home (AAC)
Oryx and Crake, Cat's Eye or Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood - Atwood April
✔ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - tutored read with Liz



* = Also from Picked for Me challenge
** = Also from Picked for Me challenge extra picks

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
☀ = TIOLI

This is my third year running this challenge, for which I asked my fellow LTers (and this year a couple of family members and RL friends) to pick books from my vast tbr. The first year was interesting as I asked people to select books by a 'blind' method, meaning they chose at random based on a complex algorithm I'd come up with (no, not really). For the past couple of years, I decided it would be more interesting and probably more satisfactory to ask people to choose whatever they liked and say a few words about why they'd made those particular selections.

1. ♫ Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan - picked by Fourpawz2
2. ♫ The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng - picked by Donna828 - Completed January/14
3. Sketches From a Hunter's Album by Ivan Turgeniev - picked by sibyx
4. ♫ The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman - extra from Paul - Completed March/14
5. Love-Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister by Aphra Behn - picked by lyzard
6. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - picked by phebj - Completed March/14
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - picked by Crazymamie - Completed January/14
8. Coventry by Helen Humphreys - extra from Claudia
9. A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck - picked by avatiakh
10. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper - picked by souloftherose
11. A Café on the Nile by Bartle Bull - picked by Deern
12. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - picked by luvamystery65 - Completed January/14
13. Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz - picked by Polaris-
14. ♫ Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed - picked my msf59
15. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - picked by bohemima
16. Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky - picked by SandDune
17. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - picked by calm
18. A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel - picked by kidzdoc
19. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - picked by EBT1002
20. Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden - picked by Chatterbox
21. Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally - picked by DejaVoo
22. Extra spot reserved for my RL friend Kristyna
23. Extra spot reserved for my mum
24. Final extra spot for another special guest.

Extra picks
Some people couldn't pick just one book. This secondary list of extras is one I'll very gladly refer to in guiding my reading choices in 2014. I may end up switching items from one list to the other, the point being I'll read at least one book for each person who's done the picking.

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (reread)
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger - both extras from Lucy
Watership Down by Richard Adams (reread) - extra from Paul
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - extra from Paul
♫ Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
♫ The Land Of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll - both extras from Liz
The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller (reread) - extra pick Kerry
♫ The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - extra pick Kerry - Completed February/14
♫ The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett - extra pick by Roberta - Read in November/13
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton - extra pick by Roberta - Completed February/14
♫ Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - both extras from Paul Harris
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim - extra from Rhian
Sula by Toni Morrison
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - Completed December/13 - all 9 extras from Ellen
♫ Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian - Read January/14 (unfinished)
♫ Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert - Completed January/14
Dissolution by CJ Sansom - three extras from Suz - Can't find it!

American Authors Challenge

This is Mark's baby (msf59). Each month will be devoted to a specific author, but as I want to read from my tbr, I've substituted some of the *official* selections with other equally deserving auteurs américains. Here's the list for now:

January: Willa Cather - O Pioneers! - Completed
February: William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner - Gave it up, wasn't in the mood
March: Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses (reread) - Completed
April: Toni Morrison - Sula or Home
May: (Eudora Welty) Louise Erdrich - The Master Butcher's Singing Club
June: (Kurt Vonnegut) Paul Auster - Moon Palace
July: Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn (reread) or The Autobiography of Mark Twain
August: Philip Roth- American Pastoral
September: James Baldwin - Going to Meet the Man
October: Edith Wharton - The Custom of the Country
November: (John Updike) Sinclair Lewis - Elmer Gantry (could be another title)
December: (Larry Watson) Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God

World War I Centenary Reading: Fiction and Non-Fiction about the war and it's aftermath

Possibilities from my tbr:

✔ Anthem For Doomed Youth: Poets Of The Great War
✔ Birds Without Wings Louis De Bernieres
✔ A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
✔ The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian
✔ Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
✔ Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
✔ The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (reread) - Completed February/14
✔ Regeneration by Pat Barker (reread)
ⓔ 1913: The Year Before the Storm by Florian Illies
ⓔ The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
♫ The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman
♫ The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman - Completed March/14
♫ Journey Into the Past by Stefan Zweig
♫ Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson
♫ 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz (rec'd by kidzdoc) - Completed January/14
♫ The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (rec'd by Chatterbox)
♫ The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan (rec'd by Chatterbox and brenzi)

Other options:

The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart (rec'd by calm, Chatterbox)
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek
The Radetzky March By Joseph Roth
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
An Ice Cream War by William Boyd
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd (Rec'd by Chatterbox)
A Test of Wills by Charles Todd

(Just a few of the)
Additional Books I'd like to read in 2014
(most already set aside on the bedside table)

In no particular order:

✔ Caravan of Dreams by Idries Shah (blindly picked by PiyushChourasia in 2012)
✔ Arabian Nights: Four Tales from a Thousand and One Nights by Marc Chagall (blindly picked by picked by Donna828 in 2012)
✔ The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende - (blindly picked by picked by LauraBrook in 2012)
✔ Nana by Emile Zola - Read in February
✔ Pot-Bouille by Émile Zola
❉ Au Bonheur des Dames by Émile Zola (to continue with the Rougon-Macquart series)
✔ The Strangers in the House by Georges Simenon (on my shelf for over 10 years)
✔ Angels & Insects by A. S. Byatt (loved the movie, want to read my Byatt)
✔ Possession by A. S. Byatt
✔ Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafizi (want to read more about Afghanistan)
✔ Seven Gothic Tales by Izak Dinesen (wanted to read seemingly forever)
✔ Small Island by Andrea Levy (recommended a million times)
✔ Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (waited to read Great Expectations, on my reading list for a couple of years)
✔ Kaspar by Michael Morpurgo
✔ The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo (love Morpurgo for not so light children's books)
✔ All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reread) - Read in March
✔ The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
✔ Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy (finally want to finish the trilogy)
✔ A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes (on the shelf since forever)
♫ The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (reread on audio this time to see if I like it better)
✔ Amsterdam Stories by Nescio (started in 2012 and unfinished)
✔ The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor (want to read more Taylor)
✔ Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark (want to read more of one of my favourites)
✔ Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (reread in the original French this time)
✔ Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins (wanted to read forever)
✔ The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace (much recommended)
✔ Moon Palace by Paul Auster (on last year's list)
✔ Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (on the shelf for ages, might get the audio which is supposedly very good)
✔ Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood (blindly picked by picked by MickyFine in 2012)
✔ Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (wanted to read forever)
✔ Howard's End is on the Landing by Susan Hill (much recommended)
✔ Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (to continue the much recommended series)
✔ The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (to start reading Rubens, much recommended by Kerry/avatiakh)
✔ The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
✔ Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (on last year's list)
✔ Jamrach's Menagerie Carol Birch (on last year's list)
✔ The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (wanted to read forever)
✔ The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble (wanted to read forever)
✔ Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (wanted to read forever)
♫ Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (haven't read him in a while)
✔&♫ 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (maybe this year, maybe not)
✔ The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith (want to pick up where I left off years ago)
✔&♫ 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (meant to join the group read last year, didn't.)
✔ The Master by Colm Toibín (wanted to read forever)
✔ Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (been meaning to read more of his work for years)
✔ Felicia's Journey by William Trevor (an author I want to discover)
✔ Zarafa by Michael Allin (stories about animals a must)
✔ The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood (on my tbr for ages)
✔ The Colour by Rose Tremain
♫ Restoration by Rose Tremain
❉ Ru by Kim Thúy (have seen her around lots and highly rec'd by Lori/lkernagh
❉ Alys, Always by Harriet Lane (strongly Rec'd by Prue last year)
❉ Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (left over from 2012 Steinbeckathon)

Also: Group Read of The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott – March, May, July, September

A Century of Books! 1900-1924

I decided to steal this challenge from Heather/souloftherose. She's been doing so beautifully. The following, copied almost verbatim from her thread: I'm going to try and read a book published in every year of the 20th century. This is just for fun, but as I know I won't manage it in one year, I'll extend it for as long as it takes me. Books listed are suggestions only and may be switched for something else. Books I've read are bolded.

1900 Claudine at School by Colette The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
1901 The Benefactress by Elizabeth von Arnim , The Wouldbegoods by E. Nesbit, Claudine in Paris by Colette
1902 Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Claudine Married by Colette
1903 Claudine and Annie by Colette, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
1904 The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit, The New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit, The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen by Elizabeth von Arnim, The Love of Erika Ewald by Stefan Zweig
1905The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
1906 The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit, The Man of Property by John Galsworthy
1907 Retreat From Love by Colette, Cautionary Tales and other verses by Hilaire Belloc, Fräulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim
1908 The Wind in The Willows by Kenneth Grahame (reread), A Room With a View by E. M. Forster
1909 The Innocent Libertine by Colette, Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
1910 The Vagabond by Colette
1911 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (reread), Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
1912 Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (reread)
1913 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather ★★★½
1914 The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim
1915 Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (reread)
1917 Christine by Elizabeth von Arnim
1918 The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (reread) ★★★★⅓
1919 Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim
1920 This Side Of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1921 Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
1922 Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence, Amok by Stefan Zweig, Joanna Godden by Sheila Kaye-Smith
1923 Whose Body? Dorothy L. Sayers (reread)
1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, The Old Maid by Edith Wharton

A Century of Books! 1925-1949

1925 An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread), The Trial by Franz Kafka, The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
1926 (can't find anything on my tbr yet...)
1927 Amerika by Franz Kafka, Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
1928 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Orlando by Virginia Woolf
1929 A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
1930 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (reread)
1931 The Brontës Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson, All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West (reread)
1932 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons ★★★½ (will reread and like it better!)
1933 Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
1934 Miss Buncle's Book bu D. E. Stevenson, Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen, I, Claudius (reread) and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
1935 Full House by M. J. Farrell (Molly Keane)
1936 The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler
1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
1938 Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler - currently reading
1939 Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ★★★★½
1940 Native Son by Richard Wright
1941 The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller (reread), The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier
1942 Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, L'Étranger by Albert Camus, West with the Night by Beryl Markham
1943 (can't find anything on my tbr yet...)
1944 Dragonwyck by Anya Seton ★★★★½
1945 The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (reread), Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, At Mrs Lippincote's by Elizabeth Taylor
1946 Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor
1947 Speak Memory by Vladimir Nabokov, The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino
1948 The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
1949 The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

A Century of Books! 1950-1974

1950 Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert ★★★½
1951 Tempest-Tost by Robertson Davies, My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
1952 Treasure Hunt by M. J. Farrell (Molly Keane)
1953 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark
1954 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, Leaven of Malice by Robertson Davies, The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
1955 On the Road by Jack Kerouac, The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis
1956 The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
1957 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
1958 The Bell by Iris Murdoch, The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
1959 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
1960 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (reread), A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell, All Shot Up by Chester Himes
1961 The Chateau by William Mawell, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, No Fond Return Of Love by Barbara Pym, Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
1962 The Light of Day by Eric Ambler ★★★★ & The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
1963 The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes
1964 Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken, A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood, The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
1965 Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin, The Looking Glass War by John Le Carré
1966 The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
1967 The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
1968 Pavane by Keith Roberts
1969 Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
1970 The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford, Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (reread), Deliverance by James Dickey
1971 The Winds of War by Herman Wouk, The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
1972 Watership Down by Richard Adams (reread)
1973 The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene, Sula by Toni Morrison, The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell
1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carré

A Century of Books! 1975-1999

1975 World of Wonders by Robertson Davies, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
1976 Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood, Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
1977 Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood, The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carré
1978 Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
1979 Sophie's Choice by William Styron
1980 Music of Chance by Paul Auster, The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (partial reread)
1982 The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
1983 Time After Time by Molly Keane
1984 English Creek by Ivan Doig, Neuromancer by William Gibson
1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme, Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennis, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, The Cider House Rules by John Irving, The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire by Anne Rice
1986 Count Zero by William Gibson, A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
1987 The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George, The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
1988 A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark (reread), Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
1989 A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters by Julian Barnes
1990 The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard ★★★★⅓
1991 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
1993 Trainspotting by Irvine Welch, Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo, Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer
1994 Felicias's Journey by William Trevor, The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
1995 Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson ★★★★½
1996 Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane, The Green Mile by Stephen King
1997 Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
1998 Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy, Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge, Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro, Amsterdam by Ian Mcewan
1999 Timbuktu by Paul Auster, Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Interpreter of Maladies by Juhmpa Lahiri

Ongoing Series
An idea Heather (souloftherose) borrowed from Liz (lyzard), which caught on like wildfire. Ongoing series that I am actively reading; this doesn't include series I have in my TBR but haven't started reading yet (that is covered in the next list!)

African Trilogy - Next up: No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (2/3)
❉ Alan Grant Mysteries - Next up: The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (1/6 - read out of order)
♫ American Gods - Next up: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (2/2)
✔ Anton Rider - Next up: A Café on the Nile by Bartle Bull (2/3)
The Australian Trilogy - Next up: Tommo and Hawk by Bryce Courtenay (2/3)
♫ Bartimaeus - Next up: Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud (3/4)
❉ Binky Adventure - Next up: Binky Under Pressure by Ashley Spires (3/3)
✔ Border Trilogy - Next up: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (2/3)
❉ Cannery Row - Next up: Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (2/2)
♫ The Cemetery of Forgotten Books - Next up: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2/3)
❉ Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Next up: A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (2/8)
The Chronicles of Barsetshire - Next up: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (2/6)
♫ Claudius - Next up: Claudius the God by Robert Graves (2/2)
♫ La Comédie Humaine - Next up: Le curé de Tours by Honoré de Balzac (31/88 - read out of order)
✔ Commissario Brunetti - Next up: Acqua Alta by Donna Leon (5/21 - read out of order)
✔ Commissario Montalbano - Next up: Excursion to Tindari by Andrea Camilleri (5/18)
♫ Corfu Trilogy: The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell (3/3)
✔ The Dark is Rising Sequence - Next up: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (2/5)
♫ Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Next up: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (2/3)
❉ De Luca Trilogy - Next up: The Damned Season by Carlo Lucarelli (2/3)
✔ The Deptford Trilogy - Next up: World of Wonders by Robertson Davies (3/3)
♫ The Dresden Files: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (3/15)
❉ Dr. Siri Paiboun - Next up: Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (5/8)
♫ Easy Rawlins Mystery - Next up: White Butterfly by Walter Mosley (3/10)
ⓔ Elizabeth and her German Garden - Next up: The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim (2/2)
✔ Empire Trilogy - Next up: The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (2/3)
♫ Ender’s Game - Next up: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (2/4)
❉♫ Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström - Next up: The Preacher by Camilla Läckberg (2/8)
♫ Flavia de Luce Mysteries - Next up: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (3/6)
♫ Green Town - Next up: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (2/2)
❉ The Harlem Cycle - Next up: All Shot Up by Chester Himes (4/8)
❉ Hercule Poirot - Next up: Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie (8/39 - read out of order)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Dramatization - Next up: Tertiary Phase (BBC Radio Collection) by Douglas Adams (3/5)
♫ The House of Earth Trilogy - Next up: Sons by Pearl S. Buck (2/3)
The Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh - Next up: Awaiting publication (3/3)
♫ Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries - Next up: The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9)
♫ Jack Reacher - Next up: The Enemy by Lee Child (8/17)
✔ Jackson Brodie - Next up: When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (3/4)
♫ John Russell - Next up: Lehrter Station by David Downing (5/5)
Joseph O'Loughlin - Next up: Shatter by Michael Robotham (3/5)
♫ Kenzie and Gennaro - Next up: Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (2/5 - read out of order)
♫ Kurt Wallander - Next up: The White Lioness by Henning Mankell (3/10)
The Last Lion - Next up: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester (2/3)
Leviathan - Next up: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (2/3)
The Lord of the Rings - Next up: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (3/4)
✔ Lord Peter Wimsey - Next up: Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/15)
Maisie Dobbs - Next up: Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear (4/10)
♫ Mapp and Lucia - Next up: Lucia in London by E. F. Benson (3/8)
♫ Miss Marple - Next up: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (2/12)
✔ The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Next up: The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith (4/13)
♫ The Obelisk Trilogy - Next up: Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller (2/3)
Oxford Time Travel series - Next up: Blackout by Connie Willis (¾)
The Palisser Novels - Next up: Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope (2/6)
Parker - Next up: The Mourner by Richard Stark (4/24)
✔ Philip Marlowe - Next up: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1/9 - read out of order)
♫ Phryne Fisher Mysteries - Next up: Death at Victoria Dock by Kerry Greenwood (4/20)
The Power Of One - Next up: Tandia by Bryce Courtenay (2/2)
The Prairie Trilogy - Next up: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (⅔)
The Raven CycleNext up: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (2/4)
Rivers of London - Next up: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch 3/5)
♫ Roderick Alleyn - Next up: Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh (8/32 - read out of order)
✔ Les Rougon-Macquart - Next up: Pot-Bouille by Émile Zola (10/20)
✔ Sally Lockhart Mysteries - Next up: The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman (2/4)
✔ A Song of Ice and Fire - Next up: A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (5/7)
❉ The Spiderwick Chronicles - Next up: Lucinda's Secret by Holly Black (3/8)
♫ Tales of the City - Next up: Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (3/6)
♫ Tales of the Otori - Next up: Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn (3/4+prequel)
❉ Three Men in a Boat - Next up: Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (2/2)
♫ Timothy Wilde - Next up: Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye(2/2)
✔ Tom Ripley - Next up: The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (4/5)
❉ Victor Legris - Next up: La disparue du Père-Lachaise by Claude Izner (2/11)
♫ Wind on Fire Trilogy - Next up: Slaves of the Mastery by William Nicholson (2/3)
Wolf Hall Trilogy - Next up: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (awaiting publication) (3/3)
✔ Wolves Chronicles - Next up: Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (2/11)
❉ Wyoming Stories: Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx (2/3)



First in Series on my TBR
✔ The American Trilogy: American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1/3)
✔ Aristide Ravel Mysteries : The Cavalier of the Apocalypse by Susanne Alleyn (1/4)
✔ The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson (1/2)
♫ Aubrey-Maturin: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (1/21!) Read in January (Unfinished)
♫ Avalon: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1/7)
✔ The Book of Lies - Twins Trilogy: The Notebook by Ágota Kristóf (1/3)
✔ The Borrible Trilogy: The Borribles by Michael De Larrabeiti (1/3)
✔ Calder Art Mysteries: Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett (1/3)
✔ Carl Webster: The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard (1/3)
♫ Chief Inspector Adamsberg: The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (1/9)
✔ The Complete Novels and Stories: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I by Arthur Conan Doyle (1/2)
♫ The Cousins' War: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory (1/5)
♫ A Dance to the Music of Time: A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement, Spring by Anthony Powell (1/4)
✔ Danzig Trilogy: The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (1/3)
♫ Divergent: Divergent by Veronica Roth (1/3)
♫ Dublin Murder Squad: In the Woods by Tana French (1/4)
♫ The Earthsea Cycle: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (1/6)
✔ Empress Orchid: Empress Orchid by Anchee Min (1/2)
♫ Hank Thompson: Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston (1/3)
✔ Haroun: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie (1/2)
Harry Potter: Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling (reread) (1/7)
✔ Henrietta's War: Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys (1/2)
✔ The Hummingbird's Daughter: The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea (1/2)
♫ In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (1/8)
✔ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood (¼)
♫ James Bond: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1/14)
♫ Joona Linna: The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler (1/3)
ⓔ The Kingkiller Chronicle : The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (1/3)
✔ Latin American Trilogy: The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernières (1/3)
♫ Legend the Series: Legend by Marie Lu (1/2)
♫ Leonid McGill: The Long Fall by Walter Mosley (1/4)
✔❉♫ The Magicians: The Magicians by Lev Grossman (1/2)
♫ McCaskill Trilogy: English Creek by Ivan Doig (1/3)
✔ Matthew Shardlake: Dissolution by C. J. Sansom (1/5)
✔ Micah Dalton: The Echelon Vendetta by David Stone (1/4)
♫ Michael Forsythe: Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty (1/3)
✔ Mistress of the Art of Death: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (1/4)
♫ Outlander: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1/8)
✔ The Psammead Trilogy: Five Children and It by E. Nesbit (1/3)
✔ Quirke: Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (1/5)
✔ The Raj Quartet: The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott (1/4)
♫ Revelation Space: Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (1/7)
♫ Robert Merivel: Restoration by Rose Tremain (1/2)
♫ Shanghai Girls: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (1/2)
♫ Sprawl: Neuromancer by William Gibson (1/3)
♫ Sword of Honour: Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh (1/3)
♫ The Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (reread) (1/10)
❉♫ The Wolves of Mercy Falls: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (1/3)
♫ World War II Saga: The Winds of War by Herman Wouk (1/2)



✔ = in my TBR
♫ = audiobook (in my TBR)
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook

Booker Prize Books Read in 2014 (in reading order)
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Shortlist 2012)

Booker Prize Books Read in 2013
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane (Shortlist 1981)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Shortlist 1986)
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (Booker Prize 1999)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (Booker Prize 1989)
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin (Shortlist 2013)
Harvest by Jim Crace (Shortlist 2013)
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (Booker Prize 2013)
What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (Shortlist 2003)
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Shortlist 2008)
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (Booker Prize 1978)
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth (Shortlist 1995)

Booker Prize Books on my TBR
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (Booker Prize 1970)
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (Booker Prize 1973)
The Bone People by Keri Hulme (Booker Prize 1985)
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Booker Prize 1987)
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (Shortlist 1988)
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (Booker Prize 1988)
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (Shortlist 1989)
Possession by A.S. Byatt (Booker Prize 1990)
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (Booker Prize 1992)
Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer (Shortlist 1993)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Shortlist 1996)
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge (Shortlist 1998)
Amsterdam by Ian Mcewan (Booker Prize 1998)
Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (Longlist 2001)
Brick Lane by Monica Ali (Shortlist 2003)
The Master by Colm Toibin (Shortlist 2004)
The Accidental by Ali Smith (Shortlist 2005)
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Booker Prize 2006)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Shortlist 2007)
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (Shortlist 2008)
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Booker Prize 2008) - reread
Heliopolis by James Scudamore (Longlist 2009)
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Shortlist 2009)
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Longlist 2010)
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Shortlist 2011)
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Longlist 2013)
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson (Longlist 2013)
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Shortlist 2013)

(more on the wishlist of course!)

Finally had to jump into the fun Reading Bingo action!
I'll only count books I really loved toward this challenge (4 stars and up).



More than 500 pages: Bleak House by Charles Dickens ★★★★
Forgotten Classic: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare ★★★★
Book that became a movie: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - tutorial ★★★★½
Published this year:
Number in the title: 420 Characters by Lou Beach
Written by someone under 30: Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen ★★★★½
Book with non-human characters: Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett ★★★★
Funny Book: You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld ★★★★
Female Author: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ★★★★½
Book with a mystery: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ★★★★
One-Word Title: Nana by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓
Book of short stories: The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton ★★★★½
Set on a different continent: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★
Non-Fiction: Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★
First book by a favourite author:
Heard about online: The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard ★★★★⅓
Best-selling book: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris ★★★★
Based on a true story:
Book at the bottom of TBR pile:
Book my friend loves: Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat ★★★★
Book that scares me:
*More than 10 years old: Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
Second book in a series:
Blue cover:


For the following, I'll be counting any kind of books, not just YA.



A book with a female heroine: Lady Susan by Jane Austen ★★★★½
A book set in a high school:
The last book in a trilogy:
A book with a colour in the title:
The first book in a series: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★
A book set in the future:
*A book with a breakup: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ★★★★⅞
A book with a love triangle: The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West ★★★★⅓
A book that became a movie: Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ★★★★½
A book set in Paris:
A book set in the past: 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz ★★★★
A book with magic:
A book set in the summer:
A book with a dragon:
A book that made you cry:
A graphic novel:
A book based on a myth:
A "classic" YA book:
A book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe:
*A book with an incredible fight scene: Goliath by Tom Gauld ★★★★
*A book you heard about online: Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler ★★★★
A book set in another world:
A book with an epic love story: Longbourn by Jo Baker ★★★★⅓
A book with music:

Books Purchased in 2014

January
1. Prospero's Cell by Lawrence Durrell
2. ♫ The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth
3. ♫ The Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth
4. ♫ The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman
5. ♫ Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell
6. ♫ Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye
7. The Book of Common Prayer (2nd hand FS)
8. ♫ Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Audible Daily Deal)
9. ⓔ The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (Kindle deal)
10. ⓔ Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale (Kindle deal)
11. ⓔ The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich (Kindle deal)
12. ⓔ Voltaire Almighty by Roger Pearson (Kindle deal)
13. ♫ The Trembling of a Leaf by W. Somerset Maugham (Downpour Sale)
14. ⓔ Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh by Sheridan Le Fanu (Kindle 99¢)
15. ⓔ Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski (Kindle Daily Deal)
16. ⓔ Post Office by Charles Bukowski (Kindle Daily Deal)
17. ⓔ The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann (Kindle Daily Deal)
18. ⓔ 420 Characters by Lou Beach - Read in February
19. ⓔ The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (Kindle Daily Deal)
20. ⓔ The Spider's House by Paul Bowles (Kindle Daily Deal)
21. ⓔ Ask the Dust by John Fante (Kindle Daily Deal)
22. ⓔ The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge (Kindle Daily Deal)
23. ⓔ D.V. by Diana Vreeland (Kindle Daily Deal)
24. ⓔ Hotel de Dream by Edmund White (Kindle Daily Deal)
25. ⓔ The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare (Kindle Daily Deal)

February
26. ⓔ Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick (Kindle DD)
27. ⓔ When We Were Bad: A Novel by Charlotte Mendelson (rec'd by Bonnie)
28. ⓔ The Light Years (The Cazalet Chronicle 1) by Elizabeth Jane Howard
29. ♫ Marking Time (The Cazalet Chronicle 2) by Elizabeth Jane Howard
30. ♫ Fools of Fortune by William Trevor (rec'd by Paul)
31. ♫ The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan (rec'd by Suz and Bonnie)
32. ♫ Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (rec'd by Suz and Mark) - Read in February
33. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Everyman's Library)
34. ♫ Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch - Read in February
35. ♫ The Dinner by Herman Koch (Audible Daily Deal)
36. ♫ An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine - Read in February
36. ♫ Selection of Katherine Mansfield
37. ♫ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (read by Juliet Stevenson)
38. ♫ Realms of Gold: Letters and Poems of John Keats
39. ♫ The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard
40. ♫ The King's General by Daphne du Maurier
41. ♫ The Two Destinies by Wilkie Collins
42. ♫ The Complete Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope - (Dramatisation)
43. ♫ Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
44. ♫ Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Read in February
45. ♫ The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
46. ♫ Fraud by Anita Brookner
47. ♫ The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine
48. ♫ The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Dramatised) - Read in March
49. ♫ Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty - Read in March
50. ♫ Imperium by Robert Harris (Rec'd by Suz, $5 on Downpour.com)
51. ⓔ+♫ Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence (for reread) - (special deal w/ Kindle)
52. ⓔ+♫ Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (for reread) - (as above)
53. ♫ The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
54. ♫ Tommo and Hawk: The Australian Trilogy, Book 2 by Bryce Courtenay
55. ♫ How It All Began: A Novel by Penelope Lively
56. ♫ Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
57. ♫ The Light of Day by Eric Ambler - Read in February
58. A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen by Harold Bloom (used)
59. High Rising by Angela Thirkell
60. Sanditon and Other Stories by Jane Austen (Everyman's Library)
61. ⓔ+♫ Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson - (special deal w/ Kindle)
62. ♫ Philomena by Martin Sixsmith (Audible Daily Deal)

March
63. ♫ Native Son by Richard Wright
64. ⓔ+♫ Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope - (special deal w/ Kindle)
65. ⓔ+♫ Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope - (special deal w/ Kindle)
66. ♫ Firesong by William Nicholson
67. ⓔ+♫ Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (Kindle and Audio for special price)
68. ♫ Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler - Read in March
69. The Raj Quartet: v. 2 by Paul Scott (Everyman's Library)
70. ⓔ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (Kindle DD)
71. ⓔ Flannery O'Connor: Complete Stories (Kindle DD)
72. ⓔ Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie (Kindle DD)
73. ⓔ The Natural by Bernard Malamud (Kindle DD)
74. ⓔ Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury (Kindle DD)
75. ⓔ Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund (Kindle DD)
76. ♫ The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler - Read in March
77. ⓔ Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat - Read in March
78. ♫ Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith
79. ♫ The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
80. The Reef by Edith Wharton (Everyman's Library)
81. ⓔ The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) (all for $1!)
82. ⓔ Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino (Kindle DD)
83. ⓔ Italian Folk Tales by Italo Calvino (Kindle DD)
84. ♫ I Am David by Anne Holm (Audible 2 for 1)
85. ♫ The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin (Audible 2 for 1)
86. ♫ Maurice by E.M. Forster (Audible 2 for 1)
87. ♫ Society's Child by Janis Ian (Audible 2 for 1)



♫ = audiobook (Audible or Downpour.com)
ⓔ = eBook
FS = Folio Society

Repost from the end of my last thread:



I went to see the stage adaptation of War Horse at a National Theatre Live cinema presentation yesterday. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. If you haven't seen it yet and it's been shown in your area, DO make a point of getting tickets. They use life-size articulated puppets for all the animal parts, and the animation is so lifelike that you start imbuing those puppets with personalities. I cried throughout. Well, was teary-eyed. And then cried at the end. Very emotional story about a boy and his horse, set just before and during WWI. It was a nice evening in general. Luckily for me, the head was in relatively good shape, and we ordered from a great and inexpensive Japanese restaurant at my place, since I'm very close to the cineplex.

My friend Kristyna brought me two virtually new books she's given me from her collection which she has highly recommended, parts 1 & 2 of a biography of Matisse by Hilary Spurling, The Unknown Matisse and Matisse the Master. I love his work, so should be interesting.

Hi Ilana- Is it safe? Hope so. Congrats on the new thread. I wish I could join you on Native Son. It is easily in my top 5 best books of all-time. If you listen to it, make you sure you let me know how that format works.
Glad to see you have Mr. McCarthy all lined up. I've never listened to any of his books.

Ha! Looks like you have some work cut out for you ^

Did I mention I started one of the books you rec'd? Music & Silence
Haven't gotten too far but I think I'm going to like it ;-)

>17 msf59: Hey Mark! My first! Welcome, welcome. I've taken up quite enough posts already, dontcha think? I remember well you saying more than once how much you love Native Son. I have it in softcover format, but since it's a rather large tome, am considering getting the audiobook too and doing the thing I like doing with big books so I can fit in more even with the chunksters. It's all about making good use of my reading/listening time!

>18 -Cee-: Claudia! Yes, that should take me 10-20 minutes maybe. I like my lists and refer to them often in the course of any given month, which is why I added my little table of contents. I take up so many posts I needed to be able to jump around as quickly as possible!

I'm glad Music & Silence is working out for you so far. Hope you end up enjoying it till the end! I know I'll want to reread it for sure.

Happy New Thread, Ilana!

>21 scaifea: Hi Amber! Whew! Took me a while to update all my lists!

62 books purchased this year. Not doing very well with controlling myself... plus, I've been holding off till the new month starts to purchase more.

Hi Ilana - following your thread not always managing to post though. Great that we have a shared read of The Colossus of Maroussi, I'm about 25pgs in and really like his style.

Dear Ilana - Thankfully a little of the "old" Ilana is reappearing on the threads this year. Your posting numbers are well up on last year and you are reading with the vim of old too. Long may it continue as I have awaited your revanche with no little amount of keenness.

Hi Ilana

The play sounds fantastic. I'm glad you had a great time. Regarding 62 books thus far this year, I've started a new system in tagging by books, I'm systematically going through my entire library and noting which year I acquired a book. I believe that I purchased over 500 books last year. It was a difficult year, filled with doctor appointments, procedures and surgery. I couldn't control myself because I use books as comfort. I have no where else to put them, still, I'm out of control in acquiring them. I think I have over 1,000 in various places.

I write to say I can identify with you.

Also, I want to say that I'm amazed at the detail in your lists.

Take care dear one.

>24 avatiakh: No worries, I do a lot of lurking too, especially when I'm on the iPad, and I am slowly forming a not great habit of reaching for it first thing when I wake while still in bed, so end up in there much longer than I should be.

I really loved The Colossus of Maroussi the first time I read it Kerry, and that was shortly after my five-month stay on Crete. As you know I've been wanting to reread it for a long time, and I know it was one of your picks for me, but sometimes a little extra nudge like a shared TIOLI read is what is needed. Glad you're enjoying it. Have you read other books by Henry Miller?

>25 PaulCranswick: Dearest Paul, not hard to beat my own posting numbers compared to last year, since I was barely present. I was totally obsessed with Folio, a full time obsession. Also, trying to spend much less time on the computer, which was quite nice actually, but badly missed my friends here, such as yourself, va sans dire. I read quite a lot last year; a total of 163 books, but reviewed just a handful, if that, so that I wasn't leaving behind much traces of all those great books.

>26 Whisper1: My dear sweet Linda, I have a feeling you would really love the stage adaptation of War Horse. It was magical, and a very emotional experience. It's a major production with a huge cast, really clever and bare set design but with projected visuals in the form of sketches on a screen over the stage which looks like a long cloud. The sound effects and music were amazing, and included a singer and violinist (?) making frequent appearances. The puppets are works of art. The story is so poignant too. On the whole it was really mind-blowing stuff.

I can certainly relate to you needing to use book purchases as a form of retail therapy. That's exactly why I buy books as frequently as I do. When feeling a bit ho-hum, there's nothing like spending an hour or so trying to decide what my next purchase should be. A huge treat. I know what you mean about having no space to put them. Do you have any room to have shelves put in, even in unusual places? That might be a solution. I need an affordable carpenter to help my use up some of my available wall space. No good at all with hammer and nails. Or screws or whatever. I hope this year is much easier for you, though I know it looks like there will be more procedures.

My lists are a form of over-compensation for how disorganized I generally am. They give me a sense of being in control, and looking at them makes me feel calmer. :-)

Dear Soul Sister Ilana...I love you much!

>28 Whisper1: Big smooch to you sweets! :-x

I've been meaning to ask you something for a very long time, just getting up the nerve to do it. Stuff I need to share bc I need to create something from it.

So, don't hesitate to ask. Send a message on my home page. I'll be up for awhile tonight.

>30 Whisper1: Just sent you a PM. xx

I started posting on your old thread and had just enough sense to copy and head over here. Happy New Thread!
Ilana, I've been skimming through........ I do wish you could get a reasonable treatment for those headaches. I can't imagine. I know how bad sinus headaches sometimes make me prostrate; I just can't think about dealing with migraines. On the other hand, I'm awfully happy that you're liking Tomalin's Austen and Austen's own juvenilia. (Spell check says that that's wrong; looks O.K. to me.) I need to read those, and I also have Bitch in a Bonnet and another bio that I want to get to someday. On the third hand, I'm sorry that *Locke Lamorna* didn't work for you; I have it but haven't tried it: ditto Rogue Male. On the fourth hand, I loved the Pallisers. And on the fifth hand, I'm happy that this was a better day for you. I guess your friend does admire your art work. *GwaPPH* is an arresting image!

Happy weekend, Ilana! From your previous thread - that is how far behind I am! - and kindly re-posted on this thread, I haven't read War Horse but your review of the stage adaptation has caught my eye. After slogging my way through Bleak House - finished and survived the ordeal by taking your sound advice to alternate between reading and listening to an audiobook - I really appreciate how some books are more easily adaptable to a 'viewing audience' format than others. I don't even know if any of our cinemas offer National Theatre Live cinema presentation.... I must investigate this further.

Re: Matisse. I love the colour in Matisse' works but some of the artwork I have to stand back and see if I can understand it from a distance. I don't always succeed, but then, art is designed for emotional reaction and conversation, so I don't feel so bad. ;-)

Went to see Prince Igor by Borodin live from the Met in NYC at the cinema today. The music was great, as were the singers, leads and other parts too. I liked it on the whole, but hated the ending. Two factors kept me from enjoying it fully, a) bad bad bad headache which is also making me really dizzy today b) going there with someone I don't get along with, namely my father. I really envy those who have or had a father they could look up to and wasn't a constant source of shame and irritation. He likes to choose the worst possible moments to deliver unpleasant news too—must get some kind of grim satisfaction out of it, I don't know. I do know that when I'm unwell, he's bound to end up making me feel worse. And I also think I must stop communicating with him from now on, because it's not at all a healthy relationship and never was. That's my happy news of the day.

On the reading front, things are brilliant right now. Just picked up The Jewel in the Crown last night and I was hooked from the first couple of pages. Scott is a marvellous writer and the first character he introduces is so well drawn, I can practically visualize her. I'm very happy I decided to jump into that particular group read this month.

>32 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I had a sense I would like Austen's juvenilia (my spell-check confirms it's fine) when I read Northanger Abbey, which I believe I was following along when Madeline was tutored by Liz. I remember Liz saying that this book was close in tone to her early work, with a similar sense of humour, and have to agree. I want to read Udolpho before rereading NA, which I look forward to. I got Bitch in a Bonnet too when it was mentioned during the P&P tutorial. Keeping it for another time also. I was going to review Rogue Male today, but being on the computer is probably not a great idea right now because it's messing up my vision.

>33 lkernagh: Hi Lori! I'm glad you got through Bleak House unharmed! I was notified the BBC series is waiting for me at the library, and saw many people here raving about it. Mind you, this is the older one as they've done two adaptations, so I'm not sure which one is more popular. To check if National Theatre Live has presentations near you, just go to their home page here: http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk

You're absolutely right about Matisse. There is nothing to 'understand' about his work. It's not about logic, but rather playing with colour and shape and patterns and composition. I find his paintings are exuberant and joyful and filled with energy. To some people, they might be chaotic and weird, and true enough, they can be that too. ;-)




Off to read. Puter screen is not friendly on eyes/migraine.

Hi Ilana- Hope you are having a fine, pain-free Saturday! Question: What was it about the audio of The Goldfinch you hated? I am just about 3 hrs into it and I love it so far and the guy narrating it, is doing a stellar job. I know I have a LONG LONG way to go but I am impressed in the early going.

Please get to the BBC Bleak House adaptation soon, while it's still fresh. It was outstanding.

Hi Ilana! I hope you're having a good weekend (I guess it is almost over now). I do love the bright, colorful reading spot in the painting at the top of your new thread. It's a steely gray day here. Low sky, 100% humidity, steady light rain..... classic Seattle in March. Still, the daffodils are starting to bloom.

Today's Audible purchases:

Native Son by Richard Wright (for combined book/audio)
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
Firesong by William Nicholson

I also got these two a couple of days ago:

Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson - (special deal w/ Kindle book)
Philomena by Martin Sixsmith (Audible Daily Deal)

I'm not fit for company. Very depressed after what was a difficult day yesterday.

{{{{Ilana}}}}

Ilana, I'm so sorry that your father continues to plague you. Some relationships are toxic. The only way to avoid poisoning is to not be in their space.

Hugs to you!

>34 Smiler69: Thank you so much for posting the link, Ilana! Good news is we do have movie theatres that are part of the NYC cinema so I have bookmarked the site to keep tabs on what is up and coming.

Dear Ilana, I'm still wishing you pain-free and now impervious to your father's meanness, which I'm going to suggest comes from a pain of some other order, not that that makes a relationship easier for you. In any case, I envy you your opportunity to see the Borodin; I forgot to listen.
I'm tickled that you fell right into *Jewel*. I'm enjoying it as much now as ever.....paying more attention to Lili Chatterjee since I'm now closer to her age than to Daphne's. I can't recall whether you have watched the Granada videos that played on Masterpiece Theater years ago, but they are really, really good. They can't approach the complexity of the writing, but they are GOOD.

Ack, your father. The pattern continues.

I still haven't found a used copy of Native Son but should have time to visit my favorite used bookstore this week.

Oh, I do hope you can shed the headache, but at least you were able to enjoy "War Horse". Alas, we can't get rid of obstreperous family members with any ease...

You may have convinced me to embark on The Raj Quartet this month.

Ilana, it's official. I can count reading your thread as a book now that you have included a Table of Contents! Very clever…and helpful. I have fond memories of reading The Jewel in the Crown and will join the group when it gets to the other three books in the quartet. When I dug out my books, I remember why I didn't continue with the series. I have mass market paperbacks with tiny print. I will have to look into replacements before I read more. I've got to take care of these aging eyes so I can continue to read all the books I have lined up.

Thanks for posting some bright pictures. Right now I am looking out on a blinding world of snow. It is so beautiful but cold enough to cancel school today. It seems we are wimps here in the central part of the U.S.!

How I hate feeling sorry for myself, but I do, I just do. I have so little immediate family, but there are few people on this earth who can get under my skin like my father does. Should be simple enough to just cut myself off, but somehow I'm plagued by uncertainties, and it's really affecting my morale. He's not a bad man per se, just a terribly coarse one, completely unrefined, with no sense of even the most basic manners or boundaries or fair play or acceptable standards, barely able to write, rarely wanting to read anything, even the most simple information, all of which is so opposite from me, to which these things are a major concern... And few people have been able to provoke me into fits of fury as consistently has he does. I just hate the person I become when he gets under my skin. And yet, filled with contradictions of course, like finding out this year that he's listened to opera every weekend for decades now. I'm almost certain that if I were not living by myself it would be far easier to pull the plug. The one answer I've given friends who've asked me why I haven't cut myself off has been "because he's the only father I'll ever have". But obviously, that's not a good enough reason. Or shouldn't be. Or should it? I realize this is hardly the forum for this sort of issue, and few people have time to devote to reading my long soliloquies, but then I've gotten so much support in the past here, and a therapist can't help me, or none has been able to up till now, in close to 30 years of private sessions. I truly appreciate the supportive comments in the last couple of days.

Thank goodness for books. And my drawing project. And my beloved pets. And being able to afford Apple hardware, such as this brand new iMac, which I just spend a couple of hours at the Apple store to ensure that I make a clean transfer from my old laptop and not bring in corrupted files which were making it buggy. The guy helping me had the most beautiful eyes. And never mind that he could be my own son. *sigh*

I've been meaning to write a bunch of reviews, so I will endeavour, as of tomorrow, not to go on with my private issues and stick to book talk.

>38 -Cee-: Thank you so much for the hugs Claudia. xx

>39 Whisper1: Of course you're right Linda. I just wish it didn't break my heart so to cut him out of my life entirely.

>40 lkernagh: I was almost certain there would be somewhere near you where they are broadcasting. I hope you'll let me know what you end up going to see!

>41 LizzieD: Peggy, one of the difficulties I have is that I know he's a miserable and lonely person and has had a terribly difficult childhood, which gains him my full sympathy. But I'm far from being a saint and just don't seem to have in me to find a way to bridge the huge gaps in understanding between us.

The Borodin was gorgeous. Because of the migraine, I was often just listening with my eyes closed, which enabled me to concentrate on the music and not be overly concerned with the subtitles of this Russian opera.

I'm about a third of the way into The Jewel in the Crown now, have read the first 3 parts, and so far can't personally identify with Miss Crane or Daphne of Lady Chatterjee or sister Ludmila since they are all either much younger or much older than me, which takes nothing away from my appreciation of the novel however. I did not see the TV adaptation of the quartet, but after seeing your message, checked the library catalogue and am delighted to find it is available. I'll borrow it when we've finished all four novels.

>42 EBT1002: Ack! is right Ellen! I've been lurking on the threads these past couple of days and saw you mention that you'd gotten a second hand copy of Native Son. I'm all set with my own used copy AND the audiobook. I imagine I'll be starting it around the middle of the month or thereabouts.

>43 Chatterbox: You're right Suz, I was very happy that I forced myself to go see War Horse even though I was in very bad shape. The sound effects were not migraine-friendly, but it certainly was a unique experience. Migraines and obstreperous family members; I can't help but wonder if there is any connection?

I'm glad my few comments might lead you to join in with The Raj Quartet. There's a GR thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/170675, though so far there isn't much action on it, but I'm sure it'll pick up.

>44 Donna828: it's official. I can count reading your thread as a book now that you have included a Table of Contents!

I remember some LTers saying that to me, about my thread counting as a book a couple of years ago, when I was at my most active with this group. I'm glad you like my table of contents. I don't know if visitors will make much use of it, but it's very practical for me since I use my lists as a reference very often during the month. Might you be able to get the other books of The Raj Quartet as ebooks? You must save your eyes for years to come, completely agreed!

eta: typos, what else?!

>45 Smiler69: Ha, I have asked myself the same question about my father! That said, he has lots of charm and presence, and is eminently civilized (and listens to opera every weekend.) He's just appallingly selfish. A typical example, going back many years, but it's funny and representative. I was in Calgary for Stampede, and he said he'd buy me a hat (a Western hat, for Stampede wear). It turns out that meant he'd buy me the hat he liked, but not one that I preferred (that was actually cheaper...) I ended up paying for the hat... 'Nuff said. Although I should add that he gets VERY irritated when I have a migraine. Restless and grumpy, as if I'm doing it deliberately. I'm slightly dreading the fact that he and his current partner (who is slightly younger than I am, a nanny from Lithuania originally) have invited themselves to Providence for a week in June. Well, he invited them. She seems perfectly nice, but it's not going to be relaxed...

Charles Dance plays a hunk in the PBS/Masterpiece Theater version of Raj Quartet, and of course, IS a hunk, so that's a big bonus. I suppose you would have been too young to watch it when it first aired in 82/83, I think.

>46 Chatterbox: Charles Dance! I didn't know him by name till today, and believe I only discovered him as Tywin Lannister in the HBO Game of Thrones series. I'd never seen him as a young man, and WOW! hunky indeed! I remember around 81-82 watching a BBC (?) adaptation of Anna Karenina (letting the touchstone do it's crazy thing), which I'd read by then, and probably would have watched The Raj Quartet had it come to my attention. But I was living in Israel then, where there were only two TV channels at the time, one Israeli, one Arabic, which I actually preferred, especially Friday evenings when they always aired Egyptian musicals or melodramas, alternatively. I preferred the melodramas, where inevitably a young man would find out that the older woman he'd been sleeping with was his own long-lost mother. :-)

Your father sounds like quite a number. Selfish people are hard to get along with. Both my parents are extremely self-centred, so I know what you speak of. I hope having him over won't be too difficult. An older man marrying the ex-nanny from Lithuania sounds like such a cliché, but then it became a cliché for a reason! I guess. Can't be easy for you, I'm sure. My dad has often dated women much younger than him, or me, but I was lucky enough never to meet them or hear much about them (my policy being "don't ask, don't tell").

Books purchased since last night:

ⓔ+♫ Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (Kindle and Audio for special price)
♫ Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
The Raj Quartet: v. 2 (Everyman's Library)

Almost purchased the Everyman's Library edition of Sense and Sensibility since the one I ordered from a second-hand vendor has been lost in transit, but decided to be reasonable and borrow the same edition from the library. Must have more shelves to start collection E'sL, much more affordable than Folio, though by no means a replacement!

Total purchases to date: 69

Hi Ilana- I think you might have missed me up there^. I was waiting with bated breath. LOL. I am loving the Goldfinch. Sure, she takes her time but her narrative is almost hypnotic.
Hugs to my pal!

>49 msf59: Hi Mark, sorry about that, I've been quite distraught since the weekend so probably not as attentive as usual. I didn't listen to The Goldfinch long enough to form any opinion on it, only that I knew about the terrible tragedy it starts with and the general story outline and was in the mood for something more comforting like 19th century literature, where there is rarely talk of drug addiction and Las Vegas.

I've been meaning to watch the adaptations of Bleak House for at least a couple of years now, so I'll get to them very soon for sure. One is still waiting for me at the library, which I'd just mentioned above your comment.

Ilana, I admit I haven't read the thread yet in detail (and missed the last one completely). For now just sending {hugs} and telling you that I understand your feelings. My father seems quite different from yours, but the feelings and difficulties are similar. I now at least finally understood that given his own upbringing he didn't have a chance to develop differently. Yes, he could have changed in later years, but that would have meant admitting own failure as well, and some people just can't do that because they have nothing but their false beliefs to support their world. And the older they get the more they cling to their old ways even though they don't do them much good anymore. And yes, they get under our skin. And they want to, maybe on a subconscious level that has to do with control and power. And if you don't react the way you used to they'll just keep poking because it gives them a feeling of existence, of safety.

Looking forward to your TR of Sense and Sensibility! Finally finished reading the P&P one last night with much delay.

Interesting reading stat:
Books read twice: 34*
Books read three times: 5, and they are:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (touchstone is useless)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (useless tt here too)
Nana by Émile Zola

* To see which 34, just click on the link to my LT tagged collection.

***



>51 Deern: Nathatlie, as I said on your thread earlier, I really appreciate your recent comment and your perspective on the matter. You've given me food for thought and I will comment further when I have something worthwhile (or so I should hope) to add.

I'm looking forward to Sense and Sensibility too, and seems there are several of us awaiting this tutorial with great impatience!

eta: added list of books above.

Great minds think alike, Ilana! I've got Matisse at top over on my latest thread - some of his cutouts. We definitely need bright color right now! Love the one in >16 Smiler69:.

I'm one of those waiting with great impatience for the Sense and Sensibility tutorial!

Hi Ilana. Love your opening picture - that's a lovely burst of warm colour.

>34 Smiler69: Your description of being grabbed by The Jewel in the Crown is encouraging. I haven't picked my copy up yet but I'm very much in easy reading mode so far this month and was assuming it would be hard work to read.

>37 Smiler69: {{{{{Hugs}}}}}. So sorry to hear things with your Dad aren't good. Hugs.

Love your most recent reading stats, Ilana! You have given me hope to think about reading Anna Karenina - if you have read it three times, it must be good!

Sorry to see the on-going issues with your dad. Family can be really hard, and really damaging, to one's psyche and emotional happiness when the relationship has a negative or even a disinterested/apathetic aspect to it. Sending {{{Hugs}}} across the country for you.

The good news is I started writing a review for Rogue Male which was book #26 for me. I'll have to finish it tomorrow though, because now I need to go to bed. I spent the better part of the day trying to solve computer issues, had a repairman come fix my Herman Miller chair, and nothing has been resolved so far. Missing parts for the chair, and system problems at Apple with endless hours wasted on the phone. On the other hand, my father tried to call me a few times since this w/e and left me a message this evening saying he wanted to talk, so I've just spent the last 20 minutes writing a lengthy note explaining why I can't talk to him anymore. So that's one thing more or less reaching closure I guess. I'm completely drained. I know I said I'd only be talking about books from now on, but it's been an exhausting day and now I must get myself to bed.

Thanks for the visits and comments. I promise I'll get back to you soon >51 Deern: Nathalie, >53 jnwelch: Joe >54 souloftherose: Heather and >55 lkernagh: Lori. Good night for now!

I have a friend who severed ties with her mother decades ago. She’s done tons of work to undo damage, and has all sorts of psychological understanding, and she’s essentially fine in other aspects of her life, but if she sees her mother (which has happened at extended family events), all her insides turn into a 10 year old abused child, and she just can’t do it, even in situations that to any external observer appear ordinary and innocuous. Which is to say, I’m in no position whatsoever to do more than sympathize with the ongoing agony.

Keeping busy for sure. This new computer has been full-time work to get to 100% functionality, and I'm almost there, but not quite because transferring content from the old laptop is a bit tricky since I need to ensure I don't bring in old buggy files that were making it perform badly. Was going to spend the first part of the day writing reviews, but spent it on chat with tech support and sifting through old emails instead. Now I'm off to draw a bit, so I feel like I've at least worked toward my stated goal of having my own art show some day. Then later, hope to pop out a few short reviews. Goodness knows I've had plenty of time to mull over them!

>57 qebo: Katherine, sympathy is always greatly appreciated. Family dynamics are always tricky to manage, and I know they are often problematic even in the healthiest families. It gets even more complicated to manage when you are in a situation where there is lots of mental instability on both the mother and father sides of the family, some of which has been passed on by nature and nurture. I'm trying to work this all out as best I can. My thread has been a real downer the last few days, and I apologize about that. Some reviews should help bring something more interesting to read about. :-)

eta: In Books: Just finished The Guns of August on audio yesterday (will write a short review very soon) and started on my second Eric Ambler, Epitaph for a Spy. I think I'm becoming a fan.

Book #26: Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ★★★★½
Read for: Shared read with PaulCranswick, TIOLI #13: Read a book you share with a LT Legacy Library (Sterling E. Lanier)
Edition: Folio Society (2013), Hardcover, 172 pages.
Original publication date: 1939

From the FS site: "Rogue Male opens, literally, with a cliffhanger. The narrator has just been thrown off the edge of a precipice and is clinging on by the fingertips. He survives the fall and struggles through a muddy stream before climbing a tree, there to hide from the uniformed figures searching below. It transpires that he has just tried to assassinate the leader of an unnamed country with a hunting rifle. There follows a fast-paced cat-and-mouse chase across Europe as the hero struggles to evade the authorities and carry out his mission – ‘to do justice where no other hand could reach.’"

When we have that first vision of the unnamed narrator, he's been submitted to interrogation under brutal torture (the fingertips in question have had the nails removed) and conveniently left for dead. The novel is in the form of a memoir, which he writes while in hiding to try to make sense of events and also as a way to avoid giving way to insanity. Well he might make that effort too, because his solution to staying away from his pursuers is to literally burrow himself underground somewhere in Dorset, where he spends weeks and months in a hole in the ground not much larger than the size of a coffin; living off tins of food in his own filth and stench and unable to go aboveground or show himself anywhere as a wanted man. The narrative is completely gripping, and though we never find out the identity of the narrator, nor that of the leader he may or may not have had the intention of assassinating, we are privy to his musings as he takes us through the course of events which has led him to his present situation, and his reflections on what his true motivations might have been.

Other than a ripping good yarn, one thing that greatly appealed to me about this short novel was that it allowed me to completely put aside my own sense of morality and prejudices and enter into the mind of a man with almost complete opposite background, world experience and choice pastimes. Here is a very wealthy man from an ancient aristocratic English family, educated in the best 'public' schools and then at an Oxbridge college, whose favourite activity is traveling the world to track and kill 'big game'—incidentally, according to wikipedia, the term 'Big Game' is historically associated with the hunting of Africa's Big Five game; lions, African elephants, Cape Buffaloes, leopards and rhinos—iin other words, animals now on the verge of extinction. I'm sure I don't need to point out that as an animal lover who eats meat most infrequently, I cannot abide the idea of hunting as a leisure activity. But Household's writing grabbed hold of me from the beginning, and I was immediately concerned with this man staying alive and living to tell his tale. And when his true motivations came to the fore, was even be able to sympathize with him. Also didn't hurt that according to some, the leader he had in his sights, finger on the trigger was no other than Hitler, "though the anonymous narrator does not consider himself an assassin but ‘a sportsman who couldn’t resist the temptation to stalk the impossible.’"

Excellent and strongly recommended.


The Folio edition, needless to say, is simply gorgeous. The illustrations throughout always cross over the full spread, sometimes with the text wrapping around the element on the page facing the main picture, a great visual device for a book about a man on the run.

Nice, Ilana! - the review and the book. :)

Not that the two books otherwise have much in common, but your comments about hunting (with which I wholeheartedly agree) put me in mind of John Buchan's comic-thriller John McNab, which revolves entirely around hunting and fishing and which I nevertheless found a gripping read. Proof that a good writer can make you buy into anything, I guess!

>60 lyzard: Proof that a good writer can make you buy into anything, I guess!

Yes, absolutely! This really made me think about a question which Donna828 addressed very recently on her thread where she wrote about why she reads.

I often lament the fact that I rarely find a book in the Fantasy genre I can get lost in and enjoy with complete abandon and suspension of disbelief, something that was especially apparent last month during Fantasy February when I was mostly needing comfort reading. As it turns out, Household's book is a great example of "fantasy reading" for me, because while it takes place in our familiar little part of the universe, it takes me outside my reality and plunges me in a world that is completely alien to me (in fact, I often find that is the case with 19th century literature too). In itself, that is a 'comfort read' experience for me because I can completely forget about who I am and what my own concerns are—the perfect form of escape, drug-free! In a sense, this was absolutely a comfort reading experience, and I struggled find words to explain how that can be when the novel in question treats on harsh subjects; torture; hunting; being on the run; fear; stench; extreme physical and mental discomfort, just to name a few! ;-)

>59 Smiler69: Great review, Ilana. Just tell me the rogue male gets to sleep in clean, dry, fresh, warm linens after cleaning up and I might be tempted.

Hi Ilana- Great review of Rogue Male. Big Thumb! I'll have to track that one down. I am closing in on the final 1/3rd of the Goldfinch. Yes, it's long and sprawling but it's very good.

Oh, forgot to mention...
I'm getting further into Music & Silence. I had to put it aside for a bit so I could finish my last book which was a little too close in theme (castles, kings, servants, etc). Didn't want to confuse them. So, today I got back to M&S. Haven't quite hit 100 pages yet, but I am finally getting used to the switching around from chapter to chapter. Quite a medley of characters! I am liking it but know the best is yet to come...

>45 Smiler69:
Certainly I understand the difficulty of cutting someone out of life. I'm 61 and just beginning to do this increasingly without guilt...but, it took a long time to get to this place.

I don't have a magic wand for you, but reaching out to those you trust makes a difference. Regarding your comment about not liking who you are when you feel badly about him. Richard posted on one of his treads a long time ago, words to that effect, I'm paraphrasing, but basically, these people have a way of getting under our skin so much that the end product is we don't like feeling this way.

Richard, help me out here, did I put forth the essence of what you said?

Oooo, Ilana, that copy of Rogue Male is gorgeous! That's a very helpful and appealing review too. I will eventually get out my pb copy (*sigh*) and read it.
I think I must be keeping pace with you in *Jewel*. I realized this afternoon that I haven't tracked down the GR thread to see how people are doing and what they are thinking. Off and away to do that and then back into the book.
My only thing to add is that you are a thoughtful and sensitive person. You have thought endless hours about your father and your relationship to him. Do what seems authentic to you and feel free to forgive yourself for not being able to cure whatever ails him. So there.
Love,
Peggy

Ilana, that was a great review of Rogue Male, a book I never heard of before. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have it so I put the NYRB edition in my Amazon cart. I am tempted to go over to the Folio Society site and see what their version costs though because of the beautiful picture you posted. We'll see if I can resist or not. Do you feel the FS books add a lot to your reading experience or are they mostly nice to look at on your shelves? I think I'd be reluctant to actually read one of their books for fear of damaging it in some way.

I'm sorry you're still struggling with your relationship with your Dad. Hopefully, you'll eventually come to a resolution that you're at peace with. I never resolved all my issues with my parents and now they're both gone and for the most part, I don't think about it but occasionally I still feel some distress about our failure to connect in a positive way. At the age of 60, I've dealt with these feelings for so many years that I'm somewhat bored with them now.

>62 -Cee-: Sorry Claudia, can't help you there I'm afraid. In fact, I don't think he ever gets to sleep in clean sheets again when we last see him. And that is by no means a spoiler! I just wouldn't want you to be horribly disappointed if I told you otherwise.

>63 msf59: Hi Mark! I just know you'd LOVE Rogue Male. It's the ultimate guy book, which is not to say it wouldn't be enjoyable to women, but it's certainly the type of book that Esquire must have put in one of their recommended lists. In fact, I'm surprised it didn't make it to their 75 Books Every Man Should Read list, but then I guess 75 doesn't leave room for all that many selections.

>64 -Cee-: Hi again Claudia, I'm always a bit wary of making that kind of suggestion, especially when I've enjoyed a book a whole lot, because of course you can never know how someone else will be affected by it. I hadn't given much thought to the fact that Music & Silence was told by alternating narrators because it's a device I've grown used to in the last few years, as it seems lots of writers like using it, and I can see the appeal in that. I thought the parts told by Kirsten Munk, the King's consort were especially hilarious because she is so insanely selfish and self-important, and her whole Use of Captalization was an affectation I couldn't help but find Endearing and somehow very Revealing.

Hi, Ilana. Your name kept popping up in threads of some of my favorite LT-people and I had to check it out. Starred you!

>65 Whisper1: Thanks for your kind words Linda. I've cut several people out of my life over the course of the years, probably to overcompensate for those I have difficulty doing that with, but sometimes (often) I've found when I did it was always for the better. Sometimes you get involved with people and only in as things progress do you realize the relationship isn't brining anything positive to your life, on balance. But doing that with a parent I find is not easy, and I'm still not convinced it's the best course to take. In some cases, where the abuse is deliberate and constant, I can see it being a necessary choice, but with both my parents, it isn't at all that they are mean or cruel people, and I know they both genuinely love me in their own separate ways, but they simply both are products of so much emotional instability and selfishness that they often do harm without being conscious of it. Doesn't help that I'm extremely sensitive. In the case of my father, he's just such a gauche and socially awkward person that it's impossible to be close to him and not be driven nuts by his lack of basic common sense, but always always I think of him as a loving person and very much to be pitied. Anyway, he's written me back saying he'll respect my wishes but thinks it's not necessary to burn bridges either. Perhaps he's right. He's no big monster, but I know I've all too often turned into one in word and deed when I've been around him, so you might truly consider that I am the one who is the abuser. That's a terrible position to be in and one I wouldn't wish on anyone.

>66 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, the Jewel in the Crown thread has been pretty quiet so far. I suppose the conversation will pick up eventually, it's still early in the month and probably many people haven't even started in on it yet. I know I'm rarely the one to initiate much conversation in group reading situations, and all the more so in this case when I know many others are returning to it a second time, whereas this is my first.

Thoughtful and sensitive. Thank you, yes, I'd like to think so. But also terribly moody and quick to flare up under provocation. Coarse people should be the perfect teachers in manners, because they give one every opportunity to practice equanimity and grace, but unfortunately, I have been a very poor student and keep failing tests repeatedly and miserably.

>67 phebj: Pat, but you will end up making me absolutely convince you to become a Folio addict like myself!

Do you feel the FS books add a lot to your reading experience or are they mostly nice to look at on your shelves?

Definitely. To both parts of the question. I became insane with Folio lust after my first reading experience of an FS edition of The Handmaid's Tale. I'd gotten a new copy at a more affordable price on eBay and left it on the shelf for a year or so, and when I picked it up to read it (a 3rd reading of this novel for me I should say, and it's a book I've really liked in the past), the reading experience was so amplified by the quality and beauty of the paper and binding and illustrations and page layout and typography that I became an instant convert. I've always been especially sensitive to quality craftsmanship and materials, so I guess it's not surprising I've become such a fan. Some people don't much care about the container when it comes to books. I do, and I am very well served here. And of course, they are a joy to look at sitting on the shelf too.

They send members a 'Friends and Family' gift voucher about once a year. It's for a modest rebate, but still, I'll think of sending it on to you the next time it comes around.

About my dad, I keep thinking "I'll handle it better next time" because I too am really bored with the ongoing drama and just want to find a quiet and comfortable place with him, but then that's hard to do with a person who's always seeking to make himself more interesting by quietly creating scenes. I wish I wouldn't fall for it every time, especially as he is a perfectly adorable person when he wants to be and sometimes I feel like he is just testing me to see when I'll finally 'get it' and let sleeping dogs lie (not sure that it the appropriate idiom, but you know what I mean).

Was all set to write a little flurry of reviews today, but between visiting threads (lurking, for the most part) and doing an online survey I was invited to by the Folio Society, (and never mind sleeping in till extra late today), I now find I must take Coco for a walk. We'll go to the library so I can pick up the 80s BBC edition of Bleak House. Also Farewell, My Queen, or Les adieux à la reine, the original French version of the movie based on of a book by Chantal Thomas* which I have NOT read (yet) starring Diane Kruger. I see there is also Man Hunt, the movie version of Rogue Male and well as the Everyman's Library edition of Sense and Sensibility I had 'sense' enough to borrow instead of purchase (for now). Then farmer's market for milk and produce, then home to draw, more LT (and reviews then maybe?).

Have a great evening everyone!

* I was a bit confused when I wrote this. Had forgotten I'd decided to borrow the audiobook before watching the movie. So: book first, movie soon.

>69 connie53: Hi Connie, sorry, I almost missed you there. Thanks for finding my thread! There is usually a lot more book talk here (I think), so sorry about all the family melodrama at the moment. It's a passing thing, hopefully, but there'll be a bunch of reviews very soon!

***

I have a creeping feeling I've forgotten to reply to a few posts up there... daren't check right now, as no time to do anything about it. My apologies for now, and will be back later!

>71 Smiler69: If you're picking up the earlier eversion of Bleak House, Ilana, I feel I should warn you that it shows its low production values even more than the contemporary version of Pride And Prejudice - to the extent that it sometimes looks like it was shot by candlelight. :)

But I have to say that, as with P&P, this makes it more authentic to me: life in the 19th century wasn't usually big and bright and glossy, but often small and dark and rather dirty. Likewise, I think it's a very good adaptation of its source, and perhaps a bit more appropriately cast.

Well, skipped on farmer's market for today. Too cold out there to trek about if it's not absolutely necessary. I edited >71 Smiler69: because thought I was getting the movie version of Farewell, My Queen but had forgotten I'd decided to listen to the audiobook before getting the movie. Has anyone read this/watched the movie?

And now am in front of my computer again because while I usually use the dining room as my drawing studio, I had to put Coco's booties in the washer which is in a nook at that end of the apartment. The washer and drier really do a number on my migraines, so I need to stay away while they are running. EEEEP! I think I'll sit down and watch the final episode of P&P because even sitting here I can still hear the bass sounds of the washer which is very painful. Hopefully the film will drown all that out.

>73 lyzard: Liz, I remember well you saying that that production of Bleak House looks like 'it was shot by candlelight'. That turn of phrase made quite a vivid impression as it brought a picture to my mind of what it must be like. I want to watch both, as I did with P&P, because I'm sure each has it's merits. While I much prefer the Colin Firth P&P, I'm still glad I watched the earlier series too. The more recent BH adaptation is only available at the National Library, which is a bit out of the way for me, so I considered purchasing it, but then $40 is a big expense for a series I'm not sure I'll want to watch more than once, so I might reserve the library copy all the same.

Ha, there are TWO movie versions of Rogue Male for you to watch! One is 'Man Hunt', the other, with Peter O'Toole in the lead role, is slightly different, but is under the book's title. Do watch them both; they are good in different ways.

I've seen the movie version of Farewell My Queen but haven't yet read the book. I did quite like it -- it gives an excellent sense of the claustrophobia of Versailles.

I'm listening to the audiobook of Jewel in the Crown but am very "meh" on the narrator. It's going slowly. I'm still at Edwina Crane's background. He writes well, but wow, it moves forward slowly...

>75 Chatterbox: Hi Suz, I vaguely remember someone telling me about there being two movie versions... Peggy, or Judy maybe? I was very keen on getting them both, but unfortunately, the Peter O'Toole version isn't available from either municipal or National library systems and I don't know where else I can find it otherwise (not on iTunes either) without having to spend a fortune getting it via Amazon. Ah well, something to look out for.

I love period movies, so looking forward to Farewell, My Queen. It first came to my attention when I saw it and almost immediately got it on iTunes but glad I took a moment to check since I would have been disappointed to see it in translation. I prefer reading the original work when possible first too. It's a short novel.

I checked on the audio version of The Jewel in the Crown and quickly determined the narrator would NOT do. I can't imagine it would make for great audio material though. The story is important of course, but I think the way of telling it plays a large part also. Each of the seven (?) parts as I understand it focuses on a different character and while I haven't been able to quite figure out that part yet, I believe different narrators as well? though I guess I'll find out soon enough.

***

Going back to messages from earlier in the week:

>51 Deern: that would have meant admitting own failure as well, and some people just can't do that because they have nothing but their false beliefs to support their world.

Yes, I believe that is a rather universal failing on the part of many people. What I find scary about it is you realize sooner or later that we ALL tend to cling to false beliefs, no matter how much we think we are being honest with ourselves and the rest of the world. The psyche is such a complex tangle of matter, which I don't think anyone has come close to figuring out yet, how could we indeed know what absolute truth is without being able to completely have a grasp on the subconscious mind?

But what you describe is one of the things I have a lot of problems with. My father always insists that my illness (i.e. bipolar disorder and chronic migraine) and the medication I take are at the root of the problems between us. He hasn't said it in so many words (actually now I think of it, he has), but has clearly conveyed to me that essentially, he's completely well adjusted and I am the unstable, crazy one taking after my mother. You can imagine how well that must go over with me...

>53 jnwelch: Joe, I had you in mind when I mentioned people looking forward to the Sense and Sensibility tutorial! I hope I don't let anyone down with so many expectations raised! I'm glad you liked that Matisse painting in >16 Smiler69:. He did many variations on the odalisque theme which I'm very fond of.

>54 souloftherose: Heather, will you be joining in on The Jewel in the Crown then? I had a bit of a lower point with it when I was reading part 3, but am fully on board again with part 4. It doesn't exactly make for light reading though, far from it, and I remember you saying you weren't sure you were up to that. Glad you like my sitting room up top!

>55 lkernagh: Lori, I first read Anna Karenina (touchstone is hopeless) when I was 12, and I can assure you that I've gotten very different things out of it with every reading. The first time it was all about the romantic melodrama. On third reading recently I was surprised to realize how much of the novel was actually about the changes in social conditions for landowners and peasants. It's a complex work for sure, which is one of the reasons I think it's a good one to revisit periodically.

This recent family business took quite a toll on my psyche this week, but I think I'm climbing out of the deep well I fell into during the weekend. I can only brood for so long, and I must say I'm very grateful for the sympathy and encouraging comments I received while I was in the thick of it.

eta: it's a typo festival!

Hi Ilana, I'm stopping by to say I'm thinking of you and I hope you had a good day with time to read.

Hi Linda, I did have a good day today, feeling better than I have in the last few days, at least emotionally if not physically, as the migraine is being beastly again today. I made reading time by listening to some audiobooks as I was running errands with Coco and then while putzing around the house, preparing meals and such, and then for the last couple of hours, while I was working on my drawing project. Getting ready for bed now, where I'll read a bit from The Jewel in the Crown, and Jane Austen: A Life before going to sleep. I'm especially fatigued this week, but I guess that's not too surprising.

Catching up here, and adding Rogue Male to the wishlist...

>79 scaifea: Hi Amber! I would say Rogue Male is a must if you like that sort of fiction. I know I'll be rereading it more than once over the years.

***

Next up, some reviews, which I've been promising myself for a long time. Only thing is, that repairman for my work chair is coming back this afternoon with that missing part, so I'll start now and see how far I can get. I've decided this year not to worry about what order I write my reviews in. I'll just write when the inspiration strikes, and am bound to write more than none by that method.

So once again, next up, two books by Eric Ambler.

Oops. Typical. I set out to write a review, and now it's turning into a blog post. Too much interesting stuff about this author and his influence and while I can't cover it all, the intro to Epitaph for a Spy alone makes for fascinating reading for those interested in the genre and how it influenced contemporary fiction. So will have to work on the blog post and then I guess post extracts from that here. Usually it goes the other way round: I post a short review here and then 'dress it up' for the blog. Ah well. So I'll try to shoot out a few comments on other books in the meantime.

Book #35: The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman ★★★★
Read for: Shared read with PaulCranswick, TIOLI #5: by or about someone who served in World War I, WWI Centenary Reading, A Century of Books!
Edition: Tantor Audio, Unabrdiged MP3, 19h02. Narrated by John Lee
Original publication date: 1962

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Barbara Tuchman set out to describe the events which led up to the onset of the Great War. Focusing primarily on the heads of state and government, she describes what the dynamics were in the early years of the 20th century, in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war from which Germany emerged victorious and hungered for world domination. Until reading this book, I had always believed that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28th, 1914 was the spark that suddenly started it all. I had also been under the impression that the war could have been averted, but the picture Tuchman paints of those years leading up to August 1914 seems to show that the Germans were bent on invasion and domination and in effect forcibly provoked it's enemies to retaliate. I had not known the history of Belgium, nor that it was, up till the German invasion in August 1914, a neutral country as determined by a treaty which had been signed by Prussia in 1839. Tuchman describes how the Germans deliberately invaded Belgium and proceeded to brutalize the local population with the excuse that they were meeting violent resistance from the civilians, in what came to be known as the Rape of Belgium. Here, the assassination of Ferdinand is barely mentioned. In this version of events, it seems that the allied forced of France and Britain on the Western front, and Russia on the Eastern front, had no choice but to retaliate to stop the German forces from proceeding on to their targeted invasion of France and onward.

I can't say this is the kind of book I normally gravitate to. It's focus is on the military strategies, plans of action and commands, which is an aspect of war which is not of great interest to me. I am more interested in the human element, which is usually to be found in fictional novels, or stories about individual experiences, but it seemed to me important to read about the major forces which led to the onset of war so I could gain a bit more understanding of the political aspects which influenced an entire generation and were then responsible for tens of millions of casualties in that other war just a couple of decades later. I was quite fascinated with the first chapter, describing the pomp and ceremony of the Funeral procession of King Edward VII in May 1910, which presents all the major world-wide players of the day, at what was reportedly one of the largest gatherings of European royalty ever to take place, and one of the last before many royal families were deposed in World War I and its aftermath. Later on, I was much less enthused with the focus remaining on strategy and troupe movements, but instead of abandoning ship (so to speak) as I was tempted to do, decided to keep listening in a similar spirit in which I would have continued attending a lecture series in hopes of bettering my general knowledge, even if this meant listening distractedly at best though long bouts of the narrative.

It's hard for me to say whether Tuchman's is a biased view of events or not, as I have not yet read anything else comparable about WWI, but I did get the strong impression that the blame as to who was responsible for causing the war lay strongly on German powers . There followed detailed descriptions of decisions by the allied forces which might have turned things around, so the blame does not solely rest on the Germans, but one can hardly read this book and walk away feeling much sympathy for them, and for this reason I think I will have to make a point on reading works where the focus is quite different so I can form a more balanced view. As it is, I walk away quite angry, thinking that all this massacre could have been avoided had the Keiser and some of the 'great German intellectuals' not been obsessed with world domination. In other words, my prejudices are more or less intact thus far.

This is a rare case when I've decided to rate the book more on it's own merit than to reflect my private appreciation of it. As a history course, I think it is to be highly recommended. Those who tend to read non-fiction regularly and are comfortable in the realm of power plays and politics will definitely find full satisfaction here. For those like me who only occasionally read non-fiction and prefer to read about the day-to-day realities of living through war, this may seem too dry, but then there is a time and place for everything, and I thought 2014 was a good year to make room for reading the kinds of books about war I would not normally gravitate to. A last note about this particular audio version; I was very annoyed with John Lee, who insisted on adopting the various accents of whoever was being quoted. He is no Meryl Streep and his accents were far from convincing, besides which it took away from the serious tone of the work and was not at all appropriate. I know there is another audio version narrated by Nadia May, though I do not know whether or not she puts in a similar type of performance.

(so much for a short review!)

As I posted on FB, the rain suit wasn't all that popular with Coco. Didn't help that it was cut for girl dogs and he's end up peeing all over himself...

Hi Ilana. I had to add Rogue Male to the ol' wishlist - you made it sound so good. I read The Guns of August a few years ago and now I want to read it again. I love Tuchman's stuff; she doesn't clutter up her books with the kind of blah, blah, blah that makes a non-academic's eyes cross while sending the mind a-wandering.

Sorry about all the stuff with your dad. Sometimes I think people should have to qualify for a license in order to have children. So many people are absolutely ruined by their parents' utter lack of ability to raise them decently. I know I should let go of my issues with my mother and grandmother as they are both long dead, but I can't do it. I want to hang on to my grudges. If only I'd let them both have it when they were alive, but by the time I got to the point where I wasn't terrified of Mother and knew Granny for what she really was, it was too late; Mother was institutionalized and I knew that my grandmother would never admit to all of the harm she'd done over the years.

Hope your day is going well. Love the picture I've got in my mind of a washer load full of Coco's little booties. I wish it were kosher to dress a cat. I know Willie doesn't need clothes, but I am just so envious of people who get to trick out their dogs with little coats, sweaters and the like.

ETA - The picture of Coco in his rainsuit wasn't posted when I started carrying on about this and that. He is so cute in it, even if he did pee on himself.

Hi Ilana- Excellent review of The Guns of August. I also have this saved on audio and it looks like mine is narrated by Nadia May. Maybe she'll do a more satisfying job. I also love listening to nonfiction on audio but I have no idea when I'll be able to bookhorn this one in.

>83 Smiler69: Oh, the indignity of it...

Try Margaret Macmillan's new book about the causes of WWI. I think it was less about Germany than about Austria-Hungary's reluctance (after multiple small wars in the Balkans) to respond in a limited way to another offense. Then alliances come into play... I do think the greater aggressors were among the central powers, but that to a great extent, it was really a clusterf*ck, with war being made inevitable by such factors as train schedules. (The century-ago equivalent of "use it or lose it" was general mobilization, which took forever and once started, couldn't be reversed.) My own thinking has always been that by then, Europe was ready for war, psychologically. It's a very very different setting from 1939, that's for sure.

Tuchman's book is interesting, but I agree; my re-read of it left me underwhelmed, mostly due to the military details. If you're interested in causes of war, do try the Macmillan tome.

>84 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, if I made Rogue Male sound good, it means I did it justice, because I do believe it'll end up on my list of favourites of 2014. I have two more Tuchman books on the tbr, The Proud Tower and A Distant Mirror. I'll probably get to The Proud Tower this year in keeping with the WWI theme, and also because the pre-war era is fascinating to me.

I have to say, if only to be fair and give credit where it is due, that both my parents have always been very loving and supportive. But if there were a certification with any kind of strictness about who they were willing to accord this to, I doubt very much either of them would have gotten the bit of paper giving the go-ahead as far as producing human life, if only based on the genetics they would be passing on. I'm sorry you continue to suffer from memories of your mother and grandmother. Not that it's any consolation, but my mum, who is now nearing her 70s still holds a bitter grudge against her own mother, which has always chagrinned me because my granny died when I was only a little girl, and I had fond memories of her; would have much rathered my mum didn't share her stories of abuse with me, but I guess she had her reasons for doing it.

I'm sure there are websites devoted to people who like dressing up cats. Actually, off the top of my head, am thinking of http://stuffonmycat.com, which is mostly cats with stuff deposited on them, but of course you find plenty of cats dressed up in there too. I submitted a couple of pictures a few years ago which were featured there, which was fun.

The rainsuit... I don't think I'll be taking it out again in the spring. I really don't like to humiliate the poor guy more than is strictly necessary and he generally doesn't mind the rain too much, unless it's coming down in buckets, in which case the rainsuit isn't that useful since it can only keep out water up to a certain level. My cousin often gives me stuff her own small dog has grown out of (she was supposed to be a teacup Shih Tzu, but now weight around 15lbs—twice Coco's size!), and this was one such hand-me-down. I honestly think I only suited him up that half-dozen times or so to get a laugh in and see people's disgusted faces as I walked him outside... Mean of me, I know. :-)

>85 msf59: Hi Mark! I'm chuffed you enjoyed my review of The Guns of August. I was sure that after putting out such a long one, nobody would want to actually read it. I'll be curious to get your feedback on Nadia May's narration. The first few times I listened to her, I thought she sounded like a graceless old woman, but I've grown quite fond of her over the years.

>86 Chatterbox: Oh, the indignity of it...

I know! Poor thing! I've often been tempted to get him halloween costumes, but then I'd have to take him out trick-or-treating and not so much into that. When they're in season again at the pet store I'll take a few shots of him dressed up as an elephant or ballerina or whatever. It really is a hoot and marginally less cruel than making Coco wear that stuff for an entire day.

I picked up The War That Ended Peace not very long after you posted high praise about it. I remember Bonnie also being very impressed with it not long after. I had it in mind when I mentioned above that I needed to read other works about the period to get a more balanced point of view. I do recall that the train schedule issue featured prominently is Tuchman's narrative too, and how attempts were made to call the whole thing off, but there was too much resistance by some General (?) to make the changes once all the train cars were packed and ready to go. Tragic. All of that, just so the trains might depart on time.

Ok, I'm off to work on Metro Portrait Series #4: Man with Loaded Pen-Pocket. I still need to put my blog post together for #3: Girl with Pom-Pom Hat where I will show the progression from start to finish, but I'm itching to show the final piece in the meantime:


Completed March 2014. Graphite on paper. Approx. 12x15", 120 hours.

Count me as impressed. Very cool.

I always stare in admiration at the amazing talent and skill you have, Ilana for capturing the images of people and fine details on paper. Love your most recent drawing! I learned in high school art class that I have no drawing abilities - I even struggle with simple line perspective drawings - but was happy to learn that I did enjoy and have some abilities when it comes to woodwork, metals and fabrics so I guess I am more of an 'industrial arts meets fine arts' kind of person. I still don't have any great skill in any of those areas but I am proud enough of my minor accomplishments - when I make anything that is - to not hide them from the world under my bed or something. ;-)

Ilana, are you going to show us the whole series? I guess I can maybe find your blog and see... Meanwhile, as I said earlier, I love that girl - am attracted by that latent sadness in repose.
That's a very good review of the Tuchman. I suspect that I should try her again. I read A Distant Mirror right after I finished Froissart's Chronicles, and that was a mistake. I think even her fans say that *Mirror* is far from her best work. Anyway, you give me inspiration --- just not now!

>89 Oberon: Thank you so much Erik!

>90 lkernagh: I'm glad you've found a good outlet for your creativity Lori. Lots of people who 'can't draw' have learned how to with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I learned from it when I was just 9 years old and recommend it heartily.

>91 LizzieD: I see you found your way there after all Peggy. I haven't posted on createthreesixty5.com nearly enough. Have loads of pics of all kinds of projects still waiting in the wings I should think of putting up there. I know my mum, for one would be glad to see those.

Glad you liked my review of the Tuchman!

>82 Smiler69:: Ilana, I will be reading or maybe listening to The Guns of August sometime this year. I checked on the audiobook. It's a long one! I may wait until I begin my spring gardening. It seems like a win-win situation to pull weeds, etc. while catching up on my history. Over 19 hours…the audio I can most easily get is done by Nadia May.

Aw, poor Coco looks totally dejected about his new rain suit! After cleaning up a wet and slightly muddy dog twice already today, I might get one for Lucky the Lab. JK. There is NO way he would even let me get him into it, let alone be seen wearing it out in public! He has his tough guy image to live up to.

>88 Smiler69:: Amazing!

ETA: I'm glad to see Nadia May gets your seal of approval.

>93 Donna828: It seems like a win-win situation to pull weeds, etc. while catching up on my history.

Donna, you've pretty much put your finger on one of the things I so much love about audiobooks: any ol' boring task is an opportunity to catch up on reading. And then of course, there's the ability to do two favourite activities at once, such as when I draw while listening. Talk about having the best of both worlds!

I've grown very fond of Nadia May. I was put off her raspy voice at first, but she's so talented and I've listened to her narrate so many great works, and now she's become familiar to me and almost seems like a close family member such as a beloved granny. There's something really soothing about returning to a familiar voice you like again and again.

Poor Coco hated that suit. I actually took the photo back in October and had been meaning to post it here ever since. Talk about procrastination—I'm an expert! Anyway, believe it or not, he's quite the macho guy and likes to project a tough image, but that thing wasn't helping him any. I don't think I'll take it out again when the April showers start coming our way, seems too cruel.

Wow, I love the girl with the pom-pom hat

Love the finished piece too! Reading through your trials and tribs with your father ... at least he does care to keep trying even if the relationship is so difficult. I hope you eventually come to some resolution.

Love your last few reviews, I have a 4in1 chunkster of Eric Ambler to try. Book bullet with Rogue Male, well I added that one as you were reading it. I've got a few Tuchman to read, I have a pile of books, I need some sort of time-stretching device where I can just read and catchup on my tbr pile. I haven't managed any WW1 reads so far this year and I keep adding WW2 novels to my list. Dying to restart the audio of Alone in Berlin which I was enjoying till I realised some of the tracks were out of sequence.

And from much earlier in your thread, I was also addicted to those Egyptian movies on Friday afternoons in Israel. I used to watch with my husband's grandfather, it was a bit of a weekly get together. He couldn't bear to spend more than a few days in a row with his wife, so came into Tel Aviv most Fridays to spend a couple of days with us.

>95 connie53: Thanks Connie. I spent a lot of time with her. Seems kind of strange to have moved on, she was becoming like an old friend! :-)

>96 avatiakh: Thanks Kerry. I just started looking through the 102 pics I took along different stages while I was drawing her (many are same pic with slight angle change), I need to weed out and pick which will make the most interesting sequence on the blog then edit them to get them as close to the 'real thing' as possible. Lots of work, but I love being able to look back and seeing the progression.

I'm growing very fond of Eric Ambler and have kept myself from jumping right into another one. They have all his work including an autobiography on Audible and it's very tempting to just keep going back for more. I need to get my blog post about him together, once I figure out what I want to do with it.

Had never heard of Alone in Berlin, though I see it listed on Audible as Every Man Dies Alone and Deborah wrote an interesting review about it there. I'm not quite ready to plunge into WWII reading yet, though I have plans to read both Suite Française and Schindler's Ark, which were both picked for me for this year. Somehow it's easier for me to read about WWI, perhaps because it doesn't have the same connotations and I wasn't exposed to it's horrors at a young age as I was with the Shoah. But I'll get there.

Interesting story about the grandfather not being able to get along with his wife for more than a few days in a row. That's sort of like my father and I after about an hour! :-)

>80 Smiler69: Eric Ambler ooooh! Another of my favourites lined up!

>82 Smiler69: Really enjoyed your review. I love the way she humanised the fighting and the battles by getting under the skins of those making fateful decisions.

>88 Smiler69: I have been watching the development of that picture over a goodly period and I have to say: wow! Such a lot of character instilled in it.

Have a lovely weekend dear lady.

Ilana - I forgot to mention that I've been lusting after looking at the new Folio edition to Hugh Thomas' The Spanish Civil War, they have sourced many new photographs. Anyway it is 2 volumes so way out of my budget.

>88 Smiler69: Incredible! You have a unique and very special talent!

>92 Smiler69: Thanks Ilana, I will keep an eye out for that book!

>88 Smiler69: Just wow, Ilana!

I hope that when you finish the series, you'll look for a gallery and maybe think about a limited edition print run?? It's not only excellent in its own right, but it captures a sense of place and time, and as such... It isn't just the ability to capture the granular detail but to turn your subject into a real person. I found myself wondering what she was pondering as she looked off to the side, sort of paused in time & space.

Great Kindle sale today! On the Amazon.com, it's knows as "Gold Box" deals, but here in Canada it's just part of the daily deals, and we have most of the titles offered on the US site today. If you haven't checked them out, do! Lots and lots of great titles (Poisonwood Bible, Native Son, The Good Earth, Brazzaville Beach, among others).

Here's what I got:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (for a reread)
Flannery O'Connor: Complete Stories
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury
Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

A few children's books classics too which went on the wishlist as I'll be happy to get them from the library, like Old Yeller, which is available as an audiobook and Jacob I Have Loved. There's Coraline and Joyful Noise on offer too which I've read before and highly recommend.

>98 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I'm mightily tempted to go through Eric Ambler's entire bibliography in coming months. I discovered him thanks to the Folio Society, who have published two of his books so far, but of course they are much cheaper to get as audiobooks and I'm thrilled they have all his novels and even a collection of short stories and an autobiography on offer at Audible. He definitely suits the mood at present. Dark, yet humorous. What better can I ask for?

I don't think I was able to appreciate Tuchman's book as much as I'm sure you have, simply because it's very much outside my usual far and much of it goes right over my head. I did appreciate her describing the personalities at play among the decision-makers. If it hadn't been for that, I don't think I would have been able to finish it. I do so want to read much more on the history of the world, but need to get used to these types of books being much drier than the fiction the better part of my diet has consisted of.

>99 avatiakh: Kerry, the FS just sent members a promotional email about that The Spanish Civil War set. Thank goodness for me, I'm usually more than able to resist those historical sets since rarely want to read those books more than once and happy to borrow them from the library, because they are indeed very expensive. But a must for history buffs I suppose. I tend to prefer their fiction novels because they contain illustrations which I find more exciting than the photography the non-fiction books usually display, however good those are. Mind you, I did get Pliny's Natural History, but that seemed like a must-have, much as one needs to have a dictionary about! Now to actually read those five volumes beyond the table of contents (in itself, a fascinating read!)

>100 Whisper1: Linda, you are such a sweetheart. Thank you for your good wishes. I wake up so often from upsetting dreams and nightmares, so it's always like a soothing balm to receive that kind of message from you.

>101 lkernagh: Lori, I believe the first edition of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain came out sometime in the 70s (just checked: 1979), which means I guess my mum was among the first wave to buy it. Since then it has become a cult classic and gone through new revisions, but I know there are many schools and art teachers who base themselves on Betty Edwards's system to teach students from all walks of life. You local library probably would have a copy if you want to get some idea of what it's like. I think it makes the process fun and un-intimidating.

>102 Chatterbox: Jee, thank you so much Suz! I'm really touched by your appreciative comments. I never quite figured out what my 'style' is and indeed don't have any, since I'm a chameleon and pretty well able to imitate just about any approach, which has made it hard to find a project to stick to and create a series which would be cohesive enough to have a show around. This project more of less came of it's own and I'm very excited about it. The poetry of every day life that most people don't stop to observe. Getting intimate with complete strangers on my own terms. That kind of thing. Also, the visual equivalent of "write what you know".

There's a cultural centre near me which also houses the local library where I go on a weekly basis, where they have a very nice gallery space on the ground floor. They seem open to exhibits of all sorts and their waiting list is very short, only a few of months in advance or so... certainly less than six months. I've made a first approach and need to send them samples of my work, but they seem open to it sight unseen. So I need to get brave and send them some links. Then just keep doing what I'm doing. Each drawing takes at least a couple of months to complete because I can only work on it a couple or hours at a time; it requires a very meticulous approach, so it'll be a while before I have enough of them to fill a room, especially as they aren't that large, only about 12x15" or so, though I plan to do one or two as 20x30" formats, which will no doubt take me four times as long to complete, unless I adjust my technique. The great part about this project is I can listen to audiobooks as I draw! :-)


Centre Culturel Georges-Vanier, which houses the local library near my home. It used to house a fire station at some point.

>104 Smiler69: that last part of your post is really exciting news! You go for it!

>104 Smiler69: Thanks for the encouragement Connie. I'm such a sissy though! For some reason, really hesitant to make it happen... but I'll get there. No rush contacting them anyway since it'll be at least a couple of years until I have enough pieces to have a show.

***

Just spend an Audible credit on Eric Ambler's The Dark Frontier.

eta: Also forgot to mention I'd received The Raj Quartet: V.2 (The Towers of Silence & A Division of the Spoils), the Everyman's Library edition from BookDepo this week.

You certainly don't need to be a sissy about your drawings!

Hi Ilana, I note that you are reading Jewel in the Crown which I am planning to start as soon as I finish with The Three Musketeers. I have to thank you for mentioning that Brazzaville Beach was part of the Daily Deal today as it wasn't listed on my Kindle. I have had it on my wishlist ever since I read An Ice Cream War, my first William Boyd.

Your "Girl With Pom-Pom Hat" is really wonderful.

Wow I got behind here Ilana so I've spent the last couple of days getting caught up. First, really wonderful review of Rogue Male which I thumbed a couple of days ago when I first saw it on the Hot Review list. You have certainly made me want to go out and look for it and I may even try for the Folio edition because that just looks wonderful. Coco looks like he would much rather be doing just about anything other than being dressed in the rain suit haha. I don't think Buddy would put up with it either.

I'm hoping to get to The Guns of August in the next few months.

>88 Smiler69: What an excellent drawing! And good for you for inquiring at the local gallery. You are incredibly talented!

>88 Smiler69:- I love your drawing. I like her body language. Is this someone you saw?

>103 Smiler69:- Nice book haul. Many fine titles.

>107 connie53: :-)

>108 DeltaQueen50: Oh yes, I hope you DO get Brazzaville Beach Judy. It was my first William Boyd and I found it excellent. I'm even wondering whether I shouldn't take advantage of the sale and get the Kindle version, since I have the audiobook right now. I really loved the narrator, but sometimes it's nice to revisit a work in print format (or eye format, in any case) the second time around and I definitely would like to reread this one eventually. An Ice Cream War has been on my wishlist for quite a long time. I'll get to it eventually I'm sure. I'll be picking up The Three Musketeers sometime this month too.

>109 brenzi: Hi Bonnie, I fear I may get in trouble eventually for turning everyone onto the Folio Society. Be warned that they are very addictive, as they really do add tremendously to the reading experience.

You'll be getting to TGoA and I'll be picking up The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan, which I remember you really loving fairly recently.

>110 msf59: Hey Mark! Yes, this drawing series is based on candid photos I take when I see someone who inspires me on the metro. And no, they do not know I am taking their photo as I am doing it, otherwise a) they would probably refuse to be photographed to begin with and b) even if they accepted, they would never look natural. I know there are some (very few) artists who are able to draw realistically from their imagination, but that is very rarely the case and I know I certainly could never manage it!

I saw you comment on another thread that you haven't jumped into ebooks yet, so I guess it's no use suggesting you check out that sale, but there are indeed lots of great titles to be had for cheap today.

***



Just finished listening to Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty and dashing off a quick review. I did not like it at all. I'm giving it a three-star rating though because it's a well told story, but the topic of sex and adultery is one that doesn't appeal to me in the least and I found the story very grim and depressing. A respected researcher and scientist, Yvonne Carmichael, is happily married and with grown children when she meets a strange man wearing a snazzy suit one day while at the house of commons. He takes her down to the crypt to the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft (I did not know there was a church in the house of commons), where they have quick sex in a broom closet. From there they begin a sordid love affair, sordid because her unnamed lover is addicted to risky sex in unlikely places. This is supposed to be a smart woman in love with her husband and with everything to lose, and she nearly does when a work colleague rapes her when she gets drunk at a university party, which lead to even more dreadful consequences. I almost dropped it toward the beginning, but then stuck to it only because it was one of my favourites, Juliet Stevenson narrating and I knew things were bound to get interesting since it's a thriller. But I almost wish I hadn't read it, because I feel dirtied by it now. Wondering whether I should ask Audible for my credit back. I would certainly be in my rights, but then I guess it wouldn't be morally acceptable for me to publish a negative review in such a case, would it? I got this originally because of the narrator, as not infrequently buy books I know nothing about when they are read by someone I really like, and also because none other than Hilary Mantel and Helen Dunmore were among those who gave it rave reviews. I'm sure others who aren't turned off the topic of sex like I am will find it quite good. I blame the antidepressants for preventing me from fully enjoying it, but then I would need antidepressants anyway after finishing the book, so it all evens out in the end.

Have moved on to my third Eric Ambler spy thriller now, his first published novel from 1936 called The Dark Frontier. He's fast becoming one of my all-time favourites. Not surprising considering John Le Carré and Graham Greene were among his many fans.

Hi Ilana! I've been seeing mention of Apple Tree Yard lately but didn't know anything about it. I had to laugh at your comment: I blame the antidepressants for preventing me from fully enjoying it, but then I would need antidepressants anyway after finishing the book, so it all evens out in the end. I will probably avoid this one. I enjoy thrillers but after reading The Dinner and The Woman Upstairs back to back last year, I now have an aversion to books with unsympathetic main characters.

I also LOVE your drawings of the people on the metro and hope you do pursue a showing of them. They make me feel like I'm sitting across from them on the subway and wondering what their lives are like.

So far what's saving me from the Folio Society books is that I can't settle on which four books I want in order to join. We'll see how long that lasts.

>104 Smiler69: Oh, I love that you're seriously considering a showing for your work! It's so lovely and I bet you'll get tons of responses about it!

>112 phebj: Hi Pat, I know Suz was also reading Apple Tree Yard lately, so you might have seen her mention it too? I don't know if it was the characters that turned me off so much as all the story elements being relentlessly bleak; sex with a stranger in an alleyway, followed by brutal rape, a son with bipolar disorder, a difficult trial. Maybe the timing was wrong. Or maybe it was all too unsavoury a mix for my liking. Though I wouldn't be averse to trying this author again because she certainly can tell a story and make for compulsive reading/listening.

I looked back on my first Folio order when I joined April 3rd last year: got Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and Eugene Onegin, all quite sublime books. I'm wondering if I should do the equivalent of Thingaversary and purchase books on my joining date. The one I'm lusting after now is the newly released edition of Jane Eyre. Even though I already own three different editions of it, I might use up some coupons I got from them for participating in some surveys and get that one. Do you need help picking your four? ;-)

>113 scaifea: Amber, thanks for the encouragement. Don't know why I'm nervous about taking steps to approach them, but for now I'm content with working away at my goal on a daily basis, one or two hours at a time. Talk about baby steps! :-)

Here's where I'm at with Metro Portrait Series #4: Man with Loaded Pen-Pocket (you can't see it yet, but it really is very loaded!)

Hi Ilana- His Dark Materials in Folio edition? Wow. Is that 3 separate books? That would be a nice one to have. I have all 3 in trade-paperback.

>115 Smiler69:- Love the outline! Can't wait to see the very loaded pen-pocket! LOL.

>116 msf59: Hi Mark, yes, that His Dark Materials 3-book edition is something to behold. See for yourself: http://www.foliosociety.com/book/HUS/his-dark-materials-us. I really look forward to (re)reading the trilogy, and it'll happen more than once now I have such beauties!

***

I tried watching Manhunt, the movie based on Rogue Male but halfway through am really annoyed with it. They've changed it so much it's unrecognizable as Geoffrey Household's work so far. And Walter Pidgeon might be a great actor, but he's supposed to be a British gentleman, which he announces in a resounding American accent. Really annoying. I think they mean for it to be a comedy. I'll watch the second half some other time. No patience for it now and I'd rather be drawing.

Off to work on my portrait now.

>88 Smiler69: I love Girl with Pom Pom Hat. I think it's my favourite in the series so far but I probably thought that about each picture and should probably go and compare them all to check. You've probably mentioned this before but do you work from a photo or from memory? Just seen your response to Mark.

>102 Chatterbox: maybe think about a limited edition print run?? *Nods head vigorously*

>104 Smiler69: I agree with Connie - very exciting to hear there's a possibility of using that gallery space to exhibit some of your work. I just wish I could come and see it if it happens!

>115 Smiler69: Looking forward to seeing you progress with that one.

Enjoyed your review of The Guns of August - that's on my list of WWI non-fiction to read this year but I think I will start with the Margaret MacMillan, if only because my local library has a copy of that one in stock.

Apple Tree Yard does not sound like the sort of book I'd enjoy.

>118 souloftherose: Hi Heather, always lovely to get a visit from you and your comments on a variety of topics.

There are some people with photographic memories who also happen to be visual artists and who can thus render hyper-realistic images, but for the most part artists tend to work from photo references, even if it's several different images to put together a completely different composition. It's just not possible to invent that kind of realistic detail, including proper lighting and shading and texture for most of those with average recall, and in my case impossible since I have very bad memory indeed. That said, once one has had quite a bit of experience, it is of course possible to invent images from the mind which can be very realistic, but they would probably not be quite so detailed or seem quite so true to life. All things being relative. And then of course, rendering 'realistic' images isn't the point of art, as we all know. But for now with this project, my aim is to render portraits which are nearly photographic as it's a challenge I really enjoy. Maybe eventually I'll want to work on a project which is purely from imagination or completely abstract, and I do have one such in the works (based on this one, if you recall), but it's just as labour intensive as the Metro Series, so I've put it aside for now.

I would of course love nothing better than to publish some of my work, so we'll see if that is possible when I've finished enough pieces in this series to make for a decent publication. I'm thinking if I was to do that, I might want to combine it with short stories maybe, though that is just an idea I'm throwing out on the spur of the moment. I need to send links to the cultural centre to see if they are at all willing for me to use their space. I'll do that once I've published GwaPPH on the blog, which should happen sometime this week I hope.

If you were to read Suzanne's take on Apple Tree Yard, you might feel differently because I know she found it great. It's just a matter of perspective as is always the case with any given book. This one does treat on harsh subjects and does so in a very skilful and realistic way, but I know that doesn't appeal to me at this juncture and I have a feeling it is probably not the sort of thing you are looking for right now either, as I know you need to be reading more comforting things too these days.

Done! Finally put together my blog post:

http://createthreesixty5.com/2014/03/11/girl-with-pom-pom-hat-start-to-finish/



I've just posted the gallery above, showing the progression from start to finish of my latest completed piece on my art blog, createthreesixty5.com. You are welcome to view the post (and larger images) and leave comments if you like by clicking here.

>115 Smiler69: I will be following progress! Yes I will.

>121 connie53: Thanks Connie! :-)

I tried watching the second half of Manhunt but just got more and more annoyed with it. They changed the story so much, and tacked on a girl (Joan Bennett) who does nothing but moon and pout and cry, which has nothing to do with the original novel, which is über male with nary the trace of a woman. All that crying and snivelling made me sick to the stomach. Please! How they'll manage to have him hiding underground for five minutes before returning into the girl's arms, I can't say. Hopefully I'll have better success with the 80s BBC Bleak House adaptation, which shouldn't be difficult, because they could hardly to a worse hatchet job to it than they did with Household's book. Besides which, cutting out from Dickens's novel can only be a good thing, though I do love his work, bless the man!

Finished Eric Abler's The Dark Frontier, which I loved in the beginning with a truly amusing premise, but then sort of got less interesting to me once the adventure got under way. Not sure what I'll follow up with, but am not tempted by any of my planned listens right now.

Off to work on my drawing project.

eta: typos.

So cool, Ilana. Love >88 Smiler69:, and the start for The Man with the Loaded Pen Pocket in >115 Smiler69:. Wonderful drawing.

You are really amazing, woman! Love your art work. LOVE it!

Saw this on the news tonight:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-approves-new-device-prevent-migrai...

And I want to tell you -
As I was reading Music & Silence I kept thinking Ilana could have written this. Truly. It had so much of you in the writing. This btw is a good thing. A compliment to you and your own creative efforts.

I'll be interested in your reaction to Bleak House, Ilana.

Manhunt is one of those adaptations that's fine in its own right, but infuriating if you've read the book.

>124 jnwelch: Thank you Joe, that's very encouraging. I think I may have found a way to make the process a little faster with this latest drawing, but I guess I'll only know when I'm done, after having kept track of my hours. I'm learning loads which each portrait in any case.

>125 -Cee-: HOLY COW Claudia! That's an incredible compliment! And you've never seen examples of my fiction either! Not that there's much of it around to read at this point. Anyway, writing like Rose Tremain is certainly something to aspire to. I guess I should get cracking eh? ;-)

That headband looks... interesting. Notice how no matter what the cure, they always talk about reduction and never complete elimination? That being said, I've been on a good streak this past week, with only minor pain which is completely tolerable. When I get worn out, I just lie down for a bit with eyes closed, and soon feel a bit better. In any case, your comment tonight has certainly made me very much more cheery than I've been up till now today! :-)

>126 lyzard: Liz, I ran out of time tonight to watch the first episode of Bleak House, but will likely start on it tomorrow. I like Diana Rigg, though can't think what I've seen her in, but in any case, that alone is promising.

You're right about Manhunt. I might have found it ok had I not read the book, but as it is, 'infuriated' is just about how I felt about it, and I can't imagine Household would have been very happy about it either.

eta:

Oh yes, in reading: listened to The Cherry Orchard this evening, which I'll have to read on paper to help me keep track of the characters. As it was I found it confusing, but great themes. After that, got started on the audio version of All the Pretty Horses, which I first read back in 2009 before I joined this group. I loved it for the special mood McCarthy creates then, and with great narration by Frank Muller this time, so far am loving it again.

I think Diana Rigg is very good as Lady Dedlock. I also think that's there's more of a resemblance between her and Suzanne Burden than there is between Gillian Anderson and Anna Maxwell Martin in the later version, which makes it more credible that Mr Guppy would assume some sort of relationship.

ETA: So it works, I just can't see it on my other computer. Weird.

>128 lyzard: Gotcha! (I read with one eye closed). ;-)

I don't know if it's related to the posting issue I was having yesterday, but spoiler warnings definitely aren't happening for me. I might toddle off to the bug thread to see if anyone else is having this problem...

Hi Ilana,
I just finished slogging my way through The Story of a New Name and now I've started what appears to be a pretty easy read, Charming Billy by Alice McDermott. I want to keep making headway in The Guns of August but I expect to start on Native Son this weekend.

Going to check out your blog post this evening.

The winter storm is doing quite a number on my head today. I'd been doing pretty well, with only mild pain for the past week, but sure enough, low pressure systems will do it every time. We migraine sufferers are real human barometers. I wanted to drop by the library today, where a bunch of illustrated children's books are waiting for me but the storm dissuaded me from going anywhere out of the way.

I had a couple of drawing sessions today, and sat on the couch reading some Seamus Heaney from Opened Ground. I must say it was a frustrating experience more than anything else, because most of it goes right over my head, and even just letting myself ride on the word flow wasn't working. If ever I do grow a special fondness for poetry, it'll definitely have been an acquired taste I'll have worked on.

***



Book #40: Grumpy Cat ★★★★
Read for: Motivation
Edition: Chronicle Books, Kindle eBook
Original publication date: 2013

To cheer myself up after that dismal poetry-reading session, I picked up Grumpy Cat (by none other than Grumpy Cat herself, aka Tardar Sauce), which I'd seen mentioned on Claudia's thread and rushed to get as a Kindle book for a couple of dollars. It made me laugh throughout. It's filled with photos of this cute kitty's baleful expression, with plenty of games and tips & tricks to help the reader stay in touch with his or her inner grump. There's nothing like someone extolling the virtues of grumpiness to get me smiling again; it's official, I'm a fan! ★★★★

 &nbsp:


"If you master each of the following looks, you can effectively ruin anyone's day."

>131 EBT1002: Hi Ellen, I've got quite a few books going at the moment, so probably won't start Native Son for another week or so, but I'll get there!

HA!! My brother bought me Grumpy Cat for Christmas, recognising that she and I are kindred spirits. My favourite is "I hate morning people. And mornings. And people."

>134 lyzard: Liz, I think Grumpy and I are kindred spirits as well, so you and I...? I loved the suggested books, which of course included Bleak House. Speaking of which, I just this minute finished watching the first episode and certainly see what you meant about it 'looking like it was shot by candlelight'. You weren't making it up, and I think that's actually what they did! You hear and read a lot about how dirty and polluted London was in those days, with the constant 'fog' and 'dust' and whatnot. They certainly went out of their way to make all that part of the scenery. The actress playing Esther is such a dear. I still don't get what that screen ladies hid themselves behind was for. ?

Aww...sisters! Grumpy sisters!!

I understand that "bright and glossy" is attractive but that view of Victorian London is much more realistic and accurate, which I find very appealing.

If we're talking about firescreens, it's to deflect the direct heat and light of a fire.

Well it certainly conveys the mood and time convincingly. I look forward to the rest of the series, but will have to watch at night with lights out (as I did today) if I want to be able to see anything!

Think of it as "atmospheric". :)

Hello lovely - see what happens when RL interrupts with a sudden spate of busy-ness? You miss out on all that's happening in the lives of dear friends like you. I so hope you find some pain relief soon. And your portraits are as stunning as you are!

When we were in Italy in 2007, we saw many cats. They just kind of run wild there. In this charming little Tuscan town, Pienza (and I highly recommend going there), there was one particularly grumpy cat who hung out on the piazza. We made up all sorts of names for him and still reference the Pienza piazza grumpy-faced cat now and then.

It was funny at the time. Red wine probably helped.

Glad you liked Grumpy Cat, Ilana. It cheered me up to see grumpiness hailed as an attribute :-) I could relate to so much there. Helps to laugh at yourself every once in awhile.

The pictures and the text of this cute book are really fun together. Poor little Tartar Sauce... but they say she is a happy/content cat.

Love your story, Ellen. "Red wine probably helped."LOL

When I first saw that headband, Ilana, I thought "Oh God no. I would not want that on my head with a migraine." But for prevention??? ... I dunno. I hate anything on my head anytime, including hats/scarves/earmuffs/hoods, etc.
Nothing they've come up with yet seems to be enough. You're right about that. They just don't know enough yet :(

Woke up to a terrible headache today. I guess we're still in a low pressure system. About 18 inches of snow accumulated on my back balcony, but I'm not sure how much we actually got. Lots of it, to be sure since it was falling at a good clip all day and night. I was just saying on Lucy's thread that I don't mind fresh snow because it covers up the old grey dirty stuff and Coco has such a blast running around in the fluffy stuff, it makes me smile just thinking about him bouncing around trying to avoid getting buried alive. I know he loves it because he just wants to keep running and when I've taken him off the leash, he even makes as if he's running away and won't let me catch him, though it's all for play and if I turn my back and walk the other way he follows at my heels immediately. He's a little joker.



>138 lyzard: It's not lacking in ambience, that's for sure! :-)

>139 PrueGallagher: Hi Prue, so lovely to see you in these parts. I did wonder where you'd gone to, you were missed!

>140 DejaVoo: Nicky, I love all the period drama suggestions. I'm very fond of them too and happy to get them from the library, as our municipal system has quite a few in circulation. I'll have to look these up and will definitely borrow those based on novels I've already read. Suggestions always welcome, have no fear about taking over my thread!

Seeing your comment about the current FS sale, I headed over to their site, and the to the FSD group to see comments about it. Sure enough, it's not available to many of us. I'm not complaining too much, though I do agree on principle that they should make their sales available to all members. I say I'm not complaining because I still have several monthly payment plans to finish paying, with one or two only ending in the summer and early fall! I've been eyeing Jane Eyre and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis in the new batch, but otherwise don't find too much temptation there, which again, can only be a good thing. I've already got 3 editions of Jane Eyre, one of which is an FS edition (from 2006), the other a White's Fine Editions and finally a BBC audio version. But the illustrations in this latest edition really grabbed my attention and the binding is gorgeous. I participated in a couple of their Folio Council studies and will be getting some coupons from that, which it seems I can combine, so I'll be trading them soon no doubt.

Thanks for the comments on my drawings. They're taking up quite a lot of time, even if I just work on them a couple of hours each day as they occupy a lot of mental space and are now part of my daily routine. I don't think people know I'm photographing them because I make a great show of consulting my phone while I'm listening to audiobooks and never look directly at my subject. I think some people do strongly suspect something and this man seemed to as well as he was looking directly into the lens. As long as no one attempts to throttle me, I think it should be okay. I'd forgotten all about the Waiting Room series. I had a great time with those and in fact still have several pics I'd meant to add captions to. Might get to it eventually, though my attention isn't on the photos and Instagram these days.

If ever you are tempted to join this group, you are by all means welcome to do so. The '75' is just a number and doesn't mean anything. Of course that's what many of us aspire to, and I know at least one member (Suzanne/Chatterbox) who reads well over 500 books in any given year, though there are plenty of others who never reach 75 or even close*. It's not a condition of membership and it is a very welcoming group. And yes, very talkative!

>141 EBT1002: Ellen, I just love your story of the Pienza Piazza Grumpy Cat seen under the influence of red wine! :-)
I remember sitting in Athens once at a café in a sort of piazza next to a park. Don't recall a grumpy cat in particular, but I was astounded to see how many street cats there were in Greece. I got lots and lots of kitty photos on that trip and of course was tempted to bring back a few home.

>141 EBT1002: It cheered me up to see grumpiness hailed as an attribute

I'm with you Claudia! I loved the little chart forecasting the weather. Grumpy grumpy grumpy and grey clouds every day, seemingly forever. lol.

I wouldn't mind the headband if it just needs to be worn 20 mins per day. That doesn't seem too bad to me. Somehow I'm sceptical as to how effective it is and the study doesn't seem all that conclusive to me. I guess cost would be a factor in helping me decide whether to try it or not.

eta: * I should add that the only reason I manage to read over 150 is because I listen to audiobooks compulsively throughout the day. Otherwise I doubt I'd reach 75 either.

There's an Audible 2 for 1 (credit) sale on for a selection of award winners right now, so I got Ripley Under Water and The Janissary Tree, the latter having been on my wishlist for years now. I've listened to the first 3 Ripley books and really like the narrator, so now just waiting for a sale to get the 4th book as well. That brings my total purchases to date to 78 79 books. (forgot to count Grumpy Cat).

Made my way to the library today in the mounds of snow everywhere. I really don't mind the snow at all. Maybe I'm a freak. Coco seems very happy with it too. But I've said that already. The only thing is he's not content to just sniff at stuff, but he likes to lick at it too. Pee popsicles. Yuck! Of course I always pull him away when I catch him, but he's pretty sneaky about it.

Brought back 7 illustrated children's books, some of which came to my attention here on LT, and a couple because I looked up illustrators I've enjoyed in the past:



The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen (Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, whom I discovered with The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane)
The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman (also illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline and recently rec'd by Linda/Whisper1)
One Gorilla by Anthony Browne (discovered with Me and You which was rec'd by Kerry/avatiakh)
Dans sa maison un grand cerf illustrated by Jutta Bauer which I don't think was translated into English.
Mr. Wuffles! by David Wiesner (rec'd by Linda and Pat)
Emma Kate by Patricia Polacco (rec'd by Linda)
A French book illustrated by Laëtitia Bourget

O! Co-co! We both love snow ;-)

Snuggly hugs.

I've fallen very far behind. Coco looks so embarrassed in that outfit!!

Posey enjoys the snow too, but not when it is over her head! We had to stick to the plowed driveway today. Plus it was soooooo windy. Cold!

'lana.

I'm lurking around and stumbled upon your thread.

You are reading some damn good books. Oh I so wish I had the time!

Hi Ilana- I hope you are feeling a little better this evening. And BOO to more snow! Yuck! And speaking of the mini-series: Wouldn't An Officer and a Spy make a terrific BBC series?
I am just about done with the audio and it is so good...

I'm loving the progress on your Metro Series, Ilana. Would that I could draw half as well. It was nice to see the drawing book mentioned. I bought my daughter a copy when she was about 12 (soon after its release), and she gave me a copy after John died. Unfortunately I'm at the stage where it could take me 120 hours to copy the cover illustration of Mr. Wuffles!

I had approximately the same feeling about T. G. o. A. as you did, although I found it slightly more absorbing. T. P. T. will probably suit your tastes much better. Her description of pre-war society is fascinating. She also produced a short book, Zimmerman's Telegram, that sheds some light on a forgotten but revealing incident about the Kaiser. As Peggy mentioned, A Distant Mirror isn't one of her best. She had a clear thesis for the book, but I was drowned by endless details.

The weekend is coming up; hope yours will be a good one.

Off to get ready for bed. Watched the second episode of Bleak House and now feeling kind of blue. Great casting and it's always fun to see characters come alive, especially as I have no imagination when I'm reading and can't visualize much usually. Just an hour left on All the Pretty Horses. I'll probably finish it by the time I've walked Coco and brushed both our sets of teeth and whatnot (not that he has many teeth left, but I'm doing my best so he can keep those six...)

>146 -Cee-: Hi Claudia! Snuggly hugs back to you too.

>147 sibylline: When I made my way to the library today and walked by a park I sometimes pass through, I calculated the snowdrifts were probably more than thigh-high. Maybe waist high? Quite impressive actually, right in the middle of the town. But of course we didn't attempt to plough our way through. I would have lots Coco in those mounds of snow for sure.

>148 Sandydog1: Hi Steve, thanks for dropping by. Sorry to hear you don't have enough time for lots of good reading. Hopefully some though.

>149 msf59: Yes, thanks Mark, a little better thank you. I will for sure re-listen to An Officer and a Spy eventually, and wish David Rintoul narrated more books. Also agreed it would make a great mini series. Hopefully the bigwigs at the BBC are on it already.

>150 Matke: Hi Gail! Nice to see you in these parts! I was obviously typing the above when you left your message. Glad to know The Proud Tower is something to look forward to, but sorry to hear A Distant Mirror doesn't stand up so well by comparison. I guess I won't be rushing to listen to that one then.

To be honest, the weekend and weekdays are much the same for me, with the difference that shops and businesses close earlier, but it doesn't really affect how I spend my days. Still, there is a psychological aspect to the weekend seeming like a 'break' of sorts, though I'm not sure what they are a break from!

>151 Smiler69: So you like David Rintoul better as a narrator than as Darcy?? :)

>153 lyzard: Well... you won't believe this, but possibly, yes! Don't get me wrong, he was convincing as Darcy and gave a great interpretation of the character, but seemed to have a very rigid stick up his derriere which extended all the way to the tippy top of his top hat, which hardly helped me feel any sympathy for him or even believe him to have a heart, even at the very end, when he didn't seem to thaw in the least. And his looks were so 'perfect' in a plastic sort of way that I had a hard time not seeing him as a kind of male barbie. And as you know, I'm in love with Colin Firth in that role, because he made me feel he was a real, believable character after all, and gave him the depth that I still had trouble reading into him in the novel. And David Rintoul really does have a fantastic voice as a narrator now that his looks are not quite what they were. I imagine those looks must have limited the roles he could take on when he was young. No character bits for him.

***

Totally irrelevant, but I was just mentioning Grumpy Cat over on the TIOLI thread and thought I'd share the photo I posted there here too as it will hopefully make my visitors smile as much as it does for me:

Book #41: All the Pretty Horses ★★★★⅞ (reread)
Read for: American Authors Challenge, TIOLI #3: a word in the title that starts with a vowel
Series: The Border Trilogy (Book 1)
Edition: Harper Audio (2004), Unabridged MP3; 9h46, Narrated by Frank Muller
Original publication date: 1992

(For a better, re-edited version of this review in which my memory was further joggled by comments made there on first reading this book, visit here: http://fromsmilerwithlove.com/2014/03/14/revisiting-old-favourites/)

I finished All the Pretty Horses last night and really loved revisiting this book; the audio worked very well too, with Frank Muller giving lots of colour to these characters. Not only that, but he gave such a sensitive reading that he made the gorgeous passages describing the cinematography, scenery and lighting and supporting characters and 'extras' (in movie-speak) very vivid. I use movie jargon quite on purpose because there's something about McCarthy's prose that brings up clear images in my mind of what he's describing, very much like a cinematic experience, and I say this as someone who has not seen the movie version, and also as someone who rarely can imagine the scenes described in books, which might be surprising given I'm a visual artist, but so it is. I also couldn't help but feel this story was closely connected with another beloved Western story, Brokeback Mountain, because of how attune we are to these young boys even though we are never told how they are feeling or processing events, and rather shown with, in the case of John Grady Cole, rather less than more words. Though of course being shown rather than told is the mark of a good writer. The other connection to that other book was that I have seen the movie version of Brokeback Mountain and kept imagining our young hero as Heath Ledger portraying Ennis del Mar, with a similar kind of reserve and perhaps similar looks as well, very attractive, but not in the last self-consciously so and a bit of a scamp. What struck me in this second reading was how much room the old aunt takes in the story.

For those who are not familiar with the story, it is about two boys, ostensibly cousins, both sixteen, sometime in the late 40s leaving home on horseback from their impoverished Texas lives, and in John Grady Cole's case, a broken home, to make their way to Mexico to find work. On their way there, he and Rawlins are joined by a young boy who claims his name is Jimmy Blevins (the name of a radio personality). He claims to be sixteen but is no more than thirteen and riding atop a huge bay horse which seems much too fine a specimen to belong to him, and they suspect the boy has stolen him and will probably bring nothing but trouble and want nothing to do with him. But Blevins follows them doggedly until they are forced to accept him as a travel companion. Eventually the boys lose Blevins along the way (to reveal more would be a big spoiler) and find employment on a large ranch owned by a wealthy, old money, and therefore powerful family. He falls in love at first sight with the owner's daughter, and his love is very much requited so that the two quickly become lovers. The girl's great aunt holds the reins in the family and soon warns off John Grady, though in a most civilized way, by first inviting him to play a game of chess during which she tells him part of her life story, of having been educated in France and being a thinking woman, difficult to accept in society in her days. He doesn't heed her warning and soon enough the boys are arrested under the charge of horse theft and sent to the worst kind of Mexican penitentiary, where they are forced to rely on their survival skills.

As I said, I hadn't been as conscious on how much of the story rides on the aunt (pun intended—it is a story involving hoses after all) in the first reading, when I was concentrating on the story from the boy's point of view. Another thing I noticed this time is how almost unbelievably clever and accomplished John Grady is. He's skilled with hoses, which he has a great affinity for and knows how to 'break' in record time to the admiration of all the ranch workers and locals, which in itself is believable enough, but when comes time for him to defend himself and survive against the worst kind of odds, he almost turns into a Western version of James Bond, which is a slight exaggeration since there are no gadgets or tricks or explosions, but at the same time the feats he manages to accomplish against the direst of odds seem almost miraculous, though of course in the deft hands of McCarthy, very much in the realm of possibility, if one throws in that the boy is probably blessed by a good star and protected by the love of a young and beautiful woman.

I remember reading from a softcover edition the first time and at first being a little bit daunted by McCarthy's stream of consciousness style, featuring very little punctuation as that style tends to do, but after the first couple of initial pages, which I read over more than once to get used to the tone and rhythm, it flowed very naturally and it was easy enough to let oneself float along in his stream and let the story take hold of the imagination. Does it sound like I loved this novel? That's because I did, and I'm very happy I revisited it before moving on to the next book in the Border Trilogy, which I hope to do in near future.

Nice review! I'm so with you on McCarthy's cinematic quality - it's one of the reasons I'm such a fan.

I keep forgetting John Grady's 16 as I read. He seems so much more mature than that, so yeah, I'm also with you on the incredulity factor. But I'm still loving this reread!

>154 Smiler69: I agree with you up to a point, but I disagree that "he didn't seem to thaw in the least". The moment that always stays with me from that version is at the end when Darcy and Elizabeth are having their explanation, and he suddenly smiles at her - and he's like a completely different person; you're finally getting what's behind the rigid façade.

But anyway...that's NOT what I came to say!

The thread for Sense And Sensibility is up - here - see you there!

Excellent review,Iilana. You make me sorry I couldn't fit Cormac McCarthy into the linep ths month.

>156 drneutron: Jim, it might seem kinda funny, but I've only read two novels by McCarthy so far, ATPH x2 and The Road, which I both loved for different reasons. But I plan on reading more by him. He's such a powerful writer, I can see why he's a favourite of yours.

>157 lyzard: Liz, I'll head over to the S&S thread shortly. Thanks for putting it up!

>158 DeltaQueen50: Glad you liked the review Judy. There's no obligation to fit in McCarthy this month... anytime will work! :-)

***



Just want to highlight the following, in case anyone missed Liz's message above:
The Sense and Sensibility tutorial thread is now up
Anyone is welcome to join along! http://www.librarything.com/topic/171523

Well done review of All the Pretty Horses, Ilana! Thumb from me. I love this one, too. This is kind of the mirror of a discussion you and I had about P & P - my daughter didn't like this one at all, and I've wondered whether it's one only guys like. Like you, for me it's cinematic - he's a very visual read every time. I mentioned somewhere that I've read the end of ATPH many times - it just really gets me. Love that John Grady.

I also starred the S & S tutorial thread, and look forward to another literary adventure with you and Liz.

>160 jnwelch: Thanks for the thumb Joe! You make a good point; I agree with you that Cormac McCarthy is very much a man's kind of writer and mostly attune to male sensibilities (or lack thereof! Ha! Bad joke). But then he writes with such poetic skill and creates such a beautiful world even when describing the direst of circumstances (thinking of The Road here), that it's hard not to get swept away with his prose, when in the right frame of mind for it. Once you've gotten over the difficult stream of consciousness bit, that is. For that reason he's really perfect on audio, much as I suspect Faulkner probably is too. I have to admit I've always had a special place in my heart for this type of man's man universe, maybe precisely because it's so foreign to me, and therefore that much more intriguing. My own father was never what you'd call a 'guy' in any way. Much too emotional (not to say neurotic) and teary-eyed for that, though I guess he's all male in the way Woody Allen would be considered all male. Lol. Anyway, I think this is where my affinity for novels like Geoffrey Household's man's world novel Rogue Male stems from, because I guess it corresponds to the side of me that has overcompensated for the lack of a strong male figure and therefore can (at times) think like a guy, when I get over all the sentimental fluff that is, and why it took me a lot of effort to finally be able to appreciate and even enjoy Jane Austen's work.

I'm joining the readathon hosted by Deborah/Cariola over the weekend (http://www.librarything.com/topic/171479). I can only participate today since I have a concert to go to tomorrow afternoon, followed by a meal at my favourite vegan restaurant with my friend Kristyna (we're seeing Angela Hewitt on piano at the Ladies Morning Musical Club - just love the name of that organization!). Anyway, will try to spend as much time as possible reading today, with breaks for drawing and feeding the kids and myself, walking Coco, etc.

My goals:

• Finish The Jewel in the Crown - 40 pages to go
• Finish Jane Austen: A Life - 3 chapters + appendix & notes to go (37+ pp.)
• Try to finish Olive Kitteridge - 3 stories to go (70 pp.)
• Takes notes on chapters 3-4 or more of Sense & Sensibility for tutorial with Liz
• Looks at some illustrated children's books for fun
• Continue to listen to Behind the Beautiful Forevers while drawing, walking Coco, cooking, etc.

>120 Smiler69: Thank you - I love seeing all the stages of your wor. I showed the finished image to my husband and got a very emphatic 'Wow' and

>123 Smiler69: Looks like a fun read - poor grumpy kitty.

>162 Smiler69: Enjoy the readathon!

>163 souloftherose: Thank you Heather. From what I hear, it seems Grumpy Cat has a pretty good life and is generally quite happy. If that is so, she must enjoy being shown around and creating so much fuss. Poor dear. That would make me grumpy too!

On the readathon front, I just finished Jane Austen: A Life, and also enjoyed Mr. Wuffles! by David Weisner. I must say the Austen biography left me feeling a little bit blue, since of course it ends with her death and then that of her beloved sister's Cassandra, and the final appendix includes a short story about slavery that was published in women's almanacs in the early 19th century as proof that women were generally believed to be in favour of abolition. The story is of course terribly melodramatic, but also filled with harrowing details which certainly don't leave the reader indifferent.

Some comments from the heart about why I can't continue this book.

I think I need to take a break from Behind the Beautiful Forevers. I just left a message on Claudia's/Cee's thread telling her I was having trouble with it and saying I would persevere for a while, since she loved the book and chose it for me for my "Picked for Me" challenge, but even the thought of sitting down to draw and listening to more of this narrative is turning me off the idea of drawing, or doing any activity during which I usually listen to audiobooks, because it's such a punishing experience. In her review, Claudia says there is a message of hope in this book, about the resilience of people in the direst of circumstances I guess? She says; "Like the author, I don't just want to hear how horrible slum life is. I want to explore what hope and opportunities are available to lift up the undercities and promising individuals within. Boo tried to address this. Obviously, there is no magic cure." But I'm halfway though, and so far it just keeps building up one horrific incident on top of another. And Suz in her review said to "Look to this book for an unflinching glimpse of reality rather than an optimistic view of the future.". That's precisely what I don't want to be doing because it depresses the hell out of me, to be forced to look at all that misery and horror, and humanity in it's most debased condition. I don't even have the heart right now to try to describe the story, though perhaps I'll try later. It doesn't in the least make me feel better about my own life, or be thankful about how privileged I am, because I don't accept that humanity is so horrible as to allow this kind of atrocity to repeat itself over and over through the centuries and millennia. Honestly, it just makes me want to off myself, because why would I want to be identified with that vile kind of creature? No. Sorry Claudia, but I'll put it aside. This is what my nightmares are made of, and until I feel strong enough to take an unflinching look, I think I'll keep my head buried in the sand for a while longer. I'm off to write Claudia a note of apology, because I know she had the best of intentions when she recommended this book, and I feel maybe I'm not giving it a chance, in other words, terribly guilty, but between guilt and sinking down into utter despair... the choice isn't too hard to make.

>154 Smiler69: yes it did made me smile.

Just popping in and saying 'hi', ilina

>166 connie53: Hi Connie, glad she made you smile. She does that for me too, every time.

***

Well, I was feeling pretty horrible after writing the above in >165 Smiler69:, and then writing a PM to Claudia to apologize. Was in tears, actually. It's weird because on the one hand I can be the most thin-skinned person I know, and then on the other I can sometimes take the harshest things and barely blink. I was find with Blindness after years and years of putting it off out of fear, and it was indeed horrific, but somehow I ended up still liking it. I never do know what will work or not or what will set me off or not. It's very annoying, that.

Anyway, a friend just called as I was sniffling a little while ago and made me feel better (Kristyna, the friend I'm going to the concert with tomorrow), and then I hung the phone and looked at my "Picked for Me" challenge, remembering that lots of people had picked more than one book, and sure enough, Claudia had also chosen Coventry by Helen Humphries, which she has also sent to me during a Christmas swap. I switched it to the first list and be able to read one of her picks after all. Yay!

Now I worry about A Fine Balance though, because from what I hear it's similarly horrible like BTBF, but then, I can only try and see how I feel about it when I get to it. If that one doesn't work, Paul has picked plenty of others for me to choose from, besides which I've already read and reviewed one of his other picks, The Guns of August. Phew!

Hi Ilana- I was also a big fan of Behind the Beautiful Forevers. I did not find it depressing but there is plenty of sadness, no question. Hey, if a book doesn't work or puts you in a bad place, it's probably not worth continuing.
I know you were also having issues with Olive. Did that get any better for you?

>165 Smiler69:, another reminder that we all react to another story as individuals. I didn't feel that this was written to try to make me feel better about my own life -- or to make me depressed about someone else's -- but more as a kind of corrective to the kind of "oh it's all so easy to fix" mentality that afflicts parts of the world. To the argument that runs: If people only did this, or that, or the other, then there would be less poverty or sadness or cruelty, etc. etc. What it does make me think of is a poem written by Canadian poet Al Purdy back in the 1970s, that I read in 1980 or 1981, entitled simply "Poem", and that reads in part, "...whatever may be happening, the fear coiled in dreams or the bright trespass of pain/there is nothing at all I can do except hold your hand and not go away." In other words, that we recognize this happens while recognizing when it may be beyond our power to alter and understanding when it is within our power to affect outcomes, by respecting the dignity of those around us and doing what we can for those we know and love.

Clearly, there's no point in reading a book if it simply makes you feel more and more miserable. There's a reason why Plath's diaries have sat on my shelves, unopened for the last 30 years.

That said, what I read in Boo's narrative was a bit like what you see when you first put water on the hob to boil. You don't see the roiling boil. You don't even see a steady stream of bubbles flowing to the surface. You do see, here and there, without pattern and not in any kind of sustained way, a disturbance in the surface. In the community Boo looked at, she saw people who were working toward something better. They weren't getting there, but a generation or two ago, they wouldn't even have gotten this far.

The Jewel in the Crown can be fairly disheartening, too. The difference? It is set at a safe enough remove from us in time (as well as space) for it to be treated as truly fictional, and not something that could well be happening to someone in another corner of the world right now.

>115 Smiler69: I do like that emerging drawing of the man. (Why on earth is it that men ALWAYS feel the need to occupy half a seat to each side with their legs? I'm sorry, but no man on earth has THAT much that they need to accommodate...)

Have to confess I'm half envious of your ability to snap the pics and half trepidatious. I know that if someone took my pic without my knowledge and consent, I'd be quite upset, but that's my privacy junkie side talking, and I realize I'm the anomaly. Moreover, they're not identifiable, and these are works of art, so...

Can't wait to see how the series progresses -- you're really capturing a series of personality types, too!

Re Grumpy Cat -- have you encountered Henri le Chat Noir online as yet?

>168 msf59: Hi Mark, I'm not at all surprised that you liked Katherine Boo's book, but then, I've never seen your express that anything you've read has distressed you in any way and I know for a fact your read many books that I would think twice (or thrice) before picking up and probably would decided against in deference to my sensibilities. As you say, if it puts me in a bad place, it's not worth continuing. Goes for everyone I would say, and doubly so for someone who is genetically predisposed to depression.

Have to admit I set aside Olive for the past few weeks now. I commented on the readathon thread that I found it difficult going because rather bleak, and Deborah, who read it as an ARC seemed to agree with me, and pretty well summed up my feelings about unpleasant characters by saying "I find it hard to get into a book where the main character is not interestingly evil or amusingly nasty but just plain cranky". But then, it's not as if it affected me nearly as badly as Boo's book, and I want to finish it.

>169 Chatterbox: Suzanne, thanks for your comments on Behind the Beautiful Forevers. I've wished all my life I could grow a thick skin and be able to face harsh realities without cowering like a wimp, but I think my capacity for empathy is detrimental in many cases because I feel psychic pain when I read about cruelty and injustice on that scale. I could never have been a journalist or a nurse and been forced to face the harshest kinds of pain life can throw at human beings, it just makes me want to roll into a little ball and drop into a black hole. I guess, if I want to flatter myself, I could say it's part of my artistic sensibility, or more likely an expression of my neurotic fears about the world. I just feel too much. I'm always too aware of how bad things can be and are for many people on this earth. I have to always try to keep a couple of steps ahead of depression and this inability to deal with harshness (most of the time) means I have to be careful about not forcing things when they make me feel desperately unhappy. I read The Bell Jar when I was 16 and I remember mostly being a bit mortified because I felt here was someone who would have condoned my suicidal tendencies. Not the kind of mental state I want to leave an opening for. What I find most puzzling though, is that sometimes I can and do appreciate some very bleak and disturbing works precisely because I feel they touch me at the core and remind me that we are all fragile in our own way and I am not alone. I think of The Road and Blindness here in particular, which most if not all readers would agree are pretty heavy works of literature.

I haven't expressed my feelings about The Jewel in the Crown after my initial comments upon starting that book, but yes, it's not an easy ride there either. In fact, I'm really struggling with it and kind of forcing myself to get to the end, but again, the injustice, the prejudices, the constant tension of the time and place it describes are very troubling indeed. I think the main difference with Boo's book for me as far as approach goes (and of course knowing full well one is fictional and one is not), is that Boo goes into so much detail as to make the vileness of the place almost palpable. From the beginning, when she describes the kind of trash little Abdul has to sort through on a daily basis in order to just keep his family beyond the most basic of survival stages, I thought I was probably in trouble. I did not need to know all the details about what Fatima's burns looked like. I did not need to be repeatedly reminded about the stench of the water/sewage they were living by. I got it the first time, and at one point I literally felt like the author was taking me by the back of the neck and forcing my nose into it. Sensory overload. For a hypersensitive person, it's an intolerable feeling, and I don't mean to exaggerate, but almost a form of mental torture. So yes, at this point, I'm just content to know her work contributes to people's understanding and empathy for a large part of humanity whose life is constant suffering, but I'll do without every single detail about what exact texture the mire (not to use that other scatological word) these people have to tread in up to their necks on a daily basis is like.

Re your comments on >115 Smiler69: I don't think the snapping of the pics is something I should talk about anymore, because I know it's problematic in our day and age for many reasons. For me, it's simply a means to an end. If I had the kind of brain that could retain enough detail to enable me to draw people I've seen hours and days later, I'd be content with whatever amount of detail I managed to set down. My justification for taking the photos is I was raised looking at images by great masters of photography like Doisneau, Brassaï, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, to name just those. Candid photography as an art form, as opposed to the sleaze of paparazzi shots. But the point isn't the photos for me at all. Those will never be shown and in fact be discarded when I'm done. They are just raw material from which I can work. I'm inspired by people, and mostly by real people I see out and about, being themselves while they think they are unobserved. As an artist, that fascinates me and always has. Of course things have changed a lot since I was a child and there are now many limitations and clear guidelines to what constitutes privacy. My intention isn't to disrespect anyone, and certainly not to reveal anything shocking or sordid. I've had many years to think about this, since the early days when I was about 10 and my father gave me my first real camera (an Asahi Pentax which I still have). I've also thought a lot about this specific project for the last couple of year now, and I've come to the decision that in this case, I will simply trust in my own intentions and sense of decency in determining whether what I am doing is right or wrong. I now regret I've revealed that aspect about my work, because the truth of the matter is a large proportion of artists work from photos and simply don't reveal their process, and I don't mean to be raising all these controversial issues. Am I being defensive about it? I guess I am. At one point, when everyone was asking me whether I was working on photos and then wanting to know if my subjects knew and commenting on that, I got so discouraged I seriously thought of giving up, or putting animal heads on all these people; coming up with some fantastic creative solution. But that's not the point of this series. It's the first time I've found a project that really inspires me to this degree and that I've wholly committed to. We know a lot of fiction is based on real people, real incidents, but I doubt most authors ask permission from the subjects they are basing themselves on to create their realistic fiction. I see it the same way for my work. And that's my last word on the subject. All anyone needs to know from now on is that I'm deeply observant and stare at people all the time so I can create my own work from real life.

Not that I'm offended by your comments, please know that. I'm just taking this opportunity to say the last word on something that's been eating at me for many months now.

>165 Smiler69: So, so, so, so sorry, Ilana. Please check with someone else before you read Coventry. Please. I couldn't bear hurting you again.

I never felt this was an easy book. I never felt how nice it was to have a much better life and to be thankful for it. I never felt the problems of poverty, slums, and caste are in any way easy (or possible) to fix to any kind of satisfaction.

Here's the thing I now see is different in how we view the human race. I think you believe in its essential goodness... which is why this book depresses and hurts you. Would you say that is so?

In my view, I feel much more negativity about our species. I need to know that there actually are people (especially children) who do not cave in to overwhelming pressures - no matter where they are and what dire circumstances they fight. They can still dream and believe in themselves. The hopeful message to me is that there are those who persevere and give it their all. Despite the cost. Eventually, some will break through and make a difference. Maybe. Someday.

>169 Chatterbox: Good points and better expressed than my own words.

>171 -Cee-: I just sent you a PM Claudia, because you need not apologize to me. As I told you there, you only did what I asked, and chose a book I already own, and I always inform myself about any book before adding it to my collection, so obviously I had every intention of reading it sooner or later. If anything, it makes for an interesting discussion on how we view humanity and why we read...

I would not say I believe in the essential goodness of humanity, no. Only that I was once a very idealistic little girl who was raised on notions of peace and love for all and respect for self and all living creatures. Though I'm not religious, I guess I do have a deep respect for the miracle of life and it hurts me to see how little valued this miracle is by those who are in positions to make a difference. I abhor injustice, and I wish humanity would finally start learning from past mistakes and make things better for our collective good. But I know this is unrealistic. I know it's just wishful, childish thinking. I know humanity hasn't changed much over the millennia when it comes to the basics. I guess part of me remains a romantic and idealist. That part of me that wants to survive and keep trying. And I'm unwilling to give it up because I feel that part is what gets me through life. Without it, I would just get too discouraged. Not very practical I know. But the world does need dreamers, doesn't it?

I'm willing to give a try to many books, even if the subject is difficult because this doesn't automatically mean that I won't react well, not at all. I myself never know how I'll react (mentioning The Road and Blindness here as prime examples of big exceptions), and I don't want to limit myself too much and rule out everything which may or may not have a negative impact. So I'm glad I gave this one a try, but I'm also glad I'm at liberty to move on to something else. :-)

Now off to work on my drawing as I listen to a perfectly diverting Les trois mousquetaires, aka The Three Musketeers en français. :-)

right. keep moving. lots of great books out there.

*smiling cuz we are still friends*

Dropping out of lurk once more to say hello. You have more going on here than I can catch up with. You also pulled far ahead of me in *Jewel*. Did I say that it's my least favorite of the Quartet? It is the foundation, but I deal better with some of the other characters although some are featured all the way through. I'm ready for some discussion on the thread, but I have no ideas about jump-starting one.

>170 Smiler69: Completely valid points on the artistic goals and process behind the snaps, Ilana! And I would never for a second question your integrity or artistic intent or anything of that ilk. I've been watching my father take pictures since I was tiny, and have taken candid pics all my life -- indeed, the photographers of that "Time/Life" era, Cartier-Bresson, Capa, etc., are wonderful. I've got a fab black and white pic of a 1950s-ish skater on a vast expanse of ice, the wind whipping his long coat behind him, alone, looking off to one side as he skates past the photographer. I love looking at it and wondering...

I've also watched a friend of mine (who is a journalist) evolve as a photographer: http://starvehollowroad.com/

I just found myself thinking, hmm, on a very personal level, how would I feel to be at the other end of a camera lens? I suppose my response reflects my discomfort, generally, with that. I have a visceral dislike for having my picture taken and there are very few good pics of me as a result. So that may be part of it. There's also a young woman I met in Morocco who I spent some time talking to, who became very angry when she saw a bunch of tourists wandering around Jmaa al F'naa with their cameras at the ready, taking pics everywhere of quaint/interesting/distinctive faces. She said, "what would they think if we came to their country and stuck our cameras in their faces?" Of course, she was thinking of this as tourism, and in the context of the wealth gap (the subtext being exploitation and a degree of racism). I completely agree: I don't think you can or should let my response or those of anyone else shape or affect your own creative vision in this sense. You're not snapping their image "just because". It's the starting point for an artistic project. And there really is no way to get that completely unselfconscious look and have informed consent, anyway, so... C'est la vie...

Re thick skins/thin skins... Yes, that may be part of it. I vividly remember the first day I spent in Mumbai/Bombay. I was 15, and had arrived the previous night, driving past buildings that I thought were cattle sheds, then realized were where people lived. (This was back in 1977.) Woke up in my hotel the next morning to see people asleep on the street outside, getting up and rolling up their mattresses and walking off with them under their arms to go about their day. On one level I was horrified, of course: I had never witnessed that kind of poverty first hand. It was encountering something abstract made real. On the other hand, it was their real life, as mundane to them as my "real" life with my family was to me. I'm not suggesting that they accept, should accept, are content with, etc. the way things are, merely that their experience of it as a reality is going to be less of a horror-filled shock than it will be to us. Then, too, there are horrors and casual cruelties in our world that the people in Boo's world would find inexplicable, such as social isolation.

I take comfort in thinking that when books like Down and Out in Paris and London were published -- and those by Henry Mayhew, or Dickens' novels -- they were greeted with the same kind of reaction you've had to Boo's book: that of despair. And yet today, they serve more as artifacts of where we were, and have been, in some measure, a way to galvanize us to do better. I'm not going to suggest rubbing everyone's face in stuff is the right way to go about it, but a well-written and thoughtful narrative that examines these issues at least enables us to think through the problems with top-down solutions (which is a part of what Boo is condemning, although she's doing so implicitly and never explicitly.)

Ilana, there is so much to comment on here that I won't be able to do it justice, so here's a few thoughts off the top of my head -- and probably out of order. I wondered how you could draw such beautiful images while you listened to an audiobook. Now I see that dark and depressing books are out for that activity. Most of the books I read tend to be that way. You might want to stay away from Suttree even though it has the same beautiful prose that's in All the Pretty Horses. Love that 7/8 of a star tacked onto the other four stars. He is quite a writer!

Thank you for showing the progression of a lovely drawing. I do so admire your talent and hope that you get a one-woman show in that gorgeous building. I like to think of it as a library/gallery rather than a fire station.

I love Grumpy Cat!

Wow, lots of wonderful discussions going on here; I've nothing of substance to add, but just wanted to say hello...

>174 -Cee-: Thanks for the flowers Claudia. I should hope a little incident like that wouldn't ruin our friendship! xx

>175 LizzieD: Peggy, I just finished The Jewel in the Crown last night. Essentially, I liked the first section and the last section, and not so much what came in between, so I must say I'm glad to see you say it is your least favourite book of the quartet. I haven't known how to start the discussion either, but maybe the comment you've made to me here might be a good place to start over there too?

>176 Chatterbox: Suz, I must say I'm glad you understand my point of view. I've always wondered how those photography greats managed to grab the shots of people the way they did seemingly completely unobserved, especially considering how big and bulky cameras were in the early days. I never did have the nerve to point my camera into people's faces, save for a few occasions and always wished I could just grab shots by blinking my eyes. So many people I've seen and wanted to paint or draw, I'd had quite a cache of material to work with! I look forward to visiting that link you've given me. Time is short now, with a concert to head out to very soon.

I'm not sure how it came about, but somehow I've always been somewhat Victorian in my sensibilities. I think it must be because of that pendulum thing, coming from extremely liberal, almost anything goes kinds of parents and I've always been made fun of in my family by how easily I am shocked by things. I've got Down and Out in Paris and London on my audio tbl and look forward to it. Somehow I doubt it'll have the power to traumatize me since I'm quite sure there won't be anything like the level of detail Boo put into her book.

>177 Donna828: From the comments I've seen other LTers make about Suttree this month, I don't think I'll be adding that one to the wishlist or tbr anytime soon. I've got several other McCarthy books in my stacks to keep me reading for a while still. 'Dark and depressing' is the mode I look to reading to escape from, so hardly makes sense for me to plunge into it on purpose!

>178 scaifea: Hi Amber, thanks for dropping by. I do realize my thread is quite dense right now with some involved conversations, but I'll eventually be adding bits and pieces about reading and lighter stuff too, I promise!

Heading out to see Angela Hewitt play some Beethoven very shortly with my friend. I'm a bit mortified because I don't have anything to wear to 'nicer' outings. No nice slacks, no skirts or dresses I can wear in deep cold; most of my wardrobe doesn't fit me anymore and my winter boots wouldn't look good with a skirt or dress. Since cultural outings are now a regular part of my schedule, I'll have to buy a few nicer pieces so I can go out among a more sophisticated crowd without feeling inadequate. I've only been buying casual clothes since I stopped working in an office setting. I've squeezed into a pair of navy corduroys and a nice colourful blouse for now, which will have to do.

Having a lot of fun listening to The Three Musketeers!

Ilana Ahalan!!

I've been away from your thread for AGEs..so sorry - winter storms and full-on work stuff has had me cutting back on LT sessions in recent weeks, so I've only been able to get through a few posts at a time whenever catching up, before something gets in the way - like eating, or sleeping!! Sadly that means I've missed out on most of your 'part 2' and have only just caught up with 'part 3'. BUT I did manage to zoom in on your book reviews and art work as I scanned through what I'd missed.

First of all - I want to say that I think 'Girl With Pom-Pom Hat' is excellent. I'm so impressed, and I only wish I could see it in the flesh and really take in all the detail. And 'Man with Loaded Pen-Pocket' is looking like it's going to be just as beguiling. Keep it going!

I read Tenth of December towards the end of 2013, and I think we had a very similar reaction to that collection. Some stories were very strong, and really made a mark, while others - for me - verged on annoyance. Overall, a mixed collection, but one that does show that Saunders clearly does know how to write. Having said that, and given the mixed level of his pitch, I'm surprised that this collection has been quite so lauded as it has been - award shortlists and all, etc.

Your review of Rogue Male was great, and has me adding it to my wishlist.
Thumbed.

and...

Great review of All The Pretty Horses, which I also thumbed (I read the blog version). I've had it on my library TBR for a while, but I only just read my first Cormac McCarthy recently (No Country For Old Men) last month. I really 'enjoyed' that one - if that's the right word (probably not! But I was enthralled!) The writing was so powerful and resonant I thought. One word that kept on coming to my mind as well was 'cinematic'. I look forward to reading ATPH (and the whole trilogy) in the future, as well as checking out more of his work for certain.

>174 -Cee-: Nice to see those perfect little Frangipani flowers - they're one of my favourite small trees and I never see them around here in my part of the world...

All the best!

I am loving all the discussion regarding The Jewel In The Crown. This is a book that has had me run a gamut of emotions. I both loved it and hated it, found it a difficult read and yet a very accessible one as well. I think many are waiting to post anything at the Group Read thread so that they don't post any spoilers or throw anyone off their reading.

>161 Smiler69: Great answer on Cormac McCarthy, Ilana. Makes perfect sense.

BTW, I'm another one who thought Behind the Beautiful Forevers was stellar. An amazing accomplishment by the author, and unforgettable.

Stopping by to say hi.

>181 Polaris-: Ahalan ousalaam Paul! Lovely to see you in my little corner of LT! I know what it's like having real life stealing your LT time, so am grateful you've taken the time to visit.

Have you ever read Fox 8 by Geroge Saunders? I listened to it as an audiobook and I know it's available as a Kindle Single too. It was my introduction to his work last year and so far I think it's my favourite story by him. I was quite surprised to see Tenth of December had won the first ever Folio Prize because I really thought, as you did too, that it was quite uneven. Some of it I could have done quite happily without, but of course not everyone shares our opinion on it, as those things go.

Rogue Male will definitely figure in my favourite books of 2014 and I have every intention of revisiting it in future. On the other hand, the 1941 movie version Manhunt was so far off the mark, with an adaptation that had practically nothing to do with the book that I was unable to finish it, even in two sittings, because I was too frustrated with the extreme liberties they took with the story. Starting with the hero having a love interest tag along with him through most of the movie, making it into a romantic comedy which is completely contrary to the spirit of Household's original novel. Typical Hollywood BS!

I've got No Country for Old Men on the tbr. Got the audio version from the library. We need to find a word on LT to describe books that rub us the right way even when the stories can't be called 'enjoyable', because we all seem to have this problem when describing our experience with so many books that fit that category! 'Enthralled' is a good one, as are synonyms like 'captivated' and 'fascinated' and so on. I really hope I manage to fit in the rest of the Border Trilogy this year, but we'll see, because I've severely overbook myself as usual!

>182 DeltaQueen50: Judy, Love & Hate pretty much describes my experience with The Jewel in the Crown too. In fact, if I hadn't bought the two-volume omnibus edition already, and not been told by Peggy this first book was her least favourite in the series, I'm not sure I'd have been all that motivated to continue on, but as it is, I look forward to seeing how things develop. I can't remember now whether it's a first time for you or a reread?

>183 jnwelch: Joe, goes to show there is no arguing about tastes. I'm never going to say a book is not good because I didn't enjoy my experience of it, but it was obviously not in tune with my sensibilities. Maybe when I'm older and further desensitized than I already am (!), I'll be able to take in that level of detail about human suffering.

>184 Whisper1: Hi Linda! Thanks for dropping by. {{{hugs}}} xx

Had a great surprise today when I checked on my Amazon.ca shopping cart to see if there had been any price reductions on some of the items I have on hold there, and sure enough, found the DVD of the BBC's "Bleak House/The Old Curiosity Shop" combo (Gillian Anderson and Derek Jacobi versions) had been reduced by $20, from $39 to $19! So of course I pounced on it. To get free shipping, I also ordered one of the many Everyman's Editions currently also on hold in my shopping cart. It was hard to choose because I've probably got a couple of dozen options (including all of Jane Austen), but finally ordered The Reef by Edith Wharton which I haven't read yet. I'll eventually make my way through her complete works, as a long-term project.

Book #44: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ★★
Read for: Picked for Me by Pat/phebj, TIOLI Challenge #3: word in the title that starts with a vowel
Edition: Random House Trade Paperbacks (2008), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 304 pages
Original publication date: 2008

I can see why this story collection has been popular, but can't say it did much for me unfortunately. Too gloomy by far and I wasn't taken enough with the writing itself for it to take on any measure of beauty in the pathos. The novel is made up of a series of unconnected short stories, the only link between them being the character of Olive Kitteridge, a retired math teacher in the small town of Crosby, Maine. There is a progression in time, and some of the stories focus directly on Olive and her family members, starting with her husband Henry, a retired pharmacist who ran his own business for many years and is dedicated to Olive and their son Christopher, even though Olive has always been hard to get along with, prickly and contrary. Some of the stories centre on various characters in the town, the only link with Olive being they are ex-students of hers, one woman is a pianist at a nightclub Olive sometimes frequents with Henry, other characters have only briefly had an acquaintance with her in which case Olive only gets a passing mention. We see her relationship with her son over the years, with Christopher seemingly doing everything he can to detach himself from his parents—who have built him a beautiful house near them—marrying an unpleasant woman who makes him move out to California and then divorces him within the year. Henry has a heart attack and ends up in a convalescent home, where Olive visits him every day and talks to him, although it is not sure whether he can understand her or indeed can even still hear anything at all. I got the feeling Strout's intention here was to present slices of real life, with all it's large and small tragedies as a way to show the human condition, but I found it all too bleak by far and filled with depressing episodes, with hardly any lightness at all to lighten the mix or represent that even in the direst circumstances, there is always an opportunity to smile. We do see Olive at one point feeling optimistic and allowing herself to be gay, only for another family disaster to stomp out any possibility of joy to settle in her heart. I found she had little to no redeeming characteristics, not so snarky as to be humorous or outrageous, merely unpleasant and keeping everyone including the reader at a distance. The last story got close to revealing some sort of beauty, when she gets close to a neighbour whom she and Henry have never liked. They are both now widowers, and she finds him collapsed on the ground and as she's about to go find help, he begs her not to let him die alone, and he doesn't, after which they go out on a few dates together. Eventually Olive finds out he holds views, political and otherwise which she can't abide by, but both being in need for companionship, they agree to disagree and remain friendly all the same, and maybe even more? We are left with a question mark here, which is fine. And this last approaches a hopeful moment. Almost. But everything leading up to it has been so pathetic and sad that I'm left feeling just blue and disgusted. I've seen pathetic and sad up close and personal all my life, and hardly need to read about it to know the exact texture and feeling of it's unpleasant shroud. And there was not, in my eye, enough poetry there to make it an transcending experience. I know I'm disagreeing with lots of people here, since this book did after all garner the Pulitzer award, among other accolades and is beloved by many LTers. Sorry to Pat, who loved this book and chose it for me. There's never any knowing how we'll react to any given book, but I had been meaning to read it for years, more or less since it came out, so I'm glad I at least know what it's all about. Just not my cup of tea.

Hi Ilana. Got way behind - again!

Guess I am pretty glad that Behind the Beautiful Forevers will probably not be rising to the top of my TBR books for a couple of years yet. Right now is definitely not the time to be reading this kind of book.

And I, too, love your drawings - finished and not yet finished. I just really like looking at your work. It is very pleasing to me.

My best to Coco, Ezra and Mimi. And to you, too, of course...

I know we are definitely in the minority, but I did not really like this book either. We read it in my RL reading group and everyone was praising it. I didn't say much at our discussion and remember thinking as I finished the book 'Doesn't anyone stay faithful in a relationship?'

Your review very well summed up my feelings on this one. I was quite lenient (3.5 stars) on my rating for this one just because I felt guilty giving it less. I wanted it to be better. It should have been better. oh well.

>189 -Cee-: Claudia! We've been cross-posting! I was taking time previewing and editing my message to your on your thread just now! I felt guilty about my rating and almost gave Olive 3.5 starts to be kind, but then I use my ratings later on to help me remember at a glance how I felt about any given book and whether I want to pick up more in that vein or by that author, and I'd be doing myself a disservice. We never like to be the dissenting voice when a book is so generally approved of and liked, but then we are entitled to our opinion. I think, given the hand I was delivered in life and the experiences I've put myself through, I've earned the right to express my views, which I always make sure to state clearly are based on my own point of view and experience and don't reflect on the merit or lack thereof of any given work. You'll rarely, if ever catch me say "this is a good/bad book" unless the writing is really horrid, or the topic so unacceptable by most basic moral standards that we are all more or less bound to agree on that point of view. I've lived with depression and really difficult circumstances in my family and my private life, and I think I'm allowed to decide for myself whether or not I'm willing to accept other people's fictional stories as being ones that add or not to my overall outlook on the living condition, for what it's worth.

:-)

Happy St-Paddy's! Guess I should make a point to drink some beer today—off to get a Boddington's*!



*eta: hm, I thought it was Irish, but no. Not really fond of Guiness though, so it'll have to do for a corner shop purchase!

Hi Ilana- I think that was an honest and thorough review of Olive. You can't force yourself to like something that is just not there. It's been a few years since I read it but everything about Olive worked for me. I thought the writing was excellent.
Fortunately, we have many many other books we can agree on and just enjoy a discussion. Hope the next book works much better.

Yah, Boddingtons! I haven't had one in awhile.

>193 msf59: Hey Mark, given that we share close to 500 books, there is no doubt at all that there are probably quite a few we agree on, not counting the ones we have yet to add to our collections! :-)

Forgot to drop by the corner store when I went out with Coco earlier, so looks like the Boddington's isn't happening today after all, but I'll be sure to get some this week!

***

Yay, double bingo today!



Here are the two lines (only counting books rated 4 stars and up toward this challenge):

Horizontal:
One-Word Title: Nana by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓
Book of short stories: The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton ★★★★½
Free
Set on a different continent: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★
Non-Fiction: Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★

Diagonal:
Book my friend loves: Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat ★★★★ (my friend is Claudia/Cee)
Heard about online: The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard ★★★★⅓
Free
Female Author: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ★★★★½
Number in the title: 420 Characters by Lou Beach

I've already purchased one book today. I wonder if I should do like Judy and buy a book for every bingo I get? As if I needed an extra excuse! LOL

How do you get the circles on the Bingo card?

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★
Yes! I LOVED that one too.

I just got the complete works of Zola for about $2.50 Kindle
What should I read first? Nana?

>195 -Cee-: How do you get the circles on the Bingo card?

Claudia, I just saw a couple of minutes ago on your thread when I was looking for your rating on Grumpy Cat you'd decided to do the bingo too and were asking how to do that. I didn't answer there, because I use Photoshop, which I know most people don't have. But if you go on the Bingo thread, I think some people suggested some options there which are probably more accessible.

Lucky you about the Zola. However, not to be a downer, but I've read on Wikipedia that many of the English translations are very old, and so many of his books don't quite shine the way they aught to. I would suggest you start with the first in the Rougon-Macquart series (the link takes you to the LT page) which would be The Fortune of the Rougons, but if you're going to read them individually and don't want to bother with reading them in order, you might want to ask Paul, who I believe has read all Zola and might be better able to point to which might appeal to you most. That being said, I thought the first book was really good, and of course I love Nana though it's rather a sad story and pretty pathetic too, but quite a show!

Absorbing discussion here. I firmly believe, at this point in my life, that people 'take in' information at different rates, and that some of us, easily take in too much, can't process or cope with it and need to be careful.

I'm not sure where I land in the hopeless/hopeful department vis a vis human beings. I tend to have a somewhat practical view. When the resources are adequate humans behave quite decently to one another, culture flourishes, etcetera. When things are tough, all bets are off. Certain primates, say chimps, our closest relations, are quite violent and territorial, but they behave much better too, when they aren't anxious about survival..... it seems it is our 'task' as an evolving intelligence to learn to deal with who and what we are - and that empathy is probably the key. Some people may 'need' to read Boo or the The Road or whatever to be shaken up into thinking about these things. Some of us don't.

>197 sibylline: I firmly believe, at this point in my life, that people 'take in' information at different rates, and that some of us, easily take in too much, can't process or cope with it and need to be careful.

That's very interesting Lucy, and I think we see it the same way. Some people have an especially developed sense of smell or hearing or taste or vision, so that they can detect sounds or odours or flavours or colours and so on that the average person cannot. In the same way, some of us feel too much, and those who are wired like the norm can't have any idea the kind of experience it creates in certain situations. I also learned the word 'trigger' when I was following a day program for several month at a local mental health hospital here to help people with various psychological and mood disorders function in daily life, they taught us among other things to try to identify what situations were likely to 'trigger' whatever behaviour made us dysfunctional and to learn how to either anticipate or avoid those situations. I've gotten to know lots of triggers which make me depressive, and for the most part I operate on avoidance because I'm not quite sure how to deal with the situations all on my own. Whatever works, I guess.

Very good point about humanity doing better when resources are sufficient. I tried writing several things here in response, but they all ended up sounding like I have no idea what I'm talking about, so I'll keep it at that for now.

Am about ⅓ of the way through The Three Musketeers. I'm enjoying it well enough, but not nearly as much as I did The Count of Monte Cristo. Still, it's a good yarn and the plot has just thickened, which is promising.

As far as purchases go, $1 went a very long way today. Heather/@souloftherose posted a review of a gothic novel which is mentioned in Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (which is essentially a spoof on 18th century gothic novels), and listed other books mentioned in Jane Austen's book which are collectively known as the Horrid Novels. Looking up Kindle books on Amazon, I found The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) as I said, for just $1.
Here is the blurb from Amazon.ca:

A total of nine early Gothic novels are mentioned in the text of Northanger Abbey, although only the first seven have become known as the "Horrid Novels". This collection contains all nine works, including:
Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons
The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794) by Ludwig Flammenberg
The Mysterious Warning, A German Tale (1796) by Eliza Parsons
Horrid Mysteries (1796) by the Marquis de Grosse
Clermont, A Tale (1798) by Regina Maria Roche
The Midnight Bell (1798) by Francis Lathom
Orphan of the Rhine (1798) by Eleanor Sleath
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe
The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797) by Ann Radcliffe

I plan on reading as many as I can, if not all of them before reading Northanger Abbey a second time. I had already gotten Udolpho late last year as both an audio and a Kindle, and I'm all set now! I guess I'll have to make a challenge of it if I want to be able to read Northanger Abbey again within the decade! :-)

eta: Books purchased this year to date: 81

Metro Series #4: Man with Loaded Pen-Pocket. So far have put in about 30 hours. The scale and level of detail of the contents of the pocket were so mind-boggling I could only work on it about 45 mins per day after which I started going cross-eyed and a bit batty. Now I see I need to correct something too. Off to work on it.

You can view it larger over here: http://createthreesixty5.com/2014/03/18/work-in-progress-metro-series-4/

>200 Smiler69:..This guy looks cheeky

Ilana- I see Mr. Loaded Pen-Pocket is coming along! And I am glad you were immediately sucked in by Native Son. It's a powerful book. One of the very best American books, IMHO!

>201 Whisper1: He was an interesting character, that's for sure!

>202 msf59: I'm about to sit down and read from Native Son now, BEFORE getting ready for bed because I want to be able to sleep tonight! Something less agitating before sleep will follow. I know you're a huge fan of this novel, it's certainly very powerful so far, to be sure!

Man with Loaded Pen-Pocket is looking great, Ilana. I'll bet the scale and detail of the pocket contents were mind-boggling!

I'm glad you're liking Native Son. It's a knockout, IMO.

Hi Ilana!

>143 Smiler69: That Coco is such a cutie!

>155 Smiler69: Well! That rating for All the Pretty Horses makes me very glad I picked up a copy of this a couple of weeks ago. I don't know that I'll get to it in time for Mark's AAC but I will certainly read it this year.

>165 Smiler69: Sometimes you just have to listen to your heart. It's a challenging book and if you're not in the mental space, that is what it is. I doubt Claudia will need your apology as I know her well enough to know that she would want you to take good care of yourself rather than read something that sends you into an emotional tailspin. And she is not alone in that.

I finished "Book One" of Native Son last night and could hardly put it down. I had insomnia and wanted to sit up and read but I knew that would not help and I couldn't think of anything else on my vast TBR shelves that was a good fit for my mood and the time of night. So, I lay in the dark and worried. Great choice, right? (ha)

I hope you have a good Wednesday, Ilana!

>204 jnwelch: Joe, I went back and fixed whatever was bugging me about the contents of that pocked yesterday after posting the above and must say I'm very happy to be past that particular hurdle because it was rather mind-boggling. The other ⅔ of the drawing will be a breeze by comparison!

Native Son packs and punch and then some!

>205 EBT1002: Ellen, I knew you'd appreciate that close-up portrait of Coco. I might do a drawing from one of the pics I took during that session, eventually.

I ended up reading a small chunk more from Native Son in bed after all last night, and mercifully was able to fall asleep not too long after. But it definitely gets my heart rate up! I also read the intro last night and agree with Arnold Rampersad there is nothing to like about Bigger, and yet Wright keeps you on the edge of your seat, I guess like watching a spectacular accident happening in real time.

I love Mr. Pen Pocket!

Tempted to go on about triggers, but I'll spare you!

>207 sibylline: No, please do go ahead Lucy, that topic actually quite fascinates me!

I'm off to work on Mr. Pen Pocket now.

>199 Smiler69: And the obsession spreads :-)

>200 Smiler69: Wow! Both to the picture and the amount of work and detail you are putting in (although this is clearly paying off)

>209 souloftherose: I just thought it was such a great deal that I had to share it with everybody. The individual Kindle books are all over $5, and a couple aren't available at all, so the whole set for $1 is pretty amazing!

Thanks for the encouragement on the work Heather. I like this new approach I'm taking, trying to complete the image from one corner outward, which will seemingly take less time, but it's also extremely daunting and I find I can't work on it more than an hour at a time now before getting really tired and frustrated with it. I'll have to figure out what works best down the line as I try different things.

***

I just had a really frustrating exchange with my mother. When are they not, you might ask? She's been plugged into an Apple computer for decades now, making use of it on a frequent daily basis. But she's completely helpless on making use of the things. To her credit, she's held on to her various computers till many years after customer support became available, but apparently, though she knows how to do research at a professional level, she hasn't learned to google for things pertaining to becoming more computer literate. Which makes me crazy because she prides herself on knowing everything there is to know on subjects which are of interest to her. All this means that trying the simplest things becomes a major ordeal. She just got a new MacBook Pro this year and we haven't tried FaceTime yet, and now we can't because of some stupid technicality she could have gotten help with by just looking it up online or contacting Apple tech support. I've tried sending her songs via iTunes and she hasn't been able to get them become of again, some stupid glitch.

I don't know if this is a generational thing, but we're not talking about a helpless little old lady here. Anyway, I sent her a long email giving her a bunch of links to Apple support and given her a lecture on why she needs to actually make use of their services, because I've tried to get her to contact them many times before and she's forever putting if off. Last time I suggested she contact them was a few days ago, when she complained to me for the 50th time about having some kind of hackers who are apparently changing all kinds of things on her computer and messing with her various internet accounts all the time. I can guarantee if I had that kind of nightmare on my hands, I would have called Apple and DEMANDED they do something to rid me of that curse and PRONTO. Grrr.

Ok. Rant over.

>210 Smiler69: My mother, age 80+, also is not a helpless little old lady, but she is uncomfortable with the computer and with tech support. She reads manuals and can deal with basics. She’s OK following instructions until they don’t match what she sees on her computer, at which point she worries that she’ll mess up her computer if she clicks erroneously. Since her computer is now seven years old, this is pretty often the case. She is reluctant to call tech support because she doesn’t know the terminology to describe the problem or to understand the attempted help. Fortunately, she’s a mere three miles away from me, so drop-in troubleshooting is feasible. Recently I called tech support for her while she listened in. I hoped this would make tech support seem less esoteric, but instead she concluded that she could not have managed such a conversation. The solution was for tech support to take control of her computer and install something to fix the problem. This was a rather alarming prospect to her, and she was reassured that I was watching and commenting that each step was reasonable. My mother is perfectly competent and fully intact mentally, but she doesn’t feel that she has a solid intuitive grasp of computers, and she has reached a stage where the world is changing too fast and she is too tired to keep up with it. I am sympathetic to the abstract situation, but I get frustrated too -- just click the damn button and see what happens!

>211 qebo: Thanks for the sympathy and sharing your story Katherine. I guess I shouldn't be so impatient with her, but it just seems that everything is ten times more complicated than it need be. That my dad, who isn't the smartest person I've ever know, has trouble with basics I can understand and more or less accept, but in her case I just think she's almost keeping herself ignorant deliberately. Then it's always harder when it's our own parents because of course one sees things about oneself that is all too similar, which makes it doubly galling!

Ilana- You know I love hearing the Native Son praise. In nearly 6 years, being on LT, I've rarely heard this classic discussed. I wish I could have been organized enough, to join you guys. It would make a terrific G.R.!

>213 msf59: You're absolutely right Mark, there are plenty of talking points in Native Son. I finished part 1 and am about 50 pages into part 2 as of 5 minutes ago. Boy, he really didn't hold back when it came to the murder part! First he kills the girl almost unwittingly, but then chopping her head off!!! That couldn't be more deliberate if you tried!. The whole thing at this point is reading like a great thriller and it was hard to put it down just now. I'm always annoyed when there aren't any chapter breaks to help with reading sessions, but I can see it wouldn't have worked with this novel. Yikes! I definitely see why you're so enamoured with this book!

It's been at least 15 years, since I read it last, but Wright fuels everything, with such a red hot fury, it's like a powder-keg. I didn't think this happened to Bigger so early on, in the novel. Can't trust those white people. LOL.

Saw this on Photobucket today and just had to share.

>215 msf59: "Like a powder-keg" is exactly right Mark. I think that was exactly Wright's intention too—to wake up Americans from the complacency they'd fallen into thinking everything was just fine the way it was, though I'm not sure I'm describing it accurately.

Six books purchased online today, so nice little haul of books on sale:

ⓔ Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino
ⓔ Italian Folk Tales by Italo Calvino (both Kindle Daily Deals) - WL
♫ I Am David by Anne Holm - WL
♫ The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin - WL
♫ Maurice by E.M. Forster - WL
♫ Society's Child by Janis Ian (all Audible 2 for 1 Credit sale) - WL

All but one were on my wishlist, so altogether not bad at all! Only trouble is I'm itching to buy MORE and more and MORE books!

Books Purchased to date: 87

I love the update about Mr. Pen Pocket!

>216 Smiler69: Oh, they're real cuties.

>217 Smiler69: Only trouble is I'm itching to buy MORE and more and MORE books! Isn't that always the way? I find after a while that feeling gets replaced by book-buying guilt :-(

Ilana I'm caught up here now. I love your metro series. I know it can be controversial and since you've said all you were going to say about it please don't feel you need to respond to this portion of my post, but I absolutely love street photography and that is the vibe I love most about your Metro series. I don't mean taking photos of people and making fun of them but taking photos of people that evoke a time and place. On Instagram and EyeEm I follow street photographers in NYC, San Francisco, Portland, OR and London and you just feel like you are traveling with them and seeing the beauty of a city and it's people. I used to follow a taxi driver in Paris and his photos were so real. He stopped posting for more than a year so I unfollowed him. I also love to see the street photographers view of architecture and I absolutely LOVE your photos of buildings and and doors and windows etc… You are exceptionally talented.

ETA: Actually I just looked the taxi driver up again and he is posting again. How fun he can be!

You're reading is quite diverse. I love that you are daring and are willing to try any genre even if you don't' end up liking it.

Thank you for coming to check in on me and please continue on your artful journey.

>210 Smiler69: I have to confess that I'm a bit like your mother, Ilana. Technology stuff irritates and frustrates me; I'm not interested in acquiring knowledge for its own sake, and find it hard to make sense of what other people are telling me and that should be self-apparent (according to them). I can follow directions, obviously, and when something is important for me to do, I'll bring in the troubleshooting, but if it's not necessary to me, workwise, and it's not really adding to my quality of life, odds are I'm not going to bother. And in the latter case (such as my scanner having suddenly stopped working), I'm going to have someone (son of a friend) come by to troubleshoot and fix. He doesn't mind (he's a big fan of Tigger the terror cat) and it's usually something absurdly easy.

But the more impatient people become with me over something that they think I should rank higher in my list of priorities, the more irritable I become in response. I know it's a character flaw, but... To me, the computer is a tool. When I need to know how to do something, I learn -- like hosting webchats last year. Otherwise, I don't want to bother.

Going back to clothing for outings. Suggesting: get a nice pair of dark-colored jeans and then dress it up. I have some nice-ish cashmere sweaters and also some shirts that I've had made of Thai silk, both of which I can dress up with scarves, earrings, etc. I never need to worry about winter boots (and this winter, NOBODY worried about boots!) I probably wouldn't go to opera at the Met like that unless we were in blizzard conditions, but then again, I just might anyway, with the right accessories. Emphasize the accessories, and no one will even look at the rest, unless it's obviously old or ratty. You don't need to invest in new pants or skirts unless you want to or it will make you feel more comfortable.

>218 connie53: Thanks Connie! I keep taking pictures as it evolves to show how the drawing developed on my blog when it's all done.

>219 souloftherose: Glad you like my little young bucks. They make me smile. :-)

Book buying guilt usually hits me when I realize there really is no room to put them, so it's not so bad when I get eBooks and audiobooks, until I run out of credits on Audible!

>220 luvamystery65: I'm a bit sorry I dropped off posting on Instagram Roberta, but I guess I'm pretty much an all or nothing type, and when I was on Instagram it pretty much took over my life. Then it got to the point when I just wanted to do other things and I sort of forgot about it. It's a shame because there is so much talent to look at there, but I almost feel that if I start just looking I'll want to participate again and my artwork will suffer for it. If I were a more disciplined person, I'd find ways to make time for everything, which would really be the ideal solution.

>221 Chatterbox: Suz, I'm really sorry if I gave the impression that I want to learn anything about computers just for the sake of knowledge, because nothing could be further from the truth. I always give the car analogy, which is I like driving well enough, but don't ever ask me to look under the hood, and that's the way I feel about computers too. But if there's a minor or major glitch that's keeping me from doing things I want to use my computer for, then I won't sit around for months and years just ignoring it and not be able do do basic functions either. For instance, at one point my iTunes went all funny and every single track I tried playing sounded like it was coming in from a badly tuned radio. After a couple of days of this, I called in the Apple techs and talked to them about it, and within 20 minutes or so we'd had the issue resolved. With my mum, we're talking major issues like having malicious hackers going onto her desktop and rearranging files and messing up her various internet accounts so that she's lost access to blogs and things of that ilk. I've tried sending her iTunes tracks as gifts because she's a great music lover and she hasn't been able to access them because she can't recall what her user name and password is, when I know she'd be delighted to receive occasional gifts of music, and things like login and password information are the most basic kind of information you can readily access by clicking on a few links to make your life simpler.. These examples aren't even adequate, but I'm just trying to convey that she'll prefer to NOT address an issue at all no matter if all it requires is a 20-minute phone call, because she's determined in advance that it'll be too complicated and she'd just rather do without whatever 'it' is. Obviously, this goes into many other areas of life and I've suffered as a consequence when I was growing up under her care and so I have lots of resentment about this careless approach, especially when she ends up complaining to me about these problems non-stop and then ignoring my advice to seek for help via the right channels.

Clothing: I used to put a LOT of thought and care into how I presented myself, teaching myself from prepuberty from women's magazines and had all those wardrobe basics you could dress up or down with the right accessories, makeup, etc. Now I simply. can't. be. bothered. All I want to do is get into clothes in less than 5 seconds and move onto other things to do that are more interesting to me. And sadly, I can't fit into all those great wardrobe basics I had, like those great dark jeans and LBD and whatever. So I'll either have to do something about it, like try to drop some weight, or buy a few pieces at my current size, or stop complaining about it and just wear one of two pairs of battered jeans that fit to see opera at the local cinema and bear the disapproving stares of proper older ladies.

Just got City of Thieves as a Kindle Daily Deal. I remember Donna specifically loving this one, since I have her as a recommender in my tags.

Native Son is practically unputdownable, but for the fact that I really do have to take breaks because of it's sheer intensity. I can't say I'll feel at all sorry for Bigger when he gets what's coming to him. The man is a savage and dangerous beast and needs to be put out of his misery.

Sense & Sensibility is the perfect counter-point.

The Colossus of Maroussi is proving less enchanting this time than when I first read it around 1998-99 having just come back from a 5-month stay in Greece and Crete in particular. And so I'm practicing with trying to speed up my reading to what it used to be like when I was much younger, when I could just scan sentences with my eyes and didn't have to try to sound out every word in my head before it registered. I'm only moderately successful with it at this point.

>221 Chatterbox: To me, the computer is a tool. When I need to know how to do something, I learn
I’m a computer programmer and I have pretty much the same attitude. At some level, I just want the damn thing to work.

>222 Smiler69: I have lots of resentment about this careless approach, especially when she ends up complaining to me about these problems non-stop and then ignoring my advice to seek for help via the right channels.
So it’s not so much the computer issues. The complaining-and-advising pattern doesn’t sound so productive...

>222 Smiler69: Just buy one pair of dark jeans at current size, one nice black cashmere turtleneck, ditto, and you're done. earrings and scarves don't change sizes. :-)

Feeling really low today, don't know why, but I've just sat down for a while looking at some of the great picture books I've been bringing back from the library lately. I won't count those toward my 75 this year, but I'll try to mention them once in a while.



One Gorilla by David Browne is 'just' a counting book, but the illustrations are truly astounding, and as it turns out, it has a message to deliver in the end too. One thing that really makes this book a standout is how much individuality he puts into every creature, and combined with the level of detail and the beauty of the images, it makes you want to look at each spread a long time.

The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline is about an old man telling his great-granddaughter about his life of growing up illiterate and extremely poor in Italy and then their immigration in the US and finding his own way. This he does by showing her her "matchbox diary" which is a collection of small objects kept in matchboxes to remind him of different episodes in his life. I'm a big fan of Ibatoulline's and he delivers another beautiful project with this book.

Mr. Wuffles by David Wiesner is lots of fun. Our hero Mr. Wuffles is a bored housecat who isn't inspired by any of his toys until he discovers a new plaything which turns out to be a cat-toy-sized alien spaceship. The aliens need to make a run for it before Mr. Wuffles tears them to bits and make some interesting encounters with earthly critters. I've borrowed several Wiesner books from the library over the past few years and this is among his best. I join Linda and Pat in recommending this one.

Those are all gorgeous illustrations! The *Matchbook* one especially looks like something we might have around here or used to have around home.

Hi Ilana, I'm going slow on The Colossus of Maroussi as well, it's not that I'm not enjoying it, just that I'm finding myself in a slight reading funk with several books started and hardly any progress in any of them for the past couple of weeks. So don't worry about finishing it before the end of the month because I probably won't.

Great lot of illustrators that you've featured. I enjoyed the artwork in The Matchbox Diary too and Anthony Browne can do no wrong. I must take a look at Weisner's Mr Wuffles.

Native Son is now on my tbr list.
Thanks for posting the lovely illustration found in One Gorilla. I'll see if the library has this one.

>224 qebo: We've had trouble communicating for quite a few years now. When she complains to me about things I think I might be able to advise her on, I do. But honestly, all of it gets much too complicated in my head. Too many layers of issues upon issues. It would be nice if at least I was able to help her resolve the issue of a forgotten password, maybe as a small gesture, to get at least one small fixed?

>225 Chatterbox: Suz, I guess I'm doing ok, since I've got the black cashmere turtleneck covered. Just those dark jeans in my current size to buy I guess. J Crew, here I come!

>229 LizzieD: I'm glad you enjoyed the illustrations Peggy. I've always been very fond of illustration and there is so much talent out there to get inspired by!

>230 avatiakh: Kerry, I really don't know about Colossus this time around. I really loved that book when I read it the first time, but this was at a very different period in my life and I'd just come back from Greece and loved to read philosophy and random observations on life, which is more or less what this book seems like to me this time around and so far I'm finding it's just not grabbing me. If anything, I think I just want to finish it as quickly as possible so I can move on to something else. Maybe it'll grow on me as I get further into it.

I have you to thank for introducing me to Anthony Browne. I'll definitely look for more of his books at the library.

>231 Whisper1: Linda, Native Son is a very powerful experience. It's so intense and I feel like my heart is racing as I'm reading it, and it's very difficult to put down. It would definitely make for a great book club choice because there are lots of things that make for interesting discussion, and the character of Bigger Thomas is one that is hard to grasp. On the one hand you want to be sympathetic to him because of the prejudices he's fighting against, on the other he really behaved like a monster. I keep going back and forth. Nothing gentle about this book to be sure, but I'm deeply engrossed in it. I'm really glad I'm also reading a Jane Austen novel as a counterpoint and will probably want to land on something equally soothing when I'm done with it, but yes, it's definitely a recommended read.

I hope your library has One Gorilla. It's a real joy to look at and I will indulge again at least once or twice before returning it.

I think Mr. Wuffles may have to pay a visit to my friend Theo's home. At almost six, he's reading early chapter books, but the combination of cats and aliens would be perfect....

*Happy weekend wave*

>233 Chatterbox: Suz, I think Mr. Wuffles has the right combination of wonder and fun to please children of all ages. I'm sure Theo will enjoy it.

>234 wilkiec: Thank you Diana, I wish you the same!

Book #45: Slightly Foxed: No. 18: The Sensation of Crossing the Street by Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★⅓
Edition: Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly (2008), Paperback, 96 pages
Original publication date: 2008

I discovered this wonderful little quarterly last year when I became a member of the Folio Society. One of the perks of membership is the Folio magazine, a small and lavishly illustrated biannual publication with articles on a variety of topics loosely connected the world of Folio, with articles by various authors and contributors. In the first such magazine I received there was an advertisement for Slightly Foxed which so effectively grabbed me that I decided then and there that I needed to order a trial issue. Published in the UK since 2004, the publication itself is really lovely. Just 6 x 8" and printed on good cream-coloured paper with cover illustrations by different artists and charming black and white spot illustrations throughout, it's got everything going for it as far as aesthetics go. But the contents are what keeps you coming back for more. Written by passionate book lovers, most of which are published authors, it contains articles about old favourites from well-known classics to rather obscure, now out of print gems. You might ask why an LTer exposed to a daily dose of reviews by friends and acquaintances would willingly pay for an overseas publication to read yet more reviews about old favourites, but the quality of the articles, which in themselves make for very pleasant reading, and the range of books covered, many of which I would never have heard of otherwise, is reason enough. The kind of little publication that had me brave the claustrophobic feeling induced by my closet-sized bathroom and had me start taking baths again after over 12 years just so I could enjoy the pleasure of a reading session in my minuscule tub.

Issue No. 18 had a lot to keep me gratified with several articles on favourite books and authors, the first of which is "The Sensation of Crossing the Street" with author Sue Gee writing about her first experience reading Mrs Dalloway in 1968; another article by ex-foreign correspondent Chris Bird, is about Ryszard Kapuściński's work, a recently discovered an now beloved author—which I should mention I first came across via the Folio Society and a gorgeous edition of Travels with Herodotus—which had me swearing I would eventually read his entire bibliography, or at the very least those books mentioned; The Emperor Shah of Shahs, Another Day of Life, The Soccer War, Imperium and The Shadow of the Sun. But then part of the fun of Slightly Foxed is reading fascinating articles about works I knew little to nothing about and may or may not read someday, with, among others, Memoirs of a Buccaneer: Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, 1697, Ernle Bradford's Ulysses Found, Ludwig Bemelmans's Hotel Splendide and a article about Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series, famous in the UK of course, and which gave me a long-time fan's insider perspective.

I could list what the contents of my first trial issue was, but then I might as well just supply a link to the recently published An Index to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly, published this year to mark their 10th anniversary. I'd barely finished reading that first trial issue that I became a subscriber and then set about collecting all the back issues I could get my hands on. These are, wonderfully enough, always available for purchase because kept in print by Slightly Foxed, but also found on the secondary market for the most part, though I'll have to obtain the first three years worth via SF directly as they are almost impossible to find on the net other than at impossibly inflated prices. One of the dangers once one gets addicted to these lovelies though, is that they also publish limited editions of otherwise out of print autobiographies that are imminently collectible, printed on the same creamy paper, in a small pocket-size cloth-bound hardcover format, and once those are sold out, available as equally appealing small paperback issues. I now have a full set of the quarterlies, starting from issue 16 to the latest, issue 41, and a growing collection of their SF editions. I alternate between reading the latest releases and catching up on the back issues, so these are now a permanent fixture in my bathroom. But wherever you end up keeping them in the house, once you start reading this little gem of a publication, odds are you'll want to keep reaching out for them again and again.

Yes, you MUST read Kapuscinski!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and William Dalrymple's books, especially his earlier books, and especially From the Holy Mountain.

I think I'll have to put "Slightly Foxed" on my Xmas/bday prez list. Though since no one gets me gifts any more, I'll be buying it for myself when the time comes!

I'm a great fan of Anthony Browne too.

>237 Chatterbox: Suz, reading Travels with Herodotus got me to purchase The Histories which I'd never considered before, though have yet to read. I remember now that when I read Chris Bird's article, I'd kept the following paragraph in mind as eminently quotable, but I read it a while back and forgot all about today when I wrote the review. May add it to my blog post though:

"In [Ryszard Kapuscinski's] books, there is none of the familiar name-dropping bravado of correspondents' memoirs, which date almost as quickly as their news pieces. Machine guns probably did answer the clatter of Kapuscinski's typewriter on numerous occasions but this was just what he wished to escape in his books. He wanted to turn his back on the white noise of events and capture the human struggle as lived by the majority across the globe. His lean books, influenced by Gabriel García Márquez among others, say more about the dynamics of dictatorship and Thrid World poverty than a library full of earnest development journals and academic tomes, and all in vital, glittering prose."

I was also so on Kapuscinski before reading this article, but that pretty closed the sale!

Do yourself a favour and order an issue soon. You can get them at a reasonable price and often for free shipping since you're in the US.
Try here: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&kn=q...
and here http://www.ebay.ca/sch/Books-/267/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=slightly+foxed&L...

>238 SandDune: Yes, you remind me I mean to borrow more of Anthony Browne's books from the library. I've got quite a lot of illustrated books at home right now, so I'll wait till I've gotten through those, but definitely want to see more of his work! Have you read his Playing the Shape Game (A life in picture books with the children's laureate)? The blurb makes it sound like something I'd probably enjoy: "Anthony Browne is one of the world's most celebrated creators of picture books. This memoir features over 200 illustrations and shares insights into his childhood, his training, and his career as an artist."

Hi Ilana- I like following your illustrated novels. You find some interesting ones. I love my GNs and always try to read at least one at all times. I don't count them toward my reading totals but they are an important part of my reading life.

I am glad to hear that Native Son still fascinates...

My dear Ilana there is so much to digest here having caught up with your thread and read each and every post with interest that I don't quite know where to start. I'm not going to go back up and re-link every comment so I hope you'll be able to follow me:

A Fine Balance - Don't let the Katherine Boo book put you off. The latter wasn't much my cup of tea either although I did get through it. The Rohinton Mistry novel is just storytelling of the most sublime, engaging and touching type. Please read it.

I don't think that it matters overly which Rougon-MacQuart you start with, they are all pretty good. I started with La Bete Humaine and then read Germinal, La Terre, Nana, L'Assommoir, The Debacle, Joie de Vivre, Pot-Bouille,..............it doesn't matter for once.

I am another in absolute thrall to your Metro series....hopefully one day I'll get to ride that train.

Have a lovely Sunday and keep your chin up, dear lady.

Beautiful sunny day here, though looking out the window at all that light isn't doing my head any good, so I don't look out much. Besides which, the scenery isn't much different from what it's been in past months, with the recent snowfall still blanketing everything. However, spirits are decent, I'd been feeling quite depressed this week, but today there is a glimmer of hope. If only because it's a new day and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to fit in everything I want to do.

I surprised myself by finishing Native Son yesterday. Surprising because I had close to 100 pages left and I rarely read much more than 30 pages in any one sitting. Needless to say, it was a riveting read. I'll keep further comments for my review, which I may or may not write today. Didn't mention I'd finished The Three Musketeers the previous day. Maybe I'll write a few comments on that one too later. On audio, have now moved on to How It All Began by Penelope Lively, which I know Bonnie/brenzi really loved recently. Really enjoying my second reading of Sense & Sensibility too, which is going very slowly at about 3 short chapters a day to allow me to take plenty of notes for my tutorial with Liz.

***

>240 msf59: Mark, I must say many of those children's book finds are largely a result of recommendations by Kerry, and Linda. Then once I've found an illustrator I really like, I look up whatever else they've done. Our municipal library system is very well stocked with children's books, so I find almost everything I want there. Not doing as well with GNs thought, as it's been a long while since I've read any of those, though goodness knows there are quite a few on my wishlist, which have mostly landed there because of you, which I fully intend to get to eventually.

>241 PaulCranswick: Paul, must say I'm amazed and flattered and well, amazed you've taken the time to read each and every post. Am far from expecting that from anyone, especially on this particular thread where there have been many very involved conversations and confidences.

I'm relieved to know at least one other person wasn't in love with Boo's book since up till now, it seems like everyone agrees on how fabulous it is. Worry not though, because having had the opportunity to think about it, I decided I MUST give a chance to A Fine Balance. Love of this book seems too universal for me not to at least give it a try.

I'm reading the Rougon-Macquard series in order, but that's because I've been made familiar with Zola's work since high-school French class and had read several in the series since my teens, and now wanted to experience them as he had conceived the structure of this work, which was to demonstrate the effects of genetical predispositions within a family and I find it interesting to follow the members of this dynasty down the line. I believe it was Claudia who was wondering what she should start with and I agree with you that they all stand alone very well.

Thanks so much for your compliments on the Metro series. It's quite an involved project and will take me at least a couple of years to complete, more, probably, but I think I'm pacing myself well so I can hang in for the duration. Approaching it like a marathon as don't want to tire myself out too early in the race. I also really want to take on other projects, perhaps writing? and of course still leave plenty of time for reading and my friends here on LT, not to mention RL activities, so patience is required on my part with my drawings. It's always nice to complete a project, but I've learned with time that it's much more rewarding to just sit back and enjoy the process. Of course I would be delighted to have you visit Montreal and would love to mark the event with a drawing of you on our Metro. ;-)

Read the computer stuff with great interest. It's funny because I feel that I am right in the middle techno-wise - that is - my daughter thinks I am an imbecile and Anne, my host in Florida, the widow of the man whose trilogy I'm writing the 3rd book of, thinks I am a genius.... She is 81 and tries so hard to deal with her computer, but she is so intimidated by it, she can barely do anything. And I behave exactly the way my daughter does toward me when she timidly asks me if I would mind doing xyz for her. (I sigh, roll my eyeballs, etc.)

So that leads me to think it is some kind of ..... something, I don't know what. Then I think of James Thurber whose grandmother would go around putting covers over unused electrical outlets, sure that electricity was 'leaking out' - probably a worse fire hazard than anything!

As regards calling the technical folks - both my spousal unit and the LD are quite good at doing this, and I am not. I am also not all that good at talking to the car mechanics and medical people when it relates to my car or my health..... I get rattled and yes, I assume ahead of time, that the whole enterprise will be a big fail.

That said, your mother's password problem is probably resolvable. I put in a password for my i-phone for downloading apps one night at about 1 a.m. when I couldn't sleep and didn't write it down. So of course I forgot what it was. It took me months to figure out why, when I wrote to ask to get the password changed, I would hear nothing from them..... well.... it turns out because I have two email accounts, one that I rarely use on gmail, that I don't have linked to my other account for security purposes, they were sending the link for redoing the password to that first account - and it is also only good for two hours, that's all, so you really have to sit there and take care of it immediately.

To get hackers out of her computer all she probably has to do is change all of her important passwords, and then log out and turn off her computer every time she stops using it for a month or two. I think there are hacking programs out there that just move on to easier prey when you do some basic things to get rid of them. Last time I went through JFK I forgot to turn off my computer and I noticed some things weren't quite right when I got home so that is what I did and bingo! Everything was cool again.

Woo hoo! How exciting (not). I've spent part of the day now taking pics of my laptop and looking up the going rates as I want to sell my MacBook Pro now I'm all set up with my iMac.

Just posted the following on Facebook, and sharing here too:

I'm selling my 15" 2011 MacBook Pro (2 Ghz Intel Core i7/8GB (upgraded)/500GB High Res Glossy). It's in mint condition and comes in the original packaging with AppleCare too. More photos available. Pass it on if you know someone who might be interested. I'm in Montreal, so pick up is ideal, but I'm happy to ship anywhere at cost. Will be listing it soon, so first come first serve!



Off to do more fun stuff now, with what little time is left of the day, like drawing.

>239 Smiler69: I haven't seen that one but I come across Voices in the Park, Gorilla, My Dad and The Tunnel. And also Willy's Pictures which I particularly liked.

>243 sibylline: Lucy, I'm suspect I must be a techno retard compared to the young'uns, I'm sure those teen to 30somethings could kick my butt because I just manage. I'm the same way when it comes to health. I try to avoid doctors as much as possible because I've found for the most part that they are too rarely helpful and usually send me on my way with a clean bill of health or shrugging their shoulders because they have no idea how to help me. I'll forward that bit of advice you've given me about hackers to my mum. Somehow thought, when I specified 'malicious' hackers, I meant just that, because it seems whoever is doing it has really targeted her specifically and is trying to mess with her head. But then I'm not exactly clear on what is going on either.

>245 SandDune: Thanks for the suggestions Rhian!

>216 Smiler69: Awwwww....

Mr. Wuffles looks a lot like my Abby. I need to read it next time I see it in a bookstore....

Am rather miserable with a really bad head this morning. Not sure what to do with myself. Tried to read and post some here, but reading isn't eye-friendly right now. Maybe lie down on the couch and listen to an audiobook, or try to draw, which often gives me relief while I'm doing it at least. Urgh.

I hope your head feels better, Ilana!

Thanks Connie, better than earlier today, yes, thank heavens. I was a sorry sight there for a while.

Okay, here I am - attempting to catch up on your thread. I might have to comment in bits as I make my way through it, dear, but rest assured, I shall catch up with you!! Hoping that Monday has been kind to you - is your head feeling any better?

I suspect we were cross-posting my dear Mamie. Yes, better thanks. There's an awful lot to catch up on here and I don't know that it's necessary! I won't feel hurt if you decide to hold off for my new thread, I promise! :-)

We did cross-post! I will skim here and be sure to keep up with your next one. Glad to hear that your feeling a bit better.

If anything, you might want to read my reviews. That I'd definitely find gratifying! :-)

You got it!

Hi Ilana- A Fine Balance! A Fine Balance! Yes, I am relentless. That book still lingers with me, nearly a year later.
Looking forward to your thoughts on Native Son.

Hi Mark, I was thinking of writing my review for Native Son today, but I think I'll let it stew for a day or two more, besides which I want to spend time drawing today, then read S&S for my tutorial. I'll be sure to let you know when it's up. And yes, I well remember you being a great fan of A Fine Balance. I will definitely give it a chance this year.

Okay, so I have caught up to >82 Smiler69:, and I am stopping there to comment before reading your next review. I thought your review of Rogue Male was really great - I am adding that one to my WL and thumbing your review. I had never heard of this particular book before, and I was drooling over your Folio edition - just gorgeous! And I loved what you said in >61 Smiler69: about comfort reads: "In a sense, this was absolutely a comfort reading experience, and I struggled find words to explain how that can be when the novel in question treats on harsh subjects; torture; hunting; being on the run; fear; stench; extreme physical and mental discomfort, just to name a few!" I know just what you mean by that as my comfort reads tend to lean to murder and mayhem, which always cracks me up!

About the Dad drama - I so get where you are coming from because I had to just completely end my relationship with my mom many years back. Best thing I ever did - some people don't know how to NOT hurt you, but that doesn't justify the hurt happening or mean that you should put up with it. Toxic relationships eat us up from the inside out, and so, when you have had enough, it is okay to say, "no more". That's your right, and you don't have to feel guilty about it - you are simply saying that you choose not to be hurt in that way anymore. I can't tell you what to do, only you can figure that part out, but I can say that for me letting the relationship go was a gift to myself. Please know that whatever you decide, I will be thinking about you and keeping you in my heart.

Tomorrow I will be back to read your thoughts on The Guns of August - looking forward to that as I have that one in the stacks. Hugs to you, dear!

Ilana, I'm sorry you are experiencing another migraine. There's no doubt they are nasty and debiliating. Frozen peas are my best friend when I have a migraine. Also, fiorcet works magic for me.

Some of the meds are very expensive and my experience is that it takes a while until the right prescription is the one that helps.

Thinking of you and sending healing thoughts.

>258 Crazymamie: Mamie, I'm very touched that you've decided to read through the whole thread after all. Rogue Male is one of my favourite reads so far this year and I think you will enjoy it too. As for my dad, we spoke on the phone a couple of times since then, after he responded to an email I sent him saying I thought it was best if we parted ways by saying that he'd respect my wishes but didn't think we had to cut things off completely. This has been an ongoing issue most of my life and the only reason I find it hard to cut him out is because I know he really does love me and once in a while when we manage to connect it really feels good. But beyond that I don't know what else to say or do about the situation. I'm really grateful that you've shared your story about your mom. For some reason, as I was going through the latest drama with my dad, I was thinking of you and envying the relationship you'd had with your father, but of course wasn't considering that things with your mom were bad enough for you to have ended that particular relationship. We all have our struggles, and some of us (you, for instance) are evidently better equipped to deal with them.

>259 Whisper1: Linda, my neurologist is away for a couple of weeks, but I am seeing a different kind of head doctor tomorrow, so will ask her to prescribe me some fioricet. I've never tried that before and hopefully it might do the trick. I don't have the heart to put anything frozen on my head in the winter because I keep my apartment on the cool side and am always dressing up to keep warm, but when I go outside on days when the migraine is particularly bad I do take off my hat and go bareheaded for as long as I can stand the cold, and must say it does seem to help. Thanks for the healing thoughts dear lady. xx

If you get the fioricet, make sure it's the variant with codeine (just my tip...) I'm not sure that the fioricet with codeine vs. fiorinal with codeine is available in Canada; if not, I used to take Fiorinal c 1/2. It's slightly tougher on the stomach than the fioricet, but definitely manageable unless you're prone to ulcers or something. I find it's more effective than Tylenol 3, and more targeted at head-style pain than Vicodin, but doesn't send one into la-la land the way that something like Percocet or Oxycontin would.

Do try an ice pack. I know it's painful at first; what I do is to put it inside a flannel pillowcase to cushion the immediate blow. That is the single best non-medical thing I can do for my migraines (besides sleep and dark rooms).

I'm doing OK, but am starting to wonder whether Topamax is doing a number on my mood -- I'm falling into a depressive black pit, which is a bit scary.

ETA: I heard back from Dave today; he couldn't find copies of the Balkan Trilogy audiobooks anywhere he hunted... So you may have to bite that bullet. Unless you tried interlibrary loan??

Suz, I've made a note of asking for either fioricet or fiorinal, with codeine in either case, depending on which is available here, thanks for the tip.

I did the dark room for a good part of the day today. Sleep is a good escape, except for the annoying tendency for me to have nightmares about me having a migraine and the world going berserk while I keep passing out from pain. Ugh. I will ice packs a chance again, but am about to take Coco out for our brisk night walk so will keep my head uncovered for a bit.

Bad news about the Topamax, if that is the cause of the black pit visiting you. Is depression one of the known possible side-effects? I'm not sure what your situation with neuro is like at the moment, but can you get something else prescribed instead if it is? I don't know about you, but if I had a gun to my head and was forced to choose between depression and migraine, I'd go for the latter. At least with migraine I only want to kill myself some of the time. :-|

No worries about the Balkan Trilogy. Of course it would have been nice to have on audio, but I'm thankful you and Dave even looked into it for me, but I didn't expect anything to come of it really. I'm just hoping it'll become available on Audible again eventually. If it shows up, you can be sure I'll pounce on it!

I'm supposed to call the neuro this week, so I'll ask. It might be possible to combine this with Wellbutrin, I suppose. I'm really not sure about that tradeoff, to be blunt. At least if I only feel mentally suicidal, I can give myself a stern talking to. It's hard to tell from the info that's available publicly, and I also don't know how much to attribute to the Topamax and how much is just me! Too bad I have to concentrate on earning a living...

Hi Suz, well as it turns out, I had to cancel my appointment with my head doctor today because the migraine was so bad all through the night that it kept waking me and didn't improve upon waking either. But I did reach her and ask her to call in the pharmacy with a fioricet or fiorinal prescription. I'm still waiting on her to fax it in to them. Meanwhile I slept in my darkened living room for 3 hours and the pain has lessened somewhat now, thank heavens. Sleep doesn't usually help anything, but I guess time heals all, more or less, if I'm being optimistic. Adding Wellbutrin to the mix might be a good idea if it is indeed the Topamax making you feel this way, and for that matter, even if it isn't... no reason why you should remain sunk in the depths of despair if you can get a bit of a lift that way. I've been taking it for years now, along with a large dose of Effexor. Don't want to even imagine what I'd be like without them. Been there, and it wasn't pretty.

Reading: I just finished How It All Began by Penelope Lively on audio last night. I thought it was good, but not great (unlike Bonnie, who I know really loved it; I usually agree with her on lots of books, but not always, obviously), but am glad I read it all the same. Have put aside The Colossus of Maroussi for the past few days, somehow am not in the mood for Miller's flights of fancy right now, though he has worked for me in the past, so it's probably just the wrong timing right now. In the meantime picked up a book that's been sitting on the tbr for a long time, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling. So far it's good fun. The large script is helping, since the migraine's been rather mean these last couple of days and it also features some wonderful b&w illustrations. May try to write some reviews today. Not sure I'll be able to accomplish anything at all though, considering the state I'm in, so we'll see. Not sure what to pick up next on audio... always love that moment when there are literally limitless possibilities!

>226 Smiler69: Sorry to hear you've been feeling low Ilana but the picture books look lovely and I've realised that One Gorilla would make the perfect present for some primate obssessed friends who are expecting their first baby.

>228 Smiler69: And I'm really tempted by Mr Wuffles too. I'll have to hunt around at the library (for some reason I always feel slightly embarrassed to be browsing the children's picture book section without a small child)

>236 Smiler69: So far, I have avoided the SF magazine and books - I really don't need another thing that will add to my wishlist although it sounds lovely.

And sorry to hear about your migraine - I hope the head doctor tomorrow can help.

>265 Smiler69: Heather, I don't have to feel embarrassed spending time in the children's section because I do all my searching on their online catalogue, besides which it gives me access to all the books in the library system and not just those at my local branch. Even if I did go browse there, I'd pretend I was browsing for imaginary children and would probably do ok with it! :-)

***

I forgot to mention in my reading news that I just got approved for a novel I'm pretty excited about on NetGalley called The Quick by Lauren Owen: "An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London". I don't want to look at the reviews so far as don't want to be influenced. I'm surprised they approved me given my terrible track record so far: one book I didn't review (very bad, I know), & one book I haven't read yet though it's been released long ago (Bellman & Black). I'll have to do better!

Sorry to hear you have been suffering, Ilana. I hope it's just about run it's course. My heart goes out to you and Suzanne, I don't know how you two manage with the pain you are feeling all too frequently. I know you have no choice, but still I think you are both very brave.

Ilana, I hope the migraine gets better. It sounds awful!

OK Ilana it may have taken me a few days but I am finally caught up on your thread and I have to say you have me dusting off my copy of Native Son and looking for a copy of Rogue Male, Sorry How It All Began didn't appeal to you as much as it did to me but that may have been just the right book for me at that particular time. Plus my age allowed me to feel more of a connection with the protagonist. Your subway series just keeps getting better and better.

I hope your migraine problems resolve themselves soon.

I got an ER copy of The Quick based on Kate Atkinson's and Hilary Mantel's blurbs. Hope it lives up to that.

I've been thinking of you today, Ilana; I've been fighting a nasty headache all day (I haven't had one this bad in a good long while). I know that it's likely nothing at all compared to what you suffer through on a regular basis, and so I offered up some extra thoughts for you today.

>268 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy, all things being relative, I feel better this evening than I did this morning, so that's something at least. I'll have to remind my doctor to send my prescription of pain killers to the pharmacy, as it seems she forgot to do it today, and I have hope the fioricet pills might help.

>269 connie53: Thank you Connie. Have to admit I felt quite retched today and not feeling too strong tonight.

>270 brenzi: Hi Bonnie! thank you for making time for my thread. I'll start writing a review for Native Son tonight, though not sure if I'll manage to finish it to my satisfaction, we'll see. I wanted to connect to at least one of the characters in How It All Began, but it wasn't happening. I don't fault the book, I just wasn't in the right place of moment for it as you were obviously.

You remind me now that Kate Atkinson and Hilary Mantel were influential voices for me too and I probably requested The Quick largely because of their good opinion of it. I wish us both joy in it!

>271 scaifea: Thank you so much Amber. I'm really sorry to hear you've been struck down today though, and hope you're all better very soon.