Chatterbox reads -- and reads, and reads, and reads: Chapter 5

We sometimes forget that along with all the wonderful English-language poets writing about World War One, the ranks of great war poets included the likes of Apollinaire. He died on November 9, 1918, of the Spanish flu, two years after being severely wounded in the trenches.

Shadow
by Guillaume Apollinaire
(translation: Christopher Middleton)

Here you are beside me again
Memories of my companions killed in the war
The olive-branch of time
Memories that make only a single memory
As a hundred skins make only a single coat
As these hundreds of wounds make only a single newspaper article
Implapable and dark presence who have assumed
The changing shape of my shadow
An Indian on the watch through all Eternity
Shadow you creep beside me
But you do not hear me any more
You will not know any more the divine poems I sing
But I hear you still and see you still
Destinies
Multiple shadow may the sun preserve you
You who love me so much that you will never leave me
And who dance in the sun without stirring the dust
Shadow link of the sun
Signature of my light
Holder of sorrows
A god that condescends.

Somehow, this to me has become a war poem that isn't about war, if that makes sense at all.

It's technically spring -- but I don't believe it. The temperature is struggling to stay about freezing, there's more snow in the forecast, and nary a sign of a crocus. Oh well, at least there are new books to read...

Here's what I'm shooting for in aggregate. Ambitious, but wotthehell...




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

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




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

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

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

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

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




1. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch, (4.2) STARTED 2/20/14, FINISHED 2/28/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
2. The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil (3.6), READ 2/28/14 (fiction)
3. Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil (3.4), READ 3/1/14 (fiction)
4. The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart (4.3), STARTED 3/1/14, FINISHED 3/2/14 (fiction)
5. Double Down by Mark Halperin & John Heileman (3.8), STARTED 3/1/14, FINISHED 3/5/14 (non-fiction)
6. Mistress by James Patterson (3), STARTED 2/24/14, FINISHED 3/5/14 (fiction)
7. Dragnet Nation by Julia Ungwin (4.4), STARTED 3/4/14, FINISHED 3/6/14 (non-fiction)
8. *Blood Money by Thomas Perry (3.9), STARTED 3/5/14, FINISHED 3/6/14 (fiction)
9. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley (3.75), STARTED 3/6/14, FINISHED 3/7/14 (fiction)
10. A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (5), STARTED 3/7/14, FINISHED 3/8/14 (non-fiction)
11. A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman (3.8), STARTED 3/6/14, FINISHED 3/9/14 (fiction)
12. Death of an Elgin Marble by David Dickinson (3.9) STARTED 3/9/14, FINISHED 3/10/14 (fiction)
13. Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty (4.3), STARTED 3/9/14, FINISHED 3/10/14 (fiction)
14. Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner (3.35) STARTED 3/11/14, FINISHED 3/14/14 (fiction)
15. Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen (4.2), STARTED 3/14/14, FINISHED 3/15/14 (fiction)
16. The Ides of April by Lindsey Davis (3.4), STARTED 3/10/14, FINISHED 3/15/14 (fiction)
17. Black Out by John Lawton (4.1), STARTED 3/6/14, FINISHED 3/16/14 (fiction)
18. Natchez Burning by Greg Iles (3.6), STARTED 3/14/14, FINISHED 3/18/14 (fiction)
19. The Scribe by Antonio Garrido (2) STARTED 3/13/14, FINISHED 3/18/14 (fiction)
20. Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan (4.3), STARTED 3/17/14, FINISHED 3/18/14 (fiction)
21. Oathbreaker by Martin Jensen (3.35), STARTED 3/14/14, FINISHED 3/19/14 (fiction)
22. Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter (4.1) STARTED 3/10/14, FINISHED 3/18/14 (fiction)
23. The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning (4.3), STARTED FEB 2014, FINISHED 3/19/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
24. The Ghost Runner by Parker Bilal (4.25), STARTED 3/20/14, FINISHED 3/21/14 (fiction)
25. Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard (4), STARTED FEB 2014, FINISHED 3/22/14 (fiction)
26. The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer (3.4), STARTED JAN 2014, FINISHED 3/23/14 (fiction)
27. Lion Heart by Justin Cartwright (4.2), STARTED 3/21/14, FINISHED 3/24/14 (fiction)
28. Wake by Anna Hope (4) STARTED 3/23/14/, FINISHED 3/25/14 (fiction)
29. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott (4.4) STARTED 3/22/14, FINISHED 3/26/14 (fiction)
30. Below the Salt by Thomas Costain (3.2) STARTED 3/24/14, FINISHED 3/27/14 (fiction)
31. I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young Ha-Kim (3.3) READ 3/27/14 (fiction)
32. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning (5), STARTED 3/19/14, FINISHED 3/28/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
33. She's Leaving Home by William Shaw (3.85), STARTED 3/27/14, FINISHED 3/29/14 (fiction)
34. The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (3.85), STARTED 3/26/14, FINISHED 3/30/14 (fiction)
35. The Ariadne Objective by Wes Davis (4), STARTED 3/19/14, FINISHED 3/31/14 (non-fiction)
36. All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard, (3.5) STARTED 3/24/14, FINISHED 4/3/14 (fiction)
37. The Shadow Queen by Sandra Gulland (4), STARTED 4/2/14, FINISHED 4/4/14 (fiction)
38. Shadow of the Night by Deborah Harkness (3.8), STARTED 4/2/14, FINISHED 4/5/14 (fiction)
39. The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson (3.35), STARTED 4/4/14, FINISHED 4/5/14 (fiction)
40. Nun in the Closet by Dorothy Gilman (3.25), STARTED 4/2/14, FINISHED 4/6/14 (fiction) (audiobook)
41. Sisters in Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle (3.9) STARTED 4/4/14, FINISHED 4/6/14 (fiction)

Some other goals & objectives:

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

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

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




1. The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
2. The Final Whistle by Stephen Cooper FINISHED 1/30/14, 3.8 stars
3. The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P.S. Duffy
4. The Archduke's Assassination by Greg King
5. The Unending Vigil by Philip Longworth
6. The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard FINISHED 1/26/14, 3.75 stars
7. *The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
8. *The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
9. Vimy by Pierre Berton
10. Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn Macdonald
11. Death's Men by Denis Winter
12. Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden
13. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning by Jay Winter
14. Peacemakers by Margaret MacMillan
15. *Night Shall Overtake Us by Kate Saunders FINISHED 1/30/14 3.7 stars,
16. The Wars by Timothy Findley
17. The First Casualty by Ben Elton
18. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
19. *Regeneration by Pat Barker
20. Rising Above the Ruins in France by Corinna Haven Putnam
21. At Break of Day by Elizabeth Speller
22. Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson
23. Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan FINISHED 3/18/14 4.35 stars
24. Fallen Soldiers by George Mosse
25. Stella Bain by Anita Shreve
26. The Happy Foreigner by Enid Bagnold
27. The Absolutist by John Boyne
28. Wake by Anna Hope FINISHED 3/25/14 4 stars
29. The Forbidden Zone by Mary Borden
30. Gossip From the Forest by Thomas Keneally FINISHED 1/31/14, 4.5 stars
31. Empires of the Dead by David Crane
32. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz FINISHED 1/29/14, 4 stars
33. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, READ 2/10/14, 3.4 stars
34. Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War Against America by Howard Blum, FINISHED 2/11/14 4.5 stars

Europa Editions: Old Friends & New Discoveries




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

A housekeeping "holding" spot -- in case of need!

Yakimov is one of the most fascinating characters in literature. I read the trilogy in 2012 and loved it and Yakimov is one of the reasons. Always looking for a bit of the ready.. Lol.

Adsum, domina.

Oops, wrong thread. Replying to your post on another thread.

From your last thread, I'm totally with you on "more than" and "less than" versus over and under. I thought the point of style manuals was to tell you what's right, not "allow for a multiplicity of viewpoints"!

>5 brenzi: Bonnie, have you moved on to read The Levant Trilogy yet? I may have to do that next. Although I may re-watch the TV series first -- and the final part of The Balkan Trilogy also is whetting my appetite for The Ariadne Objective. Manning clearly loved her time in Greece, and was rather ambivalent about Romania!

>9 Chatterbox:, I didn't like The Levant Trilogy nearly as much as The Balkan Trilogy.

>10 rebeccanyc: I remember you had mentioned that. The mood definitely shifts and, in some ways darkens. Also, the cast of characters is different, to some extent, and the young subaltern and the roue poet didn't have the same appeal of Yakimov and the raffish denizens of Bucharest. The Pringle marriage also has altered.

Happy New Thread again!
I am with Rebecca in having preferred *Balkan* to *Levant*. I don't think I'll reread anytime soon, but I have copies of the videos, so I'm good to watch if I can make myself settle down to it. (I am such a Puritan that it seems less indulgent or something to read as opposed to watching. Some of us just can't tolerate contentment.......)

I'm itching to get my hands on The Balkan Trilogy since the first time I saw you bring it up, probably a couple of years ago now. Will probably get the Kindle edition when I do if only for price and lack of storage space.

Suz, Nice poem from Guillame Apollinaire to kick things off for number five.
Not sure that "the olive branch of time" quite panned out as hoped but the metaphor is a lovely one.

Your posting activity is up by more than 50% this year on last and I, for one, am enjoying it immensely. Have a lovely weekend. xx

>12 Mr.Durick: merci pour le critter, ou plus precisement, pour le poisson, Robert....

>13 LizzieD: Peggy, if I didn't think you'd like the series, I wouldn't urge it on you, but I'm urging it on you! There's some very good acting. It softens the hard edges of the characters, but not too much. I think Guy and Harriet are slightly older than in the books -- say mid-twenties rather than late 20s (I know Branagh is about six months older than I am, which means he must have been about 25 when it was filmed). Ronald Pickup is Yakimov. And there's Rupert Graves as the young lieutenant/subaltern from the Levant trilogy, also Robert Stephens as the poet Bill Castlebar in the Levant part of it. I do find the Levant segments more bleak, but they are three of the seven hours of the drama, so..

>14 Smiler69: Ilana, I can't quite face relinquishing mine, alas...

>15 PaulCranswick: Clearly not, but evocative of the mood of the time. It's hard to imagine anyone walking away from the self-induced madness and carnage of those years and imagining voluntarily repeating it all in two decades' time. Until, that is, fascism arose from the ashes of defeat...

So, for some reason, I picked up the final re-read of the Cazalet chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard and polished it off this evening, meaning that I'm now finally poised to read book #5, the final and almost posthumously-published conclusion to this family saga.

100. Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard is book four of this series, and sees most members of the third generation of Cazalets and their cousins now newly-fledged adults; Louise, trapped in an unhappy marriage; Christopher, trying to find his way; Polly, hoping to distinguish love from infatuation and ugly duckling Clary, who may be one of the most talented of the bunch but who may face one of the biggest struggles. Not that their parents are having an easier time of it as the war comes to an end, but rationing continues and relationships crumble or bend under the strain of trying to resume "normal" lives. In the same way that Manning's tale is a domestic one of individuals against a backdrop of war, Howard's saga is even more a study of individual characters and daily life in a particular era, one long since vanished. It's intriguing, and often beautifully written, but sometimes feels very much like a period piece, so probably not for all tastes. I first read these four novels as they came out, however, so I'll be eagerly forging ahead to the final novel to discover what fate, in the shape of the author, had in store for the Cazalets in the mid-1950s, which is when book #5 opens. (Yes, I've snuck a peak...)

>16 Chatterbox: That series by Elizabeth Jane Howard is now on my wishlist...
Have a good weekend, Suz.

>17 wilkiec: Thanks, Diana! A friend took me grocery shopping to replenish my depleted stock of boxes of Kleenex and cat food (the latter for the felines, needless to say...) and I added some soup and crackers and other easy-to-nosh-on foodstuffs as well.

I'm bracing myself for hours I'll need to spend reading ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) excerpts tomorrow. The carrot is the $350 Amazon gift certificate I'll get for completing it. Right now, the question is just how appetizing that carrot looks relative to the magnitude of the task: these segments are usually mostly bloody awful and horribly badly written. Every year, of the 40, there are perhaps five that have promise, and one or two that could be part of a decent book.

Currently reading:

The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer -- finally got into this ER book -- hurrah!
Lion Heart by Justin Cartwright -- dipped into an ARC by this author, whose novels I've been meaning to read for eons, and am quite taken with it.
Wake by Anna Hope -- stalled

and the audiobook is:

Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning, where I'm already past the midway point.

I'm really annoyed with Audible when it comes to Olivia Manning. The Balkan Trilogy was available here till recently, and I'd had it on my wishlist for many months, if not over a year, only to see it removed from circulation. Ugh! Wish I could share an account with someone in the US. Not saying that to ask you personally, or indeed ask at all, besides which I know you're sharing with a friend already, which is probably what prompted the idea to spring to mind just now, but now I think of it, maybe I ought to seriously seek such an arrangement, though I'm not quite sure how feasible it would be.

Lots of fun stuff at the end of the last thread - I love all the indignation over usage. I'd like to invent a word for it, in fact!

With the exception of your cold, not fun at all, and I hope it is better already.

I stumbled over the Balkan Trilogy a decade or more ago and gobbled it all up, just was wowed by it, loved it and the three following books as well.

Also loved Yakimov. Wonderful/awful characters have a special place don't they?

>20 sibylline: Lucy, what do you mean by "the three following books"? Do you mean the Levant Trilogy?

Loved the Clare Messud quote in your earlier thread. Saw her two summers ago at the Berkshire Bookfest and she was wonderful - approachable, engaging and articulate.

There is a theory that transgressive MALE characters and authors are given more of a pass. Ex. Lolita, Crime and Punishment, etc.

>19 Smiler69: Ilana, I have a friend with an incredible knack for pulling things off the Internet that he probably shouldn't be able to, so I've asked him about this. If he can pull the files, I'll send them to you. (He's the friend I'm sharing my Audible with already, as he shares his with me) I don't think I can share my Audible with you, as between us we have it downloaded on 4 separate devices already, which I think is the max. If he can find it and send to me, I'll pass it along to you. Shoot me a PM with your e-mail just in case.

I just noticed that yesterday -- I went back to see if they had added "Levant" and found they had yanked "Balkan"!! What about your library system?

>20 sibylline: Lucy, there was lots more of it on Twitter -- lot of twittering and tweeting in outrage, in fact! And I think there is a word for it all -- grammar geekery?

>22 michigantrumpet: Marianne, that's only a THEORY that transgressive MALE characters get a free ride (or at least, more of one?) Although, to be honest, I'm opposed to self-righteousness about fictional characters, regardless of whether it's equal opportunity or not! It's like people who get really fussed about Miley Cyrus twerking but close their eyes to dystopian movies featuring kids murdering other kids in bloodily creative ways. Yes, I'm thinking The Hunger Games here, and while I found the movie entertaining, I also thought it was disturbing in a way that the book wasn't -- and very, very violent.

And angry women characters, too, tend to get a rough ride with readers. Or those like those in Messud's latest (which I quite liked), or in Ann Leary's last novel, who are struggling with their lives. Somehow, women are supposed to hold it together, like Adele Astaire, while doing it backwards in high heels.

So, reviewed my first two ABNA entries. One was the usual mess and one was a delightful surprise. When I read the title of the third one, I had to laugh and stop -- it's about a woman with migraines. For heaven's sake, if you wrote it or know who did, DO NOT TELL ME or I'll have to withdraw as a judge. I haven't started reading it yet; I just thought how funny random chance can be!

OK, back to reading for pleasure. I find if I read too many of these excerpts, my eyes get bleary and I start precision-reading my pleasure reading. Piffle. Two down, 38 to go.

>9 Chatterbox: No, I didn't move on to The Levant Trilogy Suzanne and I don't really know why. I also haven't seen the TV production but if you say it's worthwhile I'll see if my library has it. I enjoyed The Ariadne Objective but it's set in Crete and Egypt and although I know Crete is a Greek isle I don't know if that setting would relate to Manning's perspective.

Yakimov reminded me somewhat of Harold Skimpole of Bleak House in many ways but Yakimov, after initially repulsing me, managed to win me over whereas HS never appealed.

Hi Suz- Big waves from the chilly Midwest! I heard Apple Tree Yard mentioned this week on BOTNS and it looks like you were a fan too! This sounds like a good one. Better add it to the List!

Have you ever read Independent People?

>19 Smiler69: Ilana, my library has the Balkan books available in e-audio so maybe yours does as well. I read them years ago, might just put in a request for a listen, and I read School for Love quite recently.

Just checking into your new thread, Suzanne. I have the latest Cazalet book and the Balkan Trilogy on my shelves, sounds like I have some good reading ahead.

Happy New Thread, Suzanne!

>23 Chatterbox: >26 avatiakh: No such luck. I always check the library first but they aren't that well stocked as far as audiobooks go and there are lots of gaps. I'll send you my email Suzanne, though I was far from imagining such a thing might even be possible. If not, no big deal, I'll just buy the Kindle edition of the trilogy which, at $16 is a great deal.

Hello all; on the Kindle Fire so no fancy doodads to signal what post I'm replying to.

Ilana, he is looking but warns the audiobook selection is very modest.so probably best not to be too optimistic.

I do seem to be drifting more Levant-wards in my reading, between the Steinhauer book (mediocre, alas) and Cartwright's novel, which has taken me to Jerusalem. At some point I'll have to come back to "A Burnable Book", which has made a bad first impression, I confess.

Finally trudged my way through my latest book; a big disappointment, at least relatively speaking.

101. The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer was an ER book that I should have enjoyed a LOT more than I did, and certainly was very eager to read. By the end I was skimming sentences and even paragraphs, however elegantly written and well crafted. I had pretty much figured out who was doing what and why and while it was an artistic achievement, it wasn't all that impressive. A triumph of style. Here's the review I just posted:

I read and enjoyed the three books by Olen Steinhauer featuring Milo Weaver and the quirky "Department of Tourism", relishing the nuances that the author introduced into the classic espionage yarns; the complexity of the characters and the unpredictability of the plots

What in those novels were assets became liabilities for me in this book, and in my quest for a reason, all I can conclude is that it's Steinhauer's decision to adopt an equally quirky structure that made the difference. Instead of following the story through the eyes of one or two characters, as was the case with Milo Weaver in the case of the "Tourist" novels, this stand-alone book recounts events from the perspective of several very different individuals: Sophie Kohl, who sees her diplomat husband murdered before her eyes in a Budapest restaurant in the opening pages; John, a contractor loosely affiliated with the CIA whose mission into Libya during the collapse of the Qadaffi regime goes badly awry; Stan; Sophie's erstwhile lover, a Cairo-based spook, and Omar, an Egyptian intelligence officer with scruples and loyalties of his own trying to find his way in the earliest days of post Mubarak Egypt. These narrative lines overlap and sometimes repeat and revisit events -- and then occasionally we're back in 1991, in the earliest days of the Kohl marriage, so that Steinhauer can tell/show the reader just how and why certain events transpired as they did.

In fact, Steinhauer was so busy being clever with the plot and structure that he forgot to make his characters engaging and I actually found myself getting bored. Yes, the setting is atmospheric -- but not NEARLY as much as the excellent mystery novels by Sudanese novelist Parker Bilal, set in Cairo of 1999-2002. Yes, there are chilling and eerie vignettes, but that's not enough to sustain an atmosphere of menace throughout an entire book. It's great to create a "maze of intrigue", as the NYT's Janet Maslin describes it, but only if you actually happen to engage with the characters navigating that maze as convincing individuals. I simply couldn't. They were constructs, as was the overly elaborate plot and structure. This was stuck halfway between LeCarre, with his richly imagined world, and more pedestrian genre novels. I could admire Steinhauer's intellect and skill but, admiration aside, a story that should have gripped and fascinated me left me cold. The one person in it to whom I connected as a character was Fouada, Omar's wife, with her instinct to mother the spies and waifs and strays whom her husband brings home for her to tend. The other characters were so busy making points on the author's behalf they couldn't take the time to be real. So 4.3 stars for technical merit; 3 stars for emotional impact: 3.4 stars overall. Unscientific, but hey, that's what the reading experience is all about.

>25 msf59: Hiya Mark, thanks for dropping by! Have not read Independent People; should I? That said, am going to try to avoid much Nordic stuff until local temps are LESS Nordic. I think if you liked Gone Girl, you'll find something to like about Apple Tree Yard. The books themselves are quite different in plot and nature, but in essence, both are dark and somewhat bleak in their take on human nature, and have some surprising twists and turns along the way. (and some unlikeable, or at least flawed, main characters -- hence the discussion on my previous thread.)

>24 brenzi: The Skimpole comparison is a good one, Bonnie! It's interesting how Manning does build up a degree of understanding for Yakimov, even though his behavior remains appalling by any objective standard. I think it's because, at heart, there is a part of him that is very empathetic. I've just reached a bit where he is talking to Harriet about how he felt "used" by Guy in Bucharest -- wooed by him during the staging of Troilus and Cressida only to be viewed as an accessory later. Not treated rudely, but no longer courted, because no longer needed. Harriet isn't accustomed to people seeing Guy that acutely or critically, because he is a public charmer. Indeed, in a way, Guy and Yakimov switch places in our affections. Guy, it becomes clear, is the real monster of selfishness, disguising that in his political cant and the greater good -- always dashing off to do things and leaving Harriet dangling, then telling her he doesn't need to heed her opinions because she is part of him! And yet people adore him because this is so unconscious, he is full of charm and he is genuinely committed to other people -- while they need him. And yet it's Harriet who does the lion's share of the work -- making costumes, feeding Yakimov, caring for Sasha and getting him a forged passport, finding paid employment in Athens, etc.

I'd be very interested to read the Olivia Manning bio to find out just how much that reflects her own experiences!!

Waving to Judy, Amber, Kerry and anyone else I inadvertently overlooked here...

My grandparents knew Reggie Smith (Olivia Manning's husband) very well, and her too. He was very popular and adored, whereas generally she was not so well liked, and I used to feel a bit sorry for her. I suspect Harriet's feelings in the books were very much based on how the author felt about everything. I have an older bio written by a couple who knew the couple very well but I'd quite like to read that and the more recent and perhaps less personal biography. I read my grandfather's copies of the whole Fortunes of War series (probably first edition hardbacks!) a long time ago, and have since then acquired my own obviously cheaper copies. I've reread the first book a couple of years ago but must get to the others - I now have both trilogies on my Kindle.

>101 Chatterbox:. Suzanne, your review of The Cairo Affair is a stunner. How is it you can make me want to read a book that you didn't particularly like?

Yes the Levant Trilogy, I couldn't think of the name of it!

And yes yes yes you do, eventually, have to read Independent People - it's just one of those books. But I agree, not while winter persists!

>33 elkiedee: Luci, that's fascinating, and confirms both something I suspected about the biographical nature of the relationship and, more generally, about people who are not, as you put it, "well liked". I've noticed that the world tends to behave as if these individuals don't realize that they are viewed as difficult or, at worst, being marginalized or shunned to some extent. Manning's portrayal of Harriet shows quite clearly that (a) she knows that this is happening; that there is a full recognition and awareness that other people view her as being difficult or troublesome and (b) that she, in her turn, is simply acting according to her nature, not being naturally popular and adored and not able to fake it in order to win the liking of people whom she didn't, for her part, have all that much liking or respect.

Did I post this link to the later bio's review? http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/no-trace-of-lipstick/ It did make me want to read the bio. The reference to the sadness of the almost-empty funeral, however, made me think of this again (after having cut my Facebook friends list back from 450 to just below 300 over the last several weeks...); would Manning consider a long list of friends at a funeral a better legacy than her books, had she had to choose? Ideally, of course, one doesn't choose, but if it takes a lot of one's energies to behave in ways that other people respond to, while it comes easily for others (the "Guy" characters of the world) then is there enough energy left to create the books? I thought that the way the author chose to frame the scene at the funeral -- as slightly pathetic -- betrayed her own preconceptions.

Oddly enough, I woke up with this on my mind today. I had to take the next step up on my Topamax last night and once again started having weirdly vivid dreams. The latest involved the folks on my one-year journalism course. It was a very weird and almost claustrophobic experience, with only 45 people moving as a group together for a year. It was also a very weird year for me: an 8 month period during which two of my grandparents died; my father threw my mother out of the house (in another country, meaning I had to figure out how to repatriate her to Canada...), a friend committed suicide, and I walked around for two months with undiagnosed pneumonia. There was some other stuff, but those were the highlights. My classmates thought I became standoffish and not very friendly. At one point, I walked into a room where more than a dozen of them were gossiping about and laughing at me. Which is roughly the kind of situation -- only in a present-life setting -- the dream involved. IRL, the catalyst for this probably was that one or two of them made contact with me last year to try to get me to attend the 25th reunion of this group. The last time I saw the group en masse was ahead of the wedding of two of them (to each other; one of three intra-group marriages, which will tell you a lot right there...) when I was invited to attend a wedding shower. It was a 90 minute trip on regional rail each way, plus a $20 cab ride each way, to get to the shower, and when I got there, I discovered I was the only person at the party who had not been invited to the wedding the next week. Which was more embarrassing than not being invited to the party at all, of course, since I had to explain that no, I wasn't choosing not to go, I hadn't been invited. blah blah blah. Eventually, I gave up, dropped off my gift, left the party and trudged home. Next day at work, got a call from the host, asking for a $25 contribution to the cost of the party, since I had been rude enough to leave early before he had been able to collect it from me. I was furious and told him what I thought: if a party has a price tag, you tell people up front, so that they can decide whether that's in their budget. You don't put your guests in awkward positions. When they make polite excuses (fake ones, to avoid embarrassing hosts) for leaving early, you don't tell them they're rude. After that, the only person I stayed in touch with was one friend, J, a magazine journalist, but I realized as I was purging my FB friends list that he has purged me sometime in the last year! (He was never very active but we had remained friendly over the decades; I had read his book MSS; met for dinners and lunches wen I was in Toronto, etc.)

So, I suppose I'm saying, in a very long-winded fashion, that today I feel a lot like Harriet/Olivia Manning.

>34 labwriter: Becky, LOL! I suppose I still have some ambivalence about the book and it crept through, in that case! I can't imagine ever wanting to re-read it, I confess. It wasn't enough of either the one or the other -- not enough of a detailed study of people, like LeCarre, to work on that level, and not linear or even suspenseful enough to work as a straightforward espionage novel. It's like taking a woman who dresses as if she's going out for a stroll on the Vegas strip and saying, OK, I'm going to turn her into someone who looks as if she belongs on the rue St.-Honore in Paris. But instead of putting her into impeccably accessorized Chanel couture, you just replace the flashiness of Vegas with a dowdy navy blue suit and low-heeled pumps that is your interpretation of what Chanel means. The result is neither fish, fowl, nor good red herring, as the saying goes.

OK, I've blathered on here at far too great a length. And it's time for my next Topamax. *Sigh* Generally, I think it's OK, but 75 mg may be too much in terms of side-effects. If 50 mg can help with headaches, I'd like to keep it at that.

Happy Topamax-out Sunday. Olivia. *smooch*

>37 richardderus: Gee, thanks. I think. So of course, what have I been doing but wandering through the clique's FB posts today? Talk about counterproductive. Topamax, then ABNA excerpts, then work. Except for the problem that I'm still sniffling in bed with cold. Oh, and ALL THREE cats have now joined me. This is actually quite a rare event. People may not like me, but clearly the cats do.

The cats live there, their votes count double. As for the cold, I am now down with it too. CM got a sinus infection from it. I am so hatin' on this. 6000mg of vitamin C and 100mg of chelated zinc and thinking of sacrificing to the gawds to get this damned thing over with.

>39 richardderus: Well, at least I can breathe more easily (pun kinda intentional) knowing that those are not my germs, since I refrained from spreading them to CM and others last week... Feel better soon...

Probably the cats' votes are halved, since there's an element of self-interest at stake. They don't have opposable thumbs and can't open the cat food cans.

So you were invited to a wedding shower where you were expected to chip in $25 (and presumably that was more then than it is now) and not to the wedding. That seems very rude! I think I identified more than is entirely comfortable with Harriet too.

>40 Chatterbox: Heh, no, she's had the plague for over three weeks now. It's amazing to me that I haven't caught it until now.

The lack of opposable thumbs wouldn't bother the cats, they'd just wait until you were dead (if you're lucky) and eat you.

What? It happens.

So permaybehaps the doubling should be tripling, considering the forbearance involved in their body-warmth-sharing. Plus added points for any purring.

Sorry to hear about your dreams taking you back to clearly uncomfortable times Suz. I can't believe that jerk had the nerve to call you up and so rudely ask you for money, and am very relieved that you put him in his place. Sure, that kind of thing doesn't earn you popularity points, but I don't think letting people walk all over us does either. That the trouble with cliques though, isn't it? there's always an 'us' vs 'them' mentality, and the 'them' are always going to outnumber the 'us'. I've usually very much been among the outcasts. I've had plenty of people take an instant dislike to me for being different and having the nerve to be outspoken when I clearly didn't fit in anywhere. I've always taken it as a great consolation that the few who did like me, seemed to like me quite a lot, which sort of made up for it. Of course now that I'm older, things aren't so clear-cut anymore, but then, my circle is more restricted than ever, and other than this group, there are very few people I interact with at all anymore, with my health situation having dictated lifestyle choices which have effectively taken me out of reach of what most people want to deal with. I don't know if medication is to blame, because I've been plagued all my life with dreams which take me back to uncomfortable places and situations, and endless recurring dreams featuring an ex-boyfriend who has been out of my life now for over 15 years and whom I am definitely no longer in love with. It makes for stressful nights, and I'm constantly waking up at odd hours with heart beating too fast, night sweats, jaws clenched, etc, which probably explains why I never feel rested when I wake up in the morning.

eta: I'm always so relieved to see my little furry ones trying to stick close to me. Makes me know they who have to endure me 24/7 love me, which must mean I'm not such a bad person after all.

>41 elkiedee: Luci, if you add the cost of the transport to that, it totaled about $70, which was about 60% of my weekly disposable income. So, yeah. I was just stunned that they hadn't realized that they had put me in such a difficult position, or that they felt it was somehow just fine. I didn't need anyone to go to bat for me, but I was dismayed that no one just told the host to back off and let it drop, either. They clearly felt I was in the wrong and that my role was to do as I was told.

>42 richardderus: Richard, I am sure you meant to say that she has been suffering for "more than" three weeks??

Molly's purring has turned into snoring. Sigh. Cassie is whiffling. I confess that I wonder what cats dream about.

>43 Smiler69: Ilana, I'm sorry; bad health can really add a whole new layer on top of all this. If the Topamax does end up working, that's something I'm going to need to address. Over the last 25 years, my life has begun to be shaped around the migraines. If that's no longer the case, how do I reshape my life?? Gulp. I've certainly lost a lot of social skills. In some cases, things are much more clear-cut: I can't imagine ever enjoying large gatherings where small talk and chit chat, with people staring over your shoulder in search of someone more interesting is the order of the day.

I'm a bit cynical about animals. As long as they know they can trust you to be kind to them and feed them, they'll stick close. That said, I'm a little more prepared to think that a cat sticking close is doing so out of affection, since their default mode is to be so independent. So, either they think you're particularly worthwhile or they're particularly cold!

>44 Chatterbox: hee hee hee

You *do* read my posts.

>42 richardderus:, >44 Chatterbox:, >45 richardderus:

*snork*

After giggling out loud, tried to explain this exchange to someone else. No luck.

I love this group!

>45 richardderus: Mais oui, would I do anything else??

>46 michigantrumpet: Tee hee! Aren't inside jokes grand?

OK, back to ABNA-land after watching the latest available episode of "The Americans". Shall have to possess my soul in what passes for patience until Wednesday night, when the next one is due to air.

Suz, are you stalled on Wake (>18 Chatterbox:) because it's not good or for some other reason? I was going to try to get to it this month and match your read in TIOLI but other things are calling my name more loudly...

Suz- "That said, am going to try to avoid much Nordic stuff until local temps are LESS Nordic." Excellent point! LOL. I am hoping by the time I finish it, it will be WARM. This is a Big Boy! I am only a 120 pages in, but this is a masterwork.

>48 katiekrug: Katie, I will finish it this month, as it's an Amazon Vine book that must be reviewed. I think I put it aside because I had to read this month's backlog of Vine books, and haven't yet felt motivated to return to it, but will do so this week. I quite liked the first 35 pages or so, which was all I read, but wasn't so enraptured that I was on tenterhooks to return to it. It certainly wasn't like A Burnable Book, where every time I've tried, something about it has triggered an aversion to it!

>49 msf59: That's quite a recommendation! I'll keep my eyes open for it; hopefully the library will have a copy. I'm really trying to keep my book buying to de minimis levels this year.

OK, Five ABNA reviews done. 35 To go. At this rate, it will take another ten days, which is a bit too slow, although still within the deadline. I'd like to be done by the end of next weekend, so I'll see if I can pick up the pace.

All right, either I'm tired or completely ignorant -- please explain: ABNA?

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award:
https://www.createspace.com/abna

We're now in round 2.

Sorry; I thought I had mentioned this previously, but I may be tired or delusional about that!

You may very well have mentioned it; I may have just missed it or (short term memory being the first to go) forgot.

The real gem of this particular batch of excerpts?

"The actual words were what slapped me and made my eyes follow after my mom."

For the life of me, I can't figure out what that means. I currently have at least three theories.

Thankfully, of the excerpts I've read so far, only two have been non-starters. One has been very good and the other two had potential. That's a far better rate than in prior years.

Taking a stab at this (and it may be pure ragtime):

Her mother said something so outrageous or hurtful that it was like a slap. She didn't actually need to touch her daughter to command her full attention.

That's all I've got. Good luck on that one.

Completely on a tangent, I'm related distantly to a young lady who writes Romance novels under a pseudonym, Evelyn Pryce. She recently won some sort of award through Amazon. Never knew how that came about though...

Suz, I love the poem at the top of your thread.

Your review of The Cairo Affair actually makes me want to read The Tourist, which has been on my TBR shelves for almost ever.

Suz, I find the "clique's" behaviors abominable!! To ask for money to fund the shower one is giving without clearly stating that ahead of time is inexcusable!

As your are a very competent journalist and master reader, I am very sure you will find positive migraine-free ways to shape your self-image, may the migraines cease immediately! It may feel a bit strange for a while, but I'm confident you are up to it.

I've never been part of the "popular" group but I've always managed to find my own off-beat friends in life. They are there.

>36 Chatterbox: a FB purge being thwarted by pre-purging on the first persons part! Ack.
I have had that happen too :)

Re being in the in group. Even those in the in group are unsure of their status and so are still clambering to the 'top' over various other in-groupers. I am sure of it. In my high school setting there were two groups who were big and loud and fun. But they were so different. The rugby players (always popular in NZ) - hangers on were one, the other group were the smart-confident-good-at-stuff ones + the non-rugby guys. I was peripheral in that group. Interestingly all the core females in the latter group went on to have professional careers (lawyers, high-fliers, business owners) and the males went on to do not much with their smarts.

These days I am much more discerning in my choice of friends! It's more like-mindedness that I am searching for these days.

>44 Chatterbox: Over the last 25 years, my life has begun to be shaped around the migraines. If that's no longer the case, how do I reshape my life??

Yes, I know what you mean, I really do. That and the mood disorder in my case, but at this point the migraines are the more obvious presence.

Greetings Suzanne! It's been a while since I paid you a visit and now I can't linger but I wanted to stop by and say HI! Have a great week!

>55 michigantrumpet: Yes, that was my first guess -- until I was unable to find any comment from the character's mother. Ho hum... :-)

>56 EBT1002: The Tourist remains my favorite of his books, and is very, very good!

>57 ronincats:
>58 LovingLit:
Just to clarify, I feel no compelling need to be part of any "in" group. Never in my life have I been so, and there has been one point in time during which I've been on the fringes in a small community and isolated, although that was in a work context only, not one of those all-encompassing arenas where school/work/social life is all inextricably linked and it isn't socially acceptable to seek interaction outside the group.

I tend to think of myself as having eclectic small "grouplets" of friends, and my priority is always on finding interesting people: folks who think, who are interesting, who aren't dogmatic, with whom I share interests or at least a sense of curiosity. I suppose I'm more wary of people who clearly like to be within the popular set and move in groups of friends. I suspect that's because from a very early age, I was moving every few years and simply never grew used to being with the same group of people for more than a few years at a time. My two longest-lived friendships go back to earliest childhood -- with the daughters of my father's oldest friend, and then a friend that I made at my school in England (if you go back a couple of threads to the discussion about Ukraine, it was her comments & insights that I was sharing/posting). But unlike a lot of other folks I know, my closest circle of friends isn't a single specified group from high school or university or my early years at work.

I do wonder how much experiences like the one I had that year went on to shape my attitudes? It was an exceptionally difficult year in a very "closed" environment, and instead of being supportive and helpful, the people who set the tone within that group chose to make it still more difficult for me. I think that certainly made me more cautious and reserved when encountering new groups of people; less extroverted. In some ways the Internet is a blessing; I can be as open (or not) as I choose; establish filters as I wish, etc.

>59 Smiler69: Ilana, it will be a challenge, oddly.

>60 Carmenere: Hi Lynda! Haven't been visiting your thread, either, shamefully...

>61 Chatterbox: >55 michigantrumpet: I got nothing then.

I'm told living in an assisted living or over 55 community is just like being in high school with the 'in' crowds, gossip, etc. Which makes me terrified of ending up in one. How many people say "I wish I could relive high school?"

102. Lion Heart by Justin Cartwright is book that I liked quite a lot but it's going to be tricky to write a review that sounds as if I did. Hmmm... First of all, it's oblique, leaving a lot for the reader to figure out. Richard (Richie) Cathar, the narrator and protagonist, is a bit of a drifter, who only gradually finds his raison d'etre over the course of the book, and if you need to "identify" with or "like" a character, well, you're going to struggle here. True, he got dealt a tough hand: his father was a bit of a wastrel, tossed out of Oxford and drifting through life in a haze of drugs and delusions, many revolving around Richard the Lionheart and Robin Hood. Young Richard, now in his early 30s and named for his father's hero, has a first-class brain but hasn't done much with it when the book opens a decade after his father's death. Then a series of apparently random events and coincidences results in him deciding to pursue a fledgling interest in the art of the Crusader kingdom of Outremer and heading off to Jersusalem, the fabled city that the Lionheart himself never managed to reach. Richie does arrive there and finds -- or so he believes -- all his dreams fulfilled. But his father's legacy proves to have one or two nasty little aftershocks and life has one or two nasty little surprises in store. If I had to pin it down, this is a novel about "Jerusalem": the quest of some ideal, the illusory nature of that ideal, and the shabby (comparatively) nature of reality, comparatively speaking. But it's also about faith, about secrets, about fables and family. I'm glad I finally read something by Cartwright, whose novels have long appealed to me by virtue of their subject matter, their style (based on my picking them up in bookstores and skimming them), and that have been applauded by critics (one of those on my TBR stack won the Hawthornden). And as well as finding the novel itself intriguing, there were moments here that I relished simply for the sheer descriptive prowess. For instance, when Richie finds himself living briefly in a posh part of London, where the dogs are elegant Dachsunds or Labs, the former wearing coast "just in case they should become distressed, or even slightly put out. Some of them refuse to walk at all when faced by a puddle and then they are picked up and carried comfortably under the arm, as if they are baguettes. They sail complacently along above the ground." Richie's ex girlfriend, he muses, "has the comfort of belonging to a superior caste, the writing caste" -- "Writing is still highly esteemed, even more so than reading." At one point, one of the other characters has this to say about reading: "The power of fiction at its best is to make the reader believe, to enter into, what you, the writer, are writing. That's all it is. By reading, and giving his consent to be beguiled, the reader becomes complicit with the writer, to some extent creating his own fiction." I would say this isn't an easy or obvious book to read -- the first half is really slow to get into and it's all about trusting that Cartwright is going to take you somewhere, and that that destination will be interesting and worthwhile. But ultimately, I found it worth the trip. 4.2 stars.

>62 michigantrumpet: Ugh, Marianne, that does sound horrible. I am in touch with a number of high school friends, and for a while was part of a large-ish group there (but not all of those I'm now in touch with are from that group!) but I think many of them are more nostalgic than I am. I think that there is one thing that was very distinctive about our experience, and that was that were all expat brats in the 1970s, in the days before the Internet and e-mail or even affordable phone calls, which meant we had a very distinctive experience that we found very few people in our later lives had shared or even understood. When people in university ask what high school you went to, and you reply the International School of Brussels, what it sounds like to you (normal; that's where you went) and to them (you're swanking) is very different. So you learn to shut the f*** up about it very quickly. One friend of mine whose father was a senior diplomat somewhere exotic used to tell people he ran a parking garage in New York and that's why she was in boarding school.

High school def. had cliques, but looking back, I don't remember any bullying then. I did experience bullying when I moved back from England to Canada, at the end of grade 7, but in high school, people just drifted into their groups. There was gossip, but I'm not sure how much of it was malicious compared to what I recall from my first two years of university or even my grade 9 class before the move (where I was part of a group that was very gossipy.)

Because I really, desperately need more ARCs around the house...

The Last Harvest list from Vine came out today at Amazon, and I requested:

Fallout by Sadie Jones
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
Hangman by Stephan Talty (because the NetGalley version is a mess)
The Eternal Nazi by Nicholas Kulish (ditto)

103. Wake by Anna Hope turned out to be significantly better than I expected, although some of the coincidences between the three main narrative strands of the plot that made it work also required a reasonable amount of suspension of disbelief on the reader's part. Still, by the time I was half of the way through, I was sufficiently caught up in at least two of the stories to give the author a pass on the parts of the novel that weren't working as well for me. Set in the very few days leading up to Armistice Day of 1920, the story revolves around the lives of three women, each of whom have lost a man in their lives to the just-ended war, in some way, and who are struggling to come to terms with the aftermath and consequences of the war. As one character says toward the end of the book, it wasn't the English or Germans that achieved victory, but war itself; war always emerges triumphant. Certainly there are no victors here, and the "victories" that the characters achieve are muted and small scale relative to their losses. There's a fourth plot line of sorts, following the repatriation of an anonymous British/Empire soldier to be buried as the Unknown Soldier in the Cenotaph, and in many ways, that's the most moving story line of all. The writing carries this when the plots become to attenuated to really work. It's not that they are over ambitious, simply that Hope has pulled and pushed at three separate tales and put them into a single package, linked by some coincidences and the common theme of grief, mourning and moving forward. It's a promising, if not brilliant, debut. 4 stars.

Ugh, a bad day. Dunno if it's the cold weather, Mondayitis, or new medication side effects, but I'm battling a major bout of depression and blahs. I think the cats realize it, because they're literally stuck to my side like glue, in a very unusual manner. Molly NEVER sleeps on my bed (she's too scared of Cassie), but here she is. Tigger, in Tigger-like fashion, has decided that the middle of the bed belongs to him. At this rate, I'll end up on the floor or the sofa!

Not sure whether to return to Thomas Costain, or Paul Scott, or try something different. Quite apathetic. Just hope I have a more productive day tomorrow.

Hoping for a better day for you today.

Along the lines of more frustrating news: received in the mail yesterday a corrected 1099 from a company in which we've invested. Really? They couldn't figure out the tax consequences of their 2013 activity until late March? Does not inspire much confidence in the upper manegement of the corporation.

Fortunately for us, we had completed our tax preparations but has not yet filed. What a headache if we had to file an amended return. This happened to us last year with ahother investment. Is this becoming increasingly common or were we just amazingly unfortunate?

/end of rant/

>Thanks Marianne.

Well, the Amazon e-book settlements are finally in our accounts!!!!!!!!

This goes back years, literally; I had been expecting this to hit my account sometime mid 2013, and had completely forgotten it recently until I saw the e-mail in my inbox this morning. I figured the amount would be reasonably large, but it feels even more massive right now: $191.59. I spent $12 right away to buy Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, which is our next book circle book.

It can only be used for Kindle books (aw, shucks...) or I'd use it to buy a new office chair as mine is on the verge of collapse!

>38 Chatterbox:. Wow, that's great, Suzanne. I'm getting a credit of $38.94--and that will buy quite a few $2.00 e-books, so I'm happy.

>68 Chatterbox: Yay! That's a goodly chunk of change. Will this be a binge, or a slow, steady parceling-out to make the fun last longer?

Slow and steady, Richard, I think. I've got a lot of ARCs and NetGalley books sitting here, and some TBRs on both Kindles, so I can hardly be said to be struggling without books! But I'm sure there will be Daily Deals down the road that I covet. There is a new Alan Furst book coming June; the new Tom Rachman book is due out soon. And there will be more... That's as sure as death.

Got my Kindle e-book settlement proceeds today. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount.

Hope it's even more than mine, Linda, since you read so many hefty non-fiction books about sports and history!

I only started buying Kindle books for real last summer when I got my iPad, so no refund for me, but wowza, that is a nice little boon eh? I don't know if I'd manage to be as reasonable about spending it as you intend to be, but then again, the size of my tbr is really starting to stress me out.

It may not work out that well in practice, Ilana! I did just put in a pre-order for Dispute Over a Very Italian Piglet by Amara Lakhous, an Europa Editions novel due out next week that I covet. And the new novel by Michael Cunningham will be out soon as well.

I'm in the same boat as Ilana -- Don't have many Kindle purchases before last summer. Used it primarily for library ebooks. So no settlement for me. :-(

I eagerly clicked on my credit information to discover that I was entitled to $1.46 - which I had already spent. Sigh. Maybe it's because I buy so many $1.99 books, and so few full price ones. But that's ok.

Enjoy the windfall, Suz.

On other topics, I hope your lows are not due to the Topamax. You deserve some joy if the migraines stay away.

I talked to the neurologist today, briefly, and he asked me to touch base with him again next week about that. The complete change in taste about sodas (they all taste kinda flat to me know, meaning my lifelong addiction to Diet Pepsi is waning) is a normal/frequent side-effect; depression falls within the rare/1% category. But then, it's hard to say how much might be the meds and how much might be me, anyway, since it's something that I battle periodically and, if I'm honest, it's been worse generally in the last two years, and significantly worse, off and on, since last summer. It does seem to be helping my head... I even -- gasp -- ate a chocolate bar yesterday and it did NOT TRIGGER A MIGRAINE. That is unprecedented.

OK, is anyone willing to talk to me about their Kindle ebook settlement for the Fiscal Times? $ amount, name, and what you did/want to do with it? Send me a PM... Deadline is sometime tonight...

Meanwhile, back to the bloody ABNA excerpts...

>74 Smiler69:
Funny, I was just telling a friend how I was feeling a little overwhelmed by my books right now.

Sometimes I wonder if the migraines aren't just another side-effect of depression. I seem to notice that lots of people who suffer from the one also often suffer from the other, but that might just be coincidence. Still, I wonder if there's ever been any research to establish a connection.

>79 AuntieClio: I try to ignore the constant tbr dread, but am not always successful. I've got over 1275 titles in the reading queue, and it doesn't look like it'll be getting shorter anytime soon as I continue to purchase books faster than I can read them. But I'd say that's probably all too common in this group, given what a bunch of enablers we are!

>80 Smiler69:
That's the truth, all the way through. I'm just on overload right now, this too shall pass. :-)

>81 AuntieClio: Well, you're definitely in good company here, as you already know! :-)

Suzanne, if I knew something more exciting and uplifting than the $7.55 credited to my Amazon account, I'd tell you. Alas, that's the highlight. And I still haven't spent it. I've wish-listed Lion Heart, so I'm not going to be tempted by it just yet. The hero's last name is Cathar? That's interesting. And I've sort of not picked up #3 Cazalet and don't know why.
O.K. Blathering, but I wish I were only 1275 titles behind. I always wanted a library, and now I have one. So there.
Feel better! You too, Ilana!

Thanks, Ilana. My headaches have been much, much better in the last two weeks; fingers & toes crossed. Hence the chocolate bar experiment. I'm quite astonished. I would like BOTH the headaches and the depression to go away. The latter predated the former, if I stop and think about it -- it started when we moved to Belgium and probably was triggered by the latest major move across international borders, and the need to start at what would become my sixth school in five years.

>83 LizzieD: That's pretty uplifting! I'm going to try to cherish my credit for as long as I can. Yes, the surname is "Cathar": the feckless father changed it from "Carter" to "Cathar".

I'm noting some interesting parallels in my recent reading. Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy: all are multi-volume books by English authors, all dealing with themes loosely or directly linked to the collapse of British pre-eminence and empire; all set against the backdrop of World War II and its aftermath; all dealing less with the war itself than some kind of domestic or other themes set against the backdrop of war. All have also been turned into television series, two in the 1980s with great success, the third (the Cazalet books) with only a mediocre result in the 1990s.

There's a continuum of sorts here, and I'm finding it interesting to compare and contrast as I read my way through them. That said, I've only got one book left out of five of the Cazalets to go; I'm halfway through the first of four books of the Raj Quartet; and I'm nearly finished the Balkan trilogy, but that's only halfway through the total work, which also includes the three books of the Levant trilogy.

I know this free association is essentially meaningless, but it amused me to ponder it as I tried in vain to fall asleep last night!

OK, I'm excited -- Just approved by NetGalley/Random House for the ARC of the new novel by Alan Furst, Midnight in Europe. Guess what my next book is going to be??? Or one of them, at any rate...

Murphy?

>86 richardderus: What??? Erm, nope...

What, no Beckett to reverse the downward slide of your reading? oh dear.

:-P

Erm, no. I had failed to realize that this was what was required.
Or, indeed, that my reading was on a downward slide... ??
My mood, yes. My reading, occasionally, but not steadily or inexorably, and not at the current moment.

Beckett: The Anti-Poppins..."just a spoonful of vinegar knocks your fantasy right down..."

It is, however, notable that you're reading things that are not grim and depressing and hopeless and angst-ridden. Your street cred! Think of your street cred! Any minute now you'll smile and then, *piff* all to be done again.

Oh, you *want* me to slit my wrists... Now, I understand, all is revealed. You're laboring under the delusion that I have bequeathed my library (especially my Imogen Robertson novels) to you, and you're trying to accelerate the process...

Either that, or you've mistaken me for someone with street cred...

UPS just delivered the free Amazon Vine air conditioner. Dude looked at me. Looked at the A/C. Looked at me. Shrugged his shoulders. Said, "OK, I guess, if you think so..."

...wait...I'm NOT getting the Robertsons?!

Howdya get 911 in other cities, we have an emergent depression-related problem!!

Well my settlement from Amazon was only $5.84 which is not very exciting!

>91 Chatterbox: Had to laugh at your story of the deliveryman and the A/C unit. Maybe someday you will need it!

Loved the a/c story. Coals to Newcastle...

Reading along. Smiling at the appropriate spots. Not a thing to say.

Today's opuses:

On the Kindle book credit, with thanks to Becky/labwriter for her guest spot!
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2014/03/27/Amazon-Kindle-Refunds-Have-Read...

And for the Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/mar/27/real-millionaires-wal...

My next Amazon credit purchase was for the first in a trilogy of mysteries by Adrian McKinty, set in Northern Ireland during the "Troubles":

The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty

Volume 3 will be coming as a Vine Last Harvest pick, and if I like #1, I may buy #2, or seek it out at the library. A friend had recommended McKinty.

>93 Cobscook:, >94 michigantrumpet:, Classic New England understatement, I suspect. Bright and sunny here today -- and still below freezing. Sigh.

>96 Chatterbox: The Guardian piece made my inner Mme Defarge rail and screech.

>97 Chatterbox: and your outer Mme Defarge? How's she doing these days?

Great Guardian piece, Suz!

Thanks!

Dilemma: I can't decide which book to opt for. I have a third Amazon Vine pick. I have chosen the upcoming novels by Lisa See and Tom Rachman and want something lighter, by an author I'm already familiar with or by an author who's going to be more or less predictable, for my third choice. I've got some serious fiction (Dinaw Mengestu, Lisa Moore) on my Vine list already, and some recent picks of unknown authors have been disastrous. And my mood swings seem to suggest that lighter is definitely better!

My options include four books; I'd prefer one of the first two, but literally can't choose between 'em.

1.The Visitors by Sally Beauman (Pros: Set against the discovery of King Tut's tomb, so interesting; drama, but not too intense; not out until July in US so a good book to get an ARC of. Cons: author might be too romantic; available for my UK Kindle now if I want to spend 8 quid, which I don't.)
2.That Summer by Lauren Willig (Pros: she has written a hilarious, tongue in cheek serious of mysteries (pink carnation series) that are very light; this won't be out until June. Cons: It's a stand alone; looks more like a conventional romance (yuck) and might be too trite. Could easily wait and read at the library.
3.The Corsican Caper by Peter Mayle (Pros: Mayle's scene-setting is fun and it's very escapist; I wouldn't feel tempted to buy the book. Cons: I though the predecessor, The Marseille Caper, was rather mediocre. Also, it's out in early/mid-May, so not long to wait.)
4.The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee (Pros: I loved two of her previous novels, The Ex-Debutante and The Devil in the Junior League, both of which made me laugh myself sick. Her last book, Emily and Einstein, was a BIG let down, and that's the "con").

Teju Cole's new novel is there, too, but I haven't yet read the first and the two are linked. And I really don't want to do serious or I WILL slit my wrists.

Opinions/ideas??

My outer Mme Defarge is buried under the beard.

Me, I'd go for The Visitors because, unlike the others, it sounds like a time and place that might overcome any treacly romance-y sturff.

I'd get a second copy of the new Rachman and send it to my friend Katie ;-)

Or what Richard said!

>103 katiekrug: Katie, they only let me get one copy of each book... But the new Rachman is up for grabs on ER this month, as you've probably already noticed... I just removed my bid for that, thus helping yours out, indirectly!

ETA: OK, decision made. There's an LT review of the Egypt book, which helped me out. And I may be able to scoop up one or two of the others next month, if my targeted list is as weird as the recent ones have been.

Oh wait, you guys want to know what I'm reading, and not just what I'm buying and writing about? Sigh. OK.

104. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott: For the first volume of a four-part series, this is a very self-contained novel, which is intriguing, and actually makes it MORE likely that I'll go on to read the other three, since I'm curious to see how Scott will open up the tight narrative arc that he has constructed. Another random thought: I'm also interested that whoever first posted it in TIOLI put the "injustice" as first being sexual assault and secondly as political oppression. To me, it's all part and parcel of the same thing: racism, and specifically, racism in the context of colonial rule. The novel takes place in the final days of England's rule of India, and in the midst of World War II, when Gandhi has told the Indians to refuse to cooperate in the fight against Japan and Germany. There is mutual incomprehension: the British see this as akin to quarreling when there's someone at the door trying to break in and burn the house down, while the Indians are pointing out that this is because the homeowner is telling them what to do, is capricious, doctrinaire, a slaveowner, to all intents and purposes, and likely will revert to that behavior when the external threat vanishes. We see the story through the eyes of several participants, most poignantly Hari Kumar who is caught between the worlds of the English and the Indian. Educated at a public school in England, he doesn't speak Hindi and his accent is better in English than many of the English who, when he must return to India, will patronize him simply because he's "black". He's expected to defer, but doesn't know how to -- nor does he understand why he must. His very existence is a catalyst for the events that unfold almost inexorably in the summer of 1942, as tensions between the two communities reach a fever pitch. Scott tells the story in a series of retrospectives, in an almost forensic examination by an unnamed and almost invisible observer who has returned to the scene of some kind of crime to understand just what kind of crime it might have been long after many of its chief protagonists have died or otherwise vanished, to try and fit together pieces of the puzzle. And it's through the pieces of the puzzle that we, the reader, gradually begin to understand what might have happened. It's not a straightforward narrative style, but it did creep up on me, and by the end, my heart was breaking for young Daphne Manners. 4.4 stars.

105. Below the Salt by Thomas Costain, on the other hand, was a re-read that was old-fashioned and excessively romanticized. I think sometimes this can work (I still really enjoyed Costain's The Black Rose when I re-read that in recent years) but it didn't do much for me here. Too many buckles swashed; too many banners waved; there was too little of substance to really enjoy. The themes? Well, it's framed as a kind of time travel, but not really -- the character in the introduction seems to have hallucinated a kind of past life connection -- and it's kind of paen of praise to Runnymede and democracy (it was written in the 1950s) but beyond the fact that it deals with an interesting and unknown character, Eleanor of Brittany, there's nothing here to really like. The heroes are two-dimensional heroes from stock romantic 19th century novels; the heroines are likewise from central casting. Disappointing. 3.2 stars. I won't be re-reading this, and it's making me think twice about hanging on to some of my other Costains -- heresy, as my grandfather loved them, and some of them (not this one) were his books.

I loved The Black Rose when I was 12. Dad had a copy of it.

Can't remember, Suz, have you re-read The Tontine yet?

Enjoyed your enjoyment of The Jewel in the Crown.

>107 richardderus: read it twice, but it has probably been at least 15 years since I've re-read it. I do have both volumes kicking around the house, though. Make that 20 years plus... Read it once in high school and once later, probably while living in Japan. ETA: I tried the audiobook, but the narrator was utterly dreadful.

I hope you haven't spent that much of your credit on Adrian McKinty on US Kindle, not because he's not good but The Cold Cold Ground is £1.99 on UK kindle, and the others are £2.57 and 99p. #3 is quite new and I had it on my "voucher wishlist" which is for books I most want when I get Amazon vouchers. I had the first two as Vine picks and then they came up within weeks as Kindle bargains. This is also a Vine pick but I still have to write 16 reviews (and to read 8 of the books first) to choose anything again. Apparently it's part of a Mother's Day sale (quite odd, as most of the other books seem more predictably aimed at mums, but I guess some of us do read quite a diverse range of books!) Several of his earlier novels are 99p each.

I will be interested to see what you make of his book(s) though.

Great review of The Jewel in the Crown Suz.

>109 elkiedee: Piffle... The second one is the one I don't have, and it's the most expensive in the UK (and UK Kindle credit is pretty scarce chez moi right now, which is a good reason NOT to use it unless I have to for books I can't get here or that won't be available for months & months, if ever.) The third book will be a Vine book, and I can get #2 from the library. I also still have $170 of the Kindle credit; $160 after my pre-order goes through next week. And two of the books I would have purchased have just been added from Vine (the Rachman and the See). Do you have a link to that mother's day sale, Luci?? Actually, never mind -- just found it!

>110 Smiler69: Merci, Ilana!

Interesting Guardian article. Quick question. How are the accompanying photos selected?

My editor does it; I know for the story about the flash crashes, outages, high-frequency trading snafus, etc., she searched an image bank using the phrase "malevolent squirrel"...

*tee hee* malevolent squirrel!

Do you get any input into photos used? How about headlines?

None, and none. I suppose if I felt anything was libelous I could make a case. But in this particular case, I suspect I'd get precisely nowhere. I do see the final edit of the text, and that's what matters. The headline and photos are to draw eyeballs.

Hi Suz- Only a 100 pages left in Independent People. It continues to enchant. I am glad you liked Wake. I have that one lined up on audio.
We were talking essay collections awhile back: Have you read This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage? I am nearly finished and I think it is excellent. I've only read Bel Canto, which I really liked but it's good to know her NF is just as strong. In this collection, she also discusses her book, Truth and Beauty, which sounds like a Must-Read.

>116 msf59: Mark, I loved both Patchett's essays and absolutely adored Truth and Beauty, which remains my fave of all her books. It's utterly brilliant. Run out and get it!!!!

The last essay I was listening to, before wrapping up for the day, was the one where she was opening the bookstore in Nashville. I WANT TO GO!
I was also very impressed the she passed the LA police exam and could have go into the academy, as research for an article.
There are a couple good essays about Truth & Beauty, including the one where they tried to ban it from a college in South Carolina.

>118 msf59: The following was my Amazon review of this essay collection, which I rated 5 stars for both my Vine review and here on LT. I think I actually prefer her non-fiction to those of her novels I've read. (Oddly, I've yet to read Bel Canto...)

"Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world."

Happily for readers of Ann Patchett's novels and her non-fiction works -- a wide array of which are assembled in this collection -- the author has taken her own advice and stuck to writing. The result, on display here, is an interesting assortment of articles with a wry, witty, reflective and sometimes pointed voice, but one that is always distinctive and never becomes sarcastic or cynical.

The essays themselves all have one element in common: they draw on some aspect of Patchett's own life and experiences, and use that to reflect on some phenomenon -- friendships, the turbulent paths of a literary 'career', marriage, censorship, bookselling -- that is almost certain to be of interest to anyone who is even tempted to pick up this volume. While a writer or bibliophile will clutch this book to them like a jewel, even someone who is just looking for some kind of anthology to dip into from time to time will find themselves caught up in Patchett's world and worldview. I don't think you need to love her novels to appreciate this collection, just be a fan of solid, crisp non-fiction narratives focusing on the kinds of issues that any novelist -- and in some cases, any human being -- is likely to encounter.

Best of all, Patchett puts just the right amount of herself into these essays, which are of widely varying lengths. She has a point of view and expresses it as she tries to assemble a cheerleading squad for the short story or whip up the outrage of undergraduates over being told what they can and can't be asked to read. But in contrast to Donna Leon's upcoming essay collection, My Venice and Other Essays, an advance copy of which I recently read, she never comes across as cantankerous or irritable. She emerges as the kind of writer you'd happily trust and follow, having demonstrated over and over again her mastery of language and ideas.

That's a good review. Thanks! Patchett also narrates the audio and she does a terrific job. Very conversational. It's like walking along beside her.

A brief rant to say I'm finding myself somewhat offended by the tweets sent out by Melville House, which is a decent indie publishing company. Here's one example:

"Amazon users are enjoying ebook refunds, and Amazon is enjoying screwing everyone over, again"

It links to the following story, which contains NO reference that I can see to anyone screwing over anyone:

http://www.mhpbooks.com/the-antitrust-payouts-have-begun-amazon-users-get-ebook-...

OK, clearly Melville House loathes Amazon, and anything to do with them, from the Kindle to Amazon Publishing. Whatever. It's still tacky.

So, since I'm on their site, I look at some of their other content, and stumble over this, where the author accuses the NYT of trolling indie booksellers by artificially framing the nature of the debate in such a way as to limit it to old, useless tropes. A fair critique.

http://www.mhpbooks.com/the-times-is-just-trolling-indie-booksellers-now-and-its...

What's missing? Well, how about what the Gray Lady COULD have done right? Yup. In an opinion piece, the general idea is that if you slash and burn, you also indicate what you think the person or entity you're criticizing should have done -- that's what gives you the ground to level your critique.

Moreover, something that's missing from ALL of the publisher's pieces is any way for readers to comment on what they're seeing. Given the very opinionated nature of that content, that gives them a bully pulpit -- my way or the highway. I don't happen to think that's cool. I'm fine with opinionated people and organizations, but there should at least be a willingness to engage in a dialog. Especially if they're asking for my money (as Melville House is, by promoting its publications. It doesn't matter how much I agree or disagree with those opinions; it's a matter of principle.

Well, they'll do just fine without me in future.

106. I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young ha-Kim is a quirky, uneven and very dark little novella, one that reminded me of the kind of experimental art film that I might see at MoMA or during the Whitney's Biennial devoted to new artists. Indeed, it's more work of art than novel, and its narrator is intent on creating his own kind of work of art: perfect suicides. And if you're repulsed by that idea, you really don't want to read this book. Parts of it were fascinating and well written, in a bleak and disturbing way; when the novel focuses on the narrator and his pursuit of beauty and artistry, as reflected in Klimt, in Plath's poetry, in the works of other artists, and how he seeks out and identifies his "clients", that somehow clicked. Other parts simply didn't work for me, such as the segments devoted to the two brothers in love with the same women; none of these characters felt real. I had read the author's previous/other novel, Your Republic is Calling You, found that much more interesting. 3.3 stars.

107. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning was the third and final part of the Balkan Trilogy, and I'm boosting my rating on the trilogy as a whole to 5 stars, because viewed as whole, the work and its characters and themes has given me so much enjoyment and so much to ponder that it seems churlish not to. By the time it ends, Guy and Harriet have scrambled on board a ship that is leaving Athens as the Germans are on the verge of entering it, leaving almost everything behind them -- virtually all of their friends, in one way or another, and all of their belongings except for those that can be squeezed into a single suitcase and a rucksack of books. This time, they're not just moving on, as they were when they left Bucharest for Athens; they are now officially refugees. "Still, they had life -- a depleted fortune, but a fortune. They were together and would remain together, and that was the only certainty left to them." Or was it? Because the Levant Trilogy looms on the horizon...

>114 michigantrumpet:

Clarification: it's actually the online editor who pics the photos and headlines. He sometimes "bigfoots" my editor on this.

This Sunday's column, however, will feature one of my editor's holiday snaps from San Juan...

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage and I Have the Right to Destroy Myself are now on one wishlist or another. Thank you.

There are lots of good novels, but Independent People is the best novel.

Robert

OK, with both Mark and Robert recommending it, Independent People has just been added to my Kindle, with some of that outsized Kindle credit. I'll need some good reading down the road, having just waded through five particularly tedious ABNA excerpts. 17 more to go.

I can't believe how you're plowing through those ABNA excerpts Suzanne. I ended up giving The Balkan Trilogy and it's not too late for me to tackle The Levant Trilogy because the first one is actually vividly imprinted on my brain. Independent People has been sitting, unread, on my shelf for way too long.

I've now seen Independent People referred to so much on the threads that it's actually turned me off it, even though it'd been on my wishlist for years.

I'm still way behind in the ABNA excerpts, Bonnie. While the deadline isn't until the 11th, we're already reading excerpts coded with the letter w, which means if I don't pick up the pace there's a risk they will run out of excerpts before I reach the 40 that I'm supposed to do. That happened last year and I had an anxious few days waiting to hear whether I would get my gift certificate for all the work. And it IS work. As I think I grumbled before it makes it harder to read for pleasure.

Wow, typing on my tablet's screen is so slow and frustrating. This has taken me 10 mins to type; would have required less than one on a "normal" keyboard, since I would be faster and not always be making errors.

Let me rephrase the above: the excerpts are now on the letter Y, meaning that over the course of today, we've zipped all the way through W and X. With 17 left to read and review, to have a hope of completing them all, I'll have to work through the night tonight, I think. At least I'm now back on my laptop, where typing is much faster!

How long are the excerpts, Suz?

About 4,000 to 6,000 words. Each requires me to write three separate 400 word (more or less) critiques in response to three questions. Sixteen remaining, and I've jumped from YF in the prefix to YM in the last two hours, which isn't all that encouraging. Each takes me at least an hour.

That's still a spankin' pace. Still, $350 is a big motivator. I hope you make it.

Well, I have now put both The Imperfectionists and Truth & Beauty on hold at the library. I've not read Rachman before but if both you and Katie think he's worth following, well....
And I have not yet read anything by Patchett although I have been to her Nashville bookshop. Three times. :-)
Her work just never seems to appeal to me but I'm willing to give this one a try.

>129 Chatterbox: and >131 Chatterbox: Go Suzanne, go!

Urgh, I'm now at 14 remaining to complete, and at "YQ".

What I'm bemused by is that after specifying my preference for general fiction, for historical fiction and for mysteries, I'm drowning in YA, in romance and in fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal. Much more about aliens having sex in bizarre ways and I'm not going to be responsible for my actions. Very few of these writers have a clue about world-building.

I have had two or three good excerpts. The two standouts have been reasonably conventional novels, one set on a Caribbean island (a mystery with some supernatural elements, I think) and the other a historical novel set in upstate New York with a Quaker protagonist.

alien sex in bizarre ways? Isn't that redundant?

>135 Chatterbox: Yuck. At least they didn't stick you with any "New Adult" stuff, or as I call it, "YA with pubic hair."

I'd like to read the Caribbean one, so I hope it gets somewhere.

>136 AuntieClio: It's not bizarre to the aliens, now, keep that in mind! PS go find a copy of The Mount by Carol Emshwiller. Yee-ikes!

>137 richardderus:
No thank you

>137 richardderus: and why do we need a new genre category anyway? "New Adult" is just so bizarre....if you are an adult you can read whatever you want. If you want sex in your narrative good for you. It seems like such an artificial designation and so broad as to be useless. And since when do we need to classify books based solely on the age of the main characters?

I appreciate the warning, actually, when something is labeled YA I know it has teenagers in it and that isn't at all a good thing to me. "New Adult" sounds better, I guess, than "Chicken Hawk's Delight."

ARGH. Had six hours of not very good quality sleep and got back to ABNA to discover that I have nine excerpts left, and we're already on prefix ZW. There go my plans for breakfast, and much else. I shall have to work straight through.

You are EARNING this $350!

>142 richardderus: What he said

Now they have jumped to numbers -- and all the excerpts are YA. ARGH. A fate worse than death. Coming of age tales, in droves.

Suz, I'm checking the new arrivals on OverDrive and see The Daring Ladies of Lowell is available on audio. I also see that you've given that one a four-star rating. I've never read anything by this author—would you mind digging up your notes on that book for me?

Hi Suz- I finished Independent People. It's a monumental novel, with a difficult leading character. I'd like to see more LTers reading this one.

I was also a fan of The Imperfectionists. I think he has a new one coming out..?

>145 Smiler69: Ilana, here's my Amazon review of the book, which is right at the top of its page over there:

The basic plotline of this historical novel is nothing at all new. Essentially, it's a historical romance: young woman meets intriguing young man, they are drawn together but problems threaten to divide them. Will love triumph?

What made this more than a banal historical romance was the context. The story takes place in the early 1830s, the setting is Lowell, Mass., where the power of the rushing rivers has been harnessed to drive some of America's first major industrial ventures: textile mills. Suddenly, for farm girls like Alice Barrow, there is a horizon beyond the the family farm: a chance to earn their own money and achieve a measure of independence. But it comes at a cost: this is long before the era of the 8-hour workday, industrial accidents are all too frequent, and the mill girls are all too vulnerable. Including, it may be, to murder.

It's the violent death of Alice's best friend, Lovey, that threatens to derail her already problematic friendship with Samuel Fiske, the son of the owner of the mill where she works. The problems that Alice must work through are predictable enough; the plot itself is rather skeletal and feels rushed. But none of that detracted much from my enjoyment of the book. Clearly, judging from this and her prior book, Kate Alcott has an ability to venture into very, very well-trodden ground and still produce a novel that feels fresh, partly due to her straightforward, unflowery style and in part due to the characters through whose eyes the reader witnesses the events. In both of these novels, the main characters are straight out of central casting: young women from the lower classes, with talents and aspirations. But with enough attention paid to either the individual characters or the backdrop of the tale, Alcott is able to make her books more than the sum of their parts.

Don't look for a great literary historical novel, or anything dense and revelatory. Alcott is no Geraldine Brooks or Sarah Dunant, much less Hilary Mantel. But neither is she writing the 27th book about the Tudor court: this is a lively and fast-paced book about a topic that may well be new to many readers of historical fiction as it was to me

>146 msf59: Mark, thanks for the additional push! As you can see, I did add it to my Kindle! It's clearly a book to read when it's warm and sunny outdoors, not when it's bleak and wintry...

Yup, the new Rachman is up for grabs on ER this month. I snagged it via on Amazon Vine. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, it's called.

OK, only three ABNA excerpts left to read and review... and I'm light headed, so off to make some ham sandwiches.

Also have to clean up, wash dishes, pack, etc. (Off to NYC tomorrow at noon and MUST be organized).

Then, final ABNA excerpts and a Fiscal Times column. Sigh. No rest for wicked or the weary. OR the wickedly weary, in which category I probably belong.

Thanks for that. I didn't think to look on Amazon. I rarely look up the reviews there, so it's not a reflex of mine to look for yours (would they even show up on the Canadian site? I imagine they would...). Don't be shy to just give me the link next time, I'm not afraid of links when provided by people I trust. I'll give the book a try eventually. I won't mind so much if I'm not blown away by it if I get it free from the library. And even on Audible, there's always the option of returning the books, which seems like an almost incredible privilege.

ER was exceptionally good this month. It might be one of the best selections, I've seen.

>149 msf59: It really was!! Thank heavens I was able to snag many of my really really really wanna read it books elsewhere. So I'm left with one book that I can't score elsewhere -- the Emma Campion historical novel.

I loved A Spy Among Friends; it's one of my handful of 5-star books this year. I got The Catch and the new Stephan Talty mystery via NetGalley. China Dolls and the Rachman novel will come from Vine, and The Confabulist is already here from the same source. Prayer by Phillip Kerr I found cheaply for my UK Kindle.

Oh, god, I just read the most appalling submission. I'm amazed it got to this stage, but it did. Ugh ugh ugh.

OK, a quick comment on my latest book, then it's back to the salt mines:

108. She's Leaving Home by William Shaw is the first in what seems about to become a series of mysteries set in London in the late 1960s. When this opens, outsider detective Cathal Breen is called to the scene of the discovery of a young woman's body, just down the road from Abbey Road studios (and right near where I lived the last time I lived in London!) It's 1968, and groupies are hanging out outside the studios and the homes of the Beatles, but Breen is over 30 and just too old to really be part of the scene. Not so Helen Tozer, a young woman probationary constable trying to become the first woman detective after the murder of her young sister in Devon. The two are reluctantly paired up to investigate and the result is an interesting glimpse at policing in London in the era (the year I first moved to London, incidentally... a blast from the past....) The mystery is intriguing enough and the setting brings together all kinds of aspects of London at the time, from Irish builders to the Biafran war and yes, the Beatles. I'm sure I first heard about the book here (it was a library book) but can't for the life of me remember who mentioned it!! A good introduction to the series, although now I'll have to wait a while, as book #2 won't be out in the UK until May, which probably means I'll wait until next winter for it to appear here. 3.85 stars.

I. AM. DONE. WITH. READING. EXCERPTS.

FINISHED.

And now the book-binge begins.

>152 Chatterbox: - Well done!

Woot! What a relief that must be!

>153 richardderus: LOL

Well, I have to wait for the $$ to land, which won't be until late April or even early May. And a chunk of it is earmarked for a new office chair, before this one squeaks to the point where I hurl it out the window, or it collapses and hurls me to the ground. That said, it IS almost 12 years old, and cost me $99. But it should arrive at about the point when the Kindle credit wears out...

A HUNDRED BUCKS FOR 12 YEARS!!!! Throw it out heck, you should take a photo and build a small but tasteful shrine to it.

Whenever I see the word 'kindle' I think 'kindling' and I think why call something that is replacing paper (true kindling, I suppose) a kindle? You realize that a cockney would call it a swindle and move on from there to 'cheater'.

I do think, otherwise, you have earned your new office chair!

Yes on Independent People and be patient as you get used to the voice and style.

That journalism class sounds like my worst nightmare - sharks circling in a small pool for not enough grub, eh?

Maybe we can get the LT people to start an old folks home for uz nerdz?

Suz, while quote-shopping for my upcoming review of The Goldfinch, I ran across this:

The sky was a rich, mindless, never-ending blue, like a promise of some ridiculous glory that wasn’t really there.

It seemed to (paradoxically) encapsulate your "yes, but in a curious way no" response to the book: Lovely words, an arresting image, until you look closely and see...the nothing-much under it.

CONGRATULATIONS!
I'm also thrilled that you enjoyed the P. Scott so much. Or maybe this was a re-read? At any rate, the other 3 are tied together much more closely than they are to +Jewel+.
So O.K. I'll look at +Independent People+ now.

Regarding the ABNAs: when/if any of these get published (good, bad, or ugly), are you allowed to then tell us what you reviewed and what you thought? Or are you reviewing them more or less blindly and would only know if they got published if you happened to read one?

(I am, of course, particularly interested in knowing the fates of the really really bad ones! Ha!)

>160 LizzieD: I had started reading the series waaay back in the early/mid 1980s, right after the series aired on PBS Masterpiece Theater the first time. I remember buying the books in Kinokuniya in Tokyo in the early 1980s. I remembered bits of the first book -- principally Hari's segment of it, which, for some reason, I thought came earlier in the book than the other parts -- but not much, and I never completed it and never went on to the other books.

>161 katiekrug: I'm not really sure what the rules are. I think once they publish reviews with our names on them (which they do if an entry advances far enough) then it becomes public information, so it's pretty pointless to withhold that information. That said, at the moment, the rules are fairly clear: "No author should identify themselves to you and you should not identify yourself as a Judge in the contest on any forum that entrants have access to." So, I'm hoping that nobody here is an entrant??? Certainly, all the chatter on the Vine forum has suddenly dried up! They definitely don't want us discussing entries in an identifiable way, and I've been pretty judicious in keeping off the ABNA forum -- I don't want to know who the entrants are and be able to link them to their entries. I don't want to know about the bad ones, actually, because I feel bad for someone who got through the first round of cuts and thinks they have a chance, when really they don't have the remotest hope.

I remember how excited I was the first year I did this -- three years ago -- when the entry that I read at this stage that I was most excited about went all the way and won one of the two prizes -- a publishing contract for the YA title. The book was Spookygirl, by Jill Baguchinsky. It was a real hoot to read the excerpt, and was practically perfect -- a real standout, compared to the others. Some of the other judges are all sniffy and say you have to judge every entry on its own merits, but I think that's BS. We all compare: how else to you determine what is good? Only by understanding what represents "good" or "bad" in the first place! It's not that you expect others to match entry A or entry B, merely that it's impossible to talk about any work in an isolation bubble, in my opinion.

I've got three titles on my watch list for this year, but I won't tell you which ones unless they make the cut and I can point them out.

>159 richardderus: Richard, yes, that's the kind of dichotomy I struggled with while trying to describe my response to the Goldfinch. The linguistic flourishes were all present and accounted for, but...

>158 sibylline: The sharks' art lay in convincing you that they weren't sharks; they were just beautiful parrot fish and you were psychotic and deranged for not appreciating them. Sigh. Why on earth does this still annoy me after a quarter of a century??

>162 Chatterbox: I remember being entranced by the PBS Jewel in the crown when it was on Masterpiece, but not enough to read the series. Should I go back at this point and pick it up?

Congrats on the ABNA reading marathon. I'm sure all the authors involved are grateful for the input

>163 michigantrumpet: I think it's definitely worth a shot. I really think it enhanced what I saw on the screen, and made me appreciate the skill with which the writers and directors transferred Scott's novel -- which really wasn't written in a traditional "novel" format. The same, mind you, is true of Manning's trilogy. In that case, the writing was more traditional in approach, and the appreciation was due to the respect with which the original source material was treated, and to the casting and acting. Nothing of the spirit of the novels was lost, so that when I was reading and re-reading them, I could recognize in them what I loved and enjoyed in the television series, but also found that appreciation enhanced by the in-depth character portrayals and the way Manning (and Scott, too, for that manner) approached the deeper issues. It's a reminder of the different ways in which one can engage with material, and that it doesn't have to boil down to "either/or".

I really need to "re-watch" both series very soon. (I watched "Dallas Buyer's Club tonight; excellent!)

Marianne; I wish I thought that the authors would be grateful. Alas, perhaps it's human nature for some of those who receive less than lavish praise to lash out against critics. To be fair, in the past there have been some harsh critics. And sometimes it's a struggle to find anything at all to praise, or even to be diplomatic. And I'm sure that some of those whose work I've read will take offense at something I've said. I've tried to phrase it in ways, like, hey, the objective here is to keep people engaged and reading, and here's how to do that better and where as it stands, this isn't working for me as a reader. But when you're new to putting your work out for criticism, it's always going to be tough, and some skins are thinner than others. I think there were two or three excerpts that were just painful to read, and those I just kept very short, because otherwise I would have ended up saying stuff that I might well have ended up regretting. Because either I'm honest or I'm not being helpful. Sigh.

OK, off to bed. Looking forward to seeing Judy/ffortsa and Jim/magicians_nephew on Monday eve in NYC! Not for books, probably, but to see the movie about Elaine Stritch.

It's Megabus day so of course I have a migraine. Perhaps it was all the ABNA excerpts or the third straight day of rain? Or I am under a curse?

I hope the trip to NYC isn't too awful. The rain is supposed to end and even here in sodden and off white (really really old collapsing snow is the ugliest thing there is) Vermont they say Tuesday should be true gorgeous!! Of course, maybe they are kidding since it is April 1 also.

>165 Chatterbox: It doesn't look like the rain will be ending here until Monday afternoon/evening, Suz, and it seems likely to me that the persistent low pressure has triggered the migraine. It's certainly left me with some sore and stiff joints.

Have a wonderful trip in spite of it all!

oh no, not a migraine!

I think the Stritch is out - the timing doesn't fit as it's only playing one time in one theater. Sorry. But there is more to choose from. The hotel farce is playing at 14th Street, according to Jim, so that's easy. And think of what you would like to eat, especially since your migraine has acted up.

It was pretty dreadful, and then I got kicked and sworn at by a cyclist when I tried to hail a cab in the rain. Sigh. Ain't NYC grand.

But the hotel is lovely, and a big *smooch* to Judy & Jim for the voucher.

Headache is still here, thanks to a chatty woman with a piercing voice all the way down. Going to nap before I try to write a column.

Meanwhile, here's the latest opus.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/mar/30/moving-abroad-ready-e...

ETA: Let's do the hotel farce, then, and anything that isn't hunks of grilled tenderized meat, deli or Chinese. Japanese would be great, or fish, or Italian? Or bistro? Was heartbroken to realize (very belatedly, I know!) that Mesa Grill had closed... *mourning*

We know a really nice fish place a few blocks up, City Crab, which we haven't been to in a while. Japanese is available in the area too. Can you eat after the movie or do you need dinner early? That might influence our choice.

Completely your call, Judy; let me know what time you'd like to see the movie. If we eat later, I'll probably just meet you in time for the movie, so I can get some work done beforehand, though. I've lost a lot of time to the *expletives deleted* headache and wi fi problems today.

I must say that the hotel people here are lovely, though. The concierge is an aspiring opera singer, and the check in guy gave me free wi fi...

Oooooh City Crab! Just down from Steak Frites and Chat'n'Chew! Many a good oyster met its doom to me.

City Crab sounds like a popular option, Judy; we can kill an oyster in honor of Richard... Meanwhile, I'm calling it quits for the day so that I'll feel humanoid tomorrow!

Oh, what a pig of a day; almost completely wiped out by a really horrible headache that is only now beginning to go away. The saving grace has been the hotel people, who are incredibly nice. I was all prepared to venture out in quest of some takeout in the 'hood, when the concierge said she'd find me some sushi and order it for delivery. Then someone else just unilaterally escorted the delivery guy up to my door, so that I didn't have to come down to the desk and pay him, having realized that I felt so unwell. Honestly, I had forgotten that people could be that service-minded and just generally kind and considerate, especially in a brusque NY service setting.

Now I just need to catch up on work, and allow my brain to start functioning again. Bloody hell.

I did finish The Bellwether Revivals, by Benjamin Wood, which has been sitting around for about two years on my TBR stack, and it was very entertaining, but more on that later. I should finish The Ariadne Objective, but not sure about the final volume of the Cazalet Chronicles, which I randomly started on Friday.

I've been meaning to give you this link in hopes that a discussion of Independent People actually gets going. I doubt that one of my copies of the book will surface spontaneously, but if one does I think there's a good chance that I'll reread it.

Robert

Thanks, Robert! I'm not a massive fan of group reads, as I find them a little too lacking in the kind of spontaneity that the best kind of in-person book discussions feature -- and sometimes too prone down to bog down into request for clarifications about x or y, or "I liked this/didn't like that" -- but it's great to have one's attention drawn to a book by a number of people whose opinion one respects at the same time. There's a feeling of serendipity/inevitability about it!!

OK, off to try this sleep concept again. Thankfully, I don't have far to venture tomorrow morning -- no subway required and they PROMISED there would be no rain. "They", meaning the weather gods, aka forecasters.

>174 Chatterbox: Then someone else just unilaterally escorted the delivery guy up to my door, so that I didn't have to come down to the desk and pay him, having realized that I felt so unwell
That is super. I love little (depending on your take on it) things like that, they restore faith and can really make for a positive turn to the day. I hope the pig of a day gets penned in a sow-crate for tomorrow and the foreseeable future :)

Caught up but now I need a nap. Went away for three days and couldn't remember my new password here, so I've been doing my Sisyphus imitation ever since I got back. These dratted heads of yours...how I wish they would just STOP.

>178 tiffin: They have been a lot better this month. Since I started the new meds, I have "lost" only four days to epically bad headaches, and had perhaps three other days of very minor headaches (2 or 3 on the infamous 10 point scale.) Versus 15 days of headaches of 5 points or stronger, and at least 7 of 7.5 or more. So I really can't complain. Today I'm just battling grogginess from meds and wonky sleep.

Just a very quick update as I'm still very tired and slightly headachey after a busy day, running around after work stuff. Still, it was both productive and enjoyable. The work segment included meeting up with PR guy who I've known for 20 years, ever since I first moved to NYC, so while it's work it's also friendly chat and gossip and comparing notes on lives and people we know and the changes in our various worlds and stuff. And, to be honest, we're getting older, so it's nice to hang out with someone who has "been there"; who has had the same set of experiences. (We even both worked in London at roughly the same time; he was working for Merrill Lynch at the time and I for the WSJ.)

Met Judy & Jim for the movie, the goofily hilarious The Grand Budapest Hotel, which (thanks to the credits) we learned is based on the works of Stefan Zweig. Who knew that Zweig had such a well honed sense of the utterly absurd???

Judy was asking me which Zweig works to read, and I was suggesting The Post Office Girl and Chess Story as two works that probably are very characteristic of him at his strongest. Anyone have other tips?

Then off to dinner at a delightful little Italian place on 8th Ave that I'm going to have to remember; I have no idea of the name but will remember the location. Yum! Even though the ran out the baby clams, the pasta was perfection.

Now, just time for quick notes on my final two books of March, and a hot bath, before bed.

109. The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood is a book that I first spotted, I think, on Foyles' recommended list back about two years ago. It ALMOST works as forecast and as expected: as a quasi Gothic suspense novel set against the backdrop of the Cambridge academic scene. The dramatis personnae? Cambridge students, mostly, all overachievers, all just a little too intense, a little too accomplished, with too much expected of them and usually delivering it. Oscar, the main protagonist, encounters the young Bellwethers, Eden and Iris, (brother and sister) and the "flock", after the organ music he hears Eden playing for Evensong late one afternoon lures him in out of the rain. Inside he encounters Iris, and is entranced by her and willing to be "taken up" by the group despite being an outsider: he's from a lower class home, works as a care assistant in a nursing home and, while clearly intelligent, is more than a little out of his depth in the private little world these prodigies have created for themselves. Eden's world, however, is trickiest of them all, since he seems to have genuinely come to believe that his music possesses the power to heal... What happens next is eerie, disturbing and engaging, if not brilliant literature. 3.85 stars.

110. The Ariadne Objective by Wes Davis is the story of the kidnapping of a Nazi general on Crete by Paddy Leigh Fermor and others at the height of WW2; this episode of derring-do was made famous in the film "Ill met by Moonlight". If you've read Leigh Fermor's just published bio I suggest postponing the reading of this, and if you've read his travel yarns, you may want to skim lightly over the first chapter, which is essentially a rehash of his famous trilogy. Otherwise it's an entertaining yarn that draws on many other sources; I particularly enjoyed learning more about Xan Fielding and the "Cretan runner". It was a fascinating book to read after wrapping up the Balkan Trilogy as I realized that some of the protagonists would have overlapped with the real life models for Manning's characters in Athens in March and April of 1941. Excellent, fast-paced reading. 4 stars.

I haven't read either of the Zweig works you recommend yet, though I do have a two-volume edition of his complete works translated into French, so will get to them eventually. So far, I've read four of his stories and they've all been 4.5 star reads for me. It's safe to say I'm a big fan. Those I've read an recommend so far are: Letter from an Unknown Woman, Fear, Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R. von D., and Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman.

I haven't read any Patrick Leigh Fermor yet, but it won't be long now. I've seen him recommended from many trusted sources now, including your threads of course, as well as Slightly Foxed 38: A Great Adventure (with A Time of Gifts), to name just two.

I haven't read. I haven't read. I haven't read.
I'm glad that you have - and that your day ended well.
Suzanne, have you read In Paradise yet? I just finished it, and I'm knocked speechless and should have left it at that except that I had to attempt a review for ER. I'll be interested to see what you have to say about it.

>182 LizzieD: Not yet, Peggy, but I actually brought it with me and it's on my "must read soon because must review and anyway really want to read" list. maybe for the train, if I don't have to work?

When I saw the Zweig reference at the end of the film I wondered which works were the inspiration. I wonder whether that can be googled.

Robert

Stefan Zweig’s memoir “The World of Yesterday".

Robert

Nice roundish number to end the month on, Suz. I think I have figured out what to get you from Book Depo!

>186 PaulCranswick: Now I'm in suspense!

So, my headache is gone. So, my niggly small little dental pain is now an infection, and my dentist isn't going to be in today (Tuesday) and won't prescribe antibiotics without seeing me. So, I'm going to spend today in search of amoxicillin. Sigh. If it ain't one thing, it's another.

I would really have loved it had someone figured out how to reform dental insurance. As someone who has battled all my life to stay ahead of dental problems (and this is after having had no more than four cavities, and my wisdom teeth removed, between the ages of zero and age 26, only to deal with sudden dental armageddon since then), I know how frustrating it is to NEVER be able to keep up. When I moved to NYC, I remember saving for 8 months for much needed dental work (covering the gap between my credit cards and credit I could get and the total cost) only to find that the cost had gone up, and I needed another $1,500 that insurance wouldn't cover. Got the work done; then had to repeat the process a few years later. Flash forward a decade, and more major problems surfaced, far more major, mostly uncovered by insurance (which is a ripoff, anyway: a $20k cost covered at 50%, to an annual max of $2,500??) Once again, save, save, save, max out credit cards, etc. Then lose job just weeks before work is scheduled to be done...

I'd like to laugh, but it's hard to find anything funny in this scenario.

I ended up not signing up for health insurance this year. Right now, I'd be paying $3,600 a year out of pocket for a "just in case" policy that I'd get no benefits from unless I got sick -- a catastrophe policy with an ultra high deductible, which is still the only one I can afford. It's the high-deductible policy, and the fact that the policies individuals can buy don't cover out of network specialists and NO neurologist in Rhode Island and NONE I could find in NYC opt in to that plan. So I'd just be insuring against disaster scenarios, which is something I'd prefer to do, but can't afford until my income is less volatile (i.e. until I can be sure I have that much to spare each month.) The penalty is laughably small compared to not having money to pay utility bills.

I need to start talking to some of my editors about whether I can maintain my writing contracts from Canada as well as Providence. And/or talking to some of my journalism contacts in Canada about jobs. Ho hum.

Just thinking out loud. Clearly.

>182 LizzieD: I haven't read. I haven't read. I haven't read.
Me too, but I consider 400+ books per year a good survey of the field.

>187 Chatterbox: I ended up not signing up for health insurance this year.
It’s seriously discouraging that you’re falling through the cracks of the reformed system.

My catastrophic policy got me a foot in the door this past year (since many doctors simply won’t see patients who don’t have health insurance), though it didn’t pay for anything. I squeaked in to the insurance exchange over the weekend; fortunately there was one plan that the two relevant doctors both accept.

With a trip to the dentist on the schedule for today, you are making me profoundly grateful for our health care system here and Himself's dental plan through his work.

Whenever I hear Canadian acquaintances grumble about the system there, I wanna shake them. Fact is, that unless they compare their tax situation to an ultra-low tax state, they are usually significantly better off in most respects. (And even then, low-tax states don't necessarily have fabulous health care networks.)

But I am NOT going to get on my soapbox.

I remembered I am staying in a hotel, and a hotel with a great concierge system, and the concierge got me an appointment with the hotel doc, so please pray and cross all crossables. I don't need painkillers; I can deal with that with ibuprofen, etc. I just don't want this to blow up into something massive. Which means the wonderful invention of antibiotics. I am not going to go to a new dentist, who will reel off an endless list of stuff that I know needs to be done, but not tell me just how he/she expects me to win enough millions on the lottery to pay for it all!

Whoops, was that a faint whining sound again? I must stop now, and go make some phone calls.

I'll add you to my list of lottery shares, Suz. Of course, I have to win first.

>191 ffortsa: Judy, LOL! Glad to know you're buying tickets at least. You are buying tickets, aren't you?? :-) And thank you. Would that be a quarter share? An eighth share? A sixteenth? Just checking...

Trying to persuade this irksome little black cloud overhead to just BUGGER OFF elsewhere. It's little, because nothing really apocalyptic has happened. Just annoying stuff. I'd like to have, oh, two or three months getting used to a life with minimal migraines for the first time since my early 20s and understand what that might really mean to me, reorganize my world, recharge my batteries and then deal with the rest of stuff, like family issues.

I did get to see the "house doctor", and have penicillin. It's about 7 hours since I took the first dose, and I'm waiting for it to kick in, however. (Yes, I know, patience not one of my long suits....) He also prescribed Vicodin, which I didn't ask for and am not sure I'll take, but filled it anyway, just in case. Easier to have on hand in case. I hadn't actually realized it was stronger than my Fioricet with codeine, since the only times I've taken it are after dental surgery, on an "as needed" basis, and it's never really left me feeling high, just addressed the pain. Honestly, am not sure why people want to take painkillers recreationally. They just make me groggy. So, with those and a mouthwash, this should help. If it hasn't in the next 36 hours, well, that'll be another ball game. Sufficient unto the day, blah blah blah.

I'm going to put off work until early tomorrow morning, and just go curl up with a book, I think. Cats are VERY happy to have me home. Mostly because of the opposable thumb/cat food can thing, though.

ETA: I really lucked out, and won the historical novel by Emma Campion that I wanted to read. It was the only one left on my "must have" list after Vine/NetGalley and other options had been exhausted, so I'm quite pleased about that!

I have never understood why dental coverage was not part of heath insurance. It's very necessary to deal with infection which certainly is something "medical." Does someone think that people would get cavities filled, root canals done and teeth extracted for any reason other than dire need to avoid infection? It's ridiculous that your teeth are not covered when every other part of your body is! And dental insurance is an absolute joke. The coverage covers so little that it's laughable.

Hope you get relief soon Suzanne.

>193 brenzi:, Bonnie, you're right, since left untreated, a dental infection can get into the bloodstream and become a broader medical issue.

But then, this all assumes that people are sane, rational beings.

Dental insurance, I'm afraid, is little more than a racket, even if your employer offers it.

>180 Chatterbox:- Stefan Zweig & Wes Anderson? That is a nice pairing. I NEED to see that film. I have only read The Post Office Girl & Chess Story. I NEED to get back to this guy. His books are not always easy to find.

In re dental insurance: Really? I got into dental insurance through my union and started using it back in 1984, and I've been pretty happy with it. One regret is that I had a tooth pulled once because it was covered, and root canal was not. Along the way the employer took on dental insurance with a not quite so comprehensive plan, so I was covered twice over and was able to carry both plans into retirement. I pay for the union plan, but it is a fair price. I see a hygienist once a quarter, and the dentist seems to look in every time I'm there. I've had both gold and porcelain crowns replaced at no cost since my retirement in 2006.

Robert

>195 msf59: Mark, that was PRECISELY my reaction on leaving the theater! I needed to go find me some more Zweig! Well, actually, I HAVE more, I just have to dig it up and read it! It was as if Wes Anderson had mined Zweig for the sheer silliness that you just know HAD to have been there alongside the Mitteleuropa angst. I think I may actually have chortled aloud when I saw the Zweig credit -- you may have to ask Judy & Jim for verification. It's like: What if Zweig had written a satirical novel...

NYRB went through a Zweig binge, I know, and didn't Archipelago release some of them too, or some short stories? Or was that only Joseph Roth? And may I put in a plug for Laurent Seksik's fabulous novel about the last days of Zweig, which I note has now been translated into English and which I think is excellent? Perhaps a bit oblique, and certainly bleak, but I liked it.

>196 Mr.Durick: Robert, I'm glad you have been so lucky -- but yes, you've been lucky! Many plans reimburse "usual and customary" rates, which can vary significantly rom what the actual fees are. Generally, they are helpful for preventative care only, and if you need more significant work done, then the costs go up significantly. For instance, I've never seen, nor had, a dental plan that covered 100% of crowns. A typical plan covers 50% of a crown, up to the maximum total benefit of the plan. Most plans have a maximum annual benefit per year of about $2,500, so after a deductible, you can use up your entire year's plan in one root canal and two crowns. (And you're still paying 20% of the root canal, and the other 50% of the crowns, or about another $2,000, out of your own pocket...) If what you need are cleanings, annual x-rays and the occasional filling replaced, they are fine. So, let's say that you need a crown. And your dentist charges $3,000, while the insurance company says that $2,000 is the "usual and customary rate". That means that (if you've already met your deductible), you'll get paid $1,000 and have to pay $2,000 out of your own pocket. That's what a friend of mine just had to fork over to finish up some dental work.

I was talking to another friend of mine who is an investment adviser about this a week or two ago. He and his colleagues have actually decided to stop buying a dental plan for their office because they ran it through their own financial analysis software (!) and decided there was no way they could possibly benefit. He said it was actually the easiest decision they had ever reached because they added up the cost of the premiums, the co-pays, the deductibles, etc. and they figured out that the best they would ever do was to break even! Hmm, maybe there's a personal finance story to write there?

Some procedures are covered under medical insurance, rather than dental. Gum surgery, in my case. However, without either, things are bound to get expensive. Sigh.

Hmm, maybe there's a personal finance story to write there?

Oh yes Suzanne, that would be a story that everyone could relate to. Who hasn't dropped a boatload of money at the dentist's office? Everyone could relate.

Carrot: Your med school loans are now PIF.
Carrot: The US Government is now your malpractice insuror. The government must agree to be a party to any lawsuit filed, and it moves them all to Federal courts.

Stick: Single payer, zero opt-out, zero "private patient" tolerance.
Stick: Thumb your nose at the system, lose your medical license. Forever. No appeal.

Bonus: Nationalize banks, insurance companies, and Congress. Fire all executives making more than $25,000 a month, confiscate their assets, and send them to Utah, which now has a giant barbed-wire fence around it and guards who lost their homes, livelihoods, and so on in the crash.
Bonus: Yellowstone's going to erupt in 2014, so they'll all be Pompeii'd!

*sigh* No wonder I write fiction. I don't like the real world very much.

My maximum annual benefit is $1500. I am getting all four wisdom teeth out next month to the tune of about $3000. And considering myself lucky it isn't worse! Ugh.

Suzanne - the dental costs are high here in NZ too and it's now quite common for people to travel to Thailand to get their teeth done and have a holiday at the same time, it's called medical tourism.

Suz, I'm so sorry about the dental insurance mess. It infuriates me how desperately awful our system is. It's absurd and inexcusable.

Oh, I seem to have stepped up there on your soapbox. :-|

I haven't read anything by Zweig but I have Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R von D and Journey into the Past on my TBR shelves.

Here's another financial advisor's viewpoint on dental costs: I have a number of retired clients who are gradually taking withdrawals from their retirement accounts to fund living expenses. For the most part they are frugal, mindful of a potentially long life expectancy. Most have settled on a fixed monthly sum and maintain that withdrawal rate, regardless of inflation. There are typically two cases in which people request additional lump sums from their accounts: for the purchase of a new car and for dental work! (NB I bear no malice to the profession, having being married to a practitioner for >30 Chatterbox: years.)

Oops - I sense a bug in the referback!

Hi Suz- Love the Zweig chatter. The World of Yesterday sounds really interesting. Have you read that one? I have not tried his short fiction either. Recs?
The Seksik sounds promising too!

Unbloodybelievable.

I wrote one detailed response to everyone and thought it had posted. It hadn't.

Then I wrote a more general response, summarizing all of those, and my connected died while I was trying to post that.

Mind you, this is scattered over the last several hours that I've been battling a deeply inadequate Internet connection on my laptop. I have NO idea what's afoot. It will stay connected for perhaps five minutes and then I'll lose the connection. It's not the wi-fi, as I've had no problems with the Kindle Fire. But it's very time consuming to type out an entire message on my Kindle Fire!

So, for the third time, briefly....

>206 msf59: and others who have commented re Zweig -- yes, I have adored much of what I have read. Mark, can't really recommend any specific short fiction, as I didn't make notes of names of individual stories; just dipped into anthologies. Sorry; mea culpa! The World of Yesterday may be my next full length work.

>204 vivians: I have considered Thailand, especially Chiang Mai, which I know reasonably well and feel comfortable in. Complicated to organize and plan, though, and still very pricey. (Think, $70k/$80k...) Lots of stuff needs to come together before I can consider doing that. My father has had crowns done in Lithuania, while visiting his gf's family.

>201 katiekrug: I'm so glad I had my wisdom teeth out in college, under general anaesthetic and thus under the Ontario health plan, or OHIP as it was then! I think I had to pay $60 a quarter for my health insurance as a student then! It wasn't fun, since all were impacted and the anaesthetist had a hell of a time finding my veins (arm was black & blue), but it was DONE! One less thing to cause problems later on.

And I'm not ignoring anyone else, just can't type out a third set of full responses!

Just got my next three Amazon Vine books! So I can go curl up back in bed, with most of my work done. With a cat to purr beside me, my antibiotics and painkillers beside me, and a book to read. Sounds quite good to me...

>206 msf59: Mark, most of Zweig's works are on the short side, and certainly all those I mentioned in >181 Smiler69:, all of which I heartily recommend.

Sorry about you losing messages Suz. I think we've all been there and know how frustrating that can be. And never mind twice in a row! Grrrr! Hope the wifi troubles get sorted out soon.

Sad note: a former colleague of mine, who edited a lot of my stories when I was at the WSJ, died on Monday. He had been ill, but the last I and many others had heard, had been getting better. He was a lovely guy; always fun to deal with even under deadline pressure. It's funny; after a dozen years of dealing with these people day after day, calling with big and small bones to pick about your copy, always under pressure to get it done NOW, you learned who was really smart and just got it, and who a loose cannon and thought they were smarter than they were, or who was temperamental and cracked under the pressure and took it out the reporters. Steve was one of the good guys, and I'm glad he had so much fun writing his sports stuff in his final years.

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2014/04/01/steve-mckee-1952-2014/

>207 Chatterbox:. I'm laughing about the wisdom teeth thing. My DH had his wisdom teeth out when he was in the Army. It cost us $0, however, he was non compos mentis for at least two days. Very scary.

210. That happened to me when I had ear surgery as a kid. Just one day though, but a bit of a shock to my parents.

>210 labwriter:
>211 PawsforThought:
That's dreadful! Was it the anesthetic that caused this, or something else?? Wow... You don't expect to be made crazy by (relatively) minor surgery...

212. I think it was the anaesthetics that did it for me. It was a very simple surgery and there were no other medications involved. I've had surgery since and not reacted that way (luckily).
It lasted for about a day, when I woke up the next morning I was back to normal (to my parents great relief).

Good seeing you Suz.

The Kimberly staff is legendary and takes good care of folks.

Our favorite secret Italian restaurant on 8th avenue - - - don't blab it around.

>214 magicians_nephew: I wouldn't dare. The cross streets could only be extracted under torture. Or the deposit of a seven-figure sum to my Swiss bank account...

I've been very fortunate to have a dental plan that covered 100% of crowns and fillings and all such necessary work as long as you did your preventative cleanings every 6 months. That is up to $2500 a year, and I've always been able to space my work out to stay close to that. The dental office writes off any of their charges that are above the rate allowed by the plan. BUT my district stops including me in their plan when I turn 65. And talking to the office manager, he says what you said, Suz--there aren't any plans out there for individuals that cover enough to make it worth your while.

And the OTHER racket that hasn't been mentioned is hearing loss and how hearing aids are not covered at all, nada, nothing, by any insurance. And talk about pricy!

>216 ronincats:, Roni I know -- I paid for my mother's hearing aids until she turned 70 and qualified for some kind of program. She has been legally deaf in both ears since she was about 50, I think and probably needed hearing aids before that. She can't hear a thing without them, which means she sleeps very soundly, but when she's staying with me, I don't, since she doesn't know how much noise she makes if she has to get up in the middle of the night or when she gets up early!!

>216 ronincats: That's the best dental plan I've ever heard of, short of being the child of a dentist!

>204 vivians: Suz, that's an immense amount of money for dental work in Thailand. Whew. I did buy a lottery ticket for Wednesday.

Oh my goodness! A program for helping with hearing aids? I'll have to look into that. I should get help before I lose much more, but when the bottom-of-the-line model is $5,000, and I could benefit from the better ones (now that's a surprise), I just can't think about it.
We have a dental plan that I think remains worth our while. DH has made good use of it for the past several years.

>219 LizzieD: It's some kind of Canadian or Ontario government program for seniors with few resources, Peggy... But there might be something similar out there? You should ask around. Even check with the manufacturers of the devices, perhaps.

Reading all your messages makes me incredibly thankful to live where I live. Healthcare (for everyone) is subsidised so you never have to pay more than a certain amount of money every year, no matter how much surgery, medicine or aids you need. Anything kids need is completely free. Dental work for kids (up until your 20th birthday) is also completely free, but dental for adult is sadly not subsidised (oh, how I wish it was).

Speaking of insurance, but not dental (so perhaps an inappropriate comment), I'd love to understand why, despite the fact that I have vision insurance through work, I'm unable to leave the optometrist's office without spending at least $400 out of my pocket? It's insane! I don't select wildly expensive designer frames. I really don't think eyesight is a luxury, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Anyway, I'm very sorry to read about your friend. Take care.

>222 DorsVenabili: Wow, there's another "creeping" expense... I've been blessed with good vision, so this is something I thankfully haven't had to think about. But it's true I've seen friends tape their glasses together while they wait to afford a new pair.

And clearly, eyesight is NOT a luxury. Indeed, in a lot of ways, it's a basic fundamental that should be 100% covered at a basic level: not just the doctor's fees, but basic glasses. Because if you can't see to read, drive, participate in society, well, you can't be a productive member of society. (Oh wait, I can already hear Richard jumping up and down in the wings, eager to have his 0.02 on this subject...)

>221 PawsforThought: That is, indeed, a very good system. I think by the time the US realized the state of affairs here -- that some kind of change was needed -- we were so locked into this ideological battle that what we ended up with (this bastardized compromise) was all that was possible. I still support it in principle, but can't get it to work for me. To be fair, I don't think it was designed to work for people like me, who are self-employed and who don't have pre-existing conditions. It was aimed at people whose employers decide not to offer healthcare policies, and at insurers who decide to simply deny coverage. Those two egregious wrongs have been corrected.

I do rather chuckle at the demonization of "socialized medicine". My sister in law is a physician in Canada, and she doesn't think of herself as working for the government, any more than a doctor here would view herself as an employee of the insurance companies (often the de facto state of affairs, even if not codified...)

I won't make it to Steve's wake, which is in Brooklyn tomorrow. Alas and alack.

111. All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard is the final book in the five volumes of the Cazalet chronicles and the author's final published work, appearing only weeks before her death late last year. On all counts, it feels like a valedictory: it opens with the death of the Cazalet family matriarch, and ends with the virtual death of the Cazalet family firm and what that means for the family members. Moreover, it feels slightly more perfunctory, lacking the richly detailed glimpses inside the personal lives of the characters that Howard used in the prior books. Instead, this time the chapters (each devoted to one or two characters who meet or have some interaction in it) feel more perfunctory, almost like scenes in a play. That said, she has a tremendous number of people to "manage" here: Polly, who has married her lord and now has four young children; struggling author Clary, married but not completely easy in her mind, with two children; Zoe and Rupert, who have found new ways to live together after the war divided them; Villy, struggling in a meager post-divorce world; Juliet, imagining herself in love with most unsuitable young man possible (and offering up the most bizarre plot twist which Howard inexplicably drops suddenly). Then the Rachel/Sid plot evolves, we've got Edward's ongoing woes with Diana, Hugh's newfound happiness, etc. etc. It all feels very breathless and only just managed. The result will be interested only to anyone who has followed the series thus far, and only because it serves to somehow tie up the loose ends. I shouldn't gripe, knowing that Howard was elderly when she wrote this and clearly determined just to get it done, but it doesn't do justice to the earlier books. 3.5 stars.

Heh, no I've had my 2¢ already about that. I will say that my lenses are 10 years old. I need new ones, can't have cheapies because the Rx is weird and strong, and couldn't get to a doctor anyway because I can't sit for long at a stretch or ride in a vanilla car. Has to be a van or SUV, since nothing bends enough to fold into a normal-sized car.

223. It is a good system, even if it's far from perfect and has been hollowed out somewhat in the past decade. But the foundation is good and I'm glad it's there.

I'm really fond of my optician's (glasses and checkups aren't included in the subsidy, but kids get a pretty big discount if they're under a certain age and their parents are tight on money) and they have a great scheme going. If you get a yearly checkup (which I always do because I wear contacts and you should when you have those, plus I've had issues with my eyes and don't want to risk anything) which costs about $50 you can go see them any number of times about anything to do with your eyes for a whole year (and they mean any number, because I tried the system when I was having issues).
Also, if you do a contacts checkup you get a glasses checkup for free at the same time (they cost about $40 otherwise, I believe, but I always get the combo so I'm not sure).
And their glasses aren't too expensive. I mean, it depends on the frame designer, type of lense (glass or plastic) and level of correction needed obviously, but still... My eyesight is bad enough that I could never cope without glasses, I have glass lenses (more expensive) and designer frames. My glasses cost me around $700. Oh, and you get two pairs for the price of one. And my optician is a wonderful person, to boot! :D

I'm nodding in agreement with all the posts about how insurance is lacking. Luckily for our family, we have health care and dental insurance under my DH's employer sponsored program. Of course we have to pay for me and the kids to be on the plans but it is there. The dental insurance is only good if you don't have a problem and as for the vision plan, its worse than useless. It basically only covers a biannual checkup. If it wasn't included as part of the whole we would not choose to have it. When DH first started in his job 18 years ago, the insurance covered more, but changes to carriers and plans have led to steadily decreasing amounts of coverage. It is distressing as he and I are aging and our health can only get worse instead of better.

Another thing that is not covered under regular health insurance plans is orthotics. I have had custom orthotics since I was 18 due to feet problems I was born with. My health insurance now does not cover replacements when the orthotics wear out because they are not "necessary"! I wish someone would tell my feet that...*sigh*

I am also a supporter of Obamacare in the general sense that we need change in the system, but I am frustrated when I see examples like yours Suz of where it does not work. It is a dreadful shame that this country cannot do better in this regard.

So... changing the subject back to books.

I just interviewed the CEO of this startup company, Oyster, that aims to be "the Netflix of books".

So far, only available on iPhone and Ipad, so I can't take it for a test drive. Has anyone out there tried it? Seen it? Heard about it? Thoughts?

https://www.oysterbooks.com/library

Limited thus far because it hasn't teamed up with many of the big five publishers.

Thoughts welcome; I'm writing and filing something tomorrow, but I'll be monitoring this on an ongoing basis out of curiosity...

>223 Chatterbox: If chronic migraine isn't a pre-existing condition, I don't know what is, Suz. It's just that the plans available to you are more expensive than not being insured, which is ridiculous.

I'm getting used to a pseudo-catastrophic plan myself. The company switched to a plan with a considerably higher deductible, and some of the expense shocks me - for instance, the cost of medications while I'm still paying the deductible costs. I think being on Medicare will be a distinct advantage, which I wouldn't have thought last year.

>228 ffortsa: Financially, I'm looking forward to being 65, if I make it that far. Cheaper transportation, cheaper movies, etc. And Medicare!

>227 Chatterbox: They talk about Oyster a ton on the Book Riot podcast. Both of the hosts are using it and one, Rebecca, really loves it. I haven't tried it myself though. I've got enough books right on the TBR shelf here!

>230 Cobscook: Thanks for the tip, Heidi! Shall check it out... Your reaction is pretty much identical to my feeling. Even if it were Android compatible (or I had an iPad), I'm not sure I'd want to lock myself into $10 a month. I'm sure that at the beginning I'd revel in being able to check out and try unlimited books, but eventually, I would find I wasn't getting my money's worth, because inevitably there would be books I wanted to read that weren't on the platform. The way the CEO described it, it seems aimed at more desultory readers, folks who want to read something but aren't really sure what -- who want to be constantly introduced to new stuff. My problem is balancing all the new stuff all you folks are constantly throwing my way (eeek, was that another book bullet?), the ones I inflict on myself, re-reading some old favorites, and new books by authors I know I enjoy and whose work I want to keep up with.

I think if I weren't as spoiled as I were by having Vine ARCs, NetGalley books, a good public library system, etc., it would be more appealing. Even so, I'd have to accustom myself to reading on a backlit device...

112. The Shadow Queen by Sandra Gulland is a very good historical novel that will appeal to fans of the genre even if, unlike Hilary Mantel and other astonishing novelists who happen to write historicals, it won't win new converts. It's the story of an obscure figure from 17th century French history, Claudette des Oeillets, raised in turbulent war-torn France of the civil strife of the earliest years of Louis XIV's reign. Finally returning to Paris in her early 20s, Claudette helps her widowed mother return triumphantly to the stage as a top tragedienne, and tries to save her simple-minded brother Gaston from one of several all-too likely fates -- and encounters again a young woman she first met in the countryside as a child, the princess-like noblewoman, Athenais. But the young lady aspires to be more than just the daughter of a count or wife of a marquis: she intends to become the king's mistress and the shadow queen of the Sun King's court, and she needs a confidant she can trust -- and she chooses Claudette... The court scenes are less vivid and compelling than Gulland's portrayal of the gritty world of the theater, the wars between Moliere's comedy theater and the tragic dramas written and staged by Corneille and Racine, but Gulland's story is lively without being too melodramatic and overwritten. I enjoyed her trilogy about Josephine de Beauharnais, and in some ways this suffered by comparison -- a lot of content is squeezed into too few pages -- but unless you happen to have read some of the other novels set in the era, most of which are either now out of print or never translated into English, it's a great yarn. 4 stars.

>209 Chatterbox: I'm going to try to track down Steve McKee's memoir, My Father's Heart. It's now out of print, alas. It's particularly poignant, covering his discovering his fathering dying of heart disease in their home when he was 16 and how it made him very conscious throughout his life of making healthy living decisions. Nonetheless, he discovered at about the age I'm at now that somehow he had major blockages in several heart valves and a rip in his aorta. Despite taking statins and doing everything his cardiologists told him, the aorta ruptured and caused a stroke last year. He was recovering from that reasonably well, and then three weeks ago had another rupture and two other strokes, from which he simply didn't recover. He was 61, and up until his diagnosis had been a triathlete. I'll remember him fondly.

I just looked up Sandra Gulland and one of her other books, self published on Kindle, is currently free - the first in a trilogy about Josephine Bonaparte.

>227 Chatterbox: Intriguing idea, but $10 per month is too much. With effort, I can read about 6 books per month. Some of these are books I already own, some are from the public library, some I prefer in paper format, some are specific books for specific purposes. Leaving not much room for Oyster books, and then I’d have to choose from a sparse collection, probably a book that would suffice, rather than one I actively wanted to read.

>233 elkiedee: Thanks for the tip, Luci! I added it to my Kindle. I had obtained all the series from Paperbackswap years ago, and would like to have them on Kindle but in the US they are still being sold by the publisher and aren't freebies...

>234 qebo: Katherine, yes, even though I read far more, I fear this would end up feeling like a straitjacket. If it were Kindle, with its vast reservoir of books, I wouldn't worry, but even then, honestly, I've got ARCs to read and the business model doesn't favor new books of any kind. It's clearly aimed at a different kind of reader than most of us here are.

And thank you for the Gulland tip..........and how I envy the Brit's Kindle deals! Anyway, I have the first Josephine coming from PBS and look forward to it.

>234 qebo: - I had the same reaction as Katherine when I first heard about Oyster. I just can't see getting enough use out of it, but if it's intended for more casual readers like your interviewee implied, that makes more sense.

My Facebook feed is full of ads for it. I think there is another similar service - Scribd. I haven't really looked into it, but the premise seems to be the same.

>232 Chatterbox: That sounds like my cup of broth, Suz. That period of French history is a fascinating one.

Have a lovely weekend, dear lady - with no headaches.

>238 PaulCranswick: Touching wood in all directions, Paul, but the Topamax seems to have put a big dent in my migraines. I'm still being mindful of all my triggers, but I've only had five completely disabling days in the last 30 (since starting the Topamax) and five small-scale days, when "tiny" headaches were easily treated and vanquished. That compares to about 15 disabling days and about five small scale headache days in the previous 30 days. Which tells you a lot about my "normal" life and why I'm so obsessive about avoiding triggers -- I simply can't risk making decisions that will put me in bed for two days, or leave me wishing I were dead or trying to come up with reasons not to kill myself.

So, now I just hope that this keeps working (I had a similar effect in the late 1990s from a low dose of Amitripityline, but it dissipated after about 6/8 weeks) and that no unpleasant or difficult-to-tolerate side effects emerge. If so, it would radically, dramatically transform my life in ways I can't even begin to imagine. Migraines have narrowed my life dramatically as they became less manageable in my mid/late 20s. For heaven's sake, I can think about going to movies. (A no-no, since they are flickering lights in dark rooms...)

>146 msf59: I hated The Imperfectionists, but I guess difference of opinion is what makes LT interesting!

Re Zweig, I liked his longest work, Beware of Pity, best of all his works I've read, but I enjoy Joseph Roth a lot more. I'm interested in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" but probably not enough to go to a movie theater to see it.

Otherwise, just catching up with 10 days worth of posts!

>240 rebeccanyc: I think there was a lot of division of opinion on The Imperfectionists, and there was one character or episode in particular that attracted a big negative reaction. I found it all kind of in keeping with the lunatics who are attracted to working on expat newspapers, so I found it worked for me.

I really should read some more Roth. I have several of his works here, too, and in fact was eyeing Confessions of a Murderer this morning when I was supposed to be working. Sigh. I think it was wishful thinking, but I won't elaborate!

Meanwhile -- work done for the day. Two things written, and annoyingly detailed, finicky little edits done on a quarterly project. So I can go grocery shopping with a friend and spend much of the weekend hibernating!!

All caught up here, Suz. Have taken a few book bullets, in particular The Shadow Queen by Sandra Gulland. I have recently read the first in her Josephine trilogy, and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to continuing on with it. I have also read and liked her Mistress of the Sun so I guess you could say I am a fan of hers.

>241 Chatterbox: I can see how that would make it interesting for you, Suz. I just found it extraordinarily misogynistic! As for Roth, I haven't read that one, but I've enjoyed several of his novels including, of course, The Radetzky March, but also Hotel Savoy, The Emperor's Tomb, Weights and Measures, and Job: The Story of a Simple Man.

I also have Job here, Rebecca, so maybe I'll try that.

Tooth problems still niggling, if not as bad as they were earlier this week. I should have held out for the stronger antibiotic, I think! (Clindamycin is what my dentist usually gives me; it's pricier but stronger...)

Continuing in my frivolous reading binge...

113. Shadow of the Night by Deborah Harkness is the second in the trilogy of novels featuring witches, daemons, vampires and time-traveling, in an incredibly complex plot. Basically, in volume one, apparently failed witch but promising scholar unearths an ancient manuscript and promptly finds herself in the midst of a battle between all the "creatures", each of which want to figure out how she was able to open the manuscript that none of them has been able to access. She finds true lurve with a vampire, and now, in volume two, has traveled back in time with him to Elizabethan England (1590) to pursue the truth about her witchy abilities and the manuscript. Book two, which I bought because it happened to become available ultra-cheaply in a Kindle special sale, actually proved to be an improvement over book #1 (library), in part at least because it was fun seeing late 16th century England, France and Bohemia through the eyes of Diana as she tries to keep "up" with the times, so to speak. (She and Kit Marlowe don't hit it off, but she and the other members of the School of the Night get along famously, while Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, develops a crush on her when they venture off to Prague -- which reminded me that I've been meaning to read more about Prague in this era, the last gasp of Renaissance humanism before the 30 Years' War kinda shut everything down. The whole thing sets up the story for some kind of epic confrontation between good and evil in book #3, which will be out in July, and which will probably make for good escapist reading... 3.8 stars.

I'm waiting for that third book. You're right: good escapist reading (my forté).

... and one more of those escapist books!

114. The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson was a linked series of three novellas that proved disappointingly uneven; the second/middle one was only very tenuously connected to the first and third ones, and served only, I think, to link them. At any event, the first is a kind of eerie/ghostly first person narrative, as a young widowed garden designer, Ellie, is summoned to island off the Mediterranean coast of France to talk to the owner about redesigning a memorial garden; in the second, we follow the adventures of a young, blind apprentice to the parfumeries of Provence during World War II as she is caught up in the Resistance; the third and final episode links the Resistance with Ellie's trip to Poquerolles. The structure's weaknesses detract from the suspense of the story at the heart of it, alas, which is a pity. Lawrenson's ideas/imagination outran her ability or something. Not bad, but not as good as it could or should have been. 3.35 stars.

There's a character in here who is so clearly based on Vera Atkins of the SOE, it's almost worth wondering why Lawrenson bothered to come up with another name. (As it is, the name is only thinly disguised...) That made me remember A Life in Secrets, Vera Atkins' own biography by Sarah Helm, which IS excellent, and very highly recommended. She kept all kinds of secrets, including many about her own background, for most of her life.

Deborah Lawrenson...that name rings a bell. Not a loud one, but a bell.

Happy happy joy joy re: migraine improvements, and a titanic lasting-results *whammy*

>248 richardderus: She wrote The Lantern, which I tried the first time to read in August of 2011 (I remember it was when the first hurricane blew through NYC and (surprise!) I had a big migraine...) I didn't like it on the first try, but then gave it a second attempt a year or so later and enjoyed it quite a lot. Not sure what made the difference... There was a spooky, quasi-ghost element to that novel, too, but the whole narrative held together better. I also have another of her books, a kind of homage to Lawrence Durrell, or at least based in part on his life on Corfu -- that one is on audiobook.

Oh yeah! The crux of my review was, "It's Rebecca meets The Horseman on the Roof set in modern times. I found it unspooky in the extreme. I also found it lushly beautifully crafted, line by line."

Just...not quite, at least for me.

I just bought A Life in Secrets for my Kindle last week (one of April's monthly deals).

Well, I don't read lots of spooky stuff, so even a little spooky is going to feel atmospheric to me! So far, the verdict on the author is one "yes, really quite liked" one decided "meh, not so much". So the audiobook will have a lot riding on it!

>251 elkiedee: Luci, I hope you like it! I was fascinated by the story, and by the depth of research.

I'm listening to A Nun in the Closet by Dorothy Gilman (who wrote the Mrs Pollifax novels), which is almost hilariously dated, but very gentle, pre-sleep listening.

Reading -- dipping into the very dense The English Achilles, a life of the first Earl of Shrewsbury (research); have started Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman (another in the endless series of Amazon Vine ARCs, since I am unable to restrain myself from requesting these!) and am reading Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle (my appetite for well-written historical novels whetted by Sandra Gulland) and The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

On deck:
-- the first of the Adrian McKinty "Troubles" trilogy
-- The Other Story by Tatiana de Rosnay (another Vine ARC)
-- Midnight in Europe by Alan Furst
-- Alain de Botton's two recent books, one about The News, the other being Art as Therapy

I'm itching to read something about the Enlightenment, but am torn between Roger Pearson's bio of Voltaire and Philipp Blom's A Wicked Company.

So, I decided to try an experiment.

Since my headaches have been so much better, I thought I would try to eat a Kit-Kat last night. You know, just test out how Topamax does with my migraine triggers. Turns out, it's not a complete miracle drug... Sure enough, small-scale migraine followed today, just about a 3.5 or 4 on the 1-10 scale (and the first I've had in a week, which is good) but a reminder not to be silly and let down my guard. Ho hum. I'm going to hear my former colleague, Dean Starkman read from his new book at Brown's bookstore tomorrow evening, and to have drinks afterwards, and I suppose this means no wine, which I was thinking about... *boo, hiss*

I love a Kit-Kat once in a while too. Since a 4 migraine in the 1-10 scale is less than what I usually have to deal with these days, I'd be willing enough to indulge in that treat once in a while, but don't know if it's worth it for you. Then again, people who don't suffer from migraines regularly tolerate hangover headaches for the benefit of indulging in a few drinks so...

Oh, it's up to a six now, so... which is kinda what I suspected would happen. Am hoping I can keep it there so that I can watch the Game of Thrones series debut! But yes, thankfully I don't have weeks-long nasty bouts like you're grappling with any longer. That's what I used the Fioricet (and rigorous lifestyle management - i.e. zero Kit-Kats in YEARS) to control.

Sigh, neighbors are moving large objects into or out of their apartment, which is just noisy enough and frequent enough that I can't sleep. So, some quick notes.

115. A Nun in the Closet by Dorothy Gilman is a book I first read in college -- light and completely frivolous even then, by now it's almost hilariously out of date. A couple of nuns emerge from cloister in the early 1970s (presumably) to check out a house which they have been bequeathed by a missing benefactor. They find a suitcase stuffed with cash stuffed down a well, a man with gunshot wounds stuffed in a closet pleading for sanctuary, and then are besieged by all kinds of unexpected visitors, for local quasi-hippies/do-gooders/reformists and a Buddhist or Hindu (unclear) guru, fake census-takers and oleaginous sellers of (bugged) religious artifacts to the hostile local sheriff who wants to lock them up and... Well, let's just say the sugar isn't sugar, and the garbage collector isn't collecting garbage just to take it to the dump. It's a silly, gentle read, and yes, seems like a very naive satire today, but I have a residual fondness for it. Listened to it this time, but the narrator is rather "meh" and I wouldn't recommend that. 3.25 stars.

I started reading Damrosch's take on Tocqueville and his journey around America, having read the "real thing" in college, and Parrot and Olivier in America a few years ago. So far, so good, but it requires too much strain on my eyes with a headache, so I may jump to his new bio of Jonathan Swift, which I got on audiobook. It recently won the National Book Critics Circle biography award. I liked his Rousseau book (despite being much less of a fan of Rousseau the person than of Voltaire!)

And I'm nearly finished with The English Achilles. Hmm, what to do when one research tome conflicts with another, and both seem to draw on primary sources??? Grrrr.... I tempted to discount this one, as it ignores the fact that John Talbot had a second daughter by his second marriage, something that seems otherwise clear and well-established. Ho hum. Pick and choose, I suppose?

Oh crumb, was the GofT tonight? Missed it.

I missed most of it, too. Turns out that Cox Cable's promotional offer meant you had to do all kinds of special things with codes and logins... Which is kinda the last straw for me with cable. I'm going to start the process of cutting my service back to the bone tomorrow. I'm fed up with this nonsense.

116. Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle is the second novel by a new author in the historical fiction realm who (thankfully) is emerging to challenge the tedious romanticism of some authors and the dire pretentiousness of Philippa Gregory (which bothers me faaarrr more than her playing around with with history, which, with the exception of the "witchy stuff" in the Woodville novels, really boils down to little more than small things like birth order and stuff that (a) we'll never know and (b) that we wouldn't care about if a handful of other historical novelists hadn't gotten worked up about it.) Anywaaaay... Fremantle wrote the rather good Queen's Gambit, focusing on Katherine Parr, and has now moved on to equally well-trodden ground of the Grey sisters, Lady Jane Grey's surviving siblings, Katherine and Mary. If you've read about Elizabeth I's court, you know the basic tale here, but Fremantle has a knack for bringing her characters to life, especially the hunchbacked Mary. Moreover, she alternates the segments featuring Katherine and Mary with those from the point of view of portraitist/miniaturist Levina Teerlinc, portrayed here as a close friend to the Grey family. A good yarn, well told. 3.9 stars.