Smiler Marks Her Reading Spot - Part 4

I've long been a fan of Montreal artist Isabelle Arsenault. Here are her visions of Spring and Summer. See her work at: http://www.isabellearsenault.com/portfolio/

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

Currently reading, listening to,
and occasionally browsing through:
ⓔ The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller
✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 19: A Lonely Furrow by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors)
♫ The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

    

Favourites of 2014: (★★★★½ and up)
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - reread tutored read
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (review)
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
Lady Susan by Jane Austen (review)
Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen (review)
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy - reread (review)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan (review)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (tutored read)
Restoration by Rose Tremain
The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC) - (review)

My 31 Most Memorable Reads of 13

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

⅛ ¼ ⅓ ½ ¾ ⅞

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

Books completed in April
52. ♫ The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope ★★½ (review)
53. ⓔ The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC) ★★★★★ (review)
54. ✔ Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz ★★★★⅓
55. ♫ Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★⅓ (review)
56. ✔ Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark ★★★⅓ (review)
57. ♫ Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan ★★★★½ (review)
58. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 41: Cellmates by Gail Pirkis ★★★★ (review)
59. ❉ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (tutored read) ★★★★½
60. ✔ The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★¼ (review)
61. ♫ Restoration by Rose Tremain ★★★★★
62. ❉ⓔ Wolf Story by William McCleery ★★★⅓ (review)
64. ❉ⓔ The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate ★★★★½ (review)
65. ♫ These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer ★★★★
66. ♫ In Chancery by John Galsworthy ★★★★
67. ♫ A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★★
68. ♫ Home by Toni Morrison ★★★½
69. ♫ The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill ★★★¾
70. ♫ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood ★★★★
71. ✔ Pot-Bouille/Pot Luck by Émile Zola ★★★★
72

Unfinished
♫ The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Books completed in March
34. ❉ Goliath by Tom Gauld ★★★★
35. ♫ The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman ★★★★ (review)
36. ♫ Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler ★★★★
37. ♫ Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty ★★★ (review)
38. ♫ The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler ★★★¼
39. ♫ The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov ★★★½
40. ⓔ Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat ★★★★ (review)
41. ♫ All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ★★★★⅞ (review)
42. Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★ (review)
43. ✔ The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott ★★★
44. ✔ Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ★★ (review)
45. ✔ Slightly Foxed: 18: The Sensation of Crossing the Street by Gail Pirkis ★★★★ (review)
46. ♫ The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas ★★★★
47. ✔ Native Son by Richard Wright ★★★★ (review)
48. ♫ How It All Began by Penelope Lively ★★★
49. ♫ Le Bal by Irène Nemirovski ★★★★
50. ✔ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood ★★★★⅓ (review)
51. ♫ The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally

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

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

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

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

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

Reading Plans for April:
☀✔ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - tutored read with Liz, TIOLI#10: match at least one TAG from the person above you - Completed
☀♫ Home by Toni Morrison - AAC, TIOLI #10 - Completed
☀✔ Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood - Atwood April, TIOLI#17: a gem word or phrase in its title, A Century of Books! (1988)
☀*♫ Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan - #2: title and author have two Qs, two Zs, or one of each - Completed
☀✔ Pot-Bouille by Émile Zola - #3: an author or in a series or about a topic of which you have multiples on your TBR/wish list - Completed
☀**The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller - Extra pick by Kerry, TIOLI #5: Title with Four Words - currently reading
☀✔ *Coventry by Helen Humphreys - TIOLI #10, picked for me - Completed
☀♫ The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope - TIOLI #5 - Completed
☀ⓔ The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC) - TIOLI #13: a genre you haven't yet read from in 2014 (gothic horror) - Completed
✔ King Lear by William Shakespeare - TIOLI #3 - currently reading

TIOLI Options:
✔ *Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz - #1: first sentence is exactly seven words - Completed
✔ Small Island by Andrea Levy - #1
✔ *The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper - #5: Title with Four Words, A Century of Books! (1973)
✔ Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark - #3: Address a multi-book backlog - Completed
✔ The Crossing by Cormac McCarthey - #3, A Century of Books! (1994)
✔ The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith - #3 - Completed
♫ The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - #7: a book that has been reviewed in an Unshelved Book Club
♫ A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - #7, A Century of Books! (1968) - Completed
♫ The Dog Stars by Peter Heller - #7
♫ The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson - #7
ⓔ When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelssohn - #6: a word in the title that suggests something bad (shared read)
♫ The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - #8: Read a book about Totalitarianism - Unfinished
♫ Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett - #5
♫ The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin - #18: written by an author born in 1964 - Completed
♫ A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley - #15: author's initials are the same or are one letter away - unfinished

WWI Possibilities:
♫ The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman
♫ The Beautiful Visit Elizabeth Jane Howard
♫ The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich - TIOLI #6 - Completed
♫ The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan

Spur of the Moment:
☀♫ Frog Music by Emma Donoghue - #15 - Completed
☀♫ Restoration by Rose Tremain - #3 - Completed
☀♫ These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer - TIOLI #13: Read a book in a genre you haven't yet read from in 2014 (historical romance) Completed
☀♫ In Chancery by John Galsworthy - TIOLI #6: a word in the title that could be something bad - Completed
☀♫ The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill - TIOLI #1 - Completed
☀♫ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood - TIOLI #6 - Completed
✔ Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson - TIOLILI #23: Read a novel by a British author, A Century of Books! (1934) - Completed

***

Reading Plans for May:
The Italian by Ann Radcliffe (tutored read)
The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott (GR)
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty - selected stories (AAC)

***

Audible Reminders:
White Queen by Philippa Gregory 05-13-13
English Creek by Ivan Doig 05-13-13
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson 05-13-13
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies 05-13-13
Bertie: A Life of Edward VII by Jane Ridley 05-30-13
The Looking Glass War by John le Carre 05-30-13
Slaves of the Mastery by William Nicholson 06-05-13
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card 06-05-13
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir 06-08-13
The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir 06-08-13
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald 06-16-13
The Chateau by William Maxwell 06-16-13

***

* = Picked for Me challenge
** = Picked for Me challenge extra picks
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
☀ = TIOLI

This is my third year running this challenge, for which I asked my fellow LTers to pick books from my vast tbr. The first year I asked people to select books by a 'blind' method, choosing at random based on a complex algorithm I'd come up with (no, not really). For the past couple of years, I decided it would probably be more satisfactory to ask people to choose a book they loved and particularly recommend.

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

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

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

American Authors Challenge

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

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

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

Possibilities from my tbr:

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

Other options:

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

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

In no particular order:

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

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

A Century of Books! 1900-1924

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

Books I've read are bolded.

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

A Century of Books! 1925-1949

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

A Century of Books! 1950-1974

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

A Century of Books! 1975-1999

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

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

African Trilogy - Next up: No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (2/3)
❉ Alan Grant Mysteries - Next up: The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (1/6 - read out of order)
♫ American Gods - Next up: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (2/2)
✔ Anton Rider - Next up: A Café on the Nile by Bartle Bull (2/3)
♫ The Australian Trilogy - Next up: Tommo and Hawk by Bryce Courtenay (2/3)
♫ Bartimaeus - Next up: Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud (3/4)
❉ Binky Adventure - Next up: Binky Under Pressure by Ashley Spires (3/3)
✔ Border Trilogy - Next up: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (2/3)
❉ Cannery Row - Next up: Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (2/2)
♫ The Cemetery of Forgotten Books - Next up: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2/3)
❉ Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Next up: A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (2/8)
♫ The Chronicles of Barsetshire - Next up: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (2/6)
✔ Claudius - Next up: Claudius the God by Robert Graves (2/2)
♫ La Comédie Humaine - Next up: Le curé de Tours by Honoré de Balzac (31/88 - read out of order)
✔ Commissario Brunetti - Next up: Acqua Alta by Donna Leon (5/21 - read out of order)
✔ Commissario Montalbano - Next up: Excursion to Tindari by Andrea Camilleri (5/18)
Corfu Trilogy: The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell (3/3)
✔ The Dark is Rising Sequence - Next up: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (2/5)
♫ Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Next up: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (2/3)
❉ De Luca Trilogy - Next up: The Damned Season by Carlo Lucarelli (2/3)
✔ The Deptford Trilogy - Next up: World of Wonders by Robertson Davies (3/3)
♫ The Dresden Files: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (3/15)
❉ Dr. Siri Paiboun - Next up: Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (5/8)
♫ Easy Rawlins Mystery - Next up: White Butterfly by Walter Mosley (3/10)
ⓔ Elizabeth and her German Garden - Next up: The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim (2/2)
✔ Empire Trilogy - Next up: The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (2/3)
♫ Ender’s Game - Next up: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (2/4)
❉♫ Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström - Next up: The Preacher by Camilla Läckberg (2/8)
❉♫ Flavia de Luce Mysteries - Next up: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (3/6)
♫ Green Town - Next up: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (2/2)
❉ The Harlem Cycle - Next up: All Shot Up by Chester Himes (4/8)
❉ Hercule Poirot - Next up: Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie (8/39 - read out of order)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Dramatization - Next up: Tertiary Phase (BBC Radio Collection) by Douglas Adams (3/5)
♫ The House of Earth Trilogy - Next up: Sons by Pearl S. Buck (2/3)
The Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh - Next up: Awaiting publication (3/3)
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place - Next up: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood (2/4)
♫ Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries - Next up: The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith (3/9)
♫ Jack Reacher - Next up: The Enemy by Lee Child (8/17)
✔ Jackson Brodie - Next up: When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (3/4)
♫ John Russell - Next up: Lehrter Station by David Downing (5/5)
Joseph O'Loughlin - Next up: Shatter by Michael Robotham (3/5)
♫ Kenzie and Gennaro - Next up: Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (2/5 - read out of order)
♫ Kurt Wallander - Next up: The White Lioness by Henning Mankell (3/10)
The Last Lion - Next up: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester (2/3)
Leviathan - Next up: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (2/3)
The Lord of the Rings - Next up: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (3/4)
✔ Lord Peter Wimsey - Next up: Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/15)
Maisie Dobbs - Next up: Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear (4/10)
Mapp and Lucia - Next up: Lucia in London by E. F. Benson (3/8)
♫ Miss Marple - Next up: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (2/12)
✔ The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Next up: The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith (5/14)
♫ The Obelisk Trilogy - Next up: Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller (2/3)
Oxford Time Travel series - Next up: Blackout by Connie Willis (¾)
♫ The Palisser Novels - Next up: Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope (2/6)
Parker - Next up: The Mourner by Richard Stark (4/24)
✔ Philip Marlowe - Next up: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1/9 - read out of order)
Phryne Fisher Mysteries - Next up: Death at Victoria Dock by Kerry Greenwood (4/20)
The Power Of One - Next up: Tandia by Bryce Courtenay (2/2)
The Prairie Trilogy - Next up: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (2/3)
✔ The Raj Quartet: The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott (2/4)
The Raven Cycle Next up: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (2/4)
♫ Rivers of London - Next up: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch 3/5)
♫ Robert Merivel Next up: Merivel by Rose Tremain (2/2)
♫ Roderick Alleyn - Next up: Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh (8/32 - read out of order)
✔ Les Rougon-Macquart - Next up: Pot-Bouille by Émile Zola (10/20)
✔ Sally Lockhart Mysteries - Next up: The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman (2/4)
♫ A Song of Ice and Fire - Next up: A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (5/7)
❉ The Spiderwick Chronicles - Next up: Lucinda's Secret by Holly Black (3/8)
♫ Tales of the City - Next up: Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (3/6)
♫ Tales of the Otori - Next up: Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn (3/4+prequel)
❉ Three Men in a Boat - Next up: Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (2/2)
♫ Timothy Wilde - Next up: Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye (2/2)
Tom Ripley - Next up: The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (4/5)
❉ Victor Legris - Next up: La disparue du Père-Lachaise by Claude Izner (2/11)
♫ Wind on Fire Trilogy - Next up: Slaves of the Mastery by William Nicholson (2/3)
Wolf Hall Trilogy - Next up: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (awaiting publication) (3/3)
✔ Wolves Chronicles - Next up: Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (2/11)
❉ Wyoming Stories: Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx (2/3)



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



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

Booker Prize Books Read in 2014 (in reading order)
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Shortlist 2012)
Restoration by Rose Tremain (Shortlist 1989)

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

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

(more on the wishlist of course!)

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



More than 500 pages: Bleak House by Charles Dickens ★★★★
Forgotten Classic: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare ★★★★
Book that became a movie: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - tutorial ★★★★½
Published this year: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★
Number in the title: 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz ★★★★
Written by someone under 30: Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen ★★★★½
Book with non-human characters: Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett ★★★★
Funny Book: You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld ★★★★
Female Author: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ★★★★½
Book with a mystery: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ★★★★
One-Word Title: Nana by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓
Book of short stories: The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton ★★★★½
Set on a different continent: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★
Non-Fiction: Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★
First book by a favourite author: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen ★★★★½
Heard about online: The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard ★★★★⅓
Best-selling book: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris ★★★★
Based on a true story: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan ★★★★½
Book at the bottom of TBR pile:
Book my friend loves: Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat ★★★★
Book that scares me:
More than 10 years old: Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
Second book in a series: In Chancery by John Galsworthy ★★★★
Blue cover:


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



A book with a female heroine: Lady Susan by Jane Austen ★★★★½
A book set in a high school:
The last book in a trilogy:
A book with a colour in the title:
The first book in a series: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★
A book set in the future:
A book with a breakup: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ★★★★⅞
A book without a love triangle: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood ★★★★
A book that became a movie: Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ★★★★½
A book set in Paris: These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer ★★★★
A book set in the past: Restoration by Rose Tremain ★★★★★
A book with magic:
A book set in the summer:
A book with a dragon:
A book that made you cry: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate ★★★★½
A graphic novel:
A book based on a myth: The Quick by Lauren Owen ★★★★★
A "classic" YA book:
A book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe:
A book with an incredible fight scene: Goliath by Tom Gauld ★★★★
A book you heard about online: Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler ★★★★
A book set in another world:
A book with an epic love story: Longbourn by Jo Baker ★★★★⅓
A book with music: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★⅓

* = need to add a circle in Photoshop.

Books Purchased in 2014

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

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

March
65. ⓔ+♫ Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope - (special deal w/ Kindle)
66. ⓔ+♫ Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope - (special deal w/ Kindle)
67. ♫ Firesong by William Nicholson
68. ⓔ+♫ Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (Kindle and Audio for special price)
69. ♫ Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler - Read in March
70. The Raj Quartet: v. 2 by Paul Scott (Everyman's Library)
71. ⓔ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (Kindle DD)
72. ⓔ Flannery O'Connor: Complete Stories (Kindle DD)
73. ⓔ Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie (Kindle DD)
74. ⓔ The Natural by Bernard Malamud (Kindle DD)
75. ⓔ Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales by Ray Bradbury (Kindle DD)
76. ⓔ Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund (Kindle DD)
77. ♫ The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler - Read in March
78. ⓔ Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat - Read in March
79. ♫ Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith
80. ♫ The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
81. The Reef by Edith Wharton (Everyman's Library)
82. ⓔ The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) (all for $1!)
83. ⓔ Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino (Kindle DD)
84. ⓔ Italian Folk Tales by Italo Calvino (Kindle DD)
85. ♫ I Am David by Anne Holm (Audible 2 for 1)
86. ♫ The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin (Audible 2 for 1)
87. ♫ Maurice by E.M. Forster (Audible 2 for 1)
88. ♫ Society's Child by Janis Ian (Audible 2 for 1)
89. ♫ Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Audible 2 for 1)
90. ♫ The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Audible 2 for 1)
91. ♫ The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (Downpour)
92. ♫ A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren (Downpour)
93. ⓔ The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christies (Kindle DD)
94. ⓔ Death on the Nile by Agatha Christies (Kindle DD)
95. ⓔ 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christies (Kindle DD)
96. ⓔ The Body in the Library by Agatha Christies (Kindle DD)

April
97. ♫ The Bees by Laline Paull (Audible pre-order: released May 6)
98. ♫ Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler
99. ♫ The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
100. ♫ Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
101. ♫ The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (Strongly recommended by Rhian)
102. ♫ The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
103 ⓔ The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
104. ♫ The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I by Edward Gibbon
105. ♫ Frog Music by Emma Donoghue - Read in April
106. ⓔ The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
107. ♫ Merivel by Rose Tremain
108. ♫ Chocolat by Joanne Harris
109. ♫ These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer - Read in April
110. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Everyman's Library)
111. Emma by Jane Austen (Everyman's Library)
112. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (Everyman's Library)
113. ♫ Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L. A. Meyer
114. ♫ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book II: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood - Read in April
115. ♫ The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill - Read in April
116. ⓔ Virgin Soil (with Biographical Introduction) by Ivan Turgenev
117. ⓔ Stoner by John Williams
118. ⓔ Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
119. ⓔ Sadler's Birthday by Rose Tremain
120. ♫ Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter (Audible DD)



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

I am first again?

You sure are! Welcome Mark!

Happy New Thread, Ilana! Love the pictures up top.

I think I should get a prize or something. Congrats on #4. I like the illustrations.

>18 scaifea: Thanks Amber. You might want to look her up, she's worked on some award-winning children's book.

>19 msf59: The prize for now is my heartfelt gratitude for your visit Mark. :-)
If I could afford it I'd send everyone a book like our friend Paul does, but he's rich and I'm not. ;-)

>20 Smiler69: Rich?!!!! No, I'm not my dear. It is just that I view my disposable income as income to be disposed of in ways I enjoy. I enjoy sending books to my friends ....voila....I'll probably never be rich in the western view of the word.
If rich is measured in friends then I feel like a tycoon.
If rich is measured in smiles, dear Smiler, then I'm Nelson Rockefeller
If rich is measured in what we do with dosh rather than how we keep hold of it, then step aside Warren Buffet.
I'm too much of a socialist to finish up sitting on a huge pile of loot but, you are right, I do have the luxury of some money to spread around. xx

Congratulations on your latest thread, dear Ilana; I am so pleased to see you back and enthused in your posting like I had got spoiled with pre-2013. xxx

>20 Smiler69: I knew that would get a rise out of you Paul! ;-)

You are also rich in friends, in a wonderful wife and children, and not to mention in books and threads! :-D

Coming soon on this thread:

Reviews for Native Son, The Three Musketeers, Eric Ambler, Jane Austen: A Life and more. And by 'soon', I mean eventually...

Back on the previous thread Ilana it seems like you think I've already read The Quick but it just came in the mail and I won't be getting to it anytime soon.

I love the work of the Montreal artist at the top. Very whimsical and charming.

>20 Smiler69:- I love " heartfelt gratitude". That will do just fine.

>24 brenzi: Bonnie, my impression was that you hadn't read it yet. I'll try to fit it in sooner than later because otherwise I fear I might let it slip by unread for a long while. "Whimsical" is a good word to describe Isabelle Arsenault's work.

>25 msf59: Very relieved to hear it Mark. :-)

>22 Smiler69: xx Wouldn't swap you for a gold pig as they say where I come from.

Looking forward to some of those reviews. I have to say that I nabbed brand new copy of Fellow Passenger by Geoffrey Household off the library display a few days back after seeing that you were enjoying Rogue Male.
Love the illustrations at the top too.

I should look for more by Geoffrey Household, too. As long as they're suspense books, primarily, and not just men's adventure books -- you know, huntin' and fishin' and stuff!

>27 PaulCranswick: Thank, I guess. ;-)

>28 avatiakh: I guess I should be looking for more Geoffrey Household too. They have a few on Audible, but I don't like the narrator at all, so I'll be looking at the library like you Kerry.

>29 Chatterbox: Suz, I'd say the suspense is the first thing, based on the one book I've read by him so far. There was basically no hunting except for the initial target and, I promise, no fishing at all.

***

My friend called this morning to ask me for the second time whether I wanted to go see the Peter Doig exhibit at the museum, and I would really love to, but it's my third day now with the migraine really acting up and making me absolutely miserable. Not the best condition to go out and about and enjoy artwork, unfortunately, so Doig will have to wait. I really do look forward to seeing the show though. I've only seen his work in books and online so far, and the canvases are apparently huge. There's so much magic in the scenery he creates that it must be impressive seeing them in person.

In reading, I listened to Irene Nemirovski's Le Bal yesterday, as short story I found rather captivating and which I hope to be able to write a few words about soon, if my head can stop hurting quite so much and let me think. After that, I started on The Daughters of Mars. I'm only a couple of hours in so far and can't say it's quite captivated me yet, but I'll give it a fair chance since I know Suzanne found it to be one of her best reads last year (even though I don't always agree with any given person, no matter how much I respect their opinion). I picked up the ARC of The Quick by Lauren Owen last night and must say that three chapters into it I'm finding I really look forward to plunge into it again. Always a good sign, that.

Happy new thread, Ilana! I am still working on catching up with your old thread, but I did not want to fall behind here. Love the artwork you featured up top and also that one just above - beautiful! Looking forward to your thoughts on The Daughters of Mars as I have that one in the stacks on audio, too. Hoping the Wednesday is being kind to you, dear!

Mamie, I think on of the things that's failing to draw me into The Daughters of Mars is I find the narrator's delivery rather flat, but of course that's always a personal call. Hopefully I'll get so wrapped up in the story that it won't matter eventually. Headache making me miserable today, but I shouldn't complain; I'm lucky enough that I can just stay home and do or NOT do whatever makes me feel better. Thanks for dropping by my new digs!

Oh, bummer! And so sorry about the headache. Sending you a *feel better* whammy. And you're not complaining - you're sharing. That's what friends do. Hugs to you, dear one!

The Daughters of Mars is one of those books that has a distinctive style and approach, too -- it won me over, but may well not appeal to you. Horses for courses! I found his prose had a lyrical quality to it, but it's possible that may not come across in any audiobook rendering.

I like the Isabelle Arsenault illlustrations, Ilana. She's new to me. So is Peter Doig, and that one you posted really grabs me. I'll follow up on both of them.

Sorry the migraines are hassling you. I keep thinking they (medical researchers) are going to find something or some things that help more with this - it's such a widespread problem.

Congrats on the new thread!

Hi Ilana,
I'm just checking in. I finished Native Son on the plane Tuesday evening and I gave it 4.5 stars. I see that you gave it 4. I hope to write some comments by this weekend. I certainly won't "review" it. I get why it's a classic, I think it's a must-read, and I thought he got a bit too preachy in places. He may have felt that was necessary in order for his audience to "get" some of his points about race and class during Jim Crow (and given that he was writing during that era), but it still detracted a bit from my reading enjoyment.

Okay, more later. I hope you're doing well and that the head is staying quiet.

>34 Crazymamie: you're not complaining - you're sharing

I like that Mamie, you certainly have a knack for putting a positive spin on things, whether I tend to do the opposite. You're very good for me! :-)
Woke up with enough pain today that I decided to give my new Fioricet tablets which I got from the pharmacy yesterday a try. It's been about an hour now and I'm feeling kind of spacey, but the pain has lessened, which can only be a good thing. And feeling spacey isn't anything new to me, rather pretty well my standard state!

>35 Chatterbox: Suz, The Daughters of Mars is growing on me. I had trouble at first because the narrator's voice doesn't really work for me. It did on the sample I listened to, but I find she has a rather toneless voice, or a muted sort of voice (not sure exactly how to describe it), and that along with the sisters who are not the kinds of personalities one can easily connect with kept me at an emotional remove. But things have gotten interesting and the narrator is bothering me less now. One thing that really bugs me though is the insistence Sally Durance has on considering their mercy killing of their mother as murder. It's one thing to mention it once or twice, but it keeps coming up and it just seems like they're harping on it unnecessarily. But I guess that's just a minor quibble really.

>36 jnwelch: Hi Joe, I've known Isabelle Arsenault's work for quite a long time since she's won many prizes and has often been in design annuals. I was lucky enough to be in a position commission artwork from her when I was working at the magazine, and other than being in love with the visual aspect of her work, she always surprised me with the concepts she came up with to illustrate articles about really difficult (read: troubling) topics. As for Peter Doig, he came to my attention during one of my watercolour classes, as the teacher is always brining in art books and showing slide shows with a great variety of work from contemporary and classic artists for inspiration. I like his landscapes a lot, but a few of his pieces don't work so well for me. I'll be really curious to see what they've put together at the museum.

>37 EBT1002: Ellen, I think I'm going to try to write a few words about Native Son shortly, if only because I feel I need to synthesise that work for my own understanding and better appreciation. What separates a 4.5 from a 4-star read for me is that 4.5 automatically enters a work into one of my favourites of the year and usually also means I want to reread it eventually, and having come to the end of it, I'm not sure it fits into either category, though I'm certainly very glad I read it and do think like you that it's a 'must-read' too. Agreed too about the preachiness towards the end, and Jim Crow is certainly one of the things Wright was reacting to, but there was another, I think stronger, influence which bothered me and which I'll mention in my notes on the book shortly.

***

So as I mentioned to Mamie, I've just had my first trial with Fioricet this morning, which I know is a very popular pain-killer for many migraine sufferers. My head doctor (i.e. psychiatrist) only agreed to give me 10 pills on her prescription since she feels my neurologist knows a lot more about it than her, but he's away for two weeks and she did me a favour. I feel really spacey right now, and when I called my cleaning lady a few minutes ago to set her next visit, she said I sounded kind of high, which doesn't surprise me (she can permit herself that kind of personal comment since I first hired her almost 20 years ago and she's seen me through everything, including my PJs when she gets here around noon). But the pain is much lessened, so that's something.

Reading: I finished The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood last night last night and must say I really enjoyed it a lot. I read YA and children's novels once in a while and rarely get really hooked on them, but I felt compelled to finish this one asap and did so much faster than I thought I would. Now I definitely want to continue with the rest of series. Also making good progress on The Quick. I've developed quite a taste for gothic horror novels, and this fits the bill perfectly so far. Have set The Colossus of Maroussi aside until further notice.

Hi Ilana, I noticed one of your current reads is The Blue Fairy Book. My granddaughter and I just finished reading it and have moved on to The Pink Fairy Book. I have found that there is a reason why only some of these hundreds of tales are well known - a lot of them are pretty lame. The other thing that has surprised both of us is often how different the endings of some of the better known tales are from what we are used to. It's fascinating to me how blood-thirsty many of these stories actually were in their original form.

Book #47: Native Son by Richard Wright ★★★★
Read for: Picked for Me + shared read with Ellen/EBT1002, TIOLI Challenge #8: a book about an injustice (racism), A Century of Books!
Edition: Perennial Classics (1998). Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 528 pages. The restored text established by The Library of America.
Original publication date: 1940

""There he is!" the mother screamed again.

A huge black rat squealed and leaped at Bigger's trouser-leg and snagged it in his teeth, hanging on.

"Goddamn!" Bigger whispered fiercely, whirling and kicking out his leg with all the strength of his body. The force of his movement shook the rat loose and it sailed through the air and struck a wall. Instandly, it rolled over and leaped again. Bigger dodged and the rat landed against a table leg. With clenched teeth, Bigger held the skillet; he was afraid to hurl it, fearing that he might miss. The rat squeaked and turned and ran in a narrow circle, looking for a place to hide; it leaped again past Bigger and scurried on dry rasping feet to one side of the box and then to the other, searching for the hole. Then it turned and reared upon its hind legs. "

Chicago’s South Side, sometime in the 1930s. This is our introduction to Bigger Thomas and his family. They live in a rat-infested room in a tenement building, Mrs. Thomas, Bigger, and his younger brother Buddy and little sister Vera. They've just been woken up by a loud alarm-clock in the dark hours before dawn, and the long-tailed terror has made its appearance, scaring the women who screech and stand up on the bed, while the brothers, equally terrified, must deal with the foot-long vermin. Eventually Bigger gets the better of the beast and squashes it dead with the heavy skillet. Then he grabs it by the tail and dangles it in front of his terrified sister's face, just for the fun of it, and she faints. We are made to understand that this is normal behaviour for Bigger, who is normally sullen and temperamental and given to ignoring his family and seeking ways to amuse himself with regular trips to the cinema and occasional gigs robbing black neighbours with his little gang of friends. But on this morning, Mrs. Thomas is pressuring Bigger to go to a job interview. They need the money badly, and if he doesn't take the job, the family will be cut off from government relief payments which they rely on to put food on the table. But Bigger wants to do things his own way, and he's got a big plan to rob a local Jewish grocery shop owner for a really big payoff. He's scared though, as are his three partners in crime; this would be their first time targeting a white man, and they know the consequences if they get caught will be dire. But Bigger, conscious of his own fear, decides he won't be seen as a coward, and his solution for avoiding the whole plan that day is to violently assault one of his friends on the merest provocation.

We've just begun the story, and already Wright has made us hate this 20-year-old boy. The reader is made uncomfortable. Here is a book denouncing racism, but our protagonist is violent, cruel to his own family and friends, and prideful to the point of murderous impulses to protect his sense of self. He seemingly has no redeeming features; is he a psychopath? Perhaps. At this point, I go back and read the introduction by Arnold Rampersad I had avoided initially, fearing the all too frequent spoilers usually found there. I find my feelings towards Bigger are vindicated. There are Biggers of every colour, everywhere in the world, he says. That's the part that sticks to my mind anyway, and now I feel freed from any obligation to sympathise with him.

Bigger goes to the job interview. He meets Mr. Dalton in one of the nicest neighbourhoods in the city. An impressive house. They are very wealthy. Mr. Dalton is one of the most respected citizens of Chicago, a multi-millionaire who owns real-estate and thus incidentally and indirectly, the tenement building Bigger and his family live in. Mr. Dalton and his blind wife have a social conscience though, and they've given millions of dollars in aid to the city's black citizens. Bigger is to be their chauffeur, to replace the last black chauffeur, who was encouraged by Mrs. Dalton to attend night school in order to get a better job. Bigger is suspicious. He is suspicious of all white people, who have always held him back, crushed him down, prevented him from attaining his dreams. But the Daltons are different, and this troubles him deeply. Their daughter Mary barges into his interview with his future employer and starts demanding whether he is with a union; calls her father a capitalist. Bigger decides he hates the young woman. She is pretty, very pretty, but she is already making trouble for him. He's not quite sure what capitalism or communism is, but he's pretty sure she is one of them and he fears Mr. Dalton won't give him the job if he thinks Bigger is one of them too. But he does get the job, and his first task is to drive Mary to university that evening. But Mary doesn't want to go to university. Instead, she wants Bigger to drive her to her boyfriend's, who as it turns out, is a notorious Communist agitator. The couple wants to befriend Bigger, encourage him to call them by their first names, they are curious about his life, they want to better the condition of blacks in America. That evening, they force him to sit down and eat a meal at a local black hangout and get drunk with them. Things turn out badly. By two in the morning, Mary is dead, and Bigger is responsible. To cover up his tracks, he makes the situation much worse. Now he's on the run for murder. Being responsible for the death of a white woman means capital punishment for him, so he must stay in hiding, and by the evening after Mary's death, he's murdered another woman to prevent her from denouncing him. This is all terribly dark and his acts are abominably violent. But Wright has formed a taut, stark tableau that reads like the best kind of suspense thriller. You can't keep racing along to find out what will happen next.

Bigger is caught, of course. You figure this out before you've even begun to read the book. Book 1 is called Fear. Book 2: Flight. Book 3: Fate. Nothing so far has given any indication that Bigger is on the right track or likely to see the light. This part of the book was the most problematic for me. The physical violence in Book 2 was revolting, sickening. But now in Book 3, Wright shows us racism in full force, and Bigger finally starts to become human. His defences are broken down, and he isn't a mere brute anymore, he questions himself, he seeks to be understood by someone. But the problematic part here is that this is also were Wright gets preachy in his attempt to drive home his point about the kind of world the blacks have been living in till now and what few choices and hope they've been given since their arrival in America, and now, in a Jim Crow nation. We are given to understand that Bigger is the symptom of a sick society. Of course, an enlighten reader can only agree with this. But there is too much rhetoric here. There is a long speech, many pages long, and if we already know that Wright was an active member of the Communist party, we can't help but feel that he is advancing Communist theories. I have nothing against Socialism, or even Communism where these ideologies meet with humanitarian concerns, in that sense I feel they are a powerful and necessary forces in the world, but for the problem that these ideologies go so deeply into the fabric of life and reframe everything in the light of us vs. them. Bigger doesn't understand a word of this speech, but he understand it's intent. I understood a little bit more than he did, but mostly I felt like I'd been hit over the head with a lot of theoretical jargon that only distanced me from what until then had been a visceral experience. No matter. This is an essential novel. It was relevant and necessary and groundbreaking when it was first published, and though many black writers have expressed their individual voices since then, it remains an essential novel today. This is the kind of book that marks you for life. I can't say I'll necessarily want to read it again, and for that reason it probably won't make the list of my favourite books this year, but it was an important read and a challenging one, and frankly, pretty gripping too, and one I feel has made me grow as a person and as a reader.

Hi Ilana- For just jotting down a few words, I think you created a very fine review of Native Son. It's been nearly 15 years since I read it, although that was my second go, so my impressions are a bit dulled. I agree about the "preachy" moments, especially in the latter part of the book, but I still think it all worked.
"This is an essential novel." I could not agree with you more.

Sorry, to hear about the headaches, I hope this new medication gives you some relief.

Hi Ilana, nice set of comments about Native Son. I fully agree that this goes into the category of must-reads but I will not read it again. That is an interesting distinction between 4 and 4.5 stars. Hrmmm.....

Very nice and thoughtful review of Native Son, Ilana. Thumb from me. You really take me back in thinking about it. So interesting that he chose an unsympathetic guy to carry the story.

>41 msf59: Hi Mark, the new medication did help yesterday, otherwise, no way I would have written that review! Glad you like it by the way!

>42 EBT1002: I don't know when I came up with that notion that 4.5 and up means a reread, but that's how I break it down now, because there are lots of books I 'love', but to what degree is hard to decided without other markers.

>43 jnwelch: Thanks Joe, appreciate the thumb. I guess if he'd chosen a likeable protagonist, then he would have been criticized for manipulating the reader. And really, I don't see any way he could have had his guy commit violent crimes AND be a nice guy.

Oh my. I just listed my laptop on Craiglist and Kijiji today, and got a message from someone offering $450 less than my asking price. I'm willing to negotiate, but to a point! When I told him I wasn't willing to go that low, he responded with one of the rudest personal attacks I've seen in a long time. Just shocking. Some people seem to troll the net looking for conflict. I'd forgotten all about that here on our safe 75ers LT community.

Bliss:



Another Isabelle Arsenault illustration.

Book #42: Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #4: predominantly green cover, A Century of Books!
Edition: Vintage (1999), Paperback, 400 pages
Original publication date: 1997

This book was generously given to me by Charlotte/Fourpawz2 recently, when, having just finished my tutorial of Pride & Prejudice, my second reading of that book, which converted me from a cynical skeptic to a fully-fledged Janeite, I expressed curiosity about Tomalin's biography. Most fans of her novels seem equally fascinated by Jane Austen herself, and often refer to her life experience as being hugely influential to her as a write. Social conventions in the early 19th century and more accurately, the late 18th century, which was when Jane Austen came of age, were vastly different from anything we know today, and the rigid codes of conduct for all, but even more restrictive for women, gave Austen plenty of material with which to hone her wit and sarcasm. I can't describe what a huge difference it has made for me to follow these tutorials with Liz/lyzard, who probably knows more about 18th century fiction and Jane Austen's world than all LT members put together. I'm now able to see both high comedy and high drama, where before I only saw trite romantic comedy that meant nothing to me one way or the other. My current tutorial of Sense & Sensibility (also a second reading), has already given me plenty of opportunities to appreciate details which had gone undetected when I first read it, this being the very first Jane Austen novel I'd ever read, in 2011.

A prime example, which I just commented on only yesterday:

""Her face was crimsoned over, and she exclaimed, in a voice of the greatest emotion, "Good God! Willoughby, what is the meaning of this? Have you not received my letters? Will you not shake hands with me?"

On first reading the novel, I barely registered this passage describing Marianne Dashwood's reaction upon first seeing her love interest Willoughby after a long separation. This time, my comment to Liz was "After all you've taught us about how ladies were expected to behave, and especially with men before they were engaged, I was really forcibly struck here but just how outrageously Marianne is behaving here, and in public, at a ball, no less! Incidentally, something that completely escaped me upon first reading this novel."

One of the main problems for Jane Austen scholars is that there is very little information or documents left by the author to give many clues about what sort of person she was, or what her private thoughts on matters which she wrote about might have been. There is a small portion of letters written by her which have survived, but the majority of her correspondence was destroyed by her own family members. The only image we have of her is a portrait sketch by her beloved sister Cassandra, which most contemporaries found not to be a good likeness at all. Because of these limitations, Tomalin set out to describe the famous author based on testimonials from those who were close to her and by putting her novels and her personal experiences in the context of conventional practices in those days. We learn that Jane Austen was the youngest daughter of a family of eight children. She had six brothers, and one older sister who was her best friend throughout her life. Her parents were members of the landed gentry, and her father earned a modest living as the rector of the Stenventon parish, where she was born. She had one known lover (in the contemporary chaste sense of the word), a relationship which was short-lived and quickly came to an end when the young man's family intervened and sent him away. There was one very good marriage offer that we know of and which she accepted, but upon further consideration, thinking she would not be happy in a marriage of reason that was not also based on love, she declined the next day. She remained a spinster till she died much too early, after a long unspecified illness which ended her days at only 42, and from this we can surmise that had she lived even just a decade longer, the canon of work she might have left behind would have probably been much wider in scope and approach. As it is, she wrote about what she knew; the concerns of women of her class. As women's options in her day were limited to either marriage or a life of spinsterhood under the yoke of fathers and brothers, her novels mostly dealt with young women trying to find good husbands. One section I found of particular interest was a chapter which discussed her literary influences. Another describing how she took up writing from her early teens, works which are now knows as her Juvenilia, which featured tales so wild and whimsical that it is hard to believe her rector father would have approved of these flights of fancy, though he evidently did, according to the evidence Tomalin gives us. Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility was composed in epistolary form sometime around 1795 when she was just 19 years old, and was then called Elinor and Marianne. We learn of a cousin, Eliza, who had married a French ersatz count, and who was probably a great influence to her as a writer, having likely introduced her among many other things to Les liaisons dangereuses, one of the most famous epistolary novels which almost certainly inspired her to write Lady Susan, whose wicked heroine amuses herself by manipulating men into falling in love with her.

My memory is so poor that as soon as I've finished reading a fact or date of import, I forget about it immediately. But what remains with me above all else from this book is a better understanding of the times Jane Austen lived in, from childhood onward. The Napoleonic wars were raging when she was a young woman, and several of her brothers were involved in the navy, and though we barely get a glimpse of these weighty events in her novels, they nonetheless influenced the times she lived in and which she wrote about. She observed her neighbours and family members as they evolved through life, and through their routines and their follies found plenty of material from which to create her characters, though we learn she apparently created her stories purely from imagination, never referencing any events she had observed in real life. But though her novels were all published in the 19th century, we can't compare her to the Victorian Dickens or George Eliot, and in fact placing her works in the late 18th century alongside that of authors from that period gives a better context to understanding the world she wrote of, her particular brand of humour and the targets of her witticisms. This book has encouraged me to pursue a project I first nourished while reading Northanger Abbey, which was one of her early novels and as such is closest to the hilarity of her juvenilia, though published posthumously. Here, her earlier, more unbridled sense of humour comes through, which greatly appealed to me upon first reading it. She particularly made fun of the gothic horror novels of the 18th century, which she devoured in her youth. Those novels she names in NA have come to be collectively known as the 'horrid novels' (which is the way one of her characters describes them in the story). I've now gotten my hands on all these titles and will read them all before revisiting NA, because there's nothing like being in on the joke and understanding all it's subtleties, and if anything, one of the best aspects of her writing is just how ingenious it is, and all the layers of meaning to be found in it, which is the reason Janeites tend to read her novels time and time again, each time finding something new to marvel and laugh at.

I think I'm now officially ready to join JASNA, aka The Jane Austen Society of North America.

Congratulations on your new thread, Ilana! I am so far behind I ended up skim reading half of your previous thread..... trying to keep on top of thread activity is a losing battle for me this year. ;-)

Spacey but with less pain seems like a good compromise for your new migraine medication. Here is hoping that it works for you.

Hope your weekend goes swimmingly dear Ilana and that you manage to sell your laptop without any further vituperation directed towards you.

Couple of outstanding reviews of very different books above. xx

I'm glad to hear that at least the Fioricet/Fiorinal is dealing with the pain, even if it's making you feel spacey. The good news is that I've been taking this, in varying quantities, for the last 25/30 years, and I've manage to function quite effectively while doing so, writing newspaper stories, meeting deadlines, writing books, etc. So, you do build up a tolerance to the spaciness inducing stuff. Let's hope that happens, but that it continues to be effective as a painkiller. Of course, the tough part is that it's not a preventative. If you keep using it, talk to your neurologist about how to use it. I sometimes find that taking one capsule, rapidly followed (30 mins later) with a second one as soon as the migraine takes a hold is sometimes enough to send the pain scurrying for cover. I then need a few hours to clear the drugs from my system and rest and make sure the migraine is gone, but it has often proved effective. Anyway, if you need any input on this, let me know.

Ironic, isn't it, that you may have less pain with the meds that I'm trying to wean myself off of (fewer opioids strikes me as a good thing) while I have fewer migraines with the Topamax? Wouldn't it be great if it worked out like that, longer-term??

Good news on the Austen bio; just don't start dressing up in Austen garb or I'll have to call the men in their white coats.

>46 Smiler69: bliss until: the cats knock over the tea cups. start scratching at the pages. walk across your face. won't let you answer the phone or the doorbell. all demand to be fed, simultaneously, while wailing. Hey, I'm a pragmatist...

>48 lkernagh: Hi Lori, thanks for the visit and trying to catch up. That was a valiant effort on your part. I think it's a losing battle for all of us, though I've been putting a big effort in this year, which is of course to the detriment of other activities.

I can deal with spacey, it's sort of a natural place for me to be anyway.

>49 PaulCranswick: So far I've had two or three other perfectly polite responses, which unfortunately I can't accept since they're either offering much much much less, or offering to trade in their own computer, which obviously doesn't suit me since I got a brand new one just a month ago. But polite is always good in my book. That first guy, I think I ended up killing with kindness. I responded to him a few times, and he kept sending me angrier and angrier messages, and I know I should have just ignored him, but I really wanted to be so kind as to just give him no choice but to shut up. And it worked! I had said to him that he was only being rude and bullying because he was hiding behind his computer and wouldn't speak to me that way if were face to face, and I was very sorry he felt it was acceptable to be rude like that to perfect strangers, at which point he replied that if I gave him my address, he'd come and show me whether or not he'd be tough in person too, to which I replied: "I’m a lady. I don’t give my personal address to rude types who insult and abuse me for no good reason. You must be a very unhappy man. I can only hope things get better for you." Not a word after that, wouldn't you know. Highly satisfying somehow, for reasons I don't well understand. ;-)

I've noticed the fioricet makes me a bit giddy, in the sense that it seems to put me in a good mood, but that could just be because it lessens the pain to a more or less tolerable level, which can only be an improvement over debilitating pain, obviously.

>50 Chatterbox: Suz, considering I was a pothead for nearly two decades and being spacey was a way of life for me, I don't mind it once in a while as a tradeoff to excruciating pain. And today, the second time I take the pills, it's not as noticeable. I've taken two pills both times this week, as advised by the pharmacist, but next time I'll try what you suggest. I really want to save up the 6 remaining pills I have for when the worst pain comes along. I wonder if the only reason my neuro didn't prescribe this to me before is because it's habit-forming. I'm really good about managing that. For instance, I always have Ativan on hand, which is also very habit-forming, so I only take it very occasionally, when I've had more than two sleepless nights in a row, which thankfully hasn't happened too too often. So I would only take the fioricet for the days when I'm having a 7 of higher level migraine, having established that from 7 upward, the pain becomes my primary concern and impossible to ignore or feel reasonably contented with life.

No worries about me starting to wear Edwardian dress. Though I quite like that style, but with my rather large chest those high-waisted dresses would probably look like tents on me. If I were the type who like to go out to fancy dress parties, I might give it a shot, but I don't. I may join JASNA for real though, just for the heck of it. To sort of thumb my nose as the hard-ass cynic I used to be. Doesn't oblige me to participate in anything, and I'm curious to see what they're about.

Bliss: you're probably right. But I wasn't animating the image one bit in my mind. Just letting that moment go on, arrested in time forever. Just two cats can provide distraction enough when trying to read a book or nap, as I'm sure you must know. I could never stand that much cat hair. Or having to empty the litter-box several times a day. Or all the meowing and being tripped up continually. And as you say, feeding time would be a nightmare. Just my little Mimi alone puts up such a racket if I'm even just 5 minutes late that I can't imagine what a dozen or more would be like. And she makes all that noise even though there's food out all day long, only she wants the wet Wellness stuff and leaves most of the dry food to Ezra.

4 audiobooks purchased today, to take advantage of promotions.

From Audible:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - already have several editions of this one, but really like the narrator Eleanor Bron

From Downpour:
The Man with the Golden Arm
A Walk on the Wild Side both by Nelson Algren

Total purchases this year to date: 92

The library has just made the whole Flavia De Luce series available on OverDrive, so I've just downloaded the last three audiobooks in the series which I was missing. I always feel such a thrill growing my tbr collection, even though I also constantly feel crushed by it. How does that work, exactly?

^Vladimir Volegov, 1957

Hope you are having a fine Saturday, Ilana. I finished the excellent Independent People. I have no idea how this would work on audio but it sure was fantastic in print.

I have added the Austen bio to my WL. I like Tomalin's work.

I have Americanah high on my To-Read list. I have not read her yet.

Oooh! More visitors, yay! Always makes me feel special. I just had an hour-long soak in the tub which was really really lovely. I know everyone agrees a good bath is always a nice thing, so I'm not being original, except for the fact that I only started taking baths again in the last month, after nearly 14 years of quick showers. I used to feel too cramped in my closet-sized bathroom and tiny bath, but I guess I've finally gotten used to it. And the pleasure of reading in the tub really is worth it. I was reading the latest issue of Slightly Foxed: No. 41: Cellmates, and was especially taken with the article about The Radetsky March, which I added to the wishlist at the beginning of the year when making a list for WWI reading. I MUST get my own copy of it now. Too few hours left to the day. I'm hoping to find time for an hour of drawing, my S&S tutorial (including reading/taking notes/posting on the thread) and... oh yeah, eating, I guess, along with various odds and ends like LT. I got some extremely expensive fresh scallops yesterday at the fish market because have had a craving for them, but somehow don't have much of an appetite yet this evening. All those cookies and milk at my midday snack. Guess they'll have to keep till tomorrow so I can do them justice.

>54 msf59: Mark, I love that painting. I've noticed you've been posting different images on the threads this evening, and you must have known this one would appeal to me when you chose it! I'll have to look up Volegov online. Glad you supplied me with his name.

I was going to ask whether you've read any of Austen's novels, but checked your collection and see you've read 3 of the major 6 and seem to have really enjoyed P&P in particular. I'll be reading Tomalin's Dickens next, since I consider I've read enough of his works to appreciate the biography. Hardy will have to wait till I've caught up with all his books on my tbr, having only read Tess so far.

>55 DejaVoo: Hi Nicky! Always lovely to get a visit from you! I'm glad you enjoy my latest review. I sort of wrote it in one short sitting and though found there were lots of gaps and inconsistencies in it, which I would usually labour at and edit till I was satisfied, I just decided to post it as is. I tend to labour at those things too much which is one reason I don't post reviews consistently. I'm glad you're following the S&S tutorial. Don't be shy to post any comments whenever you feel like. Not everyone participating in the discussion is actively reading it, and I always enjoy seeing feedback from various sources. Now I've followed several Jane Austen tutorials, I'm finding I have much less questions than I used to have, since I've learned quite a lot about 18th century social mores in the process.

I can't say which are my favourite Austen novels yet, as I appreciate each for very different reasons. On first reading, I though S&S was passable, HATED P&P, liked Mansfield Park for the unusual choice of heroine and her independent spirit, and adored Emma and Persuasion thanks to very helpful tutorials with Liz. I'm sure I'll be rereading them all several times again over the years.

I check out the FS group once in a while, but haven't seen much which caught my attention last time. The Spring Sale can't be far off, as I believe it started in April last year, though of course everything is different since they've made all the changes. I have my eyes on the Jane Eyre in the most recent batch, and am sort of hoping there won't be much temptation in the upcoming sale, to keep me from spending too much. I've also gotten a couple of coupons from participation in the Folio Council, but even if I can put them together, the JE book is so expensive it still ends up costing a lot, so not sure what I'll be using them on.

The only reason I manage to read as many books as I do is because of all the audiobooks I listen to on a daily basis. Otherwise I don't think I'd even manage to read the 75 many of us a striving for.

>46 Smiler69: I LOVE that image, Ilana!!!!! LOVE. Not like. Love.

I hope you like Americanah. I thought it was quite good.

>57 EBT1002: Ha! Funny, because I thought of you when I fist saw it. :-)

Hi Ilana - happy new thread!

>30 Smiler69: Wow. That is a stunning picture. I don't think I'd heard of Peter Doig before but I've just spent some time using the virtual tour of the Montreal exhibition and I agree there's definitely something magical in those landscapes. I hope you manage to get to the exhibition.

>38 Smiler69: I'm glad to hear you've found something which helps lessen the pain of the migraine but wish you could get the relief without feeling spacey. Just seen your comment to Suzanne in >50 Chatterbox: and glad the spaciness is waring off.

And also glad to hear you enjoyed The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place - that's a series that's been sitting on my wishlist for a while.

>40 Smiler69: Excellent and powerful review of Native Son Ilana. I agree it sounds like a must-read although I can't say it's something I think I'll feel like reading soon.

>47 Smiler69: "But though her novels were all published in the 19th century, we can't compare her to the Victorian Dickens or George Eliot, and in fact placing her works in the late 18th century alongside that of authors from that period gives a better context to understanding the world she wrote of, her particular brand of humour and the targets of her witticisms." This. Really glad you enjoyed the biography. I also found John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen to be really helpful in explaining some of the customs of the time and the techniques Austen used.

>53 Smiler69: "I always feel such a thrill growing my tbr collection, even though I also constantly feel crushed by it. How does that work, exactly?"

I don't know, but I feel exactly the same!

Two stunning reviews! Native Son and the Tomalin bio - I have the same problem with dates, and that also was my biggest takeaway - the context - and a realization how Austen was quite aware of the larger issues swirling around, they are there, on the periphery, aren't they?

Good luck with the new painkiller. I do feel such compassion for you migraine-sufferers. I have just enough of them to guess how crippling it must be to have them unpredictably and often.

Nothing really to add, but just wanted to wish you a happy and restful and painless Sunday, Ilana.

I think I need to sleep for the rest of the week to get over my stressful night. I've never known what it's like to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, but this is just ridiculous. Kept waking myself with weird whispers and talking and sometimes drenched in sour sweat with nightmare after nightmare. This isn't unusual really. I wish I could just stop it happening, it would certainly make my life easier. In reading I'm still completed immersed in The Quick. I think that book will probably make it to lots of tbr piles. But I'm no oracle either. I hope I can manage a decent review when I get to the end. Daughters of Mars hasn't managed to captivate me quite so well. Not sure why. I just feel at a remove from it, and must say the narrator is partly to blame. She isn't BAD, but she's not making me enjoy the experience either, so I'll try to avoid her in future. Cleaning lady is over today, which is great because I look forward to the clean and nice-smelling home I'll have after (already having actually), but I do wish I could just lay on the couch and nap, or draw in quiet and read, which isn't really possible with all the noise of the appliances going. I'm complaining, I know. I do feel rather miserable today, I must say. But as Mamie would kindly say: 'I'm not complaining, I'm sharing.'

>59 souloftherose: Heather, always love your visits. The fioricet wasn't working as well yesterday unfortunately, and I do wonder if it might be partly to blame for the horrid night I had. I took lower doses though, largely because I have so few of the pills and want to make sure I have at least a couple on hand for the worst of the migraines until my neuro can prescribe some. That is, if they continue to work for me, which I can only dearly hope and pray for.

I'm glad you liked my review of Native Son too. I must say, it's one of the reviews I'm most proud of, for what it's worth. I think I really managed to convey my feelings and impressions of that book, which I always find difficult to achieve. I would also NEVER suggest for you to read it at this time. Most unsuitalbe to your needs at present as it's definitely discomforting. On the other hand I find I did a very poor job on the Tomalin book and left lots of huge gaps and non sequiturs. But sometimes I'm able to leave well enough alone, and I'm glad you thought I did a good job of it. We are always our own harshest critics (with a few exceptions to the rule to keep things interesting!)

We both seem to have a love/hate relationship with the tbr, and I'd venture to guess we share that state of affairs with quite a few LTers!

>60 sibylline: Lucie, dates and names too in my case. Which makes having casual conversation about things like what you've read lately or the movie you saw or the restaurant you've gone to or just about anything where there is even the merest detail to relate a really fraught conversation for me to try to have. At least when I'm writing I can pause and look things up when I'm not being too lazy, but in live conversation it's a real nightmare. I have a book of Austen's letters which I look forward to reading, but I get the sense from Tomalin's comments on her correspondence that what remains is very far from giving us a complete picture of what a complex and perceptive kind of woman and great wit she was.

Painkillers: I keep thinking the ultimate painkiller will be the onset of menopause. I both look forward to it and dread it, as truly hope it won't bring on other kinds of complications, and finally give me the relief I so badly need.

>61 scaifea: Hi Amber. Thanks for the good wishes. I think I'll take one of those fioricet tablets now because the restless night has really done a number on me physically as well as mentally and the pain is becoming hard to bear.

But I should have a really tidy house soon, which is definitely something to look forward to! :-)

Kindle Daily Deals today featured several Agatha Christies, so I got:

The Man in the Brown Suit
Death on the Nile
4:50 from Paddington
The Body in the Library

At least two of those will be rereads, including Death on the Nile, but since I had my Christie binge in my early teens, I can't remember for sure all the titles I went through.

Total purchases to date: 96

>1 Smiler69: Isabelle Arsenault
Love the trees!

>30 Smiler69: And these trees even more!

>47 Smiler69: I’ve fallen behind on your current tutorial, but the P&P tutorial got me too thinking to read a biography, and I guess this is the one. I'm not much in a reading mood these days though.

Katherine, I'm really hoping I get to see that particular Peter Doig painting in person when I go to the show, or at least one in that series as it seems he did more than one with similar scenery and colours.

Sorry reading isn't doing it for you lately. It'll come back, no sense in fighting it. But have you tried reaching for old favourites or stuff which you've identified as comfort reading?

The S&S thread will be around for a long time after we're done. I'm taking things slowly anyway so we won't finish till at least mid-April I don't think. .

>63 Smiler69: Death on the Nile is one of her better ones. I have read all of them but some of the Miss Marples tend to merge into each other. xx

>40 Smiler69: wow- what a review. I will have to put it on the WL (called 'wish' for a reason these days)

Somehow your star became unstuck- so this is my first visit to this thread! My thread-tracking methods are very unsophisticated compared to other 75ers. I scroll down my starred list from time to time and if the person has a lot of posts, I think they must have a new thread by now, so un-star. :) To my detriment it seems, as I miss out!

Anyway, just a howdy for now and a hug for your recent troubles. And just so's you know- I am on your side.

Ilana - love the Isabelle Arsenault pictures on your thread. Did you get a look at her & Ko Maclear's Virginia Wolf. Such a great homage to the real Virginia Woolf.
I see we are entering a second month with our shared reads of Amos Oz and Henry Miller. I'm now about halfway through the Oz and will push on with the Miller, just finding it rather dense at present and still only about 50pgs down.
I've got a copy of Richard Wright's Pagan Spain but will hunt down Native Son as well. Would love to read the Jane Austen bio though my focus currently has to be the Middle East due to Coursera.
The Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration was announced this morning, it went to a Brazilian who isn't probably that well known outside Brazil and possibly Portugal, Roger Mello. A Japanese writer, Nahoko Uehashi, won the writing award and I've enjoyed her two Moribito books that have been translated.

Hello lovely lady! I can do spacey - beats pain any day. Amazing reviews - especially Native Son - not sure that it will be my cup of tea - I seldom enjoy those books where you know from the beginning that Everything Will End in Tears. Then again, I loved Olive and thought she had many redeeming qualities. In fact, I quite liked her in spite of herself. Each to their own. Currently reading Still Life and imagining Canadian life. Sounds rather beautiful to me! Loving your drawings, loving your postings - and always loving you, my dear!

>69 PrueGallagher: Loving your drawings, loving your postings - and always loving you, my dear!

What Prue said.

I think taking sides is a bad idea. I really never come here, but after the recent latest attack on my friend rd, I heard that sides were being taken. And as I have for years, I stand by Richard.

Taking sides can be disruptive. That being said, I must stand by Richard as well.

>66 PaulCranswick: Sometimes I hesitate to reread Agatha Christie Paul, because I remember when I discovered her, how fresh and exciting her material was to me. I was only 13 I believe, and probably hadn't read murder mysteries before and thought she was the cleverest writer ever. Of course, revisiting her all these years later can only be a disappointment compared to that original impression, but she still remains the Queen and I'm determined to continue appreciating her work on its own merit.
>70 PaulCranswick: And thank you. My self-esteem is intact, thank goodness, but must say spirits could certainly better. Assertions of love and friendship are always helpful in that sense. xx

>67 LovingLit: Hi Megan, lovely visit, thank you. And thank you. xx

>68 avatiakh: Hi Kerry, I did indeed borrow Virginia Wolf around the time it was released, but I think I'll have to borrow it again because somehow I only have a vague memory of it now. I find Arsenault's work is always outstanding and a real pleasure to behold. I've been visiting your thread, but somehow missed that you were taking a Coursera course. Or maybe it just escaped my mind? But yes, I can see how that would determine your reading schedule for a while. It was the same for me when I took the "Fiction of Relationships" Course, also on Coursera, which I found fascinating. I'll have to look up the Hans Christian Andersen latest laureates.

>69 PrueGallagher: My dearest Prue! Always a breath of fresh air, you are. I wouldn't recommend Native Son willy-nilly, even though I did say it was essential reading. It took me a long time to work up the courage to dive into it, and somehow the timing worked, but I think the fact that it's written in such a taut noir thriller style also helped. Must say I'm glad it's done with now. Haven't worked on my drawing for a few days now, and uncharacteristically long break. Will have to get (literally) back to the drawing table today. xx


Was the rest really necessary?

***

Onto real life: head: not so great. But don't have much more pills to cover the rest of the week. Will take a couple now and call my family doctor to ask that she prescribe me some too till the neurologist gets back PLUS three weeks more supply, since that's how long on average it takes him to return my calls.

Reading: really really really enjoying revisiting Sense and Sensibility in the context of this latest tutorial with Liz. But mostly I think due to all the other JA tutorials I've taken and followed with her till now, which have greatlly helped me appreciate her particular brand of humour. She has now become a comfort read for me, and I can see myself returning to her novels again and again and finding new reasons to delight in her clever wit. Once again, it astounds me to see myself even writing this. Proves people can and truly do change. Sometimes.

The Quick is delighting me in every way too, for different reasons of course. My only qualm is I won't be able to find the words to do this ARC justice when comes time to review it, because unlike other novels I've reviewed with relative ease, the review isn't exactly writing itself in my head as I read it. But if that proves to be my worst problem with this novel, it will certainly deserve a high rating.

Daughters of Mars: sadly, just not working for me. Though I couldn't say why. So I think I won't review that one, quite deliberately, because I wouldn't want to taint anyone's impressions with my incoherent reasons for not connecting with it as I should have, because I can very well see objectively that it's a very good novel.

On with the day!

I hope today is migraine free!

Thanks for all these lovely illustrations!

Oh dear oh dear. I'm an abusive monster: things I did not know about myself. Live and learn. All this I must say, and for the last time: because of a misunderstanding wherein an casual comment was taken as an attack when there was no such intent. I thought it was a shame for this misunderstanding to persist until all eternity, seemed unnecessarily hostile to me. I was obviously wrong. Hostilities do and must persist it seems, like the Arab–Israeli conflict, though I do believe there is more hope in that situation. How sad, but I am now properly chastened and promise I will not do it again. I'm just so sorry I've set off such an unpleasant chain of events, where people are apparently forced to take sides or suffer the consequences. Seems unnecessary, but then, demands are being made, as I understand it.

I think Jane Austen is what is needed here. She'd sure have fun with this material.

>74 Whisper1: Thanks Linda my luv, two Fiorinal and 45 minutes later, the migraine is slightly less crippling.


Speaking of which, I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with my family doctor BEGGING for her to give me more pills (i.e. Fiorinal). That sounds so pathetic doesn't it? Like one of those cautionary tales about chronic pain sufferers who become pain-killer addicts and end up stealing doctor pads to write out false prescriptions and then end up in jail for fraud. Then there's a TV miniseries about it, because someone, somewhere ends up murdered somehow, which makes for great entertainment of course. But truly, I'm very careful when it comes to habit-forming medication, and only take it intermittently, to lessen the pain once in a while, just to vary the narrative a bit. Besides which, I've always hated taking pills. Doctor N. has agreed to give me 12 more capsules. Which makes 18 for now, to be dolled out very slowly until I hear back from the neurologist.

>45 Smiler69:. That's really uncalled for and very rude! I hope the other people that react to your add will be more civilized.

I'm glad that your meds are helping, Ilana. And I want to let you know I never choose sides.

>76 connie53: Hi Connie, yes, luckily that was the one unfortunate exception. I've found in the past whenever I've wanted to sell something (I've been an occasional seller on eBay for a good while), there will always be the occasional "buyer" who seems to be looking for a reason to create a conflict more than actually trying to find a bargain. But they're a small minority, and on the whole, I think most people are decent and just trying to get their money's worth. So far there is one man offering much less than my asking price, who has kept in touch with me with a few suggestions, but he's being very nice about it, and I've told him I'm grateful to him for giving me an option if I can't sell for what I think is a reasonable asking price (basing myself on going prices on eBay).

As for the other thing, I think that is very wise of you. I've always preferred to stay on the fence and keep out of the fray myself, being born between two cultures and sometimes fighting factions.

Book #50: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood ★★★★⅓
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #20: a book about orphans
Series:The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place (1 of 4)
Edition: Balzer Bray (2011), Paperback, 288 pages
Original publication date: 2010

Now there was a good bit of fun! I'm not a frequent reader of YA novels, but I do enjoy them once in a while, and this one turned out to be a real treat. Fifteen year-old Penelope Lumley, just graduated from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females sometime in the mid 19th century, is on her way to her first job interview as a potential governess. The employers had asked for someone who gets along with animals, and as it happens she is a great animal lover and is very much looking forward to finding out what sort of creatures she will find at her potential employers'. When she arrives at Ashton place with some trepidation, not being sure whether she will be able to call this place her home or be sent away, she is greeted with mysterious howling sounds, which everyone in the estate seems to be at pains not to hear. But inevitably, she is hired and comes face to face with her charges; three young siblings, two boys and a small girl, who have grown up wild in the local woods, seemingly having been raised by wolves. Her mandate of teaching them French and Latin and Geography and Mathematics, will also have to include teaching them first to start talking like human beings and (for the boys) how to properly put a pair of pants on. The children are very attached to her and she's delighted with their progress, though of course a big challenge is thrown her way; she must groom them to behave irreproachably and in very short order, to be the main attraction at a grand Christmas ball to which high dignitaries and the crème de la crème of society will be invited, and this when the children are still barely able to contain themselves from howling at the least provocation! Elements of Jane Eyre come into play when some of the mysterious howlings seemingly turn out to originate from a hidden portion of the attic. But the secret of this strange mystery will only be revealed in a further instalment in the series it seems, which is just as well because I will happily continue to follow along the adventures of Miss Lumley and the Incorrigibles.

>78 Smiler69: Ilana, what a delightful review! I am reluctant to wade (again) into the land of YA novels, but this one sounds enjoyable.

I say bring on the Jane Austen!!

Take care, Ilana, and hang in there. I hope your week gets better.

I'm reading Blonde which is quite good if not exactly uplifting!

edited to fix a typo of sorts

Just stopping by to send hugs.

>73 Smiler69: "The Quick is delighting me in every way too, for different reasons of course. My only qualm is I won't be able to find the words to do this ARC justice" I know that feeling, but your enthusiasm for the book is already shining through from the little you've written.

>73 Smiler69: Well, I barely know either one of you, and I’m not a saint myself, certainly have buttons that seem innocuous to others but can send me spinning and thrashing, so no side-taking here.
Daughters of Mars: sadly, just not working for me
Shoot. I saw him at the National Book Festival last year, and I’ve been keeping an eye on reviews. Don’t worry, I’m not put off by your reaction, just one data point.

>79 EBT1002: Ellen, I have to be in the right sort of mood to read books written for a younger audience, but they often tend to work for me between heavier works, such as the one we both finished recently. This one really was good fun, but then I also like governess stories and Jane Eyre happens to be a favourite.

>80 souloftherose: I had to really stop myself from staying up till the wee hours of the morning to finish The Quick. Consequently very tired today as did stay up very late nonetheless, but I should finish it either today or tomorrow.

>81 qebo: I just finished The Daughters of Mars last night Katherine. I tried my best to keep an objective ear out and when I did, could see this story had a lot going for it and should definitely have appealed to me a lot more than it did. Maybe it was just a question of timing, and the narrator continually mispronouncing place names in France (one place in particular being mentioned dozens of times) did drive me nuts, though this would most probably go unnoticed by the average English-speaking listener. Probably one of those cases where I would have been better off reading the book in print or e-format.

***

Took a sleeping pill last night, which I hardly ever do, but been having such trouble sleeping, and still had a bad night of it, and now with a raging headache again.

When I finished The Daughters of Mars exactly at 11:59 pm last night (so it counts as my last March read), I wanted to jump into The Prisoner of Zenda while out walking Coco, but my brain was so numb with fatigue I couldn't make heads nor tails of it, so decided to start it over again today. I really like the narrator and the tone of it all, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it given half a chance.

Beautiful out, though of course that is bad for my eyes/head, so big black sunglasses are a must as always when out and about. Temps above 0 C though, so that should be pleasant. Seeing my beloved psychologist today, Dr C, whom I hadn't visited in at least a year now, since I have the free occupational therapist provided by the hospital, but this lady is dear to me and I've always thought of her as the mother I wish I'd had. A real lady, ever so kind and yet astute, and always able to put a positive spin on everything and make me feel like I'm a pretty decent person, actually. Of course I pay her to say those nice things, but I really do think she means them!

>82 Smiler69: Yes, I wouldn't notice French mispronunciations, and in any case I don't do audio books; no situation where they'd be appropriate, and I have to page back and forth a lot to keep things straight in my head.

>82 Smiler69: Katherine, one thing Suzanne mentioned to me she really loved about this book was the beautiful prose, something which is not so often given a chance to shine quite a fully as it does on paper unless the narrator is particularly gifted.

      

Currently reading:
❉ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (tutored read)
✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 41: Cellmates by Gail Pirkis
ⓔ The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC)
♫ The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

Reading Plans for April:
☀✔ Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - tutored read with Liz, TIOLI#10: match at least one TAG from the person above you - currently reading
☀✔ Sula by Toni Morrison - AAC, TIOLI#10, A Century of Books! (1973)
☀♫ Home by Toni Morrison - AAC, TIOLI #10
☀✔ Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood - Atwood April, TIOLI#17: a gem word or phrase in its title, A Century of Books! (1988)
☀*♫ Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan - #2: title and author have two Qs, two Zs, or one of each
☀✔ Pot Bouille by Émile Zola - #4: an author or in a series or about a topic of which you have multiples on your TBR/wish list
☀**The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller - Extra pick by Kerry, TIOLI #5: Title with Four Words - currently reading (on hold)
☀✔ *Coventry by Helen Humphreys - TIOLI #10, picked for me
☀♫ The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope - TIOLI #5 - currently listening
☀ⓔ The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC) - TIOLI #13: a genre you haven't yet read from in 2014 (gothic horror)

TIOLI Options:
✔ *Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz - #1: first sentence is exactly seven words
✔ The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens - #1, A Century of Books! (1969)
✔ Small Island by Andrea Levy - #1
✔ *The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper - #5: Title with Four Words, A Century of Books! (1973)
✔ Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark - #4
✔ The Crossing by Cormac McCarthey - #4, A Century of Books! (1994)
✔ The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith - #4
♫ The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - #7: a book that has been reviewed in an Unshelved Book Club
♫ A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - #7, A Century of Books! (1968)
♫ The Dog Stars by Peter Heller - #7
♫ The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson - #7
ⓔ When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelssohn - #6: a word in the title that suggests something bad (shared read)
♫ The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - #8: Read a book about Totalitarianism
♫ Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett - #5
♫ The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin - #18: written by an author born in 1964
♫ A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley - #15: author's initials are the same or are one letter away



* = Picked for Me challenge
** = Picked for Me challenge extra picks
☀ = TIOLI
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook

Hi Ilana,

You know, I used to keep a bottle of ambien in my medicine cabinet. I cut them in half and tried not to take them too often, but sometimes one of those puppies was just what I needed. I am tempted to contact my doc and ask her to prescribe it again, but I think I'll see how the next few days go. Maybe getting out for a morning run tomorrow will do the trick. I think my insomnia is made worse if I haven't gotten any exercise and, while I've been walking more lately, it's just not the same as that vigorous run. Also, my insomnia is very tied to anxiety - duh - and running eases that for me.

Wishing you good sleep tonight.

eta: I was looking for a copy of When We Were Bad when I was browsing bookstores in Chicago last month. No such luck or I might be joining you for a shared TIOLI read.

I came within 4-5 pages of finishing The Quick last night, but then I'd taken an extra-strong dose of Ativan to make sure I finally got a decent night of sleep and just. couldn't. keep. eyes. open. So will finish it this afternoon, as I plan on staking out on the couch and reading for the better part of the day. Whatever is left of the day, that is, because I couldn't rouse myself till extra late today, which is why I usually avoid sleeping pills to begin with.

>86 EBT1002: Ellen, I saw on one of my recent visits to your thread you'd also had a hard time sleeping lately. I've always been very anxious, since early childhood, which is probably why I've always suffered from nightmares and the bad sleep that comes with that. Your plan to do vigorous exercise is a good one to counter all that. If I had more common sense, I'd imitate you there.

I got When We Were Bad as a Kindle book, though I suppose you haven't settled on an e-reader quite yet? xx

Ugh, on the sleeping problems. I'm having some too although much less severe. Work is rather busy and I get stressed about it easily so I'm suddenly having all sorts of strange dreams which is leaving me feeling unrefreshed when I wake up. I don't think exercise makes any difference but I can't say I've really pushed vigorous exercise to the limit to find out!

I rarely pay attention to book hype when it comes to new titles, but I must say I'm intrigued by The Bees by Laline Paull, which I just read about in a Shelf Awareness newsletter.

"In the tradition of Watership Down and Redwall, Laline Paull's debut novel, The Bees, is an enthralling story that explores the intricate and brutal social order of the beehive. Paull's hive is a place of mystery and complexities, where religion holds sway with an array of strictly codified laws that coalesce around worship of the Queen, who sustains the hive with her Love. Of the many laws dictating the lives of the bees, paramount is Only the Queen may breed--a law enforced with horrendous efficiency by the fertility police. Individuality is also forbidden, a principle encapsulated in the oft-repeated mantra Accept, Obey, and Serve. So when Flora, a despised sanitation worker bee, discovers her ability to lay eggs, her life is immediately placed in jeopardy. Even more dangerous is Flora's determination to protect her offspring--at any cost."

I guess the timing is right considering bees are often mentioned by environmental groups, and I've always been among those who are fascinated by their little world, so I'll be looking out for this one.

eta: I've just pre-ordered this title from Audible. Something I rarely do, but the major advantage there is if I don't end up liking it, I can always get my credit back.

>88 souloftherose: I think it's quite normal to get stressed out about work Heather, especially as your does sound like there are plenty of challenges to deal with. My job used to be extremely stressful too, and I must say that when I was exercising regularly and vigorously, it did make a big difference in the quality of my sleep and how I was able to handle emergencies. Of course my situation has changed now, but I'm obviously still suffering from plenty of stress, just for different reasons now. I just wish I could work up the motivation to exercise though... and these blasted migraines don't encourage me to move more than is absolutely necessary either!

Hi Ilana- Just checking in with my pal. Funny, I also just saw "The Bees" on Shelf Awareness and was snared by the description.
I've been on a nice little "book roll" lately. I just finished Blood Will Out, which was excellent but very dark & creepy. And I am continuing Agent Zigzag, on audio, and it is also stellar. Have you read this guy yet? I will be looking for all of his books.
Hope you are feeling well!

Hi Mark, I've been lurking on your thread the last few times (as I have on most threads lately) and did see you were reading Blood Will Out. I was under the mistaken impression this was the Upton Sinclair book which was called There Will Be Blood in the movie version (actually called Oil!, but I see of course it's not. I haven't read anything by Ben Macintyre yet, though I've had Agent Zigzag from OverDrive as an audio for over a year, and A Spy Among Friends has landed on the wishlist based on Suzanne's glowing comments. I'll have to move him up the stacks.

Headache isn't too bad today so far, could be a decent night of sleep might have helped. xx

Hi Ilana- As you might recall, I am a bit of a film buff too, so of course I've seen There Will Be Blood and it was outstanding.
Ben Macintyre has pole-vaulted into my NF awareness.

>92 msf59: Yes, I remember going to see There Will Be Blood at the cinema, and though I usually have a terrible memory for just about everything, there are several scenes from the movie I still remember quite vividly. Powerful stuff!

***

I just got a whole bunch of new credits from Audible today with my new April budget (now far exceeded already) and of course had to get a bunch of stuff from my wishlist:

Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
Narrated by Frank Muller. There's a gorgeous recent Folio edition I'm tempted to get. Better find out if it's something I'd want to reread first.
Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
Strongly recommended by Rhian
The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn
Also have got it on Kindle
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I by Edward Gibbon
This was Winston Churchill's favourite and I've long been curious about it.
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
Just released yesterday

Total books purchased to date: 105

Hope yo enjoy The Wall Ilana!

>94 SandDune: Me too Rhian, thanks!

***

Currently reading/listening to:

  

✔ Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz
♫ Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

Now I find out the person who verbally assaulted me last week because I didn't accept his offer for my computer on Craigslist actually went ahead and placed and ad himself under the title "S**thead of the Week" and claims that I'm a scammer and a liar, that I got the computer free and am actually a reseller and trying to rip people off. I also noticed he included information that I didn't give him, such as the fact that I upgraded the memory myself, which I did tell someone else who wrote to me very nicely asking a few questions about the computer I thought were very normal, and has kept in touch with me all this time. Now I'm starting to get paranoid (am I?) and thinking these two might in fact be one and the same person. This has got to have been one of the worst weeks ever as far as online activity goes.

>75 Smiler69:. yea gads! The pills for your migraine don't appear to be habit forming. At least, from my experience anyway! I've taken fiorocet for 20 years and I'm not addicted. I use this when I need it.

Shaking head at wondering how the medical field became so unnecessarily complicated.

>89 Smiler69: Oh, interesting!
>96 Smiler69: Bizarre. Craigslist have a way to report this sort of thing?

>96 Smiler69:: Ilana, that is so creepy that there might be a good guy/bad guy harassing you on Craig's List. There are so many wackos out there! I hope you find some way to have this nut case investigated without involving yourself.

I hope your headache and sleeping problems stay away so you can enjoy this weekend. The new medicine sounds like a godsend.

Dear Ilana I don't understand if you want to sell something and someone else want to buy how it could descend into such nastiness. Wishing you a weekend free of such things. xx

Btw Cause for Alarm is one of the better Eric Ambler books IMO.

>97 Whisper1: Linda, I don't know that medicine ever was simple to begin with. In the meantime, I had terrible insomnia Wednesday night so that I completely forgot I was supposed to call my neuro on Thursday because I was so out of it. Oh well.

>98 qebo: I looked to see what options there were on Craigslist to see if I could report anything, but my search didn't bring up anything useful. It's pretty much a free-for-all on there, so I don't expect much can be done. What I have done on my side though is I've added a note on my ad saying I was not, as another ad claimed, a scammer and a mere individual trying to sell my laptop to finance my new computer.

>99 Donna828: Donna, all I can say is this latest story isn't helping my peace of mind any. I've listen my computer on eBay meanwhile, and will just have to ignore any nonsense if any more comes my way. Some people really just don't know what to do with their spare time I guess.

>100 PaulCranswick: Paul, what can I say? Some people are apparently always out there looking to make trouble, and I guess posting on such public forums like Craigslist where there is no monitoring to speak of just leaves one open for this sort of attack, unfortunately. It's always unpleasant no matter when, but I must say it's been all the harder to take this week in particular and I'm left wondering what I've done that is so terrible for me to deserve such awful karma. Headache terrible too now as you can imagine, so I'm off to take some of my magic pills and hope to fly away for a while.

>101 Smiler69: Hahaha I could do with a consignment of those magic pills myself. xx

Wow. It's been a very long time since I've felt quite this desperately hopeless.

I have been too lazy to ever sell on CraigsList ( I just donate anything that needs out of the house) --now you've convinced me that's a good thing. What a drag!

I hesitate to give medical advise, but reading your post about migraines made me wonder if birth control pills could help you. My daughter's doctor prescribed them for that reason, and for general moodiness. I was hesitant to have her on another medication; but they seem to be helping. Obviously--some people they probably wouldn't help at all.

Anyway, hope you have a better week!

Hi Ilana- Just checking in. Sorry, you are having a bad day. I hope a good night sleep helps. Hugs, my friend.

BTW- How is Frog Music coming?

>93 Smiler69: Looks like a good haul! I like the sound of Frog Music but will probably wait for a few reviews from my trusted book recommenders on LT.

>103 Smiler69: Hugs. I'm really sorry you're having such a bad week.

>96 Smiler69: Well, ding dang it, Ilana. I try very hard not to get angry about stuff, but when people hurt my friends' feelings, it's difficult not to get steamed. Thinking of you, and hoping that today is turning out to be *much* better for you...

Hope things are improving a bit for you, Ilana, and you're able to enjoy the weekend a bit. Lousy thing to happen on Craiglist; I'm always grateful that there's so little of that on Librarything, although occasionally some nastiness creeps in even here.

Sending positive thoughts your way for feeling well, migraine-free, and peaceful. We all have to go through our ups and downs, but you deserve a break, seems to me.

Getting caught up Ilana. Sorry to see you have had such a nasty on-line resale experience. My other half upgrades and sells off our computer equipment from time to time and he has a couple of less than desirable 'interested' parties that don't like the answers they receive to their offers and inquiries. These personalities are most likely the same type that make for troublesome customers in traditional brick and mortar stores, it is just easier to unfortunately encounter them in everywhere from eBay to your encounter on Craiglist. It is unfortunate that Craiglist doesn't seem to have a mechanism for you to request assistance.

Hi Ilana, I am exercising my eyesight and catching up on threads at the same time. So sorry to read of your troubles at Craig's List, there are some strange people out there and it's unfortunate that a weird one decided to answer you ad.

Here's hoping that next week is a much better one for you.

Took 3 sleeping pills yesterday, slept till 5 today. Long walk with Coco. Two hours drawing. Now I'm off to read S&S. Was supposed to get together with a friend, but too depressed. Can't stop crying.

Oh dear, Ilana. I'm so sorry you have had such a miserable week. I've been so tired and busy that I actually climbed under a blanket twice and just slept for two hours each time at odd times when I could.
Just last night I started a new lifestyle... am determined to have lights out by 10 o'clock and try to get into a more disciplined routine of sleeping. So far, so good. I did it with Tylenol PM. Wasn't happy to get up at 6:30, but I was rewarded with seeing the most beautiful sky... a very pretty blue with really pink clouds. I felt like I was on another planet. I can't say... maybe this happens every morning at sunrise.

Anyway, I am sad about everything that has been happening to you this past week or so. This kind of thing is where the expression "Life is a bitch!" comes from.

btw, I have been taking fiorinal for my migraines for more years than I can remember. It is NOT addictive. I take it when I need it and it works for me. I will say I never used to leave home without it - but not because I was addicted. I was afraid I would get a migraine out of nowhere and not have the medicine I needed to get rid of it. Now that I am getting fewer migraines, I'm not so obsessed with carrying it everywhere.

Doctors who are not primarily treating you for whatever ails you are always VERY reluctant to prescribe anything while you are waiting to get access to your physician of choice. In a way, I understand their reluctance because they don't really know all the details - but it gets ridiculous sometimes! I had a really tough time getting pain meds for my broken shoulder between Canada and the US for a few days while waiting for my appt with the ortho surgeon back home. It drove Ron and I both nuts.
Sorry you are experiencing this kind of thing too.

Cry, if it helps. Sometimes I wish I could. I used to think it washed some kind of poison out of my system. Now, I just can't seem to cry anymore - much to my dismay.

Hope you feel better today. I'll be thinking of you. Hugs and more hugs. xoxo

Dear Ilana, I was so pleased to see the lovely messages for you from Mark, Heather, Cee, Judy, Amber, Joe and others proof perfect that you have a smalle army here of people who care about you. I am, of course, another one of those people and when you are not having a good day it detracts from my own, when you are up, it makes me that bit brigher also. That is the biproduct of friendship. You don't need to be so low or feel so alone; can only send you virtual hugs but I hope a decent sleep helps some. I read on Suz's thread that some of her medication seems to have helped immensely - don't know if it is different from yours?

I am going to send you a PM also as I opened the mail box this evening. xx

Of course Paul is right, it's downright ungrateful of me to wallow in my misery when I've been getting all these friendly messages. That's the problem with depression thought, as clinically proven: positive feedback gets downplayed and negative feedback takes centre stage and becomes an obsession. Must say that some of the negative feedback this week was so incredibly vicious that something in the order of miracles would have been required for me to put it out of my mind, like winning the lotto jackpot or being hit by a bus or something. Falling in love maybe? Though being hit by a bus is more likely, seeing as I live right next to the bus terminal and there's no proper crossing in front of my street so I'm every day taking my life in my own hands when I dodge traffic to cross St-Jacques street. My furry bundles of love are a constant comfort of course, but not having anyone in my immediate vicinity to talk things over with and get a fresh perspective from means I tend to stew too long in my own thoughts, however much I try to escape them by listening to audiobooks and keeping constantly busy.

Speaking of audiobooks, I finished Frog Music last night. Will write something about it soon, but I predict this one will be a big hit.

>104 banjo123: Hi Rhonda, I donate lots of stuff too, but an Apple laptop, which should fetch me around $1000, is more money than I'm able to part with. After all, I've got a serious book addiction to finance, and given half those books end up being donated to the library, I need the funds to come from somewhere. Meanwhile, I've advertised it on eBay too, so we'll see what comes of it. I've sold quite a few items over the years, and on the whole things have gone smoothly, thought there's always a joker or two out there who want to make things unnecessarily unpleasant. This one this week definitely deserves a medal for going out of his way to make it so.

I'll ask my neuro about birth control pills. Though given I'm probably getting close to menopause, I don't know how advisable those would be, but we'll see what he says, thanks for the tip.

>105 msf59: Hi Mark, finally got a decent night's sleep last night, and med-free too, which is a nice bonus. I'm sure you'd love Frog Music. Don't hesitate to get your hands on it as soon as you can.

>106 souloftherose: Thanks for the hugs Heather. I'm like you, and tend to wait for others to try out new publications and see what the feedback is. Once in a blue moon though, I do like to try brand new releases, and I'd been curious about Emma Donoghue's new book for some time. I haven't read Room yet mind you... it's on the tbr, but the subject-matter is proving hard for me to want to broach.

>107 scaifea: Hi Amber, thanks for the encouraging message. After hitting an all-time low these past couple of days, I think today should be much better by comparison, thanks.

>108 jnwelch: Thank you Joe, your kind words mean a lot to me.

>109 lkernagh: Hi Lori, as you say, there will always be difficult customers to deal with, no matter what the platform, and I guess the anonymity of the internet makes those who are troublemakers feel even freer to make life difficult for everyone. I'd steer clear of Craigslist if it wasn't for the fact that it's so popular and I've successfully sold several items there in the past.

>110 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy, I trust your eyesight is getting stronger every day, though can imagine staring at a computer screen must cause quite a lot of eye-strain. Thanks for the visit. Hopefully I'll get rid of the laptop soon so I can get off that particular platform and away from other potential troublemakers.

Craig's List is notorious for wackos - there are, in the US some more local web places to use - Front Porch Forum - the very localness of it cuts down the wacko quotient. Don't know if you have that? Of course, in the city you don't even necessarily know much about the people right around you, so maybe it is hopeless.

>112 -Cee-: Hi Claudia, good for you for making healthy resolutions! I keep trying to get myself to go to bed earlier, and only meet with moderate success. Trouble is I've always been a night person, so it's hard to acquire different habits. Though that goes for everyone and any kind of habit of course. Still, there was a time a few years back when I was regularly going to sleep between 3 and 5 in the morning, so now having lights out at 1:30 or 1:45 every night is a vast improvement. I'll keep working at it. Ideally I'd have lights out by 12, but that will force me to restructure my whole day so I can get in bed on time and still be able to fit in my hour to 90 minutes of bedtime reading.

Very encouraging to hear that fiorinal is not addictive in your experience. It has been very helpful the 3-4 times I've taken it so far. There was one time it didn't make much difference, but on the whole it effectively got rid of what were really nasty migraines, which is in the order of miracles as far as I'm concerned. I'll do everything in my power to get my neurologist to give me a regular prescription for them. My friend K, who used to be a head nurse, said there are two schools of thought with doctors when it comes to treating pain, and those who are more "old school" are reluctant to prescribe pain killers as they believe they are problematic. I'm just glad to know there's something out there that can take care of the pain for me, I was starting to think that wasn't possible!

I've cried oceans in my lifetime, and then gone years without being able to shed a tear. The last few years I've felt mostly numb and frequently couldn't cry even when I wanted to, but I think I've made up for that these past couple of days. I'm definitely not a 'pretty' cryer, and my face and eyes end up staying puffy for days afterward, so I look quite a frightening sight right now, though do admit the tears brought some measure of relief. Thanks for the hugs my darling. xx

>113 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, as I mentioned above, of course it was most ungrateful of me not to acknowledge all these encouraging messages yesterday. I've been quite good about combatting the worst effects of depression lately and not letting myself get carried too low, but once in a while, circumstances become too overwhelming for my nervous system to handle, and combined with difficulties getting a decent night's sleep (and never mind dealing with constant headaches), this always spells major trouble for me mood-wise. Thankfully I'm already on medication that helps me bounce back with a bit more ease than otherwise, and also have wonderful friends like you who are supportive and caring.

Suz is taking something very different from me for her migraines, but I'll ask my neuro about her medication when I next speak to him. I'm already very glad the fiorinal has been so helpful, though a bit mystified as to why my neuro never thought of prescribing it to me before and only hope he isn't against it for some reason.

>115 sibylline: No, you're right Lucy, living in the city I don't know mosts of the people living on my own tiny street! though I'll have been in this apartment for 14 years as of this summer. I suppose I could go put up ads in the universities on bulletin boards, though honestly I don't even know if anybody still looks at those anymore since all those students are online most of the time anyway. There are of course some other more local sites, and if there are still no takers from the three sites I've already posted on so far, I'll put up ads there too for a fee.

Hi Ilana- Glad you got a good nights sleep. Hopefully you are feeling a little better. I did request the audio of Frog Music, so lets hope I get it quickly.

>118 msf59: Oh good news Mark! You're in for a treat! Hope you don't have to wait too long, though I'm not too worried, as I doubt you'll run out of reading (or listening) material while you wait!

>114 Smiler69: & >116 Smiler69: - Ungrateful? Not a word coming out of my lips my dear implied or otherwise. Merely stating the fact that your friends love and care for you as I am pretty adept at stating the obvious. I didn't notice the interval (if any) between your friends messages and your replies. Already engrossed in "Slightly Foxed" which I am thrilled to see is printed in my home county of Yorkshire!

>120 PaulCranswick: No no no Paul, of course I didn't think for a fraction of a second you were implying I was being thankless. I am the one hurling the accusation at myself in this case. Because I do wish when I'm down in the dumps I could focus on the light above and not be mesmerized by the darkness below instead. I'll eventually send Slightly Foxed issues to all my friends. It's just too good to keep to myself and I want them to stick around for decades to come. xx

>114 Smiler69: It seems like you are feeling a little better today, and I am glad for that. I didn't mean at all to imply that you ought to donate your computer- it's just that I've always been leery of craig's list and your experience bolstered my fears!

Good luck with your doctor's appointments. My own migraines are infrequent, but when I get them I'd take anything to make it stop, addictive or not. I literally lie in bed and fantasize about chopping my own head off. The most effective thing for me was midrin, which worked like magic, but they took it off the market. But from what I see, people's migraines are really different and what works for one person doesn't work for another.

There's no reason for you to chastise yourself for being ungrateful, Ilana. It would be downright silly for us to be giving you the sentiments we're leaving here just because we want to be thanked for it! Ha! Nope, we care about you and we're telling you so. End of story. I - and others, too, I bet - understand how depression works and so understand that you may not feel like commenting, and that's okay.
Still keeping you in my thoughts, friend.

>111 Smiler69: {{{{{Ilana}}}}}

>114 Smiler69: Speaking of audiobooks, I finished Frog Music last night. Will write something about it soon, but I predict this one will be a big hit.

Eagerly awaiting those thoughts so I can go and add myself to the library reservations list!

>121 Smiler69: I do wish when I'm down in the dumps I could focus on the light above and not be mesmerized by the darkness below instead. Yes, but a lot easier said than done in my experience. Don't be too hard on yourself.

>122 banjo123: Rhonda, comparatively speaking, I'm feeling much much better today. Not having obsessive thoughts about how to do away with myself is a major relief, that's for sure. I'm not sure what's harder to deal with: the thoughts themselves, which as I understand it are natural enough for most human beings to experience once in a while, or the attending guilt, and also feeling like a coward for a) having those thoughts to begin with and b) not doing anything about them. Thank heavens, today is another day. I do feel majorly hungover, but as I said, relatively speaking it's a vast improvement.

I did consider holding onto my laptop so I could avoid all the trouble of selling it, and honestly, if I wasn't constantly in debt I would avoid Craigslist and it's ilk like the plague. I may end up selling it at a much lower cost just to be done away with the trouble, which of course that's what bargain hunters hold out for. I can't blame them, but then I try whenever I can to hold out and get the highest fair market price I can. I've managed this before, so will put that one bad incident behind me and try to strengthen my resolve.

>123 scaifea: Thanks Amber. I'm really good at beating myself up, wouldn't you know! :-)

>124 souloftherose: Thanks for the hugs Heather. I promise to do a writeup on Frog Music soon, but in the meantime, won't cost you anything to put your name up on that library list! ;-)
I've got a review for The Quick I started writing on Friday to finish up, though can't do so today (see explanation below), so it might be a few days before I get to Donoghue's book.

***

Just got an email from someone saying he's willing to come by and pick up my laptop now, but I've asked for a phone number to set an appointment in a public place during the week. Can't have perfect strangers coming to my house, and if it's a serious buyer he'll wait a day or two.

Meanwhile, I've got a...

Bingo! with the first line on top with the addition of Frog Music.
Should I order myself a book as a reward?



More than 500 pages: Bleak House by Charles Dickens ★★★★
Forgotten Classic: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare ★★★★
Book that became a movie: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - tutorial ★★★★½
Published this year: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★
Number in the title: 420 Characters by Lou Beach

***

Also, have just ordered HBO so I can watch the Game of Thrones premiere this evening.

And... have a friend coming over in an hour or two. We were supposed to go see the Peter Doig exhibit at the museum this week which I put off, then put off her visit yesterday because too sullen to see anyone, so finally today's the day, even though I look like hell, but she doesn't care of course. I've asked her to bring a bottle of sherry (at my expense), which has been my preferred drink lately, when the head can take it. Such a ladylike drink!, and we'll probably watch the movie version of 84, Charing Cross Road starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins which I borrowed from the library. I read the book for the first time last year and of course now it's an all-time favourite.

eta: typos, what's new?

Dear Ilana, so much going on and I don't know where I've been!
I do so wish that you didn't have anything bringing you down other than the headaches. They are way more than enough right by themselves.
Anyway, courage for the new week and a hope that joy will surprise you as you go along.
The art here is lovely, lovely! Sherry is good...... If it's not wine on offer, my drink is single malt. Nothing ladylike there! But sherry is good - and I've maybe never had really good sherry.
You do so make me wish I had decided to get back to Tomalin. I was juggling her *Hardy* with Robert Massie's Peter the Great for April reading, and Peter won, possibly because having it massive and unread on the shelf produces greater guilt than the smaller Hardy volume. I did love her Austen and Nelly Ternan bios though, and I have Dickens waiting. *sigh*
I'll keep my ears open about The Bees. My DH was a beekeeper for about 30 years. He wouldn't be interested in this book, but I am.
Hope you're enjoying your friend's visit even as I type. I pledge to get back here before another 125 posts!

Hope you have a great evening! Sherry and Charing Cross sounds lovely.

My heart is still pounding from that Game of Thrones series premiere. What I call much-needed escapism at just the right time. My friend came and went, and we had a nice quiet time while she was here. I wasn't very talkative, but she always takes me as I am. I fed her a portion of my latest batch of soup; carrot and ginger which is really excellent, even if I say so myself (got the easy-peasy recipe here: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/carrot_ginger_soup/) and we ordered seafood salads from a Japanese restaurant which is always very fresh and simply loaded with crab and lobster at a ridiculously low price. 84, Charing Cross Road was sweet as a movie, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a must, though of course Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins are always worth seeing in action.

Started Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan earlier today on audio while walking Coco. The recording quality is really horrid on this OverDrive version I got, but I don't think it'll bother me too much because just barely a chapter in, I'm already completely hooked. I have no religious background at all, but must say I've always been fascinated by Jesus as a historical personality and that's just what this book promises to deliver.

>126 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, doing much better today, thanks. My friend said I looked exhausted and quite worn down, but I guess that's to be expected. Good thing my vanity is leaving me bit by bit over time. She ended up bringing Port instead of Sherry, which I like well enough, but as I can't drink very much alcohol lately because of the headaches, I was really in the mood for my latest preferred drink, so sort of sipped a tiny bit of port and then had a bit of the Sherry I have left over while watching GOT after she'd gone (GOT not really being her cup of tea). I really go through phases with drinks, and have gone through extended single malt periods too. I'm really bad at remembering names, but I do recall quite liking a few decent 14 year olds... like Oban. can't really afford the yet older and more expensive stuff.

I've got Peter the Great in the audio stacks, which I plan to tackle eventually, along with Massie's Catherine the Great too. I trust (and hope) he's made Peter a fascinating read. Very interested to learn your DH was a beekeeper for so long. Not a profession you come across very often!

>127 banjo123: Between the visit, the meal, the drinks, Charing Cross and Game of Thrones, it ended up being an evening high in entertainment value, thanks Rhonda. My friend K told me that even if I'd tried to cancel our visit today, she'd have forced her way in to make sure I'm okay. Between my LT friends and RL friends, it's nice to know people are looking out for me. Hope you have a great week ahead!

I wanted to spend some time right now writing a couple of reviews, but woke up this morning having trouble lifting my head off the pillow because of migraine, so not sure I can use that appendage much; took a couple of fiorinals, and they don't seem to be having much of an effect this time. An FB woman friend suggested I get my hormone levels checked, as may be some kind of hormonal therapy available to me. I'll call my family doctor/gyno today to make an appointment. I got a sense of my neuro's position on Fiorinal this morning when I called his secretary to ask him to prescribe me more pills and she said "you DO know it's highly addictive, don't you?" in a most disapproving tone. Not too promising. I'm not holding my breath till he returns my call given his track record so far (3-4 weeks being the average wait).

We've got provincial elections today, and for the first time in my life, I'll probably vote Liberal instead of more or less cancelling my vote by choosing one of the Green parties (since I don't trust any of them anyway), in other words voting against my better conscience only because I don't want the Parti Québecois to win. Most non-unilingual francophones here consider them to be quite the Fascisti, and I can't say I've agreed with many of their decisions in the past, and DEFINITELY don't want to see Quebec separated from the rest of Canada in my lifetime. I'm proud to be Canadian and have practically zero affiliation with my 25% quebecois heritage. And that's about as much politics as you'll ever hear me talk about.

Off to read some children's books so I can return them to the library today when I go to the voting poll, which is right next door, conveniently enough.

eta: even more typos than usual, wouldn't you know.

Sorry to see you are suffering from a bad migraine - are you sure it was not brought on by all the last minute electioneering that us poor souls get subjected to in the lead up to these provincial elections? I hope this migraine doesn't linger and like you, I would rather not see Quebec separated from the rest of Canada - I seriously doubt the Parti Quebecois has really thought through the logistics involved in a separation (like having to come up with their own currency, their own border and customs controls, etc). Interesting times we live in, that is for sure.

Take care of yourself and take things easy.

I'm glad for your fun evening and sorry for the headache. Every time elections roll around, I take one of those online quizzes that purports to tell which candidate agrees most with your own preferences. I get the Green every time, but I've never voted that way because I don't want to throw away my vote. *sigh*

Hi Ilana- Just checking in. Sorry to hear about the raging migraine. I hope it has eased off. On the latest NPR Book podcast, they had a delightful interview with Emma Donaghue, discussing Frog Music.
We are getting ready to watch GOT. I'll try to report back...

>130 lkernagh: I don't know Lori, I've mostly ignored the electioneering, though couldn't avoid all the placards all over the streets. I've done my job and voted. At least I've met the Liberal candidate for my area once when she was going door-to-door encouraging people to vote for a local cause, the proposed conversion of a large currently unused building that would have potentially changed the face of the neighbourhood for the worst, and she was on the right side of things from my and my neighbour's point of view, so that's something.

>131 LizzieD: Yes, it was a really nice evening yesterday. I just spent 3 hours drawing today, so I'm pretty happy about that; making good progress. I've always known I was throwing away my vote when choosing Green, but at least I felt like I was voting for a cause I believe in, although it doesn't follow they would necessarily be able to govern the nation as needed when it comes to concerns other than environmental. But then, who can?

>132 msf59: Ooh! Thanks for the head's up about that podcast Mark, I'll have to see if I can listen to it on the iPhone somehow. NPR must have an app available. Hope you're enjoying GOT right now. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

***

I just spent 2 hours drawing, plus 1 hour before I went out with Coco to vote this afternoon. All that time listening to Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan, which I'm finding to be a completely gripping narrative, and incidentally is helping me to put a bunch of scattered historical facts together for the first time. I'd been to Massada for example more than once, and though I'd been told the story often, never put it together in the timeline really. I'm no scholar, religious or otherwise to be sure, but I'm really enjoying the history lesson, and given my lack of religious background and beliefs, it's teaching me about a Jesus I can relate to far better from the human perspective.

Now off to read/study S&S for my tutorial. My reading life is pretty good lately. Will finish Aiding and Abetting tonight, which has been good. Not great to my taste, but it is Muriel Spark after all. Might even have time to start on a new novel if I get to bed at a reasonable time.

>114 Smiler69: it's downright ungrateful of me to wallow in my misery when I've been getting all these friendly messages
No- don't say such things! Feeling down is one thing and people wishing you well is another. It would be so great if all it took were kind messages from friends to someone feeling better, but that just isn't the way- if only it were.

All that and a migraine too....all I can do is shake my head in sympathy and hope you are on the up already. Re: the internet troll(s?), I shake my head at them too, in a perplexed way, cos- what is the point. Someone my sister knows anonymously posted on a blog post she did (making up a new email address to do so) calling her a liar and two-faced, and rude, and all this totally fabricated stuff. It half-broke her heart, and was very upsetting. The internet can be mean, so stick with the good guys (that would be us) and ignore the rest.

I loved GOT! What a perfect start! This is going to be a good season!

>134 LovingLit: Hi Megan, thanks for the encouragement. I do feel better, at least emotionally if not physically than I had been over the last week. Extreme emotional pain is a dangerous pain for me to be, so I'm very relieved I'm over the worst of it. I've long ago come to understand that some people can only be made happy at the though (or by causing) other people's misery. Of course the Germans have a word for it: schadenfreude, and I must admit it's a concept I've always found troubling because incredibly lacking in empathy, and as such, characteristic of psychopathic tendencies, in my view at least. Not to overstate the matter or anything... ;-) But yes, as incomprehensible as it can be to some of us, there are people who revel in creating conflict. I just have to learn to stay well away, hopefully it's never too late for that sort of lesson to sink in... Sorry to hear about your sister's situation. I can well imagine how much it might have upset her.

>135 msf59: Oh great! I'm glad to know you felt the same way about that first show too Mark. It made me really excited about the rest of the season too, and though I have a pretty good idea of how it ends (with a very happy event, and in this case, I'll happily revel in schadenfreude since they are after all fictional characters...) the buildup will certainly be fun to watch!

The migraine, ever so slightly abated by mid-afternoon yesterday, came raging back in the evening. I took two fiorinal capsules before sleep, but they did no good at all, an I've woken up this morning feeling just as poorly, after a series of highly stressful dreams. In one of them, I was in a hotel room, travelling again for the first time in years. Checked LT on my iPhone, spent 10 mins or so on the internet when I woke up, and then saw a large sign on the wall saying that 2 hours minimum was charged for internet usage at $23/h. When I called reception to check, they said it would actually be $73. For ten minutes!! I wasn't dressed yet, and when I turned around to put on my day clothes, the cleaning lady had been by and they were gone. Not only that, but the 4th wall in the room had disappeared and was now open on to a sinister-looking alley in a big unknown city. Typical fare for me, but it takes me at least a couple of hours to calm down from the stress once I'm awake. I tried lurking on a couple of threads, but the computer screen is hurting my eyes right now.

On the upside, I've got what seems like a serious potential buyer offering me a fair price for my laptop. He wants to meet in a couple of hours at the other end of town though, and given my sorry state, I'm not sure I can manage it. If only he'd call instead of text... how is it possible to arrange things by text if there is the least complication?

Finished Aiding and Abetting last night.

Ilana, that's horrible. I can feel my heart pounding just reading about the dream.
Hope you work out something good with the buyer.
And (I'm sorry) I do look forward to your comments about *A & A*. I've read very little Spark, and that's one I don't even own. Meanwhile, I'm off to maybe start Blonde - although how I'm going to add another 738 pages to the 862 of *Peter the Great* and the 560 of *Hild* is more than I understand right this minute. And now that I've totaled it, that's at least what I've been reading per month this year........but I have other things going to.......... (And I realize that this is the level of problem that the world would be happy to deal with.)

Oh I really hope this buyer comes through after all the cr*p you've had with this. Sorry for the crazy nightmares too.

>138 LizzieD: Yeah, Peggy, my nightly fare is always equally stressful, just in different ways, it's just this one was more or less simple enough to relate. I remember once waking up from a really pleasant dream (which I still vaguely remember) and feeling like I was unbelievably lucky to have experienced that. I wouldn't be against it happening more often, but my subconscious seems to disagree for some reason.

And yes, FINALLY SOLD MY LAPTOP! Just got back from finalizing the transaction in fact. First thing I did of course when I got home was to take down the ads, and did that with a huge measure of relief. One less thing to worry about, how great! I managed to get close enough to my asking price, so hopefully it was worth the trouble, though I have to wonder about that. Money vs. peace of mind; like apples and oranges? Though the one can often procure the other, but of course it doesn't necessarily follow.

Will have to make an effort to review Aiding and Abetting, since you ask so nicely. Too many books to read is definitely a good problem to have. A problem all the same though. ;-)

>139 souloftherose: Thanks Heather, I'm sure your good wishes helped! xx

Glad the laptop transaction went through -- hurrah -- more money for books!

Re Fiorinal -- I find mine works best when I take it right at the onset of a migraine. If I'm using it like a sledgehammer then, it's more efficient than me trying to chase it around later, when the headache is established. Re habit-forming: that clearly is possible. Less because of the codeine than because it's a barbituate. There also are physical symptoms when you've been taking it and then stop suddenly. And you need to have your liver function monitored. But I'm tapering off it now after taking varying doses of it for more than 30 years, and don't feel twitchy in the least about this. I even have -- gasp -- left home without it because I am starting to feel confident enough that I won't suddenly be smitten by a migraine while I'm out.

Clearly, you need to find a neurologist who is focused on helping you. If you're stuck with 24/7 migraines and (a) he's taking weeks to get back to you and (b) he's fussed about the addictive properties of something that might help, then there's a problem.

I'd be a little wary of birth control pills -- they're hormonal, and many bad migraines are hormonally-linked. Indeed, it could be one reason that your migraines are much worse right now is that you're in perimenopause? Another reason to have hormone levels checked.

If all else fails, just go to the ER, and get them to put you on a drip. I can't remember all the ingredients in the one I've had, but eventually they will add morphine. And if they don't give you a referral to somebody who ISN'T your current doc, then something is rotten in the province of Quebec.

But at least not as rotten as it could have been. Thanks heavens (now, admittedly this is my subjective POV) that Quebeckers rejected the hostile and divisive rhetoric of the PQ this time around. Scary stuff.

Hi Ilana- Glad you sold the laptop and I hope you are continuing to feel a little better.

In regards to GOT. I loved the opening scene with Jaime and Tywin. Only he could tell Pop, No! I also liked the ending with Arya and the Hound. Has Arya turned a dark corner?

Suz, I'll ask my Dr. tomorrow to get my hormone levels checked when I see her. Plus that referral to the pain clinic, that'll already be two big moves on my part, I think, after which we'll have to see what the next step leads to. The problem with taking any medication at the onset of migraine at this point is that it just isn't possible for me. The pain levels vary, but there is always a migraine present. Before this now 6-month long bout started, I was taking a pill on top of the gabapentin I was on then, which broke migraines if I caught them on time, and took it several times a week toward the end, which was working then, until it didn't. The fiorinal worked to almost remove the pain a couple of times last week, so I was rather hopping it would prove to be some sort of magic bullet, but no. I have no intention of taking birth control pills, or as that person suggested on FB, having my ovaries removed! She's just gone through that procedure herself and apparently thinks nothing about going through this type of major procedure, but I've never been in agreement with her on this, or many other things and was rather aghast at the mere thought of it.

If this level of pain persists, then I think I will have to take myself to the emergency, though I hope not, because they typically keep you waiting there 8 hours at a time, and between sitting there under the glaring neons and hostile other waiting patients, with no guarantee that they'll be able to help me, vs. sitting in the comfort of home and waiting for the pain level to decrease, I inevitably choose the latter. Go figure.

I'm am VERY relieved about the election results. I saw a doctor wearing a kippa with the Parti Quebécois logo on it last time I went to the Allan Memorial and thought it was just brilliant! My mum was once all for the PQ and worked on campaigning with them, and we agreed never to talk about politics, but she's since come to her senses. Besides which, she's now living in France, where she can't vote and has to helplessly worry about the Front National, which thankfully also didn't get voted in last week, though apparently it was a close call in the district she lives in. Eek!

>142 msf59: Mark, unfortunately the migraine is decidedly nasty today and has even resisted fiorinal, so I'm a little helpless. Wanted to write reviews, but I'm mostly wanting to step away from the computer and the glaring screen.

Arya obviously went though plenty of traumatic events over the past couple of seasons, and now most recently losing her mother and older brother, so I think it's to be expected she'd act out, especially as she's always been feisty and eager to learn how to fight. I personally got lots of satisfaction seeing how she dealt with that abusive b@$#@rd, but I guess that even though I dream of peace, there's always also been an Arya in me who longs to take bloody revenge over evil s**ts.

Finished Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan this afternoon and loved it so much, my only complaint is I wish it had been longer. Another book I definitely want to review in very near future. I had lots of listening time today between commuting and spending another 3 hours on my drawing, and have started on Rose Tremain's Restoration. This one had been on my wishlist for a long time, and I finally got the audiobook sometime in December. Am very glad to find I'm loving the narrator and the fantastic writing is coming through in the verbal delivery perfectly. And did I mention I'm completely gripped by the story? This may turn out to be among my favourites of the year...

" there's always also been an Arya in me who longs to take bloody revenge over evil s**ts." Actually, I am not surprised. LOL.

>146 msf59:

Two books purchased since yesterday (well, four, sort of):

The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning, oft recommended, especially by Suzanne. On Kindle.
Merivel the follow-up to Restoration by Rose Tremain. I wanted to make sure I grabbed the audiobook in case they decide to remove it from Audible, as they do sometimes.

Total books purchased to date: 107

I'm so sorry that your pain isn't any less, but that won't discourage me from keeping up with the good thoughts for you. There has to be a solution out there somewhere for you, and I hope you find it soon!

Also, great news about the laptop! I'm glad that business is nearly over for you!

Happy to hear about the laptop, Ilana. I hope you get some relief from those stupid migraines. It's got to be unbelievably frustrating. Sending positive thoughts for a good day for you.

>149 scaifea: >150 jnwelch: Amber, Joe, thanks for the sympathy. I'm really pleased the laptop sale went through with no further major glitches. As for the migraine, this is day 3 of a really bad bout and I'm getting quite discouraged. But there is hope, as I'm seeing my family doctor in a short while to ask her for a referral to the Pain Clinic here, which should put me in touch with other specialists and treatment options. For now though, I found myself making a wish that my head could get replaced with anyone ele's... even a pig's head, as long as it was a pain-free one. Now, that would be a pretty sight!



In reading, I picked up The Kalahari Typing School for Men last night. I'd left off the series years ago and it had been sitting on my tbr for way too long. While it's an enjoyable read, I don't know that I feel it's essential for me to continue with the series, but then in all fairness, I have been reading quite muscular books lately, so maybe it just suffers slightly by comparison. All the same, I'm ⅓ of the way through, so obviously not finding it unpleasant!

For those who've missed my previous mention, I decided this year to post reviews only of those books I'm motivated to write something about, but also to encourage myself to write as many as possible, not to stick to any specific reading order so that I may be helped by passing inspiration. So while there are a bunch of books I'm positively dying to write about at the moment (no, really!), here is my latest, just finished last night. I really do think every member of this group should get addicted to this little quarterly, it's really made for just such kinds of appreciative and dedicated readers as we are.



Book #58: Slightly Foxed: No. 41: Cellmates by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book by an author or in a series or about a topic of which you have multiples on your TBR/wish list
Series: Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly
Edition: Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly (Spring 2014), Paperback, 96 pages
Original publication date: 2014

I recently wrote about this little quarterly which I've become a dedicated subscriber to since around this time last year, and so far each issue continues to delight. I'm reading them out of order, since the back issues go back to 2004 and I am still busily collecting them, so going back and forth between the most recent issues as they arrive in the mail and going back to the oldest ones I have in between. Reading order matters not at all when it comes to this publication, since the books reviewed are never the newest and most talked about, but rather old favourites of the individual contributors who write always charming essays about why their particular chosen book (or series, or author) stands out in their memory. This issue starts with a book and author I've never heard about (and probably should have by now), but have now firmly placed on my wishlist: The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas, which unprecedentedly won not one, but two National Book Awards, one in the Arts category, the other in Science, and has been described in The New Yorker as a 'shimmering vision'. As the author of the article, Richard Mabey says: "Thomas was something of a vision himself, as improbable as a tortoise with wings. He was a scientist who was not only literate but also poetic. [...] it was Thomas's genius to conjure some thirty [essays] into a coherent treatise full of astonishing, reverberating knowledge and sublime prose. [...] His own language was anything but dodgy. It was exact, idiosyncratic and often heart-stoppingly beautiful — never more so than in the book's key passage, where he re-imagines that step-changing first photograph of earth from space:

Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive. The photographs show the dry, pounded surface of the moon in the foreground, dead as an old bone. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos... it has the organized, self-contained look of a live creature, full of information, marvellously skilled in handling the sun"

One of many delightful features, along with articles about their latest Slightly Foxed Editions; I Was a Stranger by John Hackett, who was a commander of the 4th Parachute Brigade during WWII ("I Was a Stranger is not so much a tale of derring-do (thought its descriptions of fighting are vivid) as a story of friendship. The heroism it celebrates is not that of soldiers, but of a household run by three women in a [Dutch] town under German occupation.") and Captain of Foot by Ronald Welch, the latest in a beloved, long out of print series called the Carey Family Chronicles, which they are now publishing as limited editions (the first three Knight Crusader, The Galleon, For the King, are also available); an article about Queen Mary by James Pope-Henessy (now out of print); illustrator Pauline Baynes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe fame; Flann O'Brien's inspired alcoholic Irish prose; how Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels came about; one of Anthony Powell's lesser-known, no out of print What's Become of Waring; and finally, among several other riches, an article by Laura Freeman, a harried features desk editor at a British national newspaper, who describes how she fared in her self-appointed project of trying to tackle Charles Dickens's complete works (minus Great Expectations, which she'd read in school) during his anniversary year.

I'm happy to report spirits are very good today. Head is hurting incrementally less than yesterday, but as I was saying to my mum in an email earlier, there are other contributing factors:

The weather is showing signs of winter’s eventual end, with somewhat warmer weather, allowing me to leave a window open once in a while (I was able to wear my beloved newish Barbour fall/spring jacket briefly yesterday); most people in my immediate acquaintance here in Mtl, as well as taxi drivers (and I) very pleased with the election results (for the first time ever, I actually voted, yikes! Liberal, just to make sure the other guys—i.e. the Parti Quebécois—didn’t get in, so my vote actually felt useful); I’ve received lots of supportive messages in the last week after all the internet fracas (mostly from you wonderful LT friends); I finally sold my laptop close enough to my asking price and with relatively minor further fuss; I’m really enjoying my reading material lately; my drawing is coming along nicely; my animals are a constant source of delight, so all in all, yes, much improved, spirits-wise.

I went to see my family doctor yesterday so she could recommend/refer me either to the Pain Clinic or other courses of treatment for this unending migraine, since my current neurologist, as well-respected and likeable as he is, isn’t doing anything for me. She doesn’t want to prescribe any pain medication (the fiorinal has stopped working after 3-4 successful doses over the course of several days) because she’s worried about drug interaction and at the moment, with Passover just around the corner (she's an observant Jew) doesn’t have time to look all that up, but more importantly, she's put me on a list to a clinic where I’ll be seen by some good neurologists (being seen first by interns), something which might possibly happen in the next few weeks, as opposed to 6-12 months, which is encouraging. I just need to take myself to the hospital for some blood tests, was meant to do it today but exhaustion set in and I decided to let myself sleep very late; not like a day or a week will make a huge difference at this point, though when I go I think I will also go to the ER and ask them to put me on a drip to see if they can break this monster, be it for an hour, a day, or a week (I dare not imagine ‘for good’).

I look out my balcony door window and see red buds on the maple tree outside. Always encouraging, that.

Book #52: The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope ★★½
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #5: Title with Four Words
Edition: AudioGO (2008), Edition: Unabrdiged MP3; 5h31
Original publication date: 1894

I've been rather quiet about this book, because none too proud of my lack of appreciation for it. Wasn't sure I'd mention it at all, but I'll more or less copy/paste what I wrote on Liz's thread today. I listened to The Prisoner of Zenda sometime last week (with Liz being a major influence with her great review not very long ago, then Paul's subsequent comments), and while I was very much prepared to love it, must say it didn't do anything for me. I'm not sure why that is, all I do know is that the running and chasing around part in any adventure story, while probably being THE essential component of adventure stories, usually leaves me completely bored. The Three Musketeers, for example (which I'd been meaning to write about and now can't remember if I have?) would have left me cold too, had it not been for the wonderfully evil character of Mylady who really stole the whole show for me and made it an edge-of-my-seat listen. This is not to say I will not give TPoZ another chance eventually. The narrator in my audio version, James Wilby, is excellent, and sometimes revisiting works I'm already familiar with yields better results when I can appreciate the details and not focus so much on "what comes next?", as is proving so very true with Sense and Sensibility as a prime example of a book which didn't impress me much the first time, but proves delightful on second reading (though admittedly, Liz's tutorial has a lot to do with it in that case). To be clear, my low rating of 2.5 stars doesn't mean I disliked it, but that it falls somewhere between 'it was just ok' and 'I enjoyed it' according to my scoring system.

Two down, five more to go...

Bye-bye laptop! GOOD news!!!
And feeling even a little better today is also good news.
And seeing a neurologist sooner rather than later good news again!
All of that sort of makes up for your let-down with Zenda. You remind me that I pulled Restoration and then didn't start it. How do I manage not to manage these things????? Well. I will finish something eventually, so I can start it then. I do love Rose Tremain.
Feel even better tomorrow!

Hi Ilana- Glad you are feeling good enough to write out a few reviews. Always a good sign. Hope this little spark continues...

How did I get so far behind on your thread? You hit me with a book bullet back on #78.

>152 Smiler69: ooooh the Carey family chronicles! I was able to get Knight Crusader for my UK Kindle recently, but that was it. I used to love those books, although strongly suspect them of being politically incorrect today. The originals were OUP, and are very pricey to come by, mostly. I'm confused, though -- is your magazine containing this reissue, promoting it, excerpting it, reviewing it?

If these editions are affordable (and not just beautiful) I'll look out for them. Girls Gone By are reissuing the Chalet School books, but they are 13 British pounds EACH, and not even terribly nice binding or printing in exchange for that price, either. Absurdly overpriced for what you get, which is basically a nice cover illustration very indifferently printed, and the original text (which is at least a blessing) sometimes crookedly printed on too-shiny paper. It's enough to make my blood boil. I'd rather overpay to secondhand dealers for copies of the originals, to be frank. (Oh, and I also dislike their decision to publish cult-like "fill in" novels as fan fiction, when they still haven't completed reprinting the entire series in its original form.)

Woo Hoo! Just finished my reread of Sense and Sensibility for my tutorial with Liz. I loved everything about the last four chapters, and took down notes of many passages I delighted in. It's late now, so will keep comments very brief, and in fact copy what I just said on the tutorial thread, which is that though I know this novel to be less well-loved than Pride and Prejudice by most Janeites, I must say that thanks to Liz's tutorials, I'd be hard-pressed to say which of the two I like best, because they each have such merits as makes them equally beloved by me, now.

>156 LizzieD: Yes, plenty of little helpful happenings definitely more than helped make up for a disappointing reading of Zenda. Mostly, I was disappointed to disappoint my friends who so loved this book. I know you know what I mean since that discussion is what gave Katherine the idea to start that curmudgeon thread which deserves to be revived once in a while, so that I think I'll copy/paste that review there tomorrow.

>157 msf59: Hi Mark, must say I've felt on a bit of a high all day today. Real signs of Spring here are certainly helpful, I'm sure.

>158 thornton37814: Glad to see I managed to hit you though there have been so few reviews here so far! I intend to make up for that in coming days, so beware!

>159 Chatterbox: Sorry Suz, what I lacked for in clarity in my text, I hoped to make up for with hyperlinks, not thinking that they are usually ignored. Slightly Foxed started out as a quarterly, and they expanded into publishing what they call their Slightly Foxed Editions, which are formerly OUP though beloved memoirs. They just last year started a new publishing project which they're calling Slightly Foxed Cubs (https://foxedquarterly.com/buy/slightly-foxed-cubs/), which is projected to be the full set of 12 Carey Family Chronicles, of which the first four are now available for purchase through SF (the rest will be released through to 2016). Like their memoirs, they are limited edition (of 2000), numbered, little hardcover cloth-bound books, beautifully printed on good creamy paper, so of excellent quality, though perhaps not a bargain, the pricing being UK: £16; Europe: £18; USA & Rest of World: £19 (including shipping). However, as they have started printing their sold out limited editions of the memoirs as paperbacks, I imagine they will do the same with the Ronald Welch books as the hardbacks sell out too. Their paperbacks aren't cheap either; currently priced £15 (incl. shipping) for USA & ROW, but of very nice quality too, and they sometimes give a small reduction for ordering several at once.

Oh, I'm so happy to hear that things are starting to look up for you, Ilana! Here's hoping they can get you on a drip at the hospital and give you some migraine relief, now!

Hope that "High" continues today. Fingers crossed...

>161 scaifea: >162 msf59: Hi Amber, Hi Mark! Thanks for the good wishes. Had a terrible night's sleep and migraine is raging this morning, but spirits are high and I feel energetic all the same, so I guess it's all good.

***

I went to visit our brand new Target store last week, where I picked up way too many goodies, some of which I must return (I never try clothes in the store, so take a bunch home and return what doesn't fit, for example). I got towels and Egyptian cotton 800 thread count sheets and kitchen accessories and a stool and what have you, and also saw a couple of bookshelves I thought I could live with. One was a 72" tall (probably fake) walnut with six shelves which I thought I'd like once I whitewashed it, and the other was as below. Both very affordable at just over $100, and I thought I might get two of the red ones to put side by side, which would look handsome enough and be cheaper than having built-ins made, but the question is, can they carry enough books to make it worthwhile? Not to mention I'd have to transport them home to my third-floor walkup and put them together myself...

My!! You are up early. I am just getting ready to start the route.
Love the bookcases. Sighs with envy...

>164 msf59: Lol! I know Mark, that was part of the bad night's sleep... took forever to drop off, and then was awake at dawn and had to force myself to stay put, but stressful dreams had me jumping out of bed. I'm not sorry for it, since as I said, spirits are good and goodness knows there I plenty I want to get done. I knew you of all people might notice my early rising, flattered that you did! Hope you have a good day and are easy on your feet. xx

Just posted a progress report on my blog for Metro Series #4: Man with Loaded Pen-Pocket. Click on the image or the previous hyperlink to view the blog post with a view of the complete drawing and a short explanatory blurb.

Book #60: The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★¼
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book by an author or in a series or about a topic of which you have multiples on your TBR/wish list
Series: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 4.
Edition: Anchor (2004), Paperback, 192 pages
Original publication date: 2002

Finished The Kalahari Typing School for Men last night; actually kept the lights on a whole hour past my appointed hour till 2:30 am to do this, though I'm not quite sure why, other than the desire to be done with it. Mma Ramotwe and Mr J. L. B. Matekoni have yet to set a date for their marriage, but as he's come out of a big bout of depression lately, she doesn't want to pressure him. Mma Grace Makutsi has an idea for a business venture to bring in much-needed additional revenue and an unexpected man in her life, as described in the title. Lots of praise about Botswana, which we are to understand is one of the most blessed places in Africa, where there is no corruption and good social graces have always prevailed, though as everywhere else, the more mature folks lament these traditions being more and more neglected. Hadn't continued with this series for many years, though enjoyed it a whole lot when it came out, but now seemingly a lifetime later after many huge changes in my situation and a lot more reading under my belt, while I find it quaint and pleasant enough, the very morality I enjoyed as charming and refreshing I'm now finding a bit preachy, and the tone too simplistic, though I'm not sure the latter is a fair assessment. Not to say I won't continue with the series, but it won't become a priority either. I need to get back to Dr Siri Paiboun. Has more bite to it, which suits me better these days.

Book #55: ♫ Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★⅓
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #15: author's initials are the same or are one letter away
Edition: Hachette Audio (2014), Edition: Unabridged MP3; 12h47
Original publication date: 2014

I found out after finishing this book, as I listened to a short NPR interview with Emma Donoghue, that she'd based her latest story on a true crime that took place in California in 1876: “On the very outskirts of San Francisco, in a grimy bar, a lot of bullets came through a window and they killed one woman in the room, Jenny Bonnet, who was a professional frog catcher. And they left the other woman, Blanche Beunon, a burlesque dancer, unharmed”, she told the interviewer. Basing herself on numerous court transcripts and newspaper articles, she found material which was too good to make up; the city was in the middle of a major heatwave and a devastating smallpox epidemic; the victim Jenny Bonnet was a professional frog-catcher who sold her goods to local restaurants and wore men’s clothes, which was a punishable offence in the city of San Francisco and landed her in jail numerous times. The other woman, Blanche Beunon was a French immigrant who made her living as a burlesque dancer and prostitute. These two women, along with the city of San Francisco itself, a ramshackle place quickly thrown together by “miners, restaurateurs and prostitutes” are Donoghue's main characters, from which she fleshed out her story, creating plausible lives for the two women and imagining how the two might have crossed paths and come to be in that room together on the fatal night.

The main character is Blanche, who at first is content with her life, making men drool and throw money at her feet with her naughty stage acts and 'michetons', the rich customers she charges healthy fees for sexual favours. But when Jenny Bonnet literally slams into her with her outlandish machine, in the form of a large front-wheel bicycle, and the two unconventional women start developing a friendship, questions raised by Jenny force Blanche to look at her life from a new perspective. Donoghue, while not condoning nor condemning prositution, raises question about how it affects women's lives in the larger picture. In this case, Blanche has had a baby by her French boyfriend, who abhors the 'Bourgeois' but has no qualms comfortably living off her earnings, and who had arranged for the newborn to be farmed out to "Angel Makers", a form of childcare for desperate parents known as such because the children are likely to die from neglect. Up until her encounter with Jenny, Blanche had conveniently put the whole matter out of her mind and never visited the place where her child was kept, imagining, as she was led to believe, that the child lived in the fresh air of a country farm, away from city pollution and dirt. But from the sudden shocking awareness of what Petit's living conditions have actually been for the first year of his life, a mother's love will force her to make difficult choices which will have repercussions on many lives.

I read Donoghue's Slammerkin many years ago, and must say I haven't had the courage to broach Room yet, but in this new novel, she returns in good form to one of my favourite genres and delivers a historical fiction novel that crackles with life and realistic details and characters, and makes for a really great yarn from beginning to end, for what is a basically an unputdownable read.

I've listened to Khristine Hvam narrate other books before and while she is a good narrator, my beef with her is that she seems to have just one cookie-cutter foreign accent which I've heard her use for both Czech and French accents most unconvincingly. Of course, in my case, being a fluent French speaker, a bad French accent is bound to grate on the ears, and in this case, since the main protagonist is French, there is a lot of grating to be endured, but to Hvam's credit, the delivery was good enough for this to be a minor quibble and didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of this audiobook. Definitely recommended.

In reading news: I just completed Restoration by Rose Tremain this afternoon, and am giving it 5 stars, the second time only so far this year I've given the full rating, thus declaring the book in question to be among my all-time favourites. Do I really need to write a review after stating that much? Maybe, yes, for those who wouldn't mind knowing the why behind the rating, and also because I want to. Eventually but not right now. Others are in the works in the meantime. I did hurry to get my hands on the follow-up book, Merivel which came out in 2012 when I'd just begun on Restoration, because I knew from the first I'd love it to bits.

My current list of favourites this year (4.5 stars and up):
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (may yet write a review)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (same as above)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - (reread) tutored read
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (review)
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
Lady Susan by Jane Austen (review)
Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen (review)
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (reread) (review)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan (review to come)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (tutored read)
Restoration by Rose Tremain (review to come)

Am off to continue work on my drawing in a moment, during which I will also start listening to The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Audio just gotten free from the library on OverDrive (I check for new arrivals every day): Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum. It seems it was a National Book Award finalist when it originally came out in 2012.

I'm itching to buy books. More and more and more books. What else is new?

Clearly I need to revisit Restoration, which I liked but didn't love when it came out.

Loving the picture.

Not sure about the bookcases -- can you get them delivered? That's a big schlep, and a lot of work. And do you need dedicated bookshelves, or combination storage space/bookshelves? Ponder the hassle before you act...

Nice review of Frog Music! I haven't read anything by Donoghue and I have Hood on tap for my book group, so I'm glad to hear that she's a good writer. Bad accents ARE grating, though.

And glad you are a bit better! Fingers crossed that your migraine can get vanquished with new medical treatment. It really seems there could be a hormonal element.

Loved your review of Frog Music. I hope I get to that one soon. Waiting on the audio. I loved Room.

Thumbs up for your "Best Of" list. Nice mix of classics and contemporary titles.

>170 Chatterbox: Suz, considering Restoration is now 25 years old (!) threre's a good chance you'd feel differently about it if you read it now. That being said, as we are all very well aware here in this group, one woman's 5-star rating doesn't guarantee another person's delight in the same book. It's just my second book by Rose Tremain, but I now count her among my favourite writers. There's just something I find very exciting about her writing, though I'd be hard-pressed to put what that is into words.

The shelves: yeah, major schlep, and while I like having hidden cabinets, I really do need to have my books on display so I can peruse the spines with ease. Then again, I need hidden storage too as never have enough for all my art materials and such. My book storage situation is most dire though, and I really don't know what the best economical solution might be a this point, taking into account I'm nearly useless with a screwdriver* and that third story walkup to negotiate all by myself. The Target store (which is near my place) does NOT deliver, so I'd have to arrange for some kind of delivery service. Then again, once in a deep blue moon, I have asked my landlords downstairs to help me transport something in their mini-van, maybe at the rate of once every 1-2 years, and my landlord could definitely help me carry them up. Perhaps I'd get the 'walnut shelves' in that case.

*Putting them together is no biggie, I usually manage just fine with prefab kits, though I'd probably need help to stand them up once they're assembled. Making my own bespoke shelves on the other hand, is out of the question though would really be the ideal solution.

>171 banjo123: Hi Rhonda! I'm glad you enjoyed the Frog Music review. I wanted to hurry up and get it posted on Audible, since it's the first posted there now (at least on the Canadian site), because usually my reviews barely get seen when I post them for books that have already gotten lots of coverage.

I tried taking some fiorinal again today when I woke up with lots of pain, and it seems to have worked this time, with more manageable pain. There's never any knowing what will work or not. But then again, we had persistent rain in the last few days which cleared up today, so there's a good chance weather systems, as well as my own interior ecosystem have a large role to play and maybe trying to find relief with low pressure systems is a losing battle...

Hi Mark! Glad you liked the review and 'Best Of'. I thought it was heavily leaning on the classics, but I guess you're right, it's a pretty even mix after all. Certainly reflects how varied my reading can be, and also how much I enjoy aforementioned classics. I've got the audio of Room from the library's OverDrive collection sitting there waiting for me to build up the courage to pick it up. It's just that the subject matter really turns me off, so it's hard for me to get beyond that and motivated to give it a try. But I'll get there eventually!

Restoration is a great favourite of mine as well but I want to re-read it before getting on to Merivel.

>175 SandDune: Hi Rhian, so far, having read Music & Silence and Restoration, I know I'll want to reread them both so I can enjoy them all over again. Glad to know the latter is a favourite of yours too.

Woke up feeling mighty strange today after a rough night of waking up between disturbing dreams (my usual, I guess, though I never seem to get used to it). I was too confused to figure out how to get out of bed, so stayed put and started reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, which won the Newbery Award Medal last year. I can see why, from the very first pages, Ivan the gorilla grabs you into his story. This is no toddler book, but rather a very insightful look at life in captivity from the perspective of a creature who has taught himself to learn human language, though he claims that is no key to understanding humans themselves.

I received a PM from Liz the other day which I know she won't mind me discussing no my thread, suggesting that perhaps between Heather's recent book funk and my health problems, this may not be the month for what she calls "dense, twisty 17th century prose" (her words exactly!) in the form of Love-Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister, which we were going to cover in a tutorial immediately after S&S and which Liz also chose for my Picked for Me! challenge. That's fine with me. Instead, the plan which seems to be shaping up is to read some gothic horror by Ann Radcliffe with The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents, again, more than fine with me, especially as it's part of The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection I got as a Kindle book recently for all of 99¢ for 9 novels (I don't know, but 11¢ a piece seemed like a good deal to me...).



Maybe as a sign of my enthusiasm, I spent some time this morning designing the above cover for this ebook, because the existing one is just too ugly to show up in my LT book collection, and I must say I'm pretty happy with the result. Haven't designed anything in ages, and it reminded that for a long time during my career I had set my heart on designing book covers. Nothing like doing it for free for no budget and no deadlines and most importantly... NO client! (anyone is welcome to steal it, except for the publishers of course, who would have to pay me BIG money!). I'm sure I should have spent more time on it, fussing over the kerning and whatnot, but this is what it is.

The image is taken from a section of Henry Fuseli's famous The Nightmare, 1781, currently housed at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

>153 Smiler69: Hopefully needless to say, but I am so glad you have felt a bit better. I hope the pain clinic can come up with some options.

>154 Smiler69: I think we can all feel embarrassed about failing to love a book other LTers have recommended. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy The Prisoner of Zenda more but your literary taste has not fallen an inch in my eyes as a result, despite it being one of my favourite adventure romps the last time I reread it.

On a similar note, I have to confess I've been trying to read Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture (which I bought as a daily deal earlier this year remembering he was an author you'd recommended) and I cannot get into it. At all.

>168 Smiler69: Frog Music sounds good. I've read and enjoyed Donoghue's The Sealed Letter and have been meaning to go back and read some of her older historical fiction like Life Mask and Slammerkin.

>177 Smiler69: I spent some time this morning designing the above cover for this ebook

I like it! Not just the cover art, but the lettering and layout really work.

Heather, I do intend to give Zenda another chance eventually. It's got all the makings of a fun romp, but I guess I have yet to develop a taste for what makes adventure stories adventure stories, which is the whole 'bold, risky undertaking' part of it, which somehow doesn't do much for me, though I've no idea why since I spent a good ⅔ of my life taking unnecessary risks!

As for The Secret Scripture, you need not feel bad about it by one iota. I actually much preferred On Canaan's Side, and I believe the fact that I listened to the audio version with Wanda McCaddon, who did what (to me) was a convincing Irish brogue, really contributed hugely to me falling in love with that story. On the other hand, it took me a very long time to really get into the paperback version of the title you're reading now. I don't know if hearing her voice with the proper accent would have helped, and I guess I'll try to figure that out eventually by getting the audiobook, since I cared enough about the story to want to revisit it. But if you're in a funk of any kind, reading or otherwise, I wouldn't go with either of those books if it rubs you the wrong way because they are both rather depressing.

As for the cover art, I've been brining photos into Photoshop and slapping on typography once in a while, with minimal effort to post tidbits here and there. I don't have a decent typography library as I used to when I was working from home, and so have been basically slapping a Clarendon equivalent onto everything, which is that very serviceable typeface much used in the mid-1800s. Even when I was working, I tended to have a small collection of go-to typefaces I liked to work with, which were usually rather classic but very handily adaptable to many styles. In this case, I started with a rather tame typographical arrangement (as below) but then thought given the topic and the dramatic image, I could really play up the word "Horrid". I've never been a huge risk-taker as a designer, so that's me being bold! :-)



'Tame' version.

Hi Ilana, I am full of admiration at your designing such a lovely book cover. What a great idea, there are so many books that I would love to see have better covers, starting with the whole Vokosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. They all seem to be stuck in a time warp with very garish 1970's Sci-Fi covers.

Have a good weekend.

  

Well, quite a change of plans today on the reading front. I got through just under ⅓ of The Orphan Master's Son and decided I was giving it up this afternoon. For some reason I was expecting something that would resemble the only other novel I've read about North Korea, which was Nothing to Envy and which I found unputdownable. Not a fair assumption to make of course. What I didn't expect was a very slow-paced deep reflection about the effects of indoctrination, and I suppose had I been in a different mind space, it might have worked for me. But lack of sleep has resulted in a case of the blues today, and I was quietly despairing at just how much more I had to go to finish this one, always a bad sign.

Thinking: 'comfort reading', I thought of my latest favourite Jane Austen, which reminded me I'd been meaning to give Georgette Heyer a try (the link being regency period and romance). These Old Shades as it turns out is hitting the spot perfectly so far and I'm really enjoying it. I've had Frederica in my audio library for a couple of years now, but my selection process involved me choosing the narrator that most appealed to me at the moment, among those that LTers and Audible members had given the highest ratings to.

Not sure what to do with myself now. Not for lack of things to do, but because there are only so many few hours left to the evening, and feeling exceedingly weary, I'm not certain how best to spend my energies. Ah well; would that this should be my biggest problem.

>180 DeltaQueen50: Glad you like my cover design Judy. I often upload ready-made covers on LT (just received a medal for uploading over 500 of them this week actually!), but this is usually because there aren't any with the design of my edition in a decent resolution. Once in a blue moon I've slapped type on an image, but this is the first time in years I've actually taken time to play around with typography. This used to be one of my favourite things. Now it's nice to be able to do it just as a pastime.

Much agreed those Bujold covers need a major overhaul. I probably would be keener to try her out if the covers didn't frighten me so much!

Hi Ilana- I hope you can get back to The Orphan Master's Son. I thought it was a great book and a great audio. I also think I benefited by reading Nothing to Envy first. I love Demick.

Ok. I just spent close to three hours working on my review of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. More like 2.5 hours, but still. Enough for now. Especially as it's not quite right yet. It'll never be right, given the topic and that I'm giving my review a very personal spin, but I want to at least not blush about posting it, so it'll have to wait, along with several other drafts I've got in the works. *Sigh*. My whole life is one giant draft.

>183 msf59: Hi Mark, I doubt very much I'll want to pick up The Orphan Master again. Life's too short, you know what I mean? So many other great books waiting in the wings, and it really made me miserable, so shucks to that! I found Nothing to Envy brilliant, and it really worked for me on the other hand, so all is not lost.

Ha, should I ever resort to self-publishing, I now know who to call! Most of the book covers out there are, ahem, dire....

Confess I didn't take to The Orphan Master's Son. For a number of reasons, it simply didn't work for me.

>152 Smiler69: you had me searching for cheap back (or recent) copies of this quarterly! Alas, none at the moment, but I will definitely keep my eyes open for some. They look very much up my alley.

Your disturbing dreams are disturbing. I have heaps of dreams, good and bad or just weird. But overall they are fairly innocuous. I think I remember a lot more than some people do as I am quite vigilant during the night in listening for sounds from the kids' bedrooms, any noise and I half wake up. I seem to always be catching myself mid-dream.

>169 Smiler69: I love lists of favourite reads. I find them really inspiring. I have not had a 5-star read for a good while now, I am looking forward to one. :)

It's been a deep blue weekend. Not sure what's up, but then there doesn't seem to be any need to be a good reason for my mood to dip low, though maybe my nightly incursions into a very fraught dreamland are a good enough cause. Woke up again this morning with clenched jaw and a bitter feeling in my stomach, very early in the morning when I'd certainly not gotten enough decent, uninterrupted sleep. My latest recurring anxiety-making dream is that I'm stuck in a car or truck or van, usually not my own, either sitting in the passenger, of back seat, and nobody in the driver's seat. For some reason the cars take off and start driving off the road and next thing I know I'm freaking out and trying the best I can to take over the controls, only for some reason can never quite get myself in the actual driver's seat, so have to do all kinds of unlikely contortions to get my feet on the pedals, which in turn puts my head too low down to really see the road and traffic ahead or around me. By some miracle I manage to stay on the road and not have a collision, though I am constantly a hair's breadth from some major catastrophe. This latest feature had me in a spanking brand new BMW which belonged to a friend's father, and I'd only gotten into the passenger seat to load something in the car when it took off. I finally, after a spectacular ride, managed to park it on the side of some street in an unsavoury part of town and was wondering how to best announce this escapade to my friend whiteout sounding like I'd tried to steal the car. That was just part of the feature, because lots more anxiety-ridden incidents followed afterward. It's clear enough what that particular dream is trying to tell me I think, only I don't know how to get in the driver's seat in waking hours either.

Woke up with a doozie of a headache again, of the sort that makes it hard for me to lift my head off the pillow. It'd been raining all night and is overcast now, so probably a low pressure system. I stayed in bed till 1 pm and finished reading The One and Only Ivan on my iPad, which I'd borrowed from OverDrive. It's an amazingly beautiful book and well deserves to have won the Newbery medal but the story is so inexpressibly sad too (with a hopeful ending, thankfully), that I stayed in bed and cried softly to myself for a bout 30 minutes after finishing it. My short review follows.



Book #63: ❉ⓔ Wolf Story by by William McCleery ★★★⅓
New York Review Books (2012), eBook, OverDrive READ, 88 pages
Original publication date: 1947

Five year-old Michael can never get his father to tell him enough wolf stories. It seems the story usually involves a mean bad wolf who steals chickens, and the culprit always meets with a violent end. But this time, Michael wants things told a bit differently, and he demands a long story too, which his father sets out to tell him over the course of several days. The book alternates between the narration of the wolf story and the father and son rituals that bring them to the story time. The wolf, as expected, is mean and makes a plan to steal a little farm boy's beloved multicoloured chicken. The chicken is a smart one, and demands a reprieve because the wolf scarfs her down; if he lets her eat a large breakfast in the morning, she will be all the fatter for him to enjoy. Then, Jimmy, the farmer's son comes up with a clever plan to steal back his hen, though he knows in advance he'll have to prepare a good plan to foil the wolf's next attempt at abducting his targeted next meal. The plan is a very clever one, and it amuses Michael and his best friend, who joins along for an outing or two and the unfolding of the story. A fun twist on storytelling, though definitely aimed at small children. I was mostly curious because it's a recent release from NYRB featuring some nice spot illustrations and was available free from the library's OverDrive collection.





Book #64: ❉ⓔ The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate ★★★★½
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #7: a book that has been reviewed in an Unshelved Book Club
Edition: HarperCollins (2012), eBook, OverDrive READ, 320 pages
Highlights: ALA Notable Children's Book (2013), Newbery Medal (2013)
Original publication date: 2012

“hello

I am Ivan. I am a gorilla.

It's not as easy as it looks.

names

People call me the Freeway Gorilla. The Ape at Exit 8. The One and Only Ivan,
Mighty Silverback.

Humans waste words. The toss them like banana peels and leave them to rot.

Everyone knows the peels are the best part.

I suppose you think gorillas can't understand you. Of course, you probably also think
we can't walk upright.

Try knuckle walking for an hour. Tell me, which way is more fun?

patience

I've learned to understand human words over the years, but understanding human
speech is not the same as understanding humans.

Humans speak too much. They chatter like chimps, crowding the world with their noise
even when they have nothing to say.

It took me some time to recognize all those sounds, to weave words into things.
But I was patient.

Patient is a useful way to be when you're an ape.

Gorillas are as patient as stones, humans, not so much.”

So begins Ivan the ape's tale. Ivan is a silverback and has been living in a glass cage at the Exit 8 Video Arcade and Big Top Mall for the last 30 years. He used to be a star attraction. He delighted visitors with his feats of eating (around to 45 pounds of fruit and leaves and rotten wood and yogourt-covered raisins a day), watching tv, and with his crayon drawings; his pictures are sold for $25 each at the gift shop (framed) and people keep buying them. But now that Ivan is older and not so cute, and visibly not very happy in his glass enclosure (one wall of which is painted with scenery of a rainfall in the jungle), people don't visit the circus so much anymore, and his owner Mack, who adopted Ivan when he arrived in a crate as a baby straight from the jungle after his parents had been murdered, is desperate to find ways to make ends meet. As it is, he has to cut back on food and might have to stop the heating the mall in the winter at night. Ivan grew up with Mack, being treated like a small child, taken to McDonald's and the fun fair and wearing kid's clothes and sleeping in the same bed as Mac in his house. When he became bigger and unruly, he was put in this glass cage at the Big Top Mall, and there's a large billboard he can see from his spot advertising the circus and its daily shows at two, four and seven, 365 days a year, with The One and Only Ivan as the star attraction. Unlike his portrait on the billboard though, Ivan is far from being fierce, and like most gorillas, is actually a gentle soul.

Ivan enjoys his fame, but he'd be even more lonely and bored if it wasn't for his friends, including Stella, an old elephant which Mack bought from a circus when she became lame after a badly healed accident while performing a trick. Her foot is constantly infected, and Mack can't afford to call in a vet 'every time she sneezes', as he says. Ivan also has a good friend in Bob, who showed up as a tiny puppy through a hole in a bottom corner of Ivan's glass enclosure and fell asleep on his tummy at night, which is where Ivan discovered him when he woke up in the morning. Bob was abandoned on the freeway and he doesn't trust humans, is proud in fact of being free to roam as he likes. He's always remained a tiny little thing, and always sleeps on Ivan's tummy at night, which is comforting to both. Ivan, Stella and Bob can all understand each other, and though they use few words, they converse every day and keep each other company that way, making each other feel loved and appreciated. They do have one human friend: Julia, who is the daughter of George the janitor who comes in to clean every night. Julia always accompanies her father to spend time with the animals, and though she's supposed to do her homework, she'd rather spend time drawing and painting the animals, and frequently slips Ivan art supplies through his hole. Then one day, Mack brings in a new arrival: Ruby is a baby elephant, just purchased cheap from a bankrupt circus who kept her for just a month and tried to "break" her to perform tricks by keeping her four feet tied down 23 hours a day. Stella takes her under her wing and encourages Ruby to do what she must to survive in this new environment. But then Stella becomes very very sick from the unhealed foot infection, and thinking she will breathe her last soon, makes Ivan promise he will save Ruby from the same fate of spending her whole life in wretched conditions such as these.

From the first lines of the book, which are delivered in short spurts in a series of "chapters" under headings like those shown above, we learn about Ivan's way of looking at the world and eventually about his ingenious plan to save Ruby. Though he's survived—unlike his twin sister who died when they were originally put in a shipping crate when they were captured—by intentionally forgetting his past, deliberately putting out of his mind the time when he was a baby gorilla, roaming free in the jungle surrounded by those of his kind in his close-knit family unit, Ruby keeps demanding stories to keep away the daily boredom, and Ivan, who isn't very good at storytelling (unlike Stella, who remembered everything she'd ever seen and heard), forces himself to revisit his past to have a story to tell, and learns to rely on resources he never knew he had until they became necessary for him to keep his promise to his friend.

This look at animals in captivity under the worst kind of conditions is absolutely heart-wrenching, and if like me you believe that animals have their own form of intelligence and real feelings and souls too, you can't help but be deeply affected by this tale. But beyond the story about cruelty and animal rights, is also a tale about the loneliness and alienation we all feel from time to time, and about the resources we can all reach for inside ourselves, with a little prompting and a nudge from caring friends. I think this is a story that will remain with me for a long, long time.

I wasn't surprised to find out in the end that Applegate was inspired by the real-life story of a gorilla in Tacoma, Wash., named Ivan. “After being kept alone in a cage at a mall for 27 years, he became a celebrity after being placed with a large group of gorillas in the Atlanta zoo, where he made paintings and signed them with a thumbprint.” (NYT blog). The real-life Ivan had lived under similar conditions as those described in the book, until National Geographic aired a featured called The Urban Gorilla, which fuelled protests by animals right's activists (also see link to NYT article below). The book certainly more than deserved the Newbery Medal it received last year, and the only reason I didn't give it the full 5 stars is because of how wretchedly sad it made me feel, though there is a message of hope and a happy resolution in the end.

The real life Ivan died on August 20, 2012, at the age of 50 at Zoo Atlanta.
Here are some related links :
A Gorilla Sulks in a Mall as His Future Is Debated (NYT)
The Urban Gorilla on YouTube (National Geographic )

>188 Smiler69: Will you believe me? I used to have that dream frequently - the car, the backseat, no control but somehow supposed to be in control ---- it was at a time in my life when things had absolutely gotten away from me. I am more thankful than I can say to be in calmer waters now. Maybe you'll take my experience as a bit of reassurance because I never dream that particular awfulness now. Anyway, I'm sorry.
Your reviews are great! I'm glad that GH is hitting the spot. (I have to say again that Frederica is my very favorite.)
Love the HORRID cover!!!!!
>173 Smiler69: "... there's a good chance weather systems, as well as my own interior ecosystem have a large role to play and maybe trying to find relief with low pressure systems is a losing battle..." I am a firm believer that atmospheric pressure has a much larger role in our well-being than the doctors around here at least are willing to admit.
While those red cabinet/shelves are gorgeous, do think carefully about logistics.
Take care of yourself!!!!!

>187 LovingLit: Hi Megan, sorry I skipped over your message earlier today. I was experience the push of inspiration to get the Ivan review out, and it just couldn't wait. I'm glad I've inspired you to look out for issues of Slightly Foxed. I know from looking on Abe and eBay that copies can be found easily enough in the US and UK, but I believe I've seen Australian sellers offering them also. I don't know if you're familiar with Abe, but I am and could help out if you need, because you can actually put in a special request and will get notified by email if anything that matches your specifications gets listed.

I'm not sure why I've always been plagued with awful dreams, but I just have. I'm sure this has quite an effect on my mood considering how upset I usually am waking up through the night and finally in the morning.

I love people's "Best Of" lists too. They usually end up landing more additions to the wishlist.

>189 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised you had similar car dreams about being out of control and struggling to keep things in check. Like flying dreams, they must be quite universal, and I guess in pre-automobile days, people would have dreamt about riding a wild horse having lost the reins... I took English saddle riding classes at one point, and in an early lesson hadn't saddled my horse properly so that when we started on trotting, my saddle went right around to the horse's belly and I found myself facedown staring right into his nostrils. Thankfully, he stopped right away, but my instructor told me while she'd seen this happen often enough before, she's never seen anyone hold on quite so tight, as she had to literally pry my arms off from around his neck. There was no way I was going to fall off that horse!

I'm not sure why all the audiobook covers for Georgette Heyer novels are all quite so disgustingly ugly considering the softcover and eBook covers are quite lovely actually. For some reason, when it comes to audiobooks I've very stubborn about showing the actual covers, maybe because I not infrequently end up getting physical editions and I want to be able to tell them apart at a glance in my collections.

Thanks for the advice on the cabinets. Between your comment and Suz's, I've definitely thought about it quite a bit and am strongly leaning against that particular idea. I just badly want shelves, and lots of them, and don't know how to go about getting them!

Ok, Game of Thrones in just a couple of hours. Time for me to go work on my drawing while continuing to enjoy my first Georgette Heyer novel, These Old Shades. It's been a very fun escapade so far.

>186 Chatterbox: Suz, sorry I missed you somehow. I had the vague impression that you'd actually liked The Orphan Master's Son a lot, and quite relieved to hear the contrary as feel less alone in my corner now. I'd be curious to see your notes on it if they're handy.

>166 Smiler69: That Metro series is damned good.

>169 Smiler69: So is Restoration. Pleased you liked it so as I loved it 20 years or so ago when I read it and may do a rare re-read soon.

Hope the head is not pounding quite so unashamedly at the moment and you finish off the weekend in a leisurely and peacefully wonderful manner. xx

Hi Paul, I took some fiorinal this afternoon and this time it did help. I'm still in a lot of pain though, so think I'll be heading to bed very soon. Also running out of pills, so hoping for the best.
Heartbeat at the moment is gone a bit wild after another highly charged episode of Game of Thrones. I know you're not a watcher, but I assure you it's one of the highlights of my week.


On GOT: finally, we're rid of a major monster. The only thing I regret about his passing is it didn't seem to be drawn out nor painful enough.

Ilana- I did watch GOT. It was a good one and of course I loved the way it ended. Good riddance, is right!

Mark, I almost regret he's gone, because I couldn't wait for him to get his comeuppance, and I really did love hating him, if you know what I mean. I was sort of hoping that scene would come at the end of the season. Not that there aren't lots of other people left to hate. His mother for one, and because I know what happens to her next year (if the series keeps going, which I'm sure it will), I will revel in her misery too. Then there's that other Snow kid, who isn't at all in the book is he? But what an evil bastard he is, yeowza! Couldn't believe how the show opened. That was definitely not in the book, but I'm fine with that. I'm not at all like the purists who expect the show to stick to the way things are presented in the book. As long as it makes for great entertainment, I'm happy. But like I said, that little snot had death come too easily. At least in the book that scene was more drawn out, and I can't tell you what a sadistic pleasure it gave me to see this tyrannical heartless fiend finally get what was coming to him. That poor actor will never be able to play anything but villains with that face!

Woo, you've got a lot going on on your thread, Ilana!

>166 Smiler69: Love this! You can really feel his personality, his place in the world.

I can tell I like the Precious Ramotswe series a bit more than you - it's like tomato soup and grilled cheese for me, great comfort food. I read the new ones when they come out.

Joe, looks like we were visiting each other at the same time! I see what you mean about the Precious Ramotswe series, and have to agree with you that's how they felt from the first. That's exactly what I was expecting to find this last time too, but somehow maybe I wan't in the mood for tomato soup and grilled cheese after all? I won't give up on them, because they are much more clever than I give them credit for.

Thanks for the comment on my drawing. That man certainly grabbed my attention as he seemed so eccentric somehow and I felt I just had to draw him!

Book #56: ✔ Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark ★★★⅓
Read for: TIOLI Challenge #3: Address a multi-book backlog (have several more Muriel Sparks in the tbr)
Edition: Anchor (2002), Paperback, 176 pages
Original publication date: 2000

I've grown very fond of the Muriel Spark, who wrote (among many others) Loitering with Intent, Memento Mori and A Far Cry from Kensington, which are among my favourite novels, and while I was expecting to be highly diverted by Aiding and Abetting, it was another of those instances where high expectations are probably to blame for my relative lack of appreciation. The story is based on a true crime committed by "Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (born 18 December 1934), popularly known as Lord Lucan, a British peer and suspected murderer, disappeared without trace early on 8 November 1974" (from wikipedia). Now that I'm reading the wikipedia entry about the man, it occurs to me I might have enjoyed Spark's novel more had I had the full details as revealed there, along with that photo of a beautiful man—who indeed would have been a very good James Bond candidate—in mind. Lucan was a gambler, and his marriage to his gorgeous wife Veronica Duncan collapsed in 1972; a bitter custody battle over their three children ensued, and it seems Lucan developed an obsession over his ex-wife and somehow determined that doing away with her would be the solution to all his problems, financial and otherwise. The attempted murder was horribly botched. While reportedly waiting for his wife to come down the darkened basement stairs of their former mutual home, the inquest revealed that he probably mistook their nanny Sandra Rivett for Veronica, bludgeoned her to death, and then realizing his mistake, viciously attacked his wife when she showed up thereafter, though she was treated in hospital for serious head injuries. Duncan survived the ordeal, but Lucan disappeared and was never apprehended for his crimes. Lucan's fate has remained a high profile mystery for the British public. Many reports of sightings of Lucan in various countries around the world have been made, though none were substantiated, and despite an ongoing police investigation and continued press coverage, Lucan has continued to evade discovery.

To make the story her own, Spark bases her theories on the fact that many friends and family members of Lucan came to his defence during the investigation, no doubt largely owing to his position in society as a British peer (i.e. member of British nobility). The story is a contemporary one, in which Lucan and another man who also claims to be Lucan, but calls himself Mr Walker, both become patients of a famous psychiatrist, Hildegard Wolf, at her Paris office. What we are led to understand is that a now elderly Lucan has evaded the authorities by having facial reconstruction and thanks to his supporters, has been traveling around the world with the aid of funds provided by his wealthy friends. But now Lucan and Walker, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the former, are believed to be working together, and having come on hard times, are bent on blackmailing Dr Wolf, having discovered a secret past and identity she also needs to keep hidden.

The premise is certainly fascinating, and this should have worked for me, but somehow it failed to do so. I didn't find the bitter humour I so enjoyed in the novels I've listed above, and I failed to feel any real interest for any of the protagonists or their fates. But then again, I knew little to nothing about the affair or the real human beings behind the story until I read the book, and the original real-life story itself seemed far-fetched enough to make for perfectly good fiction, so it seemed to me all the additional intrigue was unnecessary. That being said, far be it from me to want to discourage anyone from deciding for themselves whether this is a novel worthy of attention or not. I may reread it someday, along with other Muriel Spark works I want to revisit, and then again, I may not. But if anything, Lucan's story is certainly an intriguing one and is certainly worthy of speculation.

eta: Here's an interesting related article from the Mirror I just found: The truth must finally be told: Why Lord Lucan's son is finally speaking out after 38 years

Many thanks for that review, Ilana, and a thumb. I have a lot of M. Spark yet to read, and this one won't be near even the middle of the list. Loitering with Intent was my first, and I loved it. I'll try *Memento* or *Kensington* next in your honor.

>200 LizzieD: I'd say that's a good plan Peggy. My absolute favourite would be hard to determine between Loitering and Memento. I think both will be worth revisiting more than once in future for me.

>198 Smiler69: Did you do a quick sketch of him on the subway? Do a quick one afterward? Sneak a photo?

>202 jnwelch: Trade secrets I simply can't reveal Joe! ;-)

Ha! That did cross my mind. Whatever it is, well done!

>179 Smiler69: Ha! You nailed it.

>204 jnwelch: No no Joe, >179 Smiler69: was just the initial draft. The chosen design is a couple of posts above!: >177 Smiler69:

>205 Smiler69: LOL!! Even better! Who could resist buying that? The publishers should cough up the big bucks to you - it's be worth it.

Do you think I should approach them? I was joking about the big bucks, I'd willingly accept a small sum because they really need to improve on the packaging! (and I think the artwork is out of copyright, but I'd have to check to be sure).

Well, I'm a nothing ventured, nothing gained kind of guy. Why not? It really is eye-catching, and hard to resist.

>208 jnwelch: Well, I don't know if you've seen their current "artwork". Just embarrassingly bad. Hard to do worse, really. It's probably just the typography, but still:

    

Sorry, couldn't resist putting the two side-by-side! :-)

Jeez Louise. You win, hands down, don't you. But theirs is so bad they may have no clue.

This new system, or I should say lack of system of letting myself write book reviews out of reading order is really working for me and has certainly got me writing a whole lot more than I would otherwise. I completed my 64th book yesterday, so it looks like I'll probably hit 75 in May, but being able to write about books according to passing inspiration certainly works well, especially considering I often set out to write just a word or two and then get caught up getting involved with something that requires more thinking and editing, and can then set it aside till inspiration strikes again. The following review has been in the works since I finished this book earlier this month. I hope to get it right, because I think this ARC definitely deserves to get great coverage!



Book #53: ⓔ The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC) ★★★★★
Read for: NetGalley ARC, TIOLI #13: a genre you haven't yet read from in 2014 (gothic horror)
Edition: McClelland & Stewart (2014), Kindle Edition, 544 pages
Projected publication date: June 2014

"There were owls in the nursery when James was a boy. The room was papered in a pattern of winding branches, amongst which great green parent owls perched in identical courting couples. Beneath each pair, a trio of green owlets huddled, their sharp beaks slightly ajar. They sat between big, whistling green flowers with tiny white blossoms which made James think of mother-of-pearl buttons, the kind on Charlotte's Sunday dress. When he was alone in the nursery, James thought he could hear the owls chatter together softly, like monkeys, scratching and scratching their claws against the endless green branches. But when Charlotte was there, they were quiet, because she had told them that if they did not behave, she would get her box of watercolours and paint out their eyes."

Yorkshire, England, late 19th century. James Norbury and his beloved older sister Charlotte have spent their early years mostly left to their own devices at Aiskew Hall. Their father had left them shortly after their mother's death and is constantly away on business, and they have been left vaguely under the care of Mrs Rowley the housekeeper; various governesses have come and gone, never staying for long, and it is left to Charlotte to teach James his letters. She is a very good teacher, and soon, by the age of six, James has taken to writing short stories and rhymes, which aren't very good, though Charlotte encourages him by telling him he might write a whole book when he is grown up and living in a house in London. Then one day their father finally does comes home, but he is gravely ill and hidden away from them in his room under the care of a doctor, only to die a day or two following his arrival, after a brief interview with Charlotte, though he is too weakened to speak by that point. During that incident, James is hidden away in a secret cupboard, which Charlotte hasn't been able to release him from on time so both could attend to their father, as they were interrupted in a game which they must keep the adults from knowing about, involving special "ordeals" to prove their bravery to one another. On their father's death, the children are left in the care of their old aunt Mrs Chickering, with Charlotte attending to the old lady and James going off to school Years later, when he is about to finish his studies at Oxford, James decides he must live in London: “Thanks to a small legacy received some years ago, James had enough to live in relative comfort, without the need of pursuing a profession. Charlotte was sufficiently provided for. So he might still write, if he wanted. And he could live in London, where a writer ought to live and where things would happen. He would be a flâneur, wandering the streets, seeing everything, observed by none. That evening he wrote in his memorandum book, Life with a capital must be lived in the Capital, and was pleased with the sentiment.”

But he soon finds that his relatively modest means can't afford him a decent living space, so that when an old school friend puts him in touch of another Oxford acquaintance, a young aristocrat named Christopher Paige, who is looking for someone to share rooms with in an elegantly appointed house, James jumps on the chance. The house is of the most genteel sort, near the National History Museum and belonging to a Mrs Morris, a lady of 'reduced circumstances'. James has apprehensions about the handsome Paige, whom he knows to be a dissipated young man, always out on the town getting spectacularly drunk with his friends and bedding all the pretty women he can get his hands on. Nonetheless, they rent the rooms together and make a sort of odd couple, with James a hermit who stays in his rooms to work away at his epic romantic poetry, while Paige gets up to no good on a nightly basis. And then something happens between the two young men, a relationship James had certainly never envisaged, but which quickly consumes him. Christopher's older brother figures out things are amiss and warns James off, and the pair plans to get away together overseas, only a violent attack changes everything, and James will never be the same again.

There is a very ancient private club called The Aegolius (denoting a species of small owls), which we find out about from the very first page of the book, in what appears to be a newspaper clipping titled “From Clubs of London, by Major Samuel Hobbs (London, 1890)” which I paraphrase from; this club reportedly bears the dubious distinction of being the most mysterious club of London, with the Aegolius's character and affairs kept a profound secret, known only to its initiates. There are records of the club dating from 1705, though it is likely the club had been active many years previously. Unlike most clubs, there is no gambling or consumption of alcohol allowed on the premises, and it is not known for any political, literary or artistic activities or affiliations. Furthermore, there can only be up to fifty-two members at any one time, and becoming a member is exceedingly expensive and difficult (the Prince of Wales was notoriously turned down in 1785), and needless to say, no visitors are allowed. This club and a number of its members are at the heart of the narrative. What the connection with James can be is only revealed further on in the story, when James's sister Charlotte, fearing something is amiss when she sends him telegrams that go unanswered, makes her way from Yorkshire to London to find James, and falls in with a pair of vigilantes composed of a middle-aged lapsed priest and a former rope walker; a beautiful young woman who often wears men's garb, smokes like a chimney and can fight like a fiend. These skills, it seems, are necessary to perform their daily activities.

The novel is steeped in the macabre gothic horror tradition, which isn't too surprising when we find out that Lauren Owen's first attempts at writing as a teenager were Harry Potter fan-fiction, that she is a graduate of St Hilda's, Oxford with an MA in Victorian Literature, and completing a PhD on Gothic writing and fan culture. She's obviously done the right sort of reading and mental processing, because what she delivers here is a tour de force which is almost unbelievable for a first novel: a highly satisfying read, which borrows from some of the best literary influences of the Victorian age, weaving in intimations of famous crimes of the day, such as the unsolved murders of Jack the Ripper, and including a cameo of Oscar Wilde, who certainly has his place among the many influences at play in the story. All this in a complex, multi-layered narrative which nonetheless reads like the best sort of unputdownable mystery fiction, in a world of Dickensian proportions and characters, yet with a modern approach which, unlike the sort of fiction it borrows from, doesn't shy away from describing the violence and horror in full, while at the same time clearly keeping in line with works of great literary merit. A must read? Like Hilary Mantel, Kate Atkinson, Tana French, and many others, I must say I certainly think so. I'll also be eager to read what Lauren Owen comes up with next.

eta: upgraded from ★★★★⅓ to ★★★★★. I really loved this book and in fact look forward to rereading it.

I feel very sad right now. It's Passover today, and my father and I were invited for a Seder this evening by old friends of his I'm met a couple of times long ago. They're religious, but have friends from all walks of life, and with my dad leaving in less than 2 months to go back to Israel (for good, presumably), this is one of the rare occasions I think it would have been a good idea to see him, especially as we'll be with other people, which is a much safer environment for us to be, as we're not likely to get into a fight. I really do want to see him, and having no Jewish friends myself, I never get invited for the holidays, only I'm in terrible shape, really exhausted and my head is bad with a low pressure system (it was a summer day today, but a storm has been brewing and started maybe 20 minutes ago). Apparently his friend's wife, knowing I'm often felled by migraine and fatigued, said I could go lay down in one of their rooms anytime I feel the need, and can bring Coco too. I really want to go, especially as I feel terribly lonely, but the idea of getting out of the house and commuting and the stress of being around people I hardly know...

I think I'll go cry for a bit and then hopefully fall asleep for a short nap. Sorry about the maudlin post.

Hi Ilana- Sorry to hear you are having a sad day and facing a difficult dilemma. It's hard for me to advise anything but just go with your heart. Happy Passover.
Good review of The Quick. I have heard nothing about this one, up until now that is...

Hugs, my friend.

Thanks Mark. Obviously, I made the wrong choice. I can't imagine I'd be quite this upset if I'd forced myself and gone after all. But of course my dad has no mobile phone and can't be reached for me to get myself there on my own, so I have to just live with it. I really feel like I've wasted a good occasion to see him in peaceful, even happy circumstances.

I'm guessing you'll hear more about The Quick eventually. Though of course there'll be a mixed reception.

Well, you got me with The Quick! Hope you get to feeling better soonest!!

>215 drneutron: Ooh, that makes me happy right there Jim. I think this novel needs to be read and loved by many because I want Owen to feel encouraged to continue in her publishing efforts.

Aw shucks. Can't stop crying. Maybe it's the rain inspiring the tears to course down my face. I'd better stop now because I want to at least be able to say I worked on my drawing today, and I'm off to it now.

Thinking of you, Ilana.

>218 scaifea: Thank Amber.

I want to apologize to visitors and lurkers to my thread for all the recent sadness. If you drop by and feel discouraged from commenting because of the personal drama, please don't... you can just ignore all that, but on the other hand I've been working on all my recent reviews, so feel free to comment on those!

I'm going to sit down with a bunch of illustrated children's books for a while now. It's raining and very dark today and head is... well, as usual, and it just seems like the right thing to do right now. I'll report on my findings later, with illustrations to show of course.

>179 Smiler69: Thanks for your thoughts on The Secret Scripture - I've put it to one side for now and will revisit it later when hopefully I will be more in the mood.

I prefer the 'Horrid' ebook cover to the tame version :-)

>188 Smiler69: I'm sorry to hear you had such a blue weekend. The One and Only Ivan sounds very good, but as you say, almost unbearably sad. A thumb for your review.

>209 Smiler69: I agree with Joe, not just the typography, and yours wins hands down!

>211 Smiler69: Review thumbed and The Quick is wishlisted!

>212 Smiler69: & >214 Smiler69: Sorry to hear you're feeling so sad. Sometimes I feel there's no way to win in those situations - if you go, you feel terrible (and if you're me) feel quite resentful to the other people for asking you to do this (even though it was my own decision), if you don't then you regret not seeing people as you're doing now. If it helps, I don't think there's a right answer which means there isn't a wrong one either. But it sucks....

Just finished my 65th book with These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Highly diverting and very fluffy, not the kind of work that is meant to be taken seriously I hope? I somehow doubt it. Anyway, perfect comfort reading.



Above, my attempt at taking a photo in the dark today. These are the children's books I cheered myself up with today. Gorgeous illustrations, and though I don't think it's yet available in translation, I must do a little writeup of the latest Benjamin Lacombe book I read today (top left) because I was deeply and completely enchanted with it. The photo is very bad as I had no light to work with, first with rain half the day, then what seemed like a mix of ice and snow. I take the weather as it comes, so didn't mind it much as I dressed for it for our walk, and Coco was fine with it too till he'd had enough and I carried him in my arms and then in the shopping cart I'd brought along to run some errands. I had a huge craving for tinned asparagus for some reason. I'd forgotten they actually taste of tin though, so that part wasn't so great, though I still quaffed a whole can in less than two minutes.

Off for a long soak in the tub in a moment with my latest Slighty Foxed (Fall 2008). Then will start on a new audiobook when I spend time on my drawing this evening.

Oh yes, BOOK PURCHASES: I ordered Mansfield Park, Emma and Northanger Abbey in Everyman's Library editions. I really like those publications and they are much more affordable to collect than Folios, though of course by no means a replacement. I simply HAD to make sure I have something pop into the mailbox soon to cheer myself up.

That brings my total books purchased to date to 112. Very modest, compared to... Paul, for example.

>220 souloftherose: Hi Heather, thanks so much for the thumbs and sympathy. I too came to the conclusion that last night's dilemma was one of those situations where I probably couldn't have found a truly happy solution either way. I know too that I wouldn't have had such a strong reaction if it weren't for the fact that my father is leaving soon and we have few occasions to see each other among other people, which I feel is probably the safest course for us. But I've endeavoured to put it all out of my mind today. No sense dwelling on things over which I have so very little control, or understanding, or capacity to handle well.

Hi Ilana,
My heart breaks for you and the struggles that assault you. You are so much stronger than you think. You are surviving and doing so much more than you give yourself credit. I'm impressed that you soldier on despite the setbacks.

I was reading Life After Life by Atkinson today and came across a phrase about a book being "foxed" From the context thought it might be a British word meaning 'dog-eared'. Do you think the name "Slightly Foxed" (the quarterly) alludes to something like that?

Sorry I am so scarce everywhere lately.
I count on Coco to keep loving and amusing you... and Mimi & Ezra to keep you serene with purring and warmth.
Sending you gentle hugs xoxo

I started listening to In Chancery by John Galsworthy (part 2 of the Forsyte Saga) last night while working on my art project. Had I not read Bleak House earlier this year, I wouldn't have thought to list it under TIOLI Challenge #6: a word in the title that could be something bad, but thanks to Dickens, I now know that Chancery can be a very evil place indeed. I took me a while to get into it, but about 2 hours in, I think I'm falling into a comfort zone again. I really loved the first book and was determined to read the entire Chronicles (9 books) and not just the Saga (a trilogy), but we'll see.

Beautiful and very cold outside. Looking out my window, it looks like someone took a giant frosted sugar sifter to the grounds, with strange patterns from the driving snow/ice fall yesterday. The buds on the tree outside my window are bursting and will soon start forming leaves, but they might want to hold off a little longer. I'm sort of hoping for a cool summer, so I can save on A/C costs, because my hydro bill has gone through the roof and they are apparently increasing electricity prices further soon. Yikes.

>222 -Cee-: My dearest Claudia, you are very kind to say I'm stronger than I think, especially since I think I'm just a big wimp and a complainer and should just shut up about my neurotic relationship with my family. But it is what it is, and sometimes I find it too hard to keep the sadness to myself, so I've determined that people in this group can take me or leave me, because I know I ring a dissonant chord with my constant moaning, when the overall tone on the threads is usually so upbeat. But then, I know I've got good friends like you who take me as I am and even, I think, can understand me a bit. Which is a very comforting thought, I assure you.

I really love Kate Atkinson, especially her early work, but must say I wasn't very taken with Life After Life. I hope you enjoy it more than I did.

As for the interpretation of the word "foxed" and why the quarterly uses it as it's name, you're right on the money. "Foxing" is an expression used to describe old paper that has developed brownish spots, and since the books they cover tend to be of the older, often out-of-print variety, they chose that name to proudly proclaim they write about everything but the shiny new books everyone is currently talking about. That is part of their great appeal to me, and I think to most of their subscribers. I find they always feature books on nature-related subjects about the English countryside or old farming methods and such, which I don't think are really for me, but I really love the articles themselves. Then there are great classics talked about too, and I love when they feature books that are quite rare, but have likely been published by the Folio Society over the years, because FS, like SF tends to appeal to lovers of great classic works, even (and especially?) the more obscure ones.

Book Purchases:

Reading another glowing review of Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L. A. Meyer, this time on Judy's thread (first time I saw it mentioned was on Lori's, so two Canadian compatriots are fans), has finally pushed me over the edge. Since I'm dying to do nothing but buy books all day long lately, I took advantage of my big bundle of credits over at Audible and also got The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book II: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood. Both are narrated by Katherine Kellgren, whom I usually steer clear of because her style is purely histrionic and tends to get on my nerves, but given these are YA books, I figure it might work for me here. If not, I can always get my credits back, so no great loss. Also got The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill, given how fond I've become of gothic horror lately.

Total books purchased to date: 115

I wanted to buy a couple of NYRB paperbacks, which I really like for their colourful inside covers and nice paper and printing, but found two Kindle editions at around $3 ea., so of course couldn't resist:

Virgin Soil (with Biographical Introduction) by Ivan Turgenev
Stoner by John Williams

Also, in my Book Depo shopping cart I have two other NYRB titles (physical books):

On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry by William H. Gass
A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor

The only reason I haven't pulled the plug on those two is I know this book-buying frenzy isn't about to abate, so I'm keeping it for another day to try to limit damages.

Total books purchased to date: 117

Hi Ilana, I see you're already got yourself a copy of Bloody Jack, I hope you enjoy it. iIwent ahead and ordered the next couple of books in the series, keeping my fingers crossed that these ones are as good as the first.

>222 -Cee-: well, here I was wondering what to say and then someone smart comes along and puts the words right in my mouth (or at my fingertips anyway).

Cee said it all really, but I can agree. Beating yourself up about decisions/feelings/regrets is a no-win situation. Its tough to resist sometimes, I get that too. I can only say hello, offer a cheery hello and hope you are feeling better soon. So consider that done.

There is a used book shop in Oamaru (a few hours drive south of me) called Slightly Foxed as well as the London (?) one. I was intrigued by the name but luckily I had my mum with me (who, as it turns out, was right- she does know everything) and she was able to let me know the meaning.

Hi Ilana- Hope you are feeling a bit better, my friend. It's beginning to warm back up here. Yes, I am pleased. Grins...

I've noticed these past few days that I wake up with a really bad head, but it seems to clear up a bit after a couple of hours, so that's encouraging in the way of getting myself out of bed and tackling the day ahead. Spirits are much better than they were on Monday. I'm really sorry about all the moaning and groaning. A stiff upper lip obviously isn't one of my great qualities. All this book-buying has helped cheer me tremendously, although I really am getting desperate about finding a workable solution to house all those books. At least audiobooks and ebooks don't present any difficulties in that sense.

It's beautiful and sunny and cold here. Less cold than yesterday, so that's something. I haven't put my winter coat away yet, needless to say.

>226 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy, I literally went straight from your review onto Audible to purchase Bloody Jack. Lori had made me really curious about it a couple of years ago, then I spied a few comments on the TIOLI thread recently, then your glowing review... well, that did it! I'm not sure I'll be able to tolerate Katherine Kellgren narrating, but then again it might turn out to be a fun romp with her, so I'm keeping an open mind.

>227 LovingLit: Thanks for the encouraging words Megan. When I'm going through my worst moments, I always try to remind myself that it'll pass. Doesn't really make a difference on my feelings at that time, but it does help me keep some sort of perspective at least.

I would imagine that Slightly Foxed might be a popular name for used bookstores. I doubt the Oamaru shop has any affiliation with the London one though, though that would certainly be an intriguing choice or location for the London folks to open a second outlet in. :-)

>228 msf59: Hi Mark, yes indeed, feeling better in spirits at least. My dad and I definitely have our ups and major downs, but I'm still sad that he's going away so very far soon. Even through all our difficulties, it was reassuring for me to know he was relatively close by. But I'm a big girl, I'll manage as I always have. I've got plenty of reading and good friends here who share my passion to keep me diverted from too much sorrow when things get hard.

Dear Ilana, "moan" away without any need for apology. We're glad to be connected in a place where you're free to let some of it out. In fact, all of us do as we need to here - another reason to be thankful for LT!!!
I was a bit dubious about The Quick, but your review has convinced me that I need a copy! Onto my wish list it has gone! I know that I also need a copy of The Woman in Black, but that is waiting. I haven't read the latest Simon Serrailler yet although it's sitting on the shelf waiting for me.

>230 LizzieD: Thanks Peggy, I guess I wouldn't moan so much here online if I had more friends nearby I could offload with on a daily basis, but my circle has become more restrained than ever lately, and so you lot are now my almost exclusive sounding board, save for my friend Kristyna, who gets her share, though I try not to overwhelm her and keep some for my monthly professional appointments. I have another very good friend, Kim, but she went through a very difficult time in 2013 and has distanced herself from everyone but her immediate family for well over 6 months now. It makes me sad because I considered her my best friend and we were quite close, but I have to respect her need for solitude at this time. Still, it makes a huge impact when, like most adults one can count RL friends on the fingers of one hand, or less. At least I figure that here, people can read or ignore my personal drama comments, so no one need feel overloaded.

I've vaguely heard of Simon Serrailler, but have yet to read anything at all by Susan Hill. I did get Howards End is on the Landing back in 2011 (now near the top of the tbr in my bedroom), and Woman in Black is my second book of hers. I see they have the full Serailler series available on Audible. Do you think it's something I might enjoy?

Roger Chapelain-Midy (1904-1992), Still Life with Pansies

Mark posted a painting by this French artist formerly unknown to me on his last thread (#9), and I found this one online which I also like quite a lot. Not very much information to be found on him online, other than a brief French wikipedia article.

Off to work on my own art project now and maybe finish listening to In Chancery while I'm at it.

The BookDepository has just released their list of 100 Best Books Ever Written

I'm busily cataloguing the list right now here on LT.

Artwork will wait for a bit.

Hi Ilana, I hope I can keep up with your thread now!

Hi Ilana,

Your thread has been hopping while I've been away!

I love your review of Frog Music and I'm adding it to my wish list. I haven't read Slammerkin but I liked Room quite a bit. It's painful but not without hopeful notes.

I'm interested in the 100 books identified by Book Depository.

Hi Connie, Hi Ellen! Thanks for dropping by. I just spent the last hour (or more) putting together to BookDepo list, and for some reason, though the counter does say that I put in 100 entries, only 99 show up. GRRRRRRRRR!!!

Anyway here is the BookDepository's 100 Best Books Ever list in alpha order on LT: http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/BookDepository's%20100%20Best%20Books%20Ev...

Kudos to anyone who figures out what the missing title is!

What a big job!! Well done, Ilana!

Connie, cataloguing books here on LT is one of my favourite activities. Probably the least creative of all my pastimes, but for some reason I find it relaxing. Go figure! :-)

Well I loved adding my books too. I ended in a kind of a black hole when that was completed. So I really understand where you are coming from.

>232 Smiler69:- I really like that one too, Ilana. Simple but vivid. I am steering clear of any Best Of Lists. Much to dangerous.

Hope you had a decent day today.

I spent 4.5 hours drawing today. I'm really proud of myself, and of course I'm seeing progress at this rate. Plenty of listening time for audiobooks, so I'm halfway through ♫ A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I wasn't sure this fantasy title would work for me, but so far I'm quite captivated actually.

>240 msf59: Mark, I'd say that simplicity is illusory and created by that dark square area in the background, because there's quite a lot going on actually. I know what you mean though. I'd be very happy with myself if I painted something that looked anything like that!

My day was just fine, thank you. Lots of drawing, cooking (olive and lemon chicken and chicken stock with the carcass) and of course listening to audiobooks. Off to walk Coco before bed just now.

Bingo!

I just completed another line with the addition of In Chancery by John Galsworthy to the "Second Book in a Series" category (bottom last row). I keep reshuffling things around a bit once in a while, which I hope isn't cheating, but then again I am making things a bit more challenging by only counting books I've rated 4 stars and up...

No bingo on the "YA" card yet, even though I'm not necessarily sticking to YA titles to fill it up, but I'm on the verge... especially as A Wizard of Earthsea (which I'll finish today or tomorrow) is set in another world.



More than 500 pages: Bleak House by Charles Dickens ★★★★
Forgotten Classic: Coriolanus by William Shakespeare ★★★★
Book that became a movie: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - tutorial ★★★★½
Published this year: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★
Number in the title: 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz ★★★★
Written by someone under 30: Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen ★★★★½
Book with non-human characters: Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett ★★★★
Funny Book: You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld ★★★★
Female Author: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ★★★★½
Book with a mystery: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ★★★★
One-Word Title: Nana by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓
Book of short stories: The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton ★★★★½
Set on a different continent: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★
Non-Fiction: Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ★★★★
First book by a favourite author:
Heard about online: The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard ★★★★⅓
Best-selling book: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris ★★★★
Based on a true story: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan ★★★★½
Book at the bottom of TBR pile:
Book my friend loves: Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat ★★★★
Book that scares me:
More than 10 years old: Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
Second book in a series: In Chancery by John Galsworthy ★★★★
Blue cover:


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



A book with a female heroine: Lady Susan by Jane Austen ★★★★½
A book set in a high school:
The last book in a trilogy:
A book with a colour in the title:
The first book in a series: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★
A book set in the future:
A book with a breakup: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ★★★★⅞
A book without a love triangle: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood ★★★★
A book that became a movie: Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ★★★★½
A book set in Paris: These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer ★★★★
A book set in the past: Restoration by Rose Tremain ★★★★★
A book with magic:
A book set in the summer:
A book with a dragon:
A book that made you cry: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate ★★★★½
A graphic novel:
A book based on a myth: The Quick by Lauren Owen ★★★★★
A "classic" YA book:
A book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe:
A book with an incredible fight scene: Goliath by Tom Gauld ★★★★
A book you heard about online: Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler ★★★★
A book set in another world:
A book with an epic love story: Longbourn by Jo Baker ★★★★⅓
A book with music: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue ★★★★⅓

I just took this photo of parrot tulips and hyacinths I got earlier in the week. They'll be gone by tomorrow, but I thought I'd try to capture their fading gloriously bright beauty, maybe to paint them eventually. In the background is a poster of my favourite Kandinski painting, called Black Lines which I got at the Guggenheim many years ago.

I'm off to the fine art museum to see the Peter Doig exhibit (as seen in >30 Smiler69:) with my dad. The museum is always a good spot to get together, as we do well in any art context usually. I'm really looking forward to seeing this show of huge colourful canvases, should be impressive.

Happy Easter everyone!

>179 Smiler69: - The Secret Scripture was a slog of a read for me. It managed to redeem itself, in my eyes, at the very end, but I think I still over-rated it.

>199 Smiler69: - Aiding and Abetting struck me as a different type of Spark story. It appealed to my sense of loving to read about a con of a con, but the characters seem to lack something.... other than any sense of morals, that is. I didn't expect them to have any morals. ;-0

>211 Smiler69: - Darn it all... 5 stars. I think I have already been hit with this one but your review pretty much seals The Quick as a future read for me!

>221 Smiler69: - Oh... I love the artwork for the book cover in the top left hand corner of your pic!

>223 Smiler69: - Very happy to see you are enjoying The Forsyte Saga. Given the slog I found Bleak House to be, I am waffling about starting The Forsyte Saga... please tell me Galsworthy's writing style is different from Dickens.

Congrats on BINGO and wishing you a lovely holiday weekend, Ilana!

Peter Doig was fantastic, and turns out they did have that painting I showed in >30 Smiler69:, much to my delight. It was enormous and I stood in front of it for a long time, taking in the magic. I'll be going back at least once before they take the exhibit down on May 2nd. My dad and I had a good time. I'm always tense around him, never quite knowing what to expect, but when things are good it's always nice spending time with him, and feels quite special. I struck up a conversation with a young man sitting at a table close to ours at the homey café which seems like a popular student hangout after the museum. He was reading a book and had what looked like a really tasty apple pie, so while my father was away for a short while, wanting to know whether he'd recommend the pie and what he was reading (Yes, and Rumi), we ended up striking up a conversation for about an hour, all three of us. I think my dad was going for a bit of a matchmaking stint, because he encouraged us to exchange coordinates and spoke highly of my art and book reviews. I don't often strike up conversations which perfect strangers, but this seemed like the kind of place where it would be ok to do so.

Off to work on my drawing in a moment and will finish listening to A Wizard of Earthsea while I'm at it.

>244 lkernagh: Thanks for dropping by Lori. I remember you are the one who brought Aiding and Abetting to my attention, but I would probably have picked it up eventually, since I've got practically all of Spark's work on my wishlist and several on the tbr. You're right, the characters seemed kind of flat. Oddly enough, I got more of a sense of what Lucan was like from the wikipedia article, which seems all wrong somehow.

I really really REALLY loved The Quick. It's not for everybody probably, and having a predilection for gothic horror and/or enjoying historical fiction about the Victorian era certainly helps. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

You remind me I did say I wanted to do a little writeup on that Benjamin Lacombe book. Maybe this weekend, as I'd like to catch up on my reviews.

I can assure you that Galsworthy is NOTHING like Dickens. For one thing, his books are of a reasonable length; books 1 and 2, The Man of Property and In Chancery are both just under 300 pages, besides which, there is only one Dickens. I've grown to like Dickens creations of veritable universes of words and details, it's a kind of complete immersion, when you can get into it. Does help a lot that I listen to most of them on audio, though I have nearly the whole collection as Folio books now and intend to read them more than once, so obviously I enjoy him more than you do! :-)

Art!
>232 Smiler69: What is the gold on the table beside the pansies? A coin? A petal? I need to know.
>243 Smiler69: I'd like a copy of that to hang!
>245 Smiler69: I like but not excessively. Who knows why?
As to Simon Serrailler --- I hated the first book's ending and won't tell you why. I said I'd never read another one. Then I couldn't help it; I did, and I've been reading them compulsively ever since. On the other hand, I was not particularly impressed with *Howard's Landing*. I thought it was a bit self-indulgent and name-droppy.

Just finished A Wizard of Earthsea and starting on Home by Toni Morrison for the American Authors Challenge as I take Coco for our night walk.

As a reward for my latest bingo (but really because any excuse is a good one) I ordered A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor from the Book Depo today.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hi Peggy, looks like we were posting more or less at the same time. I want to reply to you tomorrow, when I'm thinking straight and can reproduce on the keyboard the thoughts vaguely floating around in my head right now... :-)

Haven't been by for ten days (not sure how that happened) and lots going on - I'm glad the migraine abated. So sorry about the awful nightmares. I wish I could send you my latest dream -

Among other things in it I had to crawl through a window wearing an evening dress (I managed successfully and almost in a ladylike manner) and somewhere in that dream there was a discussion about the fact that the powers that be were deciding that the word 'f...' was obviously not a dirty word anymore as people use it so 'expressively'.

I am also glad that you found the Aslan book a great read. I did too. It felt to me like something he cares about deeply and really wants to 'understand'.

>243 Smiler69:- I love this photo, Ilana. I like the hope it brings, for us winter weary folks. Looking forward to your thoughts on Home. I considered also reading this for the AAC, but I don't think I'll get to it.
Hope you are feeling good today.

Back to add that the Horrors cover is magnificent. Very very fine.

Oh yay! More visitors! It's beautiful out today, but still rather on the cool side. All the same, what nature we have in the city (lots of large trees in my neighbourhood) is forging ahead with Spring activity and I trust we'll have greened trees soon enough, which is always a delight to me. Ever-so-slight headache, barely there really, which is a blessing, especially as it's been like that for several days in a row now. No special plans for the weekend, other than wanting to get a few reviews out, especially the one I started on Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan since I can't resist how appropriate it is to be writing about Jesus and his times around Easter, although admittedly not from a religious angle. I just have to decide whether I want to write a review proper, or more about why this book touched me as much as it did on a personal level.

>246 LizzieD: Believe it or not Peggy, your question about the yellow object in Still Life with Pansies obviously deeply operated on my subconscious, because I had a dream about that painting, and I think it involved me actually being in the artist's studio and seeing the setup he had. The yellow thing started glowing like gold when a ray of sun came in through the window and I thought "now I can tell Peggy it was a golden coin". That's the answer from my unconscious self, but my logical, waking self wants to say that whatever the object is or isn't, I think it's mostly there as a compositional device, because brining in that touch of yellow/gold on the right side of the canvas in fact unifies the image, which otherwise might be divided in two, with those complex golden shapes of what I assume to be a wallpaper pattern on the left, and the simple geometric red and black on the right. If you hide that little rounded yellow thing with your finger while looking at the picture you'll see what I mean.

Your comment re >243 Smiler69: do you mean you'd like to have the photo itself or the painting it might inspire? Because if it's the picture you'd like and you're serious about that, I can arrange to send the original file to you and refer you to websites where they could print it out and even frame it, at what I think might be reasonable prices... As for the painting, it's one of many thousands of images I'd like to work from eventually, and I'm afraid I won't live long enough to produce all that work at the rate I'm going! :-)

As for Peter Doig's work, I initially discovered him in art class when a teacher brought in a book of his work. A few of his paintings really inspired me, I think mostly because of his sense of colour, but then quite a few didn't do much for me either, and some I outright disliked. But seeing them in person is a very different experience. They a HUGE paintings, typically 6-8 feet across (my favourite shown at >30 Smiler69: is approx 11.5 x 7.5 feet), so the impression you get of those huge colour fields and the way he uses the oil paints (looks like watercolour almost, with lots of layering for really rich colours) is an experience in itself.

I'll look out for Simon Serailler if he ever comes up on sale, I think.

>249 sibylline: Interesting dream you had for sure, and quite a mix of intriguing elements. An evening dress and the f word being validated. You must have been proud to manage proper deportment while crawling through a window in an evening dress! lol.

I think one of the things I liked best about the Aslan book is it corresponded to the aspects of Jesus I'd always been most curious about, that is, Jesus the Man, as opposed to the saintly figure, which I can't really relate to since I have no religious background. All the same, he's still been an influential figure in my life and I've probably though of him more than might be imagined a non-Chritian would. For that reason, I started writing my "review" explaining how he appeared in my life, which is not a review at all, just a personal commentary I guess. I feel a bit uncomfortable about posting it though, not sure why.

>250 msf59: Mark, looks like I took that photo at just the right penultimate moment, because by yesterday evening the red tulips had turned quite brown. I'm happy I managed to immortalize them, at least in a photo if not as a work of art.

I downloaded the audio file of Home form the library's OverDrive catalogue, and it's a really short one at just 4.5 hours, so it's easy enough for me to fit in, unlike Sula, in paperback format (which has been on my tbr since 2007 I think, yikes!), although the latter is short, because the book I'm currently reading, by Zola is over 450 pages of tiny, faded type (a really awful cheaply printed paperback) and might take me quite a while to get through.

>251 sibylline: Glad you like the cover Lucy! I think I might try to get in touch with the publisher and see if there's any interest at all. If not, no big loss, I'm happy enough to have it for my own usage, and that of anyone else who happens to want to use it on LT.

I just got the eBook for Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith for just $1.99. Same price on Amazon.ca and iBooks. I have Donna down as a recommender for this one.

What a nice surprise visit Nicky! Wish you a Happy Easter as well. If you're impressed with Peter Doig's work online, you can be sure you'd fall in love seeing it in person. I think it'll be one of the more memorable MMFA visits for me so far over the years. I'm really grateful when my dad and I can both relax enough to connect and have a good time together. It's a rare occasion when it happens, but it's really special and I cherish those moments.

I've been doing rather well these last few days, with minimal pain and good spirits. Buying books every day, but that's not a bad thing, although I'm tempted to put in a big order with Folio since I've held back for so long and want to take advantage of the current sale. Did you get anything from them recently?

Happy Easter, Ilana!
I'm impressed with the artist's eye and I feel as though I've had a little art appreciation lesson here with the gold object. Thank you!
I'm looking forward to your Aslan review. If you posted it here, it would be your friends who saw it, and you could delete it when you thought we had had long enough to look at it.
And I'd frankly love to have a copy of the photo. I don't know that I'd ever frame it because I'm lazy and inept, but I might ask my DH to do it for me. I'll give you my e-mail if it's that easy!

>243 Smiler69: I think that would make a beeeutiful painting, Ilana. The textures, colors, and juxtaposition of the flowers and poster are all just right! I love it.

The Doig exhibit must have been impressive judging from your reaction :-) Glad you had a good time with your Dad.
Happy Easter to you!

>243 Smiler69: I love this photo! It's so colourful and I get a happy feeling just looking at it.

Wishing you a Happy Easter, Ilana!

Happy Easter wishes to everyone! I'm happy because I woke up again with just a very minimal headache again, such a blessing. Started listening to The Woman in Black by Susan Hill last night and now just have an hour left to finish it (it's just 4.5 hours long). A good spine-tingling ghost story. I'm very curious to find out how she wraps the whole thing up.

>257 LizzieD: Peggy, do go ahead and PM me your email address. I'll send you a file, but I'll also send you links to at least one site I've purchased things from where you can have anything you like printed and even framed, that way you'll have that option open to you. Your comment encourages me to forge ahead and just put finishing touches on my Zealot personal commentary as opposed to try to rewrite the whole thing to turn it into a more conventional sort of review. I'll make sure to post it today.

>258 -Cee-: Hi Claudia. I have so many photos I've taken I'd like to based myself on for paintings, I wouldn't know where to begin. Several I took last year when I was posting to Instagram daily, mostly textures which would make great abstract paintings. Something to consider for sure.

>259 DejaVoo: Nicky, I've got the full Dark is Rising set, though now I wish I'd waited for this sale instead of getting them all at smaller reductions. I feel the same as you about the Ripley novels. I've gotten the audiobooks for the whole series and have just 2 more to go out of the 5. They are very good and I'd like to reread them for sure, but the illos of this Folio set sort of turn me off. I badly want their most recent Jane Eyre editions. I find the binding and illustrations are simply to die for, and never mind that I already own 4 editions of it, including that other older Folio, as you point out. I'm just trying to convince myself I should wait a couple of years till it goes on sale, because it's horribly expensive, but I don't know if I'll have the patience (I'd love it if they did a similar treatment for Wuthering Heights too!). Mind you, I still haven't used the two coupons I got for participating in Folio Council activities. I've been very much wanting the Beatrix Potter sets too, and might cave and use the coupons on those, if they still have any left this week; I need to call them in order to use both coupons at once, as the website won't let me do that. I got the Wyndham set during another sale at a similar price and look forward to reading them. The Anna Karenina is another gorgeous choice, don't have that one, but I really love the illustrations. Congrats on your new purchases!

I've not been purchasing dozens of books on a daily basis*. But I know you're teasing me. :-)

*eta: but that's not for lack of wanting to!

>260 connie53: Connie, very glad my photo gives you a happy feeling, that's what I was hoping for when I posted it.

>261 Crazymamie: That's so adorable Mamie, thank you! xx

We listened to Wuthering Heights on some long car trip and all agreed that it does go on and on a bit too long....... The LD got totally fed up with it!

>263 sibylline: You're right Lucy, WH does go on and on, but somehow it really worked for me. I enjoyed my stay in that gloomy universe for some reason. Gothic seems to work for me these days. Did you have Nadia May (or whatever other name she goes by) narrating? I did. I've grown to really like her.

Happy Sunday, Ilana! I started Journey Into the Past this morning. I've had an itch to read another Zweig and I really like it so far. I also have the Royal Game, his story collection, but I am not sure I'll get to that one before it's due at the library. Have you read either one?

>265 msf59: Hi Mark. I'm very pleased you're enjoying Zweig. He's certainly among my all-time favourite authors and I'm glad I finally discovered him through several of his stories last year. I've got Journey Into the Past as a French audiobook gotten from the library in my tbr but haven't listened to it yet. I did get myself a very fine edition of his complete collected works in two volumes in an excellent French translation which was recently released by La Pléiade, a publisher of fine books from which I have a handful of titles. It cost me an arm and a leg (French editions being much more expensive than English ones), but I'm sure it was money well spent. I'll have to start dipping into it asap!

Happy Sunday, Ilana. I hope you're having a good, relaxing day.

Finally! I can't say how many hours I've spent on the following commentary over 2 or 3 sessions. I'm only sorry it's so long so that no doubt many visitors won't be tempted to plunge in, but I've posted it in the main page and on my blog finally, so hopefully all that effort will be read by at least a handful of people! :-)





Book #57: ♫ Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan ★★★★½
Read for: Picked for Me by Charlotte/Fourpawz2, TIOLI Challenge #2: title and author have two Qs, two Zs, or one of each
Edition: Books on Tape (2013), OverDrive MP3 Audiobook; 8h08
Original publication date: 2013

I don’t celebrate Easter, but rarely does Easter go by without me thinking of Jesus, even though I’m not and never was a Christian. And I guess it wasn’t such a great coincidence that I decided to finally pick up this book—which had been around the top of my reading list since it was released—toward the beginning of this month. And then of course I couldn't resist the temptation of posting the following comments on Easter Sunday. I don't think it's possible for me to talk about this book and why it's now among my favourites so far this year without giving a short history of my family’s religious backgrounds and how that came to shape my views on the man who came to be known as Jesus Christ, so this is more of a personal account than an actual review.

My paternal grandmother’s father was what is known by the Hebrew word, as a shochet, and though in the original language this is a designation for any kind of butcher, the English interpretation rightly describes what my great-grandfather was; a religious Jew duly licensed and trained to slaughter mammals and birds for food according to kosher standards. I'll always remember granny Sonia as a voracious reader, with piles of books by the bedside, and how she always had several open at once. This in itself was not an unfamiliar sight to me, since my own mother has always equally been surrounded with mounds of books as far back as I can remember. But my grandmother Sonia's reading abilities amazed me because like many East European Jews of her generation, she spoke several tongues and read books in three languages (German, Polish and Russian, though she could also read Hebrew and Yiddish). She read great works of philosophy and literature, but though she grew up in a devout Jewish household, she abandoned religion in her teens, when she became part of the Jewish Socialist movement. Needless to say that had she passed on religious traditions to my father, who got his dose of religion from weekly readings of the Torah in school (much as I did, years later while living in Israel for a few years), needless to say I wouldn't have gotten any teachings about Jesus the man or the Christ from that quarter. Though interestingly enough, Aslan's portrayal of Jesus the Man taught me more about some of the traditions of that branch of my lineage than I had ever been able to assimilate so far.

My mother on the other hand was raised in a devout Catholic household and spent most of her childhood and teens as a boarder in Catholic convents, being taught and supervised by nuns 24 hours a day, which was a standard form of education in Quebec in the 1950s. Like most children of that generation, she was loyal to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church and took weekly confessions very seriously, even making up sins when no real offences had been committed, just so she'd have something to tell the priest. But again, none of that religious education trickled down to me, or at least not as any code of conduct of belief system, because as soon as she was able to get her hands on forbidden books in her teens, she read voraciously and as widely as she could about all the banned subjects, and this probably contributed to dispel any belief in the Immaculate Conception, one of the core Catholic doctrines, among other things. But since I went to French school in Montreal at a time when the Catholic School Board was still going strong, there came a time when I very much wished to have my first confession so I could wear a tiny white wedding dress with matching white shoes and socks and be wedded to Christ. What finally convinced me to put that idea out of my head was my mother's patiently and repeated explanations that in order to go through that ceremony, I would have to first be baptized and receive comprehensive religious teachings. This did not appeal as strongly as the notion of the white dress and the gift watch, so I let it go. A few years later, apparently influenced by a friend from Chile whose family held a veritable cult of Christ, I got bitten with that passion too, put up pictures of him holding his bleeding heart on my walls and prayed to him before going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. This phase probably didn't last long, and I remember it amusing and bemusing my mother, understandably enough I guess.

But growing into adulthood, matters of faith mostly remained in the periphery of daily life, if at all, and I think I figured out quite early on that no matter what my personal belief system may be, I could not become a willing participant in any form of organized religion, because I've always been resistant to doctrinal notions. All the same, the figure of Jesus, celebrated as he is in the Christian world at least twice a year come Christmas and Easter, has always held a certain amount of fascination for me. Who was this man? How and why did he come to have such devoted disciples and followers? Why did both Jews and Romans have it in for him? How and why did his crucifixion become such a powerful symbol? What are the Gospels and the New Testament?

Perhaps I'm moved by the same motivation which led Reza Aslan to preface his main subject by summarizing his own religious evolution and relationship with Jesus before tackling the meat of his book. I suppose this makes sense when you are about to discuss at some length one of the most powerful religious icons, while more or less stripping him of the trappings of his saintly image, to present him simply as Jesus the Man, conceived and born in the conventional way, and like any human being, filled with complex and sometimes contradictory motivations. That is: present him as a historical figure first and foremost and explain how and why he came to be a religious icon, an approach which could understandably upset certain groups of people. What I read about his approach is precisely what attracted me to this book when it was released, because Aslan's work promised to provide answers to things which had long excited my curiosity. The man who was Jesus has always been a fascinating figure to me, more than the one who was considered as the Son of God, since the latter would have required for me to either have a religious background I do not possess, or to have made a conversion of faith which isn't within my scope.

My expectations were well rewarded. Basing himself on two decades of research into the New Testament and the origins of the Christian movement, Aslan delivers a narrative about the man and his time which is so exciting, so filled with momentous events, realistic details and a sense of immediacy, of being plunged into the Palestine of 2000 years ago, that it became an unputdownable book from the first page of the introduction:

“The First century was an era of apocalyptic expectation among the Jews of Palestine, the unofficial Roman designation for the vast tract of land encompassing modern-day Israel/Palestine as well as large parts of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon (the land would not be officially called Palestine until after 135 C. E. i.e. current era). Countless prophets, preachers, and messiahs tramped through the Holy Land delivering messages of God’s imminent judgment. Many of these so-called false messiahs we know by name. A few are even mentioned in the New Testament. The prophet Theudas, according to the book of Acts, had four hundred disciples before Rome captured him and cut off his head. A mysterious charismatic figure known only as “the Egyptian” raised an army of followers in the desert, nearly all of whom were massacred by Roman troops. In 4 B.C.E, the year in which most scholars believe Jesus of Nazareth was born, a poor shepherd named Athronges put a diadem on his head and crowned himself “King of the Jews”; he and his followers were brutally cut down by a legion of soldiers.”

What Aslan does brilliantly here, is explain the sociopolitical context of the times Jesus of Nazareth was born into, of the conflicts between the Jews and the Roman rulers, in what became an ongoing war, when the Jews zealously fought to retain their distinct religion (Aslan calls Judaism a cult throughout) at a time when polytheism was the most commonly accepted belief system throughout the Roman empire. Believing in only one vengeful God, who could only be approached through the intercession of the powerful and rich priestly class with expensive sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem; with background information given about how the Jewish priests came into their position and made a living, what the sacrifices entailed in terms of cost and details of how they were practiced, and of how the Temple was rigidly organized, we can understand why Jesus made a scene there; although, the Jesus of Nazareth he describes was very much steeped in Judaism, was devoutly religious and sought to follow the teachings of the Torah and of Moses above all else, never thinking of creating a new religion. I suppose these are the kinds of details most Christians would be familiar with, but I learned as much in this book about Jesus's faith and the state of the Jewish religion and practices of those days as about how the cult of Christianity was born. I also learned much about what kind of place Israel was (then, as always it seems, a locus or roiling political and religious tensions) and I was finally able to put together many dispersed bits of knowledge I'd acquired about the Israel of 2000+ years ago, when I lived there as a child and repeatedly visited Masada, various Roman ruins and Old Jerusalem and it's environs, and was taught about historical events that until now were disconnected in my mind.

As logically follows, Aslan then patiently demonstrates how far from the real man the early Christians—and particularly Saul of Tarsus, known as Paul the Apostle—deliberately reinvented the image of Jesus Christ, to distance Jesus from the Jewish 'cult'. Since to most Jews, Jesus of Nazareth was simply another zealous messianic figure among many others (who were rather ubiquitous at the time, as he makes clear in his introduction) and also very much a political animal who sought to incite the Jews to free themselves of Roman domination, there was little hope then of converting many Jews to the new creed. He also needed to be reinvented as a supernatural being who required only belief, without the trappings of a temple or priests or costly sacrifices, and certainly with no political intentions to make him accessible to gentiles and that much larger pool of potential converts to the new religion. Yet Aslan convincingly argues that in this time of turbulent conflict, Jesus could not have been a meek, peace-seeking and all-forgiving saintly figure, though interestingly enough, he also doesn't attempt to rationalize the miracles he performs, and instead brings us to understand that the zeitgeist was so completely different from the world view we understand today, that miracles might in fact have been possible. And he does all this by quoting from the scriptures and by describing many historical details and events of the times, based on an extended bibliography. Most importantly, he confirmed to me the impression I've long held, that while each person can choose to believe or not in Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth certainly was a fascinating human being, and made me understand how such a person came to have such a powerful cult built around him, as perfectly expressed in the closing paragraph of the book:

(obviously, this is a spoiler of sorts, if there is such a thing as a spoiler in a work on non-fiction...)

"Christianity after the destruction of Jerusalem was almost exclusively a gentile religion; it needed a gentile theology. And that is precisely what Paul provided. The choice between James's vision of a Jewish religion anchored in the law of Moses and derived from a Jewish nationalist who fought against Rome, and Paul's vision of a Roman religion that divorced itself from Jewish provincialism and required nothing for salvation save belief in Christ, was not a difficult one for the second and third generations of Jesus's followers to make. Two thousand years later, the Christ of Paul's creation has utterly subsumed the Jesus of history. The memory of the revolutionary zealot who walked across Galilee gathering an army of disciples with the goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, the magnetic preacher who defied the authority of the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem, the radical Jewish nationalist who challenged the Roman occupation and lost, has been almost completely lost to history. That is a shame. Because the one thing any comprehensive study of the historical Jesus should hopefully reveal is that Jesus of Nazareth—Jesus the man—is every bit as compelling, charismatic and praiseworthy as Jesus the Christ. He is, in short, someone worth believing in."

This is a book I'll definitely want to revisit.

(Quotes transcribed from the eBook edition.)

I've finished listening to The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, which is a good haunted house story. It was filled with spine-tingling moments, though I must say I rarely find myself truly wrapped up with ghost stories, even though I have one or two of my own. Have now moved on to another unplanned read: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood, which is the second book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. I wanted to see whether I'd be able to tolerate Katherine Kellgren's very dramatic type of delivery as she tends to talk very loudly and overact a lot, which works well in this case, being a children's book, though I'm lucky not to have a bad migraine at present because I don't think I could endure her if this was the case. Still, good to know I can take her in small doses, when appropriate.

Nice review of the Aslan book which is put in perspective by your personal history. On marrying a Jewish Israeli I had to take the decision (rather easy as I was fairly agnostic) to only have one religion in our marriage. The book I read that helped me was Revolution in Judea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance by Hyam Maccoby which looks at Jesus from a Jewish perspective as a rebel against the Romans rather than the Christ figure of later Christianity. I also have Maccoby's book about Paul to read, The mythmaker : Paul and the invention of Christianity.
Did Aslan ever explain why he called the Jewish religion a cult rather than a religion? I've been reading and listening quite a bit to books about this era and I've never come across Judaism being considered a cult as far as my memory allows me.

I love dipping into the Incorrigible Children books from time to time, I think I've read 3 at least.

Ilana, that's a masterful review. I'll be back to reread it when I can think and respond if I have a response.

>268 Smiler69: Aslan's book has been on my wishlist for a long time - ever since it came out! So glad to see your favorable review here, this one has moved up to my next big read. Thanks for your terrific review.

>236 Smiler69: Great job on posting that Book Depo 100 titles! I was emailed it by them, and had yet to go to it on their own webpage. LT is so much more familiar to me, so I will enjoy perusing it here instead. Any luck with the missing book?

>242 Smiler69: wow. that looks lovely :) And full.

>268 Smiler69: wow, that is an interesting mix of religions in your family! My mum was Catholic, taught by nuns, my dad supposedly Lutheran but really and Atheist. We had no religious education, formal or otherwise, growing up and I appreciate that I have been able to form my own views on it all as an adult. I am a bit fascinated by Judaism in particular, probably because of its strictness and rituals which are so foreign to me. I have read a couple of accounts of the lives of disciples (and Jesus) but cant help but think I should be starting at the Bible if I want to 'do it right'.

>268 Smiler69: Great review of Zealot Ilana. I've seen it around on LT (it's not particularly big in the UK as far as I'm aware) but your review has moved it firmly onto the wish list.

Thanks so much for putting down in words your personal link to the Zealot book - very nicely told, and I love learning about other people's thoughts and approaches and experiences with religion.

Hi Ilana- Sorry I missed you on my thread, (Bad Mark) but you did make me laugh. What did you think of GOT? a little quieter than last week but still good.

Yay! So many visitors! Woke up again today with only mild head pain. I could really get used to this! For some reason feeling extremely fatigued though, so I think I'll probably end up spending some time reading on the couch today.

>270 avatiakh: Kerry, you certainly got my attention with Revolution in Judea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance by Hyam Maccoby, as it sounds like something I'd be interested in reading, but it seems impossible to find in these parts. Not at the library (municipal or national), not on Amazon (at a reasonable price by used vendors that is) and not on Abe. I'll put it on the wishlist all the same, one never knows. I'm not sure why Aslan referred to Judaism as a cult. I've noticed there are additional notes in the Kindle that I didn't get from the audiobook, so I hope to find out when I reread it eventually.

The Incorrigible Children are really fun. Katherine Kellgren seems like she's always on the verge of hysterics, which is a style I'm sure appeals to many and especially children, but a bit much for me. I'm doing fine with the audio, but I think I'll continue the series in book form; they have them all at the library, and I like the illustrations, which I'm missing out on this time.

>271 LizzieD: Your comment makes me blush Peggy. I'm touched you want to reread it, but I don't think it bears too close scrutiny. Every time I reread it I want to (and do) fix things, and I've spotted more glaring issues with it, but I'll just let it be. It's not like I've submitted it for a committee review or anything!

>272 avidmom: I really think this a book that deserves to be read by many. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

>273 LovingLit: Megan, since the list on the Book Depo's site is in seemingly random order and the one here on LT is in alpha order, I'd have to print out one or the other to compare and check off entries to see what's gone amiss, and I admit that's more work than I'm willing to bother with at this point, so the short answer is no, I've no idea what the missing book is, though of course it continues to annoy me!

I'm glad you like my bingo cards. I have fun playing around with the colour a bit every time I fill them up with new entries in Photoshop. I haven't chosen any of my reading in terms of trying to fit things in for this challenge so far, but maybe I will when it comes to filling the four last spots on that top card.

Religion was not a topic that we spoke about at home, and in fact my mother tended to make negative comments on the subject if at all, mostly because of the fact that the nuns had evidently given everyone a hard time and were adept at handing out memorable punishment it seems. Consequently, it's a subject I've never felt very comfortable talking about either, so it was nice to find a book that had answers to so many questions I'd never been able to verbalise before.

>274 SandDune: What I really appreciated most about Aslan's book Rhian is that he certainly made a valiant attempt at recovering the figure who "has been almost completely lost to history" and he did so with a narrative style that made for a really great read.

>275 scaifea: Thanks Amber. I'm so touched that so many of you have taken the time to read my very long commentary. Of course I write these things for my own satisfaction, but can't deny I always hope that readers find what I have to say at least a little bit interesting!

>276 msf59: Mark, no harm done whatsoever. We all skip over a comment here and there, and I know you of all people wouldn't ignore me on purpose. I just thought it was an opportunity to insert a funny animated graphic!

I really love GOT. As far as I'm concerned, they can do no wrong with that show and it's always a very welcome and great treat for me on Sunday nights, so yes, I really loved it last night too. I don't think it would be possible to sustain the level of drama and violence that the first episode displayed. We wouldn't want a Red Wedding during every single show, would we? ;-)

eta: typos galore comme toujours.

Thanks to Megan's last comment, I just realized I'd already made another Bingo!—which had gone unnoticed till now—with the addition of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen to "The First Book by a Favourite Author" category (first column on the left, second from bottom):



What book should I purchase next to reward myself, I wonder?

eta: I got Sadler's Birthday by Rose Tremain as a Kindle. Her first novel, which is fitting since I got this bingo with that category.

Fascinating review of Zealot, Ilana. Thumb from me, and I'm putting it on my WL.

I really liked your review of Zealot, Ilana, and I loved that you took the time to talk about your personal perspective and your religious background. So very interesting and so well written. Thumb from me, too! I have that one in the stacks, and I had actually started it last year, but I got derailed. I'll try it again when I am in the right mood.

I think that I also must check into those Ashton Place books, as they sound like a lot of fun.

Hoping that Monday has been kind to you!

Finished the second Children of Ashton Place book, The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood. I can't decide if I found Katherine Kellgren's to be mostly good fun or annoying. A bit of both I think. Not sure how I'll take in the next book, audio or print, but I DO know I'll be happy to continue with the series. Next, though I had replaced Eudora Welty with Louise Erdrich for the American Author's Challenge in May, I'd been looking forward to listening to The Master Butcher's Singing Club, also as part of my WWI reading, and decided to jump in this afternoon. I'm glad I did. The story so far is great and so is the writing. Erdrich does her own narration and she has a very pleasant reading voice. My first novel by her and probably won't be the last.

>279 jnwelch: >280 Crazymamie: Hi Joe, Hi Mamie! Thanks so much for the thumbs, those are always well appreciated! I'm happy if I managed to spark interest in Zealot. I'll be curious to see what he comes up with next.

with the addition of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen to "The First Book by a Favourite Author" category

Wow. Just wow. :D

>282 lyzard: I know eh? I had a similar thought. You more than anyone Liz, would recognize how monumental that is! :-)

eta: of course you had a lot, not to say 'everything' to do with it too!

Hi Ilana- I think I have had The Master Butcher's Singing Club for six or seven years. I've really neglected Erdrich and have several of hers to get to. For some reason, certain authors fall through the cracks for me. It's nice to have LT pals give me a nudge now and then.

I did start the Welty story collection. It's BIG, but I do like her writing.

And I really liked Journey into the Past. It may not be my favorite but he is a joy to read. I also want to get to his memoir one of these days.

Hi Ilana. I'm glad you got to go to the Peter Doig exhibition and managed to spend a nice day with your Dad.

>268 Smiler69: I enjoyed your thoughts on Zealot - I remember I was completely bowled over the first time I read a book about the historical Jesus. I was hoping to go back and reread that particular book this year as part of a group read but I stalled a long time ago and think I need to accept that this particular project is not working right now.

I'm hoping to get to my first Stefan Zweig book this month, The Post Office Girl.

>284 msf59: Mark, I think you'll find yourself well-rewarded if you make room for The Master Butcher's Singing Club sooner than later. I must say I find her narration style very soothing and pleasant to listen to as well as a great yarn overall. My first book by Erdrich, but I'll be looking out for more to be sure.

As I said on your thread, I started listening to the audio version of the Welty collection, and though it's an all-star cast, found these really needed to be read with the eyes, so I got it as Kindle Daily Deal as well. I might read a story from it here and there next month, though have no intention to complete this great big brick in so short a time.

I'm glad you enjoyed your latest experience with Zweig. I find his stories really appeal to my sensibilities; he seems to me like a kindred spirit somehow and was obviously a deep-feeling, complex man. The 2-volume collection I have "only" presents his complete fiction, though it should keep me busy for a while. I've also got his biography of Marie Antoinette on audio from the library, and will definitely look out for more of his non-fiction and memoir.

>285 souloftherose: Hi Heather. I'm looking forward to returning to the Peter Doig exhibit with my friend Kristyna on Thursday afternoon. It'll be her third visit and my second, and it'll be nice going with her since she's also an artist and always has interesting comments to make. She told me on the phone yesterday she and an elderly lady we know from our watercolour classes had spent 45 minutes sitting in front of that painting I love so much when they went together last week. I hope she won't mind sitting in front of it again for a while, but somehow I don't think that'll be a problem.

The Post Office Girl is another Zweig I've yet to get to, among many many others.

***

It's grey and raining and rather gloomy today, so that I need to turn all the lights on inside the house, but again, the headache is bearable, though slightly more pronounced. Nothing special planned today, but I think I'll go work on my drawing for a couple of hours now while listening to The Master Butcher's Singing Club, and I hope to knock out a couple of reviews later, specifically for Restoration, which was my third 5-star read so far this year (along with The Quick and The Garden of Evening Mists).

My Mimi is affectionate to the point of being annoying. She likes to be constantly sitting by my side and purring away, as I sit here at the desktop computer for example. This is ok, except her purring has the kind of pitch that bothers my head, and worse, she likes to do it in the middle of the night, while sitting just inches from my face and staring at me, which inevitably wakes me, which really upsets me actually, poor thing. I have trouble enough getting through the night without waking several times as it is without her overly amorous attentions! I just took this pic now. You can't hear it of course, but she's purring as always, bless her kind little heart.



eta: did I mention I'm up to 70 books already this year? I wonder if I could get to 75 by the end of the month...

Go for it!

What a sweet photo of Mimi!

I cannot believe that you have already read 70 books this year - you go, girl! Amazing! I have read...um...well, less than 70. Speaking of Zweig, I have his Post Office Girl on tap for this month, too, as I added it when I saw that Heather had listed it in the TIOLI. I have only read one other by him, but I loved it - Chess Story.

I was also thinking of Welty's Collected Stories for Mark's ACC, but I did not realize that it was so big (I have it on Kindle), so now I am wondering if I need to rethink my choice.

Hi Ilana, the books appear to flying off your shelves! (Of course I have a feeling that your shelves are filling up just as quickly!) ;)

You are so artistic, even your Bingo Cards are color co-ordinated. My are very messy, I have trouble putting the stickers on in an orderly fashion. Reminds me of the time my art teacher held my work up to the rest of the class and called it "Scruffy".

>286 Smiler69: - Super 'awe' for your pic of Mimi. what a sweetie!

Congrats on already having finished 70 books! I just finished book #18 so unless I suddenly go on a major reading marathon or replace my chunkster reads with some quick and easy books, I am not going to reach 75 books read this year, and I am okay with that. Frustrated, but okay with it. ;-)

OMG! LT has a 'new to me' feature that warns me if I am about to make a duplicate post and gives me the option to cancel the dup. Love that!

Ilana- I have listened to a few story collections on audio but I think I prefer them in print. I think I will just keep dipping in and out of the Welty collection, for as long as it takes. 2015, perhaps?

I listened to a big chunk of This Dark Road to Mercy today. This is an excellent audio, with 3 perfect narrators. Yes, I am smiling...

Woo hoo! Visitors! Taking a break from reading on the couch. I read a really fun children's title called Battle Bunny which I MUST do a little review on, if only to get more people interested in it. It seems the author, Jon Scieszka is on LT too, as I just found out. I also read from my much neglected Natural History of Selborne, which is so delightful I can't believe I haven't finished it already, but for the fact that it's a very lavish book, quite large and printed on fine paper which I've noticed shows scratches if my ring touches it, so that I'm really nervous about damaging it in any way as I read it, trying to make sure I don't bend pages, while at the same time always having to go to the index and leafing through to look at one of the many fine illustrations. It was one of my Folio purchases last year and a real treasure, but like most treasures, needs to be handled with care.

>287 drneutron: Jim, I guess I could do it this month, but I'd have to purposely choose only short reads. The last few were short, but now I'm involved with longer ones. In any case, it doesn't look it it'll be a problem to reach that goal sometime soon!

>288 Crazymamie: Hi Lori, I'm glad you like the photo of Mimi. That photo is very misleading because it makes it look like there's loads of natural light in my living room, when it was actually really dark and I had to turn on some lamps to be able to take the shot. She's balled up on me right now, purring and purring away.

The only reason I've managed to read that many books by now is because I spend so much time listening to audiobooks during my daily routine. Living alone means I can pretty much be plugged in anytime I don't need to be using my head, and I use and create as many opportunities as I can! Out of the 70, I just now counted that 39 were audiobooks. There were many many years in my life that I don't think I even managed to read a dozen books and I guess I'm trying to make up for that.

You might want to try Eudora Welty the way Mark and I will be approaching her story collection, which is to just take it in bits and not try to finish it in one month.

Curious about the new feature. Sounds very practical!

>292 msf59: I don't know if I could generalize about short stories being better in print or audio. Welty didn't work for me at all in audio, but then Annie Proulx was great to listen to with Close Range. There were also stellar readers for that one. The latest title you mention is new to me. I guess I'll see more about it on your thread soon enough.

Awww... precious Mimi! Sweet photo :-)
Sorry her purring is an irritant instead of calming. I can understand that though. I recently read that cats might purr to calm themselves as well as others.
I love when Woolly purrs. It's so relaxing to me. I prefer she not be in my face in the middle of the night, of course... but I don't have the heart to send her away. She's been so needy lately. At least I am retired and can afford a little sleep loss - catching up with a nap next day, if needed.

Awesome review and thoughts on Zealot. I'm not sure yet if I want to read it myself. Maybe.

Woke up quite cranky this morning, because both cats were at it for part of the night and much of the early morning, meowing, crowding me in bed, purring down my face and generally doing all they could to wake me up. I'd omitted to put up their dish of dry food before getting to bed, so that'll teach me. Almost finished Pot Luck by Zola last night, but was too tired to read past my usual hour, so will sit on the couch shortly to finish it. The person who wrote the introduction mostly went on and on about why this was one of his least successful novels, which I find very funny, because I find it highly entertaining. And since when is an introduction supposed to turn you off from reading a book??

eta: forgot to mention I jumped on the Audible Daily Deal and got Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter. I was prepared to dislike it because the author narrates, which often means bad narration, but I was totally engrossed in the subject from the short sample, and at less than $2, couldn't resist.

Which brings my total books purchased to date to: 120.

>294 -Cee-: Claudia, I hate to sound like I'm complaining about my cat displaying so much affection, but I guess I am, because it's just too much of a good thing. She's at it practically 24/7 with little interruption. I've noticed that Ezra's purr doesn't have the same effect on my head, while hers just sounds like a little motor that irritates my brain. I've also noticed it's better somehow when she's laying and purring on me as opposed to at me from a nearby perch, but this seems to be her preferred method. But then of course, I know many years from now, when I'm a very old lady, I'll think back and wonder how I could ever have complained of such a thing and miss her dearly.