Richardderus thread 22 of 2014

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein

(PS I do not care if Einstein said it or not, so save the GOTCHA! effort)

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

My ORPHANED books ticker:




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

My SHORT STORY collections ticker:




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

My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:




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

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

My 2014 NEW books ticker:




Books 1 & 2...thread 5.
Books 3 & 4...thread 10.
Books 5-7...thread 12.
Books 8 & 9...thread 13.
Books 10 & 11...thread 14.
Books 12-16...thread 15.
Book 17...thread 17.
Books 18 & 19...thread 19.
Book 20...thread 20.

Books are reviewed in post:

21. Clan Rathskeller...#24.

22. Kaibab Unbound...#30.

23. The Martian...#56.

24. An Unnecessary Woman...#95.

25. The Fly Trap...#254.

26. Let Him Go...#279.

THE PUBLIC SHAMING OF A REVIEW-WRITING SLACKER
updated 21 June 2014 with MORE embarrassing omissions...the bottom of the post

Books I've read that I need to write reviews for because DAMN!

Life After Life--trending towards 5 stars 9 months on
The Golem and the Jinni--settling in at 4-plus stars
The Love Box--short stories with bite, somewhere over 3 stars
The Hill Bachelors--well and truly over 4 stars, William Trevor is a story-writing demigod
An Elegy for Easterly--vacillating between almost-4 and a hair over 4 stars
The Martian--six stars out of five, the most fun I had with my clothes on in 2013 reviewed!
Outerborough Blues--a terrific Brooklyn noir, juuuuuuust misses 4 stars
Hedy's Folly--pretty woman with brains invents stuff the men can't understand, is condescended to and dismissed; blood-boiling almost-4 star read
Consider Phlebas--first Iain M. Banks read, not a huge success; 3 stars but they're grudging
The Player of Games--3-and-a-half because it's better than the first one, and because I suspect reading it too soon after being mad at the first one made me unfairly testy
Empire State--my first Adam Christopher read, I liked it almost 4 stars'-worth
North American Lake Monsters--over-3 star story collection infused with very very weird situations and characters
The Dinosaur Feather--I *loved* this thriller set in Denmark and am horribly ashamed that I haven't written its 4-star review
The Keeper of Lost Causes--simply delicious, 4 stars, go read it NOW if you haven't
Monday or Tuesday--it's Virginnie la Woolf! I'd never read it, and was very excited to; an easy 4 stars reviewed! Not quite four after all
Regeneration--late to the party; easy 5 stars; just...jaw-dropping Reviewed!
The Optimist's Daughter--at best 3.5 stars, my lady wasn't a novelist!
Delta Wedding--a hair more than 3.5 stars because I just *adore* hatin' on Dabney Reviewed!
Slaughterhouse-Five--six stars of five, don't anybody admit to me that they didn't like this book or it will damage our friendship...reviewed!
The Book of Matt--painful
The Daughters of Mars--trending towards almost-4 stars, the longer I'm away from it the less amazing it seems
The Goldfinch--started at 5, now down to 4-plus; another book where distance isn't making the read better
The Luminaries--oh my heck! At least 5 stars, such a joy to read!
Tomorrow-Land--the 1964 World's Fair! W00t! I'd say 3.5-plus?
1Q84--yes, I read the damned thing, 2.5 stars
Cloud Atlas--see above
Among Others--solid 3.5-plus, I like Walton a lot
The Cusanus Game--wowee read translated from the German, easy 3.5 stars
The Frangipani Hotel--a solid 3.5-star debut story collection, watch out for this lassie, there's better still to come from her pen
The Dark Vineyard--second Bruno-in-Provence mystery and I reveled in its 3.9-star glory reviewed! (and promoted to a full 4 stars
Don't Start Me Talkin'--a strange road novel, indie lit at its best and most interesting, another solid 4 stars
The Merry Misogynist--can you EVEN BELIEVE that I haven't reviewed a Dr. Siri in 2014?! The shame, the shame
Cold Storage, Alaska--not bad, not excellent, and worth your eyeblinks at 3 stars
Black Irish--debut thriller set in Buffalo, very very noir, pulse-pounding action that merits 3.75 stars

Oh gawd there are more, more, ever more, and I really need to get busy writing the reviews.

19 June additions
How can it be that I've never reviewed ANY of the Iron Druid Chronicles? Not ONE, except two of the novellas?!
Hounded
Hexed
Hammered
Tricked
Trapped
Hunted
Shattered (no proper touchstone yet!)
none below 3.5 stars...and I'm not gonna forget the novellas:
Clan Rathskeller reviewed!
Kaibab Unbound reviewed!--prequels to Hounded
A Test of Mettle--after Hammered
Two Ravens and One Crow
The Chapel Perilous--after Tricked

*whew*

21 June embarrassing omissions
Let Him Go--4.875 stars, Larry Watson delivers excellence but not *quite* the transcendence of which he is more than capable Reviewed!
Orchard--another Larry close-close, but only 4.5 stars...a little predictable
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia--3.9-star wry-smirk of a read, thanks Katie!
The Faithful Scribe--3.5-star good tale, but somehow misses catching fire
The Odd Clauses--a 4-star look at the wacky world of our American Constitution, and how very strange some of it really is
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
Authorisms--two 3.5-plus star explorations of language, English, and its quirky, unpredictable, and downright capricious development
The Frackers--5-star subject, 3.5-star execution, and made me beyond boilingly furious
Hill William--4-plus stars for McClanahan's spare and simple and gut-punching prose
Throne of the Crescent Moon--I like the author well enough to read his Arab-culture based fantasy novel, so I should review it, right? Say three, three and a quarter stars
An Unnecessary Woman--loved this tale of hidden depths and social invisibility, at least 4 stars reviewed!

Hola, Richard! I just downloaded TWO Kindle books that SOMEONE was warbling about around here...

>4 ronincats: You're first, Roni!!


Book Warblers! Aren't they pestiferous!

I call second!! Happy New thread. I have forgiven you now. Smooches.

Also 3rd St Mary's Book A Second Chance is on sale on Kindle for $2.99 today. : )

I already have The Gauguin Connection. No BB for me!! Neener neener.

>6 Berly: Hiya Berly-boo! So, have you started The Hanover Square Affair yet?

You are directly responsible for the two I mentioned. A third? La la la la la. I can't hear you....

Pshaw! Faugh! And other unpronounceable Victorian ejaculations. *I*, good madam, am no Book Warbler. Strictly a generous sharer of informative tit-bits.

So, have you started The Hanover Square Affair yet? It's free on your Kindle, you know. I rated it four stars. The ending made me cry happy tears because it's what I'd've written myownself.

Free? Dang you. Another TBR. Another series. And this after I moved comic books before your eighth Thingaversary? Be buggered you bloody man! (That's Victorian swearing.)

Happy New Thread, Richard!

OOOOOH Love the thread topper.... I can hear the CRACK!

I am reading a different book than the one you suggested... but will get to yours soon, I promise.

Happy new thread and happy new day.

Fantastic photo, absolutely gorgeous. I LOVE IT!!!!!!

Happy New thread Rdear! smooch

Our Beloved Curmudgeon fundraiser is officially* over!

We had 109 supporters donate $5,435 dollars. An average of $50 per person.

Thank you everyone for your generosity!

*You can continue to donate but it will not be "advertised" anymore.

Happy new thread Richarddus, great thread topper photo my friend.

Happy new thread RD! The thread topper is way cool. I started The Martian and am liking it so far, and I'll be hanging around to see what you thought of Cloud Atlas, which I have been eyeing for over a year.

A new thread for a new month. Make it a happy one!

Wait ... Do I have to say "Happy New Thread" *AGAIN*? Jeesh, I should just have that phrase cued up and ready to go at all times!

Looking forward to those reviews, several of which are on my shelf.

Now you've read The Odd Clauses you understand all the recent fuss with the SC over recess appointments, hmmm? I see all this humbuggery about Obama and his recess appointments and think, 'Yeah, right. Like none of the preceding presidents ever did that ...'

>10 Berly: *smooch* I do like buggery, so thanks!

>11 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

>12 mckait: NOT...READING...but...

Maud Martha! Fetch the sal volatile from my reticule! Kathleen has caused an attack of the vapours!

>13 Ameise1: Isn't that a stunner, Barbara? What a rare moment to be able to catch on film (or pixels or whatever)!

>14 Morphidae: You angel straight from the fleecy-lamb factory you!

>15 johnsimpson: Thanks John, have a great week ahead.

>16 Thebookdiva: Oh, so glad you're enjoying The Martian, my dear, and I hope you don't read my review of Cloud Atlas BEFORE you read the book.

>17 maggie1944: I shall exert myself to comply with your exhortation, Karen44.

>18 michigantrumpet: *snort* The oldest imaginable dodge, an escape hatch planned and planted two centuries ago cause people always been people and lawyers know that.

The GOPukes are truly appalling.

>21 richardderus: Sing it Brother!

>19 richardderus: Thought you did. ; )

Review: 21 of seventy-five

Title: CLAN RATHSKELLER

Author: KEVIN HEARNE

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: This is a free short story that takes place ten months before the events of Hounded, the first book in the Iron Druid Chronicles.

My Review: Atticus gets naked in a Christmas-packed Tempe mall, helps Santa's elves (who're actually gnomes on a vendetta) get revenge against a kobold (did you know that Pompeii was destroyed because some kobolds were ticked at a local wizard? neither me, ain't history grand), and kills a faery with a pickup truck.

Oberon, meanwhile, pines for a sandwich, a muffin, some sausage...anything! Anything! Hungry!!

Eighteen pages, maybe 15 minutes to read, and a goodly amount of snorting, giggling, and musing on how much I wish this reality was the one I lived in.


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I really really need to read the shorts... just not got round to it yet :/ But then I also still have Shattered stored up like a guilty stash of *insert-guilty-foodstuff-here*.

>23 Berly: ;-)

>25 BekkaJo: It's worth savoring the reads, since it's another entire YEAR before the next book in the series.

*broken sobbing*

Whoa, Nellie Belle! That's some topper! Be careful while trying to get your hands on the pot of gold. Seriously, that's Mother Nature at her finest. I've never seen anything like that.

Atticus and Oberon at the mall - irresistible. I'm on it.

Congrats on the new thread. Now get a hold of yourself. Jodi Taylor will take up some of slack while you wait on Kevin Hearne.

Okay - I've just downloaded the two latest aforementioned books that you have gotten sucked into, and have also downloaded Clan Rathskeller too. Between you and Eva, you're my current worst offenders for Book Warbling.

In other news, I've just made up a dessert for one of my book club meetings tonight, and I'm not sure if it'll be good or not. I bought a largish pound cake, sliced it lengthwise 3 times and alternated homemade peach jam and cream cheese frosting between the layers. Is this okay? Gross? Too sweet? Too dry? Any help/suggestions is much appreciated. (I'd wanted to add Georgia peach slices to the top, but they're not quite ripe enough yet.)

And, I'm hosting a 4th of July Readathon over here if any of y'all would like to participate!

I was wondering how I could have missed a whole thread but then I realized that the last thread was #20, Vol. 2.

Love the topper photo!!

Review: 22 of seventy-five

Title: KAIBAB UNBOUND

Author: KEVIN HEARNE

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A short story in The Iron Druid series that occurs two weeks before the events of the first book.

My Review: A few things I'd wondered about were answered in this short. It's worth reading just for a small bit of background developed in a satisfying way.

Atticus and Oberon, both in wolfhound form, running through the gorgeousness of the Kaibab Plateau...that, by itself, is enough reason to read the story. If you've been to the Grand Canyon, this vignette will bring back a sharp, tangy sense memory. If you haven't, what the devil are you waiting for?! No one's gettin' any younger and by the end of this decade travel will be vastly more difficult and expensive than it is now.

Ahem.

So, anyway, Atticus the Druid saves the elemental Kaibab from a trio of vile women. I liked that.


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

>27 jnwelch: Everyone thinks leprechauns are those idiotic smurfy things in the cereal commercials! I'd run a mile to avoid a real leprechaun.

>28 LauraBrook: Some brandy over the poundcake *just* before serving and Bob's you uncle. xo

>29 SuziQoregon: Hi Juli! Impressive, ain't it, what ol' Stepmother Nature can get up to.

Richard, I just hit the thumb for your review of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Having read the book myself I knew of which you wrote. Good review!

>32 maggie1944: Why thankee most kindly, Miss Karen44! *smooch*

Howdy RD! Happy New thread! Love the topper. I also liked your review of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I'll have to check that one out. Were you referring to Madam Kath, (of the Hummingbird's Daughter fame) in the review?

Happy new thread Richard.

Lovely rainbow and lightning, Richard.

>34 msf59: Glad you liked my review! Yes indeed, I was pointing a finger directly at Kath.

>35 GeezLouise: Hi there Rae! Very happy to see you here.

>36 EBT1002: Ain't that somethin'? A wowser for sure.

>3 richardderus: woah. It looks like you have some work on your hands with that lot!!!

You'd need some poundcake recently doused with brandy to keep your energy up, I am sure.

>38 LovingLit: ...now there's a fine idea...

I really must read some of the IDC novellas. I've only managed one thus far. You're warbling makes me want to purchase more. :)

Previous thread #304... Holy moly!!!! That is one HUGELY romantic gesture, Richard! My mouth dropped open! You MUST KEEP him. This is not negotiable. ;)

>40 TinaV95: I still can't quite believe it. What a darling. SO many reasons to keep him!

I can't believe I read the IDC shorts before you did! You were such a warbler for the damn thing I just assumed you'd read everything there was to read about Atticus and Oberon. Of course, I still don't have Shattered so I mustn't be too smug ...

Where is this review in which I was no doubt unfairly maligned ? I see it not. Link me baby, if you dare!

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, you remember.

And what the hell are you doing awake at this hour?!? You have work tomorrow! Bed! Bed!

I remember. Beautiful book.where is your review.
Apparently gin keeps me awake, dammit.

Waiting for benedryl to kick in...

>45 mckait: Here.

>46 mckait: Gin and benadryl! Nighty-night.

Not sleepy

Yet

Sirens

Uh oh

And re: Hummingbird's Daughter. . .

: P ~~~~~~~~~

Philistine

Just flitting through to clear the unreads and say Happy July!

I love the expression, "Bob's your uncle". Not sure why that makes everything okay - he must be quite a guy.

I like that expression, too!

>48 mckait:, >49 mckait:, >52 mckait: *smooch*

It's a crummy book.

>50 tututhefirst: Hi Tina! Hope all's well Down East.

>51 jnwelch: Hi Joe! He is indeed the paragon of all things uncle, apparently.

>26 richardderus: It's worth savoring the reads, since it's another entire YEAR before the next book in the series.

*broken sobbing*

More than an entire year dearest. Next January Luke Skywalker novel, then Book 1 in the epic fantasy about giants, then IDC book 8. Way more than a year. Let it out. Let it out.



He said he would throw us a bone = short story.

I am not quite caught up with your last thread yet, but happy new thread, BigDaddy! I adore the quote up top. Hoping that Wednesday is being kind to you.

Review: 23 of seventy-five

Title: THE MARTIAN

Author: ANDY WEIR

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first man to die there.

It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he's stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to get him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. For today, which appears to be World UFO Day (snort), it's your favorite SF/F novel, and boy howdy does this qualify!

Starting from the get-go, "Well, I'm fucked", you know Mark Watney isn't going to be one of those steely-eyed, square-jawed Ken-doll astronauts. Those came on the first and second Mars landings, vetted and trained (I don't doubt) by PR consultants as heavily as by scientists. Watney's on the third Mars landing, the one that won't get a parade on their safe return just a handshake and a Groupon for free Tim Horton's or summat like that.

And thank goodness for that, because Kendoll Astronautibot would've Died the Glorious Death for PR purposes. Watney's a helluva lot more fun.

And that is the crux of my review: FUN.

“Well, it is a photo taken from orbit,” Mindy said. “The NSA enhanced the image with the best software they have.”

“Wait, what?” Venkat stammered. “The NSA?”

“Yeah, they called and offered to help out.”

Maybe some po-faced Grimsby McFrownington doesn't think that's side-splittingly funny, but I sure as hell do.

This book is something unusual in my long experience of reading SF. It is exciting, it is convincing, and it is FUN. (Make that reading, not just reading SF.) Andy Weir took a very, very serious situation...life and death, not remotely figuratively...and didn't minimize any of the stakes, didn't make the mistake of downplaying OR overplaying the main character's nature, and delivered a believable smartass engineer, a lateral thinker and a complete fatalist who refuses to give up until he's actually assumed room temperature:

I could cut off an arm and eat it, gaining me valuable calories and reducing my overall caloric need.

I need a minute...laughing....

Now that, my chick-a-biddies, is Andy Weir making an angry, frustrated, maddened-by-stupidity old man lose it, howling with laughter, before he's finished his first cup of coffee. If I were religious, I'd have him on the Sainthood Watch List for performing miracles while still alive, from a long distance.

We all know that there's a movie on the way, starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott (he's a hard sneeze away from EIGHTY YEARS OLD and he's directing this! mother, may I please be Ridley Scott in my next lifetime?). The odds are reasonably good that this team won't eff it all up and make it into a s'mores-around-the-campfire-Kumbaya-singin'-Murrika-First nightmare. There are real stakes here, and the book delivers laughs while delivering some deeply pulse-pounding action.

And Everything Comes Out Right.

How refreshing is that. How very seldom do we get entertainment where everything comes out right. Post-apocalyptic zombie-plague vampires-eating-your-mama political/prison dramas. Kids dying of cancer before they're old enough to drink played as a romantic theme. Soldiers coming back from the idiot wars our political scum sent them to fight for hugely profitable untaxed corporate "people," who now even have religious rights that I don't think ordinary humans deserve.

It is not a pretty world out there. But for a blessed day or so, Andy Weir made me, the bitterest angriest most man-the-barricades-and-lube-the-tumbrils old cynic y'all know, smile with the uncomplicated happiness of a churchgoer at a picnic. It didn't last, unlike the idiot's bliss, but I treasured it while it was happening. Mark Watney, you get the last word:

I can't wait till I have grandchildren. When I was younger, I had to walk to the rim of a crater. Uphill! In an EVA suit! On Mars, ya little shit! Ya hear me? Mars!

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

Something must be wrong. Haven't seen a cup of coffee over here. waves

I got to be your first thumb for that delightful review, BigDaddy. Well said - I loved that one, too!

>54 luvamystery65: You don't know what kind of whammying I'm doing...it'll be sooner than that...pass the poison ivy stems, oh and the frog testicles too...

>55 Crazymamie:, 58 Mamie me lurve! Thanks for the thumb. I did love that book.

>57 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! What a pretty picture in that cappucino foam. Yum! Have a lovely Wednesday.

Off I go to thumbs up. SF, partcularly outer-space-ish, planetary-type SF is definitely not my thing, but you may have changed my mind on this one.

Great review, Richard.

>60 bookwoman247: Oh, how lovely of you to say so! Thank you for that compliment. I do encourage even the non-SFnally inclined to read this book because it's such a mood-lifter. The science stuff is easy to spot and can safely be skipped for the uninterested reader.

>56 richardderus: Thumbed and enjoyed! xoxo

>62 luvamystery65: *smooch* thanks for the thumb!

>56 richardderus: Gah! Must pick this back up! I wasn't sold on the first few pages and got distracted. But I trust you so I will pick back up :)

>64 BekkaJo: Give it at least 40pp...and remember, the sciencey stuff can be skimmed! *smooch* for trying again

>56 richardderus: "...hugely profitable untaxed corporate "people"

Ha! That was worth the price of admission alone, my friend. Thumbing now.

>66 michigantrumpet: *smooch* Thanks for the thumb!

That is a fantastic review of The Martian. Loved it!

>68 drneutron: Great! Thanks, Jim. It was a real pleasure to read.

Nice review, but you didn't get me - it's already on the wishlist!

(I'm off to get that Hummingbird Cake in the oven now...)

>70 scaifea: Well, get it *off* the wishlist and *onto* the Kindle for $5.12! Quick sticks!

*smooch* for the hummingbird cake

>71 richardderus: Nope, no kindle here. Only those old-fangled books for me.

>56 richardderus: The Martian has been on my list and has been accordingly moved up, and your review thumbed.

See, I do read your thread (occasionally) :) *smooch*

>72 scaifea: $11 used. Rilly.

>73 bell7: *smooch* Thanks, Mary! Enjoy the read, and I strongly suspect you will.

>56 richardderus: The review made me laugh. Imagine what the book will do. Thumbed!

>75 Morphidae: Thank you, Morphy! It's a treat of a read. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

>56 richardderus: Aces, compadre. Love that line to the grandchildren! Pulgar from moi.

>77 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe, it really was a huge pleasure to read that book. It *still* makes me feel less grim about the world. Quite an achievement, that.

Shamelessly using your thread to ask for more ideas for Thingaversary Theme Ideas:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/176863

Love ya!

>79 Berly: Oh fine fine fine, ignore my review of The Martian, no really please do I like it when people pretend I'm not writing reviews, honest I do.

>:-|

No. Really. No need to feel all bad, and go apply a guilt-thumbing or anything. No. Don't be silly.

>:-|= (It's a Dracula emoticon)

>53 richardderus: xo

It is a wonderful book.
>:-|=

So is The Martian

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was indeed wonderful(ish)! Why would you imply I felt otherwise?

Yes, The Martian is a rare whole-crowd pleaser. It was a genuine pleasure to feel upbeat for a few days. I'd forgotten how good it can feel not to scowl!

I"m not telling you which book bullets hit. My wishlist is intimidating as it is.

*smooches* xoxo

Great review of The Martian, RD! Keep spreading The Martian joy. Everyone NEEDS to read that baby! I NEED a copy for my Keeper shelf!!

GOOD LAWSY ME!! AUNTIE EM AUNTIE EM IT'S A TWISTER!!

Well, no it's not, but it's a right impressive thunderboomer. I do love a storm. But power might go out, so I bid all a good evening.

>83 AuntieClio: Heh. Some did, apparently. *evil Scooby dance*

>84 msf59: I agree whole-heartedly, Mark, EVERYONE needs to read The Martian! It's just too darn much fun to keep to ourselves.

Calmed down now. Saw this, am in awe.

Oh cool! That's a beautiful aurora!

Fun review of a great book, Richard! I'm the 11th thumb.

I'm #13 thumbs up for your wonderful review of The Martian

How I wish I could write like you!

>80 richardderus: I already got the book and now I have to thumb your review too?! You are a very demanding fellow. Stop smiling. No, not the teeth!! Now look what...you have done...just this little typing...all the blood loss...too anemic...to raise...my...thu.............

Good Thursday Morning, BigDaddy! I need this coffee mug:

RD, I am a little late t0 y0ur latest thunder0us extravaganza but I th0ught I'd let y0u kn0w that y0u are cl0se t0 0verhauling little 0ld punch-drunk me with Amber chasing the pair 0f us d0wn w0manfully.

Presently
PC 6682
RD 6444
Amber 5875

Als0 wanted t0 say a little thanky0u f0r y0ur g00d sense and kindness t0 me and mine recently. xx

Oh hey, just started The Martian (before reading your review). Glad it got the curmudgeon dancing and hope to join in soon. And that photograph of the rainbow and the lightning: what are the odds of capturing something like that? Wow.

p.s. so what does NSA stand for? National Space Agency? National Safety Agency?

Popped in early to wish you a happy 4th and hope you are feeling better! Also, I know that here I won't feel so guilty about being behind on my 5 reviews waiting to be written.

Saw your Hot Review on the Captain Lacey series - which I have the first sitting on my Nook waiting - now I'm afraid to start!

Keep cool, dear Richard, here's hoping you have a glorious 4th painfree and book full!

{{{Smooches}}}

Review: 24 of seventy-five

Title: AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN

Author: RABIH ALAMEDDINE

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: One of Beirut’s most celebrated voices, Rabih Alameddine follows his international bestseller, The Hakawati, with a heartrending novel that celebrates the singular life of an obsessive introvert, revealing Beirut’s beauties and horrors along the way.

Aaliya Sohbi lives alone in her Beirut apartment, surrounded by stockpiles of books. Godless, fatherless, divorced, and childless, Aaliya is her family’s "unnecessary appendage.” Every year, she translates a new favorite book into Arabic, then stows it away. The thirty-seven books that Aaliya has translated have never been read—by anyone. After overhearing her neighbors, "the three witches,” discussing her too-white hair, Aaliya accidentally dyes her hair too blue.

In this breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman’s late-life crisis, readers follow Aaliya’s digressive mind as it ricochets across visions of past and present Beirut. Insightful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and Aaliya’s volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left.

A love letter to literature and its power to define who we are, the gifted Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of a single woman's reclusive life in the Middle East.

My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is to discuss your favorite novel in translation. So far this year, this is my hands-down favorite novel translated from the furrin.

What does it mean to be invisible? If you choose not to interact with the world, become a recluse, divest yourself of close relationships and divorce yourself from the life of the boudoir, and seal yourself away in a capsule formed of books and words, you are a freak. Aaliya's neighbors think she's a ruined woman. Aaliya's customers at the bookstore she works at, intellectuals all, don't notice her enough to form an opinion, and her family (absent the dearest companion of her life, her *true* family, a departed friend) hasn't given her much attention at all.

She lives in Beirut, that once-fabulous once-gorgeous ruin on the Mediterranean, an early victim of the endless idiotic religious wars of the region. Aaliya represents Beirut's decline from a world-class cultural center to a shuttered mass of broken buildings holding wary, angry people.

Aaliya is an angry woman, or at least I see her as such, and has walled herself in to avoid the nasty consequences of being angry amid armed and angry men. She would not be isolated if Beirut wasn't what it is, I think, because she is a reflection of the energy of that wounded and dying place. She preserves her sanity by translating her beloved books, the beauties of which she renders into the sinuous sonorous rhythms of Arabic. And then, like she does with her self, she packages them up and puts them away. They are safe. They are invisible.

This is tragic. This is a sin. A woman, a mere woman, cannot be her full self; a book, a useless object, cannot spread its beauties for fear that it will not be appreciated or will be used as a weapon by the religious idiots.

And this is the reason I give this book over four stars. Alameddine has created a literary person's most deeply felt example of why the world appears to be headed directly for the bottom of the septic tank: Aaliya reads and thinks on and renders the majesty and magic of words into the language of her people, and then cannot, will not, dare not allow them out of her keeping.

This book should have made me feel claustrophobic. It appears to be a scream from within the coffin that anti-intellectual religious idiots are all but nailing shut around the world. (Creation SCIENCE?! REALLY?!) Instead I felt...uplifted in a curious way, heartened, encouraged. Alameddine sees it too! He created this most marginal of marginal beings, the unmarried childless woman intellectual in an Islamic society, and set her to singing. Aaliya sings her thoughts, sings her translations, warbles her precious quotes to herself, her best and only audience. She makes beauty from beauty as she sits and rots in the cesspool of gawd.

I don't know if this is a cautionary tale, an elegy, or the queitest jeremiad of all time. I do know that I can't, and don't wish to, forget Aaliya.


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

>95 richardderus: Nice review indeed, RD. Added to my WL.

>91 Crazymamie: Yes! Need one of these.

>87 drneutron: Isn't it somethin' special? So ethereal, and seen from space so...poignant.

>88 ronincats: Thank you, Roni! *smooch*

>89 Whisper1: Awww, thank for the lovely compliment (and the thumb), Linda! Glad you're making your way around again.

>90 Berly: ...and the Undead Reviewer strikes again...

>91 Crazymamie: Oh!! Oh!!! I love it! Thanks, Mamie!

>92 PaulCranswick: Good gravy! It's a close-run thing, eh Paul? And I have no doubt that Amber will see us both off by 31 Dec.

Side note...I get a *huge* chuckle out of your inadvertent 1337-speak with the 0s.

>93 tiffin: National Security Agency, a Bush-era abomination set up to spy on everyone everywhere all the time. Disgusting.

I hope The Martian will work well for you, too!

>94 cyderry: Hi Cheli! Thanks for coming by. The 4th looks to be stormy here, which works fine for me. As long as the power doesn't go out, I like thunderstorms.

Have a fabOO day and Holiday!

>98 richardderus: Not to disagree with you too sharply Richard but NSA predates George W. Bush. It sticks in my memory because my grandfather (who was State Department - and maybe a spook) liked to joke that NSA stood for No Such Agency.

>96 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! I think you'll like An Unnecessary Woman a good deal.

>99 Oberon: Its existence predates Bush indeed, Erik, but its role grew (I'd say "metastasized" but I am intolerant and loudmouthed and spoilin' for a fight about the right wing's gifts to the nation) and it became all it could be under that complete and utter vile stinkin' Repulsivecan war criminal.

*ahem*

There I go again.

>80 richardderus: >97 richardderus: Smooches for the Great Undead Reviewer.

>100 richardderus: Far be it for me to stand in the way of your righteous (and justified IMO) rage!

>101 Berly: *smooch*

>102 Oberon: Wise, young man, very wise indeed, for the fires of my breath are set to "crisp" and the Hobby Lobby ruling has riled me up somethin' fierce.

Feeling quite virtuous -- stopping into B&N to make a Return(!) and race out again. Then *tbis* magically pops into my arms. No idea how it got there ...

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

In my defense, it was bargained priced at $3.99.

Nuts! Struck again!

>104 michigantrumpet: Good gravy, lady! At $3.99 we don't count things as purchases. One spends more money than that merely flipping on the TV. Besides, the pleasure you'll get from the read is *easily* worth $12. (Don't snort dismissively at the young swain.)

Have a spectacular 4th of July Richard hope you enjoy the coming weekend.

>106 GeezLouise: Many thanks, Rae, and the same for all the Pecan Paradiso-ites. Try not to sweat to death in the heat.

I will try not to Richard spending most of my day inside where it is cool.

>93 tiffin:, >98 richardderus: Actually, the NSA was formed from a WWII code-breaking unit by Harry Truman following the war. There's been controversy about aspects of their mission all along, including domestic surveillance of anti-Vietnam-War demonstrators, civil rights activists and the like. The post-9/11 reaction by the Bush White House certainly didn't help, though.

The post-9/11 reaction by the Bush White House certainly didn't help, though.

Nor did the further expansion under the Obama Administration.

>109 drneutron: >110 katiekrug: That's it, in a nutshell. On the left, we forget that the Obama administration has dramatically expanded stuff like NSA surveillance and drone attacks. On the right, they tend to forget that problems at the VA were hardly some thing unique to Eric Shinseki's tenure -- indeed, in the early years of the Iraq war there were horrifying stories coming out of Walter Reed, and that was under the Bush regime. We picks and we chooses, according to our political POV.

>111 Chatterbox: - Agreed. But I hope my pointing a finger at the current Administration doesn't send the message that I prefer the other side (despite a flirtation when I was younger...)! Not happy with either/any of them :)

Cool little video that will hit you right in the feels.

A day in the life of the New York Public Library

http://www.upworthy.com/hm-whats-this-line-for-the-library-whatthewhat-whats-in-...

(You have a much broader audience than I, so I thought I would share here, as well as on my thread.)

>109 drneutron:, >110 katiekrug:, >111 Chatterbox:, >112 katiekrug: I'll state the obvious again, for ample reasons: Obama is nothing like a Democrat, a real Democrat like the late lamented Daniel Patrick Moynihan or Ted Kennedy. He's a Rockefeller Repulsivecan, a sort of to-the-right version of John Lindsay, former NYC mayor.

There *are* no Democrats anymore, party labels aside. There's a right-of-center party, the Dems, a wingnut loonytunes scary-monsters right wing party, the GOPukes, and scary American Tea-liban fascist theocrats.

Time for a revolution, the October 1917 kind, with firing squads aimed at the rich and the religious, mass graves filled with same, and expropriation of the means of production. It won't hurt me, it will help me, and that seems to be what the comfortably middle-class use as *their* guideline...so why not me?

>113 mahsdad: Heh, go right ahead!

There are also no Republicans, in the classic sense of that party's definition. It reminds me of the lyrics to to the "Time Warp", from "Rocky Horror", as modified by yours truly,

"It's just a jump to the right
and then a gesture to the left..."

*snort* Very true, a gesture vaguely towards the left. And thanks for the earworm.

You know, The Stig is non-partisan...

>117 scaifea: AND he knows how to drive! *sigh*

The Ombre-Crested Satanic Book Warbler's latest "gift" to me arrived:
Burial Rites
Also in today's haul:
A Proper Knowledge--coming home from its voyages, as I lent it out. It's the novel by Michelle Latiolais, whose story collection Widow: Stories made me warble loudly.
Music of the Swamp--an ER win, a republication of a Lewis Nordan (he of Wolf Whistle fame) I can't wait to get to!

You're welcome, for both the earworm and the "gift"...

>119 Chatterbox: *grumble*

Continuing to whittle away the embarrassingly immense backlog of books I have something to say about but haven't written the review yet, today's inspired-by-a-meme choice is Slaughterhouse-Five! I've reviewed it in my Homeless thread...post #30.

Happy Independence Day :)

Happy day altogether!

>95 richardderus: Yes, Creation "science" RD, really. That's one of the reasons they put the "oxy" on the front of "moron" to create the noun. There is a 2006 Harvard study about religious beliefs that will scare you to death, but I'll avoid direct reference in deference to your fragile health.

Great review of the Vonnegut, RD! Big Thumb! Did you post it over on the AAC thread?

>121 mckait: Thank you, sweetness! *smooch* It's going to storm here, but no bigs because there's no entertaining going on (blessedly).

>122 mldavis2: Nothing that does not provide a testable hypothesis is science. Hence the problems with string theory. What's the testable hypothesis in creationism?!

My brain hurts. I need to bathe it in Bombay, tonic water, and limes. See ya later.

>123 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I did indeed post the link on the AAC thread.

Oooooo I've given The Martian to the spousal unit.....he'll probably hoard it for awhile....

Good morning, Richard. Just moseying around for a bit of time.

Great review of The Martian! I'll be thumbing and adding.

Outstanding review of An Unnecessary Woman. I am completely bowled over. I think it's on the kindle. If not, I'm adding it. Also thumbing.

A good long week-end to you, filled with books.

>125 sibylline: I will just bet he will! It's a damn fine book and a good read. Let us all know what he thinks.

>126 Matke: How do, Danvers me lurve. I think you'll really resonate with An Unnecessary Woman because of her reverence for literature. Aaliya is only unnecessary to the uninitiated, the oblivious. Thanks for the thumb!

*smooch*

Happy Fourth of July, Murrikin friends! Enjoy the fireworks, all!

124> The problem is that much of the general public either never learned or has forgotten from high school science days, the Scientific Method. Science is not always right but it is self-correcting through careful experimentation and rigorous peer review. That's what gives it its success and continuing approximation towards truth. That is a foreign concept to (for example) too many politicians and other charlatans. We allow them their own beliefs, but we do not allow them to make up their own facts to support their own nefarious purposes.

I had an Asimov paperback around here somewhere ... whenever I need a dash of fantasy...

And as a tangential reminder, many of us who experienced proximity to hostile fire and active war zones do not share the general civilian fascination with fireworks. Please be aware of any neighboring veterans who exhibit discomfort when you throw those cherry bombs in your bird baths.

Happy Fourth of July, Ricardo!! We still live in a grand country. Smooch.

Happy Fourth, RD! Hope you're having a fine Friday.

*smooches* from your own Horrible

Happy 4th, Richard!

Hope you and Stella are R & R'ing all day today.

Happy fourth of July Richard.

Happy 4th, Richard

>129 mldavis2: We allow them their own beliefs, but we do not allow them to make up their own facts to support their own nefarious purposes.

Sadly that is precisely what I see occurring in the post-Roberts Court world.

I don't like firecrackers and cherry bombs and bang-makers, either. I do like the pretty sky-filling colorful ones!

>130 Berly: *smooch* Happy happy!

>131 karenmarie: It's humid, but at least the horrorcane isn't happenin'. Allahu Akbar. *smooch* for my little Djokovichian

>132 jnwelch: ...uhhhmmm...whadju say I can't...uhhhhh

>133 johnsimpson: Thank you, John! It's my day to shout "Leather the Brits!" without guilt. ;-)

>134 cameling: oooooo

ummmmm

*sigh*

Happy Fourth, Richard dear. It's been a quiet but productive one here--deck, margaritas, grilling beef ribs and yellowtail, and some wirework.

>137 ronincats: Happy Fourth, Roni! I saw the wirework. Left comments.

I'm happily reading along, but had a NASTY stomach reaction to the gout meds. I'd hoped those were of the past. Not so. Still, it's calmed down.

Noisy here and sure to get more noisome. There's a "bacon festival" not far from here which will feature fireworks. Not to mention the neighborhood boys who manage to find illegal fireworks to explode all summer. I will, as usual, curl up with a book and ignore it the best I can.

In other news, am making some small progress.

I am sorry your tummy is reactive.... I hope you feel much better much soon! And keep on reading. That is what I've been doing most of today. READING. Whew. I really need a couple few days of just reading.

>139 AuntieClio: Best response: Avoidance! Yes.

*smooch* for progress

>140 maggie1944: I'm sorry too, thank you. It's just no fun at all!

Back to reading.

I'm getting it from both directions tonight! Right outside on the street beneath my window. And if I look outside my door I can hear and see fireworks from downtown. Plus some bozo has his car stereo turned up to 11. I really don't like celebrations in this neighborhood.

Happy New Thread, RD and Wow on the thread topper pic!

You have been book warbling you way through certain threads again, I see. Not complaining. Here to thank you for the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries. My two loves - Regency and mystery - in one series, how can I pass on something that good.

Dodging all of the other books mentioned here because I think you hit me hard enough with the Captain Lacey books.... just sayin'. ;-)

Rdear, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

Yeah, July 4 can be noisy. So can the week or two before and after. It wasn't as bad this year as it has been in the past, but it was pretty constant. Hopefully tonight will be a bit quieter. Also hope that you feel better, today xo

Happy Saturday, RD! Hope you have plenty of R & R on the schedule.

>146 msf59: What a waste of unground beans ...

I didn't realize how cruel a man you were, RD.

*smooch* for my little Djokovichian

Blech. Yuck. Urp.

I've just coined a new word in honor of your challenge - Feder-er-alist!!!!! I'm one.

And I hope RF wipes the grass with Djerko tomorrow.

But I just might take you up on your suggestion of Eagle Pass next year.

Have a loverly Saturday and beautimous Sunday.

*smooch* back

Good morning, Dear. Lomotil may be the answer to the tum trouble. Not sure, but maybe; it's what the hubster used.

So, good reading and reviewing by your kind self. It's good to see your thoughts, naughty or nice, on books once again.

A peaceful book-filled weekend is wished for you.

smooch

>142 AuntieClio: Yuck. So sorry to hear it! At least the hoopla is over for a year.

>143 lkernagh: Hi Lori! I'm pleased that my purely informational posting about a book alerted you to a new and desirable series! I must correct your impression of one matter, though: *I* do not book-warble, as *I* am merely an interested reader who passes his impressions of the good and bad qualities of a book on to the other site denizens.

Satanic Book Warblers are malicious souls Hell-bent on compelling, nay forcing!, the impoverished and constrained among us (eg, me) to surrender to uncontrollable book-concupiscence. Such as Suz, Caro, Mark, and so on.

See? Worlds of difference!

>144 Ameise1: Happy weekend, Barbara!

Enjoyed your Slaughterhouse Review on the Expandable Mudge post, Richard. Read it back in the days when I was full of fire and fomentation.

>145 mckait: More tummy issues, I'm afraid. But the Macy's fireworks last night were amazeballs. Those purple fountains off the bridge...! Thank you, Mayor DiBlasio, for granting permission to do that effect.

>146 msf59: Oooh I can smell the brewed beany goodness from here! Yum. I'm all set for a gorgeous day, coolish, breezy, and sunshiney!

>147 mldavis2: They can (and will, no doubt) be swept up and ground. Never you fret.

>148 karenmarie: Federeralist!! HA!!

Eagle Pass is a heat-friendly, drought-tolerant maker of HUGE pods. Permaybehaps your pals at work will be intrigued. But the height makes them excellent biomass enhancing trellises.

>149 Matke: Thanks, Danvers me lurve. It's a peaceful one indeed. The Gruesome Twosome invited a friend of mine to visit, so she's going to be here this evening and tomorrow. Very nice!

>151 tiffin: Thank you, Tui! The books *still* fills me with fire and fomentation. Forty-five years after first publication, it's not one whit less true. Or less infuriating.

Morning! Although in your neck of the woods, perhaps Afternoon! would be more fitting. Hope the tummy settles down today. Smooch.

>154 Berly: Hiya Berly-boo! I hope it does, too. *smooch*

I've finally reviewed the second Bruno, Chief of Police, mystery! It's called The Dark Vineyard, it's set in the delicious little market town of Saint-Denis (which, like Three Pines, isn't on the dratted map), and there is so much scrummy food-and-wine talk it made me raid the refrigerator even to write the review in my Crime, Thriller, and Mystery thread, post #164.

Rdear, I love Bruno Chief of Police series. I would say I'm addicted to it. I read your review. Thumb up.

>157 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara! I appreciate the upgethumbing.

Hi Richardmydear, as usual I'm far, far, far behind on your thread.

>159 connie53: Hi Connie! How is your knee faring?

I'm always behind, so never fear.

Enjoy your time with the friend. That can make a world of difference that lasts a long time... I know all about that wee miracle :)

Thumbed the french wine review...

>161 mckait: *smooch*

>162 mckait: Thanks, sweetness! Say, have you read The Hanover Square Affair yet?

almost there.... maybe later, or tomorrow. I had 2 reviews to write for work and now working on a Vine. So.. getting there.. honest. xo

I might have mentioned it before, but I was quite taken with the book, and the next one's just as much fun.

In case you were wondering, or anything.

I'm so sorry about the meds giving you tummy troubles but are they helping with the gout?

*smooches*

Just ripped off a third Henning Mankell mystery this week. They can be addictive, but I must move on.

>165 richardderus: gotcha ...lol

>163 richardderus: You really should check out my post >205 tiffin: on my thread...!

>166 Morphidae: Blessedly, yes, the gout isn't as much the problem as the gastric ickies. Oh well, this can be tweaked with dosages and the like.

>167 luvamystery65: *smooch*

>168 mldavis2: I found the first one pleasant but never kept the series going. Just not in the mood, permaybehaps.

>169 mckait: Oh you minx!

>170 Berly: Interesting. You're reading some book I've never heard of. Huh.

:-P

I gave a huge thumbs up to your review of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane! I bought the book in hard back when it was new... and it is still sitting on a shelf around here in my office waiting for me to pick it up.

This just may move it to the top of Mount TBR!!!! :)

Hmmmm I picking up that you are rather ..... well ambivalent about the Martian True /False ???

Sunday *smoochies*. Hope you are feeling a bit better?

A good Sunday morning to you, filled with coffee, books, pleasant chatting.

Somehow I had the impression that you didn't like Deliverance Dane. Having finally found and read your review, I realize my mistake. It's on my Summer Reading List (possible), if I can find, charge, and use the nook.

I love seeing all your reviews lately. They make my day!

smooch

So he does like it? I got all baffled when he put it together with Hummingbirds Daughter, somewhere, which he hated for some mysterious reason, some lapse of judgement or something.

Coffee.. I need more

So rd.. I hope that your weekend is moving on in the most pleasant way possible!
Any more fireworks?

*smooch* from your own Horrible

It is All Your Fault that I am deep, deeeeeeep, fathoms-below in Love with Just One Damned Thing After Another and have already purchased all available books in the series. Curses! A plague on both your houses! No, a Dickens on both your houses!

>150 richardderus: Methinks thou dost protest too much. :)

In all seriousness, though, thank you SO MUCH for introducing me to this series. It is Most Excellent, indeed. *smooch* Now if this house would only clean itself, and the laundry would do itself, I could sit on my large behind and just read the whole damn series front to back!

>178 LauraBrook: Now if this house would only clean itself, and the laundry would do itself, I could sit on my large behind and just read the whole damn series front to back!



;-)

>179 luvamystery65: Hah! I think I just found my next tattoo. ;)

>172 TinaV95: TBH, I'd largely forgotten that read until it was brought back up here. It was a nice way to wile away some time. I hope you like it!

>173 roundballnz: Well, you know me, Alex...hard to read, a bit cagey when asked for my opinion and unlikely ever to volunteer it.

What? Stop laughing, you'll hurt yourself.

>174 BekkaJo: I am indeed, thanks Bekka! It's another perfectly lovely summer day, 28C and breezy and sunshiney.

>175 Matke: Thank you, Danvers me lurve, it's been lovely. I liked The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane just fine. It's not a memorably marvelous book for me, but it certainly made the time pass pleasantly.

>176 mckait: *sigh* Have more coffee, sweetness, and permaybehaps it will jump-start your neurons and you'll realize how awful a book that hummingbird thing was. I mean, celebrating the abuse and neglect of a poor little girl whose mental illness went undiagnosed and untreated is icksome.

>177 karenmarie: *smooch* Hiya Horrible!

>178 LauraBrook: I'm really glad you liked The Chronicles of St Mary's! The short stories are pretty good, but not near as fulfilling as the novels are. Quel surprise, I know. They are rewarding, these books, and that's enough for moi.

>179 luvamystery65:, >180 LauraBrook: *snort*

I've reviewed the sixth Doubleday UK Book-A-Day meme entry, What Book Would You Put Down to Watch Wimbledon?

Doc Savage: Fortress of Solitude/The Devil Genghis, of course. It's fun to relive innocent days gone by, but so easy to take a break...even a long one...and know catching up won't be troublesome. Visit my review in the Orphans thread...post #34.

*smooches* Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

>184 michigantrumpet: Thanks, Marianne! It's a lovely weekend indeed. *smooch*

>182 richardderus: Should I skip the short stories? I haven't gotten around to them yet.

I do believe Just One Damned Thing After Another is already sitting at my office (where I have my amazoid book purchases delivered) waiting for me to return.....

>186 Morphidae: Read the first one between 1 & 2. The second after 3 to make the wait for 4 more palatable!

>187 EBT1002: doooobiiieeeee doooooobieeeeeee doooooooooooooo
(the Bud Ice penguins)

>181 richardderus: Nicely played ...... back the Book been on my radar for a bit, might get added to Kindle soon

I have been completely unable to read today. Woe.

>189 roundballnz: I encourage you to do so tout suite!

>190 mckait: EW!! Awfulness. So do what I do, sacrifice a...no, never mind. Take three Benadryl and sleep until the drought is over. *smooch*

I watched The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on Acorn.tv tonight. Led me to review the book and the show in my thread.

I was partly distracted by Ambridge burning down for the second time in a week. Only the actual, open businesses in an almost dead town. It was really quite upsetting. Ambridge is my hometown, it first fell victim to the mills shut-down and then poverty. Now, when there are people trying to revive it, they are being burned out. ( Worse, I have not only a feeling that it is being done purposely, but, have to wonder if a certain person is involved. ) Unsettling. Then, the early set in of the oh crap I work tomorrow ( today) and every day forever. Or at least it feels that way. )

Anyway... If I took three benedryl I would be asleep for at least three days.

Wishing happy monday to you, and others who don't have to go in to work. Happy reading to you!

eta

(it was a thriving new eatery wed.. three bldgs yesterday. One of the three was no longer open)

Morning, BigDaddy! It's Monday again.

>188 richardderus: You are assuming I didn't devour the first three in two days. Ha!

>192 mckait: Oh dear, that is unpleasant indeed. I'm so sorry about Ambridge's woes, and the probable source of them.

As to working...well...Duncan needs his Gunga Dinner. Chin up! Tits out! As our friend says.

>193 Crazymamie: It is, isn't it. MY heart leaps like the chamois as the place empties, though I know others whimper brokenly and drag tailfeathers as they wend their way back to another day of relentless, pointless, valueless boring soul-stealing ennui.

Heh.

>194 Morphidae: You, madam? You, the Spirit of Self-Control and Delayed Gratification? It is to laugh!

(Really? It took you two days? I think it did me, too.)

Morning RD, popping by to say that I am back from my short disappearance from LT. Wimbledon is over and so now I can get cracking on some reading.

>196 Thebookdiva: Happy to see you, Abby! Welcome home. Normal life may resume now that Wombat's Den is over, eh?

Thanks. Yes it may, and thank you for smile.

>195 richardderus: You, the Spirit of Self-Control and Delayed Gratification?

*laughs so hard she chokes*

>198 Thebookdiva: :-)

>199 Morphidae: :-)

So, that Doubleday UK meme...up to day 7 and it's discuss a chocolatey book in honor of National Chocolate Day...so I discussed a book I like as much as I like chocolate: All the Pretty Horses...post #37.

*drinking my latté, nodding, snorting, more nodding*

>201 tiffin: One does so hope the snorts are approving ones. xoxoxo

I've polished off and reviewed a 1909 SF novella by EM Forster called The Machine Stops. Prophetic for its day, no doubt, and interesting to read now more for its authorship than its SFnal merits. Review in my thread...post #40.

>203 richardderus: as I may have said elsewhere tis very good ..... in my humble opinion

You probably heard me snorting all the way down there over this one this morning: " A Louis L'Amour novel written by DH Lawrence." How awful is that indeed!

Good morning (almost afternoon), Richard. I hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday!

>204 roundballnz: It is certainly amazing, coming from a man of his era...until you look into Forster, that is. He was a deeply convinced humanist. He worried that the tenets of humanism (faith in our own beings, good taste) were being eroded by machinery's impersonal, one-size-fits-all nature.

What he would think of 3D printing, the genome sequencing miracle, manned space flight...well, when I get to hell, I plan to ask.

>205 tiffin: Thank you, Tui! The book was genuinely awful, pretentious, and brummagem.

>206 EBT1002: Well, it's almost afternoon indeed, but I myownself slept until 10a! Stella's walk was accomplished by others. It's bloody humid out there, so I am fine with that!

Driving by and honking the horn and waving at Richard.

Sorry to say I find E.M. Forster unreadable today. Perhaps its the water.

The spooky one I think was Isaac Asimov's The Naked Sun which predicted online chatting and telepresence and also faced directly the strange combination of intimacy and isolation that the life online can lead to.

>208 magicians_nephew: Hi Jim! If mainstream Forster strikes you as unreadable now, AVOID THIS TALE! Not, of course, that you wouldn't...but the telepresence and suchlike in The Naked Sun is also present in The Machine Stops in spades. And earlier!

I've selected, after much deliberation, my favorite Great War novel: Regeneration, the Pat Barker work, is a beautiful and challenging book to read. The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day in July, has really focused my attention on getting the excellent reading I've been doing reviewed and therefore fixed more firmly in my mind.

See my review in my Orphans thread...post #49.

I'm too far behind to catch up, but WOW I do love your thread-topping photo, Richard!

Wishing you a great rest of the week!

>210 tymfos: Thanks, Terri! Same back at'cha.

*waving* Intrigued to read your take on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd film. I remember experiencing the Big Twist in the book, and I couldn't imagine how they could do the book justice in a film. Apparently, they really couldn't. At least it sounds watchable.

>212 jnwelch: Heavens yes, very watchable. If one hasn't read the book (read: is 15 years old or speaks English as a third language) it might even be a Big Twist.

Glad to read you're having a good time chez papa despite the business at hand.

>207 richardderus: - It's bloody humid out there.

Spare me....

Smooches from Houston!

>214 katiekrug: I shall have you to know that it was 92° and 85% humidity today. Y'know, Houston in February weather.

Ooooh, yuck. Okay, you can complain then. It was about the same here, maybe 95....? I managed not to melt, just barely.

Really, really, really hate summer. A whole big real lot.

It blows.

And not in the good way ;-)

Blows chunks. Hate.

I came into say Hi! but here are all these weird chunks on the floor. Waves from the doorway. Carefully tip toes out....

Hi Richard

Did you catch Ann Cleeves interviewed on Morning Edition this morning? You're a Shetland fan, aren't you?

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/08/329520153/for-one-crime-writer-peaceful-shetland-i...;

You should come for a visit here, Richard. We've had unbelievably nice weather lately - 70's and sunny and breezy...

We had some heavy duty downpours yesterday....Somehow my fern, which I had left off of the porch so it could be watered was dry as a bone. Mysterious. Mugginess predicted to move out later today.

Think of all the gorgeous books that can fit on these shelves...look at the light...!

Oh. Yes. Mine.

>220 Berly: Hiya Berly! Say, could you kick that bucket over here? I found some more summer luuuv.

>221 Copperskye: Hi Joanne, happy to see you, and thanks for dropping in. I haven't listened to that podcast yet. I do love the Shetlands series, you're right. I'm still steeling myself for the fifth one, after the sucker punch she delivered in #4.

>222 scaifea: Morning Amber! Oh, the 70s sound *scrummy* since it's due to be 85° and humid this afternoon. *retch* Summer. Vile.

>223 mckait: We got a few spits of nothin' and then the moon came out. Pretty, but not what was needed to clean the air. I cannot WAIT for Labor Day!

>225 Morphidae: Heh! I thought this would please you. Sadly for your covetousness, though, it is MINEMINEMINE.

I've knocked another review of the Shameful Neglect list: Delta Wedding, a novel by Eudora Welty. I do so love to hate Dabney Fairchild, that cut-rate Scarlett O'Hara, that youthful Narcissa Benbow wannabe.

The review's in my thread...post #54.

It's only 15C this morning but there is still a lot of moisture in the air. We're getting this stuff from the You Ess of Eh and I wish it would just stay there. Supposed to go away by Saturday. Maybe it will go away for you too, Richard.

>228 tiffin: No no, I'd feel terribly selfish if we didn't gift the Canuckistanis with some lovely weather now and again. Turn about, you see, for the Alberta Clippers and the polar expresses your Northern stretches so generously share with us.

*smirk*

It's not like Texas, where summer begins 1 Feb and ends 31 Dec. UGH. But I still hate it and don't want to experience it at all, ever.

>229 richardderus: - Heh. I thought The Wayne was the only person who said "Canuckistanis." Cracks me up every time.

And quit exaggerating the weather in Texas, summer only lasts until December 1st!

>230 katiekrug: *smooch*

I've only been in Texas twice and both times it was to drive through and get out of it.

>232 maggie1944: I've always had a love/hate relationship to Texas. It's an awful place for weather, and the politics are nauseous, but it's Home in so many ways that I can't sever my self from it. The conundra of life....

I was up too late last night, digesting and contemplating Cynthia Ozick's powerful, sad, and beautiful novella The Shawl. It's not an easy book to read, despite having only 70 pages. It's a must-read for anyone wondering about the experience of love, loss, and madness. My review is in post #57.

Finished The Hanover Square Affair and am on to A Second Chance. The power you have...scary! Smooch.

Ooo! Ooo! And you must've liked The Hanover Square Affair or you wouldn't be bothering with A Second Chance, now would you? *smooch*

>226 richardderus: All I have to say is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNiR5ZTb_MA

I hear Austin is fabulous, but I don't care enough to to ever find out, since I have Tejas / Phobia

>236 Morphidae: I would *never* tell you to shut up, despite the fact that clearly I'm the pelican.

RIGHT?!

>237 mckait: Austin's very pretty, it's got lots of things going for it, but I am up to my back teeth with hipsters. Tiresome little gits don't realize how extremely predictable their pose is.

I don't want to go back.

I reviewed a Kindle freebie called Like and Subscribe, a 50-page sweet and romantic tale of two young men falling for each other despite both of them being in love with the same wrong man. It was fun, and it's free, and there's no sex, so even y'all squeamish ones can relate! It's in my thread...post #43.

Hi RD! Just checking in. I went back and read your review of Fishing the Sloe-Black River, since I finished it myself today and even though I liked it a bit more than you, I agree with you, that not every story sang, although there were some wonderful gems including that terrific finale. Have you read his second collection?

No, I never got it out of the liberry back in the day. Everything in this Country Must, right? It was on my holds at one time.

Delurking to comment on Texas and say that I loved Padre Island, Texas when I went there as a kid back in 1960 or so. It was completely undeveloped; there was only one motel on the south end of the island, and the rest was dunes and beach and scrub, birds and surf and peacefulness. I always wanted to go back, but I've heard it's been developed into a Cancun-style resort, and I don't think I want to see it that way.

Our summer house was on South Padre in the late 1960s and that process was already underway. I haven't been since ~1980 and feel no call to go. The Gulf is like a warm salt bath, and me no likee, born next to the Pacific.

Oh, Richard...

>238 richardderus: Uh huh. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Fish breath.

>243 richardderus:: the lake where our cottage was used to have real cottages built by families going back 100 years: wooden, rustic, simple, unpretentious. They fit into the environment with little intrusion. The lake was where we canoed, sailed, and swam, the biggest boat having a 10 hp engine. Now McMonster homes in the million plus range (built by Toronto folk who need all the amenities, apparently) dot its shore and there are zebra mussels in the water, brought up in their huge power boats too big for the lake. I understand not going back, Richard.

Well I didn't win the lottery last night. Tell Perkins to cancel the appointment with the architect. The estate plans will have to wait.

Morning, BigDaddy! It's not Friday yet, but we are getting closer. I can feel it.

>244 mckait: ...yeeesss...?

>245 Morphidae: *smothered sardine-burp* Well! Then that's all settled.

>246 tiffin: Our place was a shack, one room with four bunk beds built into uninsulated plywood walls and a linoleum floor. Walk out any door, go down three steps, and it was beach. One whole wall was windows. Hurricane Beulah swept its predecessor out to sea, and the same thing got slapped up in a weekend.

If you need the amenities, why are you there? Isn't the point to be somewhere you don't live?

>247 luvamystery65: Oh dear. Drat!

PERKINS!

>248 Crazymamie: *sigh* Yes...the Day of Doom draweth ever nearer. *sigh*

The memory of simple, close to nature, cabins is so precious. Mine is of a cabin on Wallowa Lake in the Wallowa Mountains of eastern Oregon. Also, a very simple cabin, go up some steps and enter a big room with some sofas, a table, a small against one wall kitchen; two small bedrooms (room for a bed) and a bathroom. Big wide porch across the front of the cabin with a fine view of the lake through the pine trees. Sleeping on the floor in the great room with all the other kids, and giggling because someone kept throwing grapes.

The nearby Lodge served freshly caught trout. A treat I've never been able to have again.

Sigh.

Day of Doom? Oh, dear! Did I miss something?

>250 maggie1944: And the point of going there was to go THERE and be THERE, which meant outside and rompin' and stompin'! If one doesn't wish to do that, go to a five-star resort. (That is the preferred vacation for moi these days.)

>251 Crazymamie: Summertime. Three-day weekends. All Gruesome Twosome all the time. I hide in my bedroom.

OH! Sorry, love! That bites.

Review: 25 of seventy-five

Title: THE FLY TRAP: A Book about Summer, Islands and the Freedom of Limits

Author: FREDRIK SJOBERG

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Warm, funny and insightful, The Fly Trap is a meditation on collecting; be it hoverflies or fine art. A fascinating web of associations, it begins with Sjöberg’s own tranquil experience as an entomologist on a remote island in Sweden, and takes in heroic historical expeditions to Burma and the wilderness of Kamchatka. Along the way, Sjoberg pauses to reflect on a range of ideas – slowness, art, freedom, – drawing other great writers, like D.H Lawrence and Bruce Chatwin, into dialogue. From the everyday to the exotic, The Fly Trap revels in the wonder of the natural world and leaves a trail of memorable images and stories.

My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt, tenth in the series, is to choose a book with a memorable picnic in honor of some ridiculous teddy bear thing.

Now seriously. Anyone who's known me ten minutes can be excused from the room for a laugh break. A picnic! The clambake on the beach in Professor Diggins' Dragons, a chapter book I read in 1967 or so, then the famous allusion to a picnic in Lolita...was there some talk of a picnic in a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew book? Can't remember...anyway, I am not the sort of hairpin of a guy who reads books with picnics in. And I need to keep the pace going with this meme! What to do, what to do....

Then it hit me: Picnics are outdoors customarily, aren't they, so a book about the outdoors will work! And I just read a doozy: The Fly Trap, a Swedish weirdo's reminiscences (some would say maunderings) of his life in the cutthroat world of hoverfly expertise.

Since I had no idea what the hell a hoverfly was, I wiki'd it up and spent a good half-hour marveling at gems like, "About 6,000 species in 200 genera have been described." Described! Dear and glorious physician, someone down through the ages has always not had a life, of course, but the amount of wasted drinking, reading, and screwing time that describing "about 6,000 species in 200 genera" represents just boggles my mind.

And this guy's a nice-enough looking man, he doesn't appear to have any cognitive defects, and he's Swedish, so getting dates can't have presented that much of a problem for him that he had to give up and start collecting flies. He explains why he chose to write his memoir, and a bit of why he's in the fly game at all:

The hoverflies are only props. No, not only, but to some extent. Here and there, my story is about something else. Some days I tell myself that my mission is to say something about the art and sometimes the bliss of limitation. And the legibility of landscape. Other days are more dismal. As if I were standing on queue in the rain outside confessional literature’s nudist colony, mirrors everywhere, blue with cold.

So I get it, Mr. Man, you're not Eric Northman and you'd like folks to pay you some attention. Check! Do it in art. write lovely sentences, people will pay attention to you. Chalk up a win for the fly guy!

And then there's the stuff he finds out as fly-hunting takes over his world. There was, apparently, a Swedish guy named René Malaise (!) whose wildlife-hunting expeditions to places like Kamchatka, on the Pacific fringe of Russia, led to his invention of the Malaise Fly Trap. (This is not a goof, I looked it up.) A piece of this book reads like a failed start on a biography of Malaise (what a horrible name! "Reborn Misery" yuck), which was really very intriguing. Emulating this monadnock of the fly-guy world, Our Hero takes off and travels around the world to see what he can see. The important part of his bring-back was this:

When the days are numbered, everything seems clearer, as if the time between preparation and departure possessed a particular magic. The endless stretch of time on the other side always struck me as evasive and treacherous. But the very limited period between now and then held a liberating peace and quiet. This allotment of time was an island. And the island became, later, a measurable moment. For a long time, this discovery was the only truly unclouded dividend that I took from my travels.

I think I was the only person in the USA who watched the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, but I did and I loved more than anything the line Peter Weller speaks as Buckaroo: "No matter where you go, there you are." Sjöberg clearly gets that, and decides to come home to the place where everybody speaks his language. No more wandering for him...he'll settle down in Sweden, near Stockholm, on an island!

Now there is very little in this world that is better at focusing one's attention on the practical realities of life than living on an island. I live on a really big one, but part of living here is knowing how and when to get off the island. And if one can't, what are the options? I meditate on these matters, always coming back to the realization that island = Atlantic Ocean, and that's a BIG piece of water, and there are storms out there pretty much all the time...

It’s said to be the same all over the world, in all seven seas. Islands are matriarchies of a kind seldom seen on land. The men – as Iceland’s president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir remarked on one occasion when the subject arose – the men flee to their own preferred landscape, which is the sea.

Interesting. I'd never really noticed before that all the world over the word for "person who goes out into the water and brings back fish" is male in gendered languages, and not even the most ardent gender-equality advocate has yet proposed an alternative to "fisherman." There appears to be no need for it.

So what does this have to do with flies? Got me. But it's in Sjöberg's book, like so much else that isn't instantly obviously contained within the title The Fly Trap. And that's why I enjoyed the book so much. I dislike summer because summer, and I am not a huge fan of outdoorsy life because mosquitoes, but I am always up for a stroll with an interesting companion whose passion and joy is shared eloquently and elegantly with me, allowing me to make a mental shift in my own ever-narrowing scope of activity. Tomas Tranströmer, Nobel Laureate poet, blurbed this book in large part (I believe) because of moments, lovely limerant moments like this one:

Every summer there are a number of nights, not many, but a number, when everything is perfect. The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong – the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?

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

Beyond "Hello, and how are you this fine morning?" I got nuthin' as well.

smooch

ETA: Oh, now I have something. "Dear and Glorious Physician"? A Taylor Caldwell reference? Unexpected pleasant surprise.

As was the entire review.

Well. Not entirely unexpected, but unexpected for this particular book. Which I'm immediately seeking out.

I've upgethumbed your excellent (as always) review of The Fly Trap. I could read your writing forever. So when's your book coming out?

*smooch*

>249 richardderus: *snorts*

***

My idea of roughing it is no room service.

>253 Crazymamie: *smooch* I'm used to it by now.

>255 Matke: Oh goody good good, I've book-bulleted someone with this delightful little book!! *wheee* my day is made.

*smooch*

>256 LauraBrook: *smooch* You tell me, then we'll both know.

>257 Morphidae: My idea of roughing it is NO HELL NO NUH-UH NIX NYET NEIN NO BLINKIN' WAY

The cabin discussion is close to home. I still have the one my Grandmother had Grandfather build for her on Cape Cod. It was three miles from their house, but she needed to get away from the telephone in 1930s. One big room, twin bunks for five, basic kitchen - electricity and plumbing added later, but still minimalist. overlooks a freshwater pond- once almost the only place on the pond- no more, but it is still nice. The road has gone from one lane dirt to one where the local cops use my driveway as a speed trap lurking spot.

>259 Helenoel: Tempus do fugit, don't it.

I remember when the Queen Isabella Causeway went in and we could drive onto South Padre. Couldn't take the car, so we used Papaw's old El Camino with a manual transmission. I remember being *amazed* that my mother could shift gears!

> #260 Mothers have amazing superpowers. Now if only my son would believe this....

>261 Helenoel: He will. Give it time.

smooch

Hi Berly-boo! *smooch*

Rdear, I made two cups of . I beam one cup right over to you.

Oooh yes please! It's Afternoon Slump time for me and that's about perfect.

It's nice to know somebody on another part of the world who is drinking a cup of coffee at the same time. Cheers.

*smooch*

>267 Ameise1: *clink*

>268 ronincats: *smooch*

*smooch* Richard. Hope you and Stella are doing well.

Hi Richard, just stopping by to say hi and hope you are well my friend, we are just relaxing after taking Hannah home, today has been Hannah day rather than tomorrow and with the weather being so good here she has worn us both out. Think I need a nice coffee as I chill.

>271 johnsimpson: Nice weather+ toddler +grandparents = 2 nice coffees:



An Italian friend left Corriere della Sera, just push it into the bin.

>272 richardderus:, Thanks Richard, they will do just nicely my friend, i'll push the paper in the bin as I don't speak or read Italian.

>270 calm: Hiya calm, missed seeing you before, I'm so sorry. Glad you're here, despite being in a not-feelin'-it sorta mood. I hope that passes soon.

>273 johnsimpson: Biscotti on the house!

Zouroudi tome en route. Hopefully that gets me off the hook on warbling charges for at least a little while...

ETA: a week. It's coming media mail.

>275 Chatterbox: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* Free pass until next pension check. I'm elozable.

oh...Dear and Glorious Physician.. I read that half a million years ago.

>277 mckait: Oh, when you were a mere slip of a thing of 822. *smooch*

Seen on Twitter:
"Reluctant slow clap. “@nypost: Your meat is more expensive because America's cocks are shooting blanks http://nyp.st/1mjP4JQ ”

BWAAAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAA

Review: 26 of seventy-five

Title: LET HIM GO: A Novel

Author: LARRY WATSON

Rating: 4.875* of five

The Publisher Says: "With you or without you," Margaret insists, and at these words George knows his only choice is to follow her.

It’s September 1951: years since George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James when he was thrown from a horse; months since James’s widow Lorna took off and remarried that thug Donnie Weboy. Now Margaret is steadfast, resolved to find and retrieve her grandson Jimmy—the one person in this world keeping her son’s memory alive—while George, a retired sheriff, is none too eager to stir up trouble with Donnie Weboy. Unable to sway his wife from her mission, George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, traveling through the Dakota badlands to Bentrock, Montana, in unstoppable pursuit. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a fearsome family determined not to give the boy up without a fight.

With gutsy characters and suspense-filled prose, Let Him Go speaks to the extraordinary measures we take for family and the overpowering instinct to protect those we love. From the award-winning author who gave us Montana 1948, Justice, and American Boy, Larry Watson is at his storytelling finest in this unforgettable return to the American West.

My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is the eleventh in the series, discuss a book that made you cry.

Um.

Long past the moment when her neck begins to stiffen and ache, she continues to stare into the darkness, even though none of the human secrets she needs to know are to be found in the stars but rather closer to the earth her boots stand upon.

So, yeah. This book's plot is readily available to anyone who can read. You know that Margaret Blackledge lost her only son, her no-count trollop of a daughter-in-law found her a pretty face on top of a hard body and lit out for the fleshpots of Montana. Good riddance, Margaret would think, were it not for the fact that her one remaining treasure, her grandson, got swept away in the leaving. And the life that boy will be living will be full of no-count people who are no better than the law requires, and most of the time not even that. No. Margaret will not have that, not after all she went through to raise her boy up right. She has to have his son back, so she can do it all again.

A four-year-old has so little past, and he remembers almost none of it, neither the father he once had nor the house where he once lived. But he can feel the absences – and feel them as sensation, like a texture that was once at his fingers every day but now is gone and no matter how he gropes or reaches his hand he cannot touch what’s no longer there.

And those textures, those memories, they're going to be of her and her husband George, not some petty, small-time criminals like his mama fell in with.

Margaret Blackledge is a force of nature. She is a tall woman with no give to her, and believe you me, she has never given anything. She suits her country beautifully. Margaret just flat hates summer, she went a little crazy one summer from it and...well, that's a piece of story you'll find out. Summer makes a person crazy, and so Margaret waits to pack the Hudson full of her life's stuff and then tell George he's comin' or goin' but the time is now until it's September:

Autumn has come to northeast Montana. The vapor of one’s breath, the clarity of the stars, the smell of wood smoke, the stones underfoot that even a full day of sunlight won’t warm- these all say there will be no more days that can be mistaken for summer.

And I don't blame her one itty bit.

George now, he's been a sheriff for Dalton, North Dakota, and he's had to win elections before...in spite of a little drinkin' problem, in spite of being reserved, in spite of never slittin' a lip unless it was necessary:

The limitless, lowering sky, the long stretches of motionless empty prairie, the silence, complete right down to the absence of birdsong -- who knows what decides a man to leave most of his words unspoken?

But when we meet George, he's no lawman anymore, he holds boards for other men to hammer. He's done. He's been more than he wanted to be, and he's done. George has been Margaret's husband for a long time, and he's done right by her and their twin kids (Janie, the other twin, features in this story only in her absence). But now, with this trip, George is done:

Now no sign, no scorch or char, marks the place where George built the fire. Remarkable, earth's strength to restore itself and erase human effort. But memory, stronger still, can send flames as high as the roof, and shift the wind and choke George and sting his eyes with smoke...

Memories might consume him, but no one outside his skin will ever know which ones, or what he thinks of 'em. He does not give anything away, not after running a ranch he inherited from his father and mother, not after making a life in the hardscrabble grab it from the earth way of the American West, and not as long as Margaret is beside him making do, wearing out, mending up, doing without.

I think he loves Margaret, and I think he knows that his only way to show her she's loved is to do for her. So he does. And the story is George, lawman and drunk and closed-up shop, doing his all for the woman who gave him his life. It had its price, this life, but it was theirs, and they're looking at the end:

When night comes on in a room lit by kerosene, any flicker of the flame can give the sense that darkness is about to triumph.

And that's the story's unspoken edge. These two people are coming to the end, and they...she more than he...want to put something into their grandson that his soft, vapid, pointless mama won't and can't. They want to give him a sense of purpose, a purposeful life-path that won't shame him or his own kids.

Suffice it to say that the conflict between these rock-ribbed, self-contained, competent people and their shiftless opponents isn't going to play out slowly. The end comes, in fact, a bit abruptly and with a B-movie full-circleness that is *exactly* what I wanted.

But in that satisfaction comes the disappointment of getting what you want handed to you, no questions, no effort required. This beautiful story and its handsomely carved characters never launched into the glorious orbit of Montana 1948, and never plumbed the deep-downs of White Crosses. It is excellent, and it is beautiful. It should be on your shelf. It should also break into the myriad frighteningly sharp shards here:

A gust of wind doesn't suddenly bang a door open. A clock doesn't chime. The phone doesn't ring. Yet in the next instant the stillness breaks as if it is crystal.

That it never quite does makes me cry.


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

>279 richardderus: Wowza I am glad my Santee gave me this one for Christmas.

>280 luvamystery65: And it creeps closer to the top of TBR, yes?

(Hint: Only one answer guarantees Roberta freedom from fear of large Northern uninvitees invading her home and whacking her with it)

I have Let Him Go on my Kindle, and a few other Watsons on my shelf. Where to start...?

ETA: Beautiful review. Off to thumb!

Excellent review of the Watson! Heading off to give it a thumbs up now!

>281 richardderus: You come to Houston in July? Bwahahaha!!! Not even to smack me I think.

Even he thinks it's funny.



Somebody doesn't.

Thanks for the wonderful review of Let Him Go, Richard. It brought the heartbreaking tone of the book right back to me.

>279 richardderus:- Outstanding review of Let Him Go. I love seeing a pro warble away! That should get some of the flock interested. And keep in mind, Watson is one of the AAC authors. He will close out the year. I can't WAIT!

Warble On, my friend!

A perfect description: "the disappointment of getting what you want handed to you, no questions, no effort required"

No truer words were ever spoken...

>282 katiekrug: Thanks, KAK! I'd say start with White Crosses, move to Let him Go for your Spokane roasting (it's cold throughout the book), and come home to the sweet bliss of Montana 1948.

>283 TinaV95: Thanks, Mrs. Lisa, hope y'all're not all melty from the *shudder* summer.

>284 luvamystery65: Oh yeah...July...Houston, so maybe not so much after all.

>285 Copperskye: And the heart breaks afresh each scene...so beautifully done! I'm glad my review recalled it for you.

>286 msf59: He's got so very much good work already done that I feel churlish wishing him a long and productive life so I can read read read!

>287 Chatterbox: Why wealth is a burden to inherit. xoxo

*smooch* life continues

>279 richardderus: Already on the list! Lovely review, though, Richard.

>277 mckait: Me too, Kath. I went on a Caldwell binge in my misspent youth.

>279 richardderus: Another smashing review! I'm exhausted from adding so many books! Thumbing.

The fleshpots of Montana? The mind reels. I've been in Montana, but sadly, I found no fleshpots. Watson's work is marvelous, isn't it?

>290 AuntieClio: So it goes, eh Billie Pilgrim. So it effin' well goes.

>291 scaifea: I'm happy to know it's on the list, Amber...now permaybehaps migrating it a little closer to the nightstand than the list...?

>292 Matke: Larry Watson has delivered very good to excellent on all but one of his books, and that one was about a boy's obsession with an older woman. YUCK. It was called Laura and it's the only book of his I flat did not like.

And Montana is a wall-to-wall fleshpot compared to North Dakota!

Not today. North Dakota is the new Texas. Oil! Oil! We found Oil.

>294 maggie1944: True. But it's still a hellhole.

*shudder*

Good Morning, BigDaddy! I have applied my thumb to your wonderful review, but now you are in big trouble! How will I ever wait to read it until Mark's assigned AAC month?!! Huh? Tell me that!

>296 Crazymamie: Hiya Mamie, thank you for the upgethumbing! Happy weekend ahead...try not to melt.