Sibyx (Lucy) Reads in January

WELCOME to 2015



It's that time of year, to curl up with a nice food source nearby. The only thing this little one hasn't got is a good book!

Hopes for 2015
First I want to affirm and support those who vow to maintain respect for one another here at the 75. I’ve been on LT five years, and consider that I’ve done reasonably well socially although I lost one reading friend I valued highly by not sticking to just books. Second, while I love the 75 I have found it impossible to ‘keep up.’ Last year I resolved to reduce my own posts to about 150 a month and also to keep the majority to subjects related to my reading and most passionate interests. And yes, occasional comments about my writing life or music doings or serious changes in my personal life. As for your threads, it is my primary goal to read reviews and follow discussions about reading and forgive me if I do miss something personal or important to you.

Reading Hopes for 2015
Heck if I know! I had a goal of reading 150 for 2014 which I did not achieve. I’ll certainly make that my target again. But see below for my 2014 reflections and stats and comparisons to previous years.

Link to 2014 is HERE

***January Current Reads***
♬

♬ The End of the Affair Graham Greene contemp fic
new Lirael Garth Nix fantasy #2 The Old Kingdom
✔Black Swan Green David Mitchell contemp ficnew Sabriel Garth Nix(Bk 1 Abhorsen) fantasy
✔When You Are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris essays
Ongoing
Murdoch Marathon: See you in 2015! IM readers group is HERE
Virago Soon?
The New Yorker 2014 Read my reviews here: New Yorkers 2014
The New Yorker September (5) 1, 8, 16, 23, 30

1. new The Silkworm Robert Galbraith (#2 Cormoran Strike) ***** mys
2. ✔ The Beauty of Humanity Movement Camilla Gibb contemp fic *** 3/4
3. new Sleight of Hand Mark Henwick spec fic (vampire) ***1/4
4. ✔ A Spot of Bother Mark Haddon contemp fic ****1/2
5. new Pegasus Robin McKinley fant ****
6. ✔Hunting Party Elizabeth Moon (#1 Heris Serrano) sp/op ****
7. ✔Voltaire's Coconuts Ian Buruma essays ****
8. ✔When She Woke Hillary Jordan dyst ****
9. ✔Sporting Chance Elizabeth Moon (#2 Heris Serrano) sp/op****
10. ✔Winning Colors Elizabeth Moonsp/op #3 Serrano Legacy
11. The Flight of Gemma Hardy Margot Livesey contemp fic ***
12. new Sabriel Garth Nix ****
13. ♬ Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Jack Weatherford history

Guide to symbols
♬ = audio
✔ = Year plus on shelf

DECEMBER
117. ✔Message to the Planet Iris Murdoch contemp fic ****
118. lib The Long Way Home Louise Penny mys ****1/2
119. ✔The Polish Officer Alan Furst hist fict ****
120. Reread Changes in the Land William Cronon ecology history new england*****
121. ✔Windhaven George R.R. MartinLisa Tuttle sf ***
122. ✔Vanished Gardens: Finding Nature in Philadelphia Sharon White ****
123. One For Sorrow Christopher Barzak contemp fic ***3/4
124. ✔Pirates of the Universe Terry Bisson sf ***1/2
125. ✔The Marriage of Sticks Jim Carroll speculative fic. ***3/4
126. ✔Spook Country William Gibson speculative fic/mys ****
127. August New Yorkers
128. new Offshore Penelope Fitzgerald contemp fic ****1/2
129. ✔Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Dava Sobel ***1/2
130. ♬ newUlysses James Joyce classic fic *****
131. new A Month in the Country J.L. Carr contemp fic *****
132. ✔Flesh and Gold Phyllis Gotlieb sf ****

December 2014 Reflections
I'm surprised by how much I read this month, but it was kind of topsy turvy and the last two weeks especially I haven't been doing my 'usual' things, so there was a bit more time for reading even though it didn't feel that way. The biggest event was finishing listening Ulysses, of course, a peak reading experience of the year. The biggest change overall is a more balanced distribution of types of books, more challenging and more variety. I've been picking books off the shelves that have been there for way too long, mostly the thinner ones I admit, around 300 pages. What is surprising to me is how much I have liked most of them! Why was I passing them over?

December Stats
Total: 13
Men: 9
Women: 5
Non-fiction: 3
Fiction: 5
SF/F: 3
Mystery: 2
YA or J: 0
Poetry/Other: 0

December Housekeeping
New Authors: 7
Acquired within the year: 3
Over a year on shelf: 9
From library: 1
Audio: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Read it or Get Rid of It:1
Acquired: 45
Released: 4

December Books IN = 45
NOTA BENE - These are ALL of our Christmas books excluding a few I gave the LD that I don't plan to read!! The Spousal Unit and I have very similar reading tastes! Most are secondhand, if not all!
74.audio Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Jack Weatherford
75.Red Bones Ann Cleeves mys
76.White Nights Ann Cleeves
77.Blue Lightning Ann Cleeves
78.Dead Water Ann Cleeves
79.A World Too Near Kay Kenyon fant
80.Bright of the Sky Kay Kenyon fant
81.Prince of Storms Kay Kenyon fant
82.City Without End Kay Kenyon fant
83.Abhorsen The Old Kingdom Garth Nix fant
84.Lirael The Old Kingdom Garth Nix fant
85.Clariel The Old Kingdom Garth Nix fant READING
86. Sabriel The Old Kingdom Garth Nix fant READ
87.Lens of the World R.A. MacAvoy sf
88.King of the Dead R.A. MacAvoy sf
89.The Belly of the Wolf R.A. MacAvoy sf
90.The Widow’s House Daniel Abraham fant
91.A Natural History of Dragons Marie Brennan fant
92.The Sorceress Michael Scott fant
93.The Necromancer Michael Scott fant
94.The Alchemyst Michael Scott fant
95.The Enchantress Michael Scott fant
96.The Warlock Michael Scott fant
97.The Magician Michael Scott fant
98.Trapped Kevin Hearne fant
99.Shattered Kevin Hearne fant
100. Hexed Kevin Hearne fant
101. Hunted Kevin Hearne fant
102.Hammered Kevin Hearne fant
103.The Serrano Legacy Elizabeth Moon fant READ
104.Evil: the Epic Novel fant
105.The Polish Boxer Eduardo Halfon fic
106.Into the Silence Wade Davis nf
107.The Patrick Melrose Novels Edward St. Aubyn fic
108.Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes Mary M. Talbot graphic
109.Moontiger Penelope Lively fic
110.The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis ss
111.Dept of Speculation Jenny Offilll fic
112.The Summer Book Tove Jansson fic
113.Forests Robert Pogue Harrison nat sci
114.Being Mortal Atul Gawande nf
115.A Short History of Progress Ronald Wrightnf
116.Fool’s War Sarah Zettel sf
117.The Silkworm Robert Galbraith mys READ
118.Bruno: Chief of Police Martin Walkermys
119.The Broken Shore Peter Templemys

December Books OUT=4

Best of 2014

Non-fiction
Anthropology
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Nicholas Wade
WW2 Memoir
The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal
Natural History/Memoir
From Where We Stand Deborah Tall
Self-Portrait With Turtles: A Memoir David M. Carroll
Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America Richard Nelson
Bloomsbury
Deceived With Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood Angelica Garnett

Best Fiction
Contemporary
Bleeding Edge Thomas Pynchon
Offshore Penelope Fitzgerald
A Month in the Country J.L. Carr
Motorcycles & Sweetgrass Drew Hayden Taylor
Space Opera
The Last Hawk Catherine Asaro SF
SF (fine audio also)
♬ To Say Nothing of the Dog Connie Willis
Mystery
The Cuckoo's Calling Robert Galbraith
Audio and Classic
♬Ulysses James Joyce

2014 Reflections Other than the fact that I didn’t reach my reading goal of 150 (only got to 132) I am perfectly happy with the scope this year, which was wider than last year. My ratio of books read to books acquired was significantly better too, which pleases me. Also the ratio of fiction to non-fiction. I seem to have only read three Iris Murdoch’s this year, so much for a monthly Murdoch and apparently only one Virago! What I did read brilliantly were lots of natural history books, some very personal, some more general that were excellent and also I caught up with or finished a goodly number of series in a wide range from mysteries or contemporary fiction to sf and fantasy.

2014 Stats
Acquired: 119
Read: 132
Released: 59
QUIT!: 12

Comparative stats!

Totals for 2013
Acquired: 123
Read: 152
Off Shelves: 54
Quit: 6

Totals for 2012:
acquired: 171
Read: 133
Off shelves: 71

Series Tally 2015

Started in 2015
The Old Kingdom (1 of 3) currently reading #2 Lirael

Continued in 2015

Completed or caught up with in 2015
Cormoran Strike 2 of 2
Pegasus 1 of 1 (more forthcoming.....)
Serrano Legacy 3 of 3

Completed or caught up with in 2014
1. Good Daughters Mary Hocking (3)
2. Chronicles of Tornor Elizabeth Lynn (3)
3. Witch World - set goal of reading first three in series. Completed.
4. Mistborn Brandon Sanderson (3) 3 of 3 Completed
5. The Skolian Empire (14 of 14)Catherine Asaro (There are assorted novellas and ss)
6. ✔ Dublin Murder Squad 4 of 4
7. Quantum Gravity Justina Robson (5 of 5)
8. Green Rider Kristen Britain (4 of 4) (Mirror Sight
9. Divergent (3 of 3)
10. Sleepless (3 of 3)
11. Inspector Gamache (10 of 10)!

To be continued? (from 2013 or earlier)
1. The Seven Kingdoms Kristin Cashore (2 of 3) Next up: Bitterblue
2. Liaden Universe Sharon Lee Steve Miller Let's say I've read 11 of 19!
4. Flavia de Luce Alan Bradley (5 of 6) The Dead in their Vaulted Arches audio only!
5. KingKiller Chronicles Patrick Rothfuss 2 of 3. Doors of Stone forthcoming (undeclared)

Probably I don't need this one but you never know!

I started my thread early too. It felt wrong, but I have other stuff to do tomorrow. Happy New Year!

Dropping my star, Lucy. I'll be back to read through all your lovely stats once you have them posted. Just want to say that I love what you posted in your topper. I also had a tough time keeping up this year, even with my own thread...Here's hoping that 2015 is all that you could want it to be. And that it is filled with fabulous. Happy New Year, my dear friend!

Starring your thread, Lucy. I can't wait to see what you make of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Have you also read Conn Iggulden's series on Genghis Khan and his dynasty? That was an interesting and entertaining series. But the book I really enjoyed about this man was Genghis Khan : Life, Death and Resurrection by John Man.

>7 Crazymamie: Welcome Mamie. I'm struggling along, getting little bits at a time between things done!
>8 cameling: I have a feeling that once you start down the Genghis road it's hard to stop! Fascinated so far. Thanks for these further reading recommends.

Happy New Year Lucy!!
That little animal seems perfectly content. What's its English name? My dictionary suggests dormouse?

Starred you for 2015 Lucy.

Happy new year, Lucy! I will probably end up lurking here once school goes back but for now I have great intentions.

The Voltaire's Coconuts book looks interesting. Is it good?

May all your wishes come true.

>10 Deern: Supposedly it is a chipmunk! I think it is - viz. the furry tail. Some are lighter coloured than others. Generally the have stripes of white and dark brown down their backs. Very pretty and entertaining little critters. Miss Po is obsessed with them.

>12 cushlareads: So far I like it, but I'm only about 20 pages in!

I should mention I squeaked in book 132 for 2014, the Gotlieb if you are interested. On my old thread.

Happy new year, Lucy! I'm looking forward to another year of your excellent book musings and reviews.

Wonderful opening posts, Lucy. I just love that graphic; wish I could do the same with some good books until … oh, May or so.

Happy New Year from a regular lurker. I've enjoyed your monthly summaries and book reviews. We had great fun reading Infinite Jest but there is no way I am going to read Ulysses this year!…or any year!! Good luck with it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, LUCY!!! I look forward to following and maybe discussing your reading adventures for another 12 months!
Chipmunk, eh? Too cute! And I am totally with you on the discuss books decision.

Happy New Year and good reading in 2015, Lucy!

Lucy,



Happy New Year from your friend in Kuala Lumpur

I love the hibernating dormouse!

Happy new year, Lucy!

Happy New Year, Lucy! Love the thread topper. I look forward to more books and Posey photos this year!

Happy New Year, Luci!
I also love the thead topper and I am looking forward to follow your book musings again this year!

OK so I'm hopeless in some ways. Ok ok, many ways. - I need help posting my thread in the threadbook.... I think this happens every year. Whatever I do it just shows the whole thread address not the nice little '1'.

>25 sibylline: I fixed it for you, Lucy.

And hello. :-)

>8 cameling: Caroline, my son got the Iggulden books for Christmas. I'm waiting to hear his opinion since some reviews say they're a bit inaccurate. He's a bit of an aficionado of GK, so I'm sure he'll give me chapter and verse of his reaction.

>25 sibylline:, >26 TadAD: Yup, looks right now. DrN will do it; I don't know how he manages to keep track, but it's probably trivial to the rocket scientist brain.

>27 TadAD: >28 qebo: Thankyou - I never learn how to do it because Dr. N always does it for me!!

No sweat - I'm on it! Basically, I just add things as I see 'em on the threads. Once I add a thread to the Threadbook, I post on it so I know it's done when I come bsck.

Hey, Tad beat me to it! thanks!

Hi Lucy,
Wishing you a year full of fun and memorable reads!

I loved A Month in the Country too.

Happy New Year, Lucy! I have now starred your thread so that I can find my way back here. I am looking forward to another wonderful year of following your reading, harping and pretty much anything else that goes on here!

Happy 2015, Lucy! I'm vowing to do better at being active on LT this year.

I just took a book out the library that made me think of you. It's called Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape and is edited by Barry Lopez. It's like a dictionary in that it's alphabetical. It defines the words that Americans use to describe features of the landscape and those definitions are written by a collection of 45 writers so they're not your usual run of the mill definitions. This quote from Lopez's introduction made me think about some of the books you've been reading about where you live.

"What many of us are hopeful for now, it seems, is being able to gain--or regain--a sense of allegiance with our chosen places, and along with that a sense of affirmation with our neighbors that the place we've chosen is beautiful, subtle, profound, worthy of our lives."

It's a big book so I'm not sure I'll read the whole thing but it looks like it would be fun to randomly go through. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.

Happy New Year, Lucy!

Happy New Year, Lucy. I was very bad about keeping up with you last year, but mean to do better this year.

Happy New Year Lucy. I hope to delurk here once in a while in 2015.

Re your December acquisitions--I read The Broken Shore in 2014, and found it to be excellent. I have Into the Silence on my Kindle--maybe I'll get to it this year??

Lucy, what lovely thoughts regarding your hopes, both general and reading-related, for 2015.
I especially appreciate your comment about commitment to respect for one another here. I recently heard someone comment on the power (and danger) of the internet as it allows for intense interaction without the prerequisite of an actual relationship. I figure the best way to address that is to be particularly attentive to tone and content. My impression is that you do the same.

I guess I would only ask that you continue to occasionally post photos of the lovely Posey. :-)


Wishing you all the best in 2015!!

I've got you starred, Lucy, and will certainly be lurking even if I don't comment much. I agree with what you say at the top - it's lovely that the 75 Group and the Virago Group (the two I follow most) are so active but that makes them a bit overwhelming... A Facebook group I'm a member of has suddenly grown from 50ish members to 95 and, although it will probably settle down to fewer, at the moment it now takes a rather large chunk of my time to follow and take part!

Hello all my New Year's Day visitors! Between houseguests and music I barely spent any time here yesterday, so it's nice to find you all stopped by. Thrilled to see some names that have been absent awhile.

>39 CDVicarage: What makes the 75 so great is that everyone is so caring, and yet that is also what can make it overwhelming. I'm the admin of a harp blog and a member of a couple of other bloggy things in the 'passionate interest' department, not books (harp, archaeology) too - luckily neither of those are quite as demanding!

Posey definitely counts as one of my passionate interests, so there will be lots of photographs, never fear!

Happy new year and new thread Lucy! I like and agree with your hopes for 2015 and the oh so cute picture of dormice? Mice? In any case they are very cute (and must not be shown to the cat).

Lucy, I wish you a fabulous weekend full of reading.

>40 sibylline: Yes, it's hard to follow everyone's threads here at 75ers, but I have appreciated everyone's support so much that it makes it worth the effort of skimming through all the threads. :) I wish I didn't have to skim, but there's only so much time in the day.

Stopping in to wish you a lovely weekend, Lucy. Hope it's full of happy!

1. First book of the year!
mys *****!
The Silkworm Robert Galbraith

Lovely to the start the year with a winner! Nothing not to love in J.K.'s new mystery series.

Why now? Because I couldn't wait!

Oh, I loved that one, too, Lucy! And I laughed at your reason for reading it - isn't that always the best reason?!

♬

So this is the current line-up, now that I've finished Rowling's latest. I have to fight off the urge to plunge impulsively and indulgently into another sf/f or mystery before making a bit of real progress on my two other physical books.... "Beauty" is a fine story and I like it, but it couldn't compete with the pure mayhem of the Galbraith. And the Buruma on anglophilia is oddly . . . well . . . dare I say, dull? Not dull exactly, but more academic and less fun than I expected. So, yes, not what I expected. Chapter 1 which is all I've read so far is about Voltaire, being, I suppose the first major anglophiliac of the modern(ish) era. I know plenty about Voltaire because he was a favourite of my French teacher in high school. I didn't however know how his love of things English (sauf Shakespeare!) worked into a kind of synergic back and forth for him creatively. Naturellement, my teacher did not emphasize that. And now we move on to the next anglophile in Chapter 2 who is . . . Goethe. About whom I know a good deal less. The title btw - has to do with the ease or difficulty of adopting non-native plants as your own, the old 'cultivate your garden' dictum of Voltaire's.

It IS the best reason Mamie! But I have that urge toward 'self-improvement' that gets me into trouble!

Happy 2015 Lucy! Love love LOVE that thread topper. Have added it to my "pure cuteness" Pinterest board. Also read your favourites of 2014 list with interest, and gave in and bought Deceived with Kindness then and there. I'm sure I won't be disappointed with that one, what with my renewed interest in the Bloomsbury group since I read Vanessa and Her Sister recently. I'm curious to see what your comments will be on The Beauty of Humanity Movement. It's been among "Heather's Picks" for many years. She's the head honcho of our big book chain Chapters Indigo, and I've almost picked it up countless times because of that.

Woot! 5* for The Silkworm! I best bump that one up the queue. Thanks, Lucy : ).

>45 sibylline: Lucy, you hit me with a BB. I just found out that our local library has got a copy. I guess I start with the first book of this serie.

>45 sibylline: Because I couldn't wait!
That was essentially my reason too, and I was glad there aren't more.

Happy New Year Lucy! I don't get around to threads as much as I like but I really enjoy your thoughts on your reads.

I have A Month in the Country on the TBR shelves and hope to get to it soon. It sounds wonderful. Also, I hear you on the impulse to jump into books like mysteries which pull you into the story and won't let go. My first read for the year was an excellent romance, and while I would love to jump right into the next in the series, I have moved back to my more serious reads. Not to suggest that the more serious books aren't as good, they are just good in a way that requires more effort! :)

Happy New Year! Got here at last after having 2015 off to a very hectic start in RL. Wishing you a great 2015 of reading, musing, and whatever else you may care to do with your time! (Being published, maybe....?) Which reminds me. I have Hiero's Journey at the top of the TBR and will get to it ASAP when I have cleared the decks of my current reads. Can't wait!

Wow, 5 stars for Silkworm. Hmm... that gives me hope because I have a copy in my TBR Tower, but have been less than eager to read it because I didn't enjoy The Cuckoo's Calling all that much.

>45 sibylline: I have the first book in the series on my Kindle based upon some "liked it" comments you made earlier. Maybe I'll move that up on the stack.

Hello everyone, and thanks for all your comments....

>55 cameling: Caro - if you didn't like Cuckoo, I don't know that you'd like this one any better. I read these books (and watch the shows) I'm realizing almost entirely for the dynamics between the main characters, eg the PI or or DI etc. and those they work with. I'm nuts about Cormoran and Robin. A sucker. No judgement, just pure enjoyment of the two of them figuring out how to work together.

I have to give 5's to books I just sit and read end to end.

I loved The Silkworm -- glad you enjoyed it, and it's a great way to start a new year of reading.

Great first read of 2015, Lucy!

How long is the LD home for, Lucy, and are you snowed in?

Happy Joint Thingaversary to you, dear Lucy, and wishes for many more!

Happy Thingaversary, Lucy!

Thank you! I am entitled to 5 plus one to grow on..... but I am so sated from Christmas, I think I'll mainly foment a list. One of them is a Joyce, about the making of Ulysses, which I can use my January credit on!

So I am reading a vampire book now Sleight of Hand which the spousal unit put on my shelf swearing it was 'pretty good' for the genre. It sounds a bit silly, but what I've started doing--not unlike Peggy and her 'book from one case' is just moving along the alphabet in my various fiction categories (non-fiction is organized differently by type, essay, bio, nature). I don't have to read a book from each letter, that would get tedious, but I have to move along until the next book jumps out at me. It is helping me feel that I am 'traveling' through the shelves, so that is all to the good.

Today, like so many, I go back to work! Editing here I come! I'm not expecting a whole lot of myself today, but at least to get started.

Not snowed in at all at present Roni - in fact it looks as if we might have an extended skating period ahead of us and severe cold and wind. I'm actually ok with that as skating will be kind of a novelty!

It's a skating rink over here too, but not in a good way. We had this lovely, lovely snowfall day before yesterday. I always love those, and so does Coco. But then it rained all day yesterday, and the trees all turned frosty and branches started falling all over the sidewalks and it was really dangerous trying to walk more than ten steps out there because the risk of falling and breaking a limb was all too real. Not sure it's any better today yet.

I'll probably read the other Robert Galbraith books just because of the interactions between Cormoran and Robin, which I also find quite hook me in, but I can't say I cared at all for the murder cases at all in the first two books.

No, the murder case in this one is pretty much flat out gross - but that seems to be the style - I just ignore it! At least only ONE person dies, one of the things I do find tedious in the Morse/Lewis tv mysteries.

Holy long underwear! I just noticed that we've got a -13 F. forecast coming up on Wed. night. Must be January! Time to go find my really really big coat - massive sheepskin number.

Happy Thingaversary, Lucy!
Caught a BB for The Silkworm, but with my own TA coming up (late) in January, right now those BBs aren't a problem yet.

Temperature in my bedroom is in the 50s.... Brrr.... Thank heavens for cats, aka portable fur-covered heating units requiring no recharging and no refills of hot water. (too bad about the claws and territorial demands, but hey...)

Love your philosophical statements and it sounds as if you're off to a good start on the reading front! I really enjoy Buruma, although you're right in saying that he isn't always witty and elegant and fun and entertaining. But he is very thoughtful and extremely smart and I gravitate to anything that he writes as a matter of course. He wrote a good book on Chinese dissidents, and you shouldn't miss Occidentalism. He's in a rather unique position, given the fact that he is Dutch but has lived extensively elsewhere and really isn't Dutch in his ways of thinking, given the English part of his background. He now teaches at Bard. The book of his that I liked least was his most conventional -- the history of the immediate postwar period of 1945. His Japan books are excellent.

The Camilla Gibb novel I know I read, but I have trouble now remembering anything about it, which tells me that it was merely indifferent -- probably fun, but meh. At least no book bullets yet, since I have read all four of your first reads (although I have no plans to follow you with the vampire book...)

Happy new year to you and the menagerie (including the dormouse...)

>45 sibylline: Great start to your reading year, Lucy! Congratulations!

Happy joint thingaversary Lucy!

>63 sibylline: ' It sounds a bit silly'

And I was just thinking 'that sounds like a good idea'!

>68 Chatterbox: 50's. Ow. The LD's space gets down to 60ish when the weather is like this as by the time the warm woodstove air gets up to her it's not that warm anymore.... but the rest of the house is decent.

Thanks for the encouragement with the Buruma. It's my first of his books. Just finishing Ch 2 - so I'm still wondering where he is going to take this thesis. The German love-affair with Shakespeare is interesting and a little bit disturbing. But I almost wish I could read German to get some idea of Schlegel's achievement translating Shakespeare.

>70 souloftherose: Heather - I have to say, it's pretty good, not any sillier than many other things I read! - Moves right along, decent main characters - predictable in some ways, yes, but with just enough life of their own. I'm even interested in her vampire dilemma.

Thanks Stasia and Natalie for Happy Thinga's. I still haven't fomented a list but the words "You are entitled to six books" are firmly emblazoned in my mind's eye.

Morning, Lucy!

2. contemp fic****
The Beauty of Humanity Movement Camilla Gibb

Hanoi, more or less present day. You might call this a novel of redemption and hope. An old man living by a polluted pond, an expert soup and noodle cook, peripatetic. A survivor and a mainstay of this tenuous neighborhood. In the very bad times he made noodles out of pond weed, good noodles, he's that good a cook and caring a person, because he kept those around him alive. His family, of an adoptive nature as he never married (part of the story--the love of his life lives only a yard or two away from his own doorstep) is that of the son of a man who was the leader of a subversive intellectual group that defied Ho Chi Minh. Enter Maggie, a Vietnamese who grew up in the US, looking for information about her own father, an artist. The old man can't remember him, but his memories are slipping away. But slowly Maggie and the old man and his family all join in the search. There is a lot about the joys of 'pho' and pho-making, of cooking in general. While it is essentially a feel-good tale, it is saved from triviality by the strength of the characters, vivid descriptions and good writing. ****

it's really a 3 3/4 star book - but 3 1/2 feels mean. Some books are so hard to rate!

Great review of The Beauty of Humanity Movement, Lucy. Glad you enjoyed.

>73 sibylline: Another one for the Wish List.

>71 sibylline: Actually I meant the moving along the alphabet to choose your next book idea but the vampire book also sounds interesting :-)

Oh right, Heather, Gotcha. Now I'm on H in the contemp fic and..... hm. Also H. in the genre department. Of course, I also always have a choice to not conform to this idea.... but it seems to be working for the mo'.

Temperatures are dropping - down to about 6 from a high of 20 this morning.... I'd say most of the drop was in the last hour or so. As you recall the three thermometers, Tinesy, The Quitter and The Pessimist are all hard at work. The Quitter is the most accurate but it will quit when it drops seven more degrees (it goes to about -1 I think). The Pessimist says it is 2. I took my afternoon walk this morning, joining it up with the morning walk.... so glad I did. Po won't really understand, but too bad!

It's 6° here right now. I can't really complain too much since it's subzero in much of the country, but I'm still feeling it in my bones. We have an old house and one of the "features" of that is that there are little drafts all over. :-(

Weather report:
The Quitter: quit, duh
The Pessimist: -22
Teensy: -18

I'm really not sure why I got out of bed, except to stoke the fire!

3. Spec fic *** 1/4
Sleight of Hand Mark Henwick

What can I say. Amber, member of an elite special ops force, got bitten by a vampire on the job in South America.... and so far she is resisting becoming a vampire herself. Honestly, I don't know why I kept on reading but one aspect the writer does brilliantly is to achieve a breathless forward momentum. It's full of cliches and yet, I read on, the characters are quite predictable, and yet I read on, the plot wasn't even all that great, really, the kind of plot it's best not to think about too much and I just . . . read on. If you like vampire stuff, I think you'll like this one. If you don't, stay away.

Why now? The spousal unit read this a while back and said it had a lot of energy. Which indeed it has. I got tired of seeing it on my shelf.

That cover would completely turn me off from reading it. It just screams Harlequin Romance Meets True Blood to me.

Your touchstone goes to the wrong book, Lucy.

I LOVE your weather reports! Happy Friday to you, dear!

BBBBRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrr. Stay warm for sure!
The Passage is kinda sorta like that. It goes on and on and on, and I sit here and flip the pages quite happily. I don't think I'll try the second in the trilogy, but I am having a great time with this one.

Happy New Year, Lucy. I enjoyed reading your thoughts in your topper and can really relate. I even toyed, briefly, with not starting a thread this year but concluded that I would miss too many of my LT friends (you included) and so am back, but plan not to worry if I get terribly behind with the threads, especially at the beginning of the year. Reading is for enjoyment and so it LT, right?

Lucy, I wish you a relaxed weekend.

>84 RebaRelishesReading: Absolutely, yes! And I am glad you decided to stick around.

Dropping in to catch up with you, Lucy, and wishing you a weekend full of fabulous!

4. contemp fic ****1/2
✔A Spot of Bother Mark Haddon

Top of the line of a domestic/comic contemporary fiction sub-genre 'Father-of-the-Bride'. Daughter announces her plans to marry second time and family goes into tailspin, particularly the father. What I admire about the novel is that it is comic even, upon occasion farcical, but always with utmost sympathy for the characters, so that I came away feeling that I had read a surprisingly serious novel underneath the humor, which is mainly of the sharply observed kind. Highly recommended!

Why now Continuing the clearing of the tbr shelves!

>88 sibylline: Lucy, thanks for this review. I'll have a look at our local library if they've got a copy.

Lucy, I agree with you that some books are hard to rate. In those cases, I let my feelings for the book take over to go the extra half star…or take it away. The new Gibb book sounds good. I have fond memories of her Sweetness in the Belly and have been meaning to read something else by her. I've had the Galbraith books on the WL since they came out. So many books…

Okay, I'll be quiet about the "cold" temps in Missouri until we get into the double digits below zero. I hope that never happens!

Bloody freezing here, too, and the two reasons that I got out of bed were (a) I knew that the mail person would be deliver book ARCs today and (b) Tigger the terror cat was swatting my face, demanding to be fed. And no, he did not retract his claws. What a silly idea.

>88 sibylline: sample ordered... While Sleight of Hand isn't my genre anyway I have to agree with >81 TadAD: that the cover alone would make me turn off reading. While the cover in >88 sibylline: is great imo, girlish pink, but the wedding cake is black (so it isn't all joy and fun) and that desperate man (father?) sitting on the edge. You get a good idea what to expect.

Here is what I am reading as of today:

♬

I've read like a mad thing this week, though I can't quite figure it out given that I was also rather busy. But a funny kind of busy. An example: One night (Friday) we were doing that 'present but invisible' parental thing while the LD had a skating & movie w/ ten friends party. I was either getting the next bit of food out (the LD and I did brilliantly with chili, meat on the side, so vegetarians etc. could choose), two chopped up baguettes and a token salad. Now that we have a proper dishwasher, this sort of event is so much easier. The LD and her friends are also helpful now and ask, what can we do? Especially, interestingly, the boys. Of course, though my nose was in my book, I had my ears on high alert for their stories which are so enjoyable! The talk is like a flow of music, really, to me.

And what have I got myself into? Pegasus is a charming YA story, great characters and dialogue and a slowly evolving plot that intrigues..... and there are two more! Roni got me into this!

*And oh garrrr! The next two are 'planned' and being written.... so I will have to wait. Not a bad thing, really, given all the books in my shelves.

I can't think where the Jordan came from, it was a recommend from here, but I only started noting the particulars about who and when on my WL about two years ago. It's good so far, a dystopic near future - the reviewers call it an update on The Scarlet Letter with a bit of Margaret Atwood tossed in to set things on fire! (OK I added that last bit). But the reality is, that is just what it is. And so far, well done! I'm going to pass it along to the LD when I'm done as she read tSL last year.

And I slog along in the Buruma. It's really the history of an 'idea' (the idea being that somehow British culture juggles personal liberty and economic oppression in a uniquely effective way) and how Europeans from the 18th century (when the idea took root) to ..... I'm not sure when since I'm not done.... have loved and hated, been drawn to and rejected the British approach. It illuminates for sure, why the UK has not joined in on the Euro adventure. It's a fascinating idea to examine - and it is, really, but the book must be read slowly or there is no point to it.

I'm halfway through Genghis. He has died, and now, his children will tear his achievements to shreds. A bit depressing to contemplate, but I'll get back to it. The narrator is one I will call 'slightly more than adequate' but no more than that. Some narrators have voices I enjoy so much that I can't wait to listen no matter what the content.

The continuing cold (it's about 5 at the mo' might have something to do with all the reading!

I read When She Woke a couple of years ago. I remember it as a compelling read but in the end, I was just left feeling like I got beat around the head with A Message. I think I wanted a bit more subtlety, maybe?

Yeah, I'm worried it's going to be a bit like that. I plan to read it in 'fast' mode, I think.

>73 sibylline: I went to add that one to the BlackHole only to discover it was already there. No idea who originally recommended it to me. Unfortunately, my local library still does not have it.

>88 sibylline: I really liked that one too!

Lucy, I enjoyed the reviews. McKinley is the only author I am familiar with (well, along with Rowling--but not her non-HP books), so lots for me to think about. It's been cold here too. December had temps in the 60s (Fahrenheit), and January in the negatives. I am so happy I finally replaced my 22-year-old snow boots.

TOLD you to wait until McKinley finished the second half of the story! Oh, well, it is good reading as far as it goes.

>88 sibylline: A Spot of Bother sounds fun. I have been feeling like fiction is all sad and depressing (excluding genre fiction of course) so I am glad to get a recommendation for a comic fiction book.

5. fantasy ****
new Pegasus Robin McKinley

And now I have to wait for the next installment . . . Roni shared Pegasus with me and I should have heeded her warning to wait until the sequel or next in the series was out. I made the mistake of idly picking it up 'just to see' and that was that. If you like high fantasy this is a lot of fun, very lively and well put together. ****

Sylvi is the fourth child and only daughter of the king and queen of Balsinsland, 'the sweet green country' they came to escaping from war in their own land. Here they meet the Pegasi, a race of intelligent flying equines who have been beleaguered by any number of monstrous beasts, ladon, wyvern, etcetera. The humans are great fighters and soon an agreement is reached that the humans can have the green lowlands for their own if they will keep the monsters at bay. The only problem, seemingly an insuperable barrier is that communication between the two races is almost impossibly difficult. Both peoples have magicians (shamans in the case of the Pegasi) but it is the stronger human magician that broker the treaty. While equals, the pegasi and humans will 'bind' themselves to one another, but it is a strange relationship, as they can barely make themselves understood to one another. Until Sylvi, at 12, binds with Ebon. They discover immediately that they can talk, effortlessly mind-to-mind. The very creepy head magician Fthoom (what a name!) objects that this is not at all the correct procedure. Pegasi and humans do not touch, do not talk etcetera and have not done so for 800 years. He is so arrogant however that Sylvi's father tosses him out with the task of hunting down every reference to human-pegasi relations. The king, who is quite close to his own Pegasus, suspects that something is not right about the human magicians, but there is no proof of anything. Ebon invites Sylvi, just before her 16th birthday to come to his own land, Rhiandomeer. Permission is gotten to do this and while there Sylvi has many revelations and visions, she sees inside the great Caves, the spiritual heart of the Pegasi and returns changed, more convinced than ever that the human magicians are evil. The Pegasi know of a woman both a warrior and bonded who could also speak. The monsters, meanwhile have been getting stronger. A roc (huge!) has been seen. Then another and another. Then Fthoom demands to share his findings. He purports to have found a document that explains that when the Pegasi and humans become close, then the monsters are stronger and vice versa. Another royal and his pegasus could speak and were fighting an outbreak and a roc was about to kill them both when the link between them was broken and the pegasus died. The roc then gave a big speech and died. The story ends with Sylvi and Ebon being separated.

Oh! We have that one around here someplace! Now I'm wondering where it is.

Well, let it stay lost until the next one comes out, Mamie! That's my advice. I put a note in it for whoever might pick it up next in this household to wait!

HA! Duly noted, Lucy!

I told you so. So, if you liked that one, Lucy, let me strongly recommend my top fantasy of 2013, A Turn of Light by Julie Czerneda. The story finishes in that book, although she has written a sequel which I am just about to start.

I have it!!!!!!!!!! (I think... must trot off to look). YES! I've just picked up the first Heris Serrano, so it might be awhile. January is my 'time' to hurl myself into a long series.....

>88 sibylline: I really enjoyed A Spot of Bother too. For some reason I've been very slow at getting round to his latest novel, The Red House.

>100 sibylline: Not clicking on the spoiler link and not getting to look for this until the remaining books are written.

6. sp/op ****
Hunting Party Elizabeth Moon

In which we meet, for the first time, Heris Serrano of the "Serrano Admiralty"--that is a long line of admirals in the family--has been disgraced and resigned her commission and takes a job as captain of a luxury yacht owned by an eccentric elderly lady. But. . . the Captain soon realizes she has more probems than just her astonishingly careless boss, the unruly young nephew and his friends in her, and a sloppy crew . . . She encounters real danger and an old enemy . . . and learns the joys of foxhunting! A romp, in short and I am looking forward to #2.

Why now Peggy has been after me to get to these for ages! And winter is my 'series' time. And time to stop hoarding and get on with it.

Lucy, I wish you a relaxed weekend.

This is a propos of nothing in particular, but I was reading this morning about the removal of the Elwha and Gline Dams on the Olympic Peninsula and remembering a novel, West of Here in which the Elwha figures prominently. I've found myself thinking of it from time to time - I think Jonathan Evison worked very hard to capture the spirit of the place and succeeded.

I've been a bit scarce here, super-busy week musically and writing and the LD leaves tomorrow morning . . .

>109 sibylline: West of Here
BB, especially since I lived in the area some years ago...
I'd been wondering whether the LD was still around; you've been quieter than usual but I figured also your effort to achieve balance.

Some balance, but mostly it reflects an effort to get the Hiero revisions seriously moving again and a sudden onslaught of music events (either as a player or audience).

>109 sibylline:: Hmmm, I might have to look up West of Here. My summer living in Port Angeles working for Olympic National Park right after I graduated from college was a very formative and memorable experience. I still miss the area...

>107 sibylline: The first three of these are very good. After that, the plot disperses too widely and politically to make a gripping story imho.

I own West of Here and was wildly excited to read it, but then got distracted. That was three (?) years ago.... sigh.

>112 justchris: Nice to see you here! There are some terrific characters in WoH -- but the biggest strength ultimately is the setting--you could even say the relationships of the various characters (it takes place in a couple of different eras) to the landscape.

>114 katiekrug: I listened to it - my library had it on CD's and I blew through it since I was listening during the days of taking my daughter to school.... that added up to about 7 hours of listening a week!

You mean >107 sibylline: Roni? I don't even know if I have any of the later ones, but I am sorry to hear that it gets too diffuse. Although I don't mind that with Cherryh.

7. essays ****
Voltaire's Coconuts Ian Buruma

Sometimes a writer and thinker, such as Buruma, will discover an angle of inquiry that is truly revelatory--bringing into relief assumptions and influences that might otherwise be overlooked. Buruma starts with his own and his family's love affair with England (German Jewish emigrant grandparents) widens his scope to examine the influence of various political thinkers and intellectuals from France (Voltaire being the #1 french anglophile) Italy (Mazzini) and Germany, particularly the views of German Jews. I didn't know of the German adoption of Shakespeare, through Schlegel's translation as 'theirs' nor did I know that it was Baron de Coubertin's enthusiasm for British public school sportsmanship that inspired the idea of the modern Olympics. It is very difficult to figure out why Great Britain developed its political system and civil liberties the way it did, and how the system has functioned and persisted as well as it has. He makes it clear too that these emigrants and admirers see their own idealized version of Great Britain, that the 'real' Great Britain is a mysterious entity that shouldn't work but does anyway. He also made me feel the mutually beneficial back and forth between the continent and Great Britain. The Europeans have their own take on what makes Great Britain work which in turn has an effect on how the British see themselves which in turn . . . Buruma writes with tremendous insight: "Once people talk of political freedoms as purely native fruits, you know that freedom is no longer the point. Voltaire and Montesquieu recognized that liberties were protected by laws not values. That is why they admired Britain. The idea that society should be ruled by specific national values was in fact the mark of Continental tyrannies, not of British liberalism." I must confess that I wasn't hugely in the mood for this read, but I kept on with it and it really is a fine book. ****

Why now? Because it has been sitting there a long time and I was tired of seeing the title, which I do not like.

"Why now? Because it has been sitting there a long time and I was tired of seeing the title, which I do not like." This cracked me up, Lucy! I was perusing the bookshelves in our living room the other day, and Birdy came up and asked if I had a plan for reading them all. "A plan?" I said, "well, no. I do have a sort of scheme of getting to some of the specific authors, but no real plan for tackling all of them. Just sort of take them as the mood hits, I guess." She looks at me and then back at the shelves, "Could you read the ones with the ugly covers first?" she asks.

Ah now there is someone right after my own heart! The very next nonfiction book (more essays) I have just picked has an AWFUL cover that I hate and that is why I picked it!!

I also tinkered a little and added a quote to the review above.

I will tell her that you are going after the awful covers and the bad titles - she will be delighted with you! That quote is an interesting one - a lot of food for thought there. As always, I enjoy reading your reviews even when I have no intention of reading the book. Well done, Lucy!

Lucy, I nearly lost you! I realised that I wasn't seeing your posts anywhere and started hyperventilating, so I trawled through the posts via the group thread and here you are, and here am I as well.

Now I have to go back up and start reading until I catch up with myself again. And Happy New Year!

>100 sibylline:: I like McKinley's writing. She did the only credible Robin Hood I've ever read.

>109 sibylline:: synrhconicity: I was just at two nights of the Banff Film Festival which tours across Canada and one of the longer feature films was DamNation, about the deconstruction of U.S. south 48 dams to restore the watersheds to their healthy and natural states. One of the dams was the Elwha!. It's a really excellent short film, if you ever get to see it. Did you know that there is a dam in the U.S. for every single day since Hoover was president? That's a heckuva lot of dams, many of them now defunct, useless, and actually destructive to fish like wild salmon. When they took some of the dams out, within two years the salmon were rebounding, coastal shorelines which had been reduced to rocks were resilting (creating protection from ocean storm surges, etc.), and getting rid of the toxic algae build-ups which were creating dead lakes. I was fascinated, as though you can't tell.

>116 sibylline:: I have read some good stuff about the Scottish enlightenment, which greatly influenced things like philosophy, social awareness, and economics in England.

No Po photo?

So I thought I had been here some time in the past week. Not so! My loss!
I'm very happy that you're enjoying Heris, and I see that West of Here is $1.99 on Kindle, so I'm off to download it. Thanks!

>120 tiffin: trawled through the posts
Threadbook!

>122 qebo:: I didn't even know such a thing existed! Thanks, q!

>123 tiffin: Spread the word!

>122 qebo: Oh, I was just about to say that. It has cured my hyperventilation on numerous occasions.
Also: the Threadbook is easy to find. Just go to the group page -- there's a link in the information about the group that appears above the threads.

Tui, I am so honoured that you nearly hyperventilated over the lack of moi!!!! I am excited that there is a movie about taking out the dams, especially the Elwha.

The Threadbook has been an invaluable resource to me. I use it quite a lot, especially to find lost people.

In an hour or so I head down to Rutland to put the LD on her Ethan Allen Express to New York and school.

What I am reading now

♬

You see, Mamie? Isn't that a terrible cover?

Yes, it is, Lucy. A worthy choice. Happy Sunday, dear!

Stopping by to get caught up here Lucy and sorry to read about the cold temps you have been experiencing. Great review of A Spot of Bother.... I think I even have a copy of that one kicking around somewhere.

I'm glad I know to wait on Pegasus, Lucy. Thanks for letting me know. And I'm interested to know that Robert Gailbraith is such a good author. But it seems you rather like her, since you loved A Spot of Bother. I'm interested in what you think of the book about Genghis Khan.

>130 The_Hibernator: Rachel - Perhaps I muddled you somehow - Robert Galbraith is really J.K. Rowling writing mysteries. SoB is by Mark Haddon is domestic fiction . . .

Lori - I was surprised by how much I enjoyed SoB! (love its acronym!)

>107 sibylline: I read those a zillion years ago and my memory is that there were a perfect "romp" as you put it. I need to find a new series of that type.

New picture of Posey, eh Tui? I'll see what I can do!

8. dyst ****
When She Woke Hillary Jordan

Novels consciously modeled on previous novels tread a dangerous path. Here Jordan takes the story of The Scarlet Letter and applies it to a dystopic USA of the near future, post-Scourge, a sexually-transmitted epidemic that sterilizes those women who contract it and causes both a wide hysteria and a conservative religious surge. Jordan uses, however, the cool and objective 'voice' familiar to us from Atwood's more recent classic, The Handmaid's Tale for her narrative. Her protagonist, Hannah, is not without strong passions and emotions, but she is also a rational thinker and strong character who only gets stronger as she encounters hardships. Her lover was a famous figure, a popular and charismatic minister and when she becomes pregnant she chooses to have an abortion. She is caught and tried for murder and then 'chromed' - turned bright red - in this future time there is no money for prisons and instead the transgressors are turned various colors for different lengths of time--and let loose back into society where they have to fend for themselves. She does not reveal who the father is, if she had she might have received a lighter sentence. This one act draws the attention of an activist group . . . I wasn't expecting to be so drawn in, nor was I expecting to be moved, at times, by the things that Hannah witnesses and experiences, but I was. It's very well done, even if you know, the entire time, where the story will take you in the end, the journey has twists and turns and small but significant surprises. ****

Why now? One of those books that has lingered on my shelves for too long.

A very nice review, Lucy. Did you post it? If so, I will thumb. I had that one on my giant list already because Kim (Berly) had read and reviewed it last year, and I actually had it out from the library at one point, bit didn't get to it in time. You are reminding me that I need to put it back in the queue.

Happy Monday, dear!

Ok - saw you had posted it and gave it my thumb!

Thank you. I love getting thumbs, but I forget that in order to get one you have to post the review!

>134 sibylline: Intriguing...

Yes, definitely intriguing.

>100 sibylline: >104 ronincats: Glad to see another person on the "when will Robin McKinley finish the sequel to Pegasus?" wagon. I will also second Roni's recommendation of the A turn of light. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel one of these days.

>138 qebo: >139 TadAD: It definitely belongs in the category of women/future/sf etc. we were reading a couple of years back.

9. sp/op ****
Sporting Chance Elizabeth Moon

I enjoyed this second Serrano even better than the first; in fact, I neglected some of the things I should have been doing in order to read it. In this one someone has poisoned Cecelia and the king asks Heris to do him a service, which she feels she must obey even though she distrusts his motives. . . I knew all the players too, so I wasn't having to think, "Who is that?" Anyhow, there is lots of derring-do, humour, and plot twist as well as a bit of romance, of course, where would we be without that? If you like space opera, there is nothing not to like here. ****

>142 sibylline: space opera
Alas, although I was impressed by The Speed of Dark, I have learned the hard way that no matter how attractive space opera seems when you and several other people describe it, it is not for me.

I keep expecting to grow out of it, but it hasn't happened yet.

Hi Lucy -- hope 2015 is being good to you. You're doing lots of reading so that's a good start :)

Gee, Lucy, my wish for you is that you may never outgrow your love of space opera. When you need one, a good one cures a bunch of ills. Sorry Ms. Q doesn't have that pleasure, but she has other outlets.

>134 sibylline: I've had When She Woke on my wishlist for a while but keep holding off because I've never read The Scarlet Letter. Is it best to have read TSL first?

>142 sibylline: "... I neglected some of the things I should have been doing in order to read it..."

In our workaholic America, isn't doing things that make you happy perhaps what we should be doing?

>146 LizzieD: Sorry Ms. Q doesn't have that pleasure, but she has other outlets.
Meh. Lotsa things I don't like that other people do, and vice versa. :-)

>147 souloftherose: Yeah, I have the same question. I read The Scarlet Letter in high school, about 40 years ago.

Hmmmm. My daughter reread tSL last year, so I got re-acquainted with it, although I didn't 'read' it from cover to cover and list it here. Frankly, a synopsis with some analysis might be adequate if you have no plan to read tSL-- especially if you have read The Handmaid's Tale. In some ways the book owes more to that story in the way it feels and is presented. The 'plot' is very loosely connected to the basic premise of tSL (young woman is impregnated by her married-minister-who-should-know-better and is branded an adulteress and has to wear the letter A in red) but it does go off in quite a different direction, so that you don't really need the whole story I don't think. What makes it interesting is that Hawthorne wrote it so long ago, could see clearly the ways in which narrow-minded religious constrictions did more to ruin lives, especially the lives of women. Hawthorne was really quite a remarkable person and thinker as was that whole Concord lot.

Space Opera owes a lot of its energy to what I think of as the 'romance for intelligent people' genre (as opposed to bodice rippers) --you combine that with exotic settings, military derring-do, and usually some issue with ethical implications -- and make darned sure it has a happy ending (that's the romance talking) and bingo. Moon has a talent for having some unlikely characters (horse-mad elderly cantankerous Cecelia) and for developing her main characters in a satisfactory way. It's not entirely unlike the mystery genre that I like best where the character of the detective and various sergeants etc. is what matters the most.

Haven't read The Scarlett Letter and honestly was not aware of its premise, but I have read and very much enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale. So I've thoroughly enjoyed your post above, Lucy.

I thought The Handmaid's Tale was very well written, but I can't say I liked it, and I still have to read TSL - and I don't like dystopian - so the Jordon book is a BB I can fight off I guess. Or not? Your review sounds so good... *sigh*

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Lucy! And I should find the time in the next 3 days to follow your PN advice, thanks again for that!

Trust your instincts, Nathalie! It is a 'livelier' read than tHT - or tSL - both have a weighty quality. But I see no reason, really, why you should bother.

Someone gave my husband an SF book for xmas which is just the kind I don't like - think, literary writer decides to write sf - but it is sf so I feel torn!

I am struggling with a book that sneaked onto my bookshelf sometime in the last year or two Margot Livesey The Flight of Gemma Hardy- a modern-day rendering of various Brontes. Orphaned girl goes to boarding school after nice uncle dies, boarding school uses scholarship students as scullery maids, she endures... at 18 goes of to Orkneys to work for some handsome but tormented..... but, wait, it is the 1950's and 60's that this story is taking place, surely things are a wee bit different a hundred and forty plus years down the road? Isn't that the point of borrowing or using as your inspiration a classic? To examine what's the same, what's different? I am going to give it another fifty or so pages and then give up if I don't get interested. There's nothing wrong with it, and many might like it fine. Oh we'll see, I am trying to be harsher about just not reading the darned thing in these situations, but I have a 'clean your plate' complex too fight off. This is the sort of book - well-written etc. that I have the hardest time admitting I'm just not getting anything out of it. And now and then I find that after a slow beginning a novel like this will start to fly, so we'll see.

I wonder if someone might like it better who hadn't read Jane Eyre first?

I hope not! The thing is Jane Eyre endures because there is something 'more' there than the story . . . the Bronte books all have that ineffable quality Forster writes about. Their work isn't prophetic, exactly, but there is some kind of wider lens, deeper emotional apprehension, anger, and understanding of the human condition as well as a hint of change in the wind for women. The book I just read and liked doesn't exactly do that but somehow, it is 'keeping up' with the changes in our own world - the Livesey just feels, so far, like an exercise that is rooted entirely in the past. Of course, the fifties and sixties are the past for lots of people, and I was only a small child in the fifties, but it is the modern era, post WW2, nonetheless, even if we are, rapidly, moving away from that. I wonder about that choice to set it in the near past, not more in the present.

10. sp/op****
Winning Colors Elizabeth Moon

The last of the three in the first set of Serrano novels, in which we follow Heris during her time out of the Fleet. I enjoyed this one just as much as the second, and appreciated that it had the inklings of a slightly more serious theme: the effects of indefinite rejuvenation on the balance of power among not only the rich families but the whole of human universe. Rejuv costs money, and so increases the gap between rich and poor. It will be interesting to see if Moon takes this potential for conflict any further in future Serrano books. The aunts in this one are absolutely delicious! Moon has such a gift for creating older women characters!****

Moon has such a gift for creating older women characters!

So true!!

>153 sibylline: - I struggled a bit with The Flight of Gemma Hardy when I read it last year. At times I felt like Livesey was trying too hard to mirror Jane Eyre rather than just using the inspiration of the original story. So parts felt very forced and not genuine. I think I ended up giving it 3 stars in the end, but it could have been a lot better.

Ah - that's helpful Katie - I seem to be continuing with it - I've passed the point of no return even though it feels like a hodgepodge of novels I've read from Rebecca to The Secret Garden. At this point I'm almost fascinated by that aspect of it! And I'm reading it fast, so it will be done soon.

This week's line-up

♬

I was going to start the Nix with the prequel, but decided that I would start where he began.... worried that maybe it would be less fun later to have things unfold if I knew too much from the start. Otherwise I'm proceeding, with doubts intact, through the Livesey - I've read too much of it now to quit, but the same reservations apply unwavering - yet the writing seems to promise more. Grr. The Sedaris is very amusing but not always what I feel like, otherwise, it is fast and funny. I was upset by a piece Sedaris wrote about the death of one of his sisters, but I almost blame the magazine for letting that one through, frankly, when he hadn't processed his grief sufficiently to have any judgment at all. Finally, I am almost done with the Mongol Empire audio and what a ride that has been!

>160 sibylline: I do hope you enjoy the Nix; I loved that set of books quite a bit. Most of the people I've spoken to seem to prefer Lirael (the second book) but, for me, Sabriel is the best.

I confess I've never been a Sedaris fan. I've read Me Talk Pretty One Day plus a couple pieces by him in various collections and his humor always leaves me cold. The phrase I used in commenting on that first was, "written by a mean-spirited adolescent smirking at life from the fringes," and nothing I've read since has disabused me of that notion. I guess no author can expect to please all people and, certainly, he has plenty of fans who disagree with me.

I have reservations about Sedaris too and I agree with you. A lot of his humor comes from a place of almost painful insecurity and need to be, I don't know what, cool? Yet every now and then he transcends himself: there is a piece in this book about men's accessories that I read out loud to the SU and we were both more or less helpless with laughter. It is truly funny and the joke is entirely on him. Uneven. I think the book was likely a gift, but it's been around awhile and who knows. It could have been a freebie too.

Oh, definitely start with Sabriel! The prequel really isn't a prequel to that story, just an isolated story about someone who is a bit player in these books. There is nothing like being dumped headfirst into Sabriel's world the first time and having to figure out what is going on.

11.
The Flight of Gemma Hardy Margot Livesey ***

The fact is I'm just baffled by this book. The 'why bother' factor was wailing like a siren throughout. Livesey can put sentences together and there was, sort of, a story, albeit it was a pastiche of pretty much everything from Rebecca (with no bite) to The Secret Garden to about fifty other classics of the high-end 'tension-filled romance' genre. But let's take Rebecca. There really is a baddie, a serious baddie, and there really are secrets. In Flight everything turns out to be less than hinted at. Characters really don't develop or change, and some characters actually only seem to change in order to accommodate the story-line Gemma herself is not a believable ten-year old and her voice doesn't change much either as she grows up. The real problem though, is that the book had no underlying pressure fueling it and giving it energy. There was no deeper theme, about the evolution of love into wickedness, as there is in Rebecca, or the theme of Jane Eyre of how a life can be ruined by one heedless decision, no deep need evident to explore anything at all about the human condition. The love affair between the two mains is beyond unconvincing. With an 18 year gap, I am terribly sorry, you really do need to make it clear what the attraction is. It's all the more frustrating when the book is well written. Livesey taught (after my time) at the MFA program I attended and I have to say, this is about the worst novel I've read that a faculty member has written. She may be a very fine teacher, that happens. Also, someone uncritical could enjoy this, say, on a plane ride where you read it and leave it on the seat. ***

Why now? It's been cluttering up my shelves and I had a 'feeling' it was clutter. I think I picked it up for free somewhere. Poignantly, it has a gift card and inscription from someone who must have actually had (and liked having) Livesey as her advisor while at Warren Wilson working on her MFA. Given that the book only came out two years ago, the person who received it moved it right along to the library sale box. Indicative.

The cover should have warned me. I sort of hate this kind of waify heartstring pulling image.

Tad, I don't connect with Sedaris either. Sometimes there is a peculiarly American kind of sense of humour that just doesn't hit my funny spots (like that "I can't get any respect" guy), so I thought it was a case of that but I think you are closer to the truth of it with "adolescent". And Lucy's extrapolation of "painful insecurity" rings true too. I took "When you...in Flames" out of the library and gave it a try when it first came out but it and the me talk book just fell flat. Flanders and Swann, Monty Python, et. al and I'm shaking with laughter. Och weel.

I can't argue at all with you, Tui or Tad. If the book wasn't on my shelf, however it got there, which I don't 'recall at this time' I appear to be stuck with it. Awful being trained to 'clean the plate' innit? Luckily I am also completely helpless (hopeless? gormless? witless?) around Python et al too!

>165 tiffin: Ah, but Tui, as a Canadian...especially one living not extraordinarily far from either Hamilton or London, ON...the question raised is...what about Mr. Green?



Remember, "Even duct tape can't fix stupid. But it sure can muffle the sound!"

*smile*

Lucy, what a fabulously entertaining review of Why Bother? The Flight of Gemma Hardy. I dare say your review is eminently more interesting than the novel!

>167 TadAD: Even duct tape can't fix stupid. But it sure can muffle the sound! This made my day! Going to pass this along to some friends who will love it, too!

Ok, you got me with the Elizabeth Moon space opera trilogy. I just love some good space opera!

>167 TadAD: I also love Red/Green....living here on the border, Canadian tv was sometimes all we could get, and my dad used to watch this show all the time!

Tad, my father-in-law has Red-Green suspenders and is a card carrying member of the R-G club. We're fans!

How did you do in the storm, Lucy?

It didn't get this far inland - all we got was five inches of snow. Really it was the northern coastal areas, Boston, Maine, the Cape.... that got the worst of it!.

OK, Red Green is on the Netflix queue.

12.
Sabriel Garth Nix

In the Old Kingdom the dead need some help staying dead. The Abhorsen, a kind of super-necromancer, is the sole person charged with the knowledge and power of the Great Charter to do this. There is only ever one Abhorsen at a time. Sabriel hasn't quite graduated from her school, over the wall from the Old Kingdom, in Ancelstierre--a quirkily contemporary-ish world--when she is called to a rescue her father, currently the Abhorsen. The dead, naturally, feed on the living to gain strength, and they are running riot in the Old Kingdom. But a truly powerful entity of the Great Dead (there are many many categories and many gates one must pass through before being really and truly dead enough not to return) has returned and might just take over the Old Kingdom if Sabriel can't stop him. There is a handsome prince and a cat that isn't at all what it appears to be. It all works. I found myself thinking that there is something dead about those who are simply power-hungry to no other purpose than to dominate. The magic here is fresh and while it observes many familiar magical conventions, Nix does so with a fresh take and offers a few new contributions (the bells). So on to book 2 which deals with another branch of the Lines of the Great Charter. ****

Why now Got 'em for Christmas, that's why!

13. ♬
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Jack Weatherford history ****

Much of the story Weatherford unfolds here was news to me. Here in the West, which only briefly felt the wild wrath of the Mongol army at its height, it is hard to understand the extent of Asian awe and fear of what this one man accomplished in a lifetime. If nothing else will convince you--for eight hundred years a huge piece of land in Mongolia, the heart of Genghis Khan's home territory, has been closed to any incursion. First by the Mongol tribes themselves and then by the communists, to ensure that no one went in, so that no scholarship could give rise to any writings that might enflame the Mongolian tribal soul to rebellion. The legend of Genghis is that powerful. It was only after the fall of communism and the withdrawal of the Russians (who left a shameful mess of weapons and garbage and pollution around the perimeter of this sacred area, but curiously and significantly never despoiled it) scholarship and exploration almost immediately picked up in the 1990's. A document commissioned by the royal family not long after Genghis death, known as The Secret History, had surfaced now and again over the centuries but was written in such a way that it was tremendously difficult to decipher without intimate knowledge of Genghis' homeland. Weatherford and several other scholars of different kinds, from linguists to archaeologists, explored the area in depth and together were able to 'read' the secrets of the Secret History. And what a story! As unbelievable as it sounds, all Genghis may have ever wanted was peace. At the time of his youth the tribes all fought incessantly. Banished for refusing to submit to another tribal leader in the rigid hereditary hierarchy, he went out on his own. And gradually began to build a new kind of tribe, one depending on merit and earned trust. He acquired followers and they began to conquer more territory so as to feed their horses and families . . . but the further out from his homeland he conquered, the more it became apparent, that he needed to keep going until he had unified everyone into one gigantic entity in order to have real peace. The only reason, really, he stopped where he did in Hungary and the Balkans, is that Europe was too poor and did not have the big grassy plains for his soldier's horses. And the 'after story' - in particular the way nations twisted and abused the story of Genghis Khan to suit their own ends made my hair stand on end. Weatherford explains the origins of the vocabulary of Downs Syndrome and the use of the word 'mongoloid'. During the shameful interlude of very bad genetic science in the late 19 and early 20th centuries Downs (!!!!) came up with the completely bizarre idea that these children were throwbacks to the Mongols, from women raped during the invasions 700 centuries earlier!!!!! I mean, REALLY!! It boggles the mind. And people believed this less than a hundred years ago! After their downfall, the Mongols were painted as sub-human, wild and hopelessly violent. But the reality is the opposite. The Mongols with their military inventiveness put an end to the use of heavy armor and feudal walled cities, achieved miracles of fast communication, trade, education, currency.... built bridges and roads everywhere.... the list goes on and on. A great introduction to a fascinating subject. ****

The narration was good but not fantastic -- and at the end there is an interesting afterword read by Weatherford himself, which leads me to wish he would write another book about his years of traveling around the area with the other scholars and guides. Okay, so just read the book, review over.

Why nowAudible can be a bit difficult to sift through, so I've been putting books that catch my eye onto a wishlist that I then mull over. After listening to Ulysses I wanted something different!

>164 sibylline:. I also was underwhelmed by The Flight of Gemma Hardy. It seemed restrained by the parallels to Jane Eyre and didn't really tell a great new story or comment interestingly on the source material.

Nice to see you here Laura! Yes, it is puzzling in some ways --that someone would write so well and with the kind of restraint and intelligence that would normally promise some content. But alas.

>174 sibylline: BB. But not the audio version.

Yah, Q, I think there are maps and things that I don't have access to. Or maybe I do, if I hunt around. They sure would help!

Sabriel sounds interesting and Genghis Khan sounds fascinating.

Lucy, fascinating review of Genghis Khan. I appreciate your reading the tough ones and sharing with us: Ulysses and now this one.

I'm going to amend the audio to 'good' not just adequate. It was a good listen. The book has maps and things although I did fine using the internet.

What an amazing review for the Genghis Khan book! I always found that story fascinating (I shamefully admit it was a horrible German pop song in the early 80s that brought him to my attention, but hey, I was 10 then). Don't know if the book is for me for now, but I put it on my watch list for the day when I am in the mood for non-fiction and hostory again.

Hi Lucy, I wish you a lovely weekend.

I went right out and ordered the Genghis Khan book...right up Himself's alley.

Yes -I can think of quite a few history buffs in my acquaintance to give it to, too.

That's a great review of the Genghis Khan book Lucy. I read it a couple of years ago and sadly didn't seem to get as much out of it as you did, so perhaps I'll eventually give it another listen eventually. Thumbs up for that review.

What did you think of the narrator, Ilana? A four for a history type book for me, means that whatever else, the information was fascinating and the workmanship solid. Simon Winchesterish.

And NOW for February's thread!