Sibyx (Lucy) Reads in February

HERSELF trail-blazing and apres-ski!

***February Current Reads***
♬

✔The High Lord Trudi Canavan fantasy (Black Magician 3)
✔Reflections on a Marine Venus Lawrence Durrell travel essays (Rhodes)
✔Kindly Light A.N. Wilson contemp fic
♬ The End of the Affair Graham Greene contemp fic
Ongoing
Murdoch Marathon: See you in 2015! IM readers group is HERE
Virago Soon?
Reading the New Yorker 2014 Read my reviews here: HERE
currently reading October issues 6, 13, 20,? 27 November: 3, 10, 17, 24

February Reads
14. new Lirael Garth Nix fantasy #2 The Old Kingdom ****1/2
15. The New Yorker September
16.✔When You Are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris essays ****
17. ✔Black Swan Green David Mitchell contemp fic ****1/2
18. new Dotter of Her Father's Eyes Mary Talbot Bryan Talbot graphic/ memoir ***1/2
19. ✔Portrait of Jennie Robert Nathan fantasy classic (time travel) ***1/4
20. new Clariel Garth Nix fantasy (prequel) Old Kingdom ****
21. new Department of Speculation Jenny Offill contemp fic ****
22. newA Share in Death Deborah Crombie mys ***
23.✔ The Hydrogen Sonata Iain M. Banks sf *****
24. ✔City of Light Lauren Belfer hist fic ***1/4
25. ✔The Earth Hums in B Flat Mari Strachan contemp fic ****
26. ✔Status Anxiety Alain de Botton philosophy ****
27. new The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion contemp fic ****
28. Midworld Alan Dean Foster sf classic
29. ✔ The Magician's Guild Trudi Canavan fantasy (Black Magician 1)***1/4
30. ✔The Novice Trudi Canavan fantasy (Black Magician 2) ***1/4

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

JANUARY'S READING & STATS
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****

January Reflections
Lots of 'new to me' authors this month and, as part of my on-going shelf clearing, several reads of books I'd been avoiding, not feeling confident that I would enjoy them at all. The good news about that is that of the five in that category, only one was a bomb (#11). The other four, books #2,4,7,8, were all very good reads, #8 surprisingly so. The essays about anglophilia, #7 were slow-going but very rewarding. This is reinforcement for continuing the shelf-clearing--although my next round might concentrate more on books I've been hoarding because I think I KNOW I will enjoy them. Otherwise I am getting deep into my series bingeing, a winter tradition, which really helps me enjoy winter more!


January Reading Stats
Total: 13
Men: 6
Women: 7
Non-fiction: 2 (history, essays)
Fiction (contemp/classic): 3
SF/F: 6
Dystopic: 1
Mystery: 1
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New authors: 9
Months of NYers: 0

Housekeeping
*In=2 2015 Total=2
Out=4 2015 Total=4
From library: 0
Audio: 1
New: 4
From Shelf: 7
Enough Already!: 0

*January Books In
1. The Return of George Washington Edward Larson
2. What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Randall Munroe

Series Tally 2015

Started in 2015
The High Lord Trudi Canavan (book 3 of 3)

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
The Old Kingdom (4 of 4)

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)

I'm posting this list as an aide-memoire as I've decided to stop hoarding the Culture series. I think I have them all except #4.
1. Consider Phlebas -READ Reread? Barely remember it.
2. Player of Games READ ages ago, but I remember it quite vividly.
3. Use of Weapons
4. The State of the Art (stories)
5. Excession
6. Inversions
7. Look to Windward (did I read this?)
8. Matter
9. Surface Detail
10. The Hydrogen Sonata READ

This is going to be so much fun!

Ha! I think with my new stream-lined plan I WON'T need this one! But I have it in reserve, I guess.

Good heavens, I seem to be first in line. You had a really good January. I did last year but this year it seems to have gone down the rabbit hole. Here's to February!

Hello Tui!

I did have quite the reading frenzy, didn't I? But I think that's what happens in January and sometimes February too, although I think it will be less as I have more things going on. January, besides the usual writing work, I do what needs to be done and not a jot more (shovel, bring in the wood, clear the solar panels, etc., errands if I must), and ski when conditions permit. Then I think, I know what!: I'll read! The harp is less fun to play in winter - it's hard to keep it humidified enough and my fingers and hands feel drier too and somehow are clumsier. (Concertina is fine, and I play that more.) I can overcome it, but most of the time I don't. Plus, really, I think reading=hibernating for me! It's become my 'read those series you've been hoarding or the opposite, that new series you got for xmas' time as well.

Happy New Thread, Lucy!

Hehehe, looking are her go through that snow! Very cute.

Posey has to be first.

Happy new thread, Lucy. What a fantastic opening, I love the photos.

POSEY!!!

Oh, hi, Lucy ;-) Happy new thread.

That first picture is a gem!

I did a little happy dance when I opened this thread and saw the divine Miss Po. Thank you for that!!

I'm impressed with all the check-marks next to your January books--well done!

>1 sibylline: trail-blazing
Would love to see her face galumphing through the snow... but trail-blazing can only be seen from behind.

Love the Posey pictures! And lovely stats. You remind me I have to go do mine--I only finished my final book for January at 11:06 last night so haven't compiled them yet!

Happy new thread, Lucy! LOVE the Posey pics up top! And what a great month of reading you had in January.

Thank you all my visitors! I just noticed I totally forgot to do my reflections. Took another big ski today - we're getting another dump of snow 8-10 inches between tonight and tomorrow night, so Po will have her work cut out for her. There is a point where it gets too deep - we have to go out and stomp down some kind of trail with snow shoes and/or skis first.

Speaking of blazing, I'm tearing through the Garth Nix Old Kingdom books!

14. fantasy ****1/2
Lirael Garth Nix

Well, I loved this one even more than the first one, which I enjoyed very very much, but I have a weakness for kick-ass librarians with talking dogs. On to book 3! ****1/2

Why now? Well, heck, I'm a completist, aren't I?

Further comment: The covers for this series are quite good, I think.

Happy new thread, Lucy! Love the Posey pics!

Glad you liked the Genghis Khan book, I've been thinking about buying it from Audible. Thanks for the review. I LOVED the Garth Nix series. :)

I own the Colin Firth reading of The End of the Affair, but haven't listened to it yet. Eager to know how you'll like it.

Happy New Thread!!!! Happy Posey - both in her pioneering and her resting modes!!!
Oh dear. I have always avoided Garth Nix, but you are quickly changing my mind.

Glad you loved Lirael. Sabriel is really kick-ass neat, but I love Lirael more.

>22 ronincats: And now we are having another snowstorm... although, in truth, I can't use it as an excuse to sit around reading book 3 all day unless the power goes out, which is unlikely.

>21 LizzieD: What is it Peggy? I, too, have avoided Nix, why I cannot say. ? Nix the nix? But I think you'll love them. I KNOW you'll love them!

>20 The_Hibernator: It was an impulse choice on my part, the Genghis, but I have no regrets. I learned a lot.

>19 lkernagh: Well, Miss Po is alway ready for a photo shoot.

Craig really loved those Nix books that you are reading right now, Lucy. The kids and I read the Mister Monday series many, many years ago and liked it, but I have never read the ones you are reading. And I know that we have them here somewhere - might have to dig them out this year and try them myself.

Happy Monday to you!

Happy New Thread Lucy! That's a great combo of Posey photos.

To answer your question from your last thread, I quite like Jonathan Davis as a narrator, but then I'd listened to him reading Blindness before Genghis, and he'd completely won me over with the Saramago book, which he managed to make completely accessible to me (and ended up being a 4.5 star read, whereas I'd feared approaching that books for years). I notice now I have quite a few other books narrated by him, and I've actually looked out for him before, so I guess this shows once again that we all have different tastes. Then again, maybe he didn't particularly shine on that book?

I didn't post here yet? Happy New Thread, Lucy!
Yay for new Posey pics! I went hiking with my landlady and her little dog Flo this Sunday up on a mountain and Flo, on one of her runs, of course broke into a snowdrift and had to be freed. Amazing that Posey can handle such deep snow as on pic #1.

Hooray! All caught up and into Feb! Love the sound of the Genghis book, and that feminine dystopia sounds worth a look too.
I for one am going to come out in favour of David Sedaris. A friend gave me Me Talk Pretty One Day when I was living in Hungary, and his accounts of the expat experience chimed somewhat with my own. He currently resides in the UK, I believe, and has done a series of readings on BBC radio that I have really enjoyed. He actually seems quite self-deprecating in those, and has a lovely gentle humour. There was a great one recently about his love of soft lighting or candlelight and how he'd had it even as a child, that contained a line something like, (before he went off to college) "Do other guys like to lounge in their bedrooms, watching the slow play of light across their Klimt posters? The answer, I quickly learned, was NO!". Charming and funny, is my verdict.

Ok, so as promised, I have read the first Hiero book, and thought it was great! Haven't got round to writing a review yet, as I have been entirely remiss in that department so far this year, but as soon as I finished it I went online and ordered the second. Reading the comments on the Amazon page shows there's lots of folk awaiting the final installment, btw....

Thank you for that Hannah! I am in the (endless) home stretch of Book 3 - Hiero's Answer it will be called, that weird mathy problem that if you keep splitting the thing in half you will never quite get there

-. Yes, I know there is genuine interest, which is both exciting and scary, and I hope what I have done will be fun to read and make people happy and give them a satisfying sense of closure. I've had a wonderful time doing it and I have learned so much.

Happy new thread Lucy - love the photos of Po!

>18 sibylline: I read the Old Kingdom books years ago and really enjoyed them. Maybe time for a reread? There's a prequel out but the reviews so far have been mixed I think.

16.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris essays/ humor

The first few essays fit my general view of Sedaris, humorous observation often with an edge, and often at the expense of his family or partner, but with the piece "That's Amore" about a neighbor in New York, an ill-tempered harpy of a woman, the tone shifts. The essays (mostly) slow down and become less humorous and more thoughtful. Sedaris admits a preoccupation with mortality, not unexpected given the title, approaching it the way you approach the Atlantic ocean on a northern beach on a windy day, a toe in here and there. Several of the essays, including 'That's Amore" were moving. One, "The Man in the Hut" was about a man who was shunned (for good reason) in his neighborhood in the Normandy, again a strange and unpleasant person and yet, so lonely. Another is about sitting beside a man on a plane, a man who cries hopelessly the entire way across the Atlantic, aptly named "Crybaby". Sedaris makes no fun of any of these sad people although he uses some humor to illustrate his own fascination with them -- acknowledging that proper adults turn a blind eye to these kinds of people and avoid them but he can't--and that doesn't make him a better or worse person than anyone else, it is just who he is. The masterpiece is the final essay about giving up smoking, almost long enough to be a novella of a sort. Weeks can pass by here in Vermont without seeing anyone with a cigarette, so I think of cigarettes mostly as a thing of the past, but Sedaris smoked into his forties even though his mother died of lung cancer. He quit on a trip to Japan and kept a journal of that three month long time. Perhaps Sedaris is growing up at long last. A good thing, because he sure can write well. ****

Why now? effort to get rid of horrible covers and titles.

Your own little snow plow. Love it!!

What a great image, Reba!

Well aren't I the busy reader . . . I've finished The Old Kingdom trilogy and have started the 'prequel' -Clariel.

17. ****
Abhorsen Garth Nix Bk 3 (concludes trilogy) The Old Kingdom

So I've gobbled up these three, worse than any Free Magic spirit you might encounter between the covers of this series! Loads of fun and very consistent throughout. This last, as is the case with many final books in a series, suffers a little from having to arrange the plot and then fit the characters into it on schedule. It works out pretty well in the end, and the primary focus, on Prince Sameth, the reluctant Abhorsen-in-Waiting is good, although it lacks the depth of Lirael's development in book 2. Happily a more confident Lirael is heavily featured here and it's a lot fun watching her discover just exactly who she is. Mogget, the fickle cat and Disreputable Dog are back and as winning as ever, right to the very last page! Highly recommended!! ****

Why now? The completist thing. Got one more to go - set 600 years earlier.

>32 sibylline: I've avoided Clariel. The reviews have been mixed (comparatively). I loved the trilogy so much and I'm afraid of it being spoiled by a totally not-up-to-par addition...the Dune Syndrome.

O.K. O.K. I'll order the first one.

17. contemp fic ****1/2
Black Swan Green David Mitchell

It took me a little while to get involved, although from page 1 I was appreciating the writing and characters and dynamics. It is a very close and even claustrophobic view of what it was to be a thirteen year old boy in 1982, and it's well done enough that it is uncomfortable allowing yourself to slip back into that period of life where so many things are mysteriously difficult and incomprehensible. There are Mitchellish touches here and there, suggestions of strangeness and uncanny inter-relatedness of people and things (Frobisher, the composer is lightly featured here), a watch plays an important symbolic role (perhaps a bit heavy-handed, but it didn't bother me). The boy, Jason Taylor, is obviously an exceptionally bright and decent lad, but he's gone from being well-liked to being unpopular in part due to the eruption of a stammer. It is 'the hangman' who manages the stammer, changing the troublesome consonants around, sometimes relenting then swooping in for a kill at the worst possible moment. He also has 'unborn twin' a voice that usually advises the opposite of what he is doing. . . well done . . . Things are not all that good on the home front either. The parents are, perhaps, the weaker characters here, the mother especially, which makes sense really, given that the narrator is 13. As I think about it, the point is perhaps that his father has been reaching beyond what he can manage, both at work and in his marriage and is a fundamentally decent person too. Not being himself. Jason's sister is marvelous! Jason learns the most from contacts with people outside of his ken. An mad old woman who puts a miraculous poultice on a sprained ankle, another rather grand old woman who likes his poetry and opens up his mind to art and beauty, and a band of gypsies who camp nearby on a regular basis and confirm what he suspects, that there are many ways of being in the world and no need to disparage others for not doing things your way. The most beautiful line of the book comes from that scene: "Know what a fire is?" Knife Grinder's cough's a dying man's cough. "Fire's the sun, unwindin' itself out o' the wood."
****1/2

Why now Pretty much random, but I have this daft thing I've been doing the last few months, which is moving ever forwards along my various shelves of fiction, sf, nf and so on. I don't have to read a book from every letter of the alphabet, that would be tedious, and if I want I could read two books starting with the same letter, but I can't let my eyes roam backwards and I do try not to skip more than 2 or 3 letters. But if there is only one O book and I don't feel like reading it, then it's on to P or even R if I am so moved. This method has been making me feel that I am making some real progress, even if it is entirely illusory and has encouraged me to pick books that have been sitting there a long while. I end up thinking, "Next time I come around I really don't want that book to still be sitting there."

Clariel is very different from the others, although for completists it offers an interesting look at the Old Kingdom in that time. Just doesn't resonate the same, though. There are also a series of stories, collected in Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories, but only the first, a novella, is related to this series. It is good, however, and can also be found published on its own The Creature in the Case. I thought the Keys of the Kingdom series started out really strongly, but then petered out to a weak ending in the last two books. I must confess none of Nix's other books have risen to that level imho.

>35 sibylline: Good to see the 4.5 for this one, it opens a possibility for the BAC.

>35 sibylline: read that one ages ago and really liked it as well. It's quite different from Cloud Atlas, more straightforward.

>36 ronincats: Exactly, Roni, but I appreciate the effort he is making with it even if it is not as much fun or as successful. It is original, in some way, a fresh look at magic and that is one of the things that interests me--how each writer conceives of magic, where it comes from, the consequences of using it (if any) etc. So I have detached a bit from expecting to lose myself in it to consider it in that light.

I will keep an eye out for the Aborhorsen stories but likely this will be it for Nix until the next Abhorsen with Nick and Lirael turns up.

>37 Deern: very much worth reading! >38 lauralkeet: Very straightforward, Laura, although full of hints - the strongest writing is in the three episodes with people outside the 'norm'.

18. graphic bio/memoir ***1/2
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes Mary Talbot Bryan Talbot

The question I found myself asking was: Why this format? It seemed to set limits on exploring the parallels and differences that the author wanted to illuminate between her own life story and that of Lucia Joyce. To me, the differences outweighed the parallels, but I also respect Mary Talbot's intense identification with Lucia. She perceives a relationship; it exists for her and has affected her life deeply. Mary's father was a Joycean scholar and a pretty typical man of his era (my father was exactly the same, just not Catholic) a textbook Drama of the Gifted Child type of father/professor. The mother, ineffective when not collaborating. Joyce supported Lucia's dancing until it began to threaten to be a career and then his sexism surfaced - very typical of that era -. His view of women as creatures of folly, mainly there to have sex with is the least appealing and weakest aspect of Ulysses, but we can't all exceed our era in all respects. Nora is portrayed as worse than ineffective, actually a malign influence from the get-go. The stumbler for me too, was why Lucia didn't just pack up and leave? She had a career; she was in her twenties. I really cannot understand why she couldn't make the final break. There would have been nothing they could do to stop her. It's strange that she was so passionate about dancing but choked on leaving home. That's the kind of depth that is lacking, a discussion of that kind of thing. Ditto - Mary gets pregnant, marries, has babies but makes it through her PhD - but no depth there either. As we leave their childhoods in fact, the book races to be over and done with too quickly. But, I don't know much about graphic books and it seems to me the limitations of the form would make this inevitable. As an introduction to Lucia Joyce and as story to use to spark discussion in a classroom or even a book group, this book would be an excellent choice. ***1/2

Why now? Part of my post-Ulysses interest in all things Joycean.

I've been interested in reading more David Mitchell for a long while and have had Black Swan Green on the wish list for as long as I can remember. Interesting to note that I too was 13 in 1982... I didn't realise I shared that detail with the narrator. I thought for a sec maybe David Mitchell was also born in 1969, but no, 1974. I've had my eye on the audiobook version for a while and wonder if it would work in that format. Guess could give it a try and if I don't like the narrator I could always ask for my credit back.

>41 Smiler69: With a good narrator I think BSG would be a great 'read'!!!!

***1/2
Portrait of Jennie Robert Nathan

Alternated between being annoyed by the somewhat (to us in our time) cloyingly romantic elegiac tone of it, and being impressed with the writing which is very good, occasionally excellent, but has a compelling quality to it also, a flow, you might say. I can see why, in his time, Nathan was a very popular author, very successful. It's dated though and the plot is unthinkable now. Our protag. is a painter, struggling, of course. He meets a very young girl on a winter's day and they make friends (unthinkable, as I said). During an unspecified time which I assume is not even a whole year for Adam, they meet about five or six times, during which he sketches or paints her. The "catch" is that every time he sees her she is significantly older. By spring she is a young woman. Most of the story takes place in NY, the final part in Truro. (As someone who lived on the Cape and loves it dearly, I can only say he describes it so well it is almost painful to read.) There are sexist/dated irritations, amazing how unacceptable it is now for anyone to refer to "artists" as "he". You just can't do that anymore. Nor can you make this kind of fatuous generalization: There ought to be something timeless about a woman. Not about a man--we've always been present-minded. The person speaking then goes on and on about how women in portraits seem more 'alive' than portraits of men, which is utter nonsense! On the weather on the Cape: Sometimes in late summer or in early fall there is a day lovelier than all the others, a day of such pure weather that the heart is entranced, lost in a sort of dream, caught in an enchantment between time and change.. Apparently the old Cape Codders call that kind of weather a "weather-breeder" a wonderful expression that makes perfect sense! That might be a characteristic of New England, in fact. There are, at the end of summer, a handful of days like that which make it hard to believe that it could ever be other than the way it is, except you know that winter is not far off and will come. The time travel piece of it is more a suggestion and a window into musing about the ironclad fact that only the present exists, past and future, both unreachable and basically unknowable therefore. Kind of a long review, but it is interesting to read a book like this, from another time, which is likely why I picked it up, wherever and whenever I did! ***1/2


Why now I have absolutely no idea how this book came to be in my possession.* It's afirst edition published by Knopf and it's been knocking around for quite some time. Before it came to me it was at the Breezy Point Library in Charlotte, Virginia. Presumably when it was new. Because part of it is set in Truro and Nathan spent lots of time out on the Cape, it somehow made its way there. I am going to hazard a guess that I picked it up there when I was around for the Wellfleet Library's big August book sale. Anyhow, now I've done with it. Not sure where to send it next!

*Returned to say that I picked it up free at the local (Vt) re-use hut at the transfer station about three years ago! I actually made a note of it when I entered it here. Cool!

Stopping by to get caught up. What a great batch of reading - and reviews! I am still undecided as to which Mitchell I will tackle for the BAC. I own a copy both Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green, so my quandary becomes which book to invest my time reading as Mitchell is a new to me author. Right now, I am leaning towards Black Swan Green.

Either one would be a great read. Cloud Atlas is a more complex book, put together in an original way, but that is the one I read first and I loved it.

20. fantasy ****
Clariel Garth Nix

There's hot debate out there about whether Clariel, a pre-quel set 600 years earlier than the Old Kingdom trilogy is on a par. It gets off to a slow start, then there is a jolt when you realize who the main character is. I will say no more about that directly for fear of spoilers. What I will say is that thematically Clariel is a much more serious book than the other three and I could feel Nix's own need as a writer to explore the corrupting influences of great power. Everyone around Clariel wants to use her in some way, good people and bad ones and careless ones, and none of them listen to her when she begs them to let her be and let her go and live in the forest as a Borderer. (Sort of a forester soldier). Around half-way the story takes off and while there are times when you want to scream in frustration at the choices Clariel makes, I commend Nix for having the courage to write a book that he must have known would be less popular. I can't say I 'loved' it the way I enjoyed the three others, there was almost no comic relief--even Mogget behaves extremely badly, but he's been ignored by the three previous Abhorsens and has gotten a bit out of hand-- and definitely no real love interest; this is a book about a true born loner. What I can say is that Nix has made the Old Kingdom a richer and wilder place. ****

Why now? The completist thing. And I have achieved completeness.

What I can say is that Nix has made the Old Kingdom a richer and wilder place.

Perfect summation!

Later today I head for Florida. Naturally right now it is snowing hard. Anyway, I cleverly sent a box of stuff (yah, books) ahead, so I am just carrying the concertina in its case and a not-too-stuffed backpack, very nice! It's a half work, half play trip. The last couple of days are an Irish music gathering outside of Orlando (west, somewhere on a lake that looks extremely nice.)

>48 sibylline: I was wondering when your book was going to be out and then read this. I', guessing you're meeting with the publisher as the work half of your trip. Hubby just got back from Sarasota and said the weather was wonderful. Travel safe and enjoy.

I wish Reba - I finished 'writing' it in September and since then I've been doing a massive rewrite. I will NEVER be impatient with an author again! Getting everything right is very very time-consuming and I find that I can only do a certain number of pages per day after which I get sloppy. Don't know if it is my age or my somewhat AD personality but I also find too after three or so weeks of intensive work, pretty much every day, I have to take a few days, at least two, off. And I am sure the copy I turn in will still be ready for improvement. If someone was standing over me with a whip I might be able to crank a little faster and also my fam might oblige me by giving me a little more space . . . I overwrote to be sure I didn't leave anything out, basically, and sometimes because I had to just to figure things out. All that has to be cut and compressed. There are days which I spend mulling over a single page. Other days when I go back and have to fix something due to a change I am making up ahead. This has been such a marvelous apprenticeship, a bit on the late side, even though Sterling is gone, it is still a partnership, a shared effort. I never would have tried to write something like this on my own - he always said it was fun, and he is right, even thought it is also work. Literary fiction is less fun, believe me! Anyhow, realistically, I anticipate being ready to send it to the agency in early April. If they don't want it to handle it, then I will have to think about who next to try. Or whether to send it cold to a publisher. Probably TMI but there you have it. I love being so absorbed in something, but many other aspects of my life need attention, so getting done is huge.

Hi Lucy, lost track of you for a bit … when I saw your post on someone else's thread, I thought, Oh ya, where's Lucy? Busy group!

Love the photos of herself trailblazing and apres-ski! So adorable! She is a bundle of energy, your little Po.

This is so impressive, you're so incredible disciplined, and I am really looking forward to reading it as soon as it's out.

You don't drive to Florida, just to the next airport, right? In any case- safe travels!!!

>50 sibylline:, >52 Deern: I am really looking forward to reading it as soon as it's out.
Me too! I read #1 and recorded the crucial plot points, have #2 on hand for when the time is approaching and I'll want it fresh in my mind...

I hope you get out to Florida on schedule, through all the snow! Perhaps you could rent out Miss Po to clear the runways??

Yes, rewrites are hell, and much slower and finicky. And if you push yourself to do more than a certain amount, it will all blur, and you'll start making mistakes, getting things wrong or just not doing it properly. Your mind needs to be sharp, and you only get a few hours at a time. then go out and run through the trees or something.

Tigger the terror cat thinks he'd like to go and play in the snow too. I'm trying to tell him he's delusional. Well, you know what it's like out there. But he's pawing at the window.

That is exactly right, Suzanne! Apparently we can only make a certain number of decisions at a time, before we have to reboot. Running through the woods, oh, how I long to do just that with Miss Po. I can ski through the woods (except right now I can't, being in Florida) and that helps, but really sleep seems to be the essential therapy.

Arrived in FL at 10 p.m. and had to drive down to S'sota from Orlando-Sanford. The flight is about three hours direct from Burlington but we left an hour late due to necessity to de-ice plane. OK with me, ultimately, rather be safe, but I had a 2 1/2 hour drive AFTER getting here, not so good. I took the pricey toll road, so pricey no one uses it, about a third of the way, very helpful! Only good thing about being that late is that there really wasn't much traffic, not even on 75.

The drive IN to the airport from home was horrible - even though it was 6 F the precip was almost in the form of a freezing rain. It stuck to the windshield instantly, but it was so cold that the heater had to work hard to keep it clear enough to see out. I had to turn off all other heat and direct it to the windshield on max. I've never done that before. So all in all, I am sure the de-icing was necessary!

Can't complain really but it is raining a little and I put on sweater and shoes. I do love it when I get here and just go barefoot from Day One!

I did read the Jennifer Offil book from cover to cover on the plane!

I also forgot The Magician's Guild which I am reading - and sent the next two books in my postal box. So I will have to have the house-sitter mail it to me! First I will see if I can get it from the library here.

21. contemp fic ****
Department of Speculation Jenny Offill

A tour-de-force this one, best read either in small bites or gobbled all at once as I did (plane flight). The story itself is as old as the hills--the wandering husband--but the way it is unfolded is deft and graceful. Information is revealed indirectly, through short paragraphs containing anecdotes, musings, interesting information (the narrator reads somewhere that in many cultures the age of 6 is when children are considered able to look after themselves -- and apparently men tend to wander around year 6-7 for the first time. . . . ), and the occasional apt quote. Each paragraph is placed exactly where it needs to be to resonate with the ones around it. I would be thinking, "What has this got to do with . . . ?" when I'd read another paragraph or two, the lights would come on. Then I would read all three paragraphs again and get a deeper understanding. . . . . I do think this might be a book that could strike one differently depending on state of mind. The construction of it is original, but I would be interested to see what she does next. ****

Why now?It was new; it was short and I was pretty sure I'd be ok about leaving it here in Florida.

>55 sibylline: ...Can't complain really but it is raining a little and I put on sweater and shoes....

Can complain as it is freezing rain here and I put on boots and wools socks and a flannel shirt and a down vest and...

:-D

>56 sibylline: Would I like it?

Glad you have arrived safely in Florida, Lucy!

>56 sibylline: Into the BlackHole it goes! Thanks for the recommendation.

>57 TadAD: I don't know. I have a feeling I had the ideal reading experience of it, stuck on a plane that was going nowhere. . . If you use the library you might want to get it from there? The thing I like least about it was the title!

Ugh. Freezing rain. Ugh ugh

>56 sibylline: Just read that the Dept of Speculation has been shortlisted for the Folio prize, and then came across your review whilst going down the threads. Looks like something I'd like, so have added to the reservation list - cheers!
Charlotte

>50 sibylline: My hubby has written several non-fiction books so I have some idea what you're talking about. Hard work but rewarding -- even fun perhaps. Glad you made it to FL OK. Enjoy your time there.

>56 sibylline: Can I say that while I appreciated the craft, I didn't much like it? I'd elaborate, except that I have a cat draped over one shoulder intent on absorbing body heat and preventing me from typing.

Not too many details about walking shoeless in the sand, please. It will sound like gloating.

>62 Chatterbox: The protagonist certainly was not all that sympathetic a character, so in some ways, I would agree. It's not a likeable sort of book. Which is why in another state of mind and place I might not have gotten as much out of it.... Cat vampire!

Little danger of barefoot in the sand. It is sunny today but not all that warm, so we shall see.

Lucy, I just came across this alarming article:
Queen's favourite dog breed, the corgi, at risk of dying out

OH NO!!

That is so strange!!!! I think corgis are quite popular over here in the US and in Canada. And I would love to have an excuse to go to the UK to get my next corgi, maybe I have it now???? I'm going to think about this. I can hardly believe it. Maybe they are so associated with the Queen that people feel a bit of embarrassment to show they like them? Really! The Queen ought to do something about this!

>58 alcottacre: Stasia! So lovely of you to drop by!

>60 charl08:. Charlotte - Thank you for visiting! I suspect Offill's novel that other writers and those who find daring form worth the trouble might be more inclined to like -- if you've struggled with writing fiction, it's very apparent that this book is not just 'clever' -- If anything the emotional content is strengthened by the manner in which it is presented.

Back to add that my reading is all in a jumble, just because I forgot this one book. I tried to get it from the library here, but the only copy they have is in Spanish!!! They have a few books from later in this series (sort of new series of its own that you can read separately) so I took out the first two from that, but hesitate to begin them. Our housesitter will send the one I forgot, and it should come by Thurs or Fri at the worst. Realizing I'm being a bit inflexible.... it is "interesting" but also annoying! So I've tossed in a quick mystery and picked up a book Reba gave me when we met here a couple of years ago and I'll see how that goes!

I just keep thinking that most people would find my being unsettled like this completely daft! But I know that you will all understand.

22. *** mys

The old country house mystery who-dun-it, this is the first in the series featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. I wasn't all that impressed. I like mysteries mainly for the dynamics between the co-workers and I didn't find all that much that wasn't pro forma. ***

Why now? I'm rattled by forgetting the 'genre' book I was reading and picked this up while treading water, figuring out what to read. . . the spousal unit is into mysteries big-time, so there are always plenty about.

>66 sibylline: - The series does get better, Lucy... I think I'm up to #6 now.

Lucy, it's good that you are getting a break from Vermont weather. How long will you be in Florida? We are making a quick trip to Clearwater Beach next week. We haven't had much snow to escape from here in MO, but it is cold and it will be nice to warm up.

Loved your review of Black Swan Green. It's the first book I read by Mitchell. His later ones have drifted into the SF and fantasy genres which has been interesting. I have been trying to expand my reading horizons!

Wow Lucy, you are tearing a strip out of February reading wise at a book a day pretty much.
I miss not being able to keep a dog here in our apartment in Kuala Lumpur.

>68 Donna828: Have to go remind myself where Clearwater Beach is.... not that far from here? I will be around until the 22nd although that last weekend I'm at an irish music festival type thing.

Glad my review brought that read back to mind.

>69 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul!!!! I don't know quite how I would manage without a dog. My mum always said that the day I came home from the hospital, their current dog, a yellow lab, moved under my crib and that is pretty much how it's been my whole life. At boarding school and college I "adopted" various dogs and also walked dogs for people. . . . got my veryown dog within six months of finishing college. A corgi, totally by accident, but then I was hooked for life!

The reading storm is likely to slow soon - I picked up an Iain Banks for one thing! That might take me two whole days!

Lucy, hope you have some down time in Florida to enjoy the lovely sunshine. Irish music festival sounds wonderful, too!

23. sf *****
The Hydrogen Sonata Iain Banks

By my own star scheme this has to be a five star read because all I did the last two and a half days was rip through it. Helps that I had a couple of days in which that was feasible, otherwise I suppose I would have been sneaking around pretending to be busy and productive when anyone was looking. The story? Who cares, really . . . with Banks it's all in the details. In this one, a ship Mind of the Culture stumbles into a mystery and summons its pals (if ship Minds can said to have a rat pack) and they decide to solve it. A civilization, the Gzilt, is about to Sublime (don't ask) and apparently the civilization that 'mentored' them had a dirty secret. Upon Subliming it is customary to confess such things, but this previous civ. declined to although they left traces of it, specifically in a person who is still alive ten thousand years later . . . Vyr Cossont, a Gzilt musician and Lieut. Cmmdr. no longer on active duty is summoned by Gzilt military to help, because on a musical quest 20 years earlier she actually met this 10,000 year old dude. I've been hoarding Banks, why I cannot say, and I am about to unhoard him and go on a binge, I think! How can you resist ship named Contents May Differ; I was Passing By And Thought I'd Drop In; Just The Washing Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry; You Call This Clean?

Why now? It was lying in wait for me.

I miss having a dog and we often talk about getting one but with the amount we travel and living in a condo I don't think we will. As a result I tend to pet every dog I get near.

I've been away so just popping in to say hello and love the pics of Herself up top. I'll never catch up with everyone, so I'll just begin as I mean to continue, as an English chum says.

>46 sibylline: I had no idea there was a prequel! I'll have to read it.

If they start writing about a dog breed dying out, it often becomes the next fashion dog. Only a couple of years ago when I was already living in Merano, people in Munich had public dachshund meet-ups in the city park because the breed was said to be in danger and now I see them everywhere. And cocker spaniels and poodles too. Before that it was the pugs that had a revival (and were sadly totally over-bred, the poor things). Anyway, corgies are far too cute to die out!

NotgoingtoreadBanksscifi...NotgoingtoreadBanksscifi...NotgoingtoreadBanksscifi... for now it works. But Banks...

>75 The_Hibernator: I hope you'll enjoy it!

>76 Deern: Nathalie - Resistance is futile!!!!

24. hist fic ***1/2
City of Light Lauren Belfer

The amount of research and thought that went into the weaving of City of Light is staggering. As a portrait of Buffalo at a particular moment in time--just before the Pan-American Exhibition--when it appeared that Buffalo was destined to be, literally, the powerhouse of the United States, it is superb. The narrator is the headmistress of the premier private girl's school, Macauley. Through her eyes we witness the machinations between various factions over the electrification of the city--the question being who will get to use this power? Only industry? Or is it something so wonderful (makes me think of our own issues now with the internet) that it should be made available asap to everyone. All the action swirls around this critical question, public and private lives deeply affected. However, and I am sorry there is a however, there is simply too much crammed into it, and too much that I have to ask myself, where do the real stories stop and the fictional ones begin? I can't go into which story threads stretched to snapping with the disbelief factor without spoiling . . . and while I suspect that even these, particularly the narrator's personal story, may have grains of truth in them, the handling, especially in the latter half of the book, went right over "the falls" as it were. And the end succumbs to easy melodrama, in my humble, which it needn't have. There are some truly memorable characters -- like Mr. Krakauer, J.P. Morgan's "observer" whose job is simply to know everything that is going on and to report back to Morgan so he can decide how to act. Mrs Love, a battleaxe who runs the settlements and charity programs in the city is also marvelously well done and I sincerely hope is a portrait of a real person. The narrator, Louisa Barrett, is also mostly very well done, but made to do things I don't believe she would have in order to make various points about the condition and treatment of women at that time. City of Light highlights (sorry) the problem I have with historical fiction of not knowing what happened and what is imagined. But no regrets, I do have a firm picture now of Buffalo at that time, which interests me, as a good part of my growing-up time took place not far from there. ***1/2

Why now and a confession I am in Florida and CoL was a gift from Reba when we met up here a couple of years ago. So there it was and I thought: It's time. The confession is that I did become kind of fed up and seriously zipped through the last 100 or so pages more or less sussing out 'what happened' rather than properly reading. Naughty me!

>72 sibylline: Since LT shows that as the 10th in the Culture series, do they have to be...or benefit from being...read in order?

I haven't. I would guess no - that each book is about something different within. But Peggy would be the expert. I've read them kind of haphazardly.

I'm here just to say that, as often happens when I'm away from home, my reading has gotten all mixed up. The book I meant to read on this trip (and had started) vanished during the trip down here. (Magician's Guild), so instead I thought I'd read a Guy Gavriel Kay that was here, but somehow I just keep not starting it, so yesterday I picked up an Alan Dean Foster that's hanging about the house where I am now, Midworld and I am reading that. (I'll have a lot to say about it when I'm done, too). Now I'm concentrating on finishing a couple of contemporary novels I meant to read while here so I can leave them with my godfather's wife, my elderly auntly friend, so she can read them, first The Earth Hums in B Flat and then The Rosie Project. So this trip I think will end up being a lot of contemp fiction reading rather than fantasy and sf as I had expected.

This week I was supposed to be working on 'the book' but I've been having unusual and severe insomnia as I attempt to help my elderly friend resolve a legal mess she has gotten herself into. I have helped, I think, but I don't know what will happen after I go. My friend is 82 and mostly has her marbles, but there is an unpredictable quality to her understanding that is really disturbing. Anyhow it's a long dreadful story and I can't write about it openly, obviously. I hope tonight I will be able to sleep. I'm so tired now, I don't see how I can stay awake tonight, but I thought that last night too. At least I get a lot of reading done. It's rainy or I would have run around the neighborhood (or staggered) just to make sure.

Alan Dean Foster is interesting to me...I really enjoyed him when I was in my teens and 20s. However, a couple years ago I tried to reread a couple of his Flinx books and found them really not enjoyable. It's rare for me to have that much of a swing in reactions to an author over time.

These are hard things to deal with, Lucy. I wish the best for a good resolution for your friend.

25. contemp fic ****
The Earth Hums in B Flat Mari Strachan

I'm surprised, really, that I was as engaged as I was; I'm generally not that keen on first person precocious kid novels and this is the second one in less than a month! So why was I swept along? Because I have to also say I was frustrated, given how precocious Gwenni Morgan is, that she was also dense as a stale hard cheese about what she witnessed and what it meant. Almost to the point of unbelievabiity. Except. As an adult, we forget how mysteriously and magically but also literally children interpret the world, trust what adults say, and so on. Maddening as Gwenni is with her sensitive tummy and her 'oddities' she is authentic and quite real. The other surprising thing was that while many dreadful things go on, because we are viewing them through Gwenni, in some ways the horror of it is kept at arm's length. There are many kind and wonderful people too, in this small Welsh town and for the most part people are very understanding and forgiving of the foibles and failings of others. And yes, it is a coming-of-age novel. The rhythms of life in Wales at the time of the novel is brilliantly done. Set in the 50's I would say. A fine read. Something about the closeness of first person narration makes it hard for me to rate higher than four - just a quirk of mine. ****

Why now The book was around and my 'planned' reading is entirely disrupted during this trip. But no matter.

>82 TadAD: The setting, the 'world-building' as we call it now, is tremendous in this one - stunning even. The 'conflict' between the native people and those who arrive to exploit Midworld is painfully simplistic and the dialogue is beyond bad into some realm of absurdity that is almost camp. So it is a bit of a struggle -- that kind of 'squint' reading I do, blocking out the stuff that doesn't work, in order to take in what does. I can totally understand why you find him unreadable now. This was Lanier's favourite Foster so in a way I am doing my 'homework'.

>83 tiffin: I am truly hoping I have been able to mediate in this and convince both parties that legal involvement will only cause heartache and suffering upon which a price cannot be placed, no matter what the final outcome. That reason and civility are the ONLY way to resolution here, indulging in temper and anger, simply self-indulgent and childish. I have been really blunt and really forceful about this and I think I have made headway. But I worry it will all regress when I leave. Argh.

26. philosophy ****
Status Anxiety Alain de Botton

I don't know what I was expecting when I picked this up, a lighter read, I guess would sum it up. Instead de Botton analyzes the various ways in which humans drive themselves crazy worrying about whether they measure up, by whatever the standards of the day and where they live, might be. Indeed the main point de Botton makes is how entirely subjective those standards are, shifting with all the fickleness of hemlines, when you get right down to it. Philosophy, Art, Politics, Christianity and Bohemians--each having their own (ever-shifting) slant on what constitutes high status are all examined (Bohemian way of life separated from art as a style of living that tends to produce and attract artists, but a style that only emerged in response to the emerging bourgeois class in the early 1800's). A flaw in the book is that de Botton only seems to consider Christianity -- as 'the' western influence on the problem of status anxiety, although I am sure it plagues other cultures and that other religions seeks to balance and redress and shift the emphasis of just what might define status. He does make an interesting connection between Christianity and the idea of the vanity of permanence, which translated interestingly, for some artists, into an obsession with ruins (including 19th century artists imagining the future ruins of London) -- which made me think of our current mania for dystopic books, for the earth in ruins. Some connection is there, I expect, deserving of more thought than I am likely to give to it, but I will say that a significant number of dystopic books include repressive religious societies. He reminded me how easy it is to forget that politics consists of ideology--and ideology while it pretends to be fixed is anything but. Bohemians offer another way of being in the world, although he points out they tend to gather and associate with one another because it is very difficult to sustain a way of life that goes so against the 'norm' (think Provincetown, Big Sur, etc) Anyhow, it is fairly dry, yes, but also illuminating and thought-provoking. I can't say I had any huge revelations reading it--more affirmation of things I've thought already put in a particular context.
****

Why now I brought this with me on the trip to finish and leave behind... it is literally a heavy book as well as in content. Anyhow, I picked it up as part of the effort to move stuff along in my non fiction shelves. A bit similar to my experience with Voltaire's Coconuts - not really what I was expecting, hoping for something a bit more fun.

So sorry about your friend's legal trouble, Lucy. When my Mom got to the point that her legal/financial judgment was getting a bit fuzzy I got her to form a trust and I was co-trustee so I was better able to keep an eye on things. Any chance of that for your friend?

I read the B flat book 4 years ago (had to visit the book in my LT library for a memory refresher). I also gave it 4 stars and liked the way the reader understands more about what's really happening than the child narrator does.

>85 sibylline: that legal involvement will only cause heartache and suffering
Oh dear, that sounds quite awful, no wonder it’s causing insomnia.

>88 lauralkeet: Yes that it was one of most successful aspects of the book. I think I put it on my list partly because of your review.

>89 qebo: Doing better today, although I have given up on getting any work done this visit. Reading is fine, of course. Last night was ok. Good long walk in the a.m. and serious bike ride just before the sun went down should help again. The other party actually sent me a jokey text, which I hope to be a gesture meant to indicate a calming down and maybe even relief. I never watch tv since we haven't got it, but tonight we watched a piece on owls and then about Petra and even though the narration kind of dragged and everything is simplified to the point of inducing audial catatonia, the visuals (though repetitive in the latter) were great. But really, tv is kind of a novelty to me at this point! I never think about it at all any more as having much to offer me.

>90 sibylline: piece on owls and then about Petra
Hah, I saw those on the PBS schedule and opted for reading instead. :-)

I do want to see the show about Petra--that place fascinates me!

We watched the owl show ... Great photography and such beautiful birds.

I'm with you about t.v., Lucy. I'll sit with Himself while he watches something but I'm mostly looking at my knitting and just being a body in the room to keep him company. There are a couple of English series I enjoy but for the most part I'd rather be creating and/or reading.

>94 tiffin: I do that body in the room thing too. I'll watch if it's truly something good, but if it's just time filler I have other ways to fill my time. My other half has pretty much sworn off sports this winter, for some reason, which has led to him finding more interesting programs but I still don't always pay attention to them.

>91 qebo: >92 ronincats: >93 lauralkeet: >94 tiffin: Both shows were almost entirely visually oriented - the equivalent of coffee table books, really. I have nothing against it, but I am, I think, more auditory (is that the right word) than visual, so I find the shallowness of the accompanying text painful and frankly, boring.

Thank you all for stopping by - once I am home I will resume normal LT visits. It is hard to impossible on these trips to keep up one's normal activities.

Knitting is the solution and I have been doing more of it of late.

I'm trying to tie up my reading loose ends before I head up to the Irish music thingie tomorrow.

27. contemp fic ****
The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion

Charming and oft reviewed, so I need not say more. I expect, if well cast, it will make a charming movie as well. A friendly and satisfying quick read. ****

Why now I was in need of a comfort read and this fit the bill certainly.

Ah - the TV and the female body in the room! I do know the phenomenon. It used to be that our sets would pull in nothing but sports. Now we sometimes watch Bookwatch or CNBC or MSNBC. I get my really tacky watching done when I visit my mama...
Glad you're another who enjoyed *Rosie*, Lucy. Mama put it into the book club, but they have a member who edited the book she put in by blacking out the naughty words and tearing out a couple of offensive pages. I fear for Ma's reputation!

Go Mama!!!!!!

28. sf *** 1/2
Midworld Alan Dean Foster

Ten generations earlier a ship of colonists crashed on this planet which is composed of vegetation hundreds of meters high. A few survive, but only by learning to live in harmony in a harsh and inimical environment. There are "levels" seven of them, with Upper Hell (the canopy top) and Lower Hell (the ground - murky mess) and the people live in the 3-5th levels. These people bond with a native intelligent creature and together they form amazingly powerful teams, for hunting and defensive purposes, beneficial to both. What is brilliant and imaginative is the worldbuilding and the ideas about how people and plants could live together - for all its dangers it is a sort of Eden - this jungle is, while not verbal, intelligent and welcomes the humans as one more useful part of itself. The 'bad' guys are pathetic and the dialogue is pretty bad too - to the point of being boring and obvious what will happen to them. Just ignore that part and enjoy the place itself! ***1/2

Why now? This is one of Lanier's books and on the flyleaf is written by SEL "My favorite!" So I had to read it.

So I am down to reading only one physical book! I have the Greene-read-by-Firth on my ipod and two more New Yorkers, so I think I'll make it. Great to have my load of books lightened. It'll be music the rest of my time here, until I depart on Sunday afternoon for the cold northern wastes.

Glad you enjoyed The Rosie Project, Lucy. It is funny and charming, and I think will make a great movie, too. Wonder where in the works the movie is: whether it's a sure thing, has been cast, etc?

Stopping by to wish you a lovely weekend, Lucy.

>100 sibylline: FYI, touchstone issues. Gets it on the first try if all one word.

I'm glad you liked the Rosie Project because I gave it to one of my lads for Christmas. Maybe I'll borrow it from him. hehe

>103 qebo: Fixed!! I kept waffling back and forth about how to write that out - lots of variation here.

And thanks to one and all for stopping in!

Yes, I also enjoyed The Rosie Project. Hope the legal issues get resolved without too much pain.

Hi Lucy! Guess you are playing up a storm as I write this! That Banks sounds really fun - I haven't read any Culture books in a while and may go on a bit of splurge soon too.
Also, I'm horrified about the Corgi's getting so scarce in the UK! I must admit, it's not a dog one sees in the park very often at all. Hmm, well, if I do ever manage to persuade my husband we should get a dog, I know what breed we'll be having a serious look at. I mean, who wouldn't want their own Miss Po brightening up the place!

Status Anxiety Looks interesting. Thanks for the review. I haven't read anything by de Botton, but several of his books look good.

>106 RebaRelishesReading: I'm hoping.
>107 HanGerg: I did love that Banks. I read several years and years ago and then I think I started my hoarding thing.... which I am glad of now, because it is going to be fun catching up! Re corgis - I wonder if less UKers have them because, well, the Queen has them and no one quite wants to look too royalty-mad or something? Here and in Canada the corgi is a steady favourite I would say. I saw two, for example, in Sarasota when I was out and about. I would bet almost every town in Vermont has about one! Posey is the only one in my town but there are two in the bigger town. I have seriously thought of gettting a corgi in England though, and now I am even more set on it.
>108 The_Hibernator: It was interesting, but not earth-shaking.

Well, I am back in the frozen wasteland of the north country. There is definitely MORE snow but there is also much more light - fully light by 7 a.m. which was very welcome. And I see sunset isn't until 5:30 - I can live with that.

29. fantasy ***1/2
The Magician's Guild Trudi Canavan

Young Sonea (more on the name below) throws a stone at the magicians assembled to perform the annual 'Purge" -- moving the poorer folk out of the central parts of the city. The stone penetrates their protective (magic) shield and hits, of course, a nasty mage who wants revenge. The fact she could do this means she has serious powers and the magicians want to find her. If a magician isn't trained to control their powers, sooner or later they (literally) burst into flames. Their intentions are good (except for the baddie.) But Sonea doesn't want to be a magician and hides. This is the first book of a three parter, so it is entirely concerned with her flight and what happens ..... which you can guess the basics of, I imagine, but I won't give it away. The strengths are in the characters--you have complex people here--even the villainous Fergun is not evil exactly. The action is good and the setting is decent if a bit simplistic here and there. Nothing terribly original except that I like the people. But I do feel petulant about the names, some of them, including our heroine, Sonea - how the heck are you supposed to pronounce that? Is it Sonya? Is it (what I settled on) Sawn-ay-ah - with the emphasis on the ay (as in ate). Or Ceryni. Hard c? His nickname is Cery, so, uh, is that just Kerry? The funny spelling affectation really bothers me! I wouldn't mind it if there was a pronunciation guide somewhere but despite the vocab list (including exotic names for bugs that are probably cockroaches and drink that is probably beer or wine) no such luck. ***1/2

Why now A saga. I chose this series this to read on my trip - sending books 2 and 3 in a box to join me in Fl. Well, somewhere between the house and getting on my plane book 1 disappeared from my concertina case where I had stashed it. Now that I'm home I've searched the house and car. And here is the thing. At the TSA ordeal I always say: "Musical instrument, a little accordion" (the word "concertina" sets them all off). They always open the case and go 'hunh. Never seen one like this before." So at the inspection place this lady takes it over to a table opens it. I can't see what she is doing. She comes back w case unzipped and says, "O.K." I look at it and say, "There was a book on top." "No there wasn't" "There was!" I say. She glares. "No, there wasn't." So I give up. Can't argue with the TSA, can you? But the book is not here at home, not in the car and I know I put it in the case before leaving home, I actuallly remember doing it. Our housesitter hunted for it, so I knew it wasn't here anyway. So I ordered a new .01 dollar copy and that came to Sarasota in time for me to read it on the way home.

Oh and I've done something to my left foot. Can't tell if it is a bad arthritis episode--it is in a spot that has ached badly after a lot of activity in the past--even when I was in my teens. Some little weak place, I guess. Given the temp today I am going to 'wait and see' before popping out to Urgent Care for an x-ray. (Thank god for these intermediate places that can keep you out of the ER!) It isn't swollen or hot--perhaps a tad the spousal unit thought but nothing much--and that could indicate a flare-up. Can't think what I did. It just sort of came on gradually during the day yest.

Seriously, people, -25 F is just ridiculous. And no end to the cold is in sight. Maybe my foot is protesting.

I wouldn't blame your foot - or all of you - for protesting that temperature!

Catching up Lucy - sorry to hear about your foot, your insomnia and trying to sort out a legal squabble for your friend. I'm in need of comfort reading at the moment so will consider The Rosie Project.

And sorry to hear about the saga with The Magician's Guild - how funny! I read that trilogy several years ago and liked them at the time but have never tried any of her other series for some reason.

Well pooh about the foot AND the temps. We have been under an extended cold warning here too and I find myself all pulled in and stiff feeling. You get to a point where you can't even sing goddamn very ludely.

-25F? Yikes. And the foot, too. It's all a bit much isn't it? But I agree with you about the days slowly getting longer, I love it when that happens.

>111 sibylline: Can't argue with the TSA, can you?
Not if you want to get to Florida. Which you probably do if the temperature is -25F... Truly ridiculous.

Well, I went to my GP and she says what I have is basically tendonitis of the ankle--I think the shoes I wore in Florida didn't give me the support I need now I'm 60! Oi! They are very comfortable and easy on and off for the TSA but don't give much support. So it is off to the shoe store with me to find something similar with a bit more support. It should clear up if I don't do anything too stupid over the next week. Fine with me since I don't much want to go outside anyway.

I'm relieved.

On the cool temp theme - it was record-breaking cold for Burlington, Montpelier and Massena NY - coldest EVER recorded since recording started in the late-ish 1800's.

Relieved as well that it's something that will go away again with some rest and different shoes and no arthritis. I guess the Florida shoes are out of the game anyway for the next weeks.

Winter has returned to us here as well although the snow stops somewhere above Merano and we only get the cold rain and the icy blasts. It was to be expected that last week's spring weather wasn't to be trusted yet.

The Rosie Project is on my WL for the time after the March challenge reads and that Status Anxiety book looks interesting. I'm just reading a (German) book about social entrepreneurship that is full of examples of how status anxiety had/has to be overcome again and again in to make us progress.

Hi Natha! The Status Anxiety book is really 'a history and analysis of' - background on where how it evolved and where and why . . .

I have to get over to your thread and see how you are doing!

A reminder to anyone who stops in not to be shy but to post at least 'hi' - no need to panic and post extra until the 28th!

So stop by early and often! I'll try to make it worth your while. Might mean a Posey photo-shoot!

Hello, Lucy!

I know I can always count on you, Mamie!!!!!

*grin*

Reciprocating your visit to my thread and adding to the count...

also delurking.....
....I'm feeling rather mellow here in the last days of summer, so am sending you warm thoughts at least. I have a cupboard full of epic fantasy and scifi that I intend to read at some stage and there is at least one by Trudi Canavan tucked away in there.
I recently finished The Rosie Effect which I didn't enjoy as much as the first one. I think the novelty of Don's approach to life didn't quite appeal on a second outing.

Who gets credit for that plot, I wonder - the bright vivid girl bringing, really, the old stick of a hyper-rational fellow to life. I suspect it goes way back.

Hi, Lucy. I've just realized that my first thread is getting unwieldy, so I'll have to start a new one too in a couple of days. This is not fun for me.
I'm in agreement about the plot of *Rosie P*, but like you, I don't much care. I'm a bit wary of the second one. If it falls in my lap, I'll read it.

I feel exactly the same way - the point was the love story, I think.

Why don't you like making a new thread? It is a bit of a chore, but then a new thread is so crisp!

30. fantasy ***1/4
The Novice Trudi Canavan

The plot thickens. The High Lord takes over as Sonea's guardian. The nasty boy Regin continues to harass her. Dannyl gets sent off as an Ambassador but the Administrator Lorlen who has seen into Sonea's mind and has learned something disturbing about the High Lord (top dog magician) gives him a secret assignment. Dannyl also has to wrestle with his own secret longings that he has hidden so well he has forgotten them himself. Lorlen and Rothen are terribly worried about Sonea. The High Lord continues to be mysterious and alarming, but there are hints that he may not be what he seems to be. Sonea, meanwhile, is growing into her powers. She is also gaining the respect of many of the teachers who have come in close contact with her -- so while things are still very tough, they are a little less bleak. My same complaints hold--the book skitters dangerously close to being too formulaic but I continue to like many of the characters and just when I think uh-oh the story tends to take a turn for the better. I would, given my preferred way of rating, rate it 3 1/4 stars.

Why now Yep, the Completist thing.

Happy Day Before Friday, Lucy!

Morning Lucy!

I's 6:19 am in Italy

And it's FRIDAY!! :)

Happy Friday to you!

So how's Posey these days? :)

Never got through more that the first of the Canavan series, I fear. Looking forward to a Posey picture.

Have been very bad about visiting threads this year... as the saying has it, my get up and go, got up and went -- somewhere. It appears to be elusive.

Hope you aren't freezing to death back at home with Miss Po, and are finding some good reads. Too bad the Lauren Belfer novel wasn't more enticing -- at first I thought it was going to be a rave review and was all set to add it to my TBR stack... Confess I found The Rosie Project a bit too heavy-handed and its sequel even more so. If you really want the sequel, however, let me know and I'll pop a copy of the ARC into the mail to you. (I owe a lot of people stuff in the mail; getting to the post office in the snow has been a pain. Either I can't get there or it turns out to be closed due to weather!)

I've got all this way through your thread without having any valid comment to make but the promise of some more Posey pictures seems to have spurred me into action...

You are all darlings! Natha!!! You made me laugh. What a boost! Thank you. Apologies for begging for comments! My two weeks out of town were rough on proper threading. But I'm slowly getting back into it.

>138 Chatterbox: Suzanne - thanks for the offer, but I think the one dose of Rosie was enough. I hate to be discouraging about the Belfer, and you know, it could be that you would like it just fine. In fact I would be curious to know what you would make of it. The historical aspect of it is, I think, its strongest aspect and I know you like that. It's a book that is so close to being a very good read instead of just ok that it was maddening! I left it in a bag to go to the used bookstore in Florida, but I could send it to you next time I go down there.

>137 ronincats: Roni - I'm not sure I would read the Canavans in other seasons. . .I wonder if winter makes me more tolerant of mediocre fantasy? But she's on a par, as far as I'm concerned, with Karen Miller and many others - a bit formulaic but with just enough additions to the 'lore' of magic to keep me interested. I have an unusual patience with fantasy because of this interest in how people imagine magic works. Anyhow - I don't feel a need to keep 2 & 3 when I am done reading, or to give them to the library so I would love to send them to you if you are interested. I would post them all on PBS I expect otherwise. (I caved and paid my 12.00 annual fee - figuring they work as a book search service for me, after all.)

>139 CDVicarage: Thanks Kerry. I'm charging up the phone even as I write for the shoot of the bonnie lass. I also need to think up my new February topper.

Morning, Lucy! "I wonder if winter makes me more tolerant of mediocre fantasy?" That totally cracked me up!

I see that Nathalie has beaten me here, but it's so much fun to boost your thread that I cannot resist.

Can.

Not.

Resist.

See what I mean? Happy Friday to you, Lucy! Hoping that it is full of fabulous!

Happy Friday, Lucy. :-)

Happy Friday !!!! You're getting close to that new thread now ...
My two will be home for spring break soon. Can't wait! How about you, any chance of seeing the LD?

Not for ages, Laura, or at least, it seems that way. She's stopping to see a friend on the way home and won't make it up here until around the 16-17th of March, at least, that was the plan when last I heard. . . who knows? I know she's had a great time this semester so far - getting into some improv theatre and lots of singing and loving her classes. She feels very far away, I must admit and I've been sad, happy for her, but sad.

(((Mamieeee!!!!!)))

Thanks, Lucy, for the thought, but I think I'll pass this time. Yes, isn't that something about PaperBackSwap? So far I haven't joined, because I often use the printed postage feature and if you do that, they waive the 50¢ fee. It's the idea of $12 every year that gets me, because I don't really do that heavy of a volume with them. I haven't used the discussion feature for ages, and most of the other membership benefits aren't relevant.

Happy Friday Lucy and Po!

I'm going pay up the once and see, Roni - the spousal unit has gotten very into mysteries so we have used it quite a bit lately. I haven't used their postage that all is too much bother for me, somehow. But that would be a thing to try next year if this doesn't end up being worth it.

And I've made 150 a day early. You folks are amazing.

>149 sibylline: Ah, yes, they go and get all independent on us don't they? We just got the email with details of daughter #1's upcoming commencement ... Eek. Where has the time gone??!!

>150 ronincats: I am still an a la carte member. I have over 30 credits and a wish list of just over 100, mostly Viragos. I decided to delete my posted books and donate them, and then use my credits as wishes are granted. When the credits get low I'll revisit the membership question.

Hello, Lucy.

Love the Po pic at the top of this thread.

You don't really need me any more, but I'll pop out of lurk to speak anyway. *Hi, Lucy!"

>153 lauralkeet: I have 60 credits and a wish list of 87, under the limit of 100. Currently I also have 87 books on my bookshelf, mostly older books. They go out at a slow but steady rate. I often use the printed postage to avoid standing in line at the post office, and that eliminates the fee.

I think we were promised a picture of the Posey for our efforts...

>156 ronincats: wow, you are all set! I had very few books on my bookshelf and many had been there for a while. So while I use printed postage, I don't get many requests. Some of my wish listed books may never appear on PBS. So if I post more books, and those books are requested, I'll get free swaps but I'll also accumulate more credits and I just don't know if I'll use them. So it seemed like a good time for me to pull back a bit.

Yes yes Roni - I'm all over it, hoping the subject and camera will cooperate!

As promised:



Po is the only corgi I've ever had who consistently looks 'up' - at birds, at rooflines. We know there is some sort of rodent living in our shed this winter and she knows it too!

Nice to begin and end the month with Herself.

What a sweet photo, Lucy! Please give my love to Miss Posey!

>159 sibylline: - What a sweet pic of Miss Posey!

What a darling!

Just love it when you post photos of Po, Lucy! She is so lovely and so photogenic. And yes, I'd say she knows there's something living in the roof of the shed!

Oh yes, Miss Po is on alert. "Just come down here and make it a fair fight," she says...

Re PBS -- I gave up on it a while ago and just donated 'em all to the library. Frankly, it was becoming a real headache to keep the list separate from everything else and then to have to scramble to find a particular book when a request came in. And for some reason, none of the stuff I wanted ever seemed to materialize. I had wishes that hadn't been filled over three or four years, and I hadn't moved upward on the list. So... More to the point, my goal was to cut the total number of books in the household. PBS is great for recycling them, at a small fee (postage or whatever), but that's it. I suppose if my reading tastes matched the PBS inventory more closely, it would have been better.

Lucy, would love the Belfer novel if that isn't too much of a hassle. No rush; it's not something that I feel an immediate yearning to read, but I am curious. I can reciprocate with some of my superfluous mysteries? What kind does yr spousal unit enjoy? I am still in the process of cleaning out bookshelves here.

New thread day!!! Thank you all for making it possible!