Ffortsa's First for 2016

"I'll be back"

eta: My intention this year, so far as it is possible with two standing book groups to read for, is to read off my own shelves. I hope to use the various challenges as an impetus in that regard.

Pulitzer Challenge
The AAC
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
The BAC
The CAC
The Doorstop
The Non-Fiction
and the monthly themes.




1. @ Blood Jungle Ballet - John Enright
2. ♬ The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
3. ✔ Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
4. @ An Officer and a Spy - Robert Harris
5. @ Eva's Eye - Karin Fossum
6. ✔ The Collected Stories - Amanda Cross
7. @ A Test of Wills - Charles Todd
8. ✔ Wings of Fire - Charles Todd
9. ✔ Search the Dark - Charles Todd
10. Ru - Kim Thuy
11. ♬ Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan
12. Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd
13. The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden
14. Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky
15. @ Occam's Razor - Archer Mayor
16. @ Washington Square - Henry James
17. @ The Marble Mask - Archer Mayor
18. The Wapshot Chronicle - by John Cheever
19. The Black Echo -Michael Connelly
20. The Black Ice - Michael Connelly
21. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith (sic)
22. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith (sic)
23. @ Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
24. @ Winterlude - Quentin Bates
25. @ The Nature of the Beast - Louise Penny
26. ♬ Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis, read by George Guidall
27. @ The Concrete Blonde - Michael Connelly
28. @ Frozen Assets - Quentin Bates
29. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
30. The Post Office Girl - Stefan Zweig
31. @ Tucker Peak - Archer Mayor
32. Brotherhood in Death - J.D. Robb
33. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

Another intention, to visit more threads - I lost track of some folks this past year.

I'm carrying over the icons from last year to denote ebooks, library books, off the shelf, etc. which Bianca kindly provided.

♬ audiobook
✔ off the shelf
@ e-book
✨ shared TIOLI
✿ TIOLI
✗ slow read

If you want to use any of them, here are the readable codes - just eliminate the space in the second position.

& #x266C; audiobook
& #x2714; off the shelf
@ e-book
& #x2728; shared TIOLI
& #x273F; TIOLI
& #x2717; slow read

Looking forward to it!

>1 ffortsa: "I'll be back"

Ah, there you are. I'm just getting to 2016 this morning and you hadn't bounced to the top of the list.

Happy 2016!

Happy New Year, Judy. I look forward to your reading adventures in 2016.

Happy New Year Dear Judy!

Happy new year, Judy! I hope to be better about delurking on your thread :)

Happy new year, Judy! Wishing you great reads this year and to seeing you and Jim again during your annual visit to MA.... if not my next visit to NYC. :-)

Hi Judy, and Happy New Year. Looking forward to your thread for 2016!

Happy New Year, Judy! I, too, am planning to work on reading books off my shelves. Of course, the harder goal is to avoid replacing them by steadily buying more books to put on those shelves!

Here's to a great year for you and yours!

Safe to stick my nose in?? Happy New Year to you & Jim!!

Hi Judy :-) I'm also going to be trying to read what I have this year, although I am likely to get sidetracked. Good luck for all your challenges!

>1 ffortsa: Good plan! I'm using it too. Many many ROOTs.

Have a wonderful bookfilled 2016, Judy.

Off to a good start this year- I'm reading Saint Maybe for the AAC and The Death of Ivan Ilyich for book circle later this month. And they are both off the shelf! Actually I'm listening to the Tolstoy, even though I have it on paper, because that way I can take it to the gym and listen on the treadmill. Grimly disparaging either way, I'm afraid.

And I managed to get a download of An Officer and A Spy (for my February reading group) from the library. Now all I have to do is choose my next mystery story and I'll be set for a week at least.

And that's good because it's too @#%$@%$ dark here these days. It's a good thing I have all these fresh, new, crisp threads to read for the new year.

Bet you LOVE An Officer and a Spy. I defy you not to.

It looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the AAC, BAC, CAC, Pulitzer, and Nonfiction challenges! I will also be reading Saint Maybe this month since that's the one I have in my TBR stash.

Happy New Year, Judy! I missed you by the end of last year. Your thread had just gotten so long that I knew I'd never catch up. Ha! I'm in at the beginning and looking forward to following you. If you like Officer/Spy, I expect I'll be grabbing it too.

Happy New Year, Judy!

Happy New Year Judy!

Happy New Year, Judy!

Happy New Year, Judy! Hoping to see more of you this year!

That would be very good!

1. Blood Jungle Ballet by John Enright

Oh, I hope this isn't the last in this series. There are some misogynistic threads in this one, be warned, but I think the balance was preserved. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the mystery, and the Samoan setting.

So glad to be home, in spite of the cold. Work was pretty busy.

Currently reading: Saint Maybe for the AAC
Currently listening to: The Death of Ivan Ilyich for f2f meeting.

>25 ffortsa: which is another way of saying - you have read this book and now you want Samoa?

Enjoy!

2. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

To be discussed next week. This is my first round with the story.

'llo :-)

Love Ivan!! Enjoy the discussion. : ) And Happy Weekend.

3. Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler

i was inspired to read this for the AAC challenge, and also because it was a hardcover taking up a lot of space on the shelf.

Ian Bedsoe meddles with his brother's marriage and ends up caring for his three children and seeking absolution for his actions. Tyler is known for her 'domestic' novels, and this is certainly one of them, as she follows Ian and his accidental family through 16 years of child-rearing, prayer and other family affairs. The writing is fine, but the book didn't really excite me. I suspect it was the very nature of the story - I felt distanced from Ian and from everyone else with the possible exception of his youngest niece, who grows up to be a person I would have liked to know.

>32 ffortsa: Hmm, all of the comments on Anne Tyler floating around this month make me feel like I would not enjoy her writing. "Domestic" novels sound rather blah to me. I like to be excited by the books I read!

I decided to take Saint Maybe back to the library unread after finishing Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. I liked DatHR well enough but I just have too many things I want to read this month to dedicate time to another by Tyler. If I read another of hers, it will probably be the prize-winning Breathing Lessons.

Hi Judy! Hope you had a great weekend!

>34 EBT1002:. I think I liked the accidental tourist better.

I liked Digging to America.

Oh my, I could have written that first post. I'm using the same challenges to help tame my own Planet TBR. Looking forward to your comments!

>1 ffortsa: finally catching up, dropping stars and saying thanks for the codes. Always had to spend hours looking for some of those.

Have a lovely weekend!

Hello there Judy! Picked up a Tyler at the ALA conference. I may have to move it up the pile

>41 michigantrumpet: or down. I wasn't so happy with it.

I'm reading An Officer and A Spy, which is a novelization of the Dreyfus Affair, and even though I know the overall history, the details and the personalities, as Harris so excellently creates them, get me terribly anxious. I don't usually read thrillers - I don't need any more anxiety in my life! - and knowing that this REALLY HAPPENED makes it all the more upsetting. It's the portrayal of helplessness and frustration, dishonesty and deceit in high places, that really gets to me. The Big Lie, the near-impossibility of breaking through a conspiracy of this kind, is truly frightening.

But great storytelling.

A long weekend, including extra time off, and I barely read anything. I had a guest, and we did a lot of interesting things, and a lot of walking, which was good all round.

But I think the reading moratorium was because the Harris book is getting me anxious, and also because I can't read it with frequent interruptions. So the weekend did set me back.

Bye bye guest...hello reading! ; )

>44 Berly: how true! But the book is upsetting, a classic example of how power can corrupt and how helpless (at least in the short term) ordinary and not so ordinary people are against corrupted power. I'm about 70% through the book. Very painful.

Hi, Judy! I LOVED An Officer and A Spy and its sounds like you are enjoying it too.

Hope the week is going well for you.

I'm sorry that your reading has been so painful. A real testament to the author's writing abilities, though, to make it so palpable to you.

>47 michigantrumpet:. I always react badly to scenarios of helplessness in the face of evil, which is what this is. Excellent writing and characterizations.

Hope you had something a little more uplifting for your big day, Birthday Girl! :-)

A birthday? Many happy returns, Judy.

No celebrations yet. This weekend, maybe. Thanks for noticing!

Snow! Real snow like the snow from my childhood.

Meteorologists say that the 50s and early 60s were an unusually snowy time for New York and Long Island, and that's when I was a kid. The last few years, aside from a single snowstorm here and there, have been pretty nondescript. But New York is turning into fairyland today.

We went out to breakfast to get a taste of the snow too. About half the sidewalks were shoveled already, and the street plows were working steadily, but that's no surprise, as 14th St. is a major artery in this part of the city. They do tend to ruin the pristine look, however.

Jim set up a second monitor at my desk today, mimicking my office situation and giving me a little more screen real estate. We'll see how that works out. Plans for the day are catch-up, electronic and otherwise, with projects. I'm thinking of getting a vertical feeding scanner and becoming essentially paperless (except for the books, of course!).

For all of you in the path of this storm, I hope that you stay indoors as much as you like, build snowmen and have snowball fights if you dare, and that your power doesn't fail.

and of course, read.

Real snow? The pictures from the TV would certainly indicate so Judy. Stay safe and warm....curling up with a good book and a hot toddy sounds like a prescription for a nice Sunday.

>54 ffortsa: Glad you enjoyed your snow! :) And I hope you have a great week ahead.

4. An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris

comments to come after discussion on 2/1

>54 ffortsa: New York is turning into fairyland today.
I wouldn't expect that to last long. We're already heading into the slush and gray stage.

>32 ffortsa: I agree with you regarding Saint Maybe. It is not one of my favorite Ann Tyler books. I still think Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is the best.

I hope you were able to navigate through the snow. I hear NYC had record breaking inches. We had approximately 32 inches. Finally, we are dug out today.

I'm sorry I missed your birthday. Hope it was restful and happy. Also hope that the snow is becoming manageable.
I hate having a book that I can't stop and that also distresses me. I wish you a speedy finish!

You didn't get SOME snow--you got dumped on!! Wow.

>61 Berly:. The value of staff. Sidewalks cleat, parks lovely.

5. Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum

6. The Collected Stories by Amanda Cross

Here are 10 stories by the mystery writer Amanda Cross, aka Carolyn Heilbrun. Although not all the stories center on her amateur detective Kate Fansler, they all have protagonists from university life, and they are pleasant, quick reads.

But I couldn't help wondering if feminists of her era (and almost mine) always sounded so smug and disparaging of men. Together with a very cultured-pearls kind of diction and economically comfortable settings, the snottiness with which so many of the male antagonists were portrayed grated on my nerves. I don't recall this blatant a sneer in her full-length mysteries. Maybe I wasn't paying attention.

Happy New Year! (I know, I'm a bit late.)

I'm glad you enjoyed the snow.

>65 _Zoe_: Hiya, Zoe. I just realized last night how far behind on your thread I am, but it was too late to remedy the situation. Are you in the snow belt now?

>66 ffortsa: I managed to be just out of range of the snowstorm, as always seems to be the case. I miss all the best storms.

Judy, I'm sorry I missed your birthday. Happy Belated!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sigh. Sometimes literature really does echo life. I've just finished an essay on the postal service fiasco in Chicago of some years ago, written by Jonathan Franzen and collected in his essay volume How to Be Alone. And I thought, well, it doesn't happen in New York. Then I set up to pay a new Macy's bill, and noticed it had a $15 charge past due. So I went to my file and found that I had paid it by paper check - I had the paystub-less paperwork to confirm it.

At least that was my intention and apparent action. There's a check number unpaid in my online register, but since I haven't kept a handwritten one for years, I can't be sure it's the missing Macy's payment. i could have somehow misplaced the envelope after writing the check. Or somehow it was misplaced or misrecorded when it got to the payment center, I suppose. But now I have the picture of the piles of undelivered mail in Chicago in my head.

So I've paid the current bill electronically. Fewer humans, more certainty, I guess.

As for the Franzen book, it's quite uneven. It contains the famous 'Harper's Essay', now retitled 'Why Bother', about writing fiction. Stylistically lovely, but I came away feeling like I didn't quite get the cogency of his argument, and wondered if the style was covering a rather youthful, petulant self-indulgence. So I ended up reading some of the controversy and comment online. Thoughts were about the same, which saved me from feeling snookered. Has anyone else read that essay? Opinions?

>70 ffortsa: I haven't read it. But I'll be interested in seeing what people think.

"Fewer humans, more certainty, I guess."
Sad.

>72 EBT1002: And of course, it seems true of so much these days - as long as the choices are binary and the actions programmable. What will happen, I wonder, when people are not seen as useful to each other?

7. A Test of Wills by Charles Todd

This was a reread for me, because I couldn't recall the first in the series and Amazon had it for $1.99.

The first of any series, and especially this one, reveals central conditions of the characters that will recur. I found that knowing the gag, so to speak, didn't quite spoil the joke, but did make it seem more ordinary than I had recalled. Not that it's a bad mystery, just a very typical one with town and upper classes, the preoccupation of the effects of World War I on men and especially women.

I have several more volumes in hand, and may read them between more difficult matter and then give them away.

Next scheduled read is Walden, which I've never read. Fancy that?

>70 ffortsa: I pay nearly everything electronically now, though I worry if that ever gets screwed up, who knows what fixing it'll involve.

>75 qebo: Me too. That's why I was so surprised by the mix-up. I guess I hadn't added the Macy's card to my list and reverted reflexively to old habits.

8. Wings of Fire by Charles Todd

Number 2 of the Ian Rutledge mysteries, and I couldn't finish the reread. So wet - yes, I think that's the right term. And endless. So i confirmed my suspicions and will eject it. The only reason i'm even counting it is that I spent the day's reading time on it.

Not a big fan of Franzen or his works. You've summarized it quite cogently in "...the style was covering a rather youthful, petulant self-indulgence." He is the fair-haired boy of Farrar Straus Giroux, and many in publishing seem to have hopped onto that rather lumbering bandwagon.

He lost whatever tenuous hold he had on me when he attacked Edith Wharton for ... being unattractive. Franzen, you are nothing to me.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/02/13/a-rooting-interest

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lev-raphael/whats-with-jonathan-franz_b_7297164.ht...

Ditto the lack of Franzen love here. Wharton has stood the test of time. Will he?

>79 BLBera: "Wharton has stood the test of time. Will he?"

Hear! Hear!

I'm simply stopping by to say hello.

I started Walden and decided I needed a refresher on the Transcendentalists, so I got a download of a CliffsNotes book on the group. Trying to read it on my phone in Overdrive is not fun, so I've also ordered a used copy through Amazon, and can't wait until it gets here. The overview really opened my mind to the parallel thoughts of Europe and here in the new U.S. - I didn't realize just who was contemporary to the movement, and which philosophers were influences. And it really affected me to understand how valuable personal libraries were, and how few books were circulating in that time.

We braved the cold (not so bad all bundled up) to go uptown to see an Encores performance of 'Cabin in the Sky' today. Encores revives old musicals and presents them in a not-quite-completely staged version, although the dancing has gotten truly elaborate and lovely over the years. The story is, as the notes say, 'a fable' - or more likely, a painfully stereotypical story of a God-fearing African-American wife and a sinful husband. Some nice songs, two from true Gospel sources, the big number 'Taking a Chance on Love'. Interpolated from the movie (which Jim says is pretty bad) is 'Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joe'. Singing was superb.

Tonight we venture out again to a Valentine's Day dinner, only a few blocks away.

Tomorrow I will finish ripping out (tinking) the messed up decreases in the hat I was knitting and start them again. I could use a hat.

Somewhere in there, I'll do some reading.

I completely forgot to mention we saw 'Bridge of Spies' last night, courtesy of Amazon. Well done glimpse of history, with very good performances. I was especially interested in seeing Mark Rylance, who has dazzled me every time I've caught his performance.

I think Tom Hanks has become the 'earnest, honest man' actor everyone goes to now. I can't help feeling that he must be bored, although it doesn't show in his performance at all.

Threads have gotten to the point they always get to on LT, so many to follow. I was avoiding starring any until I saw whose comments drew me most consistently, but going through the thread list has become too time-consuming, so I have starred a few. I'll probably expand the list as I go, and sneak back to the thread book to dip in to some of the unstarred (but not unworthy) comments.

Hi Judy! Just getting caught up here. I hear you about the threads... I've always used the star "system" but even so it's almost too much. I never used to let any starred threads get into double-digit unread messages, but that's a thing of the past. Now I just follow along as I can and hope people will still visit me :)

Looking forward to meeting you in a few weeks!

Glad you enjoyed Bridge of Spies. I should check that out with my bf.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It is still Sunday on the West Coast so...

>84 ffortsa: We also just watched Bridge of Spies. I'll watch anything with Tom Hanks in it. I've always thought it must be difficult for actors to transition into "later life" roles. Some people are successful; some not. I'm thinking of people like Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey or, the other extreme, a Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. My dad had a Gran Torino, his favorite car in all the world. He could have been Eastwood's twin--ha. I hope and expect that Hanks will make that transition successfully.

>82 ffortsa: I've been flirting with reading Walden. A few years ago someone gave me a really nice annotated edition, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer. Time to get at it, although my reading has been just barely limping along lately.

9. Search the Dark by Charles Todd

Ah, much better. A returned veteran of WWI is assumed to have killed his wife, formerly thought to have died with their children in a German bombing. Rutledge is sent to find the missing children, and runs afoul of the local police for asking all the right questions.

The series continues to explore the damage WWI caused, the disruptions of families and social constructs. I liked this much more than the previous book in the series.

10. Ru by Kim Thuy

I found this a very evocative, poetic work. While it reads like an autobiography, that may be as much the artistry as the source material. The episodes that take place in Vietnam or in the camps are sometimes wrenching; those that take place in Canada are filled with the struggle to be new and the sadness of losing what came before.

Each tiny composed portrait of a time and place is sufficient unto itself, like a prose poem. But collectively, they show the horror of war, the texture of family. More detail might have been too specific - this is more like the dream landscape of the refugee life.

I look forward to more of Thuy's writing.

>90 ffortsa: Nicely said, Judy. I'm glad you liked it; what you describe was very much my reaction to it.

>91 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I'm wildly behind on your threads - I trust all is well with your fine collection of folks.

>92 ffortsa: Stop by any time, Judy. Your trust is well-placed - books, street art and food (of course) have been the main topics, and the folks seem to be enjoying themselves.

Today is the first anniversary of my mother's death, and yesterday I walked about 15,000 steps (according to my Fitbit) searching for memorial candles near my home. No luck. You would have thought all the Jews had moved to the Bronx. I finally found them in a big suburban-sized supermarket near my office in Jersey City this morning. Whew.

Of course, I'm now a day late. If I go by the Hebrew calendar conversion, I'm 10 days late. Somehow I don't think she'll mind.

I would like to say I miss her, but it has nothing to do with the date. For years now, ever since she entered the most serious phase of her dementia, I've had a running mental dialog with her, explaining this and that, apologizing for not putting a bay leaf in the stew, grumbling that I don't have the old Presto pressure cooker anymore, the one that had the pressure gauge that rocked vigorously and noisily at the right pressure. I wear her pajamas, a couple of her blouses that look particularly good on me. I see her more and more in the mirror, of course.

A friend of mine was talking tonight about how she can't get rid of her mother's French Limoge dinner set, even though it takes up half the cabinets in her tiny kitchen, and it's doubtful her son will ever want them, because they were her mother's. And I thought - things aren't what we should hold onto. They only get tossed or sold or given away when we ourselves die. The people we loved are always with us anyway, on the inside.

My parents both opted for cremation, but for different reasons. My mother had a terrible fear of being buried alive. But my father, remembering interring his parents, always said that they weren't in that sad, shoulder-to-shoulder cemetery in Brooklyn, and he never went there. They were in him, he would say. That was more alive than any plot and headstone.

Please don't take offense if you cherish your ancestors' possessions. These are just my thoughts today.

>94 ffortsa: A 15000 step search should compensate for any delay.

My mother (still alive) would prefer us to declutter in her honor.

>94 ffortsa: Hi Judy. I so enjoy your writing style. I understand about loss and love, and the understanding that we no longer want those we love in pain. Like you, I carry my deceased loved one in my heart. My grandmother was instrumental in who I am today. So many values, words, beliefs are her working in me.

Judy--Sorry about the loss of your Mom, first through dementia and then actually. I love your memories of her--thanks for sharing them with us. : )

>94 ffortsa: Good thoughts, Judy. And good for you for remembering her this way.

As a son, I didn't get any possessions from my mother (she passed away 6 years ago this June), although I do like it when my wife wears some sweater of hers or her shoes. She had her own style, and they're very recognizable. I agree, what's most important is how we carry them inside.

11. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

After all the talk about this book, I had high expectations as I listened to the audio. The reader was excellent, but I have some reservations about the story.

Our narrator Clay, in need of a job, stumbles upon an odd bookstore in San Francisco, run by a man I kept thinking should be played by Ian McKellan in the movie version, Alec Guinness being unavailable. As the night clerk, Clay spends most of his time alone, but occasionally serves an odd assortment of men and women who come there to borrow strange books filled with what look like arbitrary codes. This being San Francisco, Clay also meets a girl besotted with her job at Google and falls in love, cleaves to the quest of his odd boss, solves old mysteries with preternatural ease, and, of course, saves the day.

The search for the key to the codes everyone is working on becomes a fanciful story of ancient societies, inspired designers, Silicon Valley millionaires and the search for immortality. It's a little too glibly geeky for me, and although the plot moved along enjoyably, the denouement was a let-down. Not a bad book at all - just a little too light for my taste.

On the other hand, my new iPod is awesome, an ounce of truly amazing technology with terrific earbuds. I will be listening to a lot more audiobooks on this device.

Lovely comments about your mother, Judy. Thanks for sharing them.

I had a similar reaction to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore -- a book about a bookstore, I should love it, right? Instead, I found it forgettable.

>94 ffortsa: Lovely sort of eulogy for your late mom, Judy.

My gran used to say "there are no pockets in shrouds" as a guard against greed and stinginess - I would like to think that it is the one of her addages that I most live by.

Have a great Sunday.

Where was I?

I've been out of town since Thursday, in beautiful San Francisco, to celebrate my friend Jayne's official 21st birthday on February 29th. She invited a horde of friends from all over, and Jim and I were more than happy to fly in to celebrate with her.

This morning I flew from SFO to Dallas, where I'll be at my company's Texas office until Saturday afternoon. Nothing like meeting the airport car at 5:30 AM to set me up for the day. And, I never got a wake-up call from the hotel desk. Yikes - 5 minutes to get from shower to car!

But all is good. I managed to read a bit, of course.

12. Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd

Ian Rutledge is again sent out of London to the countryside, this time to southern Scotland, where he dreads to be. A woman is presumed to be dead, and also presumed to be the mother of a young boy in a town riven with rumor and hate, and the boy's known mother is arrested for the death. Rutledge is sent to find the proof that the first woman is indeed dead, but the identity of the accused is a shock. It takes a while to unwind, and some of the resulting reveal is rather blatantly telegraphed, but I didn't have a clue to the perpetrator or the true identity of the boy's mother until the final chapter.

13. The Compass of Pleasure by David J. Linden

I started this ebook quite a while ago, but found it so technical in its details on brain chemistry that it took me many episodes to work my way through it. Ultimately, it was more about pleasure centers and addiction than anything else. Good technical information but not quite what I was looking for.

14. Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky

I picked up this book of essays at City Lights. Paretsky is one of my favorite mystery wriiers, and her character V.I. Warshovsky is tough and resourceful in a way I particularly admire. This set of essays, gathered and expanded from a series of speeches and articles, describes Paretsky's background and her passionate feminism and civil rights history. Paretsky is a few years older than me, and from a background much less supportive of a bright, ambitious woman. I hope that women today have less of a struggle, but I'm sure some of us still have that voice of doubt, no matter how positive our upbringing.

So, your day started with a jolt of adrenalin! I loved Writing in an Age of Silence. Which reminds me, I need to read another in her series. I'm behind.

Judy - I saw your comment on Caro's thread in the wake of the earthquake in Indonesia. Just to confirm I am fine and thanks my dear for thinking of me. xx

>105 PaulCranswick: quite relieved. It looked to be pretty close.

Oh, poo. After not meeting with Katie because she was sick, and not shaking hands with one of my bosses in Dallas because she was sick, I am now sick. I guess I flew on one too many airline flights this past week. Grump. I definitely feel like not enough oxygen is getting to my brain.

Before it hit, however, I did read another mystery
15. Occam's Razor by Archer Mayor

I thought this was an excellent story, but what I like more than Mayor's plots are the character development. We get to know the police in his town of Brattleboro as individuals, with their quirks and preferences and attitudes and specialties. This time Mayor expanded a bit to Montpelior and the state legislature. Maybe we'll learn more about them too.

My friend Jayne performed a monologue of what it's like to be old when I was in San Francisco, at a book shop in the Castro District. It has a really curated collection of books. I bought Toi Derricotte's book of poems Tender, because they didn't have the one Joe has been raving about. And I bought a curious volume called It's Tuesday, with a pair of hippos on the cover and all sorts of drawings and writing inside. Even a flip book section of hippos swimming! I couldn't resist. No ISBN, so I can't direct you any more than to say the author is Asher Danziger and the illustrator is Matthys Jansen.

Well, dang, I'm sorry you're not feeling well - I hope it passes soon!

Judy, I'm so sorry you got sick! That just doesn't seem fair. I hope it is short-lived and that you will be feeling better by the time you read this.

Thanks, Katie. Pretty much gone now, and I hope you're back to yourself too.

>109 katiekrug: & >110 ffortsa: I am glad that both of you are now a-ok again.

Have a lovely Sunday, Judy.

Happy Sunday Judy! Thanks for the lovely comments about Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky. I've added it to the tbr pile.

I hope your day is a good one, and I'm glad you are feeling better. I hope your day includes time for reading.

Judy--Feel better soon!!

aaarggh. Lost a post.

Yes, thanks, Kim. I'm feeling much better, although very tired, which means I'm not reading. My small drama is nothing to those going on in my family, however. More on that when I get permission to post.

I do have two books due for book groups (which meet in the same week this time - eek!). One is Washington Square by James. I've seem the play made from it, 'The Heiress', several times, but never read the book. The other is The Wapshot Chronicle, which I've had sitting around in hard-cover like a big old molar taking up more than its share of shelf space. And I finally brought my 2009 New Yorkers in from storage, so I should really get cracking on those as well. I know, weird.

16. Washington Square by Henry James

Well, this was a delight. Sometimes James goes on to exhaustion, but this shorter work is a pleasure. I knew the story in outline because of the play 'The Heiress', based on the book. But reading it is so much better.

A young woman who has been a disappointment to an exacting, widowed father is suddenly courted by a handsome, elegant and clever man. She falls in love, as much from inexperience and her aunt's romanticism as from anything else, to the great displeasure of her father, who refuses to condone the match, and declares he will refuse her his fortune if she marries her wooer.

Does the couple elope? is the young man sincere or a fortune hunter? James creates suspense out of his acute psychological portrayals, and even though I knew the outcome, I couldn't put the book down.

It is interesting to see how the conclusions of the book and the play differ not in basic outcome, but in the treatment of the characters, and the degrees of doubt left to the reader and viewer. I look forward to the group discussion in April.

Hope all is well with your family. And I loved Washington Square. And Happy Almost Tuesday!

17. the Marble Mask by Archer Mayor

I really like the Joe Gunther series, but sometimes Joe does really dumb things. This was a good yarn, but so complicated that one of the bad guys actually had to unwind the plot confusion at the end, and Joe put himself in amateur danger a few too many times. Meanwhile, Willie and Sam progress, some new people make their appearance as part of the new task force, and we hear a lot about Vermont in the winter. A good read, in spite of the quirks.

Have a wonderful Easter.

Happy Weekend, Judy!

Oh, and I also enjoyed Washington Square. :-)

Judy, I'm wishing you and Jim a wonderful weekend:

Ditto, Judy. Hope you're both enjoying the weekend.

Thanks to all for weekend wishes. If I could, I'd wish for another weekend right about now. For some reason, I'm very out of sorts, feeling rather disconnected. Some big change is coming and I don't feel equipped to find out what I want it to be, hence I'm cranky.

I was listening to or reading a piece on a woman who became bored with her work, ended up going to some kind of consultant or life coach or something - and did all the fashionable things one does these days to reroute one's career - developed a personal brand, a web presence, etc. and it worked for her. She found renewed direction and goals, became more recognized in her field, and so forth.

On the one hand that sounds really interesting - on the other, it doesn't spark any energy in me. Mainly I feel like I can't get off my list those things I've been trying to tackle, whether they be my weight, my exercise, the redesign of the apartment, repainting the now half-painted bathroom, weeding my wardrobe - reorganizing my life, I guess. Girding for some sort of action.

Oh poor me. Definitely first-world problems, aren't they? Worst of all, they are interfering with my reading. Now there's a problem!

Ah, well. I'm reading The Wapshot Chronicle for one of my f2f groups. It doesn't fit my mood, but it's due the first Tuesday of April, so I have to get cracking. It doesn't work well with interruptions, so I'll have to sit down and dig into it for a while. Not a terrible fate.

In the meantime, I will report that we went to the theater today, to see a production of "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" directed by Trevor Nunn. It's running at this wonderful new space in Brooklyn named The Polonsky Center (thank you, Mr. or Ms. Polonsky), where Theater for a New Audience is the company in residence. Pericles is a pretty wild pageant/romance of a play, sort of a precursor to Shakespeare's last four romances, especially "Winter's Tale". The cast is very good and exuberant, there's lots of music and dancing and simple yet clever stagecraft. Jim and I plan to join TFANA in the new season, because they are always tackling something interesting. And the theater is lovely.

So it's not all bad.

Hi Judy - It sounds like you have a case of spring fever.

I recently saw Pericles at the Guthrie; the cast was from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It was a fun play - very well staged, and very different from Shakespeare's other work. The Polonsky Center sounds wonderful; I'll add it to my list for my next NYC visit.

>125 BLBera: you may be right about the spring fever, so I wo t plan to inquire yet. No bets if the company offers a package!

We would love to know when you will next be in town. Meet ups are always fun.

>124 ffortsa: Hey, I have a half painted bathroom too. When I get another weekend, somehow that's never what I do with it.

>124 ffortsa: LOL Good to know. Thanks.

18. The Wapshot Chronicle - by John Cheever

I finished this last night, after many interruptions which probably did not serve the leisurely flow of family stories. I may have more to say after next week's f2f discussion. For now, I will praise Cheever's lovely style and express my displeasure at what feels like a consistent misogyny in the characterization of his female characters.

Hoping your discontent gives way to productivity, sense of purpose, and happiness. And more reading. : )

>128 ffortsa: I have the same problems with John Cheever, Judy. In some respects his style, whilst ideally suited to the format of the short story, tends to grate over the longer format and his characterisation is a little one-dimensional IMO. Falconer, I read and came to a similar conclusion to you with The Wapshot Chronicle.

19. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

I've been meaning to start the Harry Bosch series for a while, but didn't get around to it until now. This first one is a gritty, L.A. police procedural with a detective who obviously colors outside the lines. The story, grounded in the debacle of the war in Vietnam and the damaged men who came back, is well-paced, and while the characters aren't unusual, they are distinct. I look forward to reading more in this series.

>131 ffortsa: I'm reading this one as well. This is the book I'm reading at night on my Kindle. Sometimes I only get in a page or two before I fall asleep, so my reading of it has been fairly disjointed. It feels like Connelly knows his way around this genre. I plan to read more.

>128 ffortsa: Further thoughts on The Wapshot Chronicle.

After listening to my fellows in our meetup group last night, I came away with the feeling that I hadn't given this book its due attention. Excerpts read aloud to prove one point or another struck me with unfamiliar force, so I decided to keep the book and give it another try sometime later on, when I have the time.

20. The Black Ice by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch continues to inhabit a dark part of the world, in L.A. and also in Mexico, and to go rogue whenever it suits him. This time he is investigating the death of a fellow detective, an ostensible suicide, and somehow involved in the importation of new illegal drugs. Somehow, even in the daylight he seems to live in the dark.

Speaking of time, I've managed to confront myself with the possibility of fairly imminent retirement. I oscillate between the temptation of free time options and the terror of having no team and no purpose. I have to decide over the next few weeks in order to get a retirement severance package. More to come.

♬ Falling behind again, never thought I would
Never thought I would - I can't help it ♬

Well, I always knew I could, of course. Life - you know.

A slightly delayed review of the play 'Stupid F#%$G Bird', a modern re-imagining of 'The Seagull' at the Pearl Theater. At the start, the lead bounces out from behind the set wall and says 'this play isn't going to start until someone says 'start the $%#%$g play' - and this being a very savvy audience, half a dozen people said just that, and the play TOOK OFF! Very much The Seagull, entirely modern, with some brilliant acting and a lot of audience interaction (what should I do to make her love me again...?). I was singled out when I dug out my program to look up someone's name. (it is a very small theater).

In one of the early scenes between the playwright and the young would-be actress, he says something about staring at her beauty and her perfect breasts, and then is abashed, at which point she says 'you mean I don't have perfect breasts?' cheeky.

The scene between him and Arkadina later, more or less straight Checkhov, was a mesmerizing seduction by dominance.

As you can guess, we had a lovely time.

Later in the week, Jim, my sister and I saw the movie 'Born to be Blue' with Ethan Hawke as the trumpet player Chet Baker, his struggle with California style and a heroin habit. Really fine if somewhat sad story, and great music.

I heard Hawke on a talk show, maybe The Daily Show, say that he decided to learn trumpet to play the part, and after a few months told his teacher that in a year or so he should be able to play the music himself in the movie, to which is teacher said he would NEVER be good enough to play that music. But he did look very real playing the horn.

Just catching up here. Wishing you good luck figuring out the whole retirement thing--keep us posted! Just saw a great play "We Are Proud To Present"--the ending had me in tears. About race and genocide. Humorous and chilling. Hubby and I took Jack and a friend, and it was eye opening. Portland is very white and they are young, so any exposure to these issues is so important.

21. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (actually J.K. Rowling, of course)

My thought, about a third of the way through this, was that Rowling can't write a short book. But after the midpoint it did pick up, and ended up an enjoyable read. Based on some comments here on LT, I will read the next in the series, hoping for a somewhat crisper plot.

We need some help.

My cousin Jamie is 28, engaged to be married to a wonderful, sweet guy, and suffering from a very rare cancer. The cost of treatments, even after insurance coverage, are breaking them financially. Family and friends have contributed and continue to contribute what they can, but out of pocket costs are running $7000 A MONTH! It's the state of our broken health care system.

I've encouraged her to set up a GoFundMe account, and her fiance has done the deed. Won't you please take a look and give what you can? The url is

https://www.gofundme.com/bfxhsnvg.

And thanks.

I just donated to the fund for Jamie. I'll say a prayer for her as well.

>138 ffortsa: Saw your post at Joe's cafe Judy. I will certainly contribute but cannot use the paypal schemes etc from Malaysia. I will PM you.

oh the agony of first-world problems. I reversed myself at least three times today, but I'm feeling less like it will be a catastrophe either way. An exciting presentation of new technology got me going this morning. Then, this afternoon, I faded. Stay tuned if you're interested.

I've started reading Dangerous Liaisons in English for one of our f2f book groups. The title was pressed on us in exchange for Winter's Tale, which was not favored. As I've never read either of them, I have no immediate opinion, other than to say that LLD, to use its French initials, is not grabbing me yet. I know it was turned into a highly praised stage play and movie, and it does read as though it would be wonderful drama. We'll see how it holds up on the page.

>138 ffortsa: Thanks to Ellie, Darryl, Paul, Joe and any anonymous donors to Jamie's GoFundMe account. Your generosity is deeply appreciated.

>142 ffortsa: Good for you for helping like this, Judy. Please keep us posted.

>142 ffortsa: Glad to help in some small way, Judy. As Joe said, please let us know how Jamie is doing.

22. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The second in J.K. Rowling's Cormoran Strike series. It's a little too long and complex, as the first one was, but better. My opinion might be colored by the sleepiness that overcame me frequently yesterday.

I guess deciding not to retire took a lot of energy. My managers showed some surprise, along with some gratitude, and I'm sure that my immediate supervisor had my best interests at heart and would have wished me well had I left. He's a quite extraordinary guy. Definitely a factor in my decision to stay on for, as I declared it, one year or the next announced package, whichever comes first.

My plan is to take this year to quite deliberately start those activities I hope to continue into retirement. I have a couple of leads on music education (voice and violin are my goals), and I will also make an effort to vary my office time a bit. I have the excellent excuse of wanting to work more with one of our staff in India, which is much easier to do if I spend a couple of early hours from home, and that will let me be freer with the rest of my time.

Not to be a tease, but I have to get some pictures off my phone and posted here. The weather has be extraordinary, and I found some street art worth sharing. Next post.

And Jim and I saw a new play titled 'The Father' - NOT the Stringberg play, but one by Florian Zeller, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton. To add to the confusion of the title, the lead was Frank Langella, who is the actor I saw in the Stringberg play some years ago. That one is a power struggle as only Strindberg can write one.
This was very different:

A woman in Paris is trying to figure out how to manage her elderly father's failing mental faculties. At first it is very straightforward, but each time she speaks with her father, her situation and reasons change. Sometimes even the actress is different. Or her husband is different. Or not her husband. Eventually, it becomes clear that any time the father is in the scene, the audience sees and hears what he sees and hears. The only scenes we can trust are those where he is absent.

Ultimately, it is a terrible explication of how it must seem to someone whose brain is unreliable, whose confusion and bewilderment are not anyone's fault, but frightening to all. The last scene in this 90 minute play is heartrending. Beautifully acted by Langella and Kathryn Erbe, among others.

A warning for any who might see this production, here or elsewhere. The staging makes use of very bright light between scenes, which facilitates amazingly silent scenic alterations because the audience is momentarily unable to see the stage. Clever, but people with eye problems may find it difficult or annoying.

Oh, The Father sounds excellent, Judy. What a couple of powerhouse actors. My brilliant 93 year old father now has an unreliable brain, and he wistfully knows it.

I like the sounds of your not-retirement. I'm cutting back what I do where I work, and changing from an owner to a part-time partner. More free time is the #1 reason. I'm going to try it for a year and see how it goes.

>146 jnwelch: my brother is doing the same after June, working one month on, one month off in his current practice, after moving the family household to Tiburon. We'll see how long he can put up with the schedule. It will let him be a help to my nephew for a while anyway. Good luck with your plan.

Today, I was thinking I should have just jumped on to the retirement pool. Not sure if that's a reaction setting in or if I just feel dumb for not grabbing the package offered. If Jim is dissatisfied enough at work, lots of things might change.

>145 ffortsa: I don't much like the idea of retirement and I guess having my own businesses makes it difficult to contemplate doing so. I have often thought that deterioration must quickly follow as you are in a sense "waiting to die"! It doesn't treat all of us in the same way of course and many deservedly look forward to retirement to do some of the things a busy working life legislated against.

Have a lovely weekend.

Please check my last PM to you, my dear, as I would really like to help. xx

>148 PaulCranswick: Oh, sorry, Paul. I thought I'd answered your PM ages ago.

Yes, that's always been my fear of retirement, having nothing to do. But there is so much I might do. It's just a case of not being the kind of person who voluntarily changes everything at once. I'm going to have to find the discipline to create the preparatory changes, so that next time I seriously contemplate retirement, it will be more like making more time for other things than abandoning my current focus.

I completely forgot to list my recent haul from the downstairs book swap shelves.
Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos
Indivisible by Four by Arnold Steinhardt, about the Guarneri String Quartet
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, in an uncorrected proof
The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferris

This last I picked up rather furtively, although it's too big to be furtive with in hard-cover. There are forty thousand ways t lose weight, and this book is not particularly different, but there it was, and here all of me is, so I took it.

Concerning uncorrected proofs, does anyone have experience as too how 'uncorrected' these proofs might be? Are we talking typos or rewrites? I don't mind the typos, but if the story were to change, i'd put this back downstairs.

I've been listening to The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer, a guide to self-study that I thought might be enlightening as regards the classics, fiction and non-fiction. So far it has proven to be a discouraging taskmistress, prescribing kinds of note-taking, synopsis, review and study that are certainly appropriate to higher education but maybe not to enjoyment. I appreciate her suggested lists of standard questions as guides, for instance, but not her suggestion that everything be read three times.

What gets me most cranky, however, is the fiction list, and how she describes everything. One of the first things she says about Madame Bovary is a spoiler for the ending, and when she comes to the title itself on her list, she outlines the entire plot. It reminds me of my 12th grade English teacher outlining the entire plot of Great Expectations chapter by chapter before we had read it.

I've read most of the fiction she recommends, so I don't feel too injured. She may be more useful to me for the non-fiction topics. So I'll continue to listen between bouts of Dangerous Liaisons. Now there's a book to throw across the room (but it's on my Kindle). Nasty, brutish and stupid by turns. I'll say more after we discuss on Tuesday.

eta: I forgot to add that the narrator's voice is very easy to listen to but the attitude is a bit arch, or maybe snobbish. And some of the statements are decidedly odd. The writer doesn't put Ulysses on the list because she found it so difficult to read. What? A Ph.D. and Dr. of Divinity couldn't read Ulysses? I'd have understood if she had named Finnigan's Wake, or even Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, but .....??

*delurking* Hi! Good luck with the non-retirement decision. I, myself, just joined the working world again in the last few years, so I have a few years to go....!

>152 Berly: and others. Sigh. Today it did not feel like such a good decision to keep working. I'll have to see what tomorrow brings - I am trying to make sure what we are doing is accurate, and got grief for - what? - doubting someone else's work? I'm just asking for a formal review, which should happen and would protect our work from late corrections. I am a teensy bit concerned that I just missed the information people have been trying to share with me, but still, a formal review is always useful. Oh well. more tomorrow.

On the good side, I finished
23. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - in English, I hasten to add, for our Francophone readers.

It was a hard sell at first - so many unpleasant people. But about a third of the way through, it caught me. And so it seems to have caught a fair number of my Tuesday f2f reading group, because I don't recall a livelier discussion. The epistolary format can be a bit challenging - and I almost had to create a character cheat sheet for myself, but the parties straightened out soon enough. It was a book I wish I had read in paper, instead of on Kindle, because I kept wanting to refer back to prior letters and it's not so easy to flip back if I'm not perfectly sure of what I'm looking for.

Laclos (or is it more proper to say Choderlos de Laclos?) turns out to be a proto-feminist, highlighting the problems of being a woman in this pre-French Revolution society, lacking in education, convent educated, married off in one's teens, - baggage. This does not excuse the villainous, manipulative behavior at the top of this heap of idle people, but it may partly explain the actions of a woman determined to have her own life and freedom, even at the cost of everyone else's. Religion is displayed as a drug that substitutes for passion, leaving at least one young wife vulnerable to the most flagrant seduction and a young debauched girl fleeing to it in what might be guilt or shame or simply confusion; the difference between society's view of a roue and a loose woman is perfectly clear.

At the end, I felt sorry for almost all at some level, and glad I knew none.

>145 ffortsa: My plan is to take this year to quite deliberately start those activities I hope to continue into retirement.
This is highly sensible. Also a nice time frame, not too short and not too long.

24. Winterlude by Quentin Bates

A short police procedural set in Iceland, which makes for some interesting touches. The primary police character is a woman named Gunnhildur Gislandottir, and most but not all of the characters have this Icelandic patronymic-based name. It's not the first of the series, but I had it on my Kindle. It's listed as a short story, but more like a novella, I think.

I enjoyed the work and will seek out another by Bates

Note: A lot of the police procedurals from Scandinavia and Europe feature women in the lead. I wonder if that reflects reality these days, or is just a modern trope?

25. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

If this weren't based on a real historical figure, I'd describe the whole thing as hooey, and I'm afraid a lot of it is. All our favorite characters, some back story about Ruth, some pseudo-bumbling secret police. and a crisis that seems impossibly anachronistic. If you love Three Pines, by all means read on.

eta: This is 1/3 through the statutory 75 books, and 1/3 through the year - day 128 on the Julian calendar. Better than I thought.

You know, I've heard lots of people say that they wouldn't know what to do if they retired. Not I! I would read and blog and watch Netflix and clean and exercise to my heart's delight. But that's not saying having a job is a bad thing....

>156 The_Hibernator: clean? Ah, you're a better person than I am. My problem, exemplified at this very moment, is that I spend too much time sitting down. I should probably go exercise, come to think of it. But it' a little late. Hm.

Of course, I've just had to find a new housekeeper, and I'm not thrilled with her work, so maybe cleaning is something to add to my list!

Well, folks, it looks like my planning for retirement is finished. My company just had a 'reduction in force' - i.e. they cut heads - and my boss decided he could overrule my decision to wait til next year, give me a fat retirement package and boot me out.

I'm DELIGHTED.

Actually, I am really grateful to him that he insisted on giving me the retirement package instead of just letting HR cut me out. I'll miss my old buddies a lot, but just this afternoon I was sitting in the park with a woman who retired last year, and came over to see how it was affecting me. It was great to talk to her again. So, on to the next phase of my life. Think of the meetup possibilities!

>158 ffortsa: Wow. When does this adventure begin?

Well that seems to have worked out for the best!! Congratulations!! Foot loose and fancy free. Portland, as you now, is a very nice place to visit. : )

Woot!

That sounds perfect, Judy. Congrats - how great.

>159 qebo: It's begun already. When you work for a financial institution, they disable your computer access while they are firing you, and make sure you leave the building as soon as possible. I aggravated them by saying goodbye to a lot of folks on my work floor, and eventually they sent a minder to get me out. &;>

So as of 11AM yesterday, I'm unemployed. Trying to decide if I should file for unemployment, since technically I have been 'let go'. That may mean I have to look like I'm looking for work, though. I'm thinking about it.

In the meantime, my laptop doesn't recognize my wifi network anymore. I'm working on Jim's Mac, which is a little different and not so comfy, so I won't be cruising the threads too much today. Besides, it looks really lovely out. Time for a walk.

>161 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I think it will be great, but it's clear as of day 2 that I'll need to find a rhythm to this adventure.

Slept late - delicious. I had a fabulous walk up to my hairdresser's and back, window-shopping on 5th Ave.; listened to a lot of podcasts from 'Here's The Thing', Alec Baldwin's interview show, as I walked; found out some not so wonderful things about Medicare; heard from some work associates shocked at my departure; did some food shopping when things weren't crazy.

And used all those semi-colons!

Thanks for the congratulations.

CONGRATULATIONS on your retirement - however it came about!
I was born to retire, and if you need lessons, just ask.

>164 LizzieD: thanks! I might!

Ahem. ; ) >160 Berly:

>166 Berly: Oops. i'll learn to be a good correspondent one of these days. Thanks for the congrats. Portland is indeed a lovely place to be fancy free. And I have a couple of friends there too!

Hm. Have to get the hang of this new life. Here it is almost 10 am and I haven't even had my coffee.

>163 ffortsa: Ha! Excellent use of semi-colons, Judy.

My siblings and their spouses are all retired now, and they are all thoroughly enjoying it. I find that encouraging.

Happy new week!

Retirement Lesson 1
For the first several weeks, you'll feel like you're on vacation. That's fine. You probably need the rest! Relax and enjoy!

>171 LizzieD: exactly right! I do feel like I'm on vacation. and Jim and I are already showing the creaking signs of adjustment; since he's still working, he has begun to call me 'the sloth'. All in good fun, of course, but he has some envy.

Yesterday was very pleasantly unstructured. Today I have some tasks on the list, after which I propose to do exactly what I feel like doing.

I'll let you know when it stops feeling like a vacation. &;>

I've started listening to the audio of Zorba the Greek, which I read in print not so long ago. F2F group #2 is discussing it on Thursday. Listening is definitely different from racing through it the first time. I didn't recall how much the philosophical discussion in the beginning of the story informs the time on Crete. The narration is very good.

I've also started a book found on our swap shelves downstairs, The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski. I wouldn't have thought anyone could write an entire book on bookshelves (and books) as physical objects, but Petroski views everything as informed and formed by design, and I find it captivating so far.

Congratulations on your retirement.
I have been retired for 11 years now- I am able to do a lot of volunteer work, read more , exercise more and travel.

Congrats on your retirement - I'm so glad that it's a happy, if unexpected, change for you!

Judy, congratulations on your retirement! I retired a little early almost two years ago and it's the best thing in the world! I have fun every day and read like a maniac! Enjoy!

26. ♬ Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis, read by George Guidall

As I indicated above, this is a reread for me, but this time I listened to the excellent narration by Guidall. As usual, listening afforded different perspectives. I don't recall the philosophical discussion so intensely from my 'silent' reading, although the other episodes in the novel were more or less as I recalled.

Somewhere around the middle, the story changed for me, from a philosophical argument (already well discussed) to a more picaresque one. But the climactic events were still powerful.

Hearing the story, I was more and more aware of the primitive (for lack of a better word) view that men had of women in this society: enticements to evil, sources of pleasure, creatures desired and feared, the source of joy and disgrace, somehow responsible for all man's troubles. Not all of this is religious in context - I get the feeling that this hearkens back to pre-Christian views of nature and the world. It leaves this book very much about the love between men, not necessarily with any homosexual slant or activity, but as a group privileged and buffeted and weighed down by life.

The last exchange between Nikos and Zorba left me feeling very sad, as if Nikos never did understand, or could not act on, the deep feeling between them, and by analogy, the deep primitive feelings in himself.

After I finished the book, I realized I know very little about Greece or Greece nationals in World War I. Something somewhat tangential to the story, but something to explore.

Next up for the f2f groups: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. I haven't read either of these authors, so adventures ahead!

>177 ffortsa: I also enjoyed Zorba when I read it many moons ago, Judy.

After a sensationally busy week, I will have more time on my hands in the new week in order to attend to one or two personal undertakings that are still outstanding. Have a lovely weekend. xx

>172 ffortsa: You sound like me at the end of January - it felt like vacation, husband was envious. My goal was to start getting the house under control but not at the expense of reading and sleeping in. I've been pacing myself and am glad I'm not working. I hope you're doing well during this adjustment phase.

>177 ffortsa: We read The Sense of an Ending for our RL bookclub - my choice - and I'll be interested in hearing your opinion of it.

>178 PaulCranswick: I hope that sensationally busy week was enjoyable, or at least positive, and this week is more reasonably paced, Paul.

>179 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen. I haven't been quite as productive concerning the apartment as I imagined I'd be, but it's early days yet. I have a couple of friends who retired ahead of the pack, so to speak, and they are thrilled to have another playmate, so I've been a bit more busy in the best way than I had anticipated. It's that pacing that I need to find.

I'll be happy to share my reactions to the Barnes book, as well as those of my f2f group. In fact, I'd better get started on it pretty soon!

thanks for stopping by.

27. The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

Wow. This is a roller coaster. Bosch is a civil defendant in a suit against the Police Department for a shooting he did four years before, an event which ended the serial killings by the man dubbed 'The Dollmaker'. The family of the man Bosch killed is suing for monetary damages, pain and suffering, etc., and they have a shark of a lawyer on their side.

Bosch is sure the shoot was 'good', but then things begin to crop up - bodies, hand-delivered notes. There are leaks - of course.

When I stopped reading at 1:30AM, I was sure I knew how the book would end. The next morning, when I finished it, I discovered how wrong I was. Connelly does a pretty good red herring trail in this one. All in all, very satisfying.

>182 ffortsa: As you know from visiting my thread, I'm reading these Michael Connelly / Harry Bosch novels pretty much one after another. Normally in a series like this (say, the Alphabet Series by Sue Grafton), I'm content enough to hang out with good characters even if the story leaves me sort of so-so. What surprises me about the Harry Bosch series is Connelly's consistently good plots.

>182 ffortsa: and >183 labwriter: I adore the Harry Bosch series. I've read every one except the newest The Crossing, which is on my shelves just waiting to be read. (I'm from Los Angeles, so there's the extra bonus of knowing the locations, streets, towns, and even restaurants/businesses he mentions.) I also like his Lincoln Lawyer series. And I love his titles - Trunk Music, Black Echo, Lost Light, The Last Coyote, etc.

Judy, I'm delurking to wish you a Happy Retirement. I thought it was interesting that you were beginning to question your decision to stay one more year, then...Boom! At least you had begun to think about a retirement plan to use your "free" time. I still wish I had more hours in the day to do all the things I want to do.

You and Becky have gotten me interested in the Bosch series. I picked up the first book for my husband as he is just about finished with his beloved John Sandford and is looking for another series to read. I'd love to read along with him if Harry agrees with us.

>183 labwriter: abd >184 karenmarie: Nice to have company on the Bosch series.

>185 Donna828: Just jump on board with us - it's a good ride.

I can see that retirement is going to be a work in progress for me for some time. After feeling busy for so long, restlessness hits me whenever I am not doing one of the myriad planned tasks on my list.

My first session as a writing coach last evening was fun and interesting. I may open up a few of the ten dozen books on writing and grammar on my shelves so that I can be more sure of my advice, but I do like it.

It's dangerous to go to the laundry room these days, because of the swap shelves. I found several books recently, the most recent being Uppity Women of Medieval Times, a compendium of short profiles of women who managed to defy the strictures of their time to get what they wanted. Not all of their tactics were legal, but all of them were stubborn, trying to improve their lives by any means necessary. Each profile is a page or two at most. Leon doesn't stick with Europe either - her list has a totally international flair.

>186 ffortsa: I hope that "Reading Many Hours Per Day" is one of the tasks on your list. Lists can be manipulated, too..... :)

28. Frozen Assets by Quentin Bates

This is the first in the Gunnhilder police procedurals set in Iceland, and a really good first outing. I was dead tired when I started it, and kept getting interrupted as well, but when I finally sat down to read it, the setting and the characters proved very promising. And for a change, this Scandi novel didn't involve abused children.

It has a nice topicality as well, involving industrialization, environmentalists, and the financial meltdown in which Icelandic banks figured so painfully. But none of that hits you over the head. It is at heart a local police procedural, with all the familiarity and political pressure usually found. Nice.

I forget whose BB this was. Maybe Suzanne's? thanks.

Hi, Judy! It looks like I have not been by in a long while. Bad Mark!
Happy Retirement, my friend. I bet that feels wonderful. I have a few more years.
I hope you are enjoying every second of it.

Frozen Assets sounds like a good one.

>190 msf59: Hiya, Mark! I am SO behind on your threads, no apologies needed from you. Now that I have more time, I may be able to dive into more LT madness.

Oddly enough, I haven't had much time to sit and read. There's so much that I postponed doing in the apartment that it's hard to indulge myself until I've made some progress each day. But I have an f2f reading group meeting next Tuesday, for The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, so I'd better get cracking!

Chasing down the paperwork and making the decisions I need to make is quite a process. I called the benefits center for my company yesterday, as I received no information about COBRA and (as of yet) no proof of employment to show the Medicare folks. In reverse order, the form is in the mail, and 'I can't help yo with COBRA'. Huh. I pressed him for the appropriate phone number and was able to get that started, retroactive to June 1. I HATE being in an insurance gap.

And I'm still waiting for my severance, which is supposed to be paid 'at a convenient time' - huh again. Convenient for whom?

oh well.

On the good side, on Wednesday we went to a library event where an archaeologist presented her work on Washington Square Park, all the history of it as farmland, potter's field, yellow fever burial ground (yellow fever in NYC, who knew?), through to the current renovated status. I have to go back and see if I can take pictures of the map room, with its elegant coffered ceiling. Exquisite.

Yesterday we went to the Historical Society for a talk on Lincoln and his love of Shakespeare. The author of the latest book on the topic spoke, and each time he reached a quoted passage by Shakespeare, the actor Steven Lang presented it, along with some direct quotes from Lincoln himself. Magical. Lang is a terrific stage actor, and his clarity in acting the Shakespearean sections was wonderful. I've heard these passages many times, but rarely have I been brought to tears as I was last night.

>192 ffortsa: paperwork
Sigh. One would expect these things to be standard procedure.
At least you have plenty of distractions.

Theater review first. Jim and I saw the play 'Incognito' by Nick Payne at Manhattan Theatre Club on Friday (it was obviously one of our busy weeks). It's a four-hander weaving together three strands of plot, two of which are historically accurate: The odd history of what happened to Einstein's brain, and the story of H.M., a classic of brain damage, induced by necessary surgery, which leads to heartbreak and major breakthroughs in the understanding of memory.

All three strands are inhabited by four incredibly versatile actors, who change from line to line from one character to another with no more than an accent and their body language. Very exciting to watch, and thoroughly enjoyable.

next,
29. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

I'm not one of the up-to-date readers here who focus on the Booker short list, among others, so I'm only getting around to this now. Our f2f reading group was more thumbs-down than thumbs-up, disliking the characters and what some felt was a contrived ending. I'm more inclined to agree with Marianne (MichiganTrumpet) in her review from a few years ago, where she says she finished it and immediately started again at the first page.

The title turns out to be one shared with a book by the literary critic Frank Kenmode, in which he discusses 'peripateia', or the critical twist at the end of a story that puts all that comes before it in a new light. The classic is 'Oedipus', of course, but the narrator of Barnes's slim book is no hero, just a man in his sixties who has made the safe choices all his life and is thrust back into his memories by an odd bequest. Memory is the central question here, how and what we remember, and what we thought we knew or understood in the remembered time. Tony is the most unreliable of narrators, and what he narrates of his own memories is belied by each discovery he makes as he tries to figure out this bequest.

If I have a quibble with the novel, it is that the antagonist to Tony's search is cryptic to the point of total frustration, for both Tony and the reader. But after thinking about Oedipus, I've come to see her as the warning chorus to Tony's search. Barnes does prepare us for her difficult behavior, after all. But it is difficult, nevertheless. This is definitely a book that should be read twice, even if, maybe especially if, you don't like it the first time.

Hey Judy, I didn't love The Sense of an Ending as much as some folks did.

I'm going to PM you about Denali in August.

Next up for my f2f groups is The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. I've never encountered this author before.

While I was at the bookstore to get this, I succumbed to the original of the title The Sense of an Ending, essays in criticism by Frank Kermode. We'll see how much my old academic interest carries me.

And of course, I'm not reading either of them. Instead, I'm reading a book Suzanne (Chatterbox) lent me some time ago, In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik, a non-fiction inquiry into our hunger for silence in our noisy world.

I'm also listening to a Great Books course, 'Big History' by David Christian. (The first touchstone is for Great Expectations, which is a hilarious approximation, don't you think?) There's a book by the same name, but I don't know if these lectures could have the same detail as an almost 400-page textbook. Enjoyable, especially after the first 4 lectures, which were more or less introductory to the methods used, and also some of the familiar gee-whiz science from the days when NASA was actively educating us.

And then there's a little comic title Zen Judaism, which is about what you would expect from the perspective of Jewish mother jokes.

Oy

Hi Judy! I hope you're still enjoying retirement even with the issues with insurance and your severance.

>197 The_Hibernator: ah, severance has arrived, I'm signed up for Medicare as of July 1, cobra has been purchased. Only a couple of steps left. In the meantime, the weather is lovely and I am having a great time. Thanks for mentioning it.

I'm glad things are under control and that you're having a great time.

The Post Office Girl sounds intriguing. Another BB for me! It was published posthumously. I have his Shooting Stars: 10 Historical Miniatures but haven't read it yet.

You're one of the New York meet-up folks, I believe. Have FUN!!!!!

Hi, Judy! I enjoyed your thoughts on The Sense of an Ending. We had similar feelings. I would have liked to have immediately reread it too, but it didn't happen. Sighs...

Hooray, for The Post Office Girl. I enjoyed that one. I try to read all postal related books...kidding. If you like that one, try Chess. That is terrific.

Happy retirement, Judy. My last day at one of my jobs is today, so while we're not quite in the same boat (I still have one job), I am leaving a workplace I've been part of for almost twenty years. Good luck with all the paperwork - it is awful, isn't it?

It seems like LT is relocating to Alaska in August. I'll be there as well.

I loved The Sense of Ending, but I loved Barnes' new book The Noise of Time even more.

The Shakespeare and Lincoln sounds fabulous.

Good review of The Sense of an Ending, Judy. I share your frustration with the crypticness relating to Tony, but otherwise enjoyed it. I'm seeing a lot of positive comments like Beth's about his new one, The Noise of Time.

Zen Judaism is a hoot, and a favorite at our house.

>202 BLBera: Hi, Beth. You don't have quite as far to go as we do to get to the 49th state. Where and when will you be in Denali? Ellen and I figured out we'd be at opposite ends of the park, and that's quite a distance, alas.

I thought leaving work would be more bittersweet than it was. But I've been very comfortable in retirement. Yesterday I met with some people I had mentioned volunteering with, to help them with their systems, and it really rattled me. I don't think I want to do more of that yet!

How long do you plan to stay with your remaining job?

And thanks for the comments on the Barnes books. I'll look for The Noise of Time at the library.

>201 msf59: and >203 jnwelch: Thanks for commenting on my Barnes review. I'm hoping for increased enlightenment from the Kermode book of the same name, once I get to it.

>200 EBT1002: We indeed had fun last night. I hadn't met Katie before, and I hadn't seen Zoe in ages. Since she and Mark are completing their move(s) upstate over the summer, I expect somewhat fewer opportunities, unless I find a nice summer b&b near them. Katie, of course, is a hoot all by herself.

I also met Vivian, who drove down from Westchester (i think) to join us. Lovely lady.

>206 ffortsa: I'll keep an eye out for nice B&Bs!

We'll be at the Princess Denali, Aug. 13-15, I believe.

I spent my last day tying up loose ends and cleaning mostly. My daughter called at the end of the day and offered to pick me up, so I left rather hurriedly, which was probably a good thing. But I have the feeling I left something undone...

I plan to play it by ear as far as teaching. I think being able to work only 40 to 50 vs. 80 hours of week will give me a second wind, and I still enjoy it. And, if I don't teach in the summer, that gives me a breather.

The meet-up sounds great. But -- no pictures?

I second that questions: Where are the pics?

>208 BLBera: and >209 msf59: Well, chalk it up to general enjoyment. NO PICTURES. I'm so sorry. None of us said a word about them. Sigh.

Beth, what a bummer!. We're getting to the Princess Denali on the 18th! After Denali, we have a week on the ship. Sounds like we are ships passing in the daylight on our respective trips.

Judy, what a treat to meet you and Jim on Monday night! Wayne and I had a great time - in addition to the wonderful conversation, the food was good, too. Great pick!

THE FOLLOWING IS A THEATER RAVE.

For anyone who might live in or near NYC, or anyone coming into NYC in July, DO NOT MISS 'HADESTOWN'.

How's that for an imperative statement? No kidding, if you haven't seen 'Hadestown' at New York Theater Workshop, get yourself online now and buy tickets. They have extended it through the end of July, so don't wait.

This retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story is sung-through jazz and blues, with marvelous voices, brilliant staging, every actor a triple-threat singing and dancing. The band is first rate, and some of the actors add the odd instrument as the story progresses. We saw it this afternoon, and in spite of the weather, there was a stand-by line out in the hot sun.

Joe,if you and your MBH are planning a trip here, see it now. Zoe and Mark, see it before you leave for the green hinterlands. If it tours, and comes to a venue near you, GO. Seriously, don't miss it!

Rave over, unless you talk to me about it, which might get me started all over again.

Oh, and I finished
30. The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. More after the book circle meets on Wednesday.

and, I'm continuing to listen to 'Big History'. I had to laugh at myself for thinking the 13 lectures on my iPod were all that there were - that was the first quarter of the text, which Audible downloads in convenient bite-size pieces. I'm now half-way through, and we've just arrived at Agrarian Man.

>211 katiekrug: Katie, the restaurant was picked by Zoe's husband Mark, and yes, it was yummy and not even too noisy. It was great to spend time with you and 'The Wayne'. Here's to more meetups (with pictures next time).

Glad you had a great meet-up! :)

>212 ffortsa: - I kind of wish you'd seen this before I was in NY so I would have known about it!! Sounds great.

>212 ffortsa: I wish we were visiting soon, Judy! That sounds terrific. We probably won't be back until next spring. Maybe it'll find a new home and still be around.

>215 jnwelch: Well, look for it to come to Chicago. Your town is just the place for it, and if they take it on tour (and it's really an easy show to tour - no props, just people), I'm sure they will bring it to you.

>216 ffortsa: Will do. Easy name to remember.

Yay for the severance check, great plays and for meetups!!

So a lot more people liked The Post Office Girl than I did. One of my crew read some of it in German, and complained about the translation and especially the title. For those of you interested, it's a novel that takes place after World War I in Austria. The title character, Crystl, is leading a grim life in a safe job. She has lost her brother in the war, her father is dead, and she and her mother have devolved to a less than genteel poverty after a more comfortable life before the war.

Into this joyless life, she receives an invitation from her aunt, who has been living in the U.S., to join her and her husband at their vacation hotel. Although Crystl feels ashamed and totally out of place when she arrives, her aunt immediately takes her in hand and does the fairy godmother makeover. Crystl is accepted into the social whirl and giddily participates, until her low-class status is revealed and she is forced to return home.

The last third of the story details how she is consumed with rage, how she meets a man who feels similarly wronged by his treatment after the war, and how their relationship re-emphasizes their feelings of despair. They then plan a bold escape - of sorts.

I found it terribly grim, but also relevant to today, reflecting on the gap between the 1% and the rest of the country, the ways in which veterans are not treated adequately for their traumas, and the ways in which poverty is still an issue in this country. Read it at your own risk.

31. Tucker Peak by Archer Mayor

I had a little trouble getting into this next in the series, but I suspect it was my own post-retirement restlessness.

Joe Gunther and the VBI are called in to investigate a series of burglaries at a ski resort, not their usual case but to help out the local authorities. Things get out of hand pretty quickly, as the burglaries lead to more serious crimes (of course). Joe goes under cover and does some he-man stuff, quite exciting if not quite believable. The usual crew is there, Sammie and Kunkle, as is the tension between the still-new VBI and the rest of the law enforcement sectors. About average for this series.

32. Brotherhood in Death by J. D. Robb

Ah, back in form. One of Robb's best in this series, I think, in terms of pacing, story, etc.

>212 ffortsa: Hadestown ticket purchased! I'll be seeing it on July 24.

>212 ffortsa: terrific

>223 _Zoe_: - *turning green with envy*

>222 ffortsa: - I think I'm on #12 in the series. I really enjoy it...

>225 katiekrug: You'll just have to make another trip to NYC next month! That would be perfectly normal, right?

a few days of yays and boos:

I was at the New York Public Library, mid-Manhattan branch, to register for my NYCID card (which gives me free access to all sorts of museums and such for the first year), and happened to look at the mystery section. And there was the next Cotteril mystery, The Merry Misogynist, in a nice new printing. Yay. The registration took about 15 minutes, also yay, since supposedly the lines were long (no lines).

But today I took my little netbook to the Microsoft store to find out why Windows 10 wasn't coming up, and I was told it was because of the processor, that the machine wasn't upgradeable. Boo. I'm puzzled now, because when I took it back and looked up eligible processors, the Intel Atom processor was on the list. Hm.

Now I have a decision to make - should I stay with Windows 7 on my main laptop until I get a new computer (which I actually hope is never - I like this one and it works just fine), even though Mr. Softie will stop supporting it - or should I back up everything I need to back up and take this full-sized laptop into Microsoft and have them upgrade it. GRR. I HATE these decisions. Boo.

I should back up everything on it anyway, of course. Boo.

I started Sons and Lovers - so far a yay.

I think all the various payments to all the various components of my health care are in place - another yay, I guess.

Wednesday we saw the play 'Oslo', based on the story of the back-channel negotiations that resulted in the historic but short-lived accord between Rabin and Arafat, splendid acting and dialogue, really absorbing. That's a yay.

Three boos and four yays. I guess that's pretty good.

I'm terrible about backing things up... And my laptop is continually prompting me to upgrade to Windows 10 but I'm scared to :)

>228 ffortsa: should I stay with Windows 7
Good luck with that. I tried, and Microsoft forced an update to Windows 10. Fortunately everything went smoothly and the computer(s) work fine afterwards, but this is not a universal experience.

>230 qebo: I don't know why I wasn't forced to upgrade. Neither of my machines displayed the invitation or the force. Jim and I will look to see if I have updates turned off, although I checked and 'no significant updates' are pending. Don't they know I exist??

>231 ffortsa: Don't they know I exist??
If so, the world would pay for your invisibility cloak.

>228 ffortsa: - >231 ffortsa: I had a terrible experience with Windows 10. The short end of a long story is do not assume your hardware is compatible with Windows 10. Check with your hardware manufacturer first before even trying. And for you technical folks, you can remove the upgrade patch so it will stop asking you. Buyer, beware, though, in anything relating to Windows 10.

>233 karenmarie: News much appreciated. Were you finally able to update to 10 after the terrible times? Is it working for you now?

>233 karenmarie: Yeah, you can remove the upgrade patch, and I did, but it came back. And from perusing other complaints after my forced upgrade, seems the popup reminder behavior is designed for deceit: X to dismiss means please install.

>234 ffortsa: My laptop is not compatible with Windows, period. Dell had to take me back to Windows 8.1 twice, the first time obviously incorrectly because files got corrupted after 2 weeks of being back to 8.1. The second time seems to have done the trick. What I did was to buy a one-year Dell concierge contract for $239 (or $249?). Thank goodness I did because otherwise I would have had to pay for another support help ticket. Now I have coverage 'til February of 2017. My computer is stable and back to where it was.

>235 qebo: I took the patch off twice myself, too, but when I had to get 8.1 re-installed, whatever the Dell concierge tech did has removed it permanently. I hope that last sentence doesn't jinx my computer. :)

And you're right, you have to really look at what the options are so that you don't do the opposite of what you intend. They are sneaky bastards.

-----
What I saw of Windows 10 I didn't like, but I'm that way with every new OS. It took me forever to get used to Windows 8. I always go to the desk top to work anyway, but there are a few navigational things starting with 8 that if you don't know prevent you from doing anything effectively. I'm 63, though, and perhaps they aren't trying to appeal to my demographic, starting with Windows 8.

Sorry about the computer woes, Judy. I'm holding my breath down here. It seems to my 71 year-old brain that every upgrade takes more freedom of use away from the hapless user. I'm not educated enough to know how to get around things. BOO! HISS! I do hope they ignore us too........

ETA: I'm so slow I don't know how old I am. I'm 71. I guess I was just practicing for October......

>236 karenmarie: and >237 LizzieD: Ha! I'm 67, so I'm with you there. Jim keeps suggesting I buy a Mac, but I don't think my brain is young enough to make that big a switch.

>239 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I don't know if we will get to be in the thick of the action tonight. But it is sure to look something like that!

33. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the 8:02 every morning to London, pretending she's still employed and not hung over from the previous night's drinking. Her journey takes her past her old home, where her husband lives with his second wife. Down a few houses, Rachel sees a couple on the deck of their home and fantasizes their idyllic relationship.

And then the woman disappears.

Told from multiple points of view, this mystery is nevertheless about Rachel, grasping at anything to pick up the pieces of her life, struggling with her loss of what she thinks is her ideal mate, drowning herself in liquor and self-loathing, and determined to find out what happened to the vanished woman. The other viewpoints fill us in, and let us see that no one has an idyllic marriage or is as they seem, and there are some real snakes in every Eden.

I should read Girl on a Train. Sounds interesting.

>241 ffortsa: That sounds like about the right level of intellectually demanding for my current mood.

It's hot. HOT. I know my Texas friends might not consider 87 F hot, but here in New York, it is HOT and SOGGY and I can't wait for the thunderstorms due this weekend.

The reality of retirement is hitting me, too. No real organization yet, so I'm going to start noting my accomplishments, to remind myself that things ARE getting done.

Today, for instance, I bought some plain, utilitarian bookends, because I hate when the books start leaning over. I bought a bamboo steamer to support our intention of cooking at home, although today might not be the day to do that!

And I stopped in at this photographic equipment store Adorama to get some drymount sheets, and discovered that I am WAY behind the times. Very few people use drymount anymore to mount photographs or anything else. You can mount a photo on anything using a drymount press (not likely) or a conventional household iron, which I recall my father doing. Luckily, the store had a package in stock. The new convention is an adhesive sheet that is activated by a press.

I also learned that I might be able to sell my dad's cameras there, if I so choose. And that while they no longer process film, they do sell film. Even black and white film. Photography might be an expensive hobby, but I'd love to get good at it. I have a digital camera that I'm not really comfortable with yet, and then of course there is the all-purpose cellphone. All those options.

Right now, I opt to read.

>241 ffortsa: I really liked The Girl on the Train.

In the 6 months I've been retired, I've learned that
1. There's always more to do than there is time in a day.
2. Most of a day can go by before I've realized that I'm forgetting to do the things I planned on doing.
3. Having to get up to an alarm every other week or so is hideous, more hideous than every day when I was working.
4. Errands and stuff can get in the way of reading like they didn't while I was working. When I was working I could run errands during lunch time mostly. Now they seem to take longer and reading takes second place.
5. I'm spending way more time on LT.
6. I never want to have to work again.

Opting to read is good. Go for it!!!

>245 karenmarie: #2 and #4, especially! I'm glad you can confirm what I'm finding. it's amazing how much time things take, and how much I want to get done that is atomic - that is, requiring individual effort. I buy a steamer, then look at curtain panels (nope, these won't do), and lamps (not what I want yet), fall into that photography store and add a whole new area to explore. I'm missing the natural organization of work.

But I have a little list. And I did some reading after all. Adjusting will take some time.

Hi Judy! Just checking in. Hope you had a good holiday.

Hooray for Dr. Siri! I think I have read the first 9. Glad you liked Girl on a Train. I am a fan too.

I am avoiding Windows 10 like the plague.

I can report that I successfully upgraded to Windows 10 with no problem, and as far as I can tell, there's not much difference. All my stuff is where I left it, my toolbars are the same, my desktop is the same, etc. etc.

Big PHEW!!

>248 katiekrug: Katie, I'm glad to hear you didn't have a problem. How old is your machine? Mine is pretty old, and I think may not have the proper processor for 10. I have to get in touch with Lenovo, since I don't trust the list from Microsoft.

It would be a shame to replace a perfectly good laptop just to keep up with the Joneses.

>245 karenmarie:, >246 ffortsa: I'm listening carefully to your observations and advice. I hope to be following in your footsteps not long from now. One thing I've willingly promised my better half is to not increase my LT time when the day comes. Tough promise to keep, though, I'm sure.

>249 ffortsa: - I'm not sure how old it is - I think the hubs bought it "re-furbished." It's a Lenovo ThinkPad with an Intel Core i5 processor.

>249 ffortsa: Good idea. Do Not Trust Microsoft. Confirm with your hardware's manufacturer.

>250 jnwelch: I always felt bad that I couldn't keep up on LT while I was working. Now I have more time, but it does take away from reading! I need to balance. Haven't quite got that one under control yet - reading, errands, computer time (Facebook, LT, etc.).