Sibyx Reads in January-February 2016!

Herself on January 1 2016

Currently Reading (February)
♬

✔ Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy Flora Thompson
✔ Gardens of the Moon Steven Erikson fantasy
♬ Heartstone C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 5)
new Casting Off Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazelet 4) contemp fic
Ongoing
Murdoch Marathon resumed!:NEXT UP: ??? IM readers group is HERE
Virago Soon?
The New Yorker August 2015 issues (1 of 3)

February Books Read
13. new Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf *****
14. new Curious Incidents in King Philip's War Edward Lodi history **?
15. ✔ Inversions Iain Banks sf ****
16. new Marking Time (2 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic
17. The New Yorker July 2015 (noted at >5 sibylline:)
18. ✔ The Cold Dish Craig Johnson mys ****
19. new Confusion (3 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic ****
20. ✔ Precursor C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 4) sf **** 1/2
21. ♬ Revelation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 4) ****
22. ✔Defender C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 5) sf **** 1/2
23. ✔ Explorer C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 6) sf *****
24. ✔ A God in the House; poets talk about faith Ilya Kaminsky ed.

Guide to symbols
new=year or less on shelf
♬ = audio
✔ = Year plus on shelf
RoT= Read or Toss

RoT Tally
1. The Book of Strange New Things Michael Faber

Completed!
Thingaversary Celebration list: (Books from my shelves that I've been hoarding! Total indulgence!)
1. H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald natural history READ
2. The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic READ
3. Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch Urban fantasy READ
4. Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf READ
5. Foreigner C.J. Cherryh sf READ
6. Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch READ

January Round-up
1. new Corambis (bk 5) Sarah Monette fantasy ****
2. ✔ Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery **** (Thinga read #1)
3. ✔ Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose contemp fic ***1/2
4. The New Yorker June 2015
5. new Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery (Thinga read #2!) ****
6. ♬(reread) Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon contemp fic *****
7. ✔ Foreigner C.J. Cherryh sf (Thinga read #4) ****1/2!
8. new Into the Silence Wade Davis nf *****!!!!!!
9. ✔ Invader C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 2) sf ****1/2
10. ✔Inheritor C.J. Cherryh sf (Foreigner #3) ****1/2
11. new The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic (Thinga read #3!) ****
12. new H is for Hawk Helen Maconald natural history

Total: 12
Men: 3
Women: 5
M/W writing together: 0 (mostly Liaden series)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 3
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 0
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 1

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 5
Read it or Get Rid of It: 0

Housekeeping

Physical In/Out Totals:
IN Total=1
OUT Total=3

Best of January
Into the Silence Wade Davis

January Reflections
As I was trying to choose a "Best of" book (just one) for the month, I realized what a superb reading month it has been. It also highlights the arbitrariness of the "star" system. Truthfully I didn't "enjoy" Gravity's Rainbow as I have enjoyed Pynchon's later work, certainly I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. I may, at another time, avail myself of a copy with decent print (my own is a beat up paperback, the one I read it in the first time round). I don't think the audio format was the right way to take on Pynchon, so that also may have had a big effect on my understanding as well as enjoyment. I certainly DID enjoy some parts of it hugely and the full five star salute is because I do recognize it for the achievement it is. Now, having said that, Wade Davis's Into the Silence is a remarkable and truly worthwhile book, five-star-worthy from any and every angle. I read it slowly because it is not a book to gobble up, but toward the end, the last three chapters, I just pasted myself to the sofa and read. H is for Hawk also was an extraordinary read and I'm not sure why I'm withholding half a star, except that it took me awhile to come around, I felt somewhat put off in the beginning for reasons I can't begin to sort out, and I don't know if it was me or MacDonald, but something, I think changes part way, and, once again, for the last 100 or so pages, I pasted myself back in that sofa. All that is to say that this was a stellar non-fiction month. Which is not to say that the fiction wasn't fabulous too - I began two great series (Cazelet, Foreigner) and finished one excellent one (Doctor of Labyrinths), indulged in two Aaronovitches . . . Every month should be so good.

Reading Stats 2015
Total: 151
Men: 52
Women: 70
M/W writing together: 11 (mostly Liaden series)
Non-fiction: 23
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 30
SF/F: 68
Mystery: 20
YA or J: 1
Poetry: 0
New author: 54
Months of NYers: 9
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 5 (inc audio):
Audio: 13
New: 46
Off Shelf: 67
Read it or Get Rid of It: 5

Housekeeping

Physical In/Out Totals:
IN Total=61
OUT Total=47

Best of 2015

Fiction:
My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Summer Book Tove Jansson
The Man in the Wooden Hat Jane Gardam
At Freddie's Penelope Fitzgerald

Non-Fiction:
Synapsida John C. McLoughlin (Still the only decent book on our mammalian precursors)
Between the Woods and the Water Patrick Leigh Fermor

F&SF: Ki and Vandien Quartet Megan Lindholm
Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword Ann Leckie
Excession, Hydrogen Sonata Iain Banks

Mystery:
Silkworm, Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith

2015 Reflections
Just looking at the "best of" list, I think, oh that's unfair! Many of my four and four and a half star reads were wonderful too. It's tempting to include more of them and perhaps I will. Looking at my stats I see that I read more books written by women--I think it helps that I've focussed on sf and f by women of late. If I broke it down further though, I would guess that most of my non-fiction reading is by men. Speaking of NF it seems I read about 2 a month, a little more than that of "regular" fiction. Mysteries appear to be about 1 1/2 per month, but it is F/SF that dominated this year with 68, that would be about 4 1/2 per month. Interestingly my "best of" averages out to about 1 five-star read per month. Noteworthy too is the fact that far fewer f/sf books achieve 5 star status. Many many do achieve four star status, which is mighty fine in itself. I've also made an effort to read some older classic f/sf which is often flawed in ways (sciency and social) and so can't get a higher rating even when they have some merit or interest. Lamentably I appear to be falling behind with the New Yorkers . . . can't seem to get any traction there no matter how hard I try!

Further thoughts
I just totted up the geographic distribution of my reading and it is a bit shocking to me how little I read outside of the USA or Great Britain, only a handful of "other" countries, most of them English speaking. Perhaps there should be a goal of widening the focus a wee bit. Part of the reason for that is the intense focus on fantasy and sf--there is just more of it published in the US and GB than anywhere else. And since my interest in those genres seems to be holding steady, the skew bias is likely to continue, although I do have a few Russian sf books piled up.

Started in 2016
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh (4 of 18) NEXT UP: Destroyer #7
Cazelet Chronicles Elizabeth Jane Howard (3 of 5) READING: Casting Off

Continued in 2016
Matthew Shardlake C.J. Sansom (3 of 6) READING: Bk 5 Heartstone
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch (5 of 6) Next up: The Hanging Tree
The Culture Iain Banks (5 of 9) Next up: Look to Windward

Completed or caught up with in 2016
Doctor of Labyrinths series Sarah Monette (4 of 4)
Imperial Radch (3 of 3)

To be continued?
Blue Remembered Earth Alastair Reynolds (1 of 3) NEXT UP: On the Steel Breeze
Discworld (2 of 35) NEXT UP: Mort
Shetland Ann Cleeves (5 of 6): NEXT UP: (6) Thin Air
Lady Trent's Memoirs (1 of 3) NEXT UP : The Tropic of Serpents (2)
My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgaard (1 of 6) NEXT UP: (Book 2)
Chronicles of St. Mary's (2 of 5 ) NEXT UP: A Second Chance (3)
Walk to Constantinople Patrick Leigh Fermor (2 of 3) Next Up: The Broken Road
The Seven Kingdoms Kristin Cashore (2 of 3) Next up: Bitterblue
KingKiller Chronicles Patrick Rothfuss 2 of 3. Doors of Stone forthcoming (undeclared)

Rereading!
Liaden Universe Starting Over! 2 of 19. Not sure what's next! Maybe Theo

Completed or caught up with in 2015
Ki and Vandien Quartet (4 of 4)
Cormoran Strike (3 of 3)
Trade Pact Universe Julie E. Czerneda (3 of 3)*
Lens of the World (3 of 3)
The Entire and the Rose Kay Kenyon (4 of 4)
Flavia de Luce Alan Bradley (7 of 7)
Liaden Universe Sharon Lee Steve Miller
Medicus Ruth Downie mys (6 of 6)
The High Lord Trudi Canavan (3 of 3)
Pegasus 1 of 1 (more forthcoming.....)
Serrano Legacy Elizabeth Moon(3 of 3)
The Old Kingdom Garth Nix(4 of 4)
Chronicles of Josan (3 of 3)

*Series is continued in Reunification 1 This Gulf in Time and Stars

This space is saved for me to write about any New Yorkers I've managed to get through this month!

The New Yorker June 2015
Noteworthy articles: (this is extremely subjective!!!)

I've been lazy about doing this because I didn't remember to save some indexes which means looking them up on line, which means remembering my password and so on and so forth! So June 1 and June 29 are missing even though I did read them.

June 8-15 Fiction issue. Loved the Karen Russell story, "The Prospector's" Exceptional ghost story! Otherwise, not too impressed. Loathed the Levi story, just found it . . . off, mean, nasty in every possible way. Some of the little vignettes were OK. McGuane on Fall River, for ex.

June 22 - most drawn to the piece on euthanasia issues in Belgium. Such a complex issue! I know my mother would have chosen it at a certain if it had been an option. (Terrible rheumatoid arthritis, CHF and mini-strokes . . . ). Her last three years were not proper living at all and yet . . . I loved my mother dearly and had a very hard time letting her go. Very hard to think about. Many other worthy articles, Feinstein's fight against torture, a piece on the young Muslim students who were murdered in Chapel Hill. The story by Ben Marcus was ok, in the shoes of DFW . . .

The New Yorker July 2015

July 6 & 13
Took me forever to get through this issue because it had two long and incredibly depressing pieces.
- on the death penalty and race, very hard to read. Louisiana seems . . . to me, in Vermont, like a completely foreign country sometimes. Running by rules I can barely fathom.
-on a Mindfulness guru. Well. The creepy part is businesses trying to get you to use mindfulness to make them more money and keep you calm while doing it.
-Five hostages. Oh, this was hard to read. Only one of these five came home. Efforts failed, but one does feel, they were doomed from the start.
-short story "Reading Comprehension etc" Well this was ok but a mix of clever-obvious.
-Nice piece on Shakespeare's sonnets, though lite.

July 20
-On Cuba, ok I skimmed it.
-Dave Eggers on family history and connection with Hollister Ca. I always like this sort of piece that wanders about, but has little fragments of different things in it.
-Death of an Argentinian prosecutor. Yeh, didn't read very attentively. Out of my depth. Can't quite get why the fellow didn't expect to be killed, though.
-Big earthquake due in the pacific northwest. Of course I read it. No graduate school out there for my daughter, that's for sure!
-Lovely piece on The Tale of Genji a book I read and studied and loved in college, the Arthur Waley translation.

July 27
-Portrait of present-day Tehran. Widening gap between next generation and ebbing tide of elderly leaders.
-immigration woes in the US. Hard to read as always.
-Failures of Russian anti-corruption attempts. Why am I not surprised. Found this turgid and hard to read. I couldn't think why I should care as I read it - a journalist has to make you feel . . . involved. It all seems too remote.
-Joe Gould - well this was a great piece and yet, this interest in Gould has always puzzled me. Perhaps knowing him made a difference - although Lepore seems to have caught the bug willy-nilly. I'm sure he did write a lot of his "history" - but as he did not take care of his notebooks most of it is lost. It is odd too, how researching writers never seem to follow up when someone actually offers them the notebooks!
-Tessa Hadley - Silk Brocade. Not too bad, not here or there for me. Hadley writes well, so it is a pleasure to read.
-Gopnik on the "new" Harper Lee. Well, I don't plan to read it anyway.

The New Yorker August 2015

August 3
-Supertunnels the cartels dig under the US-Mex border. Wow factor and seriously creepy -- kidnapping/ killing the men who dig them after, among other things. There is such a 'fuck-you' attitude here -- to expend so much energy on making a living (so to speak) this way.
-A couple, Hector and Sue (from Barre VT) who have adopted more than twenty children, ran an adoption agency. It's hard to capture that experience, MacFarquhar does it pretty well alternating pieces of interviews and narrative. Once started, they couldn't stop themselves and you can't really judge - they wanted to take kids no one else would take, keep sibling groups intact . . . it is amazing, really, to me that they could even contemplate devoting their lives to this work and MacF does address that a little -- to me that is almost the most interesting piece of it. I am far too timid and not that generous of soul.
- Honestly? I couldn't read the piece on the Greek financial collapse. I didn't even skim it.
-Five Arrows, story. A good one!! Although I thought the last sentence failed - mistake to have a word like "periphery" at the end.
-Someone has written a book on stagefright and as someone who plays music on stage now and then, I read the review with interest. Not likely to read the book (it would likely increase my own problem) I did read the article with great interest. I didn't know that the main plot idea of the Canadian "Slings and Arrows" show was inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis leaving the stage during a performance of Hamlet, never to return to live acting again.
-Gopnik on Beerbohm. I adored Zuleika Dobson, and so I will seek out the short stories Seven Men.Can I otherwise say that I think Gopnik has gotten a bit mean and full of himself and his own brilliance? A really tasteless jab at another writer in the beginning of this piece. Just because, I'm pretty sure. Shawn would have edited it right out.

There you are!! Being the New Year's "first footer"!!

Happy New Year, Lucy (and warm hugs to Miss Po and Ernie and Tenzing!)

Found - and starred - you!

Happy New Year, Lucy and Happy Reding in 2016!

Happy Reading 2016, Lucy.

Happy New Year Lucy! I'm looking forward to more of your reading adventures and of course the photos of your adorable animals.

>1 sibylline: Picture page
Awaiting the Posey / Tenzing topper (and Ernie too?)...

Happy 2016!

Happy New Year - looking forward to following along in 2016.

Happy New Year, Lucy! Dropping off my star. I have Lovers at the Chameleon Club in the stacks, so I'll be watching to see what you think of it.

Welcome back!

Happy to see your thread here in the 2016 group! Happy New Year and best wishes for 2016, Lucy!

Lovely photos of Herself, Lucy. She is so beautiful! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Found and starred. As I am saying to all I visit, I was abysmal at visiting throughout November & December but hope to amend that for 2016. Happy New Year, Lucy!

I'm so glad Po got to welcome in the new year in snowy style! She looks good on that background.

Kitten pictures??

But Miss Posey looks wonderful! As poised and elegant as ever...

Aww, the one and only Miss Po. She's beautiful.

Happy New Year!

A quick visit, and a wish for a happy 2016 to all of you in the snow!

Have a wonderful bookfilled 2016, Lucy.

Happy New Year Lucy!



"I wish you never-ending dreams
and the furious desire to realise some of them."
— Jacques Brel

Love the pics of Her Highness. Stands to reason, since she's so photogenic and obviously loves the camera, unlike my Coco who inevitably wants to look away or squint when I point anything at him so that it's almost a miracle I get any decent shots at all. But then, I'm rather perseverant when I want something badly enough.

You have a good point about four-star reads. I included all my 4.5 and up books in my "best of" this year, but then all the 4-star books I read are ones I strongly suggest and enjoyed a lot, and thinking on it now, it seems unfair that I didn't include those too. I'll have a bit of a think on that...

I've got Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose on audio and will look forward to your comments on that. As I recall, it's got a good cast of narrators and the premise certainly is intriguing.

I gobbled up all the Shardlake novels and now eagerly awaiting Sansom's next publication. Are you hesitating? Gosh, so many series out there. I struggle to keep going, but even the ones I love are hard to make time for somehow, which I think must be a problem for us all.

Wishing you loads of great reads in the year ahead!

Happy New Year wishes to everyone! I've had a houseful of family but things are beginning to quiet down now.

>26 Smiler69: --I've slowed down on Shardlake only because, for some insane reason, I started listening to Gravity's Rainbow which is a forty hour plus listen . . . when I finish that it's back to Shardlake for sure! This is also the time of year when I don't drive around that much although I am contemplating driving to Florida in late February to stay for the month of March and that would be over twenty hours of listening time each way! I need to start collecting good books for that if I really do go through with it.

I can very highly recommend the audiobook edition of Shantaram for a long drive, Lucy. Finished it last month, a 5* read!

I would simply like to say that my copy of Lamentation arrived in the mail today. I may have to make some adjustments to my January reading.
Shantaram ---- must read, must read, must read; must wait, must wait, must wait = story of my life.

Have any of you heard anything about the continuation of the Shantaram saga? I saw it in a bookstore. Can't think of the title. I'll go look and come back! I loved Shantaram when I read it!

Have any of you heard anything yet about Mountain Shadow - Roberts has written another novel featuring Lin from Shantaram that came out recently. I saw it in a bookshop but resisted. No reviews here. Someone gave it 1 1/2 stars which doesn't bode well.

I loved Shantaram, an irresistible read.

Morning, Lucy! I had never even heard of Shantaram, but now I looked it up, and I have to add it to my WL. First thread I checked today, and you hit me with a book bullet even without a review.

Starred you for 2016 Lucy. Happy New Year!

Star dropped. Look forward to reading about your reading, your year, LD and the fur children in 2016.

Hi Lucy! I'm looking forward to seeing what you read this year. It looks like we have some overlapping interests.

Mountain Shadow, that's it! I will wait until I can get the audiobook. The reader of Shantaram was magnificent!

Oooh more dog pictures please! Oh, and I'm also here for the books. Ahem. *grins*

You had me with the corgi. In real life, when I see one, anyone I'm with knows to expect me to yell "CORGI CORGI CORGI!" and then go harass the dog and its owner with my incoherent babblings about how much I love those dogs.

Happy New Year, Lucy! One of my resolutions is to keep up better with some of the threads that slipped away from me last year. As I won't be working, I may have a shot at it. We'll see, shall we?

Wow! Gone for the day and come here to find so many visitors! Regulars and new and old. And I do understand the lapses >39 laytonwoman3rd: and don't mind them as I lapse a bit myself. >38 ursula: and >37 dk_phoenix: You should enjoy my home page pictures then -- way at the bottom are Posey as a puppy and her predecessor, my darling Evan. My brother took a pic of Posey that is truly incredible and I will post it soon, have to do the transfer which is time-consuming. >36 lit_chick: I'm going to hunt around for some other reviews before leaping. >35 Kassilem: Greetings, and now I have to go and look and see where we overlap!

I am equally curious about what I will get into this year. My expectation is that it will be a lot like last year. Certainly the goal will be 150 again--it keeps me working at it but is not impossible and this year really helped. I only let about 65 books into the house and I read 151--67 of which were off the tbr shelves so I am making some headway. I have to admit to some puzzlement however in that the shelves don't actually seem all that less full. Although . . . they aren't utterly crammed, that is true, there is a little breathing space so I might even be able to put a book or two into a shelf here and there. Progress of a kind!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who keeps an eye out for animal pictures as a bonus to wonderful book conversation.

Happy New Year Lucy! Hope this year brings many wonderful new books to your life.

1. fantasy ****
Corambis Sarah Monette

It's always a bit hard to finish a series that you've fallen in love with--and I do assume that this one is done, although it does feel that the door might have been left just slightly open, things are very satisfactorily concluded. The unwinding of the master plot in this last volume is masterful and interesting, and the parallel development of the two brothers--both their relationship and their inner selves--balances and complements. It's just great. I can accept the violence of the first book and a half because of where Monette goes with it. Highly recommended unless you really really loathe violence. **** 1/2 for the series as a whole.

My New Year's guests have all gone home, but left me with a cold, the dears. Of course, that gives me the perfect excuse to curl up with Tenzing and read -- it's down around 0 F too, pretty much zero incentive to go outside. No way I'll make my 10,000 steps today.

We have snow today! Brr ! That's it for me staying in for the day. I hope it will melt , but then we get temps hovering around 0 C/ 32 F and we get a lot of ice on the roads. Sorry to hear that you have a cold.

>31 sibylline: Lucy, Mountain Shadows was one of a few new hardcover purchases I made last year. I am looking forward to a slow month - maybe in March - so I can enter into Lin's world again. I too loved Shantaram.

Wishing you a fabulous new year of reading, traveling, and enjoying life.

>46 Donna828: I will eagerly await your response to Mountain Shadows.

Tomorrow is my Thingaversary and I am going to follow Rebecca's lead and foment a list of books from my TBR shelves that I WILL read as part of my Thinga celebration. I am only going to choose books I have been HOARDING. No "oughts."

I had a piece of paper with me on which I'd written down the books I've decided on for my Thinga (tomorrow) but now I've misplaced it; however, I think I can remember them:

1. H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald natural history
2. The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic
3. Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch Urban fantasy
4. Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf
5. Foreigner C.J. Cherryh sf
6. Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch

I'm excited to read all of these and to have a reason to overcome my tendency to hoard certain books!

If I decide on a book "to grow on" it would be the next Iain Banks in my Banksian line up - Inversions I think. Or . . . something from my contemp/classic fiction shelves.

And I've come down with a cold, mostly I am deeply fatigued but with scratchy throat and some sniffles.

Back also to add that I have finished 3 of 4 installments of Gravity's Rainbow and really need to write something up, but feel utterly unable to. I will give it a whirl when I can. I have 8 or so hours to go. It's been a decent experience but not a fully absorbing one, timing I think. Which is too bad. I am unlikely to listen to it again, I think.

Sorry to hear you've succumbed to a cold, Lucy. Hope it is of short duration and you bounce back quickly.

The 5th has started here - Happy TA, Lucy!

Yay, you're ahead of me again in GR, but I must be close. Will try and read some today.
Get better soon!

Hope you have fended off the cold! I thoroughly approve of the first three books on that list; can't comment on the others I'm afraid, as I know nothing, rien, nada, niente about sci fi and am not familiar with that mystery author.

Trying to prevent Cassie from murdering Molly-cat. Or trying to convince Molly-cat that Cassie doesn't harbor murderous intent. Sigh. Cats do have very small brains sometimes.

Happy Thingaversary, Lucy! Love the idea of using books from your own shelves - I'm trying to be better about that this year, too. And that's a great list! I loved both Broken Homes and Cold Dish.

I love your newest edition - what a beauty Tenzing is, I had to go back to your old thread to read about him. I kind of fell off the threads last year, so I missed a lot. But now I am caught up with you and the bonus is that I read about your book. Congrats on that, Lucy! So great!!

Sorry to hear about your cold - hoping that it is short-lived.

Excited that you will buy The Light Years and H is for Hawk for your Happy TA, Lucy! Hope you will enjoy the Cazalets as much as I did! I've got the latter book in my computer waiting to be heard.

Not buying Nancy -- but pulling of the TBR shelves and NOT HOARDING, which is one of my worst book sins. I get terribly fearful that if I read all the books I really really want to read I will RUN OUT and only have books I don't care about as much. These are pretty much all books I've been eyeing longingly . . . That's what I'm trying to do with this list, pick books I really have wanted to read for ages, but somehow pass over in favor of something I "ought" to read for all sorts of goofy reasons.

I posted this elsewhere, but I got a tidbit out of the Everest book - Into the Silence last night. George Mallory is the model for George Emerson in Forster's A Room With a View. Wow. Had no idea he was tangentially so connected with the Bloomsbury's either, which is odd considering what a fanatic I was about them in my twenties.

>55 sibylline: Off the shelf is all the better, Lucy, and good for you for choosing those you've wanted to read for ages!

HAPPY THINGAVERSARY, sister!
As you know, almost everything I read is off the shelf, but that's not a virtue in my case since I keep adding shelves to put more things on.
I had forgotten the Mallory = George Emerson connection - an odd thing for me to do given my history of Bloomsbury addiction.
Feel better!

>43 sibylline: Loved that series!

Happy new year and happy thingaversary Lucy! Also sorry to hear you've been 'gifted' a new year cold. My husband and I have also succumbed to one - I like to think that this is hopefully getting the sick part of 2016 out of the way nice and early....

>48 sibylline: So you're celebrating my reading books rather than buying them? That is very sensible. Which probably means I won't do the same thing. I've read numbers 2,3 and 4 on that list and enjoyed them all greatly so happy reading!

Happy Thingaversary!

(Time for a Tenzing photo!)

Happy Thingaversary!! Hope the cold has gone away.

Happy Thingaversary and get well soon.

Cold persists, not a very bad one, but am very fatigued. However, I obey the request to post new Tenzing photos and am working on it.

Aw! So sweet!

>65 sibylline: OMG, so incredibly adorable. Sorry to hear about your cold though!

A big dose of kitten medicine should have you back on your feet soon!!!

>65 sibylline: Oh that is just ridiculously adorable. Glad Miss Po had a chance to shine at the top.

Tending ls a sweetheart! He's made himself right at home, too, with Ernie and Po : ). I love Ernie always playing with his boxes, LOL!

Ahhh kitties!!!!!! Love, love, love. Don't love your cold, though, but kittens really are the perfect cure.

Happy Thingaversary, Lucy! I hope your are already recovering from your cold. The kitten/cat pics are wonderful!

Waaah - how long did I stare at that second pic before seeing him?!?! How cute is that??

Get better soon, Lucy!

GR 11
My listening this last few weeks has been very scattered and thus my memory and comprehension of what transpired during this section of my reading is going to be thin . . . but I think I might have a grasp of the big picture. Slothrop continues to wander around in the Zone. I am not sure how, but I am finally getting it that he is supposed to be "programmed" to find and "destroy" the leader of the Schwarzkommando, Enzian, but somehow or other, the programming has failed. Slothrop is, au fond, a decent guy and doesn't like to hurt anyone. Tchitcherine the Russian spy is trying to locate Slothrop but also worrying about this other russian spy he keeps hearing about who is . . . in fact . . . yep.... our very own Slothrop who was in a disguise for awhile. He was, in fact, instrumental in helping the Schwarzkommando to avoid being obliterated. Lots of things go on, but you can feel convergence and that in the end Enzien, Slothrop and Tchitcherine will somehow connect and something will happen. For awhile Slothrop ends up running around in a pig suit (don't ask!) but takes it off at a brothel. The brothel is raided by a special ops group looking for Slothrop while none other than the revolting Captain Marvy, one of Slothrop's nemesii is also cavorting in a pool and he, not wanting to be discovered by the MP's dons the pig suit which is a very very bad idea as the main thing this S.O.'s want to do is, (for some reason I don't quite get, except that sex and the rocket and Slothrop are entangled) is castrate Slothrop. Uh oh.

So Slothrop slopes onward to nowhere in particular, while everyone is looking for him. He is even beginning not to care about finding the 0000 rocket. He's feeling tired and homesick and wants to go home.

Several other characters are running about -- Pirate Prentice (who opens the novel), Roger Mexico (a sort of colleague of Slothrop who has figured out what is going on and is appalled)--there is one passage where he interrupts a meeting of business/military magnates and pees all over them, not kidding. Roger really wants to find and rescue Slothrop.

This does NOT do justice to the 100 or so pages it represents, but it is better than nothing.

Just finished part 3 and am wondering why it's always the brothel scenes I understand best and where the plot seems to be make a step forward. Pig suit and toad (or was it a trout?) toilet - that bit was quite hilarious! But as soon as we leave Slothrop I'm lost again. Tbh I'm kind of dreading the remaining 19%.
Edit: oh - of course my town Wiesbaden was mentioned for the first time in the brothel scene in connetion with the cocaine. Nice reputation, eh? :)

I'm right with you Nathalie, Slothrop is the only one I can really follow easily. Pynchon writes differently when it's Slothrop. Roger Mexico is also pretty easy to follow, but the German rocket guys? Tchitcherine? Forget it! I did love the name Bad Karma too!

I feel exactly as you do, this just wasn't quite the thing for this moment. One problem is that I just don't have the time to sit and look at the maps and read about places (like Wiesbaden) and disentangle some of what is Pynchon's imaginings and what is real--often they are so closely intertwined that figuring it out is not easy. It has always fascinated P. that all the math geniuses and scientists that pushed things along in the late 19th early 20th were centered in Germany, and drew others to them -- a big theme in Against the Day which I did read in a very detailed way, there he goes back to the origins of WW1. So I am figuring that a great deal of the plastic and rocket stuff is NOT made up, Schwarzkommando, sure, that's likely made up, but who the heck knows without looking it up. I was stunned while reading Against the Day by how much was completely fact. Or fact with just a little tweak in it, and you had to know where the tweak was to get the joke (or the tragedy). I am sure that after the war there were industrial spies EVERYWHERE, rounding up scientists and technical folks and offering them deals. Ditto amnesty for big companies that shared info. with companies just like GE. (General Electric).

Anyway 19%! We can do it! I am going to do a half hour a day. An hour is better because of continuity, so if I can I will, but I can fit a half hour in without too much trouble.

Bad Karma makes so much sense because that region has all those bath towns - Bad Schwalbach where I was born, Bad Ems, Bad Nauheim, Bad Vilbel, not to forget WiesBADen, SchlangenBAD, etc. :)

Now this might encourage you: on my way to 85% I just arrived at the story of Byron the immortal light bulb - that's so absurd, I'm loving it. B.B.H. - Baby Bulb Heaven - if it goes on like that the book gets 5 stars! :D

Rats! I just lost a nice long response to your post, Nathalie. Basically just to say that I commiserate, but I think we can manage the 19%. I'm going to try hard to listen to at least 1/2 hour per day, more if I can. It hasn't been the right book for this time period as usually, when I read Pynchon, I do a great deal of side research. Sure there was no Schwarzkommando, but yes, Hitler did have extensive plans for recolonizing South Africa--and embedded in all the documentation about that, who knows what else lurks?

Post-war too there is no doubt in my mind that industrial spies were running all over the country digging up rocket sites and research facilities, offering deals and amnesty to those deemed too economically useful to leave alone, no doubt that GE and IG Farben and all the big companies were up to all sorts of hanky panky with the Allies turning a blind eye -- and competition between Russia and the Allies started immediately, you can bet.

In Against the Day P. investigates the technological advances and political currents that led to WW1 - equally fascinating. Very clear too that Germany is the center of mathematical/technological advances -- no doubt in my mind there that the rockets and plastics really were technology that others were after. My take on P. is that he makes up less than you might think, it's more that he takes something real and runs it into absurdity.

I believe your original post is right there up in >76 sibylline:? I had issues on LT the last couple of days as well with posts I thought had disappeared and then were visible after a reload. Thought it was just my slow internet connection.

I should have added to >77 Deern: that of course I got the wordplay and the first time I read about Bad Karma I had to laugh so much! Never thought of that before. There's a Schwalbach near Frankfurt and then there's "my" Bad Schwalbach near Wiesbaden. An English speaker would probably wonder what's bad about the latter and why the first one isn't called Good or at least Decent Schwalbach. :)

Still (87%) quite enjoy part IV. And again - what gave Pynchon the idea to personalize a lightbulb and make it a wannabe agitator??

My take on P. is that he makes up less than you might think, it's more that he takes something real and runs it into absurdity.
And I fear nothing has changed for the better. :(

Enjoy!

>77 Deern: Bad Vilbel jumped out as Bad Vibe!

>79 Deern: Yes. And Pynchon is dismissed as being "out there" when he isn't really.

2. urban fantasy/mys ****
Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch

This series continues strongly and entertainingly with twists and turns. The magic is really the best thing, wonderfully humorous and well-thought out. No need to say more, is there? ****

I love that series, too, Lucy! Happy Friday to you!

>82 sibylline: Can't wait until June when the new one comes out!

Wishing you a most lovely weekend, Lucy.

Tenzing is ridiculously cute, that's for sure. And a cold, it seems to me, is just a darned good excuse to stay in bed with a cat or two and a book or two, and a steaming cup of something. Not that I'm wishing for a cold, you understand. You HEAR me, Universe???

>65 sibylline: They look like they are enjoying themselves!

3. fic ***1/2
Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose

When someone describes what I'm doing as "ambitious" I groan inwardly. I've fallen short of my goal. But I've also learned it's rarely meant cruelly and is often, in its own way, a compliment. Lovers at the Chameleon Club is ambitious and comes close. Although imperfect, it is very much worth reading, both for the story and for the way Prose puts the story together. I can see exactly what drew Prose to write about Lou, the ultimate anti-heroine, a cross-dressing Nazi collaborator (based on a real person); it's the question of what it is that draws a non-sociopathic person into committing acts of evil. That is the great mystery that historians especially struggle with. Prose is imagining a person who, by the accident of family, of difference, of unusual gifts, alienated and rejected and unloved being vulnerable to the allure of fascism. Lou is a person of somewhat average (or less?) intelligence and curiosity and is unable to distinguish the difference between real love and being used as a means to an end, vulnerable to flattery and unable to look deeper into herself to question her own motives or think about larger consequences. It crossed my mind at some point, that it could be, in some ways, a portrait of Hitler himself, just reduced to a bit part. So why doesn't it work? Well, parts of it do. Prose chooses to tell the story from a number of different viewpoints, mostly the memoirs of people who knew Lou and a biographer. Some of those voices work and feel reasonably authentic, some of them waver a bit, and some of them don't really work at all. The other piece, for me, is that ultimately I don't feel Prose herself quite believes her story of Lou. I use the word "feel" carefully because it's just that, a feeling. What works is the setting and atmosphere, the photographer, Tsenyi and his friend Lionel. Prose shows how desperately everyone clung to the idea that the war wasn't going to happen, especially in Paris, even when they knew it was inevitable and thus the car racing and partying and life going on as usual. Because Prose writes so well, too, it isn't difficult to read. I did miss her customary humor, though, so much a part of her other novels. There is one dinner, in Berlin, just before the Olympic games open, which really was in its ghastly way, surreal and almost comical, almost what I would have to say is Pynchon-y when Lou finds herself sitting beside Hitler at dinner. Anyhow, the Mitford sisters are in attendance, a great touch. Worth reading? Yes. And I do think it is a book different kinds of readers might absorb differently. ***1/2

I think Prose's last novel was about a skinhead who actually does think his way out of it A Changed Man so she is circling around subject matter that really matters to her. This is a gloomier take on the subject of evil.

Glad you're enjoying the Ben Aaronovich books Lucy. I read the first of that series, and hope to read the rest of them. Hope you had a happy TA.

>43 sibylline: So glad you enjoyed these! And this reminds me that I have yet to read the last two in the series.

5. urban fantasy/mystery ****

Oh I just love this series. This one was set out in the country and had mean unicorns and all sorts of fun stuff. Hurrah for Peter Grant! ****

I loved this one too.

Ooh, you have a new kitty! I missed that in my malaise at the end of last year. How absolutely delightful!! Awesome news you left at the end of my 2015 thread as well. Very excited to hear more updates as and when they come in!

I can't resist posting this photograph:



We've been calling Ernie, St. Ernest. He even licks the kitten clean. It's pretty bad. Posey lets Tenzing eat of her bowl with her. I'm very proud of them for being generous.

This ottoman, btw, sits right in front of the woodstove. Cats know where the best spots are!

So nice to hear from you Hannah!

>43 sibylline: I think there is one more out? I hope so!

>94 sibylline: Do NOT resist posting any such adorable photos!!!

That is a terrific photo. I'm proud of Ernie!

Aw, love the photo of Ernie and Tenzing in front of the wood stove. I'm moved at Po and St. Ernie's care and generosity -- as though they were affirming that they know how much they have and want to share and help.

Oh, I so love it when animals get along. I wish I could get another kitty, but supposedly - according to the sign on her cage when we met at the shelter - Jane will not tolerate any other cats. I wonder how true that really is. Someday, perhaps.

OK so I admit freely, my heart is broken, learning that Alan Rickman has died. I may have to listen to The Return of the Native once more.

>100 sibylline: Mine, too, Lucy. SO lovely of you to have posted that photo of Tenzing and Ernie - just what I needed right now.

>94 sibylline: Ahhhhhhhh

>91 sibylline: I loved that one too but now we have to wait for the next book....

>94 sibylline: Cute!

>100 sibylline: I was really sad to hear that news too. I was thinking of rewatching him as Mr Slope in the Barsetshire Chronicles.

>I might have to do that too. But not quite yet, I am too sad.

I'm awfully excited! I'm starting the first Foreigner today!!!!!! Hooray for Thingaversaries!

>100 sibylline: Such a shock... I'll also listen to TRotN over the weekend. No matter if I get the plot this time or not.

Thank you for the super-cute Ernie and Tenzing pic! And Posey letting him eat from her bowl, that's amazing! (our cocker spaniel would have eaten anyone and anything coming near her bowl)

Have a lovely weekend!

>94 sibylline: Love!
I'm super thrilled that you're reading Foreigner. IMHO it's the worst of the series, so if you're liking it, you're really going to be in love.

Lucy, I wish you a relaxed weekend.

>94 sibylline: Have I not added my awwwwwws yet? Consider it done.

Great comments about Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Lucy. I read it a few months ago and this reminded me of a couple of particularly wonderful scenes, like the dinner at which Hitler was present. I agree that it portrayed the pre-war denial quite well. I haven't read any other works by Prose and your comments make me want to do so.

Thanks for posting kitten photos. Tenzing and Ernie are so cute together on that ottoman (and I love knowing that the woodstove is nearby). Abby loves it when we turn on our gas fire; she sits right in front of it, closes her eyes, and just lets the warmth flow over her.

>100 sibylline: I've never listened to it, but I just told Paul I was going to listen to it, then sit down and watch a few Harry Potter movies.

Writing to you all from historic Tarrytown NY today, where I am holed up in an Inn with laryngitis and general tiredness from taking the LD back to school and helping her move into a different room (yay! a single!) for the semester. We arrived later than we'd hoped and it took longer than we'd planned - I lost my voice totally and thought, for about twenty min., that I'd lost my phone (which is kind of a small wallet, which contains not only the phone but credit cards, license and etc.) so I was in a panic AND exhausted and hoarse. I was always going to spend one night but now it's definitely two. Freezing cold out and windy, so no walk outside, I guess I'll wander around the halls for my 10,000 or try to find the fitness center--this is one of those huge bewildering places built around a couple of old estates so it is truly Byzantine!

I think my cold came back -- maybe because at my physical last week I had my flu/shingles shot? I thought I was recovered, but yoicks!

Usually I stay at a sweet B&B in Croton when I am ferrying the LD back and forth, but not this time as they were CLOSED!

I have huge plans to finish GR today and make huge inroads on the last chapters of Into the Silence.

And oh boy do I miss the furry ones, all three of them!

Lucy, sorry to hear that you are under the weather and that your usual B&B is closed. Good idea to hunker down for an extra day. Hoping you feel better very soon and that your stay is a peaceful one.

Oh, Lucy, so sorry to hear you are feeling miserable and without any of your support creatures to boot!

Hi Lucy, sorry to hear you're under the weather, but glad you're holed up somewhere warm. Feel better!

Sorry you aren't feeling well and hope you have a wonderful, restorative time in Tarrytown...and boy does that bring back memories for me. (warning here comes a long story, lol) When I was in college I worked part time for a pension and profit sharing consulting company in L.A. that was owned by Mrs. Axe of Axe-Houghton funds (don't think the fund is still around but she and her husband were credited with "inventing" the idea of mutual funds). My desk was in a corner of the office Mrs. Axe used when she was in L. A. so I got to know her a little bit (and a wonderful lady she was!!). When I announced I was quitting because I was going to spend a semester on the "semester at sea" and that the ship left from New York she insisted that I should visit her at her home/office in Tarrytown. I took the train up to Tarrytown where I was greeted by her chauffeur and taken to "the castle" (really!! I was told they had purchased it in the U. K. and had it moved, and reconstructed, in Tarrytown) for a tour. At the end I went into her office and she invited me to join her at the Met that evening. It was the last season at the old Met. She and her chauffeur picked me up at the hotel where orientation for the semester at sea was being held. At the met we were led to her box...one off center...where we saw Don Carlo. Oh my, what a magical day and evening.

Well I am sad you are unwell but the idea of holing up in a hotel on a very cold day sounds rather appealing. If only the furry ones were curled up with you. Take care, Lucy!

>116 RebaRelishesReading: That is such a lovely story, Reba!

>116 RebaRelishesReading: That is indeed a wonderful story! I think the Castle exists now as a very very posh hotel/spa. I looked at it, but choked at the price! the castle

To everyone else above, thanks so much for your commiseration! It does help! I wish I was driving home today because the weather will be worse tomorrow. . . but I really can't. I'll make sure to time the entire drive in daylight, that's the best I can do. About five hours worth, not too bad.

And I "walked" moderately on the treadmill in the fitness center and then some knitting sitting in a chair by the window in my room, finishing up Gravity's Rainbow at long long last.

Review forthcoming if I can get the cobwebs out of my brain.

6. ♬contemp fic *****
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon

It's tempting not to write a review at all for two reasons, one that the scope of the novel really is beyond my ability to summarize or otherwise comment about. The other being that although I fully recognize the extraordinary range of the novel, it wasn't really the right thing to listen to. The plot such as it is would appear to be about an American soldier, Tyrone Slothrop of western Massachusetts, a swamp yankee sprig, stationed in Special Ops in London who slowly realizes he is somehow connected with the V-2 rocket. By the end of the novel he is wandering around in "the Zone"--post-war Germany looking for a rumoured final type of V-2--the 00000. Adolescent (and earlier) exuberance (yeah the porn, the scatological, the silly puns and songs and so on) alternates with "moments" of blindingly empathic writing and extraordinary description (the latter often just tossed so casually into the mix its easy to overlook). By the end though, everything is fragmenting and even time is not anchored firmly. As always with Pynchon, events and ideas are either 100% accurate and factual or quite firmly based on things people were thinking and things that happened. He doesn't "make up" all that much stuff, if you allow for the fantastical flights of fancy. (There was a plot between GE and several other big manufacturers, for example, to make lightbulbs burn out - the first instance of "planned obsolescence".) My grandparents had an ancient lightbulb in a bathroom in their house from when electricity was installed that is now well over a hundred years old--one of my brothers has the house now and the bulb is still going strong. Maybe it is Byron himself!) Pynchon's deft handling of such facts, twisting into more monstrous--and unavoidable--shapes is what has given him the reputation of being paranoid. Is he? I think he is a realist and uses his sense of humor to keep from falling into utter despair. The idea is that the technological advances that arise during the pressures of warfare have made death just another regrettable side effect of progress and moneymaking. If you're looking for a straightforward story this is so not for you, but if you are willing to look things up as you read, take it slow, savor the richness, then you should read it. *****

I was listening to this for about 2 1/2 months!

>120 sibylline: You had me scratching my head there for a minute because I've read Revelation, and it's definition not about an American soldier stationed in Special Ops in London. I'm thinking mebbe you grabbed the wrong photo?

>116 RebaRelishesReading: Cool story!
>121 lauralkeet: Ah. It appears to be Gravity's Rainbow.

Lucy, that stinks that you have laryngitis. I know you had lots of advice to give LD to keep her on track. Studying should be easier without a roommate. Congratulations on completing Gravity's Rainbow. You do like those long, difficult novels, don't you? I'm thinking of our adventure with Infinite Jest. I think I'm still in recovery. Ha!

So...I figured your thread was an appropriate place to talk about a new Iris Murdoch reviewed in Sunday's paper. Living on Paper is a collection of Murdoch's correspondence, and she evidently was a prolific letter writer. This book reprints more than 760 letters, fewer than 40 of which have been published before.

Hmmm. Glad you're giving yourself an extra day in T'town.
And yes, I also congratulate you on finishing *G's R* again. Are you planning to finish Revelation while you're on "vacation"?
Thanks for the link to the castle. That's really something! I was delighted to read Reba's experiences with the chatelaine.
Feel better tomorrow!

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. There's nothing worse than feeling ill away from home.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well - take care getting home!

>120 sibylline: & >121 lauralkeet: I was also a bit confused by the cover image/review mismatch :-)

>120 sibylline: FIXED NOW!!!! Plus I also rewrote it some and added stuff. It's a very hard book to write about!

Revelation is what I get to listen to now on my way home! I am MUCH better, coughing up terrible stuff but no complaints! Snow in the forecast so trying to push off early.

Catching up... so glad you're better and can return home. Have a safe trip!
And yay for finishing and reviewing GR! I wasn't able to, but I really (most of the time) enjoyed the read. Say "Hi" to Byron from me when you visit your brother. :)

Wishing you safe travels today, Lucy - keeping you in my thoughts. Hoping you beat the weather home.

Sorry to hear about the laryngitis and cough, Lucy. I'm hoping you might be safely home by this time, curled up with furry blessings and a hot drink.

7. sf ****1/2
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh

Classic Cherryh set-up! Some poor schmuck ends up alone among an alien group (sometimes human) trying to figure out what he/she has to do to survive. In this case a spaceship en route to set up a new space station along a trade corridor is thrown of course, like, wayyyyy of course, into an utterly unrecognizable galaxy. The culture on the ship is divided in two--the Guild of pilots and the civilians who will build the station. After a long search they find a habitable planet and build a station around it. They know there is an advancing culture down there (they have steam, for ex). The pilots want to keep exploring, the civs want to go live on the planet. A deal is struck. Down they go. The real story begins 200 years after, with Bren Cameron, the designated Paidhi, whose job is to act as the speaker of humans to atevi. Humans are, bit by bit, doling out the technology they think the atevi can "handle" ecologically and culturally (e.g. peacefully), but things are coming to a crisis and Bren is caught in the vortex of change. The atevi are marvelous. You can say "humanoid"-- their basic structure is similar to ours, but the point is that they have evolved differently and do not have the same emotions or social structures as humans. No words for "trust" or "friend", no tears, adult are not so much organized by family groups as a web of alliances and allegiances. They are brilliant with number, the atevi, so humans are nervously aware that likely they are progressing secretly, in ways they can't control, less and less, as they approach a tipping-point of knowledge of physics. There are atevi factions that fear and loathe humans, are convinced that they plan to take over the entire planet, etc. that have kept them banished on a large island, isolated and apart, and the paidhi is the only human who interacts with them (and only at the highest level) and then something unexpected happens which triggers . . . major upheaval. And a lot of pain and suffering for poor old Bren. The atevi around him, mainly the guard, Banichi and Jago, come through as individuals, and as truly different, fearfully unknowable. There is a feisty grandma who rides their version of a horse like a whirlwind. . . and the atevi, Tabini, who runs the Western Association, Bren's lifeline. I love it, I'll be reading this like a mad thing all winter, I expect. ****1/2

8. bio *****
Into the Silence Wade Davis

From beginning to end, Wade Davis unfolds a staggering tale with superb skill and sensitivity. To show us who these first men attempting to climb Everest were, he begins by describing the shared experience of the majority: trench warfare in France in WW1. By giving us a pocket biography of each expedition member, we come to understand that these were all men of exceptional toughness, intelligence, and courage. The majority had seen, not scores, but thousands of men dying or dead, had done extraordinary things, hardly believable in a "normal life" context, making them, in the way of those things, not perhaps very suited to living ordinary everyday lives. (Because really, the "why do this at all?" question looms as hugely as Everest herself.) Davis's descriptions of combat are the most literal and gruesome of any I have encountered. Davis also makes the point that most of the expedition members were members of a pivotal generation, not the commanding officers, but lesser officers and medical men, younger men who had, miraculously, survived. The generals who had commanded them, for the most part, were men of the 19th century, gentlemen one and all, Victorians, with no concept of how modern warfare was being transformed by technology. These younger men while having been born into that llife, (most, though not all, were "gentlemen") had suffered the consequences of the abysmally out of touch leadership that sent thousands upon thousands of their own generation to pointless and painful deaths. As a result, these men, this generation, had feet in both worlds, the past and the future. They were at once fearless and tougher than we can fathom, but also deeply ambivalent, giving rise to an inconsistency, both in their emotional and practical approaches to technology and to men of other classes and cultures. Truly you can hardly believe what these men considered adequate clothing and equipment: the frail tents, the cotton rope, the rudimentary gear, not to mention the often ridiculous food, and worst of all their scorn, at least initially, of using oxygen or adopting the down coat invented by the non-gentleman of the second climb. Davis carefully sets this background in relief to make the context clear for the kinds of errors in judgement that were made comprehensible as he describes the three attempts made on Everest in 1921, 1922 which culminate in the last disastrous attempt of 1924 when George Mallory, the rock star of the group, and the youngest member of that expedition, Andrew Irvine (the first climber too young to have participated in the war) disappeared on the mountain and brought an era to a close. It's a tremendously gripping and moving read. *****

Ah, Friend. Fabulous reviews of two fabulous books! Thumb (because you didn't post the Foreigner one) and Thanks!

>133 sibylline: Oh no, another Everest book! But this one sounds amazing. (And I will read them all eventually, anyway.) The library doesn't have it, though, so it'll have to wait.

>134 LizzieD: Can't resist a thumb - posted the missing review!

"???? (that was written by Tenzing Norcat!)

>135 ursula: I haven't read too much Everest stuff, last thing was Hillary and Tenzing in the seventies! But this story is so much bigger than just getting to the top of Everest - since no one, in fact, does make it. (Not a spoiler!)

Lucy, so happy that you made it home safe and sound. I have also applied my thumb to both of your reviews - nicely done!

And I am most impressed with Tenzing's typing skills!

Great comments on Gravity's Rainbow, Lucy, and I can well imagine how hard it was to write anything at all. I probably won't tackle it (at least not anytime soon) but I have more of a feel for it now.

I'm glad you're home and hope you're able to rest up and start feeling better and better.

That's odd. I'm still not seeing your review on the book page. The TS takes me to my copy....wonder if that's the reason?
Never mind. My sorting had gotten bumped to show the earliest review first.
Thumb duly recorded.

Great review of Into the Silence, Lucy. Thumb duly recorded here, too!

What fun! I haven't had any "hot" reviews at all in ages and ages and today I have two!!! Thank you!

Happy weekend, Lucy. Stay safe and warm.

9. sf ****1/2
Invader C.J. Cherryh

Book 2. Loved it. Picks up a couple of days after the end of Book 1. Makes it hard to say anything without spoiling! While Bren was away and not communicating with his superiors on the island of Mospheira (where the human population lives sequestered from the atevi) they sent his alternate. And she drops a bomb, in this case, the FTL bomb. Mathematical principles are integrated into every aspect of atevi life. In Book One we learn they do not have the same emotional make-up as we do, so concepts like "love" and "friendship" are meaningless, in Book Two we learn more about the underpinnings of the culture, what drives them. They do nothing without being sure it fits harmoniously into the pre-existing philosophical framework of the culture. Just the idea of faster-than-light, even if it is really about moving through folded space, not actually directly exceeding the speed of light, is enough to put the atevi around the bend. The problem is to get the atevi to work on the concept of folded space for themselves, in their own mathematical language before the conservative forces can move to shut the aiji Tabini down. The crisis, precipitated in Book 1, is also developing as different interest groups try to gain the upper hand. The question is how soon and in what form, as partners or subordinates, humans and atevi will get into space. Cherryh never hurries. One has to learn to have faith and read at the pace she wants you to, so you can follow, step-by-step how the characters solve whatever problem they face. ****1/2

>112 sibylline: Ugh! Glad you liked Gravity's Rainbow. Did you like the narrator for it?

Hope you have a great new week, Lucy.

>145 The_Hibernator: I would say he was adequate. It's someone who narrates a lot of books and he worked hard at it, and occasionally was really right on target, but I have never loved that particular voice. Can't think of his name. I'll come back with it in a bit.

Stopping by to get caught up. Wonderful reviews!. Very sorry to see that you have been under the weather. Here is hoping you are feeling better!

Checking back for Tenzing pics...

but glad to see his typing is proficient, if not comprehensible, and that you made it home safely...

10. sf ****1/2
Inheritor C.J. Cherryh

Couldn't put it down! Best one yet! I can't say much of anything without spoiling, but Bren has to weave his way through a diplomatic minefield and the plot of this one is truly a thing of beauty, hingeing around atevi loyalities and human conniving. My only complaint is that Cherryh does sometimes create some situations that feel a bit contrived (I'm thinking of Bren's sort of girlfriend, Barb) or the problems Bren has with his mother. Mospherians really are just too complacent, to be believed sometimes. It also seems to me strange that the Atevi haven't worked harder to figure humans out--unless not feeling any 'man-chi' about or for them prevents interest or effort. ****1/2

Well, I picked up the next Cherryh and thought, slow down, Lucy! So I'm taking a small breather, picking up the last of my thingaversary books, the Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy, conclusion of that brilliant series. I'll probably read it as obsessively as I have been reading the Cherryh's. I won't pick up another Cherryh until I've read the books I'm currently engaged in--all of them Thingaversary choices.

No new pix of Tenzing at the mo' although I'll get to work on it, in the meantime:

corgi train

Okay. The Corgi train was too cute!! Made me laugh and Mercy came to see what all the fuss was about. Thanks for that, Lucy. Happy Thursday to you!

Awww, I want a corgi train!

>144 sibylline: >149 sibylline: I've really enjoyed these too!

>151 Crazymamie: Did Mercy see the corgis??

>152 lauralkeet: Yeh, me too!

>153 SandDune: How far have you read into the series??? I have the first nine collected, but I gather there are NINE MORE!!! Wow.

>154 sibylline: Yes, right now there are 18 books (16 published, 1 due out in April, 1 still being written) plus 2 short stories. And, actually, I don't think she's ever said, definitively, that she's ending it there. I'm impatiently awaiting that #17. Even though I love Cherryh, I was impressed that she's held my interest this long. Conan Doyle, John D. MacDonald, maybe a couple more were the only ones where I wasn't getting bored after 5 or 6 in a series.

>150 sibylline: I just read a blog that said Leckie is going to add at least one more book to the Radch universe, but it might not be with the same characters. That's a good thing, imo.

>154 sibylline: Yes, she did, Lucy! And she sat and watched them - jumped right up on the desk with me to see it better. So cute!

>154 sibylline: Only the first three - I had the next three on my Christmas list but nobody took the hint!

>155 TadAD: That's really helpful, Tad.

Nothing wrong, I say, in staying in a particular 'verse when it's an especially good one!

>156 Crazymamie: Cute!

>157 SandDune: It took me quite awhile to assemble those . . . long time patiently waiting for pbs to cough some of them up and then I found a couple at used bookstores . . . Might be wise to get the next bunch going.

Back to add, it seems I have everything already listed on PBS and it appears I have ten of them, which does not include Bk 10, but does include Bk 11.

Here's the thing, atevi find the number 2 the most infelicitous of all. Therefore, why would your series be 3x3x2 books instead of 3x3x3?

:D

I love their number thing - otherwise they are so astonishingly rational!

11. contemp fic ****
The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard

It is 1937 and the prosperous Cazelet family is setting about to enjoy summer at the family home, Home Place, in Sussex (I think?) not too far from the coast. Over the usual family complexities looms the threat of war, casting a dark shadow over adults and children alike. There are four principal families, three brothers and their wives and then the sister of one of the wives, (there is also an unmarried Cazelet sister) as well as a number of other lesser but not unimportant characters from the family tutor (of the girls), a "friend" of the daughter of the family to "friend" of the unmarried sister. There were moments when the book reminds of Thirkell (babies in baths), but then it swirls and plunges into deep and difficult matters, that is to say, sex and violence, evoking Wesley, Fitzgerald, or Murdoch. It's quite astonishing how many characters Howard presents with convincing sharpness of detail. It was a little hard, at first, to keep the children straight, but never difficult to keep the adults in mind. Two of the brothers fought as very young man in the first war, one last a hand and has shrapnel in his head, the other was unscathed physically . . . the third was too young, but not too young to be part of this war, if indeed it comes. He is a painter, but he has made a rash second marriage, has three children to support, and is realizing he will have to give it up:"Perhaps I'm not a real painter, at all, he thought. It needs to be put first, and I never do that." He is asked by his father if he would join the family firm (quality lumber) and he is considering it over the course of the summer. The women have, of course, given any idea of independent careers (if they had any) upon marriage, but some of them are aware of the emptiness in their lives even as they love their families. At heart they all know that Hitler, not being an honorable person, will not honor any terms no matter how hopeful Chamberlain is, and I think that Howard catches that breathless wishful pause, the disbelief that it was all going to have to happen again. I will plunge immediately into the next installment, Marking Time. ****

Lucy, I'm so tickled that you enjoyed The Light Years as much as I did! I also had some difficulty keeping the children straight. But I felt exactly like you at the close of the novel: I will plunge immediately into the next installment, Marking Time.

>161 sibylline: Oh that sounds tempting.

12. nat hist ****1/2
H is for Hawk Helen MacDonald

This book is about many things: about grief upon the sudden death of a beloved father, about falconry, about T.H. White, about passion, about depression, about cruelty, about metamorphosis, about the English landscape, about predators and prey, about wildness, about lonelinessabout change . . . After MacDonald's father dies, a father she adored (and rightly so), she adopts a goshawk. She has been interested in hawks since childhood, she had trained other kinds of hawks, but never one as wild and challenging as the goshawk. So it should be easy to write about what I thought of it, right? Wrong. Throughout I was aware that while Helen MacDonald and I share some characteristics from a love of language to a practical attitude about hunting, there is an intensity, an edge, even a ferocity about her that intimidated me. It isn't only that I can't imagine ever wanting to train a hawk, it isn't only that I felt wistfulness at the idea of a father so marvelous that you would grieve over his death to such an extent, or that while I spend hours out of doors walking, I am not, as she is, a "watcher." I'm more of a "noticer" or "finder" I think, although perhaps those aren't so very different except that I am too restless to sit and observe for very long. Perhaps what I am saying is that it was an effort to shift myself into MacDonald's point of view, to be willing to go along with someone in such a state, to accompany her into this downward spiral into wildness and strangeness, trusting that we would emerge from it? I kept wondering, in the first half of the book, what her identification with White was--she couldn't seem more different--but in the second half that becomes quite apparent and that is where I became fully engaged. It's a very good book indeed! And anyone who can use the word 'palimpsest' as a verb has my total admiration. Lots of fabulous vocabulary here too. ****1/2

I have only one more of my Thingaversary books left to finish. It didn't take me long! All books I wanted very much to read and none of them, so far, disappointing.

Some quotes:

From White: "Independence--a state of being self-contained--is the only generosity, I thought, the only charity we can claim of a living creature." (41)

"You seem to feel what it feels. Notice what it notices. The hawk's apprehension become your own. You are exerting what the poet Keats called your chameleon quality, the ability to 'tolerate a loss of self and a loss of rationality by trusting in the capacity to recreate oneself in another character or environment." (86)

"Being a novice is safe. When you are learning how to do something, you do not have to worry about whethr or not you are good at it." (146)

"There is a time in life when you expect the world to be always full of new things. And then comes a day when you realise that is not how it will be at all. You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realise, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps . . ." (171)

I may come back and incorporate a couple of these into the review. Or not!

>164 sibylline: She's about as different from me as could be in most ways, but I could identify with the interiority of it, the I don't know why I need to do this but I do. I also loved the little girl obsessed with the secret language of falconry.

Yes, exactly.

Yes, I read that when I was grappling with the meaning of loss, for want of a better phrase, and her intensity and her willingness to explore to the deepest depths that very subject, grabbed me -- especially since it's a subject that most of us approach reluctantly, warily and in a sidelong fashion. And not with Macdonald's flair for language, either...

Woot! Delighted to read your endorsement of H is for Hawk. I've got this audiobook waiting in the wings. Must get to it this year. Lovely quotes you've included.

H is for Hawk certainly is a popular book these days! Glad you enjoyed it.

>164 sibylline: Great comments about H is for Hawk.

I caught Macdonald speaking on a TV programme about the countryside a few weeks ago and was quite surprised at the gap between my imagination of her and the real person - I think my reading of such fierceness of grief had somehow translated into an idea of a more imposing person.

>168 lit_chick: >169 The_Hibernator: Very much worth reading, although I think it is a book that could be too much at the wrong time in one's life.

>170 charl08: I wonder if I could find her on youtube somewhere. That would be very interesting indeed!

It's posted at the top of the thread too:

January Round-up
1. new Corambis (bk 5) Sarah Monette fantasy ****
2. ✔ Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery **** (Thinga read #1)
3. ✔ Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose contemp fic ***1/2
4. The New Yorker June 2015
5. new Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery (Thinga read #2!) ****
6. ♬(reread) Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon contemp fic *****
7. ✔ Foreigner C.J. Cherryh sf (Thinga read #4) ****1/2!
8. new Into the Silence Wade Davis nf *****!!!!!!
9. ✔ Invader C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 2) sf ****1/2
10. ✔Inheritor C.J. Cherryh sf (Foreigner #3) ****1/2
11. new The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic (Thinga read #3!) ****
12. new H is for Hawk Helen Maconald natural history

Total: 12
Men: 3
Women: 5
M/W writing together: 0 (mostly Liaden series)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 3
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 0
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 1

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 5
Read it or Get Rid of It: 0

Housekeeping

Physical In/Out Totals:
IN Total=1
OUT Total=3

Best of January
Into the Silence Wade Davis

January Reflections
As I was trying to choose a "Best of" book (just one) for the month, I realized what a superb reading month it has been. It also highlights the arbitrariness of the "star" system. Truthfully I didn't "enjoy" Gravity's Rainbow as I have enjoyed Pynchon's later work, certainly I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. I may, at another time, avail myself of a copy with decent print (my own is a beat up paperback, the one I read it in the first time round). I don't think the audio format was the right way to take on Pynchon, so that also may have had a big effect on my understanding as well as enjoyment. I certainly DID enjoy some parts of it hugely and the full five star salute is because I do recognize it for the achievement it is. Now, having said that, Wade Davis's Into the Silence is a remarkable and truly worthwhile book, I read it slowly because it is not a book to gobble up, but toward the end, the last three chapters, I just pasted myself to the sofa and read. H is for Hawk also was an extraordinary read and I'm not sure why I'm withholding half a star, except that it took me awhile to come around, I felt somewhat put off in the beginning for reasons I can't begin to sort out, and I don't know if it was me or MacDonald, but something, I think changes part way, and, once again, for the last 100 or so pages, I pasted myself back in that sofa. All that is to say that this was a stellar non-fiction month. Which is not to say that the fiction wasn't fabulous too - I began two great series (Cazelet, Foreigner) and finished one excellent one (Doctor of Labyrinths), indulged in two Aaronovitches . . . Every month should be so good.

You did have a wonderful month of reading, Lucy. I always love looking through your stats and reading your musings on the books you read. Happy Monday, dear!

Great reading month, Lucy. That's why I'm afraid to start the Foreigner series by Cherryh--I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to stop!

13. sf *****
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie

Basically, I can't wait to read all three of the Ancillarys again. Or maybe listen to them, or maybe both. This is sf at its best: provocative, smart, funny, but with serious enough matters at the core. Every detail, from plot to tea rituals, is so well thought out, so consistent, so convincing. Oh and did I say, so much fun? Breq, a former Ancillary (think, basically, Borg) of a long-ago destroyed ship named Justice of Toren, now independent and thousands of years old (having been on ice) surprises herself and everyone else by breaking free and insisting that AI's are Persons of Significance as entitled as any human, any Radchh citizen. Her enemy is a ruler at war with herself -- cloned thousands of times and virtually everywhere and with absolute power. Brilliant! *****

Lucy, I have the first book in that series, and you are making me want to pick it up. Right. Now.

>172 sibylline: "Every month should be so good." Indeed!
I love your "reflections on the month" and may borrow this as a way to just stop and contemplate the reading list and the overall experience.

Oh, I have Ancillary Justice on my TBR shelves -- received through the Xmas Book Swap -- and I am looking forward to it even though I'm not much of a SF reader. Your comments on the series as a whole are very encouraging. So, what Mamie said. :-)

LOVE the corgi train!

14. history, sort of, **
Curious Incidents in King Philip's War Edward Lodi

Fortunately a very short book. It was, I think an impulse purchase, by a friend (non LT) who knows I'm interested in New England history and gave it to me as a gift. I hesitate to even review it - a collection of a few primary sources from the time of the war, with cute titles and introductory remarks to each "chapter". Virtually none of the incidents seemed particularly curious to me, more like, tragic and even more tragic. Clearly Lodi is deeply interested in the topic and I think he probably knows a great deal, but this is not the place to go to learn anything useful or illuminating. The one take-away though is he degree to which this war was utterly devastating to both colonists and native americans alike, a total disaster all around. I knew it was bad, but it was even worse than that. Treachery and mayhem on both sides, underlining how the misunderstandings and prejudices of the time had built up into a veritable firestorm, unavoidable, in some form or other too. **

I loved the Ancillary series, too, Lucy. Nice to see more love for it. Brilliant, as you say, and I was so glad Ancillary Mercy lived up to the first two.

Me too!

I'm chomping at the bit to get to A. Sword, but I have so much other stuff going on that I can't get to it now. This year though, I promise myself!

Happy weekend, Lucy.

>182 LizzieD: What could possibly be more important than reading the next Ancillary??? Seriously. I have learned too that just reading through a whole series when you can works so much better than the hoarding I am prone to - I just forget too much.

Not to be bossy or anything.

Maybe a little bossy.

15. sf
Inversions Iain Banks

This is an odd one, a tale that is and isn't a Culture book . . . The planet is one that has experience massive upheaval from a series of meteors; things are just settling down again. In this late medieval world (muskets have come into play) the social order is everything and women are sexualized and have no other purpose than to serve men and procreate. There are two protagonists, Doctor Vosill, a woman, and DeWar, the first is the King's official doctor, the second is the bodyguard of an upstart General; the story alternates back and forth and the reader assumes there is some kind of connection . . . and maybe there is and maybe there isn't. Either way the doctor is a novelty, unusual in many ways, and unsettling to the men around the king. The king, however, accepts her, listens to her, and recognizes her superiority as a doctor and a person. DeWar similarly is an extraordinarily effective body-guard, respected, for the most part, by the general he serves. There are also occasional stories told within the narrative, usually something rather fanciful made up by Vosill or DeWar, but the stories resonate with a secondary meaning, with possible other interpretations. The narrative structure is awkward (journals, autobiographies found years later) although the narrative itself is smooth enough. The idea is that the doctor's apprentice, collected and wrote out these stories. It is a testament to Banks' confidence as a writer that I just accepted it and kept on reading. In a lesser writer it would have flopped and been too convoluted and possibly for many other readers it was. The apprentice never explains, either, why he connects Vosill and DeWar except that they were both very unusual people, with skills and abilities far beyond the norm of the times; they appeared and then disappeared within the same time period. I think Banks was, basically, enjoying writing a puzzle--how two agents of the Culture might appear to a person knowing nothing of them. My surmise is that they were sent to investigate the planet's condition after the meteor blasts, and maybe got stuck there somehow or other. But that's just my thought. I don't think I'm spoiling anything to say that--I made that assumption from the very first chapter. ****

I am reading and rereading through all The Culture books in honor of Iain M Banks. This is the 5th of 9, although there is also a book of short stories which I will no doubt read last.

16. contemp fic ****
Marking Time (2 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard

In the first book the challenge was becoming familiar with the huge cast of characters and the various tensions and relationships, although by the end the narrative spotlight has settled mostly on the three adolescent cousins, Clary, Louise, Polly, daughters each of one of the three Cazelet brothers. In book 2 any novelty factor the war had is well over and the three cousins, Polly, Clary and Louise are growing up aware that the war is cheating them of a "normal" growing-up time (equally aware that things are changing quickly because of the war, some of it in their favour.) The grandparents are hanging in there, but the parental generation are all struggling with losses and responsibilities. I can't really say any more than that without spoiling. New characters are introduced, love interests rise and fall, the help is restive. Things can't go on like this, breath held, as it were. I no longer have to consult the charts about who belongs to whom and I do feel satisfied that no character has been mysteriously dropped, which is an achievement in a story this big and complex. ****

Morning, Lucy! You are moving right along with the reading. I think I have the first book in that Cazelet trilogy - it is a trilogy, right?

Wonderful review of Marking Time, Lucy. It is a big and complex story, isn't it ... and a beautiful one!

>187 Crazymamie: Quartet actually, Mamie!

>188 lit_chick: I am deep into it!

Oh. Quartet. Got it.

>187 Crazymamie: >189 sibylline: Uh, it's a quintet, actually.

Oh, dear. In for a penny...

Well, Elizabeth Jane Howard is such a good writer!

>193 DianaNL: I have not read her before, but someone was saying how good this series was ...maybe Nancy?

Back to say that actually my notes identify Joe as the guilty party.

>194 Crazymamie: I think Peggy and/or Nancy have read more of the series. I've read a part of the first book a while ago and stopped because life intervened. But I remember it being so so good!

* note to self: push that book upwards in the mountain *

Okay, Joe it is :-)

Hi Lucy!

I bought the whole quintet recently, based on Nancy's raves :) Had to get them from Book Depository, and to my annoyance, the covers didn't match the covers shown on the website, so they don't all match *sigh* (Yes, a first world problem....)

>198 katiekrug: Okay, so I wasn't completely crazy thinking that it was Nancy! And I hate when the covers don't match or when they change the size of the book for some reason.

A FIFTH one? Oh my! I guess I better find it quick!

Back to say that . . . it was on my wishlist . . . sigh. So now I've ordered it.

>194 Crazymamie: Yes, it was me! Read all of the Cazalets back to back last year and loved every one of them.

We have a vixen living very near by and she has quite regular rounds, lately showing up pretty much every early afternoon on the other side of the pond. Today she hung about and I got some pics, but not very good ones since my camera is just on my phone and not that good. She also skulks about in the woods behind the house barking. We suspect she thinks Posey is a rival because she leaves poops and pee everywhere in a big circle around the house.

One morning a couple of weeks ago she was sitting on the frozen pond when I took Po out first thing - just sat watching us!

You have been doing some great reading, Lucy. I loved both the Ann Leckie and Elizabeth Jane Howard series. Am sure I would also love Cherryh's Foreigner series but I am quite daunted by its length.

Me too, although there is also a kind of comfort in the sheer length of the Cherryh. I have sort of decided to read them three at a time with definite breaks. She does seem to have three book "story arcs" so I am hoping this will work out! (And make them last!). I don't know how she does it, almost fanatically detailed (both outwardly and inwardly) but I don't find it tedious.

That's how I've been reading *Foreigner* too, more or less. I don't want to top out with them because I do very much enjoy a couple or 3 a year. I've just received #12, so I have a few in hand when I'm ready again.
Diana, you're right. I also enjoyed the Cazalets, but I think I read only 3 before I got side-tracked. I haven't ever ordered #5 --- sort of hoping that it will come to me through PBS before I'm ready for it.
Ohh! That vixen! She's just precisely our little cats' color.

Anybody else having touchstone issues? Mine come up black (I mean in the touchstone area) with an added message of "no results". But this is an improvement over earlier when they wouldn't come up at all . . . Getting weirder by the minute . . now the "others" choice comes up purple, but the rest stays black. Stay tuned!

Explanation for touchstone troubles: https://www.librarything.com/topic/218985 .

Must be a baddie since it's still going on. Thanks for letting me know!

Appreciate the touchstone info here. Thanks for posting Lucy and Katherine.

Have a happy weekend.

I do love that dog funny! Posey wishes I would get with the program.

Today was an "ohmygawd" walk - I got all bundled up and went out and thought, OK, this is fine, I can do this, then a gust of wind came up . . . That's when I start muttering. Instead of our usual mile and a bit we did about 1/4 of a mi! So it is winter at last around here. Minus 18 supposedly tonight (F - for you C folks).

Apologies all around for not doing much thread visiting this week - a very busy week, including that my god-aunt in Florida had a fall - she seems to be OK but there was a tremendous amount of telephoning and emailing to various folks as well as one sleepless night. It is a warning for her though. She's talked about moving to a residential setting and I think maybe it is time to get serious about it. The big problem is she just doesn't have much of a safety net network when something like this goes wrong. She realizes that now. I'll be there most of March, which is a good thing.

I also have had a lot going in the Hiero's Answer department, things are moving along, albeit creakily, but time-consumingly.

It also feels as though it is time to post the link to the novella I've been working on. I am still tinkering with it, mainly tidying up commas and all the usual suspects, but you are welcome to take a look because you are all such great readers! Comments very welcome! Either here as PM's or there. V. important to start with the Morning entry. Wordpress is sort of a pain, actually, I can't seem to reverse the order in which the posts appear. I may move the whole thing back to Blogspot which has a lot more flexibility.

Whoops! Forgot the link! Here it is. Hounds of Spring

YAY! Stay warm, and thanks for the *HOUNDS* link!

Thanks for the link. I've saved it and look forward to reading it soon.

-25 on my trustiest thermo (Teensy). The Quitter quit at -2 (now reads, pitifully Lo) and the Pessimist says something silly, as usual, like -30 which I really think is not true. Not going about - F today! Must be winter!

Happy Valentine's Day, Lucy!

>211 sibylline: I also have had a lot going in the Hiero's Answer department
Oh? Encouraging.

>215 Crazymamie: I love it!

And this is to anyone who stops by!

18. mys ****

A Cold Dish has a nice easy tone, without sacrificing any doubts that our protagonist, Longmire, is one smart dude. Yeah, he's the usual mixed-up law enforcement person, lonely but somehow, not a good judge of what's good for him . . . even if his instincts are superb in every other way. The plot, well, it was fine, I don't really read these for the plot, to be frank, and the revenge theme is one of my least favorites in any case. I kind of got an inkling who it might be after awhile, and I thought the clues were laid down carefully but not too obviously, so that was well enough done. I particularly liked the "dream" section when he is rescuing his friend in the blizzard, and also some of the funnier/awful aspects, such as the lad George constantly escaping. I ADORE Vic. I'll be reading more of these. ****

I checked out the teev series spun off from this and Vic is played by one of my favorite actresses--played Starbuck in, oh jeez, the one with the Cylons. Battlestar Galactica? Is that it? The series is great so far too, two episodes. I don't even know her name, only that I love her spirit.

>218 sibylline: What a shame that Craig Johnson is so darned difficult to find in Malaysia. His books look just my cup of tea.

Have a lovely Sunday, Lucy.

That is indeed a serious bummer Paul.

Longmire, is one smart dude. Yes, he is! I've not read the books, but have binge watched all of the Netflix seasons.

I'll say winter has come to Vermont! Brrr!

>217 sibylline: Hilarious and adorable!

I loved the Cazalet chronicles when I started reading them in the 1990s sometime. I re-read them all last year (I think?) just prior to the very belated publication of the fifth volume, which came only a few weeks after the death of Elizabeth Jane Howard, if I recall correctly. It was satisfying to see where the characters ended up, but it wasn't as rich or well-written as its predecessors, alas.

Happy Valentine's Day Lucy!



Glad you're enjoying the Iain Banks books. I've never read anything by him, but his books look fantastic.

19. contemp fic ****
Confusion Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazalet 3)

The war drags on . . . and on and on. What Howard conveys, better than anyone else ever has to me, is how the war affected childhood and adolescence over the long haul. I've read plenty of books about the war with children and young adults in them but never one that stays quite this focussed, quite this thoroughly. The three cousins, Polly, Louise, and Clary even speculate at some point how it might have been different for them or how it might not have been growing up in the midst of this. The biggest difference, for this family, anyway, was how the war keeps them together, at Home Place, where it was safe and there was room for everyone. For some this delays events, for others it is life-saving. The girls are not just expected to be ornamental and find husbands, either, they learn to do practical things and look after themselves (more or less). With the war everything is hard work, decisions are hard to make, some couples spend too much time apart and get themselves into various forms of trouble or unhappiness. . . Confusion is the right name for this volume! Couldn't put it down!

Perfect for this subzero weather!

>202 sibylline: Love your vixen. Our ancestral "home place", where my brother and his family live now, is nestled in a valley with a river waaay over there in front, and a mountain right there behind, and there are often foxes barking about. We saw one patrolling along the top of a stone wall a couple years ago; it just stopped and stared at us while we were staring at it...then it trotted off to tend to foxy business.

Ha! Confusion is the right name for this volume! Couldn't put it down! I think I wrote almost the same thing when I finished it.

This next frame is a day late, but I couldn't resist. Something for Ernie and Tenzing:

I LOVE it too!!!!!

>218 sibylline: I enjoyed your take on Victoria in the Longmire books, Lucy. I liked her sassiness at first but don't think she is a suitable girlfriend for the Sheriff. I want him to find somebody…just not her..

I hope you're having a good week. If you have too much snow, please send some to Missouri. We have had a measly 4 inches this year. I think our average is close to 20 inches. Maybe in March...

20. sf ****
Precursor C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 4)

Let's just admit that I was a bit late to the airport to pick up the spousal unit because I.Had.To.Finish.
Like most Cherryh's there is an elaborate plot that takes time to unfold and time to reach critical mass - generally it is the last fifty to one hundred or so pages of each book that contain the real excitement, although the build-up is critical. I feel too, that I am beginning to understand better just how different the atevi are from humans, and how much Bren is changed by talking and thinking like them so intensely, and, how much more appealing, in some ways, their way of life and their culture might be. To them humans are just so random and chaotic and inconsistent! All too true! My one criticism remains stead--that Bren's family in Mosphei, his mother, his old girlfriend that whole scenario is just so boringly stereotypical. At least Ginny Kroger, the Science person in this one turns out to be a decent person . . . I'm sometimes puzzled by Cherryh's choices of how to develop characters, or who to develop. And she does seem less able to create a strong confident woman character than you would expect. If those pieces were stronger her work would be five star across the board. ****

21. ♬ mys ****
Revelation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 4)

Romping my way through Shardlake. I listen to these and basically, I love them enough that I am not daunted by long drives. This one got pretty gross - a religious serial killer following ideas gleaned from the Book of Revelation. Very icky. But the cameos of Catherine Parr, of Bealknapp (I'm listening so I don't know how to spell any names!), the marital woes of Barack, the doctor's troubles with his apprentice and his aiding the young obsessive man . . . all had me utterly absorbed as always. Also loved the portrait of Thomas Seymour, poor Jane's brother and Cranmer. Sansom really does bring home the religious furor and madness of the reign of Henry VIII. ****

Every once in a while I'll notice that my books fall, quite randomly, into an aesthetically pleasing grouping of covers:

♬

I won't continue with the Cazalets (I'd have to restart, forgot everything), but I'm still planning to finish the Sansom series one day. Listening to them might be a good idea for me as well. Have a lovely weekend!

22. sf (Foreigner 5)****
Defender C.J. Cherryh

One has to be prepared to read the Foreigner series in sets of three, as the story arcs follow that pattern. This is, btw, appropriate to the auspicious three of the Atevi culture . . . but never mind. Captain Ramirez, senior of the ship Phoenix, dies suddenly and it becomes evident that only the topmost layer of lies to do with where and what the ship was up to before returning to the atevi planet and station has been uncovered. Bren finds himself feeling abandoned by Tabini, but events sweep him onto the ship and out into space, accompanied, to his surprise and chagrin, by the incomparable Illisidi, Tabini's grandmother and Tabini's six year old son (already as tall as a human adolescent). They are to go to the "lost" space station, Reunion, which, it turns out may still have people living on it, might have been attacked for good reason after some human (Ramirez) trespassed on yet another alien culture. It's all very touchy as the ship crew have family who were left there and had thought them all dead. Bren is now "Lord of the Heavens" as appointed by Tabini, to negotiate atevi interests as needed. More powerful than he ever imagined. But at Illisidi is (predictably) at loggerheads with Sabin, the senior captain on the mission, whose motives are ambiguous and loyalties unknown. The dreaded Pilot's Guild, are they in charge of this mission? Find out in Book 6. Bad idea to start these any time you know you will be too busy to sneak off to read them. ****

23. sf ***** (Foreigner 6)
Explorer C.J. Cherryh

This last, #6 in the series, concluding the second story arc, was a doozy! Thrilling from start to finish. They (the Ship, filled with humans from Mospheira and with Atevi along with the original crew) reach the space station, planning to rescue the inhabitants and blow it up--having deduced that there is an alien presence that doesn't want anyone there--and find a "situation" - an alien ship lurking on the periphery. Bren and Jase have to figure out, quick, how to communicate with it. Sabin, the senior captain, doesn't thwart them, but doesn't like it either. No one is sure to whom she owes her real allegiance, Ship or the Pilot's Guild. Treachery lurks. The Pilot's Guild is so entrenched in power they have lost all ability to imagine compromise or flexibility, phobic of aliens, you have to wonder why they are in space at all! Opportunities for misunderstandings abound. In the end, the presence of Illisidi, the grandmother and Cajeira, the young ateva boy play a critical role. I'm completely immersed and comfortable with the uni now, and so it was a breathless read from start to finish. *****

YIPPEE!!!!
I loved Explorer too!
I see that soon you'll pass me again.

I'm going to take a Foreigner hiatus - I read one sequence in Jan, now one in Feb. So the next one will have to wait until March. Meanwhile I have lots of other books to explore. I'm going to test out Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon the first volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. It was the "favourite" book of a ex-squeeze of the little darling's, who swore up and down that it was fabulous, so time to check it out.

Now I'm rethinking this - is it silly to interrupt a series? Should one just read right on through?? What do you all think?

Can't speak to that series, specifically, but I always find it tough to interrupt a series and then be able to get back into it after a hiatus. If you think you'll be able to go back to it in a reasonable time frame, that's fine, or if you're confident you'll remember the details... But I'm sitting here and looking at the third volume of Pierce Brown's trilogy, and realize I can't remember all the details of book #2, and that was only a little over 14 months ago. Not a good scenario... And if the gap might widen... On the other hand, if there's a reason to abandon the series -- you are flagging, want a break, or you're not enjoying the current book as much, then go right ahead.

I'm in a February funk. Big time. Feel like one of those blindfolded Egyptian donkeys chained to a mill, going round and round in circles.

>239 Chatterbox: Yes, the Forgetting and Losing Momentum are huge. For example, I haven't read Bring Up the Bodies and when will I? I didn't just immediately love the first one, and I know this second one will be a hard book full of misery--it wasn't out yet, of course, or I would have gone right into it. I do vividly still remember a lot of it though, a testament to what a fine book it is.

In this case, Suzanne, it is more that while I'm reading this series I am unable to behave myself and participate in life as a responsible adult human being. And slowing down is also a bit of the hoarding kicking in. Be so glad you don't love this stuff! One is, literally, sucked into an alternate universe.

February is a hard month. There's always a moment when I look out the window and think, "It's looked this way for far too long." So many dull browns or white and dingy white and sad white. Tonight we await freezing rain. But it was a lovely afternoon -- above freezing, no wind, sunny. Miss Po got a super long walk.

Rejected my first book of the year today. The Book of Strange New Things. It just isn't going to work out for me. If it was the only book on my shelf then I would probably read it. I know many have liked and even loved it, but I don't even like the premise. Within Speculative fiction there is a growing body of literary sf and I mostly don't care for it. Give me swashbuckle and fun or forget it. On the other hand I did read the Mary Doria Russell and liked it. But. I think the premise was better done than in this one.

I'm going to get back to reading Cazelet 4 and 5. But I'll take the next Foreigner sequence with me on my Big Trek, speaking of which . . .

Y'all know I am going to have a MEETUP with Peggy in her hometown NEXT MONDAY!!!! Hip Hip Hooray!! When I made my res. at the Best Western there I was called Sweetheart, Love and Dearie with every sentence. So nice and so different from my gruff yankee universe. I'm driving down, taking my sweet time, stopping at the homes of many of my music friends, harpers mostly.

I'll be driving back in late March . . . So if you live anywhere on my route (or can convince me to detour) here's your chance to meet Miss PO! All I need is a B&B that takes pets, or a Hampton/Best Western style place near you and I'll be contented!

OMG a Peggy/Lucy meetup! I am so excited for you. There had better be photos!

Also, PM me if you plan to stop over anywhere between Baltimore & Philly. I might be able to see you if the moon and stars align and work doesn't get in the way.

>239 Chatterbox: February funk
Every year. I just have to assume it will happen, and it will end.

>240 sibylline: the Forgetting
Yes. Sigh.

MEETUP with Peggy in her hometown
WHAT?!? Gonna pass through Pennsylvania?

I'm actually not going to stop in PA on the way down, although I suppose I will be in it briefly after I cross over from NJ on the Commodore Barry Bridge . . . It's all harp chums in NJ and MD until North Carolina on the way down. With some planning I could maybe stop somewhere nearish to you both on the way back? We could figure something out. Got any ideas where I should look - you're both about an hour apart? Lancaster/Unionvilleish? The final night of that return trip I plan to spend near Sarah Lawrence, have a quick visit with my daughter. And I wouldn't mind a short driving day after the long haul up from the south.But I don't know anything yet about the return trip. There is a possibility that one of my brothers will be with me, in which case we would drive directly and not stop much of anywhere. There is also the fact that I have tons of family in PH and I love them all, but . . . it gets so complicated when I stop there, who to stay with, who to see, so I will be avoiding the city!

Are you going to venture through Providence?? Lemme know. We could at least have lunch!

And I'm SO glad that you and Peggy will manage a meetup -- hurrah!!

I second Laura's sentiments!: OMG a Peggy/Lucy meetup! I am so excited for you. There had better be photos!

Sounds like a great meet-up. Should you choose to make a slight detour, I'm sure I could find you some accommodations here. ;-)

>243 sibylline: I'm about 45 min from Lancaster, so that's quite doable. There are plenty of hotels in the area. If your route is more "Unionvilleish" there's a Hilton Garden Inn in Kennett Square on Rt 1 near Longwood Gardens, and other hotels near Rt 1 and Rt 202. Do you have an approximate date for this leg of your journey?

>244 Chatterbox: My route doesn't take me that way this trip. But I do have a family friend out on Narragansett Pier who I'd very much like to see this year.

>246 ronincats: Ironically - the lad who does some yard work and carpentry for us just drove his brother's truck cross-country to San Diego (bro is in the Navy)! It does happen!

>247 lauralkeet: I'd like to be home by the 30-31 March. And I know that Hilton! I'm going to seriously consider this idea.

24. poetry ****
A God in the House; poets talk about faith Ilya Kaminsky ed.

Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler interviewed about 20 poets, asking them to talk freely about matters of spirituality, religion, faith and how it affects them as working poets. The result is extremely various because these were interviews, later written up in a condensed form, without the give and take of the Q/A format. Every piece is remarkably different in feeling and focus which has to do with how each poet chose to answer; chose, you might say, how to regard what the question was asking of them. Some speak very intimately, some from a greater distance. The answers are surprising--it's all here, Wiccan, Native American, Anabaptist, Observant Judaism, to careful Atheism. I was riveted by several pieces, even by poets already well known to me: Grace Paley, Eleanor Wilner, Gregory Orr, and Joy Harjo. Many others were revelatory, Annie Finch and Dunya Mikhail. All the pieces were of great interest and I'm glad to know more about each poet. At the end of each essay, a poem, all very well chosen. A very worthwhile book to anyone interested in what "feeds" a poet. The only "awkwardness" is from the conversion from a dialogue to this written format, the result occasionally a bit disjointed; very well edited though to smooth out those problems as much as one could. ****

>248 sibylline: I'm going to seriously consider this idea.
Oh? It would be a possible thing for me, depending on timing.

Currently Reading (February)
♬

Here, I like the contrast of the two pretty English country scenes and the dark and mysterious tower between!

GRIN
I am so excited that I just can't wait!!!!
Meanwhile, I have every one of those books that Lucy is currently reading and have only read Heartstone. I'm eager to see what you think of *Gardens*, Lucy. Somebody heartily recommended it to me, and I wasn't able to get into it much the one time I tried. I'll bump it up if you like it.
About *Foreigner* - you won't forget. I went a whole year before I picked up Pretender with no harm done at all. That's not true for other series, but this one has such strong characters that the time doesn't seem to matter.

I started Gardens once before also and couldn't get into it, but for some reason, this time, I immediately did. Found the bookmark stuck at about page 20. How far did you get? I'm not that far, but I think I'm interested and committed (code for sucked in and hooked). Who knows if it will last. I'm past the 50 page mark anyhow. This is the favourite series of one of my daughter's ex-squeezes (I've liked them all) and that is why I have it. The magic, so far, is pretty good. It rates four stars here, which I've come to see as a fairly sturdy measure of a decent, and usually more than decent, effort.

Yes, I agree about Foreigner - I don't see how one could forget! And since Cherryh completes an arc it isn't as if I have to catch up about "what is going on" - I mean, outside remembering the general parameters of the larger situation that is always going on, but that is relatively simple. And, as you say, the characters are so memorable!

Tenzing is in a frenzy of naughtiness, just danced across the room, then batted Posey on the nose (which is hanging out over the chair seat where she is curled up) and scampered off sideways. Miss Po barely batted an eyelash. She is so good to him -- really enjoys him. I would so love to catch a moment like that on video, but so unlikely!

>248 sibylline:, >250 qebo: yes, me too! Keep us posted, Lucy. My work schedule is subject to sudden disruption these days so I can't make a firm commitment yet but then I suspect you can't either. So let's just stay in touch. I will PM you my email address in the event you want to correspond more directly.

Oh, this is so wonderful! I wish you'd drive to.. err, Greece? and pass through Merano as well. :)
Well, should I ever win the lottery I'll buy that small camper and tour the US and visit all my LT friends.

Series question... I have that hopeless (non-)memory for characters, so when the books are plot-connected and it's not just a series of mysteries, I'll have to restart after a longer break. So I'll concentrate on one series at a time and try not to start any that aren't complete yet. I liked the first book of GoT but I can't reread them all every couple of years when a new one is out, so I took an early exit. In case of the Cazalets I quite lost interest towards the end of book 2 and I don't think I'll read on/restart.

Tenzing, LOL! Loved the quip about dancing across the room to bat Po and continue scampering. Delightful that Po enjoys him!

This was pretty much what was going on:

Lucy, I'm always so floored by how good your reviews are. You suck me in and make me want to read all sorts of things I never knew I was interested in - that Everest book being a prime example. You make it sound fascinating (which I'm sure it is, just that you explain why so well!). I'm also totally sold on the quintet about the war. But mostly I'm so THRILLED that you are now experiencing the joys of the Foreigner universe. You are reading them at a cracking pace so you will soon catch up with me - I'm sort of rationing them like delicious treats so I recently finished book 10, and crucially, I order them one at a time from Amazon so the next one always takes a week or two to arrive (they always have to come from the US, I'm not sure how much Cherryh has ever been published in the UK). Hmm, maybe it's time to order number 11...
Also, very excited for you for your road trip - it sounds super fun. If you fancied a quick jaunt over the Atlantic I can promise you a very cute 7 month old that would love to stroke Ms Po's ears. What do you think? Bit too much of a detour?

If only one could drive across the Atlantic! I would be there in a flash. I like big ocean liners (I traveled back and forth on the Italian Line as a little girl and LOVED every minute of it) I do not like flying. I hate flying in fact, and now more than ever.

Can I admit to being pleased that you like my reviews? I really am. I worry sometimes when I praise something that I will be enticing someone to read something they may not like as much as I do.

As for Foreigner, I'm rationing out one sequence per month, so I can't start the next group (7-9) until next week and I might put it off until I finish the Cazelet group (which I am sure you will be utterly enthralled by). And after I finish those I will stop, probably until next winter. I only have one of those next ones anyway, so it would be a good time to take a real break. They are delicious treats, but she writes such complex stories that I feel I can look forward to rereading them and that I will enjoy them just as much, maybe even more.

Update on my trip. My first stop, at a harp friend's in New Jersey (south of Philly) was great fun, we had a party yesterday and played until my fingers hurt. Now I am at the house of another harp friend in MD, a little south of DC. She's also an episcopal minister and a lovely person indeed. A big expert on Robbie Burns, has written music to his poetry and plays them on the harp. V. talented. Her husband is a Klingon. I mean he really IS, belongs to an elite klingon-speaking group! Such fun! I love the things people get into.

So I think I am a full third of the way, not that far really. The serious driving resumes tomorrow when I will drive DOWN TO PEGGY!!!!! Yowza!

Woot! You're having a fabulous trip, Lucy, and the fun has only begun! Yay for driving down to Peggy tomorrow! Hugs to both of you ...

Hugs and Beams all around. Lucy is coming!!!!! LUCY IS COMING!!!!!

:D

Hugs from me too!!

Happy Leap Day, Lucy!

Enjoy the meet-up.

>249 sibylline: Oh dear, another book bullet. My TBR list for 2016 is humongous, not even counting the piles left over from last year. But this looks fascinating to someone like me who is always interested in spirituality & the springs that feed creativity.

Glad you're enjoying the Foreigner series. I find them easy to drop & pick up now that I'm familiar with the universe. And she's still pumping them out! I think doing them in three's, as she writes them, is a good strategy.

Will March come in like a lion or a lamb this year?

Safe & happy travels to you!

Catching up top say that I also enjoy your reviews and I must, must, must read the Cherryh series one day. Also, really pleased you're enjoying the Howards and the Sansoms. Also hooray for meetups!