labwriter (Becky) back for 2016 - part 1

"May the force be with you!"

I've returned to the 75er group for 2016 after my "year of the move" in 2015. Dear Husband and I are recently retired (well, he more recently than I), and after 25 years of living in Missouri, we've moved back to Colorado, our home state, to a funky little town near/in the mountains where DH can fly fish every day if he wants to (he wants to). Getting the house ready to sell, finding a new house, and making it all happen was a huge project. Naturally my reading suffered. Now now that we're more or less settled, I'm looking forward to a new year of better reading. One strategy for "better reading" is to rejoin this group, where I know I'll get excellent ideas for new reads. My reading is generally all over the place: "good" literature, "good" fluff (I love mystery/crime novels, especially Scandinavian noir), biography, memoir, history, etc. I have a tendency to start too many reads, so one of my (new) goals here is to keep it simple, with one or two reads at a time. We'll see.

Happy New Year to All at the 75!

The above pic: Main Street in my little town, Dec. 31, 2015

Books Read in 2016

JANUARY

The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith. Murder/mystery. 3 stars

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599, by James Shapiro. 4.5 stars

Poison, Pudding & Pie (A Marsden-Lacey Cozy Mystery Book 3), by Sigrid Vansandt. 3 stars

FEBRUARY

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis. 5 stars

The Martian by Andy Weir. 4 stars

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Medicine, Madness and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard. 4 stars

March

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig. 5 stars

The Silkworm, by Galbraith/Rowling. 2.5 stars

The Road to Little Dribbling, by Bill Bryson. I bailed on this one. Life is too short.

I'm starting out the year reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling. While my back was turned, Rowling created a whole new series--so this is #1 of the Cormoran Strike Novels. Whoot! I've been wanting to get to this one for some time.

2015 was probably the most intense year of my life, so another goal is to ratchet down the intensity in every area of my life, including the books. Along with reading, I will be doing a good bit of gardening. One of the most difficult aspects of the move was leaving my gardens that I've worked on for the past 25 years and trading those for grass--just grass. On the one hand, it's fun to have a blank slate to work with. On the other hand, I get a bit sad when I think of what I left behind. But gardening, like reading, is good for the soul.

I've heard great things about Robert Galbraith's series, though I don't know if that has anything to do with him being J. K. Rowling in disguise. It was a huge deal with that information was "leaked" to the press.

Good luck on getting more books read this year. I'm going back to taking classes this year, so my reading will likely suffer. :(

>1 labwriter: "year of the move"
I've been moving a mere 3/4 mile for several months now, can only imagine the process long distance. Welcome back!

>3 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel. I've just really started The Cuckoo's Calling, but you know how it is when you know you're in the hands of a good writer--you can sit back and enjoy the book and trust that you won't have an unhappy surprise like a lousy ending after 500+ pages, or otherwise find yourself constantly thinking, "Where's the editor?" That's how I felt, from page one, with this book. Oh hooray, good writing.

Classes always cramped my style when it came to reading for pleasure--but likely enough you'll enjoy the classes as well. Good luck with them. Just from reading through your thread, I imagine that you'll do very well.

>4 qebo: Oh Katherine--even a "mere" 3/4 mile is tough. A move is a move, and it's so disrupting. I hope yours goes well. Now that ours is over and I can look back over 2015, I'm amazed at what we accomplished and so happy to be here!

Welcome back!

>6 drneutron: Thank you and glad to be here! Glad there is a "here" to be. I missed this group and the interesting people, books, and comments!

Hello Becky! It is great to see your thread. I look forward to visiting in 2016.

>8 Whisper1: Linda! So glad to see you. I'll be visiting you as well. Love the graphic.

Becky! I wondered what became of you! I'd been hoping you'd be at the Joplin meet-up in 2015, but then I ended up missing it, too. Now, I guess you're a little bit too far away for that! Your little town looks adorable!

Becky, I am so glad you are back with the group. I've missed you! I am envious of your move back to CO. I need to lobby more forcefully for a summer home there. I could spend quality time with my youngest granddaughter in Littleton and escape the Missouri humidity.

Good luck with your Colorado gardening. I learned some lessons the hard way when I lived there. The hail and spring freezes gave me fresh starts each year! On the bonus side, however, summer flowers were so vibrant and didn't fade away as summer progressed. If you're not too far from Denver, we'd love to have you at a meetup. There are some lovely and serious Colorado readers out there.

>10 countrylife: Hi Cindy! Well, we can definitely follow each other here at the 75!

>11 Donna828: Donna! You are so right about escaping the Missouri humidity. I don't miss it one bit. We'll just have to see how the gardening goes. No, I'm definitely not too far away from a Denver meetup. I have two brothers who live there and several lifetime friends who think I should be making that trip down I-25 much more often than I do. I'll keep an eye out for the group meet-up!

Another Colorado gardener who's in the 75 (though I don't yet see a thread for 2016): http://www.librarything.com/topic/190149 .

Nice to see you back, and congratulations on the move.

Welcome back, and congrats on completing a big move!! Think of the garden as the chance to leave your mark on somewhere from scratch; to completely re-imagine it. It's kind of like getting a "do over" of your life! (Or part of it, at least...)

I have enjoyed Rowling's three mysteries, although I really didn't like A Casual Vacancy at all. What works in the mysteries didn't work in a general novel -- bleakness, anomie, etc. I wasn't expecting her to revisit Harry Potter, but I DID expect her to capture my interest with her characters, and instead she seemed intent on telling me something about the ugliness of society. With Cormoran Strike, she seems to have found a happy medium; she has characters who are as vivid as any in the Harry Potter books, and she is saying whatever she wants to say about the world.

>13 qebo: I will follow this thread with interest! Gardening on the Front Range with Storeetllr (Mary). Thanks for letting me know about it. I live in Canon City ("Canon" with a tilde, but I don't know how to create that here--so think "Canyon" City). They tell me this is the banana belt, as far as weather goes. I have an 87-year-old neighbor who lives next door with an acre of land who has lived in his house for 50 years--so I'm going to him for some help.

>14 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy. I will follow your year 2016 as well!

>15 Chatterbox: Hi Suzanne. I love everything you have to say here at LT. Is that too over-the-top? Well, it's true. Thanks for being here, and I'll see what I can do about the biography challenge.

Welcome back, Becky! It's great to have you here and know that you're at last where in the world you want to be.
I wasn't expecting to be excited about Cormoran Strike, but I loved the books and even borrowed #3 from the library - a thing I never do. I have to add that JKR's writing has improved greatly since HP 1. Smart woman!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

>17 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! OK, so now I have to admit that I never read the Harry Potter books. Hilarious. But I figured that anyone who has spent so much time writing must know a thing or two about the craft--right? I'm glad she's turned her talents to crime fiction, one of my favorite genres. Happy new year to you as well.

I couldn't resist joining The 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge Part I: Biographies in January, hosted by Chatterbox (Suzanne). I've chosen to read a biography of a year in Shakespeare's life: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599, by James Shapiro, resident Shakespeare scholar at Columbia U.

Have a wonderful bookfilled 2016, Becky. Nice to see you back!

Becky, nice to see you back! Looking forward to following your thread in 2016.

Hi Becky, your new spot in Colorado sounds idyllic. Best wishes for the New Year.

Hi Becky, I have starred your thread and so I can keep a track of how your year of normality compares to mine, lol. Hope you have had a good weekend my dear.

>20 PaulCranswick:
>21 SandDune:
>22 avatiakh:
>23 johnsimpson:
Thank you all so much for visiting. Here's to a great 2016 for us all! So far we've had a good deal of family visiting over the holidays--which is wonderful and which didn't happen in Missouri. But that means very little reading happening. That's OK--it's a great trade-off, and I imagine now that the holidays are past us, we will settle into a more normal routine.

Good to see you back! I just read my first Harry Potter novel last month and I liked it. I'll have to give her crime fiction a try.

>25 cbl_tn: Hi Carrie! How's Knoxville? One of the sad things for me about moving from Missouri back to Colorado is that I'm no longer 10 hours away from northeast Tennessee. I love that area, and I imagine that we're going to see a lot less of it now that we're in the West. Trade-offs. Here's to a great 2016!

>19 labwriter: That Shakespeare book looks fantastic. I hope you enjoy it. I'm reading Wild Swans for the nonfiction challenge.



Happy New Year!

Hi Becky,

I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the Shakespeare book - it sounds interesting. I've just binged on the 3 Robert Galbraith novels and loved them, despite the gruesomeness of the 3rd...but you're at least a few days off that one!

My Colorado experience is limited to a few days in Denver then Estes Park, but both were lovely.

>27 The_Hibernator:. Wild Swans sounds very interesting. I'm so happy Suzanne is hosting that group!

>28 cushlareads:. Hi Cushla! I was born in Denver and lived there in the 1950s through 1970s. It's a very different place now--impossible traffic, uncontrolled growth, over-the-top housing prices. Although I love pockets of it (South Denver, Washington Park, etc.), I wouldn't live there again. I'm enjoying a slower, small-town pace. You live in New Zealand? The pictures I've seen there are stunning! My brother travels there every chance he gets, and then shows off his pics--I'm green with envy.

I'm finding this first Rowling/Galbraith, The Cuckoo's Calling, to be a slow starter. Cormoran Strike? Where did she come up with a name like that? I'm about 10% into it so far, and I find myself wishing that she would step it up a bit. Maybe it's just me, though. I haven't had any long stretches for reading lately because of the holidays and lots of family visiting our new home, so I've had to read it in a very stop and start fashion.

Does anyone else find it mildly amazing that Rowling is still writing after Harry Potter? Good grief, the woman has a gobzillion $$ (I guess pounds) in her bank account. I know that money certainly isn't every writer's motivation, but seriously, she could just lead a nice life somewhere in Scotland or wherever she lives. I just read a little biog of her where she says that Jessica Mitford is her "most influential" writer. Really? Well, you have to take that sort of thing with a grain of salt, I guess. Seriously, one of my favorite biogs is The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, by Mary S. Lovell. I think Jessica was my least favorite of the group. They were once caricatured by a British journalist: "Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Nancy the Novelist, Deborah the Duchess, and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur."

I'm walking to the library this morning to get a new card. It makes me feel like I'm about 7 years old again--ha. After this last move where I dragged my books with me once again, I realize that it's indeed time to "make friends" with the library. For a lot of people that's a given, but for me it's an adjustment. I like owning books and putting them on my shelves, but reality is rearing its ugly head. I honestly don't want every wall in my new home taken up with books. LT is great because I can keep track of my reading even if I don't own the book.

What a sweet library! I am so happy you went back to your Colorado roots, Becky. I've driven through Canon City on the way to Created Butte. Small towns in Colorado are special places. I hope you share more of your CO life with us along with your reading.

>31 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. This is a Carnegie library built with money donated by Andrew Carnegie. They have a display of the paperwork involving the funding and building of the library. All it took was one letter with a request from the Canon City library women's committee; Carnegie approved the request and sent the $10,000 to build the library. Imagine--two pieces of correspondence got the job done.

Well, Unity would have been my least favorite -- what a demented young woman she was... Possibly followed by Diana, although she at least had a brain. How she could think that Mosley was a solution to Britain's problems of the era is beyond me. Debo remains my fave of the bunch -- followed by Nancy.

A little while back, a mystery writer named Lynn Shepherd took to the pages of one of the British papers or magazines to complain that JK Rowling was still writing and, she said, "sucking up all the oxygen", or words to that effect. She essentially argued that Rowling owed it to other writers to stop writing, because her high profile blocked the sunlight from reaching them, blah blah blah. I found that slightly surreal. If Rowling wants to continue writing, then WTF? Presumably it gives meaning and structure to her days. Nobody ever criticizes James Patterson for continuing to write (so I can't help wondering whether the criticism that Rowling attracts might be gender based?) I was glad to see that Shepherd got a lot of flak herself for her comments. I think good writers will find readers -- though I'd like to see writers like Rowling extend helping hands, too, by working to draw attention to promising young writers. That's one of the things I like about Patterson, however potboilerish his books are: he actually works to promote indie bookstores (he gave away something like $250k of his own money to scores of them this holiday) and works with young authors. Someone like Rowling could endow writing programs, or put money into publishing companies, or find other ways to give back, if she wanted to. That said, she may well be doing so, and I just don't know it. I've read Shepherd's novels though, and they are only meh. The Cormoran Strike books -- which I bought and began to read before the Great Revelation -- are actually better. I don't know, though, if one ever retires from writing. It might require having to have your brain chemistry altered!! It's not what you do to earn a salary, it's part of who you are.

Becky, I loved that Mitford Sisters book too - I have vivid memories of reading it when our first child (now nearly 12) was tiny. I just remember Unity as being a fruit loop.

Yep, I'm home in New Zealand after stints in Connecticut, New York and Switzerland over the years. It is indeed a beautiful country and I am happy to be home. I'll try to post some photos on my thread this year - last year was my worst yet here on LT between the pressures of school and building a new house.

Very cool about the library card! I love ours. I still buy loads of books but borrow tons and seldom finish them.

>30 labwriter: what a lovely library! So sweet with the lovely plants around too. My new library is awesome too, but very different from yours, all modern and new and big.

>33 Chatterbox: I'm sure you're right, Suzanne, that writers don't ever retire. I think having a compulsive gene must be a part of it. I'm trying to think of the female writer I know of who wrote everything in longhand, saying that, for her, the process of writing was very much like doing fine needlework. Oh, who the heck was it? Maybe Joyce Carol Oates.

>34 cushlareads:, >35 LovingLit: I was trying to explain LT to Mr. lab yesterday when we were walking to the library. "Well, you see, you can end up having conversations about books with people as far away as New Zealand. It's very cool." And it really is. I missed LT last year, but I simply couldn't afford the time, with all the work we had to do on the house to get it ready to sell. It's good to be back!

>26 labwriter: East Tennessee is cold right now! A week ago it felt like spring, with temperatures in the 60s. Yesterday we had snow flurries and a low of 20 overnight. Brrr!

Maybe I'll be able to join an LT meetup in Colorado one day. I have an uncle south of Denver, in Parker. I don't get there as often as I'd like, though. I mostly see my aunt and uncle here in East TN since my cousin (their daughter) lives just west of Knoxville.

I love the photo of your local library! The building alone would draw me in to browse the stacks.

Love the photo and story about your little library!

Re the JK Rowling discussion, I'm interested to know what you think of The Cuckoo's Calling once you're further into it. I read the first Harry Potter years ago, but didn't care for it. At all. But I really enjoyed my first Robert Galbraith, and when I found out that the author was actually Rowling, I had to check myself not to be swayed by my distaste of the first book of hers that I had read. I personally think that the Cormoran Strike series is actually good, with plots, sense of place, character development and everything (all which I thought was not very well done with HP1). Definitely not cozy, but I'm in the middle of the third and loving it.

It's sunny with sky blue skies here in Canon (fill in the tilde) and 59 degrees. I was outside in my back yard and saw one of these guys gliding around in the neighborhood. He's a Cooper's Hawk. This pic is from the internet--it's not mine. Wow, what a gorgeous bird. They like wooded habitats, including back yards. They fly with a flap-flap, glide pattern. I hope he's a frequent visitor.

>38 countrylife: I've been able to read at longer stretches the past couple of days, which helps with this book (The Cuckoo's Calling). I especially like the interplay between Cormoran Strike and Robin, his secretary.

I liked the Harry Potter books because they reminded me so much of the English boarding school books that I absorbed as a child. Replace lacrosse and field hockey with quidditch, and you've got the formula down pat... No St. Clare's or Malory Towers or Chalet School, but Hogwarts, and instead of the evil school mistress, or a bully, you have nasty wizards. Great fun in genre-bending.

if you like the Strike/Robin relationship, you're going to like the series. That's the bedrock of all the books, I think.

I'm still waiting for a book for the biography challenge to arrive--A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599. I have no idea what happened to it. Maybe it's coming by mule team. This is for the nonfiction challenge, so it would be nice to have the thing in hand.



While I wait, I thought I would mention a book I listened to in 2015 that I thoroughly enjoyed: Mademoiselle Chanel by C.W. Gortner, narrated by Rebecca Gibel. This is a historical novel, not a biography, and I tend to shy away from such. However, I absolutely adored this book. Gortner (a male) wrote this in first person pov. I think he did a masterful job. Also, Rebecca Gibel has the perfect voice for this book.

And just like that - my first book bullet of the year.

>43 countrylife: Cindy, you crack me up.

>30 labwriter: The Carnegie libraries all had character. I've had a chance to be a user in a couple of them over the years. I hope you enjoy your new library and that the staff members and volunteers are patron friendly.

Dropping my star (since I finally ran across your thread) so I can follow along.

>45 thornton37814: Hi Lori! So nice to see you here.

OK, I have to admit that my reading isn't what it used to be. However, Falling Cuckoo or The Cuckoo's Calling or whatever its called, by Galbraith or Rowling or whomever, reads like a really long book. I feel like I've been in the middle third of the book forever. I mean, move it along already. I must admit that I often find myself feeling that same sort of impatience when reading many mystery/crime novels. Maybe I'm just impatient to get my first book of the year under my belt. Oh well.

DH & I go walking just about every day. The temp finally dropped here so that it feels like winter, and yesterday it snowed. This is the Arkansas River walk, just 5 minutes from our house here in southeastern Colorado.



The cows certainly add to the ambience.

>46 labwriter: That's lovely scenery for walking!

OK, I had a choice this weekend. My next project could be: 1) Begin to organize and unpack my book boxes in the basement and plan my new shelves (YES, YES!); or 2) Start a double wedding ring quilt with my daughter-in-law to be who has asked me to teach her how to quilt. Well. Of course I chose #2, which means unpacking all of my material and other quilting and sewing supplies and setting up a place for them in the basement room where I was going to be unpacking my books. This young woman is a dream come true. She's adorable, nice, genuine, smart (she's a vet and she really knows her stuff), and she's a very accomplished knitter. She also has an edge, which I love. My son is 35 and has never been married, so I was beginning to wonder if this would ever happen. She's 30, no children, and the two of them are so happy and cute together. They met playing some online game. It's a new world. She's from Minnesota, but she has moved to Colorado (Denver area).

Which is a long way of saying that the books are going to stay in the boxes for a little while longer. And my reading time is going to be cut into a bit. Heh. Of course the solution to that is audiobooks. I've become a "better listener" over the past year, listening to more audiobooks than I ever have. Not everything lends itself (for me) to that medium. Some books work much better than others. I listened to three of the Jean Auel books last year and totally enjoyed them.

I love the double wedding ring pattern, and it will be a good chance to use some of my 30-year fabric stash. The pattern isn't for beginners, but I know she'll catch on fast and she'll certainly learn a lot about piecing. And I'll probably be doing 95% of this quilt myself, since she's very busy with working, planning the wedding, and whatever else these sweet young things do. I think it was her very nice way of letting me know that she would like to spend some time with me.

Hi Becky, hope you have had a good weekend my dear, I love the photo of the quilt, you are a talented lady. I hope you have a good week.

>49 johnsimpson: Thank you for your kind words, John. The double wedding ring quilts I've made, I gave away without photographing (why?--not even a photograph), so this is an internet photo that shows an example of the quilt.

Hoping you have a good week as well!

>48 labwriter: I love the double wedding ring pattern too!

Sounds like you hit the jackpot with your DIL, Becky. All three of our kids married well. I'm crazy about my two DILs and my SIL is fabulous as well. They all come from families where their parents are still happily married. We enjoy time spent with them whenever we can. That's a lovely quilt pattern. What a great way to bond! Enjoy the audiobooks. I usually have one going for mundane projects around the house and nighttime listening. Right now I am very much enjoying the Ferrante Neopolitan novels.

Love the quilt pattern! Will you do all that detailed work in the white parts???? It makes my stomach cramp just thinking about it.
I must say that I became quite the Cormoran Strike fan --- I do think that *Cuckoo* is the weakest of the 3, but it's true love for me. And in the Pick-a-Mitford game, my choice is Jessica even if she did become an American. I read her letters last year or the year before and that sealed the deal. I have a sneaking interest in Pamela, but Unity was simply mad.
Glad you're here!

>48 labwriter: Good luck with your quilting project! I wish I had a craft, too. I've been trying to learn how to knit, but I just don't have the time. Too much reading, studying, blogging, and LTing. Too bad, because I could get some audiobooks listened to while knitting.

Hope you had a great weekend.

{{Good morning Bakers--I mean Visitors}} (I've been watching too much of the Great British Bakeoff show).

>47 cbl_tn: Carrie, DH and I are loving finding new walks and trails around here. This river walk is particularly good for days when it's snowy and I don't want to do a lot of up and down hiking. We just can't get over how close to our house all of these great hikes are. When we lived in Missouri near St. Louis, the best we had was Forest Park, which was nice, but was 20 minutes from our house in traffic. We usually just settled for walking in the neighborhood. We're over the moon about our new town.

>51 thornton37814: Hi Lori. I "cheat" with this pattern and use Eleanor Burns' technique ("Quilt in a Day"). She's over-the-top hilarious (I love her youtube videos), but she's also a good quilter. I don't like her techniques for all of the patterns, but the way she puts together the DWR makes good sense to me, and I think it makes a lovely finished product.

>52 Donna828: Donna, we're over the moon about this young woman. Every time they visit, she asks me "When would you like us to be there and what can we bring?" She's cheerful and funny. She makes lists and gets things done. We learned about their engagement on Christmas Eve--best Christmas of my life. I love life when I have a good audio book going--I get so much done around the house. Ha.

>53 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. You made me laugh--your comment about the "white parts." More and more, people are doing complicated quilting by machine. I piece my quilts on the machine (for non-quilters, piecing is the step involved in sewing the fabric pattern), but I'm a hand-quilter (the sewing pattern that holds the quilt layers together). My white parts won't be nearly that elaborate. I'm liking The Cuckoo's Calling, but at about 85% of the way through the book, I have found parts of it to be a bit over-long. Names, names, names. She also could have used some sort of sub-plot or something. Something. I'm glad to hear the you liked the others, because I've enjoyed the Strike and Robin duo.

>54 The_Hibernator: Rachel, I've only picked up quilting again recently. There were times in my life when I had to put it away completely because I had no time for it. To take its place, I always tried to have a crochet project going that I could easily pick up and put down. The craft thing--whatever it happens to be at the moment--is a creative outlet that I seem to need. While I was working part-time as an RN, I went back to school and got a BA and MA in English lit--took me about 15 years, from the age of 35 to 50. I'm the kind of person who loves school. It was definitely a trade-off, and I had to say no to many other things during those years. But looking back on it, I wouldn't trade that time in school for anything.

What a sweet DIL(to be) / quilt story! Lucky ladies, the both of you. Looks like you've landed in a gorgeous part of the country. Love the pictures!

Congratulations on your prospective DIL! It must be a wonderful thing when that relationship is close and warm!
Glad I could entertain you with my technical knowledge of quilting terms. When I was a child living in the country, I used to visit two elderly sisters who always had a quilt going. You should picture the large frame taking up most of the largest room - a room in which I could watch the chickens walk around under the house through the cracks between the floorboards. Now I know that those quilts were quite likely the real deal. I'm sorry I never asked for one. I was certainly too little to learn to quilt - couldn't have reached the frame unless I stood on a chair. Anyway, I've always been exceedingly inept with a needle.....my grandmother's child. She took in washing during the Depression to have $ to pay a seamstress to make her daughters' dresses because her own sewing was so execrable.

>55 labwriter: Hi Becky. I too love school. I've gone back just now and have to give up a lot of stuff that I'm interested in - like reading. We'll see how long I can keep up blogging and LT.

>56 countrylife:; >57 LizzieD: Hi Cindy & Peggy. We're having so much fun hiking around here and finding new spots. We've never lived in a place where we had so many places for good hikes literally minutes from home. Peggy, I love the stories about the elderly sisters and your grandmother. Not everyone likes to sew.

>58 The_Hibernator: Yeah, Rachel, sometimes life feels like it's all about trying to figure out what to drop and what to keep. Unfortunately, we can't do it all. I'm loving this quilt I'm working on, but wowza! my reading is going to suffer.

Book #1 is in the can for 2016. Whew. I thought I was picking something that I could whiz through for my first book of the year. Instead, I got pretty bogged down with the 47 characters Galbraith / Rowling had going in this thing, The Cuckoo's Calling. I gave the book 3 stars. Why? Even I could see the book's obvious resolution coming, and I'm notoriously thick-headed when it comes to solving these things. The ending was nothing special; it was mainly just a matter of tying up the loose ends from the previous 400 or so pages. And the pace of the book was unremittingly slow--not the kind of meanderingly slow pace that you want to get lost in, but the kind of slow where you think, Could you just move it along a little faster? That said, it was a "good enough" read, but I never found myself pushing to find time to read just a little bit more. Instead, I was pushing myself just to finish the book. I liked the Strike / Robin camaraderie. Without that, I would have abandoned the book. I hear the next two are better, The Silkworm and Career of Evil. Both are in my little library here in town, so I'm sure I'll pick them up one of these days.

I'm doing a combination of listening and reading my next one, A Year in the Life of Shakespeare, 1599, by James Shapiro. To my ABSOLUTE DISGUST I realized about a quarter of the way into my listening of this thing that the audiobook is abridged. To me, that's a 4-letter word. I only got the audiobook because after 14 days my paper copy still hadn't arrived at my door. Now it has, and now I'm finished reading the Cuckoo book, so I can turn my attention to reading Shapiro's book. What I've heard so far is excellent, but I'm looking forward to filling in the gaps of the abridged edition.

About 10 years ago or so I put away all of my quilting supplies, because when I make a quilt the process takes over my life. Since then I've made only one quilt--a small baby quilt for a new niece. Now I've unpacked all of my fabric so that I can make a Double Wedding Ring quilt. Consequently, the only time I have left for reading is at night, at least until I learn this pattern and get the quilt underway. So last night I read 15 pages of A Year in the Life of Shakespeare, 1599. The book is excellent, but I'm not looking forward to reading it 15 pages at a time--ha. The audiobook is read by the author, James Shapiro, but the darned thing is ABRIDGED, so I gave up on that in favor of the dead tree book. I thought "retirement" meant I would have time on my hands. Ha.

Is there a 25 Book Challenge? Oh woe.

I also need to start planning my garden. I have a 30x90' spot with perfect sun that is nothing but grass. I recently found Rosemary Gladstar's book, Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide. I've decided that for this first year in my new garden I'll start with creating a very robust herb garden. That's the plan anyway. Well, and tomatoes and peppers.

Oh dear. I'm sort of with you on the 25 book challenge thing. One of these days though, I hope that I'll finish the 4 I have going now, so that might move me up to 50......hard to say.
Your workspace is SO neat!!!

>60 labwriter: and >61 LizzieD: Neat as in 'I wish I had that space!'

>60 labwriter: You know you are always welcome in the 75 group whether you make it to 75 or not. I know that I am cutting into my reading time once again because I've begun cross-stitching again. I'm also preparing for six genealogical presentations and one library one--some new, some just needing to be updated--to be given in the 2nd quarter of 2016. Those presentations are in addition to some genealogical research and writing that I'm trying to do. I think I could stay busy if I could retire, but I need the guaranteed income so I keep working.

>63 thornton37814: I seem not to be able to get going on a genealogy project since the move, Lori. There's so much I would like to do here. The other day I walked past the house that my 2x great grandfather died in where he was living with his daughter (who is herself quite the character, one I'd like to know a lot more about). The house is only half a mile away from where I'm living. He was a retired widow when he lived here, and he spent his time helping to set up and support GAR posts (Grand Army of the Republic, for those who don't know) in southeastern Colorado. He was evidently proud of his Civil War veteran status.

>61 LizzieD: >62 ffortsa: Ha. I "neaten up" my sewing space every day after working on the quilt, mostly because I'm such a terrifically un-neat person. I don't have a sewing room, since my office is taken up with (I know this will surprise everyone here--sarcasm) BOOKS. Right now I'm working on the dining room table until I can figure out something else. Once everything is cut for the quilt, I can probably find room for the project in my office.

I'm working on plans for raised beds in my garden. That's about as far as I've gotten--"working" on it.

As far as reading is concerned, I've gone back to the audiobook of A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599, trying to forgive James Shapiro for reading an abridged edition of his book. I got a paperback copy of the book after realizing that the audio version was abridged, and I found that the type is too small for my eyes--I can't piece a quilt and read small print all in the same day. Hell.

The book I'm reading at night is Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, by Ted Sorensen, counselor and speechwriter for JFK. I'm a political junkie, but I can't take what's going on now, in either party, so political history seems like a better way to go these days.

We also spend a good part of each day (or most days) hiking on the nearby trails. We've decided that this place suits us. The weather has been unbelievable. Yesterday was sunny and in the 50's, while just 30 miles away it was blowing snow. You can see that the mountains that surround us (is that a butte? a mesa? a plateau? I still need to figure out the nomenclature) have no snow on them. Amazing.

Yesterday's hike:



What was it that Wallace Stegner said in one of his books--something like, To those who are from the East or the Midwest--in order to appreciate the beauty of the West, you have to get over the color green.

P.S. The threads here have slowed down a bit, but still I can't possibly keep up the way I'd like to. I enjoy reading them even if I don't comment the way I would like.

>64 labwriter: This morning I had a guy who used to be in band with me in high school contact me about what I charged to do family tree research. I happened to know that he was in my genealogy database because he was descended from one of my Thomas Duke's daughters. I looked and discovered he was also on my Anglin line. I had a surprisingly large amount of information on his paternal ancestry. The report ended up being almost 30 pages. I sent him that plus a pedigree chart. We're going to work on his maternal line. I know he's not able to afford my rates, but I'll probably help him some. He'd actually done quite a bit of research that was lost in a house fire several years ago. He didn't even know we were cousins!

OK, I'm just going to throw this out there. There's someone in this group who IMO is doing a very funny job of parodying an LT 75 Group thread. If it's a parody, then it's devastatingly funny. On the other hand, if it's not and instead is actually someone's real life, then I wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings--so I won't say any more. But I think this person is having a wonderful time of it, having us on.

So hooray, #2 for 2016 is in the can.



James Shapiro, author of A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599. 4.5 stars

I don't do the traditional review of the books I read. I'm sure there are plenty of good reviews of this book here at LT or at Amazon. I like something that qebo (Katherine) does on her thread, so I'm going to copy that for mine.

Why Now? I read this book for Chatterbox's (Suzanne's) 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge, Biographies in January. I heard about James Shaprio's new book, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, which sounds fascinating. Searching for that book, I found this earlier one about 1599. I decided to read the earlier one first, and then if I liked that, I would read the one about Lear. I liked it very much, so the Lear is going on my TBR pile.

I find the studies about the person who was Shakespeare to be endlessly fascinating. It's astounding that we know so little about him. James Shapiro is Professor of English and Comparative Lit at Columbia U who specializes in Shakespeare and the Early Modern period. His approach was to read everything published in that year, including letters and other unpublished records, an approach that is evidently unique to Shakespeare studies.

The 1599 book is heavy on the history, and although Shapiro's writing style is compelling, the historical detail can be slow going at times. If someone wants to skip some of the history surrounding England and the late 1500s and just wants Shapiro's take on the plays that Shakespeare wrote in and around 1599 (Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet), then I recommend the abridged audio edition, read by Shapiro himself. I read about 100 pages of the paperback edition until I realized that quilting and small print both were too hard on my eyes, so I switched to the audio edition. Shapiro's reading of the text adds a valuable dimension. I wish it hadn't been abridged.

I should add that Shapiro includes a 41-page bibliographical essay that is GOLD for anyone who wants to delve into Shakespeare studies.

Also, I broke down and grabbed the Kindle edition of the book for $5.99. Oh well, now I have 3 versions of the thing. Good grief.

>59 labwriter: Oooh. Abridged. *shudder in the depths of my soul*

>64 labwriter: That looks so great! I'm jealous of your hike. I guess I could go snowshoeing.

Hope you have a great week ahead!

>68 The_Hibernator: Thank you Rachel! We're experiencing some very mild January weather here in southeastern Colorado. I know it won't last, but we're making the most of it while we can.

This is an area called Fire Canyon. The trail head is about 20 minutes from our house per Mr. lab's jeep. There was weather all around us that day, so when it started moving in on us we quickly made the hike an out-and-back instead of a loop.



I made chicken soup yesterday, enough to last for about a month--ha. While I was working in the kitchen I continued listening to an amazing book, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis. The narrator is Enn Reitel. He does a great job. This happens to me frequently with audio books--I find one I love and then wish I had a paper copy of the book. I would like to be able to mark some of the memorable quotations from this book. The portrait of George Mallory, in itself, is worth the read. It's fascinating how he and several others were intertwined with the Bloomsbury group. What a complex fellow he was!



George Mallory is on the far left. Imagine even hiking in those clothes, let alone climbing Everest.

Otherwise, my reading is pretty thin. I wasn't feeling too well the past couple of days (thus the chicken soup--ha), so I settled on a mindless cozy mystery that popped up as a suggestion on my Kindle: Pudding, Poison, & Pie, a Marsden-Lacey Cozy Mystery by Sigrid Vansandt.



Why now? Because I wasn't feeling well and didn't feel like concentrating on anything that needed an engaged brain. This is #3, and I didn't read #1 or #2, so I was a bit at a loss for some of the backstory. It didn't really matter. The book is part of the Kindle free library program, so it didn't cost me anything and I didn't have to go to the library to get it. The book doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is--light reading fare for a cold winter day. Actually the writing wasn't bad. I'd give it 3.0 stars--a good enough read. I might even go back and read #1 in the series, Two Birds With One Stone. The series is a bit odd because the author lives in the Ozarks and the setting is in the UK, and I'm afraid her Americanized language is a bit jarring. I didn't really care, but a reader who cares about such things probably wouldn't finish the book or at least would be highly annoyed.

>67 labwriter: I like something that qebo (Katherine) does on her thread
I think I got the why now? from lauralkeet. Definitely wasn't my idea.

Saw your post on lauralkeet's needlearts thread about crochet as "knitting for dummies". I too know how to crochet (taught by my mother during the 1972 Olympics) but not how to knit, and I keep an aspirational eye on the superior craftsfolk among us.

>70 qebo: I think about Eleanor Roosevelt, compulsively knitting, and how having something to keep her hands occupied probably saved her. I also believe that repetitive activities (for me, it's sweeping) alleviate depression. Not that I'm constantly depressed or anything, but I do have my moments. I would like to learn to knit, but I wonder if it isn't a bit late in the game, especially considering that I've taken up quilting again. There are only so many hours in the day, and less and less it seems as the years go by. I have a Christmas-y crochet quilt that I've been ignoring for years--might as well put it in the sewing basket next to the TV and do something useful while I watch the evening shows.

I've taken up darning socks as hand sewing--very practical, especially for my "SmartWool" socks that wear out in the heels after about a month or so of wear. They are certainly $mart for the company that makes them. For socks that cost so much, I've found that certain of them wear out quite quickly. Happily, teaching myself to darn has given my expensive favorite socks new life. The lightbulb makes a great darning egg.

>66 labwriter: oh, now I'm consumed with curiosity. Can't you provide a hint? maybe a PM?

The country around you looks amazing. I haven't been out west at all - just flown over it, and it's only because of the double glass in the cabin windows that I didn't hang my head out to get a better look every time. One of these days, I'll make a trip.

Gee, expensive socks should last longer than a month. that's quite a yawning cavern in that heel!

Hope you're feeling better after the prescribed chicken soup.

>72 ffortsa: oh, now I'm consumed with curiosity.
Heh, me too, not so much who but what a parody of a 75er thread might be.

I'm not a fan of abridged audiobooks though last year it worked out fairly happily for me as I don't think I'd have lasted the full length of Look me in the eye by John Elder Robison.

>72 ffortsa: >73 qebo: me too!

Hi Becky - I love your pictures and quilting talk. My mom quilts and gave me up as hopeless, so I'll stick to crochet and embroidery.

The Shakespeare sounds good. I enjoyed Shapiro's Contested Will, so will look for this one, too.

I hope you're feeling better.

>72 ffortsa:; >73 qebo:; >74 avatiakh: Oh I am so bad. If it were a parody, it would be brilliant. But perhaps it's not.

>75 BLBera: Thank you so much. And thanks for visiting.

>72 ffortsa:. Haha your comment about the "yawning" hole in the heel. I absolutely recommend getting to those holes before they become so large. I couldn't bear to throw those socks away, and I hadn't yet discovered darning--thus the huge hole in the heel.

I don't know where you live, but I hope you will someday make a trip out West. Until you do, I highly recommend Wallace Stegner,

The complete quotation from him that I love is from Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West: "You have to get over the color green; you have to quit associating beauty with gardens and lawn; you have to get used to an inhuman scale; you have to understand geological time." While I enjoyed this book of essays, Stegner can get a bit finger-waggy about the problems of water and the West. I re-read it three or four years ago, and I notice I gave it only 3 stars. But he is definitely worth reading.



Here I am hiking on the Fire Canyon trail. Obviously there was a fire there some time ago--I don't know when. (Added: It must have been the 700 acre fire in 2014 that was started by lightening. This is a new trail system, and it's simply gobsmacking!) Those blackened timbers would have all been some type of juniper tree. The storm was coming at us, so we quickly turned around and headed back the way we came. Five minutes before those clouds weren't anywhere in sight.



The trail head for Fire Canyon Trail is 20 minutes easy access from our house by jeep. We were probably an hour into the hike at this point. I didn't know how grateful I was going to feel to be back home in Colorado.

Hi Becky, I really love reading your thread of normality my dear, I hope you are having a really good weekend my dear. Sending love and hugs.

>77 johnsimpson: Thanks for your kind words John. And thank you for visiting.

I started The Martian by Andy Weir as my nightly read on my Kindle. The movie was enjoyable. My son recommended the book.

>78 labwriter: Oooh, The Martian! Yay!

>79 scaifea: The Martian is a hoot, Amber. I like Weir's sense of humor. Have you read it?

The Strange Reading Month of January

I'm hoping that my reading in January isn't some sort of new "trend" with me. I read three books, and I barely got through those. I almost don't remember a time when I spent less time reading. I got bogged down in The Cuckoo's Calling (gosh, couldn't she just have added about 20 more characters--ha). I intend to read the other two books in that series, but when??? I thoroughly enjoyed the Shakespeare book by James Shapiro, and I'd like to read his book about Lear. It's on the stack. Yep.

The best thing I did in January was to start listening to the audio version of Into the Silence, by Wade Davis, a book about the WWI generation and their attempts to climb Everest. What an amazing read this is! Thankfully I found the maps that are in the book on Amazon. I listen to it when I'm in the kitchen, so consequently my kitchen is always ship-shape and Mr. lab couldn't be happier with the meals I've been making. I'm quite sure that this book will be at or near the top of "best reads" for 2016.

My choice of the Shakespeare and of the Everest book was inspired by Suzanne's (Chatterbox) challenge: the 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge. I'm hugely enjoying the comments about the books people are reading in that group and I'm also getting great ideas for future reads.

Happy February reading, everyone.

On the Fire, so I'll be back. Silence was top book for me in '14.

>80 labwriter: Yep, I've read The Martian and loved it - hence the YAY!

>82 scaifea: I'm getting just a bit bogged down in all of the chemistry in The Martian. My husband is a chemist, my MIL was a chemist, her brother was a chemist, etc. Table talk when those three got together was {{eye-rolling}}--ha--but now the MIL and the uncle are gone, and I'd give a whole lot to have to listen to their chemistry talk just one more time. Oh--I forgot--my DIL-to-be majored in chemistry before she went to Vet school. So I'm generationally surrounded--sandwiched--by chemists.

I got laughed at yesterday (or mocked--I think it was mocked) by DH and his chemist cousin (good grief, is there such a thing as a chemistry gene?) for not remembering that Goldwater's political slogan in his 1964 campaign was "AuH20." Really? I was 12 years old, and I'm quite sure that chemistry wasn't anywhere on my radar at the time. Ha.

Anywho, I'm here to report almost no progress on the reading scene. I'm still reading (and enjoying, despite my anti-chemistry rant) The Martian and still listening to Into the Silence. I can't even really report all that much progress on my quilt despite being snowed in for a couple of days this past week. So, what the heck, I have no idea where the time goes. All I know is that it flies.

I'm loving the Colorado hiking pictures. And glad to see you're another Wallace Stegner fan!

>80 labwriter: I love the heart quilt, Becky. I wouldn't worry about your January numbers. Just enjoy what you're reading and share your thoughts with us! I too liked The Martian, both book and movie, and didn't even try to figure out the science parts!

I'm glad to hear the Shapiro book is worthwhile. I think our library has the one you read, and I've just ordered The Year of Lear for the library collection.

>80 labwriter: - Love that quilt! So pretty. Is it one you made? I'm quite sure it isn't one of the *Underground Railroad* code quilts, though...;-)

I am still reading that book, by the way. I've been really slow in my reading the last few days, just too much going on, I guess. I hope to pick up the pace this week.

>87 jessibud2: Ha. No, the heart quilt was just to say "Happy February." It's not even one that I made, although it looks like fun.

My very favorite quilt historian is Barbara Brackman. I'm happy to say she has a blog. Here's her post about the underground railroad quilts: http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/09/underground-railroad-quilts.html

I have an old book of hers (1989) that taught me a lot about dating old quilts. Clues in the Calico.

>76 labwriter: I love that quote from Stegner. The west has to get over its love affair with the color green anyway, lawns are not meant to thrive in many of the places out there. Also, hi! I am from California but lived in Colorado for 5 years (Denver, not out in the scenic parts).

>88 labwriter: That book is one that is on my wish list and that I've "long-listed" for my Thingaversary haul at the end of March.

>89 ursula: Hi Ursula. I was born in Denver and grew up there in the 1950s and 1960s. Wow, it's changed so much, although what place hasn't, right? We are loving our very slow-paced little town, Canon City. DH was saying the other day that living here is a lot like stepping back in time. I'm determined to get rid of the grass (or at least the large expanses of grass), but I WILL NOT use rock, the way so many people around here do. I know that a lot of people use it because that's what they can afford; or they use it because they're not physically able to keep up anything else. But if people would at least plant a few bushes so that the birds would have a little habitat, the bushes wouldn't take that much upkeep and small ones aren't that expensive. I think a lot of people just don't want to be bothered. End of rant-of-the-day. Ha.

>90 thornton37814: Lori, that's one of my favorite quilt-related books. It's in a box right now--because I'm making a quilt and don't have time to deal with my books. Haha.

Another reason I don't have as much time for reading is because Mr. lab & I are doing a lot of walking/hiking. Last week it snowed, so the trails around here have been too wet to hike (slippery rocks are dangerous), so we've been hiking Skyline Drive, a road that runs along a Dakota sandstone hogback. The road was built in 1905 using inmates as road-builders. Anyone working on the road got time taken off their sentence. It's about 5 miles long, and cars are allowed to drive only one way (thank goodness, since they have a way of sneaking up on people hiking on the road because of the hairpin turns). We've met a lot of walkers on the road--lots of fellow retirees who live in the area. The high school kids love to bomb down this road in their cars, so it's best not to be walking there right after school lets out. The beginning of the road is 5 minutes from our house. Who needs a gym?

This isn't my photo. It isn't even the right season. But that hill is already very familiar. Ha.

>91 labwriter: - What a spectacular view!

Hi Becky, just passing by to wish you a very lovely and enjoyable weekend my dear, sending love and hugs.

Thanks for the scenic pictures. That hill in #91 looks totally intimidating, but the trails looked wonderful. I get get over green.

I've only been to Colorado once, for a week's work in Colorado Springs. I did get up to Pike's Peak, and some of the parks there. Gorgeous.

>91 labwriter: Beautiful

Happy Valentine's Day Becky!

Thanks so much to my visitors, and thank you, Rachel, for the Valentine's wish.

The reading is lagging but the Double Wedding Ring quilt is growing. It took about 50 or so practice arcs before I was happy with them. And then I decided to change the fabric--to use a more contemporary palette than the 1930s Aunt Grace reproductions.



Now that I've got some of these blocks made, it's clear that the quilt will require a lot less of these 12" blocks than I thought. Whew.

I'm still reading The Martian on my Kindle at night, and listening to Into the Silence during the day. I think I'm finally at the chapter where George Mallory meets his fate on Everest--must be, since I'm at Chapt. 13, "The Price of Life is Death." This is an amazing read! It's one of those books that I'll miss terribly when I'm finished.

My other project is to plan and build (Mr. lab will do the building) my raised beds in the back yard for my vegetable and herb gardens. We've had an incredibly mild winter, and even though I'm sure Winter isn't done with us yet, it's time to get the frames built and filled with soil/compost. So the audio books will probably continue to be my main reads. I have nothing but GRASS in my yards--huge expanses of grass. Sometimes the whole thing just makes me tired. I loved my Missouri gardens and worked so hard on them. The idea of starting over feels fairly awful.

Whoot! I finally finished a book. I'm going to borrow from my comments at the 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge Part II: History in February.



I listened to the audio version of Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis, narrated by Enn Reitel. With an audio book, the narrator can make or break a book, and Reitel was a good choice as narrator for this one. My only quibble is that he seemed to have a cold or something when he read the crucial last chapter, and it was somewhat distracting, listening to someone read who seemed to have some sort of sinus condition. That might be one of the oddest comments I've made about a book--ha. It was a bit difficult keeping track of the many characters in the book. I probably should have tried to find this book in the library so that I would have had the hard copy to refer to. I was able to follow along with the maps found in the book, since they are reproduced at Amazon.com; however I missed the comprehensive 50-page annotated bibliography that is found in the hard copy, as well as the 16 pages of photos. I'm trying to buy less books for my shelves by using my Kindle more and listening to audio books, but this book does seem to deserve a place on my 5-star shelf.

The book goes into great depth and detail, putting the first attempts of the British to conquer Everest between 1921 and 1924 into historical context, both from the British aspect and from the point of view of the people and governments of Tibet and Nepal. The first climbers were part of the generation of those who fought in WWI; the life-changing influence and trauma of the war on the climbers is one of the author's central themes.

For some, this book will be simply too detailed--some wag described it as a long, hard climb. I, on the other hand, found myself always ready to give whatever time I had to listening to the book. 5 stars

Why now? I read this for Chatterbox's (Suzanne's) February nonfiction challenge. I chose this book because a friend was reading it and highly recommended it. I like reading about things I will never do and know nothing about. I particularly enjoyed this book because of the way Davis put the first Everest climbs into historical context.

>96 labwriter: I like the color selection, also it's helpful to see the separate pieces. The arcs look difficult.
>97 labwriter: I've plopped that onto the wishlist on the basis of several positive reviews. Who knows when I'll get to it, but I'm interested in the historical aspect.

I'm glad to see another person passionate about *Silence*. I LOVED THAT BOOK!!!!!! You should really have a paper copy of your very own.

>98 qebo: The arcs are pretty straightforward IF you get the 1/4" seams just right. I'm using the fusible interfacing technique--sew the interfacing on the arc and turn it. I love this technique because then there's no turning down and sewing the edges, the technique I've always used for applique, etc. Plus you can check the size of the arc against the interfacing and know immediately if it's right or not. Brilliant.

>99 LizzieD: Peggy, agreed.

I finished another one. I feel bereft, finishing both of my books at the same time.



The Martian by Andy Weir 4 stars

"In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl."

Straight up, I am no fan of science fiction. Probably the last one I read was something by Ray Bradbury in the 1970s. However, when my son says, "You should read this one, Mom," then I do it. I liked this one. It was realistic enough. The guy stuck on Mars is like McGyver with added IQ points. Mark Watney figures stuff out. He is also funny, which adds a much-needed extra dimension to the book. Really? Mark Watney? What kind of name is that for an astronaut. Buzz Lightyear, maybe. Andy Weir must have had fun with that one. I live with someone a lot like this guy, so his ability to think his way out of his problems seemed quite plausible. "Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped." Even on Mars. It certainly is in our house.

It's fascinating to note that this came out in 2012 as a self-published novel.

>100 labwriter: It's fascinating to note that this came out in 2012 as a self-published novel. I didn't know that. For some reason I haven't got around to this one yet.

Yay for The Martian! I LOVED it, as did many here.

Feb 24. I'm quite sure this has been the sunniest February of my life. I know that Winter isn't done with us here, but we are certainly having quite a break from it. Remind me not to whine in April when we get snow and nasty weather.

The books I'm reading now:



I'll have more to say about these as I finish each one. Despite the sunny weather and the pull to get outside and get some of my garden beds started, and despite working on a Double Wedding Ring quilt, I would say my reading is going better than it has for the past few months. It is the very pits to get into a reading funk. Rarely has that ever happened to me. Last year was a bad year for reading, but only because I had no choice but to work my butt off on the house so that we could get it sold. I'm so grateful to have all that behind us and to be in the new place. We have no real plans for doing any renovating around here anytime soon. I'll work on the gardens. The rest of it can just be on hold for awhile.

Ah, the joys of on hold! Make the most of them!
Glad to see you reading good stuff!

>104 LizzieD: Thanks Peggy! Agree! about the joys of on hold.

OK, I'm just gonna throw this out here. R.K. Rowlings fans, please don't hate me for it. I'm a huge crime/mystery/who-dunnit fan, and I'm reading the second book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book. Let's just say that I'm not finding this book to be a compelling read. Galbraith/Rowlings seems to have done the same thing in this one that I found (OK, I'm going to use the "B" word) boring in the first one--she introduces about 40 unpleasant characters, all of whom must be presented as "possible" murderers. I don't like any of these people--including the victim--so who really cares? The writing is good, and there are things I like about the book, including the character of Strike (although he's in danger of becoming whiney and self-pitying) and his "plucky, intrepid assistant." I'm sure I'll finish this one. I'm just not sure why.

An enjoyable read. 4 stars

I just finished listening to Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Medicine, Madness and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard. This is the story of the short presidency and death of James Garfield. It's not a biography of Garfield, but instead is an account of American life and politics at the time of the Garfield presidency. This is a story from American history that I knew nothing about. According to the account in Millard's book, Garfield was an intelligent and a good man, and our country was definitely the poorer because his life was cut short. He took office as the 20th President in March of 1881 and was assassinated later that same year.

One thing I found particularly interesting in this book was the description of the Garfield's presidential campaign and election--so different from what goes on today that it doesn't seem like the same country.

The book was almost as much about the assassin, Charles Guiteau, as it was about Garfield. I could have done with less detail about him.

The medical history was fascinating. Poor Garfield took something like 80 days to die from the bullet wound in his back. Millard makes the point that he probably would have survived the wound if they had done nothing--if they had simply left him alone. What the doctors did to the man was harrowing.

Why now? I read this for the 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge Part II: History in February that was started by Suzanne (Chatterbox). March is Travel, so I'm planning to reread Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig.

>106 labwriter: A recent PBS program based on this book is available online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/garfield/ .

>107 qebo: Thanks!

>106 labwriter: - This sounds like a book I'd enjoy listening to. I'll have to see if my library has it

Hi Becky, I am finally catching up with the threads that I starred in January. LT has been very busy! Mademoiselle Chanel has been sitting patiently on the shelf waiting for me, good to hear that you liked it, hopefully it will be as good in print as in audio. I love the photo of your hiking areas in Colorado. I am surprised at how brown your out west is - particularly as I am also in the west and it hardly ever is brown here, it is so damp there is moss growing on the trees. I got a giggle out of your over-the-top Denver house prices!

>110 Familyhistorian: So I had to look to see where you live--such beautiful country. My brother is in Sequim, Washington, not all that terribly far from you. He loves it there. They get a lot of rain and, compared to us, not all that much sun. So his area is green, green. Beautiful. We get VERY little rain here and it's sunny almost every day. My brother grew up here, but he has said many times that he could never handle so much sun again. We're also high--about 5300 feet above sea level--so the sun is intense. Great for a vegetable garden!

Thanks for stopping by, and I home you like the Chanel.

>111 labwriter: Yes, lots of rain except for last year when we had a drought from May to August. It was very strange to see brown grass here. It is a beautiful part of the country, and as I spent many a winter in the east I much prefer the rain to real winter. It looks like you have the best of both worlds with great walks and beautiful country even the predominant colour isn't green. One of the things I like about were I live is all the places to walk and being close to rivers and mountains.

Oh dear, I thought last night my Kindle died. I couldn't get it to do anything. This morning I looked up "What to do," and found a suggestion that worked: Hold the "On" button down for 30 seconds. That seemed to reboot everything, and now all is well.

Suzanne's (Chatterbox) challenge for March is Travel. I'm listening to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, first published in 1974. I've read this book several times, and it's nice to revisit it now. It's been about 20 years since I last read the book, so I'm interested to see how I'll react to it today.

>113 labwriter: It will be interesting to see how you see it now. It continues to be a popular book.

We had a bad scare the past couple of days with our dear-o black Lab, Docker. He'll be 14 in April, so he's no youngster. When a Lab won't eat, you know he's sick. He was also vomiting and couldn't keep anything down. My brother recently lost his 14-year-old dog to something that started out the same way and ended up with renal failure. I was as prepared as I could be for bad news yesterday when we took him to the vet. But the bloodwork showed a healthy dog (DH--"His cholesterol is better than mine"), so the verdict was that somehow he must have gotten into something. Since I watch this guy like a hawk, I don't know how or when it could have been. The anti-nausea drug was a miracle. I was also texting like crazy my Vet DIL-to-be while we were at the Vet here in town, since I don't know the town Vet well. How great to have a second opinion right there on the phone. Docker would follow me everywhere, even if he were half dead, so yesterday we both sat on the couch the entire day. This morning he's his normal happy self. Oh you animals, you do wrap yourselves around our hearts so.

Hi Becky, so glad Docker is ok, what a lovely looking dog he is, sending love and hugs to you all and special ones for Docker.

>115 labwriter: 14 is no youngster. Glad he's OK.

>100 labwriter: I greatly enjoyed this book and I am glad you took your son's advice. It is a fine piece of work and highly entertaining. I just watched the movie last night. It was good, but did not match the humor and ingenuity of the book.

>106 labwriter: Finally someone else who listened to this fascinating bit of history. I wholeheartedly agree with you that our nation would have benefited from a full Garfield presidency. I also found the audacity of the medical establishment highly frustrating. But, such is hindsight when reviewing tragedy.

Whew! GOOD for Docker and the two two-legged ones too. Our old ones are so precious!

>119 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. You're right--our precious old ones.

>118 brodiew2: Brodie, I agree with your assessment of The Martian--the movie was good, but it didn't really do the book justice. And the medical account of Garfield's 79 days of essentially waiting to die in Destiny of the Republic was harrowing. Poor man. For what it's worth, my brother has lived in Sequim for 30 years--not all that close to you, I guess, but certainly similar topography, I would think. We can't talk him into living anywhere else--ha.

Oh, thank goodness Docker is okay! Whew!

>120 labwriter: Like! (If LT won't give us a LIKE button, then I guess I'll make my own.)

So glad Docker is healthy again. It's awful when our babies are ill and we don't know why. We've had our Lucky for over 11 years now. He's a rescue dog so we don't know his age but estimate him to be 13. He's been pretty peppy this winter but Missouri summers slow him down. You remember MO humidity I'm sure. I'd like to move to CO for the summer.

>123 Donna828: Hi Donna. Yes, this CO climate is a big change from Missouri. Summers in Missouri are tough, and sometimes the winters aren't exactly a picnic. I've resorted to running a vaporizer here at night because I can't breathe--too dry. We've had next to no precip since we've moved here (2" of snow, at most), and the humidity has been running about 10%. Docker is doing well here, but facts are facts--14 is old. His half brother lived to age 12. It's hard when they get older, but that's part of what we sign up for when we bring them into our hearts. Docker has a cousin in Missouri (he lived on our block) who is only 7 and was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. You just never know, and I guess the trick is to be grateful for whatever time we have with them. They're so worth it.

I'm loving Michael Pollan's Second Nature: A Gardener's Education. I wish I had the time to sit and read this book, but (sort of ironically, I guess), I can't because I have too much work to do to get my garden beds ready. But that's not a complaint! Far from it.

I'll throw this question out there--Does anyone know how many chapters The Silkworm has? My Kindle edition doesn't have page numbers. It doesn't even tell me what % of the book I've read so far. I've looked at other sites, and I can't find an answer. I guess the next thing to do is to try to find the book at the library. One of my problems with this book is that it seems interminable, and maybe that's because I'm almost finished and don't know it. I guess I could flip through to the end on my Kindle. I just thought it would be an easy question to answer, and apparently it's not.

>126 labwriter: Huh. The Nook edition has a TOC and a page count of 481. (Though "page" is such a variable thing from one book to the next that it's not terribly meaningful.) 50 chapters.

>126 labwriter: - One of many reasons I will never become a convert to reading on *devices*. I NEED chapters, I need page numbers, I need to see how much I've read and how much is left. I also, apparently, need to hold a real book in my hand, smell it, write in it (only if it's my own book, though), and use real bookmarks.

I think I am what is called a luddite when it comes to books. Ha! (I suppose I've been called worse...)

>127 qebo: >128 jessibud2: Thank you so much! I'm at chapter 28. Oh woe. I get it that Strike's leg is a "thing," but Galbraith/Rowling does such a good job with it that it's becoming more and more burdensome and painful to read. Ditto the "coughing woman"--Elizabeth Tassel.

Shelley, I'm with you about reading on a "device." I hugely prefer to read from a physical book. The main reason I read from my Kindle at night is the backlighting, so I bother Mr. lab less with the light. I've tried small book lights, but they work only up to a point.

>129 labwriter: - Years ago, I bought a booklight that goes on my head. I have 2 very different designs of them, actually. One is a lightweight but rigid headband with a swivel-type light, looks almost like the thing people who are on the phone a lot used to use but instead of the mouthpiece being movable, it's the light that is movable. More recently, I bought a headpiece that is more like a fabric headband, with the headlight attached (like miners use but much smaller). It came in very handy a few years ago when Toronto had the big ice storm and we were without power for a few days in the dead of winter. I could walk around the house with it, hands-free. I feel very virtuous using it on Earth Hour, when I read for the hour that I turn off all electricity. ;-)
But I'd think it would be great for the purpose you mentioned, too.

I just found your thread, hello. I love the pictures of your walks, your countryside is so dramatic (it's pretty much flat where I am). I do like hills though so your comments about the Mallory book Into the Silence have convinced me to add it to the wishlist.

>131 charl08: Hi Charlotte! Thanks for dropping by.

>130 jessibud2: We have one of those headband lights somewhere around here--probably still in a box, since we still haven't finished unpacking all of them. We use it for camping and we also used it when the electricity went out, which was ridiculously often. I tend to fall asleep when I'm reading, so the booklight or head light doesn't work too well for me. I used to read with the bedside table light, and invariably I would wake up the next morning with the light still on--not good. So, as much as I'm not crazy about the Kindle for other reasons, the backlighting works for me. I usually find it on the floor in the morning.

I'm here to report that I'm loving the audio version and narrator of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I've become so used to listening to something while I clean the kitchen or cook, that I really feel bereft when I don't have a good book going. As far as my nighttime read is concerned, The Silkworm, I run hot and cold. Why does an author work so hard to create so many unpleasant characters?

Checking out your thread. I had a friend who died a couple of years ago who wore one of those headband lights anytime she was walking outdoors in the evening. I still miss hanging out with her at the genealogy conferences.

>133 thornton37814: Hi Lori. Sorry about your friend. Some of the best friends I've made have been "conference friends," I guess because there's an immediate connection of a shared interest.

I'm wondering if anyone here has read Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, starting with The Black Echo? Eventually I'm going to finish the-interminable-book-that-is The Silkworm, so I'll need another book for my midnight Kindle reading. Several books in the series are going for $2.99 right now for the Kindle version at Amazon.

Why now? I read this book for the March Travel section of the non-fiction challenge. It's a bit of a stretch to call it a "travel" book, but look at our categories with a very liberal rather than literal bent. We're still in the first half of March, so I guess I have time for another book off the Travel shelf.

I finished listening to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig. ZMM is a first person account about a 17-day journey on a motorcycle from Minnesota to northern California by an 11-year-old boy and his 40-year-old father, but it's also more than that. It's also a story about mental illness and the completely depressing way that the mentally ill were treated in the 1960s-1970s. In a lot of ways, this part of the story reminds me of Mark Vonnegut's memoir about his "trip" into insanity that happened around the same time--The Eden Express: A Memoir of Schizophrenia, published in 1975. Then there are the philosophical Chautauquas, which can be largely understood as a search for an understanding of what is meant by value (or "Quality," as the narrator calls it). Naturally it's easy to find plenty of articles and interviews of people debunking Pirsig's "inquiries," since the book has been around since 1974. I'm of neither camp--neither a ZMM "cult-like follower" as they are often sarcastically described by the bebunkers, nor a ZMM detractor, bent on taking apart the philosophy in the book brick by brick. As far as the philosophy is concerned, I simply enjoyed the ride. What I found particularly fascinating about the book this time around (it's about my 3rd complete read of this book) was the way Pirsig put the book together--a first-person account using a reliable?/unreliable? narrator.

I enjoyed the book a lot this time around, and I'll give it 5 stars, not because it's a perfect book, but because I still find the book challenging and worthwhile. I don't do enough rereading, and I hardly ever read a book three times. This book is a worthwhile exception.

The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith / J.K. Rowling. 2.5 stars

Don't hate me for a negative review.

Why now? Oh God, why not? I really can't explain why I picked up this book, since I didn't care all that much for the first one in the series. I (was told) thought this one would be better. It was actually worse.

I guess at some point just about every novelist, if they write long enough, feels the need to get the "novel about writers writing," the book industry, etc. out of their system. They all do it, and some better than others (John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River comes to mind). Here is Rowling's crack at it. It's possible that the intricacies of literary London are simply over my head.

Can we say a word about the epigraphs? Oof. Yeah. OK. Jacobean.

Overwrought was the word that often came to mind as I plowed through this thing. Maybe overblown. Strained. Certainly I strained to get to the ending. Why? I can't say. 455 pages; 50 chapters; 900 characters (OK, so I'm exaggerating about the characters). I think I have Kindle to thank (blame) for staying with this book. At about chapter 28, I thought--surely, I'm about at the end. My Kindle edition had no TOC and no page numbers. If I had pulled this thing off the library shelf and flipped through it, there's about a 99% chance that I would have put it right back on the shelf.

If someone reads this because they're a Rowling fan, then they'll probably like it. If they read it because they enjoy a good detective/mystery story--well, frankly, Galbraith/Rowling just isn't very good at writing in that genre. She gets incredibly generous reviews, but a Tana French or a Stieg Larsson, she's not. The Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo offers a much more believable crime/detective hero than Rowling's Cormoran Strike, as does Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. As does...well, just about anybody. Strike's leg thing gets old in this book just like it did in Cuckoo's Calling, but mostly Strike isn't particularly believable as a PI. He's supposedly an ex-SIB (Special Investigation Branch), but Rowling seems to have forgotten Strike's background. She certainly doesn't use it with any depth.

I feel a bit badly about giving this thing 2 stars; however, when I read over the ratings on my profile, that's what fits--although maybe it's a bit low for this one. OK, 2.5 stars.

Oh well. Sorry that Silkworm didn't work for you, Becky. That's the way it goes, and you certainly never have to read another one. I, on the other hand, can hardly wait!
Hope some Spring will soon make it to you in Colorado!

>137 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. Yes, we all react to things differently, and that makes the world go 'round.

We've had a little bit too much Spring here. The buds are out on the trees, and many of them are leafing out already. Which is bad, because we can almost count on an April snow--and then the young buds freeze, branches break, etc. But I'm not complaining--it's beautiful here. Hope your place is as well.

The temps have been in the 60's and 70's for several weeks, but I knew it wouldn't last. The weather is something that frustrates people who aren't from here, which is probably true all over the planet. This morning it's 26 degrees and snowing. The poor confused cherry blossoms next door probably aren't going to fare well. In my experience, this is very typical weather for Colorado.

I have two new reads that I'm currently working on: The Road to Little Dribbling, by Bill Bryson which is my current audible book; and The Black Echo, by Michael Connelly, the first of the Harry Bosch series.

I'm reading Little Dribbling for the March Travel challenge. This is my first Bill Bryson. I've been told that his earlier books are better, where he reads the audible version himself. He's evidently a funny guy, but he seems a bit cranky in this one. I'm reading the Michael Connelly because several of the books in the series were recently discounted at Amazon for the Kindle. This first one was published in 1992. Evidently there are now 20 of them in the series. Bosch's back story is that he was a "tunnel rat" in Vietnam. He's definitely a tough guy. After the Army, he joined the LAPD, and in this first book he's a detective in Hollywood homicide. Connelly is a good writer, and he knows his way around this genre.

I'm also still reading Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, by Michael Pollan. My guess is that anything by Pollan is going to be terrific.

My reading continues to suffer. I feel like what I need these days is to sit with a good solid classic English novel--a real doorstop. Some Dickens would be wonderful, or maybe some George Eliot--Mill on the Floss again would be nice. I'm just a lot busier than I thought I was going to be. I'm continuing to make progress on the Double Wedding Ring quilt. My gardens are soon going to need a lot more time from me. And then I'm also doing some copyediting for a professor friend (the article is business-related and his writing is DENSE)--for pay, not as a favor, even though I've known him for over 50 years. He has a large budget for this sort of thing, so the pay is fine; however, his way of working is to let the deadline push him over the finish line, so always with him it's a rush job. Oh well, it's pocket money, which is good, but it leaves me even less time for reading, which is bad.

Happy reading, and I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

>139 labwriter: Sounds like you are keeping busy, Becky. Too bad that it is keeping you away from the reading. I think a lot of people work the same way as your friend, working the writing to a deadline and not allowing enough time for the editor to work to a comfortable deadline themselves. That seems to be the way that the display editing that I am doing is coming along. I always seem to get the written pieces in at the same time that I have other deadlines to meet. At least you are getting paid, I am working as a volunteer editor *sigh*.

>140 Familyhistorian: Oh woe. I've done my share of volunteer writing/editing. I guess if the project means enough to you, then it's worth it. I was very reluctant to do any of this academic editing. I spent 5 years teaching all sorts of writing classes at the university level, and the number of hours I spent grading those papers (for peanut$) was simply staggering. I worked up a quote for this guy and then doubled it--and he didn't even blink. He needs someone willing to work at the last minute, holidays, weekends, and nights. I will do that because I can, but it's gonna cost him--ha. I've know him since grade school. He's very intense, very alpha, and the only reason I'm willing to work with him at all is because of our long relationship. I hope I don't end up regretting it--famous last words.

I went to a Western Landscaping Conference yesterday--huuuuugely wonderful information about native plants, etc. Naturally I bought some books. The one that looks the best is Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife and Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy. Forget the rain forest and worry about all of the prairie ground here at home that's being eradicated.

I also got hooked up with the High Plains Environmental Center which has projects for Modern Restoration Ecology. Listening to these lectures was a real shot in the arm. The energy in the room was amazing.

>141 labwriter: Hope your editing doesn't get in the way of your gardening. Then again that editing money will come in handy for supplying your garden with plants! Happy first day of Spring, Becky.

>142 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg!

Continuing on in Michael Pollan's book, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education. Love this book!

Well, it seems I have a new passion--trying to entice two little robins to make their nest in my big silver maple. I saw one up in that tree last week, and yesterday I heard a lot of singing, and then I saw two of them. I know from my time in Missouri that robins love to skip around on wet ground, so I'm selectively watering under the tree. A rain or a little water in the garden will make the worms come to the top layer of the soil. They also use mud to make their nests. I'm in the process of tearing out some nasty volcano rock near the tree and making a "worm farm." I replaced the dirt under the volcano rock (I won't call it soil, because it's dead) with some nice garden soil, sand, and aged compost. Today DH and I will go down to the river and see if we can dig up some earthworms for that spot. I'm also providing the robins with a muddy little spot nearby (everything here is so dry in Colorado where I live that I actually have to pour water from the tap to make the mud). I'm also trying to entice them with a mealworm feeder near the muddy spot.

As part of my long-range plan for attracting the birds to my yard, I'm going to plant a Rocky Mountain Nine Bark shrub near the silver maple. This nine bark is native to the region, and it prefers dappled shade, so it's perfect for planting near the tree. It will serve as shelter for the birds and food in the form of berries in the fall. If it does well, I'll plant more of them in the back. Improving the ecology of this 1950s turf grass "garden" one inch at a time--ha.

Wish me luck!

This is the "before" photo of my worm-farm-to-be, which I've titled "The Hideous Deadness Which Is Volcano Rock." My neighbor told me it's been like this since she moved in over ten years ago. I'll post progress pics of this site as soon as there is progress to post--ha.

>143 labwriter: - This isn't new but here's a little inspiration for you! :-)

https://f.vimeocdn.com/p/flash/moogaloop/6.3.4/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9479342&amp...

(eek! Sorry for that big link)

>143 labwriter: A worm farm will definitely be an improvement! Cool idea. Good luck with the robins!

>144 jessibud2: Love the robin's nest--thanks.

>145 qebo: Isn't that just the ugliest spot you've ever seen? I would rather have had weeds 20' tall.

I enjoyed reading your gardening plans. I'm hoping to get a bird box up this year. We have a big fir tree a couple of gardens over that lots of the birds like to nest in, they are such loud singers just now, making sure everyone knows they are there.

However, having just planted out some little seedlings, I'm hoping they leave them alone. I didn't know robins like mud - that makes a lot of sense.

>146 labwriter: ugliest spot you've ever seen?
Nope. A yard in my neighborhood has an astroturf path through the volcano rock. (The owner is an elderly blind woman, so the goal presumably is low maintenance by people who don't live there.)

>148 qebo: You win! Astroturf PLUS volcano rock would be worse than what I have. Well, I would give the elderly blind woman a pass on her landscaping and also anyone else who needs low maintenance strategies in order to stay happily in their homes. I do hope that the native plant vs. rock landscaping strategy catches on.

>147 charl08: I recently bought some binoculars so I could watch the birds hanging out in the huge conifers next door. At least there are birds in the area.

Yesterday the Bringing Nature Home book came in the mail. It's a beautiful book--lots of colored pics. Chapters titles like, "The Costs of Using Alien Ornamentals" and "Blending In with the Neighbors." I guess I can read this while I'm waiting for it to be light enough outside. Boo, hiss: daylight savings time.

Here's a pic of Denver's blizzard yesterday. My son lives there, which is two hours from us. "What do you mean, you guys didn't get any snow?" he said. We had weather all around us. In fact, we were in a town about 30 miles from us yesterday, and driving home we could see one area that had blue sky--our little town. It's almost weird how protected we are from weather.

The Road to Little Dribbling, by Bill Bryson, is my current audiobook. I was warned about this narrator. He's not Bryson, and I think he does a remarkably snarky job of reading this thing. Add to that, Bryson writes as a humorless crank in this book, and he's uninformed, as well. In Chapter 9 (I think I have something like 40 more chapters to go--good Lord!), he's extolling the virtues of the greenspace in England and comparing that to the crappy state of sprawl in the U.S. Sorry I can't quote directly, because I'm listening. But he says something very close to: "The United States has no greenspace and never has." Well, that's just flat-out wrong.

The example he gives of the no-good American landscape is a driving trip he "frequently" makes from Denver International Airport to Vail, where he goes to visit his son. Nope, no greenspace. Twenty-five miles outside of Denver, he says, all you have is more Denver. I suggest that maybe he could once look at a map. Boulder, Colorado, a town 30 miles outside of Denver, and close enough on his way to Vail that he surely knows what I'm referring to here, is a town surrounded by 100,000 acres of what they call Open Space. This is land owned by Boulder County, which "actively works to conserve natural, cultural, and agricultural resources and provide public uses that reflect sound resource management and community values." In a word, greenspace.

It's one thing to be a know-it-all jerk; it's entirely different to be an uninformed know-it-all.

>151 labwriter: - I am the one who warned you about the narrator, lol. Do me a favour, if you can, please. Let me know if, anywhere in the book, he actually mentions a place called *Little Dribbling*. I may have zoned out at some point but I honestly have no recollection of any mention of this place. And given that it's in the title, well, one might expect at least a short anecdote.
I have to say, I was sad about this book. Generally, I am a huge fan of Bryson and I really do enjoy when he reads the audiobooks. Oh well, One strike in such a career isn't bad, I guess

Have a wonderful Easter.

>152 jessibud2: I'll listen for a mention of Little Dribbling. I'm going to continue listening to this audiobook, mainly because I bought the thing (although Audible.com will let you return something that you really hate). There are interesting parts, although I just can't figure out who his audience is. I'll have to try another one by Bryson, one he has read himself. In this one Bryson sounds disgusted and disappointed in the changes he's observed in England. For example, his description of all the small gardens that have been lost to paving and construction is depressing. However, what place hasn't changed in the last 40 years?

My other read, the one at night, is still Black Echo, #1 in the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. I'm enjoying this one a lot, and I've probably found a new series.

We are busy today making smoked Slovenian sausage for Easter--Mr. lab's specialty. We haven't been able to make this for over a year, what with everything we had to do for our move. Nobody makes this better. He uses a recipe handed down from his grandfather and his father--both of them butchers.

>153 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul. Same to you.

I can make a few suggestions for Bryson self-read audiobooks: One Summer - America, 1927, Shakespeare: The World as Stage, or At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

(first two touchstones incorrect)

Happy Easter Becky, sending love and hugs.

Hi Becky, I am new to your thread but I so enjoyed your contributions to the urban sprawl discussion over on Suzanne's Nonfiction thread that I had to come visit. First, let me say that I am glad that Docker is okay. We have been re-watching the old (BBC?) tv series of "All Creatures Great and Small" and there is an old black lab named Bob, "owned" by an old widower, and the scene is so sad when he has to put him down. But there is sweet redemption later in the episode. Anyway, I just totally understand the deep and strong bond we develop with our furkidz so I'm glad yours is well!

I also really appreciate your review of The Silkworm. I've had Cuckoo's Calling on my shelf for eons and I keep passing it up for other reads. I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan (I read the first and it was fine but I didn't feel compelled to dedicate more of my life to reading the whole series) and your lukewarm comparisons to some really great crime/mystery writers gives me a sense of what I have in front of me. I'll probably give it a go, eventually, just to say that I did. Maybe I'll be a person who reads JK Rowling's first effort at any genre and then bails on the rest. :-)

>155 jessibud2: I have been looking for my next audiobook. I have Shakespeare: The World as a Stage in old-fashioned dead-tree version but I'm attracted to the idea of listening to it.

>154 labwriter: I randomly picked up Trunk Music many years ago in an airport and instantly became a huge fan of the Harry Bosch series. It's a good one.

>157 EBT1002: Thanks for visiting! I read the "All Creatures" series to the family when we were taking our family car trips, years ago. I loved them all. I'm going to have to look for the TV version. And thanks for your kind words.

>156 johnsimpson: John! Same to you. I haven't been to johnsimpson world for a little while. I need to catch up on the threads!

>155 jessibud2: Thanks for the Bryson book suggestions. I'm definitely not done with him yet. I have a feeling he wasn't at his best for some reason in this most recent book.

I read from All Creatures to my MIL as she lay in the living room, in hospice, in her last months. She was in and out of consciousness but seemed to respond well to my voice reading those stories aloud. And the rest of the family would gather round and enjoy the respite, as well. They are perfect read-aloud stories!

Okay, two posts and both with sad references to death. Truly, I am not a downer sort of person! I guess I just appreciate the sweetness of human and human-animal connection even in the face of loss.

So, I will find something more cheerful to post about next time. :-)

>158 labwriter: - He definitely wasn't. I have listened to most of his books on audio although I've also read several in book form. Maybe I just have his weird sense of humour but I have always counted him among my favourite authors/readers.

>157 EBT1002: - Another good one that he reads is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, which is his autobiography. A delight, in my humble opinion

>159 EBT1002: Love that story--not a downer.

>162 weird_O: Would it surprise you to know that I've never eaten a Peep--never. They're quite pretty, though. A Happy Easter to you as well, Bill.

Sometimes it's a good thing to persevere when reading a book that leaves you flat; sometimes it's a better thing to simply leave the book and move on. I am thrilled to have the sound of the snarky narrator out of my head for Bill Bryson's book, The Road to Little Dribbling. I gave the book more than a good chance. It just wasn't for me.

So I've moved on to another book for the March Travel category: Blue Highways: A Journey into America, by William Least Heat-Moon. The narrator is one of my favorites--the same guy who narrated the 26 hours of A Prayer for Owen Meany. It's like coming back to a trusted friend. About five hours into the book, I find Heat-Moon's writing to be interesting, comfortable, and engaging. The TONE is a good change from Bryson's sarcasm.