Lucy/Sibyx Reads in March and April!

Well here we are on March 1st! The meet-up was epic! So here are Miss May and Miss Posey and Peggy and Lucy! Note how Posey is pretending nonchalance!

Currently Reading (April)
♬

new The Snake Stone Jason Goodwin hist myst
new The Restless Supermarket Ivan Vladislavic contemp fict
new Red Fox: The Catlike Canine H. David Henry nat sci
♬ Queen's Play Dorothy Dunnett hist fic
Ongoing
Murdoch Marathon resumed! The Red and the Green IM readers group is HERE
Virago Soon?
The New Yorker September 2015 issues (0 of 4)

Read in April
37. ✔ Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy Flora Thompson eng country life
38. new Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois Bujold sf ***1/2
39. new The Midnight Mayor Kate Griffin urb fant **1/2
40. ✔ My Struggle: Book 2 Karl Ove Knausgaard *****
41. ♬ Game of Kings Dorothy Dunnett hist fic *****
42. ✔ MaddAddam Margaret Atwood dyst ****
43. ✔The River of Doubt Candice Millard adventure/bio ***1/2
44. new Mort Terry Pratchett fantasy ***1/2
45. new Rock With Wings Anne Hillerman mys ***
46. ✔ The Red and the Green Iris Murdoch hist fic****
47. ✔ The Tropic of Serpents Marie Brennan fantasy
48. ✔ Mortal Engines Philip Reeve steampunk/post apoc.

RoT-Quit in April
2. Nothing lately!

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

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

Total: 12
Men: 4
Women: 3 (multiples)
M/W writing together: 1 (two editors, essays both genders)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 2
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 1
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 1 (essays and poems)
New author: 3
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 6
Read it or Get Rid of It: 1

Housekeeping

IN February= 14
2016 Total IN=15
OUT February Total=3
2016 Total OUT=6

Books IN: February 2016
2.My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante
3. The Story of a New Name Elena Ferrante
4.Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Elena Ferrante
5.The Story of the Lost Child Elena Ferrante
6. Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
7. All Clear Connie Willis
8. The Pull of the Moon Elizabeth Berg
9. The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield
10. Tenth of December George Saunders
11. Blue Latitudes Tony Horwitz
12. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois Bujold
13. Matter Iain M. Banks
14. Look to Windward Iain M. Banks
15. All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard

February Reflections

Best of February
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf *****

I had to choose between two terrific "conclusions" of series and I gave first to the Ann Leckie since she is the newer author. Many stunning things about it, both the groundedness of the invented universe and the consistency and charm of the small details (pins, gloves, tea sets). On a deeper level, the lack of use of both gender pronouns: everyone is a "she" -- creating an interesting tension in the reader as you know you are assigning "female" attributes to them all, even as you know that in fact, they have different physical attributes . . . this is a society that has moved beyond thinking the soul has a gender. Beautiful. There is also a theme of the splintered and whole self that can intrigue the mind like a hall of mirrors. Who is real? What makes a real person? I look forward to rereading this series, more slowly this time, as I won't be gobbling it up to find out "what happens." The runner-up was the final book in the second sequence of .J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (Book 6), which simply did not let up from beginning to end. Can't really go into details, but Cherryh's style is to lay the groundwork slowly and methodically and sometimes maddeningly, until towards the end of a book, or in this case, a sequence, things pick up and you have to hold on to your hat. Close behind these are books 2 and 3 of the Cazelet Chronicles - both of these set during ww2. Howard captures how thoroughly people put their lives 'on hold' - and how adolescents and young adults were deeply affected by everything, from losing lovers and friends, to feeling young and helpless, to watching things fall apart - it's wonderfully done. The adults too just postpone everything they can. Iain Banks' Inversions is not one of his stronger or more exciting novels, but it was good read, and A God in the House definitely had merit. So a good strong month!

In other news - this was, for me, a highly acquisitive month! And on my trip even though I gave away two books, I received two new books, which I will list under March, just to try to keep the numbers down!

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

March Stats
Books Read in March

25. ♬ Heartstone C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 5) mys ****
26. new Casting Off Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazelet 4) contemp fic ****1/2
27. new Look to Windward Iain Banks sf
28. new All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazelet 5) contemp fic ****
29. ✔ The Janissary Tree Jason Goodwin mys ****
30. August 2015 New Yorkers
31. ✔ The Last Light of the Sun Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy
32. new The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes contemp fic
33. ✔ Destroyer C.J. Cherryh (bk 7) sf ***1/2
34. ✔ Pretender C.J. Cherryh (bk 8 Foreigner) sf ****1/2
35. ✔ Deliverer C.J. Cherryh (bk 9 Foreigner) sf
36. ♬ Lamentation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 5) hist mys ****

Best of March
Cazelet Chronicles -- Elizabeth Jane Howard Taken as a whole, 5 books.

Worst of March
A Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes very disappointing!

March Reflections

This month's reading was very much a continuation and completion of last month's. Once again, best of, is a toss-up between two series, only this time the winner is the 5 volume Cazelet Chronicles. These are set in and near London in a period from just before ww2 to the mid-fifties and follow the the shifting (and yes, declining) fortunes of a merchant class family as the social structure already teetering collapses entirely, especially around those who cannot move with the shifting times. And yet, although the final book is a tough read in some ways, it is clear that the next generation will find their own way somehow or other and keep on. Very nicely done and it is hard to let go of people one has spent so much time with. The runner-up was the final book in the THIRD sequence of .J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (Books 7-9). The gang is back from their mission in outer space and in the meanwhile things went to pieces at home. Bren to the rescue. In this series young Cajeiri, the heir, emerges as a full character. Lots of fun. Finally, the third in the line-up of good reads would be Look to Windward -- Iain Banks writing at the top of his form. Lots of good fun with Ship Minds. On the disappointing side, A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - in some ways a perfectly adequate book, but it felt contrived to me, can't understand how it won anything.

I went to see how many books I'd read by the end of March last year. Exactly the same as this year: 36.

Total: 12
Men: 5
Women: 5 (several by same author)
M/W writing together: 1 (NYer)
Non-fiction: 1 (Nyer)
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 3
SF/F: 4
Mystery: 2
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio): 0
Audio: 2
New: 4
Off Shelf: 5
Read it or Get Rid of It: 0

Housekeeping

IN March= TBA approx 8
2016 Total IN= 22
OUT March Total=3 (two to an LFL in Sarasota!)
2016 Total OUT= 9

Books IN: March 2016
16. Mort Terry Pratchett

Started in 2016
Mortal Engines Quartet Philip Reeve (1 of 4) NEXT UP: Predator Gold
Inspector Yashim Togalu Jason Goodwin (1 of 5) NEXT UP: The Snake Stone

Continued in 2016
Lady Trent's Memoirs Marie Brennan (2 of 4) NEXT UP : The Voyage of the Basilisk (2)
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch (5 of 6) Next up: The Hanging Tree
The Culture Iain Banks (6 of 9) Next up: Matter
My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgaard (2 of 6) NEXT UP: (Book 3)
Discworld Terry Pratchett Mort series: 1 of 5: Next up: Reaper Man

Completed or caught up with in 2016
Matthew Shardlake C.J. Sansom (5 of 6) READING: Bk 6 Lamentation
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh (9 of 18) (I will continue the series on 2017)
Doctor of Labyrinths series Sarah Monette (4 of 4)
Imperial Radch (3 of 3)
Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazelet Chronicles) (5 of 5)

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

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

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

*Series is continued in Reunification 1

For the Aug 3 issue see the previous thread!

The New Yorker August 10 & 17

-On free speech and pc. Well. We all know many of these things have gotten out of hand. The issue is whether or not you can ask and teach people that they are in fact, individually responsible for making ethical decisions.
-Love and art - two SF artists. Poignant .. . fits the people I never heard of but maybe should have category.
-Ferguson. As always, the real story is grayer and more complex than anybody would like.
-Chinese merchants selling lingerie in Egypt. This article was just plain fascinating from beginning to end. Interesting too how the Chinese simply refuse to involve themselves--it's just about selling the merchandise. And how different the cultures are! And yet, how the Chinese may eventually have a huge effect on women's rights. Just by offering an out.
-Little Man - story - Rumpelstiltskin update. Charming, although I am not a big fan of the updated fairytale genre.

The New Yorker August 24
-Elizabeth Kolbert on Christiana Figueres who runs the UNFCCC (Climate Change at the UN). The acronyms proliferate and stultify, and the question is will it be too little too late?
-The next several pieces, two written and one photo essay are about New Orleans 10 years after. One a wider view at the pluses and minuses in the aftermath that was quite interesting -- overall the families who left for good are faring better elsewhere, although it could be argued that those who stay still live in a tight community of family and friends, also worth something less tangible but no less important. The second written essay was about a small plot of land that had the house the author grew up in, that is no more, but no hope for building something new appears likely either - a brother maintains the property to keep the family claim on it. Depresssing. Obfuscating bureaucracy at its most repellant.
-Alice McDermott short story. A completely solid story, but somehow not that interesting to me.
-Joan Didion. I've always expected to be wowed and blown away by her writing, but I never am. She is precise and observant but somehow, I never feel drawn in.

The New Yorker August 31
-rise and fall of Queens High School. I wanted to dig in deeper to this, but I somehow stayed on the outside, not sure why. Another educational tale of woe and failure, though. Or is it inevitable as times change that needs change?
-Istanbul underground - can't dig an inch down with a teaspoon without uncovering something. It truly is the ultimate urban center for the west - there are Neolithic traces to boot - speaking of boots, the wooden shoes the people seem to have worn are remarkably similar to the ones still worn in the 18th century. THOUSANDS of years!
-The other France. I've always considered LeCorbusier an architectural criminal. It does matter A LOT what kind of environment a child lives in and that includes how or if they can "assimilate" into the culture at large.
-The Story "The Apartment". This didn't quite work for me. Almost. Well. Maybe in a way it did. But not the ending.
-Teenage neurons. Overactive. Don't we know this? Yeh, but science is confirming it.
-Nice little piece on Whistler and his mama.

--I lost track of the first two September and the last Sept. issues on my big trip -- too bad as I think there were some decent pieces . . . . This is the only one I hung onto:

September 14
-Oliver Sacks returning to a comfort food at end of life.
-John McPhee - what to leave out. I did like the "greening" concept. In general though I find these McPhee pieces on writing annoying. I'm hoping for a lot more than they deliver, perhaps?
-Fascinating reading about Pope Francis. As a woman though, everything about the Vatican, the greed, the sexism, the sheer entitlement of it all gives me the creeps and also makes me angry. I just can't ever get past that.
-saintly person who defends notorious killers. She's against the death penalty - not trying to redeem these people.
-Chicken Hill. Joy Williams - pretty good! Old lady losing her marbles, basically, but nicely done.
-Review of "Superbetter" - Gamification. Oh jeez!

STILL waiting for pictures of you and Peggy!

I've finally arrived in Florida and I haven't even unpacked everything! Just put the food away and ate something and now I'm working on this! I don't know if I have the energy to do it all tonight, but I have at least put up photos from the meet-up!

Yay, a meetup photo!

Aha, a meetup photo! Good work, Lucy!

25. ♬

brief review to come!

26.

review to come

Lovely pics of both the dogs and the ladies.

>1 sibylline: I think that May just said something droll and Posey is laughing. And do feel free to put up the whole picture. I'll just announce on your thread that I did put on real clothes for you and make-up on Monday. By Tuesday I was back in my fat sweats, which I now fill, doggone it.
LT World, I'll have you know that Lucy is as wonderful in the flesh as on the keyboard!

New thread and meetup pictures! All wonderful.

I've enjoyed radio dramatisations of Shardlake but keep thinking I must get to the originals...

Happy New Thread, Lucy. It's wonderful zo hear that you had a great meet-up with Peggy. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Must have been a wonderful meetup - both for you and Peggy and the doggies. Thank you for the pictures! :)

Happy new thread, Lucy! LOVE the toppers - great photos!

Congratulations on the new thread, Lucy! Fun to see the meetup photo.

Maybe I missed it - how did you like Ancillary Mercy? I thought it was a very good conclusion to that series.

>18 jnwelch: Somehow I didn't post my review of it - so it is up now on the book's page. I gave it a five rave!

>19 sibylline: Oh good! Off to the book page I go.

Happy new thread, Lucy. Btw, Hubby says he can't wait to hear what you think about Larkrise to Candleford. The TV series made from it was one of his favorites ever.

Happy new thread Lucy. Always great to see evidence of a meet-up and never a surprise to see that they are invariably a rip-roaring success.

Happy weekend, Lucy.

Quit RoT
2. Gardens of the Moon Steven Erikson

Usually I don't bother writing up anything about a book I've quit reading but I trudged through 200 pages because the two main characters, a sorceress Tattersail and a soldier, Paran, have so much potential as characters, but this is top-heavy with "tromp, tromp, tromp, fight, fight, fight" without enough of anything else, like, say, character development or just . . . relief. I read fantasy mainly for original worldbuilding and forms of magic, as well as character development. All of which is present here but . . . just not happening. Furthermore there is in-clueing and then there is no-clueing. 200 pages in I am only just barely getting who is fighting whom and why (echoes of some of USA's stupider busy engagements far from home). Not for me.

Happy new thread and good to see not only LTers like to meet up, so do their dogs ;-)

Wonderful meetup photos. I am guessing that May and Posey had as much fun as anyone!

>24 sibylline: Ha! I pulled out my copy of Gardens of the Moon to see at what point I stalled out, and my bookmark is sitting at page 236, ready to begin Book 3. And at this point I'd have to start all over to get any idea of what is going on, as it's been several years. So many do seem to love this series, I always thought I might give it another try. Then again...

By the way, the photo of the vixen in the distance from your prior thread was really wonderful. What a treat to get to watch her in your own territory.

>22 PaulCranswick: Very true Paul!

>25 FAMeulstee: I agree!

>26 EBT1002: >28 EBT1002: I'm glad you liked that vixen! May and Posey played, which, apparently for May is very unusual! But Miss Po is a charmer.

>27 ronincats: Ha! You stopped only a bit further than I did. I thought of something else entirely lacking, which is humor. I feel quite sure of my decision to stop.

Yep, poor May doesn't have many opportunities for doggy play, so meeting Posey was a real treat. (For us too!)
Well, Lucy, I think you and Roni have convinced me that I can put my copy of Gardens of the Moon on PBS without regret. I do regret having spent good $ for it. Oh well. Thanks for taking one for the rest of us. (Read *Memory, Sorrow and Thorn* for good, old-fashioned, epic fantasy without that modern violent edge!)

>24 sibylline:, >27 ronincats: Good to hear from you, Lucy and Roni, about Gardens of the Moon. I've seen it mentioned among the top fantasy series, but never could figure out whether I'd like it. Like Lizzie, I'll now take a pass without regret.

> 30 Ah, the Tad Williams. I am hoarding those now, Peggy!

>31 jnwelch: Unless, of course, you really like tromp, tromp, tromp, fight, fight, fight! The person who most highly recommended it to me was an adolescent, so that does indicate something, eh?

>32 sibylline: :-)

There is an LFL in this neighborhood so I decided, for my afternoon ramble, to take the book I quit reading the other day, Gardens of the Moon to put into it! First time I've put a book into an LFL.

And we removed a book too! Poems by Galway Kinnell. Minus the cd that it came with. But that's ok.

27. sf ****1/2
Look to Windward Iain Banks

Either I'm getting accustomed to Banks or the plot of this one was fairly straightforward. Probably a bit of both. Really, what's not to love about the Ships, every aspect from names, classes, minds and not to mention the whole concept of the Culture and all their fantastic works on a galactic and epic scale . . . Trying to outfox Special Circumstances to wreak revenge on the Culture? Go ahead, give it a whirl, I say! Marvelous! ****1/2

>34 sibylline: I will probably read something by Galway Kinnell next month for Mark's AAC so I was interested to see that his work turns up in all sorts of places. xx

I'm very familiar with his work - he was a "Vermont" poet, lived here a large part of his life, but was also teaching poetry at my college, Sarah Lawrence, when I was there (commuting, I guess, a few days at home and a few days down near NYC). He read his work wonderfully well, so be sure to listen to him on line.

28. contemp fic **** (series=****1/2)
All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard

The fifth and last of the Cazelet Chronicles, it seemed a bit choppy and superficial at first, but I was also reading it in choppy little bits which didn't help. I waited for the opportunity to read most of it in a few long sittings, and even though it ends on a somber note and I had a lump in my throat for the final one hundred pages, I think Howard did fine with this last volume. Book Four, like a fairy tale, ended on a very happy note all around, except for one or two characters everyone was settled romatically or practically-speaking and was more or less thriving, although, it is true there were storm clouds lurking on the horizon. I see now that Howard had a larger arc in mind, a harder, tougher arc that includes real failures, real endings, the not-a-fairy-tale ending of literature. All along, while reading I kept thinking of other writers from Angela Thirkell (at the lighter end) to Mary Wesley and Penelope Fitzgerald (at the darker end, and many many in-between, say, Barbara Pym.) Howard manages an orchestral piece (music plays a large part in the book--the Cazelets are anything but ordinary; they are attractive and talented if flawed in all the usual ways) that can go from light to dark in a matter of pages. In the four previous novels I don't think Howard reaches quite as deeply, except perhaps with the death of the Duchy, the grandmother, and Rupert's difficulties and that is where the choppiness arises. She is describing upheaval of the kind that can break a family apart definitively and it is dark stuff so that when the children are being funny in this volume it can be a little hard to make the shift. And yet, that is exactly how life is. One character mulls how you can be with a small child, playing along with them, and still frantically worried about an adult matter of huge importance. It's not as comfortable a read as the previous books, but I think it lifts the whole Chronicle up a level. Yet one could also argue that this last book does not fit so well with the mood of the previous four. It isn't quite as well edited or fleshed out, but overall it is remarkable how Howard takes leave of almost every character in a satisfactory, realistic way. **** for Book 5 and ****1/2 for the whole.

I'm so glad that EJ Howard came through after all in the 5th book. I'll definitely get to it.
Maybe I'll shelve Hydrogen Sonata and try Look to Windward instead.......... I do love those ships!
Keep reading and reporting, Lucy!

There's a list of ship names that totally cracked me up! Spousal Unit and myself think that he made long lists of them and had so many he had to squeeze them in somewhere so they wouldn't go to waste. All the Same, I saw It First. Demented But Determined. Thorough But. . . Unreliable. I Blame the Parents. Hand Me the Gun and Ask Me Again. and so on and on a whole lovely long delirium inducing list of them.

I think you would LOVE Look to Windward - it is quite a straightforward story with some excellent aliens and good weird stuff like behemothaur.

Those are all great! Don't you start making your own after a bit? I got as far as A Modest Proposal last night and got so pleased with myself that I stopped.
Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset for Banks. *HS* has good ship-talk too, but I just haven't taken off with it even after 100 pp. One day I will.

How about Not Leftovers Again? or This Won't Hurt A Bit .

29. mys ****
The Janissary Tree Jason Goodwin

This was a lively read in an absorbing setting, Istanbul in 1836. A world on the cusp of change. Yashim, a eunuch in the service of the sultan, is an investigator with a gift for not being noticed. Because of his status he can move quietly between the inside and outside of the palace and he is employed to investigate the disappearance of four young officers from the New Guard, which has replaced the Janissaries, the former entrenched and utterly corrupt soldiery that ten years earlier had been violently removed from power. The forces of "keep the old ways" versus the steady creep of new ideas of democracy and equality from the west, are about to clash and Yashim finds himself at the center of the plotting. You'll be looking things up and summoning maps of Istanbul as you read. By a fine coincidence I was also reading (months late) a New Yorker article on archaeological finds in Istanbul that held up the completion of a subway tunnel under the Bosphorus for a decade. If you like historical mysteries this is, apparently, the start of a series. Hooray! ****

>43 sibylline: Hmm, that looks interesting...

>43 sibylline: It *is* the start of a series - a really good one! I love the way Goodwin has his character cook wonderful dishes. Not to mention the complexity of the community he shows in Istanbul. I think my favourite is the Polish ambassador.

O.K. I've ordered The Janissary Tree from PBS on the strength of that review. Istanbul is endlessly fascinating! Thanks, Lucy.

>24 sibylline: Apparently I read Gardens of the Moon back in 2010 and my notes said I found it confusing. Can't recall one dang thing about it. I think it is inevitable that it will end up being cast out of my library.

>44 qebo: It is!

>45 charl08: I've got book 2 in my sights. The problem is whether I might not like listening to these on audio versus getting the books (because the spousal unit likes them too.) Of course, I can do both, but . . . it's a bit of a wait on PBS for a copy.

>46 LizzieD: I hope you get a copy. I know you'll love it!

>47 Fourpawz2: I can believe that (confusing, unmemorable). Yet I think to the right sort of persons (adolescent, into gaming) they wouldn't care about lack of character development etc. Ah well, I checked the LFL the other day and it has disappeared, so it is someone's else's problem now!

By the way - as I finish up the last Shardlake on audio I am definitely in the market for a new historical mystery series to listen to - I loved Medicus and now Shardlake. So what next?????? Suggestions are very welcome!

>43 sibylline: I'll just check it out on Amazon, I thought. Oh, it's only 99p...

I must confess I'm a wee bit on the mopey side having gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to put the LD and the spousal unit on the plane. I will be here on my own now, in Sarasota, for another week or two, unclear, as there are a couple of things to do with the house that I might have to wait around to see to. It'll take a day or two to adjust, but I'm thinking of this whole expedition as an experiment in four parts, driving down alone, being here with family and friends, and now a bit of time for writing retreat, then the long drive home, thank goodness, with a stop and familiar faces in Lumberton!

Posey got in a bit of a panic this morning as we put the crate in the car, heavy panting, which with her means anxiousness. I didn't want to leave her alone here when we all went to the airport at 5:15, but I think she thought we might be about to embark on another long ghastly trip. She endured the trip down, but I don't think she loved it. Although she did enjoy parts of it. And I think she would be fine if one of her other humans was along too. She is one of our most pack oriented corgis ever. At her happiest when we are all in the same house, preferably even the same room. Herding instincts die hard!

I just love it when dogs try to herd their humans. I think it's especially cute when they have human siblings they feel the need to watch out for.

Posey is such a sweetheart. I'm sorry to hear she gets anxious about car rides. Ours love 'em although we've never tried a long trip.

So far she has behaved with fortitude--but I did sense, toward the end of our big drive that she was finding being stuck in that crate all day a big fat bore. I'm not sure what she was anxious about yesterday - possibly just that the "routine" was changing. Dogs certainly get savvy about the bustle that goes on when people are leaving and they know what suitcases signify.

Everyone else got safely to their destinations and the spousal unit is enjoying the loving attention of Tenzing and Ernie.

31. hist. fantasy ***1/2
The Last Light of the Sun Guy Gavriel Kay

Yet another sub-category of fantasy, historical fantasy, that is, fantasy loosely based on our own earthly history, but in a fantasy form (a light touch of faerie). I read happily along with it because it is very nicely and deftly done. The norsemen sweep down and attack the various tribal peoples on two coasts, one clearly Britain the other the coast of France. We mainly follow the characters of the up and coming generation of fledgling adults, in all three categories of Viking, Saxon, and Celt. (Everything is quaintly but not annoyingly renamed and I know I won't retain it, so I won't even try.) But this is a time of change, a single new god has swept away most of the old beliefs, and there is an urge to ally rather than fight between themselves as before so as to be able to repel the norsemen when they come. There is a mystical spirit wood, there are romances, some gore, some heartbreak, a lost father, a hidden sword and some very satisfying resolutions. What is most well done are the relationships between these young adults. I was not keen on Kay's Fionavar books but I loved Tigana. This falls somewhere in between. Not terribly original, but quite satisfying. ***1/2

Good to know that you liked The Last Light of the Sun. It's been on my wishlist (which, these days, is really a list about books that I wish to read and not necessarily own) for almost 7 years, so maybe I will stop farting around and actually make a move to locate it or even buy the dang thing if I can find a reasonably priced copy.

I think the way dogs react to their people showing signs of going somewhere more involved than to the milk store is really very endearing. How much they care! Cats don't. Just so long as you show up when they require sustenance, they are really perfectly fine - most of them - if you never come home.

>53 sibylline: - Lucy, we make lots of long car trips with Louis, and bought a hammock for the back seat of the car so he can have the whole back seat to himself without risk of falling to the floor if we brake suddenly. Don't know if something like that might work for Posey but could make the long drive easier for her since she wouldn't have to be confined.

I really need to get around to reading some Kay soon. I have a few on my shelves...

>56 katiekrug: ooh, a dog hammock. That's a cool idea.

>56 katiekrug: That is a very intriguing idea. I've seen them in catalogs and wondered.

32. contemp fic ***
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes

Oh well, call me a philistine, but in the words of Veronica, the "antagonist" of this novel, I just didn't get it. The story felt pseudo-weighty and contrived. And this from me, the gleeful reader of extremely contrived genre literature. But that stuff is supposed to be contrived! The problem here for me is that Barnes is a serious writer, and serious literature, for me, mustn't feel contrived, I must be convinced that what happens is what had to happen and is rooted in something fundamental about human nature. Barnes writes wonderfully well, by the way and I loved Flaubert's Parrot. So it's not the writing, or even, in some ways the characters. It's just that . . . in this novel the story at the core seemed ridiculous to me. Ridiculous and a bit pompous or something. It's just not credible to hold someone accountable in this way--and for that person to be such a dope as to take on that burden! I felt like the dude in Blazing Saddles who just shoots the guy who is spinning his pistols around. If I say anything more it would be a spoiler. I recognize that some people love this kind of book: bright and contained, polished and accomplished like an intricate and clever puzzle box. Not for me. ***

And the egg on the book cover? !!!!!!!!

>54 sibylline: I also enjoyed the GG Kay without being blown away by it. Have you read his *Sarantium* (i.e. Byzantium) books? I liked them, probably best of any since A Song for Arbonne. Like you, I'm a huge Tigana fan; I expect it's still my #1 stand-alone fantasy.
>59 sibylline: Thanks for the honesty. For some reason I have a hard time talking myself into J. Barnes although I own a copy of *F'sP*. I believe this is one I can do without for quite a bit.
And you know the faces in L'ton will light up when you come back!!! Oh! I asked my friend about her corgi's tail, and it had been docked after all, "to keep the cows from stepping on it." I didn't know.
Oh! The Janissary Tree arrived today from a good PBSer. I'm looking forward to it after Shardlake. Shardlake has me antsy right now. I'm about half through and it seems as though we're pretty close to polishing off this trouble. I have bad premonitions of whats to come.

I definitely will pick up the *Sarantium* ones - I don't think I have any, but I should check. I love anything about Byzantium or Istanbul, even a made up one!

You are in for a nice treat with JTree. I am a little way behind you and am wondering what awful twist the Shardlake plot is going to take to last for another eighteen or so hours of listening!

Meanwhile, in my book news the line-up now looks like this:

Currently Reading (March)
♬

I've started the Knausgaard and already, well, he careens from the banal, spending time with his three very young children at a tawdry amusement park, to the examination of a Norwegian author, Dag Solstad, and ruminations about whether it is ultimately nature or nurture that makes a person into who they are. Does it matter what family you are born into? Some time periods think yes, others think no. It is a most critical belief, for all it is, ultimately, is a belief. For nurture implies culpability for bad "parenting" and nature, well, it kind of throws one to the dogs, survival of the fittest, etcetera. It makes some aspects of ethics look shaky, that's for sure. Anyway, Book 1 started with an extended meditation on death. This one plunges right into the aftermath of love and marriage: offspring and what that does to a person. I used to cry in playgrounds--I was so bored and my daughter always wanted to run around an explore. I was 44 when she was three, so used to a free life, it was very very difficult sometimes, no matter how much I loved and treasured her. I can't help but respect Knausgaard for his candour! The adoration, the boredom, the terror that they might hurt themselves if vigilance ceases for even a second. . . he's nailed it.

Otherwise I'm romping through Foreigner 7 and slowly reading the three-in-one offering of Flora Thompson's extraordinary "fictionalization" of her childhood and youth, Lark Rise to Candleford in Oxfordshire. I'm looking forward to seeing the BBC production of it.

>50 sibylline: At her happiest when we are all in the same house, preferably even the same room.

Describes our Australian cattle dog to a T as well.

I started book 4 - Karl had got as far as his new flat on an isolated island at 18, was underwhelmed and decided to put it to one side. Maybe I'll come back to these in the future, but it just didn't grab me.

Did the first three?

I was thinking that I'd read them in age order - not the best plan perhaps...

Oh . . . So you've read the first one?

>59 sibylline: I think I agree with you pretty much on this one Lucy. I remember Darryl being bowled over by this one and the Booker judges must have been but I thought it slight and one of the weakest winners of that august prize ever.

Have a lovely weekend.

33. sf ***1/2
Destroyer C.J. Cherryh (Bk 7 Foreigner

As ever with the first book in a felicitous three-sequence, things get off to a meticulously spelled out start. In this one, I think, we learn much more about how atevi man'chi really works as we watch Tabini's son, Cajeiri begin to mature and attract others, and as Bren observes and experiences the matriarch dowager Illisidi make her magnificent moves to recapture the territory lost after the coup by the southern association. Oh, right, Bren and co. get home from their successful two-year mission out to Reunion station to find that Tabini has disappeared, the conservative forces deemed this time, with illisidi and other powerful figures out of the picture, as a good one to attack. Tabini with the human paidhi Bren at his side, have pushed the atevi too fast and too far technologically and this is the push back. I was especially impressed in this one by how well Cajeiri was, once again, woven into the story. But, overall, it was slower reading, a little hard to concentrate as so much of it was about the ins and outs of atevi alliances. Barb, a character I don't care for at all, turns up again, but thankfully only briefly, but I'm afraid she's around for good, given her new love focus. Hopefully she will behave herself. I look forward to the next two, and have no doubt things will heat up and get red hot! ***1/2

>61 sibylline: Larkrise to Candleford (BBC production) was simply charming. It's one of Hubby's all time favorite series.

>59 sibylline: Very well said: The problem here for me is that Barnes is a serious writer, and serious literature, for me, mustn't feel contrived, I must be convinced that what happens is what had to happen and is rooted in something fundamental about human nature.
I don't even remember the plot, but I remember I didn't feel at all compelled to start the book all over again as the cover and some reviews promised me I would.

Our cocker spaniel was only completely happy when we were all together - which at some point meant when I was home from uni and my then boyfriend was there as well. She knew the sounds of all our cars. :)

I'll wait a bit with the Knausgaard. I'd SO love to read them now, but with my non-existent memory for names and often plot I prefer complete series. Where are we now/ how many are still missing?

>54 sibylline: I think I like The Last Light of the Sun better than you did. It's not my favorite Kay (but Tigana isn't either) but I really liked it.

>43 sibylline: I liked The Janissary Tree and I liked its sequel slightly more. :-)

I'm another that wasn't bowled over by Barnes. I can only very vaguely recall the plot but I do remember just being annoyed with it and concluding that if that was Booker prize worthy then Booker prize winners weren't for me! (a few other Booker winners I had read around that time also hadn't gone down well, but this was the clearest evidence yet)

So glad you are enjoying "Foreigner". Cajeiri is really starting to come along nicely, isn't he? Such a fascinating mix of Atevi and Human influences. He is in many ways the thing the more traditional folk fear the most; a future ruler that instinctively understands and feels at ease with Humans, but what tantalising possibilities that opens up for us readers!

I'm with Hannah!

>72 HanGerg: >73 LizzieD: I am loving watching that unfold!

Have a wonderful Easter.

Lucy, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

34. sf ****
Pretender C.J. Cherryh

Pretender starts off at a gallop (well, explosions, roaring of engines) and never lets up! By plane train and automobile it's a race to the capitol, Shejidan. Aiji Tabini has problems to overcome before fully reasserting himself as the head of the Western side of the continent--in two directions, one the usurper Murini and second the Assassin's Guild itself which is revealed to be in disarray. Luckily Tabini has not only his grandmother Ilisidi, and Bren the paidhi-ji, the world's foremost worrywort, but his now 8 yr. old son Cajeiri is showing signs of true precocity. Lots of fun! This is book 2 of a three part sequence (7-9 in the larger series). ****

After this one I have to stop for a bit as I actually don't have any but one of the next six or seven in the series!

It is a bit difficult to choose to read Knausgaard when this is the other fiction choice!

Happy Easter, Lucy. Goodness, I lost you 78 posts ago! Was out walking yesterday and it occurred to me, "Where did Lucy go?" Of course, you went to a new thread. I temporarily lost my way, LOL!

Lark Rise to Candleford has piqued my interest.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter. Will LD be home?

>79 lit_chick: I am loving it. Reading slowly though.

>80 RebaRelishesReading: We are all scattered hither and yon, I'm afraid.

Hi Lucy. I see that you are reading My Struggle: Book Two. I probably just missed it along the way (keeping up on threads is simply not possible) but wondered how the first one landed on you. I promised one of our student leaders that I would read it before he graduates (that means I have until June 11). He was raving about it and noticed that I had a copy in my office....

Anyway, I wish you a happy weekend ahead!

Yep, raving sounds about right. Either he gets right through all defenses and hits the emotional and intellectual (all mixed up together!) bulls eye, or it just don't resonate at all--and I mean AT ALL--(which is interesting in itself). This second one is already wreaking a good kind of havoc in my soul.

That Knausgaard is really calling to me... must resist a bit longer!

Happy Easter, Lucy! Re you all on your own this year with the Easter dog and cats?

"A good kind of havoc in my soul". Love that.

Here are a few quotes from Struggle #2. The first two are of a piece, from a very long paragraph, and are serious, the last one is funny: The first, in fact, addresses Knausgaard's "struggle" - makes it very clear that this is the word that best describes his constant internal conflict. I can't think what other word he could use. I will also admit that it was startling in the extreme to read this, for I've been, yes, struggling, with very similar issues all my life, but never articulated this strongly or this well.

He's been at a children's party and is leaving: "There was nothing left of my feelings for those I had just spent several hours with. The whole crowd of them could have burned in hell for all I cared. This was a rule in my life. When I was with other people I was bound to them, the nearness I felt was immense, the empathy great. Indeed so great that their well-being was always more important than my own. I subordinated myself, almost to the verge of self-effacement; some uncontrollable internalmechansim caused me to put their thoughts and opinions mine. But the moment I was alone others meant nothing to me. " He then goes on to say some ameliorating things about his feelings for various types of people, nothing to do whether he likes them or not.

Then this - he is split, constantly, in two, back and forth depending whether he is alone or with others:

"And in between them is where my daily life lay. Perhaps that was why I had such a hard time living it. Everyday life, with its duties and routines, was something I endured, not a thing I enjoyed, nor something that was meaningful or that made me happy. This had nothing to do with a lack of desire to wash floors or change diapers but rather with something more fundamental: the life around me was not meaningful. I always longed to be away from it. So the life I led was not my own, I tried to make it mine, this was my struggle, because of course I wanted it, but I failed, the longing for something else undermined all my efforts."

This, I think, is the torment of, although it makes me cringe to write it, "the true artist" - or creative person, or what have you. Some unreal place that you get to inhabit in your mind, but never for long enough, has more allure, impact, and meaning than the real world, even though you know that is an illusion, entirely.

OK. So enough of that:

"I stopped for a few seconds by the newspaper stand wondering whether to buy the two evening papers here, the two biggest publications. Reading them was like emptying a bag of trash over your head. Now and then I did buy them, when it felt as though a bit more trash up there wouldn't make any difference."

That's funny enough for Peggy's daily quote, eh?

Hm... if he gets somewhere with his struggle, I should read that. If not is might cause another 25 years of therapy. Both quotes could be mine, though I wouldn't be able to write them so well. Especially the first one is very difficult to grasp for others. I don't know though if it is lack of interest or the contrary, that you gave so much you're exhausted and need a break. But do you "give" (friendship, time, an open ear, whatever), because you really want to give it and because you genuinely like the people, or do you give because you believe it's expected and if not people will think you're not functioning in a social context? I often can't answer it for myself, but I know a whole bunch of people with that behavior, mostly men. And I'd say most of them aren't aware of their issue and their struggle or avoid thinking about it.
*postponing Knausgaard read*

You are right about one thing -- he is very intense. And almost terrifyingly blunt about his mentall state in a way people aren't usually: either can't or won't express themselves--don't understand themselves, don't want to spend the time figuring it out either!

I read fifty pages of Knausgaard and then retreat into the Foreigner series, or the charming Lark Rise to Candleford memoir.

Thanks for sharing a bit about how the reading of Knausgaard is going, and what the experience is like.
I will take a bit of wisdom from this and start to read the first one, with a plan to take brief retreats into other reading experiences. :-)

Tonight I write from my first stop on the way home, a super nice Best Western in Yulee, FL - just a short way from the Georgia border. I was stupid this morning and kind of lolly-gagged about taking forever to leave with the result that I encountered more traffic later exacerbated by wrong turn . . . into argh. But I got here and am now happy and comfortable. Probably wasn't more than twenty minutes of delay - but I was sooooo tired and then the google map lady herself started to get mixed up! But I told her off, you bet!

Hope I can do a little better tomorrow, when it's back to see Peggy again. Now that we're old acquaintances.

Wow! I can so relate to Knausgaard's first one. I think of it as living in the moment, but I'm not sure about that. The third one is funny as all get-out and could easily be quoted!
Glad you're in, and I'm looking forward to spending time with my old friend Lucy!

I've had the same conversation with the Google lady: and then the google map lady herself started to get mixed up! But I told her off, you bet! Glad you're settled in the for evening, Lucy, and happy driving tomorrow.

>90 sibylline: good job keeping that Google lady in check, Lucy. Sometimes she goes on a bit of a power trip. I hope Miss Po is managing the travel. Enjoy your visit with Peggy!

She was absolutely insistent that I make a U-turn when I had already made the u-turn!!! I was so tired that I really did yell at her to shut (blankety blank) up! She did after awhile.

So Lucy has come and gone - continuing north. We had a great visit, and I wish they could happen more often!

Travel update: Tonight I am in Fredericksburg. Took quite a nice walk around Chatham Hall ( I think that is what it is called) that overlooks the Rappahannock and was the site of fierce fighting in the Civil War.

And yes indeed Peggy and I saw one another yesterday and this morning and had another delightful time together. I have a video of May and Posey playing, but I've never tried to post one here, so I don't know if I can. We are pretty much the same as we were a month back, so no new photo.

So tomorrow I leave the southlands for a brief layover in the midlantic before entering the northcountry.

And I am indulging thoroughly and completely by picking up the new Lois Bujold to enjoy for the rest of the trip!

A bit of amusing: Yesterday my spousal unit sent a clip of Tenzing (one of our cats) watching it snow and at one rest area someone came up to my car, a couple traveling from Florida to Vermont (where one was born) and when I told them it was snowing up there, he called his mother who started laughing. Vermont is one of those states where, since it does have such a small population, people do that, see that green license plate and figure they might know someone you know. And weirdly often one does.

35. sf ****1/2
Deliverer C.J. Cherryh

This final book of the third Foreigner "sequence" #9 in the felicitous threesomes, was tight and action-packed. Of greatest interest, of course, is that Cajeiri, the heir, Tabini's son has been profoundly affected by his two years on "the ship." He is the first atevi child to have been exposed to humans at a very young age and he has an ease with humans that is going to change things down the road, for good or bad, remains to be seen, I suspect, in later books. He has become almost as important character as paidhi Bren, the human interpreter for the atevi.

I will now take a break from reading these as I haven't got anymore, well, I have one, book 11, I think it is, but that's it.

36. ♬ hist myst ****
Lamentation C.J. Sansom

So I'm all caught up with Shardlake with this last volume, so far, in the series and it was a humdinger! I'd say it was over the top in the gore department, both at the beginning and the end, but one was sufficiently prepared for some of it, if not all of it. Sansom does not beat around the bush about how much closer to the edge people lived then compared to the way we live now. Queen Katherine calls upon Shardlake for help, she has, ill-advisely, written a book "Lamentations of a Sinner" that reveal her protestant, reformist leanings. It has been stolen. Shardlake is chosen to try and retrieve it. The plot is utterly serpentine, and while I did have an inkling, it was still surprising. Really well done, if painful reading near the end - which resolves into a very very satisfying ending. Enjoyed the historical notes at the end too. ****

Interestingly, the next book that I've rather impulsively begun listening to is a Dorothy Dunnett The Game of Kings starts right where this leaves off!- with the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, little King Edward's uncle, attacking Scotland, trying to capture four year old Mary with the idea of marrying her to Edward and thus uniting the two countries through marriage.

I had already begun Lamentation when I set out for Florida and it lasted most of the way down and back! Impressive! And it made such a difference. I just settle in a groove, not driving fast, not slow and cruise along, my mind occupied and the rest of me free to pay attention just enough to the road. Brilliant!

Tonight I am in Croton-on-Hudson and will spend the day with my daughter tomorrow. Saturday it will be onward to Vermont where on Sunday I can look forward to snow and then temps in the teens!!! Yeesh!

>98 sibylline: Tonight I am in Croton-on-Hudson and will spend the day with my daughter tomorrow.
That sounds delightful. I'm sure you are eager to be home but that is a very worthwhile stopover!!

So Shardlake is getting gorey as well? A "very very satisfying ending" sounds great and I'll Keep this in my memory (okay, I'll try) to get through the remaining 3. Maybe it's a good idea to try them on audio.

Wishing you a safe trip and a great day with your daughter!

Love the Knausgaard quotes. I might use that one about the newspapers when caught reading something super trashy!

Here is the round-up for March!

Best of March
Cazelet Chronicles -- Elizabeth Jane Howard taken as a whole, 5 books.

Worst of March
A Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes very disappointing!

March Reflections

This month's reading was very much a continuation and completion of last month's. Once again, best of, is a toss-up between two series, only this time the winner is the 5 volume Cazelet Chronicles. These are set in and near London in a period from just before ww2 to the mid-fifties and follow the the shifting (and yes, declining) fortunes of a merchant class family as the social structure already teetering collapses entirely, especially around those who cannot move with the shifting times. And yet, although the final book is a tough read in some ways, it is clear that the next generation will find their own way somehow or other and keep on. Very nicely done and it is hard to let go of people one has spent so much time with. The runner-up was the final book in the THIRD sequence of .J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (Books 7-9). The gang is back from their mission in outer space and in the meanwhile things went to pieces at home. Bren to the rescue. In this series young Cajeiri, the heir, emerges as a full character. Lots of fun. Finally, the third in the line-up of good reads would be Look to Windward -- Iain Banks writing at the top of his form. Lots of good fun with Ship Minds. On the disappointing side, A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - in some ways a perfectly adequate book, but it felt contrived to me, can't understand how it won anything.

I went to see how many books I'd read by the end of March last year. Exactly the same as this year: 36.

Total: 12
Men: 5
Women: 5 (several by same author)
M/W writing together: 1 (NYer)
Non-fiction: 1 (Nyer)
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 3
SF/F: 4
Mystery: 2
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio): 0
Audio: 2
New: 4
Off Shelf: 5
Read it or Get Rid of It: 0

Housekeeping

IN March= TBA approx 8
2016 Total IN= 22
OUT March Total=3 (two to an LFL in Sarasota!)
2016 Total OUT= 9

Books IN: March 2016
Oh dear! I think about 8 but they aren't properly tallied yet, if ever!

>101 charl08: Isn't that a fun quote! It's these little asides, in the flow of Knausgaard's work, which has a deceptively casual off-the-cuff feeling, that gives the real sense of his wit.

I am continuing to find this second book (in the Knausgaards) even more unsettling than the first - I can barely think of anyone, save maybe James Boswell, who writes with such (apparent) (utterly convincing) (shattering) openness. The difference being that there is/was an artlessness to Boswell's confessions. Knausgaard is too self-aware and too well trained in critical literary thought to be an innocent - and yet - one has the sense that he is writing the only way he has found he can. In that sense, he is an innocent, despite everything he has studied and thought about.

Thrilled that you continue to enjoy the Cazalets so much, Lucy!

Wishing you a relaxed weekend, Lucy.

I'm home! And it is still winter here - 24 degrees this morning! Took me a minute to figure out what to wear. At least the sun is shining for now. Might see some snow later.

And here is a pic of Po on the marvelous fainting couch in my B&B room:

Welcome home, Lucy! Miss Po is looking as lovely as ever - and very comfy!

37. memoir *****
Lark Rise to Candleford Flora Thompson

Exquisite is the first word that comes to mind, but a special kind of exquisite, a gentle and tactful, clear-eyed (as opposed to naive or nostalgically sentimental) remembrance of life in a hamlet about 20 miles from Oxford in the last two decades of the 19th century. I'm old enough to know that there is always "a way of life passing by" (I remember the milkman delivering our milk in glass bottles for example) but Flora, (disguised as Laura) describes everything of the habits, dress, food, celebrations, furnishings and social structure of her childhood and this truly was, in a very critical way, a rural life that was about to come crashing to an end. This is really three books in one and I generally read ten or twenty pages at night before going to sleep. A treasure, Thompson manages to simultaneously write both subjectively and objectively about a way of life in which she was immersed as a child. I look forward to seeking out the BBC rendering of it which I gather is quite good. *****

Oh, I just adore the photo of Po on the fainting couch in your B&B, Lucy! Thanks for posting! How did these wonderful pieces of furniture ever go out of vogue? We need to change that.

Lark Rise to Candleford is one I must get my hands on! And a BBC rendering, too! It makes me think of South Riding which I just finished, and which was a 5* read for me.

My reading line up has changed a bit of late (Lark Rise took well over a month to read):

♬

>109 lit_chick: Yes, I think you'll like it.

I'm not sure about the TR book, but I am trying to pick books that have languished a bit too long . . . (That is, not sure it is what I want to read right now, not that it isn't good, I expect and hope it is and that Millard will quickly convince me that I do want to be reading it.)

Lucy, I can't read what that last one is - what audiobook are you listening to?

>108 sibylline: Lark Rise to Candleford sounds really good, Lucy. Onto the WL it goes.

Love the fainting couch - and someone looks very comfy there!

Hubby and I both just loved the BBC Larkrise to Candleford. It was one we wished could go on and on.

>111 Crazymamie: It's Dorothy Dunnett's Game of Kings - so far so good!

38. sp/op***1/2
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

This is no more than a gentle revisiting and settling of a beloved character, Cordelia now in her mid-seventies (but expecting to live to at least 120-130). Aral has been dead for three years, but he left behind his gametes, convinced by his Betan wife that Barrayarans had to move into the modern universe, replicators and all . . . and she has gotten it into her head she'd like to have daughters. She then gets a further idea to invite Admiral Jole, Aral's other long-term squeeze (oh, did I mention that Aral was bi and that the three were all copacetic) to the use of the Aral gametes as well - Betans can somehow make them work for either gender - . Oh, and did I mention Jole is gorgeous? They are all on the planet Sergyar and there are minor subplots to do with where to put the planet's capitol. Really and truly this little novel is only for fixed fans of the Barrayaran uni and even then it might be a stretch. The 1/2 is purely for nostalgic reasons. ***1/2

It is snowing out there. So happy to be in Vermont (!) April 4, wood stove glowing, have on my extra layers. 18 F. Sigh. I love it here, this is the landscape I feel at home in, but I did like the warm in the southern lowlands.

I'm a bit jealous.... snow, low temps, fainting couch with Miss Po on it... Here it's too warm and humid already and it's only April. I had to start the air-con in my office on Friday. Body still complains about a missing season, I'm not ready for summer.

Contrary to what I said here earlier, I think I started Knausgaard today. :/

>116 sibylline: I had the same reaction to Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Lucy. Not much for plot or action, but a nice revisit with the series' characters, especially Cordelia.

39. urb fan **1/2
The Midnight Mayor Kate Griffin

Various words come to mind and a part of me wants to write a scathingly satirical and clever send-up of Griffin's effort. In part because she comes so close to being very good indeed. But Matthew Swift is a two-dimensional bore and I began gnashing my teeth after about the fiftieth time he started bleeding profusely after ripping up his stitches so that the wound flapped while he was running and bleeding, and oh, the blood dripping down his arm, down his fingers, pooling here and there, drip, drip, drip. Gawd, this fellow has a copious amount of blood! It was tedious and maddening and in the end made the whole story silly when it wasn't all that silly. And it wasn't the only repetitious tick, there were others. The core magical ideas are solid and original, the plot was sound, and the descriptions of London are sometimes inspired . . . But, for heaven's sake, give Matthew some decent clothes? Several pleasant nights off? A date with someone who won't immediately get killed? Maybe even a real relationship with someone? Friends who aren't always threatening to kill him? In other words, give him some dimension? He so obviously ISN'T a hateful person that it is bizarre how automatically people hate him. His goodness is just there, a blob of cloying honey in his personality, unearned, unexplained, obvious. He lacks depth because nothing except being pummeled and gored ever happens to him. Perhaps what is lacking is EDITING. Griffin, since she can't do it for herself, needs a thoughtful and determined editor who can pry the good book hidden inside the prolixity. There is a sub-genre of bloody fantasy, which, for some reason, urban fantasy is especially vulnerable to, and which always seems to require a person who describes it all in the first person. I am not going to read the last two books in the series (so far). I will donate them all to the local library since some people seem to enjoy this stuff. **1/2

>110 sibylline: hope it is and that Millard will quickly convince me
I hope so too! OTOH, I have Destiny of the Republic and though I'm quite sure it'll be a page-turner, I haven't felt in the mood to pick it up.

So I put my copy of *Blue Angels 1* on PBS this afternoon, and I have no regrets at all. I had read about 100 pp before I put it down, couldn't care for it, and read your review of #2.
I will be interested to know what you think of the Millard since my best HS friend recommended it so strongly that I got a copy from PBS.

Just proves that no matter how similar we are in tastes, we'll always have differences. I do think the first 100 pages ofA Madness of Angels were the most difficult in the whole series. Book three results in Matthew acquiring an apprentice, which changes the dynamic somewhat, and then Sharon Li, in the two linked Magicals Anonymous books is such a quirky character among others of note. Sorry, I like the writing and I love the love song to London contained therein. Disappointed neither of you got involved, but totally copacetic with that.

I'm sorry you had a bad reading experience, but I admit I loved the review. :)
There's a blood-fantasy sub-genre? Well, I wouldn't know... I'd read some nice fantasy some time, but they all seem to be long series. Are there any good stand-alones?

>123 ronincats: I'm not so far off as you think. I am annoyed that the books come so close to being terrific, and, for me, fail due to the volumes of blood spilled. I think you are more patient than I am, perhaps, or more forgiving. The spousal unit liked the books just fine, for exactly the same reasons you do. I liked the part of them you like enormously - but the other stuff ended up being fatal, sort of like a good piece of music played on an instrument with a couple of bad notes, eventually it just became too irritating. I could see Jenny N. might have some potential as am apprentice, and I've always enjoyed Oda, but not enough to endure the dripping again. But, you never know, they'll be at the library if I change my mind!

>124 Deern: It wasn't so bad. I'm very interested in the different ways the writers envision magic, uses and abuses, sources of power etc. To like fantasy (or sf in general) I think one has to be quite willing to suspend disbelief and then allow the writer to create a world that is consistent within itself, if not with our rules of physics. Generally I'm not all that critical, very tolerant of the various memes, but I am more drawn to the style of fantasy where less is more and I think my taste is gradually growing fussier (code for sophisticated)? I've encountered other series and novels where the protagonist gets beat up constantly, and in some cases I've quit and in others, say, the way Jim Chee in the end of every one of the mysteries gets pounded to a pulp, somehow Hillerman did it with grace and even some humour and never overdid it, so that was fine, just another meme of the mystery genre. Genre readers like up to a point for certain things to always happen. It is how the writer handles the expected (making it unexpected?) that appeals.

I can recommend quite a few fantasies to you, Nathalie, but you might want to look at my Top Ten Fantasies and then look around and see which draw you. And most of the better ones do come in series, as the "story arc" tends to have a large scope. And fantasy encompasses a very wide spectrum indeed. You've read the classics? LOTR and the Narnia books? Harry Potter? I have enjoyed Cornelia Funke, who you can read in the original language --although she is skewed somewhat YA, very enjoyable. It helps to have a sense of what you don't like too - I don't care much for vampire tales. They have to be exceptionally smart and definitely not first person for me to even consider picking one up.

One of my top stand-alone reads was Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. But I say that with some caution as it isn't everybody's! But let me think on that. One series that I thought and think truly exceptional is Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. I truly loved it and look forward to rereading it soon.

Roni - Two recent examples of "less is more" series that I think we both loved are the Megan Lindholm Ki and Vandien Quartet and I also, although not quite as thoroughly enjoyed R.A. MacAvoy's Lens of the World series which has very little magic and is all about character-building.

Thank you so much for that long answer and the recommendations!

I read and very much enjoyed LOTR and Harry Potter and some of the Narnias. That series though was in parts too religious for me and I disliked the ending and what he did to the oldest daughter. But the general setting with the parallel world was great. As a very young teenager I read some Marion Zimmer Bradley, but only really liked then The Mists of Avalon, it was my first fantasy ever. I tried to do magic with tea leafes... didn't work. :(

I have no issues with the "reality" question in fantasy or sci-fi, though as you say, the world should be consistent within itself. I thought in the last HP for example too much new magic was added (like Snape flying or Hermione packing everything into a tiny handbag) to prevent the story from running into corners. I don't enjoy too much violence or that "old wise woman's voice" which I both also dislike in historical fiction.

My problem with the series is simply that my memory for characters and events is so short, that's also why I gave up on GoT for now after book one although I enjoyed it very much. If it's a series, then better a complete one.

I read "Tintenherz" Inkheart, but it didn't capture me, it was a bit too YA maybe. But so were Narnia and HP and the Hobbit. Maybe the British just do children's books better.

Somehow I missed this new thread, so I'm behind now, but here I am again to lurk

Hmmm. I am also a great fan of Tigana, but I haven't read the Long Price business although the name rings a bell. Did I buy the first one?? Off to check to see.
Roni, I normally don't mind violence, and I don't think that was quite what didn't feel right to me about the first Blue Angel one - or it may have been. Anyway, I was relieved when I offered it on PBS, so that is a sign that I'm better off without it. Personal taste!

40. contemp fic *****
My Struggle: Book 2: A Man in Love Karl Ove Knausgaard

If Book One examines adolescence and the transformation of a child into an independent thinking person, and the influence of a father for good and ill, Book Two, A Man in Love, focusses with equal intensity on the women in Karl Ove's life, on developing and maintaining relationships (wife, children, parents) including the deep friendship with Geir, a Norwegian man who becomes his closest friend in Sweden. Much as I loved Book One for its revelatory aspects of adolescent boyhood, in Book Two I could identify with Karl Ove often, just as a person, neither male nor female; he writes about the difficulties in adjusting to having children and writing, tries to capture the tension between meeting the needs not only of others but of his private and public selves. How can a deeply introverted person reconcile the conflicting desires of connection and solitude and make space for both? Much of what he writes about here is less gender-related. Just because one is introverted and driven to create, doesn't mean one is without an equally strong desire to be part of a social unit of family and friends. This second book, because so much in it parallels or echoes aspects of my own life, (even to including a crazy scary neighbor. Ours used to sometimes sit on his roof drinking peppermint schnapps and howling just because), confirmed for me the depth of Karl Ove's honesty and attempt o capture and make some sense of the confusions and contradictions of daily life. I also hugely enjoyed the ruminations on "normalcy" and conformity (I've thought--ok ranted-- about this, but never so coherently!) and the very entertaining comic relief of Geir's riffs on the "differences between Norwegians and Swedes" which surfaces now and then. There are couple of a breathtaking sections on poetry, on how it either "opens" out for you or it does not and that only another poet could tell the difference between a poem written by a real poet and a wannabe. There are several passages where Karl Ove describes what he is seeing and talks about himself as a visual person and his relationship to art, especially painting, mentioned in the previous book, but enriched here. There is description of a walk, of the white snow, contrasting with the black of trees and rocks, that, in its exactitude gave me the shivers. Lovely. The book is so rich that I can't do more than scratch the surface for you. You will either love it or find it tedious no matter what I say! *****

With only four Murdochs left on my shelf (there are more I haven't read and haven't got around) I am choosing one The Red and the Green that is a bit different, set in Dublin in 1916, and thus historical fiction. The only book Murdoch wrote which, you could say, examines her Irish roots at all. I had to think for a moment if this was what I really wanted to read, but that's the one my hand reached for so I will stick with it. I have a pile of Irish Troubles books, Troubles and The Year of the French plus all of Sean O'Faolain inherited from my mil's library . . . so maybe this is the time to plunge back in.

OK, weird! Putting in The Year of the French caused Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to come up in the Touchstones. I guess I'd better go report that. Hmmm putting in The Red and the Green seems to bring up The Hobbit. Glitch anyone?

And -- it must be time for spring-cleaning. I've decided to clear some books off my shelves that . . . well . . . for no good reason, no rational or even fair reason, I am about 98% sure I will never read. They just depress me sitting on my shelves. I can give some of them to our local library. It turns out, for ex, that besides not liking some kinds of first person fantasy narration, I also am generally not drawn to YA dystopics, not really. I have them around because my daughter read them, but I don't think I ever will.

Even though it was snowing a little earlier, I'm noticing from the tone of bird twitter out there, that they think it is spring. That's heartening, at least. It isn't going to warm up much this week, just mid-forties until the weekend and below or at freezing most nights. Grrrr.

Lucy, that's a wonderful review of Knausgaard 2! You should feel the impress of my thumb that I can't put on the book page.
I somehow think that HP1 is the default Touchstone for any book that the program doesn't recognize. If you go back to your post and click on "others," you'll find the Flanagan about 10 titles down. I haven't read it, but I loved his The Tenants of Time when it came out in pb years ago. I don't think I've read *Red&Green* either. Hope it's satisfying.

>129 sibylline: I'm about 1/3 into Book 2 right now and just as absorbed with it as with the first, though like you said it's for different reasons. For me, so far it's his description of children's parties and all those sorts of kid things that really hit home.

I'm with you on the cleaning off the shelves, Lucy. Did that last spring and cleaned out two bookcases. Hard work, and, like you say for no good reason, no rational or even fair reason, I am about 98% sure I will never read.

>133 ursula: Oh yes, they sure did with me too. I remember one day when my daughter was in her late teens when she just took over the planning and execution of her own birthday party and I realized it was "done" - no more trying to figure out something that would fit her age and friend group of the moment. No parents came and hung about either. The kids just did their own thing, some role playing game and a movie, and that was it. Bliss! It brought back how much hanging around at some of those infant/toddler parties was excruciating although -- also intriguing in some ways -- which ambivalence Karl Ove captures very nicely. What was interesting to me though was that while some of what KO describes (like the music person flirting with him) is gender-specific, a great deal of it is true for many mothers, possibly especially older mothers, as I was, who've had years of "freedom". I have to admit that in my own marriage my husband is a bit more like Linda and I am the KO person. I could live alone and be fine, as KO says of himself, it is very much a choice based on not just need but a recognition of profound affection for the person in particular and the necessity as a human being--you have to be connected to people to be sane--but for some types it is a constant (minor) irriitant - and, let us hope, one that ends up making a nice big fat pearl.

>131 sibylline: Do run the titles past us before the final cull so we can alert you if there are any hidden pearls in there!

Lucy, I have just ordered My Struggle...I have been (ahem) struggling with making a 6-volume commitment. I give up. How can I resist after reading your comments about it?

I love that you have a new real-life friend in Peggy. I am real-life friends with her friend Stasia. I value the friendships I have made in this wonderful group.

And the picture of the first dog meetup is priceless. My real-life LT friends Joanne (coppers) and Mary (Storeetllr) in Denver have had a meeting between Jo's Golden Retriever and Mary's African Grey Parrot. You can see a picture in Mary's Profile Gallery.

Hmm. You do have this knack of making heavyweight volumes that I had hitherto dismissed as being "a bit too much" sound like they need urgent reading. You've almost got me with My Struggle. But six volumes?! Hmm, maybe, we'll see...

>136 ronincats: In the end, I was only able to part with 3 books - the series by Patrick Ness Chaos Walking. I just know I won't get on with it. I was planning to offer it to our local library first - although if they have it, I will then offer it here or at PBS.

>137 Donna828: >138 HanGerg: I only have four of the Knausgaard's, so far, and I don't think it is at all necessary to rush through them like a series. I don't plan to read the next one for a couple of months at least, my feeling is that each one is quite coherent in itself and certainly 1 and 2 while they complement one another stand alone perfectly well. I know some folks get kind of addicted though, but I haven't. And I admit I feel a bit guilty Hannah!!

I forgot also to respond >137 Donna828: that I have hugely enjoyed all my (not very many) meet-ups, and LT cross-over friendship into RL is wonderful. I confess too, that a goodly part of my wanting to drive down to FL was for a good excuse to meet up with Peggy! And well worth it.

I can see Peggy blushing and aw shucks-ing, but it is true!

So come one people, plan a vacation in Vermont! Or that at least has you passing through Vermont!

It's still hard to believe, Lucy, but I'm so grateful - truly a gift for life.
Now you can aw shucks....

Admired your Knausgaard review yesterday, but was too tired to type. Got my must-reads out of the way, so I could try book 1 now.

I'll start saving for London and Vermont as soon as my move is over! :))

FOX (THE CREATURE!!!!) REPORT

So this afternoon, which was nice and sunny though cool (mid forties, breezy) while I was working in my studio I look out the window and the vixen is trotting by with a squirrel (or something about that size and limp) in her mouth. She trots by and goes over to one of the big flat rocks that extends out into the pond. Goes out on the rock, puts down her catch and then just sits there for about five minutes before picking up her prize and trotting off to her den, which is about a hundred yards from our house on the far side of the pond (we have a steep drop off and her den is built into it). That was great! I think, but then about a half hour later I look up and there she is again! This time with something smaller in her mouth. This time she moves a little faster, then sits down near the pond with it, not on the rock, but otherwise it was exactly identical. She was looking over at the house both times. I sometimes walk up the ravine near her den and Posey goes and checks it out, and I think it has something to do with Posey, but am not sure what. Pretty soon I won't walk that way again for several months because she'll have pups. Next year that den will probably be empty as I've noticed they moved around, don't use the same den endlessly --- there are several others along this steep drop off (it extends a good long way -- about a quarter of a mile, maybe slightly more) some in use, some not.

Hmmm. Very curious...... but fun to watch and speculate.
I'm off to see whether I can hear fox sounds on YouTube.

That trumps my hummingbird nest, Lucy, although the baby is getting big enough for the top of its head to be visible in the nest.

>143 sibylline: Oh I wonder what she's doing... nice report.I've not seen a fox locally, although when I lived in the city there were quite a few urban foxes who seemed unfazed by people.

It is my bet that this fox is quite interested in Posey and maybe Ernie too. They might hunt a kitten or a very small dog but they generally leave cats and dogs alone or are even a bit interested in them, foxes really are curious, the way cats are. I think this fox is curious about Posey. She sat on the ice of the pond one day watching Po do her morning biz with great interest (and dare I say, amusement?). So still that Po, who is observant, didn't notice her. Our very big cat, Ernie (he's enormous, big, not fat) likes to go to the other side of the pond and hang out in that area also . . . so they all have to be quite aware of each other. Simon went that way once in a while, but I didn't worry too much. Tenzing, of course, won't be going outside until NEXT spring, 2017. We keep our cats IN for a year and a half, which seems to do the trick. Then they go out 9-5 essentially, if they want to, but they stay very much house cats.

All that said, I suspect the pups have been born and are very small and that is why Mme Renard is hunting so vigorously. I need a really good book on foxes. I know some, but not enough!

It's going to be decent out today! 50 ish! Yay!

Oh, she certainly thinks Posey is a house fox and maybe wonders what she has to do to join the community and get food for free. Both dogs, both red (your Vermont foxes are red as well, aren't they?), similar height... Fascinating!

I'm fascinated with the fox comings and goings and sittings and watchings, Lucy! My first thought was Tenzing, too. Keeping your cats inside for a year and a half, and then allowing them to be 9-5 outdoor cats is brilliant. Funny that, as you point out, Po, Ernie, and Fox all must be aware of one another.

Loved your "Fox Report" (although the title gave me a bit of a start to begin with -- me thinking "what's she commenting on Fox for?!)

>150 RebaRelishesReading: LOL! I had exactly the same momentary first reaction!

>148 Deern: Posey as house fox -- I like that!
Great story, Lucy. You're lucky to have such interesting wildlife right in your back yard!

Enjoyed the fox stories, Lucy. Have you read Pax yet? The title character is a fox, and it's a very good read.

So I updated to FOX (THE CREATURE!!!!) REPORT.

I neither watch nor listen to any news anymore, so that made me laugh. I don't miss any of it, so much blather and hot air, and weirdly, from the minimum amount I read I seem to be reasonably well-informed.

Of course because I was armed with my binocs all day, I saw nothing whatsoever of interest!

>153 jnwelch: I've WLed Pax looks very intriguing.

Oh my goodness! Lucy reporting on FOX! That one never occurred to me. It did occur to me that Ms. Fox might wonder whether Posey is a bigger breed although "house fox" didn't enter my mind. Thanks, Nathalie!
Intriguing!

Lol re the Fox report name confusion. Binoculars seem to scare off the bird life here as soon as I produce them!

Fascinating Fox news, Lucy. How wonderful to have all that going on right outside your windows. Jane does not go outside at all - really busy street just steps from the front door - but I think that she does not quite know that 'outside' is real as I've never taken her outside, except in her carrier to go to the vet's or to visit my aunt. This, I find is a good thing as we don't have any struggles at the door with me having to guard against an escape attempt.

It is! This morning Mr and Ms Mallard swam by as I was waiting for Miss Po (nothing Ms about her) to finish up. The water was glassy still as they cut through it, swirling into patterns and fracturing the reflections behind them. Prolly the nature moment for today, but I'll take it! They were very nonchalant too - Po was right down by the bank and Mr. M barely sped up or glanced our way.

In book news I am up to my eyeballs in MaddAddam. That Ms Atwood sure can write. Some of it is very very snorting-coffee-out-my-nose funny too. I'm quite impressed with it and wish it hadn't been so long since I read the first and second ones. It is just silly to hold off with most series, especially if the book is out. (My excuse here is that MaddAddam wasn't yet out when I finished the second one.) I doubt I will read them again, although I will likely keep them around just in case. Anyway, I'm ignoring all my other books, poor things.

Tenzing has discovered creeping around on the strings inside the piano. We may have to change his name to Steinway or Horowitz or Goulding. Or how about Bosendorfer! No wait, it should be John Cage!!!!!

>159 sibylline: hehe, what a delightful post, Lucy! Speaking of snorting coffee out one's nose ...

Tenzing Cage! He has at least a cousin in our Archie Sparks - especially when I'm trying to play a note or two.
Sounds like a great nature moment to me! Mine for the day has to do with the deep, tender new green seen against the black of the river. Love spring!

Confessing that I am so gobsmacked with Lymond and The Game of Kings that yesterday afternoon I just lay on the sofa listening after getting home from errands, then listened while making dinner, listened after dinner, listened this morning . . . I rarely have done this! Not even knitting, just lying there listening!

>162 sibylline: I first read the Lymond novels when I was a teenager, about forty years ago, and have been slightly in love with Francis Crawford ever since. I've re-read them many times and still find them an effort, but a worthwhile effort. Her novel about Macbeth, King Hereafter is very good, too but seems to be forgotten now - it's not available for kindle and doesn't seem to be in print, although there are plenty of second-hand copies available.

41. ♬hist fic *****
Game of Kings Dorothy Dunnett

Magnifique! Once I got inside the rhythm and intent of the tale I was riveted. Dunnett wanted to create the consummate romantic hero, as I understand it, and in Crawford of Lymond she has succeeded. With a masterfully twisty plot, she never lets up on wit or character development and can handle a swordfight as well as an excruciating courtroom scene. The Lymond Chronicles were written between 1961 and 1975 and they are not one whit dated. Most remarkably the women characters are unfailingly as varied, memorable, and fully involved as any of the men. If you like your history served up with swashbuckle and wit, and a dash of mystery, you will be enthralled. The narrator, Napier, took a little getting used to at first with his sometimes drawly accent and a habit of dropping downwards at the end of a sentence but around the same time I warmed utterly to the story, I began to think he was just the right choice. *****

If you do listen, what sounds like the name "McClue" is "Buccleuch". It's really a sort of hard M with aa hint of B in it. I never had a "ccleuch" before how to pronounce it!

Lancaster PA corgis : http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/in-the-spotlight-conservancy-ceo-philip-r-... .

Wow, that's a lot of corgis!!!

Awww!

42. dystopic ****
MaddAddam Margaret Atwood

I wish I'd jumped on this the second it came out, not left so much time between it and the previous two books, but that said, I certainly remembered enough to know what was happening. Toby and the man Zeb she was getting involved with in the previous book were the main focus and are both engaging characters (in some ways I liked the second book better than the first). So - the situation is this, a virus was released that, like biblical flood, has killed off all but a very very few people and the "newly" invented people, the Crakers, who were put together by the MaddAddamites under the mad genius Crake. These few people, who were part of a group called God's Gardeners who had had some idea that this virus was going to be released and thus knew to hide during the time that the virus did its work. This is a creepy society where the educated and useful live separate from everyone else who inhabit the Pleeblands. There is no government anymore, everything is run by CorpSeCor, e.g. a conglomeration of massive corporations. Everything is geared toward commerce, including selling, in say, vitamins, stuff to make you sick, so you come back for medicine and procedures and so on. It's an ugly future, but it is all leavened with Atwood's wit and humor. I would say if you read the first two volumes Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood you might as well go on and read this third one. I loved Zeb's story and you certainly learn the whole of the "backstory" of how everything came to be.
****

Edited for some fairly egregious problems . . .

Just to say I couldn't resist starting the next Dunnett AND I've ordered the Companions as I found some that were reasonably priced. Different reader, but I can see why as Francis is pretending to be an Irishman, Liam something Roe, mucking about France, spying and stirring up trouble, begorrah. I think it's going to be fun! I have to go look up various words and see how they are spelled!

And it is amazing to me that I picked up the one Iris Murdoch that is set in Ireland and focusses around the Easter Uprising, the 100th anniversary of which is this very week! If I knew it was in a most unconscious way.

Hi Lucy. >108 sibylline: Lark Rise to Candleford has definitely gone on the list.

>120 sibylline: I think I was more with Roni on the Kate Griffin books but agree that the sheer volume of beatings Matthew took in that series did get a bit repetitive. Kate Griffin also writes as Claire North - have you tried either The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August or Touch? I thought they were both very good - not urban fantasy and quite hard to classify really - definitely speculative fiction but not sure they really fit either fantasy or science fiction entirely.

>168 sibylline: I didn't read Maddaddam as soon as it came out and now I'm dithering over whether I need to reread Oryx and Crake & The Year of the Flood (and I also liked the second book more than the first) - glad to know M worked for you without having to revisit the first two.

>169 sibylline: How cool a coincidence is that aboit your Iris Murdoch. Hope it's a good read.

Hmm, I only ever read Oryx and Crake, so it sounds like I should carry on to read Year of the Flood and MaddAddam. Thanks, Lucy.

I wish I'd jumped on this the second it came out, not left so much time between it and the previous two books,
I read the first two 3-4 years ago, but somehow never got around to MaddAddam, even though I had good intentions of "jumping on it". You've piqued my interest again, especially knowing you enjoyed it even though you didn't read them close together.

Interesting that you did the same thing, Laura. I think there was a critical "gap" between the publication of the 2 and 3rd and my interest moved elsewhere or something.

43. adventure/bio ***1/2

River of Doubt landed on my shelves a while back, after I read another book about TR when he was Police Commissioner of New York, and has sat there ever since. It is less about TR though than a book about surviving an ordeal--the sort of ordeal that, after reading the book on Mallory and Everest earlier this year, I've come to see as peculiarly of the era between, say 1850-1939, a time of furious and often bizarrely heedless exploration. Their goal was to go into the deepest rainforest of Brazil to find the start of a river no one had ever descended, that was on no map, to descend it while mapping it, and see where it emerged. The biggest differences between expeditions then and now is the social separation of the gentlemen explorers and those who labor to carry their gear. And the gear is, to our gore-texed and politically self-aware culture, ludicrous: china tea cups! The amazing thing is that, without antibiotics or any of the medical goodies that anyone embarking on a rigorous trip would take today, is that they made it. Malaria, festering wounds, horrible insects . . . endless miserable portages using cumbersome dug-outs -- everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong, and yet they did make it out, all but three and a dog. TR nearly died from complications of opening an old wound and malaria, wanted to be left behind, but his son Kermit wouldn't think of it. TR died only six years later and his health was never the same after the journey, but he had no regrets. It had been a lifelong desire to have true adventure, to be a true explorer, and he certainly achieved it. There are other characters, Rondon of Brazil, a fierce advocate of the native people as well as an explorer, and George Cherrie the naturalist, who fascinated me. I'd be interested to read about both of them. Anyway, I didn't learn anything about TR I didn't already know, (indomitable sums it up nicely) but I did learn a great deal about the rainforest and the trials of the early Euro-explorers and exploiters of it. I could give it a four, but it is, to me, a slightly odd book, something about it felt a little forced. ***1/2

Having finished River of Doubt and because of all the recent fox sightings around here, I picked this up the other day.

I LOVE the photograph on the cover!

Lucy, the fox updates are truly delightful. What a pleasure to be watching her come and go, knowing there will be pups in the near future. I recently read Never Cry Wolf and the descriptions of the wolf family were really sweet.

I still have My Struggle: Book One on the shelves, waiting for me to dig in. I hope I fall into the love camp on this series.

And yes, that photo on the cover of Red Fox: The Catlike Canine is perfect. Very catlike.

44. fantasy ***1/2
Mort Terry Pratchett

Well, hrrm, yes, Pratchett is silly. But, I seem to have unexpectedly caught the Discworld-bug. I won't be rushing through them, no, but they are enjoyable with a wit that occasionally strikes a deeper chord. ***1/2

Just reporting in that the Fox book is great!

Yesterday the Canada goose pair were at the far end of the pond, early, when I let Po out and , there was also, hanging around right down by the water's edge no more than a yard from them, a turkey. The different sorts of ducks and geese don't mind each other but won't let another of their kind, especially male, onto the pond.

Don't even know if I'll make ten books this month. Only if I choose carefully. Last April I read 17, just for comparison. I don't know how I did that and did anything else, including washing and dressing!

>178 sibylline: Silliness is obviously something to be aimed at and yearned for, Lucy.

Have a great weekend.

Mort is funny, amusing, cute. Reaper Man, the next in the Death series, is absolutely awesome. I strongly recommend you make it your next Pratchett.

Our Canada Goose pair's goslings hatched this morning (or possibly late yesterday). So cute and fluffy.

A turkey!!

>181 ronincats: I guess the question is whether to read this in order of particular story/character threads or in order of chronological appearance . . . I've been doing the latter so far. But that may not really be the best way. It could be utterly confusing though to do it any other way . . .

>182 lauralkeet: >183 sibylline: I think ours have a next nearby but not too nearby and must leave the nest some of the time to come up here and eat. And yep, we generally have lots of wild turkeys around although it does vary a bit from year to year.

45. mys ***
Rock With Wings Anne Hillerman

Zipped right through this one, and although it some of it worked, some of felt labored? Slightly too carefully pieced together? A little bit too predictable? Not the Tony H.'s books were paragons of originality. On the other hand, Anne may be finding her way yet. I could see the point, however, in letting Chee and Manuelito go and finding a new person to focus on, a person all her own? Just a thought. ***

46. hist fic ****
The Red and the Green Iris Murdoch

As far as I know this is Murdoch's only foray into historical fiction. You could argue, for her just barely as this would have been her parents' and grandparents' generation experiencing the Easter Uprising of April 1916 (a mad bid for immediate independence). The story covers the week before the uprising and is focussed on an Anglo-irish family with roots deep enough to be (mostly) fully identified with the struggle, albeit with ragged edges. Some of the family has become Catholic, the more Anglo have remained Protestant. The focal point is Pat Dumay, one of the older cousins in this group of interrelated families, there is also Frances, another cousin Andrew and Pat's younger brother Cathal all of them in their teens or early twenties. Frances and Andrew (who is in the British army on leave) are assumed to be affianced in all but name, even though they are distantly related. In the older generation there is a still beautiful aunt and a religious aunt, a ne'er do well uncle (Barney, perhaps the character I liked the most, he was quite humorous) and a well-to-do and sensible uncle, a full cast in other words but they are one and all caught up in the swirl of events of that week, helpless to save themselves from the inevitable --not unlike the way the great yellow boulders Murdoch describes along the Dublin shore will destroy anything that gets caught among them. It is a "harder" book than many of Murdoch's in that it really is "about" something definite, and yet it also contains many of the classic Murdochian hallmarks, an enchantress, a charismatic, ruthless, and sexually ambiguous man (Pat Dumay) with whom everyone is secretly obsessed. The story builds also in classic Murdoch fashion to a crisis both comical and sad. And there are many memorable houses each with their own personalities, a Murdoch feature I treasure. Are there some Joycean echoes here and there in loving descriptions of Dublin? I think so, and the cadence at the end recalled to me, "The Dead." To be sure, it is a book for the habituated Murdochian and/or those interested in that moment in Irish history. ****

Many thanks for the review of the Murdoch, Lucy! I'll look forward to it sometime but not now. I'll certainly look forward to the memorable houses.

>185 sibylline: Excellent review of The Red and the Green, Lucy. I have yet to get into Iris Murdoch, and while the subject matter of this one appeals to me, I hesitate at your comment that it is for " the habituated Murdochian". Since you obviously admire her work, where would you recommend starting? I have to admit she intimidates me, and I'm not sure just why.

I would probably start with The Bell. The Sea, the Sea is the most acclaimed. If you only think you might read one that would probably be it. If I hadn't already made up my mind to "do" Murdoch I might have stopped with The Sea, the Sea as it was the first one I read. Look up top here for the link to the Irish Murdoch group. She writes in several ways and some stories are darker others funnier, although they contain similar elements and the theme is always "good and evil" as perceived and acted out by human beings.

Potential for snow in the forecast tomorrow.

Gnashing of teeth! Howling.

>189 sibylline: noooo! Down this way, Tuesday looks like 80F with chance of thunderstorm, and a fairly rainy week altogether. But no snow, thank goodness.

>188 sibylline: Thanks, Lucy. I have a copy of The Bell.

-- So glad you had a great meetup... Very envious!

-- Big smooches to Miss Po.

-- Completely agree with you on the Julian Barnes, even though I tend to love small beautifully written gems of books (I'm currently in love with the newest books by both Barnes -- about Shostakovich, more interesting than the navel-gazing in the one you read -- and Graham Swift's beautiful new novella)

-- Lamentation has Queen Katherine, not Queen Anne, but yes, it's great!

-- you must read on in the series by Godwin about Yahsin Bey -- they are great...

Potential for snow??? Good grief!

>192 Chatterbox: Thanks for the correction in Lamentation not sure how/why that happened . . .

And we (spousal unit and self) are happily immersed in the Godwin mysteries!

>193 lit_chick: Really and truly. Snow. I'm pretty sure we'll see flakes tomorrow and maybe some will even stick here and there. I had the woodstove going today for the first time in weeks! Certainly for the first time since I got back from Florida. Before it got dark I brought in a fresh pile of firewood so it would be dry in the morning. It could snow up to an inch before it turns back to rain.

>194 sibylline: Henry just had too many wives, and too many with the same name...

On Saturday I watched a long docu on YT about the Queen with many private film bits and commented by the royal family (among others Charles, Anne, William, Harry and even the Queen herself) - lovely and of course full of corgi scenes, even puppies, so cute! The Queen called them "affectionate dogs". I wanted to post the link which found it on some German website, but then my internet went off and from here (office) I can't access the site. But it's probably easy to find.

I hope the snow has come (or better not) and gone again by now. We had an extremely cold weekend as well, but snow stayed above 1,000 m.

>190 lauralkeet: Driving south on I-5 into L.A. you go over a pass at about 4000 feet. We came that way today and were warned as we approached that there was "snow on the summit". It had stopped snowing by the time we got there but there was certainly a dusting on the ground and the temp was 41 degrees. This is in the afternoon in Southern California on April 25!! Good grief!!

Yep snow, and accumulating, though prolly not more than an inch:



Pretty soon I have to go out with Po. SHE won't mind, she loves snow, but I do mind!

And I do mind for you! It's very lovely but not for April 26. Good grief! Surely this is the last of it.

I'm with Peggy: And I do mind for you!

>178 sibylline: & 183 I really enjoyed the Death books, but love the Witches and Vimes stories even more. I'd read them by central character rather than chronological publishing, although occasionally you'll get a side-reference peek into another story line you might not have. Have you seen this?

Edit Hmm, that image wasn't in English. Here's in English although not the same resolution.

On another note, I'm getting rather excited about IAW even though it's not until July.

Are you enjoying the Vladislavic? Hope that the thaw sets in soon. We've had hail but nothing as dramatic as your picture.

47. fantasy ****
Tropic of Serpents Marie Brennan

Lady Isabella Trent of Scirland, first significant female naturalist, adventurer, and leading scholar of dragons, continues her memoirs. This time the quest is for more information about serpents in the tropics, in particular swamp-wyrms found in the "Green Hell" that lies between two warring countries, an area formed by three rivers falling down to sea level from a plateau. She is accompanied this time by young Natalie, granddaughter of Isabella's sponsor, who runs away rather than be forced into marriage. Brennan is deft and the story, while somewhat predictable, has a kind of zest to it. Very enjoyable -- I've ordered the third book, should check to see if it goes on after that! ****

Well, yes, there is a fourth. Not sure if it's out, but I have put it on the WL!

I picked up Mortal Engines while sorting donations to the library a while back, so I'll be reading that next although these "moveable feast" cities do require a good deal of disengaging from "reality" (such as it is). I tried it earlier and it didn't click, but this time when I picked it up I was interested and amused. It'll be a quick read. Slightly disingenuous way to boost my month's numbers.

>204 sibylline: fourth
It's just out, ronincats reviewed it on her thread, and I read it last week.

>205 qebo: Ah yes, in fact, I think that is what triggered my choosing to read it now.

>202 charl08: Enjoying wouldn't quite cover it. Jury is still out. Bemused, belike? It is a book of verbal shenanigans, in which I am guessing pretty much nothing will happen other than a party in honor of closing a favored cafe and perhaps the closure of that cafe. Or maybe something will start to happen, who knows? I'm only 50 or so pages in and here and there I've become engaged when Vladislavic stops the pyrotechnics and gets on with the story. There is an element of an eleven-year-old boy doing stunts to get attention in this . . . but some of it is clever and funny or almost funny. Some is just annoying, but it is meant to be, the protagonist is a bore and a pedant, but also . . . worthy of some respect and compassion too, I think. Anyway, time will tell if I become truly engaged with it. Here and there the Johannesburg setting comes to the fore and engages. My main South African reading has consisted of Coetzee and Gordimer so this novel presents something different and I like the fact it takes where and what it is "for granted"as a setting- I don't think there will be vert much socio-political punch delivered here, just a story about a person in a moment of his life.

Still cold here but snow is almost all gone.

48. steampunk/post-apoc ****
Mortal Engines Philip Reeve

Thousands of years after the "Sixty Minute War" which more or less destroyed civilization, people have survived by living in traction cities. Since then some tractions cities have grown huge and they chase and "eat" smaller cities. The Anti-Traction League oppose this Urban Darwinism and contend that there is no need anymore for the traction cities, people can live on the earth's surface again. Suspension of disbelief is essential to get anywhere with this YA offering, but I found the characters compelling, the setting amusing, and the story fun and read right through it. As it's a quartet I've ordered the next three through interlibrary loan since our little library doesn't have it. ****

I have been in the group a goodly while now Lucy and I still haven't really figured out what 'steampunk' is.

While I am scratching my head, have yourself a lovely weekend.