The Padded Cell - Bookmarque’s Undisciplined Reading Room 2016 Q3

A bit late with the Q3 thing, but here goes.

Is it August already?? OMFG. Summer is so damn short. I basically spent all day in the yard reading on Monday and I don’t feel the least bit guilty.

So without further ado, here’s the July reading wrap up -
15 books read
2 audio, 1 ebook, 12 physical
10 by women, 5 by men
6 by authors I’ve read before, 9 I hadn’t
3 non-fiction, 12 fiction

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The best is really hard to choose. As far as fiction goes I have to give it to Laura by Vera Caspary although not by much. A giant SQUEE goes to Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design because I love his work so much and it was just a fantastic experience to go through this book and see so many gems.

The worst was Night Woman by Nancy Price. It has a good idea behind it; a man get the genius credit for books his wife actually writes. The whole idea that when a woman does something, it doesn’t matter what, her achievement is automatically less than a man doing the same thing. But the story is told flatly and without nuance.

I loved the bugs at the end of your earlier thread.

What was The Portrait like? It is one of the Pears books that I have not read yet.

Have we set up a thread for funny/ridiculous Touchstone results on LT? Perhaps we should. When I put the square brackets around "The Portrait" Touchstones brought up, "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. Perhaps the LT AI was concentrating on the bugs while trying to find the link for The Portrait.

thanks Mrs L and pgmcc for liking the bugs and even the tiny bug poop. I wish I knew what they are.

The Portrait is beautifully written, short and full of great lines and observations about art, how it's valued or not valued and its role in culture. However, the 2nd person perspective was a tough go for me. The whole book is directed to 'you' in one long monologue that takes place over the days it takes for an art critic to sit for a portrait. Because it's Pears, he pulls it off, but the ending is weak. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it like I did some of his other books and it took me from June 12 to July 18th to finish because I put it down for so long.

I just wrote a review for The Dark Backward which leads me to a mini-rant.

British authors please don’t make your characters American until you understand a few things about the way we talk. I suppose this works in reverse and with other nationalities, but I’m an American so this is what I notice.

It’s laughable, but really annoying and no matter how good or engrossing your book is, I’ll always be looking for your mistakes and tripping over your goofs. Here’s a short list to get you started -

Half-seven or half-nine - no way, Americans say seven-thirty or nine-thirty
Not got them/those - We don’t have those/them
Naphtha = Mothballs
Paracetamol = Tylenol
Drinks cupboard = Liquor cabinet
Take decisions - we’d say make decisions
Bottle of scent - perfume or bottle of perfume
Dual carriageway - kill this immediately; we’d say highway or road
Layby - probably a turnout
Dustbin liners are trash bags
Crockery - no, we’d say dishes
Cutlery is silverware
Carton = box, sometimes cardboard box but that’s redundant most of the time
Holdall - duffle bag, bag, tote bag
Carrier bag = grocery bag
What cheek - what nerve
Packet of crisps = bag of chips
Trolley = shopping cart (a trolley here is a mode of transportation)
Lorry = truck
Petrol = gas (the stuff that goes in cars and gas grill tanks, although we also say propane for that)
Rug = blanket/throw (a rug here is either a toupee or a thing that goes on the floor)

>4 Bookmarque: Nice review. :) This is a somewhat different problem than one I am used to, in that usually an author will try to make a character "speak" American and it sounds ridiculously overdone.

>4 Bookmarque: I suppose this works in reverse and with other nationalities....

I believe you are right on this point. Everyone makes mistakes writing about a culture they are not intimately familiar with.

I reviewed a book of short stories entitled, Dublin Noir, that was a collection of stories set in Dublin and written by non-Dublin residents, the majority of them from the US. I blame the editor for printing the stories without editing them properly and preventing his contributors from making blatantly obvious errors. I did not blame the writers one bit.

Errors included:

A character who was a member of the Guards (the police force in Ireland is called An Garda Síochána in Irish (the Guardian of the Peace) and generally referred to as "The Guards".) produced his badge (not something a Guard would have here) and another character spotted that the badge indicated that the Guard was from "the Galway force" which became a big juistiction issue in the story. Ireland has a population of five million. We only have one police force. A Guard is a Guard regardless of where he is in the country.

One character found doors opened to him in a rough neighbourhood when he said he had Dollars. The term, "The Mighty Dollar". was used. Dollars would not be accepted here even by crooks.

In one story a character walked from the centre of Dublin to Lucan (where I live) and it did not appear to take very long. It is twelve miles and there is no footpath for much of the distance. It is dual-carriageway the entire route.

Yes, I feel your pain, and agree it happens in both directions.

>4 Bookmarque: Yes, as Peter says, and you surmise, it does happen in reverse. Because I'm British and lived in America for 8 years, I pick up it in both directions, which is doubly annoying!
Many of those examples you list are things that any Brit who reads American books or watches Hollywood movies would be familiar with. They should have been easy to avoid. A case of lazy writing and lack of editing.

Seems that we all need better writers/editors out there to catch this crap.

Recently I heard of a writers' workshop here in Wisconsin that is run by law enforcement and seems to be about helping people understand how real policework is done and for me I hope more people attend. They get to fire guns, work through houses and buildings as if there were badguys in them, drive cars at speed etc. I'm sick of hearing about people switching off the safety on a revolver or cops having civilians in tow on a crime scene or other dumb stuff.

So pgmcc, you've read a few of the Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French, right? I know the DMS is fictional, but how else do they check up? She has lived in Ireland for a long time, but isn't from there so is that an issue with the books?

>8 Bookmarque: I have not read any of Tana French's work but it is proving popular. I will have to sample her work. Is there a particular novel I should start with.

The thought of law enforcement getting involved with a writing workshop appeals to the grammar pedant in me.

"Step away from that comma! Put your pen on the ground!"

Oh I like it!

>9 pgmcc: They're best taken in order, beginning with In the Woods. Secondary characters in one become primary in another. I ran out of steam on Tana French, though, with Broken Harbor (fourth in the series), which made me feel cheated. My six-word take: "Bloated, unsatisfying catalogue of human frailty."

Our local writers' club has a retired police officer who makes himself available to writers who want to check on procedural matters, language, and other details. I consulted him once, and he gave me some great suggestions. In general, people love to share their knowledge, so I would think authors who really want to check things could find plenty of resources.

>10 Meredy: I also think I should proof read my posts more diligently. I discovered three typographical errors in post #9.

Meredy is right, start with In The Woods. They're loosely connected, but one book sets up the main character for the next one so it works well in order. Broken Harbor does leave things open-ended, but most of French's books do so it didn't bother me, although I didn't like The Secret Place much at all. Teenagers are so vile. I'm waiting for the next one which is out soon.

I put up another Shelf-by-Shelf post - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/08/shelf-by-shelf-bright-to-carter.html



Bright (collections of erotica) to Carter (long arc literary thrillers). There's also a cheesy gothic novel from the 80s that I've now moved to 4 or 5 different residences. Funny.

I'm finding your Shelf-by-Shelf posts absolutely fascinating.

>4Let me add another layer of confusion to your first example. Here, first-generation immigrant Brits will say 'half-seven' and mean 7:30; residents who have grown up in an Afrikaans-speaking community will use the same word but mean 6:30. The possibilities for confusion are infinite.

Thanks SylviaC. I don't know if anyone else is reading them, but I'm glad you like them. It's an interesting exercise.

Yeah that would be wicked confusing. I can see both uses of half-before hour because in America we often say quarter-of-six. When I was first learning about time I was confused by quarter of and quarter past. Then I got it.

OK...warning people! Arachnophobes take cover! Big spiders ahead. These are fishing spiders on my dock. The male is doing his courtship dance, which could (and does) become the dance of death for him. He made two attempts while I watched. Each time she went for him and he dove under the planks. She didn't kill him though since I saw him a couple days later. Of course, he might be dead now like the other male I saw down in the frame below a mass of eggs that are probably his.

Open approach



Stealth approach



The rejection



Second try



Retreat



Between each approach and rebuff, she would flounce off for a minute or two, then return to sunning herself. She's lost a leg somwhere along the line, but seems to be managing just fine. The boards are about 6 inches across, just so you can have some scale.

First of all, SylviaC is not the only person reading your shelf-to-shelf posts there at blogspot. I do take a look when I have the chance. The most recent one informed me that there might be another volume/sequal to The Alienist.

Secondly, the short story of the spiders is interesting. How close were you when you were taking the photos or is it a telephoto lens? And over what time frame did you take the photos?

For all but the first shot I was just a few feet from them - 4 or 5 feet. The first was from maybe 12 feet, the other end of the dock. I did use a short telephoto (100mm) and all the images are slightly cropped. I wasn't sure if they'd hide at my approach so I got that one and then crept closer. They only had (8) eyes for each other. All the pictures were taken in 30 minutes or so. I'd have to look at the data from the camera.

And I'm glad you like the shelf by shelf posts, too. yay!

Spiders are beautiful but creepy.

I had to smack down a couple of people on Facebook (my relatives) who shouted eeew gross and kill it at my spider pics. It really honks my hooter when people so cavalierly call for the destruction of a creature that neither threatens them nor is needed to sustain them merely because it doesn't fit the artificial construction of "cute". Ugh. What gives me the right to destroy something because I cannot control my emotions about it? Those spiders have as much right to exist as do I or my idiotic relatives. They haven't responded. Drives me batty. So as a treat, here's another bug. A small bug and a much, much smaller bug.



I found a herd of 10 of these dudes on my deck railing. When I first found them they looked like this -



Their bodies are about 3-4mm in length and are stripey green. The antennas grew if you can believe it and they really do herd together like grazing cows. They appear to be eating the gunk (oh so scientific!) that collects in the texture of the decking material. What I originally thought were vestigial wings turned out not to be and when I noticed one of them had a bright red spot on it, I waited until that particular bug was in a good position to be photographed. Turns out to be a mite. A parasite and that bug was noticeably smaller than its buddies.

Eventually the herd dispersed and I still have no idea what they are. My first reaction is not one of fear or revulsion, but of wonder. Until something unknown turns out to be destructive or harmful, it gets a pass. These dudes were interesting and didn't appear to be eating the actual deck (which is plastic anyway) so they got to live out their tiny lives as if I had never seen them. But I'm glad I did.

>19 Bookmarque: I think your bugs are interesting. There are some critters that I want nothing to do with, and I will remorselessly stamp out ants that invade my kitchen, but I rescue spiders in the house and escort them outdoors. Your pictures are wonderful.

> What I originally thought were vestigial wings turned out not to be...
Which? Turned out not to be vestigial or turned out not to be wings?

Your bug pictures are amazing. The bodies of the creatures in the last photo make me think of tropical fish with the iridescent green markings. As for spiders, in addition to having a right to live for their own sake, they are useful to humans because they eat so many of the nasty biting bugs that annoy us. Spiders are our friends!

Thanks you two. Nature just fascinates me and I rarely find anything really gross. The heaping sludgepile of rotting mayfly exoskeletons nonwithstanding. Years ago I photographed a dead crow in my backyard. I waited for the really gooshy part to pass and then shot the skeleton with feathers. It was oddly beautiful.

What I meant, Meredy, was that the tiny wings in the second picture became the functional wings in the first. I mistook them for fully grown the first time I saw them.

And now for something completely different -



It's mushroom season and this lovely bolete was in my front yard. The lighting is just the sun, but years of working with dappled sunlight on the forest floor schooled me to wait until the background was still in shade. I don't often see this type turning themselves inside out, but it seems the 'skin' didn't form its usual cracks and so pulled too tight. I love the underside of boletes and this really shows off that sponge-like construction which is so different to the usual gills.

Love fungi photos, of course I pretty much love all your photos. :)

I don't do snake photos well, my stomach lurches, but I do acknowledge that they are beneficial to our world and have their own beauty. So long as our paths do not intersect and I don't have to look at them, I have no problem with snakes.

I think your alerts at possibly disturbing phobia photos is a very nice and considerate thing to do.

ETA: LOL, as soon as I finished typing this post I noticed a tiny spider rappelling down the front of my monitor screen. Right in the middle. I took his tiny line and himself outside.

Thanks MrsL. More fungi pics next week when I get to the library. I know people have irrational fears of things. It's a whole different deal to me than the immediate call for killing it. I think you once actually liked one of my snake pics, so that's pretty cool. Funny about the spider. They do seem to get everywhere, don't they? Thanks for relocating it.

@Bookmarque, your pictures a great. Thank you for sharing them.

>15 Bookmarque: 6"for the width of the board? That's like 15 cm, and the spider is half the size. That's a huge spider!

Yep, she has a 3 inch leg-span. A big girl. Probably a few years old.

And sadly I found her dead yesterday. A lot of reeds/grasses are dying off and they float down and collect at the dock. She was upside down on the mat of reeds. At first I thought she might be alive, but alas she wasn't. I know it was her because she had 7 legs and how many 7-legged fishing spiders live on my dock? I fished her out and put her under some leaves by my lawn. I feel bad she's gone. I know that's strange, but I liked having her around. Bummer.

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Another installment of shelf-by-shelf hits today. This one is Carter to Child.



http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/08/shelf-by-shelf-carter-to-child.html

Check it out if you have a few. Lots of noir on this shelf.

On a lunch break, but I just wanted to inquire about something having to do with the shelf-by-shelf. How do you determine which ones you review? I noted you'd reviewed a few of the Chandler titles but not any of the Chevalier titles. Is there a reason?

I didn't review a lot of my books until the last 10 years or so. The only Chevalier I read recently was At the Edge of the Orchard and I did review it - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/05/at-edge-of-orchard-by-tracy-chevalier.... - just probably forgot to link it.

>28 Bookmarque: I'm sad that your spider friend died. I get attached to the creatures that I see frequently. Right now the sky above my house is full of giant blue dragonflies - they come every summer but once the weather turns cold I will start finding dead ones. They move much too fast for good photos but are lovely to watch.

>28 Bookmarque: Perhaps, like Charlotte, she has left an egg sack somewhere safe and you will have many new friends in the spring, or whenever baby spiders come along?

OMG! I LOVE that Raymond Chandler set! Even though Chandler is not one of my collectible authors (I like his stories, but don't love them), if I saw that set I would purchase it.

I love your pictures!

I, too, relocate insects and spiders when I can, with the exception of ants.

I'm sorry your spider died. I like Mrs.Lee's idea, hopefully she left an egg sac for you.

Thanks peeps. I think she did have an egg sac earlier in the year, but I don't think it's viable. I think it got wet. Anyway, there may be another hidden somewhere. Either way, I'm sure fishing spiders will reappear on the dock next year.

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The Chandler set is pretty awesome. I've read all except the last one. It feels like I'm saving it, but really it's a mood that I have to be in. It will strike soon.

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Here's more from the yard. I found these little hygrocybes by the driveway and couldn't resist them.



The sporophytes were a bonus!

Please.

Please authors.

Learn about physics and how bullets work. No one ever flew backward by being shot. The whole idea of a bullet and flesh is the absorption of force. That's what kills you. If it went through you and bounced you backward, you'd live.

Damn it.

Phew. A weekend of reading. Ken and I didn't leave the house much, and then only to go in the yard. I finished Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. My second book from him. I'm such a fan now. The review is up and isn't particularly spoilery since this is American history. It was surprising though because so much of that history is not taught or misrepresented. The cult of Thanksgiving and all that. Linky - http://www.librarything.com/work/806107/reviews/130745878

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Another Shelf by Shelf installment today. Two authors duke it out on one shelf -



Link to post - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/08/shelf-by-shelf-child-to-christie.html

Just thought I'd pop back in to share a few of shots of a critters I found in the woods last week.





The nice thing about snails is that you can easily relocate them to a more photogenic area and then wait for them to come out again. Slugs, you have to be lucky enough to have them where you want them in the first place. Fortunately they like mushrooms and so do I.



And speaking of mushrooms, I went to revisit a trail I explored last year and found an even larger mother lode of chanterelles. If I'd gone a week or two ago I'd have been able to harvest a few pounds of them, but I didn't know. Frustratingly, the spot was just a little ways beyond the point I'd hiked last year when clouds and thunder gathered and forced me back to the car. Bah. Maybe next year. Also there was tons of blackberries ripening, my favorites. Also bears. Found lots of bear poop near the vines. No actual bears though. Phew.

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Reading-wise I picked up The Muse by Jesse Burton from the library and it's pretty good so far. Dual timeframe narratives that are connected; mystery from the previous timeline to be solved by the person in the more current one. I hope the payoff is better than in her last book, The Miniaturist which had some solid storytelling, but didn't wrap up well. The cover is gorgeous though, check it out -

I don't like slugs, but your photo is great. I don't know why not having a shell should make them so much more repulsive then snails, but it does.

>37 Bookmarque: Ah, I was all about that cover until I scrolled far enough to see the snakes. :P Love the mollusk photos though!

Oh they won't bite MrsL! And it's a pretty terrific story. We'll see how it wraps up. That was the failing of The Miniaturist which was some great storytelling, but bad resolution.

I know exactly what you mean Sakerfalcon. I didn't hesitate to pick up the snail for a second, but didn't want to so much as nudge the slug. Ah well, both made interesting subjects.

Well here's something harmless -



So far as I can tell it's a mycorrhaphium adustum a type of mushroom with spines instead of traditional gills or the sponge-like cells of the bolete family.

>19 Bookmarque: Holy smoking turd balls, those are some incredible shots. But the poor more infested bug! Was that the only one with a rider on his back?

I also love the spider pics, too. I don't kill them, unless it's an accident. I'm pretty sure a few might have passed on when I was power washing my front porch today. I did avoid them when I saw them. They eat everything else I don't want hanging around!

Yeah it was the only one I saw with a mite. They're called bark lice or sometimes tree cattle since they can be found in herds numbering in the hundreds. Luckily my herd was only 10 because otherwise...ick. They aren't destructive to trees or wood though since they eat fungus and other organic material off of bark and also my deck. So they're beneficial bugs. Yay.

While in the yard looking for mushrooms to shoot, I came across a cooperative spring peeper who posed prettily on a stick. It's about 2 cm long and so delicate and quick.



I love them.

>42 Bookmarque: I can see why! He is adorable!

>42 Bookmarque: Did he turn into a prince when you kissed him?

>44 pgmcc: I would never kiss a frog to see if he became a prince. Frogs are so sweet and beneficial.

>45 MrsLee: and the world in need of no more princes

>45 MrsLee: First catch your frog!

>45 MrsLee: I see what you did there!

Is this a kissing thread?

Oh and here's another shelf - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/09/shelf-by-shelf-cornwell-to-crais.html

The frog is adorable!

From that shelf, I can say that I enjoyed Michael Cox more than Robert Crais. The one by Cox that I read was The Glass of Time and that was about five years ago. I can't recall which of the Crais titles I read.

I have added the first Crais novel to my wishlist. Not sure when I will get around to buying it, but it sounds like it needs to be on my radar.

MrsL - As I recall, The Monkey's Raincoat channels the voice of Chandler quite a bit, but don't let that put you off. Crais only does it that blatantly for the first few books, then he finds his own voice. I may reread one or two again as well. They're a blast.

Jill - Funny, I nearly bought the other Cox novel, but wasn't in the mood and forgot about it since.

Thanks catzteach! They are so cute. And boy do they sing!

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Here's how my August reading went. It was a doozy.

A whopping 17 books read.
6 by men, 11 by women
3 non-fiction, 14 fiction
8 authors new to me, 9 not new
The oldest book was from 1946, the newest from this year



The best was Mayflower which is saying something for a history book. The worst was The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding because it was just too contrived for my taste.

Over the weekend I tore through The Lost City of Z by David Grann and all I have to say is that I NEVER want to go to the Amazon jungle. Ever. I'd rather go to the north pole. I couldn't give it more than 3 1/2 stars though since it doesn't really go anywhere. Sure, some new facts came to light about Fawcett's disappearance, but there is no conclusion. He's still missing and no one is any closer to knowing what happened. I suppose that isn't Grann's fault exactly, but it was a let down just the same.

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Another shelfie went up - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/09/shelf-by-shelf-crichton-to-deaver.html

Oh and I also finished Queen Margot and LOVED IT. You think you know about scheming? You think you know about intrigue? You think you know about double-dealing? These people can school you good. No one like the French aristocracy when it comes to backstabbing. Great stuff. Luckily there are two more books. Oh and some say the translations are iffy, but I found the one on Project Gutenberg to be quite readable. There are a few different ones available in print I think.

>56 Bookmarque: Blam. That was one really fast bullet. In less than one minute, I'd downloaded it for my Kindle. It was free.

It's pretty darn great. My review is non-spoilery. I just downloaded the 2nd and 3rd books in the series. Also free.

>58 Bookmarque: Yes. I thumbed it.

Aww, thanks.

Went to the library today and realized I hadn't done a library stack in a while, so here's what I got along with some music by Keb Mo, Delbert McClinton & Gov't Mule. I was in a blusey mood!

I found two great covers in the books with new covers stream. They're both great, but for different reasons.





Anyway, not much else going on. Working my way through two non-fiction books, but I think I'm coming down with something and I'm crabby about that. So I'm doing chores and working on some images I shot yesterday on a nearby trail. Glad I went because today it's raining. Maybe I'll go to the antiques place and see if I can find some Fiesta ware to cheer me up.

Love the cover of Dr. Moreau! That is one book I want to read someday. I remember watching the movie with my dad when I was a kid. I remember being intrigued by the idea of merging people and animals.

It is a fab cover and the book is pretty decent. Grisly, but it moves pretty fast.

>62 Bookmarque: May I ask what the date is on the Howard's End cover? I'm sthinking late 60s early 70s...

Unfortunately I don't know which edition that's for, clam, but I suspect you're right. It has a 1960s feel to me.

Had to DNF The Only Woman in the Room- Why Science is Still a Boys' Club because boy this lady can whine. Half her problems are of her own making and she blames stuff she doesn't know on systemic sexism (like for example, comic book heroes, Marlene Dietrich, sports and contemporary music). I grew up later than she did, but still was rebuffed by two math teachers when I asked for help; they told me I was a girl and either couldn't learn it or wouldn't need it, so I get where she's coming from, but instead of rising above crap like that, she let it bury her and abdicated her physics career for a softer, more accepting role as a writer. Oy. Luckily it was an ER book and while I didn't read it all, I have enough to review it. I'll probably just cut and paste what I just wrote!

And because I know you frog fanatics are getting fidgety, here's a dude/tte from the backyard -

>66 Bookmarque: Yay! Froggie!

My son found three little ones in the dog's water dish the other day. We are cleaning/redoing our little patio pond and although I remembered to get a big bucket of water for the mosquito fish and a couple of plants, and a water dish for the birds, I forgot the peepers! He took them out of dog dish and we put the water dish for birds on the grass under a tree, so hopefully frogs will find it an oasis.

One thing my science/math teachers did right? They didn't cut us girls any slack and in fact made sure we knew we were capable. Sadly, this did not help me in math, but I love science to this day.

I hope they like their new home, too. When I was a kid I wouldn't let my dad "shock" the pool or put any chemicals in it until I got all of the tadpoles/poliwogs out. Sometimes he was exasperated, but he let me have my way. Once a big green tree frog was in the pool and it barked like a dog. It had to go, too, but by then I had him trained and he found me to rescue it.

Science was never an issue, but I wasn't going to get far with it without math. I wish that I had more guts to stand up for myself with those two teachers.

Oh and here's an update on the gray-eyed phenomenon. Funny, not one non-fiction book describes a person who has gray eyes. lol

Crocodile on the Sandbank - dark and forbidding eyes, too!
Queen Margot
The Ice Limit
The Keep
Laura
City of the Lost
The Edge of the Orchard
Trouble of Fools
Best Boy - the girl only had one eye, but it was gray!

And hilariously, here are the first touchstones that came up for some of the list -

Queen Margot = The Dubliners
The Keep = Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Laura = Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - about 50 books later, the actual title appears
Best Boy = Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

What a joke.

>67 MrsLee: Sadly, this did not help me in math,

...and you still blame poor Gordon Lightfoot for this.

>70 pgmcc: Oh no! I take full responsibility for my stubbornness. My teacher made it clear that I was capable, so it was a matter of will. Poor frustrated teacher. I'm amazed none of them ever strangled me.

>69 Bookmarque: Why are touchstones so crazy? Is it a combination thingy? Or are they just broken? I have troubles sometimes, but not so frequently it annoys me. Your list looks pretty annoying on the touchstone scale.

The touchstone thing is maddening. As far as I know, it's kind of an LT thing; a distinction. Does GR have it? If not, it's doubly, triply stupid that they let it get so bad for so long and just don't seem to care.

Anyway, I spent the day in the woods yesterday which meant when I came home with images, I hit my mini-library of guide books. I do this so often I decided to do a Shelf by Shelf post about them.



Link - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/09/shelf-by-shelf-field-guides.html

Don't you hate it when you can't settle to one book and have so many going that you don't finish any? That's me lately. Plus I've been out and about in the woods. Monday was an absolute gem of a day when I walked in some beautiful old growth sections (oddly there was logging going on within earshot) up north and east of here, in the Nicolet National Forest and the Headwaters Wilderness. This area was mostly white cedar and hemlock -



Later it turned to mostly white pine, but what was really startling was the sheer number and variety of mushrooms. Here's some of the things I found that I'd never seen before -

Blewits on a stump -



Lepiota crisata -



Rhodocollybia maculata -



and the Destroying Angel (amanita virosa or possibly bisporigeria, both will kill you dead and both have that same common name)



Plus dozens of others new and familiar, like this gorgeous little russula -



and this wonderful little amanita flavoconia -



No, I didn't really take pictures of every mushroom I saw, but it was close. Later while reading Mycophilia by Eugenia Bone (one of the books I can't seem to finish) I found out why there were so many types and so thick on the ground. Most woods we walk in these days are around 50 years old and have been heavily logged. Mushrooms that aren't saprophytes (meaning they are decomposters) are mycorhizal, meaning they have a very large network of "roots" under the soil and mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of that structure. This network is hugely beneficial to both trees and fungus, allowing for nutrient uptake and other functions. Basically, mature trees attract and support more types of fungus over time than young trees. When many older trees are destroyed, the mycorhizal net can suffer and die, leaving saplings unable to tap into it and they struggle to survive until the network can be reestablished. As it comes back, only a few types are mushrooms are evident. I had no idea this was the case and so will be seeking out more old growth/unlogged forests in future.

Ok. I'll stop. I've become quite the mycophilist myself these days.

>73 Bookmarque: I love it when you talk all mycophilist. Also love when your talks are illustrated. :) I have been pining to get out into a forest lately. I live in a very hot valley. Even though my yard has some lovely trees, it isn't like being in a forest. I miss the quiet sounds of the trees.

Awesome photos - and great to have the background to what you're showing us. Thank you for taking the time to share with us.

>73 Bookmarque: I love the variety of mushrooms that you found. Not only is the diversity impressive, but also your ability to notice it all.

That Destroying Angel looks so mild and innocent. Scary, really.

Thanks guys, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Destroying angel is a beautiful mushroom indeed. They were all over, but that's the best shot I have.

Your pics are amazing! I love the little red mushroom. I had no idea they are actually real! I just thought they were part of the fairy world.

I also want you to know that I now think of you when I'm out hiking and run into some mushrooms. :)

>73 Bookmarque: Your post is fantastic. I have learned so much about mushrooms from this post. I for one think it is great that you are becoming, "quite the mycophilist".

Aww, thanks guys. While a lot of folks hunt mushrooms to eat (which I do sort of, damn you hen of the woods!!! Call me Ishmael.) I hunt them to look at them and photograph them. The little red ones are irresistible and they really do exist, catzteach! The iconic mushroom image; red with white dots, is an amanina muscaria which doesn't grow red here, but comes up yellow. I've never seen a red one except in pictures. Ah one day. But other red mushrooms abound. Most are either russula like the one up there or hygrocybes like these that I think are hygrocybe punicea, but could be conica -







This one I think is punicea -



and these are hygrocybe miniata I think, they were less than 1 inch high -



Even with six mushroom guides and the internet it can be hard to really say what's what sometimes, especially with things that look alike to begin with, or change so much over the course of their fruiting that no picture in a book looks like what I see. Some mushrooms can only be identified definitively with a microscope or a spore print which I haven't done yet. But it's fun to try.

Here's another weird mushroom thing I learned - mushrooms themselves don't grow so much as expand. Like a balloon filling with air, mushroom cells fill with water. As the mushroom gets larger the number of cells in it never increases; they just get bigger.

It's great that you live so near these wild places, and are getting out to discover their treasures. And thank you for sharing them with us and giving us the background information too.

Are you finding more 'shrooms in Wisconsin than you did in New Hampshire?
(And thank you, they are just lovely.)

>80 Bookmarque: Now that last bit about the number of cells in a mushroom never increasing is really quite interesting and something I had never heard before. But please do be careful, as we don't want you eating any of the wrong kind.

Thanks guys. I've been in the yard communing with mushrooms for a few days so more pics will go up next week when I can get to the library wifi.

It seems like there are more mushrooms here than in NH, clam, but it could just be my perception. I seem to be photographing more of them anyway.

I'm very careful, jill, and I don't eat many. So far just two varieties; little puffballs and chanterelles. I picked the puffers last night from the yard. There are basically two small puffers that are edible and they're visually nearly identical. So long as you pick them when they're young you're good. The center must be pure white and the ones I got were. Not as tasty as chanterelles, but still good.

And yeah, I never knew the bit about the mushroom itself never adding cells as it gets larger either. I'll have to write a review of Mycophilia soon. It's not as good a book as some other sciencey memoirs I've read lately, but it wasn't terrible either.

Who knew there was so much to learn about mushrooms! I'll have to recommend the book to my bro. He hunts mushrooms, too. But then he sells them or eats them himself.

Gorgeous photos - thank you!

Thanks guys. More pics will go up later when I get to the library. Mushroom season is just about over and if the wind dies down the foliage will stay intact for a week or two longer. Then it's stick season which for me becomes abandoned building season.

Anyway, I put a up a review of Mycophilia - http://www.librarything.com/work/11443051/reviews/134314893 - if you have any interest in mushrooms, like personal memoirs of a sciency-bent or nature in general, check it out. It isn't as good as The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery, but is on par with The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart. Funny, all those are written by women. Cool.

Here's my stack from the library today -



I've been really restless lately and can't settle to anything, so I got some very short books and a random pick that I hope I like (any guesses as to which book it is?). Also mixing it up with some video. I don't like to read Neil Gaiman, but I saw this and thought I'd give it a go. Fantasy type stuff I relate better on film rather than on the page. Now my kitchen is clean and laundry is done I'll go settle down with one of them.

---

To give you a break from the mushroom pics, here's a few from a fairly large wildlife preserve downstate about an hour. For the most part the land itself had to be rebuilt with bulldozers and backhoes and wildlife reintroduced. This was in the 90s and the park is going very well. Hunters use it a lot for waterfowl, the largest of which (in North America) is not widely hunted, but is doing very well in Wisconsin - the Trumpeter Swan -





I saw this pair coming in from far off and followed them with the binoculars and they flew very low over my head, like two small planes, to land in a pond right next to me. I gave them some time to settle in before approaching them very slowly. Good thing I had my very long lens. I almost didn't take it with me. I also got better with it over the course of my hour with them and I'm pleased with the results. They were very curious about me actually and swam closer to me, all the while honking softly to each other. It was remarkable actually.

Then as I was exploring more of the park I saw this building and drove around until I found a spot where I could get a good shot. It's one of the few times I'm glad it's flat around here!



No color sliders were harmed in the making of this picture. All the hues were in the raw file and I tweaked the black point and the white balance to bring up the drama. I have no idea why the fields were left unharvested, but it makes for a much better picture than corn stubble.

Great pictures!

>88 Bookmarque: Love the swans, even though I know they can be quite cranky.

Let us know if that BBC version of Neverwhere is any good.

Whoa. Swans and storms. Beautiful!

Thanks peeps. I'll probably watch some of Neverwhere later today. After vacuuming. A housewife's work is never done! lol

I haven't noticed the same aggression in trumpeters that I have in mute swans, clam. Then again, I haven't been in a kayak with them as I have with mute swans and yeah a male charged me so I wouldn't go near his mate or nest.

Here's another shot of the lovely duo -

Those are great pictures of the swans. I have been familiar with mute swans and saw my first whooper swans this year. I have never seen a trumpeter swan.

I have seen a pair of black swans in a zoo and a family of them wild in Donegal, not their natural habitat. They escaped from captivity and have made their home in the lake in front of my sister's place.

whooper swan? Unfamiliar. Whooping crane I know, we have some here and they're very rare.

Well, I made it through one episode of Neverwhere and that's it for me. Too hokey. Suffers from what I call Dr. Who syndrome - low budget, shot on video and bad acting. Ah well. I had a feeling it was too much of a stretch.

>94 Bookmarque: My first exposure to Neverwhere was listening to Gaiman read it. So of course I fell in love with it. I then read the book, then watched the show. I agree about the production values of the show, but I did like some of the performers. Have you read the book?

No, I haven't read it Mrs L. I have only read one Gaiman and it wasn't my cuppa.

I like Neil Gaiman, not consistently and not hugely but definitely more so than otherwise. I thought the TV dramatization of Neverwhere was awful, though.

@Bookmarque, I thought of you when I read this phrase in the voice of a 17th-century antiquarian fictionalized as a character in Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost: "the gray-eyed English." I infer from this that somebody thinks or thought that gray eyes were a characteristic English trait.

My first exposer to Gaiman was Good Omens which was a collaboration between himself and Terry Pratchett. It is a very funny book and I loved it. It was a surprise Christmas present from my wife and I read it over the Christmas holidays.

I read Neverwhere and was at a loss as to why there was so much hype about it. I felt it was a children's story made young adult be adding in a bit of sex and roughing it up in places.

When he won the best novel Hugo for The Graveyard Book I read that and was still not impressed.

I have American Gods somewhere in Mount TBR and I intend reading it to give him one last chance to impress me.

I have never been into comics, sorry, graphic novels, and have never read any of his graphic novels. Most people I know who rave about Gaiman were fans of his from having read his graphic novels. Perhaps that is what I am missing, although, I did buy and read, Coraline as many of my friends ranted and raved how wonderful it was. Sorry, but I thought it was, "Meh!"

The dramatization of Stardust was very good and entertaining.

I am in awe of his skill at managing his fan-base. He knows how to endear himself to them and how to build up their enthusiasm for his publications. He and his wife, Amanda Palmer, do that very well.

On another topic, I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost and I remember the quote you mentioned, @Meredy.

So there, I am outed. I am a non-fan of Gaiman. People will probably start crossing the street to avoid me from now on.

>98 pgmcc: may I cross the street to shake you warmly by the hand, and agree on being a non-fan?

Neverwhere is practically a textbook on Jungian archetypes. Most of Gaiman's work seems to derive heavily from myth and lore. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is another one. Not that that's bad at all--I'm glad those ancient stories are still cycling through our consciousness, and he does have an effective mythic quality to his style--but he didn't invent all that stuff, any more than Walt Disney invented Snow White or Cinderella.

I did love Good Omens, which my husband read aloud to me. Parts of it cracked us up. I don't like Pratchett solo, though.

Handshakes all around for being brave and admitting Gaiman non-fandom. I bought a trade of the first few issues of the Sandman thing back around 1990, or maybe in the late 80s and that didn't do it for me either.

---

I had to go down to "the big city" today to see my oral surgeon and while I was there, I stopped by the library and these followed me home -



All the books are by people I've never read before and the Poirot is a comfort thing. I just got through my Jeeves & Wooster collection so am in need after the Neverwhere thing didn't work out. Back to known quantities.

Oh and if anyone cares, I put another Shelf by Shelf post up on the blog the other day. New letter of the alphabet!



post link >>>>> http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/09/shelf-by-shelf-doyle-to-eastland.html

I will agree with you in term of favoring My Cousin, Rachel over Rebecca. I will have to take some time this weekend to look over what you've said about Dumas' various novels. I could probably afford to read more of his stuff.

>101 Bookmarque:, I also love Du Maurier's work and agree The Scapegoat is a stretch but is really well worth reading. Scapegoat is in print with Virago.

Put me in the non-fan of Gaimen group. ive read Coraline, American Gods, and Ocean at the End of the Lane. I mildly liked Ocean, didn't like any of the others. I did, however, enjoy the Doctor Who episode he wrote.

Chiming in to add my "eh".

Yay, subversive literary opinions!

Jill - I did go on rather a lot about Dumas, but I love his work so much that I can't help it. Let me know if you want to give it a try, maybe I can give you some hints.

Wow. Another month gone.

September reading wrap up -

11 books read
2 non-fiction, 9 fiction
1 ebook, 3 audio, 7 physical
4 new authors, the rest I’ve read before
5 by men, 6 by women
The oldest book was from 1845, the newest from this year



The best book was Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas - based on the real rulers of France - the sons of Catherine de Medici - it’s full of scheming and betrayal, skullduggery and back-stabbing. Totally over the top and I tore through it really fast.

The worst is hard to pick because nothing was truly awful. I guess it’s a tie between The Ice Limit and The Children’s Home. The Ice Limit was just so silly and drawn out that I skimmed a bit in the end. The Children’s Home had potential, but the author seemed to give up on the story and leave it all up to the reader to figure out. I don’t mind a little of that, but don’t make me do everything. That’s laziness.

>74 MrsLee: pining to get out into a forest

I saw what you did there. :D

>80 Bookmarque: Those remind me of the little mushrooms in Fantasia.

>106 Bookmarque: I adored The Count of Monte Cristo but after trying to read a book that was supposed to be an homage to The Three Musketeers - The Phoenix Guards by Stephen Brust - I've stayed far away from Dumas.

Some mushrooms are just so darned cute. I can't resist them. Went out today and did some landscape work, but of course got tempted by many a shroom.

Morph, I'm confused. You say you adored TCoMC, didn't like the homage, but aren't going back to the original you loved, that right? Not sure what to say about that.

I loved The Count - the homage was to The Three Musketeers - so I'm afraid to try anything else *new* by Dumas.

But if it wasn't the original and you loved an original, I can't see the aversion. Musketeers is terrific, but its sequel, Twenty Years After is even better if I do say so myself. But whatever, I'll continue to read his catalog, enormous as it is.

I guess I'm wondering if the style is all that much different between The Count and The Three Musketeers because that is what the homage made me think.

>111 Bookmarque: &>112 Morphidae:
I read and lovedThe Three Musketeers but only got a short distance into The Count before being distracted by work. I intend to get back to it.

I believe the translator is important. I read the classic Penguin edition and was amazed at how poetic it was. I could not believe it was a translation. Well, I could, but I was amazed the translator was able to produce such beautiful English prose having started with a French text.

>113 pgmcc: How long ago was the translation made?

>114 Meredy: Lord Sudley was the translator. I read the book during the early 1980s. As best I can establish this translation was published in 1950.

>115 pgmcc:, Which makes him--probably--well educated, deeply literate, and schooled in a time when models of writing were superior to most of what we see now.

Having made that surmise, I did a little checking. I don't find a Wikipedia or other public bio under that name, but I found this much: Arthur Paul John Charles James Gore, Viscount Sudley (1903-1958). This seems to be the same person:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Gore,_7th_Earl_of_Arran
There's a list of works:
http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n2003031362/

There are translators who are careful to render a work as close to the original as possible and those who are not strictly literal but instead strive to create the same experience for the reader as the original, preferably without a lot of footnotes. When I'm really working over a text, I need both; but just reading for pleasure, I would certainly prefer the latter.

>116 Meredy: French is a very poetic and lyrical language and I felt the English version I read was poetic and lyrical. I think this is due to the translator being well educated, deeply literate, and schooled in a time when models of writing were superior to most of what we see now to quote a friend who hit the nail right on the head.

I think Umberto Eco would have approved of Lord Sudley's translation. (See my comments on Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation.)

I have to admit to not paying attention to translations, mostly because I don't think there's any choice on Project Gutenberg which is where I've sourced almost all of my Dumas. I have toyed with the idea of getting a different translation in print (to the PG version), but searching one out has been a bit of a pain. Any ideas? I really wish we had a true edition layer here on LT. (long suffering sigh)

Hmm, wondering if some of my enjoyment of The Count of Monte Cristo came from having a really good translator?

>117 pgmcc: BB, you dangerous thing, you.

>120 Meredy: Oops! I hadn't realised it was loaded. :-)

Phew. Seems like it's been ages since I've been here. Reading, reading, hiking and working on photos. That's my life these days. Not too shabby.

Another installment of Shelf by Shelf went up today. Strangely a lot of books, but not much to say about them. http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/10/shelf-by-shelf-eco-to-fforde.html



And a bonus picture from a recent walk through the woods. It's an area called the Harrison Hills and is criss-crossed with trails both for feet and wheels. Also lots of little lakes and ponds. One of my favorite areas that isn't far from my house.



The dappled sunlight knocks me out. I've been experimenting with including it in my woodland photos and mostly it's successful, like with this one.

Oh, and anyone up for some spider pics? I found a beauty by the garage the other day. Not as big as the ones on the dock, but not a speck either. Oh what the heck, here she is!



She's a marbled orb weaver and probably came down off the wall of the garage to lay her eggs. After she posed so nicely for me I set her in some leaf litter. I'm not sure if she's all done or if she'll over-winter, but either way, I'm sure more will be on the garage next year.

Yay! Someone else who thinks like I do about Name of the Rose and Middlemarch! I got about 25 - 50 pages into Name of the Rose and even less into Middlemarch. No, just no.

And, awww, what a cute little spider.

Reading, hiking and photography sounds like a perfect way to spend time! I love the spider. How big is she?

Thanks guys. She's about the size of a US quarter with those legs relaxed.

>125 Bookmarque: Neat!

Thanks. I think she's wonderful.

I'm not a huge spider fan but that one is a beauty!

Are the leaves in your area not changed yet? It looked awfully green.

She was a great model. Very patient.

The leaves are falling fast. Colors come, hit peak and are gone in just days. It really depends on the terrain. Here's one from The same day only on the edge of a nameless (and numerous) little pond. I bet those trees are mostly bare now.

As always, loving the visit to your woods. As a Californian from the Sacramento valley, I never see enough fall colors, so your photos are greatly appreciated!

>129 Bookmarque: Wow!

>125 Bookmarque: is that your driveway, Bookmarque? It's so pretty, like pave with jewels. Spider's nice too.

>129 Bookmarque: beautiful!

Beautiful colours - just perfectly captured.

Heh, today a wolf spider and I had somewhat of a fright. Was making a notation on my wall calendar and didn't realize my arm was resting lightly on it until it moved! Very soft, my arm said later. Spidey is now outside.

Thanks peeps. Fall colors are past peak now, at least up here. We were down south of Milwaukee yesterday and it's brighter there. Here's another shot from when it was peak -



Glad you relocated the spider, MrsL. We have a lot of ground hunters here, too. When we took the dock in there was one who wouldn't budge. She was about 2" across with her legs and I was hoping she'd just take off when I spotted her egg sac. Wolf spiders carry them until the babies hatch and then the babies cling to momma for a while before heading out on their own. When she's carrying the egg sac itself she doesn't eat. It's really fascinating. So I picked her up in an empty yogurt container and set her in some leaf litter. Funny girl.

Oh and nhlsecord - that's the concrete apron in front of the garage. As we're on the Wisconsin the rest of our driveway is gravel (the DNR has a restriction on paved driveways near water because of the collective run off from them).

>137 Bookmarque: Another fantastic photograph and a lesson on spiders. What more could we ask for?

Your is a joy to read.

>135 MrsLee: How could you not have seen a wolf spider?! Those things are huge! I've only seen two and both were outside.

>136 Bookmarque: So beautiful. Our trees have yet to really start turning. I'm afraid I'll wake up one day and find that they've gone from green to bare.

>139 catzteach: I can only say, early morning, and bad eyesight. :) It was huge.

Not all wolf spiders are as huge as the ones on the dock, but none are tiny, they're just stealthy!

Another Shelf by Shelf went up just now -



http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/10/shelf-by-shelf-fielding-to-galbraith.h...

"The Machine Stops" is in the Forster short story collection that I just bought. I didn't realize he had written any futuristic fiction. So far, the only thing I've read of his is A Room With a View.

I was really surprised by it, too. Excellent story.

So fall colors are winding down, but I thought I'd share a couple shots I really love. There's so much open space and empty roads that it makes wandering and exploring really fun. These are both products of just saying to myself - 'hey, what's down there?'





As stick season gains momentum, I'll be wandering in search of ruins. More soon.

Beautiful!

You live in a very pretty, peaceful place!

Thanks guys. It's rural America for sure.

Stick season?

>149 Morphidae:

When the leaves are off the trees.

Whoops. Meant to come in and answer, but suitable1 beat me to it and that's right - bare branches. Before the snow flies and after the leaves drop is about the ugliest time to be a nature photographer, so I often find other things to put my camera in front of.

Yesterday I finished A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and it was just about the most charming and enchanting novel I’ve ever read. If you like William Boyd; particularly Any Human Heart or Sweet Caress, I think you will love this. Instead of setting his character into the world to bump up against major events and find purpose, Towles confines his character to the Metropol Hotel and brings the world to him. It isn’t a book with a huge central plot, meaning there is something specific to accomplish, instead it is almost a book of hours. How does Count Rostov fill his days now he’s a prisoner and no longer a Count? What fulfills him? What challenges him? Does he find love? It’s really an amazing piece of fiction and does what I think fiction should - entertains, educates and uplifts. Sure to be in my top 5.

Even though that book was awesome, my new T.C. Boyle arrived, so I'm deep into The Terranauts which features flawed characters doing interesting things, so I don't care if I don't want to have dinner with any of them.

As I mentioned before, it's the start of stick season, so my thoughts turn to abandoned stuff like this old house -



It's on a county road, but still in the sticks so that while I was shooting it for about 15 minutes, not one car went by. Funny.

>153 Bookmarque: Beautiful! The house looks as if it would be fixable-uppable by a good and patient restorer. Do such things ever happen with you?

>154 hfglen:

I would guess that there may have been an interior fire.

It didn't look burned. I didn't go in, but peeked in windows and took a shot of an old laundry tub/mangle on the front porch. Stuff just goes abandoned up this way. A lot of land, very few people per square mile (compared to south Wisconsin, by Madison and Milwaukee) and a lot of poverty. The big industries are farming (dairy) and timber, but with big agriculture squeezing out small farms, there are lots of houses like this. As far as i know, they just go to pieces.

It's sad to see potentially lovely houses fall into ruin, but I understand the reasons why it happens. They do make for stunning photos at least!
I read a review of The terranauts recently and it sounded interesting. I'll look forward to your review.

Yeah, it is a bit sad and I always wonder at the particular circumstances of an abandonment. Here's one from February of this year -



I made a note to go back and see if I could explore it closer when the snow went away and so I did. Unfortunately the yard was very overgrown and full of junk so I didn't go inside, but I did get closer. There's a pond or big marshy area in back with a boat, plus lots of dead cars and trucks and an oil tank probably leaking since I could smell it as soon as I got close. There was also a big wooden cart tipped over and some concrete pads under the tall grass as well as what I think was a well cover - you know those little house things with the roof and bucket, except it was in pieces. Oh and an outhouse surrounded by junk.



It's a small cabin or possibly a workshop. I couldn't see where the barn was, if there was one. It might be buried in undergrowth after it collapsed. No silos in sight either although there is hay rolled up in that first shot. Fascinating stuff and puts your imagination in overdrive.

>153 Bookmarque: & >158 Bookmarque: I want to save them. Save them all. Sadly I don't have the skills or the funding.

Sadly no, they can't all be saved. Probably not even a few. Just nothing for people to do up here for the most part.

But on a more positive note -

LIBRARY BOOK SALE HAUL!!!



In case it's too small to see I got -
Fault Lines by Anne Rivers Siddons
The Snare of the Hunter by Helen MacInnes
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
The New Republic by Lionel Shriver
Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg (won't touchstone - all Harry Potter all the time)
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
The Count of Monte Cristo by my main man, Alexandre Dumas
The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake
Bad Blood and Gathering Prey by John Sandford
Fool's Run by John Camp aka John Sandford
I Almost Forgot About You by Tricia MacMillian
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Three Plums in One by Janet Evanovic - contains One for the Money, Two for the Dough and Three to Get Ready
Our Kind of Traitor by John LeCarre
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Dear Life by Alice Munroe
A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George

Phew! That should keep me busy for a while!

I envy you the three plums.

Nothing like a fat stack of books to give one a feeling of security.

>161 hfglen: Yeah, if you haven't read any Plums, the first few are a real treat. Then they become meh. Seven Up got my last 8/10 stars, Hard Eight and onward got 6/10 or 7/10 stars. It's not that they are bad, but rather it's the same book over and over.

The first few Plums are a hoot. I think I got to 9 or 10 in the series and then gave up for just being full up with ridiculous.

And yeah, having a big TBR shelf/pile/mountain is weirdly comforting.

So we've got another Shelf by Shelf up today - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/10/shelf-by-shelf-gaiman-to-goddard.html

I do enjoy your shelf by shelf, even when I don't comment. :) I agree, that Ghosh cover is lovely.

Thanks MrsL! The cover is so beautiful. I'm glad you like the series.

OMG what happened to October?? This is crazy. Here’s how my reading went -

17 books read
2 non-fiction the rest fiction
9 books by men, 7 by women, 1 by one of each
8 by authors new to me, 9 were not
3 audio, 1 ebook, 13 physical
The oldest book was from 1878 and the newest published this year.



The best book was tie between The Lower Quarter by Elise Blackwell and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. TLQ had a terrific construction and technique of storytelling. The situation, characters and plot were different and I liked how the different stories came together. AGiM is just a phenomenal story that doesn’t do much in a trendy way; no big twists or car chases or explosions, but it’s richly atmospheric and enchanting. I also learned quite a bit about the early days of the Communist Party.

The worst was also a tie between Hidden Thunder and We. The first one because it lacks scholarship, has a lot of repetition and undue criticism of people doing the same things in different eras. We was just a mish-mash of attempts at social commentary, sex fantasy and philosophical musings on the part of the narrator. As a dystopia it seemed typical but that may be because it’s been copied quite a bit, but thankfully by better writers.

I probably won't have time to post much for a few days, but I wanted to share this really quick -



Upriver from us is another dam and it's being worked on so the power company performed a draw down so the dam could be exposed enough to repair. They started letting water out (and restricting flow in) at the end of August. They're putting it back in now, but slowly. The total drainage was about 14 feet so normally this stump is well under water. I loved the bleak, ravaged look of the nearly drained river and so did some fancy processing to go along with my apocalyptic vision.

>167 Bookmarque: Lovely. I love bleak monochromatic pics like this. It's why when you were saying something about not liking fall because of the bare trees, I was like, "But it's a cool time to get tree pics!"

>167 Bookmarque: That is a great image.

Thanks peeps.

I do try to be creative and keep my eyes open during this time of year, but it can be a challenge. What I like about the draw down pics is that I'll probably never see it happen again.

Phew. Back from a long weekend with some folks in El Paso and then hubby and I went to New Mexico for a couple of days. It had its ups and downs, but overall it was great. I don't have any pics from White Sands done yet, but here are a couple I love from Carlsbad Caverns -





It is a truly jaw-dropping place. So. Huge. Bigger by far than any cave I've ever been in. Staggering. Geologic time just leaves us humans in the dark of insignificance, it really does. White Sands, too was an amazing example of geologic time, but in a different way. Next week I'll put some pics up from that little stop, too.

---

I put a few reviews up, too. Finally.

The Fool's Runby John Camp aka Sandford

The Terranauts by T.C. Boyle (touchstones come up with EVERYTHING but the book, OMFG)

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz (omfg the touchstones suck!!!)

>171 Bookmarque: Let me guess, Harry Potter right? If not that, some classic like Pride and Prejudice.

Pretty much. and every other book that has squat to do with either title.

I've been pretty lucky with touchstones lately.

Love your photos from the caverns! Glad you were able to go. Caverns are something I want to be able to do, but my brain does a weird thing when I actually get inside and I am almost paralyzed with fear to the point it makes me want to throw up. I should say one part of my brain, because the other part is calling me an idiot the whole time. I have been in several beautiful ones though. Very close to my home.

Beautiful photos! I love caves!

What lovely photos of the caves. Somewhere else to add to the bucket list, I guess. Is that like scoring a book bullet?

I love caves, and Carlsbad Caverns look amazing from your photos. I'm glad you had a good trip.

Caves are so awesome, I love them, too. Never been in any as spectacular as Carlsbad though. So enormous. So rich with formations. So deep. Here's a few more shots -







It's in the middle of nowhere, but worth the drive.

Ooh, love the one with the trail down it.

Wonderful pictures. Thank you!

Thanks peeps. I'm happy for being able to see and share a bit of it.

Jumping in to admire your wonderful pictures!

Thanks SE!

Here's one from White Sands National Monument. I'm afraid I didn't do it justice. It's jaw-dropping.



Luckily we got sneaky and found a place that didn't have tourists crawling all over the dunes. It was quiet and unspoiled.

You know how I like monochromatic - so all the blue/blue-ish white is appealing to me.

>183 Bookmarque: Absolutely beautiful.

Wow! That's so impressive!

>183 Bookmarque: A question for you, knowing you have that art photographer's vision: what is it about this image that tells our eye that it's sand and not snow? I don't think it's just the vegetation because I have seen plenty of grass sticking up through snow. It's something about the character of the surface...isn't it? White drifts may look like white drifts, but can we tell subconsciously that it isn't wet?

Thanks peeps. It's a beautiful location.

Meredy, I think it's a number of things. First, there isn't any snow on the mountains. Second, sand drifts differently than snow does. Snow is subject to melting periods that don't let it hold shapes/texture like sand does. And third, sand doesn't reflect the sky with the intensity snow does.

Tatooine anyone?

Sand has speckles. Snow has sparkles.

You nailed it Morph. The crystalline nature of snow makes it reflect and refract light very differently from sand, even lovely white gypsum.

I put up a new review today. An Elizabeth George novel I picked up at the library sale. It was good, overlong, but good once I adjusted my expectations to match what the author delivered. Here it is - http://www.librarything.com/work/17731/reviews/135571487

Non spoilery.

I love your photos, that would not be a place I would willingly spend much time in either. Desert and sand are things I like to look at, but not wander in much.

Thanks MrsL. I love deserts. Spending a week in Death Valley was a heavenly vacation for me. Maybe it's because I've never lived near any. And now I live in Wisconsin, it's even a more green and lush place than New England was.

---

The gray-eyed invasion continues -

Ah, Treachery - Ross Thomas (not quite gray eyes though, funny)
The Drowning Ground - James Marrison
What Remains of Me - Alison Gaylin
How to be a Good Wife - Emma Chapman
Mischief - Charlotte Armstrong
The Terranauts - T.C. Boyle
The Passenger - Lisa Lutz
The Snare of the Hunter - Helen MacInnes
Beast in View - Margaret Millar

Still none have turned up in real life though. Oy vey.

Trying to get caught up with some reviews before heading to NH/MA for the long weekend. I'm looking forward to it, but also dreading the travel part. It could get so fucked up so easily this time of year. Snowing tonight, but clear on Thursday when we leave. Here anyway, the east will have snow/rain that day so joy.

>192 Bookmarque: My daughter reported a light sprinkling of snow in Boston yesterday.

The Berkshires got a foot or so I hear. They need it after this summer's drought.

Holy crap! November has gone poof!

I read 13 books.
All fiction. 3 by men, 10 by women.
4 were new authors for me, the rest I knew although some I couldn’t remember reading before.
Oldest was from 1954 the newest were published this year.
All were physical apart from one ebook and one audio.



The best was a tie between Beast in View by Margaret Millar and Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. Neither is a big long book like so many are these days, but they’re all the more powerful because of that. Different from each other, but great.

Nothing was really bad, but the books that were just ho-hum were The Passenger by Lisa Lutz and Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg.

And I think there was a DNF for this month, maybe it was October. As a part of the Prime Reading thing for Amazon Prime people I downloaded The Pines by Blake Crouch, but stopped reading after it just got too stupid for me to take anymore. The whole giant secret in some little town and the main character just takes abuse after abuse without let up. Couldn’t keep going.

So I'm trying to read this -
and this and I am losing patience. Especially with the second.

There are FAR too many pop-culture references in these. Way too many jokes. Too many authorial asides and editorializations. Especially through a 21st century lens. Please people, I do not need your moralizing. I just want the facts, presented cogently and with some style. Wit if you must, but keep it low-key and for fuck's sake, if you do have to mention some pop culture icon, do us with no TV a favor and explain what you're after!!! Besides me who knows pretty much zip about that kind of thing, in a few years your references will be unfathomable.

OMG. Is it the Mary Roach effect happening here? I mean to say she seems to be one of the people who made non-fiction popular with her unusual subjects and humor. She doesn't carry it too far in my opinion, but maybe it's just because I have listened to her books and haven't read them with my eyes. Does she only go for the jokes in the footnotes or am I getting it wrong? I know she goes for jokes in the notes, but I don't think it's confined there.

Maybe I'm just turning into a curmudgeon.

>196 Bookmarque: Turning? ;o) Seriously, though. Someone wrote a funny book about plagues? How???!!!

I knew someone would question my verb tense. (Shakes fist) lol. Yeah, it is kinda funny in a bloggy kind of way. I may keep on with it. Suffering from my own plague ATM. The cold that won't die. Right now I'm flooding it with vodka in hopes it will capitulate. And cheese. That's really for me.

>198 Bookmarque:

Quote from Albert Camus's The Fall.

"It's nothing. Just a slight temperature I am treating with gin."

>198 Bookmarque: Oh that sucks. Hope you mend quickly!

>199 pgmcc: I was just about to recommend some gin, but I see someone beat me to it.

>198 Bookmarque: Ugh. Hope you feel better soon.

>201 SylviaC: I think you meant >198 Bookmarque:. :D

>202 Morphidae: Yes, I did. Fixed it.

But I hope you're well too, Morphy!

Thanks peeps. I've lost my voice due to nasty lung crud and coughing. Luckily there is bourbon.

Voice is still AWOL, but I think I'm coughing less. Trying to get well for our open house party on Saturday, but who knows what kind of shape I'll be in. Lots of reading time though. Here's a bunch of short reviews in one post - http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-murder-of-thrillers.html

It's snowing again here in northern Wisco so it looks like a white Christmas. The temps will drop 20 degrees or so next week so it probably won't melt away. I don't mind it. Winter is supposed to be like this. There were 8 trumpeter swans on the river in the last few days, but it looks like they've finally moved on south.

OMG!! Look what came out today!



One of my favorite books this year was another book about octopuses and consciousness and now this! Want.

>206 Bookmarque: Oh that does look good!

>206 Bookmarque: that book looks intriguing.

Winter has hit here as well. We received about four inches of snow today and the temps are in the twenties.

I'll get it after Christmas probably. Unless someone ponies up.

More snow for us, too. And temps in the single digits during the days and below zero at night for next week so no meltage. There's ice on the river and an eagle just flew by, making a dive for the remaining open water. I love my back yard.

So I've been reading the books I got at the library sale and haven't checked anything out in weeks. Today I got a lovely stack, though, including a couple that are just random picks -



A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George
Land of Dreams - Vidar Sundstol - the start of The Minnesota Trilogy which is cool since it's kinda local
Sweet Lamb of Heaven - Lydia Millet
The Little Red Chairs - Edna O'Brien
The Crow Girl - Erik Axl Sund

I just love a new library stack, don't you??

Here's another look at my library with LT's virtual shelves!
http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/12/shelf-by-shelf-grimm-to-harris.html



Grimm to Harris, Robert that is.

Had a DNF out of that library stack - The Little Red Chairs. The combination of vagueness and an opaque and wandering story (sometimes I really couldn't figure out who was the central figure of a section) lulled me into a vignette of unspeakable violence that has done my head in. Down it went and I can't say I'll ever read an O'Brien again.

Onto The Barrowfields which is my latest Early Reviewer book. Just started it so hard to form an opinion just yet.

Very cold here in northern Wisco. 7 degrees and sunny. Up from -5 earlier today. No snow until Friday, but temps will stay way down.

Is this thing on?

Finished Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World yesterday. Not bad, but boy the popular tone for non-fiction books seems to be sarcastic and judgmental. This one isn't as bad as the plague book I have as an ER, but it's in evidence. Clearly the writers have no doubt their opinion/value judgment is the right one and people from the past are targets ripe for the mocking. I don't think I can do another one like it and I probably won't finish my ER book because of it.

This is kinda funny. Randomly I picked out a Swedish crime novel in translation (The Crow Girl) and I've been reading it with interest despite it being basically torture porn in some places (skimming time). Then I saw it was the first book in a trilogy. At 800 pages I was really put off that the story might be dragged out even more and had almost decided to pack it in when I looked at the copyright page and saw it was previously published as 3 separate books in successive years. My doorstop of a book contained all three. So I am persevering. It's really weird, creepy and prurient in an extreme way. I am interested in finishing though mostly to see how the cop(s) handles the truth once she figures it out.

Oh and check out the authors!


Sweden being what it is, I really hope these guys are in a metal band, too!!!

Anyway, today is going to be much warmer than it has been lately. Yesterday at this time it was 10 below and now it's 16, so I think I'll go check out some cross country ski trails nearby. Between the cold temps and me being sick I haven't been outside in weeks and haven't touched the camera since I was in New Mexico.

And we, on the other hand, are decently cooler. Yesterday hit 36°C (mid-90s F); today 26 (upper 70s). At your temperatures, indoors hath certain charms.

>212 Bookmarque: they look like they should be writing Grimm like fairy tales.

We are in the forties right now! I might get out for a walk after my periodontist appointment. I, too, haven't had much chance of being out. And after yesterday, I could use some time in nature.

>212 Bookmarque: Pretty bad boys.

I haven't been commenting much, but always reading. :)

Understandable, catz, Ellie was a special girl.

Funny, summer down where you are, Hugh, seems like it gets way warmer way earlier than it does in the northern hemi. We rarely reach 90 (F) here in northern Wisconsin, and that won't be until July or August if it does.

>216 Bookmarque: You have a point there. For one thing, we're significantly closer to the equator than you are (30° rather than a tad less than 49). And then Durban, like Sydney, Australia, and Rio de Janeiro, is on the east coast of the continent, and so is washed by a warm current. Although I'm far enough from the beach not to be tempted (just over 20 miles as the crow flies), most days I can see a cloud bank marking where the current flows. And so we have next to no winter, but a pretty steamy summer.

One of the fun bits of South African geography that some of us are lucky enough to learn at school, is that exactly opposite Durban but on the west coast is a dump called Port Nolloth. It's washed by a cold current that comes straight up from Antarctica. And so instead of being green and warm, it's a cool desert (10--20°C most days of the year), and a desert. Somewhere I have a picture of the place which I thought I'd scanned, but can't find it. So instead here is one of Alexander Bay, about 70 miles north of Port Nolloth, right on the Namibian border. The two places don't look all that different.



Apologies for the quality of this one; I took it in 1973, and it hasn't aged gracefully.

Don't apologize at all. It's still an interesting shot. And yeah, I somehow didn't realize you were further north than I thought. For some reason I thought the two areas were sort of similarly placed with relation to the poles. I'm so bad at geography!

So warm today - 36F so the trails were perfect!



It's been years since I've skied so I only went out for a little over an hour. Was lovely though. I remember why I liked it so much before I fell and separated my shoulder. Just gotta keep getting up on that proverbial horse. Today rather than chance a biggish hill I took the skis off and walked down to where it was more level. With practice I think I'll be able to handle it. Glad for Wisconsin's relative flatness though.

My daughter and her husband are on their way to Wisconsin to spend the holiday with his folks in Stevens Point. Their taxi is picking them up at 3am. :-)

>219 Bookmarque: That trail is so inviting!

Thanks Sakerfalcon, they are nice trails. Since we have long winters and no mountains, there are a lot of trails.

It's going to be nice in Sconnie for Christmas and Point isn't far from the airport. It's about a 60 miles south of here.

I bet it was a nice time! I tried cross country last year. It was fun, but I had a hard time getting up when I fell. I think I need to go out with someone who has a bit more experience than my friend.

My husband is out on his snowmobile today. He wanted to get out before the trails turn mushy. We had lots of snow in the last week, but now the temperature is hovering around freezing, and is supposed to be well above by Boxing Day.

slushy/icy trails are the worst. I used spikes for winter hiking a lot in NH. Not much in the way of above freezing here though. 20s for the next week or so.

Like anything, cross country takes practice, catz. By the end of my short little session, I was skiing better.

>219 Bookmarque:

That's quite the trail. Out here we call that a road; trails are narrow enough that someone has to step off when two meet.

Lol. Not all of them are so wide, but many miles of rec trails up here are or were logging roads (#2 industry) and I think that was one before it became conservation land.

A vehicle with treads made the tracks on the left; any idea what made the narrow rows on the right?

A x-c ski trail groomer. Pulled by a snowmobile or ATV or similar, like this one -

>225 Bookmarque: I know I need to get out and just do it more! It was fun. Hmm, maybe I should talk to that friend and see if she could go next week.

>228 suitable1: & >229 Bookmarque:

And there was my thinking it was a very coordinated and tightly packed bunch of cyclists.

Winter cyclists up here are the fat tire variety. Lots of trails for them, too.

It's a little too warm for non-groomed trails today, but we went out for a while anyway.

After some debate and a little shuffling, I've come up with my five favorite fiction books of 2016. There are a lot of runners up, honorable mentions etc., that I will have to add since I read 170 or so books this year. Also I have a separate list for non-fiction, but here goes!

https://www.librarything.com/list/11172/Bookmarque/

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
I knew when I was about ½ way through that this would make the top 5. If you like what Boyd did with Any Human Heart you will love this. Instead of sending his character out into the world to experience big events, Towles confines his to a Moscow hotel and brings the world to him. It’s really an amazing piece of fiction and does what I think fiction should - entertains, educates and uplifts. Bravo!

The Lower Quarter by Elise Blackwell
Such a confident novel. Plays with structure, but not so much that the story is lost. Told in three major sections, each tackles a particular aspect of the plot and the relationships between the characters. As the story progresses the reader learns how they are interconnected and there are some surprises along the way.

Laura by Vera Caspary = link because touchstones suck so bad - http://www.librarything.com/work/145727
Collected in the Women in Crime anthology, it is highly deserving of a place there. So many women writing in the 40s and 50s invented many tropes and techniques we see in today’s crime fiction. If they were men they’d be remembered for it, but since they’re women they’re forgotten. If you’ve only seen the more famous movie, try reading it. It’s well-crafted, cleverly written and very enjoyable.

Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas
You think you know scheming, backstabbing, double dealing and treachery? You don’t know anything compared to the French aristocracy. We also get a massacre, secret romances, murder, imprisonment, friendship, changing alliances, secret passageways, eavesdropping, clandestine meetings and religious conversions. Great stuff.

Absolution by Patrick Flannery
Hard to believe this is a first novel. By comparison his third, I Am No One is far weaker. It’s the story of a famous writer working with a biographer to tell her tale, albeit reluctantly and with a lot of conditions. Some reviews complain that things are not as clear for the reader as they could be, but I didn’t mind as much as some. There are several narratives and timelines to follow and if you don’t pay attention, things can slip. There is such deliberation in the way this story is told that it’s easy to trust the author. Even when things were obscure, I felt confident that Flanery would get me satisfaction in the end and he did.

I'm going to start our threads for this. I really want to read "Laura" and Queen Margot.

They're both excellent, but for different reasons. Seems like a lot of my favorites were because of structure and careful organization. Deliberation I guess is what I mean. The authors seemed really in control of their narratives.

But I read too many books this year to keep it to just five for fiction so I've broken out crime fiction and literary fiction as well as having a separate non-fiction category. Here's the NF.

The Soul of an Octopus: A surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness by Sy Montgomery
I was utterly enchanted while reading this and maybe it was because I love octopuses already, but even those who don’t or haven’t given them any thought felt the same about this book.

Bunker Hill:A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
I am a bit of a Revolutionary War nerd, but I still have a lot to learn and Philbrick’s style, attention to detail and scholarship make it all the more enjoyable. He totally gets the narrative non-fiction genre.

Mayflower:A story of courage, community and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
As a native New-Englander you’d think I’d have been taught more about the truth of the landing at Plymouth, but I wasn’t. Instead I got the spin that George Washington and others invented in order to help solidify a country that was far from unified.

Passionate Minds:Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire and the great love affair of the Enlightenment by David Bodanis
Only because of her connection to Voltaire is Emilie remembered and mostly it’s as a footnote to the man’s life, not because she was extraordinary in her own right. She was. She was.

Edward Gorey:His book cover art and design by Steven Heller
Any Gorey fan usually has a lot of books about him as by him. This one is a gem for those of us who have never experienced his work as an cover designer and illustrator. Page after page of his distinct interpretations make you want to read books you’ve never heard of.

>236 Bookmarque: I am ordering the octopus book right now - thank you! Anyone see the NOVA episode on cuttlefish? They are relatives of the octopi with truly astonishing problem solving abilities and behavioral strategies

It's pretty wonderful. If you scroll up a ways, I put up a shot of another octopus related consciousness book that's out. I didn't get it for Christmas so I'll have to just buy it.

Oh and I also have to get to the worst books and my DNFs.

Another Shelf-by-Shelf went up today - Harris to Highsmith



http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2016/12/shelf-by-shelf-harris-to-highsmith.htm...

So I put up a non-spoilery review of The Crow Girl which was a really difficult book to read because it was very nearly torture porn. There was enough else in the book to make me persevere, but I did skim some of the really grisly bits. Is it my imagination or does Scaninavian crime really seem to revel in degradation and cruelty? I only have the Lisbeth Salander books to compare with, but both seem to have very descriptive passages of abuse. Anyway. If you have the intestinal fortitude, it was interesting.

As a much-needed antidote, I snagged a Susan Howatch novel on the cheap from iTunes and finished it this morning - Cashelmara is a fairly early novel and I liked it. It's a sprawling, multi-generational family saga modeled after the story of Edward I, II and III of England, which I know very slightly. When my book about the English monarchs arrives I can check it up against the real story. I've needed one of those for years. Finally broke down and got one published by Oxford and out of print for a while now.

Also on the cheap I snagged because I'm listening to The Girls of Slender Means by the same author and kind of like it. This book is supposed to be a bit darker.

Anyway...the year is winding down. I'm finalizing my best and worst lists. With 170+ books under my brain, it's been a little tough.

Well here it is the afternoon of December 31st. I'll post what will be my last library stack of the year and the first for 2017.

2017.

This is mental. A minute ago it was the new millennium.

Anyway, here's my latest haul -



I'm about 1/2 way through Payment in Blood and it might get finished before the year's out, but if not I don't really care. Hubby just put a bottle of some late 90s vintage sparkling pinot from Oregon in the fridge and we'll be imbibing later. Our first full year in Wisconsin is behind us. Where does the time go?

I should touchstone them, right? This ought to be a laugh.

Three-martini Lunch is a novel involving the publishing world. I'd read Rindell's first novel The Other Typist and quite liked it.

The Return of Captain John Emmett is the first in what I hope will be a series by Elizabeth Speller. I'd read the second one earlier this year and it's in my list of the best crime fiction I read in 2016.

Love Among the Ruins is a novel by Robert Clark who splashed big with his novel Mr. White's Confession and promptly sank back to mid-list. This will be my 3rd book by him and other than a memoir, I think that's all he wrote.

Only the Dead is the second in a trilogy set on Minnesota's north shore of Lake Superior. It's in translation from the Norwegian by a guy who lived up there a couple of years, but whom I think moved back to Norway. It's semi-local so I dig it.

I'm looking forward to all of them, actually. That's one of the lovely side-effects of a stack of unread books. The anticipation.

This has been a great thread to follow, what with your new adventures and places to photograph, your musings and discoveries on your dock, all the book photo goodness, the eyes on the shelf, and fun conversations. I'm looking forward to the 2017 thread.

Thanks MrsL! The new one will go up shortly, but before I close this one, here are the worst books I read last year, not including DNFs. I suffered through all of them.

Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegelman
A caper novel that doesn’t do anything new, has an ending you can see coming a mile off and features a protagonist without charm or smarts.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Dull, dull, dull, dull. Preachy. More dull.

House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer & Tod Goldberg
A completely forgettable conspiracy book that didn’t quite work.

Night Woman by Nancy Price
Why this is on some list of thrillers you must read is beyond me. The writing is simplistic to the point of near idiocy; the writer doesn’t trust the reader to figure out anything independently. There’s no subtlety or finesse.

The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose
Weirdly I read this book, the first in a trilogy, before the other two. Had I read it first I wouldn’t have read the rest, which are far better. The writing suffers from imprecise word usage and concepts like a person running early or late when there are no clocks. At about the ¾ mark I started skimming in earnest. Details were unimportant and uninteresting and I just wanted to get it over. The end is a mere whimper when before there had been a bit of shouting.

>244 Bookmarque: I quite enjoyed We but felt exactly the same as you about The Reincarnationist. I received the latter as an ER and it was the first of Rose's books I read. Needless to say I did not read any more.

My DNFs!

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (bored)
Luckiest Girl Alive - Jessica? Knoll (hated writing and characters)
The man Who Walked Away - Maud Casey (bored)
Hangsaman - Shirley Jackson (lost interest)
The Tattooed Girl - Joyce Carol Oates (violence/cruelty)
Mildred Pierce - James M. Cain (overly manipulative, hated everyone)
Out - Natsuo Kirino (bored and just didn’t care what happened)
The Port Wine Stain - Norman Lock (horrible writing)
Last Days - Brian Evenson (stupid beyond my ability to cope)
Down River - John Hart (character made dumb decisions)
The Guest Room - Chris Bohjalian (violence/cruelty)
The Carrier - Holden Scott (can’t remember so it must have been awful)
The Witches - Stacy Schiff (repetitive, weak scholarship, stupid, stupid people)
The Only Woman in the Room - e? Pollack (a whiny pity-party)
The Sleeper Awakes - H.G. Wells (zzzzz)
The Pines - Blake Crouch (stupid and contrived)
The Little Red Chairs - Edna O'Brien (violence/cruelty)
Sweet Lamb of Heaven - Lydia Millett (too many dream sequences, boring narrator)
The Barrowfields - Philip Lewis (dull, unoriginal)
Get Well Soon - Jennifer Ashley Wright (hated the sarcastic tone and pop-culture refs)

And yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want to read more of them, pgmcc. The second two are better, but don't kill yourself looking for them.

>246 Bookmarque: I like that you report why each book was a DNF for you. I like knowing these things.

>244 Bookmarque: Re: We - Oh dear. It's on a couple challenges for me and I've started it a couple times. It's so short. I'll get it finished somehow.

>246 Bookmarque: Another oh dear for The Remains of the Day. I really enjoyed it and gave it 8/10 stars. Do you remember why you DNFed it?

The reasons are in parentheses, but the one for Remains is short. It bored me. I know it's highly thought of, but it was just so deadly dull.