Weird_O (Bill)'s ADD Bookyard (cell one)

The grandkids had a good Christmas. Left to right, upper, Helen and her twin Claire, who is holding Cousin Gretchen, and Gus. Gracie is wearing the blue Star Wars shirt. Lia, on the bottom step, isn't quite sure she's loving this photo business. Photo by Jeremy, father of Claire, Helen, and Gracie. Animation by Google.

Current Reading



On the Back Burner...for now.

    DwD for Nov

2017 Reading Agenda

I draped too many "challenges"on myself in 2016. But I just want to read. So in 2017, I am not going to open threads (for any kind of challenge) because I'm not the kind of warm, diligent promotion/publicity sort that such endeavors require. I do plan to participate in Mark's American Author Challenge for the third time, and I do want to participate in Suzanne's NF challenge. See? Participating reader, but not thread moderator.

Pulitzer winners will remain a focus but not a month-to-month objective. I do have a pretty sizable subset of TBRs that are winners, in fiction and in other categories. I'll read 'em and keep track of them, but I won't commit to any schedule or quantity goal.

More to come...

Watch this spot
    

I'm going to kick off 2017 reading with the stack of Christmas gift books I got from Judi, my wife; from Ned and Becky, who of my children; and from "roundballz," my Secret Santa. While I'd like to make a strong start by polishing off all 12 books (well, 11 books; I started The Final Solution: A Story of Detection 12/29/16 and finished it 12/30/16; last book read in 2016).



190. Kindred by Octavia Butler (pbk)
   AAC4--January
191. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (pbk)
192. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace (pbk)
193. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner (pbk)
   1995 Pulitzer for GenNF
   NF Challenge--January
194. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Gary Wills (pbk)
   1993 Pulitzer for GenNF
   NF Challenge--January
195. Dispatches by Michael Herr (pbk)
196. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon (pbk)
197. Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre (hc)
198. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (hc)
199. Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard (hc)
200. Truevine by Beth Macy (hc)
201. Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (hc)

Of course, never willing to rest on my acquisitions, and because I was next door at Staples buying printer cartridges, I slipped into Goodwill and found 12 "gotta-have-these" books (at $.97 each).

204. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (mmp)
205. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (pbk)
206. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (pbk)
207. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (pbk)
208. The Collector by John Fowles (pbk)*
209. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (pbk)
210. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (pbk)
211. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (pbk)
212. Every Day by the Sun by Dean Faulkner Wells (hc)
213. Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride (hc)
214. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (hc)
215. True North by Jim Harrison (hc)



*Couldn't find a Touchstone for this.

Books Read: First Quarter 2017

January (8 read)
1. Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard (1/3/17) ROOT®
2. Kindred by Octavia Butler (1/9/17) AAC4 ROOT
3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1/11/17) ROOT®
4. Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre (1/16/17) ROOT
5. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (1/19/17) (borrowed)®
6. The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner (1/22/17) NFC January ROOT®
7. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1/30/17) ROOT
8. On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt (1/31/17) ROOT®

February (5 read)
9. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (2/5/17) ROOT
10. A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz (2/10/17) NFC--February ROOT
11. Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan (2/15/17) AAC4--February ROOT
12. Hold Still by Sally Mann (2/20/17) (borrowed)
13. The Crucible by Arthur Miller (2/23/17) ROOT

March (1 read)
14. The Bear by William Faulkner (3/1/17) (re-read)
15. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (3/2/17) ROOT

While I didn't do as well reading in 2016 as I wanted, I did pretty good at accumulating books for not a lot of money. Yes, I acquired a few books I've already read; these are books that, to me, are keepers. I also acquired some "better" copies of books already owned--hardcovers to replace paperbacks, for example. I bought some I thought my wife would like (and she did!). I even bought a few that I intended to read and did read.

[Special Note: A Blue Check denotes a title that I read before the buy; a Red Check denotes a book read after the buy.]

The upshot is that that I added about 200 books to my TBR holdings.

Now I already said I am avoiding challenges other than Mark's AAC and Suzanne's NFC, and the reason is so I can focus on reading down the TBR. Many titles in the following lists of acquisitions I really do want to read. I want to do it now!

Oh, and buying all these books is not hoarding.



6 February 2016
1. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (pbk)
   A book that appears on many of those "Best Books of All Times" lists.
2. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (pbk)
   I don't know why, okay?
3. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (pbk)
    1980 Pulitzer for fiction
   An absolute doorstop at 1000+ pages.
4. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (pbk)
   A book that appears on many of those "Best Books of All Times" lists.
5. American Tabloid by James Ellroy (pbk)
   I like Ellroy.
6. Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo (pbk)
   Novelization of the film starring Newman, Willis, and Melanie Griffiths
7. Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (pbk)
   Hey, it's Anne Tyler! Plus my sis recommended this book.
8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (pbk)
   I think this is one of those books you have to read.
9. The Stranger by Albert Camus (pbk) 
   My screwup; I got a copy of this in 2015. CRS.
10. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (hc)
   A hardcover copy of a book I have in paperback.
11. Toward Zero by Agatha Christie (hc)
   It's Dame Agatha, in hardcover. I know nothing about this title, but saw neither Marple nor Poirot mentioned.
12. Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler (hc)
   Well, it's Tyler…again.
13. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (hc)
   2014 Pulitzer for fiction
14. City of God by E. L. Doctorow (hc)
   I like Doctorow's books; didn't have this one.



15. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (hc) 
     I've read this, wanted to have a copy on the shelf.
16. The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand (hc) 
      Pulitzer Prize for History 2002; perfect for September NFC (history of ideas).
17. Digging to America by Anne Tyler (hc)
      Well, it's Tyler…again.
18. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (hc)
     Haven't read any of Dillard's fiction.
19. Everyman by Philip Roth (hc)*
     Roth is a favorite author of mine.
20. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (hc) 
   1940 Pulitzer for fiction
   Sometime over the decades, I lost my copy; this is a hardcover replacement.
21. His Illegal Self by Peter Carey (hc)
   Two other Carey books are on my want list, but this was available. Haven't read him yet.
22. Answered Prayers by Truman Capote (hc)
   The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (I read it last year) was based on Capote's writing of this book.
23. In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike (hc)
   I heard somewhere this was a good one by a local writer.
24. Star Island by Carl Hiaasen (hc)
   Adding to my stock of unread Hiaasens; his books are great fun.
25. The Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (hc)
   It's that Russo again. Couldn't pass it up.

8 March 2016
26. Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley (hc)
   I used to devour such war-hero books as a teen, only a decade after the war's end.
27. A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton (hc)  
   1954 Pulitzer for history
   The final volume of Catton's "The Army of the Potomac" trilogy.

         

28. The Hours: A Novel by Michael Cunningham (pbk)*
   1999 Pulitzer for fiction
29. Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 by Sarah H. Gordon (hc)
30. Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirits of the Animals of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz (hc)
   My beloved has enjoyed other Katz stories about his dogs.
31. Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie (hc) 
   I used to have this book, but it vanished. A tragic history--hemophilia, madness, harsh revolution, abandonment, death.
32. Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes (pbk)
33. Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (pbk)
34. The Man in My Basement: A Novel by Walter Mosley (hc)
35. Songs for the Missing: A Novel by Stewart O'Nan (hc)
   Shopping against the day O'Nan makes the AAC list.
36. The Gulag Archipelago Two (1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation III-IV) by Aleksandr
I. Solzhenitsyn (pbk)
   My error; this is only part of Solzhenitsyn's work.

30 April 2016
37. The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway (pbk)*
38. King Lear by William Shakespeare (pbk)
39. SparkNotes on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (pbk)*
40. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (pbk)
   Those of a Conservative bent foam about this history. A Must Read.
41. The Learners by Chip Kidd (hc)*
42. The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir (pbk)
43. My Life in France by Julia Child (pbk)
44. Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman (pbk)*
45. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje (hc)
46. The Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry (hc)
47. 1776 by David McCullough (hc)
   One of the few McCullough's I've not read.
48. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell (hc)
49. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Illustrated by Michael Hague (hc) 
   A splendidly illustrated edition of a classic tale for young and old alike.
50. All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (A Leonid McGill Mystery) (hc)
51. Known to Evil by Walter Mosley (A Leonid McGill Mystery) (pbk)*
52. Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis (hc)

   

53. Millennium People by J. G. Ballard (hc)
54. The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer (pbk)*
   I should read something by this Nobelist.
55. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (pbk)
56. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (pbk) 
57. The Good Wife by Stewart O'Nan (hc)
   For next year's AAC, if Mark picks him.
58. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (hc)
59. Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers by Margaret Bonham (pbk)
   Our Bridie is a Wheaten.
60. The Great Santini by Pat Conroy (pbk)
   An upgrade from mmp to trade paper; might goad me into reading it.
61. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (hc)
62. America Enters the World: A People's History of the Progressive Era and World War I by Page Smith (Volume Seven) (hc)
   I bought the first four volumes as they were published.

*Asterisk says I couldn't find a touchstone for this book.

Yes, there will be more...

“Job Lot Cheap” painted in 1848 by William Michael Harnett

21 May 2016
63. White Noise by Don DeLillo (pbk) 
   Yeah, already read it, but now I have my own copy.
64. Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig (pbk)
   Second book of a trilogy; just read the first book.
65. This House of Sky by Ivan Doig (pbk)
66. A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines (pbk)
67. Possession by A. S. Byatt (pbk)
68. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (pbk)
  emsp;1995 Pulitzer for fiction
69. The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich (pbk)
70. The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner (pbk) 
   Moving up from a mass market paperback.
71. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (hc)
72. ‘Tis by Frank McCourt (hc)
73. Canada by Richard Ford (hc)
74. The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough (hc) 
   McCullough's history of the Panama Canal--I have read it--in a fairly deluxe edition.
75. Glory Road by Bruce Catton (hc) 
   Second book of a trilogy; I've read the first and third books.
The Centennial History of the Civil War, a boxed set.
   76. The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton (hc)
   77. Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton (hc)
   78. Never Call Retreat by Bruce Catton (hc)
79. Nobody Move by Denis Johnson (hc) 
80. Atonement by Ian McEwan (hc)
   Upgrade from trade paperback to hardcover; going to read it someday.



81. Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan (hc)
   More fodder for the AAC of 2017; will Mark make it a reality?
82. Dead Man’s Walk by Larry McMurtry (hc)
   First book in McMurtry's Lonesome Dove tetrology.
83. Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry (hc)
   Second book in McMurtry's LD tetrology.
84. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (hc)
85. Murder at the Manor by Agatha Christie (hc)
   “Mystery Guild Lost Classics Omnibus”
   Crooked House
   Ordeal by Innocence
   The Seven Dials Mystery
86. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines (pbk)
   This I already have. CRS
87. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in World War II by Paul Fussell (pbk) 
   This I already have. CRS

7 June 2016
88. Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose (pbk)
89. Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther (pbk)
90. Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen (hc)
91. Glory Road by Bruce Catton (hc)
   I think I bought this'n because it had a jacket. But it is a dupe.
92. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimental Canal by Mary Roach (hc) 



28 June 2016
93. Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor (hc)
94. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon (pbk) 
   Bought for AAC3--September

9 July 2016
95. The Known World by Edward P. Jones (pbk)
   Pulitzer for fiction 2004
96. Andersonville by MacKinley Kantor (pbk) 
   Pulitzer for fiction 1956
97. The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Carleton Mabee (pbk) 
   Pulitzer for Bio 1944
98. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald
   Pulitzer for General NF 1973



Oh, there's more. I bought a lot more.

Not just books. Ideas! A river of ideas!

16 July 2016
99. The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (hc)
   A first edition hardcover with a decent jacket, and it's in a readable size type.
100. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (hc) 
101. A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton (hc) 
   I already have a hardcover of this, read it just this spring, but this one has a dust jacket.
102. Studs Lonigan A Trilogy by James T. Farrell (hc)
   A vintage Modern Library edition with all three novels.
103. Here at the New Yorker by Brendan Gill (hc) 
104. The Big Burn by Timothy Egan (hc)*
105. The World According to Garp by John Irving (hc) 
   Read this in mmp right after it was released. Still have it, but it's pretty tattered. This'n has an acceptable dust jacket, even.
106. Our Gang by Philip Roth (hc)
107. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (hc)



108. The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White (hc)
   My wife read it and loved it; granddaughter Gracie is reading it now.
109. The Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger (hc)
   Got suckered by this one. "Little Big Man" in biggo type. At home, the small type "The Return of" looked
   so big I couldn't believe I missed it.
110. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine (Heritage Press edition) (hc)
111. Wisdom by Andrew Zuckerman (hc)*
   Coffee table tome! Published by Abrams for $50. Beautiful high def color photos of famous men and women
   with pearls of their wisdom. Two bucks.
112. Fathers and Sons essays by Todd Richissin, photos by Jim Graham (hc)*
   Another coffee table hold-down. Another $2.
113. A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle (pbk)
114. The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan (pbk)*
   Adding to my stock of O'Nan in anticipation of next year's AAC. :-)
115. The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley (pbk)
116. Some Luck by Jane Smiley (pbk)
   Two more by Smiley. I liked the two of hers that I've read, and now I've got 4 Smileys to read.
117. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (pbk)
118. The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig (pbk)
119. My Name is Asher Levy by Chaim Potok (pbk)*
120. Ironweed by William Kennedy (pbk)
   1984 Pulitzer for fiction

7 August 2016
121. Keith Haring Journals (pbk)
122. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Mark Ridley (pbk)



22 August 2016
123. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (hc)
124. Show Boat, So Big, Cimarron by Edna Ferber (hc)
   So Big won 1926 Pulitzer for fiction
125. Dog Stories by James Herriot (hc)*



126. Old Filth by Jane Gardam (hc)
127. Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (hc)
128. Pretty Boy Floyd by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (hc)
129. The Desert Rose by Larry McMurtry (mmp)
130. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (pbk)
131. West with the Night by Beryl Markham (pbk)
132. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (pbk)
133. The Discworld Graphic Novels by Terry Pratchett (hc)

17 September 2016
134. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (hc)
   Much chat about GE, so finding this fine edition spurred the buy.
135. The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie (hc)
136. The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (hc)
137. Death in the Holy Orders by P. D. James (hc)
138. A Certain Justice by P. D. James (hc) 
   Hardcover of a book I read in mmp.
139. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (hc)  
   I think I was in high school when I read this. Mmp lost. Now replaced.
140. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (hc)
141. A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz (hc)
142. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (hc)



143. The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell (mmp)
144. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (pbk)
145. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (pbk)
146. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (pbk)
147. Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín (pbk)
148. The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (pbk)
149. King Lear by Will Shakespeare (pbk)
150. The Second World War by John Keegan (pbk)
151. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (pbk) 

26 September 2016
152. A Red Death by Walter Mosley (pbk) 
153. White Butterfly by Walter Mosley (pbk)



27 October 2016
154. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (hc) 
   Absolutely loved this, even after a second read. Original MMP vanished. HC replacement.
155. De Alfonce Tennis by J. P. Donleavy (hc)
156. The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (hc)
157. Continental Drift by Russell Banks (hc)
   Setting me for AAC4--November
158. H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (hc)
   Popular amongst the 75ers in 2015.

*Asterisk means I couldn't find the proper touchstone for this title.

Yet a few more in the next post...

30 November 2016
159. The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander (hc)
160. The Year of Decision: 1846 by Bernard DeVoto (hc w/slipcase)
161. The Round House by Louise Erdrich (hc)
   National Book Award 2012
162. Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers (hc)*
163. Battle Cry by Leon Uris (hc) 
164. Missoula: Rape and Justice in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (hc)
165. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (pbk) 
166. The Bridge on the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle (hc)
167. Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball (pbk)
   National Book Award NF 1998
168. Endurance by Alfred Lansing (pbk)



169. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (pbk)
170. Ulysses by James Joyce (hc)
   Best novel of all time! Well, that's what they said...
171. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (pbk) 
172. Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill (pbk)
   1957 Pulitzer for drama
173. The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh (hc)*
   Pulitzer for biography 1954
174. A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul (pbk)
175. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (pbk)
176. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (pbk)
   2009 Pulitzer for fiction
177. The Crucible by Arthur Miller (pbk)
178. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (pbk)
   Time's 100 Best
179. In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore (pbk)
180. The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand (pbk)
   1938 Pulitzer fiction
181. Sophie's Choice by William Styron (hc)
   1980 National Book Award

19 December 2016
182. My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (hc)
183. House of Meetings by Martin Amis (hc)



184. The Counterlife by Philip Roth (hc)
185. The Peripheral by William Gibson (hc)
186. Mythology by Edith Hamilton (pbk)
187. The Wapshot Chronicles by John Cheever (pbk) 
188. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (pbk)
189. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (pbk)

25 December 2016
190. Kindred by Octavia Butler (pbk)
   AAC4--January
191. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (pbk)
192. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace (pbk)
193. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner (pbk)
   1995 Pulitzer for GenNF
194. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Gary Wills (pbk)
   1993 Pulitzer for GenNF
195. Dispatches by Michael Herr (pbk)
196. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon (pbk) 



197. Rogue Heroes by Ben McIntyre (hc)
198. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (hc)
199. Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard (hc)
200. Truevine by Beth Macy (hc)
201. Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (hc)

Sometime during the year…
202. Custer by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (pbk) &91;from Whisper1&93;*
203. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (pbk)
204. Venice by Jan Morris (hc in slipcase)* 
205. Quiet by Susan Cain (pbk)*
206. The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (mmp) 



Closing out…12/29/16
207. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (pbk)
208. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (pbk)
209. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (pbk)
210. The Collector by John Fowles (pbk)*
211. Did You Ever Have a Family? by Bill Clegg (pbk)
212. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (pbk)
213. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (pbk)
214. Every Day by the Sun by Dean Faulkner Wells (hc)
215. Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride (hc)
216. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (hc)
217. True North by Jim Harrison (hc)*
218. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (mmp)



         

So have at it, y'all

I wish you from my heart health, happiness, satisfaction and much exciting read in 2017. May all your wishes come true.


from my hometown Zürich, Switzerland

I am part of the group.
I love being part of the group.
I love the friendships bestowed upon my by dint of my membership of this wonderful fellowship.
I love that race and creed and gender and age and sexuality and nationality make absolutely no difference to our being a valued member of the group.

Thank you for also being part of the group.

Happy new year, Bill!

Welcome back!

Happy New Year, Bill!

Happy New Thread, Bill. I am really looking forward to following along in your reading life, for another year. You have adapted so well to this group.

Good luck with your reading challenges. Like you, I want to focus on my TBR stacks. There are just so many books screaming for attention.

I am so happy you are kicking off the year with Hero of the Empire. What a perfect choice. Enjoy!

Dropping my star, Bill! Happy New Year! Your topper is full of fabulous.

Happy New Year, Bill! I see your pithy posts out and about on my thread rounds, so I thought I'd come to the source this year. Happy reading!

Happy reading in 2017, Bill!

Dropping by to set a star and wish you a happy new year!

Happy New Year! Star dropped, happy to be following your threads this year.

Happy new year, Bill. Hope you have a great time reading.
Your topper is lovely - full of life.

Great photo of the grandkids. They look like a lively bunch.

Hi, Bill - lovely photo of the grandkids up top!

Also dropping a star

Nice book haul!! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you and yours, Bill! Wow! What an awesome topper! You're raising the bar, ya know.

What an unmitigated screwup!

>28 weird_O: It's not hoarding, if it's books. You've got that right!

>3 weird_O: I watched to spot for ages....
;)

Hi Bill,
I wasnt a big visitor last year. Am doing my resolution round of the threads, and hoping it'll stick!

Happy New Thread, Bill.

Looking forward to following along your weird world this year.

>28 weird_O: - ???

>32 katiekrug: I spent several hours gussying up the first of four parts of my list, scrolled through checking touchstones, messing with checkmarks and photos, yada, yada, yada. Punched the post message button and discovered I'd posted at #28 instead of at #6, which I had reserved for it.

I can't have this, damn it. So I deleted the list. And since you can't get away with an empty post box...

>33 weird_O: - Oh, dear.

>33 weird_O: It's just that you could've been referring to so many things...

Finished Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard.

Book Number One for 2017

Starting The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general NF in 1995. First of my entries in Suzanne's NF Challenge.

Hi - How do you find time to read ALL THOSE BOOKS when you've got ALL THOSE COOL GRANDKIDS?!?

>34 katiekrug: >35 qebo: Thanks for your concern, Katie and Katherine. It's just a way of working off the minor but REALLY EXASPERATING little foibles of computing. "*%@!" I snap, and my wife asks, "What?" and I give her the "Nothing. Never mind." Because it'll take too long to explain and the momentary vexation has vanished.

Know what ah'm sayin'? Just laugh it off.

>37 m.belljackson: Oh, thanks, my friend. They are cool. All five of them are well above average. But we don't get to see them nearly as often as we'd like. Besides, they don't want to hang around with a pair of Old Farts.

The reading comes. The more books you acquire (selectively, of course), the more pressure there is to read.

Happy New Year, Bill! Sorry for the late greeting, but I've finally finished with my Christmas and New Year's Day work stretch and now have time to make the rounds.

I found your thread so now I can monitor your progress for the year.

I only added three books to my totals over Christmas. That was because my favorite used bookshop (Located in Manhattan, Kansas - The Dusty Bookshelf) closed on January 2 to do some major remodeling to their building. They will be open sometime in March, so maybe over my Spring Break I can add book from there, but I managed to get out of town with no book purchases yesterday.

>6 weird_O: >7 weird_O: >8 weird_O: woah! Massive posts!

>9 weird_O: that cover 'poster' is so gorgeous, and so enticing.

>40 kidzdoc: It occurs to me that you, Darryl, are ALWAYS making rounds. In your work at the hospital. Here at LT. In your travels, visiting sites around the world. I guess you are just a well-rounded guy. Thanks for stopping in.

>41 benitastrnad: Hi, Benita. Good of you to drop by. If it is any consolation, there's always going to be an opportunity to buy books just around the corner. See that corner just down there? Go around that corner. Wham! Books for sale!!

>42 LovingLit: Yeah, massive. Showin' off they call it. But It reminds me, now that a low-challenge reading year has begun for me, I've got heaps of GOOD books to read. That topper for thread >9 weird_O: is borrowed from NPR's year-end wrap-up of the best 300 books of 2016. Merely 300.

>43 weird_O: Ha! Good point, Bill.

>43 weird_O: >44 kidzdoc: yeah, that is a good point! Ol' makin'-the-rounds Darryl ;)

Waving Hi!! Love/Hate technology. Carry on....

Hi, Bill. Did you like Hero of the Empire? I really enjoyed that one, and gave it to our Churchill-loving daughter-in-law.

>47 jnwelch: I admire Churchill hugely as a writer and as an orator - his wartime radio broadcasts definitely rallying the British people tremendously and helped us stave off the Nazi menace for the benefit of the rest of the world. His record in office was much less impressive though - Tonypandy, the Dardanelles, chemical weapons on Russia, the decision to concentrate on Greece when he almost had North Africa won, his record as Finance Minister.

A hero in many ways, but a flawed one.

Hello Bill. What great books you received. The Bethlehem Library sale approaches. I hope to see you and Gig!

My 2017 Reading Guideline

To the end cited above (Read the Best Books First!), I extracted a "Best Novels" chart I compiled about 3 years ago and revised and updated it. The original chart had the novels cited in the Modern Library Best 100 English-Language Novels of the 20th century. Because the list included three (I think) trilogies and one series, 118 books actually are on it. A column headed "ML" has a mark by each title.

Next, I added a column for the Radcliffe Publishing Program list covering the same time period, added a column headed "RAD", marked each title on the foundation list that was honored by Radcliffe's judges, and, finally, extended the foundation list to include novels that Radcliffe cited and ML did not.

Using Wikipedia I added in the same fashion Wiki's Best Novels of All Time, as well as the British Observer's and the French Le Monde's Best of lists. I also charted "Time" magazine's bests and the Guardian's bests.

You really want to know this, don't you?

On the amalgamated chart, I highlighted all the books I've read in one color. Then all the books I own but haven't read in a different color.

You still with me?

Take done, I sorted the owned/unread books into a new chart. Each book I rated 1 to 5. I now have 25 24 books on a 2017 TBR shelf. Two books a month that a bunch of men and women who obsess about such things have cited as The Best Books.

Oh my... Ya gotta be weird.

ETA: Well, I just can't count. Weird, ain't?

What a fun exercise, Bill!

It's fun to be weird,
It's fun to be weird,
It's fun to be weird,
You should try it sometime!

Yeah, that commercial's been going through my head lately...

Will you share with us the 25 books?

>50 weird_O: "Read the best books first", sounds like a great idea, Bill. But who gets to call them "best"? (I have a hard time agreeing with best of lists.)

>47 jnwelch: >48 PaulCranswick: I did get a lot out of Hero of the Empire, Joe 'n' Paul. I'm kind of ambivalent about Churchill. Good two-sentence wrap of his long career, Paul.

One of the best aspects of the book is its explication of the Boer Wars. The Boers struck me as kin to the Confederates--courteous, gallant, intransigent, racist, loyal to their tribe. Jim Webb, for senator from VA, made a strong case for the ornery Scots-Irish as core fighters for the Confederacy--"You by God cain't tell us what to do!!" Yet here are tough Dutchmen being the same way.

And nobody really cared about this territory in southern Africa until gold and diamonds were unearthed there.

>49 Whisper1: Hi Linda. Hitting the library book sale is surely a given.

>52 katiekrug: Well I had fun with it, Katy? Thanks for your empathy. I explained it to someone on the weekend and got one of those "funny" looks.

>53 drneutron: Jim! I'm in a commercial? What's it for?

>54 arubabookwoman: Yeah, I'll share, Deborah. Next post.

>55 Familyhistorian: I figure that amalgamating half-a-dozen lists gives a voice to more pickers and not just to Americans. Interestingly, the novel that appeared on the most lists (6) is Ulysses by James Joyce; not one I'm rushing to read. A Passage to India was on five lists, and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping and Virginia Woolf's To a Lighthouse both are on four lists. There's a fair number of singletons on my compiled list. Note that I'm talking here only of those books I own but have not read.

Another aspect to the "Who Is Judging?" question is that ML opened a ballot on line for readers to vote for their picks. That list is well populated by novels that also were cited by Literature "experts." But it's top-heavy filled with books by Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard. Four of the top ten on this list are by Ayn Rand. Three of the ten are Hubbard tomes.

Here's my list of 24, alphabetized by author names.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (pub. 1868-9)
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (pub. 1958)
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (pub. 1949)
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs (pub. 1959)
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (pub. 1899) (1/11/17)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (pub. 1719) (2/5/17)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (pub. 1861)
The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy (pub. 1955)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (pub. 1880)
I, Claudius by Robert Graves (pub. 1934)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (pub. 1850)
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (pub. 1929)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (pub. 1940)
The Known World by Edward P. Jones (pub. 2003)
Ironweed by William Kennedy (pub. 1983)
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (pub. 1948) (1/30/17)
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (pub. 1957)
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (pub. 1915)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (pub. 1990) (3/2/17)
The Counterlife by Philip Roth (pub. 1986)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (pub. 1759)
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (pub. 1886)
Sophie's Choice by William Styron (pub. 1979)
To a Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (pub. 1927)

There it is. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

What? I've only read three of those. The shame.
;)
I love that you amalgamated several lists. Very thorough and the type of thing I ope to use my time doing when I am not longer a student/ mother of fast-footed pre-adolescent boys.

>58 weird_O: That's an interesting list that resulted. Some things that are totally expected, and a couple that I've never even heard of.

Hi Bill!

>58 weird_O: I love lists! And I am appreciative of your methodology.

I've read 4 of them. I have another 7 on my shelves, and another 13 that are not on my shelves. A most excellent list, and I'll look for some of the 13 at our semi-annual Friends of the Library book sale in April. They have a section of classics and older fiction that I'm sure will yield some of these books. Always excepting Virginia Woolf, who I cannot abide. (I know, I'm the definite exception to the rule!)

>57 weird_O: I figure that amalgamating half-a-dozen lists gives a voice to more pickers and not just to Americans.

This is a good methodology, Bill. Books that appear on a variety of lists from different sources would seem to have been more fully "vetted", so to speak. Of your list in >58 weird_O:, I've read 4 and own several others. And some of the titles and authors I've never heard of, so I should get cracking on that!

>57 weird_O: Some really weird looking TV show, but the commercial seems to be on all the time. And it gets stuck in my head for days...

I loved of Human Bondage when I read it a while back. Although with all the Shades of Grey stuff floating around now people might make assumptions about the contents...?

>58 weird_O: Nice list of classic favorites, Bill. I am surprised, that I have only read 11 of them, although many are on my T.R. list. I may need to do a Marky-Mark Classic Challenge, just to tick a few of these off the list.

Nice to see Ironweed on there. Kennedy doesn't get much LT attention. Maybe a future AAC pick?

Nice list, Bill - I have read five of those, and I have another five on my shelves to be read.

Bill--Love the list! I have read 13 of them, don't have any of the others on my shelf, but I should!! Have fun with them. I already know you had fun coming up with the list. LOL

>59 LovingLit: >60 ursula: >61 karenmarie: >62 rosalita: >64 charl08: >65 msf59: >66 Crazymamie: >67 Berly: I am pleased you all like this list. Bear in mind that I have 50 other books on the shelf--owned but unread--that I have passed over for now. And the amalgamated chart lists an uncounted number of unread books that are not owned.

So share with us the books you have read. And which books you've not heard of.

>63 drneutron: Sorry about the earbug, doctor. Those things are weird, huh?

Not to drag this out too far, I thought I'd mention that five of the books I have started but stalled without completing them. I scorn the Pearl Rule, dammit. Those five are:

    Naked Lunch
    The Ginger Man
    The Brothers Karamazov (started 11/16; on a siding)
    Ironweed
    Tristram Shandy

Also on the list are a couple or three books that I am positive I've read, but...well...

    The Scarlet Letter
    The Naked and the Dead
    For Whom the Bell Tolls

Maybe even

    The Assistant

Finally, I want to report that I finished The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

Published in 1899, the novel roused quite a bit of shock, horror, righteous scolding, and that whole brouhaha. The story of a young married woman with children who tires of society's stifling customs, routines, and rules, who discovers her diligent, respectable, responsible, and seemingly loving husband is...well...kind of boring, and who awakens to the sensual pleasures of music, art, and, yes, physical love. It doesn't end well for her.

After its initial publication, The Awakening went out of print and was forgotten. In the 1950s (I think) it was reprinted and emerged as a respected novel.

The author, Kate Chopin, was Irish-American, born as Katherine O'Flaherty. She married a Creole businessman and settled with him in Louisiana (the setting of The Awakening). Mr. Chopin's cotton brokerage failed. Upon his death, his widow and six children were saddled with considerable debt. She turned to writing.

The Awakening is a low-key, exquisitely written, and only 130 pages long. Chopin tackles the issues and ideas that fuel the novels of Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, Henry James, and other turn-of-the-century writers. She does very well.

     

>69 weird_O: I have read Little Women, The Brothers Karamazov, The Scarlet Letter, A Farewell to Arms, The Things They Carried, Tristram Shandy

Of these, The Things They Carried is probably my favorite book of all time. Oh hell, definitely my favorite book of all time. The Scarlet Letter was forced on assigned to me in high school. I read Little Women when I was probably around 10. Tristram Shandy was a 5-10 pages a day kind of book, but I liked it. A Farewell to Arms was okay. The Brothers Karamazov, I am glad to be finished with.

Never heard of The Death of the Heart, The Ginger Man or The Counterlife.

I also think I've read For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it might have been The Sun Also Rises?

>58 weird_O: - Of this list, I have read:

Little Women (a childhood favorite that I'm not sure would stand up to a re-read...)
The Awakening (LOATHED)
Great Expectations (read in high school and quite liked)
The Scarlet Letter (read in high school and college and loved; plan to re-read this year)
To the Lighthouse (read in college and struggled with it but ended up appreciating, if not liking, it)

Own but have not read:
The Death of the Heart
The Sheltering Sky
Robinson Crusoe
The Known World
Ironweed
Of Human Bondage
The Things They Carried
Sophie's Choice

Great list! I have read all of them except The Sheltering Sky, Naked Lunch, Kidnapped, and The Counterlife.

Like Ursula, I loved The Things They Carried. Other favorites are Sophie's Choice, Tristram Shandy (which I want to reread), I, Claudius, and The Known World, which was one of my favorite reads last year.

I once started Naked Lunch, but hated it and did not finish it. I also did not care for The Ginger Man, but finished it because I was reading it in a college course. The Scarlet Letter was a forced high school read which I also did not like.

Of the ones I haven't read I would be willing to try Kidnapped, which when I was younger I thought of as a "boy" book, and The Counterlife--Roth is hit or miss for me. Have no interest in The Sheltering Sky, unless someone on LT reviews it and convinces me otherwise.

>71 ursula: I share a lot of your thoughts and feelings about books on "The List." Other than Sophie's Choice, I'm looking forward to the books you cite as favorites from The List. I'm ambivalent about Sophie's Choice; though I like the three or four Styron novels I have read, I know what the choice is, and I don't know that I want to share the mother's anguish.

Like you, I do believe I'll be glad to have the Karamazov men with their endless spiritualizing and philosophizing behind me. I'm about a third of the way through it, and unlike Joe Welch, I haven't any enthusiasm for it.

Bye the by, A Farewell to Arms is about an American serving as an ambulance driver in Italy during the First World War. The Sun Also Rises is about Jake Barnes and friends drinking and carousing in Paris and wherever else they happen to be, drinking and fishing in Spain, drinking and gushing about bullfighting, also in Spain.

>72 katiekrug: How come you LOATHED The Awakening, Katie? Did you not like Edna?

How about a Read-o-Rama to get both of us through those listed as owned by you but unread by you?

>73 arubabookwoman: Deborah, thanks for your thoughts. I was supposed to read The Ginger Man in college too, but couldn't get through it. Sebastian was loathsome to me. Can't say I hated Naked Lunch, I just did not understand it.

Anyway, all, I have trepidations about some of the two dozen novels, but most of them I am pumped for.

Happy Friday, Bill. Off that list I have read:

Great Expectations
The Scarlet Letter
To the Lighthouse
Robinson Crusoe
The Known World
Ironweed
Of Human Bondage
The Things They Carried
The Naked and the Dead
For Whom the Bell Tolls

I do not recall, disliking any of them and several are 5 star reads. Why did you stall out with Ironweed?

I really want to read:

Naked Lunch
The Sheltering Sky
Sophie's Choice (AAC, perhaps?)

Yep, I think it was mostly a case of not liking her much at all. If I recall correctly, I ranted in my review. Will have to look it up.

I may make a mini-goal of reading at least a few of these that I own this year...

>74 weird_O: I'm afraid I loathed The Awakening as well. I just felt Edna was a spoilt little rich girl that I had no interest in reading about!

I have read: Little Women, The Awakening, Robinson Crusoe, Great Expectations, The Brothers Karamazov, I, Claudius, The Scarlet Letter, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Of Human Bondage, The Counterlife,The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,
Kidnapped, Sophie's Choice and To a Lighthouse = 15!!

# 5. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey Finished 1/19/17

The Weird Report^TM  

The Franchise Affair is a crime mystery by British writer Josephine Tey, who worked notably in the early half of the mid-twentieth century. A staid country lawyer takes a frantic telephone call and, with misgivings, drives to the caller's large, nearly derelict estate to represent Marion Sharpe and her mother as Scotland Yard comes calling. It seems that a innocent-looking teenager, Betty Kane, has accused the Sharpe ladies of having abducted and held her captive for almost a month, trying to force her to do housework, and beating her when she refused. They assert they've never set eyes on her, but she is very familiar with the house's layout. The lawyer, Robert Blair, is not a criminal defense attorney, but he's stirred by the mystery and very concerned for the two ladies and agrees to continue to represent them.

Initially, the authorities decline to bring charges. There's no corroborating testimony or material evidence; it's the accuser's story against the accused's.

But a scandal sheet gets a photo of the accuser from her adoptive brother and fills its front page with the story. Because the two ladies are regarded as weirdoes, the locals embrace the girl's cause and begin harassing two ladies and worse, vandalizing their home, known as The Franchise. Witnesses come forward to support the young girl's story, and at that, Scotland Yard hails the ladies into court.

Blair believes the accusations will haunt Marion and Mrs. Sharpe for the remainder of their lives, regardless of the trial verdict unless, unless, he can find out where Betty Kane really was during the month she claimed she was captive. Blair's investigation ultimately does change lives, including his own. And the tale, while it didn't change my life, did entertain me for a couple days. No murders, no shootouts. Just a mystery to be unraveled.

Josephine Tey is considered one of the best mystery writers. Her novels appear on the 100 best mysteries of the 20th century. There is some good reading our there.

I was directed this morning to an article compiling the book recommendations made by former *sniff* President Obama.

http://ew.com/books/2017/01/18/barack-obama-book-recommendations/

Naturally, some great books are on the list. Maybe a reading challenge.

Sorry to be so slow to respond to your messages.

>75 msf59: You done good, Mark. I have an image in my head (accurate or not, I don't know) of a career drunk wearing shabby, filthy clothes, sitting in a derelict car, and peeing in his pants. At the time, years and years ago, I said to myself, I don't really want to read this. But I'll give 'er another go. My memory isn't always as sharp as I like to think it is. :-)

>76 katiekrug: >77 SandDune: I can understand your appraisals, Kate and Rhian. I can see that view of Edna. I liked the idea that Edna came to see her life as conventional and routine and took steps to change it. I set her against Lily Bart in House of Mirth, who seemed to me to be incapable of changing herself. Yeah, Edna had the money that Lily didn't, and that makes a BIG difference. And the arcs of their lives are very different.

>78 Berly: Top scorer! Good reading, Kim. Still nine good ones left. They should be needling you. "Read me next. Read me next." I found a list of President Obama's reading recommendations just this morning, and I note that he recommended The Naked and the Dead to his daughters. I notice too that it is one of the "24" you haven't read. As Mark would point out: Jus' sayin'.

The "Its Fun Being Weird" song is for the TV show called "The Detour" on TBS. It stars Jason Jones (late of The Daily Show).

I haven't seen any eps yet, but, like they say, it does look fun and weird."

>82 weird_O: Oh sure, puff me up and then deflate my balloon. : P I have noticed you posting President Obama's list around LT and I perused it. Lots of great books there! If you don't start a group read thread, maybe I will!! Jus' saying'. LOL

>58 weird_O: As you might have guessed I am very interested in your list Bill and the "science" behind its compilation!

I am doing well with the list.

I have read 13 of them and own a further 10. Only the Philip Roth is not on the shelves.

Josephine Tey is of her time and it is a shame much of that time wasn't still with us. Always readable.

Have a great weekend.

>84 Berly: Great idea, Kim! That group read thing. Have at it! I'll join in, since I do have several books recommended by Obama on the TBR shelf. But no hosting/moderating/whatever for me. See >3 weird_O:.

Actually, I going to start (re)reading The Naked and the Dead today/tomorrow. It's one of the books Obama recommended to his daughter Malia. I'm positive I read it in college (in tandem with From Here to Eternity) but I can't dredge up a single memory from it.

>83 mahsdad:. Ah ha. My TV choices (not what's available to me) are pretty parochial. I guess I ought to search that out. Jus' because.

>85 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I'm doing pretty well this weekend. My wife is down because we've been socked in for the past two days.

My daughter donned her knitted pink cap and joined the women's march in Boston yesterday. And her older brother traveled with wife, three daughters plus their best friends to Washington for the march there. I do believe that was inspiring. So yeah, good weekend.

I guess I'm not at all surprised that you have all but the Roth title, AND that you've read more than half of them.

Hope your weekend has been good as well.

# 1. Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard Finished 1/3/17

The Weird Report^TM  

Ostensibly the story of young Winston Churchill's capture and subsequent escape during the Boer Wars, Hero of the Empire ranges across a period in world history prior to World War I, but post-American Civil War, post-Indian Campaigns, post-Crimean War. Touching on Imperialism, empire-building, greed, corruption, and the nearly world-wide culture of white supremacy.

Quite a number of LT 75ers have read and lauded this book. To them, I say "Amen."

Churchill is young, smart, ambitious, and hyperactive. He has excellent financing (inherited wealth), ready access in British society and culture, in British government circles. He's been born into the ruling class. His immediate goal is to become a military hero, and when he can't arrange the situation he craves, he gets an assignment from a British newspaper to report on the wars in southern Africa. Once in country, Churchill is not content merely to report the fighting, he worms his way into the action. When captured, he asserts that he's a reporter, a non-combatant. But of course his captors have seen him in action--directing the movements and tactics of British soldiers, firing a pistol at Boer fighters--and deny him freedom. Incarcerated with other officers in Pretoria, Churchill overhears two fellows whispering about making an escape, and barges right in, making himself a part of the enterprise. As it works out, Churchill alone gets out and, by himself, makes his way to the railroad that extends to Portuguese East Africa and freedom.

Along the way, author Candice Millard reveals stories and details of Churchill's parents and grandparents, his schooling, his short military career, and more. Early in the book, we are treated to Churchill's first political campaign, brought about when the candidate he was backing suddenly died. As a last-minute replacement in a district where he was little-known, he lost. But only by a thin margin.

Most interesting to me was the history of the colonization of southern Africa by the Germans, Dutch, Portuguese, and British governments, the immigration of Huguenots (who were badly treated in France) as well as Portuguese and Dutch, the discovery of gold and diamonds that further spurred European interest, and, of course, the despicable treatment of the native Africans. The Boers, who battled the British in several wars at the turn of 19th century, were hardy and self-reliant folks who carved farms out of the fertile wilderness. Their farms were scattered, labor was scarce, Africans were enslaved. Like early settlers in many lands, the Boers believed they constituted a legitimate, self-governing nation--they even had their own language, Afrikaans--and were hostile to any intervention. No particular call-to-arms was necessary; fighters would materialize when and where needed. Superb horsemen, they showed up with their own horses, weapons, and food. They fought intensely, courageously, and with great daring.

The Boers, like the Confederates in America's history, were unapologetic white supremacists, willing to fight to the death to maintain their culture.

Great review of Hero of the Empire, Bill! (I think you have the wrong touchstone) I love Millard's work and I love that image of her. I have a slight crush, you see.

She is 3 for 3!!

What Mark said, Bill. Excellent review of Hero of the Empire. Thumb from me.

P.S. If you post it on the book page, thumb from me. :-)

Agreed, great review! And yeah, that's a great pic, especially the wall o' monitors she's got going! :)

>90 msf59: >91 jnwelch: >92 drneutron: Glad you liked the review. I have posted it to the book page, Joe.

That wall o' monitors, oh yeah. Ms. Millard has office space at her husband's place of business.

>89 weird_O: Big Thumb!

The O' Nan thread is up, my friend. Just sayin'...

^Not sure, if you remember this treasured gem. Swoons...

Hey Bill! I appreciated your review of >79 weird_O: The Franchise Affair. I adore her books, have read quite a few of them again over the years.

>93 weird_O: Thumb duly applied, Bill.

>95 msf59: Awww . . .

Great review of Hero of the Empire, Bill. That one has been making the round of the threads and little by little you are all wearing me down.

Finished Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead. All 626 pages. The second book off "My List."

I've got a sneaky little book I'll complete tonight or tomorrow. It'll be the 8th book read in January.

>99 weird_O: I've read it five years ago and liked it very much. Looking forward to your review.

# 6 The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner Finished 1/22/17

The Weird Report^TM  

When in 1859 Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species, he launched a storm of controversy that roils to this day. Scientists of his day were hardly convinced of Darwin's theory of "natural selection". During his years of study, research, and contemplation, Darwin amassed a mountain of evidence that evolution has happened. But the fact is that he never saw it happen.

In a famous passage in his seminal book, Darwin wrote:

It may metaphorically be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are that bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers…. We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into long-past geological ages, that we see only that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were.

The Beak of the Finch, published in 1994, tells of a long-term (and still ongoing) research project that reveals evolution in action. Written by Jonathan Weiner, a teacher of science writing at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, the book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1995. It's entirely readable. And it's an important report on what scientists now have observed about how natural selection works.

The project was launched in 1973, when Dr. Peter Grant and his wife and research partner Dr. Rosemary Grant, accompanied by several post-doctoral assistants, traveled to the Galápagos archipelago, and settled for a couple of months on a small, deserted, volcanic cone jutting from the ocean. Daphne Major, the Grants' island laboratory, has little vegetation but it's inhabited by frigatebirds, boobies, mockingbirds, hawks, and--most important--several species of finches, collectively known as Darwin's Finches. What the team did was capture, measure, and band every finch. The species of each finch was determined, and measurements of the birds were meticulously recorded in special waterproof notebooks. Meteorological data likewise was recorded daily. Close observation provided information about what the different finches ate, breeding preferences, longevity, and so on.

Peter and Rosemary Grant 

At the end of the season, the Grants returned home and keyed their data into a computer. They wrote scientific, academic papers describing their findings, gave lectures, taught in colleges. Most important, they repeated the enterprise year after year for two decades. They lived with and recorded the finches through the worst drought, a year in which many of the birds died of starvation. They collected data through the wettest year. And each fall, back at college, the Grants would transfer their handwritten records into the computer. A computer, of course, allows a massive database to be searched and sorted, and facts pertinent to questions, propositions, ideas, and theories are put at researchers' fingertips.

Alterations and variations in the beaks is telling. Weiner writes:

There are about nine thousand species of birds alive in the world today….Flamingos' beaks have deep troughs and fine filters, through which the birds pump water and mud with their tongues. Kingfishers' beaks have such stout inner braces and struts that a few species can dig tunnels in riverbanks by sailing headlong into the earth, over and over again, like flying jackhammers. Some finch beaks are like carpentry shops. They come equipped with ridges inside the upper mandible, which serve as a sort of built-in vise and help the finch hold a seed in place while sawing it open with the lower mandible.
   According to his [Darwin's] theory, even the slightest idiosyncrasies in the shape of an individual beak can sometimes make a difference in what that particular bird can eat. In this way the variation will matter to the bird its whole life…"

Evolution by natural selection works. The Grants and their cadre of assistants have seen it. They have documented it. Their work has, of course, inspired additional such research around the world, focusing on other species of birds, of fishes, of insects. Research using DNA is ongoing, and it is demonstrating the evolution is in the world's DNA.

 Daphne Major

The Grants at work on Daphne Major. 


Beak variations within one species of finch.

Wow, that one sounds fascinating.

Your latest read looks incredible. I'll see if one of my local libraries has this one.

It was good to see you and Gig at the Bethlehem Library sale. Always a great collection of books, you, Gig, Diane and I brought home some winners.

Your thread is very appealing. I don't think I've ever seen a thread with this many books and book covers!

Sooooo, I take it you got more books? At a library book sale?

>101 weird_O: Fascinating review, Bill, and it's been added to my wishlist. Thank you!

>101 weird_O: Hi Bill, great review of The Beak of the Finch. That looks very interesting. I can see that your thread is dangerous!

Great review of Beak of the Finch, Bill. Nice to have all the photos, too. I loved that book when I read it. Really well done.

>102 drneutron: Wow. Great review of some fascinating work, Bill.

# 8 On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt Finished 1/31/17

The Weird Report^TM  


One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it....

With this opening statement, Harry Frankfurt, professor of philosophy emeritus at Princeton U., begins his inquiry into "what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves...My aim is simply to give a rough account of what bullshit is and how it differs from what it is not…."

Originally published in 1986 in the journal Raritan Quarterly Review, this essay was published in book form in 2005, making it easily available to lay readers. It's just an itty bitty thing, slightly smaller than a mass-market paperback, and running only to 67 pages. But it spent nearly a half-year on the New York Times Best Seller List. Philosophers, it seems, are not alone in their interest in bullshit. And given the character of the current U. S. president and the Republican Party in general, now is the time to poke around in it.

It is surreal: A serious, academic analysis of the term "bullshit," defining it, differentiating it from possible synonyms, and focusing on applications and intent. Frankfurt concludes that neither truth nor falsity are the focus of bullshit. Rather, persuasion is the focus. A liar typically knows the truth and endeavors to misrepresent it convincingly. But a bullshitter is indifferent to truth, casually mixing fact and fiction to achieve his or her goal. Truth is beside the point.

I am really anxious to get an ER copy of this soon-to-be-released book. I want to see Ms. Conway's investigatory chops. She's tackling a very, very little-known event; we'll see how tenacious she is at getting to the truth of it. And we all know she's got a way with words, so it'll be a tour-de-force, I'm sure.

>110 weird_O: Ha! That "mis-statement" has generated some of my favorite Internet memes of all time. "Never remember, always forget."

>110 weird_O: Ha. Even looking at That Woman makes me hyperventilate.

>110 weird_O: Ha! Funnynotfunny.

I see that today is Jules Verne's birthday. One hundred eighty-nine years old he'd be if he hadn't neglected to keep breathing after March 24, 1905. He wrote great adventure stories and foresaw a lot of technology we take for granted. I've read only Around the World in 80 Days, which I enjoyed. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is all I have on the shelf; ought to read it between now and March 24.

It's always amazing to me how much he got right - or at least mostly right! That and Star Trek. :)

Howdy, Bill! I miss seeing you around. I hope you are just busy with the books.

The Beak of the Finch sounds like my cuppa. Doesn't it?

On Bullshit looks to be a very, very timely read, eh?

>110 weird_O: I am tempted to flag this post. ; )

I was nuts about Jules Verne's books when I was a kid, Bill. Journey to the Center of the Earth, From Earth to the Moon, Twenty-thousand Leagues, Around the World in Eighty Days, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Off on a Comet. My favorite was The Mysterious Island, a great desert island story and mystery.

Here's an interesting reading list I came across via some element of social media.

In Loudon County, Virginia, which stretches from Harper's Ferry, WV to Dulles airport, a historic (though apparently poorly maintained) schoolhouse for blacks was defaced with spray-painted swastikas and other graffiti. The five miscreants were apprehended, confessed, and scrubbed away the graffiti. At the suggestion of the prosecutor, the judge assigned book reports to the five boys, one each month from each boy for 12 months. The court came up with a list of books from which the boys could choose, and criteria for the reports were also established.

Here's a link to the article in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/black-school-racist-sexist-graffiti.html?s...

THE READING LIST
"The Color Purple," Alice Walker 
"Native Son," Richard Wright 
"Exodus," Leon Uris
"Mila 18," Leon Uris
"Trinity," Leon Uris
"My Name Is Asher Lev," Chaim Potok 
"The Chosen," Chaim Potok
"The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway 
"Night," Elie Wiesel 
"The Crucible," Arthur Miller 
"The Kite Runner," Khaled Hosseini 
"A Thousand Splendid Suns," Khaled Hosseini
"Things Fall Apart," Chinua Achebe 
"The Handmaid’s Tale," Margaret Atwood 
"To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee 
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou 
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," Rebecca Skloot
"Caleb’s Crossing," Geraldine Brooks
"Tortilla Curtain," T.C. Boyle
"The Bluest Eye," Toni Morrison 
"A Hope in the Unseen," Ron Suskind
"Down These Mean Streets," Piri Thomas
"Black Boy," Richard Wright
"The Beautiful Struggle," Ta-Nehisi Coates
"The Banality of Evil," Hannah Arendt
"The Underground Railroad," Colson Whitehead 
"Reading Lolita in Tehran," Azar Nafisi
"The Rape of Nanking," Iris Chang
"Infidel," Ayaan Hirsi Ali
"The Orphan Master’s Son," Adam Johnson 
"The Help," Kathryn Stockett
"Cry the Beloved Country," Alan Paton 
"Too Late the Phalarope," Alan Paton
"A Dry White Season," André Brink
"Ghost Soldiers," Hampton Sides

I've read 10 of these (blue check marks), and have 5 others on the TBR pile (green check marks).

ETA check marks and to correct the number of reads.

Impressive and inspiring List - and good to see Tortilla Curtain not forgotten -
the boys might also be astounded by THE SLAVE WHO FREED HAITI,
a 1954 (!) excellent biography by Katherine Scherman,
with illustrations by Adolph Dehn.

I love 'Read the Best Books First'. I think I'll take that for my new mantra to guide me through the reading year.

Your compilation of lists to form your master list is amazing!

And then, or course, there are all the other lists. This here is a dangerous place.

>119 weird_O: What an excellent way to teach these boys. Thanks for sharing.

I, too, have read 11 and have 4 on my shelves waiting to be read.

I've read 10 and am interested in essentially all of the others.

A Pulp-Fiction Valentine 

Happy Valentine's!! I have read 10 of the list, which is a darn good one. Thanks for posting.

Ketchup!!

Gracious; I have fallen way behind in my "Thank You" notes. To all who have posted here in February, I am sorry. I am just not too chatty; hope you will overlook that trait.

>102 drneutron: >105 karenmarie: >106 Familyhistorian: >107 jnwelch: >108 laytonwoman3rd: Thank you all for your kind words about by Beak of the Finch report. It's the first book I've read that gave me a clear understanding of how natural selection works. Six or seven years ago, I started reading Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne, and I fell behind and got lost around chapter four. Maybe I should resurrect that read.

>103 Whisper1: I did ok at the book sale, Linda, yet bought fewer books than previous sales. I did leave one book on display that I'm hoping didn't sell and will still be there next month. I'm going to go Wednesday just to see if I can rescue it from some boob who won't appreciate it the way I will. Haha. We should perhaps have a nosh Sale Saturday. Invite KatieKrug and LindaK.

Ketchup Too

>103 Whisper1: >104 benitastrnad: I did go to the first book sale of 2017 at the Bethlehem Public Library, and yes, Benita, I did get a modest number of new-to-me books, plus a trio of "keepers" that I read and lost or borrowed and read. Spent 20 bucks.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (hc)
The Color of Water by James McBride (pbk)
Home by Marilynne Robinson (hc)
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fine (pbk)
Double Cross by Ben Macintyre (pbk)
Murders Abroad by Agatha Christie (hc)
Maurice by E. M. Forster (pbk)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (pbk)
Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley (pbk)
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (pbk)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (pbk)
Shelf Copies
Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough (pbk)
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard (hc)
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (pbk)

Catsup, maybe

>111 rosalita: >112 karenmarie: >113 laytonwoman3rd: Three "Ha!"s in a row. I'm smilin'. I hear the manuscript is done; just needs to be translated into English.

>117 Berly: Kim, you do what you have to do. But I think that would be censorship. And if that happens, the Russians will have won.

>124 weird_O: "Like"

Reminds me of one of my wife's favorite book titles, If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?

Glad you like it, Joe.

Where can I get a copy of that book?

>119 weird_O: I'm way behind, but just wanted to add thanks for posting that story. What a great way to teach those young people about history and tolerance. I've read 11 of them: I love Brink, in particular, but his stories are unsparing of my hopes for a happy ending, or at least some kind of sense of a resolution.

>101 weird_O: I read The Beak of the Finch... least year? Expected it to be too number crunchy for my taste, but was impressed by the meticulous research and the interplay of theory and data. I would highly recommend Time, Love, Memory, which has a similar interplay plus cool experiments with miniature apparatus to test fruit fly behavior.

>119 weird_O: Thanks so much for sharing this - I think the judge is so thoughtful to make them invest more of themselves than just their time. And what a great list.

>124 weird_O: LOVE!

Happy Wednesday, Bill!

Gravy

>115 drneutron: >118 jnwelch: Not having read much of Jules Verne, I have to admit surprise at all the technology depicted in that poster. As I said, Joe, I've got one unread Verne; I guess I'll keep an eye open for others.

>116 msf59: Squandering time on the internets is more accurate than "just busy with the books." But hey, I finished Emily, Alone this morning. So there's that.

On Bullshit: Frankfurt's presentation is a good example of how not to leap to a conclusion. A number of the reviews on the book page are eye-rolling and smirking. But the patient, methodical exploration of the subject is the sort of approach that Obama was so good it and which none in the GOP cast aside decades ago.

You'd like Beak of the Finch, Mark.

Dip In! Heck, jus' jump in if'n you want.

>120 m.belljackson: >122 karenmarie: >123 ursula: >125 Berly: >131 charl08: >133 Crazymamie: Glad you all like that "misguided youths' remedial reading list."

Marianne, I have to admit to having never heard of Tortilla Curtain, through I have heard of T. C. Boyle. I'll look for it. And so too The Slave Who Freed Haiti.

I've edited the list, Karen, to back away from claiming that I've read Cry, the Beloved Country. I did read it, but it was in ninth grade and I remember only that it's set in South Africa. But you and Kim and I are pretty much in the same place on that reading challenge caper.

Ursula, that all the books on the list are speaking to me, especially those I haven't read. (I have a very active TBR crib. Noisy, raucous.)

Brink is one of several authors on the list I am unfamiliar with, Charlotte. Ok, one of four. Good to learn.

>132 qebo: Thanks for the book tip, Katherine. I see it's by Jonathan Weiner. Glad to see you. Stop by again. Please.

Hi, Bill! Happy Wednesday! I hope you enjoyed Emily, Alone.

I love T. C. Boyle but Tortilla Curtain was not one of my favorites. Others have liked it though.

>128 weird_O: You did see my winky eye on my idle threat to flag the post, right? As in JK?

Just a quick hello, Bill. Nothing more, nothing less. *smile*

>136 msf59: I did like Emily, Alone, Mark. Reading it, I felt the same vibe that I did reading Last Night at the Lobster. Many, many, many of the small issues and themes are very familiar to me.

>137 Berly: I saw it and I knew you was jus' funnin' with me, Kim. I was funnin' with you, too.

>138 karenmarie: Stop by any time, Karen. I'll leave the porch light on for you.

>130 weird_O: Here you go, Bill: https://smile.amazon.com/Cant-Live-Without-Arent-Dead/dp/0802139507/ref=sr_1_1?i...

Love the cover.

Yay Jim. I'm gonna order a copy just...just...Well before you know it.

A big thank you for that.

Haha

Along with that theme, folks might enjoy How to stay SINGLE Forever by Jenny Lombard...

Some might, Marianne. I'm too far gone in marriage, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

What a long weekend! Temperatures pushing into the 60s, which defies the norm for PA.

Just finished a marvelous book that a friend kind of pushed on me last summer or fall. I don't think she read it herself, but...

So Friday I'm flip-flopping amongst three or four books to read, unable to decide. Threw up my hands, spun to scan the bench, and barked, "Sally Mann, get over here." The book: Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs. Sally Mann is a photographer, artist, and author; and in Hold Still she tells an arresting and thought-provoking history of her family--through four or five generations--her growth and development as an artist, her husband and his family, their children.

I was hooked four or five pages into the first chapter. And only partly because she's from Lexington, VA, where my sister and her husband have lived for decades. I want to give the book its due, so I'll do more of a report on it tomorrow.

Starting Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. My Obama-approved book for February.

Decision schematic for LT 75ers:

This is one of the best endless loops I know.
happy Friday, Bill.

>145 weird_O: Love this one Bill. It works for me.

I've not heard of Sally Mann, will have to get googling.

>145 weird_O: Perfect loop :-)

>146 Ameise1: >147 charl08: >148 FAMeulstee: It works for me. I thought it might work for others, too.

>145 weird_O: *snerk*

>145 weird_O: Oh, how true!

>145 weird_O: That is perfect!! Big smile. I think you should go test it out.

Happy Sunday To You Bill!

Happy Sunday, Bill! I hope you are having a nice weekend and getting plenty of reading in.

I plan on starting Nat Turner very soon...

>145 weird_O: Love that Bill. Pretty much my life plan!

I am starting nat Turner soon too.

>150 drneutron: >151 karenmarie: >152 Berly: >155 PaulCranswick: Hey, it works for me. Try it. Try it. You'll love the result.

>153 Whisper1: You following me around with a camera, Linda? Catching me at a most vulnerable moment: pining over books just out of reach.

>154 msf59: Our weekend played out in an unexpected way. Late afternoon we had a short but pretty violent thunder/lightning/rain event that knocked out our power. No power=no water, no heat, no cooking, no light, no internet ('cause the router stops routing). Lots of batteries: 9-volt, AAA, AAAA, C, D. Ah, but no AA. Of course, AA is what we need. As the natural light faded and despite the power cartel's promise to have the power on by 1 a.m., we packed up for an overnight stay with Son the Elder and the four lovely ladies in his life.

Success!

>154 msf59: >155 PaulCranswick: The Confessions of Nat Turner is one excellent book. I'll be dipping into Sophie's Choice myself.

Ah, the dawn of a shining new day, the dawn of an exciting new week.

>158 weird_O: Love it. Wishing you a great new week, Bill.

Beautiful image - and hope it inspires the world to end this obsession with Oscars and instead
find a way to feed the 20 million starving individuals.

>145 weird_O: I shamelessly stole that graphic and posted it on FB with a plug for the Scranton Public Library's upcoming book sale. I'm sure I will be forgiven...

Well, I'll forgive you, but you have to tell me more about that there upcoming book sale.

I am really enjoying Nat Turner. I am really impressed by Styron's writing craft.

>162 weird_O: The book sale begins in about 2 minutes, Bill. It goes on through Sunday, but by the end, of course, it's well-picked. (On the last day you can fill a bag for $5). It is located in the Marketplace at Steamtown Mall, on the second floor. Husband and I are getting ready to roll down there in about a half hour. If you hurry, you can meet us for lunch!

I hope (and expect) you didn't hold going to lunch, Linda. I'm not sufficiently spontaneous to launch myself up the 'Pike on two minutes notice. Besides, it is 11:30 now. Hope you got some good books.

I'll wait for the Bethlehem sale on March 22.

Shrove Tuesday is here. Here and there around Pennsylvania Dutch country, folks are noshing on fastnachts.



Fastnacht Day is the Pennsylvania Dutch celebration that falls on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. The word translates to "Fast Night" in English. The tradition is to eat the very best foods, which are part of the German tradition, and lots of it, before the Lenten fast. Fastnachts (pronounced fos-nokt in German) are a type of doughnut, but yeasted and often made with potatoes. My wife likes them just so, but I slice 'em open to dribble honey on the insides. Turkey syrup is a popular condiment, as is powdered sugar. It used to be that all the volunteer fire companies would make fastnachts for Fastnacht Day, but not so much anymore. We get them from our butcher, who makes them once a week for four to six weeks leading up to Fastnacht Day. They'll make the last batch of the year this weekend.

Last person out of bed this day is the fastnacht. 'Twas me.

My son, who takes an early bus to NYC, posted this photo of the line outside the Easton (PA) Bakery at 5:30 this morning.

>167 weird_O: Mmm, I like that tradition, Bill. Fastnachts are new to me. They look and sound delicious.

Yum. I want some!

>166 weird_O: Never fear, Bill...when it comes to food we don't let much slow us down. We did come home with a fair sack of books. I'll be reporting on my thread in a few minutes.

>167 weird_O: Yum! I like everything about them except getting up early! ; )