Ron's Wires from the Bunker in 2017

Adding my topper picture. Cats, plants and books pretty much sums up my life. This pic is my big baby, 4 years old, this past November.



Just dropping an anchor here. Been down with the flu for almost a week. I'm on the mend, finally, and once I'm feeling more like myself and get the telegraph wires connected to the bunker I'll be back with bookish missives.

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.

Hope you feel better soon, Ron.

Happy reading in 2017, Ron!

Star drop

Feel better soon.

Happy New Year! (dropping a star)

Feeling poorly is no way to start a new year--hope you rebound quickly, Ron.

>2 PaulCranswick: Lovely sentiment Paul
>3 PaulCranswick: >4 FAMeulstee: >5 karspeak: >6 weird_O: >7 ronincats: >8 laytonwoman3rd:

Thank you all for dropping by and the good wishes. I am feeling quite a bit better today - still coughing some, little energy, little appetite (mixed blessing since i am happy to have dropped 5#'s I didn't need), but much improved over what I've been. My poor sweetie however seems to have finally gotten it last evening. sigh.

I've actually started my first book of 2017 and I'm contemplating Paul's BAC for January (a Brian Moore novel).

2017 reading plans ... My plan is one - read off my shelf. I did well at that last year tho I didn't keep count - I intend to do really well at it this year. I've picked up many books the last few years I really want to read. So I am going to.

I enjoy the challenges a lot but I'm making no firm plans - I will follow the British Author challenge more than most and will dive into Hemingway when he rolls around for the AAC.

There you go.

There are a bunch of us trying to concentrate on our BOMBs (Books Off My own Bookshelves) this year, Ron. In 2013 I did well reading 40 off my shelves, but I've only read 42 since then (only 8 in 2016--pitiful). I've set a goal of 50 for this year, given that I've acquired 250 books in that time (although I've read a substantial number in the year I acquired them).

>11 ronincats: Roni, looking over my 80 books read in 2016 I think I had 55 of them on hand at the start of the year. A few of those were fairly recent arrivals. But even tho I am not quite as crazy as i once was about book buying I still brought in quite a few more books in 2016. Some got read in 2016! But still, the BOMBs as you call them (I like that!) have gotta get a move on this year. I have some recent aquisitions here that i have not added in yet, but I am going to try and rein in the new books this year.

Welcome back!

Hi, Ron! I'm glad you're feeling better!

I acquired 84 books in 2016, and read 53 of them in that year, leaving 31 surplus for one year. 40 books of my 131 read were library books. 20 books were rereads. I read 8 books off my shelves that were new to me reads that I acquired prior to 2016. I have no idea where the other 10 are, maybe free ebooks that I don't count in my acquisitions.

That was better and worse than 2015 when I read 152 books, acquired 70 of which I read 32. 58 library books and 43 rereads and 11 BOMBs.

Anyhow, much more than anyone wanted to know, but the point is that just in the last two years, I have acquired 154 books and read 85 of them, plus 19 more books which were pre-acquisitions, and I've been doing this for years, so my TBR pile is probably near 300 books. 50 is not an outrageous percentage of that. And over the last 5 years and since Borders closed, I've been relying much more heavily on the library, as you can see.

>13 drneutron: >14 scaifea: Thanks Jim and Amber. It is no fun being sick with the flu. The flu shot didn't work this year it seems.

>15 ronincats: Roni, I left a note on your own thread. Stay focused on those books you have waiting on the shelf!

My first book for 2017 is one I picked up a year ago and certainly meets my criteria of working on books I have acquired recently and wanted to read. First book off the shelf is really only a short story with a very unusual layout and illustrations.

1. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, (translated by Ted Goossen) finished January 2, 2017, 3 - 3 1/2 stars


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The strange library is a very strange and scary place, and this book in which it resides is most unusual. This story is almost like a fever dream, something I had experience with this past week, in which your mind visits strange yet familiar places that aren't what they seem like in real life. The surreal images remain in your mind and kind of haunt you. This is Murakami's flavor of magical realism and fans of his should enjoy this work.

Much too short but it works at this length.

My second book for 2017 is one I picked up nearly 7 years ago and has sat tucked into my bookshelf awaiting attention. I'm reading this as a January selection for Paul Cranswick's British Author Challenge. I suspect this story spoke to me a little stronger than to some, calling to my maternal Irish bloodline and my own memories as a young child hearing the Latin mass before it was "outlawed."

2. Catholics by Brian Moore, finished January 4, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars


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The is a short novel that I liked very much. This was written in 1972 and my initial impression was that it was a reaction to Vatican II and the end of the traditional Catholic Mass being said in Latin. It opens with a man, self-identified as Kinsella, James Kinsella, Catholic priest, travelling to an obscure island off the Irish coast where monks come to the mainland and continue to celebrate the mass in latin and pilgrims come from near and very far to hear the mass once more in a traditional way.

As it happens this story is set sometime in the future, as we are dealing with Vatican IV, and could be classed as speculative fiction in that case. This is a provocative read, especially with the reveals we get to see.

I'm currently reading an early reviewer's book that came in late last month. That will preserve my reading off the shelf even if just barely. So how long can I go without reading a book acquired in 2017? We shall see. All year? That would be something.

Once done with the ER book I want to tackle at least one more Star Trek novel to celebrate the 50th. I used to look down my nose at the Trek novels but now I imagine them as candy kisses.

This was an early reviewer's book I recently received.

3. The one-cent magenta : inside the quest to own the most valuable stamp in the world by James Barron, finished January 7, 2017, 2 1/2 - 3 stars


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I began this book with a fair bit of anticipation. Like many people I collected stamps when I was younger, and like many people you never quite get over those early loves of life. Stamps interest me. This book, unfortunately came with a rough start; The author's style of telling the story in his imaginary "Stamp World" put me off from the first page - perseverance will reward the reader with some interesting history if you don't get too bothered by the odd writing quirks which mostly recede after the start. The story at times really isn't so much about the stamp but more about the history of postal systems, stamps in general and about stamp collectors - although we get some interesting looks into the Royals as well as how stamps are expertised - it is also about the world of the very rich and/or odd who must have something no one else has, as well as the auctioneer who promotes these things. In this case it is a stamp - it could be the rarest book, painting, diamond, comic book or even Pokemon I suppose.

I learned a lot of interesting history and trivia reading this and overall was glad to have read this. However I was baffled by the complete lack of photographs or illustrations in the book. To me as a reader this was a rather glaring omission. I read an advance review copy, but noted no placeholders. Perhaps photos will be included in the published edition.

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing early reviewers program in exchange for a review.

I got this one too. Let's compare notes when I'm done with it.

>21 drneutron: I didn't want to be "too" critical with my review, Jim, because there was a lot of stuff in here I liked/learned. I found myself continually stopping my reading and going to the internet for additional details, photos etc. however. Sparking interest is one thing but it felt more like a deficit in presenting the story well. As a warning the author frequently starts bits of stories at the end of the story and you'll scratch your head wondering who he is talking about until he tells you many pages later. Odd style.

I look forward to your reactions.

btw, there is an extensive history of the stamp on the Sotheby's auction website. http://www.sothebys.com/magenta When you are wondering what things people places looked like you'll find it there.

Ha, I already have read the new Osten Ard book downloaded onto my Kindle Tuesday. However, I have also read or pearl-ruled 5 books off my own shelf, so I don't feel too badly.

>23 ronincats: Very good. I'm shooting for something like 90% off the shelf this year. One of those I'd like to get to is a Tad Williams - 'Tailchaser's Song' which I've had in a "to read" box much longer than I can recall. Since I'm such a cat fan I can't believe I've let it sit.

This is one of a number of Blish's books that I picked up long ago and never got around to reading. I had been wowed by some of his stuff like "Cities in Flight" and of course he is more well known now for having adapted all those Star Trek original series scripts into short stories.

4. Galactic Cluster by James Blish, finished January 9, 2017, 3 stars


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A thinking person's collection of eight science fiction short stories by Blish first published in various magazines between 1953 and 1959.

Tomb Tapper • (1956) • novelette
King of the Hill • (1955) • shortstory
Common Time • (1953) • shortstory
A Work of Art • (1956) • novelette
To Pay the Piper • (1956) • shortstory
Nor Iron Bars (expanded) • (1957) • novelette
Beep • (1954) • novelette
This Earth of Hours • (1959) • novelette

Some of these stories are dated in various ways, such as the first one, 'Tomb Tapper', dealing with the recovery of a crashed Soviet rocket fighter that apparently just dropped a nuke on the east coast of America. I thought 'Tomb Tapper' was among the best of this collection as was 'A Work of Art' which was about the resurrection, in a way, of the composer Richard Strauss in the year 2161.

Although the subjects or story content may be dated, the writing approaches the subjects in a much more intelligent and thoughtful manner than one might expect from '50's science fiction. These are mostly "hard" science fiction tales, and several are loosely related. Overall I liked this collection, although there are a couple weaker stories mixed with the strong ones.

I picked this up a couple years ago upon the recommendation of an old friend of mine. It didn't quite click with me when I skimmed it a little so I set it aside. On a second try this went a lot better but it still didn't grab me like I think it could or should have.

5. Composed: A Memoir by Rosanne Cash, finished January 10, 2017, 3 - 3 1/2 stars


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Rosanne is a bit of a navel gazer. But that that intense self-examination is part of the creation of her self and music and has always been so it seems. Her songs are very introspective creations - I like her music quite a bit but some of it does have a dark side and inhabits places that I don't always need or want to go to. This memoir published in 2010 gives us the first 55 years of Rosanne's life. Cash's songs never lacked for angst, and neither do many of the stories within this book.

There are a few parts in here that are very good. Some subjects she will touch on deeply, and others get a soft touch. Pieces of the story seem to be missing, but overall there is a lot to see here as an artist tries to figure out who she is and where life takes her and her family. The latter part of the book dealing with the deaths of family, 9/11 and her own rather major health crises has some intensely personal things.

6. When the Tripods Came by John Christopher, finished January 11, 2017, 2 1/2 stars


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This young adult novel is a prequel to a three part series I read a few months ago. It was published about 20 years after the original Tripod novels and attempts to explain what seemed rather improbable if not impossible - how the tripods came and took over the world. This story which involves mind control via television as the start of the takeover makes the whole thing seem possible.

This can be read as a standalone, but I would suggest reading the initial series first for those who are interested in this. I don't think this was all that good of a story frankly and wouldn't really recommend it outside of fans of the original series.

Good morning, Ron. I hope all is well with you. You've been busy this month, already.

>28 brodiew2: Good morning Brodie. Thanks for dropping by here. My flu was pretty bad and I was useless for nearly a week. Then as I was just about over it I developed bronchitis and this just won't let go. We've had some pretty big rain and windstorms so between being sick and stuck in the house I just decided to read read read. and watch some netflix.

I've only had bronchitis a few times and it has probably been 20 years since I last had it so I didn't recognize it at first.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been ill, Ron. I wish you the best on a quick recovery from the bronchitis.

I watched Adam Nimoy's documentary 'For The Love of Spock'. It was good.

>30 brodiew2: I watched that also! and thought it was pretty good too.

This has been on the shelf exactly one year.

7. Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead, finished January 12, 2017, 4 - 4 1/2 stars


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I wish I could say this was a great book. It almost gets there. Reading this I added some words to my vocabulary and I could appreciate the skill and dexterity the author displays in telling the story set during the American Civil War. I also didn't add lots of words to my vocab since I preferred to read the novel rather than repeatedly going to the dictionary. End of very small silly rant. Oh, a familiarity with horse anatomy will help too.

The young boy Robey Childs that we meet at the beginning of this tale is sent by his mother Hettie to retrieve his father from war once she knows of the death of Thomas Jackson. The boy, 14 years of age, goes out from the hollow to a world he has never seen. The story is a powerful one with a variety of interesting and mostly unsavory characters. The story is not really about a "Coal Black Horse" ... It is about the timeless horrors of war and the timeless inhumanity of man.

As an aside, many years ago I visited the building and I saw the bed where TJ Jackson died, after being accidentally shot by his own soldiers. To Hettie Childs, the death of Jackson in May 1863 meant the mistake of war was evident and the war was lost and to be done with. The battle of Gettysburg would come less than 2 months later. Robey is told he must find his father and bring him home before that. Hettie, you see, has a gift of sight and magically knew that Jackson had just died and something bad was gonna happen in two months.

Overall I'd say this was a very good read on a par with great Civil War fiction like Cold Mountain. There is some graphic, ugly violence in here. There is also lyricical poetic imagery that lovers of such might not want to miss.

"He let float in the dark air his free hand and then raised it up and reached to the sky where his fingers enfolded a flickering red star. The star was warm in his hand and beat with the pulse of a frog or a songbird held in your palm. He caressed the star and let it ride in his palm and then he carried the star to his mouth where it tasted like sugar before he swallowed it."

Recommended

Hello Ron. This book was recommended to me years back after I read and loved The Killer Angels. I have never gotten around to it. Thanks for the review.

>33 brodiew2: I think there is no greater Civil War novel than "The Killer Angels"

The Killer Angels is very near the top of my all time favorite novels.

>35 brodiew2: Killer Angels completely blew me away when I first read it in the early 80's. A co-worker who I was training at the time gave me his copy and said it was the finest novel he had ever read. He was probably 30 years older than me and was an avid reader, so that was saying something. We ended up trading books back and forth for several years. He's quite elderly now (he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day so he always had cred with me - the bullet wound in his shoulder didn't hurt his cred either - he got that a few days later)

Wow. What a wonderful opportunity, Ron. Killer Angels was very affecting for me. I found the writing so rich and the character dramas so enthralling. Specifically, I will always remember the passage in which Longstreet decides he can never trust/support Lee again after Lee's wrongheaded decision to advance over rocky ground. The anguish that Longstreet felt was palpable.

>37 brodiew2: Yep. After Killer Angels I was compelled to read a lot more about Longstreet. I'd recommend his memoirs if you come across a copy. On a visit to Virginia I went to Fredericksburg not long after reading the book and went to the sunken road on Marye's Heights. It was incredibly moving to me to stand where Longstreet had staged his heroic defense.

I lived in the Deep South as a child, but it was time when the Civil War was the farthest thing from my mind. Now, I live in greater Seattle, about as far away from any Civil War battlefields as possible.

Have a great day, Ron.

sometimes you need to stand with the right people.

my wife and I last April

>40 RBeffa: Wow, impressed! (And impressive!) Good choice of someone to stand with.

>41 ronincats: Roni, it really was an honor to hear him speak and briefly meet him last Spring. He's a remarkable man.

----------------------------- on to books ...

I've had a longtime interest in the American Civil War. After finishing 'Coal Black Horse' I thought I'd read one of my non-fiction books on the subject from my library. I've owned this book for many years and have read parts of it in the past. This was my first complete read of it.

8. Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History by William Garrett Piston, finished January 15, 2017, 4 stars


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I thought this was a very satisfying examination of portions of James Longstreet's military career and post-Civil War politics and repercussions. As the author notes in his prologue this is not a biography, and the author does assume the reader has more than a simple knowledge of events of the Civil War. In fact, if I have one complaint about this book it is that the author presupposes too much knowledge about less well known individuals and events in places where he is making arguments. The book was published about 30 years ago in late 1987 and the intent was for it to clear away some of the misinformation about Longstreet and restore a more balanced view of him.

Since the time of the publication more readers have read books like Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels or seen films like Gettysburg and other books have brought fresh eyes to the subject and people have come to realize that blaming Longstreet for Robert E Lee's mistakes at Gettysburg and elsewhere (as well as many of the "Lost Cause" movement blaming Longstreet for the South's defeat in the Civil War in their attempts to elevate Robert E Lee to godhood) is simply wrong. Longstreet certainly was not a perfect man and had his failings as any man does, but he also became a superb defensive tactician and one of the best leaders the southern forces had. His post-war politics would make him a scapegoat for the South's loss in the war.

This is a good book for those interested in the Civil War who might want to dig a little deeper. This is certainly not a starter book. The analysis is highly footnoted and documented for those who might want to go even further. Really an outstanding piece of scholarship here. Recommended

>1 RBeffa: What a gorgeous fur baby! I don't think I've looked at the topper of this thread since you edited it to add that photo.

>40 RBeffa: Lucky you, to meet such a man, and hear him speak. I understand his books are selling out just lately, which strikes me as a very good sign. I'm desperate for good signs these days.

>42 RBeffa: Have you read General James Longstreet; the Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier ? I see that it's in your catalog. I've had a copy of it on my shelf for many years -- I think since my daughter was living in Knoxville and we visited his headquarters at Bleak House (which is better known as "Confederate Memorial Hall", and the less said about the slant of the docents there, the better). Someone recommended it to me, but the reviews suggest it tries (maybe too hard) to "rehabilitate" Longstreet. I'd be interested in your view of it, if you've read it.

>43 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda - I have not read Wert's book on Longstreet, altho I read another book by him many years ago (Winchester to Cedar Creek) and thought him a good author. Wert's book is sitting right here on my TBR shelf as a possible since I pulled it out after finishing 'Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant'. The book I just finished is really full of stuff to make me think about all sorts of things. Although I was certainly aware of the "Lost Cause" movement in the South I had no idea, or at best I had forgotten, what a bizarre thing it was. It might help explain the lifelong distrust of Southern Democrats that my wife and I share.

Piston's book is two parts - the first about Longstreet in the war and the second half about his life after the war. I've read a fair bit in the far past, including Longstreet's memoirs, but now I want to read more. So, I think Wert's Longstreet book will get read in the coming months. What I liked about Piston's book is that it is very well balanced and doesn't shy away from Longstreet's faults. It makes very clear however how lowlifes and losers such as Jubal Early could not accept their own failures, could not believe they had not won the war, and took it upon themselves to blame Lee's warhorse, Longstreet, for just about everything.

I think Shelby Foote may have even been among later historians who bought at least some of the lies dumped out about Longstreet after the war. Tell a lie often enough and it becomes "the truth". Some things never change.

Glad you liked the Topper - Jasper is kind of looking mean-faced in that picture, which is an expression he almost never has.

Received this one about two years ago in a grab bag of books I purchased from Subterranean Press.

9. Balfour and Meriwether in The Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs by Daniel Abraham, finished January 16, 2017, 3 1/2 stars


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This short novella was an entertaining distraction. Set in 1880's Victorian England a pair of the Queen's special investigators are sent to investigate the disappearance of another operative. A sanitarium is apparently near a gate to the underworld of evil creatures. Sorta but not really Sherlock Holmes meets HP Lovecraft. The story is book-ended with excerpts written by one of the characters of the story, Mr. Meriwether, which hints at other things ...

I'll be on the lookout for more of the adventures of Balfour and Meriwether. This has rather intrigued me.

>42 RBeffa: Hello Ron. Excellent review of Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant. I'm not sure its for me, but I enjoyed your comments. I may look for something that is more of a biography.

>46 brodiew2: Looks interesting.

I just started Asimov's Caves of Steel on audio. Excellent start. I tried to read the book twice over the years and decided to let someone else do it for me. ;-)

>46 brodiew2: I can't remember which of Asimov's robot novels I read and which I didn't. Seems like I must have read Caves of Steel but my teenage memory of those early books is pretty much shot. I know I loved some of the later ones like The Bicentennial Man which is among my favorites of Asimov's novels.

I picked this up in December at a library sale to be my January read for the British Author challenge. Then I remembered I already had Brian Moore's "Catholics" on my shelf waiting to be read, so I read that first. Now we get to my bonus read for January's BAC.

10. Lies of Silence by Brian Moore, finished January 17, 2017, 4 stars


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This 1990 novel by Moore is set in Belfast during the troubles. It has now been nearly 20 years since a form of peace was brokered in Northern Ireland. Perhaps people have forgotten this or if you are young enough you might be completely unaware of it somehow. When you hear U2 screaming "Sunday Bloody Sunday" on the classic rock station you might think Bono's having a bad hair day or something. Maybe you don't even know who U2 is. "The Troubles" and terrorist attacks by the IRA seemed to be almost weekly news when I was growing up and through a good part of my adult life.

This is a rather powerful novel which presents the reader with a lot of food for thought. I thought about writing a rather extensive review/discussion of this until I took a look at the reviews on Goodreads and was rather floored by some of the hate directed at this novel, primarily by students who have read it for Lit classes in school. It reminded me just a little of when I was reading Graham Greene in a college English class and was kind of knocked out by some of his stories like Power and the Glory and The Destructors, and yet in class discussions some students absolutely detested him. Do these sorts of stories raise moral dilemmas that people cannot contemplate so they react in anger against the books? I don't know.

This book by Moore is written in a somewhat unusual style. This is a slow burner of a story. I feel sorry for people who cannot recognize there is some brilliance that created this book. Yeah I could rip a page or two out of this book myself in anger. That's how brilliant it is.

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Currently just started on Octavia Butler's Kindred.

Octavia Butler is the January author for the American Author Challenge.

11. Kindred by Octavia Butler, finished January 19, 2017, 3 stars


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Kindred is a 1979 novel that is labelled science fiction but I wouldn't call it that. There's nothing science in the fiction here - it is more sort of a mystical woo-woo thing. Fantasy time travel historical fiction, like "Outlander" perhaps.

On her 26th birthday in 1976, Dana, a black woman in Los Angeles has the first of several trips back in time to as early as 1810 Maryland. She rather quickly determines (On her second trip) that it is a connection to a then young boy Rufus who was her ancestor. She soon briefly meets Alice, a young free (non-slave) black girl who was destined to become one of her several times great grandmothers. Dana knows all this because of a family bible that had been kept with the names of the people. The story strikes me more than anything as a history lesson for middle school children on "This is how bad it was to be black, a freeman or slave, in the early 1800's." This is Maryland, not exactly the deep south, but a slave state. In fact, the lesson really was how nasty the white masters, the patrols, were to anyone, since her young ancestor Rufus is a white boy, the son of a slaveholder, and he bears the scars on his body of horsewhippings by his father for misdeeds.

There is more to the story; I enjoyed the telling and it was interesting to follow what happens between Dana, her husband Kevin, the folks on the plantation and Rufus as Rufus grows older. The interactions between the two were not exactly believable to me towards the beginning of the novel, esp when I tried to puzzle why Dana had been pulled back in time - perhaps it was to make Rufus a better, more informed person, although the book plays it that Dana is called back when Rufus is in danger one way or another. But, this eventually went elsewhere. I wasn't too happy with how this ended. Inconsistencies with the time travel business bothered me.

Butler does though show the reader something to think about. Perhaps most notable was how Dana and her husband Kevin started shaping themselves to the environment they were stuck in. They did this for survival but there was more to it. Food for thought in here. This book gets a lot of love here on LT, but I'd rate this maybe at the higher end of an OK read, more of historical interest to the genre than anything else.

Would I recommend this to anyone? Not really.

To commemorate today I present a book I read about 40 years ago. It packed a punch.


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I should try to find that one sometime! I read When Worlds Collide a loooong time ago, but I don't think I ever read any others by Wylie.

>49 RBeffa: Well, we seem to have pretty similar assessments of Kindred, Ron. I see some excellent bits in there, but overall, I can't rate it very highly.

>51 drneutron: I was mighty impressed with The End of the Dream when I read it Jim. I suspect now it will be dated and won't hit as hard with the environmental message. I thought it ahead of its time way back when. I should re-read it.

>52 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks Linda. With all the LT love this gets I was surprised not to like it more. I picked it up 5 or 6 years ago because of the praise but had never gotten to it.

Thought I might read one or more of the science fiction digest magazines I accumulate. This is one I picked up last April.

12. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction December 1994 (Volume 87, No. 6, Whole No. 523) edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, finished January 21, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars


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This issue contains an editorial, two book review columns (which includes a rather deep and compelling discussion of "Smilla's Sense of Snow" among others), a film review column by Harlan Ellison, an essay by Janet and Isaac Asimov, some cartoons and the following fiction stories:

Last Rites • shortstory by Ray Bradbury
Short Timer • novelette by Dave Smeds
The Godsend • shortstory by Urs Frei
Artistic License • novelette by Carrie Richerson
Home Burial • shortstory by Dale Bailey
The Sages of Cassiopeia • shortstory by Scott Mackay
Solitude • Hainish • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin

The book review columns by Charles de Lint and Robert K.J. Killheffer are the sorts of reviews I really appreciate. They each take on three books that they examine in great depth. Far too often "reviews" are little more than a blurb. This magazine presents a great alternative here.

This December 1994 edition caught my eye because of stories by Bradbury and Le Guin that I had not previously read before. Both were good, very good, particularly Le Guin's "Solitude." "Solitude" is something of an ethnographic study of a newly discovered Hainish planet with a very unusual culture. The ethnographer's children are the key to understanding and what we read is the report of a daughter. These two stories by Bradbury and Le Guin were later included in collections of the author's works that I have not read. Bradbury's short story is no slouch. It almost perfectly captures his unique flair with language that readers either love or hate. Here is the start of "Last Rites":

"HARRISON COOPER WAS NOT that old, only thirty-nine, touching at the warm rim of forty rather than the cold rim of thirty, which makes a great difference in temperature and attitude."

That is why I like Bradbury, the way he writes. And I really liked this story.

The other stories have not been published elsewhere or only in small press collections. Dave Smeds' "Short Timer" was a gripping tale set during the Vietnam War and the present with that "purple haze all in my brain." There were a couple sentences in it I could have done without. "The Godsend" I'd rate cute but only so-so (cannibals ? really?). I thought Carrie Richerson's "Artistic License" pretty interesting if totally unbelievable. "Home Burial" was a decent ghost story.

All in all a good issue.

>48 RBeffa: Ron, I am really pleased that Lies of Silence struck such a chord. I was worried my choice of Brian Moore may fall a little flat but he seems to have stood up well enough.

Have a great weekend, buddy.

>55 PaulCranswick: Paul, the good thing about the challenges (for me anyway) is that it sometimes gives me that extra nudge to try a writer. Brian Moore is one of those writers who I have been mildly aware of but never tried (until now). Of course many writers fit that bill, so the nudge helps.

Hope your weekend was good. Ours was very wet. I think I can safely say that our five year Northern California drought has taken a break with all the rain we have had.

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I've started reading Robert Charles Wilson's Spin. It won the Hugo in 2006 for best science fiction novel. For me anyways that isn't necessarily a big plus (or minus) but it does mean some people out there liked it a lot. I've had this one on hand for maybe 6 years - it is almost a chunkster, but that is OK - I've liked Wilson's books that I have read in the past, but they tend to disappoint me a little with the endings after very promising starts.

Spin so far I am liking A LOT. It will take me a couple more days I imagine but this is already feeling like a great novel, and it strikes me as the sort of science fiction that would appeal to people who don't normally read science fiction - at least for the first 99 pages I have read it is very character driven. There are some big science fiction things in here as well, but we have a real character driven story arc here. This is the first of three novels in a loose series.

Had this sitting on the shelf for years and now I'm a little mad at myself for not reading it sooner. The winner of the 2006 Hugo award for best science fiction novel:

13. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, finished January 25, 2017, 4 1/2 stars


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Spin is one of the most satisfying science fiction novels I have read in years. Quite a few novels have good parts but this has a number of good parts and they tie together to create a rich and rewarding read. There's a lot of science to this novel, but I think not so much as to scare people off who only have read a little science fiction. Stuff gets explained. The stuff that doesn't get explained is what the people in the story are trying to figure out. The entire novel is built around character arcs.

There are quite a few excellent reviews available to peruse and rather than throwing a story summation here I recommend browsing them. Maybe the story idea will scare you off. I hope not. Part of the enjoyment of reading this was how there was a big central mystery as well as smaller ones and whenever I thought the story was going one way it went another and surprised me. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction.

There are two novels that follow this, 'Axis' and 'Vortex' - I'm not sure how closely related but this is absolutely a standalone story.

>57 RBeffa: I'm glad you enjoyed this one so much. At your suggestion, I read a couple of more reviews. I'll have to look into the book further to see if it's my thing.

It is kind of like a big Arthur C Clarke novel, only better. You can safely ignore some of the 'deranged' reviews from people who think science is spelled scyence - you will note a lot of VERY positive reviews and discussions from more informed readers.

It's the end of the world as we know it. How would you react?

>59 RBeffa: In the words of the immortal REM, it's the end of the world and I feel fine!

Seriously, I need to track this one down.

LOL! I was looking at the F&SF thinking oh, I wonder if they've printed more Chwedyk. What have they got in there now? Oh, 1994! I see it takes you as long to read your magazines as it takes me. ;)

Re your picture, yes! The right people to stand by! Yes, and long may all three of those voices be heard.

The Murakami looks good. On the tottering wish list.

>60 drneutron: Jim, the description of the missile launches from Florida to begin the terraforming of Mars might bring a tear to your eyes.

You should track it down, or at least keep your eyes open. I would think most libraries would have it.

>61 cammykitty: Thanks for dropping by Katie. I've got a BIG backlog of issues of F&SF to read as i have been on the lookout for them the last few years at Friends of the Library sales. I also subscribed for several years off and on. They rarely disappoint.

I have wanted to read a Star trek book this month to continue my personal celebration of the 50th anniversary of ST. I have collected quite a few of the novels the last couple years. I have a box of them against one of my bookcases and so I poked around and came up with Prime Directive. Why? Well, it was published Sept 1991 at the time of the 25th anniversary and here we are 25 years further on at the 50th. There you go. It looks good and has a fairly high rating as far as Trek novels go - 8 reviews on LT and all positive. I've owned this one since late 2014. One more off the shelf, err, out of the box.

I'm going to try and average one Trek book a month going forward.

Good morning, Ron!

>64 RBeffa: I'm very excited to read this! I've enjoyed following your thread and it clear that you love Trek. Me too. However, I've been very picky about the Star Trek books I've read over the years. There is a lot more to explore. Prime Directive is one that I read/listened to a few years back. The Reeves-Stevens are fantastic storytellers. I think you will like it.

As I said, Black Fire is coming up next after Rendezvous With Rama. Warble! I also have a reread planned for Q-Squared later in the year.

Looking at Overdrive, the e-book provider for the library, I discovered some Star Trek e-audio that I will definitely be delving into.

>65 brodiew2: I like Prime Directive so far. It had a good start. One of the longer Trek novels at 400pgs+. I've heard good things about Reeves-Stevens so I am expecting this to be pretty good.

I do hope you like Black Fire - it is fun.

I read Rama many many years ago. Honestly I scarcely remember much of it. I tried one of the later sequels and was under-impressed.

#14 in books off the shelf for 2017. That will soon pause as I have a picked some things up from the library.

14. Prime Directive by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, finished January 30, 2017, 4 stars (rated against ST novels I have read)


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Published in September 1991 at the time of the 25th anniversary of Star Trek, Prime Directive is a fine example of good Trek fiction. The book notes that this story takes place during the final year of the Enterprise's five year mission. We only got three years on TV. I think this would probably be set before the adventures that occur in the animated series.

The major characters feel pretty authentic to the ones we know so well from the original series TV and film. To me that is pretty important with these books, although Sulu and Checkov have less to work with as relatively minor characters from the series and maybe that is why they came across less distinctive to me here. I think someone like Checkov is hard to define and giving him a few wobbly v's in speech may be the best most authors can do.

This novel is also among the best trek fiction I have read. Each of the main characters has a part to play. A planet (Talin IV) and civilization have been destroyed. The Enterprise is virtually unsalvageable. Only Scotty remains with Starfleet on board the Enterprise and he wants to resign as Spock, Kirk, Sulu etc have all resigned in disgrace. What went wrong? That is the central mystery of this excellent story. This is one of the longer Trek novels and feels only a little drawn out after a very good start, the pirate sequence with Sulu and Checkov seemed overlong and overbaked, which is perhaps my only real complaint.

All in all this was a very good adventure story, although I would say that parts of this story are better than the whole. But once this gets going, it goes.

So if you find yourself in a cave groovin with a pict and think "I could be out among the stars", well then I'd give this a read.

Recommended for all fans of Star Trek.

Excellent review, Ron. I'm glad you liked it so well. Its been a long time since I read it and I had forgotten about the pirates. :-)

>68 brodiew2: It was a fun read Brodie. I was going to read either Prime Directive or The Lost Years (I want to read Lost Years as a warm up to reading the a couple of the movie novelizations). Prime Directive is earlier in the timeline and I'm glad I picked it.

I was surprised to find a pirate "Black Ire" in it, who is not the same person as "Black Fire" although it could have been.

This book is for the February American Author challenge. I borrowed it from the library.

15. Last night at the lobster : a novel by Stewart O'Nan, finished February 1, 2017, 3+ stars


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This is a little slice of life novel that takes a look at the workers and customers on the last shift of a Red Lobster restaurant. It is a look at simple working class people doing what they have to do. The restaurant is closing and only some workers show up for the last day's shift, and those who do are there pretty much for Manny, their manager. All sorts of interpersonal relationships at play, but mostly this is about Manny sorting through his life at that moment. If you have ever worked at a place like this sometime in life you will immediately recognize the atmosphere everyone is in. The author clearly has captured a bit of reality in this fiction. Good stuff.

This book is for the February British Author challenge. We've owned it for many years.

16.Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, finished February 15, 2017, 3 stars


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No review for this and I'm not sure how to rate this. I've given it 3 stars but it probably deserves more. It really isn't my style of story. I was rather put off at first but slowly warmed to the story and by the end I realized I actually liked it even if the journey was a slow one. The book took me two weeks to get through 272 pages. Not a good sign - partly the style of the book, partly real life. I may write more about this later after I think about it a little.

The real life intrusion was the unexpected death of my father at the beginning of the month. He was at an age where he just started wearing out the last couple years. We had a good visit at Christmas but he weakened afterwards and then went into a sudden decline. I've been reflecting a lot on our lives the past few weeks. Here is a bit of a life tribute, rather than a formal obit, that I wrote about him, mostly the early years in the town I grew up in:

http://www.pacificatribune.com/obituaries/life-tributes-ronald-beffa/article_014...

Condolences on the loss of your father, Ron. It sounds as though he had a fine life. May his memory be a blessing to those he left here.

Thank you Linda. He was such a strong active person for most of his life it had saddened me to see him slowed down so much the last couple of years. He got a pacemaker a couple years ago which helped but basically he just wore out. I can remember all the happy times and be thankful he did not go into a long drawn out decline/death. He didn't want to die but he accepted it was here and he had a peaceful end I think.

Sorry you lost your father, Ron.

>74 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita

Hello, Ron. I, too, am sorry to hear of your loss. My prayers are with you.

Ron, so sorry to hear about your father. No matter how prepared we are or how ready they are to go, the death of a parent is a jolt. And when it is unexpected, the dislocation and shock is even worse. {{{{Ron}}}}

>76 brodiew2: Thank you for your kind words Brodie.

>77 ronincats: Thank you Roni. What is also a jolt is the sudden realization that I am now the "Patriarch", the oldest of my family. Dad is no longer there.

Another off the shelf. I've recently picked up several books by Kawabata that I have not read before but I've wanted to read this one which I picked up late last year.

17.The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata, finished February 20, 2017, 4 stars


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This is the third novel I have read by Kawabata and I find his novels to be both simple and beautiful. I find Japanese literature to be interesting in general, but Kawabata's stories especially so. He has such a gentle pace to them. This is one of those slice of life types where our main character Ogata Shingo at 62 years of age finds himself becoming very forgetful - he worries that death may be coming for him as it has for friends. He has heard, he fears, the sound of the mountain, which he interprets as an omen of his death. He tries to find tranquility in nature, his attentive daughter-in-law and his tea drinking as his domestic life is undergoing a bit of upheaval with the marriages of his two children in trouble. This has a rather melancholy air to it, but not oppressing. Set during the early 50's, this really gave me a feel for the times in early post-war Japan as well as many small bits of Japanese society and culture.

Recommended. (I don't think it was random chance that awarded Kawabata the first Nobel prize to a Japanese in literature.)

>79 RBeffa: Good review, Ron, I have it on the shelves. Maybe I get to it this year.

>80 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. I find these to be great change of pace novels now and then. I really want to mix in some Japanese works more often.

Haven't been reading any books since finishing up the Kawabata 10 days ago. This morning I'm starting a new book, one from the library for the American Author Challenge for March. It is Suicide Run: Five Tales of the Marine Corps by William Styron. The story lengths vary and run from very short to a novella length piece. I don't think I've read anything by Styron before. He's a Pulitzer prize winner. This book collection was published posthumously but three of the stories had been published before his death and one after. One is new.

We'll see how it goes.

As I mentioned above, I think this is the first book I have read by William Styron. Styron is the March author of the American Author Challenge.

18. The suicide run : five tales of the Marine Corps by William Styron, finished March 6, 2017, 2 stars


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I'll put it simply: I didn't like this book. 5 stories that ranged from OK to active dislike by me. I did not like the author's writing style.

Books and puzzles. Library sales can be dangerous yet fun places.



$14 for a pretty good haul - My wife loves doing the Ravensburger puzzles, although she finds the 1500 piece ones a little daunting. This was an unusual grab for me as most of these are King Arthur related. Six books from Jack Whyte's series, as well as a Stephen Lawhead one. I am perhaps most excited by the large Science Fiction of the 20th Century book on the left - the cover is bland and the insides are alive with color. It will be great fun looking through chapter of books and films through the decades.

Yup, library sales are dangerous! Looks like a good haul.

#17 of books off the shelf out of 19 (2 were library books). I've owned this for a long time after picking it up used somewhere. This book is exactly 50 years old, so I got in the wayback machine to see what fantasy was doing in the early to mid 60's.

19. New Worlds of Fantasy edited by Terry Carr, finished March 14, 2017, 3 stars


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This anthology of fantasy stories was published in 1967, the first of what would become a three part series of collections. It included stories from 1961 to 1967, all but one previously published in a variety of venues such as The Saturday Evening Post, Playboy, The Atlantic Monthly and also horror, science fiction and fantasy magazines as well as story collections by their authors. Almost all the authors in here are well known, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Roger Zelazny, J.G. Ballard and Peter Beagle to name a few.

Some anthologies put me off from the start, but this was not one of those. The first story "Divine Madness" by Roger Zelazny really pulled me into this - it is the story of a man who increasingly has epilepctic seizures of some sort that cause him to believe time is running backwards. He flashes in and out of this state until he discovers that his latest one is not stopping, and he both fears and hopes it will take him back to a place where he can live forward and do things differently. Is this all in his mind?

The second story, a long one, slowed my enthusiasm as it seemed John Brunner was almost doing a pastiche of Jack Vance, and the story felt very much like a small piece of a much bigger story. I discovered afterwards that this was one of several loosely linked stories about the traveler in black. I found it somewhat tedious but I can see other readers might enjoy it.

I enjoyed stories like this much more when I was perhaps 20 years of age. Now, much older, these sorts of stories seem quite dated and of another time. I did also like Peter Beagle's period piece set in London, "Come Lady Death" which made up for some of the weaker stories.

I liked Donald Westlake's irreverant tale "Nackles" from the first sentence. Apparently more people than I liked it too - who would guess a 53 year old short story would have its own website - more than one in fact! Here's one: http://www.donaldwestlake.com/nackles/

Other stories in the collection varied quite a bit in how much I enjoyed them. I did like Ballard's "The Lost Leonardo" quite a bit, a mystery fantasy story about the theft of a da Vinci painting from the Louvre, and then a discovery that something very odd has been going on for quite a while it seems.

The cover art and sketches that preface each story in the anthology are by Kelly Freas. Overall this is a better than expected collection of tales which are as follows:

Divine Madness • (1966) • shortstory by Roger Zelazny
Break the Door of Hell • Traveler in Black • (1966) • novelette by John Brunner
The Immortal • (1966) • shortstory by Jorge Luís Borges
Narrow Valley • (1966) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
Comet Wine • (1967) • novelette by Ray Russell
The Other • (1966) • shortstory by Katherine MacLean
A Red Heart and Blue Roses • (1961) • shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
Stanley Toothbrush • (1962) • shortstory by Terry Carr (as by Carl Brandon)
The Squirrel Cage • (1966) • shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
Come Lady Death • (1963) • shortstory by Peter S. Beagle
Nackles • (1964) • shortstory by Donald E. Westlake (as by Curt Clark)
The Lost Leonardo • (1964) • shortstory by J. G. Ballard
Timothy • (1966) • shortstory by Keith Roberts
Basilisk • shortstory by Avram Davidson
The Evil Eye • (1966) • novelette by Alfred Gillespie

Too bad the stories in the anthology didn't age better. Your library sale looks fantastic! I don't remember ever seeing Ravensburger puzzles at ours. I don't think people give them up very often.

>85 drneutron: >87 cammykitty: Library sales vary of course - sometimes I find a lot and sometimes I come home with one. We do seem to get a fairly good supply of puzzles, across the range from mediocre to the better Pomegranate and Ravensburger ones. We went back for the 2nd day and got quite a few more books and puzzles! They had a large number of Star Trek books I wanted to go through, but they had also put out more books and I got a little carried away. I didn't take a picture.

The Road to Stalingrad (Cassell Military Paperbacks) by John Erickson
When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe
The shadow of Kilimanjaro : on foot across East Africa by Rick Ridgeway
Gods And Generals by Jeff Shaara
THE SILENT CRY by Kenzaburo Oe
The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson (This is a beautiful 1965 boxed Heritage club edition)
Sword Song: The Battle For London by Bernard Cornwell
Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military by Robert B. Edgerton
Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga by Mike W. Barr
Star Trek #70 (Traitor Winds) by L. A Graf
Double, Double (Star Trek) by Michael Jan Friedman
Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages (Star Trek: The Original Series) by Diane Duane

>86 RBeffa: I was thinking about Zelazny's story in here and remembered I had a batch of his Amber books in the garage. I never even put these in to my LT catalog - I read one or two decades ago and never got around to the whole series despite liking what I had read. I'm going to try and squeeze a read of some of them into this year.

One more off the shelf - a 1977 edition of a book published in 1967 - like the last one, exactly 50 years old. The book is rather beaten up and I don't recall when or where I got it - but I cataloged it into LT in 2009 when I was entering the bulk of my existing library. I pulled it out to read after the last book since I recalled liking Brunner's stories many decades ago more than I liked the piece I had just read.

20. Born Under Mars by John Brunner, finished March 21, 2017, 2 1/2 stars


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I had little in the way of expectations for this book and it managed to exceed these. This isn't a long novel, but it still managed to feel stretched out in various places. The first half of the book is the much better half, as a space engineer from Mars returns home under less than ideal conditions and suddenly finds himself a wanted man merely because of the ship he worked on - or so it seems. We have a mystery here that managed to disappoint in the second half of the work. This is mostly a future society interplanetary political conflict type of story with all sorts of little bits thrown in as the story evolves. For me the best parts of the book are the descriptions of future Mars and living and adapting to the conditions there. I'll rate this an OK read on the low end, but not one I'd recommend.

Plot of Born Under Mars sounds like it would work. Too bad it wasn't clear enough to keep the suspense going. That cover cracks me up. The woman looks like she's waiting to have a quick fling with Captain Kirk.

>91 cammykitty: The cover is a bit much. One might think this a sci-fi romance. But why does the guy have a mask and not the woman? Well, the guy has a mask because to live outside on Mars requires it because of the endless dust. Who the woman is i haven't a clue! She'd be dead by drowning in dust in short order (as our protagonist nearly experiences when he is left outside with a breached mask filter).

I have a vague memory of reading this book in 1976 when I went on a bit of a binge of British science fiction and fantasy, mostly from a well stocked public library. The story however was more or less completely forgotten other than a very general memory. It was a fun period of reading for me in 1976, in which I read quite a number of novels by Michael Moorcock, Richard Adam's 'Watership Down' and 'Shardick', M. John Harrison's 'The Pastel City', some of Brian Aldiss's works and to be completely different, Irwin Shaw's 'Rich Man Poor Man', among others. This time I listened to it as an audiobook, something I do not do very often, but this was a short one and it worked.

This was my selection for the March British Author challenge.

21. The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard, finished March 28, 2017, 3+ stars, audiobook


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The Drowned World was Ballard's first novel, published in 1962. It is set in London, drowning in the future after 70 or 80 years of global warming stemming from a solar event. Europe is described as a series of giant lagoons and the speculation is that the world is reverting to the Triassic period aided by some sort of memory within all creatures DNA. Yeah, that's a little strange, I know. This isn't so much a post-apocalyptic survival novel as it is a psychological drama. When everyone starts regressing to a primal state it gets VERY weird and a little (maybe more than a little) politically incorrect - modern readers might be offended.

Many of the descriptions in here are wonderful, fantastic, mesmerizing - and wonderfully imagined. I could easily rate this as 4 stars or better for the time it was written, but for the playout of the de-evolution of mankind (hmmm why am I suddenly reminded of that William Hurt / Blair Brown film 'Altered States'). I'm torn between wow 4 stars and a wincing 3 stars. This has been compared to Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' and I can see why. Cautiously recommend this book for the adventurous.

Good morning, Ron! It's been a while so I thought I'd drop in and say hello.

I'm getting addicted to the Star Trek Timelines game. I may have to make a break. It's eating into my sleep time. fun, though.

>94 brodiew2: Thanks for dropping by Brodie. I've been pretty quiet here lately.

Games can be so addicting.

I might finish one more book before the end of the month - I've got two in progress. One a non-fiction work on artist Claude Monet that I am spending a lot of time on, and really learning from, and another, a novel that I am almost half-way through. This second one, Axis is the followup book to Spin, a novel I really enjoyed a couple months ago.

Looking back at the books I've read this first quarter it seems time to pick favorites. Sometimes that is hard - this time it was easy for me. More or less in order of favorites:

fiction:

1 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is one of the best science fiction novels I have read this past decade.

2 The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata was a very enjoyable book that gave me insight into Japanese life and culture after WWII.

3 Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead is a haunting book of the American Civil War

4 Lies of Silence by Brian Moore is another haunting book that gave me an insightful look at the Irish troubles.

5 Prime Directive by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens proves there is such a thing as good Trek fiction!

non-fiction:

1 Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History by William Garrett Piston

I think also, in all fairness to Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting, as a romantic suspense novel it probably deserves a bit better than 3 stars.

Looking forward I'm hoping to add in a bit more non-fiction as well as visiting a few books on the first World War, marking the centennial.

For the British Author challenge my reads so far have been:
January: 1- Catholics and 2 - Lies of Silence, both by Brian Moore
February: Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
March: The Drowned World by JG Ballard

For the American Author challenge I have done:
January: Kindred by Octavia Butler
February: Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
March: The Suicide Run by William Styron

I don't think i've read Spin - sounds interesting!

>97 drneutron: As a space/science guy I have to think you'd enjoy Spin a lot, Jim. The followup novel is different and I don't love it like I did Spin, but it still is quite good. From what I read, of the three books in the loosely linked trilogy, the middle book Axis (that I am reading now) is considered the weakest. Spin can be read as a standalone - Axis can be read that way but is better as a followup read. If i hadn't read Spin recently I might feel more than a little lost with Axis.

>96 RBeffa: Is that Mad Enchantment? I actually got that from the library, then had too much going on to get to it and there were people waiting so I couldn't renew it. I still have it on my "For Later" shelf there though. I love Monet's work.

>99 ronincats: No, Roni, not mad enchantment, although that book is on my radar as a followup read. The book I am reading is called Monet by Karin Sagner-Duchting. A couple weeks ago we saw a fabulous exhibit of Monet's early work at the legion of Honor in San Francisco. In recent years we had seen two or three Impressionism/ post-Impressionism shows that featured a good look at Monet as well. I'm a late-comer to Art History, and i have been eating the shows up the past decade and want to learn more. I credit my daughter for hooking me with her Art history classes and enthusiasm. The book I'm reading is just enough over my head so to speak to challenge me a bit so I find myself reading a few pages and then going to the internet to learn more. If I was more informed on French history in general I'd grasp the times a bit more. Anyway, many of the paintings I have seen recently and deeply appreciated are in the book I am reading and it is making me a happy camper.

I've done well with books off the shelf this year but I am still buying more books than are going out the door. I suppose that is a lost cause. I shall still keep it in mind, but ...

I needed a few things from Amazon and lo and behold a book or two jumped into my cart. There has been a lot of LT buzz for Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard and I couldn't resist. I was also completely sucked in by a book review in the Sunday paper for African Kaiser by Robert Gaudi. So two non-fiction books that sound like wonderful reads will be coming my way.

This comes on top of the 4 books I picked up at the used shop this past weekend.

One more off the shelf - this book is the followup to the Hugo-winning novel "Spin" which I enjoyed a lot two months ago. You can see my review of Spin here at post >57 RBeffa: with a few followup comments. I stayed up much too late last night working on this and managed to finish it up today.

22. Axis by Robert Charles Wilson, finished March 31, 2017, 3 1/2 stars


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Axis is probably a 4 star book but I can't quite give it that, primarily because it never rose to the level that Spin did. Spin was a 4 1/2 star read - not a perfect novel by any means but an excellent, engaging one. This is more like a very good one. The author tries, I'll give him that, but most characters just never got their hooks into me, and the story builds on the first novel but does not have any "WOW" to it for me - there's stuff that might wow some readers, but not me. I don't think I'm going to formally review it, just leave these comments here, which I might expand on later. I've seen a number of comments saying it suffers from middle book syndrome and that the final book "Vortex" is the payoff.

The author throws some big ideas out here (and in Spin), that appeals to the science nerd part of me. He doesn't explain them though, explain in the sense of how is that even remotely possible. The big idea in Spin was not explained. We were told about it in various ways, but there is no way it could be explained. What seems to be the start of an explanation here gets a little woo-woo, and I've pretty much given up on seeing an explanation for what happened - but there's always the chance that "Vortex" the third book will deliver something believable.

I am very glad to have read this though. It is a bit better than what I consider an average science fiction read, and there is a lot of stuff in here to think about. I'll be reading the next one before long.

Spring in springing forth, right on time. Last night before bed I was wondering what to read next. I need a Spring book I thought - and then it hit me. I went to one of our boxes of children's books and pulled out Wind in the Willows. I read the first chapter and can declare that it will be the perfect Spring book for me. I bought this book for my son and daughter when they were young but neither read it as far as I know. We read together one of those nicely illustrated abridged versions, but as far as I can recall never tackled the "real" book.

The first time we took the kids to Disneyland the ride I wanted to do was Mr Toad's Wild Ride. My enthusiasm was lost on the others but I loved it.

One more off the shelf, #20 out of 23 - A book for Spring. I've had this book for probably 20+ years. I read an abridged (or shortened) and illustrated version with my kids several times when they were little, and my daughter read this book when she was in 5th grade
perhaps, but I don't think I ever read the full version myself. I've also seen several film versions many years ago. On visits to Disneyland years and years ago "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" was one of my "must do" rides, but somehow I can't understand why I never read the full book.

23. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, finished April 3, 2017, 4 1/2 stars


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I suppose I was in the mood for this book, but it was a sheer delight and it immediately became a favorite book. My copy has an introduction and afterword, as well as a brief author bio written by Jane Yolen which I really appreciated. We only have a small cast of central characters here, a mole, a water rat, a badger and a toad, 'Mr. Toad'. I adore Mole and Ratty. I found myself loving every one of them, maybe even Mr. Toad. This is a children's book for grown-ups as well as mid aged kids. When I got to chapter 7, titled "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" my mouth dropped open. My copy only has a few illustrations in it - lovely black and white drawings, and the artist is not credited, although I think I deciphered the name Zimic. Then I decided that artist Tricia Zimic created the delightful cover illustration as well as the interior pen and ink drawings.

I much more partial to the early half of the book, the rather nostalgic, pastoral adventures of Mole, Rat and Badger as well as the Piper piece in the middle. As Jane Yolen notes, this is really three sorts of stories in one book.

Glad you finally got to enjoy The Wind in the Willows. It is a classic for good reason.

>105 ronincats: It really was a treat and I've gone back and re-read several of the chapters. SOmetimes you never know what is going to 'click'

I'm about 1/3 through Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson - this is the 3rd book in the Spin-Axis-Vortex trilogy. I just finished Axis a week ago and figured I would dive into the final book and see what it is all about. I'm liking Vortex quite a bit more than Axis; Axis was clearly a middle book to set up the finish. Character arcs are driving this story like Spin did, and as Axis tried to do. Good stuff.

One more off the shelf - bought this in 2012 when it was near new. I still can't believe it took me so long to read this excellent series.

24. Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson, finished Apr 11, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars, closer to 4

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I'd call this a very satisfying finish to the Spin-Axis-Vortex trilogy I read this year. Spin was amazing, Axis good, and Vortex delivers what for me was a very good read with an ending that ties things up and I can live with. I could see early on where some of this third book was going, but not how, and the story maintained some mystery and excitement with several interesting characters. There is a very character driven novel and the story is told chapter to chapter with a different viewpoint of the main characters. Part of the story is set in the future just after Spin/Axis and part 10,000 years in the future. I really became engaged with the lives of several of the characters and cared what would happen to them. I can recommend this series to those who want a good science fiction tale full of highly speculative science, but focused on characters.

I've had this book for 10+ years or so - bought it new to share with my daughter. The author is an excellent writer for tweens and a little older children and sadly seems to have retired and her books are not being seen by new readers.

25. Another Heaven, Another Earth by M. H. Hoover, finished April 15, 2017, 3 1/2+ stars

"when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again." excerpt from a quote by William Beebe


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This novel was published in 1981, one of H.M. (Helen Mary) Hoover's early excellent books (like This Time of Darkness). It makes me sad that her books seem to have gone out of print. Our local library used to have several of them in the children's and teen section and every one has now been purged. In fact there are none in our entire county system. Hoover's books that I have read seem to have a strong nature element to them, feature women and men working well together, and like this novel, the two main characters are both women.

This story is about two cultures meeting each other after a separation of 500 hundred years. A small population had colonized a planet but the records did not show that - only an expedition, and we have a couple mysteries to puzzle out. When a new expedition arrives both sides are surprised to discover each other. The interpersonal relationships and strong characters made this a very enjoyable read.

ETA: I was purposely not giving away details of the story in my comments because I did not want to spoil things. However I thought I would add that the story made me a little sad and melancholy, and that this is a bit of a "message" story that is as true today as it was in 1981 when written and as the author imagined it might be a 1000 years or so in the future.

This is turning into a year heavy on the science fiction and a bit of fantasy. I guess I'll keep going with what works although I have a variety of things on hand. I poked through a few books but didn't get caught until I started a collection of science fiction stories by jack McDevitt - a few of these I had read many years ago. Quality stuff so I'll keep reading (the collection was published in 1996)

Will probably wrap up a collection of Shel Silverstein poems tomorrow.

The American Author challenge has poetry for April. So this is what I went to. I read this in chunks over a couple weeks. I think a few at a time worked best.

26. Falling Up by Shel Silverstein, finished April 17, 2017, 2 1/2 - 3 stars


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It feels a little shameful to give something by Shel Silverstein an "average" rating, since his books are decidedly not average books. However this book didn't rise up for me - it is a rather large collection of Silverstein's zany poems and drawings. There are some very good poems in here, but unfortunately I thought quite a few were not so great - they tried too hard perhaps. At their best the crazy drawings are an integral part of the poetry - word play that one might not even really understand until you look at the drawing and then go "A-ha!"

I've been wanting to read this one ever since I picked it up at a friends of the library sale about 2 years ago.

27. Standard Candles: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt by Jack McDevitt, finished April 20, 2017, 4 stars


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The first stories by McDevitt that I read appeared in Science fiction magazines in the 80's and 90's, primarily Asimov's science fiction magazine where he was featured often. This 1996 collection pulls together some very good to excellent stories from that era, some of which I read all those years ago. They could certainly have put more of his stories in here, but there are 16, and they are all worth the read. I can't say that I remembered any one of these stories very well, since short stories, being short, tend to fade from memory pretty easily. A few had that strong sense of familiar. What I did remember is liking his stories when they appeared. McDevitt has some big ideas to wrap his stories around, but what makes these stories good is that they are well written character studies, almost without exception. McDevitt has become a well regarded novelist, but this is where he started. Just some excellent stuff here.

This really put me in the mood to have a go with some of McDevitt's novels. Haven't read one in many years.

Included in this collection are the following:

Introduction by Charles Sheffield
Standard Candles • (1994) • short story
Tidal Effects • (1985) • short story
Translations from the Colosian • (1984) • short story
Black to Move • (1982) • short story
The Fort Moxie Branch • (1988) • short story
Promises to Keep • (1984) • novelette
Gus • (1991) • novelette
To Hell with the Stars • (1987) • short story
Ellie • (1995) • novelette
The Jersey Rifle • (1988) • short story
Cruising Through Deuteronomy • (1995) • short story
Tyger • (1991) • short story
Auld Lang Boom • (1992) • short story
Dutchman • (1987) • novelette
Cryptic • (1983) • short story
Time Travelers Never Die • (1996) • novella

28. Claude Monet, 1840-1926 : a feast for the eyes by Karin Sagner-Düchting, finished April 22, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars


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In the middle of March I saw a fabulous exhibition of Monet's early works at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco. It was a very well put together exhibit gathered from all over the world and I really felt in awe of the material. I had seen Impressionist exhibitions in the relatively recent past that have really upped my interest in the painters of the movement, but it was this exhibit that really put me into Monet's fan club with material I was unaware or less familiar with.

This book on Monet strongly appealed to me with an in depth look at the artist and his works and discussions of his contemporaries in context with him. Honestly, some of the material was over my head, but there were so many parts that I learned from and was able to look at the painting with the author's discussions (there are well over 200 paintings shown in the book, almost all in color.) that I just really am overall pleased with reading this even though I wish there was a bit less of some discussions and more biographical detail on Monet himself. I'd call this a scholarly work and it took me about a month+ to go through.

The library was discarding this book last year and I rescued it from the free cart. I read a story by Chad Oliver about two years ago that I liked quite a bit and was glad to find another to try.

29. The shores of another sea by Chad Oliver, finished April 24, 2017, 3+ stars


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Anthropological science fiction is relatively rare, especially so when this was first published in 1971. This was Oliver's sixth novel, and the author was an anthropologist as well as a professor at the University of Texas in Austin. According to the introduction in my copy of the book the author spent time in Kenya doing anthropological research, and Kenya is the setting for the story. Frankly I'd call this almost a horror story for the way it plays out - something Stephen King might have written back then. It is set on and around a research station which collects baboons - the dark side here is that although it is not explicitly shown during the story, one realizes and is told that these animals are captured for experimentation, not for behavior research or even zoos. That knowledge actually dampened my enthusiasm for the story, but it is the setup for what we very quickly see is an alien invasion story.

The author is a very good descriptive writer and the setting in Kenya is really brought to life exceedingly well. That was the highlight of this story for me.

30. Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt, finished April 26, 2017, 3 1/2 stars


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When I read the collection of McDevitt's short fiction a week ago one of my favorite stories in it was the original novella 'Time Travelers Never Die' which closed the book. At least two of the stories from that collection became novels. I figured what the heck, lets read the novel now while the story is fresh and I'll see what he does with it. Well, at first this is like one of those times where you loved the book and went to see the movie, and it wasn't bad, but why did they change that part and why was all of that stuck in and why did ... OK, you get the idea. In short, the novella was really good and twisty - 4 stars for sure. The novel, well it begins the same and pretty much ends the same but the story got changed. There were some additions I enjoyed, parts that were mentioned in passing were shown in more depth, backstory fleshed out, technology changes accounted for, much more time travel such as traveling in time to the civil rights movement and and the Selma march led by John Lewis ... we visit notable people in history, and baseball games. That wasn't in the 1996 novella version but was added to the 2009 novel. In fact a lot of extra time trips are added. Eventually I was drawn into this version of the mystery which puts a different spin on events. It was interesting, but I think it lacked the tight intrigue of the original story. Nevertheless I increasingly warmed to the expanded story as I read along.

So it was weird reading this - I knew how it was going to end (unless of course the author changed it) and the journey to get there was different, yet pretty good. In summary I liked the novella version a bit better. It kept the reader off balance and was a good tale. I can't tell how I'd react if I read the novel first. I think I'd love it. I'd recommend it to history fans who want a little science fiction. This is science fiction 'lite', a bit of fun. I would guess Dr. Who fans might love this. My one gripe is that I think the two main characters are pretty indistinguishable from each other much of the time.

Oh, the end. It does indeed get to that same place. But then a few more pages are tacked on to give us something to think about.

4 stars for the novella and the novel gets 3 1/2.

It's official. Find the May Martians and Magic Theme Thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/256332

Please come aboard. Just share all your reading in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, fairy tales, myth or magical realism with us here on this thread during May. Share your favorite recommendations, talk about the new books you are reading, discuss the classics.

One I selected for the May British Author's challenge, it also fits in with Roni's May theme.

31. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, finished May 5, 2017, 3+ stars


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I'll confess to be rather ignorant of most fiction, English or otherwise, written 200 years ago, which is when Frankenstein was written. The prose surprised me a bit by being very readable, although word usage and style clearly mark this as belonging to an entirely different era. This is a story within a story within a story, and told in layers. This is nothing like a Frankenstein or any other film on the topic that I can recall. It strikes me as a better story in book form than a monster of the month movie. In both films and the novel, though, it seems that the creature, Victor Frankenstein's inhuman creation, is the character that has our sympathy. Frankenstein himself, who I think I can fairly call a "mad scientist" or perhaps a "mad natural philosopher" surely never had me on his side of the moral issues here. The creature though, also loses my sympathy when he chooses to become a monster.

I believe my favorite part of this layered story is when the creature tells his tale, which comes about halfway into the book. I think I can fairly say that I admired this novel more than I enjoyed it. It gets boring in places with all the internal philosophical monologues going on, and the actual creation of Frankenstein's creature gets very short shrift. I find it hard to think of this as a great story, but it is a good one.

Wishing you a great weekend, Ron.

Pleased to see that Frankenstein hit the spot (sort of) for you.

>118 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. Quiet Spring weekend here. Enjoying the nice weather, some music and a book.

Yes, mixed feelings on Frankenstein.

Hey-o, Ron. I hope all is well with you. Do you have another trek novel on the horizon. I bought Uhura's Song a while back for a buck. Have you read that one?

Hi Brodie. I have not read Uhura's Song but I have it and look forward to reading it. It is considered one of the best. I haven't been able to decide which Trek to read next - it will probably be Shatner's "Memories" book tho.

I saw this on the new books shelf at the library and grabbed it. This was my 4th book of Wilson's that I have read this year.

32. Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson, finished May 9, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars


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Different kind of time travel book and I enjoyed it. This isn't great literature, just a reasonably good story with a few twists and mysteries that kept me as a reader interested. I really enjoyed Part One of the book, 'The City of Futurity' - 1876-. That part ends a little sadly and leaves an important relationship unresolved. Part two jumps ahead a bit into the following year, 1877, which is the 'Last Year' of the title - this is the year that the time tunnel (here called The Mirror) will end that connects some time in our near future with 1870's Illinois.

Events from the first part of the story that were left unresolved come back into play as the story proceeds and I was reasonably satisfied with how the author played the story out, although I liked the first part of the book much better than the slant taken in the next two parts. A mostly satisfying read that kept me turning the pages and not wanting to go to bed - always a good marker for me. I would really like to see a sequel to this. Closer to 4 stars than 3.

33. The Outlaws of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline, finished May 11, 2017, 2 stars


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This short novel was apparently part of a feud between the author and Edgar Rice Burroughs in the 1930's. The story is very obviously a rip-off of Burroughs' John Carter of Mars stories. It even screams it at you on the covers, front and back. Nevertheless I thought it could be a very fun read - these planetary romances were enjoyable adventures to read when I was a teen and the best ones are still fun to read. This story started well but as far as I'm concerned quickly turned into old dishwater. Not terrible for what it is, just not very good and it literally put me to sleep.

I read a 1961 Ace paperback edition. It shows the original publication was 1933.

34a. The Wide, Wide Sea by Patrick Ness, finished May 13, 2017, 4 stars
34b. Snowscape by Patrick Ness, finished May 13, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars


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Excellent pair of stories to supplement the novels in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. These are stories to read AFTER the three novels. Ness brings his usual brilliance to these tales.

35. Fourth planet from the Sun : tales of Mars from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Gordan Van Gelder,

finished May 20, 2017, 4 stars


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An anthology of stories from the pages of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction with a Mars theme - the intro indicates the original purpose was to show the evolution of how Mars is viewed in storytelling, from the days of Edgar Rice Burroughs planetary romance style to current views shaped by the Mars probes and landers. The collection succeeds in giving the reader a wide selection of stories from 1952-2003. Three, maybe four or five of these stories I have read long ago. Several are very very good to outstanding.

Some of these stories I can see how they were probably a lot more relevant at the time they were published, but there are no duds here, just quality stories. I didn't really care for Michael Cassutt's story, primarily because of the writing style. But I wouldn't call it a dud. Overall I enjoyed the collection more than I thought I would.

I think the outstanding story for me was Roger Zelazney's "A Rose For Ecclesiastes" which successfully bridged that fiction gap between the old dying civilization of Mars story to a more modern view of the Red Planet. However I also very much enjoyed Leigh Brackett's "Purple Priestess of the Purple Moon" which bridged that gap very well too. "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick has been adapted into the "Total Recall" movies. As much as I enjoyed the first film version, the written story is a bit different and a little more thought provoking. I liked it a lot. Most of these stories in one way or another try to bridge the gap between the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Mars of today with the landers and probes. It was quite enjoyable.

As the editor notes, people didn't write Mars stories in the 80's - it was severely out of fashion. There is a gap here from 1979 to 1992. In the 90's stories about Mars reemerged with the novels of Kim Stanley Robinson and others.

The collected stories are:

• Introduction • essay by Gordon Van Gelder
• The Wilderness • The Martian Chronicles • (1952) • short story by Ray Bradbury
• Mars Is Ours • (1954) • short story by Alfred Coppel
• Crime on Mars • (1960) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon • (1964) • short story by Leigh Brackett
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes • (1963) • novelette by Roger Zelazny
• We Can Remember It for You Wholesale • (1966) • novelette by Philip K. Dick
• Hellas Is Florida • (1977) • novelette by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
• In the Hall of the Martian Kings • (1976) • novella by John Varley
• The First Mars Mission • (1979) • short story by Robert F. Young
• The Last Mars Trip • (1992) • short story by Michael Cassutt
• The Great Martian Pyramid Hoax • (1995) • short story by Jerry Oltion
• Pictures from an Expedition • (2003) • novella by Alex Irvine

I was reading this in small bits over the past week or so. A re-read for me, as I first read it when it was new 5 or 6 years ago. I saw the film recently, which I thought was very good although I might have chosen different casting. Anyway, it really made me want this again.

36. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, finished May 22, 2017, 4 stars


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This is really an excellent piece of fiction aimed at the middle school/young teen audience. The story and drawings were brought to life very well in the recent film although there are of course some changes. The essential core is true to the book. Young Conor's mother has a severe cancer that is not responding to increasingly aggressive treatment. Add to this problems with a school bully and family dynamics and Ness builds us a most unusual story of a monster. I'd rather not reveal any more than that - I'd just like to recommend this. My only warning is that it is quite sad.

37. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami, finished May 23, 2017, 4 stars


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I've been looking forward to this collection of seven longish short stories from Murakami. I managed to pace myself a bit rather than reading through them in a rush. I just like the way the guy writes stories. These are good ones, but I'll confess to being a bit confused with a story in the middle, "An Independent Organ." It is about a plastic surgeon, 52 years of age, who has sailed through life without ever allowing himself to fall in love. After 30 years of casual affairs the love bug bites him hard and he basically goes through a crazy phase as if he was maybe 17 or 20. It doesn't end well. The part of this that started my confusion almost from the start was the way Murakami opens the tale and his description of the man. I won't rule out that something may be lost in translation here - something Japanese doesn't translate exactly to something American. This is what Murakami says as his first paragraph: "There are people in the world who - thanks to a lack of intellectual acuity - live a life that is surprisingly artificial. I haven't run across all that many, but there are certainly a few. And Dr. Tokai was one of them." In the 36 pages of story that follow that opening I did not find this person. I didn't see an artificial life. Dr. Tokai certainly showed no signs of a lack of intellectual acuity in any endeavors described until he gets hit by cupid - and then the lovesick crazy dog bit really isn't a sign to me relevant to anyone's intellectual acuity. So, I'm confused.

In different ways I liked each of these stories, full of Murakami's familiar touches and heavy, as always, on musical connections. "Drive My Car" and "Yesterday" are the first two stories. Somehow we go from there to an end with Percy Faith's journey into eroticism, for one or maybe two men, "A Summer Place." These sorts of things tickle me as a reader.

I've started re-reading Hemingway's 'Men Without Women', published about 90 years ago I think, to see if I can find any parallels, and a reason other than the stories are about Men Without Women. I don't think I am going to find anything. I'll leave that to more introspective and analytical readers.

I should have raced through this book but it didn't happen.

38. Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner, finished June 2, 2017, 3 stars


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It has been a few years since I read the 4 earlier books in this series but that should not have caused any problems reading this, although I had to juggle a few place names around in my head for a bit to try and remember what was what. I'll just say I did not enjoy this story as much as I remember greatly enjoying earlier books in the series. There are some clever elements here but it just seemed much too drawn out and I was frankly bored with it in places. I could throw some specific criticisms in here, but I'll pass. It is not a bad book but I can say I was expecting much more.

39. Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway, finished June 4, 2017, 3 1/2 stars


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I read this collection of 14 short stories in part to compare it to Haruki Murakami's recent collection that borrowed the title. (here: >127 RBeffa:) These are indeed primarily stories of men without women. I can see even a few bits to compare, probably coincidental, such as the story of the boxer in '50 Grand' who is off training and misses his wife every day and writes her letters. I enjoyed reading this, but this is not the best Hemingway and some of the stories are just little slips of things that didn't grab me. Still, it is Hemingway. However, there are enough good ones, thought provoking vignettes, in here to put this at the high end of an OK read so I'm giving this 3 1/2 stars.

Sometimes when I read Hem's stories I feel like a little kid again listening to my grandpa tell stories.

>128 RBeffa: I forgive you for not loving Thick as Thieves (I have to confess that the middle of the book drug a little for me as well) but imho the payoff at the end was well worth it!

>130 ronincats: Thanks Roni. I really was underwhelmed with the story, esp the long drawn out middle. Also, knowing the author's history of misdirection from past books I sensed from the very start that what Kamet thought (was told) happened to his master was not the truth. I liked "the Atttolian" quite a lot but Kamet not so much.

I've had this rather tattered book for 5 years and don't recall where I picked it up - probably a library sale. Of the 40 books read so far this year I think this is #32 from off the shelf.

40. Orbit 9 edited by Damon Knight, finished June 6, 2017, 1 1/2 - 2 stars


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An anthology of original fiction from 1971, Knight uses many of the same authors from prior Orbit anthologies (and future ones). It is a mix of stories, a few that I enjoyed and too many that I didn't, primarily the ones that had "new wave" all over them. Others were interesting but odd, such as Robert Thurston's first published story that kept a mystery going through the pages and then ended without resolution. I read a story last year by Thurston called "Looking for Jake" in an issue of Asimov's Science Fiction mag that I recall liking a lot. 45 years had passed from 1971 to 2016. James Sallis has two stories in the anthology, and 'Binaries' which is one of those experimental 'new wave' types I would say, left me scratching my head and wondering what it was. It has, like several stories here, a running fascination with women's breasts. Make of that what you will. Coincidentally Sallis also had a story in Asimov's a few months ago, but I have run across his fiction over the years in magazines, primarily F&SF.

I read this over a period of time and some of the stories are not fresh in my mind. I did like Gene Wolfe's 'The Toy Theater' quite a bit. Joanna Russ's 'gleepsite' was lost on me. Kate Wilhem's novella 'The Infinity Box' takes up about a quarter of the space in the anthology and is a minor classic in the genre, a rather dark and somewhat creepy psychological suspense thriller. Not really to my taste but if you like the psychological suspense tales Wilhelm was writing in this era you'll probably like this.

Overall, for me, the stories were a big disappointment and I would not recommend this.

The included stories are:

7 • Heads Africa Tails America • (1971) • shortstory by Josephine Saxton
21 • What We Have Here Is Too Much Communication • (1971) • shortstory by Leon E. Stover
37 • Dominant Species • (1971) • shortstory by Kris Neville
42 • The Toy Theater • (1971) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe
50 • Stop Me Before I Tell More • (1971) • shortstory by Robert Thurston
70 • Gleepsite • (1971) • shortstory by Joanna Russ
76 • Binaries • (1971) • shortstory by James Sallis
87 • Lost in the Marigolds • (1971) • novelette by Lee Hoffman and Robert E. Toomey, Jr.
137 • Across the Bar • (1971) • shortstory by Kit Reed
147 • The Science Fair • (1971) • shortstory by Vernor Vinge
158 • The Last Leaf • (1971) • shortstory by W. Macfarlane
167 • When All the Lands Pour Out Again • (1971) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
181 • Only the Words Are Different • (1971) • shortstory by James Sallis
188 • The Infinity Box • (1971) • novella by Kate Wilhelm

>131 RBeffa: I fear I am a more credulous reader than you and I was gobsmacked.

>133 ronincats: I think the author left us enough things along the trail to question what was really going on. But that might have just been me looking closely.

------------------------

Some stories I have enjoyed by Zelazny recently and in the past caused me to pick this out of the stacks for a read. I thought I read this many years ago, but I had little memory of the story. As I read though it was increasingly familiar. #33 of books off the shelf.

41. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny, finished June 8, 2017, 2 - 2 1/2 stars


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This short novel is a very mixed bag for me. It starts very well and is intriguing but once we get through a bunch of figuring things, the first half of the book, the story got sort of sloppy, cartoonish and stupid for me when I was expecting it to up the game. Let me put it another way ... I couldn't care less what was happening. My biggest problem is that I was initially sympathetic but then realized I don't like the main character Corwin and have no reason to root for him (actually I could probably say most characters in here). The second half of the novel just really let me down and, for me, undermined any sympathy I may have had for the main character.

The story holds up reasonably well for something written in 1970 although the beyond obsessive smoking in the story does date this badly, as well as interjecting "Dig?" and "Like". You know , like wow man, can you dig it sort of dig and like. This is the first in a series and I have really loved some of Zelazny's short fiction so I was of two minds about yes or no to continue the series to see where this goes. I can see why I never continued the series the first time around and don't plan to continue now.

Hi Ron. I have a friend who swears by the series. I, too tried the first book and could not get into it. It is pulpy and feels serialized. I can how it is not your cup of tea.

>135 brodiew2: Hi Brodie - thanks for stopping by. Have missed you on LT.

Perhaps if one read Amber when it was new in 1970 it might have stood out from the rest of what was being written. I can't recall exactly when I read it - I'm thinking early-mid 80's. I may have read the 2nd one also - I had several of these in a box in the garage that i had forgotten about but discovered earlier this year. I dropped them off as a donation to the Friends of the Library last night. I really don't see the appeal of the first book. I'm much more of a critical reader now then I was years ago - I'm less forgiving of faults in books, but also I know stories are rarely perfect. This book just wasn't for me.

I bought this one in February so it doesn't count as a book off the shelf. Kawabata has become one of my favorite authors, Japanese or otherwise.

42. Beauty & Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata, finished June 9, 2017, 3 - 3 1/2 stars


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Beauty and sadness is what this is, the last novel of a Nobel winning novelist. The first chapter of the novel, 24 pages titled 'Temple Bells' knocked me over. It has a powerful start to this story that sucks you in and then it becomes unsettling with a rather crazy young woman. It gets creepy and that kept me from really liking this. How to describe this? I don't know. A man's affair early in life has repercussions 24 years later. How many times has a story like that been told? Perhaps this should be called Beauty & Revenge ... but it left me sad.

>137 RBeffa: I think that he is my favourite Japanese author, Ron. Tone wise he is very affecting.

>138 PaulCranswick: yes Paul.

I picked this collection up in 2011. #34 for the year of books off the shelf.

43. Analog 7 anthology edited by John W Campbell, finished June 11, 2017, 2 1/2 - 3 stars


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An OK selection of stories from one year's issues of Analog magazine - in this case 1967, and put together here in July 1970. Campbell as an editor certainly wasn't going new wave. This was not much better a collection than Analog 6 which covered the year 1966, and a handful of stories save this from the trash heap. This was a large anthology for the time that included the following:

Aim for the Heel • (1967) • novelette by John T. Phillifent
Fiesta Brava • United Planets • (1967) • novella by Mack Reynolds
Free Vacation • (1967) • short story by Wallace Macfarlane
The Featherbedders • (1967) • novelette by Frank Herbert
Weyr Search • (1967) • novella by Anne McCaffrey
Lost Calling • (1967) • short story by Verge Foray
The Last Command • (1967) • short story by Keith Laumer
Dead End • (1967) • short story by Mike Hodous
There Is a Crooked Man • (1967) • novella by Jack Wodhams
Elementary Mistake • (1967) • short story by Poul Anderson
Burden of Proof • (1967) • short story by Bob Shaw

The blurb on the cover says "Eleven excellent science fiction stories ranging from the ends of the galaxy to the mafia of the future." Hmmm.

My comments on some of the stories: Included in here among the good stories is 'Weyr Search', the first story by Anne McCaffrey in what would become her famous and long running Dragonriders of Pern series. It won the 1968 Hugo award for best novella. I hadn't read it in a very long time and was glad to do so. For a 50 year old tale it held up better than I thought it might. It was the highlight of this collection for me. A bit darker than I remembered but still, this is one of the stories that got my hooked on the genre long ago. Makes me want to try and reread some of the books in the series.

The first story here, "Aim for the Heel" immediately makes me think of Achilles, and the appropriateness of the title didn't dawn on me until the end of this rather old-fashioned but good piece of storytelling. On the downside I thought two of the longest stories were also among the weakest. "Fiesta Brava" annoyed me, increasingly, until I gave up on it. I can't believe people read and enjoyed stuff like that one! Then, “There is a Crooked Man” by Jack Wodhams was just a bit too creepy as well as uninteresting so I didn't finish this one either. Some people must think it worthwhile however because the story is included in a large anthology of 50 years of the best Australian Science Fiction Writing published in 2005.

Frank Herbert's The Featherbedders" and Verge Foray's "Lost Calling" were both entertaining with a bit of humor to them. Laumer's Bolo tale about a buried tank coming to life to fight its last battle was also pretty good and also a bit touching. The last story, "Burden of Proof" was Bob Shaw's follow-up to the superb "Light of Other Days." I thought it good, but I am biased in favor of the slow glass stories and Bob Shaw's storytelling.

Overall too much space was wasted on poor stories but there were some good ones.

Well, I started The Paris Wife this evening and I must say I was rather enchanted right from the start. I haven't gotten very far but I know I will like this. I gave myself a warmup by rereading 40 pages or so from A Moveable Feast which helped put me back mentally in Paris in the 20's and Ernest's world. I think I'll dip back into Moveable Feast a little more as I go, or maybe when I've finished. Or both. That book creates such vivid pictures in my mind when I read it. I feel like I'm sitting right there, that I'm seeing through Hemingway's eyes. And the short little chapters are perfect bites. Now perhaps I will be seeing through Hadley's eyes. It feels like it.

I momentarily set the Paris Wife book aside as I wanted to read this book this month. I've owned this book for many years, so #35 of books off the shelf is a read to honor the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway in June 1942 and the aircraft carrier Yorktown.

44. Rendezvous at Midway; U.S.S. Yorktown and the Japanese carrier fleet by Joseph Harrington and Pat Frank, finished June 15, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars


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The Yorktown was numbered CV-5; she was the 5th aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy. In truth really the 4th because the first, the USS Langley had been a conversion from a coal carrier in 1920. Yorktown was 5 years old when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and docked in Norfolk Virginia where she was due for a refit of her boilers and some other upgrades. Pearl Harbor caused her to be immediately sent to the Pacific. This is the story of the men, ship and planes. Many former crew members were interviewed as well as some Japanese. And war records that were available in the mid 60's when the book was put together. The book tells the story very well, with all sorts of small details and on to the battles of the Coral Sea and the miraculous performance at Midway where she went down. Yorktown stopped the Japanese in the pacific and dealt a crippling blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Coral Sea engagement was the first naval battle since Jutland in 1916 and the first carrier vs carrier battle with two large carriers on each side and an additional small carrier on the Japanese side. The Americans had a huge handicap at the start of the Pacific war with airplane problems, extremely defective torpedoes and bad ammo.

An interesting forward to this story is written by the Japanese Commander whose submarine sank the Yorktown.

I think I'll read another book on Midway soon.

DNF Miracle at Midway
by Gordon William Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon

I started reading this almost immediately after reading the Pat Frank/Joseph Harrington book at >142 RBeffa:. In fact while reading the former I had already spot read a few places in 'Miracle at Midway' such as the passage where the Japanese submarine torpedoes Yorktown. The Frank/Harrington book is a book on the Yorktown, six months in her life from December 7th, 1941 until her death June 7, 1942. It covers other participants in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway but the focus was on the officers and crew of Yorktown.

I hoped to get a fuller picture of the entire battle and participants from 'Miracle at Midway', and if I persisted in reading it I would probably get that. However I started to get mad at the book. Prange died before his books were published - other researchers took his extensive records and created his books in the couple years after his death. There is much valuable information in here but I rather rapidly lost faith in what I presume was the co-authors work - they couldn't even get the author's name right on the "Rendezvous at Midway" book - Joe Harrison? right... Mostly I disliked the style and the opinionated presentation, as well as glossing over some things that caused me to question just what was going on here.

I'm deleting this one from my library.

I picked this magazine digest up about a year ago (along with the July 1994 issue) so this is #36 off the shelf. It was one of the few from 1994 that I have not read and I enjoy reading the selections from Kristine Kathryn Rusch's tenure as editor during this period. I was reading very little fantasy or science fiction in the mid to late 90's.

45. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: June 1994 edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, finished June 19, 2017, 3 - 3 1/2 stars


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The included fiction material is:

Bloodletting • novelette by Marcos Donnelly
I Died, Sir, In Flame, Sir • Kevin Grierson • short story by Richard Bowes
Drainage • short story by Nicholas A. DiChario
Shepherd Moon • Near Space • short story by Allen Steele
Mother to Elves • short story by Michael Armstrong
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower • Bible Stories for Adults • 20 • (1990) • short story by James Morrow
The Black Bus • novelette by Marc Laidlaw

There are also some book reviews and other interesting material. The stories in here were interesting and quite good overall. Most of these were never published or collected elsewhere in books, so this is where you can read them. "Bloodletting" is one of the highlights here - initially confusing but ultimately satisfying. The end of the world and more is coming. The rest of the stories were good/OK/interesting, just not as mind expanding as the opener "Bloodletting". Not one of my favorites of these, although not a bad story, was the "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower". Remember, these are stories from June 1994. In this story God comes to earth to have a good talking to the Donald. The Donald wants to make a deal. The God does not. The Tower in the title ...

I wasn't too crazy about the long final story here, my least liked in this issue, Marc Laidlaw's "The Black Bus." Grateful Dead fans would find it interesting. Or not. A little trippy, but a creepy horror sort of thing that I didn't understand, which tends not to work for me regardless of the writer.

When this book was offered as an early reviewer selection in September 2010 I put in for it and just knew I would win - I was riding the rocking horse hard, but alas I didn't win - 1,348 people wanted 50 copies. Most of us were not lucky. I bought it a couple years later and then I have sat on it until now. There were reasons. I was afraid of it. I didn't need to be. It was a wonderful book.

#37 of books off the shelf for this year.

46. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, finished June 19, 2017, 4 1/2 stars


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I started off reading this one fast and then I slowed down. In fact I went back and forward and reread more than a few things. Not for clarity but for enjoyment. Having read Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" I quickly realized this was an excellent companion to it so I pulled that book off the shelf and read bits of it along the way. The Paris Wife is written in many small chapters (as is A Moveable Feast) and this makes it very easy to read small bits and be satisfied. Hadley Richardson, The Paris Wife, was Ernest Hemingway's first wife and some would say the great love of his life. One of, anyway. Maybe the one. She was, this book has convinced me, too good of a person for Hemingway, but they brought out the best of each other for an adventurous period of time, and for most of that time they were right and good for each other. Hemingway had to blow it in the worst possible way. I pretty much knew that before I read this, but now I know it better.

This is a wonderful piece of historical fiction that will transport you to another era in the 1920's, and give you a glimpse of the way it was. Highly recommended.

>145 RBeffa: Is it on the cover somewhere that Hemingway supposedly said he wished he had died before he loved anybody but Hadley? Sounds good, but if he said it, he might have calculated how good it would sound. Or, to paraphrase the last line of The Sun Also Rises, it's a pretty thought.

>146 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, it says something like that on the back cover. You are right, he may have said it because it sounded good. But what if it was one of his "one true sentence" feelings? He crazily let himself be in love with both Pauline and Hadley at the same time. He couldn't "man up" and do the right thing for Hadley though. He put himself in a bad place, or perhaps he was seduced into it, but no matter, he blew it. I would believe he regretted it his entire life.

>146 laytonwoman3rd: I was reading more of A Moveable Feast tonight - I've practically re-read the entire book except the Scott Fitzgerald parts and a few other bits, and in the last chapter a few paragraphs before the end we come to this:

When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling, the sun on her lovely face tanned by the snow and sun, beautifully built, her hair red gold in the sun, grown out all winter awkwardly and beautifully, and Mr. Bumby standing with her, blond and chunky and with winter cheeks looking like a good Vorarlberg boy.

"Oh Tatie," she said, when I was holding her in my arms, "you're back and you made such a wonderful successful trip. I love you and we've missed you so."

I loved her and I loved no one else and we had a lovely magic time while we were alone. I worked well and we made great trips, and I thought we were invulnerable again, and it wasn't until we were out of the mountains in late spring, and back in Paris that the other thing started again.

>148 RBeffa: The man could make some magic, couldn't he? I read A Moveable Feast a couple years back, and it was the thing that made me think I'd been dismissing Hemingway too readily for years.

I needed a little light music so got a head start last night on the July British Author challenge with a novel by D.E. Stevenson, Celia's House. I haven't gotten very far in it, but I am enjoying it a lot for a sense of time and place, and it is very different than my normal reads. I picked this up last December so I even get to count it as a book off the shelf.

>150 laytonwoman3rd:. Yes Linda, I think it is too easy to dismiss Hemingway, and although I have liked him for quite a few years now I find as I have gotten older I am better able to really appreciate him as a writer. For me at least I seem to have grown into some authors as well as outgrowing others. I think it is true as many people have said in one way or another that you either get Hemingway or you don't. I don't think one can be talked into liking Hemingway but I certainly believe he wrote some very good stuff. I'll be reading more of him.

Just before bed last night I picked up "The Paris Wife" and re-read a chapter or so, just a bit, to have a taste of the book and story again. As it happened it was the chapter where Hem and Hadley are with Ezra Pound and Shakespear and indulging in drinking some absinthe, but we get a little view from the outside via Shakespear's comment about how much in love Hem and Hadley are and maybe how rare that really is. It reminded me how much I loved this story and how amazingly well it fits in as a companion piece with "A Moveable Feast".

And so here we are, the last day of June - half the year has slipped by somehow. I haven't really been reading much at all these past ten days, been busy with other things, tho I did start on "Celia's House" by D.E. Stevenson, but I'll have more on that later when I get back to it and finish it up for the July British Author challenge.

The recap, my favorites so far this year


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Looking over my reads for the first six months of 2017 I suspect it is partially the fact that it is my most recent read, but I think Paula McLain's "The Paris Wife" is easily my favorite book so far this year. I have enjoyed quite a few good books so far this year - among them would be the books I listed at >96 RBeffa: which were my favorites of the first 3 months - of those I'd say that Robert Charles Wilson's Spin and Robert Olmstead's Coal Black Horse seem to have really stuck to my brain as favorites. The two books by Kawabata that I have read this year, 'Sound of the Mountain' and 'Beauty & 'Sadness' were both very good to excellent and continue to impress me.

I did love The Wind in the Willows which I started off April with - it will be a favorite of the year, but it is just an entirely different sort of fiction from things like Spin and The Paris Wife. Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls is sticking with me as an excellent book (and a pretty good film adaptation) as well.

46 books for the first half is very good for me. Only a few dud reads so far this year and I'm looking forward to the next six months of adventures in reading. I'm going to continue to focus very hard on books I have on hand. I purged over 40 books from my library last month or so and dropped them off at the friends of the library for resale. Several of these were books I had started but didn't really care for, but most were ones I've had sitting around for a time that I realized I'd never get to, so better for someone else to read them.

For the July British Author Challenge it is Stevenson month and I plan to read two of them at least. As previously mentioned my first will be Celia's House by D.E. Stevenson, which I have nibbled on and strikes me right off as a sort of pastoral novel that makes me want to put on a Ralph Vaughan Williams album.

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As for Robert Louis I have several of his novels on hand and will probably go with a lovely old (1949) illustrated edition of Kidnapped. I do have The Master of Ballantrae and Treasure Island to choose from as well.

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#38 of books off the shelf for this year. I picked this up late last year and it happens to fit in nicely as a selection for the July British Author Challenge.

47. Celia's House by D. E. Stevenson, finished July 4, 2017, 3+ stars


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This was what I can only call a "pleasant" book. I liked the first third or so of this novel the most. I kept expecting bad or dreadful things to happen, some gothic tale set in the early to mid 20th century, but this isn't that sort of book at all. I realized that well before I had finished the book, but I still couldn't quite get that thought out of my mind. It reminds me most of something that Lucy Maud Montgomery might have written, only this is set on the English Scottish border. The novel covers the period 1905-1942, of a family estate that was unexpectedly inherited. For me the entire setting and descriptions of the land was the strongest draw and in some ways the strongest character. This is a light romance thing as well, and the middle part has a drama that I see described as a retelling of Mansfield Park. It has been way too long since I read that novel to give an opinion, but the happenings certainly have a familiar feel of a period drama retold.

Overall I liked this and it does have a happy ending which counts for something. In a way it is a near perfect read for the style of story that it is. A pleasant pastoral read like this actually was a very nice change of pace and makes me want to visit something like this a little more often. This is a bit like a comfort food. I have my daughter's Little House books which I have always wanted to sample and I think I will before too long. Or perhaps I'll find another D.E. Stevenson novel in my hands one day.

Hi, Ron. I don't think it's dark yet where you are, but it is here, high atop the wondrous Schochary Ridge. I'm hearing scattered crackers, so here's some virtual hanging and booming, hooting and hollering. These won't set anything on fire.

>155 weird_O: LOL Well it is dark here now and it is boom boom boom. A house nearby us is having a party - not a common occurrence but they have been loud and lots of crackers. Six Flags which is about 6-7 miles from our house sets off a display which we can't see but can certainly hear. So you've given me the light show to go with the booms. Our cats would prefer it was over as well.

>124 RBeffa: Oh, some Patrick Ness stories I missed! Thanks for pointing those out.

Agree with you completely about A Monster Calls too.

ETA: Hmm, I can't seem to find those. Are they available as ebooks anywhere?

>157 sirfurboy: Hi Sirfurboy

I found those stories via goodreads where they had a link to each one. I had missed these two also. You may have to follow the link provided under each book on goodreads but try these and see what happens ...

snowscape is https://www.scribd.com/doc/141687602/Snowscape-A-Chaos-Walking-Short-Story#fulls...

wide wide sea is https://www.scribd.com/doc/141687258/The-Wide-Wide-Sea-A-Chaos-Walking-Short-Sto...

The links on goodreads contain a password but the links above are where you go so I hope it works for you. If not go to goodreads.

>158 RBeffa: Oh, there they are. Many thanks for the links :)

48. The Dark Between the Stars by Poul Anderson, finished July 13, 2017, 3 stars for the quality of the writing

#39 of books off the shelf for this year. I picked this up long long ago - probably in the mid 80's when I was getting back into reading science fiction again. and it has been boxed away in a closet for a great many years. I'm going through some of those old boxes and thinning them out. I did not remember having read this collection and since I generally liked Anderson's stories (in the early to mid 70's I considered him one of my favorite SF authors) I thought it deserved a read. The hardback was published by the Science Fiction Book Club and it has a gawdawful cover that rather creeps me out. (The cover, though, does illustrate a very brief moment - like one sentence - of the Voortrekkers but is not at all representative of the stories here). My personal problem is that the subject matter was at times too creepy for me in ways the lurid cover does not suggest. The first story won a 1969 Hugo Award for Best Novelette (and was nominated for a nebula award) and is about cannibalism on an almost lost colony of earth in the far future. The second tale, 'Fortune Hunter' starts off with this fabulously descriptive text that was beautiful but the story is about a fortune hunter, a man who has been trying to emotionally seduce a woman for selfish reasons over a very long time. Once I realized the guy was a creep it really took the shine off the story.

The third story 'Eutopia' first appeared in Harlan Ellison's 'Dangerous Visions' and so would be expected to be provocative. Anderson plays with the readers preconceived notions in this parallel world story and one doesn't hit the ick until the very last sentence, and in fact the very last word. Yuck. Then in another story we have a soldier subject to genital mutilation who is forced to betray his country in this spy game People's Republic of America alternate history story. The title of this collection may be the dark between the stars but it is more like the dark between the words. Dystopian futures and alternate / parallel worlds are a recurring theme.

Generally these are very well written stories but the subject matter and/or the 'twist' was not to my liking in too many. I would not really recommend this collection, although 'Call Me Joe' is a classic of the genre, which I have read before and was worth a reread. Also on the plus side, The Voortrekkers, although rather short, captures the excitement of future deep space pioneers in an unusual way. The personalities of the explorers are stored and then implanted in new bodies when the destination is reached across many light years in space. I think of it as like the Star Trek transporter system in a different use. Here though one must re-acclimate to the recreated body. (I like also Anderson's co-opting the term 'Voortrekkers' for the title of this story of man's migration into space.)

The better stories seem to be in the second half of the book beginning with Voortrekkers. Gibraltar Falls was a rather fun and existing trip into the past.

There is also a very good afterword in this collection which is oddly placed three stories before the end!


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The bulk of the stories collected here are award winning and/or have been anthologized in many different collections.

The included stories are:
Foreword • (1981) • essay by Poul Anderson
The Sharing of Flesh • (1968) • novelette
Fortune Hunter • (1972) • short story
Eutopia • (1967) • novelette
The Pugilist • (1973) • novelette
Night Piece • (1961) • short story
The Voortrekkers • (1974) • novelette
Afterword by Poul Anderson
Gibraltar Falls • (1975) • short story
Windmill • Maurai • (1973) • novelette
Call Me Joe • (1957) • novelette

Picked up Bruno, Chief of Police: A Novel of the French Countryside by Martin Walker at the library and read just a few pages so far. This looks like a good one. I can't remember now who here recommended it - but it sounded very promising. A couple weeks ago I asked one of our friends of the library helpers who knows a lot about mystery books about this author and he started gushing about the books and the author who I had apparently just missed in an appearance and reading at a nearby book shop last month. Drat!

Good morning, Ron! I hope your day is off to a good start.

>161 RBeffa: I've hear good things about that one around these parts as well. I hope you enjoy it.

Did you ever get around to Memories or Movie Memories by Shatner?

>162 brodiew2: Good morning Brodie!

I've got Shatner's Memories still sitting on my reading table with about half a dozen other planned reads but it seems to stay at the bottom of the pile! I think I am temporarily out of the Trek mood but I will get to that one or one of the novels before long.

No worries. I don't have any Trek on the horizon either.

I've had this book on my list of books to check out for a while. I've heard good things about it and picked it up from the library. This is the first in a series of books that now numbers ten books since 2008 with the latest published just a few days ago.

49. Bruno, Chief of Police: A Novel of the French Countryside by Martin Walker, finished July 22, 2017, about 3 stars


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Just a placeholder for the moment - I just finished it and I'll add a few comments later. I enjoyed the book but I think my expectations were a little too high. I welcome comments from anyone who has read this.

This isn't a long book but I think I slightly rushed it because I want to get to a Robert Louis Stevenson novel.

>165 RBeffa: I read that one last year, Ron, and enjoyed it enough to snag No. 2 from the library almost immediately. I liked that one too, but thought it had some pacing issues. I love the setting, the food and wine bits, and Gigi (was she in the first one? I don't remember!) the bassett hound. The investigation itself was the least of it, although the historical aspects were interesting. I usually have a little trouble deciding about a new series until I've read at least 2 of the books. I certainly intend to give Bruno another opportunity to make a true fan out of me.

Thanks Linda. I'll comment a bit more later but I'm hoping some others who read this drop their thoughts. I just had a look at the two reviews you posted as well as your comments at >166 laytonwoman3rd:.

My enjoyment of this novel was diluted because I felt like the proverbial fish out of water I suppose. I perhaps gained a bit more understanding about why the British want to leave the EU but I was befuddled by the police structure in France. Usually part of the enjoyment of reading novels set in different cultures is learning about how things work but this one left me too much in the dark or something. Walker uses lots of french words in here which I suppose is intended to be immersive for the reader (is that the right word?) but it just left me flopping there next to the fisherman wondering what is going on. I thought I was missing cues at first but I just don't know. After seeing the word 'Mairie' used numerous times from the first page onwards after about 50 pages I went to google ... town hall. Did Walker ever tell me that? I dunno but I think not. I think I was supposed to figure it out. This isn't really a big deal but I'm trying to show why I didn't get sucked into the book.

I did like the character of Bruno a lot although he seems just a bit too much of a good guy. It is a nice contrast to the tortured/damaged/whatever investigator of so many other books and I also like that this isn't so dark and gritty as too many murder mysteries can be. As I said, I'll add more later but that's where I'm coming from.

I do think the Bruno books set a very "French" tone....their attitudes, particularly in the countryside, are palpably different from those of the British and American detectives, that's for sure. I had to look up "Mairie" too, although I was taking from the context that it was where the Mayor (Mair?) had his office. I do fair-to-middlin' with a bit of ordinary French stewn about in print, but it doesn't take much to overtax my 2 semesters of mediocre performance in introductory French 45+ years ago. I enjoyed the character enough to carry on, but I'll have to be in the proper mood for it---if I want pure escapism, which is what I go to detective fiction for most of the time, I'll opt for a series where the author meets my ignorance more than half-way.

For me the shining star of the Bruno book is the author's fabulous descriptions of the area and his observations of people. I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't a real town but Walker tells us what it is made up of. For those who read this book here is a map of the town and discussion. http://www.brunochiefofpolice.com/st-denis.html

>166 laytonwoman3rd: Gigi gets a mention.
>168 laytonwoman3rd: Linda I think you got it right here. The book has a very French tone to it. It wasn't what I expected and I think I got off to a poor start with some aspects of it. I'm going to give it 3 1/2+ stars because the more I think about it the more I realize how much I liked it.

ETA: I'm planning to read more Bruno altho my library unfortunately does not have many later books in the series.

I posted a review of Martin Walker's Bruno Chief of Police which puts together my various thoughts on the book. I decided it was my fault as a reader to get my nose bent in the early part of the novel by what Linda so accurately describes as "a very French tone."

When I was at the library last week browsing the shelves I found a newish book by an author, Ben H Winters, who I really enjoyed a couple years ago with his Last Policeman trilogy. It is an alternate history book called Underground Airlines which rather surprisingly speculates that slavery persisted in America, written into the Constitution with amendments and that there was no Civil War in America in the 1860's. I say 'surprisingly' because it was published a month before Colson Whitehead's now famous The Underground Railroad. I only read a few chapters of Winters' book last night but this looks very promising and interesting.

Picked this one up at the library - it was published last summer. I've liked the author's previous work on The Last Policeman series.

50. Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters, finished July 27, 2017, 3 - 3 1/2 stars


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This is a disturbing novel. It is an alternate history of America in which slavery is still allowed in 4 Southern states. Constitutionally allowed and not subject to further amendment. There was no Civil War although we learn that in recent times Texas broke away from the Union and the Carolinas combined into one state at some point. Some states have let slavery go over time, usually for economic incentives. Our viewpoint character is a bounty hunter who is himself a former runaway slave now employed in order to keep his freedom, which isn't really freedom, to hunt down fugitive slaves in modern America. He works for the US Marshals. This is gritty, scary more than a few times and pretty dark with almost, just almost, an X-Files feel to it (in a hidden conspiracy sort of way, not visitors from outer space). The end game here sort of went off the rails a little for me, otherwise I might have given this closer to 4 stars. The author more or less throws a couple deus ex machinas at the reader as well as some other stuff that I don't think plays fair with the reader.

This book of an imaginary America will make you think about the America we live in.

Good evening, Ron!

>excellent review of Underground Airlines. I have not read it but I have followed the 75ers discussions over time.

By the way, have you ever read Cyberiad by Stanilaw Lem?

>173 brodiew2: Hi Brodie. Thanks for dropping by.

I have not read Lem's Cyberiad but quite a few years ago I read a couple of his "robot" short stories which I can't really remember other than having read them in an anthology or SF magazine. I suspect those short stories are part of, or closely related to Cyberiad once I took a look at a few descriptions of it.

Otherwise I have not read Lem altho I picked up a used copy of Solaris a few years ago that i have not tackled yet (It is not an easy read).

Picked this one up at the library - I've wanted to read it since it came out a couple years ago. Fictional account of a woman who joins the Union Army during the American Civil War disguised as a man. I suppose I was expecting something like Cold Mountain ...

51. Neverhome : a novel by Laird Hunt, finished July 31, 2017, 2 stars


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I was hugely disappointed by this. The story got its hooks into me on the first page and I read with a great deal of enthusiasm. At first. But even though it is not a long novel it is told at a rather agonizingly slow place and more and more questions came into my mind as I went from really like to OK to really don't like in pretty much a straight downward slope.

As folks say, your mileage may vary and this may be one of those but I couldn't buy this tale and I certainly did not like the path it took. Maybe I'll think differently later upon reflection. That happens with some stories, but I don't think it will happen with this one.
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OK time to get back to books off the shelf. They're screaming at me. Eeny meeny miny ...

Good morning, Ron! I'm sorry this one didn't work for you. I look forward to your next endeavor. :-)

>176 brodiew2: Good Morning Brodie! I haven't decided what my next book will be. I looked and nibbled on a few last night before bed but couldn't decide. I have not been reading much fantasy so might go with that, but it will probably be a science fiction novel or perhaps another historical fiction.

Have a good day!

I'm listening to The Two Towers. It has been a real treat. My favorite supporting character, Theoden, has some choice quotes.

>178 brodiew2: When I was in college in the 70's The Lord of the Rings books seemed to be what EVERYONE was reading. I read Dune on the advice of a dorm mate and I had never read anything like it. It completely blew my mind as folks said then. I mean completely. I gave the first Lord of the Rings book a try - I may have gotten half way in small bits and pieces and it just did not capture me. I read about 1/4 of the first Harry Potter book when it was newish and felt the same way. My easy explanation that I have come to is that I don't care for magic. That is not always the case, but it often is.

My daughter loves the stuff. She loves the books, she really loves the films. I may give Tolkien a try again, probably the Hobbit.

Ron--I saw your name pop up on the Kafka on the Shore thread and thought I'd come over and say Hi! I enjoyed your reviews, gave several of the books similar ratings, and love sci-fi, so I've starred you. ; ) Happy reading.

>180 Berly: Welcome Kim. I like having visitors drop in. I can't wait to get to Kafka on the Shore.

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#40 of books off my shelf. Have had this one for about 5 or 6 years just sitting there in the bookcase waiting to be read.

52. Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson, finished August 6, 2017, 3 stars


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Big idea story that was just a little too far out there. Too woo woo for the big idea. Several important elements of the story seemed underdeveloped. For me, the central mystery remains a mystery. A very interesting character story buried in here amongst the religious fascists. I liked that part of the book a lot and became invested in the characters. But a pall hangs over the entire book as it is clear that the nazi-like theocrats have a final solution planned.

I thought this was a new book when I bought it but it was a re-release of a 1994 novel.

Last night I started reading Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I was too sleepy tho and didn't get too far. I will get a fresh start today. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Good morning, Ron! I hope all is well.

>182 RBeffa: I know this Murakami is all the rage on LT right now. I've never read Murakami. Not sure he's my cuppa tea. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Hey Brodie. All is well. I had a birthday on the 7th and have been busy with RL "stuff" so haven't gotten far into Murakami. Murakami can get very strange, but in a good way. If you want to give him a try I think you might try After The Quake, if your library has it. It is 6 shorter stories that give a sample of what he does. I think of him as a favorite author but I don't "love" everything he does. However, I don't think I've really disliked one of his stories yet.

Hugo Awards are out! My comments here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/265555#6143033

Belated Happy Birthday!!

>185 ronincats: Thank you Roni. I will head over and check it out.

I just went a little crazy at the Friends of the Library book sale - picking up 20 books (I think), several jigsaw puzzles, a board game and season one of the walking dead. Two of the books were Liadens (Dragon ship and necessity's child). This rather defeats my books off the shelf crusade that I was doing so well at!

#41 of books off my shelf. I picked this one up on a whim a few years ago.

53. Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, finished August 13, 2017, 2 stars


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This is a slender book - just 128 pages. I'm not sure what to make of it. Ruminations on life and how to life more fully in it. More than that. It's OK. It was published in 1955 and Anne was born in 1906, several years before my grandmother. So these would be the ruminations of someone of my grandmother's generation. She came from wealth and privilege but lived through some personal highs and lows.

#42 of books off my shelf.

54. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, finished August 20, 2017, 2 stars





I wish I could recommend this book - I wish I could love it. But I cannot. There is a deeply disturbing scene about one quarter of the way into the book that I cannot accept as valid. The author went somewhere that I cannot accept, try as I might. It isn't the only disturbing scene - there are a couple things in here not to like, each disturbing in a different way, among dozens of charming and interesting things. You never know what is real and what is a dream in this book, which is fine, unless you are playing the reader, which Murakami does by putting some of the ick in likely dreams. I don't care - it is still ick. So there is good stuff in here, but the bad cards trump the good.

ETA 8/23/17 I changed the date finished to Aug 20 from Aug 22 - Don't know why I fumble fingered the date and didn't notice. I spent probably 6+ hours on the book last Sunday to finish it up.

I've been thinking about Kafka on the Shore since I finished it on Sunday - I haven't started another book so this has stayed rather firmly in my thoughts. I'm going to be one of the rare people who comes out on the dislike side. The ick stuff is what turned me off of the book as I've said before. But the more I think about this the more I realize what an unlikable as well as unlikely character Kafka is. And the author is a little too in love with teenage porn for my tastes but that may just be me. I can't pretend to understand what all went on in this book - the author has left much too much open-ended (I know, some people might love that open to interpretation style) although some
things are wrapped up in one way or another towards the end. Despite my dislike of Kafka, there are several characters in the novel that I was very fond of - Nakata, especially, but also Hoshino and Oshima, a lot, as well as the cats. Miss Saeki was very intriguing.

I liked immense portions of this novel. But I left it disappointed.

>198 brodiew2: Hmmmm...too bad. That one has been on my TBR pile for a long time, and recommended by my son-in-law. I will probably still read it for that reason, but now I've had fair warning.

>198 brodiew2: I didn't like Kafka on the Shore that much either. There was some clever stuff in there and some good writing, but I agree with you about those scenes (same with the Wind up Bird Chronicles). I also don't like his habit of not finishing his stories.

>199 RBeffa: I had wanted to read it also Linda since it is so highly rated and loved by many. I joined the group read this month here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/265836 . The majority of people recognize the disturbing scenes but still consider the book a 4-5 star read. I would probably rate this 4 stars except for the disturbing stuff. What gets me is that it was totally unnecessary and that makes it worse. There's some soft porn teenage fantasy going on in here, which for a 15 year old boy is understandable - but where that fantasy goes is both weird and wrong.

>200 brodiew2: Yes, this one is a little too open ended and not finished - intentionally it seems. There must be three versions or interpretations of the death of Kafka's father in here and none of them make sense when taken in total. There is a lot of good, clever writing in the book (plus a few clunks which are notable compared to the rest - awkward scenes like the feminazi visit to the library or ones that go on too long seemingly without a point)

The story really had hooks in me for a while which makes my disappointment all the more.

You can read plenty of hidden spoilers on the group read thread.

I was winged by a book bullet last month of this new book. I put a hold at the library and grabbed a copy today - I wasn't sure this would be the book for me but it looked worth a shot. The novel is The Book of Joan by Lidia Yukanitch and I've read the first chapter and it is looking pretty wild. What really convinced me to try this book was when I looked at the back cover and saw an inspired choice for a blurber - Amber Tamblyn. When Joan of Arcadia is talkin', I'm listenin'.

Library book. Did not finish.

NN. The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch





This literary boundary pushing book is a little too incomplete and "out there" for me. It was pretty intriguing at first, but that didn't last long. I really didn't want to read about some near future sadistic and masochistic strange people who have apparently devolved not within generations but within their own short lifetimes. Too much of this made no sense whatsoever. I read quite a bit of this but eventually so no point in continuing. I suppose this is what one writes when you are mad at the world.

>198 brodiew2: I am sorry Kafka did not ultimately work for you, but you get major points for perseverance, open-mindedness, and intelligent discourse!! It was a pleasure to have your viewpoint on the read. Thank you for sharing.

I see Joan didn't work for you either. Okay, you are seriously due for a good read now!

>204 RBeffa: Thanks Kim. I am hoping when the month is done there is some open discussion of the book without fear of spoilers. For one thing, perhaps the major thing for me, is the death of Kafka's father. Who killed him? I don't think Nakata did. I think Kafka did. But why would that be OK? Kafka is mad because his dad ignored him or perhaps blamed him for the disappearance of his mother and sister? Why is it OK for anyone to have killed him? He was a noted, admired and famous sculptor. The surreal Johnnie Walker sequence is like a red herring to me. Nakata thinks he did it, and that JW was Kafka's father but the circumstances of JW do not jive with the police descriptions of the death of Kafka's father.

And I still don't understand what created Nakata in the first place. So much effort was expended at the start of the novel to make someone (the reader) wonder if there had been an alien possession of the children (the silver aircraft) or something equally mysterious but unless I slept through a chapter somewhere I didn't see an explanation anywhere. Towards the end I speculated that perhaps the entrance stone had been originally on the hill near the school and maybe the children all fell into limbo through it, but that was a pretty flimsy theory on my part but the best I could come up with and nothing turned out to support it.

And who was Colonel Sanders anyway - an alt version of Johnnie Walker? Just some random Japanese spirit waiting around to stir things up? I need a little more story logic!

As I said earlier, this was just left too open-ended and unresolved.

Good morning, Ron. I hope all is well with you.

I'm also sorry to hear that your last two reads have been let downs. On the Audio front, I'm having great success, but trying to find something to read in print, that will hold my interest, has been difficult recently. Perhaps, its time for a palate cleansing Star Trek read. For both of us! ;-P

>206 Berly: I had that very Star Trek thought Brodie! I looked at a couple last night but I was in a funk. I'm trying an innocuous (I hope!) little memoir.

I've had good luck with Camino travel memoirs. Plus, I'm planning on finishing Two Old Fools by the end of the year. I started it last years, got two thirds through it, got distracted, and put it down. It is s fun memoir of a British couple who leave their flat in London and go to Spain to restore a broken down house they purchase. Quite amusing.

>208 RBeffa: Two old fools looks like fun. Since I liked the film "The Way" so much several years ago I think I would like a well done Camino travel memoir as well. Our library only has one by Shirley MacLaine which I'm not inclined to try. They do also have an actual travel guide.

I hate getting in these reading funks and I feel like I am in one all of a sudden...

I've read three Camino memoirs. I really enjoyed To the Field of Stars and, more recently, The Way, My Way.

>205 RBeffa: I would love it if you could copy and paste these thoughts and questions onto the group thread at the end of the month so we can have a further discussion of some of these points! And I'll save my comments till then. ; )

>211 laytonwoman3rd: I will do that Kim! I read back over several parts of the novel while reading, esp towards the end trying to figure out these puzzles Murakami had given us. I know it would be easy to miss things but I tried to stay very attentive throughout, much moreso than I would with a typical 'normal' book. It seems clear to me that Murakami was trying to misdirect the reader at various times and I became a little tired of his too frequent use of "words can't describe it, you'll know it when you see it" sorts of things.

I hope your tummy is OK.

>210 RBeffa: Thanks for the titles of the ones that worked for you Brodie. I've written them down on my booklist and will keep my eyes out for them.

#43 of books off my shelf.

55. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide, finished August 25, 2017, 3+ stars





The three word review: "Not enough cat." This is an odd but interesting little book that I picked up about two years ago. At the time it was a newly published translation of a short Japanese novel from 2001. "A New York Times BESTSELLER" is on the front cover. Actually I'm not sure if it is actually a novel or a true memoir. Much of it has the feel of an expanded diary kept by someone - it is rather disjointed in places, but I really enjoyed the descriptive details of Japanese gardens and spaces, and the cat. Just wish there was more cat. The story is about a couple in their mid 30's who become attached to a neighborhood cat who visits them. Oddly, most of the book seems concerned with things other than the guest cat. Ruminations on fate and Machiavelli, wanting to work as a writer, a sort of midlife crisis and ruminations on passing the mid 30's in age and what a cruel thing that was after the man spends every day for four months visiting a dying acquaintance. We also get copious detail observing the world through the windows of the cottage, some of which work like camera obscuras. Still, I enjoyed parts of this, though it does get sad halfway through. OK, I'll spoil - the dearly loved cat dies midway through the book. The couple who was visited by the cat then must deal with their grief.

This one doesn't count as a book off the shelf. I picked it up at a library sale last month and read it in small bits the last couple weeks.

56. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction February 2001 (No. 592) edited by Gordon Van Gelder, finished August 27, 2017,

4 stars





A variety of essays, book reviews and a few very clever cartoons with ten stories of fiction, plus a bizarre bit of something I don't know how to describe. The book reviews by Elizabeth Hand and Charles de Lint are quite literate and are something I look forward to with this magazine. This 16 year old issue is among the best that I can recall reading in many years.

The first story by Harlan Ellison, the cover story, in itself is a collection of 26 very short stories, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion this unusual piece is not among Ellison's better works, but it does have some clever moments. I wasn't fond of "Fish Story" by Harvey Jacobs - it started well enough but just didn't satisfy. "Queen of Thieves" by Michael Thomas was a well done small look at a future of the haves and have nots. We follow Rachael who is a kind of 'Artful Dodger' working with a bunch of lost children on the streets. "Under the Lake" by Garth Nix was a very well done dark and different spin on the the lady of the lake, Excalibur and the grail with a small bit of Merlin. "Moorina" was a selkie story that was less satisfying than some of the other stories here, but an interesting read nonetheless. "Red Flowers and Ivy" is another well done story and finally got us off planet and well into the future with a story of an explorer trapped on a dangerous planet who is trying to stay alive until a rescue crew arrives.

My co-favorite story here is Albert Cowdrey's "The King of New Orleans" set sometime in the 60's I think, in, obviously, New Orleans. It is a mashup tale of a Ward run by a little boss who along with the mayor and police and a cast of characters run a lot of dirty operations. Then they got big problems when something arrives and announces it wants to be King. The King and what happens is the scifi/ fantasy part of the story and I thought this part was not the best after the highly stylish and literate first part of the the story where I was being taken for a ride and feasting my eyes and brain on some great writing.

The final three stories complete this excellent issue with very different sort of stories. When I think of this collection, only Ellison's tale and the "Fish Story" disappointed me, and neither is a bad story. Frederic Durbin's "The Place of Roots" had some hints of the Japanese literature I have read recently in the way things are described in depth. It is a journey story following a death. Short and complete at only 6 1/2 pages, just enough to make one want much more. Carol Emshwiller has proven herself to me a number of times as an excellent writer and she does not disappoint here with "Foster Mother." I'll say this was my co-favorite story. It is a very emotionally grabbing piece with dark overtones with a foster mother caring for and raising a child in an isolated place.

The final story, "To Kiss The Star" by Amy Sterling Casil was nominated for a Nebula award and will remind some readers a bit of various brainship stories from years past. The idea of a human brain piloting future starships is not a new one, but this is a really disturbing, and yet touching story of who might be a candidate for the job and what that person might face. Excellent fiction.

The included fiction stories are:

From A to Z, in the Sarsaparilla Alphabet • novelette by Harlan Ellison
Queen of Thieves • short story by Michael Thomas
Fish Story • short story by Harvey Jacobs
Under the Lake • short story by Garth Nix
Red Flowers and Ivy • short story by M. Shayne Bell
Moorina • short story by M. Rickert
The King of New Orleans • short story by Albert E. Cowdrey
The Place of Roots • short story by Frederic S. Durbin
Foster Mother • short story by Carol Emshwiller
To Kiss the Star • novelette by Amy Sterling Casil

I prefer the fiction short stories to the sad cat book. Just saying. Great reviews!!

Good afternoon, Ron. I hope you had a good weekend. I might go to Goodwill and look for some old sf. I think I swynn has inspired pick a random oldie and give it a go. It might be fun!

>216 RBeffa: Hi Kimber. The saddest part of the sad cat book is that at the end the narrator pretty much realizes he doesn't know what happened to the guest cat. He is telling this story maybe 15 years after the fact and going over his notes he begins to realize that what may have happened (I'm not totally convinced but it is certainly possible) is that the owners of the cat got jealous over the man and wife spending time with the guest cat, and it was an unwelcome intrusion by them, and so they kept the cat away from the other family presumably by locking it inside until they move away.

>217 lkernagh: Hi Brodie. It has gotten really hot down here the last couple days. I went out to Lowe's to get some planting soil and a few things and while I was waiting in line in the garden dept I realized that the temp said 102. Yikes. I think we hit 104 shortly after. So a quiet weekend. I have collected a rather large amount of old science fiction, much in recent years, so I have enjoyed lurking on Swynn's thread. He's a bit more adventurous then me but I admire his DAW book read. I read a fair share of those books in my youth, but there are hundreds and hundreds of them - most i have never heard of. The fun part is when you come across a real gem, or at least a very good one that surprises you. I don't think you need to go totally random, but why not?? I hope you pick a good one.

#44 of books off my shelf. I've had this for a very long time (as well as the sequel). I started it at least once before, maybe more. Now I've finally gotten to it. After finishing I think I would have appreciated it more if I had read it closer to the time it was written.

57. Forge of God by Greg Bear, finished August 31, 2017, 3 stars





I'll give this an OK rating. I had more than a slight amount of frustration with the storytelling and style and I don't feel like I can give this a fair review. We have a science fiction novel from 1987, set begining in 1996, so you know some things will feel dated, but that is understandable and doesn't bother me at all here. It is basically an end of the world novel. We learn this very early on in the book. I can't put my finger on it, but something about the storytelling in the first part of the book kept me from getting pulled in to the story like I want to be as a reader. There are a lot of mysteries in the book, and some get answered - and some things don't. Was the author purposely misleading the reader? I don't know, but I do think there was some intentional misdirection here which didn't necessarily help the story, although it did keep the tension up to some extent. Some of the author's choices here bothered me - the US President starts going off the rails much too soon. The visitor, called the "Guest" tells them he is dying so please ask him the important questions, and do they? barely. So, ask the important questions! But, as often happens we get a story cut to somewhere else.

The characters here were the big weak point - with one or two possible exceptions - and the large number of them didn't help. This may sound petty but the authors use of names in the storytelling started to really get on my nerves. I think there are too many minor unimportant characters to keep track of here, but it is exaggerated by the way the author writes. Here's a totally made up example to show what I mean ... "Andy said to Robertson, "Do you see that spark in the sky?" John said to Hill, "What are we going to do?" You might think there are 4 people here but the author constantly flips back and forth between first names and last names so in my example this is actually two people. Sometimes he might throw in an Andy Hill and John Robertson to help unconfuse the reader after several sentences. I don't know - it was weird and as I said, it bugged me repeatedly.

The pace of the novel also seems rather slow in many places. I'll be spoilery here - I don't think it will hurt - the blurbs on the back cover tell you it is an alien invasion end of the world novel - but the best part of the book by far is the latter portion which details the destruction of the planet. It is emotionally wrenching to "watch" it happen, and one can't help but think - "This could really happen." Yosemite is a place I dearly love and when it is destroyed (along with everything, mind you) the author writes: "The death-sound of Yosemite was beyond comprehension having crossed the border into pain, a wide-spectrum roaring howl." The various descriptions of events threw goosebumps all over my body and gave me the shivers. So the end game here made the book worth the read and the epilogue-like finale sets us up for a nice followup novel. Which I intend to read. I do hope it is better written than this.

evil twin comment: Part of me thinks Bear watched Star Trek IV (1986) and decided to write a book (1987) where Captain Kirk and crew, and the whales, do not show up. But something else does ...

I'm going to take reading break for a couple days and then tackle some short stories for the American Author challenge.

I read a little bit, maybe 40-50 pgs here and there of the sequel to the book I just finished Forge of God. The sequel is Anvil of Stars and I didn't really like it, so I x'd it out and moved on..

This month is short stories for the American Author challenge and I think I will spend this month on short story collections. I read the first story in Olive Kitteridge and I really liked it, much more than I thought I might. I'm not sure I'll find myself liking cranky Olive, but if the rest of the stories are as good as the first I'll be happy. My plan is to read several story collections across the genres.

Meanwhile back at the ranch the temp is beyond insane in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a single room air conditioner which normally suffices for our very hot day. However, it did not suffice when we hit 111 yesterday and 110 today - and this is supposed to continue for 2 more days. I am wasted. A record temp of 106 was made in downtown San Francisco yesterday. I haven't checked today. Right now at 7:20 PM it is 96. Sheeeeeeeet.

>220 RBeffa: Wow...that's not SF weather. Where is it coming from? We're cold and rainy here---wish we could even that out somehow.

Sorry you are suffering in the heat. Portland has just had the hottest August on record. I think we only hit 99 today, but we are so not used to it! Hang in there.

sorry to be MIA. The weather here has mellowed yesterday and today but still plenty warm.

My mouth was apparently jealous of Paul Cranswick and started going berserker last Friday after several days of a mildly sore tooth. I developed a mild fever which is great when the temp is already 100+! and considerable swelling because of an abscess led to visits to a dentist and endodontist who started a root canal and then discovered he could not save the tooth because the tooth had cracked around the roots and could not be seen in xray but could clearly be seen when he drilled down into the tooth. I'm also one of those lucky folks with deep twisty roots. So this morning I had an appointment with an oral surgeon and had a molar extracted - the first time I experienced an extraction since having my wisdom teeth taken out decades ago. After all the pain of the last 5 days it made the extraction a great relief - i will still be in mellow mood for a few days with strong pain pills and antibiotics, but I'll be back! After things fully heal in 4 months or so I can see about getting an implant.

On the plus side for the AAC I have been slowly reading some of the short stories in Olive Kitteridge for the AAC and I am just amazed at how good I think this is. I'm maybe half way through and this will easily be a 4 1/2 or 5 star book. What a great read it is!

Bad luck about the toothache and all its ramifications. But, then, an excuse to lay low and read, as long as the pain stays under control and the pills don't bring on the heebie jeebies!

>224 RBeffa: I was a little too worn out to furiously attack any reading - or anything. I'm bouncing back and the pain has really gone away today which is amazing - I seem to be healing well and the antibiotics so far haven't caused me any stomach upset.

#45 of books off my shelf. I've had this for several years - picked it up after seeing numerous LT recs and read it for the Sept American Author short stories challenge.

58. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, finished September 8, 2017, 4 - 4 1/2 stars





Despite all the praise I went into the collection of 13 stories that comprise this book with some trepidation. I didn't think I could like what sounded like a book about a cranky old lady. Well, there is that in there, but this turned out to be one of the best short story collections that I have read in years. Olive Kitteridge is without a doubt a memorable character, but many of these stories only touch on her briefly - they are about other people in her town who may have brief interactions with Olive. There is some really sad stuff in here, but the stories are so diverse and so well written I am left with a very satisfied feeling and I'm very glad I read this. I do wish we had a bit more of Olive earlier in life. It felt like we fast forwarded a bit too quickly and only see glimpses of earlier Olive via character memories of her (usually pretty unflattering).

I nibbled at two story collections after Olive Kitteridge and decided i wanted some Hemingway. I'm not sure I've read the actual collection of short stories titled Winner Take Nothing, Hem's 3rd from 1933, but I certainly remember some of the stories within it which are among his strongest such as the opener "The Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber". So when I looked at the table of contents I knew what bookmark to pull out of my little stack to use for this - it is from a well-loved bookstore in the San Francisco Bay Area that has been gone for a decade now, with the last location closed in 2006. A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books.

>225 RBeffa: - Glad to see that Olive Kitteridge sneaked up on you as a good read!

>227 RBeffa: I REALLY enjoyed Olive Kitteridge. I slowed down towards the end. I found myself disappointed with the second to last one, "Criminal" and wish instead we had a story about Henry's death. Instead we skip that event and jump ahead to the last story "River" which I did like. It seemed like the front 2/3-3/4 of the stories were the best to me. I was about ready to give it 5 stars at that point. I wish we had a few more Olive stories to read ... but that story of Olive visiting Christopher and Ann made me pretty sad at the end when Olive loses it and I start questioning everything I had thought about Olive. Anyway, this will be one of my favorite reads of the year.

#46 of books off my shelf. A collection of short stories read for the September American Author challenge.

59. Winner take nothing by Ernest Hemingway, finished September 11, 2017, 3 1/2 stars





I'm a Hemingway fan, but that doesn't mean I like everything he's done, nor all the topics he chose to write about. Nevertheless there is no denying his power as a writer. This story collection dates to 1933 and includes one of his most famous short works, "A Clean Well-lighted Place" as well as what I consider to be one of his very finest and most memorable short stories, the opener "The Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber."

In all there are 17 short stories in this collection and several to me were very minor things which keeps me from rating this book higher. Anyone who is interested in Hemingway should read this however for the better stories and to see his breadth as a writer. There is some powerful stuff in here.

The last month or two and esp this month i have been picking up novels and starting them, only to quickly discard them. I know I have gotten pickier as I have gotten older and have higher standards in reading but I've also been bailing out on several higher end / newer books that are just not clicking with me. Several of my tossoffs were new and old science fiction novels. Part of this I know was my dental pain this month, but then I pick up a book like Olive Kitteridge which I read during the worst of it and I realize that it is more a matter of finding the right book. I haven't bothered to put down here my recent DNF books, which I probably should have with a note - I just took them back to the library or deleted them from my TBR. One of them tho was William Shatner's Star Trek memories, a book i have had forever and had read at least partly long ago. I gave it another go and just could not get very far. That one is a memoir, not a novel, but it fit my current trend to bail out on what was not working for me.

I pretty much want a book to grab me in the first chapter. I don't mind the occasional hard one that I have to work at, but right now I don't want that. Last night I pulled David Downing's Zoo Station off the TBR shelf. I had picked it up about a year ago after seeing a mention now and then about what a good series it was. I've only read the first chapter, 20 pages, but here was a book that really pulled me in and captured my interest like I want a book to do.

>230 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for sharing, Ron. What you describe has been me for as long as I can remember. I have started two different ST novels recently, gotten in 50 pages or so and then my interest just trailed off. I listen to a lot on audio and it's the same thing. I may have to try Olive Kittredge as I have seen a few warblings about how good it is. If you haven't tried A Gentleman in Moscow, you might give it a go. I don't think I've seen one negative comment.

>231 RBeffa: The frustrating part for me is that I used to think I did a good job of picking books for me - but some of my books I picked out long ago and I think I have simply outgrown or I'm in a different place in reading and real life now. Star trek novels can be fun - but I bailed on two of those as well. Maybe I've outgrown them as well! Probably not - I think a fair number of them just aren't that great and Librarything recommendations/reviews can be misleading.

I've been reading a lot of short story collections this year and I think that is a result of not clicking with novels.

A Gentleman in Moscow seems to have become very popular. There is a long wait at my library for one on hold, even though they got additional copies. Even the CD audiobooks have a long hold - although I think I would prefer to read the book. Eventually I'll be able to read it!

Good luck finding a good read. That's why I have such a large TBR pile(s). I buy books and then they sit there until they call to me again.

>233 RBeffa: Yep, that's me with the books on the shelf. "pick me, pick me!" they whisper. Luckily I seem to have found a good read in a WWII spy thriller set primarily in Berlin just before the start of the war. It focuses a lot more on interpersonal relationships and less, so far (I'm nearly halfway) on spy vs spy stuff - it is more building the weight of the ever growing Nazi nastiness looming over everything - different than one of Alan Furst's excellent thrillers. The book I'm reading is David Downing's Zoo Station.

#47 of books off my shelf. This is one I picked up about a year ago after seeing some favorable mentions.

60. Zoo Station by David Downing, finished September 18, 2017, 3 1/2 - 4 stars (closer to 4)





This is a very good slow boil thriller set in Berlin just before the start of WWII. It is billed as a spy thriller but it isn't the sort that Alan Furst excels at. There are several things the story revolves around, notably Jewish Germans and the development of a final solution for developmentally disabled children and other asylum residents. The characters in here are interesting and well developed.

The author obviously knows his history with all the period detail, although the naming of just about every street eventually seems a little excessive. This isn't a history lesson, however, unless one knows absolutely nothing about the rise of Nazi power in Germany. What it does do is put a human face on the unfolding events. Not a page turner until close to the end but it is a very satisfying read.

This is the first book in a series and my book included a preview of the following novel Silesian Station which looks very good.

Sounds like a good one. I'll keep an eye out for it.

>236 RBeffa: I really liked it a lot Jim, more than my review suggests I think. I tried Philip Kerr but his Bernie character was too much of a snark for me to like and it was written with an old detective noir style if I remember right which I just didn't care for. Our focus character here is much more of a regular good guy caught up in the mess of Nazi Germany who has to make some hard decisions.

I have both Furst and Kerr on my tbr piles, but haven't tried either of them yet. Hadn't heard of Downing. It's dangerous around here.

>238 RBeffa: I've been really wanting to get back to Furst, Linda. I started midstream with his series and have read 3 of them. I'll probably continue to read the more recent ones before I go back to the beginning. I've been on the hunt for them at library sales and bookshops and have most of them now I think. He is really good.

I think I have the third or fourth entry in each of their series, and that's what's kept them off the top of the pile. I always hesitate to start in the middle of things, even though the first book is often not the strongest.

>240 RBeffa: Linda, last year I picked up Alan Furst's A hero of France off the new books shelf at the library and liked it quite a bit. It is certainly a standalone in the loosely connected series of books. I gave it 4 stars which is a pretty good rating from me.

>235 brodiew2: Ah! So you found a good read. ; )

>242 RBeffa: I did Kim!

#48 of books off my shelf, I've had this for quite a few years. A collection of short stories read for the September American Author challenge.

61. Quicker Than The Eye by Ray Bradbury, finished September 24, 2017, 2 1/2 - 3 stars





A collection of 21 stories plus a good afterword. This was a little frustrating as it was quite a mix of material, some very good and some not in about equal measure. Then there was a handful of rather OK ones. In just about every story you could see the spark of an idea that led Bradbury off on his writing adventure, but where he went many times was the frustrating part, or when he let himself get carried away a bit too much with the whimsy or nostalgia. Still, there was some excellent writing throughout. This was a late in life collection for Bradbury and about half of the stories were published in 1994-6 with the rest new to the collection, itself published in 1996. My favorite story here was one called "The Finnegan".

I started reading two books yesterday. One is Orbit 2, a collection of science fiction stories from 1967, 50 years ago, that has been sitting on my TBR table for a couple weeks. I was prompted to start it after learning of the death on Sept 24th of SF author Kit Reed who has been writing for a great many years.

The second book is a re-read of something I read close to 50 years ago, Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey. I have a lovely edition from the Time Library that is more than 50 years old and looks brand new - those Time books from that era have held up remarkably well. I first read this story in a 2nd or 3rd year high school class I think. It won the Pulitzer Prize for 1928. My copy has an editor's preface and a very interesting introduction which really warmed me up for the story. I have seen criticism of this book over the years for various reasons that aren't important. The introduction to this book from about 1963 really lets me know why this was an important book of its time. I only read the first chapter along with the intro stuff before bed but I am looking forward to this. It is a short novel but I'm not going to rush it. This is one of the earliest books I have owned personally.

Good morning, Ron! I have been telling myself that I want to read Wilder ever since I saw the film Mr. North. He seems to be an author I would enjoy, but I've never made the time.

So the thing is, one is supposed to make a list of every year you have been alive and list at least one favorite book published in that year. This means that many many favorite books of mine published before I was born do not make the cut.

I cribbed a list from Roni when I saw many favorites of mine included, and then I added a smattering of longtime favorites and ones I had read since 2010. This will be a work in progress that I will update periodically. Unless a really exceptional year shows up I am going to try and limit my favorites for a given year to 3. I imagine most years will only have one or two.

So here goes:

1953 More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
1954 The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata (Japanese publication)
1955 The Quiet American by Graham Greene
1956
1957 Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
1958 The Time Traders by Andre Norton
1959 Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
1960 Born Free by Joy Adamson
1961 Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak
1962 King Rat by James Clavell
R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
1963 Way Station by Clifford Simak
Judgment on Janus by Andre Norton
1964 A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
1965 Dune by Frank Herbert
All Flesh is Grass by Clifford Simak
1966 Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz
1967 Dangerous Visions anthology edited by Harlan Ellison
City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle #5) by Ursula K. Le Guin
1968 A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Once an Eagle by Anton Meyer
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
The Demon Breed by James H Schmitz
Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Casteneda
1969 Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
1970 Time and Again by Jack Finney
1971 The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw
Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
1972 Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
1973 Protector by Larry Niven
1974 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1975 Shogun by James Clavell
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris
1976 Roots by Alex Haley
Trinity by Leon Uris
The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov
1977 The Path between the Seas by David McCullough
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
The Gameplayers of Zan by M A Foster
1978 The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
1979 The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Blind Voices by Tom Reamy
1980 The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward
1981 Cujo by Stephen King
1982
1983 The Burning Mountain: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan by Alfred Coppel
1984 Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
West of Eden by Harry Harrison
1985 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1986 Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
1987 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
1988 The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
1989 The Girl at the Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks
1990
1991 Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
1992 Brave Companions: Portraits In History by David McCullough
Fatherland by Robert Harris
1993 The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Hedge, the Ribbon by Carol Orlock
1994 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
1995
1996 Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
California Fault by Thurston Clarke
1997 Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
1998 Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
1999 Plainsong by Kent Haruf
2000 The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
2001 On Mexican Time by Tony Cohan
Jackdaws by Ken Follett
Tales from Earthsea Ursula K LeGuin
Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst
2002 Ghost Rider by Neil Peart
2003 Pompeii by Robert Harris
2004 March by Geraldine Brooks
2005 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
2006 The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) by Naomi Novik
2007 The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
2008 Dreamers of the Day: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking) (bk. 1) by Patrick Ness
2009 Homer and Langley by E L Doctorow
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness
2010 Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness
2011 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
The Martian by Andy Weir
2012 Sutton by J.R. Moehringer
Son by Lois Lowry
2013 Zoo Station by David Dowling
2014 All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr
Sentinels of Fire by P. T. Deutermann
2015 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
2016 A hero of France by Alan Furst
2017 Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami

>246 RBeffa: Ten years more than in my list, Ron, it is so much fun going over all these lists! ;-)
Of your list I have read 10, and one book is on both our lists.

>247 ronincats: I saw two Anita, A Wizard of Earthsea and Watership Down and I hesitated over Neverending Story which might get added later. If I had started at 1952 I would have even added a dutch author, The distant shore, a story of the sea by Jan De Hartog! I'm undecided about adding a number of books - they would mostly be for the empty years and they might be the best I have read for that year, but not exactly ones I would think of as favorites, so I have left it blank for now.

Thanks for the heads-up on correcting the author for 2005, Ron. Obviously I had originally put a Brin book in there but since I already had my favorite Brin book, the Uplift War, in my list, decided to go with my favorite Gaiman book instead, Anansi Boys.

I loved The Fifth Head of Cerberus when I read it, thought it one of the best books I'd read, but it's not one that I go back and reread so didn't meet the criteria for my list. I don't think I have more than three for any one year. Obviously, there are many books I reread that are published before 1949 as well. And some of the ones on my list were ferocious rereads as a youngster that I no longer reread now, such as My Side of the Mountain.

>249 ronincats: Cerberus is one I've re-read several times (more than once is rare for me as an adult), most recently in 2014. It has lost none of its power. I will read it again before long. I've debated adding more favorites from my younger days. I loved a number of Jim Kjelgaard's books but realized most were published before i was born - although Outlaw Red I recall as a big fave and that makes the cut at 1953. Robb White's The Survivor (1964) I should add - it is a favorite of both my wife and I. Many of the ones on your list like Taran and all the Alexanders are favorites of my wife.

I have a lot more work to do on my list! I like the idea so much I am going to carry it forward on my thread each year, updating it as I read and remember.

Nice list, there, Ron. I'm still working on mine. It's not easy, is it?

>251 brodiew2: No Linda, not easy to make it complete and to mentally decide which filters to use. I tried to minimize too many books from a series unless they are only very loosely related. I may add more of those. Then there are the books that I am sure are better in memory than if I re-read them now and many of those I held off on. I realize now for a few years I may have to put 5 books in. And as I noted above I should put more books from my childhood in, such as Where The Red Fern Grows, which I added just now. I'm looking forward to your list as well as others.

This link may or may not work - the first video I posted to Facebook years ago with my baby girl rocking to Tom Petty. I called it "Tom Petty rocks the baby". Go forth gently into the night Tom. You did good here.

https://www.facebook.com/ron.beffa/videos/vb.100000173574706/245709712111479/?ty...

>253 maikefa: *sniffle* Adorable.

I've read 22 off your list. And if I ever made my own list, some of them would even wind up on mine!! I knew I liked your taste. : )

>254 RBeffa: Thanks Linda.
>255 RBeffa: I made some additions to the list Kimber and just updated it - mostly to fill in some of the empty years. I should add more to it and will over time I think. Kind of cool you have read 22 of them - maybe a few more now!

I've read 34 off your updated list, Ron.

>257 RBeffa: That's pretty cool Roni - I updated it yet again with a few more books I had left off.

And now it is 36!

>259 weird_O: I need to go count yours. I feel I will do much worse on the count

Good morning, Ron! I hope all is well with you.

>246 RBeffa: Nice list. Some excellent choices there.

>261 RBeffa: Good morning Brodie, one day removed!

Glad you liked the list. It is a surprising amount of work to put that together but I am pretty satisfied with it. It will be a work in progress and I will add more, but I think of it as an interesting look at my reading history. Whoever started this thing, maybe Paul C, I am glad they did.

#49 of books off my shelf, I've had this for about 6 years, gathered at a time when I was seeking out some of the older science fiction anthologies. A collection of short stories that is 50 years old and almost fits with the September American Author challenge, except that it has one British writer in it, Brian Aldiss. I finished all but the last one several days ago and finally got back to finish it up.

62. Orbit 2 anthology edited by Damon Knight, finished October 5, 2017, 3+ stars





An original collection of 10 stories with an introduction by the editor for each of the tales. I never know when I am going to stumble on a really good collection, but this was good but not great. The orbit anthologies I have read in the past have been generally good. The stories are:

7 • The Doctor • (1967) • shortstory by Ted Thomas
18 • Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
36 • Fiddler's Green • (1967) • novella by Richard McKenna
110 • Trip, Trap • (1967) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
145 • The Dimple in Draco • (1967) • shortstory by R. S. Richardson as by Philip Latham
164 • I Gave Her Sack and Sherry • Alyx • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
185 • The Adventuress • Alyx • (1967) • novelette by Joanna Russ
211 • The Hole on the Corner • (1967) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
227 • The Food Farm • (1967) • shortstory by Kit Reed
240 • Full Sun • (1967) • shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss

The opening story "The Doctor" put me on notice that I might have a good one here. A physician from the present time volunteered for a time travel experiment at Pennsylvania State University which successfully sent him half a million years into the past of early man with no apparent way to return. In the story we see how the doctor tries to use his skills to help a tribe survive. Things do not go well, in fact they go very badly, but he perseveres, because he is a doctor. I liked this one a lot.

Kate Wilhelm's story "Baby, You Were Great" was noted by the editor as different from her usual work. It was and I didn't care for it, just not my cuppa.

The novella "Fiddler's Green" is the most interesting piece, sort of the star of this collection. Damon Knight says in his intro that it was one of a handful of unpublished stories Richard McKenna left behind when he died in 1964. Wikipedia defines Fiddler's Green so: 'Fiddler's Green is a legendary supposed afterlife, where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire. In 19th-century maritime folklore it was a kind of afterlife for sailors who have served at least 50 years at sea.' McKenna handles this idea of an imaginary place in a story where a ship transporting contraband explosives has sunk and eight men survive in an open boat. The future looks hopeless. McKenna was a US navy sailor (for 22 years) as well as an author and is best known for his famous novel and movie adaptation "The Sand Pebbles." I need to seek out other stories by this man, who died young at 51. As far as I know I have only read one other short story by McKenna in a supernatural/horror anthology several years ago. Orbit is advertised as the best new science fiction of the year, but this story would be better classified as fantasy although there is a mass hallucination of sorts within the story and one man develops a kind of telepathic mind control so I suppose many would think that element was science fiction. But is hypnosis or other forms of control sci/fi? Not to me. It was an intriguing story but I was disappointed with how it finished.

Gene Wolfe's "Trip, Trap" was a long fantasy / science fiction mashup that was pretty good and kept my interest, and told in an interesting fashion. Beware the troll bridge. Phasers on stun.

"The Dimple in Draco" was an interesting astronomy oriented story written by an astronomer.

I wasn't sure at first what to make of Joanna Russ's pair of related stories. In the first one Alyx bonks her abusive husband on the head, and perhaps makes him dead. She runs off, or rather swims off and finds herself on the ship of Blackbeard the pirate. Alyx is by no means an innocent sweet young thing. I found myself interested despite the strangeness of it all. There was probably a science fiction element somewhere I missed. I would call this a historical feminist fantasy as was the followup. Some people would probably love this sort of story - I found it amusing enough to give it an OK. I liked the first one more than the second.

Of the three remaining stories, Lafferty and Reed's stories were zany and a bit whacky and not really to my taste. Brian Aldiss, however, gives us a story of a dark future where machines have increasingly taken over and man has become pacified city dwellers. This tale is of a hunter, a hunter of werewolves which are men who have broken away from the cities. The story was interesting and had a very good and unexpected twist.

I have updated my best books by year of life list at >246 RBeffa: yet again as i have thought over the past few days. There are a few books I have left out and a few on the list that I fear might suffer with a re-read. Ragtime is an example. Is it really as good as i remember? probably not. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest? I dunno.

Early Stephen King novels are another I have left off the list. I remember being completely absorbed by several of them but can I really think of them now as best for a year - Carrie, Cujo, The shining ... I don't know - I lost interest in King in the later 80's and I think that colors my memory of some of his books I really thought were good.

I kicked myself for forgetting Flowers for Algernon - The book had been expanded from novelette in 1959 to novel in 1966. I had just started high school when the novel was out and it was assigned by my freshman english teacher. I loved that book (and the shorter version as well) but I have only listed it for the 1966 novel version.

On current reading I took a pause for most of a week, but I have started on one of my wife's books and it looks very promising. I had read a couple of Nevada Barr's books years ago - My wife has read most of them - I gave up on them, well that's not quite the word, but they were pretty dark - a little too dark for me and they became too dark for my wife who hasn't read the last several of them because of it - but The Rope interests me because it is a prequel for the series and shows how Anna Pigeon's story began. I've read the first couple chapters and I've already decided I figured it out. That is not likely of course but we'll see.

My husband was disappointed that none of Stephen King's novels made my list, Ron. He is very hit-or-miss for me, but I have certainly enjoyed some of them a lot, especially back in the '70's. But Thomas Tryon's The Other left such an impression on me that even King has a hard time measuring up. And I simply haven't read a huge portion of even his most popular work.

I've read 26 of the books on your list, and thank you for reminding me about Sutton, which I loved. (I think Ragtime probably is as good as your remember!)

>266 RBeffa: 26 is pretty good Linda. I'm putting Ragtime back in so it will be 27 (or maybe more) when I do my next update. I think I need to add at least one Stephen King early novel, probably Cujo, maybe another as well once I think about it some more. Cujo conveniently fits in 1981 where I was at a loss. As I said this will be a work in progress. I'm already remembering more books. I had Ragtime on the first draft and I shouldn't have taken it off - it is one of those books that almost 40 years later I can remember exactly where I was when I was reading it - it was such a good read. Also your list reminded me of Thornbirds which I may also add.

#50 of books off my shelf, we bought this one new about 5 years ago at Barnes & Noble. I'm not much of a fan of crime fiction or murder mysteries that live on the dark side of life, so I rarely read them. This one isn't dark dark but it is gritty in ways I'd prefer not to read.

63. The Rope : an Anna Pigeon novel by Nevada Barr, finished October 8, 2017, 2 1/2 - 3 stars





Fans of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series will want to read this one. Here we get the backstory of Anna when she first started work for the parks service as a temp. I've read several of the novels in the series, including the first one Track of the Cat. I stopped reading them 8 or 9 years ago partly because the stories are grittier than I prefer to read. This one is no exception. The big plus for me is the detail we get about various National Parks and recreation areas across the country. That will probably pull me back again sometime for a later read of another book in the series.

This story dragged a bit too long at the beginning so I found myself looking ahead constantly and then going back to where I was. That isn't a good sign. The story played out a little strange and the odd puppy love obsession in here was a bit overdone.

Ron, I've read 20 of the books on your list. Most, if not all, are on the list I made.

I'm not sufficiently disciplined to winnow my year-by-year short-lists to a single title as the absolute best. So the list runs to as many as 9 books in some years.

>269 RBeffa: you were working on it decade by decade which was a smart way to do it. I should head over and see what you finished up with and see how many I can count among your choices. One per year is too strict.

I'm reading The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng's first novel and I am pretty impressed. I picked this up two years ago and it has been sitting there as one of my read soon books, so I figured I better get to it. And I am very glad I did. Lovely writing and an immersive tale which reminds me of why I love reading books.

The fires here have been horrendous. Nearby Napa and Sonoma counties have been firestorms with unbelievable consequences. The children of two friends have lost their homes - over 1500 have been burned and the fires are not contained. The night before last the air was so toxic I woke up coughing. Staying hunkered down. I have been something of a nervous Nellie the last two days.

Ron, the videos on the news have been horrendous, so reminiscent of our Cedar Fire in 2003 where over 2200 homes were lost. I wore a mask for a week on that one, as the whole county shut down. I hope that wind dies down SOON. So far no fires here, although there's a bad one in Orange County in Anaheim Hills--some of our units were sent up there yesterday. The migraines the Santa Ana sends me are a small price compared to the fires.

It is really bad Roni. We have our house closed up and our fire alarm still blows off. I've got the air filter running near it now and I hope it keeps it quiet. The air feels like poison outside.

The wind has died down, the temps have dropped and humidity has risen - all good, except that no fires are under any kind of control yet and close to 30 mph winds are predicted to return in some areas tomorrow. They have about 24 hours here to try and get some control.

Wishing you the gift of rain, Ron...although I guess there isn't a reasonable chance of that happening any time soon. Stay safe.

Good morning, Ron! I hope all is well with you.

What are your thoughts about reading Lincoln in Bardo? I think its going to be my next literary read after finishing The Punch Escrow. You may want to check this one out, too. It's off to a fun start.

>274 Berly: Thank you Linda. As the crow flies the nearest fire is roughly 14 miles away in Napa. The front coming our way seems to have settled a bit - the air tanker drops are probably doing a lot of good. We have a bit of breeze this afternoon blowing towards the fire which has helped the air quality go from gawdawful to just plain bad. No chance of rain ... chance of fog soon from the bay.

>275 RBeffa: Hi Brodie. Lincoln in the bardo sounds a little too artsy for me. I'll look for your review of Punch Escrow which is probably a better fit.

Headway is being made in the Santa Rosa / Napa fires but there is still ongoing out of control fires. The weather has been helping with higher humidity and a lack of big winds. Air quality has been unbelievably bad although today it is better. I took this photo from my house last evening roughly 1/2 hour before sunset. A friend likened it to a poster for Apocalypse now. This is not the moon, it is the sun.


-------------------------------------

#51 of books off my shelf, I've had this for about 2 years and it has hovered on my read soon shelf the entire time. I'll be adding this one to my best books read by year list, dropping it into 2007. This book deserves much more thought by me than what I am going to initially put down here. I need to think about this one for a while.

64. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng, finished October 12, 2017, 4 1/2 stars





For me this was a very immersive read - one that took me to another place and time and almost completely captured me. I don't think I can add anything to the numerous reviews available for the book. It most reminded me of something like Graham Greene's The Quiet American or J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun. If someone wanted to give this a full five stars I wouldn't argue with them. I can't quite get there although this certainly falls near the top of my best reads of the year list. The novel breaks itself into book one and book two. The darkness that we knew was coming hits full on in book two and I got so caught up in it I could scarcely set the book down for a break. The story is set in Malaya. The Japanese are infiltrating the country in 1939 just as our story begins, and a young boy becomes caught up into it. It is an entirely believable and ultimately very sad story.

Highly recommended. This is why I read books. I'm going to need a break after this one.

ETA: I've been trying to put my thoughts together for a spoiler-free review and finding it unusually difficult. Even though we could see the path we and our protagonist were being led along in the first 2/3 of the novel, the choice eventually made was hard to absorb. I've been reading a fair amount of WWII fiction these recent years and when it isn't set in Europe it has been set in the Pacific naval theater. I've read some about the ground wars however, in Okinawa and China, and this being set in Malaya gave me a new view. This is really a powerful book, and heartbreaking.

>277 ronincats: From an artistic perspective that photo is stunning, Ron. Can't imagine breathing air that looks like that, though.

We have mostly stayed inside with everything shut tight - you can't breathe some of the air we had - today got progressively better - the fires have been burning away from us for the most part now and the winds were blowing towards the fire. Still, you don't want to breathe this for any length of time.

This is one of the strangest things ... http://twistedsifter.com/videos/postman-delivers-mail-to-neighborhood-destroyed-...

I see that I forgot to do my quarterly update of favorite books read this year - by year's end the list will represent not only the best books read for the year but a "stickiness" factor - a book may be good but how long the story sticks with you and maybe changes the way you look at life or certain events comes into play.

My favorite books read through June appears at >152 RBeffa:. At that point I had read 46 books and named 6 favorites, I'll now update it through today, and I have read 64 books (18 in the 3rd+ quarter):

The big change is my most recent book The Gift of Rain which I am going to put in as a near tie for first place with The Paris Wife. They are very different books but both really pulled me in to another world. So my current top 8 are:

1/2 tie The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
3 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
4 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
5 Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
6 The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
7 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
8 Zoo Station by David Downing

I've dropped The Wind in the Willows even tho I was enamored with it at the time of reading I recognized then that I didn't love all of it - it is a charming and wonderful children's classic nonetheless.

I'll also include an honorable mention for Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. Even tho I found myself rather frustrated with the book and ultimately disappointed I also recognize it as one of the three or four most stimulating books I read this year.

Sounds like conditions are slowly getting better up your way, Ron. Hope that continues apace!

>281 brodiew2: The fires are burning away from us. Yesterday I saw blue sky for the first time this week and the air didn't choke you - it was an amazing turnaround. Today was about the same. Breathable air altho the ratings that the air quality board gives it are still unhealthy. I've limited my outside time and we did let the cats out for a bit - they were going stir crazy these recent days. The amount of devastation shown on the news is just stunning.

I picked this up a couple months ago - it was mentioned somewhere as a good ghost story and seemed appropriate for a Halloween warmup.

65. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, finished October 20, 2017, 3 1/2 stars





This is an odd book. It is illustrated thoughout my copy with pen and ink drawings which reminds me of things I read as a child, or perhaps an old New Yorker or maybe even a touch of Madeline. This is written in a very old fashioned style as if it was 100 years old rather than 30. I was so thoroughly underwhelmed with the start of the novel that I was ready to throw it on the heap after about 25 pages. But ... I went and looked at some reviews and found other readers remarked on the blase beginning so I read on and it became a much better story. This book seems to have fans, and then there are a few who are underwhelmed. This is supposed to be a modern classic ghost story - and since I read close to none of that sort of story, at least as an adult, I can't give it a fair comparison. It reminded me a little of 'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson.

Our main character Arthur Kipps tells us a story of something he experienced as a young man. For him it is supposedly true, but I think he may have just been telling us a tale. I would advise prospective readers to persevere past the beginning because it does get much better and does manage to slowly build with a rather surprising and dramatic ending.

Up to 26 books from your list!! Sorry the smoke is still so bad. We suffered from the bad air a lot earlier in the summer. Thankfully we've had some rain. Awesome books on your 2017 favorite list!!

>284 RBeffa: Hi Kim. Thanks for dropping by and the comments! The smoke has been gone here for a while now and we had one night of very good rain which really cleared things out for that moment. The overall air quality still is not good though and I have not been outside near as much as I need to be with all the falling leaves needing cleanup etc. Not to mention I haven't been doing my walks very much at this lovely time of year.

I picked this up at the library - Brodie and others have mentioned it as an excellent read.

DNF Orphan X by Greg Hurwitz

Thrillers, especially modern day ones, are not my go to genre. I very rarely read them, but I do read a few. I tend to dislike the ones that are violence fetish stories in particular. So, despite my bias I still enjoyed parts of this story. I was slow to warm to the novel but as we discover who Evan Smoak is and how he got to be who he is, the story pulls you along.

There are more than a few things in the novel that I don't care to read; but this is a novel about killers and killing. On the plus side sometimes reading this is like watching an over the top James Bond movie in the full throttle moments. However, I disliked too much of this and stopped at around 100 pages.

I would not recommend this book.

Definitely not for me. I'm not a big fan of thrillers either, although I recall reading Ice Station Zebra in high school and loving it.

>287 jnwelch: Roni, I read a number of Alistair MacLean's thrillers in my early 20's and enjoyed them. I have a few hot button items that pretty much spoil a story for me but what I dislike in general are things that seem to celebrate, for lack of a better word, a culture of violence. I think Orphan X and many modern thriller novels and films fall into that and it is something I don't want to read or see. For one thing I think it is very unhealthy for our culture at large.

>288 RBeffa: I'm with you 100%, Ron.

#52 of books off my shelf, I bought this last year. When I saw the film a number of years ago I thought it might be a good book to read someday so I kept my eyes open at booksales. My library had lost their book - frustrating! It took me quite some time to stumble across a copy. I started reading this one a couple months ago and set it aside. I'm glad I picked it back up.

66. Appaloosa by Robert B Parker, finished October 27, 2017, 4 stars





This is a very fine western, something that rises quite a bit above standard fare. Virgil Cole can be a mean sonofabitch. He gets a bean up his ass and he's liable to beat the shit out of someone for no reason at all. I'm not too fond of that aspect of his character. However, he does try hard to be a good guy, a town marshall when one is needed. Not too many people can do what he does. The story is told by his "assistant" Everett Hitch. Hitch is a keen observer.

The story is told in an easy to read style that manages to display some fine writing. The basic story is a familiar one. Bad guys rule a small town. Someone needs to clean it up. A woman manages to get in the way of things. Parker handles the familiar elements very well.

This one might squeeze into a spot on my best reads of the year list.

Good afternoon, Ron! I hope all is well with you.

>286 RBeffa: I'm sorry that Orphan X didn't work for you. I appreciate you and your comments. I can certainly understand an aversion to the type of violence served up in this book. As much as the action is key, I am most enamored of Evan's relationship with his 'father', Jack. I found it compelling and original.

>290 Berly: As a big fan of parker's Spenser, I picked this one up many years. It was good, but indicative of his writing at the time. I have never read another Virgil Cole book.

>291 RBeffa: Hi Brodie! jack's relationship with Evan is what kept me going from the beginning. But did jack really "save" Evan? That was nagging at me the whole time. Anyway, it is good for me to try something different every so often.

>291 RBeffa: It's a good question. And a complicated one. I'd love to discuss it, but I get the feeling you may just want to move on. No worries.

>293 RBeffa: You're right Brodie. I mostly want to move on.

#53 of books off my shelf, I've had this for a number of years. This is from the author of "Day of the Triffids."

67. Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham, finished October 28, 2017, 2 - 2 1/2 stars





Something of a feminist story (from 1960) wrapped around the effects of the discovery of an anti-aging compound (from a very rare lichen which gives us the title). There is some food for thought here, although much of the story is overly melodramatic and told in a very English style. So overall this gets a low OK rating. I wouldn't really recommend this.

I want to throw out a request for participants in a group read of one of my favorite but relatively unknown fantasy novels, God Stalk by P. C. Hodgell. The "stalk" refers to stalking gods, not a stem. It is the first of a still ongoing series, but it is a complete story and easy to walk away from after the first book if you wish--indeed, all of us had to wait many years after this one to get a sequel. I am looking at possibly November, December or January for the time frame, but the actual month will depend on what those interested work out. If you would be at all interested, please PM me or drop by my thread and let me know.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/270239

In one of those bizarro things that happen every so often, I pulled out a book a couple days ago that I haven't read in 50 years - that would be Green Mansions which I read in my high school freshman english class - and i thought about that teacher - Mr Gillis - and how he really sparked me as a reader - the two books I most remember from that class were Green Mansions and Flowers for Algernon. Mr Gillis got me to read things beyond Tarzan of the Apes and sequels. So I read a bit of Green Mansions two nights ago remembering my 14 year old self simultaneously and how the book seduced me in the way that books do ...

and then this afternoon on Facebook some old school friends report that Mr Gillis has died. His daughter came on and said: "His last words were about how proud he was of his grandchildren and how much he enjoyed working at Terra Nova for thirty years. He loved his students and his memories of sharing his love of literature! "

So you can be sure that I am going to pick Green Mansions back up and continuing reading.

>277 ronincats: Oh good, Ron. I loved The Gift of Rain, too. Have you read his The Garden of Evening Mists? Even better, believe it or not, IMO.

>297 RBeffa: Have not yet read The Garden of Evening Mists, Joe, but I sure am looking forward to it!

#54 of books off my shelf, I picked this up several years ago as one of Bradbury's later works that I had never read. I would feel something was amiss if I didn't read at least one of his stories in October. So I'm squeezing this in with Halloween breathng down my neck.

68. From The Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury, finished October 31, 2017, 3 1/2 stars





In an odd way the best part of this comes when it is over, and Bradbury tells us in an Afterword how it was created from 1945 to 2000. I don't want to spoil that. If the reader didn't already know this is a book for Halloween, and it was born when Ray Bradbury was a child who had a very imaginative Aunt. This overall story is built primarily on some of Bradbury's early short stories, and one or two I have read before, most certainly "Homecoming". This is a return to October Country. I found it a very satisfying read and liked it much more than his "Halloween Tree." Bradbury's writing really shines here and although there are some weaker parts to this overall story he managed to do this so well that it really made me smile.

My paperback copy has a delightful inside 2 page spread double cover which was done long ago by Charles Addams to illustrate these stories.

Delurking....Hi! Great pick for an October read. I haven't read a Bradbury in...forever! I should fix that, huh?

>301 weird_O: Hi Kim! I would say you should fix that. I hadn't read Bradbury in forever either until a couple years ago I started reading a few I missed and then re-reading some old favorites. He can go a little too over the top at times when he tries too hard (it certainly happened in a couple places in the book I just read) but Bradbury remains enjoyable to revisit because there really isn't anyone else quite like him.

NN. Last evening I started on The Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks. There are a lot of short stories in this collection selected by Banks and published in 2001. Banks wrote a very nice introduction (9 pgs) to the career spanning collection that really whet my appetite. I read the first three stories, titled Djinn, Defenseman and The Caul. I liked Djinn the best but it was nothing like I expected to be reading. The next two stories I liked less. Djinn is set in an imaginary African state and it was entertaining reading but I can't say that I understood it. Defenseman was a relatively straightforward slice of memory story about ice hockey and skating as a youngster, but it was more pointedly a story about the relationship between a father and son. The Caul would require me to think much harder than I wish to about the story, but it is nominally about "Edgar Poe the Poet".

I'm glad I sampled Russell Banks - I've seen his works for years and yet never tried him. 3 stories out of 31 isn't a large enough sample for me to fairly evaluate his work, but I'd say these stories would appeal most to those who like their fiction literary.

I don't plan to continue the collection since it just didn't catch my fancy.

Afterwards I watched a DVD from the library, Appaloosa. I rather liked the book, mentioned at >290 Berly:, and think the book will fit into my top ten reads of the year. I didn't realize the film was quite as old as it was - not old really, a 2008 release, but I didn't think it had been that long since I had seen it. Well, my daughter and I were severely underwhelmed by the film. So much so that we agreed to turn it off at about the 2/3's point. We were bored. Having read the book the casting seemed wrong and although the acting tried hard in most cases to be true to the novel it didn't manage to capture the novel except in the broadest sense. There were a few alterations to the story presented, some important, some not really but I can safely say that the book is much better than the film.

#55 of books off my shelf out of 69 read this year. I pulled this one out for a re-read more than a month ago and and didn't get very far. So I restarted and here we are.

69. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, finished November 6, 2017, 3+ stars





“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning”.

This was one of the most unusual books I ever read as a teenager. As life has moved on much further, I thought I should see what my older self thinks. I think when I read this previously I thought it was based on a true story but I know now that it is entirely fictional and the author hadn't even visited Peru where the story is set. There are plenty of discussions and reviews available to tell a person what the book is about but the ones I casually scanned over really don't give the reader a clue what the experience of reading this book is like. And I won't be able to either.

We face head on the age old questions of why did something happen to a person, why is life so unfair, why does God let things happen to good people (or maybe not so good). The man here seeking the answers to those questions does not find those answers.

I can't quite call this a 4-5 star book, like many do, but it is an interesting book. This is a short novel and it deserves careful reading and appreciation.

>296 laytonwoman3rd: Oooh....those bizarro things.... I remember once when I was working on my genealogy, using a new family tree program, and as I was entering the data for one of my favorite long-gone uncles, I realized it was the anniversary of the date of his death. Shivery stuff.

Of all of Robert B. Parker's characters, I miss Cole and Hitch the most. I think he had done pretty much all that needed to be done with Spenser; Jesse Stone actually lives more for me in Tom Selleck's portrayal than in the books. Sunny Randall was an experiment that fizzled. But Cole and Hitch were a pair he could have done more with, and the guy who took over that series did a wretched job. I really wish Parker had written a few more of those.

>304 RBeffa: Way back when, when Spenser For Hire was on TV I enjoyed it and read a couple of the Spenser novels. That was a looong time ago and the last time I read Robert Parker until Appaloosa. My dang library seems to have lost the book after Appaloosa as well so I brought home brimstone but now I don't want to read it until I find what Hitch does after he rides into the sunset at the end of Appaloosa. I need closure and reconciliation etc! and I can't imagine Virgil forgiving Allie at this point but who knows? I want to!

So I'm going to not read brimstone until I find Resolution. I have a big library book sale in a couple days so I'm crossing my fingers for Resolution.

My wife and I enjoyed the Jesse Stone movies altho i at least haven't seen the more recent ones.

What did you think of the filmed version of Appaloosa Linda? As I mentioned above somewhere I was really underwhelmed on re-watching it after the novel.

I think I liked the movie version of Appaloosa better than you did, Ron, but then Ed Harris has always been a favorite of mine. I didn't think Renee Zellweger was right for Allie. I just looked at the IMDB listing for the movie, and I see that Robert Knott and Ed Harris wrote the screenplay. Knott took over the series after Parker's death, and as I mentioned above, I think he blew it, so I'm not reading any more of those.

>306 RBeffa: I remember liking the film quite a bit the first time around so I was a little surprised at my reaction on a rewatch. I felt there were several miscastings but the most noticeable to me was Renee Zellweger as Allie. While reading I imagined someone like a young Kathy Bates in the role. I also pictured the age as a twentysomething. In fact I pictured the age of all of the characters as 10-20 years younger then they were in the film. (Bragg ferinstance I pictured as much younger that jeremy irons was) I think Hitch matched up the closest for me, but even still I imagined him as around 35-40, and Cole as mid to late 40's. Lance Henriksen as Ring Shelton? No way. But that's just me.

-------------------------

I'm feelin quite indecisive as to what to read the next couple months. Some of my planned reads for 2017 just aren't going to happen. I've got this urge to revisit some older science fiction but I also plan on reading a Hemingway or two (prob The Sun Also Rises) for the December AAC. Plus Green Mansions hopefully. And I want to read or re-read something by Kazuo Ishiguro.

>307 Berly: Just go with your gut and see where the books take you! Your tentative list sounds wonderful.

>308 RBeffa: Yes it is sometimes best not to overthink it.

----

#56 of books off my shelf this year. I picked this one up several years ago when I was seeking out older science fiction anthologies.

70. 5 Unearthly Visions edited by Groff Conklin, finished November 9, 2017, 2 1/2 stars





These 5 novelettes came from science fiction magazines published between 1952-7 and were all written before Sputnik was launched. That fact alone influences these stories and their speculations. Honestly I was pretty underimpressed with these. All were long enough to give the reader some meat to chew on but they just showed their age in various ways, primarily in speculation. They were by Eric Frank Russell, Walter M. Miller, Jr., Raymond Z. Gallun, Damon Knight and Clifford Simak. Simak is normally an author I have enjoyed in the past but his story may have been the weakest here. The middle story by Gallun, 'Stamped Caution' and 'Dio' by Damon Knight were my favorites. The first concerned the unexpected recovery of an ET from a crash site and even though still as dated as all the rest it was an interesting story and I liked that ET got to go home. 'Dio" addresses immortality. Two good ones, but overall a disappointing batch of stories.

#57 of books off my shelf. This was published in 2001 and I have had it for quite a long time, buying it when it was fairly new. Since I've read and enjoyed a number of Wilson's novels this year I thought I would give his short stories a try. I read this one in bits and pieces over a couple of months.

71. The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson, finished November 11, 2017, 3+ stars





I am a little disappointed with these 9 longer length short stories. I've read at least 8 of Wilson's novels including 5 this year and they all have been good to great. I thought that several of these shorter works just don't measure up. Wilson is good at dreaming up big ideas in his novels and he has some big ideas here, but in this mix of horror and science fiction and a little fantasy and mainstream storytelling several of his proposals just come off as completely illogical and stupid. It is too bad because the writing here is excellent. Excellent as if you were reading a bit of literature, and the stories pull you in - it's just that some (most??) of these are just, let me say, crazy ideas as they play out.

Example? In 'The Perseids' a young woman gets preggers by an alien by absorbing static from satellite TV. There's more to it of course, and , it is draped with a bunch of drug mumbo jumbo that has nothing to do with anything, but that is the gist of it. That might have passed muster on an episode of "The Outer Limits" in the early 60's or the reboot but I expect a lot more from Wilson. The story that followed that, 'The Inner Inner City' played out as a dark fantasy/psychological thriller set in Toronto that kept my interest until a pretty unsatisfying end.

To be fair there are some very good stories in here as well as the creepy and weird.

I note that most people rate this much higher than I did, so ymmv.

>307 Berly: >308 RBeffa:

I'm in that "what do I really want to read" quandary myself, Ron. I think Kim has the answer. I start the "next" book, reading ten or twenty pages, and wander off to the book piles, scanning them for something that grabs me. Just now, I'm those few pages into Banks' Continental Drift, but half through Larry McMurtry's bio, Custer, which I pulled off the shelf just yesterday evening). And Joe's warbling about The Virginian launched me downstairs to fetch my copy of it (bought new for 35 cents, possibly unread). I might wedge that one in before going back to Mr. Banks.

>311 laytonwoman3rd: I pulled the Virginian out of a stored box as well Bill! I think that is part of my occasional wishywashyness - I read a bunch of good comments on LT and it puts all sorts of ideas in my head. That's a good thing - LT has done wonders for my discovery and rediscovery of books and writers I probably would have missed. I think I have 7 or 8 books partly read piled on the small stand next to my reading chair that i have nibbled on this past year. That works great for short story collections like I just finished up - I can read a story or two now and then over great lengths of time - gets harder with the bigger books though. I think I need to re-shelve a couple.

Appaloosa got me in the mood for another good western so McMurtry would fit the bill as well as The Virginian. However I scored two of the followup novels to Parker's Appaloosa at the library sale yesterday - both Resolution and Brimstone so Resolution will likely be my next western. What my actual next novel will be I'm still pondering ...

#58 of books off my shelf.

72. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold, finished November 17, 2017, 3 stars





Even though this was an enjoyable read, I'll say right off that this is probably my least favorite (of the nine books I have now read) Miles Vorkosigan adventure. I didn't like Miles here from the get-go, but that wouldn't be the first time for that. I did like elements of the world he visits, Cetaganda, which turns out to be much more than expected in various ways.

The book had a central mystery that I couldn't get the least bit excited about - there were too many names thrown about to keep track of and the uninteresting parts got in the way of the actual interesting bits. This was light fluff, comfort reading.

I've been trying to catch dinner out front. So far it hasn't worked. I hope everyone here enjoys their Thanksgiving.

This is a time of year when I as a non-American ponder over what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for this group and its ability to keep me sane during topsy-turvy times.

I am thankful that you are part of this group.

I am thankful for this opportunity to say thank you.

Thanks to you as well Paul. We have a nice community here and I have grown to appreciate it more and more as the years go by. I have certainly grown as a reader sharing with everyone here.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with food, friends, and books!!

>317 RBeffa: Thanks Kim! We had a quiet one. I made an herbed chicken rather than a turkey this year - and great stuffing and sides made us happy. Books have been on the back burner for a bit but I did finish something up this morning.

73. Granta One hundred and one edited by Jason Cowley with fiction and non-fiction by Ruth Franklin, Douglas Coupland, Louise Dean, Akash Keyes Kapur, Robin Robertson, Hilary Mantel, Andrew Hussey, Rick Moody, Robert Macfarlane, Tim Lott, Annie Proulx, Gautier Deblonde, Xan Rice, Joshua Ferris, Owen Sheers, and Janice Galloway. Finished November 25, 2017, 4 - 4 1/2 stars





This is an excellent book size issue of a UK literary magazine which carries the subtitle of "The Magazine of New Writing". This was issue 101 from Spring 2008 and is incredibly diverse. A couple of the highlights for me included a short piece by Hilary Mantel that amazed me in just a few pages describing something she acquired in Saudia Arabia in 1984. An outstanding piece of non-fiction on 'The Paris Intifada' let me see a part of modern Paris that I had no idea about and let me have a new understanding of what is going on there. There was also a remarkable man on the street view of what happened in Beijing to prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. There are several fiction pieces in here which were perhaps the weakest part of the material, but nothing terrible in the fiction. Annie Proulx's story about a family was good but the end didn't feel right. There was also an interesting photo essay of the Arctic, a strong piece concerning pilots during the war in Angola and many other interesting things and I can only hope that other issues come close to this quality.

I have a few issues of Granta...always exceptional.

> 319 I was so impressed I went out hunting for more issues as I read it this past month. I've gotten hold of about 20 different ones from past years and I'm going to keep reading these every so often. Meanwhile back at the ranch ...

----------------------------

74. Resolution by Robert B Parker, finished November 30, 2017, 3 - 3 1/2 stars





The title of this book is both the name of a town and resolution of several things that were left unfinished in Appaloosa, the first book in this western series. When Appaloosa was done we needed resolution of things left unfinished. Most notable was the fate of the long time friendship of Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. There was also the matter of Cole's rather ill-fated love. I guess I was imagining things from being inside Hitch's head in Appaloosa, because I thought we had a serious problem. But with an "Evenin', Everett" from Virgil Cole we did not. So, I felt a little let down with Parker seeming to take the easy way out. I know Cole and Hitch have a deep and long friendship that should not be easily broken, but I was looking for a better resolution. Hitch after all had walked away from Cole and the town of Appaloosa without a word goodbye.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest, I'll add that I thought the dialogue and characterization of Hitch and Cole didn't seem as sharp as the first novel. Did these little bothers mean I didn't enjoy the story? No they do not. I liked the story a lot and reading some of the scenes in here brought more than a few smiles of appreciation at how deftly they were done. The core of this story, like in Appaloosa, is a friendship. I look forward to reading the next novel in this short series.

Resolution was not my favorite Parker, either. But I did enjoy spending time with Hitch and Cole until whazzisname took over the series and ruined it.

>321 RBeffa: I just saw that you posted your review of Resolution with 4 stars. As to the F word it sort of stood out to me that Wolfson was using it to excess in ways that were not contemporaneous. Fuck certainly existed as did twat and whatever but I don't think Fuck was used in the manner Wolfson let go with. Not just Wolfson, Redmond got carried away as well with fucking law and order and why do you give a fuck etc. Another character was doing a "who the fuck" bit and every time that was happening it more or less threw me a ways out of the story and lessened my enjoyment. As I hinted above, I thought the writing had gotten a little sloppy in Resolution. I thought there were a few other anachronisms of speech sprinkled here and there along the way that didn't belong.

Maybe I should write a bit more and post a review. or not.

I've got Brimstone waiting but I think it will wait till January. I need to get busy with some Hemingway

" it more or less threw me a ways out of the story " Yes...exactly. I think Parker was way better with character than with setting, and probably not interested in a whole lot of linguistic research. But it struck me as so uncharacteristic of HIM to use the f-bomb so freely, because he never went that way in Spenser or Jesse Stone novels; maybe a rare hard-nosed thug would let it fly here and there. In writing as in speaking, I think it is a sign of sloppiness to throw any word or expression into your sentences every four or five words.

I've decided that #75 for the year will be Green Mansions, which coincides with the 50th anniv of my first read (see >296 laytonwoman3rd:). I have two editions, both old and I've read the introductory material in both and just barely gotten into the story (done only the first chapter). My oldest edition seems to be a lovely illustrated 1941 bookofthemonth club that is a pleasure to read. The very long intro to this one was written in 1915 by John Galsworthy (of Forsyte saga fame) and the man falls all over himself in effusive praise for the author of Green Mansions, W. H. Hudson.

Hemingway will wait til later this month.

I have not been reading a lot bookwise the last month or so but have instead been spending free time on Ancestry research and scanning in old family photos to share with extended cousins. I also did the 23andme thanksgiving special offer and the results make quite entertaining reading.

I haven't decided yet which is my favorite fun fact from 23andme:

Is it "Ronald's Neanderthal variants - 323
This is more than
97% of 23andMe Customers

or is it: You share a paternal-line ancestor with Niall of the Nine Hostages.

The spread of haplogroup R-M269 in northern Ireland and Scotland was likely aided by men like Niall of the Nine Hostages. Perhaps more myth than man, Niall of the Nine Hostages is said to have been a King of Tara in northwestern Ireland in the late 4th century C.E. His name comes from a tale of nine hostages that he held from the regions he ruled over. Though the legendary stories of his life may have been invented hundreds of years after he died, genetic evidence suggests that the Uí Néill dynasty, whose name means "descendants of Niall," did in fact trace back to just one man who bore a branch of haplogroup R-M269.

The Uí Néill ruled to various degrees as kings of Ireland from the 7th to the 11th century C.E. In the highly patriarchal society of medieval Ireland, their status allowed them to have outsized numbers of children and spread their paternal lineage each generation. In fact, researchers have estimated that between 2 and 3 million men with roots in north-west Ireland are paternal-line descendants of Niall.

So maybe a reread of Clan of the Cave Bear as well as catching up on my Irish Kings history is in order for next year.

I am enjoying Green Mansions quite a bit. Not as much as I did as a child of 14 I think, but it has a certain amount of charm and a great amount of mysterious tropical adventure. It is a sort of travelogue of Venezuela 100+ years ago. My old book has lovely illustrations. Here are some that others have shared from this edition on the internet

Thanks for the recommendation on Spin; I think I will give it a whirl.

>316 brewbooks: I hope you enjoy Spin as much as I did.

>325 ronincats: Love these!! We ordered the National Geographic kits for all of us for Christmas. Two of my kids are adopted. Should be interesting....

>328 ronincats: Thanks for dropping by Kim. Green Mansions is an interesting read but life has been a bit too full lately to leave me much reading time. I get a chapter or two done per day. I hope to finish up this weekend.

What you learn from these various ancestry kits is varied and interesting. It also prompts me to do more research. My college degree was a BS in Genetics but I left that area behind a long time ago. The whole bit of DNA sequencing and matching markers is an evolving science that seems to get better as these last few years go by.

Well, my BS was in Neuroscience and I left that behind as well! LOL. Both areas are evolving so quickly. Fascinating stuff. I anticipate my son (who is the most interested in the DNA heritage) may want to try another test, too, but this will be a good starting point.

This is #59 of books read from my shelf owned prior to 2017

75. Green Mansions A Romance of the Tropical Forest by W. H. Hudson, finished December 17, 2017, 3 1/2 stars





This is a book that thoroughly enchanted me as a boy of 14. Bits of it have lingered in my memory over many many years. 50 to be exact. Reading it now the storytelling can't help but come across as dated. What I also found upon rereading is that the story is much more than a tale about a Venezuelan who falls in love with a forest girl, Rima, "the bird girl." What this book really is about is it can be seen as an early ecological novel, about how man can only destroy and kill nature instead of appreciating how important it is and all that it has to offer. And of course man loves to kill man, especially if they are different. Some of Jack London's stories around this same time were also ecologically themed, ahead of their time.

Parts of Green Mansions have that overwritten over the top flowery writing thing going on that one finds of fiction of this age, and the ideas that lie behind the writing may no longer seem revolutionary, but they are nonetheless as important as ever.

Some readers, judging by a few reviews and comments here and there, get seriously bent out of shape by the author's depictions of the indigenous people. How dare he call them savages ...

Congrats on hitting 75!

Congratulations on reaching 75, Ron!

>332 PaulCranswick: >333 RBeffa: Thank you Jim and Anita. Nice to at least make the goal, and with enough time to squeeze in another before year's end despite all the busyness of life.

Way to go, hitting the 75 book mark with weeks (2) to spare!! Congratulations!

>335 Berly: Thanks Roni!

I should finish up my Hemingway read shortly, for the AAC.

My fluffcat Jasper has this to say about the season ...

This is #60 of books read from my shelf owned prior to 2017. I think I can say I really tackled books that I own this year. However, despite that progress and my wish to slow the incoming books down, I added about 160 books this year, many of these in the last two months. Sigh.. I also purged a lot of books this year, new and old ones read, and many unread that I have had for a long time. I didn't keep count but I am pretty certain a lot more went out the door than came in for 2017. My bookshelves are noticeably less stuffed (but still overfull) and several piles of books that I had in the corner of the family room are down to one short pile of recent arrivals, and two boxes of books from the garage are gone. So I'll call it a modest success.

76. In Our Time: Stories by Ernest Hemingway, finished December 22, 2017, 4 stars (I debated the star rating with myself on this one - I could go a little higher or lower but settled in the middle)





This is a powerful work - an unconventional grouping of stories that marked Hemingway's first major success as a writer. I believe these are the stories he is writing in A Moveable Feast and this time in his life when he is writing these is well covered in Paula McLain's The Paris Wife. In some ways the success that started here doomed his marriage to Hadley Richardson. One can also see many elements of Hemingway's life so far within these stories and the creation of the post WWI 'Lost Generation' . I am very glad to have read it for the AAC. Stuff like this is why Hemingway is one of my favorite writers.

I thought that (roughly) the first half of the book was the strongest with some hard hitting sketches and stories. Towards the middle I felt there was a slump, a fumble lets call it as well as a story or two where Hemingway lays on that Hemingway style just a little too thick, which on reflection keeps me from rating this higher than 4 stars. The Nick Adams stories in here were my favorites overall, but I like how Hemingway broke things up in a very interesting manner. A few of these stories might bother an overly sensitive reader for the language, topics and sensibilities of the times (1920's).

This was a reread for me - first read sometime in the early to mid 90's. I will likely read it again one day. I may add this one to my favorite reads of the year.

I'll try and squeeze in one more book before the year is over but I haven't started one yet. I've got a stack of magazines I should work on.

It is that time of year again, between Solstice and Christmas, just after Hanukkah, when our thoughts turn to wishing each other well in whatever language or image is meaningful to the recipient. So, whether I wish you Happy Solstice or Merry Christmas, know that what I really wish you, and for you, is this:

A little early but I am going to do my year in review. I had one goal for this year, to try and read 50 books already on my shelf, and I did 60 off the shelf out of 76 total. It was actually 77 books but I counted two novellas as one. According to goodreads my stats were that I read 18,090 pages across 77 books. Not bad. 2016 shows I read 17,360 pages across 80 books. Aha! Even though the book number was down my pages read was higher.

I read a lot of science fiction and some fantasy this year, much much more than I anticipated. In fact that represented most of what I read this year and I'm a little shocked by it. I think this happened because as I was pruning and purging from the books I had owned and not read, a lot were science fiction and I kept pulling out ones to give a try - and many of these ended up being read and some I bailed on rather quickly and didn't even note as a DNF. Besides science fiction, if I had a trend for other books I'd say it was war fiction and non-fiction, from the American Civil War through WWII for 7 books. What I scarcely touched this year were mysteries - for no good reason - but I've started a couple promising series that are high on my list to continue in 2018. My non-fiction reading could have been improved and hopefully will next year. I have quite a few good ones on hand I'd love to tackle next year. I'll post a few more thoughts on plans for 2018 when those threads begin shortly.

So my 10 favorite fiction books for 2017 ...

1/2 tie The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
3 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
4 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
5 Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
6 The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
7 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
8 In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
9 Zoo Station by David Downing
10 Appaloosa by Robert Parker

non fiction favorites were:

1 Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History by William Garrett Piston

2 Claude Monet, 1840-1926 : a feast for the eyes by Karin Sagner-Düchting

3 Granta One hundred and one edited by Jason Cowley with fiction and non-fiction by Ruth Franklin, Douglas Coupland, Louise Dean, Akash Keyes Kapur, Robin Robertson, Hilary Mantel, Andrew Hussey, Rick Moody, Robert Macfarlane, Tim Lott, Annie Proulx, Gautier Deblonde, Xan Rice, Joshua Ferris, Owen Sheers, and Janice Galloway.

A rather interesting meme/challenge on LT this year was to list a favorite book(s) that was published in each year of your life. I'm going to carry this forward and update periodically when I read a stunner. Here is what I have so far:

1953 More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
1954 The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata (Japanese publication)
1955 The Quiet American by Graham Greene
1956
1957 Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
1958 The Time Traders by Andre Norton
1959 Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
1960 Born Free by Joy Adamson
1961 Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak
1962 King Rat by James Clavell
R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
1963 Way Station by Clifford Simak
Judgment on Janus by Andre Norton
1964 A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
1965 Dune by Frank Herbert
All Flesh is Grass by Clifford Simak
1966 Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz
1967 Dangerous Visions anthology edited by Harlan Ellison
City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle #5) by Ursula K. Le Guin
1968 A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Once an Eagle by Anton Meyer
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
The Demon Breed by James H Schmitz
Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Casteneda
1969 Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
1970 Time and Again by Jack Finney
1971 The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw
Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
1972 Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
1973 Protector by Larry Niven
1974 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1975 Shogun by James Clavell
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris
1976 Roots by Alex Haley
Trinity by Leon Uris
The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov
1977 The Path between the Seas by David McCullough
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
The Gameplayers of Zan by M A Foster
1978 The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
1979 The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Blind Voices by Tom Reamy
1980 The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward
1981 Cujo by Stephen King
1982
1983 The Burning Mountain: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan by Alfred Coppel
1984 Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
West of Eden by Harry Harrison
1985 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1986 Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
1987 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
1988 The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
1989 The Girl at the Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks
1990
1991 Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
1992 Brave Companions: Portraits In History by David McCullough
Fatherland by Robert Harris
1993 The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Hedge, the Ribbon by Carol Orlock
1994 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
1995
1996 Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
California Fault by Thurston Clarke
1997 Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
1998 Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
1999 Plainsong by Kent Haruf
2000 The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
2001 On Mexican Time by Tony Cohan
Jackdaws by Ken Follett
Tales from Earthsea Ursula K LeGuin
Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst
2002 Ghost Rider by Neil Peart
2003 Pompeii by Robert Harris
2004 March by Geraldine Brooks
2005 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
2006 The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) by Naomi Novik
2007 The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
2008 Dreamers of the Day: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking) (bk. 1) by Patrick Ness
2009 Homer and Langley by E L Doctorow
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness
2010 Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness
2011 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
The Martian by Andy Weir
2012 Sutton by J.R. Moehringer
Son by Lois Lowry
2013 Zoo Station by David Dowling
2014 All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr
Sentinels of Fire by P. T. Deutermann
2015 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
2016 A hero of France by Alan Furst
2017 Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami

I did not pay close attention to the various challenges on LT this year but I did read some books here and there and I'm fine with that.

So maybe I'll get one more book in for 2017, and then on we go to 2018.

>328 ronincats: What a wonderful and thoughtful sentiment Roni. Thank you.

I must come back and review your year-end wrap-up, Ron. But for now, Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all good things this holiday season and beyond.

>341 RBeffa: Thank you Linda for the lovely Merry Christmas owl. The night before last I was out driving and a big owl came down in a swoop along the roadside. The whole underside was whitish so I think it was a barn owl but it was a small unexpected thrill. Merry Christmas to you from the west coast.

>342 Thank you Paul for the season's greetings. I've only lightly browsed the threads the last couple months - I just can't keep up! - but I've enjoyed Hani's photos and know you will have a happy reunion in England shortly. That old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder is generally true!

Happy Boxing Day!!

Ron--Hi there! If you want join us, there is a group read of Guido and another Italian Guido by Gianrico Carofiglio. Our 2018 thread is here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/276579

>345 Thanks Kim

My 2018 thread begins here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/279392

Happy Holidays, Ron!

I'll star the new '18 one.

The God Stalk group read thread is up in the 2018 group, Ron, here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/279620

>347 Thanks Joe.
>348 Thanks Roni. I'll star it.

The year is drawing to a close. Buh-bye 2017...



So Happy New Year, Ron.

I'll be trying this reading business anew in 2018, hoping to do better both in numbers (just...just...well, uh....a half-dozen more would be satisfying) and in being more social (getting around the threads, tipping the hat, sharing a smile). See you on the other side, my friend.

>350 Thanks Bill. I looove that 2017 gif.

Keeping my reading log current makes me happy, but I find it hard to keep up with all the threads I'd like to keep up with, and some are just way too busy and I'm at a loss jumping in. At best I drop a note here and there when something catches my attention. I'd like to do a little better in 2018 as well for visiting. So I'll be seeing you next year and I'm glad your ankle is on the mend.

I'm just starting to read Kent Haruf's Eventide tonight, which is the followup novel to Plainsong. I'm liking it already after a chapter or so. It will be my first read for 2018.