Sibyx's 2017 reading rambles the First

Po in her favourite element and Tenzing Norcat "just hangin' out".



Happy February 2017!!!

For January reading round-up go to >4 sibylline:

Currently Reading (March)



new The Grand Tour Adam O'Fallon Price contemp fic
✔ Flower Net Lisa See hist mys china
✔ The Dead Ladies Project Jessica Crispin lit essays
♬ Last Act in Palmyra Lindsey Davis hist mys roman era
Murdoch Marathon: ONGOING. (No plans for reading IM at present) IM readers group is HERE
Virago No immediate plans

26. ✔ The Customs of the Kingdoms of India Marco Polo travel, history
27. ♬ Poseidon's Gold Lindsey Davis roman emp. mys
28. ✔Liar's Oath #2 in The Legacy of Gird Elizabeth Moon ***1/2
29. ✔ In the Heart of the Amazon Forest Henry Walter Bates travel, adventure ***1/2
30. ✔Sheepfarmer's Daughter#1 The Deed of Paksenarrion Elizabeth Moon fantasy****
31. ✔ Divided Allegiance #2 in The Deed of Paksenarrion Elizabeth Moon fantasy ****1/2
32. ✔ Oath of Gold#3 Elizabeth Moon fantasy ****1/2
33. new ♬ Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett fantasy ****
34. ✔ My Struggle: Book 3 Karl Ove Knausgaard contemp fic *****
35. ✔ Me, Myself, and Us Brian R. Little psych. *****

DNF (did not finish)

2016 Round-up!

Best of 2016

Contemporary or Historical Fiction
Troubles & The Siege of Krishnapur J.G. Farrell
Year of the French Thomas Flanagan
The Furies Janet Hobhouse
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon (reread)
The Lymond Chronicles Dorothy Dunnett (five volumes) See Best Series also!!

Science Fiction
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie
Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet Becky Chambers

Fantasy
The Sarantine Mosaic Guy Gavriel Kay

Mystery
Inspector Yashim The Janissary Tree Jason Goodwin

Best Series
The Lymond Chronicles Dorothy Dunnett
The Cazelet Chronicles Elizabeth Jane Howard

Non-Fiction
Into the Silence Wade Davis

Disappointments of 2016
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
Fates and Furies Lauren Groff

2016 Reading
Total: 130
Men:41*
Women: 64*
(* This can't be quite accurate as it adds up to only 105, however I expect it is that I read many books by the same author and didn't always count them separately.I'm not going to sweat it!)

Housekeeping

TOTAL IN=110
TOTAL OUT= 31
(This could use some improvement!!!)

Reflections 2016
This year I only read 130 books falling short of the customary 150 goal, leaving only a twenty book "margin" between what I read and what I acquired. Interestingly, the men/women skew is about the same as last year. The non-fiction drop was a shocker (8 vs 23) but all nf was, at least, all of very high quality and some of them were very long. I read MORE contemporary and classic and historical fiction, 35 vs 30, and was surprised that mysteries were about the same as I still think of them as a "new" genre interest. There were far fewer new authors (23 versus 54) (more on that). I borrowed more books from the library and listened to almost double the amount of audio books (23 vs. 13). I also did terribly at reducing books on my shelves (37 vs 67) and at reading my new books, but then, I did read twenty fewer books all told. I also didn't read too many books that I quit, I didn't pick them up, basically. One reason for some of these skews, for good or for ill, is that I did get into several series--some of them VERY high literary quality (the Dunnetts, the Howards) some a little less so, but this meant that I had to acquire the NEXT book pronto whether from the library or new or however, which also reduced how many books I read "off the shelf". I would like to think that I will turn to my shelves this year, but who knows really . . .

January Reading

1. ♬ The Relic Master Christopher Buckley hist mys***3/4
2. ✔ Forests: The Shadow of Civilization Robert Pogue Harrison natural history ****1/2
3. ✔ Paddy R.D. Lawrence nat hist *****
4. ♬ The Silver Pigs Lindsey Davishist mys ****
5. new Crown of Stars (bk 7) Kate Elliott fantasy ****1/2 (for the series)
6. new The Nature of the Beast Louise Penny mys canadian ****
7. ✔ A Nest of Simple Folk Sean O'Faolain fiction irish ****
8. ✔ Deception Well Linda Nagata sf bk 2 ***
9. ♬ Shadows in Bronze Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire ****
10. ✔ The Girl in the Spider's Web David Lagercrantz mystery swedish ***
11. new Having the Builders In Reay Tannahill hist fict ***
12. ✔ My Cleaner Maggie Gee contemp fic ***1/2
13. ✔ Eggtooth Solla Carrock contemp fict, short ****

DNF
✔ Vast Linda Nagata sf

Total: 13
Men: 5
Women: 8
M/W writing together: 0
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic/Hist Fiction: 3
SF/F: 2
Mystery(inc hist mys): 5
YA or J:
Poetry:
New author: 8
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed:
Audio: 3
New: 2
Off Shelf: 7
Did not finish: 1

Housekeeping

TOTAL IN=2
TOTAL OUT= 13

Books in
1. The Battle of Hastings Harriet Harvey Wood
2. Betrayer (12) C.J. Cherryh

Reflections January 2017
I had no idea I'd been reading so many books that qualify (loosely) as mysteries (or thrillers). The Tannahill could almost go in that category too -- it's pretty light for historical fiction, but it could also be categorized as a romance . . . Likewise The Relic Master, with a stronger historical element, isn't really exactly a mystery, except it sort of is in a larger sense (where did the Shroud of Turin come from?). The Falcos are, of course, just pure delight. The Penny was business as usual, but I did enjoy revisiting the enormous gun scandal, and I'll give Larsson's successor room to grow in. Not a great deal of serious reading, although I did finish up the Pogue (on forests in our imaginations) and that is a tremendous read, stronger in the first half. The O'Faolain was a different sort of read from all the rest, the slower pace and careful building of the story, the whole story, of a Fenian, held later as a hero, but who was very human. My Cleaner was a bit of disappointment to me, and let me see, the Carrock, Eggtooth is an oddity but I'm glad to have encountered it. I quit one book, Nagata's Vast, I just couldn't find it in myself to care and go on. My top read and top author find of this month was R.D. Lawrence (Go read his bio on line, it will blow you away!) and his joyful story about the beaver Paddy.
.

February Reading

14. ✔ Smoking Poppy Graham Joyce contemp fic ****1/2
15. ♬ Venus in Copper Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire ****
16. new The Turner House Angela Flournoy contemp fic ****
17. ✔SPQR Mary Beard history ancient rome *****
18. ✔ The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson hist fic *****
19. ✔ Alliance of Equals Sharon Lee Steve Miller sf sp/op ****
20. ♬ Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett fantasy ****
21. ✔ The Burgess Boys Elizabeth Strout contemp fic ****1/2
22. new Call of the Cats Andrew Bloomfield nf ***1/2
23. ♬ The Iron Hand of Mars Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire ****
24. new Hag Seed Margaret Atwood contemp fic ****
25. ✔ Surrender None Elizabeth Moon (in Legacy of Gird) fantasy ****

Total: 12
Men: 4
Women: 7
M/W writing together: 1
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic/Hist Fiction: 5
SF/F: 3
Mystery(inc hist mys): 2
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 4
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0
Audio: 3
New: 3
Off Shelf: 6
Did not finish: 0

Housekeeping

TOTA (for year) IN=8
TOTAL OUT= 14

Books acquired Feb.
3. Smuggler's Moon Bruce Alexander
4. An Experiment in Treason Bruce Alexander
5. Person or Persons Unknown Bruce Alexander
6. The Iron Hand of Mars Lindsey Davis audio
7. Poseidon's Gold Lindsey Davis audio
8. Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett audio

Reflections February 2017
I'm delighted to see that I read more contemporary or classic fiction than anything else this month, a real sign of feeling more adventurous and resilient, not that any of the novels I read were emotionally taxing, I haven't gotten to that state of mind yet! (If ever.) I finished two behemoths, one The Long Ships which is, so far, the best fiction read of the year, truly magnificent and loads of fun, and the other SPQR, history of Rome, from the founding to what she considers the peak moment, of Roman hegemony in the 200's CE when (I forget the name awready) the emperor declared that everyone within Roman territory was a citizen. (Unless, of course, you were a slave.) That is not to say that the other fiction I read, contemporary as opposed to classic, was not good, Smoking Poppy was gripping (father goes to find missing daughter) and The Turner House (about a big Detroit family) was absorbing. Atwood's rendering of The Tempest with Hag-Seed was blissful. A short month but an excellent one. I'm not quite on track for 150 but not too far off it yet either.

Series

Started in 2017
Paksenarrion's World READING: Liar's Oath#2

Continued in 2016
Marcus Didius Falco Lindsey Davis NEXT UP: Last Act in Palmyra #6
Inspector Gamache Louise Penny UP NEXT: A Great Reckoning
Discworld: Witches Terry Pratchett READING: Lords and Ladies

Completed or caught up with (to be continued= tbc) in 2017
Crown of Stars Kate Elliott (7 of 7) COMPLETED

Won't complete
The Nanotech Succession Linda Nagata READING: Deception Well

Dropping my star, Lucy! Happy New Year to you! Your topper made me smile BIG.

Happy New Year and happy reading 2017, Lucy.

Happy reading in 2017, Lucy, lovely Corgi topper!

Happy New Year! (dropping a star)

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.

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

Hi Lucy. I mostly lurked last year on your thread, and my goal this year is to comment more.

Love the picture of Posey in the snow above.

Best wishes for a wonderful New Year!

Thank you all for stopping by to set stars.

>14 arubabookwoman: no guilt over lurking, I do a fair amount of it myself!

>3 sibylline: disappointed to hear that Sense of an Ending disappointed you! I loved that one, did it suffer from increased expectations? Or just fell flat?

Happy new year!

1. ♬ hist fict ***1/2

1517 in Germany, at the height of the craze for relics, Dismas, a Swiss ex-soldier hunts for bits of the cross and toes, fibula, fingernails, and some out and out disgusting parts of saints, for the collections of the wealthy who then display these relics to the masses who pay to get in, but feel it is well worth their while as time spent praying over relics earns time off in purgatory. These days are, however, about to come to an end, as Martin Luther, during the very time in which this tale takes place, posts his famous complaints on Frederic the Wise's church door. Dismas is friends with the great Albrecht Durer and one way or another the two get themselves into a terrible scrape when they create a false shroud. It's a fun read, a bit of a silly plot, but nicely researched details, and successful in arousing my curiosity about the times, people, and places described. Perhaps the greatest mystery of all is why Frederick of Wittenberg allowed Luther free rein. Listened to rather than read. ***1/2

Haiku summary:

Tongue, toe, nail and shroud
Save your soul? Kiss a relic!
Oops, lost one. Make fake?

>16 LovingLit: I think my review more or less explains how it struck me. As ever, I am humbled and fascinated by how differently we react to books!

Hi, Lucy! Happy new year!

Welcome back!

>17 sibylline: Probably more information than you want, but this book I read in 2015 probably has some answers.

Book #50 The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch (687 pp.)

The book is 792 pages long, but since I didn't read the notes (not comments, only citations of sources) nor the index, I don't count them. This is a blockbuster of facts and people from the 1500s through the 1700s as Europe underwent the upheavals of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. MacCulloch deals with overlapping contemporaneous events and personages with copious cross-referencing and ironic humor as he first sets the stage with a picture of Europe prior to the Reformation, then looks at the years noted above throughout Europe as these movements rippled across the land, then looks at the lasting effects on the everyday people. Fascinating!

Happy New Year, Lucy, and a star! I wish you a year of great satisfaction and lots of good reading!
(*sigh* I still have Roni's *Reformation* on the Read Now table with at least 400 pp yet to go. It is fascinating and sneakily funny, but I can't make myself pick it up again. Maybe '17 will be the year.)

Happy New Year, Lucy!

Aaaaw, Posey smiles at me! :D

Happy New Year and Happy Reading, Lucy!

Just dropping off a star so I can follow you in the new year, Lucy! Cheers!

Happy New Year, Lucy! Just placing a star.

Found you! I enjoyed your Club Read thread last year, so I'll follow you here in 2017!

Starred you, Lucy!

Ah! Very briefly, the illusion that I can read a book a day!

2. nature and culture! *****
Forests: The Shadow of Civilization Robert Pogue Harrison

(It's likely that I'll be tinkering with this review for some while . . . this is a dense book.)

Human civilization grew up and out of the shadows of the immense forests that came to cover all of the Northern Hemisphere at the conclusion of the most recent glacial event and are thus therefore, utterly, completely dependent on the forest at every level, from the most pragmatic to the most profound. That, in a nutshell, is Harrison's thesis. His purpose is to show (and he does not travel outside of western civilization to make his point, but it holds globally, I have no doubt at all) how this great truth informs every human creative and cultural impulse at the deepest level. From Gilgamesh to MacBeth, from Descartes to Conrad, from Rousseau to Thoreau, it seems that almost no change in the understanding of the human condition comes without, in some form or another, a "return" to the forest for inspiration, exploitation, or transformation. It was a brilliant exposition too of the the contradictions and limitations of the "enlightenment" view that through rational means man can be perfected. To do this requires denying "the shadow", that is, requires taming the wild and forested, which is nothing less than the massive destruction of nature, and ultimately, yes, ourselves. In the first three-quarters of the book, Harrison traces this evolution, in the final chapter he brings forth his final thesis, that having "left" the forest (nature) to live in dwellings we are forever separated from our "roots" (see how pervasive it is!); the closest we can get to nature is through the poetic mediation or "logos" or "bringing together" of the visionaries. He links our fear and denial of death (which nature "going into the forest" can teach us not to fear) with our wanton destructiveness of nature. In the final part of the book, making his point about the poetic "mediation" without which the little connection we have with "nature" is feeble at best, he discusses the work of Constable, Thoreau, an English poet named John Clare and an Italian poet named Andrea Zanzotto. The exegesis of a couple Constable's paintings was fascinating and illuminating, and his view on Thoreau added something new to the mix, his enthusiasm over Clare an Zanzotto--both poets so rooted to their home ground that the one went mad when he lost his home and the other never leaves home. Interesting to learn about and perhaps now I will see them everywhere. I'm not sure what I think of it all, but I am convinced it is very much worth meditating on in a serious way. One major take-away was a new understanding of how the medieval hunting forest preserve of the aristocrats and the "rational" forestry methods of the enlightenment period (in which it is assumed that everything on earth must be useful and exists for the benefit of mankind) are in a way, at the root of the warring factions between wildlife preservationists and the forestry industry today. ****1/2

Haiku summary
Forest, our dark side
Should it serve or be left wild?
Enemy? Friend? Both?

Hi Lucy! You're starred.

Happy New Year, Lucy!

Wasn't A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet good? Our son loved it, too, and now my wife is enjoying it. I thought the next one, A Closed and Common Orbit, was awfully good, too.

I loved The Relic Master, too, for what it was -- a delightful piece of froth. And a lot of wink, wink; nudge, nudge for those history buffs with a knowledge of art. It was so much fun. And yes, a good audiobook. I need another one like that!!

How's Miss Po? Give her a smooch from me.

Happy 2017 Lucy!

Happy New Year, Lucy. I love your best books for 2016 list.

And, a book a day :) - Wonderful.

Dropping off a star. Happy reading in 2017!

Happy New Year, Lucy!

>29 sibylline: What fascinating insights into the value of nature, forests in particular. You might be interested in Barkskins if you haven't already read it. Proulx laments the deforestation around the world through the eyes of loggers and Native Americans. I love to walk in the woods and worry about how hard it is to find trees in all their glory anymore. Our nature center is a few miles away and one of my favorite places to walk and ponder life.

Lucy, so glad I found you! Just dropping by to wish you a happy new year and all the best for 2017. I can't promise regular visits because Real Life is still fraught but now that you are starred, I hope to catch up now and then. Happy reading!

Hi Lucy, have tracked you down! I think your opening gif is perfect!

HAPPY THINGAVERSARY, LUCY!!!

I can't answer all but I thank you for visiting and dropping stars!

>36 Donna828: My spousal unit just finished Barkskins which he gave me for my birthday -- he said I would love it.

>37 tiffin: Tui! Just lurk here anytime! Delighted!

>38 lit_chick: Pretty cute, eh, but I will tire of it, no doubt.

>39 LizzieD: Oh Peggy! I TOTALLY forgot! Thank you. It's been seven years, is that right? I joined in 2010. In theory I could give myself 8 more books, but in reality I am so overwhelmed with all the books I have and nowhere to put them, frankly.

Happy Thingaversary, Lucy!

Nothing better than a corgi gif!

Also, happy thingaversary!

Happy TA, Lucy! :))
And those books can be bought over the year and even moved to future years, if I remember well?

Woohoo! Happy Thinga, Lucy ... (a little bird, who might have been on Peggy's thread told me about another celebration over here)

Happy Thingaversary, Lucy!!

And you do have a Kindle, don't you? No space, no harm, and check your wishlist, or use as a credit when books you really want pop up. (Does that make sense?)

Hi Lucy! Just visiting threads to drop off stars. A belated Happy New Year to you! Also: I bought the first of that Dorothy Dunnet series for my kindle. I'm excited to get started but also not sure if my historical and linguistic knowledge will be up to scratch! But, where you bravely lead I try to follow, oh wise one!!

>18 sibylline: is your review of The Sense of an Ending posted on the book's page? I cant see it on the first 4 lots of reviews.

>28 SandDune: oh wow- that sounds like a book I need to read. I am at the library at present so will see if we have it....stat :)
Eta: >29 sibylline: , and my library didn't have it :(

>47 LovingLit: It is posted in the reviews, dated March 17, 2016 - if you hit 'next' at the end of the LT reviews about four or five times you should get to it. And I think you meant to do >48 sibylline:?

Yep. And yep :)
Will check it now, looks like I went one or two clicks shy of where I needed to!

3. natural history *****
Paddy R.D. Lawrence

Move over Bambi to make room for Paddy! A few days after arriving at a pristine lake in Ontario, Lawrence stumbled across the meagre remains of a wolf kill and recognized that the prey had been a lactating female beaver. Frantic with concern over the kits who would be doomed to die with no mother to feed them, he searched and searched . . . and as with many quests, it's when you are about to give up that things begin happening. He raises the tiny creature--a true naturalist Lawrence never went anywhere without eye-droppers and powdered milk for just this sort of situation--over the course of the five months he is at the lake and by the time he leaves the beaver is re-adopted by his family, which isn't really a spoiler because this is a story that is all in the telling. Lawrence alternates information about beavers with his experiences that summer and at other times in the wild, along with that hard-earned wisdom of those who have really learned to observe thoughtfully and carefully. A wonderful book with which to begin the year. *****

Back to add that I just read, on the R.D. Lawrence website a chronology of his life and was stunned although not entirely surprised by Lawrence's extraordinary life. At 14 he was fighting in the Spanish Civil War and it just goes from there. Wow. Awestruck.

Hi Lucy! Paddy's on the wishlist now. Sounds right up my alley.

4. ♬mystery roman empire ***1/2
The Silver Pigs Lindsey Davis

A silver pig is an ingot of lead still infused with silver from the mining process. In this, the first Marcus Didius Falco mystery, Falco, the ancient Roman version of a P.I. rescues a young woman and stumbles into corruption that goes right up to the highest levels. He's the usual good-hearted block-head who makes choices based on honor and thus tangles himself even deeper into trouble that of course more or less sorts out by the end . . . but leaving plenty of loose ends to continue into the next book which, of course, I am already listening to. Set in the time of Vespasian -- half the fun is looking things up and studying maps, how to drape a toga and so on. ***1/2

I dropped down fast from a book a day, but I'm still maintaining a book every other day . . . that'll go down this week I am sure!

Started SPQR because of reading all these roman mysteries. Loving it so far.

>52 sibylline: I loved this series...mostly because I had a crush on Helena. I'm sorry she's done with them.

>52 sibylline: I like this series. Reminds me to have a look, which one I haven't read.
Wishing you a great day, Lucy.

5. fantasy ****1/2
Crown of Stars bk 7 Kate Elliott

Wow! Anyone who wants a (very) long fantasy series well written and imaginative with great characters, and a strong complex plot, this is for you. Elliott draws a world loosely drawing from the area comprising modern-day Germany, with a medieval flavor, but here magic is real, although of a limited and difficult kind. There is also a strong religious element--performing magic has been outlawed and those who believe in the Resurrection of Daisan are considered heretics (perhaps one of the less successful aspects of the book as it is slightly too reminiscent of Christian beliefs) a matriarchal society (the only line you can truly be sure of), a people made of a strange conjoining of stone, dragon and human in a previous calamity, there are also centaurs, griffins, aurochs, and guivres. As with all fantasy, because of the memes, there is overlap, a cameo lion or underground beings who delve deep and work the earth, but Elliott weaves it all together with her own fresh slant. I enjoyed it and at times even loved it. ****1/2

ooh, The Silver Pigs! I read that a few years back, when I was still living in Exeter, which features in that book in its Roman guise of Isca, if memory serves.

Oh my! Silver Pigs and SPQR ---- I read them both long ago. My favorites, though, were the Gordianus the Finder mysteries by Steven Saylor. I'm too lazy to see whether you have them in your library, so I'll just say that the first was Roman Blood and that Cicero and Tyro are characters that figure in the first few books.

I was just thinking that a series set earlier in the Roman era would be a great idea! I don't have those but I will WL them on Audible.

Hi Lucy - I've added Paddy and Silver Pigs to my list. I'm a sucker for historical mysteries, and Lawrence does sound like a fascinating writer.

Hi Lucy. Not much to say but wanted to drop off my star and see if Miss Po has made an appearance yet.

I hope you're having a great weekend and I wish you all the best in 2017.

>55 sibylline: You should be on a commission, Lucy, because you've sold me on it.

>59 BLBera: Lawrence is a real find.

>60 EBT1002: Hi Ellen, no Miss Po here yet. I must work on that, obviously!

>61 PaulCranswick: I would recommend that you read the Jaran or the Spirit Gate trilogies before tacklng this one. Jaran was her first, I think, and while flawed, it really grew on me. Much as I enjoyed Crown of Stars I really loved the Spirit Gate set--tackling a seven-book series before you know you are a true fan, well, brave or foolhardy! I wouldn't want you to collect all those books and then hate them!

6. mys candian ****
The Nature of the Beast Louise Penny

Penny does it again, writes a novel I can't put down. At the same time, this one was seriously creepy, depicting people with no morals at all, and poor old Gamache and the villagers of Three Pines in the middle of it all. I well remember when Gerald Bull's supergun was found to be a reality, and that Bull's center of operations was not so very far from here; it was a big story in Vermont and therefore I probably started out knowing more about it than most US readers. This is one novel where the bigger story overshadows the murders that take place, including the resolution of that story, which ends up feeling more like the subplot, the trigger, if you will, to set a much larger story in motion. The big question that looms at the end is what will Gamache do next? Clearly he can't stay retired in Three Pines, the world needs him too much! ****

Great review of The Nature of the Beast, Lucy. I confess I did not know a thing about Bull's supergun and needed to do some Googling. Agree that the bigger story overshadows the murder in this one ... and that we need Gamache too much to allow him to retire quietly in Three Pines. I need to read Penny's latest, sooner than later.

You're right...she did it again. Glad you enjoyed it too.

7. fiction irish ****
A Nest of Simple Folk Sean O'Faolain

Known more for his short stories, this is one of O'Faolain's few novels, and it is worthwhile, especially if you are making a study of modern Irish literature and the fight for independence. Or even if you are not and are interested in Ireland. The central character is Leo Foxe-Donnell, but the book is about the entire family, the O'Donnell's, Foxes, Hussey's, and Keene's. The Foxes are anglo-irish landed "gentry" but well on the slide downward. A daughter marries into a neighboring farming family, the O'Donnell's converts to Catholicism and is shunned by the Foxes. Their youngest child is Leo and becomes the mother Judith's favourite. For him she connives to procure the family manse, she has him sent to her cousin, a doctor in Limerick to be educated. But Judith could change his name to Foxe-Donnel and try to make a country gentleman out of Leo, but Leo wasn't interested in any of it. Nor did he have the sort of mind for learning doctoring. Leo goes home to Foxe Hall as a young man and there he promptly gets involved in a Fenian plot. He is betrayed inadvertently by a family member and spends the next ten years in jail. But his life course is determined. He is a revolutionary through and through, but not in a wild way, in a quiet and determined, an unstoppable way. In the second half of the novel the story shifts focus more to the Hussey family, to Johnny Hussey the policeman and his son Denis. Denis and the Hussey's it could be said is representative of O'Faolain's own family and the attitude, before Easter day, 1916, of most Irish, that resistance was futile and one had better make the best of the way things are. O'Faolain marks that day as an absolute turning point for Ireland. If J.G. Farrell in Troubles shows the rot at the core of the Empire, here O'Faolain shows the gradual but unstoppable awakening of Irish determination, and how the example of a few can eventually turn the tide. There is much else to love here, description of the Kerry countryside, of Limerick and later Cork, the stories too of the trials of the women, of Judith, Mag, and Bid. It's a quiet book, and it is, as the title implies about an entire group of "simple" people, a book that builds and makes its point gradually. Don't expect a great deal of excitement but you can expect to come away enlightened. ****

A side note: I have this book from my mother's library and on the fly-leaf it is signed by my great-aunt Marion with the date, 1936, two years after the book came out. Then it was just twenty years since the rebellion, O'Faolain was 16 at the time and it changed his life and shifted his allegiances.

^ What a wonderful side note!

>61 PaulCranswick: >62 sibylline: For what it's worth, I'll echo Lucy's recommendation of the Spirit Gate series. I haven't read all of either series, but I enjoyed the world and the characters more in the Spirit Gate series.

And speaking of corgis, check out this online contest (sponsored by Corgi Augustus) to submit book covers with corgis on them. (The contest is over, but you can still view entries here.)

Sample

>68 markon: And didn't you love the ending! I thought it was a great twist.

Argh! Corgi adoration!

8. sf ***1/2
Deception Well Linda Nagata

Nagata brings to mind a word I loathe when it is applied to me: ambitious. I loathe it because it seems to imply that I am reaching beyond my capacity. It does mean that, in part, but I think what people really mean and what I mean using it here, is that Nagata created a story that is, to borrow a word she uses as the title of the third book in this loosely connected series--too vast, more complicated than it needed to be to be interesting. There are several ideas running concurrently: that is, this is a universe in the future where nanotechnology, ancient and new, runs the show. The ancient technology with no trace of their creators remaining, still roams the galaxy apparently destroying "life" wherever it finds it. This has come into conflict with newer human nanotech which has produced changes in human lives--people live for a long time, are connected together in "atriums" in their brains and they have been reaching for a kind of total "communion" where they can all live as pure mind, separate but together--but this has also made them susceptible, to a virus from the ancient tech? Or am I not getting it? The thing is, with Banks or Reynolds or many others I could name, by halfway through the book I do always know what is going on and why even if I started out clueless. I also often end up chuckling or laughing out loud. With Nagata it is heavy going from start to finish and I have to just . . . decide that I get it enough and move on. I have to admit I was never comfortable with many of the names: Silk, Deception Well, Ado (for adolescent), the Vasties. An even smaller quibble is that the women are just . . . drab. Gender seems exactly what it has always been, women are sexy and desirable and men run the show--even the one strong military woman was susceptible--and I find that unimaginative in this day and age. All that said, this is an ambitious book and that means it is full of interesting ideas and situations and I respect the effort even if it is not perfect. It's a lot better than most of us could do. Point of order: I am moving right on to the third book. ***1/2

My mom showed me your thread topper and I just had to say I love your cat. Such a cool mixture of coloring I have never seen one like that.

Oh dear. That's the one I read eons ago. I never read another!

>71 GeezLouise: So nice to have you visit! That is Tenzing Norcat! In the USA he is what is called a Lynx Point Siamese -- in England the name is a lot less fun: Tabby Point. I'll go with the US name! His mother was a Lilac Point and his father was also very pale, but with more uniformly dark extremities. I only saw photos of the mom as she was very shy.

He is a character and a half, as you can probably guess from the photo.

>72 LizzieD: I read past page 50 of the book 3 and then just sat there staring into nothing, then I flipped through the rest of it and realized I just wasn't going to read it. I feel bad. Nagata worked really really hard on these books, but they are just no fun. I'm shallow,I guess, I need fun. So this will be the first DNF of the year.

Especially reading it alongside The Long Ships brought into relief the lack of humor. The Long Ships really is just one escapade after another, but it is perpetually funny and then touching and then, shyly and briefly, profoundly insightful . . . . I adore Orm! His hypochondria is just the right touch!

>66 sibylline: I like the side note too. Love finding books on the shelf that belonged to relations. My (great) aunt changed her name (she hated the first two names, so took her middle name as her first name, despite the fact it was a guy's name). Recently came across a book of poetry from when she was in school (I think the 1910s) with her original name - I'd never seen it before.

>74 charl08: Very cool!

♬ 9. Mys Roman Empire ****
Shadows in Bronze Lindsey Davis

In this third installment Falco journeys all around southern Italy and spends time in the Campania tracking down Barnabus, the servant of Pertinax, Helena's ex who had been part of a plot against Vespasian. On the home front his affair with Helena Justina gets more serious. I very much enjoyed his friend Longinus' family on vacation with him and getting to know Falco's nephew Larius (I have no idea how to spell anything since I am listening!). ****

I guess I'm more shallow than you, Lucy. I stopped after reading Vast, which was given me by a friend. (Tell me why The Good Earth pops up for the touchstone!) It was big, hard science fiction but without character development or humor.

And that's a great shot of Tenzing!

Ticking along gently over here, Lucy. Not at your usual pace yet but you certainly seem to be reading at normal sibyx speed.

Have a lovely weekend. xx

>76 sibylline: I loved that one. Happy Sunday, Lucy.

>76 sibylline: I'm now reading her series about Falco's daughter. Maybe not quite as enjoyable but still good.

I envy the fact that you still have 15-20 (I can't remember how long the series is) of these books to go. :-)

Currently Reading (January)

♬ ♬

✔ The Girl in the Spider's Web David Lagercrantz mystery swedish
✔ The Long Ships Frans G. Benggtsson hist fic
✔SPQR Mary Beard history ancient rome
♬ Venus in Copper Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire
♬ Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett fantasy

Not sure I'm really in the mood for Lizbeth Salander, but I know it won't take long to read.
The Long Ships is just wonderful! SPQR is fascinating. I'm just getting into the 4th Falco--a delight these are. I'm listening to the Pratchett with my daughter--when we are in the car together--less of late, but we will finish it sooner or later.

I loved The Long Ships when I read it a few years ago. Orm was great!

>81 sibylline: & >82 arubabookwoman: Added The Long Ships to my library wishlist :-)

10. mystery swedish ***
The Girl in the Spider's Web David Lagercrantz

It's a long time since I read the first three, so who knows. I found this acceptable but not, like the first three, gripping. For all that it moved right along, it also plodded a little, or my interest in it did. I am fascinated, as we all should be, by the thought we could invent a machine smarter than ourselves, but it is not a new idea (except maybe to those who live in some media vacuum and never heard of The Terminator, for example, or hate scifi generally so much they never heard of Asimov). The child was a bit over the top, and Salander was a cut-out really, no development of her character. Or anyone's really, which I think did manage to happen a bit in the previous novels, even if only small changes. I read it very quickly not so much because I couldn't put it down but because I didn't want to have to pick it up again. The creepy factor of cyper-spying on everyone was very depressing to me, here in January 2017 under a creepy new US regime with, apparently, no ethical standards only a reliance on "alternate" factuality. ***

Haiku summary:

lisbeth salander
computrix extraordinaire
hunts her evil twin

Sorry to hear The Girl in the Spider's Web is not up to the rest of Larsson's fabulous trilogy. Tough act to follow, and with someone else doing the writing ... This one is on my list but not at the top, for certain.

The plot is pretty good -- I don't know if Lagercrantz had notes from Larsson or made it up himself. The next one could be better too as he becomes more comfortable. He was working extremely hard to follow exactly in Larsson's footsteps.

>84 sibylline:: I never read the second and third. I'm not sure why...I liked the first. Now I'd have to go back and start from the beginning as I don't remember things that clearly.

OK so I've found a new and fun LT time-waster. I was aware of it before but now, for some reason, I am very tickled by it. The haiku choice in the "Description" column when you edit a book. Go back a few comments to the latest Salander thriller to find it.

I've done a few others of my recent reads . . . oh dear!

Your haiku is great fun, Lucy. I remember that I also did a few before I topped out. (It doesn't take a lot for me to top out.)

11. fiction british ***
Having the Builders In Reay Tannahill

The fun in this is the effort Tannahill makes to have the setting and basics (say of expected behaviour) accurate, while bringing the characters to life. No, they don't talk as they would have in the early 1400's, they sound and probably think more like us, but Reay carries it well enough and one cannot argue with the fact that love springs eternal, mischievous children (and adults) behave the same the world around, and that having construction done on your house, whether a shack or a castle is always irritating, more expensive, and way behind schedule. It's not brilliant but it's fun, light reading. I looked up all sorts of words and images, kirtles, for instance and the basics of medieval building practices. ***

Haiku summary

Dame Constance builds wing
For son and bride to be. Ho!
Bride loves another?

Currently Reading Updated 1.31

♬ ♬

✔ Smoking Poppy Graham Joyce contemp fic/ fantasy
✔ The Long Ships Frans G. Benggtsson hist fic
✔SPQR Mary Beard history ancient rome
♬ Venus in Copper Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire
♬ Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett fantasy

On a purely aesthetic note -- I see I am in a remarkably harmonious phase with my books, red, yellow, gold . . . I might have to consider finding a better image for the Falco! That is the cover that goes with Simon Prebble reading, but it is the ugliest of them!

I adore The Long Ships, have to savor every page. Orm was injured fighting to keep his gold necklace and is convinced he is going to die because he has no lice in his hair--rats living the sinking ship--Orm is such a marvel, the strapping (I envision at least 6'4") red haired youth in his absolute prime ..... but also a hypochondriac. Just that one detail explodes him into life on the page.

SPQR is great, so thoughtful and readable. I love Beard's point that the empire itself -- the immensity and complexity of it-- required strong and independent leaders to manage and encouraged the exact types of men who would then desire to be the supreme ruler, an emperor. The republic, in other words, did not willingly or even consciously move toward single rule, but it became . . . a probability and then inevitable as Rome's needs and problems multiplied.

12. contemp fic ***1/2
My Cleaner Maggie Gee

A solidly crafted novel, illustrating contrasting cultural responses of two women, one Ugandan and one British who have faced challenges but have a lot in common--both are from small towns, both have left them for good, both are well-education and ambitious, and both are writers. Both have been married and divorced and have one son. But there everything diverges. Where Vanessa is thin and tight, snobby and constipated (literally and figuratively), Mary is expansive and cheerful, energetic and striving at all times to be herself. I found the book cliched and the story development totally predictable (right down to weather ex machina) and I did read determinedly for fear I wouldn't pick it up again if I lost momentum. Having finished I feel a bit more charitable, both women have their strengths and weaknesses and Gee is fair enough about those. Mary confides in no one about her fears for her own son and she does take ruthless advantage of Vanessa when opportunity offers. The best character, the only one who truly interested me, was Vanessa's ex-husband. He was a breath of fresh air every time he appeared. I'm torn between three or three and a half stars, but I'll be generous. ***1/2

haiku summary
Son has a breakdown
Ugandan Nanny comes back
Mom, you asked for it!

LOVE the *Cleaner* haiku!

13.
Eggtooth Solla Carrock

Hard to categorize this tiny book, perhaps a prose poem? In a world, not ours, within a giant forest so impenetrable someone could pass a few feet from you and you wouldn't know, live a people who, from time to time, are called to the Sun, called to cut a way out of the forest onto a beach where the Sun takes them up in a trance. Then they return home renewed and replenished. A child is born, but not the customary way. Strangers have come and they take over. The child grows up differently and cannot find its way to the sun. The great grandfather watches all and decides to do something about it.

I tend to be leery of anything that has the peppery tang of a crusade--in this case, the virtues of natural childbirth vs the "horrors" of medical intervention--but, never mind that-- the story was truly compelling, and, in this particular case, the fury is justified, these strangers barge in and interfere with no understanding of the forest people or their ways. Never mind that because from page 1 I was transported into this place, these people and I was cheering grandfather and grandson on throughout. Carrock worked hard on writing spare, elegant, moving prose. ****1/2

haiku summary

Impenetrable
forest! Must chop path to Sun,
to find inner peace.

Squeaking in one last book for January! But that little tome has been lying about for ages.

I am loving you haiku book reviews, Lucy! So fun.

Thanks Mamie, and thanks for visiting. So far I am enjoying making up the haiku, it's been my favorite form of poetry all my life.

It's been weirdly quiet around here, so I guess I have to get out the camera for a pic of La Posey.

Oh, Miss Posey is always a sure thing!

You should definitely post a photo of her.

Or two...

Or three...

I'll get right on it!

Oh, good.

*sits down to wait patiently*

Love the haiku summary of My Cleaner! Waiting patiently for a picture of Po : ).

Guess I'll just join the group and have a seat, since it looks like it'll take a while.

I brought some snacks for while we are waiting.

^Yum!

I'm enjoying the reviews and the haiku summaries, Lucy. Eggtooth sounds like quite an unusual book.

I have a copy of the Reay Tannahill Having the Builders In that has some pages beginning to fall out (although it has a nice plasticized cover and good print )--It came from a library Long Buckby in Northhamptonshire -- de-accessioned and from thence to me via AZ used. Anyway, I am happy to send it, with a rubber band, if anyone is interested in reading it. Can't be sold or even given to Goodwill at this point. Tempting to keep it for the novelty factor of having a book from N-shire, but really, it should be read not hoarded.

I think it's time to bring in the wine to supplement the food above.

Believe it or not I took a very nice photograph and then later yesterday spent ages trying to load it up here, don't know if it was LT or at my end. It's in my photo library so it makes no sense to me that there is "no file". I will try again!

Lucy, was it this one?

FINALLY! YES!

Posey in her element. Size means nothing if you are a corgi. She lives for snow, loves winter. Her coat is very thick, double layered, and I have to keep her brushed in winter or it gets sort of matted underneath and comes out in little clumps, plus she gets too hot in the house! I sometimes have to just let her out to roll around in the snow and cool off. All our corgis have liked snow, but Posey adores it.

BTW this reminds me of my latest fantasy. Truly. I lie in bed and think the most silly things. I am hoping HRH will listen and respond to the wishes of her people and refuse to see Trump, however, if she must I think she should take her corgis and permit them to bite his ankles and herd him right out of the room. "Oh I am so sorry!" she'll say, "I expect they don't like you. They are very good judges of character. I hope those weren't socks that Melania knitted for you."

It just loaded this morning! I was writing up the note to go with it! I'll put mine up on top for February.

I love the photo - especially her shadow! So sweet and she is clearly in her element.

And I LOVE your fantasy!!!

And really, we can get you a brand new thread for February if you are wanting one.

We can make that happen.

Thank you Mamie, it feels fine to do one every two months! I seem to have this set up to last for three months if need be, in fact.

If you want to see my January round-up and stats go to >4 sibylline:!

>113 sibylline: I love your fantasy!!

Great photo of Po ... it's wonderful that she loves the snow so much! I owned a gorgeous malamute for many years, whom I'd brought from the North with me; it was just a joy to watch her in the snow!

I also love your fantasty, hehe!

>113 sibylline: love the photo AND especially your fantasy. My favorite is that he trips going down the steps of AF1 and...

>113 sibylline: I like that idea!

>112 Crazymamie: HERSELF!!!
>113 sibylline: And may the fantastic come to pass!!!!!!

I'll drink to that! ;-)

>110 ronincats: my tastes fall at either end of that wine spectrum, a clean light white, ot a heavy red. Thanks for asking ;)

Lovely snow shot, even if it didn't get there by your hand this time....it got here! And I love your queen fantasy too. I do that all the time, imagine scenarios....how things should go....

14. contemp fic ****1/2
Smoking Poppy Graham Joyce

What a terrific novel! I blasted through it, forcing myself all day yesterday to behave and do the things I had to do . . . Dan's daughter has gone missing, turns up in a jail in Thailand, having been caught smuggling opium. Dan resolves to go and see her and see if he can find a way to get her out and home, to his surprise first his friend from the bar he frequents for quiz night and snooker decides he's coming too, and then to his further amazements (and no little chagrin) his son, from whom he is pretty well estranged, due to his son's in-your-face evangelism, has also decided to come. Dan is a sympathetic, flawed Dad, but it is his friend and his son, the setting, and the situation that really gripped me. Joyce did his homework about the opium/morphine/heroin traffic nexus and obviously made a trip out there to see for himself, and describes it convincingly, even lyrically at times. There is just the slightest fantastical element, but to my mind, no more than one does occasionally encounter in Real Life, so called. Wonderful. ****1/2

Haiku summary
Daughter disappeared,
Son gone evangelistic,
Dad is in despair.

Fabulous review of Smoking Poppy, Lucy. This one sounds just like my cuppa. And I have to say again that I LOVE the haiku summaries you are writing ... so creative and succinct.

*I'm back* Disappointed to find my library did not have this one. So just put in a request for purchase.

My spousal unit stumbled across Joyce a few years ago and tore through his books, I can see why. I have read two others, one I really liked and another less so. And I have many more on my tbr shelf from the S.U.'s binge.

Hmm yes, something about that last book does sound appealing. People thrown together in difficult circumstances, families trying to understand each other, a road trip... it does seem to tick a lot of boxes. On the wishlist it goes.
Now about this Queen fantasy... oh, it's just too perfect! I too wish her Maj would step outside her neutral zone; "We are not going to meet that...person!", but alas, I fear she will not break the habit of a lifetime. (Also slightly scared the orange one and Prince Phillip will get on like a house on fire!). So, with that sad reality in place, your vision of things is the best case scenario. Or that he will say something so grossly offensive to her that all diplomatic ties have to be severed immediately, and until the next election! Not unlikely...

I'm so glad you approve. I lay in bed chortling when I thought of it (best ideas happen just as I awaken). I wish someone would make a youtube of the scenario.

Hi, Lucy! Smoking Poppy sounds interesting. Not really what I usually read, but it's nice to diverge and diversify my reading. I like the haikus you make for each book. It adds a touch to it.

Hi, Lucy. Thanks for the good review of Eggtooth up in >94 sibylline:. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it and liking it.

>112 Crazymamie: >113 sibylline: Lovely picture of Posey!
I think nearly all dogs love snow, Lucy, sadly snow is very rare here, as Ari loves it too.

BTW I love your Haiku summaries :-)

15. ♬ **** mys roman empire
Venus in Copper Lindsey Davis

Falco has returned to working on his own, lands what looks to be a lucrative juicy case involving a serial husband hunter. As always with Falco, while pursuing leads he stumbles into all sorts of other villainy he just can't leave lie and he will have to decide if this is the kind of poisonous case best left to moulder or if it needs the light of day. Speaking of the light of day, he briefly makes it out of his ratty 6th floor tenement, but alas, Falco's luck, that plan comes crashing down. On the other hand Helena makes up her mind . . . There is also a delicious party when Falco cooks the turbot that Titus, Vespasian's son had promised him for solving a problem of his. Pretty much the whole family turns up and Titus too! ****

Haiku summary

Ex-slaves plot murder
Turbot steamed in ginger broth
Falco entertains!

Final comment: Horrible cover. Looks like it was pulled out of the romance stock photo drawer. Ugh.

Currently Reading

♬♬

new The Turner House Angela Flournoy contemp fic
✔ The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson hist fic
✔SPQR Mary Beard history ancient rome
♬ The Iron Hand of Mars Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire
♬ Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett fantasy

Snowing like the dickens here, tho we're not going to get as much as you Southrons.

Where does that expression come from anyway? Charles's prolixity? Hmm. Must go take a look.

"This phrase has nothing to do with Charles Dickens. Dickens is a euphemism, specifically a minced-oath, for the word devil, possibly via devilkins. Shakespeare used it in 'the Merry Wives of Windsor, 1600: I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of." from a UK phrase origin site.

But that leads back to Charles, rather odd last name then?

>94 sibylline: That was one of my favorite books the year I read it.

>138 TadAD: I remember that Tad, that is how it got on my bookshelf!

>137 sibylline: You made me curious so I looked up the origins of the name Dickens. Apparently one of those familial names: Dick's kin. So Dick's son = Dickson, Dick's kin = Dickens, and to extend that out, Dickinson is the son of Dick's kin, I suppose. Or you know, by then they'd forgotten what these names even meant.

>140 ursula: Thanks for taking that step further. I love the idea that Dickinson is really Dick's son son.

Beth asked me about G. G. Kay. Chime in here if you have a different opinion than I do.

16.
The Turner House Angela Flournoy

Meet the Turners. Huge family of thirteen, Detroit based, into that transition of becoming fully the adults, as their mother's health fails. The old family house is in a neighborhood that is beyond being in a decline, one of the few houses still standing and liveable. But the mother, Viola, has had a stroke and has been moved into her oldest son's house and now the house is now empty. There's a hefty mortgage shackled to it. The oldest son, Cha-Cha wants to get rid of it in a short sale, others want to keep it, one of them schemes to secretly buy it . . . And it is clear that whatever is going to happen to the house is closely allied to what will become of the cohesiveness of this generation of Turners. Being so many, the children reflect almost every possibility, of lifestyle, character, and career--and all of them have kept enough together to stay out of prison and "real" trouble - for which they have their parents, that house, and maybe their oldest siblings to thank. As one from a very large family, I loved the dynamics between siblings, which transcends ethnicity, believe me. I was also impressed by Flournoy's ability to write so empathetically and correctly about caring for someone in the last phase of life and generally about such a wide variety of characters. There were one or two I would love to know more about -- Tony, the son who was scheming to get the house illegally (and a policeman!) and Lelah who has a gambling problem and loves her daughter perhaps a bit too possessively . . . but that's a good thing, closing the last page and wishing there was more. ****


Haiku summary (Might revise this, it's a start!)
Viola, Francis
Raise thirteen. Detroit home.
Raze, sell, or keep?

That one sounds interesting!

I'm adding The Turner House to my WL--it sounds great!

eta--Kindle has it for only $7.99 (or free for Kindle Unlimited), so I bought it.

The Turner House sounds like an excellent read, Lucy.

Hi visitors, I think you will all enjoy it.

We await our first big storm of the year - a full 24 hours of non-stop snow. Our tradition when one of these comes along is to watch all of LOTR, extended version, naturally. :) So much for reading. I just spent a weekend away with friends x-country skiing and maybe read ten pages the whole time. Very very rare occurrence!

Still snowing Mon morning but not hard. I'd say 7 -8 inches so far.

What a lovely tradition, Lucy!! We love those movies.

We added The Hobbit -- none of us have seen the extended version -- and I don't think I saw 2 and 3 more than once, so it was really fun. We just have one left to do tomorrow night. And the snow has stopped. About 9-10 inches. Took a great x-country ski during our break, finally enough snow so that one can go in the woods and go downhill without being terrified of going too fast!

17. history roman *****
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard

SPQR -- Senatus PopulusQue Romanus "The senate and the roman people" this being the ubiquitous stamp to be found on anything and everything from the glory days of the Roman Republic. The implication being that the two, leaders and the people are mutually dependent and essential to the well-being and existence of Rome. This is a glorious history and introduction to anyone nurturing an interest in ancient Rome, and a corrective too. We tend to think in terms of the centuries of Empire, not the preceding centuries as Rome evolved from a small village, to a town, to a city ruled by a king and the mysterious alchemy that transformed it into a fledgling "democracy" on a broader platform than the Greek model, a step in the direction of some form of popular rule that lingers even after the Republic becomes an Empire. I can't possibly summarize anything about such a wide reaching exploration except that Beard writes in that magical ground between informative and informality, analyzing the "big men" but never forgetting to include the humble wherever archaeology has discovered traces. It's a beautifully balanced piece of work and her profound engagement with her subject is evident throughout. It might make a great listen too, and I am considering starting all over with the audio version, to fix it better in my head. That's how enthralled I was! *****

Haiku summary
Hut, village, market town
Kingdom, Republic, Empire,
Rome, unstoppable.

As an aside, I began SPQR on Jan 9th! That's a five week read! I always have a conflicting pang when I finish a book I've been "living with" for that long.

>150 sibylline: We've got SPQR floating around at home someone (although it's lost the nice cover - all of J's books eventually lose their nice covers). Based on that review it's something I need to start reading myself.

18. *****
The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson

Perhaps the most delicious aspect of this delightful novel about marauding Northmen is that the joy Bengsston had writing it radiates from every page. The story begins when youngest son, Orm, seventeen or so and already a strapping fellow, is held back from going on a plundering voyage with his father and brother by his mother. Well, wouldn't you know, raiders come along, led by Krok, and kidnap him. Among these men Orm soon proves himself a valiant and intelligent member of the crew. There are various adventures and misadventures, in Spain, in Ireland and England, in Denmark where King Harald holds court, and beyond, even down the Dneiper to find buried treasure. It is at the court of the King that Orm meets the lovely Ylva, daughter of Harald, but he can't have her until he proves himself worthy. But it isn't at all an "and then and then" sort of adventure novel. What makes it rise far above that is the dialogue, the spontaneous poetry, and Bengsston's slyly hilarious way of crafting a description or giving out information of the thought processes of these (mostly) men. At all times these Vikings find hilarious work-arounds to justify their greed and to balance it with their (often self-serving and malleable) concepts of honor. An example: Orm is huge, obviously, and insanely strong and healthy, and yet he is a bit of a hypochondriac. He worries about catching colds, is convinced at one point, when injured, that he is doomed since the lice have left his hair. It's never over-done, but such details make Orm fully human. I took my time reading it so as to savor every word. It is definitely a book I would love to listen to too. *****

Haiku Summary

Meet valiant Orm:
Smart and strong, cunning and kind,
Leader among men.

>151 SandDune: I know you will enjoy it.

I LOVE your review of SPQR, Lucy, (the haiku is perfect!) and I'll hope to read it sometime just for Mary Beard's wonderful personal touch.
I've started *Long Ships*, but it's languishing over a Mama's house at the moment. I can tell that it's going to be wonderful too!

Woot! 5* for The Long Ships ... this one has been on my list since Bonnie read it and loved it a few years ago. Look forward to your review, Lucy.

So much great reading here Lucy and I am behind. I'd kind of ignored Beard's book but will put it on the wishlist. Way back to >127 sibylline: I'll also look out for Smoking Poppy.

And lovely corgi shot. I'll be back for more.

If I had not already purchased my own copy of The Long Ships based on your previous comments and the book's beautiful cover (yes, I am shallow), your review would totally had me running to Amazon. Thumb from me if you posted that, and now I really can't wait to get to it. But first, I have finally started another that you raved about - The Game of Kings. You were so right about needing the companion - thanks for that!

>157 Crazymamie: I would assume too, that Dunnett read and loved The Long Ships.

Posting the new line-up since it has changed quite a lot all of a sudden!

Currently Reading
♬♬

✔ Alliance of Equals Sharon Lee Steve Miller sf sp/op
new Call of the Cats Andrew Bloomfield
✔ The Burgess Boys Elizabeth Strout contemp fic
♬ The Iron Hand of Mars Lindsey Davis mystery roman empire
♬ Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett fantasy

>158 sibylline: *grin*

I'm half way through The Long Ships and thoroughly enjoying it. So glad to see it getting a 5* review from you.

Greetings, Lucy. I just have to comment on the photo of Tenzing "hanging out." It's a hilarious pose!

I think you liked The Turner House a wee bit more than I did (although I notice that I also gave it four stars, so there is that).

I have a copy of The Long Ships on the TBR shelves. It's also a NYRB edition but with a different cover image than yours. I'm compelled by your review along with Jenny's comment that she is halfway through and also loving it.

Oh, and your review of SPQR is excellent and persuasive, as well, and that isn't a subject matter about which I would have said I have a lot of interest!

>162 EBT1002: I wouldn't read it unless you are interested. I always have been -- and that has been reactivated by reading two mystery series set in the Empire era, one featuring a "medicus" (doctor, sorta) and the other a ex-soldier, all-purpose guy for hire (Falco). I had an amazing coincidence, in fact, this week when the new Archaeology mag came with an article on Roman disasters in "Germania," wihile reading about Falco wandering around IN Germania, over the border from the (relative) safety of Roman occupied Germania AND reading about the limits of the Roman expansion in SPQR! Cool beans!

>152 sibylline: I've had this on my shelf, but after reading your comments, I really want to make time for it. SPQR also sounds great.

I did love The Turner House as well.

You got me with that SPQR review, Lucy. Sounds great. Adding it to the WL.

19. sf sp/op
Alliance of Equals Sharon Lee Steve Miller

As ever with a Liaden offering, to pick it up is to be unable to put it down until you've turned the final page. Miller and Lee assume that you are a fan, however, and while some attempt to explain goes on, I can't imagine enjoying this one without a firm foundation in matters Liaden, especially the books since Plan B. That said, there are two primary stories in play: first the saving of the AI Admiral Bunter, brought into being by Theo Waitley in a previous novel to protect a space ship repair station, Jemiatha's Jumble Stop. Second the progress of young Padi, Shan's child, in her quest to become a Trader. Many characters from previous novels play significant roles, a few just cameos, or in one case, something in between, obviously to be carried forward in a future novel. The issue at stake for Korval is setting up sturdy new trade routes and making some money to secure their position on Surebleak. And of course they encounter problems. An additional problem is that Padi herself is in a mess and that is creating problems for her and concern in those around her. I look forward to the next one, of course.

20. ♬ fantasy ****
Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett

Granny, Nanny and Magrat are off on a quest to find Magrat's god-daughter in a far-away country. Need I say anything more? It's fun and silly and Pratchett all over. ****

21. contemp fic ****1/2
The Burgess Boys Elizabeth Strout

Two brothers, Bob and Jim Burgess, originally from Maine, now living in Park Slope. One a high-profile lawyer married to a very WASPY and well-to-do wife and the other divorced and neither successful or un, teetering on the edge of alcoholism. Brother two, who has a twin sister, is carrying a load of guilt: when he was four the father left the the three children alone in the car and the twin boy, playing, undid the clutch and the car ran over and killed their father. As the novel opens the sister's son, Zach, twenty-ish has thrown a pig's head into a building in their hometown (think: small city, not Portland) in Maine that is being used as a mosque by the Somali refugees. The case goes to court. The act of vandalism in the present throws all three siblings into the kind of turmoil from which none of them will emerge the same as before. I was drawn in from the get-go right to the end. There were a few moments when the WASPY wife, Helen, seemed ever so slightly reminiscent of Mrs. Dalloway, a person so immersed in her class and way of life that you can't really stand her sometimes for the degree of insensitivity and intolerance in her, but at the same time you see her sense of duty as impeccable in regard to the things that she deems important, so she has her own integrity--you don't have to like her, but you can respect her. There is a Somali man who, I worried, would be like the ex-soldier in Dalloway, but that slid away too as the story took on its own shape and form. ****

I seem to be reading up a storm these days! For a month it seemed I would never finish anything, reading very long slow-moving books. Now I am reading shorter books that go faster!

>168 sibylline: BB, great review, Lucy. I put it on my library list.

So glad you loved The Burgess Boys, Lucy! I did too.

I think I've got The Burgess Boys on my kindle, and a couple of others of hers as well. So many books, so little time!

>168 sibylline: ooh that book sounds really good!

*BBoys* are headed my way, and I thank you for the review, Lucy!
I thought that I would be the last person among the 75ers to read it....I'm sort of glad that's not so.

A very nice review, Lucy - if you posted it, I will add my thumb. You are rocking our the reading right now!

22. animals ***1/2
Call of the Cat Andrew Bloomfield

I sincerely hope that Andrew Bloomfield makes enough money off of Call of the Cats to help take care of the many cats he has taken in since his first cat awakening more than twenty years ago. That was when Bloomfield landed in a house with a jungly backyard and discovered that it hosted a colony of feral cats. When the terrible death of a kitten brought him into direct contact with the colony, his heart opened to them and he was caught. He tells the story as day by day, kitten by kitten, then year by year he and his roommates, two sisters, became the caretakers of this group of cats. Bloomfield alternates the stories about particular cats with history and information about cats, his own musings, and some of his other life experiences (some of them kinda shady-sounding to me!). The book is a little uneven, there are bits that get too maudlin or woo-woo for my taste, but it is decently written and put together well. The best parts are his direct interactions with the cats--finding the perfect vet, his description of spending many nights outside guarding the cats from coyotes and giant raccoons. Through it all Bloomfield never ceases to be amazed that this has happened to him, that in middle-age, unmarried and childless, this piece of his soul, nurturing and responsible,emerged and took over his life. ***1/2

>175 sibylline: awww.

>168 sibylline: I have been wondering about this one, but your review has pushed me to get it. I have loved her others, but want sure if this would click. Thank you!

My reading line-up has changed dramatically this week!

Currently Reading (January)

♬

✔ The Customs of the Kingdoms of India Marco Polo history
✔The Legacy of Gird (Omnibus contains 2 novels: Surrender None & Liar's Oath) Elizabeth Moon fantasy
new Hag Seed Margaret Atwood contemp fic
♬ Poseidon's Gold Lindsey Davis roman emp. mys

>177 charl08: It's different from the others in that it isn't set exclusively in Maine. So you get to see Maine from different perspectives, from outside and in. Wayyyy outside in the case of the Somalis.

I am RIVETED by Hag-Seed!!! Wow! Atwood is in form here.

I've heard to much wonderful stuff about Hag-Seed. Now to hear that you're riveted, too, well, it's hard to refuse!

Call of the Cats sounds very interesting. I sincerely hope so, too, on this point: I sincerely hope that Andrew Bloomfield makes enough money off of Call of the Cats to help take care of the many cats he has taken in since his first cat awakening more than twenty years ago.

Hmm. I'm so unsure about Atwood. I loved A Handmaid's Tale but I hated Blind Assassin so I'm timid about starting her books.

I'm another Burgess Boys fan, and I loved Hag-Seed. You are reading up a storm. Happy Friday.

23. ♬ hist mys. ****
The Iron Hand of Mars Lindsey Davis

Marcus Didius is sent north by Vespasian to deliver a message, demand allegiance and search for a couple of missing men -- one a legate, the other the leader of a rebellion. He's half-relieved half-reluctant to go as he and Helena seem to be having one of their endless fallings out over whether or not she "should" have anything to do with the likes of a plebe like him. Worse, Vespasian's son and heir, the not-at-all bad Titus is interested in her and Marcus thinks Helena would make a great Empress. Helena's response is to disappear and Marcus heads north into the wilds of the borderlands with Germania in a gloomy mood accompanied by a foppish barber who once shaved Nero and now wants to see the world. But no worries, Helena's brother lives up that way and you know how Helena has a way of turning up . . . I had the frisson of coincidences when I was simultaneously reading this, reading in SPQR about the very area Marcus goes to, and receiving the latest issue of Archaeology mag in which there was a piece about Roman finds in Germania. Wow! ****

>180 lit_chick: Cats is a little uneven with moments of almost too much info (not quite what kind of kitty litter he uses, but a bit too close for comfort) but so from the heart and genuine, I didn't mind.

>181 RebaRelishesReading: I don't think you need to worry at all. It's meant to be fun, in fact, and it is. Of course, being Atwood, there is wisdom in it along with the fun.

>182 BLBera: I am - I'm out of town this week and where I am I am either quite busy or doing nothing much at all, lots of time for reading, knitting, and listening. The two previous weeks were among the lowest reading I've done in years so now things are balanced again. I head home tomorrow.

24. contemp fic ****
Hag-Seed Margaret Atwood

Well this is a romp and a half through The Tempest. I have to admit it's nice to embark on an Atwood where you know it will "turn out" all right, 'cos it is a comedy. Atwood took pleasure in writing this and I enjoyed reading it. I expect there are a zillion reviews of it and I don't feel obliged to add another except to say I adore Prospero's cape made of unstuffed stuffed animal skins. I wants one! ****

haiku summary
Felix seeks revenge.
Jailbirds staging the Tempest
Entrap his foes! Ha!

>185 sibylline: LOL! Glad you had fun with Hag-Seed, Lucy. Me, too. You're right about his cape.

You are truly tempting me Lucy..

I loved The Long Ships. I can see a reread at some point.

I have The Burgess Boys and The Turner House on my shelves, and hope to get to them soon.

Happy Sunday, Lucy! :)
The Posey pic doesn't fully materialize on my ipad (weak connection once again), it only shows the P-free upper part. I'll check again tomorrow.
I just bought Vinegar Girl from that Shakespeare series. Not that I wanted it, I was just so happy to see a book on offer in the English section of which I knew the title from LT. I loved the Atwood and heard it was so far the betst of the bunch.

>188 arubabookwoman: I'm going to listen to The Long Ships next time -- provided I like the reader!

>189 Deern: What a drag that Posey in her full glory is not evident! Vinegar Girl is the only other one I've read and I liked it -- Tyler's more recent novels have felt weary and I think the subject matter made it more fun for her so she was energized.

I'm home from my trip south to take the LD back to school. The weather was ridiculous! 70's in Philadelphia in February!

Wonderful to know your daughter is back at school, Lucy. Lovely weather in Philadelphia!

I also have the Long Ships on the shelves and looking down at me wondering when it will get its turn.

Have a lovely Sunday, Lucy.

>190 sibylline: Now I see her *love* :))
Sending good wishes to the LD (and the parents of course)

25. fantasy ****
Surrender None Elizabeth Moon First book in The Legacy of Gird

Contained in a book brick, this is the first novel in Moon's fantasy series, Paksenarrion (a person, not a place, I believe, who shows up anon.) Written later, it is the "back story" -- about the humble farmer lad Gird who grows up into a great leader, canny and wise, courageous and determined enough to do whatever needs doing (learning to read and write for one!) to overthrow the magelords who have held his country and people in thrall for several generations. Moon is a meticulous writer and some might bog at the details, but I didn't, it is part of illustrating that a person can grow into a role, grow way beyond what they could ever have expected of themselves (and certainly far more than those from his childhood would have ever expected) if they are sufficiently committed and motivated. It was a stretch though, for me, that in the four or five generations that the magelords had dominated his folk, not one person had tried to understand the other, but oh well, but the magelord arrogance and belief in their superiority is convincing enough to accept that.) There are not very many magelords, and fewer every generation, and they are as vulnerable as anyone else to simply being killed, and once the people understand that, their glamor diminishes. Some aspects of the story brought to mind--Robin Hobb's Soldier Son Trilogy that was not one of my favourites but has yet stuck with me, always a sign of substance. Be sure, when you finish, to return to the first page and reread the prologue which will make sense! ****

Thank you too, to the member who uploaded this as a double cover. I am reading the edition in The Legacy of Gird which contains the first two chronological novels in the series.

Nota bene For February Round-up go to >5 sibylline:

26. travel, history ****
The Customs of the Kingdoms of India Marco Polo

It's basically ridiculous to "rate" a book of this sort. First of all, it is barely a book, being a selection from Polo's travel writings, one of a group of five or six I acquired somewhere or other, put out by Penguin in a "Great Journeys" series. "India" in this case, includes the eastern coast of Africa, down as far as Madacasgar. Second, it is intrinsically fascinating, no matter how stilted the writing because these are Polo's own words and descriptions (and interpretations) of what he saw first-hand (although I suspect some bits were related to him by others). Third, it isn't possible to disentangle what is accurate, what is cultural misunderstanding, and what is fabrication, and yet even so, the narrative fascinates, as it is all of a piece with the late medieval mind. Magic was real and existed, in this case, there are weatherworkers in Zanzibar, so beware! Why not have a male and a female island where men and women live alone nine months of the year and only mingle (on female island) long enough for procreation and corn planting! (Boy children being handed over at the age of 14). One somewhat chilling and no doubt accurate item is to learn that there have been pirates in that part of the Indian Ocean between Africa and India for a thousand years (and more?). Polo's writing style is somewhat repetitive, but rather hypnotic and reassuring in its own way and, at 85 pages, I can pretty much endure anything. I wouldn't seek out the whole of Polo's work, but I'm glad to have had a taste of it and I'll be keeping it. The covers and general appearance of the series are very appealing. ****

27. ♬ **** roman era hist mys.
Poseidon's Gold Lindsey Davis

More fun with Falco. This time we get to know his father and more about his brother Festus. I am, however, at the end of book 5 feeling it is time to get on with this romance, nail it down, move out of that bloody apartment. Just sayin' ****

7 ish degrees F around here this morning, I'm OK with that for the reason that there is also only a dusting of snow cover. During the last thaw we had a "hatching" of ticks and this should pretty much slay that batch with no insulation. I do feel bad for the chickadees who have clustered in a couple of trees where I sometimes (I did this morning) put food out for them when they come around, this year they haven't until today! This has been such a easy winter for the critters. I've noticed too that there's been very little winter deer attrition--even some rather small younglings (born late in the season?) have made it through the winter--we have one group of does and young 'uns that has to number around twenty. Too many really. You can see a long way now in our woods and partly because the deer have nibbled all the lower hemlock branches and anything new and edible. That's enough nature report, right? The cold lifts on Monday, but I think it will last long enough to make a difference to the ticks, that's the main thing. I can hope, right?

Morning, Lucy! Happy Saturday! I quite like your nature reports - your weather is so very different from ours, and I love how you write about things. Hoping the cold gets those ticks for you. It is a bit colder here today - only 40F right now and only going to 66, which should be lovely. I would love to just grab a blanket and read on the deck for most of the day - I am really loving The Game of Kings and want to just immerse myself in it but real life keeps interrupting me. Today Craig's brother is coming, and he will spend the night, so Lymond will have to wait. *sigh*

The allure of Lymond just gets worse and worse! If you are already hooked, you are doomed! But a good kind of doomed!

I love the nature reports too.

>197 sibylline: Enjoyed the nature report. It is a mixed blessing though, isn't it, when too many critters survive. You want them to do well but things need to keep in balance or, long term, it will be at least as hard for them. Hope the cold helps with the ticks, though, for sure!

Hello, Lucy!

Hi Lucy--I am chagrined to admit it, but I don't think I have ever visited you before. What's wrong with me?! LOL. I've added The Burgess Boys to my WL and I have Hag-Seed in my TBR pile...somewhere.

Your nature report has deers and mine had owls. We also have a forest behind the house. : ) Happy Sunday!

Your review of The Burgess Boys is excellent, Lucy. It sounds interesting and is going on the wish list (I took your advice and skipped SPQR).

And I want to buy Call of the Cats just to support the writer! And that cover photo is so cute.....

And Hag-Seed has long been on the wish list and I'm looking forward to reading the bit about "...Prospero's cape made of unstuffed stuffed animal skins." :-)

I love the Hag-Seed haiku, Lucy. It was my favorite of the Hogarth series. I also really liked The Gap of Time. I've just started New Boy, the retelling of Othello. This one won't have a happy ending.

I hope the cold got the ticks.

28. ***1/2
Liar's Oath 2nd novel contained in The Legacy of Gird Elizabeth Moon

This second novel in the "backstory" to Moon's Paksennarion series, is solid, but was less engaging to me, mainly because Luap, the mageborn bastard son of the king, the ruler that Gird had to overthrow to free his people, never fully engaged my empathy. He is always too good at convincing himself that what he wants was what was best for everyone and this self-absorption always weakens his decisions. Only Gird seemed to be able to fully counter this tendency and so was able to draw Luap into being the best he could be. As the novel develops, however, I was never quite convincingly drawn into the shift he undergoes into a deeper kind of "evil" for me . . . it was done too subtly, he never seemed to change sufficiently, he always did seem to be trying to do his best. The fact that he never loves anyone else, no one outside of himself, except perhaps Gird, is perhaps what makes him ultimately too unsympathetic. I felt pity for him, but not as much interest as I might have. So I found the novel dragged even as I knew it was building to some sort of showdown The first novel is totally strong and absorbing and, I think, for a Paksenarrion fan, it is likely that learning the stories of both Gird and then Luap will be satisfying even if the second novel is less exciting. These two novels were written later, even though they happen, chronologically, much much earlier in the greater saga. So, a read for fans, and a bit of caution to others. Moon like Cherryh requires patience as she likes to work out all the details in the worlds she builds and offer as much of the intricacies inner life of her main character as she can, sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not work quite as well. ***1/2

29. nat hist ***
In the Heart of the Amazon Forest Henry Walter Bates

Hey everyone! I know what! Let's get our guns and go shoot something! Hey, here's lots of turtles, let's shoot arrows into some! Wow! A toucan, kinda tame, aren't they? Let's shoot some! Man, would I like to get a shot at a jaguar! And so on. And yet Bates was, for his time, a remarkable and diligent naturalist, a Darwinian when they were not common and relatively enlightened about "natives" and even, occasionally able to stop and think, "Hmm I wonder if it's a good idea to wipe out all the turtles in every pond we find" but ultimately, this was a painful read to someone in our era, aware of how few animals remain unmauled or unaffected by our thoughtless predation. In the name of science, which at that time was blossoming, without a doubt, Bates felt quite confident of his mission to secure a (or many) specimen(s) of every animal or bird or insect he encountered. While he mostly did want to study the creatures he killed, some of it was thoughtless fun. Bates is clearly a decent guy, he liked to run around barefoot with the locals and he was more likely to adapt to their habits than require everyone follow his. Anyway, it's a book from another era and when he does just get down to observing, say, ants and really writes about what he observes he is terrific! This is an excerpt from his greater work, but I expect that I would never make it through the whole of it. Contented with this slice of what is now, I hope, an attitude and approach to natural science going extinct itself, thank goodness. ****

Interesting as these Penguin Great Journeys are I need to take a break. What non-fiction to read next? I have a psychology book by Brian R. Little Me Myself and Us about "the Science of Personality" and The Dead Ladies Project, literary essays, very personal and quirky from the look of things. Can't choose so I shall have to try both.

I started both and I like both, so I will read both!

Always interesting here!
I'll just say that early explorers fascinate me. I can't tell you why I haven't read the Everyman's Hakluyt, but it's on my shelf and I fully intend to get to it while I have eyes and brain.
I've read all the Hogarth Shakespeare series except *Gap*, and Hag-Seed is certainly the best of the bunch so far. (Reba, I strongly disliked *Blind Assassin* too - I'm happy to know that there are two of us.) I'm hoping hard that ER sends me the new *Othello* one.
I love Moon, but I haven't read *Gird*.
As usual, you're way out in front, Lucy!

My reading landscape changed a bit this week. I've dropped the travel series for the time being and picked up TWO non-fiction reads since I couldn't choose between them. I'm bogging a little in the 3rd Knausgaard. (Most of what follows will be in some form in my review, later on, so read on or don't. I just feel like capturing some of my present thoughts.) The father is hard to take . . . and he is so predictable, and, having read all about his end in book one, just so sad. I don't know how much Knausgaard is "remembering" or "recreating" -- although I suspect he has eidetic visual memory, or at least, auditory eidetic abilities, to some degree to write these scenes. There is something very unusual in the stark vividness and, although he describes his own emotions these never get in the way of the crystalline clarity of the scene he describes. It's unnerving, frankly. I am, yes, in awe of what Knausgaard can do with language. Some of these scenes hit me harder than, say, reading about someone being tortured in a thriller. Oh, I admire Knausgaard, make no mistake, I think he is extraordinary, but although the prose is smooth and cool and slips into your mind so easily, the content is not easy at all. Half of my review here!

♬

✔ Me, Myself, and Us Brian R. Little psych.
✔ The Dead Ladies Project Jessica Crispin lit essays
✔ Divided Allegiance #2 in The Deed of Paksenarrion Elizabeth Moon fantasy
✔ My Struggle: Book 3 Karl Ove Knausgaard contemp fic
♬ Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett fantasy

Lucy, the hubs has now read 5 volumes of My Struggle (I believe there is a sixth book but it's not available in English yet). He continues to rave about them and it's evident they have struck an emotional chord.

Enjoyed the Penguin journeys reviews very much, so rather hoping you'll return to those. I think the covers would have won me over, but not sure I'd ever actually read them!

Not come across The Dead Ladies Project either, so will look out for that one.

>207 sibylline: Love the review. It reminds me a bit of the old Disney books about the amazon. Fun for boys.

Oh, you're moving on into the Paks books now, although it looks like you skipped over the first book, right? I love that trilogy. Are you going on into the 5 books in the sequel series? I need to reread the final book.

>212 lauralkeet: Well, they are remarkable.

>215 ronincats: I haven't skipped anything yet, Roni. I read the two books in The Legacy of Gird (one about Gird, the other about Luap)- reviewed somewhere up above and then Sheepfarmer's Daughter. Just finished Divided Allegiance (not reviewed yet - will do that tomorrow) and had to plunge right into Oath of Gold -- all three are in The Deed of Paksenarrion. I have only one of the next five, picked it up somewhere. Will take a break while collecting them!

Absolutely loving the haiku summaries. What happened to them? You are inspiring me :) (to write haiku, that is)

Thank you! I'll get back to doing them, I've been in a bit of a slump of late. Tired of winter, I guess.

Weather Excitement!

Our snow has just started -- the forecast keeps going up and up with snow amounts, now it's up to 16-24. We're hunkered down. As long as we don't have to go anywhere or do anything I enjoy it. It's wonderful to go outside and here minimal road traffic sound, ordinarily between 7-9 a.m. it's pretty constant (our valley is narrow -- a mile or two wide and in winter sound just richochets off the mountain slopes!).

One thing I did not enjoy was having my arthur-itis act up for the last 48 hours. It started before I knew anything about the storm and totally convinced me it would indeed be a Big One when I did learn about it.

I've taken my "before" photo, will be posting that along with "after".

Looking forward to lots of reading! Book Blizzard!

How fun, Lucy - enjoy your Book Blizzard and your snow. Slightly jealous, although the weather here has been a refreshing change. I am actually getting to wear sweatshirts this week. *happy dance* Several days of weather in the 50s has me completely giddy.

Loving all your book talk - the Knausgaard I am not at all interested in reading, but I am really delighting in the thoughts about it that you are sharing on your journey.

I did not know that there were more books in the Elizabeth Moon series - Craig has read that trilogy over and over again, and now I am wondering if he has read the other books.

Lovely to visit a thread and see so much love for The Long Ships. I read it a few years ago, fairly sure the category challenge group did a group read at the time.

Also great to see the enthusiasm for Dunnett, I'm hoping to crack her King Hereafter this year, though my planned reading is constantly set back by impulse reads from the library.

I listened to Dunnett and am going to wait a "decent" interval to read the Lymond saga again. I know there are lots of others and the Niccolo books and I hope to get to them too. But my heart has been given to Lymond, well, I actually adore Jarrett (I listened so don't know how to spell names)!

The snow is picking up "steam" (uh, not quite the right metaphor is it? how about . . volume, heft, density.)

Also want to use this opportunity to apologize for not threading elsewhere as much as I might -- eyes have been troublesome when i look at the screen for too long. Today I hope to be able to visit folks a few threads at a time.

Posting two pictures, a before and after. Although it is still not fully after. We have about two feet now and it is still snowing! Really, too much snow.



March 14 7:30 a.m. to March 15 7:30 a.m. And still coming down!

We are completely snowed in. The plow came through late last night. I'm sure he's waiting and hoping the snow will slow or stop but it hasn't. Right now anyway it is not windy. this is too much snow for any fun outside really -- and we had to shovel a path for Miss Po to do her bizniss.

Wow!

Yeah. This much snow just gets to be . . . too much snow. Luckily I don't have anything I have to do until Friday, but after that except for Sunday I have quite a lot happening.

Hope to get some traction on the Knausgaard today. I was obsessively reading the Paksenarrion trilogy and that is finished now.

Craig just finished rereading that Paksenarrion trilogy! Hoping the snow gets managed before you have to be out in it.

Goodness gracious. I hope it calms down so that you can get out on Friday! Hopefully it will have stopped by then, and people can make some headway on it.

Love those photos!! Especially the marshmallow on top of the table on the right :)

That's a lot of snow! Glad it's not windy at least. I'm sure we'll get more this month, but there's none in the forecast at the moment. Just cold and clear.

We're lucky that our back door is right next to the driveway, so when the guy comes and plows that, Penny can get out to do her things. Although the little dummy likes to go off the cleared part and into the deep snow (sinking all the way in to her chest) to find the "best" spot.

There's at least four more inches now. Will post a photo later. It takes me FOREVER to get a photo here!

Here's an update, I think the snow is slowing down, but I bet we get a few more inches before this is over.



I wonder if the chair will still be visible tomorrow?

Truly amazing, Lucy! *sigh* I miss snow. But not the shoveling of it.

>231 sibylline: OMG!! Now that is a lot of snow. How man inches is that now? Glad you don't have anything you HAVE to do until later in the week when hopefully you will be plowed out.

Holy crap!

>231 sibylline: That is a serious amount of snow!

We were just saying (the spousal unit and me) that if we had snow like this in December it would be (or some of it would be) with us for the rest of the winter. I'd rather have this amount of snow now when I know it won't last very long.

I'm guessing the final amount is around 28-30 inches, possibly more, but not less, there is drifting too. We went snowshoeing and it was above our knees!

30. fantasy ****
Sheepfarmer's Daughter#1 The Deed of Paksenarrion Elizabeth Moon

Paks has dreamed of becoming a warrior and refuses to marry, leaves home, joins the company of "the Duke" a man who has risen out of obscurity because of his leadership abilities. It is apparent that Paks has something about her, some intensity and a strong moral compass. This first book in the trilogy is about her training. As with the story of Gird, it is important as the reader watches Paks learn and grow and mature. I don't often like this sort of hyper-detailed military book, but Paks is a compelling character. ****

31.
Divided Allegiance #2 in The Deed of Paksenarrion Elizabeth Moon

In this second book in the series, Paks, with the Duke's blessing, leaves his mercenary Company to go and train towards maybe become a paladin as she has shown some abilities in that direction. Her dream may come true! But she has many trials to undergo not the least of which is to learn what true courage is and how anger, while it can give one strength in fighting, feeds an inner darkness that makes one vulnerable to evil. The story really takes hold here. Confirms one of my ideas that when world-building is solid, the story will take on a dimension and form and momentum that feels utterly in tune with the logic of that world. Wonderful! ****1/2

32. fantasy ****1/2
Oath of Gold#3 in The Deed of Paksenarrion Elizabeth Moon

Read this one so fast I never even got the image up! In this final book in the series, Paks, now fully in her element, fully matured, discovers her purpose. Can't say more without spoiling! If you like fantasy, you'll like it. ****1/2

33. ♬ fantasy ****
Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett

I loved this one because I do love the witches: Magrat is to wed her foolish King; Granny Weatherwax has her finger on the quantum pulse and learns more about her other selves (as well as saving the day, of course); and Nanny Ogg, well, she is herself throughout. There was romance in this one. It was full of the usual inventive verbal silliness, but there was a tenderness to it or something, lifted it above the purely silly now and then. Pratchett takes all the fantasy tropes (which he clearly adored) and throws them around like the glittering confounding confetti of the fae themselves. ****

34. contemp fic *****
My Struggle: Book 3: Boyhood Island Karl Ove Knausgaard

This third volume addresses a boy's childhood. In particular, yes, Karl Ove Knausgaard's childhood as he recreates it, joy and pain both. But I think large parts of it are and are meant to be encompass "boyhood" and I've read very little that approaches it, although I think there are some Richard Ford stories (if I'm not mixing him up with someone else) that come close. it is the level of detail combined with the (deceptive) simplicity of the writing. I don't know how much Knausgaard is "remembering" or "recreating" -- although I suspect he has to one degree or another eidetic visual and auditory abilities. It would, in fact, explain why his childhood was so intense and difficult. There is something very unusual in the stark vividness of the scenes, joyful and terrible, and, although he describes his own emotions these never get in the way of the crystalline clarity of detail. In some way it is unnerving, frankly, and I am, yes, in awe of what Knausgaard can do with language. The father is hard to take . . . so predictably awful and cruel, and, having read all about his later years in book one, just so sad and some of the moments between them were far more painful than, say, reading about someone being tortured in a thriller. Perhaps the most astonishing achievement is that, somewhere past halfway (after a scene where K.O. acts like a complete asshole around a fellow schoolmate who can't read) you begin, now and then, to understand how K.O. could drive a saint crazy. His father, who is clearly dysfunctional (borderline?) in some critical way, never had a chance with a child like this no matter how hard he might want to do better, and you can guess that some of the son's sensitivity came from him, even if in him, it is warped. I admire Knausgaard, make no mistake, I think he is extraordinary, but although the prose is smooth and cool and slips into your mind so easily, the content is not easy to absorb at all. *****

Haiku summary

Boyhood joy and play
Shadowed by darkness and fear
Dad looms over all.

HOLY MOLY!!!! All that snow is - confounding!
Off to research *Dead Ladies*.
Be careful in all that!

My reading landscape has changed utterly in such a short time! Back with the new line-up as soon as I get it lined up!

The snow has stopped, it is almost sunny out! The snow, which was very fluffy, is already settling. But there is an awful lot of it!

Lots of good reading -- but then, with all that snow... :)

Goodness! With all that snow outside the door I'd be tempted to hunker down and read non-stop too! What a treat! Although I'd also be terrified of running out of food or being ambushed by a yeti or something, which I guess you are now totally nonchalant about after years of similar experiences.
Lots of books to tempt one here, even, dare I say it, the Knausgaard.....

>216 sibylline: I misunderstood. You had reviewed Liar's Oath and you had the cover of Divided Allegiance up as what you were reading now. I do love that trilogy too, and reread it every so often. I bought the next five as they came out, so I've read the first of those 5 times, the next one 4 times and so on. Paks drops in and out as a character, but it follows Phelan and Dorrin and Arcolin and Mikeli from the last moments of Oath of Gold on.

I really must read more Elizabeth Moon! I also need to get a copy of Dead Ladies too!

>241 sibylline: I like your review of Boyhood Island, I have read it recently. The father is very cruel (and reminds me of of my mother...), so it was a hard read. I love his writing, but this one did not struck me like his first book did.
Your Haiku is spot on!

Yes, I feel somewhat the same way, I also loved the second book. I did think it very poignant when he said of his own four children that he hoped they would never fear him and would regard him as someone completely in their corner. At one point he also remarks that his brother Yngve, being first, had an even worse time. He does not describe those scenes, however, although the fact that Yngve doesn't leave when they move says everything.

>249 sibylline: although the fact that Yngve doesn't leave when they move says everything
Yes it does, but Yngve seems to handle the problems with his dad in a better way, without tormenting himself so much. And I completely understand Karl-Ove wants to be a better father to his children...

That's a lot of snow, Lucy. I'd be tempted to stay put until most of it went away if I were you.

35. psych *****
Me, Myself, and Us Brian R. Little

What a superb book! It isn't easy to write an accessible book about a subject as complex as what goes into making personality. Little moves through current thinking and research (his own and that of others) and provides an overview that is deeply commonsensical without sacrificing humor and sensitivity. One of the points he makes, over and over, about different aspects of personality is that who you are (as in your default mode) and how you act in any given situation is up to you, provided you are self aware and make that choice. In other words, he's saying that acting 'out of character' is part of being an adult dealing with the world. He talks about ways that stretching yourself are good--up to a point, and that taking care of that core self's needs is very important--up to a point. There is a slant in the book towards the assumption that you are reading it as a searcher, that you want, if possible to increase your acceptance and knowledge about yourself so that you can apply it to your life, to your sense of well-being. Toward that end, combining a realistic view of yourself (both internally and externally) with regular reassessment of your core personal projects, appears to be the key to a sense of well-being. There's so much to this book, I'm going to wrap up here and just say I highly recommend it if you are a permanent self-quester like myself. Here and there he's really funny, too, without it being that sort of cute self-help book funny. Sign of an extravert: While driving from here to there child asks mother, "Where have all the idiots gone?" Mother says,"They only come out when Daddy is driving, dear." *****

He's got a Ted Talk -- just put in your browser: Brian Little Ted talk who are you really?

>252 sibylline: Hi Lucy, This sounds like an interesting book. I went and visited the link you gave, it was definitely worth it. One of the better Tedtalks. And now I would like to read the book.

(The touchstone links to the wrong book, you misspelled the title, I noticed it when I looked at the picture of the cover)

>252 sibylline: Delurking to confirm having been book bulleted!

Enjoy what is left of your Sunday, Lucy.

>253 EllaTim: Thank you! I fixed it!

>252 sibylline: BBed! :D

Heavens above! Literally! Today is the Spring Equinox and it was my intention to start my new thread and do them by the Equinox and Solstices. Off to work! I'll be back to post the link.

>252 sibylline: Adding that one to the BlackHole!