rosalita jumps a little higher in 2017: verse 6

Summertime, summertime, sum- sum- summertime! We have officially reached the horse latitudes of the academic year, when most students have fled back home and left Iowa City (on the left in this photo) and the campus (right) to us townies. Peace will reign and parking spaces will be plentiful until August, and I plan to enjoy every minute of it. :-)

The book-reading slump I fell into in the last two months of 2016 may be the way of the future, which is OK. I’m going to continue reading books of all sorts (fiction, nonfiction, mystery, history, science fiction/fantasy), maybe fewer but hopefully better. (Better does not mean Serious, or Literary, or any such thing. It just means, you know, Better.)

And because I do a lot of reading outside of books, I’m going to also “review” some of that as well, which just means I’m going to be dropping some links and comments to articles I come across that I find interesting, amusing, or thought-provoking. Perhaps you will, too! None of the non-book reading will count toward my 75-book total, of course.

About those stars:
My system for assigning star ratings to books has evolved over the years, but this chart comes the closest to describing what I consider when I rate a book.
Breathtaking. This book may not be perfect, but it was perfect for me.
Not quite perfect, but I will actively recommend this book to friends.
A really great book with minor flaws, still highly recommended.
Better than average but some flaws. Recommended.
Entertaining but probably forgettable, not worth re-reading. Recommended only for fans of the genre or author.
Readable but something about the story, characters or writing was not up to standards. Not recommended.
Finished but did not like, and would not recommend.
Some redeeming qualities made me finish it, but nothing to recommend.
Nearly no redeeming qualities. Really rather bad.
Could not finish, possibly destroyed by fire (unless it's a library book)

Life Is Full of Challenges
I always start the year with such lofty reading plans. So many fabulous challenges, so many fabulous books to slot into them! And then somewhere in the middle of the year, I fall off the challenge wagon. I stop planning my reads and just start reading by the seat of my pants. Which is fun, too, so no regrets.

And it might happen again this year, and that’s OK! But I’m going to list here the challenges that have caught my eye, in hopes that it will help me stay on track. I’ll add possibilities as I run across them, and I welcome suggestions from any and all of my visitors. Some of these are from this group, and some are from our friends over at the 2017 Category Challenge group.

75ers Nonfiction Challenge

• Jan - Prizewinners
  
  • The Fire Next Time (Baldwin)
• Feb - Voyages of Exploration
  
  • The Proving Ground (Knecht) (ROOT)
• Mar - Heroes and Villains
  
  • The Children (Halberstam) (ROOT)
• Apr - Hobbies, Pastimes and Passions
  
  • Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? (Breslin) (ROOT)
• May - History
  
  • The Glass Universe (Sobel)
• Jun - The Natural World
  
  • Fire Season (ROOT)
• Jul - Creators and Creativity
  
• Aug - I've Always Been Curious About ...
  
• Sep - Gods, Demons and Spirits
  
• Oct - The World We Live In: Current Affairs
  
• Nov - Science and Technology
  
• Dec - Out of Your Comfort Zone

American Authors Challenge

• Jan - Octavia Butler
  
  • Kindred
• Feb - Stewart O'Nan
  
• Mar - William Styron
  
  • Sophie's Choice (ROOT)
• Apr - Poetry
  
  • Sailing Alone Around the Room (Collins) (ROOT)
• May - Zora Neale Hurston
  
• Jun - Sherman Alexie
  
• Jul - James McBride
  
• Aug - Patricia Highsmith
  
• Sep - Short Stories
  
• Oct - Ann Patchett
  
• Nov - Russell Banks
  
• Dec - Ernest Hemingway

CATWoman

• Jan - Classics
  
  • Middlemarch
• Feb - Debut books
  
  • Glaciers
• Mar - Genres
  
  • Charity Girl (Heyer) (ROOT)
• Apr - Biography/autobiography/memoir
  
  • Eleanor and Hick
• May - Women in the arts
  
  • Dearie
• Jun - Professional women
  
• Jul - Women of color
  
• Aug - Nonfiction or historical fiction
  
  • A Room With a View
• Sep - Children’s/YA/Graphic novels
  
• Oct - Regional reading
  
• Nov - LGBT/feminist writing
  
• Dec - Modern (post-1960) novels

CultureCAT

• Jan - Ethics in Science & Technology
  
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Dick)
• Feb - Medicine & Public Health
  
  • Gulp! (Roach)
• Mar - Cultural Awareness & Diversity
  
  • The Children
• Apr - Religious Diversity & Freedom
  
  • Under the Banner of Heaven (Kraukeur)
• May - Gender Equality
  
  • The Glass Universe (Sobel)
• Jun - Environmentalism/Conservation (including global warming concerns)
  
  • Upstream (Oliver)
• Jul - Violence, Crime & Justice
  
• Aug - Impact of Natural disasters
  
• Sep - Journalism & the Arts
  
• Oct - Poverty
  
• Nov - Conflict & War (including terrorism)
  
• Dec - Cultural Flow & Immigration

AwardsCAT

• Jan - Year's Best lists and Costa Book Award
  
  • The Fireman (NPR Best of 2016) (Hill)
• Feb - Canada Reads competition and The Morning News Tournament of Books
  
• Mar - The Newbery and Caldecott medals and other Genre Awards (any genre prize not already featured)
  
• Apr - International Dublin Literary Award and the Pulitzer Prize
  
• May - Man Booker International Prize and the Edgar Awards
  
• Jun - The PEN Literary Awards and the National Book Award (USA)
  
  • Station Eleven
• Jul - Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and any Science Fiction/Fantasy award
  
• Aug - Miles Franklin Award and the Stonewall Book Award
  
• Sep - Man Booker Prize and O. Henry Award
  
• Oct - Nobel Prize for Literature and the Giller Prize
  
• Nov - Local Awards (a regional prize of your choice)
  
• Dec - International awards (a prize from a country you aren't living in)

I owe you some reviews, but while I'm writing those, here's what I'm
Currently Reading



Nonfiction, memoir from a U.S. Forest Service lookout who spends April-September perched in a wooden tower spotting wildfires.

Oh, gee. Hi, Julia. Happy new month.

Happy new thread, Julia!

Ehhhh, shaddup about "summertime", will ya!? :(

(Although I can't really complain: winter has been very mild here so far.)

Happy New thread!

Happy New Thread, Julia, and congrats on having the campus to yourselves, oh academics and townies!

Happy new thread, Julia. I enjoyed your introduction @ >1 rosalita: as to the seasonal benefits of being in Iowa City in term break time!

>4 weird_O: >5 harrygbutler: Thanks, Bill and Harry!

>6 lyzard: So far it's been quite mild here as well, but I know the heat and humidity are coming ...

>7 ronincats: It's so nice, Roni. And it lasts just long enough. By the end of August I will be actually looking forward to having the little munchkins back again.

>8 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Summer vacation isn't only for the students!

Oh, Julia, I can't possibly go back and catch up, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to come in and hope all is well with you. Happy Reading! Enjoy your summer. I confess to dreading ours a bit.

Happy new thread! And summer. And parking spaces. : )

Happy new thread, Julia!

Happy New Thread, Julia!

The Bath Tangle is my next Heyer, per your guide. Looking forward to it!

Happy new thread, Julia, enjoy the advantages of summer :-)

Happy new thread, Julia. Enjoy the summer.

Happy New Thread, Julia! We're in the home stretch -- today is the last day of classes..... By this time next week campus will be vewy vewy quiet.... :-)

>11 Berly: >12 scaifea: >14 FAMeulstee: >15 BLBera: Thanks!

>13 jnwelch: Ah, yes. That one is a little more back to form after the delightful oddity of The Toll-Gate. Which doesn't diminish its appeal in any way!

>16 EBT1002: You can make it, Ellen! The vewy vewy quiet bit is glorious and worth the wait!

Happy new thread Julia and enjoy the summer my dear.

35. No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories by Lee Child.

Let's be honest: Jack Reacher is kind of a ridiculous character. As portrayed in Lee Child's wildly popular series of thrillers, he is an ex-Marine who travels around the country with only his toothbrush, his passport, and an ATM card. He drifts in and out of small-town America, kicking ass and seldom bothering to take names. Bad guys get their comeuppance, women get bedded, Jack moves on.

So yeah, kind of ridiculous. But compelling nonetheless, because I've read every one of the Reacher novels and enjoyed them in all their violent absurdity. I knew Child had published a number of e-book short stories featuring our favorite ass-kicker, but my library only has a handful of them. So some of the stories in this collection were familiar, and others were new to me although not actually new, if you know what I mean.

After reading the collection (which spans time between Reacher as a 13-year-old military brat and his current circumstances), I think Reacher may even work better in the short form. You get pure concentrated doses of Reacher with little secondary character development (not that there's a ton of that in the full-length books), and the plots aren't drawn out to such a ridiculous extent as they need to be to make a full novel.

If you like the Reacher persona, you will probably enjoy this collection. If you don't, nothing here will change your mind, I don't think. If you are curious about this Reacher creature, I'm not sure this collection is the best place to become acquainted; you'd probably be better off starting with the first novel, Killing Floor and seeing if he strikes your fancy.

Great comments, Julia.

Thanks, Beth! Did I tempt you to pick it up? ;-)

I might. Do you want my copy of The Chalk Pit?

Checking in on the new thread, Julia!

36. Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie.

A renowned but retired British actor throws a dinner party at his country home, where the village vicar unexpectedly drops dead. Was it ... murder?! No one seems to think so except the actor, his friend Satterthwaite ("A dried-up little pipkin of a man"), and the actor's erstwhile young lover, Miss Hermione Lytton Gore (Egg to you, if you please). Even Hercule Poirot, who was a guest at the party, pooh-poohs the idea.

But when one of the other guests at that party, a nerve doctor named Strange, throws his own dinner party with more or less the same guest list back in London some months later, another death occurs and suddenly no one is pooh-poohing anything, least of all Poirot.

Another twisty plot from the queen of twisty plots, as the spotlight of suspicion falls plausibly on one after another of the characters. Poirot's part is seemingly minor, except that he is the one in the end who solves the seemingly unsolvable mystery. Additional kudos to Dame Agatha for structuring a mystery involving denizens of the theater scene as a play: Act One, the first murder; Act Two, the second murder and the amateur investigation; Act Three, the unmasking of the murderer. Or, as she says in the mock Production Notes at the beginning, Illumination by Hercule Poirot. Bravo!

>22 BLBera: Are you sure you want to give it up? If so, I'll PM you my address.

>23 alcottacre: Good to see you back, Stasia!

>19 rosalita: I've enjoyed the ridiculous and violent Jack Reacher stories as much as you, Julia, sounds like, and I've been sneaking glances at No Middle Name. You've certainly successfully tempted me to pick it up.

Three Act Tragedy - I think you've also identified my next Agatha re-read. I just finished, with great enjoyment, reading Five Little Pigs, the one looking back on a murder from 16 years prior.

Happy new thread Julia!

I've only read the first two Reacher novels but found them ridiculous fun. Nice to know there's plenty more ridiculous fun to go.

>24 rosalita:

Nice, Julia! The punchline of Three Act Tragedy always cracks me up. :D

A good one for you to get under your belt, too, as there are several later novels set in the same district that include spoilery references to this one.

Speaking of spoilers, a question:

The first US edition of this novel changed one of the plot points because the laws were different in America. I'm curious whether they ever "fixed" that: what was the motive given in your copy for Strange's murder?

>26 jnwelch: Oh, I think you'll enjoy it, Joe! Have you read any of the short stories? I seem to recall you don't "do" ebooks much if at all, so I'm guessing not.

>27 swynn: There is lots more ridiculous fun left to enjoy, Steve! And they are best enjoyed spaced out so that the ridiculous doesn't start to outweigh the fun, if you know what I mean.

>28 lyzard: I did literally laugh out loud when I read that last line, Liz! And I'm glad I've set the table for future reads.

As for your spoiler question, Poirot reveals that Sir Charles cannot legally marry Egg because he has a first wife locked away in an insane asylum, which Poirot says is one of only two conditions that are not grounds for divorce (the other being a wife serving a life sentence in prison). So now you've got me curious: What is the original ending?

Happy Sunday, Julia! Happy New Thread! Please keep me in mind for the Iowa Book Festival. I might try to make that one.

>30 msf59: We need to get you here to Iowa, Mark! Thanks for the reminder — I am going to check tomorrow to see if the author schedule has been announced yet, and I'll put the details here in my thread so we can make some plans.

>29 rosalita:

That is the original ending, so they have fixed it - good!

The first American edition had Strange realising that Cartwright himself was insane, because the law about not being able to divorce someone who had been declared insane didn't exist in America.

You might remember that when I read this book, it prompted a long discussion about books being "Americanised". :)

>31 rosalita: If it would work out, I would put in for a day or 2 off.

>29 rosalita: I have read a couple of the Jack Reacher short stories, Julia. I do read e-books. I'd probably read books written on orange rinds if they existed.

Julia--Awesome reviews! I haven't read a Reacher in a long time and I remember it being good fun.

>34 jnwelch: Orange rinds--you make me laugh!

>32 lyzard: Oh, I'm glad to hear that! I remember the discussion about "Americanizing" (fixed that spelling for ya, ha!) books but had not remembered it was centered on this one. I find that so irritating, as I know you do as well. Just give me the book the way it was written, please! Half the fun of reading books set in other places is puzzling out the differences in terminology and idioms, after all.

>33 msf59: Yes! And have I mentioned that we have several craft breweries in the area that you might want to visit? :-)

>34 jnwelch: Ha! Those would be some good-smelling books, written on orange rinds.

>35 Berly: They are fun as long as you aren't a stickler for believability, Kim! I'm happy to suspend my disbelief for the sake of a ripping good yarn.

>36 rosalita: I think you are trying to seal the deal, Julia. Grins...

Yay for Christie! I've been on an Agatha kick myself, recently.

Happy new thread!

>37 msf59: Maaaayybeee ...

>38 scaifea: I love when a classic lives up to the hype, Amber, and Dame Agatha certainly does!

>39 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

Monday Clickbait

It's Monday, y'all. Let's go with something a little lighter today for our clickbait:



Through Nostalgia Or Necessity, Hand-Painted Signs Have Persisted In Chicago — This story sent me back in time. I remember so well that distinctive style of hand-painted grocery store sign papering over the front windows of the store so you couldn't see in or out. Be sure to check out the video that shows the painters creating the signs. It's amazing to see how they do it all so perfectly, and freehand! (via the Chicago Tribune)

I promised an update on plans for the 2017 Iowa City Book Festival. They still have not announced the schedule of authors (boo!) but they recently released this blurb:

While we still are hearing from people who had transformative experiences at the 2016 Iowa City Book Festival, we already are hard at work planning the 2017 fest. Get the dates on your calendar now: Oct. 8-15, 2017. We will feature another mix of authors, events, and themes, and will again be working with several partners to offer a wide variety of programs. These will include the 2017 One Community One Book author, G. Willow Wilson (presented in partnership with Hancher Auditorium); the Examined Life conference and more. Of special note: 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, and we will have several events that celebrate that milestone for this amazing program.

I will keep you all posted as I learn more! It would be lovely to get an LT group to represent at the festival this year.

Hi, Julia! Happy new thread! Yay for the end of the school year and a return to peace and uncrowded spaces in your college town!

I've read all the Reacher novels through Make Me and many of the short stories, and enjoyed them, but I'm about done and am not all that eager to read any more. After all this time, his exploits are getting a bit too predictable. I may pick up the newer novels and the short-story collection someday, but it's not a priority.

>43 Storeetllr: Hi, Mary! I was happy that the last couple (few? one?) of the Reacher novels was a flashback to when he was in the military. I think the "loner on the road with a toothbrush" thing is totally played out. But the books about his being an MP don't strain my credulity *quite* as much. It is definitely a series to space out, though, and not binge-read.

Tuesday Clickbait

For our Canadian friends ...



Man Who Mowed Lawn With Tornado Behind Him Says He Was Keeping An Eye On It — With that headline and photo, you hardly have to click the link, right? They grow 'em tough in Alberta! (via Victoria Times-Colonist)

>45 rosalita: I saw this a few days ago, and it made me chuckle. He was keeping an eye on it, with his back to it ;-)

THanks for the book festival update. I'll keep it in mind.

>46 katiekrug: Yeah, I've had that one hanging around in Pocket for a little while. I've known men who were fanatical about mowing their lawn but this one might take the cake. :-)

>47 BLBera: I'll keep checking for the author list, Beth. They're bound to post it sooner or later! But at least you have the dates for planning purposes.

Happy still new to me thread!

>45 rosalita: Yowza!

>49 Copperskye: Hey, it's Joanne! Thanks for coming by. And yes, that lawnmower guy is nuts, right? :-)

>45 rosalita: Sounds like something I'd do... :)

>51 drneutron: I guess you science guys don't scare easy, Jim!

Wednesday Clickbait



Writers On the Fly — The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature group have put together this nifty website that features "brief interviews with some of the many authors who have visited Iowa City or call it home." The current interview is with Chelsea Cain, an Iowa City native who now lives in Portland. There are many others in the site's archives, like Jane Smiley, Hope Edelman, Nathan Hill, Roxanne Gay, Marilynne Robinson, Robert Pinsky — well, you get the idea. If you're interested in hearing authors talk about their work, check it out! (via the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature)

37. The Heckler by Ed McBain.

This entry in McBain's 87th Precinct story marks the first appearance of arch-villain The Deaf Man, who becomes a recurring character in later books. Here, he's the brains behind an audacious and fantastically complicated robbery plot that sends our hero Steve Carella to the hospital and nearly drives the rest of the precinct to their knees. In this 12th book of the series, you can almost feel McBain hitting his stride with his characters and his pseudo-New York City setting. A strong entry in a very strong series, provided you can get past the casual sexism reflective of the 1950s era when it was written.

>42 rosalita: I hope I can come in for this. I probably would only be able to come in for that weekend. Keep me posted.

>19 rosalita: Let's be honest: Jack Reacher is kind of a ridiculous character.
I kind of thought that from the fact that Cruisy plays him in movies.....not the best deduction to make, but maybe true!!??
lol
I can talk, i got free tix to see The Mummy starring the very same Cruiser so will be seeing him in action sooner than i need to!!!!

>55 msf59: I'll post any updates here, Mark.

>56 LovingLit: I have not seen the Reacher movie, but when they cast Cruise I couldn't believe it. Jack Reacher in the books is 6 feet 5 inches tall, weighs about 250 pounds of muscle ... that doesn't sound like Tom Cruise, does it?!

>57 rosalita: That sounds like The Rock, not Tom Cruise! XD

>58 PawsforThought: The Rock would have made a great Jack Reacher!

>53 rosalita: Thanks Julia.

I'll keep checking for book festival updates.

Currently Reading

  

I'm still very much enjoying Fire Season but couldn't resist pausing to dive into The Chalk Pit as soon as it arrived yesterday, courtesy of Beth. Thanks, Beth!

You're very welcome.

>56 LovingLit: Oh, yes! I forgot about Cruise as Reacher. Awful casting choice, I thought. I vaguely remember seeing the movie after it came out on DVD and being unable to really believe in the character. I don't see The Rock as Reacher either. Maybe someone like Liev Schreiber?

>37 msf59: Oooh, I need to get back to that series. I quite liked that one, though looking back at my comments you'd the thing that made the biggest impression on me was a pair of high-heeled bedroom slippers. Oh, 1960.

The Jack Reacher in my head bears a strong resemblance to Vinnie Jones, who does menacing self-control and icy glare so well. His accent would be a problem, but instead of speaking lines the director could just have him glare some more.

>63 Storeetllr: I'm not familiar with Liev Schreiber's oeuvre, Mary, but he does look the part facially.

>64 swynn: I think you are referring to The Heckler? (You've got your reference number mixed up with the book number, I think.) I love the relationship between Carella and Teddy, and that was a typical McBain double-switch — setting it up as a steamy romantic scene and having it turn into farce. Oh, 1960 indeed!

And I don't know Vinnie Jones at all, though from your link he would fill the visuals of current-day Reacher pretty darn well. I'm not sure he'd be as convincing in the flashback novels, though ...

>65 rosalita: Yes, The Heckler; you're right about my switching the number of the book and the number of the post.

Vinnie Jones often plays a quiet heavy in gangster movies. He has the physical presence of brick wall without being bulky. But yes, he ain't young anymore.

>66 swynn: Vinnie Jones also has the acting capabilities of a cactus. Or the same brick wall he looks like.

>66 swynn: >67 PawsforThought: Uh-oh, Vinnie Jones throwdown between Steve and Paws!

/gets the popcorn

>68 rosalita: Not really; I agree with Paws: I am not arguing that Vinnie Jones is a great actor. I'm arguing that he'd be an able portrayer of Jack Reacher, who has the emotional depth of a wall of cactuses. (Based, of course, on the couple of books I've read and the fact that the scripts Tom Cruise has been given don't ask for much.)

The Grand Sophy being made into a film? This is an article from last year, Julia, but it sounds like it'll happen? http://www.janetogeorgette.com/georgette-heyer-movie-grand-sophy-film/

I kept thinking her Regency novels would make for great BBC-type mini-series, so I searched, and that article turned up.

P.S. I enjoyed Bath Tangle! Serena - another great, strong character. Loved it when she reamed out Ivo's ward Gerard for his idiotic elopement with you-know-who.

>68 rosalita:

Not familiar with the character, but would nice tall Gerard Butler work...?

>63 Storeetllr:, >65 rosalita: And Liev (whose work I don't know - I also just thought he had the face of a Jack Reacher) is 6'3" tall. :)

ETA Vinnie Jones' face is too thin and sharp-featured. I picture Reacher as more thick-featured.

>69 swynn: Oh! Well, that makes more sense, although it's less exciting. :-) Reacher is fairly, let's say laconic, except when the beautiful woman begs him to reveal how he knew the thing there's no way he could have known in order to figure out the plot/beat the bad guys. Then you can't get him to shut up, although it's all very terse of course, as befits a man of action.

>70 jnwelch: Wow, a Grand Sophy movie would be so great, Joe! I really need that to happen. And I totally agree with you about Serena — I know a number of people are lukewarm about Bath Tangle but for me she is a delight! Knowing the general colloquial meaning of the word "fanny" these days in the UK, I did raise my eyebrows at her stepmother's name, though!

>71 m.belljackson: I think you need to do an in-depth, in-person interview with Mr. Butler and report back, Marianne. :-)

>72 Storeetllr: I definitely think Liev has the face, although he might be too good-looking. I know author Lee Child keeps making reference to Reacher maybe being not that attractive, but considering how many women drop their panties as soon as he rolls into town I don't think I believe him. :-)

No opinion on the Reacher character--I've only read one of the books.

>74 ronincats: They are rather ridiculous, Roni. I would never suggest that anyone is missing out on great literature by not reading them!

Friday Clickbait



Large Crowd Turns Out As Kolach Festival Begins in Cedar Rapids — A while ago (last year, maybe?) there was a discussion around these parts about kolaches (delicious Czech pastries) and the differences between various regions (in Texas, I remember, they are more likely to be savory than sweet, while here in Iowa it's the opposite). Anyway, this weekend is the big St. Ludmila Parish Kolach Festival in Cedar Rapids (home to a huge Czech population) and this preview was in today's paper. I plan to try to get up there for a half dozen apple and a half dozen poppyseed, myself. (via The Gazette)

>73 rosalita:

Rosalita - you are right - The Phantom and I are long overdue for a meet-up!

Mmm, kolaches...

>77 m.belljackson: :-)

>78 katiekrug: It doesn't help that it's lunchtime here, Katie!

I haven't had lunch yet, and I can guarantee that nothing in my kitchen right now is going to taste as good as a kolache would!

>79 rosalita:
>80 katiekrug:

Favorite Kolache Flavors?

I love apricot and prune...

>81 m.belljackson: Apricot is great. I really like the poppyseed ones at St. Ludmila's. And apple is my go-to fruit for desserts always. I don't think I've ever had prune, actually.

I've only ever had savory kolaches, but I tend to like any apricot or apple pastries.

I wouldn't say no if you offered to send me a half dozen of the poppyseed kolaches. :) The apricot ones sound good too.

>83 katiekrug: Same!

>84 Storeetllr: I'll try to bring some when I come visit. :-)

>76 rosalita: Drooling.

>86 BLBera: Right? I am ready to drive up there right now!

I'll meet you there.

never had a kolache but apple or poppy seed anything sounds wonderful :)

>88 BLBera: >89 RebaRelishesReading: Mmmm, they are so good!

Kolache virgin here. Apricot or prune! I guess. ; )

38. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths.

I thoroughly enjoy this series about forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway, who finds herself repeatedly teaming up with the police whenever some bones need deciphering. In this case, it's a partial skeleton found far beneath Norwich, England, on the site of a proposed restaurant/pub. Meanwhile, DCI Nelson and his team are investigating a series of murders of homeless persons, or rough sleepers as they are apparently more commonly referred to in the UK. Could the two cases be connected?

I thought the mystery here was well done and the homeless community were portrayed very sympathetically but not sentimentally, if that makes sense. All the usual characters had their stories moved forward, and although I'm not a big fan of the latest development in Ruth's personal life I'm willing to see how Griffiths works it out in the next book.

Thanks again to Beth for passing along to me the ARC she received from Katie, who I believe received it from Suzanne. I'd love to continue the chain of generosity, so if anyone would like to read this one please PM me your address and I will happily pass it along.

Glad you liked it, Julia.

>92 rosalita: I need to catch up with some of my series reading, Julia - that one included.

>93 BLBera: >94 PaulCranswick: I read so many series, and I find the ones set in the UK outside of London might be my favorites. The Galloway books really make me want to visit Norfolk and see that Saltmarsh for myself!

I love books with strong senses of place, Julia, and the Saltmarsh is one of the things I really liked about the series. I think she's getting away from that a little, but I still love Ruth.

Summer's here, Julia!! Should we start planning out Dubuque rendezvous...?

>96 BLBera: There was that one scene where she took Kate for a walk to the henge, but I was left wanting more as well.

>97 scaifea: Yes! I've been struggling with quite a bit of hip pain the last month or so, and I've been hesitant to make many plans because of it. But things seem to be easing up, so let me look at my calendar and PM you some dates!

(re)Read



The next in my re-read of the Peter Grant series. I'm enjoying these even more the second time around — I think with the benefit of having read the rest of the series I'm picking things up that went over my head last time. As usual, not counting in my yearly total.

I always count rereads in my yearly book count, Julia. This year, especially, I'd probably not even make it to 75 if I didn't. I'm rereading a lot of old favorites because I'm feeling in need of "comfort reads." Curious to know why you don't.

>100 Storeetllr: I have always counted re-reads in the past, Mary, and I'm certainly not here to say that anyone else should or shouldn't. I can't really remember why I decided not to this year, except I think I wanted a more accurate account of new books that I was reading. It's easy to slide into the habit of re-reading old favorites (like eating mac and cheese when you're sad) and I thought seeing my "count" not increase every time I read one of those would be an incentive to keep reading the new stuff.

I dunno; I'm really just spitballin' here. I'll probably look back and see how many books total I read this year, with and without re-reads (this will be easy because I use the Reading Dates for every book I read), and decide what I want to do next year. I think I will be very close to 75 new books this year, where the past couple of years I've read about 150 total including re-reads. Part of that is that I am reading less, reading more nonfiction, reading more slowly in general, but part of it is not counting the quickies.

>101 rosalita:

Macaroni and Cheese, Coffee and a couple of Kolaches, along with some really welcoming re-reads > sounds like a Great Life!

Currently Reading

  

Poor Fire Season! I really am enjoying reading it, but it keeps getting shoved to the side by library books coming off hold. In this case, it's the latest Ian Rutledge mystery, Racing the Devil.

Wednesday Clickbait



New York Today: A City Library, On the Subway — For all of you NYC residents and visitors, this is really cool: The New York Public Library has set up a webpage that you can only connect to from the wifi service inside subway stations and on trains that allows you to download books and other materials to read while you're commuting. Isn't that cool? (via The New York Times)

Oooh, that IS cool!

Isn't it? Makes me want to go visit again.

>104 rosalita: Whoa. Very cool!!

New York is The Best.

:D

>104 rosalita: Thanks for that story, Julia. I needed some good news.

>107 scaifea: >108 katiekrug: It's so great. And the story says there is one particular No. 10 train that is decorated to look like a library (it's the one in the photo but it doesn't show up very well). That would be very cool, too.

>109 swynn: You're welcome, Steve. We all need whatever good news we can scrounge up these days, but especially days like today.

>104 rosalita: That is definitely one of the coolest things I've heard of!!

>63 Storeetllr: woah, who is THAT guy? Possibly I don't get out enough, but, he certainly appeals ;)

>111 ronincats: It really is, Roni!

>112 LovingLit: I'll let Mary or someone else fill you in, Megan, as I get out even less than you do!

>112 LovingLit: That's Liev Schreiber!

>104 rosalita: SUPER cool

>112 LovingLit: Heh. I get out even less, I'm sure. :) Actually, I was thinking of this one actor, whose name I couldn't remember, as someone I thought could play Reacher, and was scrolling through Google images of "tough guy actors" (I kid you not) when I came across this guy's pic. Liev Schreiber is very close to how I imagine Reacher to look, and he is sure tall enough (6'3). Otherwise, I know nothing about him.

I remember Liev Schreiber from Scream, where he played the guy who was convicted of Sidney's mum's murder. And he used to be married to Naomi Watts. And that's all I know of him.

Couple more shots of the library car on the New York subway.

>118 weird_O: Oh, fabulous! Thanks for those, Bill. You can see the effect much more clearly there. Isn't that groovy?

Love the library subway car!! Happy Friday.

Friday Clickbait



Bruce Springsteen Heads to Broadway This Fall — Guess it's time to start planning a trip to NYC ... (via New York Post)

39. Racing the Devil by Charles Todd.

The latest (#19!) in the Ian Rutledge mystery series, featuring a Scotland Yard inspector still haunted by his experiences in World War I. This one's set in November 1920, and Rutledge is sent to East Sussex to investigate the death of the local rector as the driver in a car crash on a twisty cliffside road. The odd thing is, the rector didn't own a car ...

I really enjoy the Rutledge characterization. He is sympathetic and easy to like, and his personal demons add richness to the overall structure rather than distracting from it. Recommended, but you should start the beginning.

Hi Julia, book me a seat on that New York Subway Library car. Wouldn't that make a great place for a LT gathering! I actually made one of my categories this year for Re-Reads and try to do at least one a month. This way they go towards my yearly book count and I am loving re-visiting many old and beloved stories.

>123 DeltaQueen50: Doesn't that look like a fun ride, Judy? A rolling LT Meet-Up is a great idea! We need this to happen. Thanks for chiming in on the re-reads situation. It sounds like your category challenge works well for this.

Love the library subway! NYC subways have changed a lot, apparently, from the last time I was on one in the early 80s. And that's a good thing.

I'm looking forward to reading The Chalk Pit. I love the character development in that series and is one of a few current series that I am all caught up on.

I really do need to get back to the Ian Rutledge series - I've only read the first four. I'm currently under the thrall of Harry Bosch so Ian will need to wait, I guess.

>125 Copperskye: Ha! Yes, I think the New York City of the 1980s was a very different place than it is today, Joanne. I am so not surprised that you are a fan of both Ruth Galloway and Ian Rutledge; we are reliable BookTwins!

>104 rosalita: I loved this! Thanks for sharing, Julia!

Nice review of The Chalk Pit - I completely agree with your thoughts on Ruth's personal life. *sigh*

*back to add that I hope you Saturday is full of fabulous!

Hi, Julia.

>121 rosalita: We saw this posted on FB. Awfully tempting!

Hi, Julia - I think I fixed the link to the free ebook of Scalzi's Old Man's War over on my thread.

>127 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! Poor Ruth just can't catch a break, eh?

>128 jnwelch: All of my Bruce sources on Twitter say it's not confirmed yet, but I want it to be true so I posted anyway! There were so many good riffs on mashing together Springsteen song titles and Broadway shows — "Darkness on the Edge of Our Town", "Brilliant Disguise and Dolls" (have to say that one out loud to get it), "The Prime of Miss Bobby Jean Brodie", and of course "Everything's Coming Up Rosalita". :-)

I know, right?!

>130 rosalita: Ha! Fingers crossed. Love those song titles. "Brilliant Disguise and Dolls" - clever!

And, of course, "Dancing in the Dark", from "The Band Wagon". Wait - no mashup?

"Because The Little Night Music"? "Born in the USA and I Want to Live in America"? "Countin' on a Hundred Million Miracles"? "The Surrey With the Ties That Bind on Top"? "Greetings from Oklahoma and Asbury Park"? "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Whistle a Happy Tune"?

Those are pretty good, Joe! The Twitter hashtag is #BroadwaySpringsteen if you're looking for more inspiration. People are very imaginative.

Hi, Julia,

I stopped in at the bookstore with the Mystery League titles and found they had four — and on sale for 25 cents apiece (just possibly not overpriced), so I went ahead and picked them up and can send to you (or to Liz) whichever either of you wants:

For Sale — Murder, by Will Levinrew
The Mystery of Burnleigh Manor, by Walter Livingston
The Mystery of Villa Sineste, by Walter Livingston
The Maestro Murders, by Frances Shelley Wees

Now I'll pop over to Liz's thread and let her know. :-)

>134 harrygbutler: Wow, what a haul, Harry! I will defer to Liz to take whichever ones she needs, as she is likely to have less access. But I'll happily take any that she doesn't want!

>134 harrygbutler:, >135 rosalita:

I own The Maestro Murders and have access to copies of The Mystery Of Burnleigh Manor and The Mystery Of Villa Sineste, but I do need For Sale - Murder. However, perhaps Julia could read it and then send it on? That might not work so well as a shared read, but it seems silly to be chasing up duplicate works unless it's really necessary.

Thank you for your efforts, Harry, it is very much appreciated!

By the way, Julia---any word on The Merrivale Mystery?

>136 lyzard: I think Harry should go ahead and send For Sale – Murder to you — after all, there's no guarantee that I will continue with the shared reads after reading the first one. :-)

I got an email from the library saying that The Merrivale Mystery is not available from any library in Iowa (which I already knew from looking at WorldCat) and that they were expanding the search to their regional ILL network. So, we'll see.

>137 rosalita: That sounds like a plan to me. PM me your address, Julia, and I'll send the other three. I'll set For Sale — Murder aside for you, Liz.

>138 harrygbutler: Stand by for an incoming message, Harry. And thanks!

I love your description of the ridiculous but compelling Jack Reacher series. I feel exactly the same way. It's also one of those series that I was reading before LT and I honestly have no idea which ones I haven't read. I mean, I know some that I have read but I don't have a good accounting.

I also love the subway library car idea! The images are quite appealing.

And I have finally started the Elly Griffiths series with Ruth Galloway. I've read the first three and need to put A Room Full of Bones on hold at the library.

>140 EBT1002: How lovely to have you visit here, Ellen! I'm a little embarrassed at how much I enjoy the Reacher books, because they are so contrary to my own worldview and yet I can't stop reading them! The very definition of a guilty pleasure, I reckon.

And woot! for starting the Ruth Galloway series. Isn't she a great character? With many mystery series I find myself drawn to the characters as much as the mysteries, and she's become one of my faves. I will warn you, though: I also went on a binge when I first started reading them, and all too soon I was caught up and having to wait entirely too long for the next one. So be careful!

>137 rosalita:

I think Harry putting it aside for the present is the way to go: if you decide you like these books he can then send it to you, or direct to me if you don't. There's no hurry either way.

Thanks again, Harry!

Fingers crossed for The Merrivale Mystery.

So many mysteries...so little time! Have fun, Julia. ; )

>134 harrygbutler: Harry, you are one nice guy!

>139 rosalita: >142 lyzard: You're welcome!

>143 Berly: Thanks, Kim!

I'm still plugging away at Fire Season. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I don't find myself able to read it for long stretches of time which (along with it being baseball season) is hampering my actually, you know, finishing it. :-)

In the meantime, here's the poem that came in my Poem-A-Day email from poets.org. This one really spoke to me today; perhaps it will to you as well:

Hope
Ali Liebegott

always the hopeless asked to give others hope
the ones pushed up against wall after wall

when you’re done unpinning yourself
from the wall, please give hope

those who work twice as hard to seem half as good
being asked to do one more thing

we need to be seen
because things are not going well
and the crows are up to no good

>104 rosalita: The Subway Library is genius.

I've requested the first Ruth Galloway from the library. Looking forward to a new series. :)

>146 nittnut: I'm always happy to see another potential Ruth convert, Jenn! I think you will like her, and I'll keep an eye on your thread to find out what you think.

>145 rosalita: Oh! Haven't I felt like that a time or two! I especially like the last line, though I don't have a clue what it really means.

>148 Storeetllr: I know, right? And I'm not sure what those crows are doing, either, although clearly it is Not Good. The line that knocked me out was
those who work twice as hard to seem half as good / being asked to do one more thing

>114 PawsforThought: >116 Storeetllr: thanks!!! Appreciated. Mmmm yes, appreciated ;)

>141 rosalita: na na na na na, you love Jack Reacher.
(he he-I am a meddler, in reality of course, you could and should read whatever the bleep you want!!)

>150 LovingLit: SUCH a troublemaker you are, Megan. ;-)

(re)Read
    

A couple of re-reads not included in my yearly totals. I was prompted to revisit The Grand Sophy while putting together the Heyer-archy for Joe recently. It was the first Heyer I ever read and I had never re-read it because it was originally a library book. But I acquired the ebook in a sale a year or so ago, so it was time to revisit. Still just as good as the first time.

Whispers Under Ground is the third book in my methodical re-read of the Peter Grant series. I find I'm following the rather intricate plotting much better this time around, having the advantage of knowing what comes next. I really enjoy these.

I've been enjoying reading through your Georgette Heyer list Julia, and I am now planning on reading Black Sheep next.

>153 DeltaQueen50: I'm delighted to see so many people getting some use from that list, Judy! You already know from reading it but Black Sheep is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

40. Fire Season: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors.

In the early 2000s, Philip Conors spent eight summers serving as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service, stationed in the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico. This book, superficially arranged as a "diary" of one season, is divided into the months he spends on duty, isolated from most human contact from April to August. There are lots of great details about the nuts and bolts of how a fire spotter does his job, what the living conditions are like (he doesn't sleep in his lookout tower, though some do; his only companion is his dog, Alice), and his encounters throughout the summer with various wildlife of both the two- and four-legged variety.

It's no wonder our Forest Service brethren think of us lookouts as the freaks on the peaks. We have, in the words of our forebear Edward Abbey, "an indolent, melancholy nature." Our walk home is always uphill. We live alone on the roof of the world, clinging to the rock like condors, fiercely territorial. We ply our trade inside a steel-and-glass room immaculately designed to attract lightning. Our purpose and our pleasure is to watch: study the horizon, ride out the storms, an eagle eye peeled for evidence of flame.

When Connors was writing about the job, the setting, and the wildlife, and musing about why such a solitary existence appeals so much to him (when he has a wife back in town!), I enjoyed this book a lot. He has a gift for expressing his keen observations that made me appreciate a life that other than the solitude sounds pretty terrible to this non-camper. The personal observations are intermingled with some background about the Forest Service, its changing policies toward fighting wildfires (or not), much of which I already knew from reading other books, particularly Timothy Egan's The Big Burn but most readers will appreciate the context those sections provide.

Sweet, expansive days of birdsong and sunshine string together, one after another. Through the open tower windows I hear the call of the hermit thrush, one of the most gorgeous sounds in all of nature, a mellifluous warble beginning on a long, clear note. Dark-eyed juncos hop along the ground, searching for seeds among the grass and pine litter. All is quiet on the radio. Not a single fire burns in southwest New Mexico. I swim languidly in the waters of solitude, unwilling to rouse myself to anything but the most basic of labors. Brush teeth. Piss in the meadow. Boil water for coffee. Observe clouds. Note greening of Gambel oak. Read old notebooks for what this date has offered in other seasons.

Less successful were his railings against who he sees as the "villains" who threaten the beauty of our unspoiled lands. Ranchers, and their cattle come in for some particularly harsh treatment, as do commercial entities primarily interested in extracting lumber and minerals, and the governmental agencies that facilitate such commercial uses. Which isn't to say that I disagree with much of what he says, but his harsh tone in these sections is so at odds with the gentle descriptions elsewhere that they come off as jarring. They harsh the mellow, you might say.

Soon I come upon evidence that several cattle have been munching on the grass, their piles of dung still wet. They've strayed several miles out of their owner's allotment on the forest to the west, probably through a broken fence. These four-legged locusts, with their shit-smeared rumps and moon-eyed stares, flies orbiting each of their orifices, have done more than anything else to inflict widespread damage on the public lands of the American West. Yet given the power and persistence of the cattlemen's lobby, they continue to graze on the public domain, trampling riparian areas, hastening erosion, pulverizing wildlife habitat, disturbing the fire regime, and generally wreaking havoc on the land wherever they roam.

If you need an active plot to keep you reading, this probably isn't the book for you. Not much happens here: Some "smokes" get spotted, some fish get caught, some tents get pitched, some bears get spotted, some weather happens. It's all very tranquil and soothing, for the most part, which also meant that I found it hard to read long stretches at a time. I was enjoying what I was reading, but it was just a tad slow-moving. I never quite reached this nirvana that Connors describes for himself:

That thing some people call boredom, in the correct if elusive dosage, can be a form of inoculation against itself. Once you struggle through that swamp of monotony, where time bogs down in excruciating ticks of equilibrium, to reach a kind of waiting and watching that verges on what I can only call the holy.

I never quite achieved that holy epiphany while reading this book, but I'm still glad I took this walk on the wild side. And one final quote before I leave you:

Afternoons the turkey vultures circle, indolent and bloody-headed, sniffing out the presence of death. Their arrogant flight reminds me that my time here—on this mountain, on this orb—is short. If I were to slip and fall of the lookout tower, it wouldn't be long before I passed into a new link of the food chain. A not unpleasant fate, perhaps: beats the stuffy prison of the graveyard tomb. So many dreary neighbors. So little sunlight. We're all carrion eventually, whether for birds or for worms. I'd rather my remnants soar over mountains than slither beneath sod.

Wednesday Clickbait



In Pictures: The Empty Railways of America — This is a lovely photo essay of photographer John Sanderson's work depicting railways without trains. The lack of trains in the photos really highlights the varied landscapes that the tracks run through. In particular, the picture from Stony Point, NY (which I've copied here) reminds me of riding the Amtrak from Chicago to New York City and being amazed at how close by the Hudson River the tracks lay (also the case along the shore of Lake Erie in Ohio). I stared out the window for hours at vistas that you will never see from the interstate highway. Some beautiful images here. (via BBC News)

Thanks for sharing that, Julia. I especially was struck by the image of the coaling tower in Ohio...

>157 katiekrug: Yeah, I've seen those structures before but never really thought about what they were. He framed that shot beautifully. Really, the whole set is fantastic.

I love riding trains! I wish I could afford to take Amtrak on a
coast-to-coast round trip. Now that I have the time, I don't have the money. lol

>156 rosalita: It seems that Amtrak's funding is again vulnerable to cuts thanks to our representatives in Washington. There's a petition on Facebook. But of course, the best thing to do is call your congress reps and senators and express your love of the train.

My personal thoughts on this are unprintable.

>160 ffortsa: Your personal thoughts might be unprintable, but I can guess what they are and I heartily agree! A few years ago there was an ambitious push to establish a high-speed rail connection between Iowa City and Chicago. This would have been fabulous not just for townies and tourists, but the UI has an enormous number of students from the Chicago area who would have made great use of it. Sadly, the Republican governor who was elected before the project got fully off the ground put the kibosh on it because it might cost money to implement. I believe that was the same budget that approved numerous lane expansions of various interstate highways in the state because they were too crowded. The disconnect between these two positions was completely invisible to our fearless leader, however.

>161 rosalita:
>160 ffortsa:
>159 Storeetllr:

Trains are Great! I loved the long rides from Chicago to Flagstaff and to Los Angeles and back.
Equally welcome was the short trip from East Lansing, Michigan, to Chicago.

When we moved to Madison, Wisconsin, I couldn't believe there was no train to Chicago -
then - STILL more astonishing -
was Wisconsin's Governor Walker turning down President Obama's
offer for train funding from Madison to Chicago.

It will be good when ignorance and stupidity cease to be the ruling norm.

Still, there's Canada where they have a splendid train system AND health care!

>162 m.belljackson: Hi, Marianne! I took the train from Iowa to East Lansing when I (briefly) attended MSU back in the 1980s. It was my first long-distance train trip and it hooked me.

Unfortunately, I think Iowa's leaders are trying to model our state after Walker's Wisconsin. Bah!

Someday I'd like to take the VIA Rail train that goes from Toronto to Vancouver. I read a Dick Francis mystery, The Edge that was set on that train and it sounded awesome.

>162 m.belljackson: Among my favorite childhood memories are train rides from Chicago to St. Louis on the Wabash Bluebird. I made that trip a few times a year for a number of years from the mid-50s to the early 60s with my grandma and remember the excitement of watching the locomotive steam into the station (we rode from the Englewood Station, not Union Station), riding in the dome car and eating in the dining car. Once, my grandma took me on an overnight train to visit someone somewhere in the south, and we rode in a sleeper car! Later, when my daughter was just 3 months old, I took the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It was wonderful! Whenever she fussed, I just took her to the noisy space between cars where she could scream her head off without bothering anyone. I remember wishing I had earplugs during those times.

Yes, it will "be good when ignorance and stupidity cease to be the ruling norm."

"it will "be good when ignorance and stupidity cease to be the ruling norm."

We can only hope.

Have a great weekend, Julia.

>165 BLBera: Same to you, Beth! Fireworks were legalized in Iowa earlier this year, so I plan to hunker down in my apartment as much as possible to avoid the carnage. There have already been numerous reports of serious injuries, house fires, tree and grass fires caused by people misusing the blasted things. Speaking of "ignorance and stupidity" on a smaller level.

I'm in the trains-are-great crowd. My wife and I took the Southern Crescent from Philly to Atlanta back in the 1980s. Highlight: Colliding with a lumber truck in Georgia. A tractor-trailer loaded with 2-by framing lumber; took the trailer pretty far down the track, leaving the tractor standing upright on one side the track, and just the wheels and axles from the trailer on the other side. Our arrival was not on time.

I also took an overnight ride from Lancaster to Chicago. On the return, a power failure in one car prompted an unscheduled stop in Ada, Ohio, blocking every crossing in town. Red lights flashing, bells clanging, cars and trucks lined up. I did manage to get up for breakfast in the dining car as the train went through the Horseshoe Curve.

When I was pretty young, I read a story about a kid blinded by fireworks, and have been terrified of them ever since then. I will also stay home, strip wallpaper, and read.

>167 weird_O: my goodness, Bill, you've had some harrowing train journeys!

>168 BLBera: That sounds like a good plan, Beth. Especially the reading part. :-)

I definitely agree about fire works. I'll take mine shot by professionals and from a distance. Even then things can go wrong. A few years ago we were at home on the evening of the 4th when there was a huge bang and flash in the sky. We rushed out to the balcony to see what had happened, thinking the restaurant next door had exploded. It was fine but we turned on the news to find out that the community fireworks on the bay, two miles away had accidentally all gone up at once. As I recall no one was seriously hurt but it was probably a good thing it happened on a barge on the water.

Oh, Julia. Pyrotechnic-phobe. Here's a show that won't blow off a hand, sear your eyes, or rattle your windows. It just explodes on and on, entertaining yet silent. Hope your Fourth was good.

>170 RebaRelishesReading: You said it, Reba!

>171 weird_O: I'm afraid you've done me an injustice, Bill — I love watching professional fireworks displays like the one in you GIF (thanks for that!). I just don't think powerful explosives belong in the hands of amateurs and especially amateurs too stupid to keep them away from children. There was another story in the local news on Monday about a 1-month-old baby being rushed to the hospital because her moronic family decided to stage a fireworks show in their backyard, and she was in the line of fire.

Morning, Julia. Hope you had a nice holiday weekend. How are those current reads treating you?

>173 msf59: Good morning, Mark!

(re)Read



Well, once I re-read The Grand Sophy I couldn't resist revisiting one of my other favorites, Black Sheep. It filled the void nicely between library books.

41. Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie.

Dame Agatha scores again with this high-altitude locked-room mystery, wherein Hercule Poirot is present but sleeping when a woman is murdered aboard an airplane flying from France to England. I enjoyed all the twists and turns, even though (unusually for me) I actually sussed out the killer quite early on, thanks to the author playing fair with the clues. But even though I was pretty sure I knew WHOdunit, I was foggy on both the HOWdunit and WHYdunit, and in both cases was not disappointed by the reveal.

Currently Reading



I'm reading The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace for our fledging book club at work. I find it especially interesting as a former journalist myself, although I toiled only for newspapers.

>176 rosalita: Oooh, I haven't read that one yet. Sounds very interesting.

+1 on trains. The story of passenger rail service in the U.S. is frustratingly rage-making, with few prospects for good news on the horizon.

+1 on fireworks. At our previous residence I once called the police on an unsupervised elementary-age girl shooting bottle rockets into the road. They told me there was nothing they could do. What. The. Fireworks?

Hi Julia - I need to pick up a Heyer one of these days.

I have been wanting to read The Good Girls Revolt. I'll watch for your comments. Have you seen the series? Which reminds me, I watched the first two or three episodes. They were good.

>178 PawsforThought: I liked it! It was a clever idea to make an airplane cabin the locked room, since there's no change of someone sneaking either in or out.

>179 swynn: We as a country have become so automobile dependent that people are blind to other possibilities, it seems. And of course everyone has to get where they're going instantly instead of appreciating the journey, so that works against the slow train travel we have now. I've given up on thinking it will improve in my lifetime, but maybe someday.

>180 BLBera: By series do you mean television series? I know absolutely nothing about it, not having a TV, but if it was streaming on Netflix or somewhere I might be able to watch it.

>176 rosalita: - I have this one downloaded onto my Kindle for the flight home :)

>182 katiekrug: Are you sure that's a good idea, Katie? Reading about murder on a plane while you're trapped on a plane? On the other hand, maybe you can pick up some detecting tips ... you know, just in case. :-)

>176 rosalita: Oh, I liked that Christie tons!

And the train situation makes me very sad, too. My favorite way to travel and it could be so fabulous here in the U.S. if they'd only make it so.

>184 scaifea: It was a good one! But then they all are, pretty much.

Julia - I think it was streaming on Amazon. I'll double check.

>186 BLBera: I'll look forward to learning more, Beth!

Thursday Clickbait



Living the Dream: The Story Behind the Best Bookish Bar in the World — Now this looks like a place just made for a LibraryThing meet-up! And in a cool city like Toronto, too. Who's coming with me? (via Kobo)

>188 rosalita: That is a cool place, thanks for sharing, Julia.
I would love to join you, but Canada is a bit too far away ;-)

>188 rosalita: If there's n LT meet-up at that place, I just might make it across the pond.

>189 FAMeulstee: >190 PawsforThought: Anita, maybe Paws could swing by and pick you up on her way over? It wouldn't be the same without both of you!

>191 rosalita: I mean, sure - the Netherlands is on the way...

>192 PawsforThought: Well, there you go! :-)

>188 rosalita: I'll go.

>155 rosalita: ...his harsh tone in these sections is so at odds with the gentle descriptions elsewhere that they come off as jarring.
I get it. A rant isn't so easy to read.

>188 rosalita: *like*
How cool is that!?

>194 BLBera: Excellent, Beth! Definitely need to have you there.

>195 LovingLit: A rant isn't so easy to read. Very true, Megan. And I agree with him, largely, but the tone was unpleasant.

It is very cool, and you need to be there at the LT meet-up as well!

I've always wanted to visit Toronto. Just sayin'...

>197 ronincats: Perfect, Roni! You are definitely on the list of LTers I want to meet someday.

Hi Julia, hope you are having a good weekend my dear.

Currently Reading

  

I've already told you about the first one. Our book club meets Tuesday, and I'll write up my review after that. The Merrivale Mystery is a shared read with Liz and Harry of a 1931 mystery. It's pretty dreadful, but in an entertaining way. Liz did warn me!

>200 rosalita:

I'm so glad you and Harry are entering into the spirit of the thing!...and, you know, not living the life of a potato... :D

Hi there! Just catching up here...carry on. : )

Hi Julia, hope you had a great weekend!

>201 lyzard: Oh, absolutely! I mean, you DID warn us! But lordy is it overwritten and bombastic! And that "journalist" who came along with The Mighty Serge needs to take the first train to Perdition.

>202 Berly: Hiya, Kim!

>203 DeltaQueen50: It was fine, Judy, but sadly it's over now. :-(

Monday Clickbait



Words We Mispronounce Because We've Only Ever Read Them — Oh boy, I am so here for this topic. A couple of the words on this list have also tripped me up, especially quay which I STILL mispronounce in my head when I am silent reading. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, you know. (via BookRiot)



The Most Googled Car and Truck In Every State — There are some cars on this graphic that I have never heard of. And I call myself an American! (click the link to see a larger version)(via Twitter)

>205 rosalita: Julia, you are responsible for a sudden outbreak of happy dance. It turns out I am not the only person on the planet to have prounced "genre" as "genner." Justified!

Nothing, however, will erase emotional scars from my oh-so-knowledgeable claims about the "Marine Corpse" and the public humiliation that followed.

>205 rosalita: The upside of learning English as a foreign language is that you are more likely to look up word and thus be informed about how they're supposed to be pronounced.
Having said that, I still find the spelling/pronunciation difference of "quay" and especially "colonel" to be ridiculous.

>206 swynn: Happy dances all around, Steve! And I am a fellow traveler on the corps/corpse train to Mortification, my friend.

>207 PawsforThought: That is an excellent point, Paws. And "quay" and "colonel" are just stupidly spelled words, even allowing for the crazy vagaries of English spelling.

>208 rosalita: I remember a lecture at university when we were discussing language and language development, and my teacher wrote George Bernard Shaw's "alternative spelling" of the word "fish" on the blackboard - taking into account all the strange ways you can spell in English.

"Ghoti".

That's when I realised that English will never really make sense, and to just go with it.

>209 PawsforThought: English will never really make sense, and to just go with it.

Yep, that's where most native English speakers are, too!

And may I say that your written English is stellar? I know enough Spanish and Italian to read pretty well but speaking and writing it are another thing altogether. I think the failure to routinely teach a second language in elementary school (first six to eight years of school) is a huge hole in the American education system.

>210 rosalita: Thanks. I started learning English in 4th grade (and was well-acquainted with it long before that thanks for music, film and TV) and combined with a general knack for languages, English has worked out well for me.
I agree that learning a foreign language, and learning it while young, is really important. It used to be that you had to study a second foreign language (French, German or Spanish, generally) when you reached 7th grade, but that seems to be less enforced nowadays. Which is sad, because it really does enrich your life to know more languages (not to mention that learning languages can help you get better at math!)

I do work hard at maintaining and improving my English skills. I have a part time job as a translator so it's important that I'm as good as can be - and I'd like my future career to be focused on English and writing as well.

>211 PawsforThought: Yes, I imagine English can be hard to avoid with the cultural exporting that we do — not just the US but the U.K./Ireland and Australia/New Zealand as well. How great that you have taken it and turned it into a career path — best of luck to you with all of that.

Yeah, quay...it'll always be "quay" to me in my head...
But I think some regions of the country do pronounce it as quay rather than key.

>213 Copperskye: That makes me feel better, Joanne!

Hi, Julia.

We have a journalist relative who told us that growing up she always thought "misled" was pronounced "missile-d". "Quay" was the one I had no idea was pronounced "key" until I was older and read about it somewhere.

Howdy, Joe! It sounds like "quay" was a common bugaboo for many of us! There's comfort in numbers.

Loving the discussion about pronunciation, in your head vs out loud. And laughing because I honestly can hardly imagine myself wanting to say the word quay out loud. But perhaps when down by the waterfront in San Francisco?

And honestly, if I had to say the word "bursar" yesterday, I would have mispronounced it. Yikes.

My BIL also pronounced misled as "missile-d" until well into adulthood.

I'm on the quay waggon, too. My Latin background makes it even harder not to say it wrongly.

How about words that you know how to pronounce properly but just can't seem to manage it? Rural. What a terrible word.

>217 EBT1002: So many of these words are ones that just don't come up much in conversation, Ellen, like "quay" and also "bursar". And then others are just pronounced so contrary to how they are spelled that even when you know the right way it's hard to convince your brain.

>218 scaifea: I went through a phase in the third grade where I absolutely could NOT pronounce "adjective" properly. I kept saying it with the emphasis on the middle syllable: ad-JEC-tive. Poor Mrs. Vetzner must have been convinced I was doing it on purpose, but I wasn't. I knew the right pronunciation but could not make my mouth say it right!

I also went through a phase a few years later of demanding English pronunciations to be logical, and thus determined that all words beginning with "qu-" should be pronounced "kw-". So I would spend a "kwarter" "kwickly". And all "sw-" words had to be fully pronounced, so not "sord" but full-on "sword". I was such a weird kid.

>205 rosalita: That's a great one. It's nice that with online dictionaries, one can listen to the pronunciation. Irish names always get me: Siobhan and Niamh, to name a couple.

>218 scaifea: Rural is a hard work, Amber.

Scout has had a couple of cute ones lately: stomach egg (ache) and margaret (market).

I'm definitely with the phonetic "quay" crew.

One that I didn't learn until I was ridiculously old (by which I mean probably a teenager) was that "invalid" when it's referring to a person was then pronounced IN vuh lid instead of in VAL id.

There are millions more, I was never the type of reader to look things up in the dictionary so I just sailed on with my own ideas.

>220 BLBera: Yes! I love the online pronunciation tool in dictionaries, Beth. Sometimes I have to listen to them 2-3 times and keep repeating it out loud to be sure I've got it right. :-)

>221 ursula: I cannot even tell you how much better I've felt since knowing that I'm not the only quay-zy one who can't pronounce that word! You've also pointed out another gross injustice of English spelling: two words spelled exactly the same but pronounced completely differently. Unfair!

>222 rosalita: Oh, but the different pronunciation of the exact same spelling isn't just English - that seems to be fairly common in at least the Germanic languages (I know tons in Swedish, where it's just the emphasis that changes and the whole meaning is different).

Growing up in Sydney, I knew how to say 'quay' because of Circular Quay; if I'd read it before I'd heard of it, I'm sure that would have been different.

I think when you read more than you talk, you get certain best-guess pronunciations in your head, and it's very hard to get them out again.

Another thing that interests me is 'pronunciation drift', which is sometimes evident from older movies. For example, the word 'ally' (as in a military ally), which we now tend to say with equal emphasis on the two syllables, was pronounced 'Uh-LY' in the 30s. 'Suspect' is another one: we now make a verbal distinction between its use as a verb and a noun, but in the 30s both were pronounced 'Suh-SPECT'.

>223 PawsforThought: Ah, that makes sense, since much of English came from Anglo-Saxon, I believe, pre-Norman Conquest.

>223 PawsforThought: Exactly so, Liz. I spent years saying "kway" in my head and I so seldom have a reason to say that word that pronouncing it doesn't come naturally. Perhaps if I'd grown up learning about the Florida Quays instead of Keys it would have stuck better!

And interesting thought on the pronunciation drift as well. I've also noticed how Americans in old movies from the early 20th century sound British more than American. I don't know if "regular" Americans also sounded that way back then or if was cinematic affectation.

>200 rosalita: There is a suburb in my city called Merivale. This would be a good book to give someone who lives there!!!

>209 PawsforThought: George Bernard Shaw's "alternative spelling" of the word "fish" on the blackboard - taking into account all the strange ways you can spell in English. "Ghoti".
So the 'gh' is from enough, the 'o'....???, and the 'ti' from initiate?

>226 LovingLit: You've cracked the fish code, Megan! Except for the 'o' which I confess I am also drawing a blank on. I know one of the smarties who read here will come up with an example for us. Probably Paws, who knows English better than I do!

Edited to add: Perhaps "person"? I think I pronounce the last syllable as "sin" most of the time, rather than sounding it out like "son".

My Google-fu is strong...

George Bernard Shaw claimed, tongue in cheek, that the word fish could be spelled "ghoti." gh = /f/ as in enough. o = /i/ as in women. ti= /sh/ as in nation.

>228 drneutron: Thanks for firing up the Google machine, Jim. I decided I was too lazy to bother, but I'm glad to have the answer. :-)

For anyone who has embarrassed themselves in public by mispronouncing a word they've only seen in print, it may be some consolation to know there's a scene in the movie"The Imitation Game" where Keira Knightley, who is supposed to be playing a mathematician, refers to a theorem of "You-ler." It's an understandable mistake, but Euler's name is a German one -- he was Swiss -- so it's pronounced "Oiler." Undergraduate English-speaking math students who encounter the name in a text before they encounter it in class make the mistake all the time, but professional mathematicians don't.

Whatever mistakes I've made it's never been in a Hollywood movie. So there's that at least.

>230 swynn: Ugh. That will make my mathematician husband extra glad that he didn't let his dad drag him to see that one. (He has a moratorium on movies about math anyway ... although I think I'm going to prevail on him to see Hidden Figures.)

Ah, I was asleep so didn't see the messages until now. Thank you >228 drneutron: for explaining Shaw's reasoning in my absence.

>225 rosalita: Yeah, English is very much based on Anglo-Saxon, and it would have been even more obvious if it hadn't been for those pesky Normans. Old English is incredibly similar to Old Norse (and modern Icelandic). We read the Lord's Prayer in Old English in my uni English class and on the next page was the same text in Old Norse - it was almost exactly the same.

But remember that the "key" in the Florida Keys comes from the Spanish word "cayo", meaning small island, whereas the "quay" in Torquay and other places means a wharf.
Different etymologies, different meanings, different spellings, but the same pronunciation. Aren't languages fun!?

>230 swynn: That's an excellent point, Steve. All my embarrassments have been transitory; nothing captured on film for prosperity.

>231 ursula: I haven't seen Hidden Figures Yet but I've heard it's good, Ursula. I hope it lives up to your husband's high standards.

>232 PawsforThought: Argh! I had completely forgotten that the Keys in Florida had a different root word! OK, I'm giving up on "quay" forever. :-)

>220 BLBera: Charlie does the egg-for-ache thing still. When he was 2ish, he fell and got a nasty knot on his forehead, which my mom calls a "goose-egg," from which Charlie extrapolated "head-egg" for headache, and now uses "egg" for any bodily ache.

Morning, Julia!

Hi Julia.
>234 scaifea: That is so funny.

>231 ursula: I should add that, while "You-ler" provoked a wince, I don't think "The Imitation Game" is necessarily a bad movie. I had a strongly negative reaction to it mostly because I'd just read and loved the book, and the filmmakers' approach to history is ... well, pretty much what we've come to expect from filmmakers. Fact-indifferent and nuance-free, let's say. Which makes it bad history but not necessarily bad entertainment.

If your husband is familiar with the story then avoidance was probably a good idea; otherwise, watch the movie before you read the book and you'll probably enjoy it more than I did!

My childhood favorites were "chasm" and "indict." : )

>228 drneutron: And I HAVE to share this one with my daughter. She has dyslexia and complains about English spelling all the time!! LOL

I am so happy to see that all of you voracious readers have had trouble with pronunciation. I am famous in my family for my mistakes! There is a variation of a geranium commonly called a "Martha Washington" but it's proper name is Pelargonium. I was constantly corrected by my school teacher sister as to the correct way to say this word, but one day we were at the nursery and she asked the clerk to show her where we could find the Pelargonium and the clerk quietly but firmly corrected her by using the pronunciation that I favored. Ha! She now only refers to this plant as a "Martha Washington".

Great click-bait, Julia!

>237 Berly: Oh, those are both good trip words, Kim! "Ch" is just problematic all over — sometimes it's ch, sometimes k, sometimes sh. How are we supposed to know?

>238 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! And that's a great story about your sister. I am just looking at that word and can think of several ways to pronounce it!

>238 DeltaQueen50: Haha, great story! Um, how exactly DO you pronounce Pelargonium? Asking for a friend.

>233 rosalita:, 236 It's not so much that he has exacting standards, he's just not interested in math as a topic outside of work! People used to give him popular books about math/mathematicians, but to my knowledge he's never actually read one. :)

I've heard that The Imitation Game was a little fact-adjacent in some ways.

>241 ursula: That makes a lot of sense; sometimes you just want to leave work at work!

Howdy Julia!

>241 ursula: "fact-adjacent" is even better than "fact-indifferent." Yes, it is.

42. The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich.

This book requires us to hop into the Wayback Machine. Believe it or not, in the 1960s weekly newsmagazines like Time and Newsweek had very definite ideas on the proper place for women: the research department. (Another "believe it or not" factoid is that weekly newsmagazines were a big deal back then, which seems preposterous nowadays, but I digress.) Women were allowed to fact-check the writing that the big boys did, and sometimes they could even do some reporting (that is to say, researching facts and people and perhaps conducting interviews; all that information would then be handed over to the man who would actually write the article). Sexism, of course, is nothing new. But I think it's easy to forget how unthinkingly it was accepted, by both men and women, until the rise of Second Wave Feminism opened some eyes.

The author of The Good Girls Revolt was one of those researcher-reporters at Newsweek. Even after some of her female colleagues starting meeting and talking about what they could do to convince the magazine's publisher to give women a chance to write, she was conflicted. She had gotten the job through connections of her famous father, Shirley Povich, a legendary sportswriter for the Washington Post, which also owned Newsweek . (She's also the sister of the perhaps more famous but less respected Maury Povich, trashy TV talk show host, but he's barely mentioned.) Eventually she signed on, and the group of women hired a lawyer and confronted Newsweek management. Their first attempt in 1970 failed when management agreed to their demands and then just ... didn't do any of the things they promised. It took a second complaint and lawsuit in 1974 before changes were reluctantly made.

I was a little too young to remember this happening (I was 10 when they filed their second lawsuit) but it wasn't many years after that I realized I wanted to be a journalist, and a sportswriter to boot. Female sportswriters were thin on the ground in those days and it was a legitimate question whether that was even a practical career goal to have. All through junior high and high school I scoured every newspaper and magazine that I read, looking for female names in the bylines to reassure me that my dream was possible. Many of those names might not have been there for me to find without the actions taken by the "good girls" at Newsweek and others at other publications who followed in their footsteps.

The author researched, reported, and eventually wrote for Newsweek for many years, and it shows in the writing here. This is not poetry in prose form. It is written like a really long newsmagazine article (one of the fascinating parts of the book for me was Povich's detailing of the rigid "newsmagazine" style of writing and how challenging it could be to even good writers). But it's clear and well-organized, and it covers the topic really well. The final section revisits the key figures on both sides to see how the action affected them personally and professionally. It was not all sunshine and lollipops even for the women who ended up on the right side of history.

The only downside to reading this book is realizing that we've come a long way, baby, but we've sure got a long way to go. Women in 2017 can be acclaimed writers and reporters at magazines and newspapers and television stations — and face unimaginable vitriol online, including threats of death and sexual violence; criticisms that don't get leveled at their male counterparts. Still, they persevere, as the good girls of Newsweek did, and I salute them.

>245 rosalita: This sounds great, Julia. I must get to this soon. Great comments, as always.

And speaking of pronunciation, I just started The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and the Indian names are killing me.

>246 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. I think you'd find it interesting if you read it.

I really struggle with proper names when I'm reading! I'm sure 90% of the time my mental pronunciation is completely wrong. That is the advantage of audiobooks, I will say, if the narrator is any good. Of course, I remember listening to an Edna Buchanan mystery once (Miami reporter who wrote mysteries with a Cuban-American female protagonist) and the narrator, who for some unfathomable reason was British (no British characters in the book, mind you) butchered Geraldo Rivera's name by pronouncing it with a hard g. I don't think I could even finish listening to the rest of the book, she had so destroyed my belief in the narrative.

I loved Edna Buchanan mysteries. Then she totally changed direction and killed a key character and ended the series, right?

I am with you - I could not continue to listen after that one -- and why a British narrator? If we were in charge of these things, we would do better, correct?

>248 BLBera: We would!