Lucy (Sibyx) Spring Equinox to Summer Solstice 2018

June has arrived!
Po, freshly bathed and fluffy!


Currently Reading in June 2018
♬

new The Obelisk Gate(2) N.K. Jemisin fantasy
✔ROOT Owen Glendower John Cowper Powys hist fic
✔Travels With Herodotus Ryszard Kapuscinksi travel
♬Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett fantasy

finished in June
67. ✔ROOT Healthy Aging Andrew Weil health *****
68. new Provenance Ann Leckie sp/op *****
69. new Women and Power: A Manifesto Mary Beard philosophy? politics?
70. ✔ROOT The Gypsy Megan LindholmSteven Brust fantasy ***
71. ♬ Roman Blood Steven Saylor mystery roman ***1/2
72. new My Immaculate Assassin David Huddle contemp fic ****
73. new My Struggle: Book 5 Karl Ove Knausgaard contemp fic *****
74. ✔ROOT The Beautiful Miscellaneous Dominic Smith contemp fic ***1/2
75. ♬ Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd Alan Bradley mys

Pausing
new Waking Dreams Mary Watkins psych

Put Down For Good
(Jan)new Engine City Ken MacLeod sf
(Feb)♬Roma Stephen Saylor hist fict
(March) The Baklava Club mys

✔=off shelf
♬=audio
E =e-book
new =acquired in 2018 (or end of 2017)

Finished in March 2018

31. new ♬ Wintersmith Terry Pratchett fantasy
****
32. reread E Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence classic
33. new Barren Island Carol Zoref contemp fic ****1/2
34. ✔ The Genius of Birds Jennifer Ackerman nat hist ****
35. new Oathbringer(3) Brandon Sanderson fantasy ****
36. ✔ ROOT Futility Wiliam Gerhardie classic fic ****1/2
37. new ♬ I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett fantasy ****1/2
38. new ♬ The Shepherd's Crown Terry Pratchett *****
39. new Testosterone Rex Cordelia Fine ****
40. ✔reread ROOT The Riddlemaster of Hed(1) Patricia A. McKillip fantasy ***1/2
41. ✔ ROOT Heir of Sea and Fire(2) Patricia McKillip fantasy ****
42. new ♬ Sourcery Terry Pratchett fantasy ***1/2
43. ✔ ROOT Harpist in the Wind(3) Patricia McKillip fantasy

STATS
Total:13
Men: 7
Women: 6
M/W writing together: 0
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic/Hist Fiction: 3
SF/F: 8
Mystery(inc hist mys): 0
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 4
Reread: 4

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 1
Audio: 3
New (to my library): 7
e-book: 0
Off Shelf/ROOT: 4 (or 2)
Did not finish: 0

Housekeeping:
TOTAL physical books (for year) IN=
e-books=7
audio=6
TOTAL OUT=

Book Titles Acquired March (numbering is for each type of book)
Physical book
14. To Ride a Rathorn P.C. Hodgell
E-book
non acquired
audio
3. Shepherd's Crown Terry Pratchett
4. I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett
5. Sourcery Terry Pratchett

Reflections March 2018
Some unusually serious reading with Sons and Lovers, Barren Island, and Futility -- all very very different!! For the first I was trying out a book group that is not to be for me as the book list is too stuffy and dreary for my present needs, Barren Island because a college classmate wrote it (it's very good!), and the last because I read about it somewhere, bought it, then let it sit forlornly on my shelves for far too long. Some lovely and informative non-fiction reading with The Genius of birds and Testosterone Rex and then, for the rest, a lot of escape reading which I need very badly right now. Pratchett to listen to and the rest to absorb and soothe.

Read in April 2018
44. library All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque classic fic (book group, reread) *****
45. ✔ROOT Things Invisible To See Nancy Willard *** contemp fic/magic realism
46. new ♬ Eric (Rincewind 4) Terry Pratchett fantasy ***1/2 fantasy
47. new Seeker's Mask(3)P.C. Hodgell fantasy ****
48. ✔ The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt history ****1/2
49. new Trajectory Richard Russo stories
contemp fic
50. ♬ Memento Mori Ruth Downie mys hist ****
51. new To Ride a Rathorn P.C. Hodgell fantasy ****1/2
52. new E The Sharing Knife: Horizon Lois Bujold fantasy ***1/2
53. new A Great Reckoning Louise Penny mys
54. new E.B. White on Dogs E.B. White dogs essays/letters ****
55. ✔ROOT I Remember, I Remember Sean O'Faolain ss ***1/2
56. new Bound in Blood P.C. Hodgell fantasy ****1/2

Total:13
Men: 6
Women: 7
M/W writing together: 0
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic/Hist Fiction: 3
SF/F: 5
Mystery(inc hist mys): 2
YA or J:0
Poetry: 0
New author: 2
Reread:0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0
Audio: 2
New (to my library): 8
e-book: 1
Off Shelf: 3
Did not finish: 0

Book Titles In

15. Women & Power Mary Beard
16. Dream Sender David Huddle
17. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Lewis Buzbee
18. The Inner World of Choice Frances. G. Wickes
19. Bound in Blood P.C. Hodgell
20. Four Roads Cross Max Gladstone
21. Last First Snow Max Gladstone
22. Full Fathom Five Max Gladstone
23. Two Serpents Rise Max Gladstone
24. Reckless Daughter: Portrait of Joni Mitchell David Yaffe
25. Firebrand Kristen Britain
26. Tea With the Black Dragon R. A. Macavoy
27. Twisting the Rope R. A. Macavoy
28. All Systems Red Martha Wells
29. The Breaking of Northwall Paul O. Williams
30. The Inner World of Choice Frances G. Wickes

audio
6. Memento Mori Ruth Downie
7. Interesting Times Terry Pratchett
8. The Last Continent Terry Pratchett

Housekeeping:
Physical Books In: (Total for year =30)
Physical books April = 15
e-books = 0
audio=3
TOTAL OUT=12

Reflections April 2018
Reading anything terribly serious continues to be problematical, although I'm almost surprised to see some more substantial reads here such as The Swerve -- although that, being on the whole a very positive piece of history, the search and saving of great Greek and Roman literature in the late middle ages, was a pleasure. I'm a great fan of the sensible Epicurus as well. *All Quiet* was read as part of the attempt to figure out if I could do this book group but then there was a conflict with music on the meeting night and that was that. What a great book! Other fiction reads were meh to OK (Russo and O'Faolain)--both very very competent writers but neither book their best work. The P.C. Hodgell fantasy series has really caught my fancy -- that was the peak reading of this month. Large book acquisition due to the spousal unit's birthday, always an excuse to go wild.

Read in May 2018
57. ♬ Interesting Times Terry Pratchett
58. ✔ Almost No Memory (in Collected Stories) Lydia Davis ss *****
59. ✔ ROOT Islandia Austin Tappan Wright spec fic
60. ♬The Last Continent Terry Pratchett ****
61. new The Inner World of Choice Frances G. Wickes psychology***1/2
62. new Anything is Possible Elizabeth Strout ****
63. new Sea of Time P.C. Hodgell fantasy ****
64. new The Gates of Tagmeth P.C. Hodgell fantasy ****1/2
65. new Glass Houses Louise Penny mys ****
66. ♬ Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett fantasy ****

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

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0
Audio: 3
New (to my library): 5
e-book: 0
Off Shelf/ROOT: 1
Did not finish: 0

Housekeeping:
TOTAL physical books (for year) IN=
e-books=
audio=
ALL=
TOTAL OUT=

Book Titles Acquired May
30. Oath of Fealty Elizabeth Moon
31. The Rogue Trudi Canavan
32. The Ambassador's Mission Trudi Canavan
33. Anything is Possible Elizabeth Strout
34. Echoes of Betrayal Elizabeth Moon
35. Living with the Laird Belinda Rathbone (also known as The Guynd: A Scottish Journal

Audio
9. Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett
10. Roman Blood Steven Saylor
11. Arcadia Iain Pears
12. Inspector Hobbes and the Blood: Unhuman 1 Wilkie Martin

Reflections May 2018

Read in June 2018

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

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed:
Audio:
New (to my library):
e-book:
Off Shelf:
Did not finish:

Housekeeping:
TOTAL physical book (for year) IN=
e-books=still
TOTAL OUT=

Book Titles Acquired March

Reflections June 2018

Series Tally 2018

Started in 2018
Roma sub Rosa (12) Steven SaylorREADING (1)Roman Blood

Continuing in 2018
My Struggle(6)Karl Ove KnausgaardREADING My Struggle: Book Five: Some Rain Must Fall

Will continue!
Paksenarrion's World (7) Elizabeth Moon NEXT UP: Oath of Fealty (4)
The Craft Sequence(6) Max Gladstone NEXT UP: Two Serpents Rise (2)
Terra Ignota(2) Ada Palmer NEXT UP: Seven Surrenders

Caught Up in 2018, Expect more
Inspector Gamache (13) Louise Penny
Chronicles of the Kencyrath(8) P.C.Hodgell
Medicus (8) Ruth Downie
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh books 13-15 completed for 2018
The Invisible Library(4) Genevieve Cogman
The Stormlight Archive (3) Brandon Sanderson
Flavia Albia(5) Lindsey Davis
Penric and Desdemona Lois Bujold

Completed in 2018
Sir John Fielding mysteries11 Bruce Alexander
reread The Riddle-Master of Hed(3) Patricia A. McKillip
Rincewind(8) Terry Pratchett

Put Down in 2018
Engines of Light (2 of 3)Ken MacLeod
Inspector Yashim Jason Goodwin (book 5) The Baklava Club

>1 sibylline: "image (have to come up with something)"

Um. Puppies? And Miss Po, of course.

Back to your prior thread, Lucy, I'm so sorry to hear the news about your daughter's health. I'm glad she came home and I hope (assume?) her college has a good medical leave policy that will enable her to return with minimal financial or grade disruption. Her degree completion may be a series of enrollments but that. does. not. matter. There are so many paths and almost none of them follow a straight line. I hope her energy starts to return soon and that she recovers from the associated and understandable depression.

Hoping you ended up on the puppy list and that a new niece or nephew will be joining Posey soon.

I have Barren Island on my TBR stacks. You gave it 4.5 stars and it looks about that good every time I pick it up and almost start it. :-)

35. fantasy ****
Oathbringer Brandon Sanderson

I very much enjoyed the first two books in this series, The Way of Kings but I found this one less enthralling, and sadly it had to do with the sheer size of the book and the smallness of the print. I get that there is a story arc here that ranged over 1200 pages, but so do C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series books and she publishes them in groups of three--books of a reasonable length each--writing them so that you know this story isn't done, but some part of the adventure has been concluded. Brandon masterfullty handles a huge cast of characters and a complicated story (so complicated that I more or less rolled with whatever, I confess, not getting wound out about whose shardblade was whose, who was voidspren who was not, who was Radiant or Herald or you get the idea.) The various ways that the characters do magic, draining gems and "Lashing" about (that's flying to the rest of us) is silly, but even so, the characters are compelling and even wonderful as it the plot, the setting and all the rest of it. And there will be another one, the set-up started in the last 100 pages. Please have mercy, oh publishers of Brandon Sanderson and do the right thing, less pages, bigger print! ****

>9 sibylline: Lucy, I had a similar reaction to Oathbringer, even with no pain from the print size - it was just a lot less interesting than the first two and felt like set up for later volumes.

It did drag -- I was tempted to give it three and a half stars, but really, the characters make up for other problems, so it felt mean . . .

I got an email today that my copy of your book has shipped!! Can't wait!

>12 RebaRelishesReading: I just checked my email (after a day doing tax prep!) and I got that email as well. Hurray!

And Happy New Thread, Lucy!

Happy new thread, Lucy!

Oh my! I got a couple of boxes delivered here today too. I so very much hope you all enjoy reading it.

Happy New Thread and Happy Publishing!! :D

Happy new thread, Lucy, happy officially published book, and I'm thrilled that my copy is on the way, too!

Happy new thread!

*whimper* I didn't get an e-mail yet.

I see you have a Jason Goodwin novel on your "Currently Reading" list. Are you enjoying that series? You'll be all caught up when you finish this one. I've read the first 3, although the third one was on audio, and I didn't care for the narrator. I'll be getting to No. 4 pretty soon, I imagine.

>17 karenmarie: I hope you enjoy the book.

>18 drneutron: Nice to see you here.

>19 laytonwoman3rd: I loved the first four and am liking this one very much so far.

On the topic of 'the book' -- I will say here that an egregious error (that I made) and tried to correct was only 1/3 corrected by the copy editor. Kind of maddening and he has taken responsibility. Three mentions in one paragraph. I assumed he would take care of it, so my bad too. Assume nothing!

So herewith:
p. 44 Lord Eglinton written once correctly, twice incorrectly as Lord Elgin.

Yeah, I'm kind of a stickler. Struggling now to be ok with this.

>20 sibylline: Well, I'm just going to copy your comment on the error, paste it into a word document, print it and insert it in my copy of the book when it comes. How many times does one get a personal correction direct from the author, before having the book in hand? Very special, I'd say!

>21 laytonwoman3rd: That makes me happy!

>20 sibylline: ARRRGGGH! I'm sorry, doggone it. You can be sure it's correct in future printings, but that drives me nuts. Nuts!

Sorry the error didn't get corrected completely but I'm sure the readers will be OK with it (especially those of us who know). One thing I learned from writing lots of long reports in my life is that no matter how many people proof-read it there will still be at least one error in there which you will find the first time you lay eyes on the final product. I think it's a law of nature :)

>24 RebaRelishesReading: I totally agree. Bizarre though isn't it? The copy editor was really embarrassed and apologetic, which helps. (And is at it should be, frankly -- and he is a very hard-working and nice person indeed--it just happens.)

>25 sibylline: The day a first printing is of a perfect book is the day the Universe will vanish and be replaced by something even weirder. *smooch*

36. classic fic ****1/2
Futility William Gerhardie

Gerhardie was English, but was brought up in Russia and coming of age at the time of the First World War and Russian Revolution broke out. Futility follows an haute bourgeois Russian family as their fortunes wane. The narrator one Andrei Andreich (also an Englishman of Russian upbringing) is in love with one of the three sisters of the family, Nina. The father supports not only them, but his ex-wife, her lover (a Jewish dentist), his current mistress, a Prince who has attached himself to the household and the family of his very young new "wife" (not sure he ever married her) and her entire family. Where he goes, they all go. The theme, besides the obvious one of the title, is of waiting -- the father waiting to find out if his gold mines are still his, the mistress, also waiting for her pay off after which she will go back to her native Germany, all of them waiting for things to get better.
". . . this gathering of souls dissatisfied with life, yet always waiting patiently for betterment: enduring this unsatisfactory present because they believed that this present was not really life at all: that life was somewhere in the future: that this was but a temporary and transitory stage to be spent in patient waiting. And so they waited, year in, year out, looking out for life: while life, unnoticed, had noiselessly piled up the years that they had cast away promiscuously in waiting, and stood behind them--while they still waited." There is homage to Chekhov and to Goncharov here, but something more, an attempt to capture what is alien to westerners, a fatalism and a faith both, a blindness that is both innocence and cynicism. The family move west as the country goes to pieces, the father wants to be closer to his mines and they end up in Vladisvostock. Andrei returns in the employ of the British Navy, working as a translator for an Admiral. He woos Nina, she spurns him, then draws him. Does he love her? Or an idea o of her? As the different governments and revolutions succeed one another, the family remains together, waiting, seemingly untouched by events while people around them die. It's a short book, but took me a long time to read, quite extraordinary, I think, but also so quiet and uneventful you hardly realize how much is happening, how the world around these people is changing. Reprinted as an 'unknown classic'--it is indeed that. **** 1/2

Happy new thread!

Congrats on the new thread and the BOOK! Hope I get my copy soon and I shall ignore the small mistake on page 44. : )

Got my copy today, yay, and have penciled in the correction (again - I had it in my ARC too!).

*drums fingers on desk top* I just checked my Amazon account, and your book is still "Not Yet Shipped" and there isn't even an estimated delivery date. *makes a dissatisfied face in Amazon's general direction*

>30 karenmarie: Thank you, it does my fuss-pot soul good!

>31The official pub date is April 1 -- my understanding is that Amazon will send after that date. Those who ordered directly from Tupelo are getting the book now, as they began shipping as soon as it arrived. (sad face).

>32 sibylline: Ahh...well now I understand. Thanks for the info, Lucy. I will stop pushing pins into that Amazon doll I made.

37. ♬fantasy *****
I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett
Review pending

38. ♬fantasy *****
The Shepherd's Crown Terry Pratchett

Pratchett's final book--written under the shadow of Alzheimer's (truly, you wouldn't know it). The last two books in the series are so fundamentally and deeply engaged with both striving and "going on" for the living and about coming to terms with death (for the dying and the living both). Interesting too, that these last five (is it six? whatever!) books are about the witches, whose work is to help the helpless, to assist at births and deaths, to care for land and souls. And yes, I cried at the end. What a magnificent soul Pratchett was. How lucky we were to have him among us. *****

Got a little ahead of myself here! Listened to these two in such close succession I got mixed up!

I ordered from Tupelo and have been notified that my book has shipped -- it still isn't here though :( Guess it's a long way to California.

>35 RebaRelishesReading: I don't have mine yet, either, Reba.

Happy Sunday, Lucy!

>34 sibylline: I thought that this book wrapped up the mini-series beautifully, but Pratchett's actual final book, The Shepherd's Crown actually continues Tiffany's story. It is not as dense as the others--you can tell he didn't have time to rewrite and edit it like the others, but it is worth reading. And if you haven't read his stand-alone book Nation, written right after his diagnosis, I would strongly recommend it as well.

Happy New Thread, and congratulations on the new book, Lucy. Sorry about the glitch. I do think it helps that it's right once among the trio, but I can understand your frustration.

Whoops Roni -- I meant to put in The Shepherd's Crown!! That is the one I meant and just finished listening to! Must. Go. Fix!

I think he wanted to show Tiffany settling into her life -- love how it ends.

39. sociology ****
Testosterone Rex Cordelia Fine

Let's start at the end and work back. Fine's conclusion is that the idea that any single factor--in this case the hormone testosterone--determines how a human being will behave has gone the way of, um, the dinosaur. From emerging studies of the actual physical effect of testosterone (not what you thought), plus the growing acceptance that until the 21st century research into gender differences has been skewed with a male bias (both from testing mostly men and making generalizations from the results and in making up tests that start with gender assumptions built in), plus geneticists discovering that genes, in most creatures, are only a part of the story--in humans both environmental pressures and socio-cultural ones have as large if not a larger effect on how genes might express, it's time to reconsider just about everything we've assumed.
What does seem to be irrefutable is that built into humans (and many other animals) is an extraordinary degree of flexibility. It would also appear that once these factors are taken into account the hard-core unchangeable biological differences between men and women, boil to a very few, pretty much all closely related to the nitty-gritty of reproduction and, as we increasingly know, not always black and white even then. As for brain power--it would appear that cultural expectations play a sobering role in what we, men and women, think of ourselves, believe we can and cannot do. ****

>40 sibylline: Sounds fascinating...great review, Lucy.

>20 sibylline: I can see why that mistake was missed, Lucy, easy for the eye to skip over it! How exciting that your book is being shipped.

>40 sibylline: Great review of Testosterone Rex. It was an interesting read.

Lucy, I am holding your beautiful little book in my hands right now!

Hi Lucy!

>40 sibylline: Excellent and confirming review. I've had this on my radar (a.k.a. wish list) since last November.

>43 Crazymamie: OMG!

>44 karenmarie: It's a good book. Worth reading.

I loved every second with your beautiful book!! Please write more.

>46 RebaRelishesReading: Sending so much gratitude!!! I'm working hard revising novel #2!

I'm so excited to hear that!!

>40 sibylline: Great review - loved her writing style. I want to pick up her earlier ones too.

40. fantasy ***1/2
The Riddle-Master of Hed Patricia A. McKillip

Ah for the good old days of the 250 page fantasy story! Young Morgon, the Prince of Hed, was born with three stars on his forehead. And, yup, turns out that marks him for a Destiny, not for ruling the peaceful and humble little island as he expected. He has one a special prize, riddling a ghost, and when he sets out to "claim" -- yes -- a princess, (but, really, he is a nice guy and wants her to decide if she will have him) you just know he is not going to get there--he is being drawn into that Destiny whether he likes it or not. What I like best are the riddles -- riddle, answer, stricture (the last being the lesson, moral, etcetera) and the way the people structure knowledge of all kinds in this formal manner. The story still works just fine is the main thing, I enjoyed this trilogy yonks ago when I read them (late seventies? early eighties) and the story has survived just fine. There is less character development and the story moves at a different pace than fantasies tend to now, overall at a slower pace with more carefully thought out and simpler magic -- lovely descriptions of Morgon learning to shape-shift into a tree, for example. I see book 2 follows the princess as she sets out to find out what happened to her supposed fiance! Oh and TERRIBLE cover, the guy looks like an lummox! ***1/2

>50 sibylline: Aren't those two first covers so unrepresentative of the characters? They do signal pre-tech euro-fantasy, and the style was ever so popular, but please. I didn't hate the third one as much, but it wasn't great.

I do like the Riddlemaster books, but my favorite of hers will always be The Forgotten Beasts of Eld followed by some of her later singles.

Big sigh. No McKillip in my past - none in my near future. I think it's the matter we all know so well of too many books and too few reading minutes.
I also have my own real *Hounds* safe in my hot little hands!

41. fantasy ****
The Heir of Sea and Fire Patricia McKillip

I adored this one! First Raederle, Morgon's intended, then Lyra, the land-heir of 'the Morgol' -- the one woman ruler in the region, then Tristan, Morgon's sister take off to try to find Morgon, who has supposedly died--to find out what happened, and because none of them can quite believe it. They meet up, of course. What I loved was that they all got along, they were all different, and I no longer stood back from the story but jumped right in. This was still fairly new back then -- a fantasy with all women as the main characters but not wimpy, not at all. Raederle is discovering her powers, frightened and thrilled by them and by what she is learning of her heritage. Great stuff! ****

>50 sibylline: Love The Riddlemaster of Hed series (1976--1979), AND really, really love The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974--my first introduction to her work). Probably my favorite of her more recent work is Od Magic (2005), but I enjoy everything she writes pretty much.
>53 sibylline: Remember how unusual it was to have a fantasy epic written from a woman's POV?

And your book finally showed up today, 2 full days after Reba got hers! Hurrah!

I was tempted to give book 2 and extra 1/2 star just for that -- but I'm also loving book 3 as Raederle and Morgon quarrel and struggle to make a working relationship with one another -- I remember this one more, I was really impressed at the time. I've read Old Magic and the Eld is the best, of course, and I will have to reread that, of course! It's wonderful how far fantasy has come.

Happy you have your own book now! Isn't Posey's expression the best?

42. ♬ fantasy ***1/2
Sourcery Terry Pratchett

A wizard is tossed out of the fraternity for marrying. He is an 8th son, he has an 8th son, born a sorcerer . . . that is . . . a person with magic up the yin-yang. Marriage is forbidden to wizards for this very reason, the danger of having children with too much magic in them. Death comes for the father and the father manages to make a deal with Death . . . but things, of course, go bad and it is up to Rincewind, the weakest wizard in the college to save the day. I only rate Pratchetts higher and lower in order to leave room for the truly brilliant ones. The story in this one is a bit scattered compared to some, but still great great fun. ***1/2

whoops, posted twice!

43. fantasy ****
Harpist in the Wind Patricia A. McKillip

This final book in the trilogy of The Riddle-master of Hed brings the complex story to an end, but it was less dynamic than the second book and a bit too 'high' fantasy for my taste. Both Morgon and Raederle come into their full powers but, for me, there was too much description of becoming one with this that and the other. I was pleased though, with the matter-of-fact acceptance that these two were a couple and enjoyed the nowadays unheard of restraint in never discussing their sex life. The twist in the plot was obvious from somewhere in book 2 but then it became stretched and confusing in book 3, can't say more without some spoiling. This one by itself, for me, was a ***1/2 read. For the series as a whole: **** Worth reading.

A quibble that, as a person who plays Irish traditional music on the harp is that these harp players are NOT harpists, they are harpers. Harpists play classical music on the big jobs with the pedals. Folk and vernacular etc should be referred to as harpers. It's a shame and it bothered me throughout. I know, back then, with only a handful of people playing folk harp, McKillip must be forgiven.

Hi Lucy!

>47 sibylline: I'm happy to hear that you're hard at work revising novel #2.

>55 sibylline: That's Od Magic, not Old Magic, for anyone who might be confused. And I was young enough the first time that the treachery of a major character overwhelmed everything else in book three for me. Later, I was able to appreciate that feature.

44. classic fic *****
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

I read AQotWF in high school, when the Vietnam War was on and was thoroughly shattered, broken-hearted. Now I've reread it, with much the same effect and I have read so many many more books in the interval, yet this one stands apart. His twenty-year old narrator, in the war from the very beginning, writes, after two years, "We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial--I believe we are lost." Breathtakingly well-written. *****

I read All Quiet on the Western Front in high school, in German, and it (the German) was such a struggle for me that the book didn't have much impact. I should probably read it in English some time.

>56 sibylline: You remind me that I need to get back to Discworld!

So if you're a harper and this dude

is a harpist, what's a harpoon?

what's a harpoon? Or a harpy?

Hi, Lucy, who is neither.

Lucy, I read your book, and I was completely and utterly charmed and delighted with it. SO full of fabulous! I am so very happy that you are writing book #2.

Oh hooray!!! I am so thrilled.

People are having trouble ordering the book and I am very chagrined as it is supposed to be, as of Sunday, completely and totally available. Both the leapfolio site and Amazon are being unhelpful. I have written to the marketing person and others and hopefully all will be resolved pronto.

Bear with me and be patient!

Just got the news that Amazon has sent an order for 70!!!!!! books to Tupelo and they will be shipping out tomorrow!!!!!

I admit, I am excited. (and a bit scared).

First reading is here in our little local library on Sunday. urk.

>68 sibylline:

The library will love you and your book!

Beside dog treats, I wonder about a book connected snack to offer.

Lucy, I am so excited for you! Keeping you in my thoughts and knowing you will do great.

Sounds like you are doing well with your first book, Lucy. Great to hear when you are working on the second I bet! I guess all the excitement is why you skipped over my post #42.

>69 m.belljackson: Cookies shaped like dog biscuits? I have a cookie mold shaped like that, but I won't be up to dealing with baking.

>70 Crazymamie: Thank you, Mamie

>71 Familyhistorian: Apologies, Meg. No excuse really, just the usual scatterbrain. Thanks for the reassurance about the error and for liking the T-rex review.

>68 sibylline: Wow. Hope the reading goes well. I am hoping the UK shipping comes down a bit so I can order one soon.

Hi Lucy!

Congrats on the success of The Hounds of Spring.

>67 sibylline: and >68 sibylline: I saw that Amazon was out of stock the other day, glad of it, but didn't even think about how they order books and what the quantities might be.

>68 sibylline: good luck for your reading!

>68 sibylline: And my copy arrived today!

>68 sibylline:, >76 laytonwoman3rd: Mine too, mine too!

Hi Lucy, I wanted to let you know that I absolutely love your book The Hounds of Spring. It immediately pulled me in and was very hard to put down the entire story was so charming and brilliant. I can't wait for my own copy to come definitely one I will reread and one of my favorites for sure.

>75 LovingLit: Thank you!

>76 laytonwoman3rd: and >77 lycomayflower: I hope you enjoy it.

>78 GeezLouise: I am truly thrilled to hear that you loved it.

During the great LT down and out I finished a couple of books and had my first official reading/book launch at the Huntington Public Library -- can't believe it -- but I forgot to have anyone take pix of this historical moment. For our very small village a lot of people came (20 to 25) and they all professed to have enjoyed it very much. Certainly there was a novelty factor!

I hope everyone else survived!

45. contemp fic/magic realism***1/2
Things Invisible to See Nancy Willard

This novel has been hanging about on my bookshelf for lo! these many years, I think I picked it up for free somewhere, maybe? Anyway, I knew Willard had written some children's books and had it in my head I liked them, but when I looked up her books here, I can't quite figure that out. ANYWAY, the novel was pleasant to read but a bit too neat and tidy. The story has a Christian element, but I've never minded that when well done--I'm thinking of Frederick Buechner--and I'm thinking possible Willard had Buechner in mind. It's not quite as well done, but it is still a good read because Willard writes well but somehow I couldn't quite get on board (which is a pun on one event in the book) or stay on board with it all the time. *** 1/2

It was ROOT read #7

Okay, LT is still struggling a little -- it ate one of my messages -- mainly it was commiserating with everyone about the LT downtime.

Also that I had my first public reading at our little library and that 20-25 people turned up. I read with David Huddle and he was marvelous and warmed up the crowd for me. Anyway, now I know I can do it!

46. ♬ fantasy ***1/2
Eric Terry Pratchett

Fun as ever and read by my favorite Pratchett reader who did all the witch series, it is still a slighter offering, definitely on the J side. Young Eric is learning to summon demons but instead he summons . . . Rincewind. Ooops. Convinced Rincewind is a demon he orders him to grant him three wishes. To Rincewind's astonishment, it appears he cabn, somehow, sort of grant something although of course each wish turns out to be worse than the last. Rincewind himself appears to made of more stuff than you might think -- he sticks with the boy and works to get him back home in one piece. There are, as always, some wonderful vignettes -- Helen of Troy (only it has some other name) as a frumpy middle-aged mother of seven, no longer 'the most beautiful woman in the world' and not all that interested in going home either. The Odysseus doppelganger they encounter has a name that means Rincewind (something like Lavevent) is very funny too. The Luggage, one of my favorite, uh, characters, features, so that is good. ***1/2

Hmm. I see that my first post has now appeared. Ah well.

>61 sibylline: I wholly agree.

I started the last section of your delightful (and beautifully covered!) book this morning, Lucy. I'm truly loving it.

>85 EBT1002: Oh that is wonderful to hear Ellen!

YAY for a successful reading! I knew it would be!

Public reading - wow, you're doing so great! Were there many questions?

>87 LizzieD: !
>88 Deern: Well, there were, but it is a blur now. The only ones I remember were whether I had planned it all out (some of it--more than I had previously ever done), how long it took me (weirdly, nine months for the first go-round), but about six years from there to here, and how did I get it published (somebody who read it in process suggested submitting it to Tupelo/Leapfolio).

>80 sibylline: Congratulations! That must have been fun (for you as well as for all of the lucky people who have read your book). It's all so exciting, even from this substantial distance.

Finally! I have the time AND LT is up again! Just wanted you to know I got my copy, too. Pretty exciting!! I know the author...

: )

>90 RebaRelishesReading: Except for not knowing where I put my reading glasses it was fun.

>91 Berly: :) !

One of my favourite early spring sights is starting up. The robins come along in big groups and each bird settles down for half the day in our field in its own "patch" -- about ten-fifteen square feet apart from one another. Right out of Dr. Seuss. There's a lot of feinting and boasting hopping about and carrying on -- sometimes there are so many it's robins as far as the eye can see. It only happens for one or two days.

>93 sibylline: How cool!! There used to be a place where Canada Geese did that north of here but it got built over and I don't know where they rest now :(

47. fantasy ****
Seeker's Mask P.C. Hodgell

Book 3 of the Chronicles of the Kencyrath and they are getting better. Torisen, Jame's brother, is still a far more compelling person, as are many of the other people around Jame. But often the pivotal character, since they appear to be swept up in a Destiny (with a capital D) seem less dynamic. My main complaint is that Jame really doesn't eat or sleep enough. Seriously, it gets tiresome. In this story Jame is relegated to the Women's world where they all wear masks (even with one another) and they swear by one set of rules (be quiet and subordinate) and yet the matriarchs of each family group are anything but. Since Jamethiel's betrayal women have been increasingly sidelined and squashed but as far as Jame (and I agree) can see all it has done is make a pressure-cooker from where, perhaps, many of the current Kencyrath troubles arise. There are still some awkwardnesses, here and there, and I do better when I don't think too much about the almost inconsistencies (such as the abundance of very powerful women and women soldiers who don't wear masks or silly outfits in which they can barely walk). I am still confused too about the levels and degrees of the Kencyrath "shanir" with special powers, why some are "good" and some "bad" but maybe I'll figure it out one of these days. I think Hodgell knows, but somehow it hasn't quite come across, or I missed something. The story is lively and original and I'm sufficiently into it to be fully committed. ****

48. history ****1/2
The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt

Scribe and scholar Poggio Bracciolini besides writing perfect latin in a beautiful hand, was also a mad-passionate hunter of the many-times-copied scrolls hidden in out of the way monasteries of Greek and Roman philosophic and literary texts. It was he, who, early in the 15th century (1417) unearthed in the damp storeroom of a German monastery, De Rerum Natura by Lucretius, a poem in which, among many many other things, the idea of the universe being made up of "atomi", particles miniscule and invisible to the eye--an "incandescent" idea originally put forth in the third century BCE by Epicurus and an idea which leads the mind, inevitably, away from an anthropocentric view which then leads, inevitably, to questioning just about everything people then (and now) hold dear, most radically the issue of life after death. (Forget it, said Epicurus.) Greenblatt tells Poggio's story (his handwriting was beyond exquisite and formed the template later for the first print designs)--secretary to popes, latinist, humorist, and later, family man. At the end Greenblatt devotes some time to the way the existence and dissemination of On the Nature of Things led to fresh thinking and huge advances in scientific inquiry of bodies both tiny and immense, showing how in the works of writers from Shakespeare to Galileo, Machiavelli to Sir Walter Raleigh is ample evidence that the scholarly read and pondered and were inspired by the ideas Lucretius forth. Of course the one question we all have, namely, how did Lucretius come up with his fabulous insight into the building matter of the universe, will forever go unanswered. Well-written and absorbing. ****1/2

>95 sibylline: Only the Highborn women have such restrictions placed upon them. The Kendar women are much less restricted, as you note. The Shanir used to be considered "good", with their powers being used for the Kencyrath at large, including healing, but since Jamethiel's fall and Gerridon's betrayal, such powers are viewed with mistrust and even loathing since they were used to destroy large portions of the Kencyrath. There's a LOT of stuff that happens in this book that turns out to be important later on.

Congrats on your reading and signing over the weekend!! Such a pity that LT was down and we couldn't "be there" with you.

Thank you Roni. It was weird having LT down for so long, wasn't it? I seem to recall an episode wayyyyy back around when I joined that was long like that.

I didn't bring the book with me where I am right now (at the Cape, opening the cottage) -- Highborn, right! Good to know I am more or less on track. I should have said that I am glad Jame is beginning to question some of the assumptions the others make about Shanir.

Oh, and I forgot to add, there are women who were sired by Highborn on Kendar who are basically ignored and treated as regular Kendar who may indeed have some Shanir powers. You will meet up with some of them in the next book.

It was indeed weird having LT down for so long and I felt off-balance the whole time, highlighting how important this community is to me. I actually messaged Tim about possibly setting up some sort of category and/or recognition for people to contribute additional amounts to LT for its upkeep. $20 was such a bargain for a lifetime membership--I would gladly contribute another $10 a year just to make sure they can have the best servers and personnel!

>99 ronincats: At least off balance! I hope Tim gives your suggestion some thought, Roni!
Good for you for persevering (and trusting Roni) with the Hodgell. I'm sorry I can't do it yet.
I look forward to your review of The Swerve, which I own, but which hasn't made it off the shelf yet.

>99 ronincats: Should we copy this convo over to the Kencyrath thread??? I'll put my review there and then copy in our discussion below it once you give me the go ahead for your part in it.

Sure. Do it!

49. ss, fiction, ***1/2
Trajectory Richard Russo

I feel like a heel only giving this three 1/2 stars, but I can't say I was engaged the way I have usually been with Russo's work. Can I say there was something fatigued about the writing which, weirdly, echoes a world-weariness of the characters. There are four stories, one of them lengthy. The first features, as the protagonist, a professor of literature, Janet, who is more or less underwhelmed by pretty much every aspect of her life, professional and personal and finds herself mulling over a moment in the past that seems to be significant to her present predicament. Voice features two brother in their sixties, just picture the tortoise and the hare and you've kind of got it. It takes place in Venice and the setting is maybe the best part of it. That and people our age dealing with newfangled gadgets. In "Intervention" a middle-aged real estate agent comes to a decision about friendship and about taking responsibility for simply acting when action is needed. Finally in "Milton and Marcus" an older film writer is called in to work on a script--maybe-- and mulls over both his own mistakes and the weird allure of "big" actors. Russo is always worth reading for the smaller insights and details, but overall the collection here while competent wasn't up to the usual. Fans should read it though. I am a fan. ***1/2

>103 sibylline: Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that. I love Russo and have that one in Mt. TBR. I have a lot of things I want to read first but still sorry to hear this one isn't as good as his usual.

>103 sibylline: Well, poop! I just bought that one on our Columbus trip.

>105 Crazymamie: If you are a fan, Mamie, you will still enjoy it. He's still a better writer and storyteller than most.

I really loved Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool.

I wouldn't have been tempted by short stories no matter how long, and I haven't read *EF* or *NF*, but I hope to. I LOVED Straight Man, however, and just had to say so.

I loved Straight Man too. And the early early books. Really all but the more recent.

Bridge of Sighs has characters from Empire Falls and the books with ....Fool in the title are all set in the same place with the same characters. Russo is absolutely one of my favorite authors. He was at Chautauqua last summer and (as I was getting my book signed) I told him he's my go-to guy when I need "balm for my soul". I meant it and he seemed to like it.

It's official--I loved your book, The Hounds of Spring! I promise to write an official review in the near future. Well done. : )

>111 Berly: Thank you!! I keep saying the same thing but every affirmation is wonderful. And thanks, too, for your willingness to put up a review!

50.♬ fantasy ****
Memento Mori Ruth Downie

So delightful to spend time with Medicus Russo and Tilla and all their various friends and hangers-on. Valens, Russo's old army buddy is in trouble. His wife has died mysteriously and Valens is being accused, by his father-in-law, a tough old centurion, of the murder. The setting is Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath). I've seen those baths, yonks ago, so I loved the setting too. ****

51. fantasy ****1/2
To Ride a Rathorn P.c.Hodgell

Loved this one! Jame ends up at the Kencyrath military academy, Tentir, as the Knorth "lordan" -- (heir). The prejudices against the highborn woman are so entrenched no one thinks she'll last, but they don't know (or care, to begin with) what her real past is. Anyway, this one has a balance of humor and tough stuff and I wasn't scrambling to figure out what the heck was going on. Here there are subtleties and developments of character and surprises too, interesting ones. Got the next batch on order, you bet! ****1/2

Hi, Lucy.

>96 sibylline: Yay, I say! I liked The Swerve a lot, too. So smart, and so well-written. I got started with him with Will in the World, which is one of my favorite "about Shakespeare" books.

>115 jnwelch: I knew that it was types like Poggio who saved these manuscripts, but not any specifics, so it was, truly, fascinating. I'll be checking out the book at W.S.

52. fantasy ***1/2
The Sharing Knife: Horizon Lois Bujold

Bujold not at her best is still better than the vast majority. In this final of this series, the couple, Fawn, the farmer lass, and Dag, the lakewalker are trying to get home. (At the end of the last one they were far south.) Dag, a former lakewalker patroller against malices (golemish and they make golemish/zombieish creatures to fight for/with them) is interested in becoming a healer but has to find a teacher. Farmers and lakewalkers traditionally have little to do with one another -- the former being suspicious of the magical powers of the latter -- the latter believing they only harm farmers with their magery so best stick with their task of protecting everyone from the malices. Got that?? Anyway, as always what's fun are the interactions -- in this case between Dag, Fawn and Arkady the healer who takes Dag on as well as the various people they acquire along their travels. The problem here is that the magic is too complicated and Bujold goes into too much detail à la Sanderson. Bujold likes to create unlikely couples -- Dag and Fawn, Lakewalker and farmer are already unusual, especially in the north and they are also thirty or so years apart--she is 19 and he is in his fifties. (Lakewalkers live longer, so this could work out just fine.) He also believes there must be a way to use their magic to help farmers without "beguiling" them. I read the first three, from a library I think, because I don't have the physical books and then had to wait for this one to be written and in the meantime moved on. ***1/2

Half the pond is still iced up but yesterday afternoon I heard the wood frogs (who precede the loud peepers) doing their soft "quackling" thing -- at the north end of the pond where it is still mostly frozen! No sooner had I heard that than a mallard pair landed on the south end which is fully unfrozen and started quacking away! There are still snow piles here and there, but things are finally happening. We've had wood frogs as early as March 15, so that gives you some idea of how pleased I am.

Hi Lucy!

>96 sibylline: Such an interesting and thought-provoking book. I read it in 2012 and was absolutely stunned by it.

>118 sibylline: A late spring for you, for sure. I love listening to the frogs by our creek.

>117 sibylline: I liked it a bit more than you seemed to, but was a bit annoyed at the final battle when Fawn rather than her brother figured out what to do with her sharing knife - he's got the 'hammer' and we know what everything looks like to a young man with a hammer. Fawn and Dag have figured everything else out in so timely a manner, that it should be wearing off on others of the party too.

Just had a crazy thing on my home page of books turning up under the Currently Reading area at the bottom that I finished yonks ago! Very very odd!

53. mys ****
A Great Reckoning Louise Penny

Gamache comes out of retirement to take on cleaning up on the police academy that trains the officers of the Sureté. Being Gamache though, he has his own idea of how to go about it. Naturally the plan does not go at all as he hoped and expected, a person dies, Gamache, naturally, comes under suspicion . . . What makes this book refreshing is the locale, the school, with a sub-plot set in Three Pines that is, while sad, not a murder mystery and, by involving several students from the school in solving that mystery, draws the two stories together. The pressure is off Three Pines which has seen enough murder and mayhem! Penny's writing style leaves a lot to be desired but in its own way, it works, since there is no pretense at doing anything more than telling a ripping good yarn. ****

>113 sibylline: Thanks so much for mentioning this one - I'd missed there was a new one. So enjoy this series, and fun to be in Bath.

154. essays/letters ****1/2
E.B. White on Dogs E.B White

White's granddaughter Martha has combed through her grandfather's oeuvre for the 'best of' his writing on dogs. It's an assortment, therefore, of letters and the occasional essay which might be nominally about something else (say Khrushchev) but includes portraits of one of his dogs. Usually Fred. Fred was a larger than life dachsund who ruled supreme for thirteen or so years in the White menage and was, in that inexplicable way, sorely missed, even though in life he was usually "up to something"--meaning, causing trouble. Most dogs learn after one or maybe two bouts with a porcupine to let it be. Not Fred. What comes across though is that White reveled in studying, explaining, and mythologizing his dogs. It makes you realize that "having character" means "being difficult". To any lover of E.B.W.'s prose and to dogs, this book is a win/win. A pleasure. ****1/2

Quote:
"There is something in me that keeps making me want to do things I am not very good at, and of course the country is the ideal place for that."

>124 sibylline: He did have dogs other than dachshunds didn't he? They are their own thing really, dog like, but selectively.

>125 quondame: I like that, dog like. Yes he had other dogs, first dog was a collie. Mostly mutts, but some terriers, a lab ... he would get what we call "puppy fever" around here and would more or less nab for the first puppy he came across after that. A steady stream.

>124 sibylline: Lovely review, Lucy - if you posted that, I will add my thumb. Also adding it to The List.

Hoping that your Friday is full of fabulous!

>127 Crazymamie: Done!

Your Friday too - and your weekend.

>124 sibylline: That's for me! One of my dear friends has a doxie (her second one since I've known her), and she (the dog, not the friend) is a holy terror, but cuuuuuute. You have to love her. And of course, we have had our share of unforgettable, always-to-be-missed mischief makers as well.

155. ss ***1/2
I Remember! I Remember! Sean O'Faolain

O'Faolain takes on the emerging middle class post-independence in Ireland (with occasional earlier forays --A Nest of Simple Folk being one--a novel that leads a country lad inexorably to the Easter Rebellion in 1916) and the Irish "character" in general. The short story was considered his forte. These are the stories of an older person, almost all of them male, and they are full of nostalgia and sadness but without self-pity, more a sort of wonder at the folly of human behaviour. An older man meeting a woman he knew as a lad ". . . nobody knows what life is until he has lived out so much of it that it is too late then to do anything but go on the way you have gone on, or been driven on, from the beginning." Or an older man regarding a young lad of 15: "Each of them is imprisoned in childhood and no one can tell him how to escape. Each of them must, blind-eyed, gnaw his way out, secretly and unaided." "At certain moments all through our lives we touch a point where ignorance is teetering on the brink of some essential revelation which we fear as much as we need it." The stories are dated now in that they portray a time and a way of being that is fading, but the subject of this collection, the folly of youth and the wisdom of the elders, alas, is a theme that remains untouched and likely will for all time. ***1/2

56. fantasy****1/2
Bound in Blood P.C. Hodgell

Tore through this one, couldn't help myself, I'm hooked. Jame slowly finds her balance at Tentir as Torisen, her twin, begins to open up his mind, however tentatively to new ideas. It is winter and Jame also has to attend to some of her other duties now as the Earth Wife's Favorite. In fact, one of the most interesting things emerging in this story is the clash of the two cultures -- the Kencyrath and the native people, the Meriket being the tribe they have been at odds with, while nominally "protecting" them from the Perimal Darkness threatening to take over yet another planet. The two have utterly different mythologies and cultures, no respect of or interest in understanding one another, and yet some bridges have been forged. The Tyr-ridan, the three Knorth, Destroyer, Creator, and Preserver might just be a possibility -- that combination being the only one with a chance of actually vanquishing the Perimal Darkness. Stay tuned! ****1/2

>131 sibylline: Oh goody! I have this one on hold...

>131 sibylline: . Tee-hee, I'm SO happy!!

fantasy ****1/2
Honor's Paradox P.C. Hodgell

Jame faces the last test of her first (only?) year at Tentir. Torisen continues his slow progress at seeing Shanir gifts as part of the Kencyrath "arsenal" for fighting Perimal Darkness. Several others, including the Commandant of Tentir, face "honor's paradox" -- that is -- when do you obey orders and when do you obey your own moral code? I like that Jame and Timmon and Gorbel have "bonded". All good funn and judging how intently I read this one it has to have the "couldn't put it down" rating. I do have to add that the Baen covers are beyond bad -- Jame is flat-chested! ****1/2

57. fantasy ***1/2
♬ Interesting Times Terry Pratchett

The usual fun with Rincewind -- this time in a China, sort of.

>124 sibylline: I know I'm repeating myself, but I SO miss dogs in my life! Dachshunds were always my favorites, probably because my grandmother had one when I was little, called Raudi, so she was Raudi-Oma (Raudi granny) for us kids. The most stubborn dog ever.
Mixed feelings about their resurgeance after the race had almost been forgotten. They look cute, but really are "characters", serious hunters most of them with a loud bark, and definitely not accessories. And then nowadays you mostly see the minis that tend to have back problems.

Anyway - BB and WLed. :)
Happy Sunday!

I have to find time to get back to Hedgell!! Great reviews. : )

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday, Lucy.

Hi Lucy! Just popping by to wish you congratulations on all the love your book is getting. Sounds like it is tricky to get hold of here in the UK, but I will investigate. I'm very invested in your "other" book, you know the one I mean. The completion of the trilogy. Last I heard in was in limbo at a publishers. Any better news to report?? Your fans demand to know! And you can tell them so from me!

58. ss *****
Almost No Memory in Collected Stories of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis

I've broken up reading this book into the four previous books that are collected into the one because reading Davis is not something to be rushed through but to be savored. Most of these are not, strictly speaking, short stories. They are not prose poems either. I don't know what they are. Disarming. They are closer to meditations, but without the stern attention, say of Marcus Aurelius or the . . . no wait . . . I was going to write "bemusement" of Montaigne, but in fact, there is bemusement, there is philosophizing, there is seriousness, there is wicked humor (perhaps more wicked and sustained than Montaigne's). Davis is a treasure. Don't say to yourself, "I don't read short stories." *****

Here is a taste of one in its entirety (some are much longer, closer to stories, some are even shorter and even more like meditations)

Trying to Learn
"I am trying to learn that this playful man who teases me is the same as that serious man talking money to me so seriously he does not even see me anymore and that patient man offering me advice in times of trouble and that angry man slamming the door as he leaves the house. I have often wanted the playful man to be more serious, and the serious man to be less serious, and the patient man to be more playful. As for the angry man, he is a stranger to me and I do not feel it is wrong to hate him. Now I am learning that if I say bitter words to the angry man as he leaves the house, I am at the same time wounding the others, the ones I do not want to wound, the playful man teasing, the serious man talking money, and the patient man offering advice. Yet I look at the patient man, for instance, whom I would want above all to protect from such bitter words as mine, and though I tell myself he is the same man as the others, I can only believe I said those words not to him, but to another, my enemy, who deserved all my anger."

Wow!

It might amuse the knitters among you that I've posted a (very brief) piece at houndsofspring on some of the parallels between writing/knitting.

>141 sibylline:

>140 sibylline: Got me.

59. spec fic *****
Islandia Austin Tappan Wright

Every now and then a book comes along that is entirely different. The urge to throw superlatives around like confetti becomes irresistible. But there is the word I seek! Irresistible! Wright imagines a continent, Karain, somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, the "southern" tip of which is a country unto itself, Islandia. Here live a people, essentially white, who came down from the glacial heights of the mountain chain that separates this part of the continent from the rest and took over the area from the original natives, black, many hundreds of years earlier. Islandians live in an idyllic pastoral culture of great stability (which is based, on Epicurean values --they know nothing of the philosopher--but that is, in essence, the culture they have evolved)--the real Epicurean values--not the negative overlay dumped by the evolving Christian power base. For me it is as if I had carefully prepared to read Islandia--by recently reading both The Swerve (about the recovery of Green and Roman texts that triggered the Renaissance) and The Metaphysical Club (the attempt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to move philosophy in the direction of social utility--which is a horrible reduction). Wright tries to create a society where there is an attempt to balance human need for close bonds within a group with the equally pressing need to be allowed to make independent choices. It is by no means a perfect world, people sometimes make stupid choices, that make them unhappy, but no one makes the mistake of blaming others. It is startling that a hundred years ago Wright was creating this world in which men and women strive to meet as true equals, the whole culture is based on each person standing squarely on their own ground (literally as every family has their patch of earth) and to know how tentative is the progress world cultures have made toward that ideal (for many it is not even become an ideal, of course). The second and equally important thread is man's relationship and responsibilities toward the planet and its resources. This forms the crux of the Islandian hesitation to open themselves up to immigration and trade as the predominant western cultures, American, French, German and British are all about exploitation and greed dressed up as progress, development and civilization (and that arrogant attitude hasn't changed much either!).

The story is set in 1908 and our protagonist, John Lang, becomes friends with Dorn, an Islandian, who is sent to Harvard (interestingly not Oxford or Cambridge--as if they can guess what the next dominant world power is soon going to be). Lang learns Islandian and is chosen to be the first American consul to Islandia, his brief being to help the cause of opening up this isolationist country to trade. Lang soon realizes that the benefits (spoils) will go to the outside world and destroy the Islandian culture and is torn. The plot hinges around this conflict and his own attractions to various Islandian women -- and his gradual learning of what a different culture this is as many of his assumptions about men and women and how they should relate are overthrown.

The false note is in the treatment of the other races on the continent, casually evicted a thousand years earlier from what became Islandia, and not in any way encouraged to have any interaction with Islandians. Also, as a plot device, the Germans have infilitrated most of the rest of the continent and are using the native black population to further their devious and ambitious ends to take over the whole of the continent. Given that the bulk of the novel was written between the two wars, this is isn't surprising, but the racial insensitivity casts a shadow on Islandia as a utopia, they have their blind spots too -- so open about gender equality, but so closed about race.

There is always something to cavil about and that is it, and it isn't enough to damage what is a great story full of wonderful ideas, wisdom, and joy. Despite the flaws it gets *****

These quotes are just for me so I don't lose them:

"Yet despair has a sister, Indifference, and when Despair drives one too hard she comes and the relief she gives as a deceitful resemblance to happiness."

"Reaching out my hand, unknown to her I took between my thumb and first two fingers a fold of her skirt. With this contact established I was at peace . . .."

Response to the Met after arriving from his year plus in Islandia: "Yet what was most striking about all the pictures was their finish, their elaborateness, their sophistication. . . . Then a strange thing happened. I sat down and felt queer, and the pictures seemed indicative of a cerebration so intense and overbalanced that it was reflected back in the canvases themselves. My head hurt with it. Many of these artists had gone too far in their concentration upon their art."

"We were like two pieces of paper on which mucilage has been spread. We put ourselves carefully together with good will but the mucilage had dried and we did not cohere."

Happy Tuesday, Lucy! You got me with your thoughtful review of the Davis book - adding it to the list. And I'll add my thumb to your review if you posted it.

Hi, Lucy. I remember finding Islandia thought-provoking when I read it as a lad. Like you, I wish he had been more forward-thinking about the problems caused by tribalism, and the importance of equal treatment for everyone.

>140 sibylline: Got me, too.

60. fantasy ****
The Last Continent Terry Pratchett

That would be Australia, or Australia, sort-of, known on Discworld as XXXX. Rincewind has been dumped there by the time/travel machine and is wandering around stealing sheep and so on, when the wizards back at the uni, gone in search of a wizard who specialized in strange places, end up wayyy back in time when the gods (in this case, a god) are building continents and flora and fauna - - - the only problem is Rincewind is also learning that somehow a bunch of wizards recently/eons ago arrived in XXXX and shifted the balance of -- everything and have wreaked havoc as 'the wet' never happens anymore. Nigel Planer does the Oz accent up good and it was the usual delightful nPratchett mayhem. I would say that Rincewind has changed somewhat, he is wiser and actually more generous than hitherto. (He's been evolving through the other novels, more and more noticeable.) ****

61. psych ***1/2
The Inner World of Choice Frances G. Wickes

With a focus on how we come to make the choices we make, Wickes gives the Jungian view of the development and integration of aspects of the emerging Self, made up of primarily conscious ego and the anima for men or animus of women. More specifically she demonstrates anecdotally how NOT integrating the ego/unconscious or male-female aspects of oneself into a working harmony (of which a Self as a whole is at least somewhat aware) leads to living a life of no having no choices at all because you are at the mercy of your unconscious impulses. Jung worked with a pantheon of archetypes, and Wickes does also, choosing however to work primarily with those that worked best for her within the Christian context. Thus she talks of sin and redemption, suffering and transcendence, Christ and the cross and always using "man" and "men" and "he" a combination of which made it hard for me, at times, to look beyond the modality she chose to the message underneath. To her the Christian modality is as natural as any of the other, less culturally attached, archetypes -- animals, physical features from running water to the stars, and the different ages of human, from newborn to aged but not to me. Nor am I at all sure anymore that the gender you are born appearing to be is guaranteed or even that the male-female duality is more than a convenient term for an array of characteristics that tend more to one group than the other but that shouldn't be lumped together anymore. Nonetheless the underlying message, that each of us is made up of a bundle of characteristics many of which are embedded in the unconscious and must be coaxed into acceptance and some awareness by the conscious part of the personality -- the part that forms young to "manage" in the real world into which a child must learn to navigate. The unassimilated parts of the self, anima or animus, will get projected onto others and create havoc in relationships. The message is not dated but the mode of delivery now is and the emotional issues that we in the 21st century while being about the same thing -- living up to your full potential and in harmony with your inner self -- seems to have such different external ground rules, I had to constantly overlay her words. Another important message surfacing here and there is that each person must attend completely to their own development -- that how we react to external happenings is usually more about what is inside us, than the happening itself. An interesting bit too about how from childhood the factual and fantastic have become inextricably intertwined in ways that the adult might not realize but that will also have an influence on how they see and react in daily life. I'm sorry the book is so dated, but it happens. ***1/2

{Integrating ego and self} "means listening to the inner voice, accepting the interpretations that arise from the Self, remaining alone and yet involved, related but not identified."

"In every conflict, inner or outer, conscious and unconscious continually confront each other, for "The psychological transcendent function arises from the union of conscious and unconscious content which have a curious tendency not to agree." (quote is from Jung) "Yet they need each other--the conscious to give form and reality, the unconscious to fertilize the conscious--in that interplay through which man becomes not only a creature of instinct and will but also a living spirit . . "

>140 sibylline: Most of these are not, strictly speaking, short stories. They are not prose poems either. I don't know what they are. Disarming
I love it when writing refuses to be categorized :)

62. contemp fic ****
Anything Is Possible Elizabeth Strout

Couldn't help waffling between 3 1/2 or 4 stars for Strout--the reason being that the emotions, sometimes, get triggered too quickly, too easily, as if Strout, as if she is the writerly equivalent one of the actors she describes in the final story "a crier" -- one who can always easily summon tears. Probably just the puritanical side of me, eh? Anyway, Strout is always a pleasure to read with moments of insight and excellent story-telling. In Anything Is Possible we revisit a goodly number of the characters who make an appearance in My Name is Lucy Barton, Lucy's siblings and cousins and other people in the area where she grew up. The stories aren't so much connected as flowing from one to the next. All of them take on the issue of shame of one kind of another -- from poverty, from being overweight, or sexually unconforming, or just different. Writing the review has helped me decide on a four, awarded for Strout's exploration of this theme. ****

>151 sibylline: I read Anything is Possible back in 2015 (had to look it up to be sure) and gave it 4 stars. It may be telling that I don't remember a thing about it -- or maybe that is just telling about my memory :)

>145 Crazymamie: Hmm have to go see if I did post that review.

>146 jnwelch: I guess we should praise him for at least being remarkable in one way.

>147 laytonwoman3rd: Davis is amazing, you'll see!

>150 LovingLit: Me too!

>152 RebaRelishesReading: I'm more and more hopeless that way too. Thank heavens for LT and my "bank" of reviews!

63. fantasy ****
The Sea of Time P.C. Hodgell

So, yeah, I gobbled up book 7. The cadets, the Knorth contingent with Jame as their lordan, are sent south to the join the Southern Host in the city of . . . . A caravan of traders, with a Seeker to help guide them, is sent southwards into the wastes, Jame's troops with them. And then the fun begins, of course. I know some are impatient with Tori's development and I agree it is sort of maddening--kind of an obvious device to keep drawing the reader along--but he really does hate the Shanir and his soul is captive still to his father. And anyway, once he figures it all out, would there still be much of a story? Well. It is true that almost all storytelling depends on people either choosing not to tell each other important things or not listening when they are told important things, innit? I 'm still perfectly happy with these, I enjoy the details of the place and the way the different cultures interact and the creatures and many of the other characters a great deal. I should add too that the cover was appropriate or close enough.****

64. fantasy ****1/2
The Gates of Tagmeth P.C. Hodgell

Jame is sent off to an abandoned fortress, Tagmeth, up in the Riverlands, not far from the northern reaches of the Kencyr territory. She has troops with her, cadets and her own crew as well as deserters from some of the other troubled clans, Caineron and Randir, who ask for sanctuary. I can't say the usual havoc ensues, because while things go wrong, what Jame is struggling with now is learning to lead, to take care of those for whom she is responsible and to bring those closest to her into her confidence. Marc goes along and is her steward. Even Lyra makes some progress! I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. ****1/2

All your reading and reviewing wows me, Lucy. Good for you and good for us followers!

65. mystery ****
Glass Houses Louise Penny

In some ways the most ambitious story yet. I want to say "but" but that seems unfair because Penny does more or less pull it off. It strains the imagination to see Three Pines in yet another chilling predicament--I mean, seriously!, wouldn't you move away from a village, no matter how cute, no matter how good the baguettes and cuisine, if it was a murder and mayhem magnet? That aside, the plot is breathtaking and Penny's passion about the topic comes through. Gamache, now head of the Surete, is trying to pull off the biggest coup of his career--to catch some cartel leaders. It's a cliffhanger from start to finish and I ended up sneaking off to read it because I couldn't stand the suspense. Penny's writing style leaves much to be desired, but it is her m.o. at this point and it is very emotional and creates atmo, so what the heck. ****

Hmm. I have a goal of at least ten books a month (hopefully more so that I can make my ridiculous goal of 150 books in a year) but I don't know if I'll quite make it this time. I might, I might.

>156 LizzieD: Thanks for stopping in Peggy. It has gotten super quiet here, but so am I.

>151 sibylline: >158 sibylline: The Strout interests me. I enjoyed Olive Kittredge and The Burgess Boys.

(And it IS quiet around here, isn't it?)

Are we all either emotionally or literally overwhelmed with living? I admit, that I mostly choose reading over socializing, both here and in RL at the moment. I need it very much.

By the way, I don't want anyone to get the idea I'm having a wild time promoting my book and running around. It's not like that at all. It's pretty much all up to me and I am finding it very uphill to get any attention at all except from folks like yourselves and places where I have connections and friends. Don't be shy! If you are part of an RL book group or anything and you invite me to do a salon if I can possibly get there I will! Even California. I mean it. It's bewildering and difficult for a person as introverted as I am. These are not the skills or preferences of someone who wants to write. Lots of tension there!

I'm also under some stress at home -- as I said earlier -- a complex matter, not health-related and not marital, but not simple either and not something I can presently share. Anyway, again apologies for not visiting everyone as I wish I could.

66. ♬ fantasy ****
Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett

Lord Vettinari, (sp? I listen to these!) the ruler of Ankh Morpork has decided that the game of "foot the ball" -- violent and chaotic, played in the streets, has to be regularized somehow. Various characters from the wizards to the staff of the university's night kitchen, to the candlemaker's and in particular, a rather mysterious one named Nut get involved. It was fun, but perhaps you have to be a football nut to truly love it. As ever extremely enjoyable and I love Stephen Briggs. ****

Hi, Lucy. Love, love, love that you are sharing the love for Jame and Pat Hodgell. I've been limited on posting because I finally came down with a virus at the very end of the season, and I've been slow to get my energy back. However, although the cough is still hanging on, I'm finally feeling stronger.

Hugs to you for stress relief and hope the LD is hanging in there. Currently sipping Tom Kah soup for my throat and feeling better.

Where's the LIKE button for "Po, freshly bathed and fluffy"???

>162 ronincats: I am so glad to hear you are truly beginning to feel better.

>163 LizzieD: Bathing seems to loosen up the winter undercoat! Puffs emerge which we pull off gleefully. Po finds it a bit rude, of course.

67. health *****
Healthy Aging Andrew Weil

Ah, why is it that it is so hard to accept the voice of balance and moderation? That is what Weil offers here. Good advice. Empathy. But he is also firm on one topic: We must all face growing old, we must all face dying and few (if any?) have much interest in looking in that mirror. Weil is careful to disentangle the anti-aging movement with its dreams of living forever from what can be done to live healthily and independently for as long as possible and that is not going to please everyone. Weil strikes me as unusual in his ability to walk the tightrope between the 'evidence-based' materialists and the spiritualists and dreamers. He believes also in the wisdom of experience and that there is some kind of consciousness in the universe, inexplicable and unquantifiable, underlying everything. Not religious, not affiliated with any particular faith, just there to be drawn from if you so choose. The physical goal is to do everything you possibly can to help your body function well as long as it can -- that means eating thoughtfully, exercising, and using your brain in ways that encourage health and discourage decay. The people to envy are the ones who live into their eighties or further in perfect health and die within a few weeks. Lots of low-key practical advice -- if anything grabs the reader there is the internet for follow-up. I've put off reading this for years, thinking, ugh. I'm reading it at the right moment for me. I'm 63 and in the last two years, yes, I am feeling changes of all kinds and I'm ready to deal. Thank you, Andrew! *****

That odd colour synchronicity thing has happened with my reading line up!

♬

Love some of the books you are reading lately! I've seen lots of complaints about Penny's writing style but I just adore her and am not a stickler for the little things. I was sad to see that her new book isn't coming out in August this year, and instead November. I'd gotten used to preordering the novel as part of summer reading. :(

That means we'll have to wait to find out about Isabelle too.

So sorry about the stress in your life. I hope it abates soon. Like Chelle, I adore Penny and have pre-ordered this year's new one and will anxiously await its arrival.

I wish I was part of a RL book group because I would love to organize an event for you. There is a local group that regularly puts on book events. I've been to three of them but otherwise have no connections. If you want to contact them here is their web address http://adventuresbythebook.com. I would surely come and bring friends (if it was while we're here).

68. sf *****
Provenance Ann Leckie

Just. So. Much. Fun! *****

(This review stands as is!)

>170 sibylline: Aaaah! EXACTLY what I thought!

69. politics? philosophy?
Women & Power: A Manifesto Mary Beard

Two essays, delivered as lectures and somewhat refashioned for the print form, still have some of the momentum of the spoken word. Beard offers no solutions only directions in which to move our awareness and our thinking. In the first essay she outlines the Greek and Roman narratives--in literature and histories--and the ways that women are traditionally silenced, either by ridicule, by being ignored, or by, in some cases, having their tongues cut right out of their mouths. In our political culture, oratory is still the province of men. The deep, sonorous voice is preferred. Think of it the way you might imagine that a blue potato tastes 'different' from a white potato. We simply do not have any idea how deeply our prejudices against hearing and respecting the voices of women go--starting with a visceral response to women's voices especially when speaking outside of the domain assigned to them (protecting the family, women's issues, women's literature) etc. Beard guides the discussion towards the fact that this realization must come first, with awareness comes the possibility to take the next step.

In the second essay, Beard is less directly focussed on the past but rather on how the media (including the internet) use the imagery of the ancient western eras to portray women who have achieved positions of political power--usually negatively. She shows how some women have used female symbols creatively and, yeah, powerfully -- Maggie Thatcher and her handbag (Queen Elizabeth has also been a valiant handbag wielder -- apparently with nothing but a hankie and a few mints in it since she has no need to carry ID or money!). Beard took the time to analyze, for example, how often women who speak in public are described as shrill and whiney as well as how a woman politician who makes a mistake is vilified more strongly than a man who makes an equivalent mistake (or, um, like thousands that are far worse?). Again Beard can offer no solutions, only ideas for directions in which to move our thinking on these matters. A quick read, worth reading. ****1/2

Where did I just see it said that Beard's segment on a Civilization show was pulled for the American edition because she isn't "attractive enough"? (Probably right here, further up!) Do we remain silent or raise a stink?? I think she's quite wonderful looking!

>160 sibylline: Sending you hugs, Lucy, with coping and overcoming whatever stresses and strains you are having to deal with. xx

>169 RebaRelishesReading: I am making a note of this group! Nothing like a good excuse to visit San Diego to see you and Roni.

>173 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul. LT is a haven, innit?

Hi Lucy!

>157 sibylline: Penny's writing style leaves much to be desired, but it is her m.o. at this point … alas. I think I'm done with her books, although I've read all 13 so far. I.can't.get.past.her.writing.style.anymore.

>165 sibylline: You got me! I just ordered a “like new” used copy from Amazon. Thanks for the inspiration. I turn 65 this month and although I'm mostly on the right path I'm only taking baby steps and need to get a move on.

I hope things work out positively for you soon.

>174 sibylline: I would love to show you around and would offer you a bed if we had a spare!! We're leaving for Chautauqua on Wednesday and will be gone until November so hope you don't come while we're gone!! (It might take that long to get on Adventures by the Book's calendar)

Oh no, the summer is pretty much a disaster area.

I am so sorry you won't be in Chatauqua by this Sunday, the 8th -- I am giving a reading in Geneseo NY! I probably won't be back up that way for some time, so once again I will miss a chance to see you. Rats!

I think Sunday is the 10th and we'll only miss you by two days because we plan to arrive on Tuesday the 12th. DARN!! Except for a week in July (the 2nd week I think) we'll be there until mid-September so if you get over that way please let me know and we'll meet up (or you can come here).

>172 sibylline: Thanks for the good review, Lu! DEFINITELY wish-listed!
I have to take 2 seconds for a rant about young women's voices. They do pitch themselves high enough to sound like children, often with a touch of nasality, rising inflection, vocal fry, and the most irritating distortion of perfectly good vowel sounds. WHY???? (A becomes ee or eh: Peent for sell; OO becomes yoo: At nyoon or tyoo) I despair. I'm through (more or less).

70. fantasy ***
The Gypsy Steven Brust&Megan Lindholm

Almost pearl-ruled this one, a ROOT, but out of respect for both writers I persevered. I can't say it was worth it exactly, the book aligns with any number of urban fantasy tropes--here the Queen of the Sidhe (never called that) has invaded our world from hers and must be sent back. Three brothers, gypsies all, contracted to keep her out of our world. The relationship between the three policemen who get involved, one retired, one middle-aged, one young was probably the only redeeming thing, otherwise it did have a feeling of "let's write a book together" --I'm increasingly leery of these spontaneous joint-writing ventures. ***

>160 sibylline: Totally unsocial as well right now. Basically all the social contact at work is absolutely enough for me - it's great and I enjoy it, but it's enough. So when I come home I really shut down currently and also prefer being without much social contact during the weekend. Re the other thing: thinking of you and sending good wishes. And (((hugs))) of course.
And >165 sibylline: is a fat BB. *sigh*
Just typed Healthy Ageing (yes, with the e accidentally) into the amazon.it search and the result is food for feline seniors... made me smile. :)
Found the book, sample is on the way.

71. ♬ mys hist (roman) ***1/2
Roman Blood Steven Saylor

The first in a nice long series of mysteries featuring Gordianus the Finder in Rome. It's the time of the dictator Sulla, whose rise and acquisition of power pretty much ended the Republican era. Gordianus is a citizen, but no aristocrat although he inherited a fairly large villa from his father, run-down as he can't afford upkeep. He is hired by Cicero, a young man at the beginning of his career, to look into a potential patricide. The plot is convoluted and satisfying. Saylor attempts to portray a more accurate and definitely less friendly Rome than either Lindsey Davis in the Falco mysteries or Ruth Downie in the Medicus series. I liked it, but I disliked the reader and never got used to his style, so either I have to find someone else reading it, get the print books, or deal with it before I go on. It's weirdly hard to separate the reader and the book. ***1/2

72. contemp fic ****
My Immaculate Assassin David Huddle

So, what if by using microscopic drones, triangulation and a few other clever doodads, you could locate and assassinate anyone from a distance? Untraceable, I'm saying. What would you do with that power? The main characters here start with the wish to make the world a better place. Instead they find themselves in an ethical tangle and at risk of their lives. Huddle doesn't go into the speculative fiction stratosphere, he sticks close to home, imagining what two conscientious and well-meaning people might do with this power and what it might do to them. Huddle could maybe have dug deeper, but I don't think that was his aim, he wanted, I think, to keep it at an 'ordinary' believable "this could be you" level. This is a very good novel that hasn't received the attention it deserves. ****

73. contemp fic *****
My Struggle: Book 5 Karl Ove Knausgaard

Sometimes I feel daunted by the task of explaining why a novel works for me, knowing that for many others the novel might not only NOT work, but be tedious or incomprehensible or just seem beyond arrogant in the focus on the self--in this case the self that happens to be Karl Ove Knausgaard. Not to mention that for many readers grasping that Knausgaard really is writing fiction is difficult. And indeed one could make a case for all of the above being justifiable criticisms. In a certain way all four objections are true but that is why the book (and the four previous ones) work so well for me. Because to these critics I would counter: What else is there? From moment to moment living, precious as it is, is strangely tedious in the details (I mean, cutting your nails? Picking cat poop out of litter? Filling your gas tank>) (and don't tell me you LOVE doing any of those things, they are examples, merely, there are plenty of things you don't like doing). Next, much, if not most, of what we think about is a jumble, unsorted, straight from the bin of the unconscious and which we shove right back down out of sight. Finally the person we are stuck with and know the most (and least) about and are, frankly, obsessed with is ourself. Finally, all narratives--and that includes your math textbook--are fictions. History? Pah! We interpret our experiences after the fact. We make things up. We can't tell the truth ever because we don't really know what the truth is. What we can do is reach some kind of emotional truth. And that is what Knausgaard does. Brilliantly, in my view. In this volume Knausgaard now in his young adulthood reveals his raw ambition to be a writer. He is also falling into more serious and frightening bouts of drinking. For me it was occasionally overwhelming, the ambition part, because I did not overcome my diffidence and, for lack of a more graceful phrase, 'will to fail' in my young or middle years, and am only coming to grips with the issue when, in some ways, it is too late. So I am daunted by the sheer energy he poured into this part of his youth, attracted and repelled and, yeah, humbled by his energy and passion. Here Knausgaard grapples with what it means not just to be a writer, but to become a writer. Here, his world opens as he begins to read widely, not only in fiction but philosophy and art. There is much more reflection here than in the earlier books, very welcome as evidence of maturation. Many things go on in his family and personal life, but to mention those would be spoiling. They really are, in a way, incidental or part of, the deeper story of his struggle to become a "real" writer.

One more to go, coming out in September. *****

My copy bristles with post-its:

"Actually there were only two forms of existence, I reflected: one that was tied to a place and one that wasn't. Both had always existed. Neither could be chosen."

Having read some very imaginative stories:
"I liked these short stories so much, but I couldn't write like this, I didn't have the imagination. I didn't have any imagination at all. Everything I wrote was connected to reality and my own experiences."

I've been here:
"Deep down, I was decent and proper, a goody-goody, and, I thought, perhaps that was also why I couldn't write. I wasn't wild enough, not artistic enough, in short, much too normal for my writing to take off. Why had made me believe anything else? Oh, but this was the life-lie."

"Such was my experience of reading Naipaul, like reading almost all the other good writers, enjoyment and jealousy, happiness and despair, in equal portions."

"For hospitals all hearts are the same."

On writing, being a writer:
"What was this feeling?
I didn't know. It was beyond investigation, beyond explanation, or justification, there was no rationality in it at all, yet it was self-evident, all-eclipsing: anything other than writing was meaningless for me. Nothing else would be enough, would quench my thirst.
But thirst for what?"

On his parents:
"My God, they had been twenty when they got married. If they had been as immature when I was when I was twenty, it was quite a feat they had pulled off."
My mother was nineteen and my father twenty when they married, so yeah, this resonated.

>184 sibylline: Glad to see you loved book 5, Lucy.
I liked it better than the previous one, but it didn't struck me the way it did to you. Sorry you have to wait for the next one. I might start with his Seasons Quartet soon.

Delurking to wave Hi!

Do you have any promo info I could pass on to the Literary Arts people re: Hounds of Spring? They have a fall book festival and over 100 authors show up. No idea what is booked, but PM me!

>186 Berly: I'll send you a pm? Thanks so much for thinking of me. Little presses do very little post-publication, I'm learning.

>184 sibylline:

MY STRUGGLE: Book One was truly memorable, inspiring, and, as you have written, brilliant in some parts.
I still wish he and his brother had tended better to his Grandmother.

The rest of the books also had great moments, so I was really looking forward to the SEASONS,
and had even pre-ordered which I rarely do, being an abe.com regular.

Had to Pearl the first one and have not looked at the others.
It was tedious and borderline cloying.

>188 m.belljackson: Thanks for stopping by. This last one wraps around to the father's death again, differently. The older writer writes more compassionately about all the characters. I didn't fault the grandsons--families are all prickly and peculiar in their own ways and I don't think either felt they could go past certain boundaries.

So I'm dropping my nf read for the time being, not for good, but because it is very dense and I put it down for my trip that is now well over ten days ago and have not felt like picking it up again . . . A clue.

Galloped through The Beautiful Miscellaneous -- see below.

74.contemp fic ***1/2
The Beautiful Miscellaneous Dominic Smith

A young man, seventeen, child of a brilliant (but not genius) physicist and a mother who follows the traditional housewife route, is in an accident with his grandfather. He wakes up from a (blessedly) short coma with a change, he experiences synesthesia, the condition where the senses attach form and color to stimuli. Speech from one person might have a blue ribbon, from another, yellow. A word might evoke anything from a snail to angel. He can remember everything he reads or sees because it is all connected in a way that makes it easy to recall, like walking through a house (interestingly evocative of that way of memorizing lots of information invented sometime in the late middle ages). His father who has tirelessly worked to find his son's "special" gift is convinced this is somehow 'it' -- the thing that will release his son's genius. Nathan is sent to a special school in Iowa where the highly gifted are studied and uses for their gifts found. Nathan is having none of it, although he is also passive enough not to tell his father to stuff it. He would like to please his father and a part of him still hopes, even though he is quite aware of who and what he is (a little above average intelligent and otherwise ordinary) that his purpose will be found.

I kept The Beautiful Miscellaneous around all this time because it got such rave reviews back around the time I joined LT. It was pleasant to read and somewhat interesting but for various reasons, it fell short for me -- good enough but not great. There is a scene where Nathan talks with a psychologist that was just painful to me, the dialogue and interaction were so . . . exactly what you would expect. On the other hand there were some great moments--mostly when Nathan was with his own cohort. I loved the character Whit, the astronaut who attaches himself to the family, bought that hook, line, and sinker.

The book, while set in 1987, evoked an earlier era for me. Would a woman of his mother's type really be satisfied with housewifery in 1987 in Madision WI? That didn't compute for me. There was also a reference to metal detectors and x-ray machines to look at your carry on luggage at the airport in 1989? For a domestic flight? Am I crazy, but I don't remember this at all. I researched this a little and it's inconclusive -- the technology ramped up in 1973 and international flights, yes, but my memory is that domestic stayed relatively casual until 2001. A quibble, yes, but there were many of these throughout the book--I had an image of a much earlier time, a fifties, early sixties childhood for this young man, a decade earlier.

Anyway Nathan has to figure out who and what he is. The end was a good twist! ***1/2

Loved the video of you with the snapping turtle, Lucy!

I shooed it from the middle of the road. Nephew and I didn't think of videoing until I was mostly done!

Maybe you also saw the review? https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/short-takes-on-five-new-vermont-books/Conten...

I'm thrilled!

Yes, I just did a little bit ago, and that's great!

>192 sibylline: I guess you are thrilled! So am I!!!! Go, *Hounds*, GO!

75.♬ mys ***1/2
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd Alan Bradley

A bit darker than previous but as enthralling as ever. As with the Three Pines saga one must let go and just let it happen. I love Jane Entwhistle, the reader. Flavia is growing up. ***1/2

Congratulations on reaching 75, Lucy!

Congrats on 75 and even more congrats on Hounds and its reviews!

I've just started reading it and I'm looking forward to sitting down with Poppy (yay for the name!) later today.

Congrats!

>197 streamsong: Thank you!!! I meant to remark on that and forgot, so sharp-eyes for noticing!

>198 drneutron: I hope you enjoy it. I keep meeting people named Poppy lately!

>199 sibylline: Thank you so much. LT support has meant a great deal!

Congratulations on hitting the 75 book mark, Lucy!! I'm a little behind you on the Flavia books--I've read the first six and you've just finished #8.

>195 sibylline: Isn't it funny...I gave up on the Flavia audio books because I couldn't take Jane Entwhistle, and I haven't read another in print because I keep hearing her voice in my head. As I recall (it's been years) she did Flavia well, but I think it was a tortured attempt at a German accent that did me in.