richardderus's ninth thread of 2019

1949 Oldsmobile 98 convertible

power windows were a Big Deal 70 years ago

I'm still, perhaps insanely, shooting to write 200 reviews for my blog, meaning real reviews not impressions or squibs. At this point it doesn't look like I'll make it. My ancillary goal remains to create some sort of post about the Pearl-Ruled books explaining why I am abandoning ship; I'll set an arbitrary count of 100 of those since goodness knows I abandon a lot of books.







My 2018 Reviews Are Here:
Reviews 1-25 are linked there.

Reviews 26-31 are linked here.

Reviews 32-39 are linked there.

Reviews 40-54 are linked over here.

Reviews 55-70 are linked over here.

Reviews 71-101 (I misnumbered) are linked over here.

Reviews 102-110 are linked over here.

Reviews 111 - 123 are reviewed over here.

Reviews 124-127 are there.

2019's Reviews Are Here:
Reviews 1-4 are here.

My first Pearl-Ruled notice and two reviews are found here.

Reviews 7-15 plus some Pearl Rules are in this thread.

Reviews 15-19 and a Pearl Rule are here.

Reviews 20 & 21 are are here.

Reviews 22-32 are back there.

Reviews 33-38, Pearl Rules 6 & 7, and a random review are all back yonder.

Reviews 39-50 and Pearl Rule 8 got left behind.

This thread's reviews are:

51 The Nonesuch truly was Top-of-the-Trees! Post 53.

52 Sermons and Soda Water covers one novella of three in post 108.

53 Senselessness is a punch in the goolies, see why in post 138.

54 Maggie Brown & Others: Stories contained excellent tales of Jewishness and tedious tales of California, in post 182.

55 The Patience of the Spider delighted me as much the second time around as the first in post 200.

56 Convenience Store Woman surprised me with how readable it was, post 244.

Via Bookish, here's a list of challenges to #KillYourTBR (note that I've modified a few entries to make them possible for me to meet):

1. A book you bought for the cover
Any Old Diamonds

2. A book by an author you’ve met
The Front Runner

3. A book you’re embarrassed you haven’t read yet


4. A book that is under 220 pages
The King's Evil

5. A book that came out the year you were born


6. A book whose title uses alliteration
When Saigon Surrendered

7. A book in your best friend’s favorite genre


8. A book from an independent publisher
What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford, Copper Canyon Press

9. A book you borrowed from the library
The Reluctant Widow

10. A book featuring a fictional language


11. A novel that includes a recipe (Bonus points for making the recipe)


12. A book won in a raffle/giveaway
With Walt Whitman, Himself

13. A book about going on a quest
The Burning Page

14. A book set in a city you’ve visited


15. A book with a dust jacket


16. A book by two or more authors


17. A book that is over 1000 pages


18. A book that’s been out for less than a month


19. A book with a name in the title
The Other Boleyn Girl

20. A book from a genre you want to read more of
The Murders of Molly Southbourne

21. A book written by a Native American author
Heart Berries

22. A book with an asexual character
Convenience Store Woman

23. A book you were given as a gift
The Art of Dying

24. A book translated from Spanish


25. An award-winning graphic novel
Tom's Midnight Garden Graphic Novel

26. A book featuring a false confession


27. A book you meant to read in 2018
West

28. A book featuring a memorable companion animal
The Demon Breed

29. A book set in South America


30. A book with a cover you kind of hate (but a story you love)
Glass

31. A book by an author you’ve never heard of before
Coming Through: Three Novellas

32. A book of short stories


33. A book featuring a nonbinary protagonist


34. A book you’ve been waiting for forever


35. A book about intersectional feminism


36. A book with a place in the title
Our Man in Havana

37. A book bought at/from a physical bookstore
Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

38. A book by an author you’re thankful for
The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri (RIP)

39. A book with gorgeous descriptions


40. A book signed by the author


41. A book set in Africa
The Making of the African Queen

42. A book about mental health
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

43. A book written by an immigrant


44. A retelling


45. A book about incarceration


46. A book recommended by an author


47. A book with a person of color on the cover


48. A book by an author who uses a pen name


49. A book whose title includes a verb
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

50. A book recommended by a librarian


51. A book being adapted in 2019


52. A book you found in a Little Free Library

Okay, I've said my piece. It's your nickel.

Happy new thread!

Happy New One, Richard!

Happy New Thread, Richard. Love the classic Olds topper.

>5 figsfromthistle: Needn't worry you, Anita, as you're in it. Welcome!

The new threads are here, The new threads are here! Yippee!

>6 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley!

>7 msf59: Ain't it Futuramic? (Which a lot of people still think is a model of the Oldsmobile, not an advertising slogan.)

>9 mahsdad: Yay! They are, Jeff.

Another new thread already? Wow! You are zipping through them this year.

>11 thornton37814: Hi Lori! Things get crowded and it's always nice to have elbow room.

>1 richardderus: Squeee!

Happy new thread. I know we'll enjoy hanging around.

>13 quondame: Oh, love those, Susan!

Happy New Thread, Richard! Love that car, love that color!!

>1 richardderus: Sweet!
My parents had a similar Olds of that vintage, not red and not a rag top, though.
Great start to your new thread.

(And, love those octopus hanging around >13 quondame:; what are the rooty-looking tentacles?)

>13 quondame: Oh my!! I love those, Susan, it's a cephalopodic can-can line!

Welcome, make yourself to home.

>14 ronincats: I know, right?! Who doesn't love a red drop-top?

>15 SandyAMcPherson: They're air plants, Sady, the twisty-turny arms are the stems responding to gravity's cruel drag.

>15 SandyAMcPherson: I think they are bromeliads.

>17 quondame: Air plants aren't bromeliads, I don't think....

I love Barn Find Hunter on YouTube, but at 20:00 of the latest episode, they uncover a red Oldsmobile Super 88 convertible! It's a 1957 model:

Handsome machine.

>18 richardderus: Plants are so not my thing - since bromeliads were the only named plants I've heard called air plants, I'd never thought about that category. It is large

Happy new thread Richard! Love your car collection. Where do you garage them all?

>13 quondame: That's a lovely idea. I've recently started buying air plants because some of them, at least, seem to survive me.

>17 quondame: >18 richardderus: Who knows? *clueless shrug*

ETA: I had to look it up for my own cachet; Tillandsia are bromeliads which are air plants. (But pineapples are bromeliads which are not air plants; imagine if they were!)

Happy new thread, Richard. Love the classic car porn as always.

Happy new one, RD!

'Morning RD and happy new thread to you. Happy Fourth of July, too, while I'm at it!

*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

Happy newthread!

>20 quondame:, >21 humouress: So they *are* bromeliads! Go know. Susan's knowledge is demonstrably correct, thanks Nina.

>22 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg, it's amazing to me how few people really think about this machine that dominates our planet so thoroughly. This climate crisis didn't just *happen* and the Dream Machine like that Olds played a huge part in getting us here.

But they're really cool lookin' aren't they?

>23 katiekrug: Hi Katie, thank you most kindly.

>24 karenmarie: *smooch* Happy Humidity, Horrible.

>25 drneutron: Thank you, Jim. It's amazing to me how many I'm accumulating.

And a good morning to you, Richard! Or afternoon, now. Love the Olds.

>15 SandyAMcPherson: Hi! I have number dyslexia (there’s a name for it, but apparently I have memory dyslexia as well), and so my first response had the numbers reversed (268 instead of 286). I caught after I posted, naturally, and fixed it then. Sorry for any confusion.

Happy new one, RD and also happy 4th July

>28 Matke: Hi Gail! Happy to see you around here. I'm glad you like the Olds, it's such a magnificent machine in all its gaudy glory.

>29 PaulCranswick: Many thanks, Paul. I favor this view myownself:

Someday I want to live in a space that looks just like this:

Adrian Borda

Thank you, thank you for sharing the short story at the end of your last thread. I adored it.

Also, happy new thread. :)

>32 MickyFine: ...said the Type II Librarian...

*smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard!

Good looking car, >26 richardderus: as long as it stands still there is no harm.

>21 humouress: >26 richardderus: I see I am late to tell those look like Tillandsia. Sad some Tillandsia species are threathend now because people like them hanging around in their houses :'(

>33 richardderus:

>32 MickyFine: That reminds me; one more to add to my count.

>34 FAMeulstee: Oh dear, guilty. But doesn’t having more of them in houses help them?

I suppose that explains why some plants are $15 and other, identical-looking ones are $80.

>36 humouress: Better buy the cheap ones, Nina, those are not rare. Not all species are endagered yet. Or try to grow them yourself so you don't need to buy anymore?

Happy new thread my dear Richard.

Happy new thread and Happy 4th!

^Happy 4th, Richard. My grandmother gave my Mom, her '65 Olds Delta 88. It was in mint condition, with very low mileage. My Mom passed it on to me. It was a beautiful car but I was young and stupid and did not appreciate it. I still kick myself for not treating it well, and selling it cheap. Shit, I was 17.

^Not my photo. It was tough finding just the right image.

Good morning, RichardDear!

Anita makes a good point in >34 FAMeulstee:: Good looking car, >26 richardderus: richardderus: as long as it stands still there is no harm.

>34 FAMeulstee: I didn't know that wild collecting had made the plants endangered. That's very sad. Is there some reason the plants can't be cultivated?

>35 MickyFine: :-)

>36 humouress:, >37 FAMeulstee: The idea of spending $15 on a non-food-producing plant offends my every sensibility. I was busily turning my yard in Austin into a food forest when I lost my house to medical bills. In that part of the world, water is super precious and using it to feed grass has always, all my life, struck me as *idiotic* and wasteful. Plus fresh greens are very expensive in stores, hard to ship, and why not just create an endless source of 'em outside the back door?

Anyway. Off the hobbyhorse.

>38 johnsimpson:, >39 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thank you each, gentlemen! Happy weekend ahead to us all.

>40 msf59: Oh, the youthful stupidities. My 1968 Bonneville deserved better at my hands than she got.

>41 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible! *smooch* Happy weekend ahead.

I am such a sucker for red cars...

>44 laytonwoman3rd: Me too, Linda3rd. I love red-colored doodads and my favorite fruits...apples, fresh cherries, currants...are all red. I've never owned a red car, oddly enough.

I'm driving my second red car...my husband has had two red trucks (although the last one was a poor shade, and turned out to be a dud vehicle as well, so it didn't stick around long).

>37 FAMeulstee: I do stick to the cheap ones since my success with plants is a bit hit and miss. Fortunately more ‘hit’ these days.

>42 richardderus: Please see above.

>42 richardderus: Tillandsia are very difficult to grow from seeds. The easiest way is to take the young plants that grow in the axil(?) of a grown leave, but that goes slow too. So the fastest way it yo get them out of the wild.

>47 humouress: Glad the are surviving these days, Nina.
I don't have many houseplants anymore, but the few that are left are all at least 10 years with me. The oldest two (a Spathiphyllum and a Dracaena) nearly 40 years.

Happy Friday, Richard. Another scorcher here. Much better over the weekend. I am looking forward to it.

Just started The Great Believers. I think this one will be a keeper.

>46 laytonwoman3rd: I shoulda emulated you. *sigh*

>47 humouress:, >48 FAMeulstee: OK :-)

>49 msf59: Too close to my bone for me to keep reading it, but I expect you'll really enjoy it. There's no smallest doubt that the author's got mad chops.

Happy new thread, Richard!

I'm not much of a car person (that is, I'll drive it and if it takes me reliably from point a to point b, I'm happy) but your new thread topper is quite a beauty.

>51 bell7: It's just beautiful! But being a car person isn't required to see that. (As we can plainly see.)

51 The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer

Rating: 4.5* of five

That was a most satisfying ending indeed. The way we went around and about, I wondered how we'd ever reach the stables. "Trust Ma Heyer," whispered the Ghost of Horrible Absent, "never would she lead you astray...and leave you there!"

Yes Horrible, yes indeed, you're correct as always. A delicious ride. A delightful end-place. A read to be savored as much in memory as in experience. Ancilla and Tiffany getting their just deserts makes the fate of the Nonesuch so much more appealing!

>53 richardderus:, I also hugely enjoyed The Nonesuch. The ending was particularly satisfying, I agree.

I think the characters were particularly well-nuanced in this story. I laugh even now, thinking of Tiffany, that spoilt beauty and how effectively Ancilla manages her but Waldo keeps winding her up. I was originally stingy with a 4★ rating but agree that 4½ ★s is much more appropriate.

I believe I read The Nonesuch many years ago but I kept expecting it to relate to Nonsuch Park, which we lived near (and which sounded vaguely ethereal).

>54 SandyAMcPherson: Sandy, that's the precise point I want to celebrate: these are very real, fully realized characters. That isn't always a problem, but it's always a bonus when it's there.

>55 humouress: Wasn't that a royal palace, Nonsuch? Can't recall for sure. Anyway, it's such a fun read that you remember it all these years later.

Can't keep up... just popping in xo

>57 mckait: *smooch*

Good morning, RD, and happy Sunday to you.

The Nonesuch is, of course, one of my top 10. So glad you liked it.

>59 karenmarie: Heh. Yes, I noted that fact, and you're correct as usual...this is one of the best Heyers.

Read well.

Dropping by to wish you a great Sunday, RD

>61 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul sentiments heartily returned.

Morning, Richard. Happy Sunday. Opened the windows up last night, to let that cool fresh air in. It looks like we will get a break for a few days. I hope it comes your way. I am loving The Great Believers and I completely understand your heart-breaking, relationship with it.

Happy Sunday, Richard. Getting a little break in the yuckiness yet? We had some thunderstorms last night and the nights haven't been terrible, but we seem to be reading humid high 80s every day for the next two weeks...Thank goodness for air conditioning!

>63 msf59: Hey there Mark! Happy that you're engaged so deeply with The Great Believers since I am not constitutionally prepared to be myownself.

>64 bell7: Hi Mary! It's been humid but we had rain yesterday and a steady onshore wind keeps the worst of the stewpot sensation down.

St. Friedrich of Trane is the principal object of my veneration from June through September.

Afternoon, Richard. I'm happy to be coming out of a funk brought on by a bad tooth. Read a couple of Wimseys and that helped.

>66 weird_O: Tooth pain is bad; adding a book-funk onto it is unconscionable. The Hague must be notified! I'm pleased you've escaped.

Seen on my GR friend Petra's review:

Politics: poly - many, ticks - nasty blood-sucking little insects.

Seriously. Seen or read anything funnier'n that lately?

Smooches...lots of them. : )

>53 richardderus: Well Richard, I'll have to see if that could be my next Heyer. The list is seemingly endless lol.

>68 richardderus: - Perfect! Why isn't THAT making it into the dictionary as a new - if not new word, then new definition? It certainly is appropriate and accurate!

>68 richardderus: Great definition, Richard. I really should pull a Heyer off the shelf, you’re having such a good time with them!

>69 Berly: Thanks, Kimmers, and right back at'cha.

>70 brenzi:, >72 Familyhistorian: The list is extensive! *My* next is These Old Shades, which Horrible gifted me with (along with Devil's Cub, its sequel) about ten years ago. *This* time I'll report my findings instead of sighing happily and reshelving it.

>71 jessibud2:, >72 Familyhistorian: Ain't that the gawd's honest! See below...another gem coming up.

>73 richardderus: - Excellent!

Happy Newish Thread, Richard. I’m another fan of The Nonesuch. What fun! My next Heyer will be False Colours.

>74 jessibud2: I know, right?!

>75 jnwelch: New enough, now yinz is back outta the hollers!

False Colours is coming out of storage for me, but that usually means a week to get to my branch so I hadda improvise.

'Morning, RD! I've also seen "Not My" instead of Nazi, and personally I'd substitute Stupid for Super.

>77 karenmarie: Hi there, Horrible! I like the idea of destroying 45's horcruxes. I understand there exists a whole lyric of "Super Callous Fragile Racist" that is fit to make your sides ache, but have devoted no time whatever to finding it. Probably will though.

So it's Monday again. Whee. The good news is that it's barely broken 70°/21C and is threatening rain. The bad news is that weather pattern is unsettled and that means discomfort for me, yay.

Have the best of Mondays.

>78 richardderus: Wait; did you say that word?

>79 humouress: Which word? Horcrux? *I* am not Mondayphobic. After all, it's just another day to a disabled old coot.

>80 richardderus: Oh? You’re not? Okay.

>81 humouress: Oh nay nay nay! I can't work anymore, so Monday can knock itself out for all of me. I still think the triskadecaphobics should've settled on Monday the 13th for their odium. Two birds with one rock...and in keeping with the Babylonian calnedar's unholy-day designation.

Being retired means that I love Mondays because I don't have to go to work.

Great minds - I mentioned triskadecaphobia to Bill in the car the other day. It's such a nice word to say out loud.

Catching up and happy new thread Richard! Someday I'm going to read a Heyer just to see what all the fuss is about.

>83 karenmarie: Yay for Monday luuuv! It's one of those terrific words that I just love finding. They mean something so weird and so specific that it's just about miraculous that they exist. English, that magpie tongue, goes around finding the shiniest and oddest things people talk about around the world then brings them "home" to use in its own playpen.

>84 swynn: Thanks, Steve! Read The Unknown Ajax. I suspect you'd enjoy that one more than most of her others.

"Magpie tongue." I like that. Enjoy your Monday!

Monday is just an other day for me, no love no dislike. For me it is like that for nearly 24 years... Before that time it wasn't the most liked day of the week.
Absolutely no triskadecaphobia, we married on purpose on that day :-)

>86 weird_O: Thanks, Bill! I thought "magpie tongue" was le mot juste seeing as how English mugs so many other languages for their gelt.

>87 FAMeulstee: Heh...I'd probably insist on a Friday the 13th wedding in the extremely unlikely event I were to marry at this late date.

>88 richardderus: Yes, unlikely or not, I like the idea.

Sadly for us a Friday on that date would have been a three year wait, so we settled for Tuesday, as we preferred it to be in the year 1984.
Anyway our anniversary is regular on a Friday :-)

Well, I do have something against Mondays, long retired that I am - my favorite Italian deli, my favorite Indian restaurant, and Kogi's Korean tacos are all closed on Mondays.

>89 FAMeulstee: The anniversary alone makes it worthwhile to have the date, day of the week be hanged.

>90 quondame: Unconscionable! How dare they deprive the world of quality food on a day that can only be improved by it.

Off I go to court Mister Sandman.

>88 richardderus: Is that 'mugs' as in 'learns/ swots' or as in 'clobbers over the head and takes wallet'?

As for triskaidekaphobia, I'm not sure what the issue is; I have a vague memory that when I looked into (before the days of Google, possibly), it had something to do with thirteen people sitting around the table at the Last Supper.

So much for Monday and all its issues. Happy Tuesday!

>68 richardderus: Good definition. I'm so disgruntled with both parties.

'Morning, RichardDear!

*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

>93 Berly: No flies on your eyes, Berly-boo. *smooch*

>94 thornton37814: "Disgruntled" in its meaning of "frothingly screechingly outraged" or "scythe-sharpeningly torch-lightingly infuriated"?

>95 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! *smooch*

Condensed-milk ice with butter-fried peanuts and cilantro.
ALL. THE. YES.

^Dickcissel. One of my birdy finds from yesterday. A lifer and has quickly become a favorite.

Morning, Richard. Happy Wednesday. Back to the heat today. Ugh!!

>97 richardderus: Your image does not appear for me. Naturally I clicked on the link, though. Don't look, Amber. Seriously. Don't. I am not persuaded to try this...combination.

>97 richardderus: - I would totally try that.

>100 katiekrug:

>101 kidzdoc: Please. Keep it. ;0)

>98 msf59: Pretty boy!

>99 laytonwoman3rd:, 102 Poor, poor cilantro-haters. Oh so sad. *there there, patpat*

>100 katiekrug:, >101 kidzdoc: Y'all're okay. Adventure! Live!!

>103 richardderus: I prefer the more defined flavour of coriander.

>97 richardderus: Very strange - this image appeared just fine yesterday but this morning has disappeared. Was it snagged from a different server and today sit's elsewhere? No wait, the link still works!

>104 humouress: In the US, "cilantro" is the leaf and "coriander" the seed of the same plant.

>105 SandyAMcPherson: There are innumerable reasons images appear and disappear, so I just shrug and grimace as they do their ineffable dance.

>106 richardderus: Well colour me confused.

52 Sermons and Soda-Water by John O'Hara

Rating: 3.5* of five

"Imagine Kissing Pete" is a novella told to us, the slightly shell-shocked audience, by Jim Malloy. He's one of the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, Lost Generation youths whose adulthoods commenced with the Great Depression of 1929-1938. It's not about him, not really anyway; it's about his way of life that morphed before it began properly, about the people who, like him, were still forming their identities when the whole world changed. The lens we see them through is Jim. He's a writer.

In fact, he's John O'Hara, part of him anyway, and Gibbsville stands for O'Hara's native Pennsylvania coal town. The people in Gibbsville, in this novella, are the people O'Hara knew and screwed. A lot of what made O'Hara's writing readable was the frankness of it, the unvarnished truths he told about hearts and minds. This novella's got the requisite amount of sex and drinking, though none of it is particularly meaty: No descriptions of Tab A into Slot B, no falling-down puking-up binges, but no shying away from the facts either. He was neither prudish nor prurient in writing about women and their sexual desire. That he knew women experienced sexual desire utterly unconnected to men and their desire impresses me as it isn't ordinary today. O'Hara was born in 1905. What a lot of time was wasted when men read his voluminous ouevre and took no hints from it as to what those female persons they cohabited with were thinking about.

Anyway. This novella. Jim elides a huge chunk of his own life in favor of telling us about Bobbie and Pete McCrea's disaster of a marriage. Bobbie, beautiful and spoiled, throws over her affianced yacht-owning fool of a boyfriend for marriage to their social set's least desirable, most weird outlier, Pete. Things don't go all that well as the Depression bites, money evaporates, and the two end up on the last street before the black folks while he and his Princeton degree run a pool hall. Bobbie has two kids, seems not to care a whole lot about them...claims to love them, once, to Jim when she's just been awful about them...Pete rapes a few girls, or tries ineptly to, I can't tell which; so the McCreas don't get invited to the parties their set gives anymore.

Jim's career as a writer has spooled up nicely, he offers Bobbie money for nothing (what's $200 to him? to her it's freedom), tells her to look him up when she comes to New York City, but never sees her. Or any of his other friends from Gibbsville, after the trip where he offers Bobbie the cash. They're stuffy small-town big shots. Reduced in circumstances for a while, they're back on the up as members of the upper middle class have always been able to do, and they go right back to being their insular, tedious selves.

Wartime floats the McCreas' boat a lot higher than the pool hall, but not up to their former lifestyle. They do what they've always done and, for a wonder, see it for what it is at last: Coping. They've each coped without the other, simply existing in the same space and apparently being tolerably good parents. Jim and his wife visit, Bobbie tells Jim everything, and I was genuinely and completely stunned when Bobbie's fortieth birthday present from her unloved, unlovable spouse was freedom...if she wanted to marry someone, if she fell in love with him and wanted to spend whatever was left to her with him, Pete would bow out quietly. He knows about Bobbie's other men, she knows about his other women, neither one was ever foolish enough to complain so long as lines weren't crossed. But Pete's been changing since the War lifted him back up. He knows Bobbie didn't marry him for love but out of spite for the boy she left. He didn't love her, either, but she was beautiful and sex is pretty amazing when you're first introduced to it. Now? They're not getting younger and Pete thinks Bobbie's a pretty nifty lady now that he's actually looked at her and listened to her.

Amazing. Just amazing. He's behaving somewhat decently?! What?!? He was a rapist...or maybe not, the actual crime isn't presented, but a serious perv and a man you didn't leave your womenfolk alone with. It's not much of a conversion experience, but it's something.

O'Hara's fiction was made into some films I liked (Ten North Frederick, BUtterfield 8) and a few I didn't, but there was no smallest doubt of why the filmmakers chose O'Hara's novels to adapt: The drama was there, the stories were well-crafted, and people loved the books. So why is Updike's wet, squooddgy Rabbit Angstrom still discussed and O'Hara's Gibbsville guys and dolls ignored? Because O'Hara was so much like his characters, I suppose; he wasn't a pleasant person. He left behind a mammoth body of work, he was clearly talented, he had no flaws not common to the men of his place and time. Give him a whirl. I doubt you'll like him less than Steinbeck or Hemingway.

>108 richardderus: I recognize the name, and liked Butterfield 8. Why have I never read anything by John O'Hara?

>108 richardderus: Other than the ones which have been made into movies I only recognize Appointment in Samarra which I know I read in the long ago. Somehow I'd expect to have fewer difficulties with Steinbeck than with other period authors - though I'm not sure what I'm basing that on. I remember James M. Cain being high up on readability.

'Morning, RD! Wishing you a wonderful Friday.

>108 richardderus: I've only read My Turn by O'Hara - described on Amazon as A collection of 53 columns that were featured and syndicated by Newsday from Oct. 3, 1964 to Oct. 2, 1965, ranging from such topics as Martin Luther King, Gore Vidal, the Kennedy brothers, Hollywood, Bernard Baruch, Ivy League schools and prizefighting. when I as in high school. I thought I still had my copy, but it got lost somewhere between 1970 and 2019. The essays are described as conservative but, budding literal that I was, I didn't perceive the conservatism and really liked reading them.

O'Hara was one of the masters of the short form. Brilliant, but reading him disturbs me, and not in a productive sort of way. I think you hit it with "a man you didn't leave your womenfolk alone with". I would not have enjoyed a conversation with him, alone or in company. Appointment in Samarra reads like Hemingway's version of The Great Gatsby.

Oh, I dunno. I discovered O’Hara in my mid-teens, far too young to grasp the nuances (what *was* Mother thinking, leaving these books around and never censoring, or even talking about, what I was reading?) but old enough to see that here was an author who knew that women had thoughts unrelated to dinner, makeup, children, etc. I found his grittier stories fascinating, but also loved the tales of the upper mids being just as emotional and embarrassing as anyone else.

I went through his work again in my early thirties. Still loved it, but saw a great deal of sadness in the mix.

I especially remember a story called, I think, “The General.” The reveal at the end blew my wee mind in a good way.

I far prefer his work to that, that, that person Updike. I hate the way he writes women, and I’m not crazy about the way he writes men, either. I like him better than Hemingway as well, but it was years and years before I came to that conclusion.

Thanks for a great review and a pleasant romp down my mind’s back alleys.

>109 swynn: BUtterfield 8 won Liz Taylor an Academy Award, much to her disgust. It's a pretty sudsy little film, like the book was, but it was plenty hot stuff back then.

Heck, it's not like it'll take you a month to read, why not try it out?

>110 quondame: Oh gosh yes, James M. Cain was a proseur of the first water! He could build a sentence that would fit perfectly into his story structure. The structure would collapse without it; the sentence would never fit anywhere else.

I don't think Steinbeck was free of his era's faults. His prose holds up well, but so does O'Hara's. Give some stories a try!

>111 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! *smooch*

O'Hara was a small-c conservative. Most likely he'd be a libertarian today. He never Moralized in his work...as I understand it, he actually wanted to put some super-salacious details in the novel but it was 1935 and, well, you know. It's true that prices were paid for his characters' excesses but men paid as well as women, unlike the Moralizers' stuff.

>112 laytonwoman3rd: Ha! Great elevator pitch for Appointment in Samarra! And I doubt any but the most louche female persons would've enjoyed a tete-a-tete with Pa O'Hara, the old letch.

>113 Matke: Updike's work is pale and weak-kneed compared to O'Hara's, and unhealthily pale in both conception and execution. My mother gave me her copy of BUtterfield 8 when she was having a clear-out, must've been about 14 or so, so like you I SMH.

I'm very glad your mind's back alleys are still passable at this late date. Usually things from the Iron Age clutter up the place more than you seem to suffer from.

>97 richardderus: That sounds lovely.

>1 richardderus: If I were the CEO of GM or Toyota, I'd buy all the antique cars and turn them into tin plate. Nobody can see a car from the 40s and be perfectly happy with a new car.

>113 Matke: You made me laugh with your reference to Updike. It reminded me so much of an old family friend who would refer to someone he found despicable as "that...that...that creature" and though he's long gone, I can hear him say that in my head as clear as anything.

>116 SomeGuyInVirginia: I want my YGC to visit the place and give me a report. If he does, I'll pass it on.

>117 laytonwoman3rd: Heh. "That creature" is telling, isn't it...that thing below humanity.

Oh, Richard, I wish you could have known Henry. You occasionally remind me of him...

I usually remind people of David Ogden Stiers.

It's not a physical resemblance. He looked like an Anglican priest. He did very nearly take holy orders, but was encouraged to give up the notion by the powers that be. Seems he had a slight issue with the obedience part.

Happy Friday, Richard. I hope you are staying cool. We have an extended heat wave arriving over the weekend. Oh, joy!!

I finished and loved The Great Believers. A sparkling achievement and I completely understand your decision to steer clear of this one. Describing it as heart-rending, is an understatement. I preferred this over A Little Life, which gave me suicidal thoughts. Did you ever read that one?

>121 laytonwoman3rd: I think most people associate my, shall we say compendious, vocabulary and perfect willingness to use it with Stiers' overeducated, underpatient character Charles from MASH. But goodness knows I resemble that remark about authority!

>122 msf59: I made it 30pp into A Little Life, decided I loathed the very paper it was printed on, and returned it to the library. I wanted to wrest Yanagihara's thesaurus out of her phalanges and impart escape velocity in saltating it away.

I loved this image from Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys. Aphra Marsh, one of Innsmouth's few survivors, says of her beloved "little sister" Neko, a fellow concentration camp survivor, whose family took in the young and bereft oddball:
"Neko’s familiar dreams lay open above me. Twists of color, scattered images: buildings, imagined cities, the people on the subway. She twitched among incomplete ideas. They spilled over the edges of everyday reality, coloring directions that she wasn’t able to travel."
Emrys uses language in very satisfying ways.

>124 richardderus: OK, I've been shot. I enjoyed Winter Tide rather more than I expected, it being Lovecraftian & all.

>125 quondame:

>73 richardderus: Interesting cover, Richard, especially with the well placed swastika.

Due to all your Heyer reading. I pulled Black Sheep off the shelf for a reread. These Old Shades is my favourite of her books and I did a reread last year. Maybe I should reread Devil's Cub as well. That one I don't read as often.

>126 richardderus: Hmm. You're being awfully self-congratulatory recently. ;0)

My favorite O'Hara anecdote, probably bs, is that he ended a night of drinking in a newspaper office. He seated himself at a typewriter and proceeded to write a short story, typing as if taking dictation. No edits, no changes, no typos.

>127 Familyhistorian: Oh good, Meg! Anything to improve the world's mood is a Good Thing. I'm glad Heyer can still beguile the (re)reader. Devil's Cub! A genuine joy, that story.

Happy Saturday. Read well, if not wisely.

>128 humouress: Madam! Do you dare to imply that I do not deserve my (self-bestowed notwithstanding) accolades?! I shall have you to know that *I* am not a military-parade-havin' orange shitgibbon!

>129 weird_O: BS or not, Bill, it rings true (if not factual) of the man whose body of short stories alone would constitute a Balzackian buffet.

'Morning, RichardDear! I hope you're having a great day.

The women's final at Wimbledon only took 56 minutes. Bill and I are off to run errands and eat lunch, then reading and puttering for me.

>130 richardderus: No. No. Of course not.

I had fun reading False Colours (the twins one), although it seemed to take longer than usual to set up the central premise. Once that was over, it was another great ride.

I still have some Heyers I haven't read for the first time, and then I want to begin re-reading. I think I like The Grand Sophy more than many do (it was my first). The Unknown Ajax and The Corinthians also stick out for me.

Happy Sunday, Richard. After a long day of goofing off and drinking yesterday, I am having a quiet day, today, with my books and my Cubbies.

I hope you are getting some R & R in too.

>131 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! I'm amazed that it wasn't a worse day, given the hothumids we're having.

Oh wait...it's summer. Right. I knew there was a reason I hate summer. Sunday has been spent indoors in the a/c because oh hell no.

>132 humouress: Hmf. I should think not!
*smooch*

>133 jnwelch: Those are all worthy selections, Joe, and while False Colours isn't in my top-ten, it's a darn good entertainment.

>134 msf59: Holed up as far away as I can get from the blasting, battering sunshine. My idea of summer joy!

Moany McWhistleteeth, my deeply unloved roommate, has joined me to darken my inner skies and render the day hideous with his unending complaints about how people aren't behaving the way he wants them to...how DARE they get on/off the elevator improperly, how horrifying of the chef to make ____ instead of cheeseburgers (um dude this is a KOSHER facility which you knew before you came in the door), etc etc ad nauseum ad aeternum.

On go the headphones, down goes Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men's Lives because

"I knew that if Robb died, there would be a huge hole in the world, but I didn't count on the world disappearing. I can't perceive it."

My own experience of grief and survivor's guilt at outliving my one true love was that the world was suddenly made of papier-mache, sludgy blacky gray, fragile and bendable, where I was an iron ball, cracking and fracturing everything around me but unable to experience its reality.

That lasted nine years.

So no, I decline to listen to a spoiled old idiot and I can't bear to continue with this read just now. Maybe some Jodi Taylor to re-read?

>123 richardderus: Omg I had no idea you hated A Little Life Richard. I thought I was the only one. I made it through about a hundred pages before I gave it the heave ho.

53 Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya

Rating: 4* of five

It's a horrible, horrible story; it destroyed its narrator and bid fair to make me a whispering zombie; man's inexpressible vileness and irreducible cruelty are a weight too heavy for me to bear. His task is to copyedit a human-rights report commissioned by the Archbishop to ascertain the guilt and/or innocence of the parties to a genocide. Every step of the narrator's descent into mental illness's loudest darkest corners is punctuated by italicized phrases he's culled from this report...all one thousand one hundred pages...for their unusual, beautiful, euphonious horror: I am not complete in the mind greets the reader on page one. A man who lived beyond the violence that stole his family from him utters those words, to a psychologist, as the report takes shape, as the professional records the words and assesses the soul that left the body of the speaker, so as to bear witness.

I didn't read the original Spanish, but I'll wager there's nothing lost in the translation. It's too precisely evocative. It's also extremely prolix in its one hundred forty-two pages. Words pile up, words wind around your eyestalks, words make dizzyingly alien geometries as they flow from the desperately purging narrator. Words distance him, though not the reader, from the blood and hate and evil he must view as structures and concepts in order to earn his five thousand United States dollars for copyediting one thousand one hundred pages of agony. The slaughter of untold bodies is actually the less revolting part of the tale...Wounded, yes, is hard to be left, but dead is ever peaceful is not something a grandmother should have cause to say of her murdered descendants...and the litany of one thousand one hundred pages reminds us that the narrator is doing a job, is taking the written results of an investigation, is applying grammar and punctuation to the massive, traumatized shouting of the victims of genocide.

We all know who are the assassins.

>138 richardderus: Rx 1 Jody Taylor & 1 Heyer taken stat.

>137 brenzi: I seldom mention books I loathe anymore, Bonnie, after having shrieking hordes of "how DARE you" shouters and "that's YOUR opinion" snorters, women to a person, some of whom still post the occasional nastygram on reviews. I don't need it.

>139 quondame: Yes, Doctor. Immediately. And with relief.

I hope you found something lighter to read as the doctor prescribed, Richard.

'Morning, RichardDear!

>136 richardderus: Thank goodness for headphones. I hope Moany McWhistleteeth has toned down the whining and that you got literary relief with something light and fun.

Serious is all well and good, but not when other things are impinging.

>138 richardderus: Yikes. No. Well-written review. Memo to self: No.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Morning, Richard.

>138 richardderus: What Karen said. Well-written review, but yikes and nope.

Moany McWhistleteeth LOL!

>138 richardderus: Me though. Sounds difficult and undismissable. It's on its interlibrary lent way.

>141 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! I'm happy to report that my escape was achieved by re-reading And Now for Something Completely Different or, "When the Disaster Magnets Went to Mars" and it was *perfect*. A four-star chucklefest.

>142 karenmarie: Horrible dear! How are you this fine who-the-heck-caresday? I'll have to return to Odets's book soon, since I can't renew it, but I'm a bit apprehensive. I really want to read his work on reclaiming happiness, but the UNhappiness that of necessity precedes this is proving to be a hurdle for me.

I do not recommend that you attempt to overcome that "Yikes." *smooch*

>143 jnwelch: Hey there, Joe! Happy mmm-so-whatday! I'm not sure but what I think you and Debbi might need to read this tough little gingernut of horror. It is beautifully presented and the story it tells is part and parcel of the ICE Crisis we're protesting.

Just a (cruel-but-well-meaning) thought.

>144 swynn: Hey Steve, I'll look forward to your thoughts on the read. I already know, or think I do, what you think of the story's manifold horrors.

From Maggie Brown & Others: Stories:
Yes, there's still time, and yes, they'd try, but can't a person mourn even when the reasons are lacking? There's something so ruthless about optimism.
***
Soul sibling! I feel exactly and precisely that way when told to buck up, get over it, whatever. I'll feel my own damned feelings, you soul-butcher, leave me be!

Good lawd cin I have a sweet tea and the latest gossip?

>147 richardderus: I am looking forward to your final thoughts on this collection, Richard. It has been on my radar.

from page 101, Maggie Brown & Others: Stories:

All hail Chekhov. If done right, he tells us, a story never ends. A story: lurks. A story, a good story, is just out of reach, always. Wake up in an unfamiliar darkness, in a room you don't seem to recognize. Flip on the light. Nothing there. It's your room again. But didn't you feel a presence in the dark? The presence of someone you once knew? Someone you once loved? All these years I've been deluding myself, carrying around this folder as if one day it would grow covers and a binding. So simple, {he}'s a story.
***
Is it just me (and Author Orner, obvs) or is this a commonplace sensation...your story leaks out in the darkness and wakes you up by prowling around?

>148 SomeGuyInVirginia: Here ya go, sweetness:

The gossip is, I fear, too nasty to tell.

>149 msf59: It's a well-written mess. At least, so far it's a mess. I don't expect that'll change TBH.

Hi RD!

'Yikes' is usually a nope-not-ever reaction, so I won't try to overcome it. I seem to be needing light fare - have started The Unfortunate Fursey and MASH. The former's new and the latter's been read several times. I love the movie MASH but never got into the TV show.

Have a loverly whatever-day-of-the-week-this-is.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Out for a stroll.

Interesting...

>152 karenmarie: Oh my heck, the book has a character called "Festus Wisenuts"!!! Wise, wise choice, my dear Horrible, as I would expect. *smooch*

>153 weird_O: Train wrecks are interesting too...hmm...

Morning, Richard. Happy Wednesday. Enjoying, a cool day off. Just started my second cup of coffee. Looks like me & the books in the Man-Cave today. Sounds like a perfect plan to me.

I hope you have a smooth one too.

Festus Wisenuts. *shudder*

Have a good'un, RD, I'm off to the salt mines. Why, O Why, did I offer to help out? I want to be home puttering, reading, and watching the birds. Of course the money will be nice - Bill, always considerate, said that of course the money was all mine to do with what I wanted, and Jenna suggested making it my travel-to-CA fund.

It's not surprising after the massive heart attack he suffered in June, but I'm still saddened by Andrea Camilleri's death.

Buon viaggio, gentile signor scrittori.

Oldest English-language public library. It's in Manchester, open since 1653. Yow.

>155 msf59: Hiya Mark, glad you've got a day off that you can enjoy in the ManCave. Much reading to do!

>156 karenmarie: Horrible dear! How lovely. *smooch*

>157 weird_O: ...someone had a bad day...

>159 richardderus: Lock up yer books and keep them pilfering paws away!

>156 karenmarie: my travel-to-CA fund
There's an intriguing sentence. CA as in Canada? or California? Fun either way, with lots of book stores in both places.

>159 richardderus: I love library venue 'porn'. This one is a beaut.

>160 humouress: Heh...yep...considering how very much more a book cost then I'm not surprised that the original bequest to found the library stipulated that all books be chained to the shelves.

>161 SandyAMcPherson: Horrible's sister lives in California, so it's that one.

>162 SandyAMcPherson: Ain't it just!

Happy Wednesday, RD!

Thanks, Chelle, same to you and more.

After my phone's recent demise, a new one is on its way to me. So if you're not getting a return call, email or PM if it's urgent or await my gleeful warbles of the new phone's arrival if not!

>151 richardderus: Gossip too nasty to tell? Is that even possible?

>151 richardderus: Gossip too nasty to tell? Is that even possible?

>167 SomeGuyInVirginia:-8 You have, I feel sure, heard of 45? And his treasonous racist law-breaking asininity? That's too nasty...as is the latest idiotic fad on social media being a KGB-front app that owns 150MM peoples' images now and always...as is the language I used to imprecate my phone for deciding not to phone anymore...

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

>166 richardderus: I hope the new phone has found its way to you.

>169 richardderus: That is more nasty than ordinary gossip :-(

'Morning, RichardDear! Thank you for answering Sandy's question about CA... it's nice to be known.

Yesterday was not unreasonable at the salt mines. No documentation on how to do things of course, so I took some notes. Bill was incensed that he left 20 minutes before I did (I stayed to talk with friend Vanessa for a bit) but I only got home 5 minutes after he did.

I hope you have a splendiferous day and that your phone arrives stat.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>170 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I'll get the new phone in about a week. The cost of faster delivery wasn't reasonable.

>171 karenmarie: "Splendiferous" would mean winning the lottery, so yeah, bring it! *smooch*

In the meantime, I'm happy to exist in a low-stress bubble.

Happy new Smell Flone Day!

Ooo, a new phone!

Good luck with the new phone RD. I am none too lucky with phones as I am a tad clumsy and tend to drop and damage them beyond repair frequently.

Just replaced my last one but lost a lot of number saved to the phone rather than the SIM.

Early morning *smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

The new (to me) phone:

I'm not lookin' for the latest, only the least likely to cause trouble.

>173 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hiya Larry. A week from now I thank you; today I say "happy Friday."

>174 drneutron: Yeup! I wish it hadn't been necessary, but there it is.

>175 PaulCranswick: If I'd dropped it or something, I'd say "my bad" but for it simply to down tools and walk away from me flashing its splash screen and refusing to become an actual phone is...well, bad manners.

>176 karenmarie: *smooch*

I have an LG phone but it's at least a few years old. It takes decent photos, too. Have fun figuring it all out!

from page 297, Maggie Brown & Others: Stories:
Now, for a philosophical as well as a practical question: Why didn't we just push the beds together and leave them there? Ah, because that would be a lie, no? The nature of the reaching, the nature of the whispered entreaties, a thousand variations on the same invitation, is that both reaching of the hands and the question in question invariably lead to moments of complete incompleteness. Because the upshot of coupling is uncoupling. The essence of association is disassociation. Because you can fuck till you're blue, but at a certain point the inevitable nightly drawing apart happens for good, am I right or am I right? Spell it out again: the retreat once again to separate beds attains a cementation that precludes any further you wannas. After a certain point you wanna? is no longer an invitation for rumpus; it's a cry from oblivion.

from page 318:
His body up and left, and it is Walt's body, it must be said, that she still craves. His thoughts? By Christ, didn't she have enough of those when he was around? There were days, weeks, when his talking was like a radio somebody left on in an empty room, when he was only disembodied noise. It's his body she refuses to live without. But try telling this to the girls. I just want his sweat, his beer breath.

These sections are the meat of the book, the ones in Fall River, Mass, a place not known as a haven for the world's Jewry, but here they are! Here is Walt Kaplan and his Sarah. I love them, these characters are delights and deliciousness all wrapped up in a bittersweet ganache of familiarity.

>180 richardderus: - I don't generally like or read short stories but you got me with this one, Richard. I may just see if my library has it. Thanks (because, I really have nothing else to read...;-)

54 Maggie Brown & Others: Stories by Peter Orner

Rating: 4.5* of five

All the stars, all the stripes, all the band fanfares for Walt Kaplan is Broke: A Novella! The Chicago stuff, Lighted Windows, not so much; the thematic unity there was love, looking for love, running into it without meaning to, and that's pretty much why short stories get a bad rap from most folks because, in the end, who friggin cares.

Renters: A Sequence was affecting as a group of minor stories, cohesive in their central theme of exploring the disaster and misery of a marriage foundering under the skyscraper-tall waves of mental illness; the issue for me, the reason it wasn't as rock-me-back beautiful as Walt Kaplan was, was that the characters were sketched in thin, spidery lines instead of bold, dark strokes.

The Cali stuff, Come Back to California, was okay, I guess, but not excellent the way the Fall River, Mass, Jews in Castaways were. Startlingly rich and layered characterizations in quite compact stories, so compact as to be fleeting in some cases. The best single story in the book is in this section: "Bernard: A Character Study" was a peak read for me, a simple and direct evocation of a simple and direct person's time on this Earth.

The micro-ness of the fictions works best in the novella. They are a perfect meal made of tapas, orchestrated to present a dozen views of the tale; they each have a flavor impact outsized to their physical page presence, but contribute their unique qualities to a whole and satisfying conclusion to one's story hunger:

And think of the '60s, when the whole country got a little wilder and we joined in and did it twice a night? You remember, Sar? Now twice a night would be like rising from the dead, but history is history, and if not set down on paper it should at least be ruminated upon. Sarah and Walt Kaplan, one night, more than once, two entirely separate fornications.

Now, for a philosophical as well as a practical question: Why didn't we just push the beds together and leave them there? Ah, because that would be a lie, no? The nature of the reaching, the nature of the whispered entreaties, a thousand variations on the same invitation, is that both reaching of the hands and the question in question invariably lead to moments of complete incompleteness. Because the upshot of coupling is uncoupling. The essence of association is disassociation. Because you can fuck till you're blue, but at a certain point the inevitable nightly drawing apart happens for good, am I right or am I right? Spell it out again: the retreat once again to separate beds attains a cementation that precludes any further you wannas. After a certain point you wanna? is no longer an invitation for rumpus; it's a cry from oblivion.

It's to your taste, or it isn't; but it *is* beautiful.

I hope you are keeping cool, Richard. I am getting ready to head to work and I do not want to go. Ugh! Relief on the way, though. High 70s tomorrow. Yippee!

>182 richardderus: Excellent review. Thumb! I will have to track a copy of this one down. Sounds like my cuppa.

>183 msf59: Yep.


>184 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I agree that you're likely to like the read. The good bits are so very good.

>185 richardderus: - Yep, yep, yep. Agreed

>186 jessibud2: Ghastly stuff, this new kind of summer. Me no likee.

My Heyering is on hold temporarily. Sto andando a Camilleriare. I haven't written a review since Rounding the Mark.

Hi Richard, hope that you are having a good start to the weekend despite the extremely high temperatures, sending love and hugs to you from both of us.

What John said, except for it’s from both of us.

I’m all caught up with our late friend Andrea’s books, but maybe I should pull one out at some point for a re-read.

Happy Sunday, Rdear. I love your vitage car theme thread. I thought I could bring you some iced coffee due to the high temp.

>189 johnsimpson: Hi John! Happy new week to you and Karen and precious little Hannah.

>190 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Happy new week to you and Debbi and precious little Rafa.

>191 Ameise1: Oh my heck YES Barbara! I need that cooling refreshment. It's 90F/32.5C outside before noon!! Abominable. I am so ready to invent time travel to go back and slap some sense into the Exxox/BP/ELF-Aquitaine execs of 1959.

^I plan on doing plenty of this today. I will also have the Cubs game on this afternoon, if it doesn't get rained out. Much cooler here today. Ahhhhh....

Happy Sunday, Richard.

>185 richardderus: Still cracks me up.

>193 msf59: Thanks, Mark, and the same back at'cha. I hope the Cubbies aren't rained out, and they win!

Hi RD!

Your heat nastiness is as bad as ours. I filled feeders and birdbaths and blew some leaves off the back deck and that was enough for me outside today! Bill did some mowing and came in whupped but is okay.

I'm reading Circe for our August book club discussion and really enjoying it so far.

*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

>138 richardderus: That review, which I just thumbed, tells me all I need to know. I love dark books but this one might be a tad too dark. Well Richard, we shall see.

>182 richardderus: this one, otoh, sounds wonderful and will end up being read by me. Thumb!

>195 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! I hope Circe does as much for you as it did for me. I will not be setting foot out of doors until the Real Feel is under 98°. So maybe September sometime....

>196 brenzi: Hello Bonnie! Thanks for the thumbs...I think your decisions are spot on, especially Maggie Brown & Others. I can't for the life of me figure out why the title story is the title story. I think it was a deeply average and superficial tale of people I knew in job lots and have utterly forgotten.

P and I saw "Rocketman" a couple of weeks ago and have been on an Elton John music binge ever since. Making dinner? Put on Elton. Cleaning up? Put on Elton. His music so takes me back to my teens and twenties (okay, that is pushing it). Sentimental journey (with, no doubt, distorted memories of what it was like to be a teenager in small-town central Florida in the mid-to-late 70s -- but the music was wonderful!!!!).

>185 richardderus: UGH! We have been having such lovely weather but today creeped into the mid-80s finally. I think the week ahead will be more consistent with the climate change heat wave the rest of the country is experiencing.

Oh, and, by the way ... we thought "Rocketman" was very well done.

>198 EBT1002: Ooohhh, I wanna see "Rocketman"! Glad to hear it's a good show.

Pity about the climate-change heat...I was hoping there'd be a hole in the advance somewhere so I'd have a bolt-hole. Sigh. Effin' Trump.

55 The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Winning fans in Europe and America for their dark sophistication and dry humor, Andrea Camilleri's crime novels are classics of the genre. Set once again in Sicily, The Patience of the Spider pits Inspector Montalbano against his greatest foe yet: the weight of his own years. Still recovering from the gunshot wound he suffered in Rounding the Mark, he must overcome self-imposed seclusion and waxing self-doubt to penetrate a web of hatred and secrets in pursuit of the strangest culprit he's ever hunted. A mystery unlike any other, this emotionally taut story brings the Montalbano saga to a captivating crossroads.

My Review: Montalbano's near-fatal wound in the previous book is the reason this story could work at all. This is Sicily, after all, and revenge tales must be told. This one, like all the best revenge stories (eg, The Count of Monte Cristo, Gone Girl), is a slow-burn simmering of malefactors and miscreants in the deep waters of their indifference's costs to innocent souls around them.

Since Montalbano is recuperating from an undeniable wound, he is the only one fit to pursue the consequences of wounding so very deep it saps the will to live. He is his crusty self, irking Livia (come from Genoa to nurse him back to health) and worrying Fazio and Mimì into making painful mistakes in their attempts to fill his inspector-shoes; baiting the oblivious Catarella (a musical-comedy Sicilian if there ever was one, and a character that could only be written by uber-Sicilian Camilleri with impunity) and insufferable, smug Latte-with-an-S-at-the-end (as Catarella calls Lattes, secretary to the regional boss over Montalbano). So far, so familiar.

But it's the down-time that Montalbano is forced to take that is his primary tool in unraveling this operatic plot. He thinks, as he always does, through the parameters of the puzzle a penniless bore's daughter's kidnapping presents. He has the leisure, enforced by dictates from Lattes, that allows his synesthetic imagination to record quite forcefully impressions that, in the end, form a pattern...a web...and there's just no doubt that Salvo has saved the day with his solution. He makes a judgment call. He is, in my never-remotely humble opinion, absolutely correct in his call. And after all, isn't that why we read series mysteries? The sleuth solves the crime...satisfying enough...the author provides us with the clues...Camilleri certainly does that...and then Right is Done.

Unlike in real life, sadly.

It's all too clear that Montalbano's appeal is catholic; many who read the novels do so for the gorgeous foods...rabbit simmered in caponata, swoon!...and still others do so for the intricacies of the puzzles. A broad tent, this Camilleri spreads.

I read these novels for those reasons, and more. I love the small details, a Simenon "hard novel" or a Sciascia historical fiction, a dead shopkeeper with a significant name, Livia's conflicted glance in the airport, the uncle and the others having no names; the ones in plain sight, the ones that tell a much subtler, infinitely more personal tale. Camilleri put himself in his books as Hitchcock did in his movies. He is there if you look away, he looms if your back turns just slowly enough, Camilleri newly dead haunts his fifteen-year-old fictions because he put his spirit in our entertainment and never once demanded that we look at him.

What a wily old dramaturg he really was. If anyone lived up to the traditional birthday wish, "Cent'anni!" I do so wish it had been he.

rabbit simmered in caponata

*faints from food envy*

These are for you....

>201 kidzdoc: Here's a good recipe. Note that the recipe calls for caster sugar...blitz granulated sugar for 45sec in 3-15sec pulses, shaking the sugar up in between, with your immersion blender or mini-food processor. Do NOT use stems of celery!! Only the heart. And grilled eggplant with walnut oil is best for serving with rabbit IM never-remotely HO. Lastly, the riper the tomatoes the better. End-of-day farmer's market squashies work beautifully, so long as they're meaty not seedy.

>202 Berly: Thank you, sweetiedarling!

Good morning, RD and happy don't-care-it's-Monday to you!

>197 richardderus: Our Real Feel (read: Heat Index) will be high again today, but for some reason the National Weather Service isn't reporting it in their forecasts like they were doing last week. Temps to 95F, heat index probably to 100F or so. Blech!

>203 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! That recipe looks great. I can get rabbit from a local farmers' market, so I'll give this recipe (which I've saved to my Pinterest Interesting Recipes board) a try later this year.

>204 karenmarie: Stopped reporting it? What, heat isn't newsworthy? Hm. Happy "oh-off-to-work-are-you" day!

>205 kidzdoc: Thanks goodness for the internet. Pinterest is an amazing resource for the exchange of good ideas. I am still slightly suspicious of it because they keep tweaking the appearance in ways that make no difference to me, but change stuff just enough to be disconcerting.

What's that all about?

My first smart phone was an LG and I liked ti better than the Samsungs I've been using for the past several years. The auto spell function worked brilliantly. Whatever I've been using on the Samsungs makes me look like English is my second language.

>200 richardderus: Lovely. Andrea Camilleri is up there smiling.

>207 SomeGuyInVirginia: My new phone arrived today! It'll be Wednesday before I start getting it set up. I can't, in fact, wait to be connected to the world again.

>208 jnwelch: Thanks Joe! That's the opinion piece that you read; the actual review is up now.

Soon-to-be-cooler greetings to you, sir! The Wayne kept trying to jolly me along this weekend by pointing out it was a normal summer day for Dallas, and all I could think was, "Yeah, and I left for a reason." We did get some errands run, but I drew the line at moving boxes full of books from one house to the other. That can be taken care of next weekend. When I'm in St. Lucia :)

>209 richardderus: Isn't this thread enough connection to the part of the world that matters, Richard dear?

>210 katiekrug: The boomers are here! The boomers are here! Yay! Hooray!!

Oh you crafty minx, using the heat to get out of the heavy lifting...! *tsk*

>211 FAMeulstee: Heh, I'd like to talk to Rob once in a while and that's a cellphone thing. Soon, soon...

>212 richardderus: That is very understandable, Richard, I hope you hear Robs voice soon again.

>213 FAMeulstee: Thank you most kindly, Anita. I miss him now that he's moved away...not *far* away, but Brooklyn isn't next door either.

Good luck with your reconnecting, Richard.

>206 richardderus: Pinterest is an amazing resource for the exchange of good ideas.

Agreed. Several non-LT friends and I follow each other's Pinterest recipe boards, to get ideas on what we should make next and to learn about unique foods. I have three boards, which I showed last night to the pediatric resident from Emory who I worked with last week and is also working nights this week, as she likes to cook. I have three recipe boards in my account, which is simply my first and last name: Favorite Recipes (nearly 90 pins), Interesting Recipes (over 400 pins, which is completely absurd), and Recipes (nearly 250 pins, which I and a former pediatric resident from Emory who I worked with several years ago both contribute to). Besides serving as an exchange of ideas it's invaluable to me for remembering what I've made, and checking to see which ingredients I need to make a food; I stopped into a 24 hour CVS Pharmacy on the drive home from the hospital about 45 minutes ago, in order to buy milk, the one missing ingredient I need to make a strawberry rhubarb custard pie for the team I'll be working with tonight. I can access these recipes on my mobile phone, tablet or laptop, and as long as I remember to post them all of the items in my personal cookbook are with me at all times.

Morning, Richard. Another cool, luxurious night of slumber. I love having those windows thrown open in the summer. I am also enjoying Big Sky. I adore Atkinson.

Good morning, darling Richard! Congrats on getting the new phone and joy to you once once it's all set up. Happiness is for you to hear Rob's voice again soonest.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S10 and am much happier with it than I was with my old phone. We had Samsung for years and years, then Bill wanted to try something new, and I couldn't wait until we had an excuse to get back to Samsung.

>216 kidzdoc: Ha! Your mere hundreds of pins...faugh...I have *thousands*!

>217 msf59: That's terrific, Mark! It's much cooler here today as well. Still showery, but cooler!!!

I am slightly pleased, as you can tell.

>218 karenmarie: Good Morning, dear Horrible, I'm pleased that the initial charge-up is almost complete on my phone. Expecting tomorrow to be full activation...still have to interface with the carrier, which is an all-day ordeal.

De-lurk check in.

Hottest day in Jersey on record (I think). I had to work late and therefore had to haul the 8 year old the 20/30 minute walk up the steep hill (short cut up about 80 odd steps), figured you'd appreciate my pain :)

I had the tiny Convenience Store Woman to pick up at the library, so I'm already on p20 of it. Read it on the boardwalk while waiting for Rob.

Not unexpectedly, his move to Brooklyn means he's not going to be able to see me much. He was wise and kind enough to say that it wasn't about me (and I know for sure it wasn't, since I know why he moved!) but facts are facts and I am not physically capable of visiting there more than maybe twice a year...he's got a new place and a good roommate (who will, I predict, be revealed as his new boyfriend quite soon) and is not anywhere near the nastiness that gave him reason to leave in the first place.

"I still want to call you! I still want to chat!" He was so sweet and so concerned not to hurt my feelings that I had to cry. It's hard to explain to him that it's not the ending but the kindness and consideration from someone who started out a kid and became a good man while I kibitzed from the sidelines that moved me to tears, so I just let him go.

I'm happy he cares. I'm happy he's moving into a better phase of his life. And I'm braced for a really boring time to start. Oh well, don't cry because it's over....

Aww damn. I'm pretty sure the person who said it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all wasn't the one who got left. Big gay hug my friend.

Oh oh oh, I just got Paul Tremblay's new book Growing Things. He's turning into my go-to weird fiction author.

Please give me you honest feedback on Convenience Store Woman. I don't have a strong track record of matching my favs with my fav peeps, and if you don't care for it I'm interested in learning why.

>218 karenmarie: As a Samsung man, that pleases me, Karen!

I get 20% discount on Samsung phones which is a nice little perk, I guess.

'Morning, RD! Good luck braving your carrier and finishing with your new phone set up.

What Larry said in >222 SomeGuyInVirginia:.

>224 PaulCranswick: I'm happy to be back in the fold, Paul. By changing our plan, activating Bill's military discount, and buying two phones at the same time we got 2 S10s for the price of 1. Made us happy, even though with 3 phones and unlimited data plus paying off the one phone we're at $209/month with Verizon. Sigh. Not a luxury, but simply now an additional utility.

*smooch*, RD, from your own temporarily-working Horrible

Sorry to hear about Rob's move, RD. I know he means a lot to you. Hopefully, you'll keep that connection going.

I really enjoyed that quirky Convenience Store Woman. I hope it works for you.

>222 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks, Larry. It's an adjustment but it's really not an awful one, since it's not a surprise. I hate surprises!

>223 SomeGuyInVirginia: Paul's new book is getting all sortsa good reviews! I'm a real booster, he's a nice fellow.

I'm eager to finish Convenience Store Woman. She's an odd duck but a compelling lead for a story.

>224 PaulCranswick: I can imagine a 20% discount making me a fond customer, as well.

>225 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! Happy "oh-THIS-is-what-they're-moaning-about" day. I'm gobsmacked that your bill is OVER $200!! Obscene what these bandits are allowed to get away with. Still, it's nothing short of miraculous what these little devices are capable of. Dumb phones that took up a square foot of flat surface versus 32GB computers so small that they comfortably rest against your ear to talk into? Yowza.

Thanks, sweetness, he's a big part of my life and that's now got to change into something else. How *fun* is that!

>226 jnwelch: I'm really swept up into the read, Joe, it's not clear why but I dig it!

Thank you. It's my hope that his world will keep getting bigger and better, and mine won't stay tedious!

Sending love and hugs, Richard. You’re in a difficult situation, I know.

>182 richardderus: Oh, I’m reading this one! Fun!

And who can resa book called Convenience Store Woman?

Off to distribute thumbs.

Woah, looks like I am only just skipping in at the end of this thread! Where have I been all your life?
(A: working, reading, internetting, childrening, holidaying, lifing and zombying)

Re: Rocketman, I only recently stopped viewing Elton John as a pastiche of himself and realised what a musical genius he is. Once you can stop listening to the hits as hits, and really listen to them, they are incredible.

>221 richardderus: That is sweet, Richard, but still you will miss him around. Back your YGC?
((((hugs))))

^Well, DUH!!

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Another fine day in Chicagoland. I finished and enjoyed both my current reads, Big Sky & Mohawk, (I don't think Russo can write a bad book) and my Cubs just beat the Giants. And for the cherry on top- I am off tomorrow!! Yah!!

Whupped. I finished Convenience Store Woman, probably 3.75, 3.8. Someone on Goodreads suggested I read The Collector so I told the story of the time I did. *shudder*

My eyes are still awfully sore after today's dilation. My headache is *epic* still and am even getting a bit nauseated for a few minutes at a time. I do believe this is what is colloquially called "a migraine"! Oh whee!

That's it from me for the day, I'll be back tomorrow. *smooches* all around.

Oh ugh, the last time I had an eye exam and got dilated I got a huge headache too (two straight days on half-caff weak coffee that I didn't know about till the next day didn't help either). Go away headache *whammies* and lots of sympathy to you. *Smooch*

Just catching up here.

Horray for the new phone! Boo about Rob's moving. I also hope you find some relief from your migraine. I used to have severe migraines 3 times a week so I know they are NOT fun.

>221 richardderus: :'0) Sweetness tinged with sad.

>209 richardderus: >219 richardderus: *shakes head resignedly* Ah Richard, Richard. Welcome back to the rat race. I assume that at least you won't be like my teenage son with earphones permanently stuck in his ears, eyes permanently glued to the screen and deaf to the rest of the world?

>229 Matke: Thanks, Gail, it's a passage that I was expecting so I'm not as thrown by it as all that. I'm not thrilled, but I'm not crushed.

>230 LovingLit: Hey there, Megan, it's a sad truth that success breeds contempt in all arts. Familiarity is deadening to the critical senses. It's why I'm always glad to have younger friends whose unfamiliarity with the background of my own life means I experience it anew, in a way. Keeps it interesting.

Elton's music is quite virtuosic and at his best he is the best.

>231 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita, you're very kind to offer the hugs. *smooch*

>232 msf59: No point at all. None.

Happy day off today! Your fandom for Richard Russo has been a steady thing, so it's always a pleasure to know you've got the latest to savor. Likewise Kate Atkinson, I gather!

>234 bell7: WHAT?!? Someone fed you perverted coffee? Without telling you?? Hanged, drawn, and quartered is too good for them!!

I'm still headachey, but it's way better than yesterday. They don't use atropine on my eyes anymore after I had a bad reaction to it but the act of dilating them makes my eyes rough and my brain hurt. Still, Mama died blind from macular degeneration so I go every six months like religion to stave that off!

>235 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita, thanks for stopping in to say such kind, supportive things. Rob's a good guy and I'll miss him, but the good, comforting thing is it wasn't an angry parting.

The glorious thing about my headaches is they're infrequent. It's also the terrible thing about them, as I forget how nasty they can be.

>236 humouress: *smooch*

I'm a screenaholic anyway, Nina, I spend a lot of social time online and that's only going to increase now with Rob gone. But it's amazing how much I miss having the ability to text! I am so selfish that I hope and pray I'm not going to be alive when the planet shoves us back into the 15th century. No a/c or internet?!? NOOOOO!!!!

Macular degeneration is in my family too and I am paranoid about it. As for the migraines, I can certainly sympathize. Everyone experiences them differently, of course, but I can tell you that what often works for me is to lie down in a dark room with one of those softgel ice packs on my forehead or temple or neck or wherever it hurts most. You don't need to keep these things in the freezer, just the fridge and they are pliable, conforming to the shape of wherever you place it. It doesn't always do the trick but it feels good and sometimes, that's enough (after the drugs, of course).

Hope you feel better soon.

Sorry about the migraine, RichardDear, glad to hear that it's eased.

edited to add: My dad had macular degeneration, but his doctors told him it was because he had smoked. I have Fuch's Dystrophy, asymptomatic at this time, from my mother.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>240 jessibud2: Good morning, Shelley! It pleases me inordinately to say I don't get them often enough not to need suggestions on what to do for them. I got the blue-goo pack out of the fridge when I read your message and it's presently slung over the base of my skull. As typing positions go, this one's too McGyvery to last, but the relief is enormous.

>241 karenmarie: I didn't smoke, well not for more than a few months when I was fresh into the gay-bar scene, so I am lower risk than a smoker or ex-smoker. I am just utterly unwilling to take even the smallest chance with my most important sense!

Fuchs dystrophy ain't a fun diagnosis but since you're asymptomatic at *ahem*ty-six, you're doing juuussst fine.

"It's my hope that his world will keep getting bigger and better, and mine won't stay tedious!" Well, let's get the LT mojo behind that one...it's a fine way to look at the sitch.

I didn't know there was any connection between smoking and Macular degeneration. My aunt is nearly blind from it, and I'm sure she never smoked; my hubby's "second Mom" is also losing her sight from it, and she was never a smoker either. They are both past 90, though, so perhaps it's one of those nearly inevitable things that comes with great age. I've had the "extreme" dilation a couple times, and it is wicked, but since I have no family history of MD, and no signs of any trouble myself, my doctor doesn't do it every time, thank goodness. Even the normal dilation pretty well knocks me out of commission for 24 hours, but I haven't had a terrible headache...just a nuisancy one.

56 Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori)

Rating: 3.8* of five

I dunno, y'all. Miss Furukura and Shiraha aren't people I'd want to hang with. I kept reading their names as "Lieutenant Uhura" and "Sriracha," which didn't help me identify them as actual people.

Oh wait....

As this is a translation from a language with which I feel absolutely no kinship, I'll confine myself to observing this is a very quick read, possessed of enough narrative drive to make reading it with dilated eyes and a headache seem like a good idea. I was diverted, I cared a strangely large amount about Keiko Furukura, and while there was not one single surprise or twist in the tale, it was keenly observed and honestly told.

First we practiced the various phrases we needed to use in the store.Standing shoulder to shoulder in a line, our backs straight, we lifted the corners of our mouths to match the smiling face in the training poster and in turn called out the stock welcoming phrase: Irasshaimase! ... I was good at mimicking the trainer's examples and the model video he'd shown us in the back room. It was the first time anyone had ever taught me how to accomplish a normal facial expression and manner of speech.

I have never been so glad in my life as when Author Murata stopped banging my eyeballs with "Irasshaimase" about halfway through the book. I am one of those subverbal-vocalizers, and that phrase got my entire limbic system into an uproar because, although I know Japanese pronunciation is dipthongless, I could *not* scan that alphabet soup to save my life, and the YouTube videos pronouncing it for me made my nose hairs hurt. I think Japanese is a hideous language. Cool words, great concepts, please don't speak it to me.

Anyway. So Lieutenant Uhura meets Sriracha and things get weird. Only they don't because, well, they're exactly alike and while that's an awful thing to say, it's just the truth. She's one step away from a serious break when she visits her younger sister and interacts (sort of) with her infant nephew. He's already broken. Her saving grace is that she knows *she* is the problem:

"Um, you do realize you'll be fixed?"
"What?" {Shiraha} asked, as if he hadn't heard right.
"Oh, nothing. Hurry up and change so we can do the morning practice!"
A convenience store is a forcibly normalized environment, so the likes of you are fixed right away I thought as I watched him taking his time getting changed. But I didn't say it out loud.

And that, in a nutshell, is why the tale kept me reading. I was fascinated against my will by the savvy that she brought to the problem of acting human when she quite simply isn't. She knows she lacks something, hasn't a clue what it is, and no one knows how to explain it to her; what she stumbles upon in the convenience store is a model she can emulate. A worker is supposed to BE the job in the convenience store and she needs someone to be. Perfection.

Poor Sriracha is an incel, as we call them these days, a loser/misfit/nobody whose essential wrongness comes from the other usual place this unsocialized issue comes from: He knows what being human means but he's too lazy to do it, then feels outrage and anger when he isn't given all the privileges of being a human male. Lieutenant Uhura can't grok this, since she's a hard worker and a genuinely indifferent to humans person. She doesn't feel excluded, as he does; she realizes she is excluded and takes steps to minimize the exclusion so others will feel happier:

You eliminate the parts of your life that others find strange—maybe that's what everyone means when they say they want to "cure" me.
These past two weeks I'd been asked fourteen times why I wasn't married. And twelve times why I was still working part-time. So for now I'd decide what to eliminate from my life according to what I was asked about most often I thought.
Deep down I wanted some kind of change. Any change, whether good or bad, would be better than the state of impasse I was in now.

See? Faultlessly logical. Not human, but deeply logical.

So fiction about the neurodiverse made my uncomfortable day of eye-doctoring, riding back and forth in a cramped position, and having to soak the bloodstains on my trousers from my knee-rocks breaking through the skin due to sitting *ptooptoo* on sitting! for five hours, bearable. That by itself deserves praise. It's hard to know what to do about recommending such a quirky tale to others. In general, I'm against "must read" recommendations in all but a very few cases. I think this read will quite rightly polarize people's opinions, as did that "Completely Fine" thing that made me so bone-rattlingly mad that I Pearl-Ruled its condescending self. But this story, told by a person whose grasp on how to be human was tenuous and whose desire to figure it out was other-directed, is a different matter altogether. I might not love the way it ended, which I won't discuss, but I fully agree that it was an inevitable ending. I ended up glad I'd read it, and that's saying something.

ETA bloody touchstones!!

>244 richardderus: I like your wide-ranging commentary when you chat (oh, review?) books.

I especially appreciated ... It's hard to know what to do about recommending such a quirky tale to others and also this snippet of insight, I think this read will quite rightly polarize people's opinions.

I recently took a page out of your approach to reviews when I posted a hunting-travel adventure review (not on my thread, on the book's work page). As you so truly stated, I didn't think I should be recommending this memoir. I know that "out there", the topic of African trophy hunting is indeed a hugely polarizing topic. But the narrative is so much more than a traditional macho trophy hunt. So I somewhat restrained myself in quoting favoured passages.

And I did think of you, our famous LT wordsmith, so I wrote a bit about the vocabulary. I suspect you wouldn't have struggled at all!

Best wishes for recovering fully from the eye dilation medication.
I had that days-long horrid punched experience, as so many others have also indicated. In my case, it turned out to be easily remedied when my ophthalmologist switched to the preservative-free formulation (metabisulphite-free, to be precise; I think there's benzalkonium chloride instead).

>245 SandyAMcPherson: And I did think of you, our famous LT wordsmith, so I wrote a bit about the vocabulary.


I upgethumbed your review...I'll tell you what tripped me up, not "atrabilious" but "Two Dianas"...Agnes? huh?...until I though mythologically. Oh. Goddess of the Hunt Dianas. Ohhh.

I really don't see the point of regurgitating the plot of a read. It's in the blurb, or if it's not, I will be enticed (or not) by what the read meant to *you*. Book reports are fine for class, loglines are great for deciding what goes on the slate, but not for the purpose of entertaining myself. So I do "reader response" reviewing: I tell you what I thought/felt and a bit about why; you like the way it sounds or you don't; we each get out what we put in! And honestly, the annoying twidgees who say "who cares what you think" or "YOU'RE WRONG!!!!" matter less and less as the years tick by.

Although I say again that I *do* appreciate being informed when I'm factually incorrect. That's important information for me to have.

>243 laytonwoman3rd: Good gracious, Linda3rd, I'm sorry I didn't see you here. Thanks! I'm not guilty of self-delusion, and Rob's youth never allowed me to see this as anything but a first step for him, so it's not like I was unprepared.

Smoking is a major risk factor for macular degeneration, and family history is another. Smoking WITH a family history is practically a guarantee. Just living with a smoker for enough years will give a person many of the disadvantages of smoking, it turns out.

My original comment on A Convenience Store Woman is up there in >226 jnwelch:, RD.

I cared a strangely large amount about Keiko Furukura. Me, too! I was fascinated against my will by the savvy that she brought to the problem of acting human when she quite simply isn't. It wasn't really against my will, but I was fascinated. How many of us really are "human", and how many are acting the part. This is a pretty weird shared delusion we've all put together, don't you think? :-)

Faultlessly logical. Not human, but deeply logical. Maybe she's more Spock than Lieutenant Uhura?

I'm so glad it worked well for you. Lots of sympathy on your physically awful day; I'm glad the book made it more tolerable.

>244 richardderus: BB. While I think (how could I know) most of my emotions and logic are not to far along the spectrum, I've known for decades that there is a human dimension inaccessible to me, which involves casual manners and being able to judge how to enter conversations. I've known a couple of people who have logically re-structured their social personas, but found them great self-centered bores. My one effort is to keep statements succinct. Oh, and I don't expect people to get my jokes.

>226 jnwelch: OIC! Okay, that's what got this ball rolling. I can't see Keiko as Spock...too cold...she's just strange.

Yeah, it wasn't a day I'd like to repeat too terribly often. I made myself walk to the library to pick up Lanny and If You Want to Make God Laugh earlier, since nothing's worse for inflammation than lying still for too long. So now I'm lying down with my sore feet up on pillows. What a blast!

>249 quondame: More often than not, Susan, people don't even know when I'm joking and when I'm serious...so that issue's common. I think this book's biggest gift is to people who just don't *get* what the whole social thing is supposed to be. It's not uncommon to feel on the outside of social situations, but it's a whole different thing to be unable to find a way to get into them at all. These characters are among the unable. I think it's a valuable thing just to see you're not alone!

So enjoy.

>246 richardderus: I'll tell you what tripped me up, not "atrabilious" but "Two Dianas".

I did wonder if I should explain that allegory but with so many erudite literary types here, reading titles like Circe, I figured I didn't need to spoil that metaphor with a tedious explanation.

One thing maybe you wouldn't mind explaining, though ~ I occasionally see on Talk that a book has been pearled. I am flummoxed!

>251 SandyAMcPherson: "Pearl Ruled" means abandoned after ~50 pages for not speaking to or grabbing the reader. Nancy Pearl is the author of some terrific Book Lust books about 15 years ago. She was then a librarian in Seattle. She got famous enough to have her own action figure!

The Rule of Fifty that she popularized says that, to make a fair judgment of a book's appeal, one should read, up to one's 50th birthday, at least the first 50pp of it; and for every year of one's age past 50, subtract a page. I, for example, am allowed to jump ship after 40pp since I'm sixty.

>238 richardderus: I KNOW, right? They make their coffee weak, anyway, so I just started making my own in my room with my Keurig (I buy coffee grounds and use reusable filters every morning). I go downstairs to add sugar but *shrug* I've made sure I have enough caffeine.

I absolutely get why you would be so careful about eye exams with that family history. I would be, too.

Hope you're continuing to enjoy reads and have a lovely weekend.

>252 richardderus: *small voice* ... I never heard of Nancy Pearl until now ...

As for reading 50 pages, I didn't know that was so official.

Years ago, I picked up the concept from a friend who told me, "Now don't tell me you don't like that book until you've read at least 50 pages". She was right. I didn't like the book, until after 30 or 40 pages and then I remember it was such an epiphany that I had totally bought into the story and it's setting, even though I privately had it figured as mawkish twaddle.

The book, you ask? TELL!! ~~ umm, okay... ~ I am almost too embarrassed to admit this (but it's probably worth a laugh now) ~ it was Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables". I was 30 years old and commenced on a glorious reading binge, eventually reading the whole gamut to when she was married and had kids.

>253 bell7: Thanks, my dear, it's bidding fair to be a good weekend. I know someone who is starting his own business and would like to ask me some questions, so that's always interesting.

I am UBER careful with my eyesight! Blindness is scary to someone who reads the way I do, and whose response to someone reading to him is sleep.

>254 SandyAMcPherson: I don't know if she ever got famous north of the border, Sandy. I'd guess not, as there doesn't appear to have been a Canadian edition of any of her books and her publisher was Sasquatch Books out of Seattle. Not really a major house, y'know. Permaybehaps Raincoast distributed a few but, well, 'nother Murrikin tellin' us'ns what ta do? Nope.

Never feel embarrassed about how old you were when you discovered a good read!

*snicker*

Really, just no sense in it at all!

*muffled guffaw*

>255 richardderus: Glad to have brought forth joy (even if it's only a snicker and a *muffled guffaw*)

'Morning, RD! No - I didn't wake up to an alarm, just woke up all on my own. Coffee in hand, a bit of LT, read, then off to the salt mines.

How's the cell phone set up going?

>252 richardderus: Karen's Rule Rev 2: "If for any reason you don't want to continue reading a book, put it down. Get rid of it if it's a waste of shelf space. Or keep it and finish it later, re-start it, or never finish it. In other words, I abandon books with glee.

I've been known to abandon a book after 1000 pages - The Far Pavilions- and after one paragraph - Ahab's Wife.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>257 karenmarie: Years ago, I abandoned The Far Pavilions about half way through. I didn't remember it was a 1000 pages though.

It was one of those desperation reads when I was staying in a rental cottage and had run out of my own reading material. It was pretty awful and explains (probably) why it was discarded on the shelves.

Ahab's Wife is another book I tried sometime in the distant past, but at this point can't recall a single thing about it. I looked at the LT reviews and there sure were a variety of opinions. I'm not the least tempted to try it again!

>255 richardderus: Mmm, Nancy Pearl is still pretty well known in librarian circles in Canada (or at least the ones I run in). And we've totally got copies of Book Lust in my library. :D

>256 SandyAMcPherson: Of course, it's all in good fun...no meanness intended. *smooch*

>257 karenmarie: Hi there sweetiedarling! Your attitude towards reads that aren't working is remarkably sane and always has been. I'm amazed afresh at someone who can get so close to finishing a read and simply put it down and walk away!

I'm having SIM card issues, so will be a bit longer than expected. Nothing's easy, is it.

Have a scrummy payroll day! (which just feels weird to say)

>258 SandyAMcPherson: I remember liking Ahab's Wife twenty or so years ago. I don't remember why I did just now.

>259 MickyFine: In librarian circles, I can't imagine her *not* achieving superstardom. Amongst the civilians, absent a big push, I find not knowing who she is more comprehensible. I watch her Book Lust TV show on YouTube, I'm so big a fanboy!

>260 richardderus: You're a cute nerd. *smooch*

>261 MickyFine:

Me, in the flesh. So to speak.

>263 richardderus: Like!

Happy Friday, Richard. Molokai is off to a good start. A nice, easy narrative. Good stuff. I am also enjoying Instructions for a Funeral. Some beautiful writing here and Means is a deep thinker too. Nothing shallow about these stories.

Is macular degeneration hereditary? Well that's not good news.

>254 SandyAMcPherson: *gasp* Not 'Anne'!!

>257 karenmarie: >258 SandyAMcPherson: And yet I have a vague memory of The Far Pavilions being made into a mini-series on TV back in the eighties ...

>263 richardderus: Also like.

>259 MickyFine: I just checked the Vancouver Public Library and they have 3 of the Book Lust titles. Having said that, I never heard of Nancy Pearl before I was on LT for a few years.

Ah, too bad the days of the YGC are coming to an end, Richard. They were good while they lasted, weren't they?

'Morning, RD!

>260 richardderus: It was scrummy, if brain exhausting - with the minimum of training from a "pregnant-brain" as she called herself, I managed to get it done with only a few things that need to be recoded based on knowledge I wasn't given and wasn't available before I left yesterday. I was proud.

When I was little, I apparently couldn't say "L"s for the longest time, and used "Y"s instead. And being logical from an extremely young age, I apparently would say "Un the yight" to turn off the light.

>263 richardderus: Therefore, I yike it.

Saturday *smooches*

MY EYES: sleep

MY BRAIN: oh hell no it's already 7:30 and the world awaits hup hup haul it into the shower

E: stingstingsting quiet down in there you braying jackass sleepsleepsleep

B: *replays every single miserable nasty awful moment of the past 60 years*

E: which ones soap these bottles all look alike oops shampoo owowow

>264 msf59: It's a great GIF, isn't it? Happy Saturday!

>265 humouress: Macular degeneration runs in families, sadly. Ugh.

The Far Pavilions was a 1984 miniseries, and is being filmed again only bigger and better! Thirty hours!!

>266 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Rob's going to grow into a better and better man, I'm pleased to say, in part because we spent a good chink of time together. Our two years have meant a lot to each of us. Better to end on a high than wait for a low.

>267 karenmarie: Hey Horrible, it's yikeable that GIF isn't it?

*smooch*

I'll just leave this for you to admire. (Apropos >263 richardderus:)



The late Prof. Richard Macksey of Johns Hopkins University pictured in a corner of his personal library of 70,000 books. His obit in WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/richard-macksey-hopkins-professo...

page 53, John Crow's Devil:

The plate was empty and refilled in minutes.
"Mind you choke," she said.
The Widow appeared to smile but then she pushed her chair back into the dark before the {Rum} Pastor could confirm it. She ate nothing herself. Dinner was a noisy clutter of mouth sounds. Lips and gums slapping food with spit and teeth slicing, tearing, and chomping the whole thing down to paste, followed by the glorious gulp of a swallow.
He was the only one doing the eating, so she must have been doing the watching. Women loved to watch men eat, he thought. It was the last blast of primal energy that the hunter-gatherer had left to show.

Forcing myself to (re)read the Pearl-Rule minimum pays off.

>270 weird_O: The WaPo site insists I look at ads, so I can't see the article, but 70K books sounds like heaven to me!

>272 richardderus: I know that insists I look at ads situation all too well.
I am thoroughly pig-headed about keeping the AdBlock turned on.

Try this link: it's in the Baltimore Sun. No problemo!

>273 SandyAMcPherson: What an amazing guy! I wish I'd known him. And that library...*drool*

Thanks, Sandy, and fie on ads. Fie, I say!

My dad had macular degeneration, and I apparently carry the gene that makes me likelier to develop it. I suppose I'll end up doing those shots in my eyes at some point in the future. I hope it will be awhile before I need it.

>275 thornton37814: I hope you never get to that point, Lori. I'd just as soon do the due diligence to avoid it!

>273 SandyAMcPherson: *sigh* I don't want ads either, but the Baltimore Sun tells me Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries.