Sibylline's (Lucy's) Quarterly Report 2022: Spring

AND SUMMER

For AUGUST info go to >142 sibylline: sibylline

May!

Still looking for the right photo!

Ireland, Early April
Yeats' resting place, Coolaney, County Sligo
1. Poulnabrone, County Clare 2.Yeats wanted a view of Benbulben, an interesting clump of a mountain. He died in France and lay there awhile interred in Menton. The story goes that 'somebody', perhaps NOT Yeats was eventually moved to this spot.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/wb-yeats-papers-confirm-bones-sent-to-s...
Involving iron corsets and trusses, no less!

Hooray for May! Outdoor shower, back in business. And the perfect shower curtain!


Currently Reading in May
♬

✔Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman nf
new The Radetzky March Josef Roth fiction austrian, fiction ww1
new 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write Sarah Ruhl essays literary
new A History of the Irish Language Aidan Doyle irish language, irish history
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys
♬ RR Friday's Child Georgette Heyer hist rom

Read in May
44. ♬ The Lives of Christopher Chant Diana Wynne Jones fantasy J ****
45. new Lady Hester Stanhope Joan Haslip bio **
46. new (BBG) The Mountains Sing Nguyen Phan Que Mai contemp fic ***1/2
47. new The Battle of Evernight Cecilia Dart-Thornton fantasy ****
48. ♬ Conrad's Fate Diana Wynne-Jones fantasy j ****
49. new Michaelmas Tribute or A Secret and Unlawful Killing (in the US the title is different) (Burren 2) Cora Harrison mys
50. new Connemara: Listening to the Wind Tim Robinson ireland natural history *****
51. RR ♬ The Convenient Marriage Georgette Heyer hist rom. ****
52. RR♬ A Civil Contract Georgette Heyer *****
53. RR ♬ The Toll Gate Georgette Heyer ***** (one of my favourites!)
54. The Sting of Justice Cora Harrison hist mys ****1/2

Read in April
34. ♬ Charmed Life Diana Wynne Jones fantasy J ****
35. ♬ Witch Week Diana Wynne Jones fantasy j ****
36. ♬ The Magicians of Caprona Diana Wynne Jones fantasy jn ***1/2
37. ✔ Skeen's Leap Jo Clayton sp/op ***1/2
38. new (BBG)The Daughters of Yalta Catherine Grace Katz history ww2 ***1/2
39. E Skeen's Return Jo Clayton ****
40.E Skeen's Search Jo Clayton sp/op ****
41. new The Talent Sinistral L.F. Patten fantasy *****
42. ♬ The Pinhoe Egg Diana Wynne Jones ****
43. E The Lady of the Sorrows The Bitterbynde Trilogy, 2 Cecilia Dart-Thornton fantasy ***1/2

Read in May
44. ♬ The Lives of Christopher Chant Diana Wynne Jones fantasy J ****
45. new Lady Hester Stanhope Joan Haslip bio **
46. new (BBG) The Mountains Sing Nguyen Phan Que Mai contemp fic ***1/2
47. new The Battle of Evernight Cecilia Dart-Thornton fantasy ****
48. ♬ Conrad's Fate Diana Wynne-Jones fantasy j ****
49. new Michaelmas Tribute or A Secret and Unlawful Killing (in the US the title is different) (Burren 2) Cora Harrison mys
50. new Connemara: Listening to the Wind Tim Robinson ireland natural history *****
51. RR ♬ The Convenient Marriage Georgette Heyer hist rom. ****
52. RR♬ A Civil Contract Georgette Heyer *****
53. RR ♬ The Toll Gate Georgette Heyer ***** (one of my favourites!)
54. new The Sting of Justice Cora Harrison hist mys ****1/2
55. new 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write Sarah Ruhl essays literary *****

13 for the month

June.
56. RR♬ Friday's Child Georgette Heyer hist rom ****
57. RR♬ The Quiet Gentleman Georgette Heyer hist rom *****
58. ✔ An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors Curtis Craddock **** fantasy
59. new A History of the Irish Language Aidan Doyle irish language, irish history ****
60. new Troubled Blood Robert Galbraith mys *****
61. RR ♬ RR Regency Buck Georgette Heyer
62. new The Radetzky March Josef Roth fiction austrian, fiction ww1 ****1/2
63. RR ♬ Frederica Georgette Heyer hist rom
64. RR ♬ Cotillion Georgette Heyer hist rom

July
65. RR ♬ The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer hist rom ***** (as ever)
66. new 2312 Kim Stanley Robinson sf ****
67. RR ♬ The Reluctant Widow Georgette Heyer hist rom ***** (as ever)
68. new Summerwater Sarah Moss contemp fic *****
69. ✔Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman nf *****+
70. ✔ Shadowbahn Steve Erickson spf ***
71. RR ♬ The Grand Sophy Georgette Heyer *****
72. RR ♬ Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle Georgette Heyer
73. RR ♬ A Bachelor Establishment Isabella Barclay

Happy new one, Lucy! Looking forward to seeing those spaces filled in width great books to consider.

34. fantasy j ****
Charmed Life Diana Wynne Jones

35. fantasy j ****
Witch Week Diana Wynne Jones

36. fantasy j
The Magicians of Caprona Diana Wynne Jones

Two orphaned children, sister and brother, are whisked off to Enchanter Chrestomanci's home in Charmed Life after he receives a letter from the sister. The children are Chants, as is Chrestomanci, and are therefore related to him and from the letter he becomes aware that the girl, Gwendolyn, has ambitions that go beyond the magical ethics that he has been appointed to maintain. The brother believes he has no magic at all. Of the three novels I've written of here, this is the most lively; the sister is most enjoyably wicked! ****

In the world of Witch Week being a witch or warlock is punishable by death. The offspring are packed off to orphanage/boarding schools. Classroom 6B in one such school turns out to be a doozy, packed with magical younglings. (Age 12 is the year when magic evidences.) Chrestomanci is summoned and figures out why this world has become so inimical to magic users. Enjoyable, not riveting. Gerard Doyle is a decent narrator. ****

The Magicians of Caprona is in an Italian setting in another alternative world and evokes the tale of the Montagues and Capulets. In this small Duchy there are two magical families, Montana and Petrocchi, who have for centuries loathed one another. They have, along the way, lost the incantation/song of their protector, The Angel of Caprona, and now their country is under siege. It will be up to the children of each magical family to prove flexible and inventive and courageous enough to break out of the feud and save the day. Chrestomanci puts in an encouraging and occasionally helpful appearance but his brief is only to act to make sure that magic is being used properly, not to settle feuds or win battles. Generally these Chrestomanci novels are not as lively as some others, but still enjoyable. ****

Happy new thread!

>1 sibylline: Thanks for posting the pictures, Lucy!

>7 sibylline: I think the only one of those that I have read is Charmed Life. I would like to read the others though too.

Happy new thread!

Nice photeaux, Lucy! Happy new thread.

>7 sibylline: Some fun reading you did there!

A new thread!! One I can keep up with I hope! : )

Happy new thread, Lucy, and thanks for sharing the pictures.

>7 sibylline: Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona were among my first library books, back in 2009, based on LT recommendations :-)

Happy new thread!

>7 sibylline: Love seeing DWJ featured here. I meant to have a reread of Year of the Griffin (but was side-tracked by other DWJ stories). I always feel like there *are* such things as griffins after reading that book.

I re-read A Sudden Wild Magic and then Reflections: On the Magic of Writing in February-March; then decluttered Power of Three. In P of 3, I came to deplore the opening chapter so much that I knew I'd never re-read it.

And at >1 sibylline:, any idea who suggested that Yeats isn't buried in County Sligo?

>14 SandyAMcPherson: Here's the story:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/wb-yeats-papers-confirm-bones-sent-to-s...

Involving iron corsets and trusses, no less!

I am very much enjoying DWJ. Even when she is not at her finest she is better than most.

Happy new one!

Just to say to those of you reading about Lady Hester Stanhope already, don't wait for me to get going to start commenting!

Happy new thread, Lucy.

I like the Irish topper and of course we have some shared ancestry with my maternal family hailing from County Donegal (Donegal town and Letterkenny)

I am an ardent admirer of all things Yeats and I do hope it is he resting in Sligo.

>17 sibylline: I started it a few days ago, Lucy, but I am only reading a chapter a day. Plenty of time for you to catch up!

Happy New Thread with lovely photos!!!
I'm reading much less than a chapter a day of LHS, so you'll be ahead of me in no time.

Hi everybody. I'm indulging largely in comfort re-reading ATM. I'm loving Dorothy Gilman's The Clairvoyant Countess and will follow up with Kaleidoscope.

I decided to abandon Lesley Adkins' Rawlinson biography (Empires of the Plain). The opening was electrifying, where Henry R. is literally "hanging by a thread". I was all set, so I thought... Was it as turgid for your group-read as I found it? I couldn't stay in the story for all the bombastic detailed facts involving Henry R's early life and lineages, not to mention every detail imaginable of his voyage out to India. Lucy reviewed it very accurately saying, "Be aware though, that this is not an 'exciting' read unless you are obsessed with cuneiform!"

Adkins' book is the only one about Rawlinsonin the PL. I searched in the USask catalogue and saw To the rock of Darius: the story of Henry Rawlinson so maybe this is a suitable alternative. It isn't reviewed on LT.

April is very cold with threatened blizzards. Doesn't feel Easterish at all. I think the snowfall will mostly be to the south and east of us. I'm so ready for a genuine warm spring.

>21 SandyAMcPherson: Sorry about the weather. Mild here, at least for the moment. Down in Oregon my daughter and everyone else is thrilled that it snowed a lot as it could help with the fire season later on. So unpleasant, but perhaps not all bad? Good time to curl up with fun books!

I don't blame you for quitting the Rawlinson! I just started the next book about Lady Hester Stanhope -- I'm reading a different one from the others, an older bio. I'll report on what I think in a new comment.

Meanwhile, I tested positive yesterday for 'la peste' and am, at the moment, waiting to talk with the nurse at my doctor's office to get the antiviral prescription since I am in the 'high risk' age bracket. I feel slightly off, but very much in the 'mild cold' manner, but I understand the thing can morph rather suddenly after five or six days. I've had vaxxes and two boosters, so I am not too worried. But time to dive deeper into staying put, eh?

Here's an irony. I got it from my brother in Cambridge where I stayed the night after arriving home from Ireland. I drove home Sunday and he let me know Sunday aft that he had tested positive. I behaved meticulously in Ireland, but did not mask or distance or do anything special at my brother's. I think this new variant is a) very catching b) turns up quickly.

I just took a look at our new mini-group read -- the book about Lady Hester Stanhope that I ended up with is an older biography by Joan Haslip and I am hoping it will be 'interesting' to compare to the newer one.

This one opens with a doozy of a prologue of Stanhope's final days in her 'palace' in Lebanon--she sounds as though she became a dreadful old harridan whom everyone feared. Do I want to know the rest of the story? I'll give it a go.

An observation: Haslip provides NO bibliography whatsoever, no sources, no index, no nothing. This bio was published in 1986 which seems a bit late for that casual approach.

Get those antivirals into your system as soon as you can!!!!! I know you will; I just think I have to participate. Glad you're feeling only a little "off," and I hope that's your story.

Ellis must have read the Haslip book because she opens hers with LHS dead and the servants fleeing the house. Three chapters in, we're meeting a STRONG-WILLED young woman. Ellis, btw, provides scholarly attribution.

37. sp/op ***1/2
Skeen's Leap Jo Clayton

Not sure where or when I acquired this novel, but I very much enjoyed it! Skeen is a plunderer, essentially, Very Naughty, disturbing archaeological remnants of ancient cultures (and even some living ones) for fun and profit. She's on a planet that is run by fairly hostile aliens that undergoes destruction by fire on a regular basis (I think a few hundred year intervals) when she runs into trouble (also has just found out that her bf has gone off with her spaceship and abandoned her) and jumps through a 'gate' to another planet. These are known to exist and known to open into this world, but the gates open and shut by their own schedule -- at times they open to let in a huge flood of people from this first planet, at others, open briefly to let in a single person, point is, that she is stuck. And this planet is full of wonders she would love to steal. One of the groups of aliens the Ykyx made the gates, know how to open them, but the culture is dying. She must find them. She wants to get back into her universe and wants to find the bf and her ship and find out wtf? For all that she's a toughie, she is also empathetic and she ends up with a diverse group of companions. Lots of fun! Two more in the series. ***1/2

>23 sibylline: It is hard to believe that in 1986 there was no bibliography provided - although I know that even today there are nonfiction books with no bibliography, which I detest.

>24 LizzieD: STRONG-WILLED may be an understatement, Peggy! Lol

>25 sibylline: Adding that one to the BlackHole. It does look llike a lot of fun!

>22 sibylline: Here's hoping that your symptoms stay mild and that you're completely over them soon.

>22 sibylline: Mild symptoms and quick vanquishing of la peste by the antivirals, Lucy!

>25 sibylline: Noooooo! Jo Clayton, sadly departed is not at all Jo Walton. I have the piles of Clayton's paperbacks, from Diadem to Drums, though not the very last.
I'm a Skeen fan as well.

>29 quondame: Oh my gosh, you are so right! Thank you!

I was wondering how I'd never heard of that Jo Walton book. :) Skeen does sound fun, though.

>31 kgodey: All of Clayton's leads are fun - among other things. She definitely put them, or at least most of them, through the wringer - when they weren't hanging out in someone else's head at least, and then she was going through it.

\\>22 sibylline: Take care of yourself, Lucy

38. history ww2 ***
The Daughters of Yalta Catherine Grace Katz

In February 1945 as the Allies saw victory over Hitler at hand, the three 'Great Powers', the USA, Great Britain, and the USSR met at Yalta in the Crimea on the shores of the Black Sea to work out what would happen next. While Stalin had no such relationship with his own daughter, Svetlana, Churchill, Roosevelt and the US Ambassador to Russia, Averill Harriman chose to have their own daughters, Sarah, Anna and Kathleen, all three in their late twenties, early thirties, accompany them. Kathleen who had accompanied her father to Moscow was given the task of getting the American quarters, in a huge abandoned palace, ready as she was more or less 'on hand' in Moscow already and even spoke a little Russian. Ever since FDR had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, months earlier, Anna had become the family member he most relied on although he did not confide much in her or ever ask her advice but mainly expected her to look after his needs. Of the three, it would seem Sarah's father, Churchill, not only valued her as a companion, but also as someone to talk to and confide in. The three women wrote many letters home to family members and friends, and Katz has plumbed these to give a portrait of what the Yalta conference was like from the inside out. You also get some idea of what how difficult, but exhilarating, it was to be the daughter of someone in the public eye, how careful you had to be, how critical others were, especially in this time when women were tentatively entering public life and business on their own. Katz balances the personal with the business of the Yalta agreements. It is hard, though, to step away from wondering what might have happened there had FDR been healthier. And at this time, with Putin riding roughshod over Ukraine it is equally difficult not to see FDR's (willful) failure to understand Stalin's true aims as one of those 'moments' we will be living with for a century, if not longer. Katz chose a narrative stance that bothered me, something too chatty? I am making these up as examples, but this is the tone evoked: "That was the day Sarah realized she could never . . . " "Or "Once again, FDR disappointed Anna by failing to take her into his confidence about . . ." To me sometimes her interpretation of the inner lives and motivations of these three women was offered a bit too breezily while somehow also pinning them down like butterflies on a board. Well worth reading, despite this last comment. ***1/2

>34 sibylline: I think, with that caveat, I'll let my general uninterest in WWII pass it from my ken.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads, Lucy.

>35 richardderus: I should have mentioned that this was my local book club choice (not one I would have chosen!). Weirdly á propos. Our next book is The Mountains Sing (we alternate fiction and non-fiction). Having knocked this off a little late (we 'met' on Wednesday) I can now read some fun stuff!

Reporting in on the alternate Lady Hester Stanhope read, this one by Joan Haslip and published in the '80's. She is currently residing with her Uncle, William Pitt, even to serving as his hostess when he returns to Downing Street because she is estranged from her father for having helped the oldest of her three half-brothers get away from his (bizarre and sometimes cruel) influence for a proper education, Later she does similar favors for the other two boys. It seems that if one achieved her full trust and admiration, she would be kind and loyal forever, otherwise she could make merciless fun and ruthlessly use and ignore. Clearly she has inherited some of her father's unsteadiness and unpredictability along with charm when she cares to use it. Very tall and striking, she has a huge amount of physical energy.

My one beef with the Haslip so far is that she simply assumes you know who is who, or what some trial or scandal of that period was about, as if it never occurs to her that anyone outside her British-educated circle would be interested? On the other hand this is making me look things up, photographs of various people and estates.

>21 SandyAMcPherson: Huge fan of The Clairvoyant Countess, Sandy!

I have no idea which biography of Lady Hester we are supposed to be reading. I think it was Star of the Morning: The extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope by Kirsten Ellis because that's the one Amazon is selling for $95. I bailed on that and ordered Lady Hester Stanhope: Queen of the Desert by Virginia Childs from England instead. It was published in 1990 and DOES have a bibliography as well as several inserts of photos and maps. I've read the first two chapters so far.

Re: Haslip--her initial biography of Lady Hester seems to have been published in 1934 although Amazon seems to reference an "new edition" around 2008. Haslip died in 1994.

Kirsten Ellis - Star of the Morning, The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope (2008)
Lorna Gibb - Lady Hester: Queen of the East (2005)
Virginia Childs - Lady Hester Stanhope (1990)
Doris Leslie - The Desert Queen (1972)
Joan Haslip - Lady Hester Stanhope (1934)
A. W. Kinglake - Eothen: Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East (esp. Chap. VIII) (1844)
Paule Henry-Bordeaux - The Circe of the Deserts London (1925)

>38 ronincats: It is Star of the Morning: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope, Roni. I am about 5 or 6 chapters in and enjoying it. I did not buy it on Amazon for $95 though! Geez louise. I bought my copy through ABEBooks.com.

Hey, Lucy! Happy weekend!

>38 ronincats: Roni! This bibliography is so great! 1934! That explains everything. I am going to see if any of these others is available as an E book. Haslip is so very 'frowny face' about Hester, although I am guessing it is a little difficult not to be.

Nope, nothing is available, so I'll be counting on all of you for the updating of such things as the mental health issues in the Grenvilles etc. I'll just stick with Joan. It has been reminding me of biographies of that era -- Elizabeth Longford, (gotta find more names, I'll be back) and even Nancy Mitford.

The one book that IS available is Kinglake's Eothen -- curiously also, Andy Warhol's house in the Hamptons was called Eothen. The word means 'from the East'. We have a friend here who lived in Jerusalem most of his adult life (born right around here, a Vermonter, biblical scholar) and has a house up in the hills that he has named Eothen. I always have wondered but always forgot to ask him why. Now I know.

It will be interesting, since we are reading three different biographies, to contrast and compare!

Back to add that the Kinglake is available for free. I will certainly read the chapter on Herself. I have this feeling that a lot of the information in these biographies is recycled. To me, the main source of 'new' information would come out of the recent methods of using less exalted sources (like domestic accounts) and more understanding of the workings of the brain/mind going into the analytical part of the work.

Agreed, Lucy, and I'm not sure how much Ellis availed herself of such sources. I should go pick up the book and read the notes more carefully. I'll check. I like this one (for which I followed Stasia's lead to ABE) although I have felt that the language is a little folksy for a scholarly biography. Of course, I can't think of an example, and I'm just a usage jerk anyway.
I wondered if the other authors quote LHS as saying about her young self that her skin was so white and translucent that people 5 paces away couldn't see that she was wearing pearls. !!!
I'd like even one example of the advice she gave to politicians to see why they so valued her advice. I'm in chapter 5.

>43 LizzieD: The pearl remark has not turned up here but does not surprise me. Wonderful!

And very good point! Why did they value her advice? Did they really? Where I am Pitt is just recently gone and she is finding herself shut out of those political circles anyway.

>39 alcottacre: E sp/op ****
Skeen's Return Jo Clayton

In book one (not really a spoiler) Skeen has to figure out how she is going to get back to her own world and find out what happened to her ship and bf etc. Here she has to make her way to the 'Gate' she fell through and get back through. Most companions peel off but a few will go with her into this other universe. Engaging throughout. ****

Hmmmm.

How are we all doing with LHS??? I've just read the 5th chapter of the Ellis, getting her and her entourage (which Byron and his young man joined for a very short time - he and LH didn't like each other) to Constantinople. I know Stasia is past this point, so I guess I should speak to her about the extraordinary plot that LH convinced at least a couple of them was plausible. Amazing!!!!!

That's about where I am in the Haslip. Haven't hit the plot, but LH just turned down Bruce, if that is not a spoiler. I know by the day's standards LH was a spinster, but seriously, 33 is not exactly fossilized. Does Ellis describe her that way?

Well lots of wonders here, including a trip to Ireland - how lovely! I for one could stand a few more details. I searched through the pics on FB, not sure if I would recognise you when I saw you, but I did! "THAT one's Lucy!" I thought. Playing a little...accordion? And then in the next pic, there was the promised picture by the fire. I'm kind tempted by the Space Opera you are currently reading, but the one I dashed off and purchased after your description was Arcadia (from the last thread. I've had a lot of catching up to do.) Hope "la pest" is not proving too pesky. My husband is just coming out the other end of a bout. L and I somehow escaped this time. Of course, we had nasty Delta last year, so I am being very dismissive of his run in with the milder variant. Not really, it has knocked him out of his groove a little. I'll give you the same advice I gave him; don't be impatient about your recovery time. Take as long as you need and then a little longer. All the more time for reading. Take care.

Hester is just considering heading off to Europe after Pitt's death. That's the end of either the 4th or 5th chapter--book's upstairs and I'll check when I go up for the night.

>48 HanGerg: Lovely to hear from you! Well yes, I have not been all that forthcoming about the trip. The emphasis was on the music and I am aware this is a sort of niche love, maybe a bit like being an orchid nut. The 'guest host' (or whatever you want to call him) was Kevin Crawford who plays the flute and whistle for the superb Irish Trad band, Lunasa. (take a listen on YouTube). Kevin is, as I now know, not only a great musician but a (I'm searching here for the right word) a marvel. Oh sure, he's no angel, but he is funny and real and watching him coax people out to play (and experiencing him coaxing me too) and seeing his profound love, understanding, and appreciation of the music was a wonder. Generous. And full of stories too, of course. I would go again in a heartbeat.

And yes, that was me with the concertina!

In between stopping to play music here and there we saw a few sights (as seen above in pix) stayed at a castle, toured a coal mining facility (thankfully closed forever), walked in the Burren (an unusual limestone formation in Clare). But mostly we played music with various people Kevin had lined up to play with us, from his family members (wonderful and sweet) to ex-Chieftain Matt Molloy (we listened) and of course, with each other in the evenings when we didn't have musical guests wherever we were staying. We played even on the steps at the Cliffs of Moher -- and I know that very few people who were there realized that they were hearing one of the very finest flute players in Ireland!

The Jo Clayton sp/op I'm reading is hard to find at a reasonable price. I think I picked up the first vol. somewhere or other yonks ago, but the whole is available on Kindle for not much and I have enjoyed these, I'm almost done and this was perfect reading for the slightly addled covid brain I entertained all last week. I took Paxlovid the antiviral (last dose was this morning) and I am, a little over a week in, totally on the mend, brain unfogging and energy returning. I'm impressed and very grateful to the folks who have been working so hard to put these medicines together and get them out there! And so utterly unusual in the USA, the medicine was free to me (maybe part of a Vermont program?). At any rate, unless covid morphs into something truly horrible we can hope that soon the disease will be manageable.

I hope you like Arcadia -- I think it is both an odd and wonderful story and reveals itself to be mighty clever in a good way by the end. It's not your usual fantasy/science fiction or whatever it is.

>49 ronincats: LH is really something, isn't she? It does seem that with Pitt's death she lost her compass and certainly lost her 'place' in English society. Nothing to lose by leaving, and much to gain. I;m only a little way (chronologically) ahead of you.

>50 sibylline: Sounds like a wonderful trip, Lucy. I've been at the Cliffs of Moher twice but there was no music there. It must have been magical with music.

Here to add to my fellow Lady Hester readers that the bio I am reading has 27 chapters -- not sure the arrangement of yours. I find it amazing that the book was reprinted in 2006, she has the facts straight but there is this air of not prudery or even disapproval exactly, but perhaps even puzzlement about LH's behaviour mixed in? I don't know. That's not quite right. You can't help but be admiring and also entertained, as in 'what will she think of next'. People in that regency period must have LOVED talking about her. I'm surprised I have never encountered mention of her, in fact.

40. E sp/op ****
Skeen's Search Jo Clayton

This wraps up the third in the Skeen trilogy. Not sure what I can say without spoiling, but all ends in a satisfactory manner. In order to 'fill out' this last book a sub-plot is devised that was, to my mind, maybe a bit forced, but perhaps can be regarded as a means to bring the Ykx closer to being like other beings, capable of being flawed, especially when stressed. Great series, I very much enjoyed it -- Skeen is a great character. Impressed too that it was written in the '80's and wonder how I missed it! **** great series!

>53 sibylline: I missed it too, I think. I read Jo Clayton's Diadem of Stars books but don't so much as have a wisp of recognition for Skeen. It's been a long time, and I could simply have been unimpressed. But based on your satisfaction with them, I don't think so.

Happy Wednesday's reads.

>53 sibylline: Jo Clayton published over 34 books between 1977 and her death in 1998. I remember the splash she made with The Diadem Saga and her heroine who slept with all sorts of aliens - was in fact half alien herself - and my then current boyfriend who gave up when giant mantis like critters came in. Though that was just about the time the series got more interesting for me. And there are 2 trilogies and a single that follow from the Diadem books which I really enjoyed. Quirky adventures all.

More LHS love!!! The Ellis bio has 22 chapters (of which I am reading #7) and an epilogue. She has just turned 36, and is a vibrant, attractive woman who is adapting "Mamaluke" male clothing for herself in Cairo and riding astride because the horse she was just given came with a regular saddle.
I was enthralled as Ellis speculated on her influence on Jane Austen. Austen knew Chevening, and Rosings was probably created with Chev. in mind. She might have gone there with her great-uncle and been ignored by LSH and her wild siblings. Ellis also suggests that Lady Catherine de Burgh might have been modeled on LH's grandmother Grizel. (Is there a worse name for an English woman except maybe for Fanny???)
At first I thought that Ellis was making too much of LHS's male conquests. Then I thought that I'm accustomed to literary or political biographies. LHS didn't seem to work at anything. What else is there to write about except to follow where she went?

Lucy, I'm keeping the J. Clayton in mind. You read Elysium Fire, right? That's what is taking my reading time aside from LHS.

Indeed, most of LHS's problem is that she wasn't interested in much of anything but clothes and people -- she would have been in politics or running a business in our day! Not much for cerebration, eh? Anyway she's been through the shipwreck in my book, didn't like Eygpt and is falling in love with Lebanon at the moment, I think? But I barely read anything today. Tsk tsk.

>45 sibylline: I just received the first book in the series yesterday, so I will see how that one goes for me before I get that one.

>52 sibylline: The Ellis biography of LHS has 22 chapters, so a little shorter than the one you are reading, Lucy. I am having a good time with it since I am not a "usage jerk" like Peggy is :)

>52 sibylline: snort! I think my chapters might be shorter. I'm finding this bio unsatisfying. Clearly the basic details are well-researched and accurate, but it's just not any fun, and although LH was often appallingly tactless etc. she was, overall, an extremely entertaining person! Overall I would say that for the 1930's this would have rated as a 'tell all' kind of bio, but the revelations are kind of ho hum and the attitude, so torn between admiration and disapproval, is also kind of dated somehow.

Somewhere above I think Peggy made a comment about Lady Catherine de Burgh and a possible connection . . . I wondered that also as I looked at the genealogy charts (which I do have in the back of my book, even if I have no bibliography or notes). I also wonder if Heyer made any use of LH -- never directly, I don't think, but as an example of a woman of the period chafing sorely at the restrictions.

We are far enough along now that I can express my disbelief in her preposterous plan to get into France from Turkey, worm her way into Napoleon's confidence, and then skedaddle for England where she could tell the military what he planned next. The thing is that she was so convincing that Meryon and maybe Bruce both wrote about it as though they found it plausible.

In that same Austen/LHS section, Lucy, Ellis quoted Austen's description of Marianne in *S&S* as fitting LHS completely.

"Usage jerk" - *snort* That's me.

Hmm, Marianne, eh? But she isn't almost six feet tall! I don't think of Marianne as being quite that unruly? Time to reread?

41. E fantasy *****
The Talent Sinistral L.F. Patten

This is a five for couldn't.put.it.down and for all around solid quality -- the basics are all there from great characters, strong but not over-elaborate setting, and thorough plotting. A large island, Alcor was overrun fifty years earlier by the dark-haired Tierni who oppress the fair-haired Dynian, the original islanders. Two young men, Kier, a soldier, both the bastard son of a duke and of dual
Tierni/Dynian parentage is dutiful and serious to a fault, the other JonMarc, kidnapped as a child into slavery has grown up on the mainland into a skilled thief, liar, womanizer with nothing to lose. He is also clearly 100% Dynian. The two intersect and JonMarc, the slave, saved Kier's life, and from that moment onward their fates are (often reluctantly) entwined as ancient prophecies begin a countdown.
It's just plain fun to read. I bought the E-version and it has maps and you can consult Patten's website (www.dathana.com) for pronunciation etc. Patten is busy writing the next Sinistral installment. Brava. *****

Oh dear, poor Lady Hester, now living in Lebanon and by her lone self, caught 'the plague' (like, the real one, buboes and all?) and poor me reading this Haslip bio. Am I nuts or this paragraph summing up the effect of her illness absolutely appalling:
"The plague attacked Hester Stanhope with a violent inflammation of the brain . . . the delicate tissues of her mind gave way under the ravages of disease. She was doomed to suffer from mental aberrations and strange obsessions and the first dark shadow of insanity fell across her path.
How much misery and unnecessary humiliation might have been spared her if her illness had proved fatal." WHAT!!!! "But then the world would never have known that glamorous legendary figure--the white-robed Sibyl of the Lebanon. Her normal life was finished; her natural emotions had run dry. From now on her existence was one of fantastic delusions and imaginary triumphs." And so on. I nearly tossed the book across the room.

Curiously the biographical notes in LH's Wiki entry is in such a different key, mayhap too positive, however, implicit throughout this bio is disapproval with a sort of frisson of LH's non-compliance to womanly behaviour and her intellectual sloppiness versus her ability with practical skills. Again I cannot believe anyone thought this worth reprinting eighty years later.

Of course, it does make you think about how biographies reflect as much the time in which they were written as well as, it is to be hoped, providing some accurate details and assessments of the person's life.

>62 sibylline: ...you *almost* had me. Wow, I seldom see you coo and warble about a book that thoroughly, so clearly it's got something good going on.

Have a Lady-Hester-approved kind of a Monday.

>64 richardderus: I shudder to think what an LH approved Monday would look like. Haranguing the local sheikh, maybe.

Meanwhile I plod along in the Joan Haslip. Another constant annoyance is that she is constantly declaring LH to have become 'abnormal' in yet another category--the latest is her declared loathing of European culture over the Ottoman Empire culture. Also her preference for Napoleon and the French over Britain as the niece of William Pitt! and the simple shocking wrongness of such a betrayal: yep. Abnormal. The only reason I am still reading this is stubborness and an interest in the outline of LH's life.

>63 sibylline: That is truly horrible, very bad, no good, and I salute you for reading on. I don't think I could do it (usage jerk, you know). I'm trying, and likely not succeeding, to finish Elysium Fire, but I will pick up the much superior LHS bio when I do finish it.
I think Stasia and I are going to read The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci when I finish the Lady. Are you interested?
And I am pursuing *Talent* immediately. Five Lucy Stars cannot be ignored.

I think I will have to pass on Matteo as Audible is not offering. The books you are reading are perfect to listen to, but so far none have been available in that option! Looks like an interesting read and I look forward to hearing about it either here or on one of your threads.

I know you will enjoy *Talent*!

42.E ***1/2
The Lady of the Sorrows Cecilia Dart-Thornton

The second of The Bitterbynde Trilogy in which the former mute with the damaged face, now renamed Imrhien has regained her true face and has a name. Yet she still has no memories of who she was before she became mute. She now goes to court, renaming herself Lady Rohain, with a story of having come from the Sorrowful Isles. There she makes quite a stir, gaining both friends and enemies. In the end she is sent by her fiancé to a distant isle that is protected with magic where they should be safe. Only they aren't. Disaster happens, she with two of her maids survive the wreck of their ship. She now guesses that her story has much wider implications and has a strong idea about where she must go to regain her memories. Accompanied by her two faithful friends (maids, really, but so much more than that) she goes on this quest. At the end, Rohain has gained her memories and yet ANOTHER name. Ashalind. The name thing is getting to be a bit much, although I think this is likely the last one. Also I know that many readers will/would be put off by Thornton-Dart's prolixity. She LOVES naming and describing obscurities from tableware to items of clothing, musical instruments to the names of the myriad wights. She's worked hard to acquire this information and wants to use every little bit of it. I'm in two minds, on the one the story is slowed by these endless lists, on the other she is darned good at it. Be warned. ***1/2

43. ♬ fantasy j ****
The Pinhoe Egg Diana Wynne Jones

Here we spend a little more time with the characters from Charmed Life and learn more about the countryside and people surrounding the castle. Several magical families, among them the Pinhoes and the Farleys have kept their magical abilities hidden from the Chrestomanci for decades worried that if they reveal themselves the Chrestomanci will interfere or forbid them their magic. With so many young ones living in the castle though, it is inevitable that they will explore the countryside and they find they cannot seem to get to certain places as well as encountering the frightening Gamekeeper, a Farley. Meanwhile, the matriarch of the Pinhoes seems to be succumbing to dementia and her grand-daughter who is to succeed her as the head witch of the family seems to be the only one who realizes just how bad things are getting. No one will listen to her. Inevitably she teams up with the young people from the castle. Oh and there is a baby griffin. ****

44. ♬ fantasy j ****
The Lives of Christopher Chant Diana Wynne-Jones

Here we get a look into the life of the 'current' Chrestomanci (who has come to the rescue in all the previous novels) and how he came to be the Chrestomanci, how he lost so many of his lives so quickly, and how he met Milly, his wife. Utterly delightful. And while there is no griffin, there is a deliciously awful and magical temple cat, Throgmorton and a seriously bad bad guy ransacking the alternate worlds. ****

45. biography **
Lady Hester Stanhope Joan Haslip

I've been dragging through this dreary biography for what feels like an eternity (rather than quitting) for a few reasons 1) I engaged to read this with several friends here on LT but bought the wrong biography 2) Lady Hester Stanhope was a truly fascinating woman of the Regency era, Pitt's niece, and 3) I'm a completist, darn it all. In brief LHS left England after Pitt died. She had served as his hostess when he was PM and had adored him. She ended up in the Middle East, partly by design, partly by happenstance (like a shipwreck) and never left. There she indulged her eccentricities, as Haslip puts it, and over time besides becoming utterly indigent by generous overspending became more and more isolated in her mountaintop home, Djoun.

I researched a little and the consensus is the Haslip, while dated and while not providing notes or a bibliography, does state the facts and details accurately. However, her theories, judgements and conclusions about the whys and wherefors of LHS's behaviours and choices are hopelessly dated and are also totally inconsistent. Was LHS mad or was she not? Was she a kind and thoughtful person or wickedly cruel? Haslip doesn't have, for example, the psychological tools to examine LHS's behaviour from a more compassionate stance other than that she was an undisciplined and arrogant aristocrat who operated on whims and impulse, uneducated and brilliant. All true, but there is no depth in that evaluation. And her sex life! Who knows? Haslip is fabulously unclear. The original was written in 1926 and, for reasons I cannot fathom, republished in 2006. Anyway, my advice is, if you are interested in LHS and you should be! don't read this bio, find a better one! **

>71 sibylline: ...not even from Project Gutenberg...just NO.

Okay, I finally have the Virginia Childs bio to refer to here at the computer. Lady Hester and her household are in Latakia, making plans for spending the winter at Mar Elias at the foot of Mount Lebanon. But then one of the Janissaries died, and two of Mr. Barker's young children were taken ill with a "malignant fever". Then Lady Hester became ill as did Dr. Meryon. She was delirious for 5 days. For almost a full month, she was very ill and Mr. Barker wrote "her disorder was an epidemical putrid fever, in which the paroxysms were so violent each night as to render her continually delirious, but in the day, although the fever never left her, she was generally quite composed and gave me orders for her funeral and the disposal of her effects with a calmness and resignation that was truly edifying."

After the crisis passed, she was profoundly weakened. LH was convinced that she had had the plague. Dr. Meryon agreed it could be a variation of the disease "if there be, as the native physicians say, a sporadic disease constantly remarked ant the beginning and close of the first year in which plague appears, but which, alike in most of its symptoms, lose for a time its infectious powers and is not equally disposed to affect the glandular system, then had Lady Hester indeed the plague."

While it was noted that she displayed "an extraordinary sensibility and irritation of the brain, much tenderness of the chest and that debility in the knee which I mentioned in my last, still hang about her", but no mention of mental illness or instability long-term in this bio.

46. contemp fic
The Mountains Sing Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Three generations in the life of a family in North Vietnam, staring in the 1950's. One person Dieu is present for all that time, but the story is not always written from her point of view, in fact, mostly not, mostly the pov is that of her granddaughter who learns the stories (and writes a book as has the author). The reader comes away with a strong impression of now hard life was for a long long time, first the Japanese ravaging Vietnam, then various colonial entities, French and ourselves and the partioning and the fighting and then the the Communist 'land reform' movement in which this family is not only stripped of all their property but some are murdered. People survived by a mix of luck and determination and this family is more determined than many. It's well worth reading, while there is much that is terrible, Nguyen is especially strong in detail and description of the small things that make life worthwhile. ***1/2

Read for my book group

Finally getting the May part of this thread together.
This is our outdoor shower, back in business. I've been swimming a little bit in the pond. VERY refreshing, believe me! And the perfect shower curtain!


Currently Reading in May
♬

Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman nf
new The Radetzky March Josef Roth fiction austrian, fiction ww1
new A History of the Irish Language Aidan Doyle irish language, irish history
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys
♬ RR Friday's Child Georgette Heyer hist rom

Read in May
44. ♬ The Lives of Christopher Chant Diana Wynne Jones fantasy J ****
45. Lady Hester Stanhope Joan Haslip bio **
46. The Mountains Sing Nguyen Phan Que Mai contemp fic ***1/2
47. The Battle of Evernight Cecilia Dart-Thornton fantasy ****
48. ♬ Conrad's Fate Diana Wynne-Jones fantasy j ****
49. new Michaelmas Tribute or A Secret and Unlawful Killing (in the US the title is different) (Burren 2) Cora Harrison mys
50. new Connemara: Listening to the Wind Tim Robinson ireland natural history *****
51. RR ♬ The Convenient Marriage Georgette Heyer hist rom. ****
52. RR♬ A Civil Contract Georgette Heyer *****
53. RR ♬ The Toll Gate Georgette Heyer ***** (one of my favourites!)
54. The Sting of Justice Cora Harrison hist mys ****1/2
55. new 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write Sarah Ruhl essays literary *****

47. E
The Battle of Evernight Cecilia Dart-Thornton

I've been a little slow with this review because rarely have I read a book that had such potential to be really good but could be so annoying! And annoying to me in a way that I feel somewhat churlish in admitting. Was D-T's purpose really to have a place to put all the endless words she has gleaned about medieval accoutrements, fabrics, weapons, armor, herbs, in short TOO MUCH STUFF She writes well and the words are often quite wonderful, but there is a lack of balance between the characters, the story, the plot and these lists. I ended up sometimes thinking that the book was more about these lists, that everything was constructed around a place to put them rather than being a part of the story, enough to pull you in. Well. I read right through to the end, didn't I, although I got to skimming those lists. I also thought that I got the point that Thorn was incredibly hopelessly good-looking (I mean, a man who would smell like cinnamon right after furious exercise? Wow) and perfect in every way . . . but seriously, I needed no reminding. High fantasy is what it is however, and maybe I am being mean. In this last book our heroine of the frequent name changes and lost memory does finally remember everything she needs to and while everything seems to go wrong, of course, being high fantasy it more or less unravels as it should. If you love the genre you might enjoy, you might even love the books. Some of my interest in the genre at this point, is simply seeing how each writer handles the memes, what they choose to emphasize or diminish, etcetera. This is not a review, these really are reflections. The four stars are for a tremendous effort and for some vivid writing and memorable moments. ****

48. ♬
Conrad's Fate Diana Wynne-Jones

With the exception of a book of Chrestomanci stories, I've completed this W-J series. These are for a younger audience than the previous series (with the Griffins) and there were moments of inevitable drag and I'd have to remind myself that I am not a precocious nine-year-old. Anyway Conrad is convinced he has bad karma and when he is sent by his uncle and chums up to Stallery Castle with the pretense of learning to be a servant (but really to murder the person he would 'identify'--by methods unknown--he would just 'know') he ends up with Christopher Chant (also there under false pretenses). Turns out someone is messing around with Probabilities and is making a big mess of things in this set of worlds in Series 7. It was fun and now I am done. ****

>77 sibylline: Couldn't the Chrestomanci series be brought to screens with 21st-century technology? I think they're darn near perfect for today's youth audience.

Anyway. Have a terrific new-week's reads.

49. ****
A Secret and Unlawful Killing or Michaelmas Tribute (the title in Ireland) (Burren 2) Cora Harrison

In this the second in the (so far) seven of the Burren series set in Clare in the very early 1500's, Mara, the local Brehon and mistress of the local law school, is faced with the killing of the man who collects the annual tribute for one of the local clan heads. The clues are confusing and when a second murder is discovered all are tempted to connect them. Mara is still trying to figure out how to keep her life, which she loves, and what to do about the marriage proposal of the King Turlough Don O'Brien (remember, a small kingdom -- he is more like the chief of a group of local clans). I noticed another reviewer saying the mysteries lack 'punch' well, I am glad! What I love in an historical mystery is the texture of time and place added to a decent story and original characters and Harrison delivers!
****

50. nat hist, hist *****
Connemara: Listening to the Wind Tim Robinson

When I first started reading, I admit to having the thought, "My, he does go on!" but very soon after that I grasped that the very going on of Robinson's method is what takes the reader deeply into the place where Robinson spent many years of his life, first Roundstone and that area and then branching out into the farther parts of the region, ending with the magnificent mountain collection known as 'The Twelve Pins" that help to separate Connemara from the rest of the island. The art is in how Robinson is so entirely present himself, stubbing his toe, so to speak, while expressing his wonder in the existence of a remote lichen found nowhere else but some alpine tundra thousands of miles away. Always his telling is balanced, from the recounting of the fortunes and misfortunes of the Martin family of Ballynahinch, to the various misguided projects to tame Connemara, to pausing to remember the unmarked graves of those who died of famine and dispossession, to climbing one of the 'Pins' to witness an annual event that has likely taken place in some form or another for thousands of years. If you are interested at all in Ireland, you will want to read his work (this is my first of his books, but will not be the last) deceptively simple seeming and humbly written and presented, a delight. Sadly, Robinson, in his eighties succumbed early on in the first wave of Covid so there will be no more stories and wisdom from him. *****

51.-53. A bit Heyer reread/listen bingeing. A Convenient Marriage, A Civil Contract, The Toll Gate

>80 sibylline: It sounds just lovely. Immersive reads like this are such wonderful things.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads.

>80 sibylline: I liked this book, but liked Stones of Aran. Pilgrimage even better.

>82 FAMeulstee: I will have that one to look forward to!!!! Stones of Aran is the next on my Robinson list.

Oh! I have a copy of Stones of Aran and Pilgrimage and never read either because I didn't have Connemara. You inspire me.
(Somehow, I still think of myself as a reader even though I read less and less by the day.) (*sigh*)

I keep meaning to post this -- we have a little family out on the pond.

>85 sibylline: Love it!

>86 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I get very anxious about them! They come several days in a row, then disappear for one or two, then come back . . . sometimes I don't see the fluffballs, just the parents, and then turn around and bingo, there they all are. So good at hiding their little ones!

P.S. They are around today and the fluffballs are starting to not be so fluffy, can see their wings a bit and different shades of feathers starting to grow.

54. hist mys ****1/2
The Sting of Justice Cora Harrison

These mysteries, set in the Burren in County Clare, Ireland, just get better and better! The mysteries form the basis for creating a rich cast of characters in this time (1509) and place. While, like all mysteries set in a small population, the number of suspicious deaths mount up in a ridiculous way, Harrison is doing well to make sure the reader is engrossed both by the historical dimension (the use of Brehon law, the customs, food, clothes etcetera of the time) and the way the characters behave when confronted with a mystery, either as a suspect or an accuser, or witness. Mara, the Brehon, involves her students in her cases and uses them effectively to sort out the complexities of Brehon law and the cases, through dialogue and action. Can't wait to start the next one! ****1/2

55. essays *****
100 Essays I Don't Have Time To Write Sarah Ruhl

My copy of 100 Essays is bristling with little pink post-it slips, always a sign of engagement. All the essays concern aspects of being a playwright (including being a playwright with children). From having children and dogs on stage to wondering what Chekhov meant, exactly, by 'lightness' on stage, not a lack of seriousness 'but to temper reality with strangeness, to temper the intellect with emotion'. Bring on the humble. Every essay, all of them short, takes on something Ruhl has noticed happening, or not happening. So she ponders if the new theatrical notion of having ceilings on stage is in imitation of the 'interiority' of a film. Stages first were outside, under the sky -- and anyway, a play is not cinema, so why? She is leery of formulaic work, of plays as a form of business (like movies). She writes about community theater which, in some ways, preserves the innocence of 'real' theater, even while sometimes being awful, of staging storms on stage reminding everyone that nothing is, actually, under control. Even on a stage. Some essays take on profound matters, others are more observations and quite funny. These are musings and opinions, which she knows very well are just her own opinions not necessarily truth. A wonderful read. *****

JUNE!



Currently Reading in June
♬

new 2312 Kim Stanley Robinson sf
new Summerwater Sarah Moss contemp fic
✔Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman nf
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys

56. RR♬ Friday's Child Georgette Heyer hist rom ****
57. RR♬ The Quiet Gentleman Georgette Heyer hist rom *****
58. ✔ An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors Curtis Craddock **** fantasy
59. new A History of the Irish Language Aidan Doyle irish language, irish history ****
60. new Troubled Blood Robert Galbraith mys *****
61. RR ♬ RR Regency Buck Georgette Heyer
62. new The Radetzky March Josef Roth fiction austrian, fiction ww1 ****1/2
63. RR ♬ Frederica Georgette Heyer hist rom
64. RR ♬ Cotillion Georgette Heyer hist rom
65.

>90 sibylline: I hope your stay at the Cape is productive, Lucy, safe travels.
I loved The Radetzky March, you remind me I have a new translation on the shelves that is still unread.

The feathered family as of yesterday.


Somehow they knew this was a photo opp.

Here is me trying to write, the cat, Oswin, has a vise-like grip on my wrist.

>91 FAMeulstee: Yes, The Radetzy March is quite extraordinary. Do you read it in Dutch from German? Or am I mixed up!!!??? Forgive, if so!

>93 sibylline: Yes, I read it in Dutch, Lucy.
And now thinking about reading it in a new, well praised, Dutch translation.

>92 sibylline: Wonderful photo of the geese -- how nice of them to pose for you! Also love the photo of Oswim helping you at the keyboard :)

>92 sibylline: My, how the goslings have grown! (Are geese babies goslings?)

Oswin looks very comfy, and you won't get away easily. Otoh, I trust that you did get away and are settled in for your retreat!

>92 sibylline: I'd say the gosling pix were taken somewhere between 9-12 days! The other day too, I saw them "flapping" their little tiny wings.

Herself.

Love it!!

Delurking to say hello, and that I love the Posey pic!

>98 sibylline: Miss Po! And there on the Cape, too. Have a marvelous time, y'all.

58. fantasy ****
An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors Curtis Craddock

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, you put off reading a book and this one falls into that category. Maybe the cover? Maybe the title? Maybe nothing? In any case, I enjoyed the story very much -- and am somewhat in awe of the ins and outs of a complex plot which nonetheless I could follow. That is not a simple thing to do. Although I have to admit that I make that comment as a writer who can barely move people from one room to another. The characters are tolerably good, especially the strong relationship between Jean-Claude and Isabelle. The setting also is entertaining and well described albeit full of unexplained phenomena, but who cares, this is fantasy! Well done, I will continue the series! ****

>102 sibylline: I liked An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors very much and the 2nd in the series as well, but seem to have lost track of it before the 3rd came out. 2020 has a lot to answer for.

>103 quondame: I suspect I've lost track of more than books! I will be sure to get 2 and 3 at the same time.

I read the An Alchemy of Masque and Mirrors series last year. I enjoyed the first one very much as well. The tone of the books seemed to shift in every book, I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the other two.

>105 kgodey: That sounds intriguing!

59. history irish language ****
A History of the Irish Language Aidan Doyle

Doyle gives the evolution of the Irish language from around 1100 to the present, the period known as Early Modern Irish (EMI) to to the present, Late Modern Irish. Old Irish was already part of the past by the time of the Norman Invasion, which extended into Ireland. The cultural upheavals post-Roman Empire brought in new people with new words and forms. From 1600 to the present Irish has been shrinking as a native tongue, but surviving in a way that is nearly unique (although I think some native american languages as well as Scots Gaelic are undergoing a similar process). The language is taught through high school, many people choose to continue studying in Irish, but they are equally fluent (if not more so) in English. Many (including yours truly) now learn the language for all sorts of reasons, not aiming for true fluency, but because they find it a beautiful and rewarding language or perhaps as a statement of solidarity with Irishness, or to help them understand the songs if they are traditional musicians, or all of these reasons. Doyle traces the changes, in both the language and attitudes and raises the question of whether Irish as it is spoken and read now is yet a living language. Many of my questions were answered -- such as Why the spelling??? (Answer: It's complicated but makes a lot of sense). A good informative but not easy read for serious Irish language learners. ****

>98 sibylline: Lovely as always!

>102 sibylline: OOOOoooo! I have that one. I see it on my Kindle since it's early alphabetically, but I haven't opened it yet. You encourage me.

>107 sibylline: Good for you!!!! I've just sort-of learned that my partly Irish grandpappy was no such thing. His mother, a Scottish MacRae, was adopted by her parents' best friends, Odels, when the parents died. I may eventually give Ancestry a spit just to find out.... Anyway, I applaud your Irish learning. I'd really like to try my hand at Scots Gaelic because my mother's ancestry should be 100% Scot. I'm not sure that that is sufficient motivation.

>91 FAMeulstee: I am bogging down severely in The Radetzky March. There are moments where I am awestruck by the details, both of the time and the emotional straitjackets that people put on themselves then, but overall I have such a sense of sadness and dread of the future it's very hard to want to read.

60. mystery *****
Troubled Blood Robert Galbraith

Some novels I can only grind along ten pages a day, with others a hundred pages fly by. You can can guess which this latest Galbraith is. I am in awe of JK and her gift for creating characters and situations that are gritty but balancing them with the interactions of the main characters. (One thing you learn as you go through the HP books, for example, is that being a witch or wizard is often ugly and terrifying and you have to be tough as nails.) I feel patient about Robin and Strike's relationship.They are equals in intelligence and bravery and determination and, really, thrive on being independent. You might want to look at the Irish Brehon laws around marriage before the English squashed them: there are seven or so 'levels' the first of which is between equals who will maintain a good deal of independence and their own households--I hope that is where these two are headed. It's not easy to achieve or sustain, I expect, but it is do-able. Anyway, the plot, the main case they were working on was convoluted as well as very sad and strange. Can't say much without spoiling, really, but I found the final 'reveal' close to being too much, but who cares? I also liked the parallel of Robin looking at the office relationships in Dr. Bamborough's practice and how being in a 'toxic' work environment, putting up with it, etc. is a bad idea and how that effects things around their own office.
Strike's gradual maturing is very convincing moving at this slow slow pace. Anything else would not convince. Don't be impatient! *****

62. classic fic ****1/2
The Radetzky March Joseph Roth

Finally finished The Radetzky March a very tough but brilliant novel by Joseph Roth depicting three generations of a family, the first Trotta, a plain soldier of a peasant family who is raised to a baronetcy for saving the Emperor's life, his son, a District Captain (somewhere in Austria) and last, the grandson, Carl Joseph, a Lieutenant. All takes place in the last years before the collapse of the Empire and the ensuing conflagration of WW1 in Europe. I have to say I was generally miserable while reading as the story as the atmosphere is oppressive, but I have a more visceral understanding about how that time must have felt for those who lived then. Everyone knew that what was coming next would be shattering as nationalism arose and Europe splintered, but went on as if the crisis would never come. There is leaven as well. Piercing insights into human nature, into the situation, and also a good deal of wit and humor, especially of the absurdity of the military mired (literally) in the old ways. Planning a party, the Colonel (of Carl Joseph's regiment) ". . . developed an unwonted imagination. Every day it gifted him with at least ten ideas, whereas earlier he had gotten along quite nicely on just one a week." Painful, brilliant, worthwhile but I am glad to have finished. The translation, I think, has some moments (as above with use of the word 'gifted') of contemporary style that I found jarring, but only now and then and perhaps I am a fuddy-duddy. Likely so. ****1/2. (The 1/2 is recognition that I had to drag myself though, my own shortcoming really, but my stars must reflect my experience, no matter how revealing of me, alas!)

>111 sibylline: The best thing of Roth's I've ever read. It's oppressive...perfect word...and it's claustrophobic, biting, and deeply subversive. Tough going, I certainly concur.

>110 sibylline: You make it sound so tempting. I'm still resisting giving the author oxygen.

Have a lovely week-ahead's reads.

>112 richardderus: JKR is a natural-born storyteller, resistance is futile, dude.

>111 sibylline: The translation, I think, has some moments of contemporary style that I found jarring When I read this I found the translation didn't work for me either, as it was written in American English. I mean, I know there's absolutely no reason why something should be translated into British rather than American English when it was originally written by an Austrian in German, and it wouldn't worry me if the book had a more modern setting. But somehow the setting of an old European Empire seemed to fit better with British English in my mind, and for me the American English interposed an additional degree of separation with the original text.

>114 SandDune: I am in complete agreement. The way Trottas Sr and Jr would have talked to one another and the way the officers also would have talked and thought (most of them, anyway) would have been more formal as well. "Gifted" really was a punch in the gut. An expression I have never yet used, hope never to be cornered into using.

Stands to reason I have few visitors as I have not been reciprocating or visiting much myself. Apologies, but I seem to have so much trouble simply organizing myself and getting through the day that the enjoyable but time-consuming activity of visiting is off my radar screen most of the time.

A new insanity every day. "Involuntary relocation"?????

Are you effing kidding me??? Re-branding exploitation? Seriously?

That said, I will continue this thread into SUMMER and the month of July as it hasn't reached the magic 150 yet.

My best wishes to anyone who does wander over here.

Duplicate post

Happy July reading! *smooch*

Halloo Richard, same back to you.

Oh, I really need to get back to Flavia at some point. I will be interest in your review of the Kahneman book.

---- And I have flirted with 2312 almost since it was published. I certainly won't get to it this month, but I'll be very interested in what you make of it, Lucy.

66. sf ****
2312 Kim Stanley Robinson

Slowly the reader grasps that a chronicler, far in the future beyond 2312, is looking back or perhaps imagining how that year, while not at first obviously, appears to be a crucial one for human survival. The solar system is entirely inhabited, Mars successfully terraformed and many other moons and planets and big asteroids undergo transformations. (Some, like our moon and Mercury cannot be terraformed.) The focus is on two people, Swan Er Hong and Fitz Wahram, one a Mercurian they other a Saturnian/Titan. Swan's grandmother saw this divide as fatal to the success of the human diaspora but died before the plan was fully activated. Swan is drawn in. And indeed, some kind of new terrorism, aimed at space Other things are also bubbling below the surface, AI's that have been successfully made to seem fully human. Earth itself is a mess -- so many factions, so many beliefs, enmities, make deciding what to do impossible as no one can ever agree. A disaster from a world experiment with cooling the planet, known as The Early Ice Age which killed billions of people also makes full cooperation impossible. And yet. Something must be done. In space everyone has work, everyone is fed and housed, most can even receive longevity treatments. I'm awed by KSR's ability to make such a future feel possible and thankful for his optimism. ****

>122 sibylline: I don't know that I've ever warbled to you about my dote Ian McDonald's Big Ideas books, River of Gods and Brasyl. (The latter is on Kindlesale for $1.99 right now.) It's all in this vein of Society gets a sharp shock and hijinks ensue. Always, IMO, a good place for SFF to live.

*smooch* Happy weekend-ahead's reads, Lucy!

>123 richardderus: Bleh, just lost a post. I adore Ian McDonald too, also Alastair Reynolds. KSR does the best, perhaps, at staying grounded in 'real' science while also creating good characters, I think, but they're all three tip top excellent. Of course, no one comes near Iain Banks.

JULY!



Currently Reading in July
♬

new Travel Light with The Varangs Saga Naomi Mitchison
newish The City of Brass S.A. Chakraborty fantasy
new Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer nf botany/spirit
new The Unpossessed Tess Schlesinger 20th fic
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys

Read in July
65. RR ♬ The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer hist rom ***** (as ever)
66. new 2312 Kim Stanley Robinson sf ****
67. RR ♬ The Reluctant Widow Georgette Heyer hist rom ***** (as ever)
68. new Summerwater Sarah Moss contemp fic *****
69. ✔Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman nf *****+
70. ✔ Shadowbahn Steve Erickson spf ***
71. RR ♬ The Grand Sophy Georgette Heyer *****

Clematis and hemerocallis together = very smart combo indeed.

I'm so glad you're on board with McDonald! He delivers what I want to receive. And no, no one gets above Iain M. Banks or, really, seems likely to do so.

68. contemp fic *****
Summerwater Sarah Moss

Moss, by way of the mundane business living, moment by moment, draws the reader into the finality and permanence of death. It's not a confrontation, not baldly put so that you have nowhere to hide, rather, she achieves this contrasting through careful observation, of the humans and the animals and land around them. The place is a set of lodges on a little island on a large loch in Scotland. We listen to inner monologues that range from trivial to hilarious, as they all endure a vacation during which, for a week the skies have poured rain, steady to torrential, without respite. Rain that they all know is not 'normal'. There is the elderly couple, the retired doctor and his wife who is gently succumbing to dementia, companions nearing the end after lives spent dutifully conformist. The wife says, "You'd think the sun will never shine again, that it's probably not even up there anymore, is drifting away from us in disgust towards another set of planets." Though perhaps disappointed by their lives they are kind to one another. There is the husband who takes the children out to play so the wife can have an hour to herself, yet she can't help frittering it away trying to decide what to do (I've been there.) Then the young engaged couple, the male obsessed with the idea of learning to achieve simultaneous orgasm all the time as a sure way to make the upcoming marriage an enduring success while the wife mostly has thoughts that wander from what to make for dinner to a soft porn actor who turns her on more than her affianced does. There is the teenager who takes a kayak out too far, there are children of the age that can go out unaccompanied who, of course, get up to mischief, a woman obsessed with running, another utterly depressed. Most of the women have thoughtlessly entitled (not cruel) husbands. All the married women with children are to some degree stunned by what has happened to them. Among these English and Scottish families, a couple, is a Ukrainian family who have rented one of the lodges and party loudly every night, driving everyone else mad. Finally one night the noise is so bad that the neighbors emerge but

I stop there. The thing is that throughout there are moments where I could not help but laugh out loud, or feel anger, or identify strongly with the plight of these families (who hasn't had an awful holiday?). I won't reassure you of an easy ending, but the journey is very much worth it. *****

69. psychology decision theory ***** and then some.
Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman

In order to write these comments I must set aside my natural system 1 mode of being (lazily automatic) and enter the far more arduous mode, System 2, and THINK for MYSELF. We don't spend as much time actually thinking in this mode as we would like to believe we do (which is itself a non-rational and emotionally based stance of System 1). Thinking is HARD WORK. Our brains and bodies are programmed to conserve energy as well as to protect us from . . . well . . . ourselves as THINKING not only uses a lot of energy but is often bewilderingly difficult and overwhelming. (As in, having to change your mind, admit you have no idea what to do, etcetera.) You know the difference between 1 and 2. The former tends to work smoothly and automatically and you like best being in that mode. Anything you prefer to put off or avoid doing altogether is probably a System 2 activity, from balancing your checkbook to deciding who to vote for or choosing the right school for your child or evaluating care for your grandmother. All of these choices most of you (including me) would love to leave to others. (And all too often do.)

Possibly the most crucial takeaway is accepting that we are not capable, not a single one of us, of making rational decisions all the time. Some may succeed more often than others, but really, no one. In fact, those who insist on rationality as the basis for all human endeavor are likely to be the most deluded of all. They want to believe themselves purely rational, but belief is emotionally based and not rational. Sorry.

Are you aware that the way a question is put to you affects how you answer it? (The researches call this 'focalism'.) So if you are asked to put a check in a box to donate your organs (on yr driver's license renewal) you are less likely to check that box. However, if you are asked to check that box if you DON'T want to donate your organs you leave the box blank. Why? Didn't you immediately have an ugh feeling for the former? I did. And pretty much no feeling at all at the second choice? I'm fine with that. You have to overcome an instinctive reluctance (System 1) to make the rational (System 2) choice. Or how about this. Are you aware that all unconsciously your answer to an unrelated question is affected by very recent luck or loss (literally, like finding a dime before someone asks you how you are feeling generally about almost anything, if it is a nice day or whatever.) Or that the way the Experiencing self, moment to moment, is supplanted by the story the Remembered self (which is a System 2 creation) has put together. (Official word is Duration Neglect and you add to it Peak-End Rule-that the most recent thing, the last thing in an experience is what you remember the most, both from System 1). System 1 is a mighty broth of basic instincts, deeply learned skills (driving would be one most of us share), habits that allow us all to make instant decisions, choices, opinions. Usually for the best, but not always. A useful acronym is WYSIATI (What You See Is What There Is) -- what you don't know or see before you, you don't (can't) include in your decisions. (Food labelling is fiendishly clever in this regard. As are many media outlets.) The reality of how we think and decide what to do with our lives is a complicated dance between the two and the better you are at recognizing which mode is needed, the better off you will be.

Much of the research involves having people choose between types of bets -- often bets that appear to be weighted one way or another because of the wording, but are either the same in outcome or biased the opposite of what your System 1 tends to be attracted to. System 2 has to be engaged to make the 'right' choice. I had difficulties with ALL of these questions as my instinct is to recoil (and I mean that) as I find betting and gambling so pointless (losing is the only outcome for the majority, duh) I couldn't wrap my head around any of it. I would likely have been dismissed by the researchers.

An intriguing find in the research is that as regards overall happiness or satisfaction our lives appear to depend on two foundations: Enough money for needs to be met -- curiously, more than that provides nothing, happiness and satisfaction flatten right out. The second piece is having goals and ambitions that are achievable (for some it is making money, btw). This fits in well with the (more philosophical) book on agency that I read not so long ago, by Agnes Caillard. Another undeniable factor is luck. Good or bad. Although the likelihood is, given the fact that this erratic thing, while beyond our control, tends to affect us all rather evenly--although in greater and lesser degrees depending on what risks a person takes, I would imagine. We must all take some, of course.

Another gem is that we tend to expect happiness from acquisition of material objects rather than from friendships and doing things with others. The officialese for this is using 'affective forecasting' that results in 'miswanting' (oh how I love that word!). Things never win out over fellowship. Take that to heart.

The end of each chapter has a kind of 'summary' in the form of statements that illustrate the points Kahneman just made and they are really helpful. He's a good writer, the clarity is stunning. I cannot recommend Thinking Fast and Slow more highly. It is a thoroughly System 2 read from beginning to end, so be patient with yourself if you do take it on. And please do.

***** and then some.

70.
spec fic
Shadowbahn Steve Erickson

Confession up front, I have little patience with fiction that includes raving on about music. Where's the accompanying sound track? I persisted, however, reading speedily, because I was engaged by the premise(s) (of which there were too many) (World Trade Center popping up here and there, Elvis Presley's twin being the one who survived and couldn't sing, JFK losing the nomination . . . ) and here and there by the characters or situations. Ultimately? Didn't work for me, but might for someone else. ***

>128 sibylline: Entrenched in 1 so only partly following this.

>127 sibylline: Isn't Summerwater incredible? Great review, Lucy.

>130 quondame: :) Yes, it's really hard to be anywhere else and getting harder all the time.

>131 lauralkeet: Thank you, Laura, I am awed, really, by the way Moss juxtaposes and makes her point so thoroughly but subtly.
-And P.S. I love your blog! Kudos to Chris too.

>132 sibylline: Thank you Lucy!

>128 sibylline: Thanks for this extensive review, Lucy, added to mount TBR.

Summerwater and Thinking Fast and Slow both sound amazing! This is a dangerous place. ; ) Happy weekend!

Hi Lucy, what's new chez vous?

Happy Birthday, Lucy!! Hope you have a great and relaxing one.

Many happy returns, Lucy!

Happy birthday Lucy! I hope you're having a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday!

Thank you all -- a very nice day indeed!

August



This is me and Miss Po on a hike on my birthday

Currently Reading in August
♬♬

new The Empire of Gold S.A. Chakraborty fantasy
new Travel Light with The Varangs Saga Naomi Mitchison fantasy
new Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer nf botany/spirit
new The Unpossessed Tess Schlesinger 20th fic
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys
♬ A Curious Beginning Deanna Raybourn hist mys

Read in August
74. newish The City of Brass S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
75. new Kingdom of Copper S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
76. ♬ Summers at Castle Auburn Sharon Shinn YA fantasy ****
77. RR ♬ The Black Moth Georgette Heyer (****)
78. new Travel Light Naomi Mitchison fantasy *****

74. fantasy ****
City of Brass S.A. Chakraborty

Centered in the middle east and stretching to the northeast coast of Africa and as far west as India and Turkestan, several djinn/daeva tribes, each with different abilities live in secret beside humans. Forcibly separated by Suleiman for interfering in the lives of humans, and put into humanlike form, they try to get along but don't really. Also complicating matters, a human can make a slave of a daeva /djinn if s/he is entrapped (yep, in a lamp) and both sides sometimes fall in love and have children, shafit. Some djinn tribes can accept shafit better than others . . . The supreme ruler of all Djinn lives in a hidden city that his tribe conquered over a thousand years ago -- and the story focusses on his children, as well as a young (perhaps shafit, perhaps not?) woman, who grew up on her own in Cairo and who is a natural healer . . . and who unwittingly summons a mysterious djinn who is a thousand and more years old, an Afshin warrior who . . . complicated plot, OK? I struggled a bit until a little over half way and then the story started to flow for me, although I gather, not for all readers. I am happily reading book 2 now. I am engaged by the three primary characters, Ali, Nahri, and Dara, as well as by the setting and the situation, now that I have settled in. ****

>136 richardderus: I've been busy with music things, first the Somerset Harp Festival where I always work, then at Cairdeas (pronounced, Car-chiss) a Scottish piping camp that we more or less host. So that involves me being friendly (of all things!) with house guests and campers out back (barely saw them, they could congregate and socialize on their own in the barn/shop/studio.) The classes happen down in the village at the church annex and at the Town Hall.

So that has taken up all the oxygen for the last couple of weeks. August should be much more restful, but so far it isn't particularly as there is so much to catch up on for the two weeks when I was otherwise occupied. I barely read a word in all that time!

>137 ronincats:,>138 richardderus:,>139 lauralkeet:, >140 quondame: Thank you for stopping by and for your good wishes.

>143 sibylline: While the 2nd book dragged a bit for me, getting to and through the 3rd was quite worthwhile.

>145 quondame: Glad to know that!!!!

>144 sibylline: Whew! I'm roasted with rosemary just reading it. No wonder barely a page rustled.

I hope August is so boring you get to read a thousand pages.

>147 richardderus: What a lovely idea! (May you read a thousand pages.) Very much in the spirit of this series I'm engaged in.

75. fantasy ****
Kingdom of Copper S.A. Chakraborty

The middle book of a three-parter is always a challenge for both writer and reader. On the one hand, the over-plot must continue and deepen, but also progress in some definitive way by the end. The characters also have to shift and move in new ways or the reader will be bored. Some second of three series choose another path--a sidetrack that allows for growth and a respite--but Chakraborty sticks with the traditional pattern: throughout the novel the storm builds until the pressure must release with a cataclysmic battle and a leap into the unknown by two of the principal characters. The third book is sitting by me and I will get busy reading when I finish my tasks for the day. Could the book be shorter, well, yes, it could, but I think Chakraborty has stayed the course. ****

76. YA fantasy ****
Summers at Castle Auburn Sharon Shinn

Never having read anything by Shinn, I was expecting something different, a fantasy more for an adult reader, but never mind, I enjoyed listening to the story and thought it well done for the (younger) YA audience and good enough to keep me interested. Young Coriel is a by-blow but also a Hasling the traditional choice for the Royal family to wed. Two-thirds of the year she spends with her grandmother, a witch/herbalist (which bears no opprobrium in this world) in a small village and a third she spends with her half-sister and the lords and ladies of Auburn Castle being prepared for . . . marrying and being a useful pawn for political alliances. Coriel is a sunny friendly person and makes friends with everyone around her. She is disturbed by the presence in the household, of the Alliora, enslaved by the humans, but of such entirely peaceful dispositions that they simply submit and do their best with the work given them. They aren't treated badly exactly, but they are not treated well either. Again, most of the themes and the plot would never fadge in an adult context, but I am impressed by how gently Shinn guides her heroine into consciousness of the world around her, it felt authentic to the age group that would normally be reading. There is no one fully evil, no one fully good, plenty of naiveté but not too much. Enjoyable. ****

>149 sibylline: Congratulations on reaching 75, Lucy!

>151 FAMeulstee: Thank you!!!!

>150 sibylline:
Yay!

Congratulations on 75 reads Lucy!

Congrats!

WOW!!!! Congratulations on the 75 in early August! That's formidable!!!!!

Congrats on 75!

75 already -- you go girl!

78. fantasy *****
Travel Light Naomi Mitchison

At not quite 150 pages, many fantasy lovers will not want to engage, but I encourage you to. The story is . . . utterly beguiling. Tiny Halla is put out in the forest to die by her new step-mama the Queen, who wants no competition. Her nurse, who just happens to be able to shape-shift, becomes a bear and takes her to live among bears. Once she is half-grown, the bears are no longer the right caregivers and Halla is taken up by the dragons. She comes to detest 'heroes' who are always coming along to kill dragons and take their treasure, which they do not deserve since they haven't the least idea how to properly treasure, uh, treasure, that is, to hoard it properly in a deep dark cave where they can gloat and lie about on it. Then Halla meets the All-Father and she finds herself in the company of three good men (from Somewhere between the Black Sea and the North Sea) on their way to petition the Emperor in Byzantium for a better Governor than their cruel and corrupt one. I was most beguiled by the language, which hovers around the archaic, but not annoyingly, and by Mitchison's ability to be funny and serious at the same time and by the absolute charm, wisdom, and joyfulness of the writing. Seriously wonderful. I have read none of Mitchison's other work, rather serious novels, I gather. This was most likely written for older and savvy children, or who knows, perhaps for her own delight. A postscript is that the forward by Isobel Murray is awkwardly written -- maybe worth glancing over after you read the story. This edition has a pathetic and unworthy cover also as well as a squib of a story at the end called "The Varangs' Saga" definitely written to charm family and friends. *****

(No number)

The Unpossessed Tess Slesinger

I can't rate The Unpossessed but I have decided to stop reading -- the book makes me uncomfortable as a writer and as a reader. As a writer I loathe it when someone says to me, 'This was a very ambitious effort' because it is a kind way of saying 'You didn't succeed in your aim, no matter how worthy etc. the effort.' Margaret Flinders is married to a New Englander (a parody of one, I might add, intentionally or un) and lives in NYC, one of a group of 'intellectuals' devoted to exploring ideas and living truthfully meaningfully or whatever, only none of them do. There is the brilliant Jewish guy who wants to start a Magazine (or does he?), a handsome rake, and so on -- all of them self-absorbed to a degree that is painful and just . . . not authentic-feeling to me. There is a (sorry) hysterical (Freud influence?) edge to all the thoughts of the women, except one, only Norah, the rake's wife is a 'real' woman, peaceful and devoted to her husband despite his habits, and it is implied that is because she is sexually satisfied (because so tranquil? Really?). All with the effect to make me long more than ever for Elizabeth Bennett who would have found these people ridiculous and rightly so. As to the Joyce homage, I'm surprised that in the forward by the eminent Eliz. Hardwick, she doesn't mention this feature.The language and the thoughts tumble and jumble and try to sparkle in a Joycean way, but alas are merely clumsy. What can I say, it just doesn't work for me. Probably has value as an example/attempt of some kind of feminist-slanted (but somehow not really) work. A valiant attempt.