Avaland & Dukedom_Enough's 2022 Reading, Part II

This is a continuation of the topic Avaland & Dukedom_Enough's 2022 Reading, Part I.

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Avaland & Dukedom_Enough's 2022 Reading, Part II

1avaland
Edited: Dec 24, 2022, 5:01 pm

LOIS'S CURRENT READING:



Salonika Burning by Gail Jones (fiction, 2022)
The Psychology of Stupidity by Jean-Francois Marmion (nonfiction)
Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces by Margaret Atwood (2022) ON HOLD

--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
MICHAEL'S CURRENT READING:



Dagger Key and Other Stories by Lucius Shepard (2007, US)
Failed State by Christopher Brown (Near future dystopia, 2020)
Also reading individual short stories by various authors....
Continuing ....

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout (2014, biography)

2avaland
Edited: Dec 24, 2022, 5:03 pm

LOIS'S 2022 READING
-----------------------------------------------
4th QUARTER


Mourning by Eduardo Halfon (Guatamala, 2017, trans from the Spanish 2018)
Musical Tables: Poems by Billy Collins (poetry, US, 2022)
Summerwater by Sarah Moss (Fiction, 2020, UK / Scotland)
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (fiction, 2018)
Willnot by James Sallis (fiction, 2016)
The Bead Collector by Sefi Atta (fiction, 2018)
Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships by Robin Dunbar (2021)
A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Rebus, crime novel, 2022)
The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet (nonfiction, 2022, USA)
Late Wonders: New & Selected Poems by Wesley McNair (2022, poetry )

3rd QUARTER READING:



√The Night of the Fire by Kjell Eriksson (2020, Crime Novel, Swedish)
Dottie by Abulrazak Gurnah (1990)
Q Road by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2002, novel/Michigan)
Touch by Olaf Olafsson (fiction, 2022)
Almost Beauty: New and Selected Poems by Sue Sinclair (2022, Newfoundland)
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (2022, fiction...)
The Forward Book of Poetry 2022: The Best Poems from the Forward Prizes
The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry edited by Mark Callahan and James Lange, 2013.
The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees by Douglas Tallamy (nonfiction, 2021)
The Last Crossing by Brian McGilloway (crime novel, 2020) Abandoned halfway---
Blood by Maggie Gee (2015, UK, black comedy) Abandoned halfway---

3avaland
Edited: Oct 23, 2022, 9:24 am

MICHAEL'S 4th QUARTER READING:


The Peripheral by William Gibson (re-read because of imminent TV series on Amazon)
Novelties and Souvenirs: Collection Short Fiction by John Crowley (2007)

Michael's 3rd Quarter Reading



The Singers of Time by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson (1991, SF)
The This (no touchstone?) by Adam Roberts (2022, SF)
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. LeGuin (essays, 2017)
The Business Man by Thomas M. Disch (1984)
The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge (1965)

2nd QUARTER READING:


Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley (2007, SF)
Twenty-first century Science Fiction, edited by David Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (short stories, 2013)
Palimpsest by Charles Stross (SF, 2009) in the collection Wireless
Empties by George Zebrowski (horror, 2009)
The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family by David Cay Johnston (2021, nonfiction)

----------------------------------------------------
1st QUARTER READING:

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (2018, SF, US)
Invisible Sun Empire Games#3. Charles Stross (2021, SF, UK)
Dark State, Empire Games #2 (re-read), Charles Stross (2019, SF, UK)
The Book of All Skies by Greg Egan (2021, self-published?, Australia)
The Summer Isles by Ian R. MacLeod (2005, alternate history, UK)

4avaland
Edited: Oct 1, 2022, 2:42 pm

LOIS's 2nd QUARTER
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby; Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (2009, translated from the Russian)
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (2020, trans from the Chinese)
The Water's Edge by Karin Fossum (2007)
Black Seconds by Karin Fossum (2002, Crime novel, Norway, trans from the Norwegian 2007)
Stone Tree Stories by Gyrdir Elfasson (Icelandic, 2003, T. 2008)
Monastery by Eduardo Halfon (2014, trans. from the Spanish;
Moonstone:The Boy Who Never Was by Sjon (2013, trans. 2016, Iceland, 147 pgs)
Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso (South Africa, 2011, 159 pages)
The Moon Opera by Bi Feiyu (2007, trans. 2007, Chinese)
----
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (Canadian, Anishinaabe, post-apocalyptic, 2018)
The Bad Immigrant by Sefi Atta (Nigeria, 2022)
The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir (2021, Icelandic)
Mitochondrial Night: Poems by Ed Bok Lee (2019, US poet)
The Reparateur of Strasbourg by Ian R. MacLeod (2013, UK, novella, dark fantasy)

LOIS'S 1st QUARTER READING:

Sweet Darusya: A Tale Of Two Villages by Maria Matios (Ukraine,2003, trans. 2019)
Contemporary Fiction: A Very Short Introduction by Robert Eaglestone (UK, 2013)
She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer (nonfiction, 2018, USA)
Dark Blue Winter Overcoat and Other Stories from the North, edited by Sjon & Ted Hodgkinson (2017)
The Inner Darkness by Jørn Lier Horst (2020, Norway, crime novel)
Collected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy (UK, 2015)(ongoing reading)
Crime Fiction: A Very Short Introduction by Richard Bradford (UK, 2015)
Verge: Stories by Lidia Yuknavitch (2020, US, partially read previously)
Absolution by Olaf Olafsson (1994, fiction)
Women and Other Animals: Stories by Bonnie Jo Campbell (1999, US)
Most of what Follows is True: Places Imagined and Read by Michael Crummey (Reread! Henry Keisel lecture, 2018, Canadian Literature Cenre)
Where Are the Snows by Maggie Gee (fiction, 1991, updated 2006)
The Whispering Muse by Sjón (novel, 2005, T2012; Iceland)
√"In Olden Times, When Wishing Was Having . . . Classic and Contemporary Fairy Tales" (article)
Joyce Carol Oates. The Kenyon Review, New Series,
Summer/Autumn 1997, Vol. XIX, No. 3-4.
Dear Sir, I intend to Burn Your Book: The Anatomy of a Book Burning, Lawrence Hill, 2012 Henry Kreisel Lecture Series, Canadian Literature Centre
The Forgotten Dead by Alsterdal Tove (2017, Sweden)

√ Denotes review posted

5avaland
Edited: May 25, 2022, 6:36 am

duplicate post...

6dukedom_enough
May 26, 2022, 8:14 am

Hello everyone!

7labfs39
May 26, 2022, 11:29 am

Hi Michael! And happy new thread to you both

8laytonwoman3rd
May 26, 2022, 11:43 am

>6 dukedom_enough: Was wondering if you were just going to let Lois drive the whole way!

9avaland
May 26, 2022, 5:36 pm

>7 labfs39: Thanks from both of us, Lisa!

>8 laytonwoman3rd: Oh, that was funny, Linda :-)

10avaland
Edited: May 28, 2022, 2:23 pm



Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso (2019, South Africa)

Leke was adopted as a baby and doesn’t remember his birth parents. He’s a sensitive sort, quiet, keeps to himself, and often seeks odd and unusual connections. He loves his adoptive parents but struggles with identity….

His story is told in alternating chapters that are mostly dated either around 1992 or 2012. The reader alternates between the story of his birth parents and how he came to be given up for adoption, and Leke living with his adopted parents.

Reading the first few chapters in this book, trying to follow several timelines (which are dated), I felt as if I was standing on moving ground for a while. But, I did acclimate eventually, and realized how much the art of the novel was providing a kind of background music for Leke’s story.

Beyond the shuffling of the timeline, this slim novel is an excellent and immersive story of one boy’s history and coming-of age in South Africa. Readers who are perceptive, patient and who read from the heart will best enjoy this novel.

(I also can recommend Omotoso's novel The Woman Next Door, which I read and reviewed in 2018)

11labfs39
May 27, 2022, 3:58 pm

>10 avaland: Nice review. I went to give you a thumb, and the touchstone goes to an orphaned title that I couldn't combine. You might want to change your touchstone.

12RidgewayGirl
Edited: May 27, 2022, 4:16 pm

>10 avaland: I really liked The Woman Next Door. I'll look for this one.

13avaland
May 27, 2022, 4:23 pm



Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjon (2013, translated from the Icelandic, 2016)

Set early in 1918 in Reykajavik, Moonstone tells the story of sixteen year old Mani Steinn, who seems pretty much on his own, although most nights he returns to sleep in the house of “the old lady” (he also does some chores for her ). Mani is a homosexual and obsessed with the cinema; he often has sex for money so he has the resources to go to the cinema often.

But, there are vestiges of WWI still, and the Katla volcano seems about to erupt at any moment, and the Spanish flu has rolled into town… Against all of this uncertainty, the cinema is shut down and Mani follows a female friend and becomes an assistant for the overwhelmed local doctor.

If you can get through the first two pages (Mani is ‘servicing’ a man), this is a fascinating coming-of-age story about a boy who seems to not belong to anyone or have any sense of direction.

14avaland
May 27, 2022, 5:35 pm



Monastery by Eduardo Halfon (Guatamala, 2014, translated from the Spanish 2014)

I enjoyed Halfon’s earlier work, The Polish Boxer, so when I came upon this collection I had to have it.

The book begins with our narrator flying with his brother to Tel Aviv for his sister’s wedding to an orthodox man…. (I should note that the narrator and family are Guatemalan Jews) but then he meets Tamara, an old flame….

Eduardo Halfon is a wonderfully clever storyteller. This small book is basically a running narration of a chain of short stories, some linked, some not. There are titled chapters, which serve several purposes, for one, it allows the reader a stopping point should they have other responsibilities to tend to. Our narrator takes us on an amazingly journey in this little book.

Here is a first line of one of the stories:

On a different trip, in a different city; bundled up in a woman’s pink coat, I had also touched the last remnants of what had once been the wall of the Warsaw ghetto…

One of my favorite stories is his tale about trying to get across the border from Guatemala into Belize where he is expected to give a lecture. It becomes a pig pile of mishaps and strange events.

Halfon is brilliant and often funny. His writing is wonderful and the reader feels like he or she is listening to the story, rather than reading.

15dukedom_enough
May 28, 2022, 9:17 am



A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Once, the humans of the inhabited moon Panga were served by robots that built all the things people needed. Then a couple of centuries ago, the robots suddenly became conscious - woke up, decided to stop working, and went off into wilderness areas. The humans...accepted that, restructuring society so that all necessary tasks might be done by the humans themselves.

Sibling Dex is a tea monk. Dex travels from village to village, serving cups of tea to all who need it, and providing a sympathetic ear for their guests' concerns. Modern Pangans live harmoniously with nature. The moon has one city, many villages, solar panels for electricity, comfy houses - Dex lives in a lovely, small wagon towed by a solar/human powered bicycle - work for all hands, and free time enough to relax with tea.

Dex becomes dissatisfied with their current situation, though, and after several years at this vocation, decides to explore beyond the human areas - and so meets a seven-foot tall robot named Mosscap. Mosscap is on a mission to recontact Panga's human population. The two begin a friendship, and carry on a discussion of what life - existence - means for thinking creatures of both sorts as the road trip winds onward.

The reader may well reflect on the differences between Panga's story and how involuntary servitude ended in some parts of Earth, or wonder how a moneyless economy of small workshops can produce all those solar panels and other comforts. Chambers provides no answers. Lacking any real conflict, Psalm is a warm, purring kitten of a novella. I liked it well enough, but don't really see why it was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards this year. Maybe we all need something soothing. Think I'll go have some tea.

Three and a half stars

16labfs39
May 28, 2022, 9:48 am

>15 dukedom_enough: Lacking any real conflict, Psalm is a warm, purring kitten of a novella. I liked it well enough, but don't really see why it was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards this year. Maybe we all need something soothing. Think I'll go have some tea.

LOL. Fun review. Enjoy your cuppa.

17dukedom_enough
May 28, 2022, 12:02 pm

>16 labfs39: I will, thanks!

18avaland
May 28, 2022, 2:38 pm

>12 RidgewayGirl: Kay, I of course checked to see if I missed any other books by Omotoso and yes, indeed I had, her very recent novel An Unusual Grief (it's a UK publication so I got it for less via Book Depository*).

19AnnieMod
May 28, 2022, 6:47 pm

>15 dukedom_enough: Pretty much my take on this one as well. It is an over-sugared cup of very weak tea.

20NanaCC
May 29, 2022, 12:21 pm

Just catching up, more or less. I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather today.

21avaland
May 29, 2022, 1:46 pm

>20 NanaCC: Thanks, Colleen. Wish I was near a large body of water where there is a nice cool breeze :-)

22dianeham
May 29, 2022, 3:41 pm

>21 avaland: cool breezes here.

23avaland
May 30, 2022, 3:06 pm

>22 dianeham: It does say that you are in the 70s in Cape May today, and here it's nearly 87ºF (in the backyard). I'll have to do with some non-dairy ice cream and a good book.

24dianeham
May 30, 2022, 7:50 pm

>23 avaland: The only problem here is the hoards that are out there. Staying in the yard and house.

25avaland
Jun 14, 2022, 5:23 pm

Just because it is seemingly oh-so-timely, I'm re-posting my 2019 review of Joyce Carol Oates' My Heart Laid Bare.

Sarah Wilcox, lady’s maid in merry old England, takes up her mistress’s clothing and jewels, and passes herself off as nobility. When caught, she is transported to pre-Revolutionary War America and manages to continue her artful schemes under many names, for many years, before her death in western New York state. It is the descendants of Ms. Wilcox which this novel is concerned with.

Abraham Licht and his children are a family of extremely talented confidence artists (a.k.a. swinders, grifters, hustlers, scammers) whose base of operation, or home if you will, is in western New York state and on the land of his forebear. The story of the Licht family is a wide-ranging, colorful family saga, which moves back and forth in time, following Abraham and his various children over the decades from the Gilded Age to the early 1930s. Told in an irresistible narrative voice, the book is hard to put down. It is inventive, often comic, fun to read, full of bits of American history and the endless schemes (or schemes within schemes) of Abraham Licht or is it Dr. Moses Liebknecht or A. Washburn Frielicht PhD or Lord Harburton Shaw or…. It is possible that the story might be a bit overstuffed, and the time changes sometimes a bit disorientating.

This is the fourth of five books in Joyce Carol Oates’s "Gothic Saga" or "Gothic Quintet," and was first published in 1998. I started this book in 2012 after reading the three previous books (all of which I enjoyed immensely), but at the time this one didn’t grab me so I set it aside. I read the fifth book when it was published in 2013. Why I thought to go back to this novel at this particular time is probably less a mystery than one imagines, for there is something very American about a family saga of con men and women. And one might ponder whether there is also something very American about their unwitting victims.

26lisapeet
Jun 15, 2022, 8:15 am

>25 avaland: Hmm, interesting and not on my radar at all. Do you think someone coming fresh to the series needs to start with the first?

27avaland
Jun 24, 2022, 10:55 am

>26 lisapeet: Sorry for my late response, Lisa. I'm fairly certain I did not read them in order. My favorite is the A Bloodsmoor Romance, a story of a family of daughters set in the last half of the 19th century (sound familiar?)

28Caroline_McElwee
Jun 25, 2022, 11:58 am

>27 avaland: I have a signed copy of that Lois. Must pull it off the shelf sometime!

29markon
Jun 25, 2022, 2:31 pm

>15 dukedom_enough: I liked Psalm better than you did, but agree it doesn't have the substance I expect from an award winner. Fun, though.

30avaland
Jun 26, 2022, 10:02 am



Stone Tree by Gyðir Elíasson (2003, trans. from the Icelandic 2008)

This extraordinary, quirky and wonderfully transporting collection from Eliasson includes twenty-five very short stories, most only around three pages in length. Set in the western shores of Iceland, his characters seem all too human, and maybe that’s his magic.

Like any collection, certain stories stay with the reader more than others…and here as I sit browsing through the collection again for this review (such that it will be), I want to read it all over again. Did I mention that books show up in some of these stories?

A few of the stories that have stayed with me….

"The Bus" Out on a walk, a man observes a family of nine living in an old black bus and later dreams of it….

"The Lost Grimm’s Fairytale" A seemingly idyllic walk is brought down to reality….

"A House of Two Stories" Imagine a house where a Vicar lives upstairs and a teacher downstairs, neither having anything to do with other, but the are both translating Steinbeck’s works …(one translating the long works, the other the short…)

"The Flight to Halmstead" Instead of taking a vacation together, a husband convinces his wife to go on a solo vacation to Sweden, while he’ll stay home to“get something done” …. (something got done alright —and not what you are probably thinking!)

But my favorite (for the pictures it drew) was…:"Book After Book": Here are two quotes from it:

"…The fridge was half full of books but contained almost nothing to eat. he grabbed one of the books…"

"…books hovered like sinister birds in his imagination, flapping their black covers, ruffling their white pages like breast feathers."

(yup, going to take it, along with others, on vacation with me in September!)

31Caroline_McElwee
Jun 26, 2022, 10:45 am

>30 avaland: Adding to the list Lois.

32avaland
Jun 26, 2022, 10:57 am

>31 Caroline_McElwee: I think you would find it amusing, Caro.

33avaland
Jun 26, 2022, 11:04 am



Black Seconds: An Inspector Sejer Mystery by Karin Fossum (2002, trans from the Norwegian 2007)

A nearly ten-year-old girl leaves home on her new bike and disappears, seemingly without a trace. Even the Inspector, after initial investigation, is a bit puzzled. It will be the hard work of our detective and his sidekick, and the help of many others in the community that will solve her disappearance and keep the attention of the reader….

and....
The Water’s Edge: An Inspector Seier Mystery by Karin Possum (2007, trans from the Norwegian 2009)

A couple hiking comes across the partially clothed body of a young boy. After alerting the police the male hiker takes photos of the dead boy on his phone. The team of Inspector Sejer and his sidekick Jacob Skarre begin a thorough investigation. No clear answers are found before another boy disappears….

I enjoy Fossum’s Sejer series because they are pure police procedurals; detailed investigations without all the guns and thriller bits. The detectives’ investigations are a puzzle to be enjoyed, their two-step-forward-one-step-back thinking process is more realistic and certainly refreshing. Your enjoyment of these mysteries depends on what you value in a mystery series (I happen to prize the slow unraveling of the puzzle....)

34labfs39
Jun 26, 2022, 7:57 pm

>30 avaland: Stone Tree might be just the thing next time I'm finding myself too distracted by life to focus on a doorstopper.

35avaland
Jun 28, 2022, 6:03 am

>34 labfs39: Of course, most short fiction collections fall into that category:-)

36thorold
Jun 28, 2022, 2:26 pm

>33 avaland: Autocorrect notwithstanding, that does raise the interesting question of whether we’d be more likely to buy Ms Possum’s books than Ms Fossum’s, other things being equal… :-)

37labfs39
Jun 28, 2022, 8:15 pm

>35 avaland: True. But these are extraordinary, quirky and wonderfully transporting, as well as extremely short.

38lisapeet
Jul 4, 2022, 9:36 am

>27 avaland: No worries about that, since I dropped out of sight for a couple of weeks anyway. Good to know, and that sounds like a good read.

39avaland
Jul 5, 2022, 3:01 pm

List of further crime fiction series and some standalones I've enjoyed in addition to those listed in my response to the latest "Question for the Avid Reader"

Other authors I have enjoyed somewhat less:
Gary Disher (Australia) his Challis and Destry series (
Peter Temple (Australia) His “Broken Shore” series
Denise Mina (Scotland)
Ausma Zehanat Khan (Det. Esa Khattak (Canada)
Deborah Crombie Det Duncan Kincaid/Gemma Jones
Charles and Caroline Todd writing as Charles Todd (Insp Ian Rutledge)
Asa Larsson (Sweden) Rebecka Martinsson series
Anne Holt (Norway) Vik & Stubø series and the Hanne Wilhelmsson series
Jørn Lier Horst (Norway) William Whisting series
Karin Fossum, (Norway), Inspector Konrad Sejer series
Ragnar Jonasson (Iceland) his early “Dark Iceland Series”
Jorge Brekke (Norway) his “Odd Singsaker” series

Standalones:
The Shadow of the Wind,(Spain) Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Mystic River (US) Dennis Lehane
The City and the City, (UK) China Mieville
Jack Glass: The Story of A Murderer (UK) Adam Roberts
North of Boston: A Novel (US) Elisabeth Elo
Before I Burn (Norway) Gaute Heivoll
Wolf Lake (US) John Verdon

40avaland
Jul 5, 2022, 3:03 pm

>38 lisapeet: I would certainly like to revisit them through your reading.:-)

41dukedom_enough
Jul 17, 2022, 10:52 am



The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge

A short, comic novel, from 1965 and tied to its era, although not as securely as I'd wish. Adam Appleby is a graduate student in literature, commuting to the British Museum's reading room every day to work on his thesis. The thesis is going too slowly, his scholarship term is running out, and he, his wife, and their young children are squeezed into a too-small flat. As Catholics, Adam and Barbara are hoping fervently that the ongoing Vatican II council will allow the faithful to use more reliable means of birth control than the rhythm method they now follow. Meanwhile, though Adam is only 25 years old, they have three little ones - and Barbara's period is late.

The book follows Adam through a single day, as he tries to make scholarly progress while wondering how they'll feed a fourth child. The day proves to be an unusual one, with comic mishaps variously foreshadowing brighter or dimmer futures for Adam and his family. Lodge includes in each chapter a pastiche of one of the twentieth-century authors Adam is studying, including Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, and James Joyce, to name just the ones I was able to identify - e.g., to renew his admission card to the reading room, Adam gets a turn with the Museum's Kafkaesque bureaucracy. He must cope with eccentric colleagues and a mysterious American, and struggle to keep his aged motor scooter on the road. I laughed a few times, and smiled often.

My edition has an introduction written by Lodge in 1980, outlining his circumstances and thinking at the time - his life was not nearly as exigent in 1965 as Adam's, as he began his own career as a literary academic and author of comedies of academic life. He muses that Adam and Barbara eventually would have opted for the pill, regardless of Humanae Vitae.

It would be lovely to think of this novel only as a funny record of a vanished past. But I write the month after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and the right wing in the US is now calling for restricting the availability of contraception. An entire genre of story, once relegated to history, becomes currently relevant again. We will see many more young couples face Adam and Barbara's troubles - and worse. For me, that made the novel less enjoyable, seeming to look back not to 1965, but the introduction's 1980, a time that now seems more innocent.

Three stars

42avaland
Jul 18, 2022, 6:27 am



There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Russia)

Sadly, I’ve waited too long to review this book, and won’t be able to give it due justice. I picked this collection up for two reasons 1. I’d read and enjoyed two of Petrushevskaya’s previous books: The Time: Night and a collection, Immortal Love, and enjoyed them both. In the past I had a thing for fairy tales, which have had a special place in feminist’s/women’s literature.

There is an excellent introduction in the beginning of this book written by the two translators…don’t skip it. It both introduces Petrushevskaya and the works presented within. I enjoyed these nineteen tales — bleak (think the Soviet era), dark, strange and creepy - some better than others. And probably not for everyone.

That’s all I’m going to say, but if you finish this and want more modern fairy tales beyond this author, maybe make your own informal study, I would recommend….
*Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber (UK)
*Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride (Canada)
*Joyce Carol Oates’s A Fair Maiden (US)
*Herta Muller’s Land of Green Plums (Romania/Germany),
*Eudora Welty’s The Robber Bridegroom (US)
*Maria Luisa Bombal’s House of Mist (Argentina)
*Sofi Oksanen’s Norma (Estonian)
To name a few….

43RidgewayGirl
Jul 18, 2022, 2:53 pm

>41 dukedom_enough: I really like your comments on this book and I'm adding this to my list of books to look for.

>42 avaland: This is on my own tbr shelf. The Robber Bride remains my favorite Atwood. It may be time for a reread.

44avaland
Jul 18, 2022, 2:58 pm

>43 RidgewayGirl: Handmaid's Tale is still my favorite, but I loved The Robber Bride almost as much.

45jjmcgaffey
Jul 18, 2022, 5:53 pm

Two more recommendations -
Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Spinning Silver
T Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon (same person, two names - it's supposed to be adult books vs kids', but I don't find that accurate). The Raven and the Reindeer, for one...most of her stuff is _sort of_ fairy tales, some of it is explicitly so.

46dukedom_enough
Jul 18, 2022, 10:04 pm

>43 RidgewayGirl: I'll be interested in your reaction. Lodge can be quite funny.

47thorold
Jul 19, 2022, 12:09 am

>41 dukedom_enough: The odd thing about The British Museum is falling down is that it doesn’t really seem to have made much impact when first published, so almost everyone who read it will have come to it in that 80s reissue, probably having read Lodge’s later, post-Vatican II, book on Catholics-and-sex How far can you go? first.

48dukedom_enough
Jul 19, 2022, 9:38 am

>47 thorold: Have you read that introduction? He does talk about How Far Can You Go (which I haven't read) somewhat.

49thorold
Jul 19, 2022, 1:24 pm

>48 dukedom_enough: Yes, ca. 1980. I only remember it vaguely. How far can you go? is much nearer in style to the well-known campus novels. It’s quite funny in parts, but I don’t know how many 21st century readers are going to be looking for a gentle social satire about Vatican II.
The only one of his early books I’ve re-read lately is Ginger, youre barmy, the one about National Service: I enjoyed that, partly because my father, about the same age as Lodge, is an indefatigable National Service Reminiscer.

50avaland
Edited: Jul 28, 2022, 10:38 am

Poem of the Day from the Emily Dickinson Museum, which is currently closed for restoration work....

We talked as Girls do – (392)

We talked as Girls do –
Fond, and late –
We speculated fair, on every subject, but the Grave –
Of our’s, none affair –

We handled Destinies, as cool –
As we – Disposers – be –
And God, a Quiet Party
to our authority –

But fondest, dwelt opon Ourself
As we eventual – be –
When Girls, to Women, softly raised
We – occupy – Degree –

We parted with a contract
To cherish, and to write
But Heaven made both, impossible
Before another night.

Posted in Poems by Emily Dickinson.

51avaland
Edited: Aug 1, 2022, 1:05 pm

deleted...

52avaland
Edited: Aug 1, 2022, 1:05 pm



Strange Beasts of China by Ge Yan (2021, translated from Chinese)

In one Chinese city, a young woman who is an amateur cryptozoologist, is asked by a former professor if she would document and uncover the stories of the cities famed 'beasts" who have lived among humans. The beasts are very human-like (although they have green skin); female beasts can breed with human males, but male beasts cannot breed with any but their own kind. Our documenter, who describes each kind of beast in detail, begins with the "Sorrowful" beasts. Others are "Joyous". "Sacrificial", "Impasse" and "Thousand League" and so on.

Strange Beasts of China is a wonderful, intriguing and clever combination of fantasy mystery. Like our intrepid amateur, we the readers are drawn deeper into the story and the mystery of these beasts. Are they some vestige from a human past? A mutation? Are we really one kind? There is something being suggested here and it made the story irresistible.

I thought the story muddied a bit near the end but it doesn’t take much away from the enjoyment of this fresh imaginative novel.

53avaland
Aug 1, 2022, 9:51 am



The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees by Douglas W. Tallamy (2021)

Talllamy, an ecologist and professor, takes us through a year-long cycle, charting both the oaks themselves and rich ecology that depends on them—-all in under two hundred pages. That rich ecology includes birds, deer, squirrels…etc., but also means every caterpillar, weevil, ants, moths, all manner of bugs… And one comes away with a thorough and fascinating lesson on everything you probably never knew about acorns.

One does develop over the course of this book a real appreciation for the species and the importance of them in the ecosystem. We have many, many oaks on our property, I will try to remember all this the next time I step on an acorn :-)

54avaland
Aug 1, 2022, 2:08 pm



The Breakwater Book of Newfoundland Poetry, Edited by Mark Callahan and James Langer
2013

Went looking for a decent poetry anthology for Newfoundland and sent for this one, which is nearly ten-year old now. The editors proclaim these to be the "strongest poets since the death of E.J. Pratt in 1964…" All of the poets, with the exception of Michael Crummey, are new to me. The collection presents poetry from eleven poets, of which only four are women; this was a bit disappointing (did I mention the editors are both male? One wonders why the low representation of women in a ‘’contemporary” anthology — perhaps it was how the qualifier "strong" was interpreted …but I digress….)

Generally, I enjoyed the poems in this collection, as with most poetry collections, one connects with some poems or poets better than others. Below, is one of my favorites:

BREAKER by Sue Sinclair

A cold-burning brilliance,
distillery of light, green camouflaged
in the ocean’s understory. Your mind is gathered
like a horse about to take a hurdle, ready to leap.
But fascinated by the rising wall, it stalls,
and time seems to slow
while you consider the monumental
fatigue of this immanent failure.

Beauty like a stain bleeds through
the layers of matter,
something, somewhere in pain,
the traces of it seeping into this world.
You stand back and watch as the inevitable
takes over: the green recess
of the wave collapses, the light buckles,
the depths recover what was owed.
How helpless you are yet
on the brink of being able to do more,
as though you could punch your hand through
the window to rescue whatever it is that,
trapped inside, haunts the corridors.
You haven’t, though, quite got what it takes.
The window shatters anyway, but in the spirit
of denial.So it goes, the heartbreak
of merely standing by as what
dwells here does its living and dying
on its own terms.

(and yes, I just looked up individual collections from this poet:-)

55dukedom_enough
Aug 1, 2022, 3:14 pm



The Businessman by Thomas M. Disch

I was saving Tom Disch for the DeSantis administration, as I expect his books will match the mood then. But this book came to the top of a pile and, well...

One of his three "Supernatural Minnesota" novels, this 1984 title, while not Disch's best, rewards a read.

Giselle Glandier has problems - mainly, that she's dead, strangled by her husband Bob, the businessman of the title. Rather than going on to the afterlife, her spirit is confined, first to the cemetery, then to Bob's vicinity. She'd rather not haunt him, but seems to have no choice. There's also the matter of her spectral pregnancy with Bob's offspring, a demon baby who has a bad attitude toward everyone else, alive or dead.

Bob, the most relentlessly banal evil person you could imagine, is pleased to have gotten away with the murder (but the guy he bribed to supply an alibi is getting ideas). Bob is kind to Giselle's mother Joyce, in hopes of inheriting Joyce's house - hopes that are threatened when Giselle's brother Bing (who is gay, therefore of course estranged from the family) turns up.

Joyce dies early on (natural causes), and learns that heaven (or its lower levels anyway) is a lot like a shopping mall. Higher levels of the afterlife are reached by escalators; all very middle-class Midwestern USA.

Tom Disch (1940-2008) grew up gay in Minnesota and plainly had a great time settling some scores here. The (ghost of the) poet John Berryman is a major character, continually bleeding from the wounds from his suicide jump off a bridge and portrayed quite unsympathetically. Greedy, violent, stupid, trivial, obtuse - every character without exception is unsympathetic, a Disch specialty. The AIDS crisis would have been on the author's mind, but isn't mentioned. The bodies pile up quickly as the demon baby works to protect its father.

This novel lacks the razor-edged, bleak intelligence of Disch's best 1960s and 1970s books, but is worth picking up if you're feeling too much faith in your fellow humans.

Three and a half stars

56janeajones
Aug 1, 2022, 3:56 pm

>42 avaland: Ooh, I must find this one. Sounds like perfect bedtime reading, and I heartily endorse your other recommendations, though I haven't read A Fair Maiden or Norma.

57avaland
Aug 1, 2022, 4:19 pm

>56 janeajones: If you can't find it, let me know ;-)

58SassyLassy
Aug 3, 2022, 9:36 am

>54 avaland: In this thirtieth anniversary of the cod moratorium, the beautiful Sinclair poem sounds almost like an elegy for what is lost.

E J Pratt's poetry still sells around the island - saw lots of it last month.

59wandering_star
Aug 3, 2022, 7:58 pm

>52 avaland: This review reminds me that I have started this book, but I lost momentum with it because the structure of each chapter was so similar. I never actually decided to ditch it, but just started reading other things instead...

60avaland
Aug 6, 2022, 5:00 pm

>59 wandering_star: I agree that the structure more or less repeats, but the "beasts" being described are of course different. Will be interested in what you think generally and what you think about the last few chapters. :-)

61dukedom_enough
Aug 11, 2022, 1:13 pm

Something cool: the Shirley Jackson estate has authorized a novel based on The Haunting of Hill House. The new book will be written by Elizabeth Hand. Hand's 2015 book Wylding Hall is a fine haunted-house story, so she has form.

62avaland
Edited: Aug 31, 2022, 4:31 pm



Almost Beauty: New and Selected Poems by Sue Sinclair, 2022

I discovered Sue Sinclair in an anthology of Newfoundland (Canada) anthology, and thus went looking for more…. how wonderful that she just happened to have a new book out, a collection of poetry chosen from her five previous collections. Great stuff. Here is just one of my many favorites:

Green Pepper

Glossy as a photograph, the bent
circumference catching
the light on its rim. Like a car’s
dented fender, the owner desperate
to assess the damage, unable
to say, like the sun, it can’t
be helped
.

Conspicuous and irregular
all its life, born
with its eyes shut tight,
as though there really were a collision
it was trying to avoid. But it hasn’t
happened yet—there is only
the impact of light: it has never

been in love, never drifted apart,
never fantasized about another
fragrant vegetable, never
been flattered, never been denied,
never wanted more than it has.
A life governed by absence:

the gleam of white
on its hollow body.

"Sue Sinclair grew up on the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk in Newfoundland and Labrador and is currently an uninvited guest living on Welastekwiyik* Territory, where she teaches creative writing at the University of New Brunswick. She holds a PhD in philosophy and wrote her dissertation on the intersections of beauty and ethics. She is also a poetry editor for Brick Books and is also editor of the Fiddlehead, Canada’s oldest literary journal." (from the back flap)
*the “e”s in this word should be upside down and backwards

63avaland
Sep 14, 2022, 6:00 pm



Back from eight days on a lake in Maine. The water was still warm and great for swimming, most of the days were dry and comfortable; there were sunsets every night but two. One overcast day we drove up to the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland to see the work of the three Wyeths, and illustrator Ashley Bryant...and much more.
We've settled back in, caught up on a few things, and now we should have some time to catch-up here....

64labfs39
Sep 15, 2022, 8:09 am

Welcome home, Lois! I'm glad you had a pleasant sojourn up north.

65lisapeet
Sep 15, 2022, 9:26 am

>63 avaland: Beautiful, and sounds like a great time. We spent something like six hours in Maine in July, five of them sleeping, and I really want to go back and actually enjoy myself sometime soon.

66avaland
Sep 15, 2022, 4:39 pm

>64 labfs39: I did wave at you as we passed the Saco exit (coming and going) :-)

>65 lisapeet: Thanks, Lisa. Where about were you in the state?

67labfs39
Sep 15, 2022, 6:18 pm

>66 avaland: lol. That must have been the blur I saw whizzing by!

68lisapeet
Sep 20, 2022, 11:10 pm

>66 avaland: We were up in Medway, where we intercepted a friend who was in the process of driving up to her new home in Newfoundland with a cat she thought escaped during the move, at the Gateway Inn—so called because it's the gateway to Canada. As in, way, way up at the top of the state. I caught the cat in her apartment after she had to leave (she had to catch the ferry that goes to the island she was moving to, which she'd had to book months out), made a stop at urgent care after the poor thing tried to kill me, and then my husband and I drove ALL NIGHT to bring this cat to her.

We slept fiveish hours at the Gateway, had a nice lunch of fried haddock sandwiches, and drove home because I had to work the next day and hadn't thought to bring my laptop when we jumped in the car with the cat. Altogether a 25-hour round trip, and not one I'd want to make like that again, but I'd love to go up there and spend a little time someday.

69labfs39
Sep 21, 2022, 10:14 am

>68 lisapeet: What a trip!! You are a good friend!

70rocketjk
Sep 21, 2022, 12:54 pm

>54 avaland: Wow, that's a great poem. Thanks.

71avaland
Sep 21, 2022, 1:22 pm

>68 lisapeet: Great story! and yes, a good friend indeed. I don't think I've been up to very northern Maine since the late 70s (a group of us drove up to pick up a friend in Presque Isle). I still would like to see the maritime provinces.....

>70 rocketjk: Thanks, I liked it.

72Caroline_McElwee
Sep 27, 2022, 9:17 am

>62 avaland: Adding to the list.

>63 avaland: Beautiful photo Lois.

73avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 8:09 am

>72 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caro.

Well, both of us are very (VERY) behind on our reviews. I may have to keep them short to catch up (ha! his pile of "not yet reviewed" is larger than mine).

74avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 8:43 am



The Night of the Fire by Kjell Ericsson (2020, Swedish crime novel)

The author of this excellent series stopped writing for quite a few years (8, I think) so I was glad to see he has resume his Ann Lindell series.

As the series continues Ann Lindell has left the Uppsala police force for retirement in the country, where she is enjoying retirement (she has taken up making cheese). When a old local former school building is set on fire and three people die, Anne can’t help but get involved (although to her credit, she mostly lets her colleagues investigate). While this is being investigated a bomb explodes in Stockholm….

I’ve enjoyed this excellent series over the years. The character of Anne is complex and more realistic that many females in crime novels. She is present in this book but doesn’t dominate (she is retired after all). The crime story intensifies about a third of the way in, is more complex, and I admit I had trouble following some of it. Still, despite my difficulties, I thought this a very good, diverting read.

75avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 9:16 am



Touch by Olaf Olafsson (Icelandic, 2022, novel)

It should be said that Olafsson is one of my favorite authors and I have read everything he has written that is in English. He writes intimate, empathetic stories which plumb the depths of the human soul (while keeping the books relatively short).

Touch is a mere 259 pages and sells the story of an older man, Kristofer, whose memory is failing. While attempting to deal with his health issues, he receives a communication from Japan – an old girlfriend he dated back in the 60s when they were both students in London. He has mixed of feelings but decides to fly to Japan to see her….

This is a story of the past, the present, love, regret, and mystery….

76japaul22
Oct 1, 2022, 9:59 am

>75 avaland: Do you have a favorite novel by Olaf Olafsson? I haven't read anything by him yet, but tend to really enjoy Icelandic authors.

77avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 10:31 am


Dottie by Abdulrazak Gurnah (1990, Zanzibar, reprinted UK 2021

Dottie is seventeen when she becomes the caretaker of her younger sister and brother. It is a relentless struggle; and for a while it seemed for every step forward she made, there was a step back. Sometimes, its her stubborn doggedness that keeps her going. She is determined to keep the family together after the death of their mother, but other opposing forces are also in play. She is all too human, with her own wants and needs.

This is both a family story, and a woman-coming-of-age tale. Over the course of these 400 pages, Dottie, with help, learns about her roots and overcomes many barriers to developing into someone readers everywhere can admire.

I started reading Gurnah in 2007 while in the midst of my “African period”. He is another favorite author of a small group I call my “empathic’ authors. Dottie is one of his earlier books (from 1990) recently re-printed. Gurnah usually writes male characters, so this book intrigued me because it’s a tale of a young woman. Could Gurnah pull off a female-coming-of-age story? Turns out…yes, he can.

78avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 10:39 am

79japaul22
Oct 1, 2022, 11:05 am

Thank you!

80dudes22
Edited: Oct 1, 2022, 11:14 am

>75 avaland: - I finally got around to reading Restoration which I took as a book bullet from you a couple of years ago and liked his writing a lot. I'm planning to read more so may look for this one next. Off to see if the library has it. If not, I'll get my sister to order it.

ETA: Looks like it's on order for most libraries so already a hold list.

81avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 11:52 am



Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (2022, fiction)

I love fiction. It's art, not a science. Five authors given the same assignment will each come up with very different books. Stories can be told is so many different ways.

This is my 9th Karen Joy Fowler book. My first was her Sarah Canary, so long ago; she caught my attention back then and never let me go. She is an extremely clever writer and has her own way of telling a story. I was hooked after that first book.

————————————————

In the "afterword" of Booth, Fowler tells us "I began thinking about this book during one of our American spates of horrific mass shootings. I wondered about the families of the shooters—“ And here I recommend to the more literal readers who wish to read this book, to read these few “afterward pages first (it’s not like you don’t already know the climax of the book, right?)

The author follows the Booth family through a number of decades, with no more focus on John Wilkes than any of the other children (okay, maybe the youngest girl gets a bit more air time). The father, a talented actor, often drunk, is not always reliable; mom holds down the fort, so to speak. Over the years the talented family become more or less famous. Fowler surrounds her characters with the era’s historical trappings and happenings (which have their eerie echoes in very recent history). And guess what, big surprise, Lincoln gets shot.

That may the climax of the story, but Karen Joy Fowler persists in making this story, a family one, so the story doesn’t end here. Life goes on.

(Another great book, Karen!)

82avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 1:50 pm



Q Road by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2002,

Literary Regionalism may have died out as a movement back in the early part of the 20th century, but certainly no one told Bonnie Campbell, LOL. Campbell writes affectionally about rural Michigan; the land, the people, their customs and rhythms of their daily lives.

Those things are again all hereIs this story.The small town of Greenland Township is on the cusp of being overrun by the phenom called suburban sprawl. Q Road (short for Queer Road) is the current line of demarkation. Here the author plants a cast of characters—some quite quirky. It’s difficult to reduce this story to a few lines; it’s easier to tell you how it starts…, Rachel lives with her mother in a houseboat on the river. When her mother disappears, Rachel carries on without telling anyone. She eventually figures out, when the food runs out, she needs to find a job…. and so our story begins.

I very much enjoyed this little novel. And while Campbell writes affectionally, and intimately about rural Michigan, the insights she gifts us are universal.

This is my fifth (of five) Bonnie Jo Campbell book.

83rocketjk
Edited: Oct 1, 2022, 2:38 pm

>81 avaland: I thought of this book recently while reading through the January 1962 edition of a magazine called Show: the Magazine of the Arts. In a column about American theater, specifically about a play called "East Lynne" that was very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the writer, Robert Liston, in recounting some of the eccentricities of the famous actors of the day, tells us, "There was Edwin Booth, the towering Shakespearian genius of the American theater, who refused to play Washington or even accept flower tributes from its citizens out of grief for his brother John Wilkes." I am guessing Fowler makes use of this tidbit in her novel.

84avaland
Oct 1, 2022, 2:32 pm

>83 rocketjk: That's a great tidbit! Thanks for that.

Hubby has started to work on reviewing his pile of books read.....

85labfs39
Oct 1, 2022, 3:27 pm

Yay, Lois is in the house.

>76 japaul22: Ears pricked... Got it.

86dukedom_enough
Edited: Oct 10, 2022, 10:10 am



The This by Adam Roberts

Social media has its discontents, but it's not such a departure from older modes of communication - or is it? Here we have Adam Roberts taking on social media through the lens of the German philosopher Hegel, plus the usual Roberts assortment of puns and clever flights of imagination.

In the near future, The This is the name of a new social media app. A seed is injected into the roof of the mouth, and sends tendrils into the brain. You the user can now read and write to Twitter without using your phone, no big deal! Except we know what's next: no person has ever left The This voluntarily. The network, normally indifferent to whether a particular person joins, is unusually interested in recruiting an ordinary man named Alan Rich.

In the farther future, humanity is under subtle attack by Hive Mind θ, a collective, immortal network of brain-linked humans. Adan, a man who's down on his financial luck, puts his beloved phone, sorry, "Phene", into storage and joins the war. Turns out he may have Hive-defeating powers. Is his story linked to Alan's?

I don't know enough about Hegel to follow how the old guy relates to the story. The Hive Mind does not see a distinction between subject and object, since they are both subject and object. Also, it seems that spirit is everything. God, or actually Roberts, provides some explanation near the end. There's one chapter that imagines the farther future of Orwell's 1984, and various amusing speculations on our fascination with our smartphones. And don't forget the bits about reincarnation.

Despite being a bit hard to follow, the book is quite refreshing, and unlike anything else I've encountered.

Four stars

87labfs39
Oct 2, 2022, 5:47 pm

>86 dukedom_enough: The This sounds interesting, Michael. But the touchstone goes to a Sesame Street book! Lol

88RidgewayGirl
Oct 2, 2022, 10:26 pm

>63 avaland: Is there an more New Englandy artist than Andrew Wyeth?

89avaland
Oct 3, 2022, 4:32 pm

>88 RidgewayGirl: Some might argue for Winslow Homer….

90AnnieMod
Oct 3, 2022, 4:36 pm

>86 dukedom_enough: That sounds like Roberts' usual style - he excels in these weirdly connected parts in his novel - a style which sounds like it should not work and somehow the novels end up being great. And I am pretty sure I got that one when it came out and never got around to it...

91dchaikin
Oct 3, 2022, 8:09 pm

You were busy this weekend, Lois. Enjoyed your reviews (even if Booth was not my thing).

92avaland
Oct 4, 2022, 5:50 am

Yesterday was my Thingaversary (Oct 3, 2006)....I was awards a 15 year Thingaversary medal...which is nice...but by my calculations, this is my 16th year...?

93avaland
Oct 4, 2022, 6:06 am

>91 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan.

94labfs39
Oct 4, 2022, 8:03 am

>92 avaland: Happy Thingaversary! Are you going book shopping?

95jjmcgaffey
Oct 4, 2022, 3:17 pm

92>Yeah, but the first year ended in 2007. So you have begun your 16th year...

96avaland
Oct 4, 2022, 3:27 pm

>94 labfs39: Nah...I'm always shopping for books....

>95 jjmcgaffey: So true!

97laytonwoman3rd
Oct 4, 2022, 10:21 pm

October 2006 through October 2022 is a full 16 years completed.
October 3, 2021, was your 15th Thingaversary.

98avaland
Oct 5, 2022, 3:19 pm

>97 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. I did send a note to info@.

99lisapeet
Oct 5, 2022, 6:34 pm

Well, however long you've been here, it's a good thing you are. Happy Thingaversary!

100dukedom_enough
Oct 7, 2022, 3:31 pm

>90 AnnieMod: I liked Purgatory Mount better than this one; easier to follow and somehow more heartfelt. I still owe a review of it, though.

101AnnieMod
Oct 7, 2022, 3:38 pm

>100 dukedom_enough: Had not gotten to that one either. I got introduced to him with Salt and Yellow Blue Tibia in the late 2000s and had been meaning to return to him. I really should.

102avaland
Oct 8, 2022, 7:51 am

>101 AnnieMod: Salt was my first of Robert's books, read back in 2001. I was working at the bookstore and we had this catalog from a UK wholesaler and...well, I couldn't resist.... Read On the next year. The things he comes up with! Just ordered his nonfiction: Publishing and the Science Fiction Canon: The Case of Scientific Romance.

103dukedom_enough
Oct 10, 2022, 10:11 am

>87 labfs39: Thanks, I finally fixed the touchstone.

>101 AnnieMod: Yellow Blue Tibia is still the Roberts book I'd recommend for a new reader.

104kidzdoc
Edited: Oct 11, 2022, 7:50 am

Nice review of Dottie, Lois. I purchased the Kindle version of it last year, and I'll probably read it early next year.

I'm pleased to read one positive review of Booth; I'll get to it before the end of the year.

105avaland
Oct 11, 2022, 8:09 am

>104 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. I still have Pilgrim's Way and Afterlives to read...

Re- Booth: I fear, like Dan, you may not like it.

106kidzdoc
Oct 11, 2022, 8:15 am

>105 avaland: I can definitely recommend Afterlives, one of the first books I read this year. I still have to get to Pilgrims Way and Gravel Heart.

Given its tepid reviews on LT, and my dislike of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves I'm not expecting to enjoy Booth, which is why I'll probably wait until December to read it. I did purchase a copy of it in August, when I met several LTers in Philadelphia, and since I want to finish the Booker Prize longlist by year's end I'll at least give it a try, especially since John Wilkes Booth is a person of great interest to me.

107avaland
Oct 11, 2022, 10:38 am

>106 kidzdoc: There is really very little of JW Booth in the book so you will be very disappointed:-)

108kidzdoc
Oct 11, 2022, 10:53 am

>107 avaland: Ack. My inner completist insists that I read Booth. I don't have to finish it, though.

109dchaikin
Oct 11, 2022, 1:58 pm

>108 kidzdoc: >107 avaland: I struggled with Booth. I wish it had read it without knowing about the Booker nomination. I might have been more open. Darryl, I do feel I learned a lot about JW (to a fictional degree). He is a little bit of a hidden focus. Not usually in spotlight, but present enough (in a future sense, if not otherwise).

110avaland
Edited: Oct 11, 2022, 5:23 pm



Late Wonders: New and Selected Poems by Wesley McNair (poetry, US, 2022)

Wesley McNair is a New England poet, a New Hampshire resident until he took a professorship at the University of Maine at Farmington forty years ago (they live in Mercer, ME roughly halfway between Bangor and the NH line, going east to west) He has written roughly twenty books and has been nominated and awarded much over the last 40 years.
Late Wonders: New and Selected Poems begins with a very nice "retrospection" written by McNair, and the volume ends with a section of his new poems. Between the two are selections from his collections, including "McNair’s masterful trilogy of three long narrative poems written over the course of thirty years." (these have been published in separate volumes.

I like McNair’s poetry for many reasons. It’s down-to-earth, intimate, ordinary, sometimes funny or sentimental, always empathetic. He’s captured so much of northern New England, and yet we easily find in his lines the universal.

OLD CADILLACS

Who would have guessed they would end this way,
rubbing shoulders with old Scouts and pickups
at the laundromat, smoothing out frost heaves

all the way home? Once cherished for their style,
they are now valued for use, their back seats
full of kids, dogs steaming their windows; yet this

is the life they have wanted all along, to let go
of their flawless paint jobs and carry cargoes
of laundry and cheap groceries down no-name roads,

wearing bumper stickers that promise Christ
until they can travel no more and take their places
in backyards. far from the heated garages

of the rich who rejected them, among old trees
and appliances and chicken wire, where the poor
keep each one, dreaming, perhaps, of a Cadillac

with parts so perfect it might lift past sixty
as if not touching the earth at all, as if to pass
through the eye of a needle and roll into heaven.

—————————————————————-
You can read more of McNair's work here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wesley-mcnair

111dchaikin
Oct 11, 2022, 5:51 pm

Enjoyed that poem

112avaland
Oct 12, 2022, 6:10 pm

>111 dchaikin: Thanks! (and I'm sure Wesley would thank you, too)

113avaland
Edited: Oct 22, 2022, 4:54 pm

We have been on a three day getaway around southern New England, putting 450 miles on the car. 1. Hubby wished to show me the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut (which was fabulous!).

https://britishart.yale.edu/

Then we drove halfway across the state to visit the... 2. Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT, https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/ "The Late Georgian mansion was transformed from a wealthy sea captain’s home into a boardinghouse for some of the most noted names in American Impressionism." Florence let Childe Hassan and friends paint on the walls and furniture in the kitchen....







And 3. Out to Newport, Rhode Island to take hubby to see Fort Adams State Park and generally the Newport area (I've been there and in Newport generally before but he hadn't been) The fort was built after the Revolutionary War was in use until the 1950s. The is also one of the "tall ships" moored there (one that is owned by the state of Rhode Island).

https://fortadams.org/

We also happened to drive by the "Old Jewish Cemetery" that Longfellow memorialized in a poem... Hubby got all excited when he realized THAT was THAT cemetery.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44634/the-jewish-cemetery-at-newport

And drove around for some lovely oceanscapes* before heading back to the mainland (neither of us was really interested in looking at mansions, which of course Newport is known for).





We finished our small 'vacation' with a lovely dinner out with another LTer and her husband and headed home the following day after a nice breakfast at a local place.

No reading was done. And we managed to briefly check out a book cafe in New Haven and didn't buy any books!

114RidgewayGirl
Oct 22, 2022, 4:56 pm

What a wonderful trip! That house is amazing.

115labfs39
Oct 22, 2022, 7:25 pm

How lovely to get away and enjoy New England art and scenery before winter sets in. I'm so glad you had a good trip.

116dianeham
Edited: Oct 22, 2022, 7:50 pm

Great get away. I like coastal CT. You weren’t far from Eugene O’Neill’s house - Monte Cristo Cottage.

117dchaikin
Oct 23, 2022, 12:40 am

Sounds like a wonderful trip. The Florence Griswold Museum looks so, well, gorgeous.

118avaland
Edited: Oct 23, 2022, 8:40 am

Thanks, all.

>116 dianeham: We skipped the Mystic area because of time and I had been before. We knew of the O'Neill house but had limited time, and he was less interesting to us.

We do have plans for a few more short outings before I have foot surgery and winter descends upon us.

119dianeham
Oct 23, 2022, 1:48 pm

>118 avaland: when my husband was 17 he was in the USCG and his very first duty station was the New London Ledge Lighthouse in the Thames river. So we’ve been back to visit a few times and stopped by Monte Cristo while we were there. Sorry I never knew about the Griswold house.

120avaland
Oct 23, 2022, 3:05 pm

>119 dianeham: Oh, interesting!

121avaland
Edited: Oct 27, 2022, 4:15 pm



The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet. (Nonfiction, History)

This narrative history tells the true story of seventeen-year old Lanah Sawyer, who is raped one evening in 1793. She does an unheard of thing for the era…she makes a formal accusation against her gentleman rapist. However, it’s not long before Lanah is relegated to background while her stepfather, seeing a bit of money might be made, fights in the courts with the alleged rapist.

I picked this up because I like both early American history and women’s history, but I was surprised how quickly I was invested in the whole mess, and how interested—even intrigued, I became with the endless machinations of the late 18th century law (which, btw, had no place for women). Does Lanah get justice? That’s for the reader to decide, I think.

The story itself is less that 300 pages, with another eighty or so pages of epilogue, appendix notes, credits…etc. .

122dukedom_enough
Oct 31, 2022, 10:47 am



The Peripheral by William Gibson

William Gibson has always been concerned with the ultra-rich. The events of Neuromancer are driven by the power and wealth of the decaying Tessier-Ashpool family. Billionaire Hubertus Bigend has his fingers in every pie in the Pattern Recognition trilogy. And from 1986’s Count Zero: “And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.” Plutocracy’s future is one of today’s most important questions, and Gibson is on the case.

His latest takes on this question in a fast-paced thriller, peopled by characters who must live as best they can under threat of dispossession and murder by the ultrawealthy. About 15 years from today, in a small town in Georgia, the decidedly nonwealthy Flynne Fisher is coping resourcefully with persistent economic downturn. Her brother and his friends are back from the wars, all more or less damaged. One night, Flynne takes over her brother’s shift on a sort of virtual security-guard job - and witnesses a murder. Extremely powerful and dangerous people will now find her inconvenient, and she must rely upon an ally, Netherton, whom she finds via the same online channel that provided the guard job.

The Peripheral's short chapters, from Flynne’s and Netherton’s viewpoints, alternate in a smooth, steady tick-tock, while immense forces maneuver around them both. Gibson’s view of the future of the 1% has a grim verisimilitude, and his speculative technology convinces. Gibson grew up in South Carolina and Virginia, so it’s no surprise he perfectly captures Flynne’s US Southern speech patterns, but he also gets Netherton’s English ones. Witty dialog, clever observations, interesting characters: the book is everything we’ve come to expect from the Gibson of recent years. The book appears to be setting up a trilogy, but stands alone perfectly well

What disappoints here, somewhat, is that this novel is not terribly different, in its take on the future, from those of many other authors published in recent years. Thirty years ago, in 1984, the future seemed to glow through Neuromancer - a future that was really a present, one then understood by relatively few people. I suppose one revolution is enough for a writer’s career; we must be contented here with an excellent story, and another take on whatever the plutocrats have in store for the rest of us.

Four and a half stars

123dukedom_enough
Oct 31, 2022, 10:48 am

The above review is from January 2015, soon after the book appeared. Now, after a reread in late 2022, my estimation of the book has risen, because the Trump years have made it perhaps the most prescient of mid-2010's SF novels. We seem slotted firmly into the early part of the "jackpot" that so traumatized Netherton and his London associates - a series of calamities that have reduced the world's population by four-fifths in just a few decades. Netherton's world is extremely rich and comfortable for its survivors, as long as they don't miss all the extinct animal species, or cross the ultra-wealthy "klept" who run everything.

I also noticed, this time around, that Gibson is presenting Flynne and Netherton as unreliable narrators, who see only a small part of the machinations of their powerful ally Lowbeer and her opponents. Neither narrator gets to have much agency in the events, rather they must fight to keep up. The exception is that Flynne realizes she does have a small amount of leverage, and uses that to help her family and town. Maybe that's all anyone ever gets. The fantastically corrupt system remains, Lowbeer able only to moderate it - if that's indeed what she's doing. We'll know when the third part of the trilogy is published.

124dukedom_enough
Oct 31, 2022, 10:49 am

My reread was occasioned by the TV series adaptation of The Peripheral on Prime video. After two episodes, I like the series moderately. I'm bothered that, as always in TV/movies, they've amped up the violence. And that Flynne's peripheral looks like her counters the book's motif of Netherton's never to be fulfilled attraction to her. I guess it makes things easier for the audience to follow? Viewers are simply told how the connection between Flynne's and Netherton's worlds works; again, trying not to tax people's little heads. Will continue to watch.

125japaul22
Oct 31, 2022, 10:55 am

>121 avaland: I just heard about this book on another book website. I've added it to my list - sounds interesting.

126avaland
Oct 31, 2022, 5:05 pm

>125 japaul22: I would love to hear what you think of it. I would send it to you but I've already told my my brother and SIL I'm sending it to them.

127labfs39
Oct 31, 2022, 10:36 pm

>122 dukedom_enough: Great review. I have both Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition, but have read neither.

128dukedom_enough
Nov 1, 2022, 9:55 am

>127 labfs39: At this point, Pattern Recognition might be the better one to read; Neuromancer doesn't have the shock-of-the-new feeling it once had. Pattern Recognition is not science fiction.

129japaul22
Nov 1, 2022, 11:47 am

>126 avaland: No problem! My library has it, so I put myself on the hold list for it.

130labfs39
Nov 1, 2022, 12:47 pm

131avaland
Nov 2, 2022, 5:38 pm



It was a lovely temperate Autumn day so we took off south into Massachusetts to visit "Fruitlands" where we officially tied the knot back in Oct. 2005 (after shacking up for eight years). We revisited the house the Alcotts and a few others resided in during their communal utopian experiment (see above photo); the tour guide was great. I sat out on the Shaker museum to minimize walking but Michael did the tour for that. We skipped the native American museum (we have been to Fruitlands many times in the past) but lingered in the art museum, before heading back up the hill to enjoy a delicious light lunch at their cafe; we sat at a table outside to enjoy the panoramic view (despite the leaves being past prime).

https://thetrustees.org/place/fruitlands-museum/
They have a lot of hiking trails there, too...btw

132avaland
Edited: Nov 18, 2022, 4:42 pm



A Heart Full of Headstones: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin (crime novel, 2022)

The latest Rebus novel is, as expected, a sufficiently complicated and intelligent crime story with all our familiar characters. I've have loved this series over the years (all 23 prior books), but somehow Rebus as a retiree/outsider with fingers in every pot, good bad, and otherwise, just did nothing for me. I found myself skimming the last third. I think I have had enough of the series, but see what you think.

133avaland
Nov 24, 2022, 4:31 pm

Good grief, I have neglected our thread and am behind on reviews!! Must get to it as soon as the weekend is over....

134avaland
Dec 4, 2022, 6:15 am



Willnot by James Sallis (fiction, US, 2016)

In a wooded shallow grave outside of the town proper, there is a discovery of several bodies, and the local doctor, Lamar Hale, is called in to assist law enforcement…

While this beginning sets up expectations of a ‘usual’ sort of crime novel, the reader is soon expertly seduced away…

Hale is busy man (“the town’s all-purpose general practitioner, surgeon and town conscience”) and we-the-reader are soon contentedly engrossed in a story of Hale, his family, friends and the town of Willnot.

So…perhaps not for the die-hard mystery/crime reader who needs or expects a formula, this clever, intimate, immersive, ‘regional’ short novel is an excellent read for those who willingly follow the bread crumbs.

135dianeham
Dec 5, 2022, 12:39 am

>134 avaland: glad you liked it. I just read your recommendation also, During-the-event, and enjoyed it.

136avaland
Dec 5, 2022, 5:28 am

>135 dianeham: Excellent! Thanks, again.

137avaland
Edited: Dec 22, 2022, 4:20 pm

I read many, many authors, but I was curious about the living fiction authors I "follow"*....you know, you read all their books and look for their new books...etc. So, I went back 20 pages in my library and picked out the authors (remember, "living"). I was also curious whether these authors were, say, the same age range as myself...or was there anything that connected them beyond the obvious.

*This is just those in the "mainstream" fiction classification (crime novels and SF/F would be other lists) .

LIVING AUTHORS I FOLLOW (in English)
1.Aboulela, Leila (Sudan) b. ’64
2. Appanah, Nathacha (Mauritius) b. ’73
3. Atta, Sei (Nigeria) b. ‘64
4. Atwood, Margaret (Canada, Ontario) b. ’39
5. Barker, Nicola (UK/England) b. ’66
6. Campbell, Bonnie Jo (US/Michigan) b. ’62
7. Capus, Alex (France) b. ’61
8. Couto, Mia (Mozambique) b. ‘55
9. Crummey, Michael (Canada, Newfoundland) b. ’65
10.Fowler, Karen Joy (US) b. ‘50
11. Freeman Jr, Castle (US, set in VT) b. ‘44
12, Gee, Maggie (UK, England) b. ’48
13. Grondahl, Jens Christian (Denmark) b. ’59
14 Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Zanzibar b. ‘48
15. Habila, Helon (Nigeria) b. ’67
16. Harding, Paul (US/Massachusetts) b. ‘67
17. Harper, Jane (b. UK/Australia) b.’80
18. Heivoll, Gaute (Norway) b. ’78
19. Hoeg, Peter (Denmark) b. ‘57
20. Jen, Gish (US / NY) b. ’55
21 Jones, Gail (Australia) b.’55
22. Lent, Jeffrey (US / Vermont) b. ‘58
23. Likson, Rosa (Finnish) b. ’58
24. Livesey, Margo (UK, Scottish) . ‘53
25. London, Joan (Australia) b. ’48
26. Mason, Daniel (US / CA) ‘76
27. Millet, Lydia (US / Massachusetts) b. ‘68
28. Moss, Sarah (UK / Glasgow ) b. ‘75
29. Oates, Joyce Carol (US / NYS) b. ’38 (will always be behind)
30. Oksanen, Sofi (Finnish-Estonian) b. ’77
* Olaf Olafsson (Iceland) b.'62
31. Rash, Ron (US / S. Carolina) b. ‘53
32. Russell, Mary Doria (US, Illinois) b. ‘50
33. Stamm, Peter (Switzerland) b. ’63
34. Tokarczuk, Olga (Poland) b. ‘62
35. Tuck, Lilly (US) b.’38
36. Yoon, Paul (US / NY) b. ‘80
37. Yuknavitch, Lidia (US) b. ’63 discovered late, am way behind

----
WARNING: stats below may be off, I kept revising...but you'll get the idea...
Born in: 1930s-3, 1940s-4, 1950s-11, 1960s-13, 1970s-5, 1980s-2
Male Authors - 15 (40%) Female - 22 (60%)
North America: 14 US, 2 CANADA
Iceland:1
UK: 2 Scotland, 2 England total - 4
Africa: Sudan 1, Mauritius 1, Nigeria 1, Mozambique 1, Zanzibar 1
Europe: Poland 1, Switzerland 1, Finnish 2, Denmark 2, Norway 2
Australia: 3

Conclusion: yes, I have followed more authors born in the 50s & 60s, and more women than men.(Gail Jones (AU) has a new book out...!)

138avaland
Edited: Dec 16, 2022, 11:48 am

And after doing this, I encouraged Michael to make a similar list of living authors he follows. Here is his list:

Michael’s list of living fiction authors he follows….(nearly all SF/F authors)
Lodge, David (UK) b. ‘35
————-
Chiang, Ted (US) b. ‘67
Crowley, John (US) b. ‘42
Egan, Greg (AU) ‘61
Gibson, William (US/CA) b. ‘48
Jones, Gwyneth (UK) b. ‘52
Kelly, James Patrick (US) b. ‘51
Mieville, China (UK) b. ’72
Roberts, Adam (UK) b. ‘65
Sterling, Bruce b. (US) b. ‘54
Stross, Charles (UK) b. ‘64
Valente, Catherynne M. (US) b. ‘79
Wilson, Robert Charles (US/CA) b. ‘53

Again, this is living authors one "follows" We kind of divide the prodigious output of Adam Roberts between us.(and we are still behind)

139RidgewayGirl
Dec 16, 2022, 12:45 pm

>137 avaland: That is a fun and illuminating exercise. It would be fun to put one together for myself, at some point when life provides the space. I'm thrilled that Gail Jones has a new one as she's on my list, too. Lydia Millet's latest, Dinosaurs, is wonderful, by the way.

140avaland
Dec 16, 2022, 4:28 pm

>139 RidgewayGirl: Darn, I'd like to see that list when and if you do one.

My SF&F list is short:

SF/F
Crowley, John (US) b.’42(aspirational, mostly)
Ford, Jeffrey (US) b. ’55 (very, very prolific; I'm behind)
Fowler, Karen Joy (US) b. ‘50 (duplicate)
Jones, Gwyneth (UK) b. ’52 (possibly not publishing now?
McAuley, Paul (UK) b. ’55 (I look at all, but read what interests me)
McHugh, Maureen F. b. ‘59 (seems not to be writing books currently)
McLeod, Ian (UK) b. ‘66 (I'll read everything he writes)
Mieville, China (UK) b. ‘72 (not writing SF now, sadly)
Morrow, James K. (US) b. ‘47 (nothing since 2017 :-)
Roberts, Adam (UK) b. ‘65 (this man writes as fast as JC Oates!)
Slonczewski, Joan (US) b. ’66 (not writing now?)
Vandermeer, Jeff (US) b ’68 (I will never keep up)
Wilson, Robert Charles (CA) (we take turns reading him)

A Mystery/Crime list would be too different/difficult as it is bound around series. I might like one of Val McDermid's series but not another...for example.

I have had a few nonfiction writers who I check on now and again, same for poetry, but otherwise I like to graze in the genre.

141AnnieMod
Dec 16, 2022, 5:18 pm

You know, I had not thought of Slonczewski in years - she seems to be concentrating on her science career at the moment so maybe she will come back to SF one day. Gwyneth Jones is writing a story per year or something like that lately. And so is Maureen McHugh - but I would love to see a novel from either of the 3 as well.

I had been thinking about authors and what I follow since you posted earlier today - I tend to follow authors but I also tend to fall into "I know I will like him/her, it can wait" patterns (which I am working on getting away from).

142japaul22
Dec 16, 2022, 5:21 pm

I've had a similar list for years, but it as not as thorough or well thought out as yours! I just add (and subtract) contemporary authors who I want to keep on my radar - either to read their new releases or to remember to read their backlist of novels. It comes in handy, though, and I keep one for classics authors too.

143labfs39
Dec 16, 2022, 5:59 pm

Hmm, interesting. As I think about it I realize that I don't really follow any authors, except for a couple that write series, like Jacqueline Winspear. Maybe Mary Doria Russell although I didn't read the one about the copper mine. I think this is a reflection of my acquisition habits more than anything else. I tend to pick things up at the library that grab my attention, or from library book sales, which are serendipitous. This past year (and next) have been heavily influenced by the Asia and now Africa reading challenges, so what specific buying I did was to find books from countries I had not read from before. I also don't feel compelled to read an author's complete oeuvre. I tend to cherry pick their "best" works or those whose subjects are most of interest to me.

144avaland
Dec 17, 2022, 7:11 am

>141 AnnieMod: Thanks for the updates Michael stays a bit more current with SF news and mentioned what he had heard. It's tough to be an author....

I should probably calculate how much of my annual reading is reading these authors and how many are occasional reads or new exploration....

>142 japaul22: It's relatively easy if you skim your library back X number of pages...

>143 labfs39: That's interesting....a completely "free-range" reader! I have done all those things, too. I don't necessarily read everything from these authors, and the list is mutable. There is probably a list to be made of favorite authors who are deceased....

145avaland
Dec 17, 2022, 7:41 am

OK, a quick assessment of this year's reading suggests that of the fiction read thus far (not including anthologies, crime/mysteries, or SF/F) I have read 55/45 percent more books by authors I've read before, than new ones.

146AnnieMod
Dec 17, 2022, 3:08 pm

>144 avaland: I am bad at keeping track of authors I like who rarely publish so I went and checked what the 3 of them are up to and figured I may as well share what I found :)

>145 avaland: Now you make me really go and play with these numbers. :)

147avaland
Dec 17, 2022, 4:00 pm

>146 AnnieMod: Is that report on your thread? :-)

148AnnieMod
Dec 17, 2022, 4:04 pm

>147 avaland: Will be when I finish playing with the numbers. :) It’s actually a more interesting statistics for me than genres and gender stats. So thanks for the idea!

149dchaikin
Dec 17, 2022, 5:05 pm

>137 avaland: this is a terrific list and fun exercise.

150avaland
Edited: Dec 18, 2022, 5:33 am

>149 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. It also gives me a handy list now to remind me. The list is somewhat fluid...and I don't expect to get to all of them any more. My reading has slowed down....

151arubabookwoman
Edited: Dec 20, 2022, 10:52 am

I didn't go through my library, but I don't think there's very many authors I follow absolutely. I can only think of 2 offhand, David Mitchell and Richard Powers--I've read all their books and buy a new one by them as soon as it comes out (both male--Sorry). Usually if it's an author I'm familiar with and like, I check out what the book is about, and will read it if the subject interests me. Oh--nearly forgot--I almost always read the latest in the Lynley/Havers series, though I've been disappointed more than once.
ETA Of course Oates is an author I follow, but as you say, impossible to keep up with. I've probably read 15-20 of her books, and just bought her latest, Babysitter.

152avaland
Dec 21, 2022, 4:43 am

>151 arubabookwoman: I haven't dared to list mystery series I followed. Lynley, Dalgliesh...

Ah, Oates. I was just re-reading some of my reviews of the Gothic Quintet, my faves. And also ran across my review of "Zombie" (another serial killer....). Babysitter has a nice NY Times review --- tempting.

153avaland
Dec 21, 2022, 5:09 am



Musical Tables: Poems by Billy Collins (poetry, US, 2022)

In his latest book, Collins offers us a collection of very short poems. In a short afterword he traces his fascination for short poetry. He loves the "suddenness" of small poems. He also notes that there are no "rules" to short poetry as there is with, say, haiku.

As a reader of poetry I have, of course, come across many short, "sudden" poems in collections and anthologies, one or two is one thing, but would I enjoy an entire volume of it?

Turns out, the answer is yes. Collins's collection is clever and often funny. I even found myself reading some of them out loud to the hubby. Here are a few:

Carbon Dating

He tried it once
as a last resort

but most of the women
were a million years old.

Mute Potato

Before introducing it to a pot
of boiling water,

I caught a medium-size
Idaho potato

staring up at me
with several of its many eyes.

Falling Asleep

Walking Backwards
into a dark forest,

I sweep my footprints
out of existence

with a large
weightless branch.

Covid

Another long day
at home.

I set my phone
on Airplane Mode.

154SassyLassy
Dec 21, 2022, 10:00 am

>153 avaland: These are wonderful!

155markon
Edited: Dec 21, 2022, 10:41 am

Adding Willnot to my to read pile. I'd like to buy an audio copy of the Billy Collins for a friend, but he can't see well enough to use a digital copy, and it looks like it isn't available on CD. Sigh. Maybe I can buy a copy and burn it to a CD for him?

156avaland
Dec 22, 2022, 9:36 am

>154 SassyLassy: Yes! He has a good sense of humor and doesn't take himself too seriously

>155 markon: It sounds like he needs a tablet of some kind where he can enlarge the print size, otherwise that is a quandary indeed. Let me know how you resolve it.

157Caroline_McElwee
Edited: Dec 23, 2022, 6:44 pm



With every good wish of the season Lois. I look forward to keeping up with next year's reading.

158avaland
Dec 24, 2022, 6:20 am

Thanks, Caro.

159lisapeet
Dec 25, 2022, 10:22 am

>137 avaland: That looks like a fun exercise. I know those authors of mine when I see them, but I've never kept track.

>153 avaland: I love that cover!

OK, all caught up on your thread now. Happy holidays, and hope you're keeping warm.

160avaland
Dec 28, 2022, 8:38 pm

>159 lisapeet: Thanks for stopping by! That is indeed a great cover; very Billy Collins. Hope your holidays were fun, festive, and full of new books!

We were without power for 24 hrs on the 23rd and 24th. We went to bed fully clothed that night and the next morning Michael got the generator going. 245 houses were involved in that particular outage. There were others....

And never a dull moment... the bears are clearly not in deep hibernation, as one came through and took one of our poles down to get the suet feeder. It was a steel post that he/she bent completely over. I found the suet feeder about 20 ft into the woods. It was in opened but not damaged. We generally bring in all the feeders each evening but hadn't started that yet....

I have foot surgery on Friday, so we may not be online, but Happy New Year to our reading friends and see you in 2023 (Michael is going to create our new thread at the end of the year)