Stasia's Thread for Richard and Only Richard (No Fair Peeking Anyone Else)

Monday:

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King - on my memorable reads list for the year

Tuesday:

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny - 4th book in the Three Pines Series which continues to improve with every book

Wednesday:

Gifts of War by Mackenzie Ford - I think the thing that saves this book from being a 3 1/2 star book for me is the attention to historical detail - no surprise there since the author is a historian - so I would give it 4 stars

Thursday:

The General by Patrick A. Davis - overall a pretty good thriller, a real page-turner

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan - the last book in the Percy Jackson series and it was a wonderful finale

OMG

ONOZ

HEEEEEELLLP!!

Now it's DAILY torment! Noooooo

*weeps brokenly*

You got what you asked for . . .

Another "be careful" moment, I agree!

Friday (at least so far):

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Is it a good'un? The book description isn't making me hanker after it.

I peeked!

But I'm going now. Honest.

#9: It was OK, Richard, but not anything I would rush right out and buy. There were a couple of plot holes that bothered me. I think the other thriller of his that I read as an ARC, Fear the Worst, was better.

#10: Cushla, for shame - although at least you were honest about it :)

*gasp* An intruderess! An intruderess! Oh the horror!

Is it wrong that I starred this thread??? ;)

shhhh, #14, no, it's not wrong at all.

*tiptoes out*

I had my hands over my eyes but it was hard to type.

Ok, I am an official member of the 75 challenge cheaters group.

Richard, we have been discovered!!

Nay, nay, sweet Stasia, say 'tis not so! We must flee!

Oh gosh...too much 18th-century fiction.

#19: Yes, I fear so, kind sir! Alas and alack!!

(I am reading The Elegant Universe now, so I have no excuse, lol.)

I am not going to post Saturdays reads here, since we have a bunch of nosy people in the group, Richard. lol

Oh good? Oh drat? Oh dear? For once in my life, I have no idea how I should feel...

#22: Lol, I know you do not mean that seriously, but I love you for it!

Nosey? I'm simply wanting to be a part of the club that contains two of my favorite LT people.

Ok, ok, I'm going off to the corner to sulk...

And a cute sulker you are, too!

Sulk my lily-white one! No sulking in this room, little missie. Snap out of it!!

I am not here......

Who you callin' missie?

*passes through wearing her Cloak o' Invisibility*

I have abandoned the thread, lol.

But...but...abandoning the thread means abandoning *me*...

*wail*

#32: OK, Richard, you win . . . I could never do that to you!

Sunday-Tuesday:

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan

Jim the Boy by Tony Earley

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - a terrific book and on my memorable reads list for the year

The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer

I read The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio a while back and was curiously disappointed...somehow I expected more. I don't know exactly what more I expected, I guess more than just a recitation of facts, maybe? But it seemed strangely flat.

I'm adding The Worst Hard Time to my wishlist. I had no plan to do that after hearing such praise for it here on LT, since my track record with the highly praised books is not that great...but among the best of the year from you...!

#35: Wow, Richard, I am flattered that you think so highly of my praise that you would put a book on your TBR stack even with the praises of a bunch of other LT'ers.

Did you give up on Choosers of the Slain? I am sorry if you did not enjoy it. I will try and do better with the next book I send your way.

No, no! I haven't reviewed it yet because I have to read anything I intend to review twice before writing. So it's in queue2.

I liked it, and am very pleased!

Ah, OK. Read everything twice? - my goodness, I am lucky to get through books once! Good thing I do not do reviews :)

Wednesday:

Abandoned Slumberland. One of the reasons I like to read is because my world gets expanded and I can explore experiences that I might not otherwise have had. I have never been a black male, living in Berlin as an ex-pat LA'er. That being said, I stuck with the book through 40 pages, and I just could not take it any more. Maybe this one is just too far removed from my normal purview? I really wanted to like it and am disappointed in my inability to do so. *sigh*

Moving on to The Good Thief instead.

Thursday:

The Wood Wife by Terri Windling - the Coyote makes another appearance - last week in Green Grass, Running Water and here in this book, an interesting, enjoyable blend of reality and mysticism

Oh boy oh boy! Both Wood and Grass are ALREADY on the wishlist!! As for Slumber, it sounds pretty gawdawful so I have marked it with a big red X. Thanks for saving me!

Another one for Thursday:

The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs - this is the kind of 'horror' that I used to read as a kid (of course, it is not horror by today's standards); Storm Raven brought Bellairs' books to my attention and I will definitely be reading more of them

Richard, as far as Slumberland goes, you might enjoy it more than I did. Browngirl, here in the group, really liked it. I guess it just was not my cup of tea.

No, I think I can safely rule it out...I am not intrigued by LA or Berlin, so two big strikes right there.

John Bellairs...seems vaguely familiar...I'll have to trundle off and wiki him up.

Richard, the Bellairs books are juvenile fiction. Maybe you read him when you were younger?

Updates for this week:

A Comedy of Terrors by Michael Innes - this was a terrific mystery, the first I have ever read by Innes, and I will definitely be reading more

The Promise by Chaim Potok - the follow up book to The Chosen, which is on my memorable reads list for the year, but I did not like this one quite as much, although it is still an excellent read

Today:

The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel - nonfiction; I kept feeling like I was hearing to much of the author of the book rather than the author of the diary while reading this one

The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer - nonfiction; this book is filled with a ton of memorable quotes, so I just picked one I liked a lot - "With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures."

The Tozer sounds like an interesting read.

I heard that about the Koppel too, and I will give it a miss.

Potok's books I read in the 70s. Didn't like 'em. Not likely to re-read any.

Michael Inness hasn't crossed my radar screens yet...drat you, Anastasia Matilda Shermandweller!

Richard, CatyM did a great review of the Tozer book on her thread, so you might want to have a gander at that.

As far as Michael Innes goes, you can blame Horus for that one. He recommended it around Christmas last year - I am just now getting to it.

Today:

The Grey King by Susan Cooper - the 4th book in the Dark Is Rising sequence, and the best so far; this one goes on the memorable reads list for the year

I hear mixed things about this series. My daughter didn't find it engaging, but my sister thought it was outstanding. What is it that you particularly like about the series? What's kept you reading up to number 4?

The first book was very good, which of course, spurred me to read book 2. I think the crux of the series, the belief in 'the Old Ones', is made easy by Cooper. Book 1 is a fairly easy, straightforward read, but book 2 and the ones thereafter take more of an effort (at least for me). Book 3 ties together threads from books 1 and 2 - basically, I keep reading because the books get better and I want to know how it all turns out! Book 4 and how it deals with the mythology of 'the Old Ones' is very good. Keep in mind that these books are juvenile fantasy. Very well written juvenile fantasy IMO. Also, Richard, we are doing the series as a group read, so you might want to check out some of the other comments here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/67054

Also finished today, The Spire by Richard North Patterson, a pretty good psychological suspense novel, but I thought it went on a bit too long.

I also finished No Bugles, No Drums by Charles Durden a very good novel set in Vietnam.

Friday:

Pursuit by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza - a very good mystery/suspense novel, the first I have read by this author; is the doctor the paranoid one? or is it his patient, the psychotic seducer of his daughter? or is another malevolent force at work?

I cannot find the proper Touchstone for this book and no idea why not - I added it to my library just fine.

Early Saturday:

Lower East Side Memories by Hasia Diner - a terrific nonfiction book on 'furthering our understanding of how American Jews made sense of their past as they contended with a particular kind of present', Diner discusses how the Lower East Side of New York City has become sacred in Jewish consciousness.

Early Monday morning:

Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus - nonfiction; very good account of Yunus' work in starting the Grameen bank and who eventually won the Nobel Prize for his work with the poor in Bangladesh and other countries

Tuesday:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare - young adult; the first book in the Mortal Instruments series and very enjoyable - I already have book 2 on hold at the local library

Wednesday:

The Silk Code by Paul Levinson - I finally finished this book today and for a book that really sounded up my alley. this one was one big disapppointment!

Thursday:

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin - a powerful semi-autobiographical novel set in NYC's Harlem, it is a wonderful coming-of-age tale

Early Friday:

Thale's Folly by Dorothy Gilman - a light read after Baldwin's book and an enjoyable, if somewhat mindless one

Eyes of the Storm by Jeff Smith - another adventure with the Bone cousins and the truth of Thorn's origins comes out

Weekend reading:

The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah - this book should have gone on last week's reading list since I finished it before my self-imposed deadline, but I was too lazy to go put it back in, lol; all in all, just a fun book (lycomayflower recommended)

Jackeroo by Cynthia Voigt - young adult; highly recommended

The Quiet Game by Greg Iles - a very good suspense novel about a man returning home to Mississippi after the death of his wife and investigating a 30+ year old murder

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips - I liked this book a lot, but did not love it as some others in the group have done

Early Tuesday:

The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer - young adult; the 2nd book in the Sorcery and Cecilia series, but not as enjoyable as the first, still I liked it enough to continue on to book 3

>54 alcottacre: Ooooh! I love Mohammed Yunus! I admire the forethought and common sense of the Grameen Bank.

Now I have to read the book, drat it.

I'm not here, nope...just hiding and peeking in.

#61: Glad to know I got one in you have to read, Richard!

#62: I do not see you, nope, you are invisible.

Late Tuesday:

The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer - young adult; this book completes the trilogy begun with Sorcery and Cecelia and it is probably just as well since neither of the following books lives up to the first, IMHO, although I did like this one better than book 2

Wednesday:

The Soloist by Steve Lopez - nonfiction; 'an unlikely friendship' indeed between newspaper columnist and a paranoid schizophrenic who had been out on the streets since he left the prestigious Juilliard

Later Wednesday:

Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri - perfect for a rainy day read - something completely unstressful

Later Still Wednesday:

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - young adult; the first book in the 'Uglies' series - very good dystopian novel

Thursday:

Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede - Not for you, Richard - there are no less than 9 cats! I, however, a really enjoying this fantasy series - I liked this book better than book 2, but not as much as book 1

Early Saturday:

Four Weeks in the Trenches by Fritz Kreisler - nonfiction; recommended by Peter, who did a very good review of this admittedly slim book; I thought it was a wonderful snapshot of what life in the trenches was like

Also Saturday:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman - I know a lot of people liked this book, but I just felt the whole thing might as have 'Look at me - I am not Harry Potter' written all over it

>69 alcottacre: I see that a lot these days. I think it's a sign of how derivative the commercial market in entertainment truly is. And, if we're honest, always was. Publisher's Weekly reported in 1989 that the perfect book title of 1939, according to the trend of publishing books that tap into the zeitgeist, was Lincoln's Doctor's Dog since it encapsulated the three biggest selling categories.

People don't change, do they?

#70: The frustrating thing to me about the book was it just felt overdone, too contrived - let's use the 'f' word a ton, so that people know they are not reading Harry Potter, let's throw in sex, so people know they are not reading HP, but let's refer to him often enough so that people know that's who we want this book to be compared to. Argh! Very frustrating for me and by the time I reached the point in the book where the characters go to Fillory (about 2/3 of the way through), I frankly did not care any more.

No, people do not change - unless it is for the worse :)

>71 alcottacre: Euuurgh. Awful!

"I always know where I am with you...about to be let down."--my mother to my father, post-divorce

"No one I've ever known could slap a 'fail' sticker on you faster than your mother. No one has ever, ever succeeded in her eyes because they can't do what she won't do: Make her happy."--my father's letter to my older sister, who happened to be my mother's least-loved child, after she ran away at 16

#72: Your mother sounds exactly like my father.

Richard, I know that you are doing the writing thing for November, so if you do not have the time or leisure to check this thread, let me know and I will discontinue it.

In the meantime, though, late Sunday:

Speeding Bullet by Neal Shusterman - an enjoyable young adult novel recommended by Prop2gether; my one real quibble with the book is the cover - the hero is supposed to be half-Italian and half-Spanish and the kid on the cover of this book is all Anglo!

It's like the artist didn't read the book, more often than not! I look at the covers of some of my favorite books, and the images are so out of whack with the book itself that I wonder why they chose them in the first place.

Hell and Earth, for example...that blonde chickie on the cover looks about as Faerie-regal as I do. She looks like a high-dollar hooker dressed for some client's medieval fantasy. *snort*

And then there are the *good* covers, like the one for The Map of Moments. It's really evocative of the mood and tenor of the book, plus it's got a lot of the elements of the plot kind of strewn about its iconography. A good cover should, IMHO, make you say "hmmm" before you read the book and "aha!" afterwards.

I think the artists who create the covers must be told little of what the book is about in the first place!

I agree with you about what a good cover is. I like that explanation very well.

Early Monday:

Ritual in the Dark by Colin Wilson - the blurb on the book jacket reads 'It is a psychological thriller with echoes back to Jack the Ripper - the exciting tale of a man who treads the narrow line between health and corruption, intellectual curiosity and morbidity, natural and unnatural love. It is also a thoughtful, contemplative book . . .' It is also VERY GOOD! Once I really got into the book, I could not put it down. I have a quibble with the book that I cannot detail here without giving away a major plot point, so I won't.

ETA: This book was written in 1960, a time I am assuming that homosexuality was thought of as something that could be outgrown, corrected, or something of that sort, so there are references to that in the book as one of the main characters is a sadistic homosexual.

It's a point of interest that the definition of homosexuality as a mental illness was decomissioned in 1974. Wilson was very much in the 1960 zeitgeist.

Amazing what a mere 50 years can do to what a book means!

Richard, what is 'zeitgeist?'

Early Tuesday:

What the Moon Saw by Laura Resau - young adult; magical realism combined with adolescence makes for a very good tale

Later Tuesday:

Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck - juvenile fiction; the second book in the Blossom Culp series and just as enjoyable as the first; Blossom is seeing ghosts, including a victim of the Titanic sinking

Going off the young adult/juvenile books for a bit. Next up is When the Devil Holds the Candle by an author new to me!

Admitting that I peek to say:

Zeitgeist generally means the overall cultural or social views typical of a particular time, place or group of people. In this instant I would say that Richard meant Wilson was still thinking along the lines of a 1960 attitude and belief system.

Did I make sense??

>82 lunacat: Yeup yeup yeup, what she said.

"Zeitgeist" literally means "time-spirit" so that makes it easy to remember. I think....

Thanks for the info!

Early Wednesday:

When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum - a mystery that is a departure from my normal mystery reading, very dark in nature

Late Wednesday:

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner - OK historical fiction about Juana of Castile

Earthman's Burden by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson - this one was just good fun about an astronaut who gets stranded on a planet where the inhabitants take on the personalities learned from their reading - including a Victorian Hoka Holmes

Early Thursday:

A True Likeness by Richard Samuel Roberts - nonfiction, this is a remarkable collection of photographs taken by Mr. Roberts, primarily from the 1920s, detailing the life of the middle-class black in Columbia, SC - highly recommended for everyone (especially the picture on page 97)

Early Friday:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - this book was a reread for me and I still enjoy it tremendously

I think "A True Likeness" sounds like a wishlist item...but you're completely correct, Stasia, I am simply not going to have time for any threading during NaNo, so save yourself the keystrokes and add the time to reading!

xoxo and thanks for the memories
RMD

#89: Understood. Thank you!

xoxo
SCD