richardderus's 2010 threads, #2

Stasia is right, so is Luxx, I need a new thread after a mere 252 posts.

I'm in the Books Off the Shelf group, too, so I will review 25 books that've sat on my shelves since who-whipped-the-cat and also 75 new books...published no earlier than 2008...this year.

My first three (!) reviews are in my first thread which I cannot believe only lasted a hot minute.

I now have a Homeless Reviews thread in Club Read 2010. I've set a completely arbitrary goal of 50 books to review that I don't own, and were published before 2008, so they don't fit anywhere else.

FOR THOSE JUST TUNING IN: I don't practice book reporting in my reviews. I see the purpose of my review of a book as describing what I *felt* and *thought* and why I think you *should* (or shouldn't, though that's rare with me; why review a book I didn't like unless there's a compelling reason?) read it. I don't know the readers of my reviews personally, for the most part, so I don't have any way to gauge whether you'll agree or disagree with me. It's always perfectly fine with me either way, and I invite comments from all.










Books are reviewed in post number:

7. Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman...#225

6. The Lost Symbol......#216

5. Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour......#173

4. Time Travelers Are Schizophrenic...#29

Welcome to the two-thread club!

*waves* Con mucho gusto, Ricardo!

ETA I can't wave in Stasia's second thread or I'll contribute to the ballooning of her thread out of all proportion! But the thought is there, Stasia.

How do, folks. Glad to see there's already traffic, being the lowly, unpopular troll of the 75-Books Challenge that I am.

*snort*

Here's an additional post to reduce the lowly, unpopular troll rating and increase the witty brilliant reviewer, bon vivant, and cat-hater rating. :)

Just strolling along to say hello ....

"Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap, went the bridge.

"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll."

Starred you again, you shameless hussy!

Trolling for compliments, I would say!

I know that I won't be posting in this thread richard the lowly.

( snorting back)

>5 karenmarie: Karen the Delusional, we shall dub her. *smooch* You sweet thing!

>6 cameling: Heydeehoo, Miss Caroline.

>7 London_StJ: I LOVE those tales! I've been reading them, what a complete delight! Thank you, little Luxxly loveycuddles!

>8 jdthloue: I am *not* shameless! You take that right back!

>9 ronincats: Roni, you're entirely too perspicacious. Go away.

>10 mckait: ...I'm sorry, you are...? ;-P

No *take backs* Richard....sari

;-p

Just posting here, so this thread turns up in your posts ;-)

hi Richard!

I missed it -- what's an 'orphaned' book?

Richard- So you're one of the Wee Folk, huh? Well, I'm not buyin' it! Scurries off...

Ack! No, no, no, no. I could never be a serpeant Richard. They disgust me, even a picture of one gives me an asthma attack (sorry if I offended any snake lovers)! Think of it more as Eve presenting Adam with I big ole juicey apple. Hope you enjoy, well enjoy is not a good word, hope you find A Long Way Gone just as enlightening as Beast.

>12 jdthloue: Juuust wait....

>13 FAMeulstee: Hey Anita! Good to see you!

>14 suslyn: Hi Suse...one whose review doesn't fit into the established categories. I don't own it, so it's not off the shelves; it was published before 2008, so it's not part of my self-imposed 75 challenge.

>15 msf59: Hi Mark! *spoken in a wee little voice*

>16 mckait: ROFL

>17 Carmenere: Lynda, I loathe hyenas the way you loathe serpents. I'd completely freak if I was ever in the presence of one, unmediated by stout glass or strong fencing.

I do not care for trolls, so obviously I need never darken the door of this thread again :)

>19 alcottacre: *snort* Like you could resist coming in and telling me you've already read everything I review! *scornful laugh*

Dropping by VERY casually, just so you don't think you deserve it or anything. *still smarting from the fact that not only did Richard call her 'pestilential', but her mum picked up on it, laughed hysterically, and now she will never hear the end of it...*

Found you;-)

>21 elliepotten: I live to serve...*evil chortle*

>22 calm: Drat! And I was hiding from you! *smooch*

I've just posted my review of the first Inspector Gamache mystery, "Still Life" (speaking of pestilential, these touchstones are hell today), in my "Homeless Reviews" thread in Club Read 2010 ... post #5.

No short version, go read the review then the book.

>ahem....Richard Dear..i gave a thumbs-up to your review...for your enthusiasm alone (alas, i am waiting on my pokey Liberry system to come through and deliver Ms Penny's books unto moi).....you crack me up, sir! no mean feat..or is that feet??
;-}

Richard,

Well you certainly didn't make it easy to find your review so I could thumb it but I managed. Good job my man. I suppose you're going to inhale the rest of the series as quickly as possible. Myself, I will let the good work stretch out s-l-o-w-l-y so that I can savor them over the course of a year or so, never really catching up to the author's production. (Plus the fact that someone has offered to send me the next two but I have to wait until she's finished after two long group reads.)

Glad you enjoyed this one. The rest are supposed to be even better. Yum:)

I enjoyed your review of Still Life. Isn't it wonderful?! And they do get better and better. I've read the first four and I'm ready to drive up to Still Pines for the weekend. I'm saving The Brutal Telling so as not to run out!

I've given in...A Fatal Grace is now next to me, opening itself in the most *lascivious* manner a book can manage...I must fly to it....

Ha! Don't fight it...

Review: 4 of 75

Title: TIME TRAVELERS ARE SCHIZOPHRENIC

Author: DR. A.R. DAVIS

Rating: ***1/2 of 5

It's funny how this book ended up on my TBR stack...it fell on my foot. Yep. Weird things happen to me in libraries, but this one's a doozie.

I was hustling through the "New Arrivals" section of the Rockville Centre library, not pausing to look at the pretties because you can only have the new ones for two weeks and I already had six at home unread. There were two more books in my arms. I was looking towards the check-out line to determine which circulation lady was moving fastest when OWWW my right foot (the one whose great to is lost to gout) has a sharp pain!

I looked down in some surprise since I was in the main aisle, not near shelves or magazine racks, so not expecting to have stubbed my toe on something. It wasn't stubbed. Time Travelers Are Schizophrenic was ON TOP of my sneaker.

From whence it fell, I do not know. I don't shuffle my feet, so it wasn't scooped up by foot motion from the carpeting. It just...appeared...painfully...on my foot.

Not being a complete idiot, I picked it off the shoe and checked it out. I then read it. And, as is my requirement, re-read it so I could write a fair review of it.

It's a self-published novel, and I can see why. This type of space opera meets time travel book isn't an easy sell to publishers of SF, and add in a healthy dose of end-of-the-world action plus a romance and I can hear the editors at Ace and Tor limbering up their "reject" stamps.

Too bad for them, and for us. This is a good story, told by a fair writer, and possessed of a solid, expandable premise. It needs editorial guidance to expand certain characters's narrative purposes (Shamel and Krizel suffer from severe underutilization), and to avoid certain first-timer errors, like the telling of the plot versus the showing of the action (the Fishmen are quite glancingly reported too often).

But. (Isn't there always a "but" in my reviews?) The idea of a world altered out of all imagining by cheap, abundant, non-polluting power, and inhabited by a new, small minority of humans with true mental multi-tasking capabilities born right into them, and humanity in its billions living on the Moon and Mars...this is good stuff, albeit not brand-spankin' new. Our hero is an artist, nicknamed "Siv," whose eighty-year life is equivalent to our, say, forty. He creates "emoti-sims" which are entertainment vehicles much like our movies. He chooses weird, off-kilter subjects, following his muse...but he is, in fact, trying to piece together the story behind makind's mutant multi-mind capability, which he has in spades.

It's his search, and the strange alleys it takes him down, that give the book its title. Siv is a time traveler...he re-creates for emoti-sim eternity the moments that, in retrospect, are the crucial ones to the mutation's appearance.

I won't go into more details, but I will say that Dr. Davis has made this a very easy book to like, and one I think a lot of SF fans would accept. But I fear it won't happen, as self-publishing is still a ghettoizing stigma on a book.

Be a devil...buy this book, and like it or loathe it, donate it to your local library after you read it. Let freedom from corporate publishing ring! Why not?

i love your review, but i think i'll pass on this book. Sounds a little too weird for me right now.

Sounds interesting. I'll have to look out for that one.

I love the way the book 'found' you - too bad for your poor foot, though. :(

Bloody hell Ricardo - two additions to my wish list in one busy busy day... *sigh* Oh well. Another thumb coming your way!

Dropping by the new thread to star you.

>30 cameling: You'd HATE it, Caroline, it would work your last nerve with pinking shears. Avoid like it's bound in roach leather.

>31 calm: It's unlikely e'er to leave these shores, dear calm, so go to Authorhouse's website to order...when you have a spare twenty.

>32 BookAngel_a: And the day's not over yet...go read Caroline's review of The Palace of Illusions. I had to redeem an Amazon gift card to procure the book for myself after her description. Go. Go!

ETA: >34 FicusFan: Hi Ficus! Welcome back!

It's available through the Book Depository, now I only need to get some spare cash and work out the bug that means my address doesn't show up on the Internet ;-)

Dearie, I sent you a PM - go see!

My God, Book Depository makes me tremble with its tentacular reach...rivaling Amazon's vines (pun optional, see mckait's thread).

Scored a copy of The Palace of Illusions new for 6.88 with my month trial of Prime which means no shipping cost. woot! Sounds lovely and has been thumbed.

I am practically panting for it now...see what Caroline does?! She sows the seeds of misery because we HAVE TO WAIT!!

*all her fault, just like the tsunami and the earthquake and the financial meltdown*

Anticipate, not wait!

hmm.... I've never been equated with a tsunami or the financial meltdown before ...earthquake, on the rare occasion when I'm running down the halls at the office because I'm late for yet another meeting.

Besides, richie dear... payback is ............ wonderful!

Breezes through....

#39 mckait - we have Prime and it's definitely worth it. Instant gratification, and since they have such a variety of things, not just books, it helped out a lot at Christmas. They got me with a monthly trial too. That was 5-6 years ago, I think.

message #35...Thanks for mentioning Caroline's excellent review. I gave it a thumbs up.

And, your story of the book falling on your feet is priceless! You get another foot, opps I mean thumbs up from me.

With all these hot reviews your head must be as swollen as your foot.

Well deserved hot reviews by the way!

Hugs to you!

Good review of TTAS...which, of course, has been on my wishlist since first you breathed its name....but it's rather hard to come by...and my Liberry system does not have anything so wonky (unless it's endorsed by the religious right, right?).....so i continue my search

read on, sir
J

Karen, I know.... I buy many things there myself...I have gone back and forth on it...I might have to do it.In the end it will probably save money, by not searching for things to make up 25$

I used to have to do that too - but dear Amazon UK is now fighting back against Play.com and first dropped its saver-delivery threshold to £5, and then dropped it altogether! I don't get free next-day delivery but at least I can buy-on-a-whim a book or two at a time now...

At last, photos of Miss Stella T. Jindo:



Perfect little lady. Right then, anyway.



*sigh* I'm so in love with this animal.



Unflattering one of me, but Stella's paw action is just too cute for words!

Beautiful animal! (both of you)

>50 tloeffler: Flatterer!

And I just noticed the elderly orange dishtowel in photo #3...sooo classy!

Miss Stella is lovely, beautiful and she has such sweet eyes!
You are lovely too :-)
Anita

She's gorgeous!

and lucky to have such a good friend.

>52 FAMeulstee: Anita, what is it with the Dutch? Are you *all* charming, witty, classy people? I may move there....

>53 calm: calm, I think (as weird as it sounds) that she knows she's lucky; sometimes it seems as though she's being extra adorable just to say "thank you for my life." And then there's the possibility that I'm anthropomorphizing and she's really thinking "___________"

hmmmm Just when I was beginning to think Stella was a figment of your imagination!
She is a beauty.. and you ain't so bad yourself sir!

She is a beauty That's for sure! What a widdle angel pweshus poopie durg!
and you ain't so bad yourself sir! That reminds me...when is your cataract surgery again?

Actually, I like this one of me better:

> 54 Richard
Are you *all* charming, witty, classy people?
Only the Dutch who read a lot ;-)

> 56
You added a picture while I was writing this, so I have to add:
Much better, so I can see you without a magnifying glass ;-)
But I prefer your profile picture.

Me too. You just look asleep in this one. But I like the kissing-the-dog one too.

What a sweet animal. The dog I mean;-)

"Shamel and Krizel suffer from severe underutilization."

I've been saying this for years!

Ha! I crack myself up. That book looks like fun. Maybe one of these days . . .

fyi, I've finally got my 2010 thread up in the 50-book challenge rumpus room.

love the pics!

no really, I do..

That is not sarcasm!!!

really...

>61 mckait: Uh-huh. And is that little schloop in 62 supposeta convince me?

>60 rocketjk: Cool! But did you decide not to link to it because I've made you mad at me, and I should wander the 50-Book halls wondering how to find you and apologize?

>59 brenzi: Bonnie, *hhhaaarrrumph* (But she really is sweeter'n sweetness itself!)

Love the pics, Richard! Thanks for sharing - both Stella and of yourself.

#63> Well I put a link to it at the end of my 2009 thread, which I assumed you had super-duper, wake me up in the middle of the night whenever he adds something to it, gotta know right away, starred. But maybe not. At any rate, since you're being so lazy and all, here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/82681

Nice hair in that photo, Richard. Are you rubbing your belly?

Richard is not asleep in his picture...he is winking at us!! Love Stella and her man.

awww.. rdear... you don't need any schloop from me...you know..

Thx for sharing. She looks like a real sweetheart! -- I sooo understand about 'paw action' -- I have some blurry pics of Buck's trying to open doors that I adore despite the poor focus for just that reason.

I'm loving those cabinets... your kitchen? Makes me wanna come over and cook with you :) Oh, we're at over 1' of snow. Barely no wind so it's standing on everything. just been steadily, if gently, coming down for 3 days. small flakes, no obscured visibility, but boy howdy it adds up!

ETA my paw pic: http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=77111&cat=352...

Great photos - thanks for sharing!

One of these days I'll use the instructions on the HTML thread and finally post doggie pictures on my thread...

>64 alcottacre: Stasia, you're welcome, and stay tuned...I've cracked the secret code now and can get pics off the camera into the computer! Dogness to come....

>65 rocketjk: Love you too, jk.

>67 Berly: Berly-boo, I was doing my best not to sneeze, actually!

>68 mckait: Yes, I do, and it's a source of comfort and joy every day.

>69 suslyn: Oh my gosh, Suse, we're so in tune...those cabinets, wow, they were so amazingly over-the-top...solid cherry wood doors and fronts.

I love The Divine Miss's parents for their abillity to see past the extravagance to the utility of the very best. May they rest in peace. (LOVE the paw pic!!)

>70 BookAngel_a: Angela, I am generally not a picture-poster, but the temptation is simply too great when it comes to my poopie!

#71: Good! She sure is a cutie! You are not too bad yourself :)

Stella is a beauty! Hugo is panting over here. ;)

And I really like that photo of you. You just need a book in one hand and a bloody mary in the other!

Miss Stella looks like a wonderful companion and you, the proud papa.

*lurking* Darling dog! Thanks for posting photos -- of both of you.

Thx for peeking at my paws :) Must say those cabinets have got me vascillating again... We're in the throes of remodeling planning -- not the actual remodeling, but plans so we know what we'll be doing when we return.

Our home is, like so many French houses, built with windows only in the front, which, happily, is the southern exposure. But this coupled with low ceilings makes for little dark spaces called rooms! It will be soooo hard to go back there after living here for 4 years with all this light AND super high (stupidly high) ceilings.

(er... this isn't exactly about books. oops)

What a lovely dog...and i am not a Dog Lover.....oh, and her Human ain't bad either

;-}

Stella is adorable. I've heard Jindo's are very smart. Does she try to run circles around you?

Not precisely circles but spirals...very fast ones, too!

Sure, tease me with a recommendation and then leave me hanging...where is your review of Keeper of the Secrets? My turn to pace on YOUR thread! LOL

just passing through...
See rdear.. the turtle was appropriate on my thread this year. I am slow slow slow..

I am @work.. its an in-service day.. any minute now I have to run off to something.. but till then, I am catching up!

I just reviewed A Fatal Grace over in my BotS thread...#69.

Louise Penny is *fabOO* and mckait is a goddess for sending me these! *genuflexion*

od odd oddd I posted her this morning and it is gone.

I accept the adulation and send some back, for the Quant-in-ing ..

oh richard, Stella's as beautiful as she was cute when you first brought her home. Looks like she just luuurves you to bits too. Have you started baking her fresh doggie treats yet?

Are you sure you didn't post to another of Richard's many threads, Kath? I'm sure I just read that same thing over on one of the others... :-)

That could well be the asnwer, ellie!

Richard...

Thank you for listening.. and encouraging me in my decision to step away from the freebies for the must reads. Thank you even more for sending Quant my way, which along with the Three Pines folks have helped me get back in the groove.
There are many reasons that I am fond of you .. I will add this one to the list.

I feel like I have been holding my literary breath for way too long..

Everyone who's already taken a shower today come on over for a group hug!

For all the grief we sometimes give you, Richard, you are a darling sweetums and this forum would not be the same without you! I tease only those I love. mwwwahhh!

Hi guys...The Divine Miss and I had a day-tripper today, just cocktails and dinner...but she's a very old friend, and one with some nasty health issues, so she needed a little TLC. A good Malbec, a warm glazed ham with home-made cornbread, some garlic-sauted brocoletti, and a cheesecake later, she left a happier woman. Her favorite thing? Cornbread!

Does no one else on the planet ever make cornbread? I get such adulation for such a simple thing. Jeez...25 minutes including 20min in the oiven, and the ecstatic praise is positively embarrassing. I guess adding the heroin really *does* make a difference.

LOL! My father makes killer cornbread (sans heroin), for a Northerner. My mother is originally from Alabama, though, so he learned how to make proper Southern cornbread from her and her mother, not the usual bone dry, tasteless variety that predominates in the Northeast.

I still make cornbread, thank you very much, as well as a Cornmeal Honey bread that is to die for!

>90 kidzdoc: Stuff's nasty, ain't it? Like wood shavings.

>91 alcottacre: *pulls out atlas looking for quick route to Sherman*

#92: You will drive to Sherman for bread, but not read through my thread? Hmmm . . .

#92: Yep. Wood shavings is a good description. You put melted butter on top, and it is immediately drawn to the center without a trace.

Don't get me started on the way Northeasterners make grits (soupy and icky) or the gravy for biscuits & gravy (doubly soupy and icky). I'm a loyal Northeasterner, but give me a down home Southern country breakfast any day of the week.

*checking Mapquest to see if I can drive to Sherman, TX in time for breakfast at Stasia's*

>94 kidzdoc: We had bacon and cheese grits for breakfast this morning (where else am I gonna get the fat for the cornbread?), and The Divine Miss proposed to me after the heavy, creamy grits with cheesy strings of heart-clogging numminess set off by crisp, rich dark-fried pig-fat hit her tastebuds.

Reminded her it was superfluous, but I appreciated the thought.

>93 alcottacre: Driving to Sherman gets me in less trouble than reading your thread. A LOT less trouble.

#94: I will look for you early in the morning, Darryl. I know you can make it in time for breakfast :)

#95: That's what you think. Wait till you start drooling over the books in my library.

#95: Mmm!

BTW, it's a capital offense to put sugar in grits, IMO.

#96: I can get there in time, but can I get back to ATL for work tomorrow morning? Doubtful. I need a good excuse.

#98: I am with you on putting sugar in grits. Terrible. I am from the North and do not do it, but my 2 daughters born here in Texas, do - when I can even get them to eat grits!

Sorry about breakfast then. Too bad about work (although I think driving to Texas is a perfectly legitimate excuse for missing work.)

>98 kidzdoc: The bacon's got maple sugar on it, silly doc. While it's cooling, it gets a dust of maple sugar.

As for excuses: "I had an emergency call from Texas, so I had to go...no, not a medical emergency...what do you mean, 'unexcused absence', there was honey cornmeal bread to be eaten slathered in real butter! I thought not...no, you CANNOT have her address."

I have at least 4 pounds of butter (the real stuff) at my house. Dying from lack of cornmeal honey bread sounds like an acceptable excuse to me for missing work!

I made cornbread last week too.

Now I am hungry! grits with salt and pepper and BUTTER! yum.. cornbread is yummy too.. my son makes a killer cornbread. He learned from a lovely family inthe neighborhood.He worked with the son during a HS summer..
I am afraid that I use a mix.. add some melted butter, sugar and creamed corn..
still not bad :)

Now I have to go to work with my mouth watering.

Ahhhh, you can always depend on Richard's thread for tantilizing conversation. My former boss from Charleston, SC makes a suburb shrimp and grits. I thought he was joking with me until I saw it with my own little eyes. Mmmmm.

*off to Google honey cornmeal bread*

#89 richard - I made cornbread last night to go with homemade beef vegetable soup.

When I moved to the South, I thought that I needed a really good cornbread recipe. I probably tried 10 or so, and none of them did it. Too dry, too flat, too... everything. The one I found that really works for me is from my Better Homes and Gardens Bread Book that I brought from California. Takes 5 minutes to prepare, and 25 minutes to bake.

Husband picked up daughter from work last night (16! and she's got a job at Andy's Hamburgers being a waitress) and I pulled it out of the oven just as they walked in the door. I had two happy campers, for sure.

I like grits with salt and butter.

And now I, too, am hungry even though I ate breakfast AND had some orange juice on the way to work. 2 1/2 hours til lunch...

Can I just say, grits with sugar are bleccch.

FARINA with butter and sugar, now, that's the ticket!

When's lunch? I'm hungry again reading about food. Today I have leftover cornbread with turnip greens and pot likker for my delectation. *slobber*

Karen, that is the recipe I use, except I use half-and-half, onion powder, powdered sage, and well-drained canned white corn. I don't butter the pan, I use fresh bacon fat to crisp up the sides and brown the bottom.

Driving...driving...*anxiety attack on Karen's behalf* It is the moment when we learn whether we've really learned to let go and let God, isn't it?

Okay, Brit-girl over here has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what you're on about (grits are something you put down to stop ice making you flail everywhere like Bambi), yet somehow I'm still getting hungry. *pootles off to see what 4 o'clock snacky goodness is lying around in the office*

>107 elliepotten: Ellie, think of grits as a sort of blond version of polenta, best adorned with melted cheese AND butter, salt, and pepper; served at breakfast by Southerners of taste and refinement.

*swoon*

I'm eatin' lunch early today!

Did someone say Grits??? PARMESAN POBLANO CHEESE GRITS does it for me!

Cornbread...i like mine kinda sweet, which is a no-no for die hard Cornbreaders..but i also do a Corn Cake (thinner batter and done in the skillet..like pancakes/cookies)..and then there's Cowboy Cornbread that crumbles all to hell but is good with, or in, buttermilk....the question now, is, why haven't i made Cornbread in such a long time that i can't-remember-when??? Did somebody say "Lazy"?

;-)

#106 Richard! Great minds, and all that. I just use the basic recipe, though - but I oil the pan, not butter it, and it crisps up nicely. We like it with the top nicely browned. Last night's batch came out perfect.

I was looking through one of my cookie sheet cupboards the other day and found a cast iron corn bread pan - the one that has the miniature corn slots to put the batter in. I think it was my MiL's or her great aunt's. (I've inherited a LOT of stuff....).

Still hungry, and 19 minutes til lunch.

This Northeasterner makes passable cornbread, but she much prefers Johnnycakes. With butter melting on top.

Okay, seriously, I thought food was banned on Richard's thread and that was what the Kitchen thread was for!? *Laughs as she heads off to forage in the fridge*

Fine.. stck at work with nothing to forage..

sigh. That will teach me to log in from work..
of I go ..

richard--love Stella's pics (and yours too). And please stop talking food--I am SO HUNGRY no darned all of you and your food conversations!!

oh, one tiny question...you ban GIFs..but Kath can post them willy-nilly..i see some Favoritism....wot...is she your "girlfriend"?

nasty moi..or not........who knows.......but..

Here goes:
glitter-graphics.com

remember...RING..THE MOVIE......

>115 jdthloue: Eeeuuugggh! Never saw Ring and now I'm even more glad!

Awww..Actually THE RING is not a bad movie...RING 2 ...SO SO..

hey, i was being a Brat here...THE RING (US version) is RINGU (JAPANESE.. better)...sorry for co-opting your thread but(t)

bratty Jude here

but..you do "forbid" Gifs.."cept for Kath's..ahem

eeep!

all this talk of cornbread and I'm just about to make dinner..... I'm starving for cornbread now! I've got a great cornbread recipe from a friend's grandmother who puts actual corn, crushed pineapple and a bit of grated cheese into her cornbread. It's heavenly .. lusicously moist and oh so delicious!

Jude : I think I will safely say that I will not be watching the movie if that minor clip is anything to go by. I'm a wimp when it comes to horror movies.

I thought the gif was great! I lost my appetite. ;)

lol.... so now we get to use gifs as a diet aid?

I need something to counteract all this luscious cornbread talk!

Actually, THE RING isn't too bad..as far as pacing goes, it's one of the best movies i have seen...no "dead" spaces in the action...it moves like a horrid little freight train...RING 2..not so goood...RINGU (Japanese version) is my favorite, though

sorry if the GIF upset anyone..i was having a crappy day yesterday with Decongestants et al...sinus trouble big time...maybe i'll just delete it.....anyway, i shouldn't have taken my crabbiness out on y'all,....and i'm sorry, Richard, for co-opting your thread for my Brat Attack...next time i'll just put on my dunce cap and go sit in the corner..
J

>123 jdthloue: No need to apologize, Jude, you're here and welcome no matter your mood. Although *everyone* who posts GIFs in my threads builds up voodoo-dolly points, and after a certain irritation threshhold is crossed (only *I* know when that is), the voodoo-dolly gets pierced in painful, unexpected places with awful results....

Yeow...i feel the "tingle" already..........

;-}

>126 mckait: Mmm-hmmm

*makes entry in grimoire re: A Certain Someone*

I heard a rumor that the first person to read 75 books gets a basket full of adorable, mewling, snugglepuss kittens! Oh joy! Oh rapture! If I win, I'll give them all to you.

#124: Why are you voodoo dolly-ing me? My left leg is killing me - I know it must be you doing it, Richard! :)

SomeGuy? who are you?
How have I missed you?
I love Virgina..!

Roanoke/ Salem
Marshall

sigh... its where I belong..
Where are you, if you are okay saying?

I hate being the last to know a great newbie :P

Stasia, sorry about your leg.. but I heard a rumor it was Mark...

Thanks mckait. I live in Alexandria now, but as a kid lived in Bristol and Marion, just down 81 from Roanoke. Do you mean the Marshall down 66/55 in NoVA? I know that area really well. It used to be called Salem and there's a Salem Diner in town, 'though I've never been there. I've even got a Fauquier County library card!

I want a Fauquier County Library Card!!!

Terri, Faux Queer County? For real?

Virginny, I see you're collecting fan-girls already...watch out, they can be a WILLful bunch.

Just sayin'. And you may, with my heartiest of blessings, keep any and all Minions of Satan awarded, given, foisted, or otherwise hurled at me.

Stasia, I am only voodoo-dollying GIFfers, so I am innocent. Of that painful tingle, anyway.

Tell the truth, Richard. You want one too.

Heck yeah! How do we score one?

We could steal it from Some Guy In Virginia...

He's just started posting here, would that really be *nice*? Another solution will suggest itself....

Who said we are nice?

I want a I want a Fauquier County Library Card too!

Yeah.. that is the Marshall I mean. My dad lived there for years. After the military even spent some time as director of the humane society...

I, alas have never lived in Virgina.. So far. My daughter went to school in Roanoke.. and that is when I fell in love with the Star City. She may be moving back .. not to Roanoke but to NoVa.. cross your fingers for me minions of .. whoever... I would love that.

Anyway.. Nice to meet you. A warning about rdear.. he can be a bit of a drama queen...

...quite unlike myself. I am the epitomy of constraint. No, really...

>128 SomeGuyInVirginia:
Well then we have to avoid any chance to be the first @ 75 (as we will have a chance with Stasia around!).
Snuggling meowing things would be chased around by other adored pets at our place!
I am not sure if Jindo's are better in tolerating those.

I like anyone who wants to give away little snuggly kittens as a reward.

I know! C'mon Richard, get in touch with your inner 'Awww'.

Richard doesn't have an inner awww...
he does have an inner ahhhh! and aha!

:)

*rolls eyes, sighs, smirks just a little, then goes back to her book and leaves them to it*

I think he's gone into some kind of fit. mckait, this is all your fault. Totally.

Inner "awww"? About cats?!? Nay, nay, it is the inner "AAAAAAIIIEEEAAAAAA!" as I wield the Satan-Smiting Sword!

*settles in to write words for an appropriate curse for himself*

how could anyone not find that liddle puddy tat adorable?

>148 cameling: Easy! Because it's a cat, which means a creature that causes, by its mere existence, swollen and painful mucous membranes.

See how that works? Pain = bad = uncute!

>146 mckait: Can't curse me, dearest, I sent you Quant AND I have another one that I *won't* send if I'm cursed, because I'll be cursed and so unable to function!

149 messages and only one book review (although a real entertaining winner of one at that). I thought this was a reading group?

BTW - great pic of yourself. You do indeed have facial hair - I thought that comment on my thread was poetic license!

Drat

kiwi

he is a very sweet looking character is he not? Aside from this insane aberration regarding the feline....he lives up to it....mostly..

I have a sudden desire to make cornbread with cheese and bacon in it. I don't know if this sounds horrifying or delicious, but I want it. (not that I'm capable of making much more than boxed macaroni and cheese or a microwave dinner, but the desire is there!)

#152: cornbread with cheese and bacon sounds heavenly! May I suggest you give in to your inner desires and share the bounty with your fellow LTers? I volunteer to test the first batch. :-)

Ok, a road trip in the making -- cheese and bacon cornbread in Chicago and then biscotti with Stasia in Sherman Texas. Richard, we know you are a good cook so we are also heading to New Hempstead NY. The trip can then continue to NE Pennsylvania where there will be shoefly pie, apple dumplings, and chipped cream dried beef.

Since food is the topic.. I made a big pot of beef & barley soup with lentils and carrots and celery and potatoes and V-8 for zing.

Next up. a loaf of beer bread to go with.

Then you guys can swing by St. Louie for some toasted ravioli and gooey butter cake. Yum!

I offer a mean lasagna in Portland! Kinda a trek I realize. I'll throw in some wine.

"Roaaad Triiip!: How Fifteen Online Friends Ate Their Way Across the Country and Into XXXL Underwear in Two Delicious Weeks"--coming soon to a cardiac unit near you!

This morning i made my Vegetable Bean soup (Veggie soup w/two kinds of beans-Black and Green)...and some cooked hamburger that was pining away in the freezer...no Beer Bread...just French Bread toasted then rubbed w/a cut clove of garlic.....plus salad

it's cold.....i'm feeling semi-depressed......so, what else is new????

;-}

OMG I'm feeling stuffed just reading this thread. Anyone interested in some authentic chicken wings, suicide style??

As long as the road trip ends up in Texas, any kind of food is welcome!

Just made pineapple and raisin muffins with the wee one, but it might be a bit of a trek for you all! Can't promise there'll be any left when you get here :)

#162: Since I will probably not make it to you before the muffins are gone, could you send me the recipe? I love muffins. I love to bake. Heck, I just like food.

I'll have to confess...they were a little disappointing. I made them out of a toddler cookbook - therefore they are quite suger free. I like them but hubby and baby aren't keen. I also don't think I grated the carrot fine enough...

Sigh. I like food too. It shows.

Oh well, maybe your next batch will be better :)

suicide wings? did someone mention suicide wings?! *salivating uncontrollably .... drool puddles forming on desk*

I attended 3 birthday parties over the weekend and I must have put on at least 5lbs. The worst was the one on Saturday because my friend's fiancee is a fantastic (if somewhat insane) cook and she whipped up enough food for 150 people while inviting only 30. I was still full when I woke up on Sunday!

I'm going to try and eat light this week and put in some gym time if I can.

Good alternative to wings: buffalo chicken dip. If the chips run out my friends have no qualms about digging in with spoons.

I love buffalo chicken dip! yummy!
spread it on some toast... drool....

what's buffalo chicken dip? I don't think I've ever had this. I love buffalo chicken. I love dip ...ergo i must love buffalo chicken dip, yes? The toast spreading bit though is a novel thought.

#158 Richard might have taken the road trip thing seriously! Has anyone seen him on a freeway near you?

#156 Toasted ravioli. Yum. Gooey Butter Cake. Yum. I think I have to go visit my parents soon. Imo's pizza. Yum. Ted Drewe's. Yum. BBQ pork steak. Yum. Droooooollling.

I second cameling. What is this glorious, drool-worthy creation you all speak of named 'buffalo chicken dip' and where can I get my hands on some?

Review(!): 5 of seventy-five

Title: DANGEROUSLY FUNNY: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Author: DAVID BIANCULLI

Rating: ***1/2 of 5

While ferrying my auntie to and from various locales, I've had my trusty-dusty (and overdue) liberry book ever in the car, awaiting re-read and review.

Okay, here 'tis: If you remember the Smothers Brothers, read this book for a tiptoe thru the tulips (I know it was on a competing show, but timeliness was the aim) buried under the neiges d'antan. If either phrase has left you scratching your wig-holder, look THAT up in your Funk and Wagnalls.

But don't read this rather dense, somewhat longwinded recap of the three-season run of the Smothers Brothers's show. It will mean little to you, and the density of the behind-the-scenes material won't fascinate. The author clearly knows his onions about TV, about the time period, and about the brothers. His style isn't sparkling, but it is very informative and it's never dry. Just thick. Like a fallen souffle, it still has the savor but the texture's just a little off.

I grew up on Smothers Brothers material because my sisters are both much older than I am, so were listening to their albums, and Kingston Trio albums, and Vaughn Meader albums, and Bob Newhart albums. *sigh* What a way to grow up. Then along came the Beatles, and out went everything else...except the Smothers Brothers, the eldest sister was a granola-and-granny-gowns girl to the horror of our Balenciaga-wearing mother.

So along comes the TV show the clean-cut young men put on, on Sunday night opposite "Bonanza" which neither of my parents cared diddly about (if it had been opposite "Gunsmoke" I'd've never even heard of it); the closing-in-on-50 mom and closing-in-on-40 dad tried to be gravy (joke on "groovy," slang of the times...they were as inept at modern slang as I am, and you will be, youngsters) by watching it with their teens and the caboose.

We all loved it. Pat Paulsen was so funny that my arch-conservative parents thought he was the highlght of the show with his first-time-ever-done fake run for President. My sisters loved "Share Tea with Goldie", with a flower child making in-jokes about drugs that Mama and Daddy didn't get. I was in love with Mason Williams, of "Classical Gas" fame. Still one of my very favorite pieces of pop music, up there with "In Your Eyes" and "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel.

No one used dirty words. No one was more than mildly salacious, to my father's disgruntlement. But everyone was ethically opposed to the Vietnam war, and my mother's nephew was a Navy pilot at risk, plus she'd lost "someone close" in the Ia Drang battle (never discussed in detail, quite mysterious), so we as a family were opposed to the unwinnable war (Dad's name for it).

Hard to imagine now, in this fractured entertainment landscape, but the Smothers Brothers drew 35% (THIRTY-FIVE PERCENT) of the TV-viewing audience...and got canceled! If someone drew a 35% share today, the network execs would offer their grandchildren as slaves and their houses as rewards to the people who delivered such monster ratings. Then, well...that was just ordinary. What wasn't ordinary was the men delivering the ratings were young and idealistic and ready to talk about things that were taboo (eg, religious hypocrisy, racial politics) without hesitation. The people who watched the Smothers Brothers were mostly young, mostly rich, mostly well-educated and almost always all three. What an audience!!

And they got canceled.

Even my arch-conservative parents thought that was stupid. "Can't stop people thinkin' and best not to try," said Mama. "What's the use of a Constitution if you can only agree with powerful people?" asked Dad.

Yeah. That's what I'm sayin' after reading this book. They didn't back down from any fight, and they lost the war...but damn, it's hard not to admire their spirit. Tommy, though, comes across as a self-righteous little pisher and Dickie as a self-absorbed bore. But hey, they fought a good fight and today's TV landscape looks the way it does in good part because of these guys and their irritating ways.

Someone give them a show, quick! They're still alive, but who knows for how long!

I do not remember the show at all. I wish I did!

Stasia, there's a YouTube channel with their stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/smothersbrothers

Worth checking out!

Great review, Richard. I remember everything you mentioned and especially loved Mason Williams Classical Gas! Was it on the Smothers Brothers show that they showed the picture montage with Classical Gas? I remember feeling giddy with so many pictures going by so quickly to that wonderful music.

Now, of course, that would be seen as slower than molasses in wintertime, but at the time......

#175: Thanks, Richard. I am off to check it out now!

Loved that show!!!* fondly remembers granny gowns.*

http://www.recipezaar.com/Buffalo-Chicken-Dip-79116

is approximately the recipe I use ~ you know how it is,,, depends on what is in the house..

as for the toast.. yea.. leftovers cold on toast.. yummers

This is a must for any gathering it is just so yummy, and SO easy!

Oh, I LOVED the Smothers Brothers! Gosh, I can picture them now . . . Sometimes my Dad would laugh so hard watching their show, his false teeth would come loose. (And he was not a man highly prone to laughter.)

Classical Gas is still a favorite piece of music. There is a newer recording of it that Mason Williams himself did with the group Manheim Steamroller in the late 1980's, which I own on CD.

Yeah, I remember granny gowns, too. My best friend dressed in a granny gown for one of her weddings . . . can't remember which wedding/husband that was, though, nor what I wore to the celebration.

Hi Richard- Good review! It brought back some murky memories! I was barely ten at the time but remembered fragments of it. Cutting edge stuff! BTW, missed seeing you around the past few days!

Loved your review, Richard. I adored the Smothers Brothers. I thought they were hilarious. Yes, I also remember Pat Paulsen, the unlikely Presidential candidate. Some of our real candidates in the past were just as grim. :(

*runs to see if she can find any recordings of the "Kingston Trio" or even (the much-loved) "Classical Gas" by Mason Wiliams.*

*Sigh*

Here here....and i, too, recall THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS when it was an actual "thing"...as opposed to Nostalgia....and i feared that David Bianculli would overload the book with "thickness" (whenever i hear him on NPR i tend to block out a good third of what he says..and i don't miss anything in the process). I don't think i'll be reading the book..or waxing Nostalgic...but your review i just might save...to savor....

*Who woulda thunk you loved Mason Williams??? And "Solsbury Hill" is one of my favorites by Peter Gabriel...Great minds..and all that...*

;-}

oh, i have a recipe for Chicken Enchilada Dip that's pretty good......

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Chicken-Enchilada-Dip

.........made this for a New Year's party that a friend was catering...we should have tripled the amount we did make....people ate so much of this dip, they virtually ignored the Entrees.....this would make a good informal dinner...with tortilla chips and a Big Green Salad..the dip is seriously gooey and fattening....but good..

I've never heard of the Smothers Brothers, but I can make really fattening party food!

>169 cameling: - Buffalo dip
2 c. diced chicken
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 c. ranch
2.5 c. cheddar
12 oz. hot sauce of choice

Melt the cream cheese with the chicken in a pan, and then stir in the ranch and hot sauce (I use a whole bottle of Frank's). Stir in two cups of cheddar, and pour the whole concoction into a 2 qt. baking dish. Top with remaining cheddar and bake at 300 for 20 minutes. We eat it with fritos, but it's good on anything (or nothing).

I got the recipe from my mom, and I'm not sure where she got it. It looks horrible, but it is so so good.

Well Richard ya really "socked it to em" with that review! They were in the era of laugh in, weren't they. I was just a wee one in the sixties but I remember watching the show with my parents. But I remember Laugh in even more. I thought LI funny and loved Goldie Hawn but I bet a lot of the humor was way over my little head. I'll look up this book at the library just to take a quick trip down memory lane. I remember thinking that The Smothers Bros. were silly.

PS: Luxx the recipe sounds great! I'm going to give it a try.

PS: I miss variety shows in general. Sonny and Cher, Tom Jones, even Donny and Marie. It was nice to see your favorite celebrity appearing in any given week. I wish reality shows would go the way of variety shows, bye, bye.

Good to see you back on LT. And another good review;-)

Richard,

I loved the Smothers Brothers Show and watched religiously. I think a show like that would probably go over very well today with little resistance fromthe network because things are so much looser today than at that time what with Stephan Colbert and the Daily Show and the late night comics.

I thumbed you great review even though I won't read the book on your recommendation. Thanks for the memories.

#183 Ummmm showing myself as truly from the other side of the pond but... what is Ranch?

That's Ranch Salad Dressing BekkaJo. Usually white and creamy

Ta! :)

It's o.k. I get moments like that all too frequently!

Jude, it's nice to know that others find Bianculli verbose to obesity!

Glad to see all the memories I've stirred up...especially "Classical Gas"! I thought I was the last surviving non-Mannheim Steamroller memoirist of it. I looooved that quick-cut montage of Mason Williams playing about 25 instruments!

Luxx, maybe you should also put that dip recipe on Tom's thread, since I think he'd have an attack at the idea of it. Mama always called it "real King Ranch chicken" but I've been eatin' that numminess over Fritos since who-whipped-the-cat, although her version also had pico de gallo in it. *drool* Now I'm hungry!

***smiles at Richard*

i made Pork-Chops-and-Spanish-Rice today...big old oven Casserole....from scratch rice too..no packaged stuff...i wish we lived closer to each other, RD...i am a bad-ass cook!!!

i have a recipe for KING RANCH CHICKEN....but not the one LUXX posted (Gotta find the recipe you mean, jude...).......now i feel silly

oh well
J

.....don't know what's happening here on LT lately..but, either my Posts are "doubled"...or don't show up at all...definite bummer...

Does anybody else hate Ranch Dressling? Or is it just me? *shudders*

Ain't just you. Tastes like those gum pencil erasers smell to me.

I do not care for it either.

Ooo, I love ranch. Especially on big fat french fries. Brooks loves it, too, although he's allergic to Hidden Valley, so I have to keep an eye on him.

I would think you could use bleu cheese dressing instead of ranch; it just needs something creamy.

Blue cheese dressing I could do. I love that stuff.

I have a recipe somewhere for chicken finger dip made with blue cheese dressing, umm-ummm.

Ranch as sludge-on-salad = ewww.

Ranch as potato dressing, french-fry dip, crudite dip = yum.

Bleu cheese dressing in the buffalo dip is tasty, but it's never been my personal favorite. On salads it's abominable. I like oil'n'vinegar, vinaigrette, and...and...well, that's all really. Salads need a sharp, clear flavor with some underlying richness, not to be buried under a mudslide of fatty, ploppy goop.

Just sayin'.

I feel like such a slacker, joining in here just about the time everyone else has gone home. But I also LOVED the Smothers Brothers show, and their albums. I still find myself singing some of the stupid songs ("I yelled 'fire' when I fell into the chocolate"). And we still greet my middle brother with "Mom always liked you best" (it's the truth). I'm not a big buffalo wing fan, but I adore buffalo chicken dip. And I agree with Richard about ranch dressing: blech on a salad, but it works for carrot sticks.

Okay. I'm finished. Carry on.

"We are marching to Pretoria...Pretoria...Pretoria..."
(Well, you did say to carry on.)

>202 laytonwoman3rd: LOL!

Can you tell I was a Smothers Brothers junkie? My very favorite routine was the "Santa Claus is a dirty old man" one....because as a little kid I was always creeped out by Santa Claus (and clowns, and people in costumes/masks generally); when I heard that bit the first time I thought "YES! These guys get it! Grown-ups should NOT be dressing funny and passing out candy to little kids!"

"YES! These guys get it! Grown-ups should NOT be dressing funny and passing out candy to little kids!"

It always creeped me out too. I hate clowns to this good day. Mimes too. But I looove Cirque du Soleil, despite the makeup issues...is that some weird exceptionalism, or an allowable exemption?

Santa never bothered me, because he was so obviously fake that I didn't feel anything other than sorry for the poor fat bastard in the suit.

I must have some underlying clown repulsion from the Smother's Bros. too (The Smother's Effect?). I can not stand the creatures but like Richard I could watch Cirque du Soleil all day.

Did anyone catch Pink at the Grammy's? She did a number that was verrrrrry Cirque du Soleilish.

ETA: Congrats on the hot review.

Thanks, Lynda, I seem to have entertained the troops with that one.

Richard,

You're #1................. On the Hot Reviews;-)

Congrats!

Number one! Wow! Thanks for letting me know, Bonnie!

Nice review! I came in on the tail end of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It came on Sunday nights on CBS, after The Ed Sullivan Show, right? We always watched Ed Sullivan, and I probably had to go to bed after that (I was 8 years old in 1969), but I'll bet my parents watched the Smothers Brothers.

My father had some old Smothers Brothers albums on cassette many years ago, and we would listen to them (along with other oldies music and PDQ Bach) on family vacations... our vacations always consisted of driving somewhere in Canada or the US, but they were LONG drives so we got a LOT of listening in. One of my clearest memories is giggling like a loon the first time I heard "Wagon Wheels" ("waaaagon wheeeeels...!")... okay, it still makes me giggle. I'm going to go see if I can find a clip online... heehee...

#212 dk_phoenix - The line I remember from the Smothers' Brothers, and think if was off a record, was "I know a boatman, he got sore, he came home without a(n) oar." I heard that in high school and it took me years and years to figure it out.

I'm a serious PDQ Bach fan too. Anybody else out there? My favorites are Iphigenia in Brooklyn, The Seasonings, and New Horizons in Music Appreciation: Beethoven's Fifth.

Ahh....PDQ Bach, History’s most justly-neglected composer... We have some of that on vinyl, somewhere... A Little Nightmare Music, The Short-Tempered Clavier, Concerto for Horn and Hardart.

#213 Well, it didn't take me years, but if you hadn't said there was something to figure out I would have missed it!! LOL

Review: 6 of seventy-five

Title: THE LOST SYMBOL

Author: DAN BROWN

Rating: *** of 5

I read The DaVinci Code and, while I didn't find the writing to be high caliber stuff, I was mesmerized by the story and fascinated by the evident command Brown showed of the background material. Its factuality is of no interest to me either way. I wanted a rollicking good ride, and I got one, and I walked away a satisfied customer.

Less so here. We have the elements of the DaVinci tome's megasellerdom deployed in a less intriguing plot. One of the Big Reveals is simply uninteresting to me, and the repetition of the catchphrase "the secret is how to die" (no spoiler this, it starts extremely early in the book) made me as irritated as any mosquito's buzzing ever has. I am fairly sure it's intended to convey malice and menace, and build suspense, but I found it jarred on me by somewhere in the 40s (chapters come and go at a dizzying rate, there being 133 of them, plus an epilogue that bid fair to make me urp in its treacly upbeatness, packed into 509pp of text).

So why did I read this book? A chance to poke at a hugely successful and wealthy novelist who has never heard of me and will never read this review? Nuh-uh. I think Dan Brown has his storytelling antennae tuned to a fine pitch. I think every bit of his fame and wealth is richly deserved and earned by his honest, sincere, and successful desire to tell a good story to the best of his ability. I wanted to be gobsmacked the way I was by that DaVinci madness, that's why I read the darn book!

And I wasn't.

No one could be sorrier than I am to say this. Maybe it's a case of once is enough for this reader. Maybe it's just a mood. I tend to think that, had this book appeared just exactly as it is today in 2005, I'd be yodeling its masterful reprise of the preceding volume instead of emitting a small bleat of disappointment.

And sales figures, while the subject of messy fantasies for other writers, aren't in the DaVinci league. Others agree with me, and the chorus of "oh, well" reviews is loud.

When Brown comes to write his next thriller, even if it features Robert Langdon, I hope it treads new territory. Too many other footprints on this piece of land for Langdon to stand out. Such is the penalty of leadership: You get to blaze, but not possess, the trail.

Recommended? Mildly. But only if you're a conspiracy-thriller fan. *damn* I hate like hell to write that.

At auntie's eye doc, using their WiFi. That review was painful to write, I wanted to love the book!

#216: I had been on the fence as to whether or not to read The Lost Symbol and now I know not to waste my time with it.

I really liked his two non-Robert Langdon books best, Digital Fortress and Deception Point. DF is probably quite dated now technically.

The Robert Langdon books start off superior (Angels and Demons), go to pretty good (The DaVinci Code), then ... ? on the last one. My guess, from your review and what you say about other reviewers, is that the downward trend will continue. I'm going to read it though. My mother-in-law said she'd loan it to me.

Not a Brown fan. Thumbed it anyway for the warning Richard.

I've read all of Brown's books. The Lost Symbol is the worst by far. I have liked all his others. The part I hate the most is the preaching at the end of the book. The story was finished and then he went on for about 20-30 more pages about faith or belief or something like that. Ugh. I could have handled the mediocre story, the incorrect location in D.C. and the repetition, if only I had not been preached at for the last 30 pages. Ughhh....

Richard- Did you hear my jaw hit the floor? It made a mighty racket!

Richard...I hope the appointment with Auntie's eye doc went well.

Review: 7 of seventy-five

Title: PRINCE OF STORIES: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman

Authors: Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, Stephen R. Bissette

Rating: **1/2 of 5

What was I thinking? I don't like the Gaiman books I've read so far, feeling like beating him with long, leathery things studded with flesh-rending hooks, because CHARACTERS HAVE TO CHANGE SOMEHOW as a result of the journey of the novel, and his don't. So far, anyway.

So why read this gushing fanboy spoiler-fest? Why inundate myself with the trivia and ejecta of the man's undeniably interesting career doing things I don't care about, like comics and graphic novels?

To see what all the fuss is about. Still don't know.

I'm just not interested in comics/graphic novels, really, and that's about 250pp of the 500pp book. Gaiman's entire ouevre is spoilerized, which I found handy since I just can't make myself read another book by him. Now I don't have to. But really, now, the mind that can conceive the fascinating, delectably textured premise for American Gods can conceive an endinig for it! Having read the plot summaries of his comics work, I know he's done it before. So what was the problem?! Turns out...it was his first novel. The collaboration with Pratchett on Good Omens isn't all his. The novelization of Neverwhere isn't a novel from the ground up. The author himself says it was his first real novel.

But still! No ending! *mutters sulphrously*

Oh, anyway, I gave this book 2-1/2 stars because it's a breathless, giddy, golly-gee convention panel brochure that got delusions of grandeur. Don't read it unless you're a) sleepy yet can't fall asleep, b) a Gaiman fanatic AND under 24, or c) *desperate* to know what you're missing that everyone else is getting from this pop-culture phenom. (Nothing, the emperor's nekkid, but keep it quiet 'cause they're fun to watch.)

#225: OK, I do not need to read that one. Although I have problems at times sleeping, I can find my own sleep-inducing books, I am not a Gaiman fanatic (although I do like his books, I do not love them) and I am certainly not under 24.

#225 - Oh - I had this on my 'to read' pile for the year - guess I'll just flick through it one afternoon instead. I better finish reading his Sandman comics before I do. OK it's now on the backburner and muchos thanks for taking the hit for me.
edit: add post #

and again, I liked some of the Dan Brown thrillers I'd read in the past, but will give this one a miss. Also ruined because I hate having Tom Hanks as my Robert Langdon (I'd pictured him so differently, younger for one thing).

b) a Gaiman fanatic AND under 24

I enjoyed Good Omens and American Gods, but I'll take Pratchett over Gaiman any day. And I'll be 25 in a month, so I don't think I meet the requirements.

My SIL, on the other hand, is rather fanatical about him. Maybe the book would make a good gift for her...

I'm sorry you've had to disappointing reads in a row. I hope the next one is more enjoyable!

I am one of those who liked the first two.. but I trust your opinion, and won't bother with this one. Thanks rdear

I like "sulks sulpherously"

I am gonna do that right now!

Tried to read The Da Vinci Code...but no go (the boogeyman)...sure, he has great storytelling intentions..but, you know what they say about THE ROAD TO HELL....??

Neil Gaiman's work, however, i do love...and i like Graphic Novels way too much..so your review of Prince of Stories was a blip on the Radar Screen of Negativity..but i forgive you..

;-}

David Small's Stitches was my first graphic novel (which in the old days was called a comic book but they didn't bind it in a hard cover). I enjoyed it. Of course you can read it in about 20 minutes so you don't get totally absorbed in it like you do in a book. However, I will stay away from this one Richard. Thanks for the review which was excellent as usual.

ETA Stitches was a memoir not a novel.

>220 brenzi: Bonnie, I live to serve...I take the hits so you don't have to. I wish this had been a better book!

>221 jmaloney17: Jenn, to me the gag-inducing chirpy preachy "And he found HOPE" crap was just the rotted cherry on the poop sundae of this book. Blech.

>223 msf59: Mark, are you surprised I didn't like it, or that I read it in the first place?

>224 Whisper1: Hi Linda! Auntie's eyes are excellent, thank goodness, and it's merely an annual ritual to keep up with the pace of change in the rest of her body.

I'm looking (!) at a stronger bifocal prescription...I think I'll go back to contacts-plus-reading-glasses. I'm over the bifocal madness. As much time as I spend on the 'puter, I think it'll be best in the long run.

>226 alcottacre: Stasia, you're over 24...? How'd that happen? ;->

But honestly, I think the book itself was simply conceived as a fanboy reference tome on the Gaiman ouevre, so I am sooo not the target audience that I feel weird about reviewing the book at all, in retrospect.

>227 avatiakh:, 228 Kerrymelon, it's a flick-through book no matter what because it's not organized into a coherent narrative. But I guess as a reference book for fans, it's okay. The Brown, OTOH, is just flat disappointing no matter what. (Hanks was too old THEN and if they make another movie with him as Langdon, it will tank...mark my words.)

>229 London_StJ: Luxx ma petiit ange, SiL should looove it. On the way to the register, flip through it and you'll get what you need from the reading experience. I'm only reviewing them now, after cursory second reads; I've been savoring and delighting in a couple of books, so don't feel too sorry for me!

>Hello, 230! Glad to see you around here...and the phrase "sulphrous muttering" is a lifesaver here in public where there are easily shocked and offended delicate fleurs like Stasia and Berly and Darryl. Everyone still knows what I mean, though, so it's a win-win!

>231 jdthloue: Jude, yeah...and that road's the one I suspect Brown's headed down from here on in. May he surprise us both with an outpouring of delicious, freshly imagined prose. Soon.

>232 brenzi: Bonnie, I think I just didn't get *bit* early enough to be a fan of the artform. I've read graphic novels, and even enjoyed them, but I never, ever seek them out. I wait for one of the kids to shove one at me and demand that I read it.

#233 RD: The "rotted cherry on the poop sundae" is exactly right!

Who could possibly want to read that one after such a sulphureous sent-off. I am not a huge sci-fi, graphic novel fan either, Richard. Thanks for the laugh.

"Mark, are you surprised I didn't like it, or that I read it in the first place?"
The latter, good sir, the latter! And maybe the fact that you didn't detest it! I really liked the Da Vinci Code but never had much interest in reading anything else by him and you confirmed those feelings!

#235: Stasia, you're over 24...? How'd that happen? ;->

I keep asking myself the same thing!

I started to read American Gods last year and put it aside when I realized it was only making me want to re-read Tim Powers's Last Call. So that's what I did instead. It's a relief to hear that someone else was underwhelmed.

Anansi Boys is so much better than American Gods. I agree, Last Call is excellent, as is Lindskold's Changer, which AG made ME want to go re-read!

I've just reviewed a truly marvelous book, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, vol. 1: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson in my Homeless Reviews thread... post #51...and I can't urge you enough to get and read it if you haven't already.

LTer mikeepatrick becomes the god of my heathen idolatry for raving about this book so hard that I was compelled to read it. It's a four-and-a-half star read, and deserves its awards! (National Book Award, Printz Award)

Re:Dan Brown and his potential for IMPROVEMENT...not as long as he is so Hugely Popular..now he has to preach to the choir/feed the masses...unfortunately..the guy does have a Kill Hell imagination....pity the loss

Read your review of The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing......on the Homeless Thread (raggedy ass?)..it's been on my Radar for a while..i think you just gave me the Nudge i needed to get-a-copy

thanks
J

I loved your review of Octavian Nothing, I read it just over a year ago and thought it was brilliant. I've read Vol II Kingdom on the Waves as well.

Richard...You have two hot reviews listed on tonight's home page! Kudos!

I've loved M.T. Anderson's writing ever since listening to his book Feed on tape last year or thereabouts. Octavian Nothing sounds like a great read as well.

By the way, I got a kick out of the review following yours here on LT where a reviewer says, "I found it a compelling read, but could never put it into my school library." Ha!

Another review, another thumb. Excellent again Richard.

Octavian Nothing and Changer. I should have heeded the warnings about joining this group. My TBR file grows and grows and grows ....

Excellent review! I will wishlist it!

He's a HOTTIE HOT guy these days!

#251 Ssssshhhh!!! He's so easily embarrassed. And, BTW, *ahem* he sort of needs a new thread again.

Linda3rd, who on this God's earth told you I was easily embarrassed? I *batten* like a scary-big tick on praise!

And yes, time for yet another ......new thread.

edited/link

#253: Your new thread will not let me post :(

>254 alcottacre: Stasia, I was still creating it! Possess your soul in patience, ma'am, all will happen in due course.

Thanks, all who thumbs-upped me! It's agreeable to know I'm affording some pleasure in writing my reviews, and I am ever so grateful to each one of y'all for following the weird and irregular course I've charted in my reading.

>249 swynn: swynn, it is a geometric progression, I warn you....

>247 SqueakyChu: Madeline, isn't that a hoot? *I* can enjoy it, but perish forbid my *students* should have that opportunity. ...?... Is it a librarian's function to guide kids to the books that are appropriate for them? There are adults I wouldn't recommend this book to, either, so should it simply not be on library shelves?

Patience?? What's that?

and the link to the new thread is?

in msg 253

*brain cramp after reading 84 posts in richard's thread!*