karenmarie's 75 book challenge for 2010 - chapter 2

I would never have believed it possible that I would need a second thread for my 75 book challenge, but here we are! Thanks to all of you who've posted.

Here's my first 75 challenge thread for 2010: karenmarie's 75 book challenge for 2010

Here's my Books Off the Shelf Challenge thread too: karenmarie's BOTS challenge

For this thread I'll drop January - April:

MAY

42. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King 04/28/10 05/03/10 **** 405 pages.

43. A Cold Treachery by Charles Todd 05/04/10 05/05/10 **** Here's my review: A Cold Treachery 400 pages.

44. A Long Shadow by Charles Todd 05/06/10 05/08/10 ***1/2 Rutledge is being hunted and taunted with bullet casings, even when he's sent to the country to discover who shot Constable Hensley in the back with an arrow. Another meticulous case with evidence gathered bit by bit along with some brilliant deduction and intuition by Rutledge. The ending was a tad contrived but still another good part of the series. 354 pages.

45. A False Mirror by Charles Todd 05/08/10 05/09/10 **** Rutledge is called to mediate in a hostage situation. Hostage situations in 1919 are very different than today - he goes into the house and talks with the hostage taker AND the hostages. A man has been beaten and lies unconscious, yet the next night is gone. Part of a cliffside falls into the ocean with an old cottage - was the missing man in it? How do some of the people from his past play a part? How does Hamish react to all this? And, how does Rutledge figure it all out? So good! 384 pages.

46. A Pale Horse by Charles Todd 05/09/10 05/13/10 **1/2 A surprisingly bland tale with too many suspects, too many venues, and not enough about Rutledge. All he does is drive from Yorkshire to Berkshire to London. There's a small bit about his sister Frances, some intriguing hints from Hamish about how he might manifest to Rutledge, and some very good psychological work about a missing man, his suicide wife, and his two daughters; but all in all it's the weakest of the series in my opinion. 360 pages.

47. A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd 05/13/10 05/15/10 **** 330 pages.

48. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell 05/15/10 ***1/2 Musings on the assassination of 3 American Presidents - Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Her style alternately appeals and grates - the book is chock full of interesting and well-presented information and her very apparent love of the macabre. We learn a lot about the Presidents and their assassins, a lot about Robert Todd Lincoln who was coincidentally, on the scene of all 3 assassinations, and a lot about Vowell's sister Amy and Amy's son Owen. She has done her homework and clearly loves her subject. What grates is the occasional stand-up comic schtick. As I said after reading her book about Pilgrims, The Wordy Shipmates, there are occasional funny lines that, at least with me, bomb horribly. Ba-da-boom. 258 pages.

49. French Blue by Richard W. Wise 05/18/10 05/21/10 ****1/2 Review to follow. 567 pages.

50. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler 05/21/10 05/23/10 ***1/2 250 pages.

51. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson 05/23/10 05/26/10 ***1/2 A very dense and alternately exuberant and depressing read. First sentence? "I exist!" This at the moment of conception, with her father heaving away on the apparently sleeping wife..... lots of family history, back and forth in time, vignettes of various family members, life, death. I liked it a lot.

52. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris 05/27/10 05/29/10 *** At least this one isn't as violent as the last one. Sookie's let her fairy cousin Claude live at her house for some strange readon. Eric's maker and another "sibling" are in town, there's some strange Were business going on, and Bill the Vampire's sick from silver poisoning. It's a fun read but strangely flat.

JUNE

53. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson 05/29/10 06/02/10 **** Here's my review: Hornet's Nest

54. The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber 06/02/10 06/13/10 **1/2 A very unengaging book about an unknown Shakespeare play with lots of bad guys, kidnappings, self-evaluation. I kept reading it because I thought it would get better, but it really didn't.

55. Transmission Kunzru by Hari Kunzru 06/04/10 06/06/10 *** After a while wicked social commentary gets boring. I didn't really see a story here, just a bunch of astute observations about Indian nationals in America being abused and some stories that were supposed to be related but that I just couldn't connect in a meaningful way. Meh. I'm beginning to think I'm an Anglophile and if the book doesn't relate to the UK, Australia, Ireland, the US, or Canada, it's less interesting to me. Sad, but there it just might be.

56. The Red Door by Charles Todd 06/08/10 06/15/10 **** Another fine book in the Ian Rutledge series. Alas! It’s the most recently released. Now I'll have to wait until another one is actually published. The beginning of the book doesn’t make sense until about halfway through, which is intriguing and kept me on tenterhooks. Ian Rutledge is investigating the disappearance of Walter Teller, a missionary, in London. There are many Teller family members, and except for Walter’s son Harry they are all hiding something but Ian can’t figure out what it might be. Then Ian is called in on the case of Florence Teller, wife of a Peter Teller, bludgeoned to death in Lancashire. Unrelated? Walter has a brother named Peter, but it doesn’t make sense that Peter is hiding an early marriage. Rutledge digs and digs and eventually resolves both issues. This 12th entry in the series is a thoroughly entertaining book. Not so much with Hamish, which in a way is almost a relief, because unless something dramatic is going to happen in Ian and Hamish’s relationship, the banter could get old. Fortunately there’s less of that but an intriguing ending with Rutledge finally recognizing some emotions and acting upon them. The writing is strong and evokes the end of The Great War. I haven’t gotten tired of this series yet. Bring ‘em on, Charles Todd!

57. The Passage by Justin Cronin 06/11/10 06/25/10 ***1/2 Here's my (late) review: The Passage

JULY

58. Still Life by Louise Penny 06/28/10 07/03/10 ****

59. So Cold the River by Michael Koryta 07/04/10 07/07/10 ***1/2 Here's my review: So Cold the River

60. Krakatoa by Simon Winchester 07/10/10 07/18/10 ***

61. A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny 07/18/10 07/23/10 ****

62. The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb 07/24/10 07/26/10 **1/2 Bleh.

63. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris 07/27/10 07/28/10 ***1/2 RE-READ

64. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris 07/28/10 07/30/10 ***1/2 RE-READ

AUGUST

65. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris 07/31/10 08/01/10 ***1/2 **RE-READ

66. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mosin Hamid 07/31/10 08/01/10 ***

67. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris 08/01/10 08/04/10 ***1/2 RE-READ

68. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris 08/04/10 08/05/10 **RE-READ

69. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris 08/05/10 08/06/10 **RE-READ

70. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris 08/06/10 08/07/10 **RE-READ

71. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris 08/07/10 08/08/10 **RE-READ

72. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris 08/08/10 08/09/10 **RE-READ

73. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris 08/09/10 08/10/10 **RE-READ

74. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny 08/11/10 08/14/10 ****

75. The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny 08/14/10 08/16/10 ****

76. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer 08/16/10 08/17/10 *** RE-READ

77. Blood Brother by Jack Kerley 08/21/10 08/22/10 ****

78. Long Lost by Harlan Coben 08/22/10 08/23/10 ****

79. Back Spin by Harlan Coben 08/23/10 08/24/10 ***1/2

80. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King 08/24/10 08/30/10 ****

81. Hot Spot by Susan Johnson 08/29/10 08/30/10 **1/2 Trashy romance.

82. Never Too Much by Lori Foster 08/30/10 08/31/10 **1/2 Trashy romance.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving 08/17/10 ***ABANDONED 9/12/10

SEPTEMBER

83. The Stand by Stephen King 09/03/10 09/25/10 ****1/2 I finished it - all 1153 pages of the Complete and Uncut Version. An amazing well written and interesting book that discusses many issues of import wrapped up in a world after an enhanced virus escapes the lab. Good vs. evil and so well done.

OCTOBER

84. A Very Private Grave by Donna Fletcher Crow. 09/26/10 10/04/10 **1/2 An ER book. Once again, I forgot to research the publisher and got Christian fiction. Will I never learn? At least this one was a mystery instead of a Regency romance.

85. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri 10/04/10 10/07/10 **1/2 Meh.

86. Touchstone by Laurie R. King 10/15/10 10/30/10 ***1/2

Audiobooks from 5/21/10 forward:

1. 5143::My Life by Bill Clinton 05/22/10 05/28/10 ***1/2 Abridged, yet still 6 CDs. Bill Clinton reading his own story is very satisfying. I enjoyed it immensely.

2. 889::Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis 07/01/10 07/30/10 ****

3. 7765390::Under the Dome by Stephen King 08/05/10 09/09/10 ****1/2 An amazing and wise book. What a joy to listen to.

4. 3577382::Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 9/15/10 10/5/10 ****

5. 29698::The Green Mile by Stephen King 10/5/10 10/19/10 ****1/2 This was wonderful and awful and ... wonderful. I might actually write a review. 1932, death row, a gift from God, etc.

Think you can escape my clouds of contumely by starting a new thread, eh? Ha!

What Richard said :)

Hi Karen- Congrats on thread 2!

I'm flattered, really I am.

Congrats and welcome to the second thread club! Glad to see you're enjoying Behind the Scenes. I think you'd like Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books too, starting with Case Histories. They are considered literary mysteries (whatever that means) and there are only three.

I do like the Jackson Brodie series. I read Case Histories. Then, with a total disconnect, I listened to When Will There Be Good News?, and didn't realize til people commented on my thread that they were connected. I have One Good Turn but haven't read it yet.

I really like Atkinson's style. She throws lots of people at you and moves them backward and forward through time, but it makes for an interesting, dense read.

Karen

Welcome to the multi-thread gang. My tbr pile contains many of your recommendations!

Hi! I have you starred now!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson 05/29/10 06/02/10 **** Here's my review: Hornet's Nest

I'm sad the series is over, but what a great book!

#10: Nice review, Karen. I am going to be reading the trilogy over the summer.

Thank you, alcottacre! Glad you liked it. And, I hope you like the series. If you read them all at once (as it were), I'm sure you'll get more out of them than I did spacing them out as I acquired them.

They're definitely worth a re-read, though, which I may get to one of these years.

#12: I have already read the first two, so the summer reading will be re-reads for me. I want to read the trilogy all together though, so like you say, I get more out of them.

Karen- I'll be starting The Girl Who Played With Fire in a few days. It's my vacation book. I also have a spanking new copy of Hornets Nest but probably won't get to that until later in the year!

Hope you enjoy it, Mark! Do take my advise when you read Hornet's Nest, though - re-read the last several chapters.

I snuck in a quick read of Transmission by Hari Kunzru for my bookclub meeting last night and have mixed feelings about it. The satire was well done, the observations of human nature clever and beautifully metaphoric, but the story and the ending left me rather cold. And I really didn't understand why some of the characters were in the book.

I have tried three times to get the touchstone to link to Transmission instead of Lost in Transmission by McCarthy and it's not working.

#16: Looks like one I can safely skip, not that my local library has it anyway.

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber 06/02/10 06/13/10 **1/2 A very unengaging book about an unknown Shakespeare play with lots of bad guys, kidnappings, self-evaluation. I kept reading it because I thought it would get better, but it really didn't.

starring thread :)

I have a couple of books by Atkinson but have never gotten 'round to them..

Hi. Sorry to see you have had two bad reads in a row. But at least now I know not to read them. Thanks for the useful comments.

Oh goody - I'm glad someone else didn't like The Book of Air and Shadows. Well, I'm sort of sorry you didn't like it, but I'm also relieved to find someone else who didn't because I thought I was a definite minority. I was really annoyed with myself for finishing it because I felt I had wasted so much time and that I should have really just been strong enough to invoke the Pearl Rule and abandoned the book after 50 pages.

Kath : I haven't yet read anything by Atkinson that I haven't liked. Delay no further, pick one of your Atkinsons up and start reading!

Hi mckait! Welcome to my thread.

JanetinLondon - neither one was awful, but neither one was really worth my time either.

cameling - I looked at the reviews AFTER I wrote my comments and there are actually quite a few people who didn't like it. It wasn't quite awful enough to abandon, but could have been so much better.

I've started the thirteenth Ian Rutledge book The Red Door and so far it's good - not stunning, but good. So far we don't even have a murder. I'm hoping for some juicy emotional breakthroughs for Ian or some interesting banter with Hamish.

I've also started The Passage by Justin Cronin. It's pretty intense, hence The Red Door.

Hi Karen
I'm catching up on some threads today. I haven't read anything by Stieg Larrsen but hope to do so this year. Thanks for your comments

Hi Whisper1: Oh what a treat is in store for you! I really hope you like them. The first one has way too many people named Vanger and it's hard to keep track of, but my copy of the book has a family tree and I used it frequently. Good luck and have fun.

The Red Door finally has a murder. An unexpected murder. It's getting interesting.

I have The Passage from vine.. and will have to start it soon... let me know how you are liking it, will you :)

Atkinson.. I will move her up as much as I can..

Hi Horrible! Count me among the Book of Air and Shadows unlikers. So many missed opportunties. I was almost apoplectic at the editor, there was a *much* better book in there!!

Hi mckait: My husband called me one day last week and said that he'd seen the author being interviewed. He thought I might like the book. Since he recommended it, I didn't play Bookmooch games, just ordered it from Amazon. We have Prime, so at least there was no shipping.....

Richard dear! Great minds, eh? I kept reading it even though I knew by about page 70 or so that it was just not going to get too terribly much better. Not quite as "deer in the headlights" as when I was listening to Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis but almost. You're right - there was a much better book in there. I've also got his Valley of Bones and Tropic of Night. Might try Tropic soon just to see if he is any good at all.

Karen- Funny, I really liked Book of Air and Shadows! It's been a couple years since I read it and I especially liked the first half. Books are strange that way. I have also read Tropic of Night and thought it was a pretty good book. I have The Passage on it's way from Amazon. It's one I'm really pumped about.

Hi Mark! To each his own. The book never quite gelled for me. I'm actually surprised at myself for continuing to read it because usually I put a book down quickly if it doesn't utterly hold my attention.

I'm really enjoying The Red Door but will probably finish it today. Then, back to The Passage.

The Red Door by Charles Todd 06/13/10 06/15/10 **** Another fine book in the Ian Rutledge series. Alas! It’s the most recently released. Now I'll have to wait until another one is actually published. The beginning of the book doesn’t make sense until about halfway through, which is intriguing and kept me on tenterhooks. Ian Rutledge is investigating the disappearance of Walter Teller, a missionary, in London. There are many Teller family members, and except for Walter’s son Harry they are all hiding something but Ian can’t figure out what it might be. Then Ian is called in on the case of Florence Teller, wife of a Peter Teller, bludgeoned to death in Lancashire. Unrelated? Walter has a brother named Peter, but it doesn’t make sense that Peter is hiding an early marriage. Rutledge digs and digs and eventually resolves both issues. This 12th entry in the series is a thoroughly entertaining book. Not so much with Hamish, which in a way is almost a relief, because unless something dramatic is going to happen in Ian and Hamish’s relationship, the banter could get old. Fortunately there’s less of that but an intriguing ending with Rutledge finally recognizing some emotions and acting upon them. The writing is strong and evokes the end of The Great War. I haven’t gotten tired of this series yet. Bring ‘em on, Charles Todd!

The Passage is fantastic. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and can hardly put it down.

Twelve books and still hooked...oh no, oh dear, what a tragedy for my wishlist!

Mine too!

The Passage by Justin Cronin 06/11/10 06/25/10 ***1/2 I finished this book last night and my mind's all a muddle about it. I have lots of questions about what went on in the book and the ending really bothered me.

I'll try to write some more later.

#33: I have that one in the BlackHole already, so I am interested in seeing what you think of it, Karen.

Thanks for the warning on Masters of Atlantis , as that is one I might have picked up had I seen it. The Passage is on my shelf right now, trying to make me feel guilty, as it is a vine book and I have yet to read/review.

I have The Book of Air and Shadows but it has never made it ti the top of my tbr pile.... it will someday :)

#33 I've heard either rave reviews or meh reviews for The Passage so I will be interested in hearing what you think.

Karen, if you were up at 5:45 and posting here, I hope you're getting some sleep and letting your subconscious do some work on The Passage.

Hi all!

Richard - I was up at 5 .... just because.... then dozed for a while in the library with one of my kitties, then got up at 8. Today's my birthday and my family got me cards, chocolates, balloons, a Wimbledon towel with my initials embroidered on it AND an iPod Nano. I've wanted one for about 6 months now, so hooray! We downloaded itunes to my laptop, played around with listening to a few songs, and I'm now watching Nadal Petzschner. Nadal lost the second set! That's good, since I'm a Roger Federer fan all the way. We're switching back and forth to the Uruguay-Korea soccer match.

Today is lazing around, making a German Chocolate cake from scratch, watching the US Ghana soccer match, then going out to dinner.

I'll probably write more in a day or so about The Passage.

57 and hanging in there!!!

Many happy returns of the day! A darn good thing for us all that you were born.

Why thank you!

My sister just called from California and sang Happy Birthday to me. My mother sang to me at 9 a.m. Good day so far.

Happy Birthday Karen!! Hope you have a wonderful day! I also hope once things settle with The Passage, you'll upgrade your rating somewhat, for encouragement sake.

Happy birthday! I like the idea of the Wimbledon towel :-) Despite living near enough to Wimbledon to go for the day I have never got myself organised enough to actually go! Shame on me!

Don't know if you're still up but Nadal's made it through to the 5th set...

Oh, we're watching. Nadal just got a coaching warning. 3-2 Nadal, on serve, in the 5th.

Daughter and I just got the cake in the oven. The spatula and bowl got licked.

2 p.m. is the US Soccer match.

And Nadal's through.

Yes he is, darn it. It was a lot of good tennis.

souloftherose - I'd love the chance to go to Wimbledon, but given our finances probably will never make it in this lifetime. Sigh.

The cake's out of the oven.

Husband and daughter have gone off to their respective lairs - daugher upstairs in her bedroom/recroom suite and husband in his home office to check his e-mail.

I'm reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss for my July bookclub meeting. It's okay....

#41 Mark - 3 1/2 stars on my rating system is very good. I gave it that because of all the questions I had and how it ended. It wasn't 4**** excellent, much less 4****1/2 stunning or 5***** masterpiece.

I really did like it - just some things reeked of deus-ex-machina.

The soccer's started. Go US!

Happy Birthday, Karen. The German Chocolate cake sounds delicious. What a nice day you're having. Now if only Ghana wasn't ahead in the game...

Happy Birthday, Karen!

(too bad about the US loss to Ghana - again!)

Hope you are having left over birthday cake for breakfast :)
I may have missed "the day" but be happy today anyway :)

Thank you for the birthday greetings! I had a wonderful day. The German Chocolate cake came out great - I had a piece for breakfast along with my Gevalia black, no sugar freshly ground beans and wonderful well water freshly brewed coffee.

I'm sorry the US lost - more for my husband and daughter than me, really. I'm more the tennis fan and Roger made it through to the second week so I'm pumped.

My family really tricked me yesterday - in a good way. We were going to go to dinner at a local restaurant early then take my daughter to work - but we passed the exit for the restaurant. Daughter and husband pretended to be so wrapped up in the "I'm Thinking of an Animal" game that they missed the exit. That was fine - but when they missed the next exit the cat was out of the bag and they took me to a VERY NICE dinner at The Angus Barn. We go there every year or so for special occasions - very pricey. I broke down and finally, after all the years of wanting it, got the lobster. I have some leftover that I'll eat for today's lunch. They are sneaky pete'ies for sure. My daughter was scheduled to work, but she had, unknown to me, switched with another waitress so actually didn't have to work.

I am not thrilled with The History of Love. It isn't ... coherent... and so far I only care about the old man. I normally love books about Jewish angst, but this one isn't doing it so far.

I'm going to get dressed and wash my car. Daughter should be taking her drivers test tomorrow or Tuesday and I want the car clean for her. It's psychological as much as anything, but the car really does need a cleaning inside and out.

Karen, you have a cool (and sneaky) family. I enjoyed the story of your birthday surprise.

About the incoherence of The History of Love. I recently reread it for a face-to-face book group and the "light bulb" went on for me this time. I think I really wanted to like it the first time I read it, but I didn't totally "get it" either. Now I consider it one of my favorite books.

Thanks, Donna. My family takes very good care of me for sure.

Car's washed, I'm loading CDs onto iTunes in anticipation of downloading to my brand new iPod.

Daughter and I will be off to an afternoon of volunteering at the thrift store (to earn money for daughter's band trip in the fall) then drive around to get daughter reacquainted with driving since she's pretty much stopped since school let out and she's not driving to school in the mornings.

I probably will get back to my book afer dinner.

The History of Love is waiting patiently for me as I read Still Life by Louise Penny. It's the first Armande Gamache novel and I'm loving it.

Karen is on the bus to Three Pines! Woot!!

We'll have to thank Richard for my knowing about this series. It's a good deal for me - the 4 or 5 books of that series for the 12 books of the Ian Rutledge series. :)

*grumble* You hadda remind me of that...I'm only partway through Rutledge book 3 (Search the Dark), and it's just delicious (of course) with the weirdness of the "murderer" (I am morally certain that he didn't do it) and the unknownness of the victim. She's not the escaped wife. Can't be. Nope. And the vanished husband and kids? What's the angle on this? I haven't been this fascinated in a long time!

I hate you inexpressibly.

Back at you with interest. :)

Good! :-P

I finished Still Life by Louise Penny this morning and was totally charmed. I love Gamache, Beauvoir, Clara Morrow. A good mystery with interesting characters and plot. Can Agent Nichol really be that bad? And what's with Peter Morrow? I fully expect him to be a murderer in a future installment. He bothers me.

I want to eat all the food in the book and sit in front of the fire drinking whiskey and eating licorice pipes. Even though I don't particularly like whiskey.

I found it interesting that part of the solution to the mystery included how an artist's palette is constructed - different whites, yellows, etc. It reminds me of Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers in which my favorite detective Peter Wimsey uses artists preferences in color to help him solve the murder.

I was bemoaning the fact that I couldn't find a copy of So Cold the River by Michael Koryta on Bookmooch the other day. Thursday night I was volunteering at the thrift store to earn money for daughter's big band trip in the fall when THERE IT WAS! An ARC, perfect condition, for $1.50. So I started it this morning. Hoo-yah!

Congratulations on getting the Koryta book, Karen!

#59 nice score :)

Hey, now I have to find Cold the River ... I live in Baden!!

Karen, I loved your remarks on Still Life. I finished it a couple weeks ago and am ready for a return visit to Three Pines. I'll join you in front of the fire, although I don't like either one -- whiskey or licorice!

The Three Pines bus is filling up - yay!

Thanks, alcottacre! I just love finding books on Bookmooch or at the thrift store. I'm too financially strapped to buy too many new books these days- Still Life was a splurge with a gift card I got from work.

Yes, mckait, you must! It's like how I love Erle Stanley Gardner, Michael Connelly and other authors who write about LA. I always know where things are and what the subtext is.

Thanks, Donna828. I need to find the second one asap.

Yes coppers! A great ride with a wonderful destination.

well... it isn't the same baden.. but still

yay on the Three Pines bus..the more the merrier.

I do enjoy books about areas that I am familiar with though. :)

And one more seat taken on the Three Pines ... so glad you enjoyed it, Karen. Wait till you read the others in the series ... maybe your library will have them?

Are you ready for tomorrow's men's final showdown? I think Nadal will take it in straight sets, but you never know. I have to make sure I wake up earlier so I can get a run in and have breakfast before settling down to watch the match. It won't be the same without Federer there ... *sigh*

cameling - I'm very sad that Roger's not in the final for the first time in 8 years.

I want Berdych to win. I think he's got a shot at it. Since he beat Roger I want him to win - especially against Nadal.

I'd like Berdych to win too. Not that I don't like Nadal, I do, but I think Berdych's done such a great job so far, he's already beaten Roger and Novak, it'd be such a coup for him to win this and go on the record not only of winning Wimby but also of beating the top 3 in the same major tournament.

Did you watch the match? Nadal won in straight sets. Blech. Eventually it got boring. Not a lot of energy.

I'm adding So Cold the River to the tbr pile. It sounds like a great book.

Karen- How far along are you in So Cold the River? I'm on the homestretch with it and will be finished on Tuesday. It's a good listen. Hope you have a great 4th!

Hi Mark!

I'm at the point where Eric and Kellen had the fight with Josiah, Eric just visited Anne McKinney and then had the "vision" in the railroad car. Great stuff so far.

We had a nice time at an afternoon picnic then came home and watched the first two episodes of the first season of Lost. We don't know anything about it and are liking it so far.

Tomorrow we are visiting my husband's mother in the 24/7 health center she lives in. 2 1/2 hours there, 2 1/2 hours back, with a visit with a very frail, confused, (mean) old lady. Not my ideal way to spend the holiday, but duty calls.

Ooh, So Cold the River does sound good . . . onto the list it goes!

And I want a seat on that bus to Three Pines, too!

We were happily surprised at how well Mama was doing yesterday. She was dressed and had makeup on and was pretty coherent, not confused at all. We had a very nice visit. She was able to go for a drive and we were out for an hour and a half, driving by the house she was born and raised in, the house she was living in when I married her son and we went to the cemetary that her aunt, uncle, and first cousin are in. Then we went to the cemetary where her parents are buried and she was able, with a lot of assistance from daughter and me, to actually walk over to the brass marker and stand there for a while in remembrance.

The trip took 8 1/2 hours total round trip but we had a good time and got home early enough to watch some more Lost and relax.

tymfos - I'm at about page 320 of So Cold the River. It's very good.

I'm proud of myself - I've loaded quite a few CDs onto iTunes and then actually got them synched up onto my new iPod. I listened to music on the way to Mama's yesterday.

I am glad that your visit with your MIL went well, Karen!

A happy surprise indeed. I wrote that the trip took 5 hours round trip, but that was the travel part - the total trip took 8 1/2 hours.

I have finally written a review of The Passage. Sorry, Mark - I don't want to change my ***1/2 rating. That's "Very Good" in my rating system, yet the book disappointed at the absolute very end for me.

The Passage

Next up is a review of So Cold the River by Michael Koryta.

So Cold the River

Karen- Very good review on So Cold the River! So glad you enjoyed it! Maybe I don't have to review it now, I'll just point 'em in your direction!
I'll hold off reading your review of The Passage, after I read it!

Thanks, Mark! I appreciate the compliment.

Yes, although there aren't any spoilers per se I did talk about a few things I liked/disliked that might prejudice you one way or the other.

I started a book called The Last Detective today - 25 pages in and it's not grabbing me yet.

Well, it didn't grab me enough so that I abandoned it and started Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. It's a very interesting book, ultimately about the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa and it's far-reaching impact on the world but in the first 123 or pages discussing plate tectonics, the theory of evolution, etc. I'm really enjoying it.

We're getting ready for a 12-day driving tour of the midwest - North Carolina to Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Tennessee.

So far I've decided to also take Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons and To Kill a Mockingbird byHarper Lee in honor of the 50th anniversary of its publication.

I'll figure out another 3 or 4 books to take - I honestly don't envision lots of reading time but that's okay - we're going to visit family, do some genealogical research, and do some historical site/touristy things (Mammoth Cave, Lincoln Birthplace, US Grant Birthplace, Lincoln childhood home, Gateway Arch and Westward Museum, Shiloh, Truman Library, Nat'l WWI Museum among other things).

Hi Horrible...don't forget to take a thriller along! I'd suggest Blasphemy by Douglas Preston or The Ark by Boyd Morrison. Both are rocket-fast rides, and involve chases that'll keep the car hours from dragging. When do you leave?

Hi richarddear -

8 a.m. Wednesday. We're taking my computer (my daughter's too, actually) so I'll be able to check in with y'all every once in a while.

First day is the worst driving day - 500 miles. Then it will get to be lots of fun. Although the drive to Kentucky will be beautiful - my husband has chosen non-interstate as much as he can, so we should see some interesting parts of the country.

Good idea on taking a thriller or two. I'm not going to have time to find any books though, even ones that sound as good as those two do.

I have Brimstone by Douglas Preston and one or two other "thrillers" that I'll track down and tuck into the bookbag.

>82 karenmarie: Ah! Good idea. That way you don't fall out of the loop...it's so hard to catch up. The Divine Miss says she hates to go away because the horrors of catching up are so awful they make any fun she has pale in comparison.

Hence our purchase of the netbook. What a lifesaver that little thing is!

Karen- Have a great & safe trip! It looks like you'll be hitting some very interesting places. You'll be passing, south of me, if you have a chance stop at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. It's wonderful.

Thanks, Mark! If I could go to all the museums in the world, I would. I particularly like tiny out of the way ones. One of my favorite museums was in Downieville, California - one of the last northern towns of the California Gold Rush. Just an old two-room house stuffed to the gills with paraphernalia and memoribilia from the time of the Gold Rush to about the 1870s. Heaven.

I think we're going to find a whole bunch of fun museums on this trip.

Major excitement! I cleaned up my desk in anticipation of leaving in 59 minutes and realized that I had brought A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny to work one day without having entered it into my LT catalog. So I just found it, entered it, and will take it on the trip. I know it's the fourth one, but I've read One and Three, so feel entitled.

We're getting pretty excited - I only have to go to the grocery store, fill my car with gas so I can get safely home, pack, finish cleaning up the house, sleep, and leave! Woot.

Congratulations on finding the Penny book! I hope you enjoy it.

Safe travels, Karen.

Thanks, alcottacre! I'm at a Best Western in Evansville Indiana right now, the family still sleeping. We don't have highspeed internet at home so I'm enjoying it on the road.

We're having a wonderful time so far.

I'm still reading Krakatoa and as I predicted, so far haven't had much time to read, but that's okay.

#87: I hope you enjoy Krakatoa. I read that one several years ago. I thought it was interesting. My favorite of Winchester's books is The Professor and the Madman. If you have not read it, I would recommend it to you.

Good morning!

Yes, I have that one on my shelves and have read it. I liked it alot. I remember enjoying his style and the story was amazing.

Ah, well good. I am glad to hear that you liked it.

Hi Stasia, hi Horrible! Glad you're having the hi-speed experience, Karen. Warning: It's addictive.

So...Simon Winchester...I really enjoyed Krakatoa for many reasons, but probably the most subtle is the way Winchester weaves in the fact that this is the first *global* disaster.. .the telegraph meant that people unaffected by the disaster directly heard from those on the spot, for the first time in history! It was as amazing to them as 24-hr CNN was to us in the 80s.

I'd recommend working on A Crack in the Edge of the World next. It's a very good account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Hi guys.

We're in Galena Illinois and after breakfast will be off to visit the US Grant Historical Site. Galena is beautiful. Then to Iowa to stay with my aunt and uncle for 3 days. We're having an absolutely super time.

I didn't like the last 60 or so pages of Krakatoa and in fact skimmed them - I guess I was more interested in the event and what led up to it than how it affected the world EXCEPT that I did love the bits about the telegraph and how it was the first global event known about pretty much immediately and all of the barograph evidence about how the shock wave traveled the world seven times. But he "telegraphed" that information early in the book and it didn't have the impact it could have had when he discussed it in detail after the actual explosion. He did that a couple of times and so I felt like he was repeating himself. But it was fascinating.

I started A Rule Against Murder last night. But I'm only on page 17. Good for the trip, bad for the reading - too many interesting things to see and too much fun with husband and daughter.

My only Winchester was a flop, imo, so I've never tried anything else of his. However, the Krakatoa event in an interesting one, so I'll give this a try.

As for the Penny, you're in a great situation. Just think: you're really enjoying seeing things with your husband and daughter but if some slightly less interesting moment arrives...voilà, a book you're really enjoying! What could be better?

Horrible, I mean, I mean, KAREN: Go here!

Hi Richard: I saw the invite, need to get organized to see if it's even possible.

We just got back from our 13-day vacation yesterday. We had a wonderful time visiting family, seeing the country, finding old family graves, doing genealogical research. No snarling, we all got along fantastically.

And I'm sitting here in my nightgown watching it pour down rain. We only had about 10 minutes of rain on our entire trip and come home to rain! Ah well, today's my last vacation day so except to go food shopping this morning and to a volunteer workgroup tonight so I can just sit home and enjoy it.

I only read 3 books on vacation - Krakatoa, A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny, and The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb.

I'm "reading restless" so started a re-read of Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.

Oh yeah, nothin' like a Sookie Stackhouse to cure the restlesses. Something familiar and fun, but not cloying.

Welcome home, and I've got things crossed that haven't seen each other in years hoping you'll be able to come to the party!

Sounds like a great vacation, glad you had a good time.

It's raining here too but then I do live in Britain. Wouldn't be summer if it didn't rain! Although that also works if you say spring, autumn or winter instead.

I hope you make it to the party too, Karen!

I still haven't been able to try to figure out if I can get to Richard's Birthday party yet -

Wed - Fri at work were tough getting back into things, plus my works-in-Mexico-is-India-Indian boss and HIS Italian boss visit us to start a conversion project. Bleh. Going away from software/hardware I like to SAP Financials. Uncharted territory for me. They might send me to ABAP training though, so I'd become marketable again.

Yesterday was laundry and errands, and today has been cooking breakfast, laundry, staying in my pajamas, sleeping, and finishing two books.

I've been in a re-read mode - I just re-read the first three Sookie Stackhouse novels. I've pulled out the fourth and it's sitting here staring at me.

I also just read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mosin Hamid for bookclub tonight. I think I liked it but am unsure about what the ending actually meant. Ah well, we'll discuss it tonight.

My mother sent me money for my birthday in June, and, not wishing to rush things, I finally decided to buy books with it. I bought some great light reading -
Laurell K. Hamilton's newest Anita Blake Skin Trade,
The Brutal Telling and A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny,and
The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

Congratulations on the belated birthday books, especially the Penny ones!

Thanks alcottacre.

A Fatal Grace is due today or tomorow and I want to read it before The Brutal Telling.

Meanwhile, we had a fantastic discussion of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and I'll try to make some time later today or tomorrow to write a review.

Now it's time to put the coffee in the thermos, get dressed, and get myself on the road to get to work!

I hope you have a great Monday!

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a very thought-provoking book, and as Stasia often describes the books she really liked, it is one of my "memorable" reads. Looking forward to your review.

Some books are more fun to reviews of than others. I had a great time writing this review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I'm reading the 5th book of the Sookie Stackhouse series and having a blast.

#102 alcottacre - Monday was very busy with month end financial closings - I work in IT and support the finance function. Yesterday was Manufacturing processing AND my daughter's 17th birthday. We had dinner out at a nice restaurant.

Today's quiet. Yay.

#103 arubabookwoman - glad you wrote - you inspired me to write my review sooner than later.

Karen--Wonderful review. I agree about the ambiguous ending. Thumbs up!

Ambiguous? Sounds downright evasive to me!

I have never read a Sookie... may have to give her a try :)

mckait! You simply must try her if you like

1. mysteries (although after the first three or so there aren't mysteries, just strangeness in Sookie's life)

2. paranormal stuff - telepaths, vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, fairies.

3. Southern-ness. There's a lot of Southern-ness in the books. I've lived in the South for 19 years and it rings pretty true for small town rural life.

4. humor and insight. Sookie is clever and very observant.

Go for the first one Dead Until Dark.

Maybe you, too, can start calling me Horrible like our Richarddear does if I introduce you to a long (10 books) series you like. :)

>109 karenmarie: Oh dear, Horrible's at it again. How sad. *waves lacy hanky* Farewell, Kath, you're a goner for Bon Temps, Louisiana.

I secretly own stock in the publishers of the Charles Todd and Charlaine Harris books, so I have to push them to recoup my book expenditures via an increase in my stock portfolio.

(At this point, if it were my husband spouting the above drivel, I'd say "Your eyes are brown", which is true - his eyes are brown - but which in this case means "Bill, you're full of shit." However since my eyes are a faded blue we must be direct and simply say "karenmarie, you're full of shit." )

Richarddear - another few series to throw at you (although you've probably read them:)

Harper Connelly by Charlaine Harris
Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy Sayers
Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout
Adam Dalgleish by P.D. James
Carson Ryder by Jack Kerley
Gervase Fen by Edmund Crispin
Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly
Mickey Haller by Michael Connelly
Lisbeth Salander by Stieg Larsson
Myron Bolitar by Harlan Coben
Wheezie & Juts by Rita Mae Brown
Savile and Mangum by Michael Malone
Simon Serailler by Susan Hill
Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Superintendant Battle, Mr. Satterwaite all by Agatha Christie - but NOT Tuppence and Tommy who make me wanna fwow up

xo Horrible

*LALALALA*

thumbs in ears, fingers over eyes

Arrggghh.... what landmine have I stepped on? I didn't duck in time, and I ended up getting hit by some of the series you were throwing at Richard. No fair !

Ah cameling, I didn't mean for you to be collateral damage. I was aiming directly at Richarddear.

(but they are all good series)

We just had a doozie of a storm - lightning, thunder, rain, power flickers - good stuff. We sat on the porch watching it come in about 7 p.m. for about 20 minutes or so - great jagged bolts of lightning and rumbly, rolling thunder. Very satisfying.

I zoomed through the 5th Sookie Stackhouse and have opened the 6th.

Today I was looking at my tbr tag - 1015 books - and remembered some great books I mooched recently. Methinks I need to pull some of them out. Only 5 more Sookies to go.

edited to fix zoomed - zommed is not a word

I just finished the most recent Sookie Stackhouse Dead in the Family and having just re-read all 10 books in the last 12 days consider the series better than I remembered. I had remembered the last 3 books as somewhat disappointing because of the chaos and violence, but in re-reading them I think I downplayed the chattiness and beginning-of-the-series flavor that I thought I missed.

What was I thinking?

Anyway, although the series does get more complicated and more violent, I like it vey much.

I tried to start Skin Trade by Laurell K Hamilton but put it down. Maybe later when I've gotten Sookie out of my head.

I think I'll start A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny.

#115: I would take the worst Penny book over the best Hamilton book any day of the week :) I tried one Hamilton book and decided that her works are just not for me.

I have the vague feeling that I may be done with Laurell K. Hamilton..... I'll wait a while and try again, but the last two were struggles and this may be just one struggle too many.

In the meantime, I have a brand new book to open up at lunchtime! Always a wondrous thing.

Horrible, you're neglecting your thread something shameful! Here's Madeline/SqueakyChu's post about the whole DC hoopla:

One of my favorite events every year is the National Book Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of this exciting event, I’d like to dedicate August’s TIOLI challenge to the authors who will be making their appearance in this year's book festival. Follow this link to find a list of the authors:
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/authors/
Then, after looking through the Library of Congress website, Read a Book by a 2010 National Book Festival Author. The author chosen MUST be of this year’s festival and NOT of a previous year’s festival! (Note to myself: 69 authors as of 6/30/10)

If you have a chance, please attend this exciting (and free!) event to hear the authors in person as well as join me for our Fourth Annual joint Bookcrossing-LibraryThing Meet-Up (Saturday, September 25, 2010, at 2pm - on the right hand side steps to the Museum of Natural History). If you cannot come to the event, please check out the author podcasts on the Library of Congress website after the event. They’re terrific.

Gads. September 25th is daughter's first marching band competition of the season. It's a no go, sadly, for DC.

As for neglecting my thread, I guess I have. I finished 2705703::A Fatal Grace then devoured 8410558::The Brutal Telling both by Lousy Louise Penny and have started a re-read of 19123::The Quiet Gentleman by heyergeorgette::Georgette Heyer. (I'm still excited to see her touchstone!)

Both were excellent books, although I know you, Richard Dear, are totally pissed off at what happened in 8410558::The Brutal Telling. I am too, but it makes sense in a kind of sad, dire way.

I've been very stressed out because I have to have a **routine** but ick-inducing medical procedure tomorrow and have just been totally pissed off about all the prep. And having to go there tomorrow, and miss a day of work, and deal with cheerful nurses and doctors when all I want to do is snarl at them.

Plus, but on a more happy note, we got daughter a vehicle - not for her birthday exactly because we got her a VERY NICE birthday present - but because we and she need for her to be able to get her around during her Senior year of high school without disrupting Mom and Dad anymore. School, Band, and Work make for a very demanding taxi schedule on her Dad AND me - especially when something changes at the last minute and I have to track him down or leave work myself to take her somewhere.

So we got her a 2010 Ford Ranger XLT Extended Cab (for her trombones). It's what she wanted, surprisingly. Finances being what they are, we took out some cash value on our life insurance policies, but it's worth it for the freedom it now gives us all.

So lots of stress, some good, some bad. I'm reading like crazy, though, escaping into beloved old and marvelous new adventures.

Oooh.... I can actually go this year. I am almost always out of town during the Festival. Here's to good weather that weekend!

>119 karenmarie: - Ooh, another marching band parent! It's all encompassing this time of year, isn't it? We also made sure my senior had his own car to start the new school year, except he got mine and I got the new one. :) Good luck to your daughter and her school at this year's competitions!

Heh. I'm a retired band parent - the son's been in college for a couple of years now...:)

#120 jmaloney17 - have fun for me too!

#121 coppers - great minds, eh? Although I like my 2004 Volvo XC70 very much and would much rather have it than her truck. We're all happy - my husband also likes his Ford Freestyle. Band is amazingly time consuming. Right now treasurer duties are taking tons of time because this is our once-every-four-year trip - this year to Ohio for 4 days and students can earn money via fundraising to pay for portions of their trip and I keep track of it and pay the tour company. Yup, busy little me. But it's so fantastic!

I'm absolutely amazed at what they do. We have enough money to have our own scores - Psychoses, Escape, and this year, Amusements.

Proud mom here. We're only a 2A band but we've been All Superior the last two seasons. Hoping for another one this year!

Here's Psychoses: Psychoses

Here's Escape: Escape

#122 drneutron - I'll be retired in one year but hope to keep interested in the high school's efforts.

Thanks for sharing the band videos, Karen!

You're welcome, alcottacre! Proud mom just couldn't resist.

As much as daughter adores Marching Band, she absolutely loves Jazz Band. She was lucky enough to get in as a freshman. One more video - this is in the spring of her freshman year. She's the only **girl** trombone. The young man playing the bari sax (in the black shirt) got her to try out and was her inspiration and mentor.

St. Thomas

Okay, I'll stop now.

Back to books, I'm going to start A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving today for next month's book club meeting and The Secret Life Lobsters for some non-fiction.

Plus I'm listening to Under the Dome by Stephen King.

edited to add **girl**

#125: I think I would like the jazz band more myself!

I'm done with Laurell K. Hamilton myself. I never got into her Anita Blake series and I read some of her Meredith Gentry series but didn't find it too compelling to hold my interest. Her plots are pretty thin and she seems to want to jump into the eroticism way too often. I'm with Stasia .. give me Louise Penny any day.

#126 alcottacre - it's by far daughter's favorite - she wanted to be in jazz band as soon as she heard there was such a thing. She was in 6th grade at the time and had just gotten her first trombone.

#127 cameling - I'm getting over her quickly. I have decided to try to read Skin Trade in January. If I can't get into it then, I'll give away the most recent 6 or so Hamiltons - I'll keep through Cerulean Sins because that's actually the first one I read.

Louise Penny keeps getting better and better, even though I know Richard dear is absolutely furious with her for whodunnit in The Brutal Telling.

Lobsters is pretty good so far. I'm fearful that I might come to love them so much as a species that I may not want to eat them anymore.... and I do seriously love to eat lobster.

edited to add comment about Louise Penny.

Karen - Thanks for sharing your band videos! I'm really looking forward to the competitions starting next month - I love watching what the kids can do. They all work so hard! My son plays alto sax in marching band but they needed somebody for bari sax in symphonic band so he'll be learning that now.

Thank goodness for involved band parents - good for you for being treasurer!

Thanks, coppers. It's been lots of fun, but having gotten up at 2 this morning to write checks, prepare a deposit, and make the treasurer's report for tonight's boosters meeting, I must admit that after 3 years I'll be glad to turn it over to someone else.

Out of my daughter's 13 years of school I will have volunteered for 10 of them, either as PTA Thrift Store rep, PTSA Treasurer, or Band Boosters treasurer. Once she graduates and (hopefully) goes to college, I won't know what to do with myself! Except read more, perhaps.....

Hiya stranger! It's been several years since I read Owen Meany but remember liking it quite a bit! I have still not got to Under the Dome. A friend has a copy and will lend it to me anytime I'm ready. Maybe you'll be the inspiration. Hope all is well with you!

Hi Mark!

Yup, doing pretty well, all things considered. Under the Dome is wonderful - I listen to audio books in the car to and from work, but just may bring the CDs in and listen to some more in the house this weekend!

I just finished listening to Under the Dome by Stephen King.

I don't own the book (yet) so must embed my review here.

I listened to Under the Dome from August 5th to September 9th in the car to and from work. The last 2 days of listening had me bringing the CDs in to work to listen to them at lunchtime. I was almost frantic trying to find out what happens to “Barbie”, Julia, Rusty, Linda, the Js, Alice and Aidan, Jackie, Romie, Rose….. and of course Big Jim Rennie. I tried to find excuses to drive and stopped calling my sister on the way home from work so I could listen.

An entire town is cut off from the rest of the world when a mysterious and invisible dome descends over Chester's Mill, Maine. Anybody out of town when it came down can’t get in, anybody in when the dome can’t get out. What happens to people when they’re cut off? How does government work? Who steps in? Who acts responsibly? Who panics? What happens to the environment? The air? Food supplies? Water? Power?

There are good guys and bad guys, of course. Just when you think it can’t get worse it does. Just when you think nobody could be that bad, they are. And just when you can’t see anything good coming from this situation, there are rays of hope and altruistic behavior.

Most of the characters are easily definable as “good” or “bad”. But King reminds us that we’re all more than the sum of our pigeon-hole-able parts by giving one of the worst bad guys a caring response to two children left alone and a drug-crazed meth cooker loyalty and love for a grieving town official . One of the good guys sinks to using blackmail and in ordinary circumstances would not be able to look himself in the mirror – perhaps after it’s all over and if he survives (no spoilers here!), he will glance away with shame once he remembers what he did. Another character’s unwillingness to take a leadership role right away causes many of the problems later on.

I seem to know these people and their complexity charms me. And I’d love to meet the good guys for dinner somewhere and just chat into the night.

Stephen King knows dogs. We get to see into the mind of Horace, Julia’s dog, and it’s a very interesting place full of smells and tastes and ghosts. King’s perspective on Horace’s doggie-thoughts and motivations rings true. However, another dog, Audrey, is only seen through the eyes of her human owners.

This is only my sixth foray into the world of Stephen King and the more I read the more I like his books. He uses stereotypes to pound his points home in one sentence and in the next sentence has one of his characters acting in a way that defies stereotypes. He definitely keeps things interesting.

The only real weak part is the ending, and it’s not because it’s abrupt, but because it seems facile. I can’t see a better way to have it end, however, so must bow to Stephen King’s obvious mastery of the medium and simply say that more resolution would have made me happier; but the way it ended left me envisioning the aftermath and happily building scenarios in my mind.

All in all a marvelous effort by an author I’m beginning to consider among my favorites.

**** 1/2 stars

Edited to fix syntax.

...Horrible...? A Stephen King fan?

*gasps*

I admit, though, that this book sounds like something I'd like. I'll have to get one soon. Don't tell a soul or I'll swear you're lying!

Sad but true - I've started reading his books this year after listening to Duma Key and really enjoying it.

Won't tell a soul.

You can't count this one against me on your tbr stack - I didn't specifically recommend it to you!

xo Horrible

Karen, I liked the Zen of Fish which is about the history of sushi written by Trevor Corson so much I went out and bought his Secret Life of Lobsters book too. It's sitting in my TBR Tower and I'm pleased to see that you are enjoying it. Let me know please if reading it puts you off eating lobster, because I love lobster

Hi cameling -

No, the idea of eating lobster doesn't put me off. Although I haven't actually HAD lobster since finishing the book but I don't envision a problem.

Go for it.

I've been reading The Stand, all 1153 pages of it, since early September and have about 300 pages to go. I'll end up with just a couple of books in September, but it will have been worth it.

SCORE!!!!!!

Yesterday I found King's The Dark Tower series (all 7 books) at the Thrift store, and today was the semi-annual Friends of the Pittsboro Library Sale. I always take that day as a vacation day, and scored big time:

All by Stephen King:
Liseys Story
Rose Madder
Under the Dome
Misery
Different Seasons
The Regulators
Everythings Eventual
Desperation
The Shawshank Redemption
Dreamcatcher
Bag of Bones
The Two Dead Girls
The Mouse on the Mile
Coffeys Hands
The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix
Night Journey
Coffey on the Mile

The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
Post Captain by Patrick O’Brian
H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O’Brian
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Who Guards a Prince by Reginald Hill
An Echo in the Bone by Diane Gabaldon
The Waters Edge by Karin Fossum
D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton
G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton
A Darkness More than Night by Michael Connelly
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
Out by Natsuo Kirino
Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? by Milward W. Martin
Touchstone by Laurie R. King
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Wow! What a terrific haul, Karen! Congratulations.

Hi alcottacre-

I had so much fun cataloging and placing them on my shelves yesterday afternoon too.

I bet you did!

Oh my goodness - what a haul! :)

Horrible! What an AMAZING haul! That's terrific, and The Stand the miniseries made me shiver and peep fearfully around corners for months.

WOW! What a great pile of books! I imagine it felt like Christmas morning!

coppers, richarddear, Whisper1 - A great haul, the best at the Friends sale for about a year and a half. I just kept seeing things that I wanted! I went over budget a bit but got everything at the Friends sale for $88. (The Darktower series, 4 trade paper and 3 near-new hardcovers were $13).

Not that I needed a single book on that list as far as my tbr pile goes (almost 1000 before yesterday, now about 1018, I think!), but need has nothing to do with book acquisitions, does it?

Richarddear - I'm on page 948 out of 1153. I'll have to check into the miniseries one of these days.

Wow...you know you're a book-a-holic when...
You take a vacation day for the library book sale, lol!

Congratulations - that's a great bunch of books! And congratulations on The Stand. That's something to be proud of.

#146 BookAngel_a - yes, a serious book-a-holic! I had such a fun day.

My daughter's high school marching band won their 3AAA division at a competition on Saturday and got a Superior rating - on their way to an All Superior Season! It's such a great show and they did so well. We had a great day on Saturday.

Saturday night we got home at 10:45 p.m. and I was wired - so finished The Stand. I'm overwhelmed at the idea of a review..... may or may not get one done. It was a fantastic book and except for a bit of drag

***spoiler to follow***** when they were trying to establish a government in Boulder *****

the book moved along well and was very readable. King really can capture and make vivid his characters and he makes them believable and consistent, too.

I'm starting The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It's my bookclub read for our October 3rd meeting.

Congratulations to your daughter and her band!

You got some great books there! Just on first glance I saw Up the Down Staircase which, for some reason, was one of my favorites as a young teen. Ooh, and Frankenstein and Woman in White! Good haul!

Karen O.

Karen- That's an impressive list of books! Good for you! I think you are now a true-blue King fan! The Green Mile books are terrific!

>147 karenmarie: Yay!! Congrats to your daughter and the whole band! I hope that bodes well for the whole season.

My son's first competition of the year is this weekend - busy time!

#148 Thank you alcottacre! They're very excited, but of course their director put them right back on the field yesterday after showing them the video of the performance AND pointing out all the mistakes by student. (he didn't have to call my daughter's name out!)

#149 klobrien2 - I absolutely adored Up the Down Staircase as a teen and am really looking forward to re-reading it.

#150 Mark! Yes I am. After I finish Harry Potter VII (listening in the car) I will listen to the Green Mile cassettes.

#151 coppers - I wish you and your son well at the first competition - always a nail biter!!!

The performance is on youtube - some interval problems, and Jason's trombone solo got off to a rocky start but improved, but a Superior is a Superior! In the third song there's something called a jazz run - the entire band except for percussion is actually running in a roller-coaster-like line - whew! gives me shivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNX8DLJ2sYo

October 7 - 11 the kids are on their every-4th-year big trip - this year to Ohio to perform in a competition and go to 2 amusement parks and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Since our show is called Amusements, the trip is appropriate!)

Thanks for posting the video, Karen. It was fun to watch, but I cannot ever imagine myself doing it. I would trip over my own two feet in no time flat!

Ohhh Hooorrriiible...yoo hoo...it's time to visit my threeeaaaddd...tasty yummy gooodieeesss....

ditto what Stasia said.

Thanks for the link, Karen. Great show!

Oops, hit submit twice..

Oh yes, alcottacre and Whisper1 - I can't imagine doing that. Playing an instrument, holding your body in particular positions, and moving your feet to hit very specific marks without running into other people, getting out of line too noticably, or playing the wrong notes. These kids work so hard.

Richarddear - I'll visit as soon as I finish this post.

Thanks coppers, glad you liked it.

Insomnia must ROT! I wish no more horrible thing on my enemies than a sleepless night. I'm up early because Auntie had a rough night, poor lamb, so I had to talk her down off the emotional ledge. It's very hard to live in a world where nothing ever changes. One's mind then does the changing, and it's very seldom to the better!

It does and I'm surprised about last night's - no caffeine, no sugar, no strange foods to wake me with stomach complaints. Just woke up and my mind started engaging. After logging off earlier I read for a while then was able to get back to sleep.

I'm sorry about your auntie, Richarddear. You're a dutiful nephew and a good guy. It's to be hoped that you can snag a nap today sometime. Catch a few winks for me too, will you?

On another note, I have abandoned The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Bleh. Don't care for the characters, don't care for the philosophy, don't even care for the cute scene of the two dogs going at it (well at least the male dog was attempting to go at it) in the hallway. It's a shame because it's my Sunday bookclub meeting's book. I might not even go this time because Sunday morning from 10:30 - 1:30 p.m. is training my (next year's) replacement as Treasurer in Band Boosters then 2 hours volunteering at the thrift store as supervisor. I do need some downtime and since I read about 70 pages then gave it up.

I started my ER book A Very Private Grave by Donna Fletcher Crow. So far so good.

I am sorry to hear you were not enjoying The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I loved that one.

I hope your ER book proves to be a better read for you than 'Hedgehog' was!

Karen....just chiming in to say IMHO your assessment of The Elegance of the Hedgehog is spot on. I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world who detested that book!!! Hope the ER is turning out to be a better read.

Karen- I was a fan of The Elegance of the Hedgehog too! It's interesting how readers can have such differing opinions on a book! I even liked the "cute scene of the two dogs going at it". I'm kidding, of course!

I thought I was the only one totally unimpressed with The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'm so glad to see I have some company!

Two for, two against! (in addition to my vote against)

However, the average rating on LT is 3.88 stars, so those of us who don't like it are definitely in the minority.

It may be that many people who didn't like the book didn't bother to review or rate it....I don't have too much faith in the aggregate rating system for just that reason.

Hey tututhefirst - and if you don't keep books and only keep books you own in your catalog, you can't review it! So the system is weighted to good reviews by default.

Well, I must report Another Sad ER Book!

A Very Private Grave by Donna Fletcher Crow. 09/26/10 10/04/10 **1/2

Here's my review: Private Grave

Although I have to keep this one in my catalog so that the ER gods stay happy with me by recognizing that I've reviewed it. I have a snarky tag for these books, which I derive pleasure from looking at.

I'm going to start The Shape of Water based on Richarddear's recommendation.

Ew on A Very Private Grave. Sounds pretty disorganized to me.

YAY! on the Montalbano read! Payback is mine for the Inspector Rutledge addiction! *mwaaahaaahaaa*

I'll come up with another series one of these days...... you totally dissed my list of series a while back - plugged your ears and sang la-la-la-la-la - but I'll get you again!

BTW - how far are you in the Rutledge series?

simply stopping by to wave hi.

Hi Whisper1 - hope you're doing well and reading lots of good books!

>169 karenmarie: Finished Legacy of the Dead, haven't made it far into Watchers of Time. My reviews are all sgangerata and I have given up caring.

Karen- Just swinging through to say hi! Hope all is well and that you are reading some good books!

Hi Mark:

Doing well, although I didn't particularly like the book I just finished-

The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri 10/4/10 10/7/10 **1/2

Well, Richarddear, our first tiff... I didn't like The Shape of Water. Just couldn't grok it. There were some wry and amusing moments, and you're right that good people did the right thing even if it was illegal and the bad guys got it, but still. It just didn't appeal to me more than a drive-by reading. Perhaps I'll change my mind once I think about it more but getting through it was damn tedious.

It may be the occasional strange-sounding translation, or the sterility of it all - you're probably saying "What, sterile? It's like Three Pines!!!" but that's what it feels like to me. And although I like octopus, reading about Our Hero eating it didn't do anything for me like Ganache drinking whisky and eating licorice pipes or eating a fabulous sandwich.

I've just started A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro. Good meaty non-fiction.

For the last two weeks I've been listening to The Green Mile by Stephen King on cassette to and from work.

I've given it 4 1/2 stars. Here's my review: The Green Mile

Still reading A Year in the Life and I'm almost finished with When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro for bookclub. It's my book but pretty disappointing, to tell the truth.

I need a new book to listen to and from work!

Karen- Excellent review of The Green Mile. You should try one of his earlier books and give that a try. I'm nearly done with the audio of American Gods and it's been a fun ride and owes something to Mr. King. Are you familiar with Gaiman?

Hi Mark:

Thanks! I loved The Green Mile.

I've heard his name on LT alot and actually have American Gods on my shelves, just haven't moved it up on tbr. Maybe I'll pull it out.

Aack. I left the house in a hurry and just realized I don't have a book here at work since I just finished Orphans last night.

Crap.

Bookless.

Shudders.

Bookless! Uh oh. Maybe there is a book store nearby?

Nope. Wally World and KMart. Sigh. I guess I'll watch Band competitions on Youtube at lunch.

Unless I can get my friend James to go out to lunch with me today..... hmm. Mexican food with James sounds good.

Mexican food any time sounds good!

>180 alcottacre: Sing it, Sister Stasia! But being bookless...*shudder*

I ended up going to the Verizon store and getting a new cell phone because mine fell on the concrete yesterday and the back panel came off - it's fallen before and the back panel has come off before but this time it wouldn't go back on.

I had a free phone upgrade coming so for only $54.95 (with a $50 rebate) I got a new cellphone that I'll now have to learn how to use.

So I didn't have to fret about not reading.

And, I'm really pissed off right now at the people implementing our SAP financials and made an excuse to leave the meeting for a few minutes to cool down. Asswipes.

Deep breath.

Okay back into the f***ing fray.

I hope you survived both the day and the fray, Karen!

Yes, I did,alcottacre, but it was a tough afternoon. I don't want to convert away from a system I like, that the company's used for 35 years. I understand why they're doing it, just not why it has to be done in 3 months - converting AP, AR, and General Ledger. If they'd just wait a year and let us convert everything - financials and manufacturing - we'd get more features. Every meeting has them telling us we can't have this and we can't have that and we have to try to trick the system to use fields for OUR meaningful data.
Plus we have to convert the Chart of Accounts, too. Our CFO and SR. Accountant have spent 6 months learning the Fiat Chart of Accounts and assigning our accounts to their accounts, then 2 weeks ago they (the idiots in Italy) decided to create a US chart of accounts that might make more sense for a company operating in the US. So now, although we have input in some of the accounts, we don't have a chart of accounts yet, 2 months and 9 days before going live. Makes me ill.

Plus one of the guys was rather rude to me yesterday. He apologized later, but it really really ticked me off. My temper got the better of me, although I didn't cuss at them or yell at them. I just left the room with a legitimate reason, and took 15 minutes to cool down. I must admit I wasn't as friendly when I returned. I probably won't be as friendly today. Yesterday when I came back I told them I'd just shut up, so that's what I'll do today too.

God, I wish I was retired from the work world.

On a happier note, I've picked Touchstone by Laurie R. King and so far it's very good. And, daughter has a Marching Band competition on Saturday. We love going to the competitions, and so far the kids have a Superior season - 3 superior ratings. 2 more competitions to go, and we're hoping for an All Superior season.

TGIF, Karen! Sounds like you have a great weekend coming up. All the best to your daughter and her band in the upcoming competitions!

I will be interested in seeing what you think of Touchstone. I picked it up and abandoned it, but I think it was more me at the time than it was any fault of the book's. I love King's Russell/Holmes series.

{{{Karen}}}

Merging with a foreign company is hugely stressful. I wish you all the peace and contentment that a book-lined weekend can bring, in advance.

xoxo

God, I wish I was retired from the work world.

I completely understand. Yesterday was the first science working group meeting for the spacecraft mission I'm leading. One does not get to be a principle investigator for an interplanetary experiment without having an ego as big as the moon. Put four of them together in a room with competing interests and all sorts of bad behavior appears. It seems their hobby is taking potshots at the spacecraft team...

>187 drneutron: WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Aren't meetings *grand*? I myownself think that a pre-meeting tranq should be mandatory for all concerned.

Thanks, Richarddear!

And, drneutron - my heart goes out to you. My dad was an aerospace engineer (he had an ego of his own) who dealt with lots of egos too. He just wanted to get things right, not deal with politics and childish behavior.....

Tranqs are a good idea. Actually, I had Mexican for lunch and am happily full. If we have a meeting this afternoon I'll try to stay below the radar.

Hi Karen, Nothing like a little comfort food to take the sting out of an accounting conversion.

Glad to see your marching band season has been going well - congratulations!

Our season ends tomorrow with the state semi-final/finals competitions at the Air Force Academy. It'll be a long, fun day but as the mom of a senior, this is it, so kind of sad, too.

It's it for me too - daughter's a senior. November 6th is our last competition forever. Sigh.

Good luck, coppers!

Our kids got a 90.5 superior, which is good, but they really didn't perform as well as they did last week. Percussion was shut out of the awards, as were colorguard and drum major. We got 2nd place in our class out of 6 bands. The kids were disappointed in themselves - knew they didn't focus as well as they should have.

Having said that, we had a wonderful day and are a bit tired today.

Today is the first day of trying to start applying to colleges.

Blech. Scary. Intimidating. Sheesh.

*drive-by smooch*

#191: Today is the first day of trying to start applying to colleges.

I know what you mean :(

Being a *former* band parent means never having to unload (literally) a ton of fruit from a truck in the snow in the middle of January. Yeah, done with the fundraisers... :)

The last competition is bittersweet, isn't it. I'm glad you had a good day.

#192 richarddear - caught it! Thanks.

#193 alcottacre - :( is right. Yesterday she started applying to Meredith (here in NC). She has to write an essay (no big deal), I have to find out about financial aid and scholarships.

#194 drneutron - oh yes! Last year it was literally FIVE AND A HALF tons of fruit, 568 boxes @ 20 pounds a box. Marching band set up a line to move the fruit from the truck to the band room. Then I had to pick up 38 boxes myself (with daughter, of course) to distribute to people who bought from us. I'll be done with band in May, when my now-assistant Treasurer becomes Treasurer.

Extreme long shot: Anybody want to buy citrus fruit and donate it to our local food pantry? You can buy a box and we'll take it to our local food pantry here in Chatham County North Carolina (CORA). Here's the link:

Northwood HS Band Fruit Fundraiser

$22 for a 20 pound box of navel oranges, red grapefruit, tangelos, or juice oranges.

Please credit the only person in band with my last name. (don't want to actually publish my daughter's name here).

#195: Karen, when does the fundraiser end? I would like to do it, but cannot until my husband gets paid.

November 11th is the last day you can order fruit online.

If you want to order from me directly I can place the order, front the money, then you can pay me later.

That would be so wonderful, alcottacre -

#197: Karen, thanks for the offer. I will go ahead and just order it direct on Friday.

Major hugs coming your way, alcottacre! Thank you so much for your generosity.

Hi, Karen! Sorry to hear that work has been so stressful.
(Hearing about your meetings make me appreciate the atmosphere at my workplace even more!)

Hi tymfos:

I used to love my work - we had software that I was good at on a hardware platform that I was used to and liked. Now we're going to these god-awful SAP financials. Blech.

Anyway, daughter and I had a fantastic day visiting Meredith College - if we can afford it and her grades are okay enough to get her accepted, she'd love to go there.

If, if, if.

I wish your daughter the best of luck, Karen!

I finished Touchstone by Laurie R. King this weekend and really enjoyed it a lot. There were a few anachronisms - nothing glaring, but I didn't get the solid sense of place that I get from the Ian Rutledge mysteries, as an example. However, the story in general was very well done with a lot of historical information regarding the class structure and miners vs mine owners.

#203: I will have to give it a try again one of these days. I know I started it once, but did not get far with it.

I've started Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. It is for my bookclub's December meeting. I wasn't looking forward to it, but am devouring it. It's very well written and the two time lines keep my interest.

I hope you continue to enjoy the Ford book, Karen!

I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet this morning at 8 a.m. in the bathroom of the Best Western Motel in Huntersville NC. Why, you ask? Saturday was spent at Pfeiffer University for an Open House and music audition by daughter. (She's been assured of scholarships if she gets accepted and decides to go there!) We stayed in the area so we could visit husband's mother today to celebrate her 80th birthday.

I don't like putting on lights when my family is sleeping, so crept to the bathroom to finish my book. It was a wonderful book, sweet and true without being maudlin and over sentimental. There was a lot of good historical information about the Japanese internment during WWII. I particulary liked the ending, and I doubly liked the questions that were left unanswered, at least in my mind. I'm looking forward to a delicious discussion on December 5th.

I've picked up Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt.

Here's my new thread: karenmarie's 75 book challenge, chapter 3

See you there!

Karen- You are linking back to this thread! Thought I would let you know!

Thanks Mark! I've fixed the link.