Book a Week in 2015 - BW5

[Lady Florida.]

I am in a complete reading slump. Cannot settle on a single thing though I've got plenty of options. Plus my new-to-me book, The Eros of Everyday Life, arrived today. It cost me .99 cents plus...$3.99 shipping 

 

That's how the entire month of January went for me. If it makes you feel any better, I'm now enjoying several books, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. :)

 

Yikes about the book! So it's really a $5.00 book.

[Kareni]

A second novel by Harper Lee (though apparently the first she wrote) to be published in July ~

 

Second Harper Lee novel to be published in July

 

ETA: Perhaps it's time for me to read To Kill a Mockingbird!

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[shukriyya]

Thanks, Kathy. The slump combined with the ongoing lack of multi-quote is cramping my style on this thread.

 

Shawne, :grouphug:

 

MaeFlowers, 'The Miniaturist' caught my eye several months ago. IIRC the cover was what initially caught my eye. Your review has intrigued me. Sounds like you very much enjoyed it.

 

 

[Stacia]

MaeFlowers, 'The Miniaturist' caught my eye several months ago. IIRC the cover was what initially caught my eye. Your review has intrigued me. Sounds like you very much enjoyed it.

 

My dd bought that book a few months ago (when we went to an author signing of different authors). Because MaeFlowers posted about it, I asked dd if she had read it yet. No, not yet, but she probably will soon. (Her book piles are huge, lol.) I may have to borrow it at some point to read. The cover is beautiful (& why dd & I noticed in the bookstore). I haven't read any reviews about it either, other than the blurb on the book itself. MaeFlowers, I will keep in mind not to expose myself to spoilers about it.

 

Hope you find a reading groove soon, shukriyya. I'm not sure I'm in my groove again totally, but I'm slowly working on three books (even though I don't like having that many going at once).

 

Sophia, hope you enjoy The Revisionists.

 

[Kareni]

I read a contemporary romance last night that was a pleasant way to pass the time ~

 

The Way You Look Tonight (The Seattle Sullivans) by Bella Andre

 

"As a very successful private investigator who has caught many a cheater, Rafe Sullivan believes true, lasting love only happens once in a blue moon. But when he returns to the family lake house, the sweet girl next door is all grown up…and she may be just the one to change his mind. 

While Brooke Jansen is happy with her quiet, small-town life, she secretly longs to experience something wild. So when her favorite "Wild Sullivan" moves back after more than a decade away, she can't stop wondering if being bad is really as good as it always seemed…and just how long it will be before she can find out. 

It's not long before a summer fling spirals into something much deeper. Can Rafe put his faith in love for once, or will he end up losing the best thing that's ever happened to him?"

 

Some adult content.  If you'd like to sample this author's work, she has a book available, in this series, free to Kindle readers ~

The Look of Love (The Sullivans Book 1)

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[Stacia]

A second novel by Harper Lee (though apparently the first she wrote) to be published in July ~

 

Second Harper Lee novel to be published in July

 

ETA: Perhaps it's time for me to read To Kill a Mockingbird!

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Hey, that's cool. Thanks for the link. I would need to re-read TKaM. It has been a long time since I've read it.

[Kareni]

Here's an enjoyable article that came to my attention this morning ~

 

What This City Did With An Abandoned Walmart Is Absolutely Brilliant. You’ll Love It

 

"You’ll find a Walmart store in most American towns and cities. These stores are almost always giant, taking up an average 2.5 football fields worth of space. So what happens when one of them closes? It’s an awful lot of space to just let sit there.

 

Officials in McAllen, Texas, were faced with this problem when their local Walmart shut down. Instead of letting the giant store sit vacant, they did something amazing. They transformed it into the largest single-floor public library in America. ..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Here's an enjoyable article that came to my attention this morning ~

 

What This City Did With An Abandoned Walmart Is Absolutely Brilliant. You’ll Love It

 

"You’ll find a Walmart store in most American towns and cities. These stores are almost always giant, taking up an average 2.5 football fields worth of space. So what happens when one of them closes? It’s an awful lot of space to just let sit there.

 

Officials in McAllen, Texas, were faced with this problem when their local Walmart shut down. Instead of letting the giant store sit vacant, they did something amazing. They transformed it into the largest single-floor public library in America. ..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Wow. Absolutely love this! Farmer's Market + Library + Coffee Shop = Excellence!

 

[Pam in CT]

Hello all. I know I've been away from the boards for a couple of weeks but I think of you guys often. My family could really use some prayers this week - particularly my husband's job situation. Thank you. Hope to be back on board soon.

 

:grouphug: Thinking of you and your family, dear.  Hope to see you back on board soon.

[Pam in CT]

OT.... Just saw a small beauty of a film that I think might appeal to some of my BaW friends. (Pam, I'm looking at you, for one....) Quiet. Bittersweet. Touching. Plus, the camera views & the blocking of the scenes are lovely.

 

Still Life

 

 

 

Oh, that looks lovely.  I'll track it down... thank you.

[Robin M]

Deviated from my original reading plan and read Karen Marie Moning's Darkfever.   Thoroughly enjoyed it and will probably make my way through the rest of the series at some point.  Think I have Kareni to thank for recommending it.

 

Last night, started Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel -  Intriguing and interesting and living up to everyone's praises so far.

 

 

A must read:   How to tell if you are a regency romance novel --- click over for more

 

1. You are either a virgin or a sad and lovely widow whose husband was lost at sea. You are spirited, but still passing ladylike.

 

14. A certain young lady with a comely face and dazzling eyes rejects you in no uncertain terms. She haunts your thoughts by day and your dreams by night, to the extent that you can no longer delight in any of life’s joys, not even wh*res.

 

 

 

Also check out Regency Romance Writers where you will find a plethora of books to peruse.

 

Let's not forget Georgette Heyer

[Pam in CT]

St. Anthony and Rumi have yet to effect his work, re: my book journal...  :toetap05:

 

 

Finished Extraordinary Renditions, by Andrew Ervin, three ultimately interlinked long short stories set in post Cold War Hungary, recommended by Stacia, exploring brutality and exile and detachment... with a faint but insistent note of redemption.  I really liked it -- now winging its way to Jane; also I think very good for Jenn.  

 

Also Dr Ruth's Heavenly Sex: Sexuality in the Jewish Tradition, lol... My 16 yo son has heard her speak a couple of times and ADORES her, so I got this for him.  It was, uh, not quite what I expected... although I don't know what I did expect... not at all too racy, just the opposite... anyway, I duly passed it on to him, and look forward to hearing what he makes of it...

 

Still plowing away at Ulysses, though I've fallen way behind the Goodreads schedule; and I've started Karen Armstrong's Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, which I'm liking very much, as I like all her books, but I find it requires a degree of concentration that I cannot always muster, so I'm plunging into Daughter of Elysium by Joan Slonczewski, which I dearly hope is the Quakers in Space book that Eliana keeps raving about and not yet another doorstop of a chunkster that a gremlin deposited onto my towering stack...

 

 

And finally: a monthly readout on my Bechdel test experiment, one of my reading challenges for 2015: To modify for books, I am looking for at least a page of female-female dialogue... and... drumroll... thus far, out of 7 fiction books I am at... 0/7.  Yes, zero, even including Renditions (though in that case, there was a very close (!) female-female relationship; they just didn't converse much... which made me aware that my test design privileges novels that happen to include dialogue, which is maybe a test design flaw.)  Hmmm.  Will carry on.

[TeacherZee]

 

And finally: a monthly readout on my Bechdel test experiment, one of my reading challenges for 2015: To modify for books, I am looking for at least a page of female-female dialogue... and... drumroll... thus far, out of 7 fiction books I am at... 0/7.  Yes, zero, even including Renditions (though in that case, there was a very close (!) female-female relationship; they just didn't converse much... which made me aware that my test design privileges novels that happen to include dialogue, which is maybe a test design flaw.)  Hmmm.  Will carry on.

 

Is the dialogue supposed to take up a whole page? If that is true I don't think any of my books pass it either. Although most of my books do have quite a bit of dialogue between two women, but I'm not sure they are longer sections.

[Kareni]

 

And finally: a monthly readout on my Bechdel test experiment, one of my reading challenges for 2015: To modify for books, I am looking for at least a page of female-female dialogue... and... drumroll... thus far, out of 7 fiction books I am at... 0/7. 

 

I'll admit to being curious what number of your works read have at least a page of male-male dialogue and/or male-female dialogue.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Robin M]

Pam:  And finally: a monthly readout on my Bechdel test experiment, one of my reading challenges for 2015: To modify for books, I am looking for at least a page of female-female dialogue... and... drumroll... thus far, out of 7 fiction books I am at... 0/7.  Yes, zero, even including Renditions (though in that case, there was a very close (!) female-female relationship; they just didn't converse much... which made me aware that my test design privileges novels that happen to include dialogue, which is maybe a test design flaw.)  Hmmm.  Will carry on.

 

The House at the End of Hope Street by Meena van Praag would meet your Bechdel test.

[Kareni]

ETA: This one is no longer free.  A different M. C. Beaton regency romance is available free today to Kindle readers; the one I posted a couple of days ago is no longer free.

 

The Dreadful Debutante (The Royal Ambition Series Book 1) by M. C. Beaton

 

"Arranging a season for an unruly young lady whose habit was to enter drawing rooms by sliding down banisters presented a challenge at best - especially since the hoydenish Mira had a sister of incomparable grace and beauty.

Mira wasn't daunted at all by the local society and its ridiculous marriage mart. Her heart belonged to Lord Charles, who had been the object of her dreams ever since she was a child. Alas, Charles had eyes only for her ever-perfect sister, Drusilla.

Along the sidelines, the Marquess of Grantley was enjoying Mira's jealous antics - although pushing her sister into the fountains had practically ruined her social cachet. It was up to him to restore her to respectability and make her an eligible bride once again. Yet when he succeeded, the lovelorn Marquess began to wish he had left well enough alone."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Re: Bechdel test & the mention of lengthy conversations. I'm reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Plenty of conversation there (though not usually just female/female or male/male).

 

I like the book, but otoh, this is not my normal style book to read. I'm reading these conversations (the local preacher holding forth on what others should be doing; catty remarks back & forth at social gatherings; angsty outbursts by various characters) & thinking... ack (!), I still have close to 400 more pages in this book. :svengo:

 

:tongue_smilie: :lol:

 

(I guess I tend to tune out conversations like that in real life, so it seems like a lot to have about 500 pages worth in the book. Imo.)

[Jane in NC]

Hello everyone.

 

I want to offer a collective group hug for those facing challenges, those under the weather, and those just needing a hug.  :grouphug:

 

April is the cruelest month?  No, it seems that January and February are tough for many. 

 

Busy on this end, but I am managing to keep on reading.  I finished another Dorothy Dunnett novel in her Johnson Johnson "thriller" series.  Murder in the Round was the usual fast paced, silly JJ trip. 

 

My son is home for a bit.  He gave me a lecture in the car today on Nero and the earliest known sources on his legacy--and why they may need to be questioned.  Classical Education just never ends. 

[Pam in CT]

Re: Bechdel: Yes, well, I'm being forced to reconsider my experiment design.

 

The original idea came out of movies, which obviously have a great deal of dialogue.  When I decided to try it for books, a page didn't seem all that long.  I mean, the punctuation alone forces it right down the page, four or five back-and-forth exchanges and you've made your way to the bottom, and how many subjects can be treated in fewer than four or five back-and-forth exchanges?  And Ulysses, for example, certainly does more than a page of male-male dialogue at a time (!), or Huck Finn...

 

... but perhaps I need to revise my criteria.  An experiment that yields zero hits in seven trials may require tweaking... Suggestions, ladies?

 

My seven that I tried it for to date are:

 

 

• The Book of Chameleons, by Jose Eduardo Agualusa – January 4, 2015  A for Angola… Bechdel test: F (no woman-woman dialogue)
• The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels, by Freya Stark – January 10, 2015  I for Iran…  Bechdel test: F (not actually fiction, but lots of dialogue... but few women other than the author)
• The Painted Alphabet, by Diana Darling – January 12, 2015   B for Bali…  Bechdel test: F (very few woman-woman scenes)
• Women of Sand and Myrrh, by Hanan al-Shaykh – January 15, 2015  K for Kuwait(ish)… Bechdel test: F (criminal!! given it’s almost wholly comprised of woman-woman dialogue)
• Extraordinary Renditions, by Andrew Ervin – January 28, 2015  H for Hungary… Bechdel test: F (astonishing really given that one of the couple pairs is lesbian… but very little exterior dialogue, mostly interior)
• Carry On, Jeeves, by PG Wodehouse – January 2, 2015.  Bechdel test: F (no woman-woman dialogue)
• The World Without You, by Joshua Henkin – January 6, 2015.  Bechdel test: F (I was tempted to give credit to one chapter with good bit of sister-sister dialogue; but the topic was a man, though I still was tempted since he was their brother, not a husband or lover, but… I can’t start with grade inflation before the year even gets going)

 

 

 

[Violet Crown]

A must read: How to tell if you are a regency romance novel --- click over for more

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I read that list and felt like I'd just gone from never having read a Regency romance (I honestly didn't know there was such a genre) to having read all of them. And then at the bottom I saw this link:

 

How To Tell if You Are in a Henry James Novel

http://the-toast.net/2015/01/14/tell-henry-james-novel/

 

"22. You finally get everything you’ve ever wanted—in such a way that exposes the deepest faults in your nature and lays bare a world of treachery, deceit, and cheaply made furnishings."

 

Ouch. It hurts because it's true.

[MaeFlowers]

My dd bought that book a few months ago (when we went to an author signing of different authors). Because MaeFlowers posted about it, I asked dd if she had read it yet. No, not yet, but she probably will soon. (Her book piles are huge, lol.) I may have to borrow it at some point to read. The cover is beautiful (& why dd & I noticed in the bookstore). I haven't read any reviews about it either, other than the blurb on the book itself. MaeFlowers, I will keep in mind not to expose myself to spoilers about it.

 

Hope you find a reading groove soon, shukriyya. I'm not sure I'm in my groove again totally, but I'm slowly working on three books (even though I don't like having that many going at once).

 

Sophia, hope you enjoy The Revisionists.

 

 

I wish I could do mutliquote! I found the book on amazon.co.uk. I sneak over there sometimes to see what people are reading in the UK. Sometimes I find some interesting things that are not on our most popular lists. Anyway, the cover caught my eye. It is interesting because the UK cover is different from the US cover. My nook version has the UK picture but different wording for some reason. I think they are both beautiful.

 

I like not knowing much about a book before I read it. In high school/college, my friends and I always went to midnight movies. We would pick the movie that none of us had ever heard of. We decided the movies were often times better because we didn't have any expectations.

[Stacia]

Pam, I say go off-chart & do 'gecko-human' dialogue. Then you'd at least be 1/7 for the year. :lol:

 

Hmmm. Could you revise your criteria for writing to include conversation &/or thoughts &/or writings by a female character w/ no part of a section having to do w/ men? A few consecutive pages, maybe? Or a certain percentage of pages from the whole?

[Stacia]

I like not knowing much about a book before I read it. In high school/college, my friends and I always went to midnight movies. We would pick the movie that none of us had ever heard of. We decided the movies were often times better because we didn't have any expectations.

 

I totally agree. I usually hate knowing much about a story or plot ahead of time. The surprise is much more fun for me. Unfortunately, I've already seen an outline of the Bronte book I'm reading, so I know what the 'big secret' is. Just wondering how it will need another 400 or so pages to get to the conclusion. Lol.

 

Surprise is part of the reason the movie I saw last night (Still Life) was a delight to me. My friend asked me if I wanted to go & I had no idea what it was. I did quickly look it up & watched about the first 30 seconds of the trailer, but that was all. She wanted to see it because she & her dh had gone to a movie screening over the weekend (all the animated & non-animated short films that have been Oscar-nominated) & she saw a poster advertising Still Life for just two showings. My friend wanted to see the movie because one of the actresses in Still Life is in Dowtown (or is it Downtown?) Abbey.

[Stacia]

The lists of how to tell if you're in a regency romance novel &/or if you're in a Henry James novel are :smilielol5: .

[Violet Crown]

Pam, should we assume the Bechdel Test provision that the dialogue not be about a man applies?

[ChrisB]

Here's an enjoyable article that came to my attention this morning ~

 

What This City Did With An Abandoned Walmart Is Absolutely Brilliant. You’ll Love It

 

"You’ll find a Walmart store in most American towns and cities. These stores are almost always giant, taking up an average 2.5 football fields worth of space. So what happens when one of them closes? It’s an awful lot of space to just let sit there.

 

Officials in McAllen, Texas, were faced with this problem when their local Walmart shut down. Instead of letting the giant store sit vacant, they did something amazing. They transformed it into the largest single-floor public library in America. ..."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

LOVE!  :001_wub:  

[Pam in CT]

Pam, should we assume the Bechdel Test provision that the dialogue not be about a man applies?

 

Yes.  For one of my 7, two women had a long conversation about -- yes, it was a man, but it was their brother, not at all a romantic interest conversation, but still, a man, right?  I decided at the time not to count it.  But perhaps I should have?  I dunno.  Surely such judgment calls come up on the part of the folks who do it for movies as well.  Maybe I should go study their liner notes...

 

ETA: and Stacia, had the chameleon /gecko been a GIRL, I totally would have counted it!  But it was unequivocably a boy gecko.

[mumto2]

I wish I could do mutliquote! I found the book on amazon.co.uk. I sneak over there sometimes to see what people are reading in the UK. Sometimes I find some interesting things that are not on our most popular lists. Anyway, the cover caught my eye. It is interesting because the UK cover is different from the US cover. My nook version has the UK picture but different wording for some reason. I think they are both beautiful.

 

I like not knowing much about a book before I read it. In high school/college, my friends and I always went to midnight movies. We would pick the movie that none of us had ever heard of. We decided the movies were often times better because we didn't have any expectations.

Those pesky different book covers and different release dates drove me nuts when we first moved here. I now know I am a highly visual person. I can look at some silly romances cover and know I read it but show me the description, no clue.

 

Our family was only able to check out roughly 40 books when we first moved and I was doing home education Sonlight style out of the library. I could check out maybe 5 books for me each visit. I can't tell you how many times I came home with a stack of books that I had already read that I really thought were new to me. I turned to Agatha Christie because of this, easy to get and I had never read them. The kindle was my best Christmas gift ever.

 

Stacia, It is Downton. People pronounce it incorrectly so everyone spells it wrong.

[Stacia]

Stacia, It is Downton. People pronounce it incorrectly so everyone spells it wrong.

 

Ah, I was wrong both ways! :lol:  Oops. (Obviously, I've never seen it.)

 

Thanks for clarifying. I knew it didn't look correct, but I didn't know why.

 

[prairiegirl]

Stacia,  yes, the woman in Still Life is on Downton Abbey.  We are huge Downton fans here.  I was watching the clip you linked to,  and when the girl spoke those few words, both of my girls (they weren't watching) yelled,  "That's  Anna!:  Yeah, we really like Downton.

 

MaeFlower,  I have read a few negative things about The Miniaturist so I was happy to read that you liked it.  It is on its way to me now so I am looking forward to getting into it.

[Violet Crown]

Too bad the Bechdel Test specifies two women. James' protagonists often have interior conversations that go on for well over a page. I should look at The Spoils of Poynton again; surely Fleda Vetch and Mrs. Gereth have a long conversation at some point about fine furnishings.

 

Walt Whitman is wearing me out. I just got to the end of "Song of Myself" and have had to put Leaves of Grass aside for now. We have tickets to Doctor Faustus soon, so I'm going to read the B-text and see how Marlowe compares to Goethe and Gounod.

 

Robin, does reading librettos count? Maybe as drama? We have tickets to Don Giovanni, too, and it's a pain to always be squinting up at the supertitles with my bad eyes. It's a good month for culture around here.

[Robin M]

Robin, does reading librettos count? Maybe as drama? We have tickets to Don Giovanni, too, and it's a pain to always be squinting up at the supertitles with my bad eyes. It's a good month for culture around here.

Had to look it up first because I had no clue what a libretto is. Sure, why not.  Seems to me it is the same as reading Shakespeare. 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

It is with great pleasure that I have just pulled off the shelf . . . Pride & Prejudice!

 

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large fortune, must be in want of a wife."  Is that just the best first line ever, or what?    :001_wub:

[JennW in SoCal]

Still cannot access the forums via my home internet and the 3G network on my ancient iPad makes for s-l-o-w loading times. Not a happy situation for a devoted BaW gal! Especially when she is getting a little stir crazy from bed rest! I've unplugged and/or rebooted everything, tried different browsers, but nothing changes. And no word from tech yet.

 

Haven't finished any of those 5-6 books I listed Sunday night but instead started yet another, a decidedly flufferton kinda tome, Cashelmara by Susan Howatch. It's the right sort of book for now, light readable fluff to keep me quietly amused instead of cranky with the interwebs!

[Kareni]

.... Not a happy situation for a devoted BaW gal! Especially when she is getting a little stir crazy from bed rest!

 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.  And sending healing thoughts to all of those fighting illnesses.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Those of you who enjoy urban fantasy might like the book I read today.  I certainly did!

 

Silver by Rhiannon Held

 

"Urban fantasy takes a walk on the wild side with Rhiannon Held's remarkable debut.

 

Andrew Dare is a werewolf. He’s the enforcer for the Roanoke pack, and responsible for capturing or killing any Were intruders in Roanoke’s territory. But the lone Were he’s tracking doesn’t smell or act like anyone he’s ever encountered. And when he catches her, it doesn’t get any better. She’s beautiful, she’s crazy, and someone has tortured her by injecting silver into her veins. She says her name is Silver, and that she’s lost her wild self and can’t shift any more. The packs in North America have a live-and-let-live attitude and try not to overlap with each other. But Silver represents a terrible threat to every Were on the continent. Andrew and Silver will join forces to track down this menace while discovering their own power…and passion for each other."

 

 

I see that the author has written two follow ons to this book; I'll be looking for them.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

A  free Kindle book that sounds intriguing as it's described as Frontier Fantasy ~

 

New World: a Frontier Fantasy Novel by Steven W. White

 

"Across the sea lies a newly discovered continent, a world whose forests and beasts are unknown to the recorded memory of elves, dwarves, or men.

In this land called Mira, the brutal sacking of a young colony links the fates of two opposite characters: a twelve-year-old printer's son named Simon Jones and his long-lost uncle Tiberius Bogg, one of Mira's legendary mountain men.

Simon is small, but smart; scared but determined. Bogg, with his raccoon-skin cap and smart-talking grammar abuse, is fast as a splintercat and stealthy as a hidebehind. Together, they turn the tables and pursue their attackers (a cruel knight and his soldiers from the old country) through a wilderness full of extraordinary creatures – jackelopes and thunderbirds, fur-bearing trout and four-legged hills – all culled from American tall tales, Indian legends, and backwoods folklore."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

Still cannot access the forums via my home internet and the 3G network on my ancient iPad makes for s-l-o-w loading times. Not a happy situation for a devoted BaW gal! Especially when she is getting a little stir crazy from bed rest! I've unplugged and/or rebooted everything, tried different browsers, but nothing changes. And no word from tech yet.

 

Haven't finished any of those 5-6 books I listed Sunday night but instead started yet another, a decidedly flufferton kinda tome, Cashelmara by Susan Howatch. It's the right sort of book for now, light readable fluff to keep me quietly amused instead of cranky with the interwebs!

How frustrating! Are you one of the BaWer's who recommended Susan Howatch's Church of England series to me? Pretty sure Jane and Ladydusk were part of those discussions but someone else was also. I haven't finished the series because I was distracted but they are on this years master list. lol If you haven't read them now might be a great time....

[Jane in NC]

Still cannot access the forums via my home internet and the 3G network on my ancient iPad makes for s-l-o-w loading times. Not a happy situation for a devoted BaW gal! Especially when she is getting a little stir crazy from bed rest! I've unplugged and/or rebooted everything, tried different browsers, but nothing changes. And no word from tech yet.

 

Haven't finished any of those 5-6 books I listed Sunday night but instead started yet another, a decidedly flufferton kinda tome, Cashelmara by Susan Howatch. It's the right sort of book for now, light readable fluff to keep me quietly amused instead of cranky with the interwebs!

 

It is one thing not to be able to access the forums; totally another to be recovering and not be able to do so.  Tapping my foot for you.  :toetap05:

 

Cashelmara is one of Howatch's Plantagenet books, a saga that parallels Edward Longshanks.  May not stay fluffy but it should be engaging.  (I have yet to read this one.)

 

How frustrating! Are you one of the BaWer's who recommended Susan Howatch's Church of England series to me? Pretty sure Jane and Ladydusk were part of those discussions but someone else was also. I haven't finished the series because I was distracted but they are on this years master list. lol If you haven't read them now might be a great time....

 

Yes, Ladydusk and I both adore Howatch's Starbridge/Church of England series.  Indeed they are a good distraction should anyone need one.

[Pam in CT]

Jenn, get recovered soon!  and whilst suffering computer failures no less.... :cursing:

[Pam in CT]

----- BREAKING NEWS FLASH ----

 

 

My.book.journal.came.back.to.me!!!!!!!

 

:party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:

 

Where was it, you ask?

 

It was in the backpack my 11 yo uses as a "vacation bag."  We worked out that, after we left the dog at my parents' over New Years, Stella went with me to retrieve the dog, and one of us or my mom must have jammed it in there, and she hasn't looked at it since.

 

 

 

Thank you, St Anthony!  And Rumi!  And the journal itself, which surely longed for me as much as I longed for it!

[Stacia]

Yay -- so glad you found your book journal, Pam.

 

Has anyone heard from Nan? Haven't seen her on here in a bit & with the storms in the NE, I'm hoping all is well for her & her family....

[mumto2]

Jenn, I know you have already started a pile of books but one more idea since you love DCI Banks is Stephen Booth. I just started the first book in his series this morninghttp://www.stephen-booth.com/new%20blackdog.htmand it is good, although I think I must have read it before because very familiar. He is one of our sort of local authors that people (not me) actually know. Very nice man from all reports who is extremely supportive of libraries.

 

As some of you have probably guessed I have a pretty eclectic stack going on right now. Library due dates are pesky things, I keep starting things that are due soon to see if I like them.....I seem to be liking more than normal. :lol:

[Tress]

Great news, Pam! :hurray:

[Pod's mum]

Hello, I finished Rule number Two: Lessons Learned in a Combat Hospital, http://www.amazon.com/Rule-Number-Two-Lessons-Hospital/dp/0316067903

I stuck with it but found the writting very stilted, as though the author was taking enormous care to portray the forces, her anomymous comrades and herself in a positive light. I found the phrase "bad guys" used in every single reference to the enemy was unneccesary.

I read a few war stories last year and thought it would be interesting to read something from Iraq. I did not find this one very engaging.

It almost came across as  PR exercise for the Navy's mental health service instead.

 

I recenly read the second of Graeme Simsion's books, The Rosie Effect, http://www.amazon.com/Rosie-Effect-Novel-Graeme-Simsion/dp/1476767319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423057343&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rosie+effect+graeme+simsionand this one I did enjoy (and his first). The main character reminded me very fondly of my eldest, so I was able to relate and enjoy his struggling to cope with other people and appreciate the great effort he was making trying to go against his nature for those he loves.

 

I've not been reading as much as I've been spending hours (and hours!) cataloguing on librarything.

This has meant that I'm finding even more I want to read/reread.

It's late. I'm a bit brain dead. Goodnight.

[JennW in SoCal]

Jenn, I know you have already started a pile of books but one more idea since you love DCI Banks is Stephen Booth. I just started the first book in his series this morninghttp://www.stephen-booth.com/new%20blackdog.htmand it is good, although I think I must have read it before because very familiar. He is one of our sort of local authors that people (not me) actually know. Very nice man from all reports who is extremely supportive of libraries.

 

As some of you have probably guessed I have a pretty eclectic stack going on right now. Library due dates are pesky things, I keep starting things that are due soon to see if I like them.....I seem to be liking more than normal. :lol:

 

Still on my ancient iPad this morning. Remember the old days of dial up modems when you could go get a cup of coffee or start a load of laundry while the page loaded? That is how my current BaW browsing feels this morning!! Havent had the patience to see if multi quote works, but it would be a hoot if it did for me.

 

Mumto2, Ithe first Stepehn Booth mystery is .99 at the kindle store, so I got it. Won't be starting it any time soon, though.

 

I can't provide a link to an article in today's Los Angeles Times about a small curbside lending library that the city of Los Angeles says is a code violation. If one of you with modern 21st century computing capabilities wants to look for it and link it, it is Steve Lopez's column in today's paper. (My 1st generation iPad doesn't can't access the Times as my browser is ancient and can't be updated...)

[Jane in NC]

Still on my ancient iPad this morning. Remember the old days of dial up modems when you could go get a cup of coffee or start a load of laundry while the page loaded? That is how my current BaW browsing feels this morning!! Havent had the patience to see if multi quote works, but it would be a hoot if it did for me.

 

Mumto2, Ithe first Stepehn Booth mystery is .99 at the kindle store, so I got it. Won't be starting it any time soon, though.

 

I can't provide a link to an article in today's Los Angeles Times about a small curbside lending library that the city of Los Angeles says is a code violation. If one of you with modern 21st century computing capabilities wants to look for it and link it, it is Steve Lopez's column in today's paper. (My 1st generation iPad doesn't can't access the Times as my browser is ancient and can't be updated...)

Here you go, Jenn.

 

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0204-lopez-library-20150204-column.html

[Kareni]

Last night I finished a re-read which I enjoyed once more; it's a contemporary romance (adult content).

 

Lady Luck (Colorado Mountain Series Book 3) by Kristen Ashley

 

"Is love in the cards?

Since birth, Lexie Berry has had nothing but bad luck. Orphaned at an early age, she had a rough childhood and a boyfriend who was murdered. Now the beautiful, stylish Lexie is determined to change her luck and her life. But first she's got to make good on a promise: to pick up Ty Walker from prison. One look at the gorgeous ex-convict and Lexie knows she's in trouble-and already thinking about taking a walk on the wild side . . .

For five years, Ty was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Now he wants revenge on the people who framed him. Yet when the high-stakes poker player sees the leggy Lexie, he suddenly has other desires on his mind. Realizing that Ty is innocent, Lexie tries to stop his plan for vengeance and help him become a better man. But as Ty battles his inner demons, dirty cops and criminals plot to take him out. Can he and Lexie find a way to escape the past?"

 

This is part of a series, but I think it stands alone well.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Violet Crown]

Congratulations Pam on the reappearance of your notebook!

 

--------------

 

Some well-known Marlowe:

 

FAUSTUS. Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Her lips suck forth my soul. See where it flies!

Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.

Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,

And all is dross that is not Helena.

I will be Paris, and for love of thee

Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sacked,

And I will combat with weak Menelaus,

And wear thy colors on my plumèd crest.

Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel

And then return to Helen for a kiss.

O, thou art fairer than the evening's air,

Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.

Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter

When he appeared to hapless Semele,

More lovely than the monarch of the sky

In wanton Arethusa's azure arms;

And none but thou shalt be my paramour.

 

There are two extant versions of Marlowe's play, the A-text being considerably shorter than the B-text, and scholars are undecided which is closer to Marlowe's own play; the A-text may be a shortened actor's version, like Shakespeare's Bad Folio, or the B-text may be full of others' additions to the play. I picked the B because it's almost certainly the one that I'm going to be seeing.

 

2015 so far--

 

7. Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus

6. Henry James, The Princess Casamassima

5. Charles Siringo, A Texas Cowboy

4. Nikolay Platonov, The Foundation Pit

3. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

2. Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Gerard

1. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

 

Now vacillating between Whitman and J. F. Powers' short stories, and needing to read the libretto to Mozart's Don Giovanni. Là ci darem la mano....

[Violet Crown]

Another excerpt--J. F. Powers, from "He Don't Plant Cotton":

 

New York may be all right, he hummed to himself, but Beale Street's paved with gold. That's a lie, he thought; I been down on Beale. And Chicago, same way. All my life playing jobs in Chicago, and I still got to ride the Big Red. And that's no lie. Jobs were getting harder and harder to find. What they wanted was Mickey Mouse sound effects, singing strings, electric guitars, neon violins, even organs and accordions and harmonica teams. Hard to find a spot to play in, and when you did it was always a white place with drunken advertising men wanting to hear "an old song"--"My Wild Irish Rose" or "I Love You Truly." So you played it, of course, and plenty of schmaltz. And the college kids who wanted swing--any slick popular song. So you played that, too. And always you wanted to play the music you were born to, blue or fast, music that had no name. You managed somehow to play that, too, when there was a lull or the place was empty and you had to stay until 4 A.M. anyway.

 

----------

 

Powers is my 2015 discovery, I think. It's always exciting to stumble across good writing from someone you'd never heard of. (Last year was Frederick Rolfe/ Baron Corvo.)