Book a Week 2015 - BW40: Ominous October

[Stacia]

And I put the third Flavia book on hold - since the consensus seems to be that it was the worst, maybe we'll just skip it.  It was the one I abandoned.   I don't imagine it will be crucial to understanding the rest, right?

 

Imo, you will be fine skipping the second one.

 

Reporting back re: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

 

We have our copy! DS went to the bookstore with $20.00 and the book was $19.99 before tax. When it turned out he didn't have enough money, the employee gave him her discount and he was so appreciative.  :001_wub:

 

He loves to swim but is a little bummed he has to head to the pool instead of digging into the book right away.

 

Cool.

 

We ran by the bookstore today because, I think, teen dd is feeling nostalgic/wanting some fun easy reading amid the stress of college apps, senior year, a heavy workload, etc.... She bought that one & Beastly Bones (the second book in the Jackaby series). Lol.

 

Ds picked up Pearls Gets Sacrificed: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury and Escape from Camp 14. We will see if he makes it through that second one. He used to not be very keen on non-fiction, but that has shifted over the past couple of years & he has really enjoyed books like They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky, Outcasts United, etc....

[Chrysalis Academy]

I finished The Story of My Teeth last night.  Odd, quirky little book.  I definitely classify this as Postmodern with a capital P. My favorite part of the book was the last section, where the author speaks and describes how the book came to be written.  I wasn't really sure if it was fictional or true, but it was cool either way. If fictional, delightfully navel-gazing.  This isn't the sort of book I would have picked out for myself, but as usual Stacia steered me in an interesting and stretching direction.  In fact, I seem to be following Stacia's lead entirely this month - next up is Slaughterhouse Five, and then the Chameleon!  

 

I also finished a re-read of The Time Machine by Wells. Shannon is reading it for school. I liked it even better this time. Wells is really growing on me; the more of him I read the more it all fits together and the better I enjoy his whole body of work. We're having a very Wells-heavy year this year, but it's hard to pick a better early sci-fi/social critic when trying to understand science's impact on the early modern world.

[mumto2]

Angel, Dd and I think Agatha wrote Death in the Clouds after she had her experience with The Doctor! ;)

 

 

Book fail, I think.

 

I started The Monstrumologist earlier this evening. While it seemed quick & easy to fall into, it wasn't long before it started getting gross. I enjoy spooky but am not a fan of gore or excessive grossness. I kept uneasily reading for a bit, wondering if I really, really wanted to keep reading, thinking surely things are going to get worse (and probably a lot worse over 400+ pages)....

 

Then, I looked on goodreads. Some of my goodreads friends have rated the book & one comment that all had in common is that there is a lot of gore (which was ok w/ most of the friends who had read it, they were just mentioning it as a caveat since it's technically a YA book). For example, karen's review starts out with...

 

 

 

Um, ok, yeah, her description makes me :lol:  (she writes pretty hilarious reviews a lot of the time) but also confirms that I think I'm going to stop now & hope I don't have nightmares from what I've already read. I will admit to being a wee bit curious about the story, but I also know there will probably be things that I can't un-see or un-read, so I have decided to remain happy in my ignorance of the book (I think). A quick peek at the list of reviews shows that quite a few people mention that there is a lot of gore in here.

 

Anyone (braver than me) want this? Let me know & I'll send it on to you in time for some spooky (or worse) Halloween reading. :zombie:

I just ran into The Monstrumologist when going through the new books sections on my overdrive. The description sounded good for dd (it is considered YA) until I realized it was your book from this morning. I don't think she would be good with that much "arterial spray"!

[Stacia]

I finished The Story of My Teeth last night.  Odd, quirky little book.  I definitely classify this as Postmodern with a capital P. My favorite part of the book was the last section, where the author speaks and describes how the book came to be written.  I wasn't really sure if it was fictional or true, but it was cool either way. If fictional, delightfully navel-gazing.  This isn't the sort of book I would have picked out for myself, but as usual Stacia steered me in an interesting and stretching direction.  In fact, I seem to be following Stacia's lead entirely this month - next up is Slaughterhouse Five, and then the Chameleon!  

 

I also finished a re-read of The Time Machine by Wells. Shannon is reading it for school. I liked it even better this time. Wells is really growing on me; the more of him I read the more it all fits together and the better I enjoy his whole body of work. We're having a very Wells-heavy year this year, but it's hard to pick a better early sci-fi/social critic when trying to understand science's impact on the early modern world.

 

Yay. Glad you liked The Story of My Teeth -- at least it sounds like you thought it was ok, lol. As far as I can tell from various things I've read, the last part is true. I found it a fascinating way to approach the assignment, as a modern-day lectora, & the give & take she had with the others; & I find it fascinating what came out of that collaboration. You might like taking a quick look at these wikipedia links: Jumex and Colleccion Jumex. Definitely agree that it's Postmodern & in a very delightful way, imo. I think you might also like this article: “Dickens + MP3 ÷ Balzac + JPEGâ€: Valeria Luiselli produced her novel The Story of My Teeth under peculiar stars.

 

I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Time Machine when I read it the other year.

 

[Stacia]

I just ran into The Monstrumologist when going through the new books sections on my overdrive. The description sounded good for dd (it is considered YA) until I realized it was your book from this morning. I don't think she would be good with that much "arterial spray"!

 

If you look through goodreads, you may notice that quite a few reviewers mention that it has a lot of gore. Too bad because I think the story would have been an interesting one.

 

At least I didn't have nightmares last night, though. Lol.

 

[redsquirrel]

Clearly I am not loving "The Song of Achilles" because I am letting days go by without touching it.  It reads like fanfic of the Iliad, and not in a good way. I say that as a dedicated fanfic reader, so I know it when I see it. I can say you with 100% certainty that I have read fanfic that was more original and more challenging than this.  And the sex was better as well. Seriously.

 

It's no Mary Renault, I'll tell you that.  I am guessing that is why I am having so many issues with it.

 

Ok I am being pretty  harsh, and I am guessing it's not as bad as I am portraying it, it did win a major award after all, but it just isn't sitting right. I should be so caught up in this story, it's right up my alley, and I am left unmoved.

 

Funny thing: I have read too much Rick Riordan. Chiron is a character and I saw him in my head as the same Chiron I see in Percy Jackson.  I kept thinking, "Oh poor Chiron, he has so many centuries of getting his heart broken by heros..."

[Stacia]

Angel, here's my first comment re: Brave New World...

 

Soma (chain of lingere/underwear stores, an off-shoot of the Chico's brand) -- did they know about soma in Brave New World? Maybe, since it's a blissed out sexual society, but I really wonder if the name selection was intentional or accidental.  :lol: 

 

And I just looked on wikipedia & soma is an energizing Vedic plant that can be juiced & used in rituals.

 

 

[idnib]

Funny thing: I have read too much Rick Riordan. Chiron is a character and I saw him in my head as the same Chiron I see in Percy Jackson.  I kept thinking, "Oh poor Chiron, he has so many centuries of getting his heart broken by heros..."

 

:laugh:

 

I would have done the same.

[Stacia]

Had a lovely afternoon sitting outside at the coffee shop & re-reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

I last read it in 2011 (which was the first time I read it) & was blown away by it then, just as I was today too. Imo, it's a perfectly-crafted novella with lovely vocabulary, an intriguing slew of events unfolding, & an examination of the good & evil natures of man. I'll repeat something I said last time I read it -- I *so* wish I could have been one of the original reading public for this book, not knowing what was coming/what was to be revealed. I would have loved to be truly surprised by the outcome of this famous story. RLS does a slow burn with the events, leading you toward the shocking finale. Even though I knew what to expect, I still marveled at his skill with convincingly telling the tale you think you're getting & then pulling out a surprise reveal near the end.

 

Btw, I have the version published by Sterling Children's Books & it has some nice illustrations created using scratchboard (a form of engraving). It gives a neat period look to the cover art & few illustrations.

 

Got the notification that Hyde by Daniel Levine is waiting on me at the library, so I'm hoping to grab it tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing Levine's take on this perfect, classic tale.

[Violet Crown]

47. Edgar Allen Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

 

Well that was weird.

[Chrysalis Academy]

47. Edgar Allen Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

 

Well that was weird.

 

My feelings exactly!!!!

[Stacia]

47. Edgar Allen Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

 

Well that was weird.

 

:lol:

 

It's POE. What else would you expect?

 

If you want the neat/tidy/organized version of the story, check out Jules Verne's version: An Antarctic Mystery (or The Sphinx of the Ice Fields).

 

I'm telling you, Poe & Verne are early versions of Oscar & Felix from the Odd Couple.

 

Poe = Oscar

Verne = Felix

[Stacia]

And, speaking of Poe... Robin, I was thinking about your comment that you get weird looks when wearing your Poe/Lovecraft t-shirt.

 

Maybe I don't get them here since Poe is highly regarded here in the South; I think he's like the 'eccentric relative' that all old Southern families have so he's considered near & dear, if a little bit batty & odd.

 

:lol:

[Chrysalis Academy]

Had a lovely afternoon sitting outside at the coffee shop & re-reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

I last read it in 2011 (which was the first time I read it) & was blown away by it then, just as I was today too. Imo, it's a perfectly-crafted novella with lovely vocabulary, an intriguing slew of events unfolding, & an examination of the good & evil natures of man. I'll repeat something I said last time I read it -- I *so* wish I could have been one of the original reading public for this book, not knowing what was coming/what was to be revealed. I would have loved to be truly surprised by the outcome of this famous story. RLS does a slow burn with the events, leading you toward the shocking finale. Even though I knew what to expect, I still marveled at his skill with convincingly telling the tale you think you're getting & then pulling out a surprise reveal near the end.

 

Btw, I have the version published by Sterling Children's Books & it has some nice illustrations created using scratchboard (a form of engraving). It gives a neat period look to the cover art & few illustrations.

 

Got the notification that Hyde by Daniel Levine is waiting on me at the library, so I'm hoping to grab it tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing Levine's take on this perfect, classic tale.

 

J&H is one of my favorite books of all time. 

 

Hyde is definitely gritty, but I thought it was really powerful, believable, and fit with the world and characters. Definite trigger warnings about this book, while not overly graphic there is clearly the kind of abuse that is now commonly understood to be the source of MPD.  I think you will be fine with it, Stacia, it is not gory at all, but not necessarily for the faint of heart either.

 

Did I mention Lighthousekeeping, by Jeanette Winterson?  Another really fantastic Jekyll & Hyde related book.  I adored Jeanette Winterson in my 20s, I read everything she had written up to that point. I think she's a very gifted writer.  Lighthousekeeping is a great addition to the J&H world.  RLS is actually a peripheral character, the implication being that he got his inspiration from one of the characters in the book.  It also has a couple of fairly graphic scenes, but it was really well done.

 

Just in case  you feel like doing a 3-fer of J&H books for your spooky October.  :D

[Stacia]

J&H is one of my favorite books of all time. 

 

Hyde is definitely gritty, but I thought it was really powerful, believable, and fit with the world and characters. Definite trigger warnings about this book, while not overly graphic there is clearly the kind of abuse that is now commonly understood to be the source of MPD.  I think you will be fine with it, Stacia, it is not gory at all, but not necessarily for the faint of heart either.

 

Did I mention Lighthousekeeping, by Jeanette Winterson?  Another really fantastic Jekyll & Hyde related book.  I adored Jeanette Winterson in my 20s, I read everything she had written up to that point. I think she's a very gifted writer.  Lighthousekeeping is a great addition to the J&H world.  RLS is actually a peripheral character, the implication being that he got his inspiration from one of the characters in the book.  It also has a couple of fairly graphic scenes, but it was really well done.

 

Just in case  you feel like doing a 3-fer of J&H books for your spooky October.  :D

 

Thanks for the warning re: Hyde. Hoping (& thinking) I'll be fine w/ it.

 

Yes, you have mentioned Lighthousekeeping. But, I am SO GLAD you reminded me because I had completely forgotten until you just mentioned it again. Just requested it too. A 3-fer sounds like a fabulous idea. Love doing 'sets' of reading like this! 

 

Thanks!!

[Kareni]

Today I re-read one of Mary Balogh's not so recent historical romances, namely Slightly Tempted (Bedwyn Saga).  I enjoyed revisiting it.  I say not so recent since the author has been publishing continuously since 1985; she's written more than sixty books, and I'm guessing I've read well over half of them.

 

"Young. Ravishing. Exquisitely marriageable. From the moment he spies Lady Morgan Bedwyn across the glittering ballroom, Gervase Ashford, Earl of Rosthorn, knows he has found the perfect instrument of his revenge. But wedlock is not on the mind of the continent’s most notorious rake. Nor is it of interest to the fiercely independent Lady Morgan herself…until one night of shocking intimacy erupts in a scandal that could make Gervase’s vengeance all the sweeter. There is only one thing standing in his way: Morgan, who has achieved the impossible—she’s melted his coolly guarded heart. For Gervase, only the marriage bed will do, but Morgan simply will not have him. Thus begins a sizzling courtship where two wary hearts are about to be undone by the most scandalous passion of all: glorious, all-consuming love."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Mom-ninja.]

Okay, okay I admit to having skipped over a small phrase in BNW last night. I just could not say the words aloud to my young teen ds, "...he swung his arm over her shoulder and grabbed her bre@sts." 

 

Yeah, left it at...he swung his arm over her shoulder. Started next sentence. For some reason those words could not would not come out. Maybe if my ds ever reads it on his own later in life he'll stop and thing, "I don't remember *that* when my mom read it to me."  :laugh:

[unsinkable]

I'm reading book 12 in the Molly Murphy series, The Family Way by Rhys Bowen. I had kept up with the series until a few years ago. I got back into them this summer and have read numbers 9, 10 and 11.

 

They're fun quick reads.

[Violet Crown]

:lol:

 

It's POE. What else would you expect?

 

If you want the neat/tidy/organized version of the story, check out Jules Verne's version: An Antarctic Mystery (or The Sphinx of the Ice Fields).

 

I'm telling you, Poe & Verne are early versions of Oscar & Felix from the Odd Couple.

 

Poe = Oscar

Verne = Felix

Dh has read the Verne but not the Poe (yet). I may make him bring his Verne home from the office.

 

What I liked best in Pym was Poe's continuing exploration of altered states of consciousness and perceptions of reality, from both physical and psychological causes. The narrator warns us early in the story that some of his circumstances have made his own perceptions unreliable, which combined with the increasingly dreamlike quality of the story (complete with non-ending resembling a sudden waking up) makes the entire narrative unstable. No wonder Borges, and the ever-psychological Henry James, took up Pym.

 

And of course Poe's repeated live burial phobia.

 

Dh is well into Roadside Picnic. Apparently he's played the computer game, too. The book thread is revealing to me hidden things about my husband!

 

Middle Girl just read Bartleby the Scrivener and now goes around saying "I prefer not to." Literature corrupting the morals of the young.

[redsquirrel]

Bartleby the Scrivener is the first thing I remember reading that I just flat out didn't like.  I don't remember why now, but I do remember having a very strong dislike for it.  It was my first experience with having to read something I hated for an assignment.  It kept me away from Melville for years, lol

[Violet Crown]

Bartleby the Scrivener is the first thing I remember reading that I just flat out didn't like. I don't remember why now, but I do remember having a very strong dislike for it. It was my first experience with having to read something I hated for an assignment. It kept me away from Melville for years, lol

Middle Girl read Moby Dick last year and found it engagingly strange. She's now a Melville fangirl.

[Violet Crown]

I should add--because it just occurred to me--that when the narrator mentions that perhaps his own perceptions are as unstable as his shipmates', they're starved and dehydrated on the upturned hull of a ship. Later he and one of those shipmates are again starved and dehydrated (though this time he is less focused on that fact) on a hilltop--a very strange place to be marooned, unless one were looking for a locale resembling an inverted ship. But this time he doesn't suggest that his perceptions of reality, or his shipmate's, might be unreliable. And this is when most of the really strange events begin: the escape through tunnels that form oddly relevant letters, etc.

 

Also, writing as a physical thing occurs oddly on this island. The only definitely recognizable writing--on the wall of the tunnel--is proveably naturally produced; and the mysterious purple water is apparently made up of lines of ink (the narrator mentions that it looks like "gum arabic," an ingredient in 19th-century ink). But when they leave the black island for the white pole, the water is, equally strangely, a blank solid white. And at this point the narrator stops writing.

 

Dh tells me that Verne's version of Pym mainly serves to illustrate Verne's limitations. So I may be in less of a hurry to read it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I should add--because it just occurred to me--that when the narrator mentions that perhaps his own perceptions are as unstable as his shipmates', they're starved and dehydrated on the upturned hull of a ship. Later he and one of those shipmates are again starved and dehydrated (though this time he is less focused on that fact) on a hilltop--a very strange place to be marooned, unless one were looking for a locale resembling an inverted ship. But this time he doesn't suggest that his perceptions of reality, or his shipmate's, might be unreliable. And this is when most of the really strange events begin: the escape through tunnels that form oddly relevant letters, etc.

 

Also, writing as a physical thing occurs oddly on this island. The only definitely recognizable writing--on the wall of the tunnel--is proveably naturally produced; and the mysterious purple water is apparently made up of lines of ink (the narrator mentions that it looks like "gum arabic," an ingredient in 19th-century ink). But when they leave the black island for the white pole, the water is, equally strangely, a blank solid white. And at this point the narrator stops writing.

 

Dh tells me that Verne's version of Pym mainly serves to illustrate Verne's limitations. So I may be in less of a hurry to read it.

 

I read Pym and then started Verne. It didn't hold up well to comparison, and I ended up abandoning it.

 

Speaking of children picking up phrases from literature, my dd now responds, when you say her name, with "Yes? For so I am called."  From Mr. & Mrs. Bunny, by Polly Horvath.  :lol:

[idnib]

Middle Girl read Moby Dick last year and found it engagingly strange. She's now a Melville fangirl.

 

She might enjoy In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. It's about the true story that inspired Moby Dick and is being made into a movie.

 

I haven't read it yet but it's sitting on my shelf after a trusted bookstore employee told me he loved it. (He and I are both Moby Dick fans.)

 

 

[Kareni]

Those of you who shop at Barnes and Noble might be interested in this shareable coupon (so, share with your spouse, children, and friends) that is good for 20% off one item (some exclusions).  It is good through Monday the 12th.

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/promos/bn-promo.jsp?cid=3100001&sourceId=L000018330&st=EML

 

***

 

 

Yesterday I finished The Last Chance Christmas Ball by Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverley, Joanna Bourne, Patricia Rice, Nicola Cornick, Cara Elliott, Anne Gracie, and Susan King.  This is a collection of eight stories that center around a Christmas ball.  It was a pleasant read.

 

"Christmas 1815. Upstairs and downstairs, Holbourne Hall is abuzz with preparations for a grand ball to celebrate the year’s most festive—and romantic—holiday. For at the top of each guest’s wish list is a last chance to find true love before the New Year…
 
A chance meeting beneath the mistletoe, a stolen glance across the dance floor—amid the sumptuous delicacies, glittering decorations, and swell of the orchestra, every duchess and debutante, lord and lackey has a hopeful heart. There’s the headstrong heiress who must win back her beloved by midnight—or be wed to another….the spinster whose fateful choice to relinquish love may hold one more surprise for her…a widow yearning to glimpse her long-lost love for even one sweet, fleeting interlude …a charming rake who finds far more than he bargained for. And many other dazzling, romantic tales in this star-studded collection that will fill your heart and spice up your holidays…"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Svetlana Alexievich Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

 

 

Has anyone here read one of her works?

 

***

 

And this is interesting ~

Harvard University debate team loses to New York inmates

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

I should add--because it just occurred to me--that when the narrator mentions that perhaps his own perceptions are as unstable as his shipmates', they're starved and dehydrated on the upturned hull of a ship. Later he and one of those shipmates are again starved and dehydrated (though this time he is less focused on that fact) on a hilltop--a very strange place to be marooned, unless one were looking for a locale resembling an inverted ship. But this time he doesn't suggest that his perceptions of reality, or his shipmate's, might be unreliable. And this is when most of the really strange events begin: the escape through tunnels that form oddly relevant letters, etc.

 

Also, writing as a physical thing occurs oddly on this island. The only definitely recognizable writing--on the wall of the tunnel--is proveably naturally produced; and the mysterious purple water is apparently made up of lines of ink (the narrator mentions that it looks like "gum arabic," an ingredient in 19th-century ink). But when they leave the black island for the white pole, the water is, equally strangely, a blank solid white. And at this point the narrator stops writing.

 

Dh tells me that Verne's version of Pym mainly serves to illustrate Verne's limitations. So I may be in less of a hurry to read it.

 

Imo, Verne's limitation is a lack of imagination. I say that not just because of his version of the Pym story, but also based on other things I've read by him. For him, everything must be rationally explained... which is fine, but maybe he should have worked in non-fiction more than fiction. To me, he sucks out part of the joy of storytelling (or story-reading) because his main motivation seems to be 'to explain' rather than 'to enchant' or 'to enthrall'. Verne is a good writer, but generally his style runs too dry for me. Just my opinion, of course.

 

When I read Poe's Pym along w/ the other variations, I said that Poe must be rolling in his grave (or maybe laughing hysterically) after what Verne did to his story.

 

I am glad I read Verne's version of Pym, though. Poe's tale was so strange & twisted that it made me giggle to almost see Verne squirming to come up with some sort of 'logical' explanation for each weird, odd, or unexplained part of the story. It's like he wanted to hide old, eccentric uncle Poe in the attic while he straightened things up & made everything look nice & normal in the main part of the house where one receives company.

 

She might enjoy In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. It's about the true story that inspired Moby Dick and is being made into a movie.

 

I haven't read it yet but it's sitting on my shelf after a trusted bookstore employee told me he loved it. (He and I are both Moby Dick fans.)

 

 

I just got my hair cut & my stylist & I were discussing books. He was highly recommending this very book!

 

Yesterday I finished The Last Chance Christmas Ball by Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverley, Joanna Bourne, Patricia Rice, Nicola Cornick, Cara Elliott, Anne Gracie, and Susan King.  This is a collection of eight stories that center around a Christmas ball.  It was a pleasant read.

 

I guess you're doing holiday reading too, just a different holiday than we normally think of in October. Lol.

 

I just picked up Hyde & Horrorstor at the library. I have to say that if you're an Ikea fan (I am) & if you like their catalogs (I do), you will appreciate Horrorstor just for the catalog adoration, lol. It looks & feels like an Ikea catalog, including some of the intro & final pages. I fully appreciate nice little touches & nods like that so the book has already gone up a rung in my estimation. (Hope the story is good.)

[Stacia]

Svetlana Alexievich Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

 

 

Has anyone here read one of her works?

 

***

 

And this is interesting ~

Harvard University debate team loses to New York inmates

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Haven't read Alexievich. Looks like a lot of her work is non-fiction. Will have to find something to try from her....

 

I saw that headline about the debate teams last night. Will have to read the article.

[Stacia]

I love how you went from this...

 

47. Edgar Allen Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Well that was weird.

 

to this...

 

What I liked best in Pym was Poe's continuing exploration of altered states of consciousness and perceptions of reality, from both physical and psychological causes. The narrator warns us early in the story that some of his circumstances have made his own perceptions unreliable, which combined with the increasingly dreamlike quality of the story (complete with non-ending resembling a sudden waking up) makes the entire narrative unstable. No wonder Borges, and the ever-psychological Henry James, took up Pym.

And of course Poe's repeated live burial phobia.

 

I think I just liked it because it was weird. ;) :lol:  (And, I'm not nearly as articulate as you are, but I love & agree with your lengthier assessment. Yes, I can totally see why Borges would have loved this. I've never read Henry James... :leaving: )

[redsquirrel]

Svetlana Alexievich Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

 

 

Has anyone here read one of her works?

 

***

 

And this is interesting ~

Harvard University debate team loses to New York inmates

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

It turns out I had, I'd heard of the work and not author.  It was a 'Oh....her? That? Ok, I've heard of that." sort of thing

 

I found this to be useful to bring me up to speed.

 

http://www.vox.com/2015/10/8/9480003/svetlana-alexievich-nobel-literature

[Stacia]

It turns out I had, I'd heard of the work and not author.  It was a 'Oh....her? That? Ok, I've heard of that." sort of thing

 

I found this to be useful to bring me up to speed.

 

http://www.vox.com/2015/10/8/9480003/svetlana-alexievich-nobel-literature

Great article. Thanks for posting it.

 

Sounds like her work is harrowing yet fabulous. I will definitely be checking out something that she has written.

[Jane in NC]

I look forward to reading Svetlana Alexievich.

 

A month or so ago I mentioned discovering Somerset Maugham's collection of spy stories, Ashenden: The British Agent, modeled after his own life in the intelligence community about the time of WWI.  I have read that Maugham influenced future writers in the genre, authors like Ambler, Furst, Le Carre and Flemming.  What I think is particularly noteworthy is that in the introduction Maugham writes that his work as a spy was "monotonous", hence the stories he tells are fiction. Ashenden is far from say Bond with action packed adventures or modern spies who need to "go rogue" to accomplish their missions.

 

Like Maugham, Ashenden is a writer, an occupation that gives him more freedom of movement than some.  He is well educated and speaks several languages.  He is an observer.  But we see a precursor to later debonair spies.

 

He calls the colonel who gives him his orders "R."  Here is one of their exchanges:

 

 

"Do you like macaroni? asked R.

 

 

(You'll have to wait for the rest of the post. Somehow I hit submit!!)

[Jane in NC]

Trying again:

"Do you like macaroni? asked R.

"What do you mean by macaroni?" answered Asherden. "It is like asking me if I like poetry. I like Keats and Wordsworth and Verlaine and Goethe. When you say macaroni, do you mean spaghetti, tagliatelli, rigatoni, vermicelli, fettucini, tufali, farfalli or just macaroni?"

"Macaroni," replied R., a man of few words.

"I like all the simple things, boiled eggs, oysters and caviar, truite au bleu, grilled salmon, roast lamb (the saddle by preference), cold grouse, treacle tart and rice pudding. But of all simple things the only one I can eat day in and day out, not only without disgust but with the eagerness of an appetite unimpaired by excess, is macaroni."

"I am glad of that because I want you to go down to Italy."

Shortly thereafter, R. pours them each another snifter of brandy. Ashenden cannot help commenting on how R. holds the bottle.

"In my youth I was taught that you should take a woman by the waist and a bottle by the neck," he (Ashenden) murmured.

"I am glad you told me. I shall continue to hold a bottle by the waist and give women a wide berth."

Anyone else feel like Flemming was taking notes?

[Jane in NC]

Maugham's introduction to Ashenden brings up the issue of using life to model fiction. Maugham clearly believes that a story should have a beginning and end with a curve that carries the reader along. Life does not always work that way.

 

And that reminded me of an interview I heard a couple of weeks ago on the BBC World Service newscast with Mark Haddon whose story Bunny had been short listed for a BBC short story award. Haddon bemoans, as does Maugham, the story which is a glimpse into a window instead of a complete tale in itself.

 

Those of you who are writers may find the interview on the short story in general and Haddon's story in particular to be interesting.

[Kareni]

The Card Catalog Is Officially Dead

 

My library recently reinstated a couple of its card catalog cabinets.  They have new books on top and some of the open drawers are being used to showcase additional new books.  Recycling at its finest!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

Maugham's introduction to Ashenden brings up the issue of using life to model fiction. Maugham clearly believes that a story should have a beginning and end with a curve that carries the reader along. And that life is not always that

 

And that reminded me of an interview I heard a couple of weeks ago on the BBC World Service newscast with Mark Haddon whose story Bunny had been short listed for a BBC short story award. Haddon bemoans, as does Maugham, the story which is a glimpse into a window instead of a complete tale in itself.

 

Those of you who are writers may find the interview on the short story in general and Haddon's story in particular to be interesting.

I just picked Ashenden up at the library this morning. To be honest I had forgotten why I had requested it. Now I am looking forward to it again.

 

Today I read a cozy simply because of it's title. Parrot's Prove Deadly by Clea Simon was the third in the series. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15811852-parrots-prove-deadly. I did fine starting with the third and enjoyed the talking bird humour......I had a parrot of my own for a number of years. The book was about an amateur sleth who works as a pet behaviourist who has a secret edge, she is telepathic with some animals including her cat(not the parrot). It was pretty good overall, a bit hard in places for me personally right now because it centered around a nursing home and problems with the elderly. The bird's use of bad language made me chuckle...they really do learn from hearing something once if it is dramatic enough.

[Violet Crown]

I think I just liked it because it was weird. ;) :lol:

I liked the weirdness too. Think I can count it as my October spooky read? There's just an unfortunate part of my brain that follows up with ideas for a 5-8 page paper on whatever I read.

 

I have just encountered the World's Most Obnoxious Footnote, in the Penguin edition of The Wings of the Dove:

 

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

 

'You're wonderful on such subjects! I think I should leave you in no doubt,' she pursued, 'that if I were to sign my aunt's agreement I should carry it out, in honour, to the letter.'^6

 

[Note in the back:]

6 In fact, by the end of the novel, Kate has broken her agreement.

 

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

 

I sure hope the rest of the notes will give me a thorough overview of the events in the novel well before I get to them.

[Jane in NC]

More on the BBC Short Story Prize.  I had not realized that a winner had been announced.  And I look forward to listening to short list of five here.

 

 

[Kareni]

I've previously mentioned enjoying Marie Force's Fatal series.  Book one in the series is currently free to Kindle readers.

 

Fatal Affair (The Fatal Series Book 1)

 

**

 

And here are a couple more titles that are free until (through?) tomorrow for Kindle readers.  These sound intriguing, but I have no personal experience with them.

 

Anna and the Dragon by Jill Domschot

 

The Jaybird's Nest and other stories by Jill Domschot

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Chrysalis Academy]

Finished Slaughterhouse-Five.  Brilliant book!  I am trying to figure out whether I've read it before. If so, it was many years ago. But I totally recognized the Kilgore Trout character. I know he's appeared in other Vonnegut books, so I still don't know where I recognize him from. I can't name a single Vonnegut book I've read, although I'm sure I have read some.  I think this is one of those authors that was wasted on me in my 20s.

 

The time travel/alien aspect is interesting, but it's really a story about the horrors of war, or the horrors of the human soul that make the horrors of war possible, isn't it? I'm planning to immediately read more Vonnegut. I just put Sirens of Titan on hold, it looks like it is full of the themes I'm immersed in at the moment.

[Stacia]

Finished Slaughterhouse-Five.  Brilliant book!  I am trying to figure out whether I've read it before. If so, it was many years ago. But I totally recognized the Kilgore Trout character. I know he's appeared in other Vonnegut books, so I still don't know where I recognize him from. I can't name a single Vonnegut book I've read, although I'm sure I have read some.  I think this is one of those authors that was wasted on me in my 20s.

 

The time travel/alien aspect is interesting, but it's really a story about the horrors of war, or the horrors of the human soul that make the horrors of war possible, isn't it? I'm planning to immediately read more Vonnegut. I just put Sirens of Titan on hold, it looks like it is full of the themes I'm immersed in at the moment.

:hurray:  I'm always so happy when someone else enjoys a book I love! :laugh: Even with the time travel & aliens, Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the most touchingly human books I've ever read. It does much to showcase the horrors that humans inflict on themselves & everything around them. 

 

I've read various Vonnegut ones. I think I read Sirens of Titan when I was in my 20s & remember liking it ok, but not loving it.

 

I started Horrorstor today & am already more than halfway through. I keep chuckling about the attention to detail re: being like the Ikea catalogs (& other details described in the story): A+ for the attention to detail :lol: . I'm just now getting to the creepiest parts (I think) & so far it's a perfect Halloween read -- quick-paced, a little goofy, somewhat creepy, & fun from a spooky standpoint. Not great literature but fun like a creepy/spooky pool/beach read. Lol.

[redsquirrel]

Three of us in the house read Slaughter house 5 this summer. The 10 year old sat it out, lol.

 

But we all found it profound and moving. It is actually still a little bit difficult to talk about.

 

I don't think it was actually wasted on my 15 year old, but I did suggest he revisit it in 30 years or so..I got the classic eye roll.  And so it goes.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Three of us in the house read Slaughter house 5 this summer. The 10 year old sat it out, lol.

 

But we all found it profound and moving. It is actually still a little bit difficult to talk about.

 

I don't think it was actually wasted on my 15 year old, but I did suggest he revisit it in 30 years or so..I got the classic eye roll.  And so it goes.

 

So it goes.

[idnib]

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

 

'You're wonderful on such subjects! I think I should leave you in no doubt,' she pursued, 'that if I were to sign my aunt's agreement I should carry it out, in honour, to the letter.'^6

 

[Note in the back:]

6 In fact, by the end of the novel, Kate has broken her agreement.

 

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

 

Ugh.

 

DH is saying those should be called "spoiler notes" instead.

[Rosie_0801]

Quote

"Do you like macaroni? asked R.
"What do you mean by macaroni?" answered Asherden. "It is like asking me if I like poetry. I like Keats and Wordsworth and Verlaine and Goethe. When you say macaroni, do you mean spaghetti, tagliatelli, rigatoni, vermicelli, fettucini, tufali, farfalli or just macaroni?"
"Macaroni," replied R., a man of few words.
"I like all the simple things, boiled eggs, oysters and caviar, truite au bleu, grilled salmon, roast lamb (the saddle by preference), cold grouse, treacle tart and rice pudding. But of all simple things the only one I can eat day in and day out, not only without disgust but with the eagerness of an appetite unimpaired by excess, is macaroni."
"I am glad of that because I want you to go down to Italy."

 

 

That's just beautiful, that is. *wipes away a tear*

[Angel]

Angel, here's my first comment re: Brave New World...

 

Soma (chain of lingere/underwear stores, an off-shoot of the Chico's brand) -- did they know about soma in Brave New World? Maybe, since it's a blissed out sexual society, but I really wonder if the name selection was intentional or accidental.  :lol:

 

And I just looked on wikipedia & soma is an energizing Vedic plant that can be juiced & used in rituals.

:lol:

 

Still sick.  Going to doctor today.  The ped put Aly on a Z-pack last night.  

 

I looked up what I wrote about Slaughterhouse Five last year (since Rose just read it).  I liked Slaughterhouse Five better than Brave New World.  (Sit down Stacia, before you faint).  My brain is all fuzzy but at least I cared about Billy Pilgrim and wanted to know more about why he was shifting through time and space.  I couldn't care about the characters in BNW.  No growth.  No connection.  I may never have found out why the heck Billy Pilgrim was shifting in time but the end of that book was better than the abrupt ending of BNW.

 

I am now deciding whether to give BNW a one star or bump Slaughterhouse Five up a star. Or at least a half star.

 

More to come when I can think (and type) straight.

[mumto2]

:grouphug: Angel, I hope you both start feeling better soon.

 

I have been busy reading the first book in a new to me Judith Cutler series. Thus far Drawing the Line (Lena Townend series) is great. The main character is a young woman who grew up an orphan and now works in the antique field.....small shops and antique fairs not Sothoby's. One day she stumbles accross a couple of pages from a very famous rare book and recognizes them from childhood. She knows her mother is dead but wonders if these pages can connect her with her father...... once again set in Kent but some scenes are in Harrogate (Yorkshire) and Oxfordshire.

[Jane in NC]

Just read in an AP story that Svetlana Alexievich was ironing when she got the call from the Nobel committee.  Woman after my own heart.  :001_wub:

 

Jane (who actually likes ironing)

 

P.S.  Feel better Angel!  Viruses have started making the rounds, it seems.

[Angel]

Ok, Stacia, this got long and rambly, probably because my head is so fuzzy, but I wanted to get it out before I forget some of the things I was thinking.  I hope it makes some sense  ;)   Headed to the doctor's now.  Thanks for the well wishes Jane and mum2.

 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It is unbelievable that I didn’t remember reading this book.  Only the part on the Savage Reservation brought up any sort of memory.  Within in pages of beginning it, I was looking to see when it had been written.  I was shocked to find it had been written in the 1930’s.  The more I read, however, the more I could see some of the progressive influences of those times on his writing.  My first thoughts ran to Eugenics and Margaret Sanger and Hitler’s scientists.   Though on doing further study, Eugenics didn’t fit the profile exactly, but I can see where it could have led a man with an imagination to run to a dystopian society (though they thought it quite utopian).  There were some parallels to F451 with the universal theme of everyone be happy, be doing, don’t think for yourself, let “us†(the government) do the thinking for you.  No books!  But BNW went such a giant leap father as to get rid of parents and families altogether.  The government eliminated them.  The people, also, were engineered (sounds like Ian Malcolm and Henry Wu from Jurassic Park), to have no ambition, no drive in life but what their make-up allowed.   It’s like some radicals talking about fitting children into a profession at age 7 or 8 and only allowing them to follow that path.  We grow and change daily.  What you like at 7 will change by 9 and by 14 and by 21 and by 43.  In BNW the people deal with this by wanton drug use, so truly the government hasn’t achieved the utopia it has thought it has. All of those natural human tendencies are still there trying to break out and break free, they are just repressing them with drugs and sex.  It’s a false sense of happy, not true happiness that comes from living, from hoping.  The Giver truly showed this best.  What does a “perfect†society or “perfect†peace achieve but sameness.  Where is the life in that?   There is so much more I could say, especially from my Christian viewpoint, it’s crazy!  I think that this is the culmination of all of my dystopian readings from last year and this year.  Comparing and contrasting them all.  I did not care for any of the characters in BNW, they were shallow (maybe because they were engineered that way).  The ending was abrupt and left me wondering why bother writing the story at all.  What was Huxley’s point?  Some people I know say there is a “worldview†to every story.  I don’t really believe that.  When I fall into a wonderful Flufferton abbey book, I don’t feel the need to see a statement or “worldview†there.  Same with many pieces of fiction.  But with a book like BNW with outrageous concepts and progressive ideas, I feel there is a point, but then am left wondering what it might be.  Was it just for a shock factor?  Was he endorsing a certain movement or political viewpoint?  Did he just have a twisted imagination like Lewis Carroll?  If I remember correctly, Huxley didn’t start experimenting with drugs until years after BNW was written.  I just don’t know.  It certainly wasn’t Miranda’s brave, new world from The Tempest.  .It was ugly and depressing and hopeless.

 

Quote:  “The Controller shrugged his shoulders. ‘Because it’s old; that’s the chief reason.  We haven’t any use for old things here.’  ‘Even when they are beautiful?’  ‘Particularly when they’re beautiful.  Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted by old things.  We want them to like the new ones.’â€

 

Dystopian books read in the past two years:  The Hunger Games trilogy, The Giver, Agenda 21, Divergent, Fahrenheit 451, The Maze Runner trilogy (loosely falls here), and now Brave New World.  

 

I will definitely NOT be reading any more dystopia soon.  I've reached my quota for a lifetime maybe  :001_tt2:

[Chrysalis Academy]

:hurray:  I'm always so happy when someone else enjoys a book I love! :laugh: Even with the time travel & aliens, Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the most touchingly human books I've ever read. It does much to showcase the horrors that humans inflict on themselves & everything around them. 

 

I've read various Vonnegut ones. I think I read Sirens of Titan when I was in my 20s & remember liking it ok, but not loving it.

 

I started Horrorstor today & am already more than halfway through. I keep chuckling about the attention to detail re: being like the Ikea catalogs (& other details described in the story): A+ for the attention to detail :lol: . I'm just now getting to the creepiest parts (I think) & so far it's a perfect Halloween read -- quick-paced, a little goofy, somewhat creepy, & fun from a spooky standpoint. Not great literature but fun like a creepy/spooky pool/beach read. Lol.

 

Do you have other favorite Vonneguts?  What a funny sentence to type! Makes me giggle.