Book a Week 2016 - BW33: Ray Bradbury and Zen in the art of Writing

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday dear hearts!  This is the beginning of week 33 in our quest to read 52 books. Welcome back to all our readers, to those just joining in and all who are following our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 Books blog to link to your reviews. The link is also below in my signature.

 

52 Books blog - Ray Bradbury and Zen in the Art of Writing:  Last year,  I read Ray Bradbury's writing essays from his Zen in the Art of Writing and felt like he’d given me marching orders for Bradbury's Book Camp for Writers.  Zen is a short but powerful book and lights a fire under you with his passion and zest for life and writing. I've been in sort of a writing slump lately and decided to revisit his book. 

 

There are so many snippets I underlined and wrote down, it is hard to know where to start.

Everything you have ever experienced in life goes into your subconscious as food for your muse.  How do you tap into that food to help you grow as a writer? Bradbury kept a book full of lists of nouns; words that reminded him of experiences. He'd refer to the list and a word or collection of words would spark an idea such as the ones that lead him to write Something Wicked This Way Comes:
 

The lake. The Night. The Crickets. The Ravine.  The Attic.  The Basement.  The Trapdoor. The Baby.  The Crowd.  The Night Train. The Fog Horn. The Scythe. The Carnival. The Carousel. The Dwarf. The Mirror Maze. The Skeleton.

 

In his essay How to Keep and Feed the Muse he says:

What if the Subconscious to every man, in its creative aspect, became, for writers, the Muse. 

 

How do you feed your muse? Read poetry every day which will flex your muscles and expand your senses. Consume essays, travel through the centuries. Learn and fill up your senses with the shape and size of the world, every color, smell, texture and sound. Read Short Stories and novels. Not only those who write the way you think but those that don't. It all serves to stimulate your Muse's tastebuds. And while you are feeding your muse, you have to keep it shape.  And you do that by writing 1000 words a day for the next ten to twenty five years.  Why?


...to learn enough about grammar and story construction so that these become part of the subconscious without restraining or distorting the muse.

 

In the essay Zen in the Art of Writing, he goes on to say follow your own path, write for the right reasons and not for the money or accolades.

Fame and money are gifts given us only after we have gifted the world with  our best.

 

Write from the heart and emotions and learn. Keep writing.  There is no failure as long as you keep writing.  His Zen mantra is  WORK -- RELAXATION -- DON'T THINK

So work at your writing and shoot for 1000 to 2000 words a day for the next twenty years.  Write one short story a week for 52 weeks for five years. Much like the surgeon or artist or athlete train for years before they become proficient and successful, so must you train. Quantity provides the experience and with experience eventually comes quality.  As in all things, writing takes practice.  So feed your muse and start practicing.

To feed well is to grow. To work well and constantly is to keep what you have learned and know in prime condition.  Experience. Labor. These are the two sides of the coin which when spun is neither experience nor labor, but the moment of revelation. The coin, by optical illusion, becomes a round, bright, whirling globe of life.

 

His idea to read one short story, poem and an essay a night applies for readers as well. You know me and my rabbit trails.  Just think of all the directions our reading could take. So, whether you need reading or writing motivation,  read  Zen in the Art of Writing. 
 

Also, when you have the time, check out this video – An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001 of his keynote address at The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea.

 

If you have any favorite poetry or essay books, I'd love to hear about them.

 

 

**************************************************

 

History of the Renaissance World - Chapters 57 and 58 

 

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What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

 

Link to week 32

Edited August 14, 2016 by Robin M

[Kareni]

 If you have any favorite poetry or essay books, I'd love to hear about them.

 

 

Thanks for a thoughtful post, Robin.

 

As regards poetry books, some years ago I enjoyed reading Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within.

 

 

I have a dark and dreadful secret. I write poetry... I believe poetry is a primal impulse within all of us. I believe we are all capable of it and furthermore that a small, often ignored corner of us positively yearns to try it.

—Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled

 

"Stephen Fry believes that if one can speak and read English, one can write poetry. Many of us have never been taught to read or write poetry and think of it as a mysterious and intimidating form. Or, if we have been taught, we remember uncomfortable silence when an English teacher invited the class to "respond" to a poem. In The Ode Less Travelled, Fry sets out to correct this problem by giving aspiring poets the tools and confidence they need to write poetry for pleasure.

 

Fry is a wonderfully engaging teacher and writer of poetry himself, and he explains the various elements of poetry in simple terms, without condescension. His enjoyable exercises and witty insights introduce the concepts of Metre, Rhyme, Form, Diction, and Poetics. Aspiring poets will learn to write a sonnet, on ode, a villanelle, a ballad, and a haiku, among others. Along the way, he introduces us to poets we've heard of, but never read. The Ode Less Travelled is a lively celebration of poetry that makes even the most reluctant reader want to pick up a pencil and give it a try."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Robin M]

Along with a reread of Bradbury's book, I'm deep into Jim Butcher's chunky latest steampunk tale which is quite good. - The Aeronaut's Windlass.

 

Hubby and I are tackling replacing my ipad glass today.  I bought what I thought was a wonderful new artistic ipad cover (not an official ipad cover) and found my ipad glass couldn't survive accidental slippage to the floor.  So lesson learned and ordering an official cover.  Oh and if you get an iphone 6 with it's glossy gold or pink or whatever case, get a case cover because the glass is prone to easy cracking and glass scratches from keys.   :svengo:

Edited August 14, 2016 by Robin M

[Kareni]

Some of you might enjoy this column from the Word Wenches site.  There are many informative comments to read, too.

 

Seasonal Reads and Viewings

 

Some other recent columns from the site:

 

Pens & Pins—Or How Did Jane Austen Revise A Manuscript?

 

Woman of Mystery

 

Good Girls Don't Wear Knickers

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

Happy Sunday my friends!

 

I finished Theatre, not my favorite Maugham, but Maugham is Maugham--a writer of the highest calibre.

 

Yikes--after my travels, I am woefully behind (again) on HoRW.  Hop to it, Jane!

 

This week I'll be reading more from How to Ruin Everything, Watsky's book of essays.  But which novel will I open?  I am eyeing two in the dusty stack:  The Birds by Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas and Angel of Oblivion by Austrian-Slovene writer Maja Haderlap.  Both came my way via Archipelago.

 

In the car, I'll be listening to The Turkish Gambit by Russian author Boris Akunin.  This is an audio book that jumped off the shelf into my hands at the library yesterday.  I had never heard of Akunin, an apparently well known writer of crime fiction and historical novels.  He also translates Japanese and English works into Russian.  And he is critical of Putin which makes him of friend of mine.  ;)

[Loesje22000]

I finished:

 

And I will finish soon:

 

Danubia has also been finished and was fun to read.

I learned a lot, but realizing now I have to dig more in the history of Middel and East Europe.

[Ethel Mertz]

Last week, I finished 3 homeschool related books with DS (SOTW IV, Thirty More Famous Stories, and What Darwin Saw). I also finished James Howard Kunstler's World Made By Hand and Anna Jean Mayhew's The Dry Grass of August. The latter was especially good.

 

I'm currently working on Willa Cather's O Pioneers and the last book ( :crying: ) in Ann B. Ross's Miss Julia series. Ann Ross had better be working on the next book.

[Negin]

I read Hunting Eichmann - 4 Stars - I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Israel and love that country dearly. When my husband and I were newlyweds almost 20 years ago, we were channel surfing one night and saw a fabulous documentary on how Eichmann was found and brought to justice. I think it was the first time I really paid any attention to the story.

 

It was only recently that I heard about this book and I’m so glad that I did. It’s truly well-written and thoroughly researched. Even though I knew how it would all end, I was thinking about the book pretty much during most of my non-reading time, always a sign of a good book for me!

 

This account of General Eisenhower and General Patton seeing the German atrocities for the first time is one that I will always remember. I’d read it another book also.

“Despite the intelligence reports General Eisenhower had read on the German atrocities, he found himself completely unprepared for Ohrdurf. Guided by former inmates, he and his staff saw men in the hospital who had been brutally tortured and were starving, lying shoulder to shoulder, expecting nothing more than death to arrive. In a basement, he saw a gallows where prisoners had been hung by piano wire long enough that their toes touched the floor, delaying death but prolonging the agony that preceded it. In one of the yards, he saw some 40 corpses, riddled with lice, stacked in rows. In an adjoining field, he saw 3,200 more corpses, many with gunshot wounds to the back of the head, next to a pyre of wood clearly intended to destroy all traces of their existence. General Omar Bradley, who accompanied Eisenhower, could not even speak; the hard-nosed General George Patton vomited against a wall. As he left Ohrdurf, Eisenhower told his officers, ‘I want every American unit not actually in the front lines to see this place. We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against.’ Once back at headquarters, the shaken supreme commander sent messages to Washington and London demanding that legislators and newspaper reporters come to Ohrdurf. He wanted these crimes documented.â€

 

One of my favorite quotes:

“We will bring Adolf Eichmann to Jerusalem,†Harel said, striking the table, “and perhaps the world will be reminded of its responsibilities. It will be recognized that, as a people, we never forgot. Our memory reaches back through recorded history. The memory book lies open, and the hand still writes.†

 

 

MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay – nothing to write home about

1 Star

Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

[Jane in NC]

Just realized that I had failed to include Yalo by Lebanese author Elias Khoury on this cumulative list I posted yesterday. 

 

If anyone would like this book, I will be happy to send it your way.  Warning:  it is a difficult book set in the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War. 

Edited August 14, 2016 by Jane in NC

[Stacia]

As I mentioned last night, I decided to ditch Tram 83.

 

I have now started Season of Migration to the North by Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih.

 

 

After many years of study in Europe, the young narrator of Season of Migration to the North returns to his village along the Nile in the Sudan, eager to make a contribution to the new postcolonial life of his country. Back home, he discovers a stranger among the familiar faces of childhood—the enigmatic Mustafa Sa’eed. Mustafa takes the young man into his confidence, telling him the story of his own years in London in the early part of the twentieth century, of his brilliant career as an economist, and of the series of fraught and deadly relationships with European women that led to a terrible public reckoning and his return to his native land.

But what is the meaning of Mustafa’s shocking confession? Mustafa disappears without explanation, leaving the young man —whom he has asked to look after his wife—in an unsettled and violent no-man’s-land between Europe and Africa, tradition and innovation, holiness and defilement, and man and woman, from which no one will escape unaltered or unharmed.

One of the pinnacles of modern Arabic literature, Season of Migration to the North is a work of scorching honesty and incandescent lyricism.

 

2016 Books Read:

Africa:

• We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, pub. by Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown and Company. 2 stars. Zimbabwe. (Child’s-eye view of life in post-colonial Zimbabwe & as a teen immigrant to the US. Choppy & hard to connect with the characters. Disappointed.) [baW Bingo: Female Author]
• Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki, trans. from the Portuguese by Stephen Henighan, pub. by Biblioasis. 4 stars. Angola. (Simple & charming child’s-eye view of life in Angola during revolutionary changes & civil war in the 1990s. Semi-autobiographical.) [baW Bingo: Set in Another Country]
• The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenström, trans. from the Afrikaans by J.M. Coetzee, pub. by Archipelago Books. 4 stars. South Africa. (A haunting, stream-of-consciousness story of slavery, survival, solitude, strangeness, & strength. The language is lovely.) [baW Bingo: Translated]
• West with the Night by Beryl Markham, pub. by North Point Press. 5 stars. Kenya. (Markham’s amazing & wonderful tales of her life growing up in Africa & her adventures as a pilot.)
• The Stranger by Albert Camus, trans. from the French by Matthew Ward, pub. by Vintage International. 4 stars. Algeria. (Camus’ famous tale, clipped & clinical, about malaise & murder on the beach in Algeria.) [baW Bingo: Nobel Prize Winner]
• The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, trans. from the French by John Cullen, pub. by Other Press. 4 stars. Algeria. (Daoud’s rebuttal tale to The Stranger. Breathless [reminiscent of Camus’ narrator in The Fall] story poured out by the murdered man’s brother. Yin & yang to The Stranger – separate, opposite, yet twins too.)  
• Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes, pub. by Flipped Eye Publishing. 4.5 stars. Ghana (CSI-type criminal investigation mixed with traditional Ghanaian village life & folklore form a unique police tale. Lovely & riveting. Highly recommended.) [baW Bingo: Color in the Title]

Asia:

• North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, pub. by Harvest/Harcourt Brace & Co. 3 stars. Various countries. (A.M. Lindbergh served as her husband’s radio operator during their trek to try mapping new air routes to Asia by travelling north. Diary-like observations of some stops.) [baW Bingo: Historical]
• Smile as they Bow by Nu Nu Yi, trans. from the Burmese by Alfred Birnbaum & Thi Thi Aye, pub. by Hyperion East. 3 stars. Myanmar. (Fiery & feisty natkadaw [spirit wife] Daisy Bond performs during a nat festival while dealing with the wandering heart of his assistant & love Min Min.) [baW Bingo: Banned (in Myanmar)]
• A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer, pub. by Flatiron Books. 4 stars. North Korea (Fascinating & sometimes depressing look at the cult of personality & power of propaganda & film in North Korea, based around the 1970s kidnappings of two of South Korea's most famous movie personalities.)
• Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama, trans. by Howard Hibbett, pub. by Tuttle. 3 stars. Burma [Myanmar]. (Slightly didactic view of a troop of Japanese soldiers & POWs in Burma at the end of WWII. The group is united by music. Probably revolutionary when written in 1946.)
• The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, pub. by Doubleday. 4 stars. India. (A feminist retelling of parts of the Mahabharata, focusing on the viewpoint of Panchaali throughout her life. Makes me want to know more about the original.) [baW Bingo: Epic]
• Kokoro by Natsume SÅseki, trans. from the Japanese by Meredith McKinney, pub. by Penguin Books. 4 stars. Japan. (Read because SÅseki [1867-1916] is "being recreated as an android†this year; novel explores mind/emotion shifts between Meiji era into modern era. Low-key, compelling, simple, & straightforward with melancholy overtones. A lovely work.) [baW Bingo: Classic]
• Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann, pub. by Soho Crime. 3 stars. China (Intriguing mix of international/political thriller that paints modern-day China, as well as the after-effects scarring soldiers who served in Iraq.)
• Rashomon and Other Stories by RyÅ«nosuke Akutagawa, trans. from the Japanese by Takashi Kojima, pub. by Liveright Publishing Corp. 3 stars. Japan (Reminiscent of Aesop but with longer tales, these leave you with food for thought, a trick, or a moral to ponder.)

Europe:

• Gnarr! How I Became Mayor of a Large City in Iceland and Changed the World by Jón Gnarr, trans. by Andrew Brown, pub. by Melville House. 3 stars. Iceland. (A quick, easy, fun, & inspiring read with an emphasis on being nice & promoting peace. Just what I needed this week.) [baW Bingo: Non-fiction]
• What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, pub. by Riverhead Books. 5 stars. Various countries. (Exotic, surreal, & magical collection of slightly interlinked short stories. Slightly sinister, fun, compelling, & completely delightful.) [baW Bingo: Fairy Tale Adaptation]
• A Dark Redemption by Stav Sherez, pub. by Europa editions. 4 stars. England. (Well done gritty crime/thriller, good detective duo, & nice twists involving international politics & African rebel groups. A series I might read more of….)
• Eleven Days by Stav Sherez, pub. by Europa editions. 4 stars. England. (Same comments as with his first novel – well done gritty crime/thriller, good detective duo, & nice twists involving international politics. Looking forward to future books in the series.)
• Time and Time Again by Ben Elton, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press. 3 stars. Various countries. (Time-travel book going back to 1914 to prevent the start of WWI. A bit uneven but quick to read. Thought-provoking ending.)
• Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone by G.S. Denning, pub. by Titan Books. 4 stars. England. (Delightful & funny -- a smart & amusing twist on Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson. For Sherlock lovers who don't mind a playful retake with supernatural tendencies.)
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik, pub. by Del Rey/Random House. 5 stars. Unknown; probably eastern European. (Excellent mix of traditional high fantasy, Tolkien-esque touches, & eastern European folklore & fairytales mesh to create something riveting & new. Layered, deep, & well-written. Loved it. Nebula Award winner for Best Novel 2016.)
• À Rebours (Against Nature) by J.-K. Huysmans, trans. from the French by Robert Baldick, pub. by Penguin Books. 3 stars. France (Decadent look at the inner life of a rich recluse who prefers to exist in an ideal world of his own excessive creation. I’m on the fence…)
• The Tale of the Unknown Island by José Saramago, trans. from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa, pub. by Harcourt Brace & Company. 3 stars. Portugal. (A lyrical little tale, nicely told.)
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, trans. from the original French text by the author, pub. by Grove Press. 2 stars. France (Whether it is just a tale of the absurdity of life or if there is a deeper meaning, at least I can now say I’ve read it.) [baW Bingo: Play]

Latin America:

• The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, trans. from the Spanish by Anne McLean, pub. by Riverhead Books. 4 stars. Columbia. (Brilliant & bittersweet story showing the impact of the rise of the Colombian drug cartels on an entire generation of people growing up during the violent & uncertain times of the drug wars.) [baW Bingo: Picked by a friend – idnib]
• The Three Trials of Manirema by José J. Veiga, trans. from the Portuguese by Pamela G. Bird, pub. by Alfred A. Knopf. 3 stars. Brazil. (A mix of rural-life naturalism & the Kafkaesque in an allegory of life under [brazilian] military rule; captures the underlying fear & dread of a town. A serendipitous find.) [baW Bingo: Dusty]
• Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel by Tom Wainwright, pub. by PublicAffairs. 4 stars. Various: mainly Latin & North America. (Interesting look at illegal drugs & cartels through an economist’s eyes, analyzing them like any other large global corporation.) [baW Bingo: Published 2016]
• Sergio Y. by Alexandre Vidal Porto, trans. from the Portuguese by Alex Ladd, pub. by Europa editions. 5 stars. Latin America & North America: Brazil & USA. (This is a beautiful & inspiring book. A gem of understated beauty about the quest for happiness. Left me with a tear in my eye & a smile on my face. One of the very best I have read this year.)
• Two Brothers by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá, pub. by Dark Horse Books. 3 stars. Brazil (Graphic novel about the split between twin bothers that is never reconciled. Explores many forms of loss.)

Middle East:

• Necropolis by Santiago Gamboa, trans. from the Spanish by Howard Curtis, pub. by Europa editions. 3 stars. Israel. (Chorus of stories, mainly based around an author attending a conference in Jerusalem. One attendee commits suicide. Or did he?)

North America:

• The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez, trans. from the Spanish by Daniela Maria Ugaz & John Washington, pub. by Verso. 5 stars. Mexico. (Front-line reporting of the dangers migrants face – from physical challenges, terrain, kidnappings, robberies, murders, rapes, & more – when crossing Mexico while trying to reach the US. Required reading.) [baW Bingo: Library Free Space]
• A Quaker Book of Wisdom by Robert Lawrence Smith, pub. by Eagle Brook/William Morrow and Company. 3 stars. USA. (A quiet & inspiring look at basic tenets of living a life of love & service. Nice little book with valuable & thoughtful ideas for today's world.)
• An Exaggerated Murder by Josh Cook, pub. by Melville House. 4 stars. USA. (Super-fun mash-up as if Pynchon met Sherlock Holmes & they had a few too many beers while sparring with Poe & Joyce. Entertaining, untraditional, modern noir detective romp.) [baW Bingo: Mystery]
• Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan, pub. by Atlantic Books. 3 stars. USA. (Mini-novella prequel to Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Pleasant, nice, light reading about tracking down the single-surviving copy of a very old book.) [baW Bingo: Number in the Title]
• Bossypants by Tina Fey, pub. by Little, Brown and Company. 3 stars. USA. (Light & laugh-out-loud funny in places as Fey shares her life & fame. It’s easy to tell that she started as a writer -- her writing skill shines.)
• The Mirror Thief by Martin Seay, ARC copy, pub. by Melville House. 3 stars. USA; also Europe: Italy. (Interwoven stories linking “Venice†from the 1500s, 1950s, & present day. Mix of thriller, historical fiction, magic/alchemy, & philosophy.) [baW Bingo: Over 500 Pages]
• An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel, pub. by Inkshares. 4 stars. USA. (Really 3 stars, but extra points for the humor, cool cover art, & bringing old-school vampires back to life. Plus, vampires don’t need to wear seatbelts. Fiendishly fun.) [baW Bingo: Pick based on the cover]
• Trout Fishing in America/The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster/In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan, pub. by Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence. 4 stars. USA (Surreal Americana with trout & mayonnaise.) [baW Bingo: Written in Birth Year] 
• Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King, pub. by Little, Brown and Company. 3 stars. USA (YA predicting a future dystopia of women being non-entities & desire to make sure that doesn’t happen, along w/ common teen themes.) 
• The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters, pub. by Quirk Books. 4 stars. USA (Police procedural set in pre-apocalyptic America. Why investigate a murder if Earth will be destroyed in six months anyway? Raises interesting & thoughtful questions.)
• The Alligator Report by W. P. Kinsella, pub. by Coffee House Press. 3 stars. USA (A pleasantly odd collection of short stories in a similar, but more lightweight, style to Richard Brautigan’s works.)
• Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters, pub. by Mulholland Books. 4 stars. North America: USA (Alt history/sci-fi exploring the issues of slavery, race, & science. Many provocative questions.) [Chaos Reading: Page count between 5x and 7x your age]

Other:

• Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston, pub. by W. W. Norton & Company. 3 stars. (Book for font/typography/punctuation nerds tracing the history of various marks. Some chapters are better than others.)
• The Island of Last Truth by Flavia Company, trans. from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin, pub. by Europa editions. 4 stars. Other (unnamed island off the coast of Africa). (Small, smart, mesmerizing nautical tale to rival the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson.) [baW Bingo: Nautical]
• The Plover by Brian Doyle, pub. by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press. 5 stars. Other: Pacific Ocean (A magical & beautiful maritime tale of with true characters full of flaws, & wonder, & hope. Gorgeous. Now a favorite of mine.)

 

 

[mumto2]

I have been busy making return piles for my libraries today. Only one book has stuck so far a British Cozy by LC Tyler titled Herring in the Library.

 

My overdrive accounts were a bit empty because I am next in line for several books. I gave in and had a fun time checking out the next book in some favourite series. I was just about to get the next Miss Julia when Stiletto popped into my account. I have been looking forward to this book since last fall! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25695756-stiletto I think I had better continue leaving a space or two empty!

 

I will probably start something fluffy tonight and work on Stiletto in the morning! I just wish I had started with Miss Julia.....

 

I did finish my birth year Agatha Christie. The Clocks is one of the last Poirot books and he is not my favourite Christie character so this is definitely a book I had skipped for a reason. ;) That being said I liked much of the book leading up to solving the crime. I kept thinking that it was pretty good and that if it wasn't Christie I might really like it.... I think knowing Christie is the author changes expectations hugely. Well the conclusion was sloppy. It was one of those where every point of speculation I had came true in maybe five pages. It was too much too quick. Not a bit satisfying.

[Kareni]

On recent trips, my husband and I started to listen to Elizabeth Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody Book 1); however, we gave it up after a couple of hours.  We didn't dislike it but put it aside in the hopes of listening to something a little more gripping.  We went on to listen to Patricia Briggs' Moon Called: Mercy Thompson, Book 1 as narrated by Lorelei King.  I'd already read the book, but it was new to my husband.  We both enjoyed it.

 

 

On our drive home, we started listening to China Mieville's The City and the City as narrated by John Lee.  We're about two thirds of the way through but are finding it an intriguing book.  It has a quite complex storyline.

 

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE SEATTLE TIMES, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.
 
"When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. To investigate, Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to its equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the vibrant city of Ul Qoma. But this is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a seeing of the unseen. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them more than their lives. What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities."

 

 

Here's a list of books I read in the last week or so ~

 

-- a re-read of the historical romance Marrying The Captain by Carla Kelly   (this is suitable for all readers)

 

-- the paranormal romance Bleacke's Geek (Bleacke Shifters)  by Lesli Richardson (adult content); I had heard good things about this book but the reality fell a little short.

 

-- a re-read of the contemporary new adult romance The Score (Off-Campus Book 3) by Elle Kennedy (adult content)

 

-- the paranormal romance Wild Things: Shifters Unbound by Jennifer Ashley which is still free to Kindle readers

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

The most compelling book I read while away was The Last Hour of Gann  by R. Lee Smith.  (adult content)  This is a LONG book; I think my Kindle said it would take me some 13 hours or so to read.

 

You can read a comprehensive review and comments on issues raised (religion, faith, rape, feminism) within the book at the Dear Author site ~

REVIEW: The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith

 

Here's the book blurb:

 

"It was her last chance:

Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth’s first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world…but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.

It was his last year of freedom:

Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him…especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known."

 

 

This is a book I'll read again (but probably not for a while given the length); I would also like to read other books by this author.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Angel]

Hi gang!  Just poppin' in to say I've missed keeping up with you all!  The last 4 or 5 weeks have been chaotic.  We had a wonderful trip to Philadelphia and parts thereabouts with our youth group, came back to leave again for a wedding in Michigan, came back to leave for a funeral of a dear aunt, all the while dealing with my FIL who has been in and out of ICU for 3 weeks out of state.  I skimmed through some of the threads (too nosy to let it go ;) ).  Until the FIL is doing better, I will probably still not be around much.  And in the midst of this, I need to figure out school for Aly.  I'm looking forward to some normalcy here.  Normalcy and routine.  

 

I can't even find my last post so I'm just going to sum up what I've read this summer.

 

*25.  Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (fantasy - England - 20th century)

*26.  Enchanter's End Game by David Eddings (fantasy - reread - audio)

*27.  Jaws by Peter Benchley (reread - USA - 20th century)

*28.  Jackaby by William Ritter (BaW rec - USA - 19th century)

*29.  The Lost World by Michael Crichton (reread - USA, Costa Rica - 20th century)

*30.  Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (classic - reread - audio - England - 19th century)

*31.  Meg by Steve Alten (reread - Pacific Ocean & USA  - 20th century)

*32.  The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling (fantasy - England)

 

Not my usual summer quota but I've had neither the time nor the brain power.  

 

 

(And, I'll put that question out there to everyone on the thread. Out of all that you've read this year, what would be your top five recommendations?)

 

Stacia got me thinking...as usual :D ...I don't feel I have a bunch of 5 star books this year.  But my top 5 recommendations from this year would probably be...

 

1.  Harry Potter - I've read specifically in 2016 The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows and The Cursed Child.  I always recommend Harry, Ron, and Hermione!

 

2.  Beauty by Robin McKinley - I really enjoyed this rendition of the fairy tale!

 

3. The Belgariad by David Eddings - Much like Harry Potter, I always recommend David Eddings.

 

4.  Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - ok so this took me forever to read but I really appreciated the way Lewis presented/approached the information.  

 

5.  The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig Albert - fun, cozy mystery, found myself surprisingly drawn into the 1930's setting.

 

6.  Pride & Prejudice - I always love Austen!

 

Runner-up - I really did enjoy Jackaby (thanks everyone!) and gave it to Aly who really enjoyed it as well!

 

I've done a lot of rereading this year.  It's been the kind of year to visit old friends and familiar places.  Takes less brain power and makes me happy.  

 

[Shawneinfl]

Well I finally finished Underground Airlines this week. What started off as a fast-paced thriller for me ended up being slow as molasses. It took me about two weeks to get through the final 50 pages. I don't know if it was the story took a wrong turn for me, I was staying up too late watching the olympics, or I was distracted with the start of school. Anyway, it ended up being just meh for me though I thought I would like it better based on the original premise. I was able to get one good read-aloud in with dd (10).  Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat is always a great way to start the year. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Edited August 14, 2016 by Shawneinfl

[Onceuponatime]

I'm still working on Following the Equator. Twain has reminded me that his sarcasm is often directed at social injustice and in this book he gives readers a glimpse at the historic exploitation of native Pacific Islanders. I can feel the suppressed anger beneath his words.

 

Speaking of Poetry, we just got home from a day trip visiting the Poe museum in Richmond. (It was 104 in the city today) The museum is a quirky little place that starts in the oldest historic house in Richmond and takes you through several small rooms in a few nearby buildings, around a courtyard which houses a "shrine" to Poe. Then we walked along the canal trail in the blistering heat before we headed home, which was 10 degrees cooler.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Onceuponatime

[Lady Florida.]

On recent trips, my husband and I started to listen to Elizabeth Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody Book 1); however, we gave it up after a couple of hours.  We didn't dislike it but put it aside in the hopes of listening to something a little more gripping.  

 

 

I definitely wouldn't call the series gripping. It's good for when you need something easy but it's not going to grab you. Also, while I don't dislike the narrator she isn't all that good. I'm on the third audio book of the series and she's starting to annoy me. In the one I'm currently listening to there's a child, and she either has never met an actual child or is really bad at doing a child voice.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Lady Florida.

[mumto2]

Angel :grouphug:, I hope your fil is feeling much better very soon! We have missed you!

 

Jenn and any other Tony Hillerman fans.... I used to read the series pretty faithfully but probably haven't read one in 10 years. I just put the first one that his daughter wrote (Spider Woman's Daughter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17349269-spider-woman-s-daughter ) on hold. Do you think I will enjoy it without reading/rereading more series history?

[mumto2]

I definitely wouldn't call the series gripping. It's good for when you need something easy but it's not going to grab you. Also, while I don't dislike the narrator she isn't all that good. I'm on the third audio book of the series and she's starting to annoy me. In the one I'm currently listening to there's a child, and she either has never met an actual child or is really bad at doing a child voice.

The voice of Ramses cracks me up! A most unchildlike child. So bad it's sort of entertaining. ;) I haven't decided if the voice is so weird because it suits his character or if she is doing it on purpose. I will admit the only reason I like these audiobooks is I have never been able to read beyond the first couple of pages in the actual books. The books bored me hugely so this narrator is

all I know. I am finally done with the quilt, just need to label the back. I don't think I will be giving up audiobooks because I have found many other stitching projects!

[JennW in SoCal]

 

On our drive home, we started listening to China Mieville's The City and the City as narrated by John Lee.  We're about two thirds of the way through but are finding it an intriguing book.  It has a quite complex storyline.

 

 

All my favorite abandoned books are by China Mieville. There is a review in today's paper for his newest, an alternate history of Paris where a surreal bomb, yes a bomb that turns reality into surreality, was detonated during WWII. The reviewer sums up his review by saying that while it is a brilliant idea with lots of clever twists and turns, it was overall rather flat. It's how I have felt about all his books -- they are wildly brilliant and original thought experiments, but I just can't bring myself to follow any of them to their conclusion.  Yet every time I hear about a new Mieville title I still want to try it!

 

Hi gang!  Just poppin' in to say I've missed keeping up with you all!  

 

[snip]

 

I've done a lot of rereading this year.  It's been the kind of year to visit old friends and familiar places.  Takes less brain power and makes me happy.  

 

So glad you checked in, Angel. I was just about to launch a search party! Sounds like you are in a season of life that necessitates the comfort of rereads. Hoping some routine and normalcy return soon.

 

Jenn and any other Tony Hillerman fans.... I used to read the series pretty faithfully but probably haven't read one in 10 years. I just put the first one that his daughter wrote (Spider Woman's Daughter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17349269-spider-woman-s-daughter ) on hold. Do you think I will enjoy it without reading/rereading more series history?

 

I also haven't read one in at least 10 years and haven't had the nerve to try the new ones. I think it might be good to have that lapse before trying his daughter's version so you aren't distracted by comparisons, and if she is a good writer (with a good editor) there should be enough backstory through the exposition that you won't feel lost. Glad you are being the guinea pig and trying it first!  I look forward to your review.

[Just Robyn]

I just finished going through the rest of last week's thread, and now I have more books on my to-read list thanks to reading those Top 5 lists. When I looked at my own list of books read so far this year, I didn't feel like there was much Top 5 material there.

 

The one book that has really blown me away so far this year is one not on my BaW list because I it's a read-aloud and I like to keep my read-alouds separate from those I read to myself. Anyway, that book is The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, and I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed reading this to myself. I loved the style and the content. The teacher in the book sometimes gives lessons to the main character that also give the reader hints for what to look for in the author's style and content. (Like, the teacher says, "That is an example of when repetition is not a rhetorical virtue," and repetition is heavily used in the book's style and structure.) Bonus - all three of my sons - ages 10, 12, and 14 - loved the book, too. 

 

RE: Clash of Civilizations... I'm glad you enjoyed it, Jane! I really dug the structure of that one. It is yet another instance of Stacia bringing good stuff to the thread. It's been on my to-read list since Stacia read it a couple years ago, and I just happened to see it at the library book sale recently and snagged it.

 

As for my reading this past week, I finished re-reading Howl and Other Poems, which was great, and I'm continuing to listen to Palahniuk's Survivor. I stopped by a used bookstore in or near the town where the Illinois Shakespeare Festival is held, and I grabbed a quirky book called Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing by Erika Lopez. 

 

Robin - books of essays and poetry that I've particularly loved.

 

Essays, well, I'm terrible at getting those into my reading. One book I enjoyed that feels to me like a combination of poetry/essay/memoir is Bluets by Maggie Nelson. Some other poetry books I loved: (I don't think I can limit myself to 5. Can I stop at 10? Does Bluets count as one?)

 

Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti

 

If the Tabloids Are True What Are You? by Matthea Harvey

 

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

 

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

 

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

 

the meatgirl whatever by Kristin Hatch

 

The Dead Wrestler Elegies by Todd Kaneko

 

To See The Queen by Allison Seay

 

What Narcissism Means to Me by Tony Hoagland

 

A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Edited August 14, 2016 by crstarlette

[JennW in SoCal]

Now for a brief Sunday recap. 

 

Thank you to Kathy, aka Lady Florida, for sending Ajax Penumbra 1969!! It's on the top of my stack :hurray:

 

That formidable stack. I've got at least 6 in progress, with a small tbr mountain teetering on the edge of collapse. I'm almost done with the audio version of The Commodore, #17 in the Master and Commander series.  Patrick Tull is a brilliant narrator -- he has kept the characterizations in tact throughout the series, and Mumto2 -- the series has kept me company on many a hand-stitched project!  I'm reading a chapter or two of Pym during lunch everyday and am managing a short chapter of Lunch in Paris before bed.  My other in-progress books haven't been touched in a few weeks thanks to watching the Olympics and work on various sewing projects. I've been thinking I should finish The 3-Year Swim Club in honor of the Olympics and all the swimming races I've watched in the last week! 

 

 

[Kareni]

... dealing with my FIL who has been in and out of ICU for 3 weeks out of state. 

 

Sending good thoughts for your father-in-law, Angel.

 

 

Regarding audio versions of the Amelia Peabody books ~

 

I definitely wouldn't call the series gripping. It's good for when you need something easy but it's not going to grab you. Also, while I don't dislike the narrator she isn't all that good.

 

I may give the print books a try at some point.

 

 

All my favorite abandoned books are by China Mieville. There is a review in today's paper for his newest, an alternate history of Paris where a surreal bomb, yes a bomb that turns reality into surreality, was detonated during WWII. The reviewer sums up his review by saying that while it is a brilliant idea with lots of clever twists and turns, it was overall rather flat. It's how I have felt about all his books -- they are wildly brilliant and original thought experiments, but I just can't bring myself to follow any of them to their conclusion.  Yet every time I hear about a new Mieville title I still want to try it!

 

Time will tell as to whether we finish The City and the City.  I'd borrowed the audio version not because I knew anything about the particular book but rather because of my daughter's enjoyment of the author's young adult book,  Un Lun Dun.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Mom-ninja.]

The timing of reading Founding Mothers at the beginning of the summer was perfect. Doing everything on my own sans dh for months is difficult. I keep chanting, "Remember Abigail, remember Abigail" to keep myself grounded when I start to feel overwhelmed. I don't know how she did it. She was amazing. Absolutely amazing. While I'm dealing with a sick cat, broken a/c, replacing car battery, broken lawn mower, and broken toilet I am not dealing with you know Redcoats invading my town and home.

 

I've started Jen Lancaster's latest memoir, I Regret Nothing. I like it just as I like her other memoirs. Still working on Love in the Time of Cholera. 

Edited August 15, 2016 by Mom-ninja.

[Angelaboord]

I finally finished Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer! I feel like this is a real accomplishment. It's a fascinating book and I learned a lot, but as a rather anxiety-prone reader, I had to take the book in small doses. I had to set it aside entirely while we got Abby ready for surgery and while she was in the hospital.

 

Abby is doing quite well. It's really amazing how fast a baby can recover from such serious surgery! She's gotten a lot more active - and hungry - now that her heart works better. This means I kind of feel like I am back in zombie newborn land. Hard to concentrate on a book when I keep falling asleep!

 

I also finished The Little World of Don Camillo. Now I can join all the other BaW fans. What a great book.

 

Playing along with the 5 books to recommend:

 

1. Little World of Don Camillo

2. Emperor of All Maladies

3. Smarter, Faster, Better

4. Crooked Heart

5. The Eagle Tree

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Stacia]

Angel, sorry to hear about your aunt. Hope your fil improves & regains health. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

Angela, so glad to hear that Abby is keeping you hopping now (even if it means life is more tiring for you). ;) :) :grouphug:  Hang in there!

[Ali in OR]

Just returning home from a soccer tournament in Bend. I'll have to go back to last week's thread and check out all of the top 5's (and then maybe come up with my own list). This week I finished Jon Krakauer's Missoula about college rape issues, specifically looking at those at the University of Montana in Missoula. I was not really looking forward to this and probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own (it's for book club) as I don't necessarily want to read about disturbing topics. But I love Jon Krakauer and found I had no trouble at all getting caught up in this book. There was just one point in the middle of a trial not going well that I had to leave the book for while--otherwise I found it very compelling and educational. A couple of interesting new thoughts for me: 1) there is general information "out there" based on 2 old and poorly done studies that the incidence of false rape allegations is around 50% (and this is believed in many police departments where they tend to suspect rape claims) when really they have found that the incidence rate is less than 10%. 2) It's not just men who are part of the problem; the biggest "bad guy" in the book is a female attorney in the county DA office who simply refuses to take cases to trial claiming "insufficient evidence" who feels sorry for the poor guys being accused. 3) I found myself comparing rape victims' experiences in our justice system with those of black men. Just as "black lives matter", I was thinking "women's lives matter", as so much thought is given to how a rape accusation hurts these poor college boys (especially football players in this book) without thinking about how their actions have done much greater harm to their victims. Anyway, I found it a very worthwhile read, more hopeful than I expected, and very educational.

 

Up next: Caleb's Crossing, the assigned summer reading fiction selection for my dd's honors Am Lit class for fall.

[mumto2]

Now for a brief Sunday recap.

 

Thank you to Kathy, aka Lady Florida, for sending Ajax Penumbra 1969!! It's on the top of my stack :hurray:

 

That formidable stack. I've got at least 6 in progress, with a small tbr mountain teetering on the edge of collapse. I'm almost done with the audio version of The Commodore, #17 in the Master and Commander series. Patrick Tull is a brilliant narrator -- he has kept the characterizations in tact throughout the series, and Mumto2 -- the series has kept me company on many a hand-stitched project! I'm reading a chapter or two of Pym during lunch everyday and am managing a short chapter of Lunch in Paris before bed. My other in-progress books haven't been touched in a few weeks thanks to watching the Olympics and work on various sewing projects. I've been thinking I should finish The 3-Year Swim Club in honor of the Olympics and all the swimming races I've watched in the last week!

I have the Master and Commander audiobook constantly in my holds. I do plan to listen to it (them actually :lol: ) eventually. The timing has been off so far and I end up returning it because I know I won't be able to finish it before it is due. I listen in overdrive read. I currently am listening to the third Julia Spencer Fleming https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24018004-out-of-the-deep-i-cry. I think you would like these. Not sure about the narrator, bad southern accent. Once again I am used to it! Lol

[fastweedpuller]

Hi everyone!  I feel it's too early in the year to come up with my Top 5.  Call me an eternal book optimist thinking that there's another, better book on the horizon?  But I found it interesting that I have read every book save one (Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad) that our President has taken on his vacation this year.  If I had to make my top 5 selections today, Seveneves and especially Barbarian Days would be in my top 5.

 

I've mentioned feeling at the end of my patience with traditional fiction of late, yet somehow felt I have to clear the Overdrive list before the nonfiction stuff comes a-tumbling in...so I ate up The Nightingale quite quickly this week.  A big chunk of me said "no" to yet another WWII setting (All the Light You Cannot See, Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins and Life After LIfe, and, tangentially, Oliver Sack's Uncle Tungsten and the inimitable Tony Judt's Thinking the 20th Century were all read within the last 9 months, innocently by me...I swear I was not theme-searching when I chose them) but it was a decent, believable story...of women's experience of war. 

 

Robin, I tend to look to magazines for my essays...we're consumers of NYRB, Harper's and The Atlantic here.  It cuts into my book-reading time surely.  And I am readily admitting an American bias with my choices.  Otherwise I tend, I suppose, to prefer essayists who're more stylists than anything else:  Joan Didion, Susan Sontag being my faves.  

[-M-]

 

Earlier this week, my daughters helped me with yet another large book reorganization “event.†(My acquisition rate continues to outpace my reading rate — this despite the radical reduction of the former and the uptick in the latter. Sigh.) Between that project and preparations for their move to university, I didn’t read as much as I had hoped this week.

 

My proposed August reading list includes:

 

â–  A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 1887. Fiction.)
â–  Letters from a Stoic (Seneca; 1494.)
â–  A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Clinton (Carl Bernstein; 2007. Non-fiction.)
â–  The Last Policeman (Ben Winters; 2012. Fiction.)
â–  Shylock Is My Name (Howard Jacobson; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Eileen (Ottessa Moshfegh; 2015. Fiction.)
â–  My Name Is Lucy Barton (Elizabeth Strout; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  You Will Know Me (Megan Abbott; 2016. Fiction.)
■ An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth (Col. Chris Hadfield; 2013. Non-fiction.)
â–  Smarter Faster Better (Charles Duhigg; 2016. Non-fiction.)

 

Of which, I have completed:

 

â–  You Will Know Me (Megan Abbott; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  My Name Is Lucy Barton (Elizabeth Strout; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 1887. Fiction.)

 

Although I have not been following the Games, I couldn’t help but wonder, after reading Abbott’s novel, if I now understand the grim-faced masks women gymnasts don. As for questions about whether Strout’s novel deserves its place on the Man Booker Prize long list, I’d say yes. From My Name Is Lucy Barton:

 

p. 14
This must be the way most of us maneuver through the world, half knowing, half not, visited by memories that can’t possibly be true. But when I see others walking with confidence down the sidewalk, as though they are free completely from terror, I realize I don’t know how others are. So much of life seems speculation.

 

p. 170
When Chrissie left for college, then Becka the next year, I thought — and it’s not an expression, I’m saying the truth — I did think I would die. Nothing had prepared me for such a thing. And I have found this to be true: Certain women feel like this, that their hearts have been ripped from their chests, and other women find it very freeing to have their children gone. The doctor who makes me not look like my mother, she asked me what I did when my daughters went to college, and I said, “My marriage ended.†I added quickly, “But yours won’t.†She said, “It might. It might.â€

 

I finished A Study in Scarlet well in advance of the online book club / MOOC outline because much of the rest of the month is already spoken for.

 

From Part I, Chapter V:
“It was magnificent,†he said, as he took his seat. “Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.â€

 

From Part I, Chapter VII:
“All this seems strange to you,†continued Holmes, “because you failed at the beginning of the inquiry to grasp the importance of the single real clue which was presented to you. I had the good fortune to seize upon that, and everything which has occurred since then has served to confirm my original supposition, and, indeed, was the logical sequence of it. Hence things which have perplexed you and made the case more obscure, have served to enlighten me and to strengthen my conclusions. It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn. This murder would have been infinitely more difficult to unravel had the body of the victim been simply found lying in the roadway without any of those outreÌ and sensational accompaniments which have rendered it remarkable. These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so.â€

 

From Part II, Chapter VII:
“I hardly expected that you would. Let me see if I can make it clearer. Most people, if you describe a train of events to them, will tell you what the result would be. They can put those events together in their minds, and argue from them that something will come to pass. There are few people, however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean when I talk of reasoning backwards, or analytically.â€

 

I think I will finish Eileen later today, after which I plan to carry on with Shylock Is My Name. Related aside: We saw the Shakespeare’s Globe production of Merchant at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater over the weekend. Haunting. Reviews here and here. And because I so thoroughly disagreed with Steven Franks, I appreciated this bit from Chris Jones’ review:

 

And yet, just last week, my own newspaper published an editorial, penned by a Washington attorney, arguing, in essence, that “The Merchant of Venice†should never be performed again, on the grounds that it is incurably anti-Semitic.

 

That’s ridiculous, of course, not least because it is only in performance that the play proves its worth. In the hands of a competent director like Jonathan Munby, “The Merchant of Venice†can and does play as a cautionary tale of the perils of anti-Semitism. His work here in concert with the designer Mike Britton is the best I’ve seen from this oft-in-Chicago director. Only in performance can this be a work about how hate can poison an otherwise prosperous and privileged community, extracting a price on victims and perpetrators alike, destroying all that is good, really. This particular production, which features an especially devastating coda, is especially rich in the painting of that picture.

 

The other books I have finished so far this month are

 

■ You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) (Felicia Day; 2015. Non-fiction.)
â–  Injection, Volume 2 (Warren Ellis; 2016. Graphic fiction.)

 

Which puts me at 86 year-to-date:

 

January
â–  The Heir Apparent (David Ives; 2011. Drama.)
â–  Neighbors (Jan T. Gross; 2001. Non-fiction.)
â–  Our Class (Tadeusz SÅ‚obodzianek (adaptation by Ryan Craig); 2009. Drama.)
â–  Scored (Lauren McLaughlin; 2011. Fiction.)
â–  Ready Player One (Ernest Kline; 2011. Fiction.)
â–  Arcadia (Tom Stoppard; 1993. Drama.)
â–  Purge (Sofi Oksanen; 2008. Fiction.)
â–  Revival, Volume 6: Thy Loyal Sons & Daughters (Tim Seeley; 2016. Graphic fiction.)

 

February
â–  The Shawl (Cynthia Ozick; 1990. Fiction.)
â–  The Book of Jonas (Stephen Dau; 2012. Fiction.)
â–  The Bunker, Volume 3 (Joshua Hale Fialkov; 2015. Graphic fiction.)
â–  The Squirrel Mother (Megan Kelso; 2006. Graphic fiction.)
â–  The Silence of Our Friends (Mark Long; 2012. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Lazarus, Volume 4: Poison (Greg Rucka; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport; 2016. Non-fiction.)
â–  When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi; 2016. Non-fiction.)
â–  The Invaders (Karolina Waclawiak; 2015. Fiction.)
■ A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy (Sue Klebold; 2016. Non-fiction.)

 

March
â–  In a Dark, Dark Wood (Ruth Ware; 2015. Fiction.)
â–  What She Left Behind (Ellen Marie Wiseman; 2013. Fiction.)
â–  Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (Jon Krakauer; 2015. Non-fiction.)
■ Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan; 2013. Fiction.)
â–  Othello (William Shakespeare; 1603. Drama.)
â–  The Cold Song (Linn Ullmann; 2014. Fiction.)
â–  The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (Gabrielle Zevin; 2014. Fiction.)
â–  Pax (Sara Pennypacker; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  The Call of the Wild (Jack London; 1903. Fiction.)
â–  The Life of Galileo (Bertolt Brecht; 1940. (Trans. John Willett; 1994.) Drama.)

 

April
â–  The First Time She Drowned (Kerry Kletter; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Shelter (Jung Yun; 2016. Fiction.)
■ The Nest (Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Cardenio (William Shakespeare and John Fletcher; 1613. (Adapted by Charles Mee and Stephen Greenblatt; 1994.) Drama.)
■ Long Day’s Journey into Night (Eugene O’Neill; 1956. Drama.)
â–  Richard III (William Shakespeare; 1592. Drama.)

 

May
â–  Imaginary Girls (Nova Ren Suma; 2011. Fiction.)
â–  The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community (Marc J. Dunkelman; 2014. Non-fiction.)
â–  The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir (Vivian Gornick; 2015. Non-fiction.)
â–  The Walking Dead, Volume 25: No Turning Back (Robert Kirkman; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Paper Girls, Volume 1 (Brian K. Vaughan; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
■ They’re Not Like Us, Volume 2: Us Against You (Eric Stephenson; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Sleeping Giants (Sylvain Neuvel; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Symmetry, Volume 1 (Matt Hawkins; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Letter 44, Volume 3: Dark Matter (Charles Soule; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Who Do You Love (Jennifer Weiner; 2015. Fiction.)
â–  Making Toast: A Family Story (Roger Rosenblatt; 2010. Non-fiction.)

 

June
â–  The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell; 1996. Fiction.)
â–  Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad; 1899. Fiction.)
â–  The Fireman (Joe Hill; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  A Good School (Richard Yates; 1978. Fiction.)
â–  The Girls (Emma Cline; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders (Vincent Bugliosi; 1974. Non-fiction.)
â–  Outcast, Vol. 3: This Little Light (Robert Kirkman; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Postal, Vol. 3 (Bryan Hill; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Saga, Vol. 6 (Brian K. Vaughan; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Monstress Vol. 1: Awakening (Marjorie Liu; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Edward III (William Shakespeare; 1596. Drama.)
â–  Henry VI, Part I (William Shakespeare; 1591. Drama.)
â–  Why We Get Fat and What to Do about It (Gary Taubes; 2011. Non-fiction.)
â–  Think Thin, Be Thin (Doris Wild Helmering; 2004. Non-fiction.)
â–  Descender, Vol. 2: Machine Moom (Jeff Lemire; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 (Lionel Shriver; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  The Only Ones (Carola Dibbell; 2015. Fiction.)
â–  I Let You Go (Clare Mackintosh; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  The Blondes (Emily Schultz; 2015. Fiction.)

 

July
â–  Where They Found Her (Kimberly McCreight; 2015. Fiction.)
■ The Hidden Child (Camilla Läckberg; 2014. Fiction.)
â–  Wonder (RJ Palacio; 2012. Fiction.)
â–  The Easter Parade (Richard Yates; 1976. Fiction.)
â–  Fell, Volume 1, Feral City (Warren Ellis; 2007. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Injection, Volume 1 (Warren Ellis; 2015. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Trees, Volume 1 (Warren Ellis; 2015. Graphic fiction.)
â–  The Curse of the Good Girl (Rachel Simmons; 2009. Non-fiction.)
â–  The Elementals (Michael McDowell; 1981. Fiction.)
â–  Huck, Volume 1 (Mark Millar; 2016. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Kill Shakespeare, Volume 3: The Tide of Blood (Conor McCreery Millar; 2013. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Skim (Mariko Tomaki; 2008. Graphic fiction.)
â–  Dubliners (James Joyce; 1914. Fiction.)
â–  Lab Girl (Hope Jahren; 2016. Non-fiction.)
■ I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  Truly Madly Guilty (Liane Moriarty; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  The Merchant of Venice (William Shakespeare; 1599. Drama.)

 

August
â–  You Will Know Me (Megan Abbott; 2016. Fiction.)
■ You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) (Felicia Day; 2015. Non-fiction.)
â–  My Name Is Lucy Barton (Elizabeth Strout; 2016. Fiction.)
â–  A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; 1887. Fiction.)
â–  Injection, Volume 2 (Warren Ellis; 2016. Graphic fiction.)

 

Edited August 15, 2016 by M--

[Kareni]

 I also finished The Little World of Don Camillo. Now I can join all the other BaW fans. What a great book.

 

Welcome to the club!

 

I can tell you that the sequels I have on my shelf are also enjoyable.  (You might be able to get these through inter-library loan.)

• Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son.
• Don Camillo's Dilemma.
• Don Camillo and the Devil.
• Comrade Don Camillo.
• Don Camillo Meets Hell's Angels.

Movie, radio, and television productions have also been made of the series.  You can read more at the wikipedia page.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Lady Florida.]

I finished The Plover: A Novel last night and loved it. I do have to say it started dragging at about 3/4 of the way through. I was beginning to think Doyle was just enjoying his own prose so much he couldn't stop. And I was wishing he would actually stop. After a bit it picked up again as it heading towards the ending. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, but it could also have 3.5 for overdoing it a little. Still, I really loved it.

 

 

 

Earlier this week, my daughters helped me with yet another large book reorganization “event.†(My acquisition rate continues to outpace my reading rate — this despite the radical reduction of the former and the uptick in the latter. Sigh.) Between that project and preparations for their move to university, I didn’t read as much as I had hoped this week.

 

 

 

M-- This photo reminds me of the room at our old house we called The Library. The back wall was all bookshelf like yours, with a sliding ladder. It's one of the few things I miss about that house along with an indoor laundry room, a walk-in pantry, and the fact that it was far enough away from town that we could see many, many stars. (I don't miss the overall size, that it was two story, and that it was far from everyone and everything. Oh, or the fact that it was his ex's dream house. :) )

[Kareni]

Given this week's theme about Zen in the Art of Writing, some might be interested in reading today's column on the Word Wenches site which discusses the authors' favorite books on writing. I enjoyed it.

 

Ask-A-Wench — Books on Writing

 

Friday's post was about Monticello ~ An Antique Smart House

 

**

 

Last night I finished Kristen Ashley's contemporary romance  Bounty.  This is the seventh book in the Colorado Mountain series, but it can stand alone well.  While I enjoyed the book, it was not my favorite by this author. (adult content)

 

"Justice Lonesome has enjoyed a life of bounty.

Even so, she’s inherited the curse of the Lonesome. A poet’s soul. Which means she’s still searching for something. Searching for peace. Searching for the less…that’s more.

And when the foundation of her life is pulled out from under her, grieving, she goes to the mountains to find her oasis. She hits Carnal, Colorado and decides to stay.

Deke Hightower lost everything at the age of two. He lost it again at fifteen. His life has not been about bounty. It’s been about learning to live with less, because there’s no way to get more.

Deke’s also watched all his friends go down to the women who gave them what they needed. He wants that for himself. But he knows that search isn’t going to be easy because he’s a rider. His home is the road. That’s the only place he can breathe. And the woman who takes her place at his side has to do it sitting on the back of his bike.

When Deke meets Justice, he knows she’s not that woman. She’s cute. She’s sweet. And she’s into him, but she’s got it all and Deke knows he won’t fit into that. So he holds her at arm’s length. Establishes boundaries. And Justice will take it because she wants Deke any way he’ll let her have him.

But when Justice finds herself a pawn in a dangerous game, Deke makes a decision.

When he does, he has no idea he’s just opened himself up to bounty."

 

**

Another book I recently read but forgot to mention is Flesh & Bone: The Minstrel Series #2 by Lee Strauss.  This was a light enjoyable romance but is not likely a book I'll re-read.  It is set in Germany which I found of interest.

 

 

"Singer songwriter Eva Baumann has a celebrity crush on Sebastian Weiss. He's perfect to love because there was no way they could ever be a thing.  She's a nobody. He's a heart throb. Hiding an infatuation is easy for her because, since her accident, hiding is what she does best.
 
Sebastian Weiss's band climbed the charts, seemingly overnight, and he's finally living the dream. All he has to do is write enough songs to produce a second album. The bad news is he hasn't written a new song in over a year.
 
Sebastian stumbles into the Blue Note in time to hear Eva Baumann perform a hauntingly beautiful song. Could this girl be the answer to defeating his writer's block?
 
Eva and Sebastian begin a complicated writing relationship that leads to more. But Sebastian has a secret that will devastate them both.

 

Will Eva and Sebastian find the forgiveness they seek?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[NoseInABook]

Angel, you were in my home state! Whereabouts Michigan were ya? Praying for your FIL.

 

Mom-ninja, I love the whole remember Abigail thing. Too funny. I may have to adopt that myself.

 

Angelaboord, so glad to hear Abby is doing well! 

 

Kathy, A SLIDING LADDER! I seriously just squealed out loud.

 

I finished For Better or For Kids by Patrick and Ruth Schwenk. I loved it, I laughed out loud in parts because it was so very easy to relate to their marriage and parenting. I also came to the end of Karen Andreola's Charlotte Mason Companion and was tempted to start over again at page 1. This isn't helping my desire to switch all of my curriculum around again. But I won't, I'll remain strong and see what I can sneak in as free reads during the year. The dear hubbyface brought home Nora Roberts' Bay Of Sighs for me so I'm reading that before bed as my fluff novel. I'm also working through Paul Miller's A Praying Life and Karen Glass' Consider This. 

[Angel]

 

Angel, you were in my home state! Whereabouts Michigan were ya? Praying for your FIL.

 

We were suburbs of Lansing.  I had never been there before.  We lived in the Westland/Canton area for a few years.  Too "big city" for me!

 

And thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!  They are much appreciated!

Edited August 15, 2016 by Angel

[NoseInABook]

Neat! You were about 45 minutes from me! 

[aggieamy]

Some of you might enjoy this column from the Word Wenches site.  There are many informative comments to read, too.

 

Seasonal Reads and Viewings

 

Some other recent columns from the site:

 

Pens & Pins—Or How Did Jane Austen Revise A Manuscript?

 

Woman of Mystery

 

Good Girls Don't Wear Knickers

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

I love that site!

 

Runner-up - I really did enjoy Jackaby (thanks everyone!) and gave it to Aly who really enjoyed it as well!

 

I've done a lot of rereading this year.  It's been the kind of year to visit old friends and familiar places.  Takes less brain power and makes me happy.  

 

What a rough time of it.  Definitely a good time to get lost in an old favorite book. 

 

DD LOVED Jackaby too.  As soon as she finished with it she put in on my nightstand and insisted that I read it also.  It's more her type of book than mine but I still flew though it in an evening so that's praise enough for the book!

 

 

Earlier this week, my daughters helped me with yet another large book reorganization “event.†(My acquisition rate continues to outpace my reading rate — this despite the radical reduction of the former and the uptick in the latter. Sigh.) Between that project and preparations for their move to university, I didn’t read as much as I had hoped this week.

 

I love how you decorate.  Can I come sit in your room?  :)

[aggieamy]

Somehow I have gotten so much reading done lately.  I'm loving it!  (I'm still not getting as much reading as DD or DH but for a mom of a toddler I'm considering it a win!)

 

Finished:

 

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson & Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova - These should be required reading for all middle school aged girl.  Superb!  And the artwork in the graphic novels is great. 

 

Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson - Based on my love of this book I've decided that DE Stevenson must be one of my favorite authors.  I'm going to read every other book she's written as soon as I can!  (Highly recommend to Flufferton Ladies)

 

Danse de la Folie by Sherwood Smith -  If you are a Flufferton Lady just go ahead and assume this is required reading. 

 

 

Have we already discussed the new Goodreads format?  I like the list of currently reading books but overall I feel the new format is too busy to me.  I struggle with any change though so I'm sure in six months I'll be used to it. 

[mumto2]

Somehow I have gotten so much reading done lately.  I'm loving it!  (I'm still not getting as much reading as DD or DH but for a mom of a toddler I'm considering it a win!)

 

Finished:

 

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson & Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova - These should be required reading for all middle school aged girl.  Superb!  And the artwork in the graphic novels is great. 

 

Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson - Based on my love of this book I've decided that DE Stevenson must be one of my favorite authors.  I'm going to read every other book she's written as soon as I can!  (Highly recommend to Flufferton Ladies)

 

Danse de la Folie by Sherwood Smith -  If you are a Flufferton Lady just go ahead and assume this is required reading. 

 

 

Have we already discussed the new Goodreads format?  I like the list of currently reading books but overall I feel the new format is too busy to me.  I struggle with any change though so I'm sure in six months I'll be used to it.

 

 

 

We haven't talked about the new format. Insert a blushing me. I thought I had done something accidentally and was considering asking you all how to fix it. I don't like it at all.....

 

Your Miss Buncle's book is an odd coincidence. I haven't been getting much reading done today but I have browsed my online libraries extensively. ;) I was looking at what was recommended off the Miss Julia series (which you can consider required reading, Ethyl recommended it and I love it) and this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1404710.Mrs_Tim_Christie book came up with the title being Mrs. Tim and the Regiment. It sounds delightful and is on the list!

 

 

 

I finally finished Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer! I feel like this is a real accomplishment. It's a fascinating book and I learned a lot, but as a rather anxiety-prone reader, I had to take the book in small doses. I had to set it aside entirely while we got Abby ready for surgery and while she was in the hospital.

Abby is doing quite well. It's really amazing how fast a baby can recover from such serious surgery! She's gotten a lot more active - and hungry - now that her heart works better. This means I kind of feel like I am back in zombie newborn land. Hard to concentrate on a book when I keep falling asleep!

I also finished The Little World of Don Camillo. Now I can join all the other BaW fans. What a great book.

Playing along with the 5 books to recommend:

1. Little World of Don Camillo

2. Emperor of All Maladies

3. Smarter, Faster, Better

4. Crooked Heart

5. The Eagle Tree

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I am so happy to hear that Abby is keeping you really busy in such a great way! I did keep my library's copy of Don Camillo during yesterday's purge. It is so ancient I am afraid to read it. I need to sit down carefully at a desk or table and start reading. I can't quite believe they loaned it to me. Glad to hear you really enjoyed it!

[Stacia]

Last night, I meant to sit down & read a chapter (maybe two) of Season of Migration to the North. But, you all know how it goes, right? I finished it.

 

It's a very good book that explores some of the impacts of colonialism, as well as the misunderstandings (willfully & unwillfully) that occur when different cultures live amongst each other. Well-told, fairly depressing. Also, I am not quite sure of a major event near the end. Recommended, especially if you're looking for fiction from Africa (Sudan, in this case).

 

Ds had a long orthodontist appointment today & I started Fernanado Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet. Even reading the introduction was a brain-stretching exercise (esp. with pop music blaring in the background). For one thing, he wrote under numerous heteronyms & various of these have written entries/parts/sections of the book. There are a lot of them, some with similarities, some without... I feel like I need a paper doll version of every heteronym to set out in front of me so I can keep up with who is who (who are all really Pessoa anyway). :blink:  Not sure how my semi-fried brain will do with this one, but I may try it for awhile. I will need to read in silence, though, to get through it.

 

 

Fernando Pessoa was many writers in one. He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology. and horoscope. When he died in 1935, Pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings, among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague."Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.

 

 

[Onceuponatime]

 

 

We haven't talked about the new format. Insert a blushing me. I thought I had done something accidentally and was considering asking you all how to fix it. I don't like it at all.....

 

 

I was also thinking I did something by accident. But I assumed that everyone else must have had this format before me because every once in a while I will get a surprise "like" from different people and I wonder how they all see me when I don't see them unless I go searching. I don't mind being seen on goodreads, I just couldn't figure out how it was happening. Now I "see" all my friends posts on my home page. Before this my home page was almost empty. Are there other changes?

[Jane in NC]

Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson - Based on my love of this book I've decided that DE Stevenson must be one of my favorite authors.  I'm going to read every other book she's written as soon as I can!  (Highly recommend to Flufferton Ladies)

 

This is a book that I forwarded to a friend whose mother is in an independent/assisted living facility. After my friend read it, the book made the rounds amongst her mom's friends.  What a tonic! We agreed though that Miss Buncle's Book is better than Miss Buncle Married.  Such is life.

 

Since you loved Miss Buncle, may I suggest one of my absolute favorite authors?  E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady will have you chuckling. And if you like it, there are sequels!

 

From your friend Jane (who has her Flufferton moments)

[Kareni]

Speaking of Flufferton reads ~

 

This book which I read and enjoyed on its release is currently free for Kindle readers:

Loving a Lost Lord (The Lost Lords series Book 1) by Mary Jo Putney

 

"In the first of a dazzling series, Mary Jo Putney introduces the Lost Lords--maverick childhood friends with a flair for defying convention. Each is about to discover the woman who is his perfect match--but perfection doesn't come easily, even for the noble Duke of Ashton. . .

Battered by the sea, Adam remembers nothing of his past, his ducal rank, nor of the shipwreck that almost claimed his life. However, he's delighted to hear that the golden-haired vision tending his wounds is his wife. Mariah's name and face may not be familiar, but her touch, her warmth, feel deliciously right. . .

When Mariah Clarke prayed for a way to deter a bullying suitor, she didn't imagine she'd find the answer washed ashore on a desolate beach. Convincing Adam that he is her husband is surprisingly easy. Resisting the temptation to act his wife, in every way, will prove anything but. And now a passion begun in fantasy has become dangerously real--and completely irresistible. . ."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Something bookish and quite impressive ~

 

This book nerd painted her staircase to look like her favorite books

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

I'm participating in my library's summer reading program event for adults.  One of the bingo squares is to read a book that contains pictures, so yesterday I spent some time in the library looking for a likely choice.  I came home with two possibilities and read them both last night as a reward for getting to the one third point in my current book group book.

 

Everything Is Going to Be Okay  by Bruce Eric Kaplan

 

"It's a terrible world out there and we all know it. But now that we have this delightful picture book for adults by famed "New Yorker "cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan, it's just a little bit better. In these pages you will discover a unique story of two people, one graduation speech, and many things you may or may not need to know. This wise and wonderful book is the perfect gift for any graduate. In fact, we promise that anyone who reads it will be enthralled, inspired, moved, amused, and most important, will learn the secret to having a deeply fulfilling life. Results are 100 percent guaranteed but completely beside the point."

 

and

 

Now Go Out There  by Mary Karr

 

"A celebration of curiosity, compassion, and the surprising power of fear, based on the New York Times bestselling author and renowned professor’s 2015 commencement address at Syracuse University.

 

“Being smart and rich are lucky, but being curious & compassionate will save your ass.â€

 

Every year there are one or two commencement speeches that strike a chord with audiences far greater than the student bodies for which they are intended. In 2015 Mary Karr’s speech to the graduating class of Syracuse University caught fire, hailed across the Internet as one of the most memorable in recent years, and lighting up the Twittersphere.

 

In Now Go Out There, Karr explains why having your heart broken is just as—if not more—important than falling in love; why getting what you want often scares you more than not getting it; how those experiences that appear to be the worst cannot be so easily categorized; and how to cope with the setbacks that inevitably befall all of us. “Don’t make the mistake of comparing your twisted up insides to other people’s blow-dried outsides,†she cautions. “Even the most privileged person in this stadium suffers the torments of the damned just going about the business of being human.â€"

 

 

The first book was light; however, the second one packed some thoughtful messages into a short space.  I enjoyed them both but found the Mary Karr book to be the more valuable read. 

 

 

Curiously, the two titles work well as a duo in either order: 

 

Everything Is Going to Be Okay; Now Go Out There  

Now Go Out There; Everything Is Going to Be Okay

 

Regards,

Kareni

[JennW in SoCal]

Here is a fascinating BBC magazine article that isn't so much about the Zen of writing, but about the algorithm of a best seller. 

 

The Secret Code to Writing a Bestseller

 

 

[Maus]

Finished another library book.

 

40. "Look Me in the Eye: my life with asperger's" by John Elder Robison.  Mr. Robison was 40 when he was first diagnosed, so this is his journey as a misfit.  Very enjoyable read.  I read the paperback version, which is important, apparently.  He says he edited for language between the hardcover and paperback versions, as the book was being used in classrooms and some parents were complaining.  Using his descriptions, I think I can pick out several people from the past who probably had undiagnosed Asperger's.  But he says something in the postscript I really like, as I've begun to see that in my kids.  "When I wrote Look Me in the Eye, I wanted to show readers what it was like to grow up feeling like a freak or a misfit.  I thought my book would show how people with Asperger's are different from everyone else.  To my great surprise, my book actually shows the opposite:  Deep down, people are very much the same."

 

39. "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History" by Thomas E. Woods.

38. "A Buffet of Sensory Interventions: Solutions for Middle and High School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders" by Susan Culp. 

37. "Thinking in Pictures" by Temple Grandin.

36. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by Jack Thorne, et al

35. "The Wizard of Oz" by Frank Baum. 

34. "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain.  (We listened as we traveled in Missouri!)

33. "Blue Fairy Book" by Andrew Lang.

32. "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume.

31. "Greenwich" by Susan Cooper.

30. "Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper.

29. "Clash of Cultures" by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier.

28. "The Story of US: First Americans" by Joy Hakim.

27. "Freak the Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick. 

26. "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary.

25."Caddie Woodlawn" by Carol Ryrie Brink.

24. "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George.

23.  "The Power of Vulnerability" by Brene Brown.

22.  "My side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George.

21. "Cheaper By the Dozen" by Frank Butler Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

20. "Murder on the Ballarat Train" by Kerry Greenwood.

19. "Over See, Under Stone" by Susan Cooper

18. "Sing Down the Moon" by Scott O'Dell.

17. "Soft Rain" by Cornelia Cornelissen.

16. "The Collapse of Parenting" by Leonard Sax.

15. ""Flying Too High: A Phyrne Fisher Mystery" by Kerry Greenwood.

14. "Cocaine Blues: A Phyrne Fisher Mystery" by Kerry Greenwood.

13. "Let It Go" by Chris Williams

12. "Writing From Personal Experience" by Nancy Davidoff Kelton.

11. "Writing the Memoir" by Judith Barrington.

10.  "Boys Adrift" by Leonard Sax.

9. "Girls on the Edge" by Leonard Sax.  

8. "Christ and the Inner Life" by Truman G. Madsen. (LDS)  

7. "Gaze into Heaven" by Marlene Bateman Sullivan. (LDS)

6. "To Heaven and Back" by Mary C. Neal, MD.

5. "When Will the Heaven Begin?" by Ally Breedlove.

4. "Four" by Virginia Roth.

3. "Allegiant" by Virgina Roth.

2. " Insurgent" by Virginia Roth.

1. "Divergent" by Virginia Roth.

 

[Onceuponatime]

Here is a fascinating BBC magazine article that isn't so much about the Zen of writing, but about the algorithm of a best seller.

 

The Secret Code to Writing a Bestseller

That was interesting and creepy. Can you imagine a world where books were only published if they passed a bestseller test? I prefer the test of time, 5-10 years at least, unless it is an author I am familiar with. If people are still raving about a book after 10 years, it may just be worth reading. I do break that rule from time to time, but usually because of personal interest, not how well a book has sold.

[Kareni]

Georgette Heyer was born August 16, 2002.  In honor of her birthday, the vast majority of her books on Kindle have been marked down to $2.99 (a few are lower).  Here's a link to the Amazon page.

 

 

ETA: Make that 1902!  Thanks for your eagle eyes, Ali in OR.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Violet Crown]

Very late checking in, due to confluence of four-day retreat, post-camp kickoff of homeschooling year, and dh fleeing the country (not as a consequence of the first two items; or so he says). I did manage to finish Dom Lorenzo Scupoli's Counter-Reformation classic The Spiritual Combat, which is useful and worth a re-read some time but much less exciting than the title makes one think, being more about attentiveness to the heart and not so much about Joss Whedony things.*

 

Currently reading Gaskell's North and South, never having read any Gaskell before. And continuing to enjoy reading aloud Treasure Island. I might just read Kidnapped on my own after we finish, which I haven't yet read.

 

*I mention only because some who saw me reading it in the parish hall got completely the wrong idea about the sort of thing I must be interested in.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Violet Crown