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Book a Week 2017 - BW32: Dorothy Dunnett


Robin M
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Since I missed a week (and I've gotten interrupted and lost my posts several times now), I'm going to separate my report backs...

 

Week before last I finished an outstanding activism-related book I'd been reading aloud to the older kids, a powerful play, a YA Sf novel that fell short of my expectations, and a disappointing "climate insurgency manual".

 

Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World was inspiring, practically useful in my organizing work, and frequently hilarious.  I had only intended to share one snippet, but it was so popular that I ended up (over the space of several months) reading all of it aloud.  Highly recommended for activists and anyone interested in hearing about a wide range of causes and efforts.

 

Sweat  -this has a great deal of topical content, but the human story dominated.  No easy or comfortable answers are offered, but, much though it hurt to read, I see this as complementary to the non-fiction prose I've been reading in recent years which has opened my mind and heart to experiences outside my bubble.

 

Orbital Resonance - I had hoped this would be like Barnes's Losers in Space, which has some darker characters and some grim worldbuilding, but was thought provoking and moving.   There were some interesting aspects and a few moving moments, but, overall, I was disappointed. 

 

Against Doom: A Climate Insurgency Manual - It might not be fair of be to be disappointed by this one.  I agreed with everything he said, but I am already involved in climate insurgency (and was one of 26 people arrested (by choice) at an action protesting & drawing attention to Chase Bank's funding of the Keystone XL pipeline - here's a summary video https://www.facebook.com/350Seattle/videos/10155343132242417/ (You can hear my voice leading "for the air we breathe" before it switches to a faster paced rendition and catch a quick glimpse of my group, but we were inside and didn't have some of the amazing visuals other groups had - though our outside team are the ones with the locks around their necks and a giant inflatable pipeline above them)  Anyway, I didn't find anything new or inspiring here.  (Nor was the prose as delightful and engaging as the Blueprint for Revolution one above, which would have been a satisfying, enjoyable read.)  If you want a quick, concise overview of the basic whys and hows of climate insurgency, this would be fine... 

 

I'm surprised I got any reading done that week  - we've been doing repairs and that week we had some flooring replaced... and got stranded midway through by the flooring company... it all worked out splendidly (we ended up with better product, better work, and a smaller bill) ,but it was intensely draining and time consuming.

 

I have new appreciation for the snark about repairs in one of the Sarah Cauldwell mysteries.  (And **thank you** to whoever recommended them!  They were utterly delightful... I only wish there were more.)

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Last night I finished There I Go Again by William Daniels.  He was a child actor (radio/stage) and stayed on the stage for a long time while doing various screen bits as TV became a thing (he's 90, born in 1927).  He played John Adams on stage in 1776 for 2 1/2 years, almost 1,000 performances, and then he played the part in the movie version (he actually also played John Quincy Adams and Samuel Adams in other things so he pretty much hit the entire male part of the Adams family).  He played a doctor on St. Elsewhere and was the voice of KITT on Knight Rider.  But, the most important part he played to me, is Mr. Feeny on Boy/Girl Meets World.  I'm 39 so I grew up watching TGIF and Mr. Feeny was so wise and amazing.  I own every episode of both of those shows.  So this book is his autobiography and I enjoyed every word of it.  He and his wife have been married 66 years (his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, is an actress and they played a husband and wife in many shows including St. Elsewhere and Boy Meets World).

 

My first expose to him was as Mr. Feeny and I was delighted a few years later to have a substitute put on 1776 and see him playing John Adams. I think I was the only kid in my history class that skipped to class for a week knowing that we'd be watching 1776.

 

Fun non-book fact. My son's name is John. I was at a party and he was standing on a chair so I told him "Sit down John." Across the room I heard someone singing "Sit down John" in the tune from the musical. I sought that person out and had a delightful conversation on how awesome Thomas Jefferson is. Now I make a point of telling John to sit down whenever I'm at parties as kind of my own "Marco-Polo" nerd call.

 

Dh and I have been lately engaged in a pitched battle for Middle Girl's reading affections. Dh had been trying for years with Wodehouse, but she lost interest after a couple of books. He was disgusted by her reading the entire Aubrey/Maturin series, which I figured would go down well with a child who had devoured all the Swallows and Amazons books, and waited until he had her in his office without reading material to give her some Dorothy Dunnett, the first hit free of course. I cunningly waited until he was out of town this week and got her started on Kristin Lavransdatter, but she dropped volume 2 the moment he breezed back from Toronto with yet another book about Lymond, whoever that is.

 

I have a disadvantage since I'm in charge of her literary education and sometimes have to make her read things she wouldn't choose for leisure, so the evenings and car trips are stacked against me. Also I've run out of historical fiction, which seems to be her preference. I'm toying with introducing her to Balzac: the Comédie Humaine would last her through college. Trollope would be good, too; but probably not enough naval battles in either of them.

 

But what do you suggest to help me undermine my husband?

 

ETA: I mean, of course, to help me encourage good reading habits in my child.

 

I feel like I'm on a rocky spot here undermining a friend but I recommend more PG Wodehouse.  :coolgleamA:  What about Waverly?

 

:party: My baby is 18 years old today!   So I guess I shouldn't call him a baby anymore.  :lol:   He's grown into a very interesting young man whose enthusiasm for life tests me daily.   :tongue_smilie:

 

 

Happy belated birthday to James!

 

And happy belated birthday to Jenn!

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ErinE - Wow. I'm crying and laughing with you. Kids. Is it too much to ask to just have stuff that isn't gross?!?! We've long since given up on having NICE things.

 

Heather - So happy to hear a good report on your DD.

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This week I'm reading Hadrian's Memoirs, a 1951 novel by Marguerite Yourcenar, the first woman admitted to the French Academy. It gets me my letter Y author, plus it has an awesome Edward Gorey-illustrated cover. The back cover describes it as "one of the major works of our time, an unclassifiable and unique masterpiece." Which is to say, it seems to have no plot as such: it's the life of the Emperor Hadrian, as told by him in a letter to young Marcus Aurelius, with lots of philosophical and psychological meditation. Not to say I'm not enjoying it, but one shouldn't leap into this book expecting the wrong thing. Find myself marvelling at how very French the ancient Romans seem to be. (Though I'm sure a European watching HBO's "Rome" would remark how very American they seem.)

 

 

I am interested to hear how you react to the later parts of the book, especially around the Bar Kochba revolt.  I know my reactions were heavily colored by being Jewish, and my exposure to our versions of those events... and the weird duality of my reactions reminds me, now that I think of it, of how I react to police now that I have seen them through less sheltered lenses (through reading and listening, not personal experience), only the other way around, there my visceral reaction is calmer and more distanced....

 

I did read one of the Johnson Johnson books for my Dorothy Dunnett square - Send a Fax to the Kasbah - and it was pretty silly. I am thinking of reading Niccolo for my Italian Renaissance square. Not sure if I'll get started this month or not.

 

 

 

Some of the JJ books can be enjoyably read in any order, that one is the least suited to doing so and, imho, is best read last, or at least after the ones with key background and characters, or at the very least, after Dolly and the Bird of Paradise... it assumes a knowledge and an emotional investment in some of the characters and story....

 

That said, even having read all of them multiple times, and wishing the final one, which would have resolved the dangling plot and character pieces, had been written, they are silly, slight books, especially compared to Lymond and Niccolo (though both of those have equally absurd plot components in the main story lines... I actually wish sometimes she'd written straight historical fiction... but then I'm someone who watched Titanic by fastforwarding through the foregrounded story line, so I'm weird)

 

I'm wondering which Dorothy Dunnett I tried a few years back -- tried and abandoned. I seem to recall it was the Lymond series and it had far, far too much dry political exposition that just stopped the story cold. (It's a pet peeve of mine when 2 characters stop to discuss court politics for paragraphs on end.) I remember being very disappointed as I love historical novels and Jane's glowing recommendations usually become favorite books of mine. I see Audible has both historical fiction series available -- wonder if I'd enjoy the Niccolo series better?

 

The first time I read Game of Kings (the first Lymond book), I was on bedrest with the twins and alone and home with that the only book within reach... and it really left me cold... until the final third or a quarter where slow burn caught fire.   (though I, personally, love poltical exposition in my historical fiction, so ymmv).  The main plot line is a soap opera, often fast moving and/or action packed, but the vividness of place and time and culture is astounding.  (From the Niccollo books, I have never found anything, fiction or non, which did a better job of conveying Timbuktu at that time... or the remnants of Byzantium... or the impact of trade on politics.)

 

...but if the you make it all the way through the first one and weren't captivated, I wouldn't recommend trying more.

 

 

The turning on/off of wifi throws me right between Dante's 3rd and 4th circle of hell (gluttony and greed, or is it greed then gluttony) because I *want* the next book coming on Overdrive. (I have two libraries.)  Thus, she persists with the book with wifi on and pressure to finish...

 

This is where the download-to-the-desktop-and-transfer-via-cord trick is priceless.   ...you really can have your cake and eat it too.  But don't think too hard about how Dante might frame it, I have yet to find that angle of thought encouraging....  :)

 

I don't think so. Just last week I received an email from a non-BaW friend who finished Niccolo #6 noting, "Truly I felt like I needed a couple history degrees to keep everything straight." This with the handbook!

 

She and I both think that the Lymond books are more fun than the Niccolos.  They are all dense but the political complexity is up a notch in Niccolo. (Plus you learn more about alum, medieval cloth dyes and Italian banks than you ever thought possible!)

 

I think the Lymond books can be more immediately appealing, but, though both of them have soap operas for their main plot lines, Lymond's is more centered and, for all that I can hardly breathe through the chess game mid-series, the melodrama strains my credulity at times.  ...and although Niccollo himself is less likely to inspire fan girl-ing, I found the non-foregrounded story to be even richer and more stunning.  (But I don't recommend reading the series back-to-back, whichever one you start with.)

 

I have Where Christ and His Saints Slept up next, plus a big stack of library books. 

 

I meant to comment on this the other week - this isn't a sequel to Sunne in Splendour, just so you know what you're getting into! 

It is further back in the timeline and covers a very different English civil war, the Stephen and Matilda one...

 

Sunne in Splendour grated a little for me, partly because I've been a Lancastrian since I was in elementary school and Margaret of Anjou was my hero and Sharon's thumb presses a little too heavily on the scales for my tastes.  QCaHSS is less biased (no outright hagiography here), and the time period is fascinating.  

 

My favorites of hers is the trilogy starting with Here be Dragons... but I struggle with her books at times, however quickly I devoured them, because I can't help but be uneasy with a description of history which focuses so exclusively on the personal...

 

I'm also enjoying Jo Walton's What Makes This Book So Great, which is  a collection of her Tor blog posts about re-reading the classics of sci fi. I've already added a few to my TR list and foresee adding many more. I like Jo Walton's blogging & nonfiction almost more than I like her novels, she is someone I'd really like to meet IRL.

 

 

 

I've only met Jo online, but she is an amazing person.  ...and during a really hard time a number of years ago, when I was too stressed to read books, her Live Journal was a lifeline.  She is someone who has seen hard, heartbreaking things, has seen people at their worst (and best) and who keeps on caring and working and loving.

 

Have I shared with you her open letter to the person who stole her laptop? 

Oh, dear.   I knew LiveJournal was going down in flames, but didn't know it was well and truly gone.

 

Oh!  Good! Jo has transferred over at least some of her LJ posts to her website...

 

here:

 

To the Person Who Stole My Bag in Brussels-Midi

You didn’t see me and I didn’t see you — I was off buying a bottle of water and a sausage roll while Elise looked after the luggage. But you are a professional, you could have done it to anyone, and you walked off with my laptop bag.

So, what you’ve got. The bag itself was new for this trip. It matches a mug I have. It’s Danica Studio Odyssey bag, and it looks more like a knitting bag than a laptop bag. I liked it, but I hadn’t had it long enough to really bond with it. I don’t think you’ll be able to sell it, so I suggest you give it to your mother to use for her knitting. She’s your mother, she tried to think well of you, she doesn’t want to believe you’re a bad person, no matter what the evidence. She knows you’ve been in trouble, but she still thinks you can turn it around. Bad companions, mistakes made, all of that. Give her the bag, she’ll take it as evidence of how you’re a good boy really. She’s the only person who still believes in you, and you need that. You’ll need somebody to visit you in prison. She can knit in the waiting room. And at the foot of the guillotine. Do they still have a guillotine? Did they ever have one in Belgium? Maybe not.

Inside, well, there’s the netbook. It’s an Acer, with very cool Florence stickers, but I’m going to Florence in a month and can buy more. It has a password on it, and you may be able to get around that or you may not, but it isn’t worth the bother, there’s nothing on it of value to you. Of value to me, yes, especially that thousand words or so I wrote the other night, grr, and all my bookmarks in Firefox, but to you, no. You’d do best to reformat it and sell it. It’s nearly two years old and it cost $217. You have the powercord, with adapters for the world’s electricity, and the awesome little round speaker I bought on the way home from Wiscon, and the headphones I bought on the way to Britain this summer, and the Logitech trackball wireless mouse. The weird thing is a stand so it can be used with a keyboard and have the monitor up high. You don’t have the keyboard, it was in my pack. (You do have the usb key for the keyboard, which makes the keyboard pretty useless.) The stand is a specific one and it was expensive, but almost nobody would want it. I can replace all these peripherals with nothing but money. If you sell the whole lot together on Craigslist you might get a hundred dollars or so. I’d give you more than that to have it back, but that’s not an option is it?

There are two little handmade Viking bags, to which I was very attached. The friend who made them has offered to give me more, which makes me feel better about that. The little one has the charger cord for my Kindle, useless without the Kindle, which is with me. It also has my headphones and two thumb drives. One of them has Protext for Ubuntu. You should try using it. It’s a truly great wordprocesser. Maybe you can write a book and get out of thieving. It’s no way to make a living really. So risky and also making the world worse instead of better. The other thumb drive has Bach’s complete orchestral works and Sassafrass’s Prophecies and Lies. I have them all on CD at home, so that’s fine. Enjoy them. The big one has the powercord and the mouse and the speaker and also a gold chain set with stones. The name of that necklace is Ibidem, and it was made by Elise, the person you did see when you stole my bag. It’s gold and it has special stones and it was a gift from a whole set of friends of mine, but it’s not really sellable. It’s a unique work of art, and very valuable to me, but you wouldn’t get any more for it than the value of the gold as scrap. I think it would be better if you give it your girlfriend. (After you give it to her, she’ll break up with you. She’ll keep the chain, and she’ll pass it on to her daughter when she first breaks up with a useless boyfriend, and she’ll give it to hers and it will become an heirloom in their family.)

Also in the bag are three tins of tea and a mug and a filter. There’s probably about $50 worth of tea, actually, but not resellable, just drink it. The tea in the black tin with the cool autumn trees stickers (I decorated it myself) is pu erh that needs to have the leaf woken — use the filter that’s in the bag, pour boiling water over it, then pour that away. Then pour water at 85 degrees over it and drink that. The handmade teabags are oolong — make the same way, gaba dragon, same way, and rouge et noir, which you just make normally. The little Continental Railways tin, which I’ve had for 25 years and which was a gift from a friend now dead, which makes it probably the least replaceable thing apart from the necklace, has tisanes. Make them the normal way. Give the peppermint to your mother. It’ll be good for her nerves.

That’s all — well, there’s a silk shirt and a pair of underpants, pretty much useless, though I’d rather have them than not.

So you’ve caused me a lot of misery and financial loss, while gaining for yourself, well, maybe a hundred dollars, some music, and a cup of tea. Was it really worth it? One of these days you’re going to get caught, you know you are. Not today, but one day. Not with my bag, but with somebody’s bag. When you’re there waiting for the guillotine, or sitting in a cell waiting for your poor old mother to bring you tea (because once you try it you’re going to get to like it) and news of the outside world, will you be glad you took the risk and took my bag?

I know your life’s hard. But you made my life harder. But writing to you has given me a good sense of what you’re like, and my life is so great and yours is so awful, and due to get so much worse that I suppose I ought to be sympathetic. Tell you what. If you send the netbook, the Viking bags, the Continental tea tin and the necklace to me, care of Tor Books in New York, you can keep the rest and I’ll give you the $300 it would cost me to replace the netbook. I also promise I’ll campaign against the reintroduction of the guillotine, send you pu erh in prison, and let you cry on my shoulder when your girlfriend breaks up with you.

Do we have a deal? Pity about that.

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To the Person Who Stole My Bag in Brussels-Midi

You didn’t see me and I didn’t see you — I was off buying a bottle of water and a sausage roll while Elise looked after the luggage. But you are a professional, you could have done it to anyone, and you walked off with my laptop bag.

 

 

 

That's incredible! On so many levels. 

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Should one call a horror book popcorn-worthy? If so, this is one. I was entertained & liked it enough to read it quickly -- a beach read if you don't mind murders, psychopaths, & psychological action with Gothic overtones. 

 

 

We'll put that in the category of "Stacia Beach Read". It'll have to be a super bingo square next year. 

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Instead of multi-quoting, let's see if I can remember my numerous responses:

 

Heather--indeed a positive update!  I hope things continue to look up.

 

Erin--Oh my.  Is this a laugh or cry situation? 

 

Eliana--How lovely to have your input here.  And how fortunate your community is to have you. I have to agree on the richness of the Niccolo books.  Lymond with his poetry spouting can be more fan-girl worthy but I do feel that I have walked through historic moments with Niccolo. The challenge may be for a distracted reader.  My non-BaW friend who was reading To Lie with Lions was simultaneously chasing after her toddler granddaughter. 

 

Loesje--you commented on the Masonry in W&P. This reminded me of the very odd Kent Museum of Freemasonry in Canterbury.  I had to go there when in Canterbury just because.  It is not as odd as the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose but I was fascinated by both.  Freemasonry was a big deal in the 18th and 19th centuries with Masonic Temples (active or not) peppering the American landscape.  I can't say I know any Masons today but I am astounded at the number of fraternal groups within my small community:  Elks, Lions, Moose.  They are all leftovers of the previous century and I believe they are struggling today.

 

 

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I am short on time also so a few comments before I forget.

 

Heather, I was so glad to read your dd update! :)

 

Idnib and Eliana, So happy to have you both here. I enjoyed? perhaps appreciated is better your links Eliana and have requested your revolution book. My past year has contained activism on a rather small local scale also.

 

I did finish The Hangman by Penny. A short that could easily be missed in terms of the series.

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Thanks for posting that, Eliana. I knew I'd like Jo Walton IRL. Last night I read her chapter/blog post entitled "How to Talk to Writers" which is fully of very funny commonsense advice, culminating in "writers are people and can have their feelings hurt by this kind of thing, just like anyone else."  You just feel like you are talking to your very wise aunt or a friend who has been around the world a few times.

 

Heather, so good to hear that Ani is getting relief. I'm hoping to get there with Shannon. Some day, I hope.

 

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So my daughter started the Diamox (diuretic) on Friday as advised in The Driscoll Theory.  Her doctor is starting her on a low dose, just 1/2 a 125mg tablet twice a day.  Ani was a good candidate for it because she's got POTS and EDS and she has chiari zero symptoms.  So far, so good.  It is totally helping!  The ringing in her ears she's had for years?  Gone.  Constant headache?  Much better.  Dizziness?  Reduced.  Blurry vision when turning her head?  Gone.  Feeling like her head is going to explode?  Also gone.  She can tell when she needs her next dose because the problems start coming back.  A higher dose may get rid of the symptoms that were just made better.  Since 125mg 3xday is commonly prescribed, we definitely can go higher from where we are now.  So whoever read The Driscoll Theory, thanks!  Diamox may literally be the miracle drug we've been praying for.

 

That's fantastic to hear you've found something that's helping so much!  I've been trying to get dd to download the Driscoll theory to her Kindle app, as I don't have a Kindle or room to load the app on my phone (it appears to be only available on Kindle, not hardcopy).  I don't think she has Chiari, but I think I remember Rose mentioning other things in that book that could well be helpful for her (EDS, doc says only "POTS-like symptoms" because she's never actually passed out). She's being evaluated for tethered cord next month, as she seems to have problems pointing in that direction.  It's such a puzzle to figure out!

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So, I managed to finish the first Warriors book.  The good news is that the rest of the book was more readable than the first 5 pages (which isn't saying much, but it's something!).  It did have a plot that moved it along, and I actually didn't get mixed up with all the similarly silly kitty names (which surprised me, but made it less annoying).  What was annoying is that the main plot conflict resolution was completely deferred until the next book (or maybe it even continues over the next few books), which is probably how they get so many kids hooked into reading them.  At any rate, I don't care enough to continue!  I'm just happy to check off that bingo square! :D

 

One thing I noticed immediately was that the flora and fauna described seemed 'off', so I looked it up, and sure enough, the author team is British, so they are British cats in the British countryside.  I asked my kids that had read them, and none of them had picked up on that.   :glare:

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Hugs to your daughters, ladies; fingers crossed that relief and understanding may soon come to all 3 of them

 

Matryoshka, I have such...deep feelings about the Warriors series because...well.  DD was slow to read, so we pulled her out of private school and began homeschooling.  Someone wise said to hold my nose and throw Manga at her.  It was the manga series of Warriors that got her started reading, then she went on to the actual books...

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I'm pretty sure I'll abandon The Brothers Karamazov. I just can't get interested in it. When I read Crime and Punishment I remember thinking Dostoyevsky is rather melodramatic. TBK is even worse when it comes to melodrama. And on top of that I just don't find the story compelling. I wanted to read it because he writes about such a different part of Russian society than Tolstoy does, but I have too many books I want to read. At my age if I decide to read a classic for the first time it's because I want to. And if I continue (and finish) it's because I'm enjoying it.

Edited by Lady Florida.
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The high points of last week's reading were an annual re-read of Shlomo Carlbach's Soul of Jerusalem, which I have reread every Tisha B'Av (Jewish holiday of mourning for the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash (Temple)), and the gut-punch Just Mercy.

 

Just Mercy was a compulsive, but deeply uncomfortable, read that left me shaken and inspired.  No New Jim Crow shook my faith in our criminal justice system on a bigger picture level, but this, one lawyer's work and experience, and a smattering of the individual cases he's dealt with, was much harder to witness, but felt equally important.  ...and the author's amazing heart and conviction will stay with me for a long time.

 

I read (another!) version of Medea.  I had read the author's Charles III, which was brilliant and unsettling, and wanted to see what he would do with a modern Medea.  This doesn't make my top ten Medea's, but was a solidly well done one.

 

I finished reading Wrinkle in Time to my little guy (while editing out Meg's obsession with her appearance).  It is always fascinating to experience a well known book with a different child, and this was no exception.  ...but, overall, L'Engle doesn't hold up well for rereading as a middle-aged adult.  (I have been delaying rereading Other Side of the Sun which blew me away when I was 17 because I don't want to ruin it... but I do want to revisit it... )

 

I finally got around to finishing the Flufferton Bar Sinister - Simonson's Lady Elizabeth's Comet was sweet and I like the agency her characters have, but the plot of this one is beyond absurd.  (it does make the third book in this loose trilogy make more sense, however, and the sweetness and agency are still there.)

 

One of my teens recently read Contagious: Why Things Catch On and wanted to share it with me and it does offer some neat insights into how ideas (and products) go viral... but I wish I could have disconnected it from the marketing aspects.  (It did make me want to reread Bellwether.... which deals with the same idea from a fictional perspective...and without marketing.)  I wouldn't recommend buying this (we got it from a little free library!), but if you're interested in the subject, it is a fast, fairly interesting read.

 

Another fast read: The Gaucho Martin Fierro, this Argentinean poetic epic has been on my shelves and my TBR lists for a long time.  Having read it, I mentally shelve it with El Cid (which is a significant work which offers insight into aspects of culture and national mythos) rather than  the Illiad, which I love. 

 

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I'm pretty sure I'll abandon The Brothers Karamazov. I just can't get interested in it. When I read Crime and Punishment I remember thinking Dostoyevsky is rather melodramatic. TBK is even worse when it comes to melodrama. And on top of that I just don't find the story compelling. I wanted to read it because he writes about such a different part of Russian society than Tolstoy does, but I have too many books I want to read. At my age if I decide to read a classic for the first time it's because I want to. And if I continue (and finish) it's because I'm enjoying it.

I finished only because dh said again and again, that the book would become better.

I had to disagree, so I'm glad to hear I am not only one!

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Thanks for posting that, Eliana. I knew I'd like Jo Walton IRL. Last night I read her chapter/blog post entitled "How to Talk to Writers" which is fully of very funny commonsense advice, culminating in "writers are people and can have their feelings hurt by this kind of thing, just like anyone else."  You just feel like you are talking to your very wise aunt or a friend who has been around the world a few times.

 

I sometimes wonder how much of the kindred-spirit-ness I feel with some folks is intrinsic, and how much is shared headspace from overlapping reading.  ...a chicken and egg question, really.   ...but since I believe that I have been significantly shaped by my reading, I wonder...

 

...and looking at Jo's classics reading, her wide and deep historical and philosophical reading, her love of literature, and her SFF writing and reading... I am less surprised that she feels so like a kindred spirit.  Though it isn't just what we read, is it?  It is how we weight it and what we do with it...

 

When I read Philosopher Kings (which I beta read before reading Just City, and before either was published) it gave me chills to see both characters and the author taking the things they'd read and studied so... not just seriously, but with a lived belief that they really mattered... and that principles really matter... that striving to make the world a better place is urgently, centrally important. 

 

...and that last bit is there in everything Jo says and does...

 

...and even if I couldn't appreciate her fiction, I would love her for that... but that she also writes fiction that pulls me in and makes me feel and think and care... and that always rests on that foundation... without even getting preachy the way Alcott, for example, tends to.  (though Alcott's Old Fashioned Girl and Eight Cousins are up there with Shakespeare's plays, Austen's novels, and Wordsworth's poetry as formative, foundational influences in who I am and how I exist in the world.

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Matryoshka, I have such...deep feelings about the Warriors series because...well.  DD was slow to read, so we pulled her out of private school and began homeschooling.  Someone wise said to hold my nose and throw Manga at her.  It was the manga series of Warriors that got her started reading, then she went on to the actual books...

 

I have mixed feelings.  This dd was always a reluctant (though reasonably proficient) reader, but she did read some.  Then in 6th grade she found Warriors.  She read all the Warriors series, then all the Seekers series.  They are apparently the best books ever written, and having read those, she has reached reading perfection and is done.  Literally the only thing she has read since then are new releases of either Warriors or Seekers.  So, she read a lot more than she did before and then... nothing.  :glare:   She's going into 11th grade, so it's been a while.  She wasn't even reading assigned reading, having surreptitiously discovered the wonders of free online lit guides.  She was even able to fool me in discussions till her sister ratted her out.   :banghead:

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One thing I noticed immediately was that the flora and fauna described seemed 'off', so I looked it up, and sure enough, the author team is British, so they are British cats in the British countryside.  I asked my kids that had read them, and none of them had picked up on that.   :glare:

 

I didn't think much about the flora and fauna, but in one of the books the cats started saying "you lot." That tipped us off.  :D

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Wow, Mom-Ninja!  Thanks for the vicarious thrill of the morning!
 
I finished Heinrich Böll's The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum which remains as relevant today as when it was published in 1974, two years after Böll won the Nobel prize. It is a fast paced read which covers a week in the life of a woman destroyed by yellow journalism. Those of you avoiding politics can skip this comment.

I was constantly reminded of the parents of poor Seth Rich...

 

 

Next up:  Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, a summer novel graciously given to me by our dearest Penguin.

 

 

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Dp sorry, I feel the need to post something so.....

 

I did finish Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstorehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32620349-midnight-at-the-bright-ideas-bookstore. I haven't posted about it because I have been contemplating the story. It wasn't about a bookstore except as an occasional setting which disappointed me. Not a bad story overall but one of those filled with unbelievable coincidences which makes it a good beach read. Not fluffy at all.....

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These are the lovely stairs in the Shakespeare and Company bookstore - the quote is from Hafiz. 

 

b554f130fdd4da6a4b58cf0665bce989.jpg

 

 

I've been loving your pics of this! I was in Shakespeare & Co a couple of years ago and I don't remember this at all! It was November and cloudy outside and I remember the bookshop being really dark (and crowded). Beautiful photo Negin!

 

 

 

I'm also enjoying Jo Walton's What Makes This Book So Great, which is  a collection of her Tor blog posts about re-reading the classics of sci fi. I've already added a few to my TR list and foresee adding many more. I like Jo Walton's blogging & nonfiction almost more than I like her novels, she is someone I'd really like to meet IRL.

 

 

 

Me, too!  I stumbled upon her when I read her posts about re-reading the Master and Commander series http://www.tor.com/features/series/re-reading-patrick-obrians-aubrey-maturin-series/ . She would be a great person to talk books with!

 

 

And Matryoshka, fastweedpuller, and idnib - I totally understand about the Warriors series :) My youngest dd did nothing but read and reread the entire series for about a year. Thankfully, she never pushed me about reading them, lol. I was happy that she found something to read that she could get into and she has moved on to other books at this point. My point being,  the obsession does have an end (light in the tunnel, haha).

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As a spin off to the Warrior series and books like it, my daughter is fixated on R. L. Stine and continues to be unhappy with me because I refuse to buy the books. We have bookshelves filled with excellent teen/tween books and our local library has multiple shelves filled with Stine/Pike and their equivalents. I told her if she reads the Harry Potter series, she can get some Stine books as a gift. She said that she's already seen the movies so why should she read the books? Imagine me collapsing to the floor in a blubbering heap (mentally).

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As for the eggscapade, I was calm when I discovered it. Maybe I was shell-shocked. What can you do? The culprit even complimented me on my cleaning skills: "Good job, mom."

 

I cycle between amusement and frustration. Each time I clean the room, I'm confident that this time it's clean, but nope, the smell rises again. I think it's ruined. Only two years old, and it stinks. I'm contemplating a commercial service, but they want at least two rooms. Any ideas on removing the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs from carpet are welcome.

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As a spin off to the Warrior series and books like it, my daughter is fixated on R. L. Stine and continues to be unhappy with me because I refuse to buy the books. We have bookshelves filled with excellent teen/tween books and our local library has multiple shelves filled with Stine/Pike and their equivalents. I told her if she reads the Harry Potter series, she can get some Stine books as a gift. She said that she's already seen the movies so why should she read the books? Imagine me collapsing to the floor in a blubbering heap (mentally).

 

*gentle pats Erin's back* There. There. It'll be okay.

 

I'm surprised those Christopher Pike books were still around. I never liked that genre but boy oh boy did my sisters and cousin. What does she like specifically in those books? The horror element? The romance? The mystery? Ask her and let us know. I bet the BaW aunties can recommend something that will hit that spot.

 

As for the eggscapade, I was calm when I discovered it. Maybe I was shell-shocked. What can you do? The culprit even complimented me on my cleaning skills: "Good job, mom."

 

I cycle between amusement and frustration. Each time I clean the room, I'm confident that this time it's clean, but nope, the smell rises again. I think it's ruined. Only two years old, and it stinks. I'm contemplating a commercial service, but they want at least two rooms. Any ideas on removing the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs from carpet are welcome.

 

A toddler made the mess? Just give it another day and you'll have a second room that needs professional carpet cleaning too ...

 

Call the local carpet cleaning place and ask if they sell carpet cleaning solution for animal messes. We don't have pets but a friend of mine with three cats brought some carpet cleaner over after my kid threw up and pooped on the dining room carpet (it's wasn't DD :lol: ). It was a miracle cleaner.

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As for the eggscapade, I was calm when I discovered it. Maybe I was shell-shocked. What can you do? The culprit even complimented me on my cleaning skills: "Good job, mom."

 

I cycle between amusement and frustration. Each time I clean the room, I'm confident that this time it's clean, but nope, the smell rises again. I think it's ruined. Only two years old, and it stinks. I'm contemplating a commercial service, but they want at least two rooms. Any ideas on removing the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs from carpet are welcome.

Have you tried really soaking it with Fabreze? We had a disaster of epic proportions several years ago when we came home from a month long vacation to find that the freezer had been hit by lightning most likely on our second night away. Obviously the neighbours just collected the mail but never came in. Flys all over. The smell had sunk deeply into everything it the house. The clean up was monumental. It was beyond dreadful and I credit Fabreze actually made it OK in the end. We had wooden floors but maybe you could use it in a carpet cleaner somehow.......I think dh may have used it that way on the couches.

 

There is also an industrial cleaner for bad smells used in places like nursing homes that was recommended to me. I can't remember the name and I didn't have to go to that level.

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As for the eggscapade, I was calm when I discovered it. Maybe I was shell-shocked. What can you do? The culprit even complimented me on my cleaning skills: "Good job, mom."

 

I cycle between amusement and frustration. Each time I clean the room, I'm confident that this time it's clean, but nope, the smell rises again. I think it's ruined. Only two years old, and it stinks. I'm contemplating a commercial service, but they want at least two rooms. Any ideas on removing the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs from carpet are welcome.

 

:grouphug:

 

Personally, I'd be inclined to remove the carpet and replace it with the vinyl planks that imitate laminate (or the Pergo waterproof laminate). 

Tearing out the carpet and prepping the floor is an easy DIY task, and installing the laminate can be done on one's own, but doesn't take long for a professional to do.  (Though given my own recent flooring experiences, I'd advocate for buying the product yourself and dealing directly with someone who would be doing the installation *not* with a flooring company that then hires the workers.)

 

If you want to keep the carpet, Amy's suggestion of using products designed for pet messes has been a useful option for us at times.  (but if the odor source has penetrated deeply into the carpet pad or down into the subfloor, then I don't think the carpet would be salvageable.)

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*gentle pats Erin's back* There. There. It'll be okay.

 

I'm surprised those Christopher Pike books were still around. I never liked that genre but boy oh boy did my sisters and cousin. What does she like specifically in those books? The horror element? The romance? The mystery? Ask her and let us know. I bet the BaW aunties can recommend something that will hit that spot.

 

 

She likes horror. She loves ghost stories and wants to read Stephen King. I've made it clear that he's not until she's older since I was raised with parents who had no limits on my reading, which sounds free and open and fantastic, but It at age eight, not so much. I've told her repeatedly it's not a no forever, just a no for now.

 

DD11 liked The Girl with the Silver Eyes (a Girl in the title before it became cool), but found Behind the Attic Wall too creepy, both my personal favorites from when I was younger. I've recommended Catherynne Valente's Fairyland books but she says they're too babyish. I don't think she's read them, only seen they have drawings. Maybe Lois Lowry?

 

A toddler made the mess? Just give it another day and you'll have a second room that needs professional carpet cleaning too ...

 

Call the local carpet cleaning place and ask if they sell carpet cleaning solution for animal messes. We don't have pets but a friend of mine with three cats brought some carpet cleaner over after my kid threw up and pooped on the dining room carpet (it's wasn't DD  :lol: ). It was a miracle cleaner.

Yes, this is the same child who was the mastermind behind The Great Dry Erase Marker Defacement of '15 (dry erase is near impossible to remove - others in my house are not diligent about keeping markers and pens locked up) and The Grape Tomato Stomping Massacre of '16 (my walls looked like a crime scene - never trust quiet toddlers when you're unloading groceries). This child has accounted for more Emergency Room and Urgent Care visits than the other three children combined, which is saying something as whenever we visit a playground or place likely to cause injury (skiing, bowling, hiking a flat trail), another child is required to say "Today, I don't want to go to the emergency room" just as a reminder to please, please, please don't do anything unsafe.

 

I've used pet cleaner, but not anything industrial strength. I'll try the Febreeze before calling anyone.

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Mom-ninja, I love the photo! Swoon.

 

 

Just Mercy was a compulsive, but deeply uncomfortable, read that left me shaken and inspired.  No New Jim Crow shook my faith in our criminal justice system on a bigger picture level, but this, one lawyer's work and experience, and a smattering of the individual cases he's dealt with, was much harder to witness, but felt equally important.  ...and the author's amazing heart and conviction will stay with me for a long time.

 

...

 

I finished reading Wrinkle in Time to my little guy (while editing out Meg's obsession with her appearance).  It is always fascinating to experience a well known book with a different child, and this was no exception.  ...but, overall, L'Engle doesn't hold up well for rereading as a middle-aged adult.  (I have been delaying rereading Other Side of the Sun which blew me away when I was 17 because I don't want to ruin it... but I do want to revisit it... )

 

I ordered Just Mercy, which has quite a wait at the local library. I admit I'm nervous to read it, though, based on your experience. Still, it sounds very important so I'm in.

 

As for Wrinkle in Time, I re-read it a few years ago as a pre-read for DS and it was completely different to me as an adult. I don't know if I could say whether it held up or not, but I saw it through a completely different political lens (the novel having a Libertarian bent) that whooshed over my head when I was ~10 years old.

 

 

And Matryoshka, fastweedpuller, and idnib - I totally understand about the Warriors series :)

 

 

I think it stayed with me because for the first time my idealism about reading everything along with the kids for discussion was tarnished. Or rather, it was badly dented.  :)

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Good evening. Hugs and waves to all! 

 

Driving myself crazy trying to put together an international relations/foreign policy course for James 12 grade social studies project.  Took a break and in my interweb wanderings came across

 

Halldor Laxness - the writer who found enlightenment in religion

 

Culture Trip's Global Anthology - you'll be following rabbit trails for hours, like  me. 

 

National Translations Awards in Prose and Poetry shortlist announced.

 

Plus PW most anticipated books for fall 2017

 

Happy trails! 

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Hmm, yes, Warriors. That book.  I didn't make it past the first chapter.  Asked James last night what he thought of it.  "rather silly, but he's willing to read the rest."   

 

"And just for the record ... I would happily read all the Warrior books over reading one more Magic Tree house," said Amy.

 

:laugh:   I'm the opposite.  I prefer Jack and Annie.  Or was it the Magic School Bus that I liked?    Hmmm!

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Love the photo Mom-ninja! Hope you're enjoying yourself.

 

Robin, thanks for the links. I'm still not finished with rabbit trails.

 

Mid-week update -

 

I'm making progress on the current reads I listed earlier in the thread. I've gone back to listening to Kristin Lavransdatter. It seems rather slow but is interesting enough to keep listening. 

 

I downloaded the sample of The Time in Between. I watched the series some time ago after Mom-ninja recommended it on one of those "What are you watching?" type threads. If the book sample is any indication, it looks like the series stayed pretty close to the book. If that's the case I'm not sure I'll read it. My library does have it in print form so I might check it out at some point. For now I have a lot of other books I want to read.

 

My hold on Death at La Fenice came in and the story grabbed me right away. The following made me chuckle. Brunetti, the detective, is interviewing witnesses and possible suspects. One is an American woman whose last name is Lynch.

 

"Brunetti closed his notebook, in which he had done no more than scribble the American's last name, as if to capture the full horror of a word composed of five consonants."   :lol: 

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My hold on Death at La Fenice came in and the story grabbed me right away. The following made me chuckle. Brunetti, the detective, is interviewing witnesses and possible suspects. One is an American woman whose last name is Lynch.

 

"Brunetti closed his notebook, in which he had done no more than scribble the American's last name, as if to capture the full horror of a word composed of five consonants."   :lol: 

I just suspended my hold on that for a few weeks. Since you are reading it I guess it must have been on one of the lists. ;) Glad to hear you are enjoying it.

 

I woke up feeling great but somehow while doing my routine household jobs this morning I did something to my shoulder. I've been laying flat on a heating pad for most of the day reading from my physical stack. I finished Black Out an Icelandic Mystery. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29568500-blackout It was pretty good but not enough of my favourite character from this series.

 

I am currently reading The Tall Stranger which someone here read recently....it's not my favourite DE Stevenson but still a nice read.

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I just suspended my hold on that for a few weeks. Since you are reading it I guess it must have been on one of the lists. ;) Glad to hear you are enjoying it.

 

I woke up feeling great but somehow while doing my routine household jobs this morning I did something to my shoulder. I've been laying flat on a heating pad for most of the day reading from my physical stack. I finished Black Out an Icelandic Mystery. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29568500-blackout It was pretty good but not enough of my favourite character from this series.

 

I am currently reading The Tall Stranger which someone here read recently....it's not my favourite DE Stevenson but still a nice read.

 

Yes, I'm sure I first heard about it here, I just don't remember who recommended it or when it was discussed. It was probably one of my fellow mystery lovers. :)

 

Sorry about your shoulder. Take it easy, and I hope whatever you did is something easily fixed with rest.

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I've been on an Urusula LeGuin kick lately and so was pleased to read this essay from Tor about The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. I thought some of you might be interested.

Considering our hand-wringing in this week's discussion about The Warriors cat series, I should mention that, once I vented how little dd could read at 8 and how I despaired for her future once she started consuming the Warriors, in manga form, to my children's librarian aunt Patsy, Patsy of course sent us the entire series of Ursula LeGuin's CatwingsAAHHHH so much better...!

 

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