Sib's March 2013

This is the Tardis my daughter and friends made for the 'races' at the Winter Fair at her school - we're going to put bookshelves in it, and cushions and make it into the perfect tiny library - and find some nook or cranny for it in the house, heaven knows how or where! I wish this was a better photo but it is all I have for now.

29. ✔#1 40,000 in Gehenna C.J. Cherryh sf ****
30. ✔#2Grace Coolidge and her Era Ishbel Ross bio ****
31. ✔#3 Ember and Ash Pamela Freeman fantasy ***1/2
32. The Good Apprentice Iris Murdoch f
33. Graceling Kristin Cashore fantasy YA
34. ♬ The Paris Wife Paula McClain f (audio - library)
35. Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age gave birth to the First Modern Humans Brian Fagan anthro
36. Fire Kristin Cashore YA fantasy (book 2) ****
37. Tripoint C.J. Cherryh sf ****1/2

***March Current Reads***
Finity's End C.J. Cherryh sf
✔The Imperfectionists Tom Rachman f contemp
♬ I Am Half Sick of Shadows Alan Bradley mys (audio- library)
☀✔Krakatoa Simon Winchester nf
Monthly Murdoch March is done! April will be the Conradi bio.
The IM readers group is HERE
VMC March set aside, see below

Set aside
✔ The Clever Woman of the Family Charlotte Mary Yonge f

Ongoing
New Yorkers.

Guide to symbols
♬ audio
✔ and # - (between one and three years in my sagging tbr shelves/monthly goal of 8)
☀TBR wallflower program. (Wallflower = On shelf 3 plus years.)
VMC Virago-of-the-month
GR= group read

Best of 2013
January
fiction: The Bell Iris Murdoch
non-fiction: Swallowing the Sea Lee Upton on writing
February is a TIE and both are graphic memoirs
Marbles: Mania, Michelangelo, Depression and Me Ellen Forney *****
Fun Home Alison Bechdel *****

Resolutions
Stay tough about not buying new books...... faltered a little in Feb.

Read in January
1. Rimrunners C.J. Cherryh sf ****
2. ✔ #1 The Devastating Boys Elizabeth Taylor ss ***1/2
3.☀ ✔ #2 The Wild Wood Charles de Lint fantasy ***1/2
4.✔#3 Swallowing the Sea: On Writing Lee Upton craft/nf *****
5. ✔#4 The Bell Iris Murdochf January Murdoch *****
6. ☀✔#5 Banner of Souls Liz Williams sf ****
7. ☀✔#6 The Reindeer People Megan Lindholm ***1/2
8. ☀✔#7 Wolf's Brother Megan Lindholm ****
9. ✔ #8 The Happy Foreigner Enid Bagnold January Virago F
10. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance Lois McMaster Bujold sf ****
11. On Basilisk Station David Weber sf
12. Jaran Kate Elliott sf Bk 1 ****
13. ✔#9 Ragnarok: The End of the Gods A.S. Byatt f **** myth
14. ☀✔#10The Margarets Sherri Tepper sf ***

Finished in February
15. ☀✔#1An Earthly Crown Kate Elliott sf Bk 2 ****
16. ♬ West of Here Jonathan Evison F ***1/2
17. ☀✔#2 His Conquering Sword Kate Elliott sf ****
18. ✔☀#3 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez nat hist *****
19. The Law of Becoming Kate Elliott (Jaran, bk 4) sf ****
20. Marbles: Mania, Michelangelo, Depression and Me Ellen Forney *****
21. A Severed Head Iris Murdoch f ****
22. ✔#4 In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination Margaret Atwood essays ***1/2
23. The Posthumous Affair James Friel f ****
24. Glacial Period Nicolas de Crecy graphic ***1/2
25. Fun Home Alison Bechdel graphic *****
26. ✔#5 The Land of Green Ginger Winifred Holtby f ***1/2
27. ✔ #6 Cyteen C.J Cherryh sf ****
28. ♬The Yiddish Policeman's Union Michael Chabonf ****

February Statistics
Total: 14
Men: 5
Women: 7 (three by same author)
Non-fiction: 4
Virago: 1
Classic Fiction: 0
Contemporary fiction: 3
Short stories: 0
SF: 4
Mys: 1
Humor: 0
Fantasy: 0
YA: 0
New (to me) Authors: 5
Group Read: 1
From PBS: 2
Acquired & read right away: 7
Library: 2
Audio: 2
Off my shelf: 6
Wallflowers: 3
Months of NYers: 0
Ditched: 0

February Reflections
An interesting synergy between most of the books, fiction or non-fiction, graphic or print to do with the theme of how the imagined influences the real, whether in a young woman's daydreams or a father's desperate attempt to create the illusion of a perfect family life or how a landscape is apprehended can be more influenced by what you are expecting than what you see..... in some the illusions are stripped away, in others, more playful, they are not, or (wisely) the person(s) learn to live on different levels..... So a change from pure escapism of the previous month..... Even within the escapist books, a deeper note struck.

Books In
1.Invader CJ Cherryh
2.The Saliva Tree Brian Aldiss
3.Gone to Earth Mary Webb
4.Catch the Lightning Catherine Asaro
5.The Beginner's Goodbye Anne Tyler
6. Fun Home Alison Bechdel READ
7. The Good Apprentice Iris Murdoch

Books Out
1.Mostly Harmless (dupe) to PBS

Some shelf-clearing stats
6 read off the shelf, 7 new, 1 out

Total score:
Jan: up by 12
Feb: down by 1 on tbr shelves.......
Score: 11 up

Series started or continued so far in 2013
1. Alliance-Union Universe C.J. Cherryh (many of many)
---Most recently finished Forty Thousand in Gehenna. Currently reading Infinity's End
2. Honor Harrington Universe David Weber (one of many)
3. The Seven Kingdoms Kristin Cashore (one of three)
---Currently reading #2 Fire
4. Flavia de Luce Alan Bradley (two of four)
---Currently reading #3

Series completed in 2013
The Jaran Kate Elliott (four)
The Acacia Trilogy David Anthony Durham (three)
*Ember and Ash Pamela Freeman - This follows adventures of the next generation, not strictly part of the trilogy but it helps to have read it.

Series completed - or caught up with - in 2012
1. The Castings Trilogy Pamela Freeman (three)* plus one, see above.
2. Revelation Space Alastair Reynolds (many!)
3. Miles Vorkosigan Lois McMaster BujoldAnd I know I need this one too......I'll find a use for it I hope. (many!)

First!--after you, of course. I'm looking forward to seeing what March has in store for all of us! I love your "Resolutions" category.

ETA: The pic of the Tardis--how fun!

Hello March thread!

I like the idea of listing series completed/started - was that on the old thread?

As for me, I'm still back in February on my thread. I've lots of reviews/brief thoughts to add on the books read, plus ideally I want to get to over 200 posts so I can continue my thread automatically, but I'm way off that since I've not been posting much this month...

eta - I love the Tardis, and what a great idea to fill it with books. Can you make sure that like the 'real' Tardis it will hold far more on the inside than seems possible from the outside? That would be the solution to all shelving problems if we could manage that!

Love the Tardis library!

I'm in a quandary about two February reviews that aren't done..... do I put them there or here....???? Okay, my sense of tidy demanded the reviews be in February, so that is where you will find them, right at the end or on the book's page: Cyteen and The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

Congratulations on the New March Thread exactly on time!!!
I love Genny's thoughts on the Tardis. If it works, I'll get DH to build one for me.

Genny - I got around to putting that together in the middle of last month - a stream-lined version of a clunky mess from the previous year..... This might actually work, I'm hoping!

I am in Philadelphia presently, brought my daughter down during her winter break to see her old buddies, and I stopped at my bank in Bristol, VT to do a little transaction and found this posted on their bulletin board in the lobby. It just about did me in.

I can see March is gonna be fun! That's a great one, Sib.

Greetings from down the road Lucy! We're coming into the big city on Sunday for the Flower Show. I hope you daughter enjoys the visit.

Brain threatening to go into overload at the awesomeness of a tardis reading room.....just....too...cool...faints

Woot, Tardis library!

I was thinking of you Laura - wishing I had a little more time for a teensy meet-up. Enjoy the Flower show - I was so loyal, must have been 25 years in a row, but I'm giving it a pass this trip.

Yes a Tardis 'library' wouldn't that be something!

Well done, daughter and friends! I have tardis envy.

Yep, I am also loving the Tardis library! And the sign in the Vermont bank.

>14 sibylline:: I completely understand, Lucy. A weekend visit must be a whirlwind for you. And as for the Flower Show, I quite enjoy it but it's always so crowded too. Wouldn't it be fun to have a private tour?

#1 "we're going to put bookshelves in it, and cushions and make it into the perfect tiny library" - that sounds wonderful!

Is it going to be like a little garden library? or will it be brought into the house? on the porch? My bones are much to creaky to sit on cushions but otherwise it sounds devine.

Impressed with the TARDIS Lucy.

Have a lovely weekend and congratulations on your latest thread.

1: What a fun daughter you have!

She IS fun, albeit intense, so it can sometimes be harrowing......

I'm back from my trip and hope, tomorrow, to catch up on threads.

Love the Tardis library (and the nuisance trapping sheet)!
Now off to read the missed 50+ posts on your old thread.

Edit: oh dear, I'm so sorry about Hank. Thanks for adding that wonderful story about the basket of mice to the picture!

>264 last thread

I really enjoyedThe Yiddish Policemen's Union, though some of the people I was reading alongside did not. I went on to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, also enjoying. I've got two or three others of his lying around waiting the right opportunity.

I love the Tardis library too (although I had to look up what a Tardis is).

I've liked everything of Chabon's so far - I can't think what else ... the Pittsburgh one was excellent, so I think I will keep on with them. But golly, I loved the reader, so I may see what else of Chabon's he might have tackled.

"- we're going to put bookshelves in it, and cushions and make it into the perfect tiny library ...."

But where will you put the swimming pool? ;-)

Up on the roof deck, we're thinking?

>25 phebj: glad I'm not alone -- I had to look it up too

You don't have teenagers...... or you weren't into Dr. Who back in the day...... the Tardis has been around for some while.

#30 That description fits me--no teenagers; never watched Dr. Who.

ditto

29. #1 **** sf

Oh, this was a good 'first contact' book - a chilling premise, Union plants and then abandon 40,000 'born men' and 'azi' on a habitable planet that is within contested territory they have 'ceded' to Alliance - basically to secure it from 'Alliance', the other human power group in the universe. For 50 years they are totally on their own, after that..... well..... politics and politics and politics rule supreme and Alliance watches but does not intervene..... There are living creatures on the planet, all of them are assumed not to be sentient....... but I won't spoil things. Cherryh excels at imagining truly different forms of intelligence while keeping the humanness foibles and strengths of humans front and center. I'm glad, though, I'm familiar with the azi from reading Cyteen and with Alliance from reading the Merchant War books. It would be a stand-alone, but I suspect it's better as part of the ig picture, best not read too early on.

How's the snow out your way?

It's slowly melting away, B, no more than 2-4 inches remain, a few bare spots, a few thicker spots where the wind blew drifts. - I expect by next week if the forecast is accurate, we will be back to bare ground, which is fine by me. I'm quite ready for a new season, thank you very much! Right now the sky is bright bright blue and it is in the low forties - it's been perfect sugaring weather - below freezing at night and above during the day, and except for a couple of day over the weekend looks like it'll stay that way a bit longer.

The two audio books I picked out the other day at the library are the new Maeve Binchy and The Paris Wife - I'm trying out the latter and I've finished disk one, but I'm not entirely convinced I'll go on I like the reader's voice well enough, but I find fictional or 'imaginative' biography confusing as a genre overall, like why not just write a biography? (The subject is Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's first wife - and of course, Hemingway and all the others he associated with in the twenties while they were married.) I also feel I don't know enough, with this genre, about how much is imagined and how much is researched. I never would have picked it up if I wasn't kind of running out of options at my library...... but we'll see......

I loved all of Maeve Binchy's books and thoroughly enjoyed The Paris Wife too. I read both (rather than listened to them). Hope you end up liking them.

I think I will keep on with The Paris Wife - by all accounts it is extremely well-researched and has nothing in it (that is important) that deviates from known facts. So that is reassuring. I usually read Maeve at the beach, Reba, but I may break with tradition - in part because I don't get to the beach the way I used to......

Whatever you do I hope you enjoy it.

The hubster is on a Hemingway kick at the moment, lord knows why. I kinda wish he'd read The Paris Wife too!

30. #2 biography ****

I felt, at times, reading about Grace Coolidge, that I was reading about one of my own grandmothers. In another book I am reading The Paris Wife about Hadley Richardson (Ernest Hemingway's first wife), Hadley, is described as the 'old-fashioned' twenties woman - down-to-earth, direct, educated but not forward - the other type of twenties woman being my othergrandmother who was 12 or 13 years younger than the first. What strikes me is that ..... the distinction was being made at all. The 'New' woman was a feature of the twenties, perhaps the first decade where it was 'almost' all right to be outspoken and independent, cutting hair and skirt lengths and maybe deciding to have a career. But none of that for Grace Coolidge or my older grandmother, both of whom went from childhood homes where they were only and much beloved daughters, by nature biddable, easy-going, and charming, to being married to a man who knew his own mind, wouldn't have his wife in trousers or talking nonsense about abstract ideas. But really, those forward women had been around forever, no? Just squashed and frustrated and deemed inferior and unsuitable. The point is, some women did fit a sort of ideal of womanliness, just by being who they were, by accident, as it were - Grace herself says as much to an interviewer, that her 'grace' was a natural thing,- not that she didn't have to work at squashing some frustrations (no horseback riding, for one)..... What emerges in this very thorough but carefully positive and circumspect biography, is that Grace Coolidge was a quintessentially generous person - the perfect match for Calvin Coolidge, publicly having the obvious warmth and social skills which he lacked and privately providing a refuge for him from his ambitions and anxieties. She had some endearing qualities of her own, quirks, such as a love of baseball, and being a very fast walker...... Grace would have been a natural leader in any town she lived in, not the in-your-face sort, but the one who headed up women's committees and saw to the welfare of the unfortunate as well as being a neighbor you'd gravitate toward at a social event because she made you laugh..... Other president's wives, maybe, were not so lucky in temperament and character. I looked at some early newsreel footage of her, just to see how she moved, and that smile, wow, you can see why people loved her so. As a biography, Ross is soooo respectful that at times, knowing that she herself is a 'New' sort of woman, a professional, I wanted to hoot, aw come one, Ishbel! Grace wasn't that interested in political matters - that much seems true, even if Cal discouraged her from having opinions (at least publicly). She wasn't personally ambitious either, that much seems evident. All genuine. All that detail about what so and so wore and ate at this and that event was tiresome, but I know that was the fashion at the time. (And I suppose even now people care too much what prominent women wear.) Ross does several things very well, among them summaries of what was going on around Grace at various times. She also, while remaining tactful, shows us just what made Cal Coolidge a rewarding husband for Grace - parading around in funny hats, playing with animals, making funny jokes that most people didn't get (but she did, always)....

I loved the anecdote of Cal in the white summer suit a portraitist asked him to wear for a sitting:
Portraitist: You look so distinguished in that suit.
Cal: It's a distinguished suit.

This is kind of long..... more a reaction than a review, but that seems more LTish to me anyway.

Lucy, great review of Grace Coolidge and Her Era! I love this biog of Grace Coolidge, as you know, and I also have great esteem for the biographer, Ishbel Ross. Your line about her is so exactly right!--As a biography, Ross is soooo respectful that at times, knowing that she herself is a 'New' sort of woman, a professional, I wanted to hoot, aw come one, Ishbel! From what I know about Ross, she would probably (privately) hoot along with you. She was a journalist first, and nobody worked harder than she did to get the story and get it right. She was hugely respected by her colleagues.

I think the relationship between Grace and Calvin must have been, in many ways, very sweet. I always thought of Coolidge as something of a crabby, buttoned-up tightwad, but evidently one area where he was very generous was Grace's wardrobe. One of the highlights for me of my first visit to the Smithsonian was the exhibit of the First Ladies' dresses. I loved that exhibit, and it's back again and better than ever; so when I get back there, that's one of the exhibits I'll be sure to see.

Grace's red dress, the one she is wearing in her offical portrait at the National Art Gallery, is so surprising to me: first of all that beautiful red!, and then the darling "flapper" style. Who would ever imagine Calvin Coolidge's wife wearing a sexy red flapper dress! I just love it.

I hope you don't mind my posting this image on your thread. If it slows down your thread for you too much, let me know and I'll take it off.



ETA: I think Grace Coolidge was one of those women my mother called "joiners." All of my mother's aunts were that way, and if Grace had lived in Newton, Kansas she probably would have been very much like my great-aunt Emma, a woman who joined every club in town and through those memberships made a difference. When I read this biog, I had the same sort of reaction that you had: she reminded me of women in my family, generations past. I think she must have been a lovely First Lady, but I also think she would have been a wonderful neighbor.

Wow, that dress does look more daring than Ross would have led me to expect! Thanks for the photo - doesn't slow things down at all.

Those comments make me want to read the book, even though I don't have a ton of interest in either Mrs. or Mr. Coolidge. I do like the dress, though. I wonder if I can get Julie to wear one sometime; she looks fabulous in red.

She would look good in that dress! Red is not really my color.

I loved your review of the Grace Coolidge biography Lucy. I normally would pass something like that by but I'm going to see if my library has it. She sounds like an interesting woman.

Adding that to my WL, Lucy - very nice review! And I LOVE the Tardis! How very cool!

I suspect that one could get a lot out of reading biographies of all the First Ladies. What is interesting is that they don't usually 'ask' for the role, they end up in it, and have to scramble and cope.

I think you're right about that Lucy. I never think very much about the first ladies but it would be interesting to compare how they adapt to their role.

Just for contrast: My next non-fiction book is about the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals...... a rather different era altogether.

Great review, Lucy! My book club has had programs on the families of the Presidents for a year and a half, but nobody has offered us Grace. From them I think that your surmise in 48 is exactly right; we've had some remarkable women in the White House.

It's very much a biography of its time and place, important to keep that it mind.

So I'm reading Pamela Freeman's Ember and Ash which continues the 'story' from The Castings Trilogy which was excellent..... not sure this is up to the same caliber, but I'm not sure if it isn't my mood (as winter wanes I tend to move away from pure fantasy, don't ask me why - although I return to it in deep summer, then move away again in the fall and back in winter) or if it is something that feels scattered about the book itself, not quite as intent and focused as the trilogy - also I expect a person who hadn't read any Freeman would be a little confused by some of the characters/situations.... but I'm not sure about that either. As a story in its own right, with other stuff mentioned but not explained, it might be just fine.

Absolutely POURING rain here. Our brook is thawing and you can both see water running under the ice (it's kind of cloudy ice) and water on top of the ice flowing down, plus these odd geysers where water sort of leaps up through holes (these are rare, but interesting). My guess is this is a one-day wonder. I've gotten wildly excited about making a wilderness path up one side of the brook, so I am eagerly awaiting better weather to begin. For me, spring is about making a new path somewhere. Talk about turning a metaphor into reality!

I'm guessing your POURING rain is on it's way here for later today.
Your thawing brook's one-day wonder reminds me of our Androscoggin River for a very few days in the Spring. We never know just exactly when it's coming, but the snow melt from the north rushes through and in one particular place (around a bend, before the falls) the water roils violently and it is a sight to see!
I like your idea of a wilderness path...

Lucy,
Interesting comments about Grace and Calvin Coolidge.
I love the idea of a wilderness path along the brook. It's so cool that you have a brook!
May today be less rainy for you.

I also love the idea of a wilderness path along the brook--makes me wish I had a brook and a wilderness!

Well promise me if you're ever my way you will come and walk this wilderness path. Maybe I can do some before and after photos.

Funny day today, fat flakes one minute, then sun, then something sort of like hail...... the sugar makers are all relieved that we're having a real cold snap starting tonight. It was too warm the last few days.

I think I must have a bit of spring fever because I am so disorganized! Hardly any reading the last few days, although I am reading, I doubt I'll even get to half the number of books I read in Jan and Feb unless I find some very very very thin ones.

Spring fever would make sense about now. I love snow but when I lived in the Midwest, I was always done with it by March. It wasn't always done with me, though. :-|
You build the path and when I'm in your area, I'll come walk it with you. As long as Posey comes with us.
When I'm in that kind of reading overwhelm, I intentionally choose a thin book or two to give myself some feeling of accomplishment. It seems silly, but it helps!

I'm thinking of picking up Are You My Mother? for exactly that reason Ellen.

I haven't met you but I had an image of a tall person!!!!! So you can project across a continent.

31. #3 fantasy ***1/2

Ember and Ash is set in the same world that Pamela Freeman built in The Castings Trilogy and follows the fortunes of some of the children of characters from it. But while I was engaged fully by the trilogy, Ember and Ash seemed, strangely enough, to lack an inner fire, which is ironic since the whole story is driven by a need to get to Fire Mountain to restore fire to the Domains...... there were interesting moments, but something was missing throughout, or felt forced, or something I'm not sure what. Not fatal though, Freeman still writes a good story. There's a terrific interlude when the company headed for Fire Mountain ends up in a Domain run by a shape-shifter, made the whole book worth the trouble. ***1/2

I can't believe it is already half way through the month and I have read only three books..... I have quite a few others underway, four at the moment, yet even if I finished them all that would only get me to seven. I can't really think what is SO different, but surely something is. It couldn't be that hour I lost? Maybe I am losing an hour every single day now? I mean seriously, that's how it feels.

It's supposed to go down to 12 degrees F tonight. It's already 19......I thought we were done with this!!!!!

I'm feeling a bit grumpy about the book I'm reading Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans. It shatters one's faith in the information to read a sentence like this one:

Around 1.8 million years ago-the date is still poorly defined-some groups crossed the Sahara Desert into western Asia. Human hunters were not just Africans. They radiated out of the continent as part of much larger mammalian communities that were to colonize Asia and Europe during brief periods of warmer climatic conditions in the north.

I sat there reading those three sentences over and over, trying to figure out what the second sentence meant, how it connected and related.... all I can think is either (cos he says something like it later) he really is saying lots of other hunting mammals left Africa at that time. Or is he saying there were already human hunters in Europe? But I don't think he is saying that because this chapter seems to be about the first humans, homo ergaster, coming out of Africa......into Asia and thence to Europe --- and how their fate and development was bound to the frequent shifts from just warm enough to glacial. Anyhow this is just an example of the shaky sort of prose I'm dealing with, plus the information isn't as well organized as it should be....I'm going to read the book anyhow because I'm eternally fascinated by the subject, but this is an example of careless popularization with a pseudo-appearance of scholarliness..... This is one of those science guys who just churns stuff out. Sniff! I disapprove.

"pseudo-appearance of scholarliness" -- I agree and UGH!

I do think he has real credentials, and that he does a lot of work, but what is the point if you don't take it the whole way? You just damage yourself in the end.

I sniff too and wish the guy had an editor. Where are the editors of yesteryear?????
I believe I can do without the 4th *Ember* book. It's not as though I don't have fantasy falling from the shelves.
On a day like today down south, it's hard to believe that you are still seeing snow and having a cold snap. Low 60s today, mid-70s tomorrow. If only it would last!
I love to walk beside a brook! Babbling is one of my favorite sounds!

>63 LizzieD:: There was an article I read in the Toronto Globe & Mail a couple years ago about how publishing houses are all laying off editors. They don't want the cost. Spell check it, do some rudimentary scans for horrible grammar, print it. Only the top-tier authors are still getting the editing service. Others have to pay for it themselves if they want their book edited.

Those are perplexing sentences, Lucy. It's too bad for it does sound as if it should be - if the author could actually write - a pretty interesting book.

Are you sniffing in his general direction, that pseudo scholarly type? "Human hunters were not just African." Ok, what else were they? Inquiring minds, you know.

#60 That quote made my head hurt!

>60 sibylline:. Your comments about Brian Fagan made me laugh.

60: Hmm, I have this... Guess it won't be zipping to the top of the TBR stack.

It's not very demanding Q, and I think that the information in it is accurate enough, at least I hope so. Take a look at the diagram on p. 65 and the notes that go with it....... that'll give you some idea of editing woes. I might even take a picture of it and post it here. Fagan should be ashamed of himself. Anyhow I am interested to see if you find it as messy as I have..... so don't bury it too deeply!

However, I am here to post this amazing photograph I took yesterday - our little river takes an almost hairpin bend at this spot and I am standing on a huge flattish rock that juts out into the turn and makes it even more extreme. Conditions were just right to pull the half-formed ice into a spiral. Truly a rare and amazing thing.



Back to the readathon, which I sorely need to get things moving!

Wow, that's quite a photo, Sib!

Oh my! I should think that would be a rare sight. Delighted that you were there and ready to shoot it for yourself and us!

Great photo. I didn't realize you were near a river too.

Oh yes, I think that is a very rare event indeed.

Brook, little river, big river. Pond, big pond, medium lake, huge lake. All either right out the door or very nearby. I walk to the river every day, pretty much, down our driveway. We get flooded in now and then. Vermont is very very watery. Pretty much everyone lives near at least a decent-sized brook and/or small pond, marsh.

The last time I was in Vermont was in May 2008 for my niece's graduation from Bennington. It was after living in Idaho for a year and I was stunned by how lush it was. It rained most of that weekend and I wasn't sure how much more moisture the land could absorb. It was such a contrast to the climate in Idaho.

That is one of the big differences between the East and West. Water is something we have in abundance. To a Westerner it must seem like outrageous abundance. On the other hand, we don't have extra heat. Or sunshine.

Great picture!

32. f ****1/2

Many many thoughts jumbling around in my head as I finish Iris Murdoch's The Good Apprentice. Not the least of which is that I am beginning to 'get' Iris Murdoch and I can see how this could well turn into awe a few more books down the road. You could make a case that she is writing more or less the same book over and over again, but that isn't it. More like she is examining a few of the most important questions - the nature of good and evil and our variety (and also similarity) of human responses to emergency situations that arise. How we make things up to suit ourselves, create stories and make things fit, how we rationalize our lying, shrug off our cowardice..... Human behavior as IM sees it, is such a complex interweaving of events and character, that it can be examined endlessly. No coincidence that the two most important animal images in this novel are spiders and a mouse. Something so tiny can alter everything. One careless action can change a life irrevocably is the idea from which the story of The Good Apprentice flows. Edward gives a friend a hallucinogenic, and then, thinking the friend is safely asleep, leaves the room (locked) to visit someone. When he returns the friend has jumped out the window and is dead. Family members and friends gather around, but Edward is lost in his grief. He loved his friend deeply and is in a state of shock and paralysis. How is he to go on and have a life? And it is a good question.
As often is the case in a Murdoch book, the relationships between people are labyrinthine, Edward has a stepfather he loves as a father, and a step-brother ditto. His stepfather is having an affair with his aunt who is married to a brilliant psychotherapist.....(who manipulates much of what happens in the novel.) Edward's accident pushes any number of static situations (the affair being one of them) into motion. Out of the blue Edward receives an invitation to visit Seegard, his real father's home on the coast, up in the fens, and hoping that getting to know his real father might lead to his salvation he goes and finds himself in an almost unreal and definitely uncanny environment. There is a huge strange house and lots of water - two important Murdochian ingredients. As always with Murdoch, there is a tug of war between rationality and the mystical, a tension I happen to believe is a critical part of the human .... geography?..... both our story-making and our ability to act logically matter, make us who and what we are. Self awareness is everything. Edward's brother Stuart is one of the most fascinating characters Murdoch has put forward yet - a man who has decided to detach himself in every possible way from both story-making and logic in an effort to be truly good. Having done this he becomes a kind of palimpsest for everyone to write their own fictions upon, a blank, a threat, frightening and fascinating. It's breathtaking. As always with Murdoch, there are maddening interactions where people talk at complete cross-purposes, not listening, caught up in their own fictions, but of course, that is just how we all are. Murdoch reminds us of this both fiercely and compassionately. ****1/2

>78 sibylline:: that's the only Murdoch I've read so far that I just couldn't finish. Here's my review. Funny that directly beneath it LyzzyBee proclaims this one of her favorites! Different strokes, as they say.

I enjoyed your review in any case! Are you planning to post it on the book page?

I read your review and want to reply - but I have to go to bed. Hurt my back today and can't think anymore. I did put it on the book page.

Great review of one of the few IMs I haven't read...well done Lucy!

Thank you very much Prue. I was very taken with this one.

Laura - I'm going to respond over on the Apprentice thread of the Murdoch group.

>82 sibylline:: thanks Lucy, I'll pop on over there.

Well, I'm having a fit - we've got a major snowstorm bearing down on us and I had no idea. Bleh.

There was just recently an article in our local paper about ice circles. Your photograph is beautiful--I've never been lucky enough to see one:

http://www.ravallirepublic.com/news/local/article_f75864c4-82de-11e2-b2d3-001a4b...

Ugh on the snow--we had an inch Sunday after being in the 50's on Saturday. More is predicted this week.

Thanks for posting that - what an incredible huge one that is. Now if we could only solve where crop circles come from so easily!!!!!!

Ugh is right. Snow, don't you know you are, like, so OVER. Plus it was 1 degree F this morning. I feel sort of indignant.

Meanwhile - despite how appallingly badly edited the Cro Magnon book is (I found a whole DUPLICATED almost verbatim paragraph) I have learned something I didn't know, about how close to being wiped out homo sapiens was, about 70,000 years ago when a huge volcano called Mount Toba blew in Sumatra.....Over forty times bigger than Krakatoa and the other one in 1815 that cause 'the year with no summer...... ' I simply did not know this..... how did I miss it? Anyhow, pretty much all the homo sapiens running around out of Africa died, only a few survived in South Africa in harsh and difficult conditions - as few as 10,000 homo sapiens survived - and that is why we are all so closely related, we all come from this little group that made it. Neandertals were in Europe somewhere and I guess some of them also made it, only to die out 40,000 years down the road as Homo sapiens took up all the oxygen. I have wondered how we could all be descended from pretty much the same 'grandmother' and now I know. What a harsh time that must have been. Before the explosion, humans were pretty much doodling along, but it also seems to have caused some kind of galvanization of our mental abilities - which is interesting too.

Here in South East England we had snow last Monday - it took me two hours to do a usually ten minute drive - and then the school was closed on Tuesday so I had a snow day. That's not right in the middle of March. But I had it easy: a lot of cars were stranded overnight on the main road to the south coast.

As always, I'm in awe about how insightful and eloquent your reviews are. You are slowly converting me to the idea of reading Murdock, I was always quite intrigued but thought her one of those "difficult" writers who I typically find a little underwhelming.
I also LOVE your ice circle picture. How amazing that it occurs naturally. It immediately reminded me of the sort of thing land artists like Andy Goldsworthy take hours constructing. I couldn't find anything quite like it online, but I know he has worked extensively in ice, like so:

Wow, Lucy - that Cro Magnon info is fascinating. And to think most of us don't know how close to extinction we came. Scary!

88 That is exquisite!

Murdoch's work is definitely not for the faint of heart, but I made up my mind that I wouldn't read just one of them - I would read a lot of them and then decide, this based on what I've learned about her here and there over the years. So far this strategy is proving to be very rewarding, but that might not be the case for everyone.

Here's a pic of the crater lake formed by mount Toba and a bit of info:



The worst volcanic eruption in the past two million years took place in northwest Sumatra, 74,000 years ago. When Mount Toba blew, it spewed out ten billion tons of ash, and left a huge hole in the ground. Today, that hole is Lake Toba -- fifty-five miles long, twenty miles wide, and over 1600 feet deep. At the center is Samosir Island -- a lovely tourist spot and the largest island-within-an-island in the world. Website of John Lienhard.....

Wow! Great review of *GA*, Lucy, and fascinating info about ice circles and Mount Toba and homo sapiens. I'm happy to be educated!

Me too! I didn't know about a single one of those things three days ago!

So sorry to hear about your back--hope it is feeling better.

Thank you - it is already better - I iced it diligently and I think I fell on it 'straight' - so it didn't get out of alignment which makes a huge difference.

A big dump of wet snow fell last night here too. Pah.

>94 ronincats:. Your back? Sorry, I must have missed that post. Hope you're better.

Double ugh on the back. I've been fighting my back and neck since I fell on some ice at the end of January--and then got rear ended a few days later (also an ice thing).

I signed up for Booktopia in Bellingham, Washington. They've just announced the authors, one being Jonathan Evison. I read your review of West of Here and have ordered the audiobook through ILL. One of my reasons for going is that I've only been to the Olympic peninsula once and absolutely loved it. Since you said you learned a bit about the area, I decided to give it a go despite your lukewarm review.

The best part of the book is the setting, so you'll enjoy it - the weakest part is just something to do with the overall structure - in a way it might make it a better listen than read - the reader was really good! So I think you will find it very worthwhile.

That's ok, B, I think I miss a lot of things that people post, even when I think I'm reading attentively - I think I dodged a bullet - it still hurts a bit, but I think in a week it will be history - fell on some ice hidden under snow on a path I walk on all the time - something overflowed, I guess, but there was just a smooth sheet under there, naturally on a slope...... gah.

Lucy, you're Hottie #1!! As hot as it gets!!!

Loving the pic of the ice circle -- it looks as if it's something out of mythology, poised to swallow up an unwary Tardis that happens past...

Good to learn about Chabon. I have yet to sample any of his works -- which would you suggest that I start with?

Nice job, Lucy.

>70 sibylline: Amazing.

I love your review of The Good Apprentice. I perused the Iris Murdoch selections at Half Price Books last weekend and ended up buying A Severed Head. Your review makes me want to go back and pick up that one to go with it. :-)

You are all too nice. A hottie? Really. I'll have to go and gloat. My word, I thought I was just rambling on and on and on.

If you are going to read Murdoch come and find the Iris Murdoch Readers group - IRIS

For no particular reason, mainly, I guess because I don't think I'll finish anything anytime soon, i'm going to report briefly on what I am reading.....

***March Current Reads***
Graceling Kristin Cashore fantasy
- Succumbing to impulsivity and because somebody or other on LT recently mentioned they enjoyed it, I picked it up. We gave it to our daughter for Christmas, and she had started it and then put it down. It is definitely YA fare but has good flow and energy and quite good writing. Reminds me a little of Cornelia Funke, but less dark.
Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age gave birth to the First Modern Humans Brian Fagan anthro.
Well, unsurprisingly this continues to be a slog with little bursts of sunlight in the form of truly interesting information. I didn't know there were so many ways a book could be poorly written and edited!
✔ VMC March The Clever Woman of the Family Charlotte Mary Yonge f
March 20? Already? And I have read about twenty pages into the first chapter. There is something in the 'tone' that is making me baulk..... maybe the word is 'arch' or 'overly vivacious', anyhow, I'm not sure I can read it. If I haven't gotten into it by the end of the month I will put it down and try a different Virago.
♬ The Paris Wife Paula McClain f (audio - library)
Over the couple of weeks I've been listening to this, Hadley (as McClain has 'channeled' her and I believe she has) has grown on me; I'm convinced me of her solidity, warmth, charm and love, both naive and wise, of 'Tatie'. It may not be all exactly what she felt, but I have a feeling it's not far off. Once again I am so grateful for the existence of audio books - the limited choices at the local libraries force me to try books I never would ordinarily.

When I get around to reading one of the Murdochs, I will definitely check in on the GR thread.
Thanks, Lucy!

Hi, Lucy! Company is gone, house is clean--other than doing laundry. So I'm making the rounds of the threads to try and catch up. Thanks so much for your encouragement in the final phases of the spring cleaning--it was appreciated!

33. YA fantasy ****

Rock solid YA fantasy. I don't know what else needs to be said. ****

On to book 2 which happily they have at our local library where I was working today.

Back to add that I am doing abysmally on the book acquisition front this month. Not only that, but I'm also failing miserably to read off my tbr list this month. Sigh. Too many shiny temptations.

I've forked out a king's ransom in quilting material this month. It's just so darn seductive and cheerful when it's all bleak and snowy out there.

Hi Lucy, I loved your opening picture of the Tardis library and just thought what a clever daughter you have *smile*.

Your comments about Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age gave Brith to the First Modern Humans got me worried as it is on my TBR and reading list for this year. However, I think I just will wait for your final verdict.

>70 sibylline: What a stunning photo. Seeing that I really envy where you live. It just looks so beautiful.

However, I wish you and your family a great weekend.

Every time I step out my door, I feel gratitude that I can live here all the time now. Even when I am whining about the weather I am secretly enjoying it. Unless I have to drive in bad snow. Then I am not enjoying anything about it at all.

Three more chapter of the Cro-Magnon book - I probably will advise anyone who is interested in early man to go ahead and read it, with the proviso that they haven't gone mad when they can't figure out what a sentence means, or have a feeling they just read that very same paragraph..... These last few chapters have been slightly better or else I'm just used to it. I probably won't be telling anyone to throw it in the dust-heap.

I was poking about in my journal yesterday - last year at this time we had a week of 70-80 degree F days and a Red Flag fire warning across the state. The year before was just like this, two steps forward and three back.....slow slow slow.

I wish I lived more north. I despise NJ weather...no secretly enjoying.

Ah, good. Glad to see you liked Graceling, Lucy. All of the ones Cashore has out so far are really good.

I know exactly what you mean about gratitude for where you live and secretly enjoying the weather. I love the sharp contrasts of the seasons and would be quite miserable living somewhere where it all just kind of muddled together in a blurry kind of way. After the dog days of summer, with the crickets sawing away in their Mahleresque fashion, that first crisp evening of autumn where the day has been warm but the evening needs a sweater, well, is there anything like it? And in Spring when the windows can be thrown open at last, to be lying in bed drifting off when the wild and mournful call of a loon comes up from the lake, oh yes, I feel grateful right into my marrow.

What I liked about Graceling was the sturdy writing and the fact that she gets on with the story and frequently surprises me with some little turn or other. She's a real story teller. She's a good 'namer' too - important piece of fantasy to me.

Mid-Atlantic weather does have some of the worst features of both the north and the south - really very cold and wintry in the dead of winter and way way too hot and steamy in the summer, relentlessly so. Your part of NJ has some beauty spots though, or at least quick access to them from where you are up in the northwest. The only time I truly was impressed with Philadelphia was in the spring. We do not have that here, no long lovely days with the smell of mock orange in the air. Spring happens overnight sometime around the end of May. It's late and it lasts about a day and a half. Although last year was bizarre.....

Tomorrow - have I said this already? - is the annual pancake and MAPLE SYRUP breakfast at the local church community center and then tours of the Sugar houses. The conditions will be good for sugaring, so i expect it will be well attended. I am going to resist the pancakes since Mr. Sib is out of town (he wouldn't miss it for the world) but I do have one sugar house visit in mind.

Oh my gosh Tui, so lusciously put. We don't have loons - our pond is too small - but frogs frogs frogs.

Especially the wood frogs (we call them peepers) in their two week mating period, when they sing to the stars!

Tui - I hope this link will work - if it doesn't type in "Northern Woodlands Frog Symphony" in your search engine. You'll get the magazine and the article is top right.
FROGS

I had no idea before reading this that spring peepers and Wood frogs were not one and the same. But I had noticed that before the peepers really got going there was a quieter bunch, but I assumed it was something to do with being immature.

Well I'll be darned! We have both but what we hear the most are the peepers. Thanks, Lucy! I guess because the peepers ARE in the woods across the road, we just assumed they were wood frogs, one and the same. You learn something every day.

34. ♬ **** f

Another semi-random pick off the shelves of our local library that I was all set not to like. However, whether it was the steady voice of the reader or the unvarnished and down-to-earth voice Paula McClain gives Hadley, I came around about half way through -convinced that if McClain didn't have it all right, she had it darned close. The point is that Hadley was a certain kind of person, maybe not the most exciting sort, but intelligent and sensitive, while also being sturdy and grounded. Badly injured as a small child her mother babied her, and it was only after her mother was gone that Hadley began, in her late twenties to venture out of the safety of home in St. Louis. Encountering 'Hem' on her very first trip to Chicago to visit a childhood girlfriend, that was that for both of them. For the next five and a half years they were together, until Hemingway's destiny swept him onward and Hadley while grieving, relinquished him to his fate. At first I thought, what does he see in this only recently emerged mouse of a girl? But as she stepped up to all of the challenges he threw at her; moving to Paris with very little money, walking over a tough and snowy mountain pass in the Alps in what sounds like a pair of loafers, watching the bullfights, staying up late and getting plastered night after night (this takes strength), associating with the best and the brightest of the day - most of them dressed to the nines and herself in the same old blouses and skirts as they were on a tight budget - I saw her hold her own and stay consistently herself through all these challenges, remaining true to herself, honest and decent. I had to remind myself often how young they were - he was 21 and she 28 when they married, I can forgive Hemingway most of his sins (at least in this book) simply by virtue of reminding myself of that fact. I was convinced of his love and his reliance on Hadley, but I did spend some time thinking, as I listened, about how difficult it is to render what it is that makes an artist like Hemingway so truly different from the rest of us. He had a ruthless side, a brutal side and a need for constant excitement and new material. Hadley loved Ernest the man and for awhile brought out the best in him but McClain successfully (as I believe is her aim) shows that this was not enough, could never be enough for someone with that profound an urge to create - and do something new that captured the emerging modern spirit. His ambition was limitless and it drove him. It is clear that Hadley, while she wishes to be supportive can't follow him, no one could. And no one did. It was a very fine listen, not the best book ever, but very solid, just like Hadley herself. I cried a little at the end, which is high praise indeed from me. ****

Excellent review!

35. *** popular anthropology

This was on my Christmas list and I was so looking forward to it. Now I feel like the Grinch. And I fully realize that it is extra mean and unorthodox to start a review with complaints first, but in case you don't read on I have to. I will end with the positives.

Am I the only person who noticed the diagram and the text that go with it on p. 65 simply DO NOT MATCH UP AT ALL?

Or how about this - on page 102 last paragraph of Chapter 5:
Small in number, widely dispersed over inhospitable terrain- these anatomically modern people from Africa and then the Near East were the primordial ancestors of the Cro-Magnons. Within a remarkably short time, some of their descendants moved out of the Near East into Eurasia and Europe -- to a completely different world. And about 11 pages later in Chapter 6, tell me this doesn't ring bells in your head: Small in number, widely dispersed over inhospitable terrain-these were the primordial ancestors of the Cro-Magnons. Within a few millenia {or should that be.....a remarkably short time?} some of their descendants moved out of the Near East into Eurasia and Europe- to a completely different world.
To top that he used the phrase 'small in number' in the next paragraph..... which is also weirdly repetitive. In fact, huge portions of the book were weirdly repetitive...... it's full of sentences where, say, the word 'now' might appear three times.

My next beef is about the 'imagineering' - I can't tell you how many times a paragraph starts with "Imagine a family clad in skins moving silently through the rocky landscape..." or whatever..... only to conclude. "Of course none of this is known with any certainty." If I want fiction I'll read Clan of the Cave Bear - a darned good read actually! It's not the speculating per se, it is the frequency with which Fagan nonchalantly tosses of a disclaimer at the end of most of these flights of fancy.... so you end up not knowing what to believe. Are these his speculations entirely? Are they speculations which are generally received and bandied about? I'm not against some speculation, but it's better to make clear from the outset that that is what you are going to do, and an even better idea to back up your ideas if you can. My feeling about it is that Fagan has had it beaten into him that to write popular anthropology he has to make it 'come alive' regularly, so he struggled to come up with these scenes.

The problem with this kind of negligent editing is that it throws everything else in the book into question - you don't know what to believe. I ended up looking up everything I could on the internet and by and large the information offered is correct.

The book moves, albeit somewhat erratically (but hey, the ice went back and forth that way too), 'forward' in time, starting with an examination of the various African hominids, to the received ideas about the various exoduses from Africa, the calamities (like the huge Mount Toba eruption which almost wiped us off the planet) and the slow grinding effect of the ice ages. He expands on the theories about how, when, why the Neandertals died out - the climate changes as the tilt turned toward warm and/or the competition with the new homo sapiens, the Cro-magnon who could think in ways they could not (generlaly received speculation). I have a few new take-aways, Mount Toba, the fascinating Sungir digs in Eastern Europe/Russia, an even earlier glimpse of dogs teamed up with humans (30,000 years and I'm convinced I have the DNA of the first official dog-lover in my make-up). He describes hunting practices and methods convincingly, although I found many of his description of tool-making impossible to follow and plan to find some of the anachronistic stone tool-maker you tubes vids which inevitably exist..... Nonetheless I have a slightly more vivid picture of the emergence from Africa in waves that responded over thousand year cycles of changes in weather, creeping northward and down again, the Neanderthals succumbing to the inevitable, and the cro-magnon while not giving away, absorbing the new farming practices brought to them from the east, changing slowly from a hunter-gatherer life to a more settled not long before the great empires of the near east, India and Egypt begin to get underway and 'civilization' as we know it begins in earnest.

I'm giving it a *** because I don't think there is anything egregiously wrong with it and it is perfectly readable - just bear in mind if you find your brain locked in some feedback loop it probably isn't you, it's Fagan. Shake your head a little and move on.

I'm looking forward to reading The Paris Wife as I recently finished A moveable feast and would love to see a little more insight into Hadley.

Two very helpful reviews!
I'm afraid that I couldn't tolerate the Fagan, so I'll remain ignorant of Cro-Magnons. Of course, I have read Hominids by Robert Sawyer, but that's Neanderthals.....

I got nuthin'--just thought I'd say Hi. You talked me out of the Fagan, and I don't particularly like fictionalized biography, so I'll give both of these a pass. Hope you have good weather for the weekend!

It's so wonderful to love where you live, Lucy. I'm glad for you.

I too am far too much of a Neanderthal to appreciate the Cro-Magnon, but nevertheless Lucy I will take the opportunity to wish you a wonderful weekend.

#122 I've been dithering over The Paris Wife in my local library - not whether to read it but whether to go for audio or print - and I think your review has made up my mind; it will be audio for me!

I hope you enjoy it - the American reader is perfect for it, she has exactly the right accent and tone for a woman of that class and time. And she shifts her voice amazingly well for the rest of them, better for the women, but it's always apparent in a group who's saying what.

Catching up... The ongoing great ratings for Iris Murdoch make me consider to select her The Sea, the Sea as my 250th book from the 1,001 list. I am planning to read it soon anyway, so why not a little sooner? Or one of her 3 other on the list, but TSTS is already on my shelf.

And The Paris Wife is another one I've been meaning to read for a while now. Ordered the Kindle sample for now. I loved A Moveable Feast!

Have a great week!

36. YA fantasy ****

Not quite as strong as the first, Graceling, however, once again there were enough plot twists and interesting characters to keep my attention, if not riveted, than willingly carrying on reading. One other reviewer found it hard to read (or care) about a 'monster' girl who was so beautiful that she had problems with people falling all over themselves over her, but I thought she handled it with humor and convincing (welll, you know what I mean) predicaments. The 'monsters' are creatures of brilliant hue of all kinds from birds to insects, mice to people and the predator ones like to eat one another.... but they'll eat anything, really. Fire, the monster girl, becomes the _target of everyone's desire and she must figure out how to use her powers in a way that is not harmful.... There's no shying away from death but there are sometimes slightly jarring transitions back to the romantic side of the story. I probably should rate it 3 1/2 but I'll stick with four. We meet the dastardly Leck as a young boy in this one, and that was a satisfying bit of plot developing that I imagine matters in the subsequent book as he brings the attention of the "Dellians' to the fact of the Seven Kingdoms on the other side of the great mountain range to the west where there are gracelings, but no monsters. The two kingdoms, no doubt, meet one another in the next book Bitterblue.

I have Graceling in my tbr pile and keep meaning to get to it one of these days, after all the good reviews for the series. But at least I am finally starting another long-timer from my wishlist, Leviathan.

Great review of The Paris Wife! Thumb! :)

Thank you Deb - I love it when a book surprises me.

I've decided that Krakatoa is just the sort of book I like to listen to, so while I am going to continue with it for now I am also going to see if I can get it by hook or by crook. The library consortium I belong to lists 3 nearby libraries as having it, available etc., but when I try to reserve it for ME on the computer network they suddenly switch to no, sorry, not available...... I will figure it out somehow.

Or maybe I will just keep on reading it and give up on the audio idea, somehow I was more contented with it yesterday. However I am going to give up, a few days ahead of schedule, on this month's Virago The Clever Woman of the Family. For whatever reason I cannot read it right now; I don't have the patience as I'm not in the mood for the intricacies of Victorian prose. I think I'll put it back on the shelf and try a more something more contemporary. It's not at all a judgment on the book itself.

This isn't about books. A couple of things. I just read in the newsrag I read every week (The Week) a little squib that some residential community in Arizona or Florida or wherever just voted that children be forbidden to play outside since it is too dangerous. OK that just seems so over the top weird I can't absorb it.

Secondly, on a pleasanter topic - we've been watching the change in the dynamic between our tan cat, Simon and Posey. Every now and then they play - Simon never used to play with her, Hank took on all those duties, but now Simon will even provoke her into chasing him, jumping out from somewhere etcetera. It's been a little over a month, I think, and it is so interesting how a new pattern gradually establishes itself.

OK so this is about books! I'm loving Tripoint - a C.J. Cherryh Alliance-Union story. I tend to enjoy the ones about the Merchant families. Plugging along on the Krakatoa story and, as always, greatly enjoying Flavia de Luce while I'm driving around.

Lucy, I'm happy to hear about the Simon-Posey relationship. Good for both of them!
You talked me into both Tripoint and Finity's End which I was able to order from PBS earlier this morning. Thanks!!!
And as for forbidding children to play outside --- I'm flummoxed. Maybe they're worried about running out of sunscreen????

No - they are worried about all the danger and hazards. Unbelievable.

Simon-Posey: how sweet!

#139 children be forbidden to play outside since it is too dangerous -that is so sad, and just ridiculous in my opinion. Children playing outside is a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine. There are actually a lot of risks to the children from staying indoors, including health problems from unhealthy life styles. Mr SandDune always reckons that it's the children who have the overprotective parents when they are younger, that tend to go wild when they are older teenagers because they just haven't built up the sort of skills that they need for dealing with risk in the real world.

>139 sibylline:. Sib, I love your story about Simon & Posey. Animals are so smart--they figure it out if we let them.

My black Lab Docker has seizures, and when he's going to have one he always comes and finds me, and we sit together and wait it out (they're rare these days since we put him on meds). When my older Lab Jack was alive and Docker would have a seizure, Jack would find one of his bones and bring it over to Docker and drop it on his head. Then he would stand over him until the seizure was over. I think the bone was the best thing he could think of to comfort Docker.

That is such a good story, Becky.

Yes, Rhian - it's even good to eat dirt, they say. It's really kind of a bizarre story. I have to find the magazine and look up what state/town it is.

Can't help stopping by to say that I did send the 'water sprite' photo to our local paper (a monthly) and it's on the front page. Very pleasing!

Okay - so here's the text of this article:
A Florida homeowners association has decided to ban all outdoor play to keep neighborhood children safe. No skateboards, roller blades, or bicycles are allowed on the complex's roads or common ground. Even ball playing is prohibited.

HI Lucy,
thanks for the very interesting review on Cro-magnon I am definitely still going to read it.

> 146 Are they seriously don't want to let children play? That sounds absolutely awful.

The thread for the Saramago GR is up :) So, find your copy and join us.

I hope you and your family are going to have a wonderful weekend, Lucy!

>139 sibylline:: that is lovely that Simon has stepped in with Posey.
>145 sibylline:: our last standard poodle had seizures in his early years and then again at the end of his days. Our old moggy would sit beside him and rub her head on his until he came around again. Animals are wonderful.

I would move out of that neighbourhood so fast. Kids are supposed to play outside!

Sounds to me like 'to keep neighbourhood children safe' might be more to do with keeping noise levels down and avoiding scratched to paintwork!

Simon and Posey playing together - how sweet!. Animals are amazing. People, on the other hand are stupid. Children not allowed to play outside - I think the Homeowners' Association has been out in the sun too long. I'd sure hate to be a kid in that little community. I shudder to think how children raised thusly will turn out. Children are supposed to fall off of things and run into things and hurt themselves now and again. How else are they supposed to learn?

It does seem mad and I expect that it won't last as people will ridicule them, thank goodness!

So glad to see visitors - I was looking all around lower down and was thrilled to see my name nearer to the top - I've been quiet lately.

37. sf ****1/2

Heaven knows why, but I hugely enjoyed this one - although I suspect it had as much to do with my state of mind as the book itself. Set in the Merchanter-Alliance Uni - fifteen or so years after the end of the war, I was happy to return to this corner of Cherryh's imagination after spending a lot of time with Union...... A bad 'station leave' encounter leaves Merchanter Marie Hawkins pregnant. She's not the mothering type, but her encounter with Austin Bowe while a disaster still, somehow, left her disinclined to terminate the resulting pregnancy - which happens despite several layers of birth control. Marie becomes obsessed with Bowe, traces his every move across the galaxy and is sure he is 'up to something' with his trade. While following his mother, trying to help, Young Tom Bowe, their son, now 23, through a series of well meaning mishaps ends up on board his father's ship and gradually finds out things are way more (and less) complicated than they seem. Wisely, Cherryh doesn't ever really address 'what' exactly happened 'that night'..... suffice it to say it made some sense by the end. Many of Cherry's plots are fueled by a real hurt that, given a mix of character and circumstances, goes untended, leaving the person vulnerable and unsure in difficult circumstances - almost always her stories are about who do you trust? That and the meticulous evocation of the setting, a winning combo for me. Tink is one of my favorite characters ever. ****1/2

Have a Happy Easter, Lucy.

Happy EAster, Lucy!

I'm really, really, really glad that I ordered Tripoint because of your review!

Okay, I got Tripoint and Finity's End along with Heavy Time and Hellburner to fill out the Company Wars series, since I already had the other 3. I picked up the first volume of Cyteen the other day, only to realize I didn't have the third one, so I've ordered that through PaperBackSwap as well. I read and loved 40,000 in Gehenna over 20 years ago, but remember nothing of it except I loved it. Where should I start, at this point? I feel like I need to fill in this section of Cherryh's universe before starting the Foreigner series.

Start anywhere except read HT and HB in order and the Cyteen books in order. The Company War stuff has so little internal dependency that it's fine to do that.

Roni, you have read Downbelow Station, haven't you? Tad knows best, but I'd say that it is the one to start with. I'd add that Cyteen enriches a reading of 40,000 in Gehenna immeasurably. (I actually enjoyed *40,000* a lot more than *Downbelow*. Oh, how I need to reread!)
(Hi, Lucy!)

What Tad says - I do think it is worth waiting to read the ones I'm reading now until more or less last (I think they are pretty much at the end of the Merchant-Alliance-Union series of series???). It seems that way although I haven't yet found a Cherryh site that isn't a bit confusing!

I though 40,000 in Gehenna was the most..... imagined..... yet - those Calibans and the 'weirds' all that - is really something special. Mr. Sib was very impressed with it too.

Thank you for Easter wishes and I return those to all of you and to anyone celebrating Passover as well.

I do want to encourage anyone who drops by to leave a short message. I know it is silly silly silly but I like to start fresh at the beginning of the month and it does work better if I'm at 200. But don't feel you have to if you have truly nothing to say..... I've got all weekend! I'd like to make ten books for the month too, at least, but that is less likely unless I pick up something quick...... I do have Are You My Mother languishing here.

Hi Lucy! I've been lurking not chatting much so no time like the present to say hello and wish you a fine Easter weekend.

And now you only need 39 more messages. :)

I know - I wasn't even going to bother trying but then I saw I had jumped ahead today after languishing all week..... I couldn't resist. I'm a great believer in lurking, that one doesn't always have to leave a message.

>156 ronincats: to 159: If I was really pressed to provide a reading order for the Alliance/Union stories, I'd probably go with the following:

1. Downbelow Station


2. Merchanter's Luck


3. Heavy Time


4. Hellburner


5. RimRunners


6. Cyteen


7. Regenesis


8. Forty Thousand in Gehenna


9. Tripoint


10. Finity's End


11. Serpent's Reach

This is based entirely on how I think it flows best in terms of revealing stuff...a little here, a little backstory, a little on that side, etc. It's not chronological but that doesn't really matter except for the HT/HB and C/R pairs.

Hi Lucy!

Btw — and, yes Lucy, I did split this message just to bump your count! :-) — the three Faded Sun stories and the Angel With a Sword books are set in the same universe, as are the Chanur books. However, while the Chanur books are separated by distance from Alliance/Union, the Faded Sun & Angel books are separated by being in the future. Serpent's Reach is also far future, of course, but I tend to include it with the A/U books because of the presence of the azi.

Hm - somehow I've missed Regenesis and I need to find Serpent's Reach too! Oh boy, I am so going over my quota!

Posting again - and I'd love the same favor over on my thread! - to say that that is a very helpful list, Tad. I think, hard as it is for me to believe it, that the Morgaine saga is also in the same universe so many years later that nothing of Alliance/Union is left.
Lucy, you do need Regenesis even though it isn't half the book that Cyteen is. I was just so happy to be back with Ari and Justin and Grant that it didn't matter.

I have nothing to say about your current reading, but I am wondering what you're planning for your April Iris Murdoch?

>166 LizzieD:: I believe you're right...at least, Cherryh has made that claim. I think it was based upon something being called "Union" — I don't remember what — in one of the books. However, since the main Alliance/Union books are so clearly science fiction, and the Morgaine saga so science fantasy in tone, I just acknowledge her claim without paying it much mind.

I'm building toward a re-read of those four books. I absolutely loved them the first time through. I hope they hold up to a second reading.

Adding a message and wishing you a happy Easter weekend, Lucy!

Thank you all for unlurking! I'm happy to return the favor any time with extras. Just let me know.

I noticed that - on one list - that Morgaine was listed as wayyy later in the same uni and found that hard to believe too. One reason I am finding these lists hard, maybe!

Ari, Justin and Grant??? OH my goodness, I'm galloping off to see if I can get it! Watch me run! Serpent's Reach is already on its way - nabbed it at PBS, but not Regenesis.

B - I want to read The Philosopher's Pupil next, only I haven't got a copy of it...... a small but definitely thoroughgoing problem..... so while I wait I was thinking I would start the biography since that I do have. I hope I won't dislike it as much as you have. I am warned so I'll probably just let the names wash over me and try to pick out the essentials as I go. I do have a 'fast reading' mode for certain kinds of books (e.g. reading for information) so maybe it will be useful here. I don't use that gear much these days, but it is a useful one.

I have to go outside now and take this picture of something interesting I saw - a couple of things - while letting the dog out first thing this a.m. I'll post them if they turn out half way decently.

Tad, if I'm anything to go by, you'll still enjoy the Morgaine saga. I read it 3 years ago maybe and was quite taken with them. Oh! I don't think I ever got to Exile's Gate --- more fun waiting!
Lucy, most of my Cherryh holdings came from PBS. What a great place!
I also intend to read more in the Iris bio next month. My main thrust, though, will be to read Master of the Senate. It is absolutely not a slog; Caro could not be more appealing, but it is very, very long. Now I'm off to be a bit productive before I sit down with *Cleopatra* again. Who could resist an author who talks about the lack of solid information in these terms? "In a life of barely salvaged, emotionally overblown scenes, the 44 return to Alexandria is the one that got away, also the most opera-ready. No librettist has touched it, possibly because there is no text."
In fact, I like her so much that I just spent $8 to get both her bio of Vera Nabakov and A Great Improvisation about Franklin in France. I wouldn't have characterized myself as wildly interested in either of the subjects, but I'm now looking forward to them!

I guess I should have broken all that up into 3 posts at least. Sorry, Lucy!

I think I'm going to sail up to 200 no problem at this rate. I would be interested indeed in reading about Vera N. Also about Franklin in Paris - given that Ben and Me was one of my favorite books......

And here is a photo I took - some animal, I think at the time I identified the tracks as being those of a fisher cat, have emerged as the ice begins to melt - taking longer to melt as the snow was compressed there.


And yes, that is how things are here, lots of ice..... but the pussy willows are out and I saw some cardinals frolicking, so there is hope.

Tad, I've read 1, 2, 5, 8 and 11 in your list. I will never read Downbelow Station again--it was good but huge and emotion-wracking--but might reread Merchanter's Luck and Rimrunners, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. I have everything except Regenesis here on my shelves. Thanks for the order--I think I'll follow it and reread as necessary.

Hi Lucy, just checking in to make it an even 175. We had a beautiful day today and I went out in the garden for the first time this season. It was lovely. I hope you're having a nice weekend!

Tracks of a fisher cat??

*goes to look up "fisher cat"*

Found pictures. Not really a cuddly sort of critter, is it?

So not cuddly, one of the biggest meanest of the weasel (mustelid) family....... they're the ones that take everyone's cats around here.

I didn't know much about them until I moved here - I think they are one of those beasties that was almost wiped out and is recovering slowly - moving into the US slowly from Canada now - and thus many of us grew up never hearing about them. Even now I don't think they extend much further south than the most northern states - although there should be a few in the forest not far from you Ellen.

I have seen one and they are quite large and move incredibly fast in a sort of humping rippling motion..... the dog I had with me didn't bark or anything, stayed by my leg, interestingly. Wise move!

Well, I can't really expect a lot of visits if I don't give something in return, so here is a photo of La Prettyssima Signorina that Mr. Sib took yesterday on an epic walk - Posey was having THE BEST time ever and you can tell.

That smile is just tooooo cute! What a sweet little dog!

That fisher cat is fascinating--I've never heard of it before and I'm sure I've never seen a picture of one. Wiki says that it's of the weasel family. It also says that despite their name, they seldom eat fish--and obviously they're not cats. They're omnivores that feed on a wide variety of small animals. Wow-- really interesting, Sib.

Happy Easter Lucy! Loved the Posey photos, ice melts and Cro Magnon discussion. I'm reminded that I still haven't read any Cherryh.

What a PRETTY, HAPPY dog! I'm glad to see a new picture of the charming Miss P.!
I'd never heard of a fisher cat either - golly! I thought that you were being poetic about a wild cat of some sort and was going to ask about it. Keep all your little ones by you!!!
Happy Easter, friend!

I'll say it again, "HAPPY EASTER, LUCY!"

Posey! Hurray! Thanks for the pic, she looks adorable and much cuter than that fisher creature.
185 -- you 're almost there!

The fisher cat scares me. Posey does not.

Happy Easter!

Great Posey picture! I've seen fisher cats at the SD Zoo, and they stink. Literally. And Happy Easter if I haven't already wished it to you--I've completely lost track of who I have and haven't.

Fisher cats have a very scary set of teeth too and I have no idea why they are called Fishers (they don't eat fish) or cats (they sure aren't). Muskrats really stink too and also foxes are quite smelly - in fact a goodly number of the animals that live near us are stinkers one way or another!

We had a gloriously warm day, up into the mid-50's - the sun went away after awhile and a bit of a wind came up, but no matter.

Hope everyone had an excellent day with family or however you like to spend it. A little reading time? I pilfered some of my daughter's jelly beans and took a marvelous walk.

It's looking good for tomorrow's changeover to April - I would love to finish another book too, but that isn't likely.

I only can agree with everyone else. Such a great Posey picture! Not much reading time here. Have been on nightshift the past 3 nights and currently I am on my break.

It is April 1 - with only ten posts here to go and a busy day I think I can wait til later in the day to start the new month. I don't think I did so well as the previous two.....

It does look and feel like a changing season outside now at long last. What a relief.

Hi Bianca!

Nine posts to go now.

Nine Eight to go!

I'm only wondering if we're enabling some sort of OCD "thing"--ha.

Oh dear, I seem to have messed up the march of the numbers.

ETA:

Yes, probably, but blame it on LT for this ridiculous '200' post turnover ......

I thank you for those, they are beautiful.....

Man this is just taking forever!

And I thank you all for your patience, tolerance, and understanding. I am so happy I feel free to indulge my weirdness here in such great company!

Ah - success! The magic 'continue' line has appeared!