Roni 'ncats Relishes 2012: Books and Arts and Crafts Part 4

Books read in 2012

* indicates re-read, # indicates library book, + indicates Kindle book, % indicates Book Off The Shelf (BOTS)

January
1. The Night Circus# by Erin Morgenstern (387 pp.)
2. Cannery Row# by John Steinbeck (196 pp.)
3. Darkship Thieves% by Sarah A. Hoyt (479 pp.)
4. Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair (447 pp.)
5. The Family Trade% by Charles Stross (308 pp.)
6. Maxwell's Closet+ by Steven Belskie
7. The Goose Girl# by Shannon Hale (400 pp.)
8. Salt: A World History+ by Mark Kurlansky (450 pp.)
9. A Proper Companion+ by Candice Hern
10. Organized Simplicity+ by Tsh Oxenreider (256 pp.)

February
11. The Pride of Chanur* by C. J. Cherryh (224 pp.)
12. Crochet Master Class+ by Leinhayser and Weiss (191 pp.)
13. Troubled Waters# by Sharon Shinn (391 pp.)
14. Tuesdays at the Castle# by Jessica Day George (225 pp.)
15. Chanur's Venture* by C. J. Cherryh (312 pp.)
16. The Kif Strike Back* by C. J. Cherryh (299 pp.)
17. Chanur's Homecoming* by C. J. Cherry (398 pp.)
18. The Peach Keeper# by Sarah Addison Allen (271 pp.)
19. Enna Burning# by Shannon Hale (317 pp.)
20. The Wild Ways# by Tanya Huff (295 pp.)
21. Midnight in Austenland# by Shannon Hale (272 pp.)
22. Timeless by Gail Carriger (386 pp.)
23. Oath of Fealty* by Elizabeth Moon (471 pp.)
24. Kings of the North* by Elizabeth Moon (478 pp.)
25. Echoes of Betrayal by Elizabeth Moon (451 pp.)
26. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children# by Ransom Riggs (348 pp.)
27. The Hidden Family% by Charles Stross (309 pp.)

March
28. Firebird # by Jack McDevitt (375 pp.)
29. Undone Deeds by Mark Del Franco (323 pp.)
30. Murder of a Royal Pain % by Denise Swanson (248 pp.)
31. Finding Clarity + by Kim Novak ((242 pp.)
32. Lord Pete %r by Dorothy Sayers (481 pp.)
33. River Secrets # by Shannon Hale (290 pp.)
34. A Gift of Dragons #+ by Anne McCaffrey (304 pp.)
35. Ready Player One # by Ernest Cline (372 pp.)
36. Glory in Death # by J. D. Robb (293 pp.)
37. Blood Maidens # by Barbara Hambly (244 pp.)
38. The Cruellest Month # by Louise Penny (311 pp.)
39. The Genesis of Science # by James Hannam (355 pp.)
40. Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead + by Christiana Miller (330 pp.)
41. Among Others # by Jo Walton (302 pp.)
42. A Discovery of Witches # by Deborah Harkness (579 pp.)
43. The Kingdom of Gods % by N. K. Jemisin (600 pp.)
44. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelations by Elaine Pagels (177 pp.)
45. The Coroner's Lunch # by Colin Cotterill (257 pp.)
46. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie # by Alan Bradley (373 pp.)
47. Petty Treason # by Madeleine Robins (316 pp.)
48. Entangled + by Barbara Ellen Brink (340 pp.)

Books read in 2012--2nd Quarter

* indicates re-read, # indicates library book, + indicates Kindle book, % indicates Book Off The Shelf (BOTS)

April
49. The Screwtape Letters* by C. S. Lewis
50. Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers (511 pp.)
51. James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon# by Julie Phillips (405 pp.)
52. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels (151 pp)
53. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever# by James Tiptree, Jr. (520 pp.)
54. Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (344 pp.)
55. Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch (389 pp.)
56. Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip (278 pp.)

May
57. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (146 pp.)
58. The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman (403 pp.)
59. Tea With the Black Dragon by R. A. MacEvoy (166 pp.)
60. Jesus, Interrupted by Bart Ehrman (292 pp.)
61. A Sensible Lady by Judith Lown (187 pp.)
62. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (442 pp.)
63. The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (470 pp.)
64. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (456 pp.)
65. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones (404 pp.)
66. Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore (225 pp.)
67. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (386 pp.)
68. Illegal Magic by Arlene Blakely (227 pp.)
69. Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer (330 pp.)
70. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotteril (256 pp.)
71. The Master of Heathcrest Hall by Galen Beckett (718 pp.)

June
72. Changes by Mercedes Lackey (326 pp.)
73. Daughter of Smoke and Fire by Laini Taylor (418 pp.)

Books acquired in 2012

This will be only dead tree books and books for which I actually paid money on my Kindle. All the free Kindle books don't count.

January
1. The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber (PaperBackSwap) (replace)
2. Disappearing Act by Margaret Ball (PaperBackSwap) (replace)
3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Kindle-Amazon) $14.99
4. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (Kindle-Amazon) $.99 READ
5. Impossible Things by Connie Willis (PaperBackSwap)
6. Ashes of Victory by David Weber (paperbackswap) (replace)
7. War of Honor by David Weber (PaperBackSwap) (replace)
8. A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penney (library sale) $1.00

February
9. Crochet Master Class by Leinhayser and Weiss (Amazon-Kindle) $15.99 READ
10. Undone Deeds by Mark del Franco (Amazon) $7.99 READ
11. Timeless by Gail Carriger (Amazon) $7.99 READ
12. Echoes of Betrayal by Elizabeth Moon (Amazon) $16.58 READ
13. Reading the Old Testament by Lawrence Boadt (PBS)
14. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (PBS)

March
15. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey (BookMooch) (replace)
16. Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers (ER) READ
17. Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip (PBS) READ
18. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels (Amazon) READ

April
19. The Master of Heathcrest Hall by Galen Beckett (B&N) READ
20. Green Belt Kakuro
21. Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch (Mysterious Galaxy) READ
22. Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (Mysterious Galaxy) READ
23. 97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman (gift)
24. The Bird Catcher by Laura Jacobs (gift)

May
25. The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin (ER)

Somehow I always miss it when my thread hits 250! But this time I realized it pretty quickly. I'm still working on all those books: Chapter 5 of The Gnostic Gospels, Chapter 17 of James Tiptree, Jr, and the title story, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever of that short story collection. I'm still reading the poetry, a poem or two a night, as well, but have the Hannam book on hold for the moment.

Got all my tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, eggplants, and peppers in last Thursday before the rains, and it all looks wonderful now. We bought a new table and chairs for the deck today, and are ready for warmer weather this week.

I fell very behind on your last thread but it looks like I'm early to this one!

Hi Roni. Nice, as always, to see your data. I'm eager to see pics of your sprouting garden and your sweet peas. Are you still throwing? We haven't seen pictures lately of your beautiful pottery.

Hi Roni - impressive reading so far. Looking forward to what comes next:)

just keeping you on my radar.. I got a bit behind in the last thread :P

Whoo-hoo, new thread! *sits down, waits patiently for books*

New thread! Always feels so good, nice and new. I see you are reading less in April, as am I -- I'll be lucky to make five books I think.

Hi Roni, just came to admire your new thread. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Wow, what a wonderful reading year you're having, Roni! I have to remember to try Shannon Hale's Goose Girl at some point.

got my veggies in too, now if the rain would stop going over the top of us and give a nice shower I wouldn't have to water...

What I brought home Saturday:



Thanks for stopping by the new place, Anne, Brenda, Calm, Kath, Faith, Lucy, Marie, Joe and Beeg! Brenda, you anticipated me, you see! Garden pictures will follow. Lucy, the Tiptree books are slowing me down bigtime. Thanks, Joe, I think you'd like it, remembering it IS YA. Beeg, garden pictures coming up in next message.

Sweet peas--today's picking



Tomatoes in pots, plus the petunias left over from last year which have had their best bloom yet. Our new table set is in the background.



And the green beans in the bed, looking happy.

The sweet peas are gorgeous! I never knew they could be so colorful. I see purple ones in the hills, but never red.

Love the bowls from Saturday's batch. And you know I am crazy 'bout those sweet peas - they are really beautiful. Looks like the garden is off to a good start too. You've been busy . . .

Beautiful bowls -- I love the color combinations! The only thing better would be purple. Just saying. :)

Well, as long as you're making purple, it's my favourite colour ...
;-)

Bookmarking you again

Lovely bowls and pretty flowers. Yay!

Hi Roni! I've been a bit out of circulation this year, but am trying to catch up a bit now...

Looks like you've been very busy this year - lovely pots, lovely garden, many, many books read! I'm a big fan of sweet peas too - they smell just wonderful. I always try to have a few on my allotment (which is looking a lot less well tended than your plant pots...).

So. Being way behind with everyone, I'm not going to try to catch up on your old threads, but I'm wondering what your highlights have been so far this year? Hope you enjoyed The Night Circus (it was one of my favourites last year)?

When you post pictures of your pottery, it makes me miss my pottery class *sigh* Those bowls are lovely, Roni.

Also the sweet peas! I didn't know they came in different colors, my mom's were always just pink!

Those bowls are wonderful!
Love the plant pictures, too. You have such a lovely garden of stuff!

Love the sweetpeas and the pots Roni :-)

> 16: Looking good, the garden, nice, warm and sunny.
Over here we could use some sun, it has been such a cold and rainy day today :-(
Your pictures cheered me up!

Thank you, Eris and Brenda. I do love my sweet peas so, and yes, the domesticated ones come in lots of colors, Eris and Blue.

Purple is one of my favorites as well, Sarah and Humouress. Unfortunately, it is not a common glaze nor an easy one to get right.

Welcome, Sara and Morphy. Morphy, I've been poking along on John Carter of Mars on my Kindle--but I first read it in 5th grade, when I loved it--the perfect age!

Fliss, so good to see you! The Night Circus was my first book of 2012 and a perfect 5 for me.

Amber and Heather, glad you enjoy the pots and plants! Thanks for stopping by.

Anita, I'm so glad my pictures were able to cheer you up! Give that rascal Ari a hug for me.

*waving* at Roni

Oops, forgot that I came to my thread to celebrate the release of 6 more books. The library took my hardbound Hunger Games trilogy and the Warrior Heir, Wizard Heir, Dragon Heir trilogy as well. Both were first edition hardbound in beautiful condition, and I could never have gotten what they were worth in trade or second hand. Now they are off my shelves and somewhere where lots of people have a chance to use the.

Oooh, Stasia did a drive-by while I was typing that last message. Hope you are enjoying your two weeks of freedom, lady!

#30: That is terrific, Roni! I am glad to see that your books have gone to a good home.

#31: I am trying my level best.

>30 ronincats:: Your willpower astounds me. Just reading that you had gotten rid of your Hunger Games trilogy made me feel a physical wrench -- I can't imagine not having my copies of those (or any other book I have enjoyed) here to reread whenever I wish (mine are lent out to a friend at the moment, which is hard enough for me). I admire your generosity, Roni.

Hi, Roni ~ Though I commend you on your generosity, I agree with beserene. Giving away my books (the ones I really enjoyed, at least) is hard for me. Even returning library books is hard. Which may be why I love reading ebooks so much. I will have them until my Kindle dies, Amazon.com goes belly up, and there are no new Kindles to replace it.

The Gnostic Gospels sounds good; I'm going to wishlist it as soon as I post this, though I seem to be in a mood for easy reading these days.

BTW, great pix of your garden. Oddly enough, the annuals I planted last year that never really did anything are doing great this year. Must be the extra rain we got this spring.

Good, Stasia! Keep up the good work. SO good to see you.

Sarah and Mary, it IS an age thing. At your age, I was the same way. Now, xxx years later, I realize that I am not likely to reread them in the near future, and if I do want to, they are readily accessible at the library. I am looser in my books now.

Hi Roni, after being away for a couple of weeks I have a lot of catching up to do, but I would sure like to take a break and have a sit-down on your inviting deck. I love sweet peas, especially their scent. They don't do well at my place but my daughter can grow armfuls. I'll be looking forward to some bouquets of them this summer.

Gorgeous bowls, and I am so envious of your sweet peas, you have no idea. MUST get some going here this year.

Lovely garden pics :) and beautiful bowls!

Nope; can't imagine giving my books away (I'm too possessive!). They may be the only things I leave to my heirs (umpteenth-great grandchildren), and they will be stuck with them for perpetuity, or at least until they fall apart at the seams, even if they never read them.

Roni your thread is humming along nicely and I just noticed I missed your new one. Congrats on that and here's also celebrating your green fingers.

I wish I lived next door to you Roni .... you could give me some tips on how not to kill everything I plant. The last time I planted tomatoes, cukes, peppers and eggplants, the squirrels and chipmunks ate everything! I think I managed to harvest 6 little late summer tomatoes for my efforts. Grrr....

Your garden looks great! I stuck some tomatoes in the ground this weekend, and hope to get out tonight to plant some green beans and add some basil plants to the mix.

Hey, Roni, thought of you the other day--I found The Curse of Chalion at a booksale (squee!) and then checked out an audiobook of The Night Circus at the library. Unfortunately the first disc of the audiobook is all scratched up and all but unlistenable, so I guess I'll just have to check a hard copy out once the semester is over.

#43 Nathan, good luck with The Curse of Chalion and if you like it (which I have a feeling that you will), don't forget to try the sequel (only in characters, not the storyline) Paladin of Souls.

Judy and Lucy, we share that sweet pea love! Here are yesterday's pickings.



Kath, hope you are feeling better. Concussions are no fun.

Paul, always good to see you here!

Caro, if you lived next door to me, there would be no chipmunks, squirrels, or even gophers to bother your crops! Hope your garden is growing apace, Ardene. I got out and did some watering and got the rest of my tomato cages placed yesterday.

Oh, Nathan, you will enjoy The Curse of Chalion! It is such good story telling, and I also love Paladin of Souls and agree with your recommendation, Piyush. And I would definitely recommend The Night Circus in hard copy anyway as the format is so beautiful.

Stunning pictures!

FINALLY, now, some books in my new thread.



Book #51 The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels (151 pp.)

I've had this book in my library for some time and thought I had read it, but I think it just came in and got shelved, as I recognize absolutely none of it. Written 33 years ago, in the flush of initial scholarship of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, Pagels uses the content of those documents to flesh out the Christianities that did not survive vs. the orthodox Church, mostly the Gnostic varieties, and to contrast what did and did not become Orthodox, often for very political readings. Still a fascinating book despite its age, especially in the Gnostic attitudes toward women and authority.



Book #52 James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips# (405 pp.)

This is an extensive biography, with 40 chapters clearly delineated by the years. I stand in awe of the scholarship and the ability to make it all interesting if at times slightly overwhelming. Sheldon had a fascinating life, but her extreme sensitivity and probably manic-depressive personality made it almost uniformly painful to her. The most interesting part for me was her years writing as Tiptree, both the interactions with the science fiction world in her letters and reading the commentary on her stories as I was also reading them in the collection Her Smoke Rose up Forever.

I love the sweetpeas, Roni. Wouldn't it be great if LT gave us a way of transferring the scent as well! Mmmnn ...

Thanks, humouress. Judy, that would be good, wouldn't it?



Book #53 Her Smoke Rose Up Forever# by James Tiptree, Jr. (520 pp.)

This is a collection of the cream of Tiptree's stories. Powerful, original, moving, depressing as hell--stories that won 2 Hugos and 3 Nebulas and profoundly impacted the science fiction world in the late 60s through mid 70s--even though short stories are not my forte, they were Tiptree's and I'm glad to have read them. But I'm even gladder I read them in the context of her biography, so that I could see the context of each story in what was going on in her life at the time it was written. I took these slowly, a few at a time--I cannot read short stories one after another, and interspersed them with her biography.

And NOW I am going to read something slight and entertaining before returning to The Closing of the Western Mind!!!

Just got struck by two BBs -- the Tiptree biography and story collection are obviously things I must read. :)

Your sweet peas are amazing!

Just passing through to say Hi! and bookmark you Roni. I know Lucy found the Tiptree's rather depressing too. I think you both desreve something fluffy and fun now!

Sarah, the biography is fascinating. I would really read them together.

Thanks, Brenda. I appreciate them more because I could never grow them in Kansas.

Hannah, I did just that!



Book #54 Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (344 pp.)

Did I say quick, fluffy and fun? Urban fantasy is an acquired taste, and within it, as in any genre, you find plenty of mundane stories with just the trappings, and I have found many popular series that are just that imho, and then occasionally you find the smart, clever stories that really make use of the trappings. This is one of the latter. I had already had very good experiences with McGuire's Toby Daye urban fantasy series, which has deep roots in Celtic and some Asian mythology and uses them to excellent effect. This is the first in a new series, a completely different world-building system which uses all the tropes of urban fantasy (supernatural creatures coexisting with humans, human guardians, hot guy who's on the enemy side) and completely morphs it into something original and fun. I have no idea, however, what the title has to do with the story. And there is one other picky issue that bothers me, but it's a human one, not a supernatural one. Message me after you read the book and I'll share it with you. But the cryptids are absolutely awesome!

Interesting. I didn't find urban fantasy an acquired taste - I took to it immediately - but I do agree that there are as many crap UF stories as any other genre (possibly more right now, since it's the Current Big Thing).

That sounds like an interesting one, though, and I'm adding it to my tbr list.

Your garden is looking good, love those sweetpeas!
It's still to cool here to plant anything, but I'm looking forward to next month

Your flowers are beautiful!

I've been on LT so infrequently lately that I lost you with the thread switch... Now I'm having garden envy. I've prepped but can't plant until early May. I like your line of tomato pots. I began the Tiptree biography over the weekend, still in the early chapters where she's a teenager, also am most interested in the years of dual identity.

Now that, at last, I am done with Infinite Jest as much as one ever is, I can devote more attention to the Tiptree/Sheldon bio. I am looking forward to the Tiptree years, which start soon. I am going to treat myself to the second Rothfuss!!!! In fact, I've done my practicing for the day, so I'll start it now! Yay!

I really enjoyed Gnostic Gospels years ago, Roni. I probably should read it again. Glad to hear it has aged well. She's got a new one out on Revelations which has been getting good reviews.

Sharing the garden love with Chelle, Amber and Katherine.

Katherine, I was most interested in those years as well. Lucy, you should find that part of the book totally fascinating.

Joe, actually, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation was my book #44 this year, and I did enjoy it.

Blue, it's just that so many of the current glut (slut) of Urban Fantasy are either Harlequin Romances in drag or tediously full of Millennial Generation attitude, leaving them woefully lacking in either sensawonda or creativity, and generally boring. Rarely do they have humor (as opposed to snippy cleverness) or disciplined story lines or even any dramatic tension. I was probably spoiled early on by Emma Bull and Margaret Ball and the like.



Book #55 Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch (389 pp.)

Take this urban fantasy, for example--except that it is technically science fiction, because the supernatural creatures are aliens. The heroine is a total Mary Sue (see Wikipedia if unfamiliar with the term), the sex is hot and immediate, as is the other action, and the world is saved in a week. Given all of that, however, the author IS clever, there is just enough meat to the matter to counterbalance the froth, and this one actually is a lot of fun even while being total chick lit.

Roni - just noticed what a broodingly magnificent new thread intro pic.

Roni - Ok, yeah, I see. I agree, I just would put it this way: there is definitely a difference between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, and unfortunately the latter are often mislabeled as the former.

Hey, Paul, I just finally got around to adding a picture at the top yesterday, and I really should resize it, but I've forgotten how. Thanks!

Good point, blue. I steer away from the latter if at all possible, but a lot of it seems to inhabit the fringe of UF. But I'm also talking about books like Kitty and the Midnight Hour, by Ilona Andrews and Rachel Caine (I loved the first Weather Warden book but not those that followed) and Amber Benson and Devon Monk and the like, that I don't think are considered Paranormal Romance.

Wow . . . that's some picture! What's it's story?

So the Twilight Saga will be categorised in the latter category? I refuse to admit that it belongs to any of the genres I read (including Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, etc.)

Just catching up with you.. interesting reads ...I have never heard of Tiptree.....

I would certainly categorize Twilight as paranormal romance. I mean, the plot (such as it is) is all the romance.

I'm wondering about the photo too!

Brenda and Lucy, there really is no story. It's a picture I pulled off the internet through Google images for Kansas spring. I chose it because it could have been looking northeast from the house on the farm where I grew up as a storm system blew through. I've seen funnels hanging down from the clouds like that, but never had a close encounter with one on the ground.

Piyush, I'm with you there! Blue, I agree that I think it would fit best in that category.

Kath, good to see you. Tiptree wrote mostly short stories in the 70s in science fiction. But then when he turned out to be a woman, it was quite a deal at the time.

I'm glad to hear you did not know this tornado up close and personal, so to speak! Looks pretty nasty. But, yes, I think many of us Midwesterners have seen this kind of weather sometime in our lives. It is a great picture though . . .

Oh, my poor groaning wishlist.

*waves*

That's enough of a reason for the photo!

> 63 : I suspect you know already that putting width=100 after IMG resizes the image of a book cover; does it work for photos, too? That's the only suggestion I can make, other than look up the wiki or one of the posts that lists helpful stuff like that. (I keep some listed on my 75 Challenge threads)

{img src="image.jpg" alt="some text" width="300" height="300" /} where } is substituted for > and height and width are in pixels. Just be sure to scale the height and width proportionally for the original picture. Though just doing it the way suggested in >73 humouress: without the part about height might automatically scale proportionally?

Thank you much, humouress and the Hibernator! I knew the answer was out there. Much better.

Brenda and Lucy, glad the photo caught your attention.

Archery girl, turn about is fair play!



Book #56 Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip (278 pp.)

This is an interesting book by McKillip. I don't think I've ever read one by her before using this technique. Each consecutive chapter is told in the first person voice of a different character. Although the main characters get more than one chapter each, they never follow each other. This is a contemporary fantasy, and one which challenges some of the traditional lore of faery. Not as powerful as her best, this is still a gentle and beguiling story.

To clarify, I've been using {IMG width=100 src="http....jpg"} (where curly brackets substitute for pointy brackets at either end), with either width or height, and playing with the numbers until I'm satisfied with the size. And using the web address of the picture within the inverted commas.

Most likely the same thing, but I'm no techno expert.

ETA : oops, sorry - cross-posted!

Ahh; I believe I treated myself to a McKillip on my last book raid (books I've bought rather than borrowed, so I'm savouring them slowly), and it could be that one. Will have to look.

Hey Roni!

Ok - I'm caught up. Loved your comments on Urban Fantasy - particularly the quip about Harlequins in drag! The genre lines are getting really fuzzy and recommendations seem to be the only way to go. I hope Ilona Andrews isn't getting labeled Paranormal Romance - there's much more to her books than that.

Touched by an Alien is a hoot, isn't it? I agree, the author is clever - some elements were so good and others, well, not. I keep reading them, though, especially when I need something light and fast paced. But SF - what was DAW thinking?

Hope you enjoy your McKillip, humouress.

Dejah, good to see you here. Yes, TbaA is a hoot. I think DAW wants to cash in on that hot paranormal romance market!

Just got back from Dinner with Caroline (cameling) and here is a photo as promised.



We had a great time. She brought me books, I brought her camels and a pot!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for my beautiful pot and camels! I promise to give them a good home and not to break another camel's foot!

I will not hold you to that promise, Caro. But you can't break the pot.

Looks like a great time had by both. Thanks for the photos Roni and have a great weekend. Must have been a great meet up cos I know Caro is good fun.

That is so cool! It makes me so happy to see LT'ers meet up, for some reason. I'm glad that the little camels are going to a good home, and that Caroline got an awesome pot. ^_^

Very nice . . . Love the pictures, love the pot!

WONDERFUL, Beautiful photos.. yay Roni for taking a camera :)
What good fun :)

Oh. Tiptree from the 70's. See... I have little memory of the 70's...I graduated HS in 71, had
Adam in 72, Craig in 74, Amy in 76 and Cory in 77. I was very busy and actual life outside of
my house... well, srsly, anything could have happened.. The only thing I really remember is
that the one winter heating gas was weird.. and short and we wore coats in the house sometimes..
That and I have never been much of a short story reader.. the book about her looks good though.

oh and I liked that McKillip, too :)

Love the photos, Roni and Caro! Looks like a fun get-together.

hi Roni
How nice to see a picture of you and Caro, so nice that members of this group have meetings! :-)

I'm another one who loves to see LTer's get together. Great pictures and looks like you both had a wonderful time.

Hey, Paul, Eris, Brenda, Kath, Joe, Anita, and Judy! We had a really fun time. I talked so much more than usual these days that my voice was giving out by the end of the evening!

For interested readers, the books Caro gave me were 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, which sounds delicious, and The Bird Catcher which also sounds very interesting!

Okay, I've been reading but not reporting on The Closing of the Western Mind. This is the fourth book I've read this year covering the same periods of history from different perspectives. At times, I will be making comparisons, using the authors' names. James Hannam is God's Philosophers, Robin Lane Fox is Pagans & Christians, and Elaine Pagels is The Gnostic Gospels.

Introduction: Freeman's premise is that the tradition of rational thought established by the Greeks was stifled in the 4th and 5th centuries A. D.. He uses the introduction to define "rational thought" cites the mathematical theorems, inductive reasoning, and questioning thought. He cites Galen for his professionalism as well as his expertise as a logician (Hannam points out that you would not have wanted to be treated by Galen, as some of his logical connections have not met the test of time). This tradition,w which includes Aristotle, is contrasted with Plato's reliance on Forms, so that theory reigned over observation.

Chapter One: Freeman opens with a picture of Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-74) holding a text from Paul, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," which he calls the opening shot in the enduring war between Christianity and science. Behind Thomas are personifications of Philosophy, Grammar, Dialectic, and the queen of them all, Theology, the subjects of a medieval university curriculum. Freeman notes that they are clearly subordinate to the Word of God. Thomas' doctrine of the Trinity, his great achievement, is accessible not by reason but only through faith.

Freeman acknowledges the complex concept of faith, but says that by the 4th and 5th centuries a.d., faith had become acquiescence in the dogma of the orthodox Church. This dogma was set between the time of Constantine's accession to emperor and the end of the fifth century, by which time that orthodox creed had been pretty much set and insisted on, through the processes that Pagels describes in much detail in TGG. This dogma overrode reason, insisting that all knowledge comes from God and is revealed by Him, and suppressing any form of independent scientific thinking. Christianity thus actively challenged a well-established and sophisticated tradition of scientific thinking.

Hannam would not have considered the Greeks as having reached the point of scientific thinking, although he describes their contributions as "natural philosophers". He doesn't consider the scientific method established until the concepts of recording the results of manipulations and repeating these experiments to validate data appear.

Freeman is now going to go back to the Greeks to establish his hypothesis, and work his way forward in history, overlapping in great part both with Fox and Hannam.

Chapter 2: Homer distinguishes rational thought in the Oddysey, the mental landscape of the 8th century B. C.. Freeman notes the role of cultic rites and festivals in maintaining Greek culture during a period of physical expansion, material covered in great detail by Fox as well. The methods which the Greeks developed to mediate internal political conflicts by the 5th century resulted in the intellectual concept that forces tended to good order, to "eunomie", and if the city followed harmony, perhaps the natural world, the universe does as well, and if that order can be observed and determined, predictions could be made from empirical observations. Speculation began to arise about the nature of the universe and its workings. Debate arose about these and, in Freeman's opinion, gave rise to scientific thought (unlike Hannam--see above).

These debates led to the consideration of the process of reasoning and the establishment of logic, axioms, theorems, and syllogisms in deductive argument. Although the natural world is not as clear-cut as math and logic, the Greeks assumed there was an underlying order to things--it was not all the whim of the gods. This led to impressive achievement in astronomy especially.

Aristotle (c. 384-322 B. C.) probed into every area of intellectual activity. His M. O. was to master what had been said on any subject, criticize ideas he found inadequate, and identifying what questions needed to be answered. Current knowledge was provisional and cumulative over time. Freeman is especially impressed by the way the Greeks argued with each other, each not only building on earlier observations but seeking to outdo each other. Whereas other cultures established authority by striving to build upon prior writers, the Greeks valued the novel and different, rather than appealing to prior authority. Freeman sees the concept of science as equally concerned with proving things false as proving them true as one of the Greeks' great achievements.

When the Greeks wrote about any of these areas of systematic inquiry, they called their text "logos", which came to take on the meaning of "reasoned thought". This was contrasted with "muthos" or myth, where reason plays no part, and no conflict arose between the two. "One should not search for any form of absolute truth, in the sense of a belief whose certainty could be justified, in 'muthoi.' Similarly, one should not use the word 'logos' of truths that could not be defended by reasoned argument."

Freeman does accept that there were major difficulties in gathering empirical evidence, and that the cultural context led to the interpretation of the observations (with negative results for women and slaves).

Love the pic of you and Caro, Roni! Thanks for sharing!

Really enjoying your exegesis of The Closing of the Western Mind!

One of these days it will be us, Stasia!

Thank you, Richard. I'm actually through Chapter 6, but slow to document and summarize it.

Since today is Saturday (and it still is, here on the West Coast), here is what I brought home from the pottery studio today.

Pretty!

Glad to see another successful LT meetup! Looks like you ladies had fun

Hi Roni, your garden looks wonderful and your pots are beautiful. Lucky Caro getting such a cool souvenir from your get together.

>48 DeltaQueen50:: What??? Judy can't smell the sweet peas? Hmmmm...I must have a vivid sensory memory file. I can also smell lilies-of-the-valley at the mere mention of them.

>69 ronincats:: Awesome introductory picture. So glad there isn't a story to go along with it. Our sky looks much like that one this morning - minus the funnel cloud. Like you, I've never had a personal experience with a tornado...and I'd like to keep it that way.

>79 ronincats:: Great picture of you and Caroline. I loved being with the two of you in spirit. Roni, I sure wish you could be in KC in June for our meetup at the book sale. Don't you know it's hot in Kansas in July? Lol.

One more thing... I am currently reading a sci-fi book and loving it! That Hideous Strength is written by C. S. Lewis whom I adore and it's light on the science fiction aspect... but it's a good beginning in a genre I'm not accustomed to. I am looking for the first two in the Ransom Trilogy so I can read them in the order they were intended to be read. Have you read these books, Roni, and if so, how they do stack up to other sci-fi books?

Good work on "Closing" - esp. as it is somewhat unlikely I'll ever get to it, very helpful.

Oh I'm so envious of meet-ups! I've only ever had two so far! Although I did see tom kitten last weekend but we are friends from wayyyyyyyyyyy back. We should have taken a photo! Loved yours!

Roni - that does it ... I demand to know why you are not setting up a website to sell your beautiful pottery and jewelry online? Your work is so beautiful !

Stasia, I need one of those indirect lighting photo studio setups to do the glassy finishes on these pots justice--you can see all the light reflections distorting the color.

Thanks, Chelle, and congratulations on finding the perfect spot for your wedding!

Thank you, Donna! I had actually planned to be in Kansas in mid-June to meet up with you for the Johnson County book sale--and then my high school class decided to hold a 45th reunion at the end of July, of all times. Not my favorite time to be there, for sure, although as hot as it is already is, June might not be much better this year. But, alas, they do have priority.

I have all three of the trilogy, but it has been many, many years since I read them. As a youngster, I liked the first better than the other two, as it had more of the trappings of science fiction. I think most now would consider them rather poor science fiction. Aaron (StormRaven) has read them this year and posted extensive reviews of the first two, so far, here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/130288#3301587

and his reviews, while critical, are probably more aligned with how the trilogy would be seen by today's science fiction community. Which is not the same as how they would be considered in the context of Lewis' writings, which is how you are approaching them.

Lucy, this was only my second meet-up as well, after the ones in April last year with Brenda (brenpike), Donna, Terry, and Sandy in Kansas City. I don't know why all you wonderful people aren't coming out to San Diego--isn't that where everyone wants to go?
It is very interesting reading "Closing" after having read the other books earlier this year, especially since Hannam and Freeman are working from opposite theses. I have to hurry up, though, because the group read for Religion Explained is coming up next week.

Caro, that would require WORK! And consistent production and shipping and packing and maintaining a web presence...

As I mentioned, when I accumulate enough, we might go to the flea market for a weekend and see what we can do.

Oh beautiful pictures, both of your two lovely ladies, and of the new pots! I always look forward to opening your thread and finding new images to gaze at... :)

your pots are lovely, I did some glass slumping this weekend and haven't seen the results yet as I had to run off and go car shopping while the glass was still in the kiln - here's hoping :)

Thanks, Amber and Beeg! I love seeing your stuff as well.

Back to The Closing of the Western Mind--I've been reading well beyond my summaries.

Chapter 3: starts with an exploration of the power of rhetoric to both motivate men to do good and also to inflame by emotion in 6th century B. C. Greek society. Aristotle listed the components of a good speech, using "logos" to describe the speech itself: the character of the speaker, the disposition of the listeners, and those in the logos itself, its demonstrating.

This leads into an exploration of the philosophy of Plato, a reaction to his teacher Socrates' death due to the emotional and ephemeral impulses of the masses, the commission of evil in the execution of a "good" man. Plato's theory of ideal Forms was influenced by Pythagoras. Plato believed the human soul was immortal and reincarnated upon death. He conceptualized the soul as split into 3 parts, a reasoning part, a sensual part based on desire, and a third part based on "spirit" (and we thought Freud invented this!), with reasoning by far the most important. The Forms are so significant that observations of the actual world should be disregarded if they were in conflict with the Forms.

Freeman sees this as a direct attack on the mainstream scientific tradition of Greek thought and its reliance on empirical observation. Platonic thought assumes the material world is not the true home of the soul and that there is a deep gulf between the world of the senses and that of the Forms. Any God in this philosophy would be an awesome and remote one.

In contrast, Aristotle tried to create an ethical system that was based in everyday world of human existence. Only the free, mature male was capable of thinking rationally. Virtue occurs when the human lives a self-realized life. Goodness is determined through training and discrimination, not by emotion. This moral code must always be able to adapt to the demands of a specific situation--reason is always the final arbiter.

Chapter 4: Freeman really does NOT like Alexander the Great. REally! "The most significant political development in the Mediterranean world between 350 B. C. and 100 A. D. was the spread of monarchical government." The Greek city states were too small to control an area with stability, and Philip of Macedonia conquered most of Greece. Since his goal was Asia Minor, he set up an alliance of the cities that recognized him as their leader, a situation that actually benefitted them financially.

But when Alexander succeeded upon his father's assassination, he imposed a brutal rule upon the Greek cities, stripping them of manpower for his campaigns in the East. "Brilliant though his victories were, they achieved little more than the dismantling and rendering into chaos of an empire that had successfully maintained its stability and multicultural identity for 200 years." All Alexander was interested in was conquest; he had no interest in administration and did nothing to replace the power vacuum he created. His autocratic disposition relished the Persian model of kingship, and this alienated his army commanders.

After his death and 20 years of fighting, three of his commanders split the territories and did all the work of setting up workable societies. The Ptolemies took over Egypt, the Seleucids in Asia, and the Antigonids in Macedonia. They had no legitimacy except conquest and found they had to emphasize their personal power as king and keep large standing armies--which set up the relationship between monarchy and war that would underpin Roman imperial rule. For the first time, the possibility that the king might be divine was accepted, or at least he had a special relationship with a god, and the arts were used as propaganda to represent the ruler.

Alexander had outraged the Greeks with his elevation of himself to monarch and to godhead, bringing irrationality and absolutism to the core of government. His model of absolutism represented a threat to Greek intellectual life. That it survived was due to Alexander's successors. They used patronage as a means of status and maintaining the support of their subjects, shown through festivals and building projects, and the result was the preservation of Greek culture as seen in such projects as the Library of Alexandria and the stoa of Pergamum.

Even as the Greeks adjusted to being a conquered people, their culture was being spread throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, and new developments in math, geography, literature, and philosophy started to emerge.

April summary:

8 books read

2 science fiction
3 fantasy
2 non-fiction
1 literature

2770 pages read

1 book off the tbr shelf
2 library books
4 newly acquired books
1 re-read off my shelves

2 male authors
6 female authors

6 physical books acquired: 2 B&N, 2 Mysterious Galaxy, 2 as gift from Caro.

9 books out the door: 3 PaperBackSwap, 6 donated to local library.

Woo hoo! I just got the new N. K. Jemisin book through Early Reviewers!

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 5: How Rome absorbed Greek culture and ruled the world.

Ooooh, I like the sound of *that* chapter! :)

Nice pots! Very nice!

I read Pagans and Christians ages ago.. still have it I think...

Interesting April wrap up... and yay!! it's May!

>100 ronincats:: Sooo.. I gather Aaron is not a C. S. Lewis type of sci-fi fan! I rather "enjoyed" his scathing review of That Hideous Strength. He makes some decent points in terms of a science fiction enthusiast, but I suspect I'm not wired to be in that group. I'm really glad to have read the book from the POV of a Lewis fan. I'm glad LT is big enough to contain all different kinds of readers.

Amber, I'll get around to the synopsis soon.

Hey, Kath! Happy May!

Donna, Aaron is critical of a lot of science fiction, actually, but he writes such intelligent criticism that it's fascinating to read.



Book #57 A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (146 pp.)

A re-read (it's been ages!) inspired by the movie, this has been my Kindle read for the last month, which means it is my lowest priority and that is my only excuse for such a short book taking so long. Classic early science fiction--it remains quite readable as an adventure story today!

I've read that several times as well, and put it in the Kindle as the B's are too high in my book shelf to reach. I love those books.

I've been thinking about re-reading mine, too, Roni. I've got most if not all of the "Of Mars" books from when I was a lad. Glad to hear it remains quite readable. I wondered, having enjoyed them very much when I was young.

Great summary of Ch 3 - I was most interested that the post-Alexander effort to sustain empire may be the foundation of the 'standing army' monarchy as well as the idea of having a mandate from above.....

Hey Roni!

I'm enjoying your The Closing of the Western Mind posts - thanks for the effort! And, of course, I completely agree with you about A Princess of Mars.

I got The Killing Moon, too! Woohoo! Of course, I still have to read The Kingdom of the Gods, but I'll be doing that very soon. Yesterday was a good book day - notification about The Killing Moon and Deadlocked, the new Charlaine Harris, from the library. It was a very nice start to May!

Okay, back to

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 5: How Rome absorbed Greek culture and ruled the world.

War was integral to Rome's system of government. "The secret of Rome's resilience lay in a psychology of aggression married to policies that were dedicated to increasing its fighting manpower. The emerging state was always prepared to give citizenship or, failing that, a favoured status to loyal communities. Their manpower became Rome's own..."

Rome adopted a foundation myth that linked it to Greece (Aeneas from Troy) and started by conquering the numerous Greek cities that had been built up on the Italian peninsula. Although some Greek tradition left the Romans cold (philosophy, science, math), it adopted rhetoric with enthusiasm, and its magistrates, elected by the citizen body, needed good public speaking as well as military prowess.

By the 1st century B. C., the republic was becoming unstable due to the growing size of the territory to be administered and the time commanders needed to spend abroad before returning to Rome. These commanders were already acting as de facto monarchs during their campaigns, and the Senate could neither rein them in nor make effective decisions as its size also increased.

Freeman then briefly describes the ascension of first, Julius Caesar as dictator and first consul, and then Octavian (Augustus), who gathered republican offices until he had all the power, while creating a stable system of government for the empire. Provincial government was administered by the conquered peoples through a client king, or became a province directly governed by Rome. "The secret of such successful administration in the long term lay in the creation of quiescent local elites that had their own interests in keeping good order."

The history of Judea under Roman rule is then described, starting under Herod the Great, and then devolving into a province under a prefect who ruled from a coastal city, coming to Jerusalem only at major festivals to maintain order, while the high priest was responsible for day-to-day responsibilities such as taxation.

Augustus was concerned to secure imperial rule for his successors, with his son-in-law Tiberius following him. Upon his death, his great-nephew Caligula succeeded, and then his uncle Claudius. The concept of imperial rule was never again challenged during the history of the empire.

Boy, that's Rome in a nutshell, eh? Sometimes that sort of quick overview is nice, though.
I admire the Romans so much in some aspects; their whole notion of conquest is amazing: essentially telling a city/nation/people, "Okay, so you can either give in, in which case we'll keep you safe from enemies, build roads and aqueducts for you, and in general improve your quality of life (for a small fee), or, if you resist, we'll raze you to the ground and move on."

I thought A Princess of Mars was a good adventure too though I doubt I'll read the rest of the series.

Book #58 The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman (403 pp.)

Although I will continue to summarize the chapters over the next week, I have finished reading this book and am impressed by the scholarship involved. I have included the 63 pages of notes, as I have read them, but not the 12 pages listing the modern works cited in the text. It was truly fascinating, albeit very scholarly, reading.

Book #59 Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy (166 pp.)

I've probably read this book at least half a dozen times in the nearly 30 years since I acquired it, and every time it has been a delightful experience. On one level, it is simply a criminal thriller with now laughably dated (1983) computer technology. And yet on the other, it is mystical and enchanting. Short, unadorned, it is a jewel in a simple setting, at a level that MacAvoy never achieved again, IMHO.

Hi Roni! Oh, I am so terribly behind. I LOVE your new thread, especially all of the wonderful photos. The photo at the top is just stunning. I also love your patio/garden/sweet peas photos (*jealous* We've had an unseasonable warm spring in CO, yet many people are afraid to plant, as our time-tested rule is never before Mother's Day) and your lovely photos with Caroline. How wonderful that you could meet for dinner! Hope you're having a good weekend.

I remember liking Tea with the Black Dragon when I read it years and years ago. I have idea what happened to my copy and my library doesn't have it. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a copy. Thanks for the reminder!

Hello to Amber, Morphi, Anne and Dejah! So glad you could drop be! We are serving Lady Jane Grey tea or margaritas, and salmon tacos to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We enjoyed the "supermoon" on the way home from Old Town where we had supper. And I didn't remember yesterday to celebrate Star Wars Day--you know, May the Fourth be with you!

I am way behind on my chapter summaries for The Closing of the Western Mind and will try to make some progress tomorrow. I've been having lots of trouble, for some reason, staying asleep. Last night was the worst--I woke up at 1:30 and didn't get back to sleep until around 5:30 and then slept to 11. Messes up your whole day. But that means I did finish my next book.



Book #60 Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman (292 pp.)

This is a good general introduction to the historical-critical method of Bible scholarship and the issues with discrepancies among the various New Testament books and how the canon came to be adopted. Very readable, but not nearly as in depth as the other books I've been reading on this so I really didn't learn anything new.

>47 ronincats:: Way back to #47, seeing that cover was a surprise. I have that exact edition, bought back in 1976 for a introductory course in religion. It's the only book I remember from that course (and the only one I saved). I remember coming into the course under the impression that Catholicism had been the orthodoxy since Day 1 and the various flavors of Protestantism had introduced all the variety...but walking out with quite a different picture of the (lack of a) monolithic religion in those early days.

#94: I like the glazing on that left pot. It looks like the same glazes might have been used on both but you got some nice color streaking in the gray-green on the left one.

Roni, I am so enjoying your notes on The Closing of the Western Mind. I'm not up for a scholarly book right now, but you are doing a great job of sharing the most important parts. This tired brain thanks you.

Happy belated Star Wars day! I also watched the supermoon last night, but here in Charleston it came right as it began to thunder and lightning, which made for a pretty neat spectacle.

The Closing of the Western Mind looks right up my alley and I've enjoyed your thoughts on it. I'm with Donna on this one though, my tired brain could not handle another scholarly book right now either. :)

Some fascinating looking books here..

I am reading your summaries, so don't lose heart!!!!

Well, yesterday was pottery day.

Tad, the Pagels book is dovetailing nicely with Pagans & Christians and The Closing of the Western Mind to give me a really in-depth picture of the diversity of the early Christian movements--absolutely fascinating!

I knew I should have photographed my pottery last night and posted it--you've missed it now. Thank you regarding last week's pots--yes, I got some nice drips on that one pot, and I did use the same glazes on both. There is not really that much gray--the glaze is really metallic and is not photographing well.

Thank you, Donna, Marie and Lucy. It is good to know that people are looking for those chapter summaries--it will motivate me to complete them! I've been keeping up on your threads, even if not always commenting.

Always good to have you stop by, Kath. Take care of yourself--you are doing too much on that ankle.

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 6: The Roman Empire at Its Height

The middle of the first century A.D. sees the reemergence of Greek philosophy, science and math in the second sophistic movement. Conservative but sophisticated, it integrated Rome's physical conquest with the renewed sense of Greek cultural superiority. This movement was sparked by Nero's visit to Greece in A. D. 66-67 where he participated in the traditional games and exhibitions. Later, Hadrian (117-138) was a strong supporter of all things Greek. In his 21 years of rule, he contributed over 200 benefactions on 130 cities across the empire, about a third of which were temples honoring Olympian or local gods.

Trajan, the next emperor, transformed the public perception of the emperor from "first citizen" to "parent", developing program to aid poor and abandoned children and giving certain protections to slaves.

Galen and Ptolemy did most of their work in this period. Freeman notes that a quote of Ptolemy reminds us that for the Greeks, spirituality and rationality, muthos and logos, could co-exist without conflict. "One of the most sophisticated of the Greek intellectual achievements was the distinction between the areas of knowledge in which certainty was possible and those that were not subject to rationalism."

The Romans also appreciated that their own myths were not dogma. While the fulfillment of public duties was an intrinsic part of being Roman, what the individual believed about the gods or myths was a private matter. They also assumed that other people's gods were as important a part of their society and so were prepared to tolerate other deities and beliefs, and take care not to offend them. Many of these local gods would end up being assimilated into the Roman pantheon. By this time, it was becoming increasingly common to see the divine world as having one supreme god, with the other gods being either manifestation or lesser divinities.

By the second century A. D. there was an emergence of many new cults, especially the mystery cults. Central to these is their flexibility, allowing the individual gods to be subsumed into an over-reaching deity. Aristotelians had their "unmoved mover", Platonists their "Good", Jews their God, and Stoics one supreme rational principle. Christianity had much in common with these cults, with its initiation rites, communal meals, and a priestly elite who had access to the cult's secrets and the absolute right to interpret them for others.

Roman religion did not in itself provide an ethical system--for that, you could turn to philosophy. Epicureanism and Stoicism both provided guidance to ways of living, but Platonism became the dominant school. Plato valued reason above emotion, a distaste for sensual pleasure which distracted the soul from perception of the Forms emanating from the "Good". During this period, the nature of the Good was developed into the sense of having an active intelligence, with the Forms being its thoughts.

A Jewish philosopher, Philo, used Plato to reinterpret Jewish theology. Using the concepts of the ultimate God (Good), Philo saw the Forms as coming into being at the same time as God but organized by Him through the divine power of reason (logos). The distinction between God's essence (ousia) and his power as manifested in the world was a crucial one.

In the second century, the Roman empire had reached the height of its maturity--relatively peaceful, able to defend itself, and its elites flourished in an atmosphere of comparative intellectual and spiritual freedom. There was a sophisticated legal system and clear parameters for enforcement. However, there was also a streak of cruelty in executions and exhibitions, and limits to tolerance, especially for those who active rejected the gods and proselytized. It also depended heavily upon slaves and had few effective controls over their treatment. Finally, there was continual low-level violence, banditry and the threat of overreaction by the authorities.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my sweet peas? Here is today's pick.

Beautiful pots, lovely flowers, interesting stuff on Rome (which I won't start commenting on, because then you'd not get me to stop!).

79: Love the meetup photos!

91,103,115,130: Oh, thanks so much for this! Freeman criticized Hannam's book, so I've been wanting to read Freeman's book for comparison, but when?

Hi Roni--I have The Closing of the Western Mind, and even thought I might get around to reading it this year but now, with your excellent summaries, maybe I will read your thread instead!

Gorgeous pottery as always. And flowers, too.

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 7: Political Transformations in the 3rd Century

Because of the size of the Empire at this time, its borders were always vulnerable to attack. Over a period of 50 years in the third century, a series of attacks and border raids were fairly constant by both the German tribes (Goths, Alamanni, Franks) and the Sassanids in the East. Athens and Antioch were sacked. During this 50 years, Rome had 18 known emperors, with average reigns under 3 years. Building walls to protect cities replaced public projects and temples.

Finally in 284, an army officer declared himself the emperor Diocletian and ruled for 20 years. An effective general, he was an even more remarkable organizer and statesman. In order to allow the empire to respond to attack more quickly, he set up a Tetrarchy system, with each of the Tetrarchs having responsibility for protecting certain areas. A stabilization allowed border fortification to begin and the army divided into smaller, more flexible units. Diocletian divided the empire into smaller provinces with separate governors overseeing defense and tax collection. Land was assessed and tax rates set, and for the first time it was possible to have an imperial budget.

Emperors in this century increasing distanced themselves from their subjects. They were distant figureheads linked ever more closely to the gods. But Diocletian was very involved in the administration and he centralized the state so it could function more coherently and effectively. Citizenship, now a universal state except for slaves, was liked to common responsibility for the state, and those of questionable allegiance. A large community that refused to show any allegiance to the gods of the empire could no longer be tolerated. But Diocletian did not want to engage in a persecution that glorified martyrs, so he first confiscated Christian property. While many bishops ordered their congregations to give up property, believing the faith would survive without it, others, notably in North Africa, refused and condemned those that had, causing a major and enduring schism. As Diocletian's health deteriorated in 304, uprisings and fires were attributed to the Christians and new decrees called for the imprisonment of clergy until they sacrificed to the gods of state and then, the requirement of sacrifice under the penalty of death.

The persecution varied by province and governor. Galerius unleashed his hatred of Christians in the East, while Constantius used restraint in the West. But by 310, the persecution faltered. Galerius died of bowl cancer in 311. Christianity survived.

"Christianity and the new authoritarian empire of Diocletian were clearly incompatible, but there was an alternative to destructive and debilitating persecutions, and that was to absorb the religion within the authoritarian structure of the state, thus defusing it as a threat."

Book #61 A Sensible Lady by Judith Lown (187 pp.)

This Regency romance was a freebie on the Kindle a few days ago. While I don't expect any regency to match those of Georgette Heyer, I'm always on the lookout for those with integrity and since Lown reports having read Heyer's entire oeuvre three times, I was willing to give her a chance. This story is not bad--there are no obvious anachronisms and the characters are decent if not nearly as charming as Heyer's. Her plot seems an amalgamation of The Unknown Ajax and The Spanish Bride, without the distinctive characters and humor and charm that Heyer brings to her stories. Adequate if derivative, and hopefully will improve with experience.

Interesting to keep the Hannam in mind as you write your summaries of *Closing*. I keep wondering when we'll get to the closing part? Or are there hundreds of chapters and we're still at the beginning???

Um, there are 20 chapters, and I've only summarized 7 so far. *hangs head*

In brief, Freeman makes a very good case for a certain mindset in the culture by 500 AD, which is authoritarian and based on dogma rather than natural philosophy, as Hannam styles it, or science, as Freeman labels it. Hannam gives a brief chapter on events from 500 to 1000, saying that technology and trade continued to advance, but really picks up his argument starting in 1000 to show that the Church actually nurtured the events leading to the explosion of science and the Renaissance. Both Freeman and Hannam agree that it was the work of Thomas Aquinas that "Christianized" science. But their works really do not overlap chronologically at all save for Aquinas, and I see them as being complementary rather than opposed, both with very valid points that don't negate each other.

Beautiful sweetpeas and pottery!

I have to day again how impressed I am at your efforts re: The Closing of the Western Mind. I feel better educated every time I visit your thread!

> 139 : I agree absolutely!

Hi Roni, I was over at my daughters' today and we were admiring her garden. Her Sweet Peas are up about 2 inches so I can look forward to a couple of bouquets in a month or so!

75 > I don't think Solstice Wood has that strange a format for McKillip, besides being in first person; most of her books since The Book of Atrix Wolfe have followed the multiple-characters-narrating-alternating-chapters principle. But yeah, I really don't think contemporary fantasy is her thing, and I found Solstice Wood really disappointing after Winter Rose. It was like she had taken all the danger and wild beauty out of that world she'd created.

Some other fascinating stuff here, but I'm just popping on as a study break, so that's enough for now!

Thanks, Dejah and humouress. Judy, yes, if it doesn't get too hot there, that's what you should see.

Hey, Nathan, good of you to drop in! For anyone who is interested, Nathan and I are reading The Curse of Chalion starting today, 7 chapters a day (28 in total). Feel free to join us!

Well, I can't find my thread any more, it is so far down, so I will go ahead and post this partial summary of the next chapter.

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 8: Jesus

Before moving on to Constantine, Freeman takes 3 chapters to look at how Christianity developed and survived up to this point (307 A. D.). Recognizing the advances in scholarship in the last 35 years with the discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi documents, these have placed the historical Jesus firmly within a Jewish framework. However, a severe paucity on historical references to Jesus outside the New Testament means that interpretation of his role and mission still needs to be made with caution.

Within the New Testament, Paul's writing is the earliest but he doesn't talk about Jesus' life. All four Gospels were originally written in Greek, thus already at a remove from the Jewish perspective. Mark is the earliest and shortest, circa A. D. 70. Luke and Matthew follow within 20 years, drawing on Mark as well as another source lost to posterity. Matthew's was probably written in Antioch. The gospel of John was written about 100 A. D., with a very different agenda, for the first time presenting Jesus as divine.

The gospels are not meant to be history. Events have been shaped to provide a meaning and context for Jesus. The selection, placing, and development of the sayings vary from one Gospel to another, and each treats differently how Jesus was to be related to his Jewish background at a time when the Christian communities were spreading into the Gentile world.

Matthew emphasizes how Jesus fits into the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies, and was probably writing for a community that still saw itself as Jewish despite its devotion to Christ. He sees this Jewish community as replacing the Jewish people at large who have rejected Jesus. His gospel was later used to demonize the Jewish people as a whole and also to develop the doctrine of eternal punishment in hell.

Jesus' ministry was in Galilee around A.D. 27, starting with his baptism by John. This was ruled by Herod Antipas. Although prosperous, Galilee was remote from the more sophisticated centers of Judaism and its people were conscious of the Greek and Phoenician cultures directly surrounding them.

Impressive summaries, Roni! I am just catching up after a couple of weeks off LT to get my semester grading done, and I feel like I'm learning all sorts of interesting details that I can use next semester. Thanks!

Also, to go way back, lovely that you get to meet up with LT people. I have never been able to do so, but perhaps someday some of y'all will come somewhere near Michigan. A girl can dream. :)

Hi Roni. A long overdue catch up and I have very much enjoyed your summaries of The Closing of the Western Mind. You are making Freeman's book sound more and more interesting although I don't know when I'll manage to find the time to read it at the moment. It will keep.

Also glad you enjoyed A Princess of Mars. I've been meaning to try some Edgar Rice Burroughs for a while. Did you see the recent film? What did you think of it?

And congratulations on winning a copy of the new Jemisin novel! I really need to get back to her first trilogy.

A couple of years ago, I saw a documentary on the gospel of Mary Magdalene, and it went into the theory of how and when the other gospels were written. It was quite interesting, bringing in one of the paintings, probably 'The Last Supper' - I don't remember - and theorising that women were much more involved in day to day life and preaching, but the church of the time (ie a couple of centuries after the event) suppressed / changed that information.

Sorry I'm not more coherent, but I've got the kids all over me (ostensibly to wish me for Mothers' Day, but actually to fight over games on the iPad).

Roni -- how does that chapter fit with that massive and unforgettable tome we read last year?????

>147 humouress: That sounds quite interesting..

Unfortunately, the summary in message 144 is only of the first half of Chapter 8--I've been trying to summon up the energy to so the second half ever since. However, on Friday night, or rather Saturday morning, I came wide awake at 2:30 am and did not get sleepy again until nearly 6. I slept until 10 then, but was sleepy and dragging the whole day, except at pottery class, and then exhausted thereafter. I've been having this happen a lot--several times a week, but not usually so early and prolonged. We stepped up the exercise level this last week, seeking to bypass it, and I had been sleeping better until this last episode.

But, not having the energy to either finish Chapter 8 or summarize the third chapter in Religion Explained, I did participate in a re-read of one of my favorite fantasies, The Curse of Chalion, in partial sync with Nathan (ncgraham--his thread is in the Club Read 2012 group). So...



Book #62 The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (442 pp.)

Bujold is a story-teller par excellence. While her plots are good, it is her characters with whom you fall in love and who keep drawing you back to their story, to experience it again and again, not in suspense after the first reading, but in delectation and savoring, as when one consumes a favorite dish anew, rolling it upon one's tongue and rediscovering the subtle, tantalizing and very satiating tastes.

We meet Cazaril on foot, penniless and in rags, having walked from a port in Ibra after being rescued from an enemy ship where he had been a galley slave. He is not far from Valenda, where he hopes to seek refuge where he can recover at the manor where he served as a page many years before. But first, a chance encounter--but was it a chance?

And because you can't read just one, and I'm saving Paladin of Souls to read with Nathan should he be so inclined...



Book #62 The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (470 pp.)

Set in the same world, but a different time and kingdom, Bujold takes us on another adventure full of intrigue and mystery and unforgettable characters.

And welcome to Sarah, Heather, humouress, Lucy and Kath! It's been very quiet around here and it is lovely to have some company.

Sarah, it is good to have you back with us. One of these days, we will have a meet-up! In the meantime, you have David. I am all alone down here in San Diego.

Heather, I didn't see the film, but the film was the inspiration to re-read A Princess of Mars after all these years. I may try to catch it on dvd when it comes out. I'm anxious for the Jemisin book to get here--I did enjoy her inaugural trilogy. And yes, I found the Freeman book very interesting--and I need to finish up those chapter summaries.

Humouress, actually, that's an interpretation that a lot of the recent discoveries support. That gospel and the others found in the Nag Hammadi papyri have certainly expanded our knowledge of early Christianities immensely. Pagels's book has a whole chapter on that issue.

Lucy, this book and Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels and to some extent God's Philosophers all deal with these same issues to some extent--they all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. It's fascinating!

Kath, good to see you here! These are interesting issues.

I still haven't moved on to the second Bujold book, I will just not sure when. Your summaries make for interesting reading.

I've been reading the Bible and so found your review blurb interesting just for the historical parts. I've been trying to read supplementary texts to put everything in context but the two I chose don't work very well (Bible for Dummies and The Complete Bible Handbook.)

I need to read more Bujold books, Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls are the only two I have read so far.

Your reviews of Closing the Western Mind are really well thought-out. Makes me want to read the book too...if only I weren't swamped with so many other books!

I recently (finally) acquired Hallowed Hunt, which awaits me on my TBR pile. Have you whizzed through it already?

Okay, so I don't do well with delayed gratification. Couldn't help myself...



Book #63 Paladin of Souls* by Lois McMaster Bujold (456 pp.)

Following closely (3 years) on the events of The Curse of Chalion, we find Ista, the Dowager Royina, trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Setting off on pilgrimage across Chalion in an attempt to shake her over-protective retainers, with Ferda and Foix as guards, Ista ends up dealing with enemy soldiers, demons, sundered souls, and eventually, her own destiny.

It is so refreshing to have a female protagonist over the age of 40. This book may appeal more to women because of the female point of view, but I think again the depth and diversity of the characters (and the gods) make this book a winner for all.

So Kerry, what's keeping you? Okay, you can recover from the festival first.

Piyush, you too? What's holding you back? Grab a copy of Warrior's Apprentice and enjoy!

Yep, humouress, see above. I devoured it on Monday. It's funny. The first time I read THH, I was disappointed in it, but now, I don't know why. I now find it just as rich as the Chalion ones.

Morphy and Hibernator, I will try to get back on track with my summaries tomorrow. Today I was all sleepy again and needed to pick up something that was interesting enough to keep me awake without being challenging enough to make me work at it--in other words, a re-read and I chose...



Book #64 House of Many Ways* by Diana Wynne Jones (404 pp.)

This is the third of the Howl and Sophie books. As in the second, Castle in the Air, they are not the viewpoint characters, but they have a lot more air time than in that book. Our main character, Charmain, just wants to read all the time and be around books, but when she is sent to take care of her great-uncle's house while he is getting medical treatment, she ends up being shaken into doing a little more.

Roni, that's one of the things I'm liking about Chalion too—the older main character. Of course, Caz seems a lot older than he really is, due to his experiences; I don't consider 35 "old" at all. I suppose it is for a fantasy protagonist, though. That role seems generally to be taken up by young princes and princesses and farm-boys.

Piyoush, I ENVY you reading all the Bujold's for the first time!!!!

Roni, I am seriously considering not taking a college course this fall and just lurking on threads like yours that are so educational. You are doing a terrific job with your summaries of The Closing of the Western Mind. I read just enough of God's Philosophers before I had to return it to the library to see some similarities, although your current book seems to go much more in depth.

I have been browsing through my Dream Book this morning... and see I still have the Bujold books listed as recommendations from you. It looks like they hold up to rereading well. One of these days...

Hmm...the Vorkosigan series...what order do you suggest, the Publication order or the Chronological one?

{/lurk}

*smooch*

{lurk}

All this is reminding me that I need to get back to my Bujold reading...

#162 Piyush, I've been reading the Vorkosigan books mainly in chronological order although I started with The Warrior's Apprentice and then went back to Shards of Honor. I've enjoyed reading them that way although I've only read the first 4/5 so far. I think that's what Roni recommended to me but I'll let her weigh in herself :-)

I read them the same way Heather did, Piyush, that is, Warrior's Apprentice first and then back to Shards of Honor. I liked reading them that way, and would recommend it. They're great fun.

That is what I recommended, Heather, and glad it worked for you too, Joe. That's actually how I started out as well--found WA at random and after reading it, then searched out the rest that were available at that time. Warrior's Apprentice, Shards of Honor, Barrayar, and after that, chronological order. Which is pretty much the same as publishing order except for Cetaganda, which I would go ahead and insert in its chronological progression, Piyush.

I looking forward to your having more free time next week, Nathan, and finishing up The Curse of Chalion--yes, Caz isn't your squeaky clean young ingenue of a hero either, one of the many refreshing things about the books.

Lucy, isn't it true! However, I take consolation in the fact that the Bujold oeuvre stands up robustly to multiple rereads.

Donna, for the most part, The Closing of the Western Mind and God's Philosophers simply don't overlap. Pagans & Christians has a lot in common with the first book, as they both go back to the Greek Golden Age and work forward to Constantine. Then Freeman goes on--indeed this is the period that is the focus of his argument--into the 4th and 5th centuries A. D., and then moves very quickly to Thomas Aquinas, who he claims restored Reason as a reputable source. Hannam, on the other hand, basically STARTS with Thomas Aquinas ("How Science was Christianized") and moves on from there to show how the Church was a source of support and communication for science.

*swoon* A drive-by smooch from Richard! *swoons again in delight*

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 8: Jesus (continued)

After covering the nature of Judaism at the time--the shared beliefs, the Law, the centrality of the Temple for worship (male Jews were required to visit the Temple 3 times a year for the major festivals)--Freeman discusses some of the various groups. The Pharisees had their own strict interpretations of the Law and, unlike many, believed in an afterlife and final resurrection of the bodies of the dead. They were not politically powerful but were respected. The Sadducees were conservative traditionalists and were well represented in the aristocratic priesthood.

The majority of Jews were poor, susceptible to illness, subject to taxation, and vulnerable-- all other peoples of the Near East and Mediterranean. Sometimes this led to unrest or revolt, but another path was spiritual withdrawal, as with the Essenes. They followed the Law in extreme fashion, holding property in common, encouraging celibacy, and believed the soul, but not the body, would have an afterlife. They were millenarians, waiting for some form of liberation.

The concept of Messiah (Christos) was used in general of one anointed by God for some special purpose. It was associated with King David's line, but another tradition expected a priest rather than a king. In neither case was a Messiah seen as divine--he was a human being who had been exalted by God.

Jesus cannot be identified as a single "category"--holy man, prophet, miracle worker, teacher, peasant leader--nearly every statement of his views in one Gospel seems to be qualified or even contradicted by another. But somehow he broke down social, political and religious barriers and attracted all sorts. However, unambiguous characteristics were: highly charismatic, never distanced himself from his followers or mode of life, chose special companions, showed a genius for parables connected to the everyday life of the small agricultural communities around him, effectively used miracles and exorcisms, and had great compassion. He knew the scriptures well. He was more accepted in the countryside than the towns. He taught that the coming of the Kingdom was immanent and set it within the context of moral renewal, revitalizing families and village communities along the lines of restored Mosaic principles.

The title Jesus used most often of himself was "Son of Man" and it is not clear in the gospels if he accepted Messiah status or if that was added by the authors. Two authorities on the Jewish roots of Christianity think it likely that the one who urged others to give up everything for the kingdom claimed for himself no title or position other than one who bore a message from God.

Jesus was bound to provoke reaction from the authorities: highly popular, underlying antagonism from the Pharisees and from the conservatives to, in particular, Jesus' teaching that sinners would be welcome in heaven even if they had not repented through making a sacrifice. He was vulnerable. It is unknown if this moved him from Galilee to Judea or if it was a planned step in his ministry. However, it was clearly the entry into the Temple overthrowing the tables of the moneylenders that brought him into direct and violent contact with the authorities, namely the high priest, whatever his motives for the action. This led directly to his execution.

Freeman notes it was remarkable that neither the Jewish nor Roman authorities followed it up with reprisals against Jesus' followers, supporting the view that Caiaphas kept his response to Jesus to the minimum. What he didn't foresee was the aftermath of the death for Jesus' followers. The destruction of their hopes and dreams and the ritual humiliation of the crucifixion was traumatic. (For nearly 400 years, Christians could not bring themselves to represent Jesus nailed to the cross.) The resurrection experiences reported in the Gospels and Letters have to be set in the context of this trauma and despair. The accounts are confused and contradictory. Mark ends with the open tomb, although there is a second century addition where Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene, then 2 of the disciples, then all 11 at table before being taken up to heaven. Matthew reports one appearance near the tomb and a single meeting with the 11 in Galilee. Luke's appearances all occur in or near Jerusalem and Jesus is not always immediately recognizable. John also has Mary Magdalene first and then two appearances in Jerusalem and one in Galilee. Paul reports Peter had the first appearance, then the 12 disciples, a meeting of 500, James, and then the Apostles. Paul stresses the difference between the perishable human body and the body in which Jesus appeared. All of this suggest distinct and unconnected apparitions rather than Jesus living in restored life.

In several accounts, the disciples initially went home to Galilee, but then returned to Jerusalem and began preaching their continued belief in Jesus and his promised return. They still saw themselves as Jewish and observed Jewish rituals, but began to reflect on how Jesus could be interpreted within that tradition. The idea that he could be divine was too much for any Jew to grasp, completely alien to any orthodox Jewish belief, but Jesus could be seen as one through whom God worked and who had been exalted by God through his death (Acts 2:22-24).

Freeman now returns to the question of the historical Jesus, who can be identified only with great difficulty. Despite the above summary of the most consensual developments of his life and teaching, nearly every point will still be challenged by one scholar or another. Jesus' charisma, the brutality of his death, and stories of a resurrection quickly passed into myth, and this was used by those committed to his memory in a variety of ways. (Myth as expression of a living truth that can function at different levels for different audiences.) No one can be sure where the boundary between the Gospel writers and Jesus' original words should be drawn. "However, the trend in recent scholarship toward relating Jesus to the tensions of first-century Galilee, in particular as a leader who appealed to the burdened peasant communities of the countryside and reinforced rather than threatened traditional Jewish values, has much to support it."

You are putting major serious work into The Closing of the Western Mind. Much appreciated. Someday I hope to read it.

I'm enjoying these summaries, not sure I'd want to tackle a book like this at present but remember reading Revolution in Judea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance a few decades ago.

My thanks too for those complete summaries (so that I don't have to read the book - *sigh*).
I love those Bujolds. In fact, the only Bujolds that I didn't think were top-notch entertainment were the *Knife* ones. I liked the first two O.K., but they are a bit YA-ish, so I never got around to the others. Speaking of religion, she certainly shows her spirituality in the fantasies!

>168 qebo: Katherine, who the heck *needs* to when Roni's giving us the whole course for a lot less investment of time?!

You GO, Miss Lady!

Katherine and Kerry, it was really quite enjoyable reading--but so full of information that the summarizing is extensive!

You are welcome, Peggy. Yes, the Quintarian gods are, I think, what makes these books stand over and beyond most fantasy stories--they have depth and density and I love me that dratsab! Her whole theology is just so engaging.

Yeah, Richard! For you, I will go the whole way. *sigh. not even half-way done. 12 more chapters to go and the next one is Paul, and you, Richard dear, would love his take on Paul*

Then it canNOT be complimentary! As Paul was the root cause of much religiously justified misogyny, I expect to adore his take on the "saint."

I prefer my misogyny to be personal. I'll hate 'em gyn by gyn.

Roni - got taken to the bottom of your thread and wondered immediately - what did I do! Thankfully you were talking about one of the other Pauls - I spend most of my time trying to avoid paying taxes rather than trying to collect em.

I'm interested in reading some Lois McMaster Bujold, having heard her praises sung by Lucy as well. But where to start? I know next to nothing about her. Isn't she one of those authors that does fantasy and sci-fi? I'm interested in both, though maybe SF slightly more...

Wikipedia has a nice listing of the Vorkosiverse - go down to the bibiiography that is in 'internal order', not the order in which the books were written, and start there - Miles Vorkosigan I wish I had read them 'in order' - although, frankly, each book is so entertaining it hardly matters. Shards of Honor is about Miles' parents.

There are some editions out with those hefty paperbacks, 3-in-one - they are relatively inexpensive even if a little on the big side.

You've got the idea, Richard.

Paul, not YOU, and not Matthew either.

Hannah, Lucy has it. The problem with starting with Shards is that it was her earliest and weakest book, while its sequel, Barrayar, was her 5th or 6th book and it quite strong. Warrior's Apprentice is a good place to start because then you really WANT to go and get the back story.

Okay, it's Saturday and pottery day. The first three here were thrown on a day when I couldn't throw anything right. The bowls are like 2-1/2 to 3 inches across, and the little pitcher about 4 inches tall, and I was just playing with some of the lesser used glazes. The fourth piece was a week later, and is 5" tall.

Oh those blueygreeny colors make me swoon!

Love the texture on the first bowl. Very tactile.

On my first glance at bowl #1, I thought it was some sort of chocolate dessert you were sharing with us. I like it anyway for the texture, will look for my chocolate treats elsewhere.

THE RECIPIENTS OF THE 2011 NEBULA AWARDS:

NOVEL: Among Others, by Jo Walton (Tor)

NOVELLA: “The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2011)

NOVELLETTE: “What We Found,” Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2011)

SHORT STORY: “The Paper Menagerie,” Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2011)

RAY BRADBURY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: Doctor Who: “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales)

ANDRE NORTON AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY BOOK: The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman (Big Mouth House)

2011 DAMON KNIGHT GRAND MASTER AWARD: Connie Willis

SOLSTICE AWARD: Octavia Butler (posthumous) and John Clute

SERVICE TO SFWA AWARD: Bud Webster

I've read Among Others this year and enjoyed it. Now I need to find The Freedom Maze.

#164-#166 & #176-#177

Okay, I am still confused. Almost everyone has asked me to start with Warrior's Apprentice, but when I go to the LT pages or the Wiki pages, I see that it is the start of neither the Chronological order, nor the Publication one, am I missing something?

Ref:
http://www.librarything.com/work/8385
http://www.librarything.com/series/Vorkosigan%3A+Publication+Order
http://www.librarything.com/series/Vorkosigan%3A+Chronological+Order
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga#Listing_by_date_of_first_publicatio...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga#In_internal_chronological_order

Thanks for posting the Nebulas. I might have to break down and buy the Walton!

Piyush -- That is correct - Warrior's Apprentice is neither the first in chrono or Pub order. In the earlier works, which are mostly short ones, I think, she is world-building, and then later she went back and did some back story...... but this is the one where she really hit her stride, where the thing blossoms. What it IS is the one that will compell you to read ALL of them. Really, start there.

THanks, Richard, humouress, and Kerry! Richard, those are my favorite colors as well. I need to figure out a way to make that blobby glaze pop, humouress. I only wish, Kerry.

Piyush, what Lucy said! Exactly. It's the one that hooks you.

Lucy, my library had a copy--you might check there first.

Here are today's flowers from the garden--

And here:

Just to weigh in on the Vorkosigan discussion (and confuse things further), I've always found it easiest to start from the beginning i.e. in chronological order, when reading a series. The few times I've tried, or happened to start in the middle accidentally, I've been completely lost as to plot and character reference. So I started with Cordelia's Honour, which is comprised of Shards of Honour and Barrayar

Book # 65 Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore (225 pp.)

There are already a lot of reviews of this book on the work page, with contributions by bell7 and allthosedarnedbooks among others. They run the gamut from fantastic to meh. The book is a fantasy that aspires to be a gothic romance, with a strong Jane Eyre influence. For me, the writing was fairly pedestrian and at the young end of the YA range, both due to the writing and the lack of depth to the plot and characterizations. The world-building relies on adopting Victorian British and Far East issues by renaming them, without really changing anything except for the addition of fairies, and actually, if you weren't told that Erris is a fairy, you wouldn't have known it by anything in the plot. The villains are unidimensionally evil and the 2 main characters are sufficiently drawn but with little growth or change, while the other 4 characters are fairly shallow (although with Erris, perhaps that is to be expected. How much personality can an automaton have? But then, why did Nim fall in love with him so quickly?). The author has good ideas but races through them without much depth, moving the plot along with constant action. While it was easy to read, I spread it out over three days because I was not caught up into the story and it was easy to put down. So this was more of a meh for me, although I think the author has potential to grow and polish her craft. The sequel (since this book ends at a resting point, not an ending point) will hopefully help her do this.

Ugh. FAIL. Avoiding like it gots the cooties.

You just know a book has made a mistake when they add an extra "r" to the main character's name. Harrumph harrumph.

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 9: Paul, "The Founder of Christianity"?

Paul formulated a meaning for Jesus' death and resurrection, was important in planting Christian communities in Asia Minor and Greece, and insisted on a dramatic break with traditional culture, both Jewish and Greco-Roman. For Paul, it wasn't Jesus' life that was relevant, but His death and resurrection.

The Apostle to the Gentiles was Jewish to the core, although he was from a community outside of Israel and wrote Greek fluently, as well as speaking Aramaic and probably Hebrew. Much of his terminology comes both from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Scriptures) and from the same sources as the Essenes, with similar theology.

His life is known from his letters and Acts. Not all letters attributed to him are accepted as such, but Romans, both Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Thessalonians 1, Philemon, and perhaps 2nd Thessalonians and Colossians. Both letters and Acts have limitations as biographical sources. The letters were written in response to particular situations, and info about Paul's life is provided only by chance. In these sources, however, Paul comes across as austere, having some unspecified physical ailment, extraordinarily tough and mentally resilient. He also is highly emotional as well as abrasive and sensitive to any threat to his assumed authority. He was unusual in not being married, as mainstream Judaism was hostile to celibacy. His life appears to have been constant conflict.

Although Paul could write, he often failed to win over audiences and may even have provoked their hostility by his manner. But this constant turmoil and challenge impelled him to define his beliefs in the depth that he did.

Paul was unsuccessful in preaching in Jerusalem and so when Barnabas brought him to Antioch, he began concentrating on the Gentile "god-fearers'. Many Jews accepted that there would be a place for righteous Gentiles in God's Kingdom, but Paul went beyond them in breaking the barrier between Jew and Gentile down, even implying at times that the Gentiles are now God's chosen people. Gradually, Paul developed a role for himself in ministry outside of Israel to the Gentiles, although his Jewish beliefs remained in his commitment to a single God, his hatred of idols, and his adherence to the scriptures. This also conveniently removed him from contact with those who had known Jesus in life. This was always an area of vulnerability for Paul, and he distanced himself from those who had known Jesus, presenting his teaching as having come by a direct revelation of Jesus Christ and not by what He had said and done on this earth. Paul makes a point of stressing that faith in Christ does not involve any kind of identification with Jesus in his life on earth but has validity only in his death and resurrection.

However, Jewish Christians outside Jerusalem were also outraged at his argument that circumcision and other ritual requirements had been superseded, and Gentiles often found a theology rooted in Judaism yet not part of it difficult to comprehend. Buffeted between the two, it is not surprising that "on a personal level this highly insecure man became acutely sensitive to threats to his leadership." He is afraid of competition and never asks his followers to evangelize themselves. Yet, it was Paul's insecurities and abrasive personality that acted as a spur to his highly individual theologies. He was not an intellectual, not familiar with Greek influences on thinking, and those trained in rhetorical logic were unimpressed by his preaching.

Paul's theology developed in response to specific challenges, generally unknown, that impelled him to provide varied and often inconsistent responses. I'll summarize these in Part 2.

It's interesting to read your summaries as I'm currently reading his letters right now and I can see how he would be called abrasive. Ish.

Lovely pots, lovely flowers, so business as usual around here I see. :)

Thanks for posting the Nebula winners; one of these days I'm gonna get round to that particular list... Not at all surprised to see that the Neil Gaiman episode of Dr. Who got a nod, and I've not even seen it!

Hurrah! My ER book, The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin arrived today!

Mine too! Quite excited. :)

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 9: Paul, "the Founder of Christianity" Part 2

Paul's theology emerged in response to different challenges, creating a new spiritual world while try to stay within the conceptual mode of Judaism. Christ's crucifixion and death become the focus of a new life--all equal, Greek and Jew, slave and free, male and female. Of course, then in 1 Corinthians he tells women to be silent at meetings and if they have questions, ask them of their husbands at home. Paul puts Christ in historical context starting with Adam, who let sin enter the world, but God acts in his compassion and is the Spirit that opposes sin through love of humanity.

Paul has problems with the Law. On the one hand, it provides a code of behavior, and yet it can not be perfect or else the salvation of Christ would be unnecessary. He is ambivalent in his letters, praising it and yet replacing it with Christ.

Most scholars believe Paul did not believe Jesus to be preexistent. He appears on earth as a man, then is exalted by God as a second Adam. Paul draws on the Jewish idea that a sacrifice atones for sin, with some allusions to Isaac, but Christ's sacrifice is so powerful that no further sacrifice is needed. Therefore Christians should not sacrifice. Exalted though Christ is, Paul does not make him part of the Godhead, but sees him as subject to God ( 1 Corinthians, 27-28). Christ is an intermediary between God and man.

Paul's teachings on faith are essential to his theology but difficult. Faith is essentially an emotional rather than rational state of being. It rescues from the power of darkness through death in Christ, achieves identification with Him and rises with Him. This personal, highly emotional commitment is new in antiquity, proposing that it is the inner orientation to God rather than ritual acts that is essential.

Many passages suggest that faith alone is sufficient for salvation. But in other passages, he stresses the importance of charity or love, leaving open the question as to whether good works are necessary to salvation. Perhaps because of his belief in an immanent second coming and urgency of adopting faith, Paul didn't consider that there would be time to make major behavioral changes. But when that didn't happen, Paul had to explain exactly how the faithful should live when Christ had superseded the Law, not so easy.

The other side of Paul's teaching, the fate of those without fate, has also been very influential. Again, he is inconsistent; at times he suggests that all might be saved and at others, that the faithless will be condemned ( judgment day is a day of anger, not joy). And that punishment will be for eternity (2 Thessalonians), even for those who have not heard of Christ.

The idea of being open to "faith", the longing to surrender oneself to another who can provide certainty, is an enduring part of the human psychology. However, this surrender raises concerns for the rational thinker. Plato condemns faith as a way to truth, for example, and the Greek rationalists found this way of thinking to be irrational and weak. Paul's response was to hit back with highly emotional rhetoric. So not only the Law has been superseded by Christ, but also the core of Greek intellectual achievement itself. So as Paul's writings came to be seen as authoritative, it became a mark of the committed Christian to reject rational thought, and even the evidence of empirical experience.

Elaborating his views on everyday conduct, Paul had two particular preoccupations. First was the rejection of idols and their worship, challenging again the Greco-Roman traditions. Thus he insisted that Christians remove statues of gods and goddesses from temples and public places. Although in his lifetime, they did not have the power to do this, by the fourth century his writings were used to justify the wholesale destruction of pagan art and architecture. However, from early times Christians were making symbols and painting representations, and eventually the adulation of relics, blurring the boundary between simple representation and worship of idols.

Secondly, Paul is preoccupied with the evils of sexuality. "Sex is always a danger." He stresses the value of celibacy, but tolerates marriage "better to marry than to burn." Although Judaism had always stressed continence, Paul's strictures and the central place given to sexual sins suggest that sex itself troubled him deeply, certainly in a way that is not evident in the teachings of Jesus. Before Paul sex was not seen to raise major ethical issues--the body as such was neutral. The idea of the body as a temple that can be desecrated by sexual activity was to be extraordinarily influential in Christianity.

It could be said that the stress on the fragmented personality that can never be at peace with itself until the final salvation through Christ is the most enduring of Paul's legacies. But the other legacy was his provision of an institutional framework for the church. By fixing on a comprehensible symbol, the death and resurrection, and proclaiming the huge and imminent rewards of Christian faith (and the terrible consequences of rejection), Paul created a focus for community worship. When the second coming did not materialize, this had to be sustained as an institution. While there is no evidence that any of the communities which Paul founded actually survived as opposed to, for example, the many communities in Northern Africa, he did stress the importance of communal meals. Drawing from Judaism, the structure of presbyters and eventually a shepherd, a bishop, as the senior figure of a Christian community led to the creation of a distinct elite within the community and clear lines of authority.

Paul's influence has been enormous. He shaped Christianity through his rich and evocative language, but he was confined by his personal isolation, his acute insecurity about his authority, and his ambivalence about his Jewish roots. The difficult circumstances in which he wrote explain much of the incoherence and contradiction in his letters. "He seems to have failed to absorb, or at least express in his letters, any real awareness of Jesus as a human being, or to reflect his teachings, other than, significantly, the prohibition on divorce." He is the only major Christian theologian to have never read the Gospels. His theology was conditioned by his belief in the imminence of the second coming. Had he known it would be delayed, how might it have changed his preoccupations? "The paradox of Paul is that while he created a Christianity for the Greco-Roman world, he also confirmed or planted within Christian theology elements that would set it in conflict with Greco-Roman society and traditions, over sexuality, art, and philosophy."

Paul cannot have expected his writings to have lasted, as the second coming would have swept them into oblivion. But his writing were gathered into the eventual canon of the New Testament. With the destruction of the Temple in A. D. 70, Jewish Christianity began to wither. The future was to lie in the Gentile churches.

Wow. You put a lot of work into that summary Roni. Interesting that one man's preoccupations and hang-ups would become such a central part of a whole construct.

Just dropping in to say hi Roni. I am just home from my weekend away and catching up on the threads.

Catching up and still appreciating your chapter summaries. Very interesting.

Thank you, Lucy. Yes, summarizing that chapter was a lot of work--thank you so much for appreciating it.

Hey, Judy, glad you are safely home. Know you loved being with family but bet you are glad to be back in your own place.



Book #67 Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (386 pp.)

I picked this up last year because it was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award, and I'm only sorry that I took so long to read it. This is brilliant. Set in a post-apocalyptic northern Africa, it nonetheless mirrors some of the most tragic issues of the current era in a story that is part fantasy, part science fiction, part quest story, and yet transcends all the genres into a story that catches you up and spits you out and leaves you the better for it.

>199 ronincats: A friend of mine edits her short stories and says she's a cool gal.

The idea of being open to "faith", the longing to surrender oneself to another who can provide certainty, is an enduring part of the human psychology. However, this surrender raises concerns for the rational thinker. Plato condemns faith as a way to truth, for example, and the Greek rationalists found this way of thinking to be irrational and weak. Paul's response was to hit back with highly emotional rhetoric. So not only the Law has been superseded by Christ, but also the core of Greek intellectual achievement itself. So as Paul's writings came to be seen as authoritative, it became a mark of the committed Christian to reject rational thought, and even the evidence of empirical experience.

That is precisely the experience I have with xians: Don't bother me with facts! Gawd did my thinking for me and it's in the Baaaable. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. How anyone can follow this bad myth-mash in all seriousness is incomprehensible to me.

I've read her YA novel Zahrah the Windseeker which was really different but in a good way. I've already marked this one to read, will have to make some room.

#200 - Hey Richard... I'm still saying that rosary for you! ;)

Kerry, this was the first book I had read by Okorofor, but it won't be the last.

Richard, I knew you would resonate with that passage. One that resonated with me was in an article that Alan Watts wrote, probably back in the 60s, where he used a metaphor that has stuck with me ever since, to the effect that "belief" is like clinging to a stone in the middle of the ocean, and "faith" is learning to swim. He was much more eloquent, of course.

Eris, love to have you visit!



Book #68 Illegal Magic by Arlene Blakely (227 pp.)

Light, frothy paranormal romance. Nothing special. Nothing terrible. Mind candy.

>202 ErisofDiscord: Ha! Have at it.

>203 ronincats: Hmmm. Well, either way, I think it's cruel to make a construct around the concept of sin and unworthiness and pooey-on-youie unless'n you give your higher cognitive functions over to gawd.

>199 ronincats:: I've been wondering whether I should read that. David was underwhelmed by it, but I've heard others who really liked it. I think your blurb just pushed me over. Back onto the list it goes! :)

Looks like I'm driving everyone away with my summaries--is that it? So little traffic here lately--maybe I should read some more!

Richard, since I was provided with a brain, I assume it came with a license to use it! ;-)

Hey, Sarah, I thought it was worth reading--hope you do too.

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 10: The First Christian Communities

Freeman uses the incident in Acts where Paul and Barnabas were acclaimed as gods in Lystra to illustrate that in the Greco-Roman world, unlike the world of Judaism, human beings could appear to cross the boundary between human and divine. While the Apostles and Paul saw Jesus within the context of Judaism to be a human being exalted by God upon his death, as Christianity moved out into the Gentile world it was now possible to assume that he might always have been divine. The Gospel of John (circa 100 A. D.) should be viewed in this latter cultural context. In this gospel, unlike the synoptics, Jesus becomes divine (clearly separating him from the world of Judaism) and strongly associated with symbols of unity and care, the vine and its branches, the shepherd and his flock. John writes for theological effect and adapts the sequence of events accordingly. For example, the cleansing of the Temple, realistically put in the Synoptics just before his arrest, is moved to the beginning of Jesus' ministry, perhaps to symbolize Jesus' transcendence over traditional Jewish religious practice. John's Gospel is structured to highlight a number of signs in Jesus' ministry that proclaim his status as the Son of God to those who can recognize them, from the miracle at Cana to the appearance to Thomas.

John for the first time associated the Greek concept of "logos" (the force of reason--translated as "the Word") with the Sophia, the Wisdom from Scriptures, as present from the beginning and now equated with becoming human in Jesus, a concept never countenanced by Plato and other philosophers. This is the only place the Incarnation is mentioned in the New Testament. If Jesus is logos, present since creation, then he must be in some way divine. Some texts in the Gospel assert identity with the Father, others a more subordinate position. Jesus as the Son/logos has the purpose of linking men back to God and offering them salvation, a positive role rather than the angry day of judgment stressed by Paul. John also elevates the power and importance of the Holy Spirit when Jesus returns to the Father, creating the possibility of the concept of the Trinity, although that would not be developed for another 300 years.

However, making Jesus divine also had the consequence of demonizing the Jews as deicides. John introduces sayings where Jesus rejects the Jews and foresees their role as his killers. Another force contributing this rejection of Judaism was the problem of continuing to use the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament, of a religion from which Christianity was increasingly separate. Thus the argument that the Jews were not worthy of their own sacred texts. In addition, building on Paul's letters, early church fathers argued that, circumcision being unnecessary in the new covenant, the circumcision of the Jews signified an inferior status, an idea that outraged the Jews for whom it was a mark of their commitment to God.

"The key to understanding the early Christian communities is their relative isolation and desperate search for a distinct identity within a world whose gods and culture Paul had told them they must despise." To survive in a culture they defined as evil, Christians had to be secretive. There is practically no record of public preaching after the Apostles and Paul. Indeed, there are few records of any kind to be found.

Any institution that distances itself from mainstream society has to create its own support systems. The earliest sacrament to take recognizable form was baptism, an initiation, typically taking place after 3 years of preparation. The Eucharist was celebrated, although the doctrine of transubstantiation did not emerge until the Middle Ages. Christians could only marry other Christians, and a strong social support evolved in the community. As Christianity grew, the pattern of providing care within the community was extended to the sick and destitute beyond the immediate community.

It was a result of the urgent need to define its boundaries and beliefs that Christians developed sophisticated notions and structures of authority. This was a revolutionary development in a world where a person could belong to numerous different cults with no difficulty or reprobation. It took a two-fold process in which a canon of sacred texts emerged alongside an institutional structure in which bishops held authority within their communities and, eventually, claimed the absolute right to define and interpret Christian doctrine. The idea that stories about God and his actions could be frozen in written form and interpreted to make statements of "truth" was completely alien to the Greeks, contaminating their concepts of "muthoi" and "logoi", and there was some resistance to it from early Christians as well. By about 135 A. D. Christians were accepting that written texts had more authority than the oral traditions of the life of Jesus.

The development of the New Testament took considerable time--there were a large number of competing texts which were narrowed down through their conformity with the evolution of doctrine. There was a deliberate attempt to exclude certain voices from the early period of Christianity. But even so, there was considerable diversity and lack of coherence in the documents accepted into the canon, and it was difficult to use them as an authoritative source for doctrine. While almost all the texts of the NT were written to and for specific, often small, communities faced with particular challenges, they were now assumed to have universal significance and to provide an unrivalled source for doctrine in the gradual rejection of direct revelation. Christianity fragmented as it spread, because of the variety of scriptural and traditional sources, and perhaps for this reason, the search for authority became more intense with a stress on an institutional hierarchy, the apostolic succession (Iranaeus, 178-200 A. D.; Cyprian, 248-258 A. D.). Still, there were many arguments between bishops across communities--there was definitely no one unified Church.

Christians also accepted the continuing activity of God in the world in the form of miracles and portents effected through the Holy Spirit, although direct revelation was by now frowned on thanks to the Montanists (remember, direct revelation did not fit well within a strict authoritarian model). Early Christians did not disbelieve in pagan gods but considered them demons, and exorcisms were very common and important. However, this also opened the Church to criticism of relying on faith rather than reason and this was becoming a handicap. Christians familiar with Greek philosophy began to seek to merge the two, from about 125 through 225. As we saw, the concept of logos, reasoning power, became equated with Christ and Middle Platonism was reinterpreted in terms of the Christian theology. The concept of faith shifted from being a state of openness as recorded in the Gospels to one of being ready to accept what is authoritatively decreed by the church hierarchy. The readiness to do this without questioning becomes a virtue in itself. Reasoning is now reserved for a few. Plato also reinforces the separation of the soul and body and saw the natural world as inferior to the ideal world--doctrines that became strongly infused in Christianity. Origen was a prominent Platonist theologian who developed the concept of original sin, saw Christ as created by the Father, stressed the longing of man to reunite with God, and argued that all would ultimately be saved. For the second and fourth of these, he would be declared a heretic at the Nicene Council in 325. "As Christianity became as much a political as a religious movement, the fear that without eternal punishmnet there would be insufficient incentive for being good predominated."

The self-imposed isolation of Christians from the political and religious structure of Roman society was bound to evoke reaction. It made it easy to scapegoat them as enemies, but also their refusal to participate in civic cult activities marked them as unpatriotic and raised fears that the protection of the gods might be lost. Persecution was generally haphazard and depended on the individual initiative of authorities. Overall, even in the third century, Christians were between 2 and 10% of the population, were mostly urban, eastern, and Greek-speaking, outsiders although more and more were working within the system.

Roni - really enjoying your updates on The Closing of the Western Mind and this one together with the excellently reviewed Who Fears Death are on my hitlist as a result of the same. Have a lovely weekend.

Hi Roni, best wishes for the holiday weekend. I've started Goose Girl by Shannon Hale and now I am looking forward to sitting in the garden reading tomorrow.

Thank you, Paul. Judy, I'm hoping you enjoy it!



Book #69 Religion Explained: the evolutionary origins of religious thought by Pascal Boyer (330 pp.)

Finally finished this one. Fascinating, but very dry. If you want a better understanding of evolutionary anthropology and psychology, this will certainly provide that. It is clearly an exposition of this field of research, written for scholars with a scholar's concerns. Some interesting concatenations in the chapter on the characteristics of religious guilds, by necessity political, and Freeman's discussion above. But it won't satisfy many people who are looking for something less scientific, more certain.

>206 ronincats:: Beginning of summer, online traffic drops all over, I think. Don't take it to heart. :)

So glad I didn't even attempt the Boyer......

#206 "Looks like I'm driving everyone away with my summaries--is that it?" No, no, I'm here, just stunned into silence by your masterful summaries :-) (and not very much brain lately so I can't think of anything to say).

Anyway, I am awed by the amount of information you seem able to take in and remember from your non-fiction reading and finding your summaries very interesting.

#199 I've also had Who Fears Death on my wishlist for a while and from a quick amazon check it looks like it might finally be released in the UK next month - woo!

I've loved all the Okorafors I've read so far. Her latest one seems to be the start of a YA series. A sort of Harry Potter in Africa, but with her distinct touch.

*smooch*

The more you summarize, the better my understanding of how evil the religion truly is, and that is a boon and a blessing to me.

Sarah, as long as you visit me, I shall not repine!

Lucy, it really WAS interesting--but be glad you didn't.

And Heather, as long as Heather visits me too--and Lucy, and Richard and...

Heather, I don't remember it, so I use the summaries as an external memory storage device. Sneaky, huh? But the book has to be worth it to make the effort.

QQ, thanks for speaking up! I need to read some more Okorafors, and that latest one sounds right up my alley.

Richard, dear, the early history of the Church certainly does not make pleasant reading, that's for sure.

I know what my next four reads will be--I just haven't spent any time this weekend doing any reading. Yesterday was some house cleaning and a visit to the nursery for more tomato plants and treatment for fungus, and repotting tomato plants and pottery class. Today was general gardening and yard work and cooking out back and eating on the deck and Wii bowling. But yesterday also included a stop by the library to pick up two of the following books.

So, my next books:

The Master of Heathcrest by Galen Beckett--I've actually started this and it's slow going, mostly because it's been over a year since I read the second book in the series and I've forgotten where we were. I expect it to pick up.

The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin--my ER book came in last week and I'm looking forward to it.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor--I put in a hold for this about 4 or 5 months ago and was about 68th in line, and it finally came in to my library branch.

Thirty-three Teeth--I also put in a hold for this second in the Dr. Siri series, but got it in about a week.

And we ate our first green beans of the season today!

Hi Roni, I'm delurking to say how much I love the photos of your pottery. The Closing of the Western Mind looks like quite a project, but interesting.

Thank you, Susan. So glad to have you visit!

I've finished Book 1 of The Master of Heathcrest Hall but, as is often the case with multiple viewpoint books, I cannot read it straight through, so have been reading Dr. Siri in between. Except Dr. Siri goes much faster, so



Book #70 Thirty-three Teeth by Colin Cotterill (256pp.)

Another delightful Dr. Siri book. This is as charming as the first, as we and Dr. Siri learn more about the old shaman residing in him.

And Dr. Siri was evidently exactly what the doctor ordered, for after finishing him, I was able to go back and finish off the Beckett book, even willingly staying up an extra half hour to do so!



Book #71 The Master of Heathcrest Hall by Galen Beckett (718 pp.)

I think Beckett's writing has gotten better with each book. As my "followers" may remember, I was somewhat "meh" about The Magicians and Mrs. Quent", feeling it could not decide whether to be Georgette Heyer or Charlotte Bronte (two of my favorite authors, so it was hard to compete anyway), and only finding her own unique voice in the third part of the book. I liked The House on Durrow Street better, and with this third book finishing the story, feel that on the whole the author has put forth a very respectable effort. I had a little trouble getting into it at first, because it had been slightly over a year since I re-read the first book and read the second, and so I had forgotten who was left where in some circumstances, and I always have some difficulty reading multiple viewpoint novels straight through anyway. But once I was back into the flow, things picked up and, as I said above, I actually stayed up late to finish the last 30 or 40 pages.

This story is a combination fantasy/science fiction, set in what is in many respects an alternate Regency England but with magic, witches, and days and nights of varying lengths--which introduces some interesting elements into the story.

SPOILERS

The aliens come directly into the picture at the end of the first book, and provide the motivation for the next two, but since they are basically the same as any Lovecraftian monsters in their lack of individuality and ravening ferocity, this could really be solely fantasy. Of course, having your monsters localized on an expendable piece of real estate could come in handy on the right occasion.

SPOILERS OVER

I do feel Galen developed characters with depth and interest and variety, people you could get interested in and identify with. And the world-building was very good as well. While I think the plot could have used some more editing, in all, this did a good job of wrapping up a story that was an enjoyable read.

Well, ER has notified me that I won one of the two books I requested. It should be interesting. An evangelical minister has written two prior versions of this, starting with his thesis orginally, taking all the allusions to Hell in the Old and New Testament, in their original context, and coming up with a picture of Hell that is not the typical fundamentalist Hell--but which IS still a conservative view, based totally on internal scriptural evidence. It will be interesting to get this perspective. The book is
Hell A Final Word: The Surprising Truths I Found in the Bible by Edward William Fudge.

The Closing of the Western Mind

Chapter 11: Constantine and the Coming of the Christian State

It turns out that the story about Constantine that everybody "knows" is probably not true, because it is based on what Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, wrote in his Life of Constantine, in which Constantine was shaped into a Christian hero, equated with Moses. However, recent research indicates that there is no evidence, outside of Eusebius, that Constantine knew anything much about Christ or even the requirements of Christian living. His main concern was probably political, to co-opt the growing Christian community into supporting his imperial rule, but he also maintained his relationship with paganism. After a decisive defeat of a rival Caesar, Maxentius, Constantine announced it was due to the support he received from "the supreme deity". Within a few months, he had declared that Christianity should be tolerated, and within a year had started a program of patronage that included a massive building of churches. Since persecutions had not been successful, integrating a religion that already had a well-established structure of authority as a prop to the imperial regime had promise. But Constantine knew so little about Christianity that he immediately ran into difficulty. First, he associated Christ with victory in war, but Christ was not a god of war. A new concept of Christianity would have to be forged to sustain this link. Secondly, he could not break with the pagan cults since they still claimed the allegiance on most of his subjects, but Christianity emphatically rejected paganism. Finally, while Constantine wanted a church that would be subservient to him, he found one racked with disputes and power struggles.

Constantine and Licinius jointly issued a proclamation in Milan in 313 that henceforth Christianity and all other cults would be tolerated throughout the empire. This was the first proclamation of the right to freedom of worship.

Conventional pagan terminology ("the Divinity") and symbols (the sun) were also used by Christians to represent Christ, so Constantine was able to satisfy both Christians and pagans by presenting himself in these terms and thus effectively remaining neutral. However, he also supported Christianity by granting special favors to clergy, especially in granting exemption from holding civic office and taxation. He appears to be trying to tie the Christian communities into the service of the state. But he did not forsee the consequence--that is, determining WHICH Christian communities, many at each other's throats accusing each other of being heretics, to accept as official. In an attempt to have the North African churches referee themselves, he called two successive councils of bishops, one in Rome and one in Gaul. Eventually, he became irritated by the rigid position of the Donatists and withdrew his patronage from them, inadvertently defining in the remaining western Christian communities what would become the Roman Catholic Church.

Constantine's primary preoccupations remained military, and he consolidated his sole rule of the Roman empire in 326, taking over the eastern provinces in addition to his western empire. The eastern empire had a long and rich cultural history, still primarily Greek speaking, and much more heavily Christianized, and a tradition of intense debate over doctrine. The bishops were constantly attacking each other verbally and Constantine saw his political unity threatened by the Christian Greeks' endemic political and doctrinal disunity. Almost immediately, he was confronted by a major dispute between the bishop of Alexandria, Alexander, and presbyter named Arius. It concerned the central problem of the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ. Arius saw Jesus as distinct from God, supported by passages from the Gospels and early Christian tradition, and perhaps essentially different in nature. Earlier Church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Clement, and Origen, had supported this position, and it was a very common position around the year 300. Jesus was divine, but he was a distinct creation of God the Father. In contrast, Alexander argued for a theory of Jesus the Son as divine and fully part of the Godhead from the beginning.

Constantine was perplexed and irritated by the virulent conflicts between Arius and Alexander, writing that these distinctions were "idle and trivial", that the two agreed in all major doctrines. But the controversy spread, and so Constantine called a council of bishops so that he could enforce an agreed definition of Christian doctrine which could then be backed by the state. This was the Council of Nicaea. In his opening speech, Constantive stressed the need for harmony and how it would please both God and their emperor. This council, although it started with a conciliatory creed, ended with a document which rejected Arian arguments, insisting that Jesus was identical with the Father, ""homoousios", although it had no basis in scripture and had rarely been used in theological discussion up to this point. It is suggested that an impatient Constantine simply forced the matter through, and there were political advantages to having Christ within the Godhead rather than a distinct figure outside it that was a figure of peace, a representative of opposition to the empire and was executed by a Roman governor. Christ played little part in Constantine's theology. In doctrinal terms, the formula had no precedent and there is evidence the bishops had to be pressured into accepting it, dependent as they now were on his patronage and support.

Although the Council of Nicaea now has a respected place in Christian history as the first ecumenical council and the first expression of the (orthodox) Niciene Creed, it was not taken seriously at the time, indeed not until a later council under a different emperor, the Council of Constantinople in 381. Essentially, the bishops signed the document, saluted the emperor, and went back to their congregations and went on teaching what they always had, generally a doctrine somewhat in between Arius and Alexander. Within 10 years, most of these bishops had been deposed, exiled, or otherwise disgraced.

Constantine himself realized his enforced creed did nothing to maintain the allegiance of the majority of the Greek-speaking Christian communities, who remained Arian. His agenda required that consensus be maintained, and he actually began to reconcile with the Arians. However, Arius died, although his doctrines remained.

Constantine did not show any interest in the message of the Gospels, but used Christianity as a means of bringing order to society. He described Christianity as "the Law", a regulated way of life under the auspices of a single god. He did make divorce more difficult, included infanticide in a law on murder, banned crucifixion and public branding, but in many other laws he maintained a traditional Roman brutality. There were few Christians in Constantine's administration and the army remained pagan. Constantine showed no interest in social equality but maintained traditional distinctions.

In 326 Constantine's first 20 years in power were celebrated, he completed a great basilica and other monuments in Rome, but he was looking to the East for a new, more central capital. He built the city of Constantinople, respecting the pagan goddesses protecting Byzantium with temples, but also a major forum and palace of his own. Christianity was not evident in the founding celebrations and ceremonies, but space was reserved for churches in the center of the city, but under names that were also acceptable to pagans (Holy Wisdom, Holy Peace, Holy Power).

In April 337, Constantine was dying and finally allowed himself to be baptized, finally discarding the imperial purple and dressing in the white of the new Christian. His impact on the empire was dramatic, his reassertion of the empire as a single political unity, allowing Christianity to consolidate itself within his empire without alienating Pagans. But by bringing Christianity so firmly under the control of the state, he was severing the traditional church from its roots. A whole new set of tensions--the nature of Christian authority and where it lay, the appropriate use of material wealth for Christians now the subject of state patronage, the basis on which doctrine rested--had been created and many have still not been resolved today.

One of the most important legacies was the creation of a relationship between Christianity and war, creating the problem of how to present Jesus, the man of peace, in this context. The response was to transform Him, most explicitly, into a man of war.

Your summaries are fascinating, Roni. It almost makes me want to read the book. Almost. :)

The Closing of the Western Mind sounds interesting, Roni. Wouldn't you know, Constantine's motivations apparently were primarily political. That is contrary to legend, but in keeping with what we know about government leaders, right?

Glad you liked the Dr. Siri, and I'm looking forward to your take on Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I enjoyed it.

How hugely preferable it would have been if Constantine had simply been a better persecutor.

Sarah, you wouldn't believe how much I am skipping over, like all his evidence and substantiation!

Joe, for years, everyone took Eusebius at face value, but in the last 20 years, evidence as to just how much he was mythologizing Constantine's life has emerged.

Right, RD.

Finally remembered to take my camera on one of our walks with our dog at Lake Murray, although the spring flowers are gone.

I stopped by the library on my way home from aquacise, as I had another hold book come in (Changes by Mercedes Lackey) and I left Death Comes to Pemberly and The Magician King both sitting on the new acquisitions shelf. I also left, with greater difficulty, copies of The Vicar of Wakefield and Silas Marner and Ralph Waldo Emerson on the sale shelves--they were in those collections bindings and I wanted to give them a home, but I know I can always find them at the library.

>226 ronincats: I am in *awe* of your self-restraint!

Beautiful place to go for a walk, Roni.

Me too, RD! Thank you, Judy--you wouldn't know it was in the middle of a city, would you?

May summary:

15 books read

2 science fiction
8 fantasy
3 non-fiction
1 mystery
1 romance

5107 pages read

2 book off the tbr shelf
4 library books
1 newly acquired books
6 re-read off my shelves
2 free Kindle books

5 male authors
10 female authors

1 physical book acquired: from the Early Reviewer program

2 books out the door: 2 BookMooch

And the booklist of books read for May:

57. A Princess of Mars* by Edgar Rice Burroughs (146 pp.)
58. The Closing of the Western Mind% by Charles Freeman (403 pp.)
59. Tea With the Black Dragon* by R. A. MacEvoy (166 pp.)
60. Jesus, Interrupted# by Bart Ehrman (292 pp.)
61. A Sensible Lady+ by Judith Lown (187 pp.)
62. The Curse of Chalion* by Lois McMaster Bujold (442 pp.)
63. The Hallowed Hunt* by Lois McMaster Bujold (470 pp.)
64. Paladin of Souls* by Lois McMaster Bujold (456 pp.)
65. House of Many Ways* by Diana Wynne Jones (404 pp.)
66. Magic Under Glass# by Jaclyn Dolamore (225 pp.)
67. Who Fears Death% by Nnedi Okorafor (386 pp.)
68. Illegal Magic+ by Arlene Blakely (227 pp.)
69. Religion Explained# by Pascal Boyer (330 pp.)
70. Thirty-Three Teeth# by Colin Cotteril (256 pp.)
71. The Master of Heathcrest Hall by Galen Beckett (718 pp.)

* indicates re-read, # indicates library book, + indicates Kindle book, % indicates Book Off The Shelf (BOTS)

This was definitely my heaviest month for re-reads this year--out of 13 repeat reads for the year, 6 were this month. Part of that, of course, was that after reading The Curse of Chalion again, I could not resist reading the other two related books. Tea With the Black Dragon was a group read, and A Princess of Mars was inspired by the movie release.

I only read two Books Off The Shelf, but I was very happy with both of them. I have written summaries of the first 11 chapters of The Closing of the Western Mind, with 9 chapters to go. That has turned into a project--good thing it wasn't a library book.

As always, riveted to your summary of CWM.

I'm amazed by how much ELSE you got read this month!

Roni - what a lovely place to have a walk through - thanks for posting the shot. Have a great weekend.

Love the look of that lake Roni. To someone who's used to a much more muted colour palate in their landscapes it looks like a holiday destination - how wonderful to have it nearby. I'm just off to Readitswapit to try and track down a few books, and reading your monthly summary reminded me I definately need to track down some Lois McMaster Bujold!

You sure do Hannah!!! But get ready to read obsessively, not bathe, not pay bills, call in sick, not vacuum, or eat or wash dishes etcetera. I think I read steadily through the oeuvre in a couple of months - no hoarding - which was so unusual for me, I couldn't stop myself. THAT's how Bujold affected me!!!!

Lucy, you'll note that The Closing of the Western Mind is listed in very early May--most of my reading time was actually in April. And after that is when I went on that massive re-reading of favorites spree! I'm going to try to churn out another chapter summary later today.

Paul, hope you are having a relaxing Sunday, although with all the activity going on over in your thread with all the book lists, it must keep you hopping as a host. Thanks for visiting.

Hannah, San Diego is pretty much desert, with an average of under 10 inches of rain a year, and the lake has mostly native landscape. I wish I'd had my camera with me in April, when all the spring wildflowers were blooming--it was awesome. As is Bujold--Lucy was not exaggerating one bit!

Today is turkey day. Every year when the turkeys go on sale super cheap for Thanksgiving, I pick up a couple extra and stick them in the freezer for later. I love roast turkey, and I always fix it with the patented paper bag method I started back as a newlywed with a recipe from the Kansas City Star (10/22/1972), turkey broth for gravy from the San Diego Tribune (11/20/84), and a stuffing using fresh bread from the Betty Crocker cookbook I got in 1971. Today, we have fresh chopped apricot, raisins and craisins in the stuffing, which is fixed using half the butter called for in the recipe (1/2 cup instead of 1 cup) with chicken broth making up the difference. We'll have it with fresh green beans from the garden and some sliced tomatoes from the local farmers' market.

Book #72 Changes by Mercedes Lackey (326 pp.)

I love The Arrows of the Queen trilogy, Lackey's first books set in Valdemar, and enjoy most of the ones set around that time. I am less fond of the ancient history ones, especially the gryphon and owl ones. This series, of which the current book is #3 of 4, is set in the time when the Heralds were shifting over from an individual mentor training to a school/collegium model, and tells the story of Mags, an orphan rescued from a terrible existence as a mine slave by being Chosen. In the first book, his rescue and adjustment to the new Collegium was the focus of the tale. In the second, dealing with some foreign assassins who were trying to disrupt the kingdom and ended up kidnapping one of Mags' close friends served as the plot. In this one, new and improved assassins have shown up, and Mags and his mentor are involved in trying to flush them out and figure out who is sending them. And we are given numerous foreshadowings that WHO Mags turns out to be is going to be significant.

It's okay. It's just okay for me, as Randy Jackson would say. It seems like a whole lot of story for relatively little plot, but if you love the world, then it is no hardship to stay in it for the ride. Mags' vernacular can be irritating, but it is there for a reason. I would like more of the big picture about the institution of the collegium, but the narrative stays very tightly focused around Mags' POV.

You've been doing some good reads. I agree with you on the latest Lackey series though. It's just not doing it for me.

>235 ronincats: Another cootie book avoided! Thanks Roni.

And here is the pottery I brought home yesterday afternoon. Small pieces, the tallest is nearly 6 inches.

Hope you enjoyed "Turkey Day". My Mom has cooked her turkey in a paper bag for years as well, I think the method includes greasing the bag thoroughly. For some reason I've never asked her for the recipe, must make note to do that.

Hi Roni, I saw on Peggy's thread that you like to know who visits you. I am guilty of lurking because I don't have too much to say. You already know how much I am liking your summaries of The Closing of the Western Mind so I'll just say Happy Thanksgiving in June! Oh, and beautiful pottery as usual. Have a great week.

The Closing of the WEstern Mind

Chapter 12: Emperors and the Making of Christian Doctrine

The question, after Constantine, was whether the newly enriched and privileged Christian communities would settle happily under state power or whether they would unsettle it by continued dissension. Constantine's three surviving sons eliminated the other members of their family and divided the empire among them in 337. Constantine I was killed invading Constans' territory in 340. Constans was assassinated in a palace coup in 350, the leaders of whom were defeated by Constantius in 351, who now ruled the entire empire for the next 10 years until his death.

The immediate challenge for emperors was to bring some form of order to the Christian communities by establishing and, if necessary, imposing a doctrine that defined the natures of God and Jesus and the relationship between them. It was not only order; once tax exemptions were provided, eventually including exemptions for church lands, a definition of "Christian" became imperative. The issue was alive because Nicaea had solved nothing. Its declaration that Jesus was of the same substance as the father (homoousios) was easy to attack on the grounds that it went against the tradition of seeing Jesus as subordinate to his Father and it used terminology that was nowhere to be found in scripture, and was largely ignored. Yet given the variety of sources and influences on the making of doctrine as well as the personal rivalries entangled therein, accusations of heresy, deceit, and fraud flew across the empire. It was a mess and Freeman explains some of the sources of the mess in more detail.

Constantius was determined to find a workable formula. Working with small groups of eastern bishops, some possible creeds were hammered out that prepared to accept Jesus as divine but not "homoousios", substituting "homoios" (like) in its place. How Jesus came into being was declared a mystery. These broad creeds were hoped to be general enough that the majority of Christian communities would accept them, but that very factor led to spirited if not furious further debates. Nonetheless, Constantius eventually accepted the Fourth Creed of Sirmium in 359 as a point upon to seek consensus. He wanted to establish it at two councils, one in the western empire in 360 and one in the east later the same year. Things did not go well. The western bishops were highly suspicious of this "eastern" creed and fell back on the Nicene creed initially, but finally agreed. The eastern bishops then were persuaded not to be out of step with the West.

Constantius then called a joint council at the end of the year at Constantinople with delegations from the two earlier councils, at which he pushed through the Fourth Creed and made it an imperial edict. However, when Constantius died unexpectedly in 361, his cousin Julian became emperor. Julian knew Christianity well, had been brought up Christian, but was dismayed at the vicious infighting he saw around him. Once he buried Constantius, Julian adopted "paganism", removed the clergies' exemptions, and were forbidden to teach grammar or rhetoric, as well as insisting that every man could practice his own belief without hindrance.

Julian was a philosopher emperor. He challenged what he saw as the irrational nature of Christian belief, using his knowledge of scriptures to support his writings. Only John of the Gospels accepts the divinity of Christ, e.g., and the prophecies in the Old Testament applied to Christ are based on misinterpretations of the texts. Why did God create Eve if she were going to thwart his plans for creation? and much more. However, Julian was killed during a battle in Persia after only 18 months in office. Several army officers served as emperor over the next 15 years, primarily concerned with defending the borders of the empire.

In 378, the Huns were on the move, driving the Goths before them and a mass of refugees poured across the Danube. The Goths defeated one of the co-emperors, Valens, and the cream of the Roman army at Adrianople. Theodosius became co-emperor but had to settle for permitting the Goths to settle within the empire, ostensibly as allies but with no real allegiance to Rome.

All these emperors were Christian but generally were tolerant of all faiths. In the west, the monotheistic formula of equal divinity had always been more accepted than in the more philosophically sophisticated and Greek-speaking east. However, in the 350s an eastern bishop, Athanasius of Alexandria, began to defend the Nicene formula. Athanasius was a fervent opponent of Arianism, enforced his authority with violence and intimidation, and was exiled by emperors at least 5 times and for 15 years of his 45 years as bishop. Jesus was part of the Godhead from all eternity but He (logos) was incarnated because humanity is sunk in sin and cannot be left to suffer without redemption. He created an elaborate distinction between the human body of Jesus, which appears to suffer on the cross, and the divine "logos" which is somehow within the human body but does not suffer.

Athanasius then attacked Arians with unscrupulous tactics, bringing a new level of intolerance into church politics. He said the Arians' use of scripture was inspired by the devil and quoting earlier theologians was a slander on them (even though their positions were closer to the Arians than Athanasius). Unfortunately, when his position became orthodox, it legitimized such intolerant invective. In order to justify the incarnation, Athanasius provided a definition of man as inherently sinful, in contrast to, for example, Origen 100 years earlier. Men were inherently disobedient and the cause of their own corruption, and things were getting worse. This was a major and enduring shift in perspective and contrasts strongly with the earlier optimism of Greek thinking.

As the debates raged on, sometimes resulting in broken heads, the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus, finally came up with what ended up being accepted as orthodox. THere is one Godhead, homoousios, but with three distinct personalities, hypostaseis. They were familiar with Greek philosophy and may have drawn on the neo-Platonist Plotinus who proposed "the One", "nous" or Intellect, and the World-Soul in his metaphysical system. This also elevated the Holy Spirit into the Godhead--the earliest writing presenting the Holy Spirit as a distinct personality is in 350. Thus Greek philosophical terms were adapted and adopted to produce a solution allowing the Nicene Formula to be reasserted, one that was a compromise between Arianism and Sabelliannism. The Trinity stood between the monotheism of the Jews and the polytheism of the Greeks.

The doctrine of the Trinity was very difficult for many to accept. There is very little in scripture that can be used to support the final form of the idea. In addition to scriptures that seem to deny the thesis, the only reason for Jesus to have a distinct personality was his being begotten as the Son, but this denied that God created Jesus. When challenged, the Cappadocians fell back on claims of the ultimate mystery of these things. Emperor support was critical for this complex doctrine to be accepted, and when Theodosius became emperor, he announced that the Nicene faith would be the orthodoxy and all alternatives punished as heresies in 380. In the eastern empire, this meant that the majority of Christian communities stood to lose heavily under the new policy and much anger greeted Theodosius when he entered the city in late 380. Bishops were removed and properties confiscated and handed over to bishops who accepted the Nicene creed. After convening with these bishops, an edict was enforced which stated that these were the only orthodox Christians, all other Christians differing from it being named foolish madmen unable to call their communities churches.

This edict finally confirmed the emperor as the definer and enforcer of orthodoxy. In the future, when debates within the church began to threaten the stability of the empire, it would be the emperor who would intervene to establish the boundaries between orthodoxy and heresy. Orthodoxy was now established with tax exemptions for clergy as well as access to wealth and patronage. Theodosius, faced with threat from outside, used orthodoxy as a focus for loyalty to the empire and reinterpreting attacks from outside as the assault of evil on the true faith. This may explain the rise of Christian intolerance as essentially a defensive response to these threats. Still, an extraordinary diversity of Christian belief flourished in the fourth century and it was only gradually that orthodox bishops were able to impose their authority.

Now that the doctrine of the Trinity had been proclaimed, scripture had to be reinterpreted to defend it. Augustine of Hippo used an "allegorical" approach--when scripture appears to be in conflict with doctrine, it should not be taken literally but as allegorical of some other meaning. This culminated in the Council of Trent in 1545-63 where a Catholic must swear to accept Scripture as interpreted by the Holy Mother Church.

The transformation of Christ from the man of the Synoptic Gospels to the God of the Trinity was a difficult one, and was accompanied by the way He was represented. His representations in mosaics assumes the pose of the cult statued placed in pagan temples as well as that of the emperors. Another symbol of imperial power was the halo, representing the sun.

Finally, Paul was elevated to apostolic primacy over Peter and the other apostles, with Augusting and John Chrysostom paying much more attention to Paul's writings than to the Gospels, and a great basilica built and dedicated to him in 392. It is possible the concentration on authority shown by Paul in his letters met the needs of the imperial church more adequately than the Gospels, which show Jesus challenging the religious and imperial authorities of his day. His focus against idols, Greek philosophy and sexuality also led to increased attacks on these in the Christian mission to eliminate paganism.

Golleeee! You might as well read the book. Well, no, actually there is SO much more in the book--it is hard to summarize it even this unsuccinctly.



Book #73 Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (418 pp.)

What I liked: the concept--original, even brilliant, take on possible origins of human concepts of angels and demons. The early characterization of characters on earth.

What I didn't like: once we have Akiva show up, the author goes all mythic on us and the subtleties of characterization disappear. Everything now is with broad strokes and, while epic, is less involving for me. We are being hit over the head with the message. And we end in the middle of the story.

If only Julian had lived.

Hi Roni . . .

Brenda, what are you doing still up? It's way past your bedtime there, girl!

Oh, my bedtime is ambiguous. I stay up late and/or am awake in the middle of the night very often. Lucky for me I can usually sleep later in the morning : ). Besides I have a strange craving for turkey! with all the fixins thank you!

I loved DoSaB, I'm a long time fan of Taylor's blog but this was only the second book of hers that I've read. I'm not usually a lover of paranormal romance but this was different enough to impress me.
Do try Lips touch: three times if you haven't already.

Love the pottery especially the ridges on the side of those glasses. I'll have to come back and read the latest chapter summary.

Got a free copy of Warrior's Apprentice at Baen's, have added it to my TBR pile for this month.

"Foul, wretched, dirty, freakin' cliffhanger!" is how someone, who has rated Daughter of Smoke and Bone at 5 stars, has started the review. I am, hence, staying away from this book until Part 2 comes out.

Richard, ah, if only!

Brenda, I have some of those nights as well, and am thankful I don't have to get up and go to work the morning after.

Kerry, this is my first by Taylor. I'll keep an eye out for the other book.

Great, Piyush! You won't be sorry. And that is a wonderful, and marvelously apt, quote; I love it!