Marissa's 2020 Reading Record

2020 is out of the gate with a vengeance, with more health issues for my mom (a fall two days before Christmas gave her a broken neck and pelvis) and serious upheaval in a writing organization to which I belong...so this may be a year for comfort reading.

I look forward to new books and to getting hit by everyone's book bullets (as always!)

2019's record is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/301584

Last year's stats:

87 new reads (six not listed in my library as they were read for judging purposes and anonymity is required)
3 rereads
5 DNFs

A lot fewer re-reads this year than in past years, though the DNF rate is similar. Favorite books? Hmm... Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series may take that laurel.

>1 Marissa_Doyle: what is it with 2020 with all the injuries and illnesses? Anyway, best wishes to your mum. You have a great year too.

I hope that 2020 improves quickly for you and your family. Wishing you all the very best in books and in life. I'm sure you will hit me with more than a few BBs this year!

So sorry for your mother. Wishing you all the best. I know how difficult it is.

I'm starring you. Tough year for both of us, I'm afraid. But we'll carry on, of course.

Sometimes I do the really rugged reading when things get heavy, such as political analyses of North Korea, just because they engage so much of my head. But there's nothing to top a good comfort read. Nero Wolfe, for instance.

Sending best wishes to you and your family - good thoughts and best wishes to your mum.

May the year get better for you and there be plenty of good reading thrown in.

Best wishes for you and your family. And happy reading.

>1 Marissa_Doyle: Ack, I'm so sorry. :o( Hopefully things will improve from here on.

Sorry to hear about your mom and the writing org's upheaval. I hope 2020's readings bring you some comfort.

Sorry to be slow in sending my good wishes to you and your mum, after her fall. I am only slowly catching up with all the new year threads.

>10 libraryperilous:, >11 -pilgrim-: Thank you for your kind thoughts. I think the road will be a bit dark for a while yet, but hope there will be peace at its end.

I haven't had much time for reading of late, but finished my first book of the year. Professor Moriarty: the Hound of the D'urbervilles is Kim Newman's Sherlock Holmes pastiche...or rather, anti-Holmes, as the Holmes figure here is none other than Holmes's nemesis, Professor Moriarty, as narrated by Moriarty's Watson, "Basher" Moran. I enjoyed it greatly at first, but as it went on (it clocks in at over 500 pages), the whole "anti-hero" aspect began to wear. Moran is a rotter of the first water, and while initially funny, became less so. Still, it's terribly clever--Newman had a lot of fun parodying several of the favorites of the Holmes canon. If you're already a fan of the author's work, it's worth picking up...but I wouldn't start here.

Yesterday turned out to be a DNBR day (well, some laundry and email checking too) as I happily polished off Blackcurrant Fool, the fourth installment in Victoria Goddard's Greenwing & Dart series. These are wonderful fantasy-of-manners tales, set in an ingeniously created world with a deep tinge of 18th century England (at least culturally speaking) but a fascinating history and nicely convoluted plotting and excellent characters. Highly recommended.

>13 Marissa_Doyle: I really need to start reading this series. It sounds so good! What a perfect way to spend your day.

>13 Marissa_Doyle: Oh, I've had this on my TBR for ages. It sounds like a delightful series. I'm glad you had a lovely reading day.

>13 Marissa_Doyle: this sounds like a series I should check out!

>14 Sakerfalcon:, >15 libraryperilous:, >16 NorthernStar: I hope you'll give them a try--I'd be interested in hearing your opinions.

Next up is completely different. The Quest for Queen Mary is a curious book: James Pope-Hennessy was asked to write an official biography of Queen Mary, consort of King George V, after her death in the 1950s. He conducted extensive interviews with the queen's friends, family, courtiers, and servants and wrote an excellent biography that was very well received...but of course not everything he learned made it into the book. Writer/biographer Hugo Vickers has written a sort of biography of the biography, using Pope-Hennessy's interview notes that reveal all sorts of odd, amusing, and sometimes unsavory and sad bits about the UK's royal family and how it fared into the first half of the 20th century.

I've always been interested in Queen Mary because she's such a monumental sort of figure and had an enormous influence on the form of the monarchy: the picture drawn in this book is one of a dysfunctional family propped up and made to function by individual members (i.e. Mary herself, starting with her engagement first to one heir to the throne and, following his death, marriage to his younger brother) and the courtiers and functionaries surrounding them, even as they became less and less relevant in the world. The family remains fascinating because they're a real-life soap opera, and everyone loves a good juicy story. But as human beings, they're rather a sad lot. It was illuminating to see that the difficult transitions into royal life suffered by Meghan Markle and Diana Spencer before her were something of a family tradition: Queen Mary had a very difficult relationship with her mother-in-law, Queen Alexandra, and sisters-in-law, and went on to have a similarly chilly and unpleasant relationship with her daughter-in-law Elizabeth, wife of the future George VI. Worthwhile reading for anyone with an interest in late 19th/early 20th century British history.

>17 Marissa_Doyle: Well that sounds fascinating. I'm not sure I'd be able to handle a whole book of this kind of detail, though. A miniseries might be more my speed. Speaking of which, I loved the first two seasons of The Crown, but haven't started the 3rd yet. Have you?

>18 clamairy: Ummm...well, no, I haven't seen any of it. We killed our TV decades ago (literally 20 years) so while it's connected to a DVD player, we don't have cable or anything. I don't have enough interest to do Netflix or anything for it--prefer the bios I've read.

The Queen Mary book actually reads very easily--it's a lot of Pope-Hennessy's notes on his interviews with a lot of people (including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor), so it's his voice and asides, which was pretty funny, snarky yet kind at the same time, somehow.

Finished a short novella, The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository--about a book-loving man who discovers the above-titled establishment in his small town after witnessing what he is sure is Anna Karenina committing suicide on the local railway line...or did he? An amusing conceit (I share the author's opinion of Thomas Hardy, it would seem) but not developed quite enough to be satisfying: it felt shallow in a way that stories like Ajax Penumbra 1969 and Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore did not.

Next up: Elleander Morning, a book bullet from stellarexplorer

>20 Marissa_Doyle: That sounds awfully tempting. But hard to find.

>21 -pilgrim-: The novella seems to have been published in an anthology of the author's works, but the copy I read was an e-book standalone obtained from Barnes and Noble; I expect it's on the Kindle and Kobo, if you're an e-book reader. But while the idea was lovely, I'm not sure the execution made it worth the trouble of trying to find it.

Elleander Morning is excellent, one third of the way through.

>22 Marissa_Doyle: I sing the praises of Elleander Morning at every opportunity. Glad to hear you are enjoying it!

Finished Elleander Morning, which I very much enjoyed. It's not without flaws--the actual time travel "mechanism" was kind of clunky and hand-wave-y; there was too much "insta-love" in the romantic relationships; and I found the denouement rushed--but the story was well done overall. I especially enjoyed how the author really thought through the ramifications of a world that hadn't had World War 2--everything from the name of a two-piece bathing suit to the delay of space exploration and other technological developments. Definitely recommended.

>24 Marissa_Doyle: Hmm, I'm intrigued, although I tend to be resistant to these types of stories. "Should I prevent a genocide?" is, like, always a yes for me, and I don't find books that make that a moral conflict compelling. It sounds like this book might be a bit more nuanced, though. Glad the book bullet delivered for you!

>25 libraryperilous: Ultimately the character who prevents WWII is motivated to do so to prevent the death of her son in the war, as well as to change other bits of history to prevent the deaths of other people she loves... and in the end her actions nearly precipitate a second world war anyway, just years after it would have occurred. It's convoluted, but satisfying.

I picked up Horrorstor on sale for my Nook at Barnes and Noble, because I like ghost stories and because the cover was a hoot (go look--it's pretty well done.) It's satire as much as it is horror: a riff on the soullessness of big box consumer stores (in this case, an IKEA knock-off) that pretend to be otherwise...only the particular store in this story happens to have been built on the site of an old and horrifying 19th century prison, and when strange damage and vandalism occurring during the night make the assistant manager decide it's time to stake out the store with a couple of employees to get to the bottom of things ...well, you can guess what happens next. The presentation of the book is hilarious--a take-off of a store catalogue along with corporate internal documents--and the satire is well done. But the writing was at times clunky, the characters clumsily drawn, and the horror quite gory, which is not my cup of tea. So major points for the design/idea, but the rest...meh.

I read it a few years ago and was 'meh' about it, too. Can't remember if I kicked it to the curb or kept it. The concept was slick and I enjoyed that, too, even though I've never been in an Ikea nor looked at a catalog.

>28 Bookmarque: Glad I'm not the only one. :)

Next up was English Puddings: Sweet and Savoury, though 99% of the recipes presented fell into the "sweet" camp. As much a history book as a cookbook, and after a while the recipes felt very repetitive, while the history itself was on the vague and hand-wave-y side. Meh.

With Love From Karen I remember reading Karen as a young teen, and when this showed up as a bargain ebook on Barnes and Noble, I said what-the-heck and bought it. A memoir of life in the fifties of a busy, loving family, including a preemie daughter with cerebral palsy (who inspired her mother to become one of the first activists for people with cerebral palsy) and their trials and triumphs. I'd forgotten the strong religious streak in it, but it was of the joyous rather than condemnatory type, which made it a happier read.

On next to some Nancy Mitford, a compilation of two of her stories, Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie. I might have read them back in college, but don't quite remember. Some froth is due, as my mom peacefully passed away earlier this week.

Holding you in my heart, Marissa. May you find and joy in your memories.

>29 Marissa_Doyle: my condolences, sending virtual hugs to you.

>29 Marissa_Doyle: I'm sorry. I hope your memories of her will help you begin to heal.

>29 Marissa_Doyle: Condolences and strength to you!

>29 Marissa_Doyle: I am sorry for your loss. Yes indeed, the right, safe, books can be a wonderful aid to coping.

>29 Marissa_Doyle:
My condolences.

>29 Marissa_Doyle: My condolences and thoughts go out to you and yours.

>29 Marissa_Doyle: Peace to you and yours.

I'm sorry to hear about your mom. I hope that you find comfort in good memories of her life.

Oh so sad and I know you miss her, but it sounds like it wasn't a struggle which is all we can hope for. Don't cry too much. What am I saying? I'll be a complete wreck when my mom dies and I know it. Cry like crazy and remember her fondly.

Some of the remembrances will center around our shared passion for used book stores, which are happy indeed. I can't help being glad that she's no longer trapped in a hurting, arthritic body that no longer worked well, and whether or not there's a further road for her to travel, at least she's free of that prison.

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words. They help.

>40 Marissa_Doyle: I understand that reaction completely; I felt the same way when my much-loved grandmother died.
Don't be afraid to be both glad for her and sorry for yourself.

I don't know if it will work this way for you, but once I was no longer watching her suffer, memories of the happier times, before the pain, came into my memory more easily. It sounds as if you have many happy memories of your time together to treasure.

Just catching up after a weekend away. Wishing you strength and hugs, and yes, concentrate on remembering the good times.

I read Christmas Pudding a while back and quite liked it. Sort of like P G Wodehouse with a bit more venom. Quite a lot more venom, actually.

>40 Marissa_Doyle: One of my Threshold Choir sisters says it's not exactly relief and she prefers the term "release" as in she is released from her ailing body and family and friends are released from responsibilities and worry.

My condolences.

>41 -pilgrim-: >42 haydninvienna: >43 littlegeek:

Yes, release is a good word. And it's true that I do feel freed to remember her as she used to be, not as she had been over these last two-three years of decline and loss of higher self. It will be a process, I can see. Thank you for your kind words.

Christmas Pudding was...more like a sequence of satirically funny bits than a novel--there wasn't much of a plot, and the story sort of fizzled rather than concluded. Which was too bad, as Mitford kept setting up funny situations and then doing nothing with them. Pigeon Pie was much better constructed, and very, very silly as well as satirical (and in general, more satisfying as a result of actually including a plot.)

On to something I'd been meaning to get to for a while--The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory. It's a little hard to describe...mostly it's a series of essays or biographies (in a way) of English rectories that played a role in the lives (and perhaps, the works) of 19th and 20th century men and women of letters. Beginning with the Rev. Sydney Smith (who has always been on my "what historical figures would you most like to invite to a dinner party?" list) on to Tennyson, Dorothy L. Sayers, Rupert Brooke, and so on. It's a gentle, slightly melancholic read, not too taxing, and just what I needed this week. Quite enjoyable.

Hello! Things got a little...heavy for a few weeks. But I think I'm emerging from the shadows a bit, and for the first time in nearly two years, the writing itch is creeping back in...which is an enormous relief. In the meanwhile, thank goodness for having good books to read.

I've been back on a bit of a Phil Rickman streak, reading his pre-Merrily Watkins standalones. They tend more to the supernatural (I appreciate the ambiguity in the Merrily books) and are delightfully creepy. Rickman's writing reminds me of Stephen King's in a lot of ways--the focus on character and how characters interact/are affected by a supernatural element. So...

Night After Night reminded me a bit of The Haunting of Hill House with a modern twist--a reality TV show is filmed in a reputedly haunted house, complete with "Survivor" style ejections and all. Murders ensue as the darkness that some cast members bring with them into the house are exacerbated by the house's own darkness. Very well done.

Curfew Set in Rickman's beloved border lands between England and Wales, in a depressed village that should have died of apathy centuries ago but somehow hasn't, where a ley line-obsessed tycoon decides to create a new New Age Mecca and begins to re-erect long-demolished standing stones and remove the wall around a sinister long barrow that looms over town...with the expected bad results. A little over-long and gory at times (I like to shiver, not be nauseated) but enjoyable. And one of Rickman's best characters from the Merrily Watkins books, Gomer Parry, makes his first appearance here.

Candlenight A small village in Wales seems like a slice of heaven--beautiful, quiet, with preternaturally mild weather...but this delightfulness has come at a cost. Mixes in themes of Welsh nationalism, English prejudice toward the Welsh, and modern electoral politics with Celtic folklore and man's tendency toward tribalism. Some loose ends that could have been tied in better, but a good read.

The Stately Ghosts of England This book is the result of a collaboration between a clairvoyant and a journalist, who together visited several reputed haunted stately homes. Not all of the homes were haunted, according to clairvoyant Tom Corbett, which was refreshing...and the author, journalist Diana Norman, began the project as a skeptic and ended up a believer. Read partly for fun and partly for research purposes.

>45 Marissa_Doyle: Those Phil Rickman books sound good! I'm a little hesitant to start a long series like the Merrily Watkins books (although they do appeal) but I shall be checking out some of these stand-alones.

Ah, the Rickman books sound good. I don't like horror, so I shan't actually add them to Mount TBR, but I've enjoyed your descriptions of the books.

I'm glad you're feeling a bit better and found some comfort reads.

I'm so sorry, Marissa. Glad to hear you're "emerging from the shadows" as you so perfectly worded it. Big hugs to you.

>48 clamairy: Thank you, clam. Hugs are very much appreciated.

Catching up on recent reads...

The Chalice Another Phil Rickman standalone that I enjoyed a lot, set in Glastonbury (the site of the Arthurian Avalon, perhaps?) that posits "what would happen if there were an Unholy Grail as well as the Holy one?" Very spooky, and the tensions between New Age incomers and the more mundane inhabitants was well drawn.

On the Sofa with Jane Austen Oh, dear. I had hoped for a book of essays about different aspects of Jane Austen and her work... and what I got were reprints of essays about how many and where and under what circumstances certain words or concepts were used in Austen's books. Deucedly dull stuff, to borrow a Heyerism.

Pollyanna A re-read after many years. I loved this book as a ten-year-old, and thought it had actually weathered the intervening years remarkably well...though using dialogue tags such as "ejaculated" did make my inner pre-teen boy snort at times. Though calling someone a Pollyanna has become a pejorative, the character Pollyanna is no goody-two-shoes but a strong, flawed character who does her best. A pleasant read!

Tasting the Past I love to read cookbooks, and combining cookbooks with history is even better. The recipes chosen have appeal to modern palates, while maintaining as much authenticity as possible in terms of ingredients. Fun.

Top Drawer A look at the rise of the upper classes in gilded age New York. Brief and too many little errors; there are much better books on the topic out there.

The Golden Child This was an unexpected gem, being both a nicely twisted murder mystery and a comedy of manners (with a touch of farce and sly commentary on the museum industry thrown in for good measure.) A trifle dated--it's from the seventies--but still a jolly good read.

>49 Marissa_Doyle: I have The Golden Child and The Beginning of Spring on my TBR spreadsheet. I read The Bookshop as a teen and didn't like it. I remember finding it twee, but I don't know that I'd feel that way as an adult.

Sisters of the Vast Black--in a far-ish future universe, the Catholic church is one of the institutions that has survived massive war between earth and its colonies...and convents of nuns that are actually starships wander the galaxies. This novella focuses on one convent ship in particular, whose Mother Superior has some major secrets in her past. Very well done, despite a few niggles I had--I hope more is written in this world.

>51 Marissa_Doyle: Glad you liked it. I also hope for more adventures.

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames I loved this. I got part way through a doctoral program in historical archaeology and worked in my profs' labs sorting finds from their summer digs in college. One of the skills I learned was surface surveying, which is basically walking around a potential site with your head down, looking for stuff...which is more or less what mudlarking is, only the latter takes place on the tidal Thames at low tide. So reading this book felt like coming home; I do my own version of mudlarking on Cape Cod beaches and have my own collection of finds, like the author's. London history past and present, the material culture, and the author's own life are all skillfully blended...and when life goes back to normal some day and I can visit London again, I'm absolutely signing up for a mudlarking trip. :)

And an interim report--I'm partway through a contemporary fantasy set in New Zealand with more than a whiff of Jasper Fforde about it. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is not without its flaws (I'm having a hard time warming up to the protagonists), but the plotline makes up for it. More later.

>53 Marissa_Doyle: This sounds wonderful. I 'sandlark' daily, but most of what I find goes onto the garbage can near the parking area. Anything I keep is shells or rocks. I did talk to one gentleman with a detector last month who has found quite a few old coins. What have you found? Can you post pics at some point?

I've never mastered how to post photos here, clam, but I'll try. Mostly, it's European (no native American) pottery: I've found some very old shards of slip-glazed redware, early 17th century, I think, some 18th century stoneware, and lots of 19th century bits as well as bottles, old clay pipes, pieces of cut glass.

>55 Marissa_Doyle: Ah! Fascinating. Now that I think about it I did find some surf worn pottery shards, but there wasn't enough left for me to figure out what they came from.

I've actually been able to play conservator and partially reconstruct pieces that were from a midden behind a fishing shack. Took me back to college lab days. :)

>57 Marissa_Doyle: That sounds absolutely wonderful. I wanted to be an archeologist at one point in my life. (Actual still do, but I'm completely unmotivated.)

>53 Marissa_Doyle: I read a lovely review of Mudlarking and promptly put it on my TBR. Apropos of just reading a kind and hopeful, but honest, e-mail from Bradt travel publishers, I, too, am planning to visit London when life goes back to normal.

I believe London Walks used to do an infrequent, special mudlarking walk.

>57 Marissa_Doyle:, >58 clamairy: How wonderful, Marissa! I wanted to be an Egyptologist for many years, but I have the patience of a gnat and would be a terrible archaeologist.

>59 libraryperilous: I had the patience to be an archaeologist; I did not have the patience to work in academia. *Sigh.*

And speaking of academia, I finished The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep and I'm of mixed minds about it. It was very, very clever--a fantasy novel about literary criticism--and the writing was good, but it felt at times that the story was about to careen out of control, and on occasion did so. I never quite liked most of the main characters; there was just something missing about them, some visceral warmth lacking. I was also put off by what felt like an attempt to shoehorn in some "diversity" by introducing a Maori legendary character (the setting is New Zealand) who ultimately felt like window-dressing rather than an integral part of the story. And it was waaaaay too long and frequently felt repetitive. Ultimately, there was a lot that was unsatisfying about it, but I'm still glad I read it just for the creativity of the concept and the ideas it played with.

>60 Marissa_Doyle: Yes, I had planned on a PhD and realized I didn't have the temperament to navigate academia's petty waters. I read too many Lingua Franca articles when that magazine was all the rage. I sometimes regret not having one, usually when I'm reading about in-depth research a scholar has done on one tiny strand of knowledge. That part interests me: the deeper research skills and the commitment to spinning one's scholarship into something larger.

>60 Marissa_Doyle: >61 libraryperilous: Yes, I never got a handle on the pecking order when I was in grad school. It wasn't really more complicated than what I encountered in the corporate world, but it could be much more impactful if one ended up in course with one of the "wrong" professors.

>62 clamairy: Yes. Or was not willing to bend not only one's academic life, but also one's social life around the head of the department and his mandatory weekend parties and pub nights. Utter bullpucky.

Also, I'm a few chapters into Here and Now and Then, and liking it a lot. It appears Connie Willis isn't the only one who can write time travel science fiction that is also deeply humane.

I'm enjoying Here and Now and Then, but had to put it down for a pause and do an emergency comfort read of a Georgette Heyer (Sylvester). Family and I are all fine, but life just suddenly felt very heavy.

>65 Marissa_Doyle: Big hugs to you. I feel the same. I'm torn between staying informed and staying sane. (Well, sane for me.)

My Georgette Heyer rereads lasted for three more books (Frederica, The Unknown Ajax, and Devil's Cub.) I've started on The Quiet Gentleman, but also plan to start in on some reading for work, so the Heyer served its purpose--the bookish equivalent of a blankie and Teddie. :)

That last dose of Heyer comfort-reading seemed to do the trick; that and the recent deal from Tor that enabled me to pick up the third and fourth Murderbot novellas for free finally spurred me into jumping into it...and it is just delightful. That sounds like a funny descriptor for something called "The Murderbot Diaries", but it's absolutely true. It's easy to dismiss these stories with a hand-wave and murmurs of space opera, but Martha Wells was sneakily brilliant with them: Murderbot's obsession with the futuristic equivalent of Netflix--or in other words, its addiction to story--makes it oh so very relatably human. I've polished off All Systems Red and Artificial Condition and am in the middle of Rogue Protocol... and I expect that when the Murderbot novel comes on next week, I'll be shelling out for it. Funny how these have, in their way, turned into comfort reads as well.

>68 Marissa_Doyle: Yeah, she's brilliant. My only complaint is about their length. I just paid for one so far, so I may have to cough up the dinero for book 5. A writer needs to eat*, as you know.

*And possibly feed a family!

Artificial Condition is my favorite. I love ART. ART is back for the novel, so I extra cannot wait!

>70 libraryperilous: Ooh, I loved the interactions between Murderbot and ART. Guess I will be buying a book on Tuesday...

Hi, Marissa. It's been just three years since I got back from my last trip to the East Coast, a highlight of which was lunching with you in Cambridge. There's been a lot of rough weather since then. I'm sorry for the loss of your mother. A peaceful passing, though, is a very great blessing.

I've read a number of books on aging, death, and dying in the past couple of years, and the fact is that they have mostly made me feel better about the whole idea, even the one that (in my opinion) took off into woo-woo territory.

I hope you've been able to regain your balance and get on with your writing. I like to check in with you here and see what comfort reads you've been finding. Some of them sound good to me too.

>72 Meredy: I've read a number of books on aging, death, and dying in the past couple of years, and the fact is that they have mostly made me feel better about the whole idea

Given what I am facing, I would be interested to know what you found helpful, Meredy.

>73 -pilgrim-: Sure, I'll be glad to share what I can. I'll meet you over here on my journal thread, so as not to digress too far on Marissa's.

In case anyone is looking for the perfect masks...

https://outofprint.com/collections/face-masks?utm_campaign=Face%20Masks%20%231%2...

I'm afraid I've fallen off the page a bit--all is well, but I've just been in a dim place again (not to mention very busy with volunteer commitments.) I have been reading, though, and will catch those books up shortly. Hint: many comfort reads.

>75 Marissa_Doyle: Big hug.

Ooh, the cat one! I'd been wondering if Out of Print or Litographs would design any. I've purchased several ocean-y masks from Etsy, but I didn't like any of the bookish ones I found on that site.

I hope you feel a bit better soon, and I'm glad you've been able to find comfort in reading.

>75 Marissa_Doyle: adding to the hugs.

>75 Marissa_Doyle: Hugs from me too.

>75 Marissa_Doyle: Piling on with the hugs, and those masks are wonderful.

Hugs from me too.

Thank you all for the virtual hugs. I feel like a bit of an imposter: we all remain healthy and employed...but sometimes, it's just "an attack of the weight" (for those of you who've read The Perilous Gard. :)

So... catching up reads and rereads...

rereads:
I Capture the Castle
Fire and Hemlock
Deep Secret
The Merlin Conspiracy

I'd last read I Capture the Castle years ago, so was almost coming to it with fresh eyes...and found it rather different on re-reading it. Still thought it excellent. The three Diana Wynne Jones rereads were--well, what can one say? She was a creative genius; it sometimes gives me the willies, though, to read her, because I can see that she wrote by the seat of her pants, and reeling her story back in must at times have been a struggle.

New reads:
The Weather Machine: Fairly interesting--a look at how your daily forecasts make it to you--but I've read better non-fiction about meteorology.
It's Raining Men: Written by a friend, and great fun.
Dark Encounters: a Collection of Ghost Stories: Not very creepy, but I do like ghost stories. And it led me to a very creepy "true" story about a ghost at an anonymous college at Cambridge University that had infiltrated a computer.
Manners and Monsters: Did not finish. Too twee.
The Library of the Unwritten: Did not finish. I only got a chapter or two in, but it somehow didn't sit right; the main character aroused no interest or sympathy or even curiosity on my part, so...I noped it. I don't appear to be the only one in the GD who felt that way.
Influenza: The Hundred Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History: started out meh (a not very good account of the 1918-1920 pandemic), but got better as it progressed. I like epidemiology books; this one's pretty good.
and (in progress) The Priory of the Orange Tree: I like it, like the characters and the worldbuilding...but ye gods, is it looooooooong...

>82 Marissa_Doyle: "I noped it" - That is truly the first time I've seen "nope" used as a verb. Makes my inner grammarian wince, and yet I can already feel it wiggling its way into my vocabulary. I just know it's going to pop out when I let my guard down. When that happens, I hope I remember to come back here and say thanks.

>83 Meredy: It's a borrowing from my son and his friends (all in their late 20s.) I find it wonderfully evocative. I have no idea how widely much of their slang is used--they're a creative enough group that I can see some of it being original.

I'm wondering if "saying thanks" might involve firearms... ;)

>82 Marissa_Doyle: Good call to bail on Library of the unwritten. I was underwhelmed by it.
I did love Priory of the Orange Tree, so I hope you can stick with it and get drawn in.

Like >85 Sakerfalcon:, I loved Priory. I especially loved the sea-soaked fashions and the descriptions of food. Also, I thought the dragon mythology was unique and cool.

>84 Marissa_Doyle: I've been saying 'nope' and 'noped out' for a few years now. I find it a succinct and excellent turn of phrase. I also am a fan of the nopetopus meme. That reminds me, I need to acquire Effin Birds' Nope t-shirt.

>86 libraryperilous: We like the nope nope badger, too, as well as the nopetopus.

I finished The Priory of the Orange Tree, and I don't think I was as fond of it as several other Dragoneers. While I did enjoy many aspects of it (the world-building in particular), I also found it too long and unevenly paced. I'm not the most enthusiastic high fantasy reader, which might have contributed to my lack of enthusiasm...I suppose that I thought it good, but not great.

Also read:
Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History's Most Iconic Extinct Creatures Very, very interesting. Genetic engineers aren't just trying to re-create the woolly mammoth for the bragging rights at departmental cocktail parties; there's a possible, very real climatological reason to reintroduce large herbivores to places like Siberia and Canada. The structure of the book was a tad annoying at times--the author chose to jump around and present the story in out-of-chronological-sequence chunks, rather than a straight narrative, but the topic and science were fascinating enough to make that forgivable.

The King of Next Week A novella with a unique premise--a 19th century Maine merchant captain sells a cargo of ice to an island of djinn--that should have been a novel, and suffered for it: the author tried to cram too much into the short form of a novella that would have been better dealt with and examined in a full-length novel. A pity.

And an ongoing read: In a French Kitchen is part memoir, part food travelogue, part cookbook, and I'm loving it even though I'm reading it a few pages at a time, when I have a minute. Very satisfying, somehow, and includes a couple of recipes I have to try (Salade Norvegienne is right up my street...)

>88 Marissa_Doyle: I stumbled on the Ambrose novella somewhere on the Internet and put it on my TBR because it sounded so unique. I'll get around to it eventually, but it's a bummer it fell a bit flat.

>88 Marissa_Doyle: OOOOH. Woolly might make a good audible/ or OverDrive Audio choice. Thank you!

Also congrats on the OK-RWA's National Reader's Choice Award!

>90 clamairy: Thank you, clam!

Finished Other minds: the Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness ... which is exactly what it was. It was a solid 3-star read, but honestly did not excite me the way other good non-fiction can. It felt a little like a way the author thought of to be able to write off his diving trips to Australia (oops--is my cynicism showing?) in that it came across as a tad...shallow (no pun intended.)

In book news that DID excite me...a new Susanna Clarke book releases in September! It's been a long wait since Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which remains one of my all-time favorites. I can't wait for this one, which has already received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus.

>91 Marissa_Doyle: You're most welcome!

I was looking at Other Minds when it was on sale last week and decided to borrow Squid Empire instead. (Nice pun. LOL)

>92 clamairy: Sheesh. Not content to scatter book bullets on her own page, she comes onto mine and hits with the precision of a sniper. *Goes off, mumbling indignantly under her breath, to look for Squid Empire on B&N.*

In the meanwhile, reading Mastering the Art of French Eating as an adjunct to In a French Kitchen. The writing is not as good, but the tone is also less smug.

>91 Marissa_Doyle: I'm looking forward to the new Susannah Clarke too!

>93 Marissa_Doyle: I'm so sorry! LOL Hope you can find it. It seemed pretty difficult to get in a normal format. They do not sell it for the Kindle, and I had to borrow it as some weird PDF-type file extension to read on my Fire. I'm assuming that because of the illustrations.

(I really have to move Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell closer to the top of my TBR stacks. I refuse to buy anything new by this author until I read that one first.)

>95 clamairy: It is being released in September--or rather, re-released, and in ebook form as well as paper. Maybe it will solve the illustration problem?

>96 Marissa_Doyle: I'm wondering if I borrowed the European edition or something...

>97 clamairy: I think you must have. The title is changed for the September release--"The Monarch of the Seas" or something like that.

And another round-up of recent reads:

The Twisted Ones A cross between contemporary fantasy and horror, evidently based on an Arthur Machen story. Not bad, though I found the protagonist's voice grating after a while and her doofy dog's omnipresence annoying.

Riviera Gold The latest in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series; these later books aren't quite phoned in, but the plotting is minimal; I think they're more an excuse for Laurie R. King to indulge in heavy-duty research into the era and write about the interesting bits she digs up, as she's pretty much done what she can with the character development of the main characters. That's fine, and I enjoy them--but they aren't the fascinating nail-biters that the earlier books in the series were.

Gilded Suffragists Non-fiction about the role that many wealthy, socially prominent women played in the struggle for the franchise for women, and how they were erased afterward. Not terribly gripping, but a few interesting figures make an appearance.

The Magic and the Healing A group of veterinary students gets sucked into providing care for the creatures of a alternate fantasy world adjacent to our own (unicorns, griffins, the usual suspects.) Fun concept, but the characterization and plotting didn't grab me. There are two more books in the series, but I don't feel moved to hunt them down (this is an older title.)

The Game A Diana Wynne Jones novella that I somehow missed. Classic DWJ about a repressed girl discovering her vast, unruly family...who turn out to be something other than what they appear to be. A tad underdeveloped (there was enough potential material here for a novel) but fun.

And I moved Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts up to the top of my TBR pile after several (ahem) bullets whizzed past my ears (do they count as a hit if I already own the book?) It's a lot of fun so far for this Boston area native who lived in Somerville for a couple of years post-college.

Finished Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, which I enjoyed very much. Next up was Gideon the Ninth, since that has been receiving a lot of love here in the tavern...and so far, it's not doing it for me (I'm pretty early in, when Gideon's lost the fight and been forced to go listen to the announcement). I'm not sure why it isn't clicking; I don't find Gideon's voice terribly compelling, and the setting description is heavy-handed and honestly isn't showing me a place I want to spend much time in. Is this beginning an accurate picture of the rest of the story? Does it become more compelling, or is this what it is?

While awaiting an answer, I've picked up Child of a Rainless Year, which I've wanted to read for a while and just got my mitts on.

>100 Marissa_Doyle: I suspect that Gideon won't do it for you, although maybe read up to where she arrives at Canaan House and we meet more characters just to be sure. But I think not liking her voice is probably a deal-breaker.

I thought Child of a rainless year was a wonderful book, I hope you enjoy it!

I've been avoiding posting here because it has not been a good reading month: I've read several books, but they've not been, shall we say, well received. I'm not sure if it's crankiness on my part, or that I've had the bad luck to pick up a bunch of not-very-good books. I think I may list them here without much comment, because I don't want to let the snark out.

First, my usual late summer meteorology binge in honor of hurricane season:
A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes - Retread of multiple other books with little value added
Category 5: The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane - Where, oh where, has the copy-editor gone? The verb tense shift conceit was simply appalling.
Category 5: The Story of Camille, Lessons Unlearned from America's Most Violent Hurricane A re-read for me; well done.

The Other Bennet Sister - A DNF. We had a lively discussion of it on jillmwo's reading thread.

The Strangest Family - A sort of group biography of the Hanoverian dynasty through George III and his 15 children. Covers a lot of territory I've already read in detail elsewhere, but also introduces new details from other sources. Very good.

Child of a Rainless Year slogged to a halt about halfway through. The ideas in it are wonderful; the execution, painful. I will probably finish it at some point, but the recitation of irrelevant details bogs down the storytelling in boring treacle. Ah well.

>102 Marissa_Doyle: What set you off on the Hurricane reading jag? Sorry you've picked up so many duds and/or DNFs

>103 clamairy: I've always been intrigued by meteorology, especially how it intersects with history and current events (my mom could just remember the 1938 New England hurricane), so I'm always on the lookout for well-written books on the topic. Plus it's been such an interesting hurricane season! I often seem to do this in August, it seems--go on a mini-jag of weather books.

In case anyone else shares my interest, there's a great vlog site run by a PhD meteorologist that he posts to when there are any storms in the Atlantic basin that threaten land. He gives excellent explanations and analysis of all the factors inhibiting or contributing to the development of current storms: www.tropicaltidbits.com

Overdue to update my reading...which, alas, has not been particularly outstanding (with one or two exceptions):

Ribbons Among the Rajahs: a History of British Women in India Before the Raj Sounded quite promising...but argh, it wasn't: his cultural assumptions and interpretations made me want to screech. Only useful thing here is the bibliography of primary sources.

The Elfin Ship Amusing. Read like a book Tolkien might have written if he scored some good California Gold to smoke in that pipe of his. :) It had a vibe of the bits of LOTR that take place in the Shire, but with more humor and a dash of snark. I might look up some of his other work when I have a minute.

The Toll Looking for some spooky Halloween reading? Feel free to skip this one. Aside from the eerily atmospheric description of the Okefenokee Swamp area and a couple of fun characters, it was mostly phoned in as far as plotting went: there's never any explanation of why this small community on the edge of the swamp has been cursed in this way, and other threads are never woven in, as well. A disappointment.

The Fisherman A much better candidate for spooky Halloween reading, though it's not a ghost story--more a sort of Cthulhu mythos-inspired contemporary horror story, without actually being about Cthulhu. It meanders a good bit and takes a while to gear up, but the first person narration is enjoyable and made me willing to go along for the ride, and the long historical story-within-the-story that takes up most of the middle of the book was well done. The Catskills setting was well-realized.

Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See I've got mixed feelings about this one. The writing style grated, though it's hard to pinpoint why, precisely, and the subject of the book was not someone I really would care to know, but his story--blinded at age three, sight restored in his mid-forties--was fascinating. If you've read Oliver Sacks' account of a similar case, you'll understand: having one's eyes restored to functionability is the easy part. It's your brain learning how to interpret and make sense of what the optic nerve is relaying to it that's the tough part.

Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar Jasper Fforde-ish time travel mystery. Cute in a silly, farce-ish way. I'd read more of these, more for the writing than for any attachment to the main character.

Monarchs of the Sea: the Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods I'm a sucker for books about octopuses and their kin (pun totally intended), and this did not disappoint. Very well written, being both funny and informative.

>105 Marissa_Doyle: I'm glad you enjoyed that Danna Staaf! I have it on my Kindle Fire (I figured it was illustrated so I would need that instead of the Paperwhite.)

I might have taken a bullet on The Elfin Ship. Adding it to my OverDrive wishlist.

>106 clamairy: I suppose I should have included the information that the main character of The Elfin Ship is a cheesemaker... ;)

>105 Marissa_Doyle:, >106 clamairy: I loved The elfin ship and totally agree about the Tolkien-esque feel of the characters and story. The sequel was good too.

In the middle of and enjoying very much some southern gothic/horror: Blackwater is a compilation of six short novels, so it clocks in at over 800 pages, but the writing is easy and slides right on down. The horror aspects aren't very in your face; the story is as much a family saga as anything else, except that one of the family members just happens to be a river monster with some serious magical powers and a taste for the occasional small child. So grisly things do happen, but they're more part of a larger story than an end in themselves. I like the eerie atmosphere and the way the author communicates the Alabama drawl of his characters without going overboard in dialect.

>109 Marissa_Doyle: "The horror aspects aren't very in your face;"...Well, one of the scenes is - I think it was the one with the sister in law in the car....

I loved Blackwater, tho, and it is great to see you're enjoying it, too.
Have you read McDowell's other books?

>110 BrokenTune: Well, yes, there is that one... :)

I've read The Elementals, which I loved (though that one got a bit squicky at times.) That was a wonderfully unique story, and he's so good at creeping dread.

>111 Marissa_Doyle: Yeah, I think Blackwater was his least squicky one (of the ones I've read). I don't read horror because I am a wuss when it comes to gore and violence, but I make an exception for McDowell. His Gilded Needles and Cold Moon Over Babylon were very graphic and horrible, and yet he managed to put the characters and the story first somehow so the focus wasn't on the gore. Both were 5* reads for me. I really enjoyed The Elementals, too. The Southern atmosphere in that one was fantastic.

>107 Marissa_Doyle: That pretty much seals the deal!

>109 Marissa_Doyle: Blackwater sounds terrific. Onto the Wishlist it goes.

>114 Sakerfalcon: I just finished it after having been totally sucked in--rather like a soap opera, really. It maybe went on a little longer than it needed to, but was still fun.

And I'm very cross with Barnes and Noble as they still haven't fixed their Nook library syncing issues, and there are a couple of books I'd gotten and really want to read (another installment in the Greenwing & Dart series, Love in a Mist, and a nice creepy book about the Titanic's sister ship, The Deep) and can't download them. *Pouts*

Just finished China Court by Rumer Godden, which I enjoyed. I had no expectations, so the non-linear storytelling was a bit of a surprise; on the whole it worked, though occasionally it could be confusing for a moment (and therefore ruined my "immersion", so to speak.) But on the whole I enjoyed it.

>116 Marissa_Doyle: I have her novel In This House of Brede on my TBR.

>117 libraryperilous: I'll definitely read more of her, if it happens to come up on sale for my Nook. I think I have a paper copy of the book she wrote with her sister about their childhood in India.

And am now succumbing to the machine-gun fire from katylit's thread: I'm starting The Proper Place, which looks like a good follow-up to China Court as well as being nice and calming and non-anxiety-inducing in this very nerve-wracking week. And it's a series, so I can look forward to several days of pleasant reading.

Completed The Proper Place...and while it was "cute", I found myself being annoyed by one of the main characters who was rather nauseatingly Pollyanna-ish, and by the judgemental way she (and by extension, the author) regarded/depicted other, non-Pollyanna-ish, humanly neurotic characters. Which is all a bit of a disservice to the original Pollyanna, who very much wasn't judgemental toward others. And the little boy in the story was cute verging on treacly. So while I'm going to give the next book in the series, The Day of Small Things, a go, it's not with wholehearted pleasure or the expectation that I'll read beyond it, unless matters improve.

Finished The Day of Small Things. Things did not improve. I opened one other in the series Jane's Parlour and didn't make it through the first chapter, so there's a DNF. I'm glad they were only 99 cents.

>116 Marissa_Doyle:, >117 libraryperilous: I love most of Rumer Godden's books (the ones that I've read). In this house of Brede is one of her best. I also like The river, The peacock spring, The greengage summer and Thursday's children. The only one I give a strong anti-recommendation to is Pippa passes.

When I was about eight, my older sister played a practical joke on me: she brought me a bowl of chocolate ice cream in which she'd concealed sliced-up dill pickle spears. To her dismay, I ate the whole bowl: I rather liked the weird combination of tart/salty and smooth, rich sweetness. All of which is preamble to my comments on Desdemona and the Deep, a novella with weird, Lovecraftian overtones that isn't, however, nihilistic or depressing--indeed, it ends happily and hopefully, if (of course) weirdly. I liked the borrowings from early twentieth century history (suffragists, the over-the-top wealth of Newport, RI, progressivism), and how the protagonist grows and finds her place in this (and several other) worlds. Very much a dill-pickle-and-chocolate-ice-cream sort of story.

And to complete the story of my sister and the booby-trapped dish of ice cream--she went to my mother to complain that I'd liked it and how wrong and unfair that was. Mom was less than sympathetic.

Much to my relief, I found what I was looking for (and what the O. Douglas books did not provide) in D.E. Stevenson's Vittoria Cottage--a gentle, charming book without a mean bone in its body, in which there is a lovely layer of quiet humor, and even the characters who behave unpleasantly aren't depicted with the same self-righteous, smug "judginess" (it's by far the best word here) as those in O. Douglas's books. While not as funny as what I suspect is her masterpiece, Miss Buncle's Book, reading Vittoria Cottage was like snuggling under a warm blanket with a cup of tea and a purring cat. As Alexander McCall Smith says in the introduction, there's a much-needed place in this world for this kind of book.

>124 Marissa_Doyle: The next two books, Music in the Hills and Shoulder the Sky(aka Winter and Rough Weather), about James in Scotland, are very good. They are lovely, gentle books with a very strong sense of place. I like them even better than Vittoria Cottage. D.E. Stevenson is one of my all-time favourite authors, and I've read and own almost everything she wrote. They aren't all great, but I love a lot of them.

>125 SylviaC: I just finished Music in the Hills last night, and have already launched into Winter and Rough Weather. I do love the sense of place she imbues these stories with, because I feel a similar, deep affection and enchantment with my home region.

And oh goodness me, I just discovered a wondrous thing. I've been an Angela Thirkell fan for years, and used to haunt used bookstores for Thirkells that I did not have...and lo and behold, it turns out that Barnes and Noble has at least a dozen of them ranging from 99 cents to $3.99. I'll need to cross-check with my paper collection...

>127 Marissa_Doyle: That is indeed a great discovery!

Finished Winter and Rough Weather...and while it was all right, I've concluded that D.E. Stevenson does best with standalone books, rather than series. The issue, I think, is character development: she manages enough for one book, but the repeating characters in the three books I read don't really change or grow over the course of the stories, and ultimately, that's very unsatisfying. I'm now a little hesitant to embark on the Mrs. Tim books, and think I'll postpone reading those for a while.

After that, I picked up an Angela Thirkell--Wild Strawberries. It's been some years since my last Thirkell, and I'd forgotten how funny she is. Her prose is a step up from Stevenson's, I found, and I was reminded more of Nancy Mitford (whose books I had not yet read before my last fit of Thirkell reads.) A friend commented that she can't read Thirkell because of the classism, but I feel that she skewers her characters equally, regardless of class, and the possible stereotypes are present in both the aristocrats and the servants.

Also got to read the new Greenwing and Dart book, Love in a Mist, much to my pleasure. I do love this well-crafted and inventive fantasy-of-manners series, and can't wait to see where she goes from here.

>129 Marissa_Doyle: I have heard similar comments about the diminishing returns to be found in the Miss Buncle trilogy, although I haven't read those myself. I am however very much still enjoying Mrs Tim having read three books out of the four. I am reading them about a year apart though.

I agree with you about Thirkell and classism. A friend of mine thinks the same way as yours, but I agree that she is equally merciless to both high and low. I wasn't keen on the very unflattering portrait of a female doctor that I came across in The headmistress though, but it is a small part of the book.

I really must try the Greenwing and Dart books, they sound wonderful!

>130 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad to hear that about Mrs. Tim; I think you're wise to space them apart, and I may try that when I circle back around to needing an extreme cozy read, so to speak. And yes, I would love to hear your opinion on the Greenwing and Dart books, so I do hope you'll give them a try.

I'd heard good things about Alma Katsu's book about the Donner party with a supernatural twist, so when I saw that she'd written about the Titanic and her sister ship Britannic in The Deep, I picked it up. I'm not obsessed by the Titanic per se as so many people seem to be, but have been contemplating writing a story set on a fictional early 20th century ocean liner and have done a fair bit of research on it and other ships of the era. Putting a supernatural spin on the tragedy of the ships should have been amazing...but I found that this book fell completely flat. The pacing was as glacial as an iceberg (see what I did there), the characters (both historical and fabricated) were shallow and unsympathetic, the shipboard settings lifeless (after seeing photographs of the interior of the Titanic, that seems quite a feat), and the spookiness not in the least spooky. Disappointing.

>131 Marissa_Doyle: I don't have a fascination with the Titanic, but I think one struggle for authors is the widely-known and depressing outcome. Why should readers invest in the story, or care about the characters, when they know the iceberg is out there? (I did find The Watch That Ends the Night compelling.)

>132 libraryperilous: Actually, I think authors might be drawn to the Titanic as a setting because of its eventual, known fate: it creates a sense of tension from the get-go, and tension/conflict (in this case, man vs. nature) is what drives stories. Putting sympathetic characters in that setting can make for compelling reading--will the characters survive? Whats-his-name (my apologies--I'm not a movie person and don't know many directors' names) knew that with the movie Titanic.

Boy, i stop in to see what's new and get winged immediately. I'll definitely check out Ms. Blaine and maybe the Elfin Ship. Good shooting!

>135 Marissa_Doyle: Why, thank you. Always happy to share the book bullet love. :)

>129 Marissa_Doyle: >130 Sakerfalcon: I agree that the Mrs. Tim books would probably be best enjoyed with some space between them. And the Miss Buncle series really should have stopped at the first book.

I've only read a couple of Thirkell books and one by Nancy Mitford. I enjoyed them all, but I have to be in the right mood to appreciate their degree of satire.

>131 Marissa_Doyle: I quite enjoyed Katsu's book about the Donner party, but I felt that the story is so gripping and horrific in its own right that the supernatural elements almost weren't needed. I wonder if this is also part of the problem with the Titanic novel too. I am now inspired to find some non-fiction about the DP though, so that's good.

>137 Sakerfalcon: My gripe with the supernatural elements in The Deep were that they felt forced and imposed on the story, rather than being organic to it and well braided in...as well as simply not being terribly spooky or chilling. Grumble grumble.

A quickie look through recent reads...

The Lobster Coast A bit rambling and recursive, but generally interesting look at the history of Maine's fisheries (and via them, the history of the state.

The Atrocities A horror novella from Tor...some interesting ideas, but the writing was a tad self-conscious and the ending rushed.

Agents of Dreamland Another horror novella from Tor, this time with Cthulhu Mythos ties...good writing, but too brief and not much of a plot.

A Weekend in September An account of the September 1900 Galveston hurricane, which suffers in comparison to Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm.

On a bit of a non-fiction streak:

Thirty-Eight: the Hurricane that Transformed New England An examination of the unnamed 1938 hurricane that slammed into New England with no warning, with disastrous effect..but rather than the usual accounts of what happened at the coastline, this books concerns the effect the storm had on the trees along its path, especially in Vermont, from a historical, scientific, and economics viewpoint. A bit of a specialist book but enjoyable by this layman nonetheless, and well-written to boot.

Written in Stone A geological history of the northeastern US, from Pre-Cambrian times to the present. Very informative--this part of the country has certainly gotten around!--though the writing was on a somewhat simplistic level. I would enjoy a more detailed and more technical version.

And I'm halfway through The Missing Lynx, which was a book bullet from libraryperilous, IIRC...and I'm enjoying it very much. Will likely be one of my top non-fiction reads of the year.

>140 Marissa_Doyle: I'm glad you're enjoying it. My mom, a bear fan, was excited when I texted her about Bärenschliffe.

>141 libraryperilous: Just found this today posted in another group--of definite interest to anyone who has read The Missing Lynx: https://www.livescience.com/ice-age-rock-art-amazon.html

Finished The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain's Lost Mammals, which I enjoyed very much. The concluding chapter was a little abrupt and short on synthesis, but the separate chapters on each critter made up for that in depth and interest. I think I might have to follow this up with How to Clone a Mammoth, which will be an interesting read after having previously read Woolly earlier this year. I'm also dipping into Fury from the Tomb, a sort of latter-day Rider Haggard-ish story. We'll see if it is indeed just a dip, or a full immersion.

And I hope that I won't have to ask the denizens for a Piffle Party to bump this thread up to roll over into my upcoming 2021 thread, but we'll see...

Your post prompted me to add this book that I came across recently as I was tidying up. It could be a great resource for any parties you are planning.

>143 Marissa_Doyle: The missing lynx sounds right up my alley. Now that both LibraryPerilous and you have recommended it I really must seek out a copy.

>144 pgmcc: You are a kind and thoughtful person, Peter.

>142 Marissa_Doyle: Fascinating! Thank you for posting the link.

>143 Marissa_Doyle: I also found the conclusion a bit lacking. >145 Sakerfalcon: I think you would find it interesting. I wavered between a five- or four-star rating and settled on four stars. I wanted a bit more from the summation.

>145 Sakerfalcon: You are a kind and thoughtful person, Peter.

One does one's best to please. Always willing to lend a helping piffle.

:-)

>144 pgmcc: "Balderdash and Piffle" would make a great name for a law firm. And a helping piffle is always appreciated!

>148 Marissa_Doyle: Back when I was a baby lawyer, the practical training course used a made-up name for their "firm of solicitors": Sly Tout & Nutt. The joke was that all 3 names came out of the names of real law firms.

>149 haydninvienna: Oh dear. "Sly" would not be a good surname for an attorney!

A National Public Radio show here in the US called "Car Talk" (not sure how far its fame spread--it was quite wonderful) featured a roster of "staff" including their Russian chauffeur, Pickov Andropov, and of course, their law firm, Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe.

Wow, you've certainly been on a reading binge lately! Please let us know if that mammoth book is worth a look.

>149 haydninvienna: I know of no finer case of nominative determinism than the Cape Town firm of undertakers, Human & Pitt. Sadly, they were taken over some years ago by a firm with a much more pedestrian name.

>152 hfglen: My memory is telling me that there used to be an eye specialist in Canberra called Dr Kwok Wong-See. But of course I can’t prove it now and I may have made it up.

>152 hfglen: That's wonderful--what a loss!

>152 hfglen: - A chiropractor by the name of Dr. Mangel used to visit our town.

>155 NorthernStar: Then there was my son's urologist, Dr. Fawcett.

>155 NorthernStar:, >156 MrsLee: These are wonderful!

>151 clamairy: How to Clone a Mammoth was very good, though the title is a tad misleading--it should be something along the lines of "How to Potentially Clone a Mammoth, Though There Are Probably Better Ways to Address All the Issues Around Why One Might Want To". Bringing back Pleistocene megafauna could have many important and healing effects on the natural world and the planet's general health...but is it necessary or even desirable to de-extinct creatures like mammoths? Might we not be better served by instead "re-creating" approximations to reinhabit the habitats of these creatures? Thought-provoking and at times very entertaining.

And for something completely different after that, I've jumped back into Angela Thirkell again with High Rising and Marling Hall, which remain as gently satirical and funny as ever. But something is striking me on these re-reads (it's been a good twelve or fifteen years since I last read them): how much I dislike her casual anti-Semitism (or, at least, that of her characters--I have no idea if she herself shared it) and rather demeaning references to certain nationalities such as the Irish; such were the times they depict and in which they were written, but it still affects my overall enjoyment of them.

>158 Marissa_Doyle: You were born to write book titles in the 1700s! I say that after reading the whole to Moll Flanders. LOL

More Thirkell! Northbridge Rectory, Pomfret Towers, Before Lunch, Cheerfulness Breaks In, and Growing Up--all gentle, escapist reading.

And also a memoir/cookbook: Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie, about a Manhattan chef's family ties to summering in Maine, and how her family and the foods she enjoyed growing up influenced her approach to food. I like her cooking style and her family stories.

I think I took a bullet on that lobster memoir!