Weird_O Bill's 2022—Midquel, a.k.a. (uniquely) 3

Stacks and piles in the basement…
  



            

The bubble of reading accomplishment bursts…



because of my overdue book reports. I started strong in January, stalled in February, got 'er going again in March, then sputtered and ran out of gas. Pow! Here's the list—books I've read, without comment.

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, Lauren Redniss. Yay!
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, Art Spiegelman.
Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, Art Spiegelman.
Mooncop, Tom Gauld.
Orwell's Roses, Rebecca Solnit.

The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan.
The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan.
The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan.
The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan.

Animal Farm, George Orwell.
Moonglow, Michael Chabon.
Freddy Goes Camping, Walter R. Brooks.
Dogs and Cats: Mutts II, Patrick McDonnell.
Amnesia Moon, Jonathan Lethem.
Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind (Volume One), Yuval Noah Harari.
The Speckled Band, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; illustrations, Dean Morrissey.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris; illustrations, Ian Falconer.
The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton.
I'm Looking Through You, Jennifer Finney Boylan.
A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit.
Welcome to Hard Times, E. L. Doctorow.
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr.
In the Fog, Richard Harding Davis.
The Scarlet Car, Richard Harding Davis.
The Ponder Heart, Eudora Welty.
Pietr the Latvian, Georges Simenon.
Bone: Out from Boneville, Jeff Smith.
Harry Houdini: A Photographic Story of a Life, Vicki Cobb.
Polka Dot Parade: A Book about Bill Cunningham, Deborah Blumenthal, illus. Masha D'yans.
River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, Rebecca Solnit.
I, Leonardo, Ralph Steadman.

I'm getting on this. (What else can I say?)

          

My sister, Marty, does a lot of reading, but the first "challenge" she's accepted is in a different realm. She's been creating one collage a day for at least a year, posting them on Instagram. This is one I really like, and she gave it to me.

January 2022 (13 read)
1. An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, Helene Tursten. Finished 1/1/22  
2. Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu. Finished 1/4/22  
3. On Tyranny graphic edition, Timothy Snyder, illus. Nora Krug. Finished 1/5/22  
4. Vertigo: A Novel in Woodcuts, Lynd Ward. Finished 1/12/22  
5. Way Station, Clifford Simak. Finished 1/13/22  
6. The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles. Finished 1/16/22  
7. The Paris Apartment, Kelly Bowen. Finished 1/18/22  
8. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Finished 1/21/22  
9. Macbeth (Usborne Graphic Shakespeare), Russell Punter, illus Massimiliano Longo and Valentino Forlini. Finished 1/23/22  
10. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, Lauren Redniss. Finished 1/24/22  
11. Freddy and the Dragon, Walter R. Brooks. Finished 1/27/22  
12. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, Art Spiegelman. Finished 1/28/22 
13. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, Art Spiegelman. Finished 1/29/22 

February 2022 (6 read)
14. Mooncop, Tom Gauld. Finished 2/3/22  
15. Orwell's Roses, Rebecca Solnit. Finished 2/9/22 
16. The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan. Finished 2/11/22 
17. Animal Farm, George Orwell. Finished 2/14/22 
18. Moonglow, Michael Chabon. Finished 2/20/22 
19. The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones. Finished 2/24/22  

March 2022 (12 read)
20. Macbeth (No Fear Shakespeare), Will Shakespeare. Finished 3/5/22  
21. Macbeth, Gareth Hinds. Finished 3/5/22  
22. The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan. Finished 3/8/22 
23. Freddy Goes Camping, Walter R. Brooks. Finished 3/12/22 
24. Dogs and Cats: Mutts II, Patrick McDonnell. Finished 3/19/22 
25. Instant Lives, Howard Moss. Illus. by Edward Gorey. Finished 3/20/22  
26. Amnesia Moon, Jonathan Lethem. Finished 3/21/22 
27. The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan. Finished 3/23/22 
28. The King, Donald Barthelme. Finished 3/24/22  
29. The Last Olympian, Rich Riordan. Finished 3/27/22 
30. The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Robert Holden, illustrated by Drabos Zak. Finished 3/31/22  
31. Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind (volume one), Yuval Noah Harari. Finished 3/31/22 

April 2022 (8 read)
32. The Natural, Bernard Malamud. Finished 4/7/22   
33. The Plague Court Murders, John Dickson Carr. Finished 4/10/22  
34. The Speckled Band, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; illustrations, Dean Morrissey. Finished 4/16/22 
35. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris. Finished 4/19/22 
36. The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton. Finished 4/22/22.  
37. I'm Looking Through You, Jennifer Finney Boylan. Finished 4/26/22. 
38. A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit. Finished 4/27/22. 
39. Welcome to Hard Times, E. L. Doctorow. Finished 4/30/22.  

May 2022 (11 read)
40. Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr. Finished 5/5/22. 
41. In the Fog, Richard Harding Davis. Finished 5/6/22. 
42. The Scarlet Car, Richard Harding Davis. Finished 5/6/22. 
43. Zone One, Colson Whitehead. Finished 5/13/22. 
44. The Notes of a War Correspondent by Richard Harding Davis. Finished 5/15/22.  
45. The Ponder Heart, Eudora Welty. Finished 5/20/22. Reread. 
46. Pietr the Latvian, Georges Simenon. Finished 5/22/22.  
47. Bone: Out from Boneville, Jeff Smith. Finished 5/27/22. 
48. DK Biography: Harry Houdini: A Photographic Story of a Life, Vicki Cobb. Finished 5/28/22. 
49. Polka Dot Parade: A Book about Bill Cunningham, Deborah Blumenthal, illus. Masha D'yans. Finished 5/28/22. 
50. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, Rebecca Solnit. Finished 5/29/22. 

June 2022 (6 read)
51. I, Leonardo, Ralph Steadman. Finished 6/2/22. 
52. Everyman, Philip Roth. Finished 6/6/22.  
53. Old School, Tobias Wolff. Finished 6/8/22. 
54. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, Walter Mosley. Finished 6/13/22. 
55. In Pharaoh's Army, Tobias Wolff. Finished 6/17/22. 
56. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion. Finished 6/18/22. 
57. The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg, Louis Bromfield. Finished 6/21/22. 

July 2022 (7 read)
58. Timeline, Michael Crichton. Finished 7/1/22. 
59. Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan. Finished 7/8/22. 
60. The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes, Alan Bennett. Finished 7/10/22. 
61. Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh. Finished 7/20/22. 
62. The Benefit of Farting, Jonathan Swift. Finished 7/20/22. 
63. Terrific Mother, Lorrie Moore. Finished 7/22/22. 
64. Mostly Hero, Anna Burns. Finished 7/27/22. 

August 2022 (7 read)
65. A Short History of Dublin, Pat Boran. Finished 8/4/22. 
66. Colored People, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Finished 8/8/22. 
67. That Night, Alice McDermott. Finished 8/12/22. 
68. The Writer's Library, Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager. Finished 8/13/22. 
69. The Children of Men, P. D. James. Finished 8/16/22. 
70. The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien. Finished 8/21/22. 
71. The Sea, John Banville. Finished 8/24/22. 

September 2022 (6 read)
72. The Happy Prince and other stories, Oscar Wilde. Finished 9/2/22. 
73. Typical American, Gish Jen. Finished 9/4/22. 
74. Women, Heroes, and a Frog, Nina Leen. Finished 9/13/22. 
75. Taken at the Flood, Agatha Christie. Finished 9/16/22. 
76. Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents, Pete Souza. Finished 9/20/22. 
77. Here, Richard McGuire. Finished 9/26/22. 

October 2022 (7 read)
78. Back Home, Bill Mauldin. Finished 10/2/22. 
79. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan. Finished 10/4/22. 
80. The Essential Book of Useless Information, Don Voorhees. Finished 10/7/22. 
81. A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate, Marc Reisner. Finished 10/9/22. 
82. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen. Finished 10/18/2022. 
83. Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers, Robert Flynn Johnson. Finished 10/19/22. 
84. Silk Parachute, John McPhee. Finished 10/22/22. 

November 2022 (2 read)
85. Table of Contents, John McPhee. Finished 11/1/22. 
86. So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood, Patrick Modiano. Finished 11/3/22. 



                                          

      

       

Hi Bill and happy new thread! Looks like I’m the first visitor. Yay.

From your last thread: If I don’t read someone’s thread in detail, I usually say something like ‘skippety skip skip’. I’m so far behind on most threads that I will be skippety skip skipping a lot for a while.

Thank you for the _behind code. I’m thrilled.

Re dishes – I’m glad you’re spreading the wealth, so to speak. Claire will treasure them and I know it makes you feel good. We use our ‘good’ dishes less than we should, but do use them several times a year.

>1 weird_O: Ooh, ooh. Wonderful. I’m envious.

>2 weird_O: No Guilt!!! That’s why I started doing a Lightning Round, stolen shamelessly from Mark. I review perhaps ten books a year and give the rest brief thoughts or feelings.

>6 weird_O: We have that clock in the living room. Bill occasionally has to clean it or reposition it on the wall to get tail and eyes going properly, but we’re rather fond of it. An aunt gave us a new one perhaps 15 or more years ago.

Happy new thread, dear fellow.

>1 weird_O: Agree with the statement entirely!

Happy new thread!

Happy new one!

Your Weirdness's new Den of Iniquity is well-decorated indeed.

Happy new thread!

Although >1 weird_O: makes my allergic nose twitch (alas the scent of used bookstores forces me out the door) I love >3 weird_O:!

Happy new thread, Bill!

>1 weird_O: Completely agree with the statement.
If we hade more space, there would be way more books in the house, maybe even stacked like yours :-)

>11 karenmarie: Yes you are, Karen. I am glad you've come on board.

I lurk frequently. Getting to the end of a thread, I ponder, staring at the blank Add a message box, and eventually conclude I got nothing, nothing at all, to say. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Regarding that html schtick, there's also ^{your word here}, in which you key in "sup" instead of "sub".

>1 weird_O: Don't try the stacking if you live in an earthquake prone area.

>2 weird_O: I hear ya. But lightning scares me. And it reminds me of a favorite (apocryphal) headline: Lightning Makes Golfing Foursome Threesome

>3 weird_O: That clock reminds me of the opening sequence of BACK TO THE FUTURE. * Silence but for the ticking of many clocks, then BWWAAHHHHHHH!!! *

Halloo, Paul, Anita, Shelley, Richard, Susan, and Anita. Tell your friends what a swell place this is. Even if you don't think it's all THAT swell a place.

Happy new thread! Holy moly, that's a lotta books...

Happy new thread, Bill! I'm with you, I often catch up on a thread, think about posting and realize I don't really have any thoughts to add to the conversation. But I do try to say hello every now and again.

>19 weird_O: I will tell whoever is listening that Bill's thread is swell! Wouldn't miss my visits here for anything.

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss Finished 1/24/22

The Weird Book Report^TM  

Radioactive is a marvelous book. It's at once a biographical sketch of two pioneering researchers of radioactivity, a truly romantic love story, and a chilling history-of-the-science report. Presented through vibrantly colorful and lyrical, though curiously awkward, illustrations, Radioactive challenges the conventional image of the "Graphic Novel".

Marie and Pierre Curie—and their scientific work— are the subjects. Pierre Curie was born into science, son of a physician working in a neuroanatomical lab. He proved himself early and often, earning a university degree at 16, publishing a scientific paper at 21, and joining the Sorbonne's mineralogy lab to study crystals. Marya Sklodowska, on the other hand, was born into a working class Polish family living in Warsaw under Russian rule. A feature of early education included surprise interrogations by a state inspector who demanded students recite the names of Tzars and members of the imperial family. To get the education she wanted, she joined the Flying University, a clandestine network of a thousand women who met in secret and defied Russian control of education. Nevertheless, at 18, Marya took herself to Paris.

 

In 1891, the year 32-year-old Pierre began his doctoral dissertation ("Magnetic Properties of Bodies at Diverse Temperatures"), the 24-year-old Marya enrolled at the Sorbonne as Marie. She was one of only 23 female students among the total enrollment of 1800. Having completed degrees in mathematics and in physics in two years, she was hired by a national lab to study the magnetic properties of steel. She was working in borrowed space in a crowded lab until a Polish physicist visiting Paris introduced her to "a scientist of great merit": Pierre Curie. Thereafter, Marie reported on their introduction:

Upon entering the room I perceived, standing framed by the French window opening on the balcony, a tall young man with auburn hair and large, limpid eyes. I noticed the grave and gentle expression of his face, as well a certain abandon in his attitude, suggesting the dreamer absorbed in his reflections…We began a conversation which soon became friendly.

The two immediately began sharing lab space and research. Pierre persuaded Marie to marry him. They had a daughter and named her Irene. They collaborated in all ways, even keeping the same diary. Together they demonstrated the existence of two new elements, radium and polonium (the latter named for Marie's homeland, Poland). For this work, the Curies won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902.

      

Radium is simultaneously mesmerizing and deadly. Both Marie and Pierre were captivated by its glow, and while aware of the hazard, they handled the material during long days in their lab. Marie slept with a tiny radium crumb in a vial beside her pillow. Ultimately, the exposure undermined Marie's health, delaying the Stockholm trip to accept the Prize for more than a year.

      

Marie and Pierre Curie's lives are presented in a straight chronology. But accounts of the dramatic, often terrible but occasional beneficial, impacts of their discoveries, often decades later, disrupt the timeline. The linkage is essential.

      

The book is entirely Redniss's. She organized the presentation, wrote the text. She laid out the pages. She created the illustrations, using a technique called "cyanoprinting". (The process is an old one and is used to make blueprints.) She added colors to the prints using paints or colored pencils. She even designed the typeface.

The artwork in Radioactive is unique. Not inspired by comic-strip conventions, it doesn't use the comic artist's vocabulary. Too, the book's design bends the conventions of story presentation. There's no grid, no uniform lineup of panels, each depicting an action, a phrase of dialog or a reaction or an emotion. Redniss may have used a grid to guide her layouts, but if she did, it is transparent. The art and the text blocks (which seldom are "blocks") flow across the spreads.

I first read Radioactive about 10 years ago. At the time, graphic novels were comics in the guise of books. Each page presented a grid of panels with cartoon figures and dialog balloons. Redniss's concept blew me away. It was—and still is, of course—a book aglow, perfectly fitting the topics.

P S

The book is not lacking in scandal.

      

For what it's worth, I finished Philip Roth's Everyman yesterday. I viewed it as substantially autobiographical, and I was impressed with the candor.

Resumed reading Tobias Wolff's Old School, which I sampled after reading T. C. Boyle's recommendation of it in The Writer's Library. Last night's reading concluded with a chapter featuring a visit by Robert Frost to the school. My suspicion is that Wolff really captured Frost.

And now... I must drive the lawn tractor around and around. Weather's nice for it, but I'd rather be reading more Wolff and surfing here. Ah well...

>24 weird_O: Dig we must in service of our little patches of paradise. You have chestnuts whose blossoms need a proper showcase.

Morning, Bill! I like your new digs.

I recently acquired a copy of The Writer's Library, but I have not peeked inside yet.

I hope the lawn tractoring went well.

>25 richardderus: It's a private showcase, RD. You can't see them from the road. Only one neighbor can see them, and they're too busy to even look. But I like them.

>26 Crazymamie: Hi, Mamie. What a treat to have you stop by. I think The Writer's Library is fun. I leafed through the book, stopped to read a couple or three interviews before backing up and starting from the beginning. Taking my time.

Got most of the mowing done yesterday, and two more patches this morning. As I gassed the mower this morning, I concluded that mowing the whole thing burns more than four gallons. Regular has breeched the $5 barrier hereabouts.

I really like Old School. Among the best reads so far this year.

I was seized by hand-wringing last night. What to read next? Manhattan Transfer was next up (on paper) in response to the June AAC. John Dos Passos. Dutifully, I plunged in. Before I'd finished the first chapter, I had to acknowledge that this choice might have been made in error. I read the book in 2014, but I remember nothing of it; I scanned the Wikipedia entry and bells did not ring. As I read the first 11 pages of the 404-page tome, I quailed at each and every absent word space, every absent hyphen. What the hell?

leadentired
brickpurple
lanternedjawed grayfaced woman
skyblue and smokedsalmon and mustardyellow quilts
dollarproud eyes
highbrowed cleanshaven...face
narrowwindowed sixstory tenement
hookandladder
romancandle
theyve
coaloil
spiralfluted horns
neckshave
greasyskinned moonface

At least for now, I'm setting this aside.

Should I pretend I never even considered reading John Dos Passos, my Wild Card selection will be…ta da…Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. She was the AAC honoree in January 2018. I spurned her. I think I may have called her a sourpuss. A snot nosed kid called me out on that; I took the kid's ripost to heart (after sulking for a moment), refrained from further such characterizations, but didn't read any of Didion's work.

Since that embarrassing episode, I've acquired four books she authored, and of those I've settled on Slouching Towards Bethlehem. It's a collection of journalism and essays published in 1990. Early this morning, before turning out the light (as the sun rose, lighting the bedroom), I read the first piece. It was good.

I considered two other books for this position as well. The first was In Pharaoh's Army by Tobias Wolff. I just finished Wolff's novel Old School, which I judged to be terrific, so I have an urge to read another book by him. I might still name Wolff the Wild Card, and cite both Old School and In Pharaoh's Army. I can do that. I can. Hmmm. Maybe two Wild Card honorees?

A third novel/author I considered was Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley. Plus side: John McWhorley, a linguistics scholar, a NY Time columnist, and a Black man, published an encomium of Mosley under the head; Walter Mosley Brilliantly Depicted Black English — and Black Thought. Also plus, I have a copy in hand. Too, I love Mosley's work. On the con side: Mosley was the AAC honoree in June 2018, and I did read something. Okay, then. Perhaps a Triple Crown.

Whaddaya think?

Sweet Thursday, Bill. Happy New Thread! You certainly have stacks and stacks of books. Wowza! I have you down for Arctic Dreams, after I was negligent in remembering that you were interested. It looks like we will start around the 3rd week of June.

I just started River of the Gods, which I am sure is on your radar.

Oh yeah. River of the Gods. I am aware of it, but not driven to read it. I didn't read about TR in the Amazon either. :-( Weirdly bad, huh? I probably don't need to encourage you to enjoy Ms. Millard's newest epic.

I'm good with a third-week start in the arctic. That'll be fine with me. I've never read anything by Lopez, but I hear he's eloquent. I think I have Didion, Mosley, and Wolff penciled in for next week.

>29 weird_O: I think this...read whatever you want! Read it all. I love Tobias Wolff's stuff and Mosley...well...Mosley is Mighty. I don't get on with Didion myself, and I'm not sure why.

Hi Bill!

>23 weird_O: Yikes. This is the second book I’ve actually bought today after reading a review. Excellent Weird Book Report, my friend.

>28 weird_O: Hard pass. Thanks for warning me off. Fortunately, I have nothing by Dos Passos on my shelves.

Morning, Bill!

>28 weird_O: Oof. I don't blame you for setting that one aside - I would have, too.

I'm adding Old School to The List since you thought it was terrific.

I'm gonna put in a vote for the Didion - I love her stuff, and that one is an excellent collection. My favorite of her work so far is The Year of Magical Thinking. I also loved The White Album.

Here's hoping that your Friday is full of fabulous!

Morning. fellow bookworms. So happy I hit both of you with a bb. I read several pieces by Joan yesterday, then dipped into the Mosley. I'm planning for some fabulous outdoor time Friday, and I won't mind if the predicted rain falls Saturday.

>28 weird_O: ...but...but...that's the stuff that's most interesting in Dos Passos's writing!

Ah well, not every read is for everyone.

Enjoy what comes next, Sir Weirds-a-lot.

>36 richardderus: Compounding words like a German is sort of fun. But no; I've voted by sliding the book back on the shelf beside USA, un-re-read.
____________
Spent some hours today viewing the WaPo congressional hearing stream. Essential viewing.

Read more of both Socrates Fortlow and Ms. Didion's reports and essays. The former is first rate, the latter uneven.

Finished Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Excellent stuff.

Taking up In Pharaoh's Army now, with occasional dips into Slouching Toward Bethlehem. Then a cooling dip into the Arctic.

Finished In Pharaoh's Army. I've hit the double nickel! 55. I recommend it. Grade it 

Hope to read the remaining six essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem tonight and tomorrow. Ooookay. Then off to the Arctic with an intrepid crew of Mark, Mamie, Marianne, Stasia, Joe, Caroline, and MDoris.

It seemed to be hot here today, though I never did check the thermometer. Having been alerted by my favorite daughter to the likely presence of present in the mailbox, I actually walked out to check, and also to lug the emptied trash can back to the house. It present present in the mailbox was a pair of handmade walnut coffee measuring spoons. (It was already mid-afternoon, too late to give them a try-out with real freshly ground coffee.)

Mostly fabulous week it was. Got me hair cut, which means I did some book shopping at my Birthtown Libry. Everyday has been a $5-a-bag sale for quite a long time. I only got two bags full. Tuesday was grocery shopping, getting eggs at Bauscher's farm, then some meat at Dietrich's, a few books at Once Again Thrift Shop, and, finally, milk 'n' carrots 'n' spuds 'n' ice cream at the supermarket. I don't remember Wednesday, so it must have been fab. Thursday I got the house elf to clean the kitchen, including the load of dishes in the dishwasher that now won't run. Washed them, dried 'em, put 'em away. Also made a vat of mac'n'cheese with hot sausage. Today, the house elf cleaned the bathroom. Just!!!!

I rest my case. I deserve a loafy weekend.

>39 weird_O: You are whooping me in the reading race. I have only 42 titles so far.

So have you tried out the new coffee measuring spoons yet? Made me itch just thinking about as I am very allergic to walnut, but I bet they are mighty pretty.

"I don't remember Wednesday, so it must have been fab." This made me laugh out loud. Please to send your house elf my way.

Hoping your weekend is full of the loafing, Oh Weird One!

Loaf away, Your Weirdness. I say nothing good ever happened from overwork, based on a century's accumulated American evidence, so...loaf.

We need our Weird Report™s.

Hi Bill!

>23 weird_O: Amazon sent me an Unacceptable Copy of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, so I’m returning it. I have to go to UPS to do so, and may buy another copy sometime after that. I was really excited when the box arrived, then furious. Sigh.

>39 weird_O: Your week sounds fun, wonderful, productive, and relatively exhausting. The Jury’s In – you are awarded a loafy weekend. Not to be confused with a loaf-of-bread weekend, of course.

>39 weird_O: You are in Good Company for loafing with Bertrand Russell's

"in Praise of Idleness."

Happy Father's Day, Bill. What did you do on this special day, since we know that you are a heck of a father?

The Group Read thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/342435#unread

Hooray. Verizon finally...I say FINALLY...repaired whatever it was that brought down my landline and internet on Saturday afternoon.

While I was languishing in internet-free confinement, I DID finish a book or two. As I hoped on June 17, I did finish Slouching Towards Bethlehem. I read the preface and prologue to Arctic Dreams, then jumped into The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg, a Louis Bromfield novel I picked up last week. Fifty years ago, I read two Bromfield non-fictions about his resurrection of a farmed-out place in Ohio, which he called Malabar Farm. He did win a Pulitzer for Early Autumn, which I've never even seen a copy of. So I tossed this in my tote, and now I have read it. (# 57 for the year so far, which is dazzling for me!)

I had a couple of reports working on Saturday, but they are in the cloud, unfinished. But I did tap out a couple of others using Pages, so I will get them up ASAP.

Nice to be back. I'll catch up with the posts here, I hope this evening.

# 39. Welcome to Hard Times by E. L. Doctorow Finished 4/30/22. 

The Weird Report^TM  

Hard Times is a small town in the old west, dilapidated even as it was being constructed. It is home to a hardware store, an undertaker, a tiny livery stable, and naturally, to a saloon with a couple of prostitutes. The narrator is a man named Blue, who is an agent for the stage that links the town to the outside world, something of an ambassador for the town, a man who assumed minor administrative tasks and in the bargain came to be called the Mayor.

I almost abandoned the novel, Doctorow's first, after the first chapter, so devastating was the carnage wrought by a single psycho drifter. And so feeble the effort to fight him. Blue has a rifle, and many are looking to him to defend them against the hooligan, but he doesn't.

After some time spent with another book or two, I did return to Hard Times, and I did complete it. It's well written, plotted, and paced. After the fires burn themselves out, the surviving residents take stock, and many of them pack up and leave. Blue persuades some to stay and rebuild, and he convinces newcomers to pitch in to resurrect the town. Blue builds a shelter, and takes in Jimmy, a boy orphaned by murder of his father, as well as Molly, a severely injured and traumatized bar girl. Molly wants revenge, Blue wants peace.

A reckoning does come.

# 14. Mooncop by Tom Gauld Finished 2/3/22. 

The Weird Report^TM  

Mooncop is a graphic story, told primarily through drawings in Tom Gauld's characteristic style. There's some laconic dialog, but no written narrative. A man is hired to police a space colony established on a distant planet or moon (I guess a moon, given the story's title). He has an apartment, and works out of the police headquarters. Usually, he's patrolling in a hovercraft-type vehicle. Not much happens. The colony is sparsely populated, and many of the space pioneers are packing it in to return to earth. Equipment fails and replacement parts are scarce. Will the mooncop depart too? He's thinking about it.

  

  

  >

      
Oh, the perils of isolation.

# 46. Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon Finished 5/22/22. 

The Weird Report^TM  

Georges Simenon created a series of mystery novels featuring Detective Chief Inspector Maigret of the Paris police. I've read only a few of them, but I'm always on the lookout for more. On the back cover of Pietr the Latvian, Maigret is described in a passage in the second chapter:

Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a mustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands.
  But his frame was proletarian. He was a big bony man. Iron muscles shaped his jacket sleeves and quickly wore through new trousers.
  He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there. His assertive presence had often irked many of his own colleagues.

Pietr the Latvian was published in 1930, the first Maigret novel. In it, the Inspector and investigators across Europe are seeking an elusive swindler who connects with wealthy sorts, befriends them, then somehow steals, extorts, and/or defrauds them of their riches. As the story begins, Maigret meets a train that traveled from the north into Paris. Methodically he scans the passengers getting off and focuses on a particular well-dressed man who is trailed by a trio of porters. Maigret knows this fellow from detailed descriptions filed by agents in many European cities. Since he knows the fellow's destination, he doesn't follow. But he does respond to an alarm about a dead man found in the toilet of a train carriage. Curiously, the man closely resembles the fugitive. He's been shot in the chest at close range. Miagret takes particular note that the man's shoes are cheaply made and very worn. When uniformed policemen arrive, Maigret instructs them on the disposition of the body, then departs.

The ensuing investigation involves almost endless surveillance of an attractive woman believed to be the Latvian's wife and another woman believed to be a girlfriend, as well as a wealthy couple believed to be the Latvian's current target. By the end, Maigret has literally gotten into bed with his suspect.

You should read it. If you are like me, you'll be hooked. Don't worry. Before his death, Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels and 28 stories.

>49 weird_O: Great review. I read a few Maigret novels long ago--library offerings from my teenage years, but I don't remember the character at all. Simenon is a mystery author I've long meant to return to out of curiosity; another is Ngaio Marsh.

>49 weird_O: Interesting. I don't think that one, if I did in fact read it, stuck. How cool you're enjoying it ninety years later!

>48 weird_O: A more enjoyable experience for me, I guess. But I'm very inexperienced in matters graphical so might not know what makes something A Good {thatthing}. (See: Poetry)

>47 weird_O: Not a great read for me, either. It's got violence for ornament and effect, that's never a great thing.

>49 weird_O: Ooh, you got me with Pietr the Latvian! I’ve got it requested at my lib. Thanks!

Karen O

Hi Bill!

>49 weird_O: That description of Maigret is marvelous. Thanks for sharing. AND, you got me. I’ve just ordered it and it will arrive on Saturday. Our Library didn't have it.

Sweet Thursday, Bill. I am a Doctorow fan but I have never read Welcome to Hard Times. Interesting that his first novel was a western. I also enjoyed Mooncop. Big Gauld fan.

Where are you heading at the end of the month?

>50 laytonwoman3rd: I'm happy to nudge you back to Simenon's work. I was astonished to read on Wiki that he produced in the neighbor of 500 novels. So Maigret represented less than 20% of his creative output. I read a Ngaio March mystery several years ago and wasn't seized by an urge to pursue her books. (Huh; didn't know she was a New Zealander. Wikifact.)

>51 richardderus: I did enjoy the Maigret debut. But then the years didn't erode its merits. Funny thing about "old" books. As far as graphic stories go (and poetry too, I'm supposing) is to dive in and get some experience. As for Doctorow, he toned down the violence his later works but retained his visceral passion.

>52 klobrien2: :-) Happy to help you find stuff to read, Karen.

>53 karenmarie: And you too, Karen. I have not run across a lot of the Maigret books at the library sales I've hit. Were they deaccessioned years ago, pushed off the shelves by contemporary crime-solving writers?

>54 msf59: If you want to be a "completist", my friend, give it a try. I think it has merit and exhibit's Doctorow's gifts as a writer. But wow, that first chapter is unsettling.

Where am I heading? I've been invited to accompany my older son's family on a trip. The itinerary begins in scenic Newark, New Jersey. The airport there, to be specific. Departing for Copenhagen, where The Grand Helen is currently enrolled in an architectural design course. We'll arrive as that course ends. The Tour de Frances begins in Copenhagen this year; the epic cycling event launches July 1. Then Amsterdam so the family can take in what's been described to me as field hockey's World Cup. The Grand Gracie is a serious player of field hockey. Then a stop in Dublin, just because. Just sharin' a pint there for the old man's birthday.

Safe and happy travels, Bill. Pack your patience, as they say, as I hear airports these days can be something of a nightmare. But you will surely have a book or two to help you through it, right?

Back in the dark ages of high school, Maigret was the first French book we had to read that wasn't a grammar text. I can't remember the title of the one we read but I can assure you I likely did not get through it. In French. Sigh. It never occurred to me to try an English translation at any point in my life after that. C'est la vie...

# 36. The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton Finished 4/22/22. 

The Weird Report^TM  

It was MAGIC! A fortune in gold was placed in two safes mounted in a special railroad car, under the watchful eyes of government and railway officials. The safes were locked. The doors to the carriage were locked. The car had been designed and constructed to be impenetrable. The train left the station. When it arrived at its destination, the car was unlocked, the safes opened, and—PRESTO CHANGO—the gold had been transmogrified into hundreds of steel balls.

The year was 1854. It would be two years before three men were brought to trial. The court record is voluminous, as is the journalistic record. Michael Crichton used these sources to assemble his narrative. But let us not overlook Crichton's mastery of storytelling here. He brings the characters, whether low-lifes or "respectable" citizens, to life through skillfully staged actions and conversations, the telling details, the timely revelations.

The mastermind was Edward Pierce, a man of unknown background but evidently of some means. Crichton wrote:

Edward Pierce…was positively exuberant in his approach to crime. Whatever his sources of income, whatever the truth of his background, one thing is certain: he was a master cracksman, or burglar, who over the years had accumulated sufficient capital to finance large-scale criminal operations, thus becoming what was called "a putter-up."

Initially, the pace is measured. Pierce has outlined his plan. He needs specialists for certain tasks. Discretion is as important as fast, efficient hands. Early in the story, Crichton described (based on court testimony) a meeting of Pierce with Robert Agar, a specialist.

The meeting was unplanned, Agar said, but he was not surprised when Pierce arrived. Agar had heard some talk about Pierce lately, and it sounded as though he might be putting up. Agar recalled that the conversation began without greetings or preliminaries.
  Agar said, "I heard that Spring Heel Jack's left Westminster."
  "I heard that," Pierce agreed, rapping with his silver-headed cane to draw the attention of the barman. Pierce ordered two glasses of the best whiskey, which Agar took as proof that this was to be a business discussion…
  "I also heard," Agar continued, "that he took the train."
  "He might have done…"
  "I…heard," Agar said with a sudden grin, "that you are putting up."
  "I may," Pierce said. He sipped his whiskey, and stared at the glass. "It used to be better here," he said reflectively. "Neddy must be watering his stock. What have you heard I am putting up for?"
  "A robbery," Agar said. "For a ream flash pull, if truth be told."
  "If truth be told," Pierce repeated. He seemed to find the phrase amusing. He turned away from the bar and looked at the women in the room. Several returned his glances warmly. "Everybody hears the pull bigger than life," he said finally.
  "Aye, that's so," Agar admitted, and sighed. (In his testimony, Agar was very clear about the histrionics involved. "Now I goes and gives a big sigh, you see, like to say my patience is wearing thin, because he's a cautious one, Pierce is, but I want to get down to it, so I gives a big sigh.")
  There was a brief silence. Finally Agar said, "It's two years gone since I saw you. Been busy?"
  "Traveling," Pierce said.
  …He looked at the glass of whiskey in Agar's hands, and the half-finished glass of gin and water Agar had been drinking before Pierce arrived. "How's the touch?"
  "Ever so nice," Agar said. To demonstrate, he held out his hands, palms flat, fingers wide: there was no tremor.
  "I may have one or two little things," Pierce said…
  "These one or two little things, could they be crib jobs?"
  "They could."
  "Dicey, are they?"
  "Very dicey," Pierce said.
  "Inside or outside?"
  "I don't know. You may need a canary or two when the time comes. And you will want a tight lip. If the first lay goes right enough, there will be more."
  Agar downed the rest of his whiskey, and waited. Pierce ordered him another.
  "Is it keys, then?" Agar asked.
  "It is."
  "Wax, or straightaway haul?"
  "Wax."
  "On the fly, or is there time?"
  "On the fly."
  "Right, then," Agar said. "I'm your man. I can do a wax on the fly faster than you can light your cigar."
  "I know that," Pierce said, striking a match on the counter top and holding it to the tip of his cigar…
  [Agar] watched Pierce puff on the cigar until it caught. "What's the lay to be, then?"
  Pierce looked at him coldly. "You'll know when the time comes."
  "You're a tight one."
  "That," Pierce said, "is why I have never been in," meaning that he had no prison record.

The book is as animated as a train. Not a runaway, mind you, always under Crichton's control, whether patiently panting beside the train platform or racing at breakneck speed. The Great Train Robbery is an engaging, entertaining read. I recommend it highly.

# 52. Everyman by Philip Roth Finished 6/6/22 

The Weird Report^TM  


It's the final reckoning.

Around the grave in the rundown cemetery were a few of his former advertising colleagues from New York, who recalled his energy and originality and told his daughter, Nancy, what a pleasure it had been to work with him. There were also people who'd driven up from Starfish Beach, the residential retirement village at the Jersey Shore where he'd been living since Thanksgiving of 2001—the elderly to whom only recently he'd been giving art classes. And there were his two sons, Randy and Lonny, middle-aged men from his turbulent first marriage, very much their mother's children, who as a consequence knew little of him that was praiseworthy and much that was beastly and who were present out of duty and nothing more. His older brother, Howie, and his sister-in-law were there, having flown in from California the night before, and there was one of his three ex-wives, the middle one, Nancy's mother, Phoebe, a tall, very thin white-haired woman whose right arm hung limply at her side. When asked by Nancy if she wanted to say anything, Phoebe shyly shook her head but then went ahead to speak in a soft voice, her speech faintly slurred. "It's just so hard to believe. I keep thinking of him swimming the bay—that's all. I just keep seeing him swimming the bay." And then Nancy, who had made her father's funeral arrangements and placed the phone calls to those who'd showed up so that the mourners wouldn't consist of just her mother, herself, and his brother and sister-in-law. There was only one person whose presence hadn't to do with having been invited, a heavyset woman with a pleasant round face and dyed red hair who had simply appeared at the cemetery and introduced herself as Maureen, the private duty nurse who had looked after him following his heart surgery years back. Howie remembered her and went up to kiss her cheek.

The subject of this reckoning is a figure without a name, a man who, to me, is a stand-in for Philip Roth himself. In the first paragraph (quoted above), almost all the principal figures in his life are present, all but those who predeceased him (his parents, for example) and his first and last wives. Once buried, his life spools past us, from his birth and adolescence, his education, his dreams and aspirations, and of course the life he actually lived. Unaccomplished as a fine artist, a very successful advertising designer. Accomplished as a ladies' man—charming, caring, persuasive—he's nonetheless an unfocussed husband and father.

The title, Everyman, tells us that the nameless protagonist is drawn from The Summoning of Everyman, an English morality play from the 1500s. "Everyman" represents a commonplace man, an ordinary guy, confronting the approach of his death. He's a stock character in fiction. As I said, I immediately viewed this particular Everyman as Roth himself. I learned via an article in The Times of Israel that Roth faced the coronary artery disease he inflicted on the novel's protagonist. In 1989, Roth had a quintuple bypass and was diagnosed with coronary artery disease. He was 49 then, and he lived another 29 years.

>49 weird_O: Ooh - the first Maigret! And my library has an ebook copy, which I have just downloaded. Thanks.

You are attracted to book lists, right? (Isn't everyone?) The Times aired an interesting (to me) list the other day: The 25 Most Significant New York City Novels From the Last 100 Years. The second deck says, "Four writers and one bookseller gathered over Zoom to make a list devoted to fiction in which the city is more than mere setting." Some of the books I've read, but too many are unknown to me. Here's a link so you (and anyone interested) can check it out. A free pass through the PayWall.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/t-magazine/new-york-city-novels-books.html?un...

To Bill - Have a Great FUN Trip!

A Friend is just returning form Prague, London, Dublin and says that, despite Putin and Covid,
things felt safe.

And, you've got all those exciting ARCTIC DREAMS reader comments to look forward to when You return!

>49 weird_O: What a remarkable fellow Simenon was, Bill. So prolific and that was a great start to his series as I recall.

>60 weird_O: Thanks for the list. Have to say that not only were there at least four books completely unfamiliar to me and going on my bucket list, the article was accompanied by wonderful, wonderful photos.

>59 ffortsa: As you read, Judy, remember than you have 74 more Maigret novels to enjoy. (!)

>61 m.belljackson: Thanks, Marianne. I think all three destinations have more to see and do than we can possibly try, so we won't be bored.

As far as AD is concerned, everybody is currently ahead of me. And that's fine. As you said, there'll be lots and lots of comments awaiting me.

>62 PaulCranswick: You sure are correct about Simenon, Paul. You'd think that his productivity was a consequence of being a whole team of writers, or of his having been a hack.

The list really surprised me too. Seven writers I'd not heard of (Nella Larsen, Paula Fox, Chang-rae Lee, Teju Cole, Ayad Akhtar, Sapphire, and Paule Marshall) and two others I passed over the 2020's AAC (Ann Petry and Dawn Powell). I have read the books cited for Auster, Adler, Chabon, DeLillo, Doctorow, Morrison, Ellison, and Moore/Gibbons/Higgins. Too, I've read Another Country (about 55 years ago) and Manhattan Transfer (only 8 years ago), but I don't remember anything about them. (See >28 weird_O: and >29 weird_O: about the Dos Passos). Maybe I should re-read MT after all; the Baldwin book has been on my mind for a while as a re-read. The rest are either on The Infinite TBR Shelf™ or The WANT! List™.

>63 weird_O: I think my favourite from the list would be Another Country, Bill, although I remember being blown away by the first half of the book and being a little underwhelmed by its ending.

I am still hopeful of finishing Manhattan Transfer this month.

I traveled today by plane, train, and automobile and had no problems at all along the way. Of course my journey started at 3:00 AM and ended at the hotel at 3PM. Hardest part of the trip was no escalator in the hotel so had to carry bag up the steps to the hotel registration.

>60 weird_O: That is an interesting list - though my favorite NYC book Eloise does not appear on it.

Happy Friday, Bill. Your Denmark, Holland & Ireland adventure sounds fantastic. I have visited both Holland and Ireland, while I was stationed in Germany. Loved both. I have family living near Dublin, which made that trip special. Have a great time, my friend.

I am a Crichton fan but have never read The Great Train Robbery. I should remedy that.

I love your topper photos and the quote -- that's exactly how I feel about my piles! LOL "Having a huge number of books is not exactly about reading them all -- it's about having the possibility of reading them."

Happy weekend. : )

Bill, I've read 6 of the New York books listed, and heard about at least another 8 of them. Lots to catch up on.

And I've read (countless) Maigrets, and even a Simenon that wasn't a Maigrets, just not the first one. The description of him you quote is not what I think of as Maigret. The British series a few years back with Michael Gambon was perfectly in tune with my mind's eye.

Hey, y'all. I'm almost ready to shuffle off to Buffa...ah, erm, Copenhagen! Last minute anxieties abound. But I'll be on board when the jet soars from the nation's lush Garden State, New Jersey. Thursday evening.

Just to keep the reading plot line alive, I shuffled through the TBR to pick shortish books to tuck into a carry-on. I actually started Timeline, a kind of time-travel pot-boiler by Michael Crichton, and after only two days, I'm almost half through it. Reading a mass market paperback that I can abandon in Urp, since I have a hardcover on the shelves. I picked up another mmp a couple of weeks ago, a YA novel titled The Weirdo (!?!). That's going along. Even toting a copy of Hamlet, 'cause I've never read it and Hamlet IS a Dane.

I'll be incommunicado until July 11-12. Don't think I'll be missed. But I warn you, I will be back. Bwahahahaha...

>70 weird_O: Have a great time! If you get a chance, you could pop in to see what’s going on in the LT world. Have fun, you jet-setter!

Karen O

>70 weird_O: 'cause I've never read it and Hamlet IS a Dane

LOL

Have a gorgeous time, and thanks for the T article above!

Bon Voyage, Bill. Happy travels. I have heard of some of the travel woes in Europe. I hope you avoid every single one. Have a great time and we will be waiting with bated breath for your return.

Safe travels. Maybe you can write a travelogue. You know, A Weirdo's View of Across the Pond. or some such.

Thinking strong good thoughts for no missed connections or cancelled flights, and a wonderful, memorable trip.

Hi Bill.

Safe travels, fun times with your family.

Bill - are You and your Family and Friends safe?

I made it there and back! I'm home. Full of fabulous, it was. Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Dublin. Also Newark.

I'm glad your trip went well.

You have the best graphics on your thread! So much fun stuff to look at :)

>78 weird_O: welcome back - Sounds like you had a big break!

Welcome back, Bill!

Welcome back, Bill. Glad you returned safely. Can't wait to hear about your trip.

As I said (>78 weird_O:), I'm back. But I either have unusually severe jet-lag, or I got covid. Fatigue, headache, sore throat, cough, achy eyes. Happily, the grass isn't too bad, so I don't feel compelled to drive the mower around on it. I've just been napping all the day long.

>83 weird_O: Oh, no. Rest is the best, whichever affliction you're suffering from. I do hope it's the non-viral kind.

Sorry to hear you're under the weather, Bill. Take care of yourself!

>84 laytonwoman3rd: >85 lauralkeet: Just got off the phone. My son has covid; he's got a home tester and after talking to me last evening, he tested himself and got a positive. I'm feeling better, but I'll be getting a test somewhere.

Part of the problem is that someone, I don't know who, mind you, seems to have gotten into my house during my absence and just created a lot of clutter and messiness. The infamy! I got a start on rehabbing the place just this morning by washing the few dishes accumulated on the counter. Made my first cuppa since getting home. A positive sign, me thinks.

      

Bookshop window in Amsterdam. I was captivated by the reading action-figures lurking amongst the books on display. Had the place been open, I would have pursued the purchase of that book of Robert Doisneau photos. Time was too short to return when it was open.

>86 weird_O: ...oh I see the Jealousy Djinn got my request...

What a great window dressing! I'm always sad when a biblioholic falls off the wagon and doesn't buy a book. *tsk*

>87 richardderus: Oh, I bought books, Richard. Just not in Copenhagen or Amsterdam. I did do some book buying in Dublin for my birthday. (I also took books along, but naturally didn't read much.)

Here's my stack of acquisitions:

   

Reading Gulliver, Máire Kennedy and Alastair Smeaton (pbk) (used)
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill (pbk) (used)
Ulysses on the Liffey, Richard Ellmann (pbk) (used)
Purchased from Temple Bar Bookshop, 2 Cow's Ln, Temple Bar, Dublin, D08 WV08, Ireland

Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne (pbk) (new)
The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien (pbk) (new)
The Sea, John Banville (pbk) (new)
The Benefit of Farting, Jonathan Swift (pbk) (new)
The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes, Alan Bennett (pbk) (new)
Terrific Mother, Lorrie Moore (pbk) (new)
Mostly Hero, Anna Burns (pbk) (new)
Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast, Oscar Wilde (pbk) (new)
Purchased from Hodges Figgis, 56-58 Dawson Street, Dublin

The Happy Prince and Other Stories, Oscar Wilde (hc) (new)
Purchased from Oscar Wilde House, 1 Merrion Square N, Dublin, D02 NH98, Ireland

A Short History of Dublin, Pat Boran (pbk)
Gift from Jen and Stephen, friends who live in Dublin.

I just love that Temple Bar Bookshop is located at #2, Cow's Lane.

Boo! for not feeling well. Did you test yet? I am just getting over my latest bout. But hurray for the book haul! And I'm so glad you had fun on your trip. : )

Hi Bill, I'm sorry your son has covid and that it therefore seems likely that you do, too. Here's hoping your symptoms abate soon.

By the way ... knowing you to be a P.G. Wodehouse fan, I thought I'd mention a book my husband is perusing and enjoying at the moment: In Search of Blandings, in which the author researched the background of Wodehouse's novels and identified both people and places that were models for their fictional counterparts. Chris picked it up used somewhere or other. Perhaps you'll find it when haunting area book sales.

>88 weird_O: Lurvely, that haul...juuust lurvely!

Feel better soon.

>86 weird_O: I love the map - but I'd say those are more accurately inaction figures.

Sorry to hear about you son and the anti-brownies who messed about your house. I hope you stay C-.

>92 quondame: Aw, c'mon, Susan. Their wee minds are fully active as the reading goes on. As for Jeremy and me, we both got positive tests results. My symptoms are much diminished since Tuesday, when I first experienced them. I live alone, so isolating isn't any trouble. But I am out of sync with the regional medical establishment.

>89 Berly: Thanks, Kim. Friends brought me a self-test kit this evening, and I am positive for the virus. But yeah, I got some new books with decidedly Irish tilt. Now to get to reading.

>90 lauralkeet: Ooooo. Thanks for that especially aimed bb, Laura. I will keep a eye out for it (although this covid sentence made me miss the July library sale in Bethlehem. Boo.) Maybe it'll best be acquired on-line.

>91 richardderus: That reads as though you like my haul. That makes me happy.

Hi Bill.

I just saw on Mark’s thread that you have Covid. I’m so sorry to hear that and hope that you’re already feeling better.

>88 weird_O: Nice acquisitions. The Benefit of Farting? *smile* Since Jenna and I were just discussing the subject, I bought a Kindle version of it and A Modest Proposal for $.99.

>93 weird_O: I’m glad your symptoms are much diminished, puzzled about ‘out of sync with the regional medical establishment.’

Welcome back, Bill. Sorry about the Covid. Hope you are feeling better. I am sure you had a great time. Look forward to hearing about it. Nice book haul too.

The Sea by John Banville is the only one of his books that I couldn't finish. I found it totally boring. I liked his detective books. They are written under a different name Benjamin Black.

>94 karenmarie: Since Jenna and I were just discussing the subject.... Would I want to be a fly on the wall listening to a mother/daughter discussion of farting? Ummmmm. I don't think so. Or...maaaybe....

You know I'd heard of Dean Swift's "modest proposal" but found it is not available from my Personal library (Home of the TBR Whopper!). Downloaded it from Project Gutenberg.

"Out of sync" is just my beleaguered karma, my penchant for selecting the wrong fork in the decision tree, my mix-mastery of commonplace digital tech. Here's where I am, Karen. My son called the hospital's covid hotline and—no wait—actually talked to a person who agreed he should take Paxlovid. And that person forwarded the matter to my son's Primary Care doc. Who calls him inside of an hour, and sends a script to a pharmacy. I call the hotline and get the sad news that the system is collapsing under the call volume and I should try again next year. Switching to the hospital website, I learn that I can't get a covid test at any of this medical borg's 59 urgent-care sites scattered across 5 counties without a script. It goes on and on. So in the end, I did get a test kit from a friend, and did get a positive result. I did make e-mail contact with a medical person who issued a script and I picked by the Paxlovid late this afternoon.

It's just me. The contrarian, even when I do know better. So I should shut up about it.

So home test kit result today is...still positive. Damn it. But it's just a ghost of a line, so I should be good by tomorrow or Monday. Hope your case is light and over fast!!

>98 Berly: Uh oh. How many days have you been suffering, Kim? Is this what I have to look forward to? I now have test kits, but I don't think I'll even try a retest until late in the week. Hope you get a breakout soon. Like Monday.

>95 msf59: I didn't forget you, Mark, just didn't reply. I'm in a trying zone just now, as I whined in >97 weird_O:. I have about 300 photos on two SD cards, but the computer that as a card reader is probably kaput. I ordered a reader from Amazon to use with the Mac, but **sad trumbone** ammy failed to deliver yesterday.

Better news. I've got three (maybe four) books being read by me, including Jonathan Swift's thoughts about farting, Harriet the Spy (the first in a Young Reader series), The Children of Men (a dystopian story by mystery writer P. D. James), and That Night by Alice McDermott. And as you noted, I have a few other just-acquired books to tackle.

Plus lots of catching up—house cleaning, yardwork, decluttering generally. I'm so excited! :-)

>96 benitastrnad: Gee, thanks for that, Benita. There I am in a bookstore in Dublin, Ireland, deciding amongst dozens and dozens of titles by Irish writers, weighing a choice amongst quite a few by Banville, and settling on the title that copped him the Booker Prize. Where were you then? :-) I hope I find pleasure in it that didn't manifest itself to you.

Alright, I got work to do...

>93 weird_O: oh no, Covid strikes again! That is a hassle. I hope you manage the symptoms easily, and that it passes on by asap.

My own positive test result came in May, and the winter struck so all the old ills and chills have been going around and around and around. It feels a long winter!

>97 weird_O: That is just awful – having to go through such hoops to even get a test kit, much less Paxlovid. And that after it was so easy for your son. I’m glad you persevered and got what you needed. I can’t imagine why there was such a startling difference in your experiences with the same system.

I'd whine to somebody at a higher level, but any comments might fall on deaf ears.

I know too many people who have been attacked by the plague lately, with various levels of symptoms. I do hope you get through this without serious incident. What a mess this health crisis is.

We are back to wearing masks at my yoga class. It seems that the plague has attacked two of our regular members, so we are being cautious. I hope it doesn't get me as I am headed home to spend a week with my 85 year old mother who has finally recovered from COVID from December of 2020. I don't want to take it home to her, so I am glad that we masked up. I do have to say that yoga in a mask is very hot. It seems that wearing one of those makes me sweat like a horse and we aren't doing hot yoga on purpose.

I have been wearing a mask here at work whenever I am in contact with other people or at our meetings. It is better to be cautious than be a carrier.

On my travels at the end of June I wore a mask all day long during all of the airplane and airport sitting. I also wore one at all times in the hotel and at the conference. I didn't get it - so I am still maintaining that the masks work. Guess I will find out if it really works when I go home to Kansas. I don't think that any of my relatives have even heard of masks out there.

I hope you're recovering apace, O Weird One.

      

As you all can see for yourselves, I had an absolutely marvelous time on vacation in Urp with my elder son and his family. One of the highlights burst upon me on the day we departed Copenhagen for Amsterdam, as that day Jeremy located my checked bag and Claire's. He didn't locate his own bag.

But enough about my sense of elation...

LOL! I hope you will post other highlight photos, too.

And I hope you are fully recovered by now. From the plague, not the vacation.

I will be posting more, Shelley. This is the first day this week that I've felt calm and reasonably controlled. In addition to the covid, just the business of having contracted it after all this time, I ran into frustrations (some my own brand) in trying to get tested then getting a Paxlovid script. Several days ago, I got blitzed by my sciatic nerve, which initially I thought was a hip going bad. Another burr was the task of transferring image files from SD cards, which the camera writes each image file to, to my computer. I ordered a card reader from Amazon and it got lost somewhere near Williamsport (!?). Ordinarily, buying one locally is easy, but I have covid.

So today things settled down. Took my last dose of Paxlovid, my sciatica is cooled down greatly. Now I have to scan receipts for Jeremy to include with his lost baggage claim.

         

Well. #1 - Deep breaths.
#2 - Do you have those heat wraps in the USA? I use the ones made by Robax for my lower back and they really do help. Though, if I am honest, the thought of applying heat in this weather makes me feel like your pic in >107 weird_O:.
#3 - Deep breaths. Pics on LT can wait.
#4 - Cold drink. Read a book.
#5 - Deep breaths. You have already listed more tech than I understand. I need to take a deep breath!

>107 weird_O: Here’s to things settling down! Have a great weekend!

Karen O

>107 weird_O: Yikes, that does seem a lot on your plate! I have to agree with >108 jessibud2:..... and I can totally relate you the gif of how you're feeling. Does the world frazzled sum it up???

Dropping in to wish you a more relaxing weekend.

Happy Saturday, Bill. I am glad to hear things are settling down for you and you are feeling a bit better. How are those current reads treating you?

>105 weird_O: Love the photo!

I read at bit ago that the Tour de France was won by a 25-year-old Dane named Jonas Vingegaard (in only his second Tour). Wow! My son was hoping to get to Copenhagen in time to see the Tour begin. Not so sure we would have gotten there in time, even if our flight wasn't delayed. But The Grand Helen WAS there, and a day or two before the start, she went to a big event to introduce the riders. Finding that, as she put it, "the Danes are too tall," she retreated toward the back and found herself standing beside one of the favored entrants as he was interviewed on camera. I've texted her to ask if the rider was Vingegaard; awaiting a reply.

The heat's been cookin' me down for several days now. Sleeping a lot. But I flunked two covid tests before the weekend, so there's that. And I have an appointment Tuesday morning with a trusted (by me, anyway) chiropractor to see if he can readjust my spine and skeleton to relieve the sciatica that's hobbling me.

Not much reading being done, sadly. It'll pick up.

In the meantime, I have been selecting holiday photos to share.

The first album of my vacation photos now resides at Google Photos. Here's a link to said album:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fRWLmRxmBpS8wSEs7

The link should allow you to view 20-some-odd photos (and a few not-so-odd) taken on our first day in Copenhagen: Saturday, July 2. Jeremy, Claire, and I arrived, sans checked bags, on the first. Helen was already there and had been since mid-June. Tara and Gracie arrived Saturday, but were jet lagged, hence their absence from the photos.

>115 weird_O: Lovely photos...Copenhagen always looks so crisp and inviting. Thanks for sharing your travels, Bill.

>116 laytonwoman3rd: what Linda said. Thanks Bill!

>115 weird_O: Good stuff, your weirdness!

>115 weird_O: Oh those are great, Bill! Looks like a fun time was had - thanks for sharing.

And a little belated but hooray for the negative Covid tests!

Following up on a couple of previous posts...

>113 weird_O: Helen was at a "press availability" a day or two before the start of the Tour de France, and was standing beside a rider while he was interviewed on camera. I texted her to ask if the rider was Jonas Vingegaard, the young Dane whole won. She replied: It was a teammate of his, Primoz Roglic. Roglic had to pull out of the race due to injury before the finish this year.

>105 weird_O: ...On the day we departed Copenhagen for Amsterdam...Jeremy located my checked bag and Claire's. He didn't locate his own bag. Jeremy's bag had all of his and Tara's clothing. The bag had not been located at the time we returned home. On Sunday he reported (on FB):

From the tags, it would appear our bag did a lot of rushing. I last saw it when I checked it with United for Newark -> Heathrow -> Copenhagen on June 30. It made it to London on the first leg, but missed our connection on SAS to Copenhagen. It took several more days to get there. SAS told us it was being sent to Amsterdam on July 5, but that was the last update on it until yesterday morning. A woman called on her personal cell phone from Delta. Our bag had arrived at Lehigh Valley, and would be delivered to us same day.
At the end of a long vacation, you often have a bag full of dirty laundry. It takes a few days to wash it all and put it away. This time our baggage is full of clean clothes!

>120 weird_O: Primoz Roglic is a pretty big deal too, Bill! Before the race, the media predicted that he and Tadej Pogacar (both Slovenian) would fight it out for the win. Although it didn't actually play out that way, Pogacar came in second. Roglic has won TdF stages in the past, and he also won the 2019 Vuelta a Espana, a major race on par with TdF.

That's an amazing story about Jeremy's bag! What a long, strange trip it's been, eh?

RE: Jeremy's peripatetic luggage...at least he can look on the bright side. Every time we've had luggage go astray it was on the homebound leg of a trip. I cannot imagine setting off on vacation in an unfamiliar city with no clothes!

>115 weird_O: Great photos, Bill. Thanks for sharing them!

Have a thunderous Thursday!

>121 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I haven't followed the Tour for at least a decade.

>122 laytonwoman3rd: At breakfast, probably the first morning everyone was in Copenhagen, Tara, my DiL, overheard someone at the next table say they were from Pennsylvania. "Oh, we're from Pennsylvania too. Where do you live" etc. They were in Copenhagen three or four days and still hadn't gotten their checked bags. And they were boarding a cruise ship that day.

>123 alcottacre: Glad you liked them, Stasia.

I've been sorting photos into several more albums (on Google Photos) to share with my sister and brother, my daughter and younger son, several others. (I'll post links here as well.) Putting them in an order that suits me, and trying to caption a lot of them.

I realized that I don't actually know what the different buildings are. So I've been studying Google Maps, Wikipedia, even a tour guide someone lent me. Using my photos to do image searches is useful too. Reliving the experience and learning a thing or two. Hoping to post a link to the last of Copenhagen this afternoon.

No chatter about the Booker long list? The Obama summer reading list?

On Tuesday, I hit the Wyomissing Public Library, home of the every day $5 a bag book sale. * whispering * I DIDN'T BUY A THING.

Newest vacation album: Urp Hi-Jinx: Copenhagen Here's the link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N4pJEQU5EE8fz17L7

If you click on a photo, it embiggens and displays my caption. You can pop the first, then use the forward/backward arrows on the screen to move sequentially though the album. You can also zoom an image.

Hi Bill.

>105 weird_O: Love that pic of you, with your almost smile.

>107 weird_O: I’m glad things settled down for you. Yikes, again, to Covid. Yikes to sciatica. I, too, had what I thought was a hip going bad, but my chiropractor is treating SI joint pain instead of actual hip and lower back pain. I’ve decided to bite the financial bullet and go to the chiropractor once a month even though it’s not covered by insurance, and that seems to be helping. I’m sorry about the lost baggage.

>115 weird_O: I like you more than I hate Google, so actually clicked the link and saw your photos. Thanks for sharing.

>126 weird_O: Ditto comment from >115 weird_O:.

>120 weird_O: the luggage's journey reminds me of a Book Depository book that was sent to me from the UK, via Canada! I had lost out all hope, but it eventually did arrive :)

Hi Bill. I'm glad your trip went so well!

I'm gonna post som'thin' in this here thread, just any day now. Annnnny day...

Weren’t you going to read American Gods? Or am I thinking of somebody else?

So anyway, since you didn’t have anything to post - see number >130 weird_O: - will put in my American Gods story. Perhaps that will inspire you to read it.

Neil Gaiman features a place that he calls the Center of the Center in his book American Gods. I took the time to visit that place this last week while my mother and I took a driving excursion. I happen to have lived most of my life about 100 miles east of the geographic center of the continental U.S. This spot of hallowed ground is located about 2 miles north of the little town of Lebanon, Kansas. The U.S. Geographic Survey erected a marker on the site back in the 1940’s when the spot was established and I had visited it before. Sometime in the 1960’s the town of Lebanon decided to try to turn it into a tourist attraction and a cinder block hotel with 4 rooms was built next to the site. All of that is still there - just as I remembered.

In February 2021 Bruce Springsteen did a Super Bowl Commercial for Chrysler/Jeep that featured this spot. It immediately became controversial and Springsteen, as well as Jeep, was castigated for it. What I didn’t understand is when the heck did somebody put a chapel on the site? I drove past that spot for 2 years most every weekend on my way to and from college in Hays, America and didn’t recall a chapel. I decided that someday when I was home I was going to drive out there and see for myself if there really was Bruce’s Chapel out there in the Middle of the Middle - as Bruce dubbed it. (I suspect that Bruce read American Gods at some point in his life and he might have picked up on that center thing from Gaiman.) I told the ladies at community coffee about my adventure and one of them said that there was a chapel - she had seen it. Since I am a natural skeptic I didn’t really believe her.

Sure enough - there is a chapel out there. Who would have guessed that some crazies went and put this tiny chapel up at the Center of the Center.

What is the connection to Neil Gaiman? This very spot is featured in the novel American Gods written by the indomitable Gaiman. In that novel, he features several Places of Power, and that spot is one of the designated places. Gaiman must have been there because he describes it to a T in that novel. At least as the site was prior to the appearance of the chapel. (The chapel is not described in Gaiman’s book, which has just celebrated the 25th anniversary of its publication.)

While my Mom and I looked around and took in the scenery a pickup pulling an RV came up the road and stopped. It was a family from Ohio who were going to stop there and eat lunch. We had a pleasant conversation with them and then left. I asked the family guy why they were out there in the boonies. I had hopes, that like me he was a fellow pilgrim. But no. He said that they were on their vacation and headed for Colorado. He didn’t like driving on Interstates due to the heavy traffic that was always on them and preferred to travel the back roads. I asked him if he had read American Gods and I am sorry to report that he had not. I shook my head and told him that I had hoped that he was a fellow pilgrim making a pilgrimage to a place of power. He didn’t understand so I know that he never read the novel. Poor man. I know that I won’t see him at Rock City, Tennessee.

And not at House on the Rock in Wisconsin.

Good story, Benita. From time to time, I get a whim to journey to some obscure "attraction" but I seldom act on one.

I read American Gods a couple of years ago. I wasn't so taken with it that I'd reread it. I do have others of his books that I want to read * someday *.

Happy Wednesday, Bill. Glad you to hear you got your suitcase back but what a hassle. How are things going? Staying cool? How are those books treating you?

I've been doing librarian-type things for the last week, entering a few new-to-me books into the catalog, shuffling a few books from one shelf or stack to another, and my incapacitating enchantment: plaaanning.

One project has been the completion of a report on Rebecca Solnit's book River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West.

Another is a report on some little books that seduced me when shopping for books in Dublin's Hodges Figgis bookstore. Faber, a UK publisher, has a modest collection of (long) short stories, each packaged as a single book, small in trim size (4 1/2" X 6 5/16", a scoche larger than a 4 X 6 index card; just right to fit into the back pocket of your jeans). I picked three, one each by Anna Burns, Lorrie Moore, and Alan Bennett. (I also bought three similarly sized books—by legendary Irish writers Oscar Wilde and Jonathan Swift—from other publishers.)

I am half through A Brief History of Dublin by Pat Boran, which was a birthday
gift from a Dublin couple, good friends of my son and his wife. The Brits certainly abused the Irish for centuries.

More than half through The Writer's Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager, a collection of interviews they did with 23 writers, focusing on their reading and their personal libraries. I have read books by 10 of the interviewees and "know of" 5 others (4 of whom are represented in my vast TBR holdings). Appended to each interview is a list of writers and books mentioned by the interviewee. Cool! A long list of suggested, even recommended, books and writers. A treat of list-lovers like me.

The disappointment of the year! A former work colleague posted on FB yesterday about an exhibit of Keith Haring works at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown. I promptly found the museum's website. The exhibit closed July 31. I missed it! By one day.

Shit.

On the other hand, I started reading Colored People, a memoir by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I'm getting an act together.

                      

"The exhibit closed July 31. I missed it! By one day." Sympathies. In the fall of 2019 we visited Corning, NY, as we love to do every few years, and discovered that we had just missed an appearance by Art Spiegelman...and we were in town in time to have gone had we known.

So I read a book, a very good book, and it was written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and it is called Colored People. Highly recommended.

>136 weird_O: I agree...that was a very good book indeed.

I read your report on the book page, Linda. I'll bet I could have read it on your thread. I'm just melting down and find it difficult to get around. Just a grease spot.

This just in!!!

Current Weird Reading:

The Writer's Library, Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager
That Night, Alice McDermott
The Children of Men, P. D. James

With the news that Salman Rushdie has been attacked—stabbed—on stage was he was preparing to give a talk at Chautauqua, in western New York, it seems a good time to recommend his book Joseph Anton. It's an account of his life under a fatwa—a death sentence—issued by the Iranian Ayatollah. That Ayatollah is long dead, but in the minds of fanatical Islamists, the fatwa stands.

One trusts that Rushdie will survive. One also wishes, in the words of Rodney King, "I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible..."

Book bans. Bah!

at Chautauqua, of all places! I saw Rushdie in person twice, once in NYC at an event featuring J. K. Rowling, Stephen King and John Irving (Rushdie was a surprise guest during the Q&A portion where he stood up in the audience with his young son), and once in Scranton where he gave a lecture about 10 or 12 years ago. I don't know what the security was like in NY, but in Scranton, I wasn't aware of any.

>141 laytonwoman3rd: There was, apparently, none to speak of; who the heck thinks of Chautauqua, of all places indeed!, as a site of possible violence? Never once would've occurred to me! What's next, the Glyndebourne massacre? the Bayreuth killings?

I do despair at times. These lunatics are so sure they're right that they feel free to kill people they don't agree with.
***
Well, Bill, you *did* start it....

Happy Friday, Bill. I had Joseph Anton on my radar at one point but no one really convinced me to give it a try. Sorry to hear about Rushdie. I hope he will be okay. How is The Children of Men? I really liked the film version.

>141 laytonwoman3rd: & 142
I was a shocked as the two of you that this happened at Chautauqua. Who would have thought? I have been on those grounds and recognized the stage. It is really a covered lecture hall. I practiced with the choir in that facility. I am just shocked.

On-the-other-hand, this is a place that welcomes all kinds of people. There is security there, and in order to get on the grounds (the grounds are fenced in) he would have had to go through security. That means that he also had to dish out the money for a day pass. Once inside he would have been free to roam the grounds. All this means that he had to have been tracking Rushdie for some time and made plans ahead of time.

I wonder if he knew that there are many many Jewish people of all varieties of that faith who live on the grounds? I simply fail to understand people who think that violence is the answer to a problem.

>141 laytonwoman3rd:, >142 richardderus:, >143 msf59:, >144 benitastrnad: There's less than a shadow of doubt in my mind that this assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie is because of the fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini, issued in 1988, 34 years ago. The perp is 24 years old. The latest report I read said Rushdie is severely injured and on a ventilator. May lose an eye, has liver damage, nerves in one arm severed. Stabbed as many as 10 times. Heartbreaking.

To reply to Benita, the perp bought a bus ticket from Fairlawn, N.J. (a place I used to send rolls of Kodak color film to for processing) and bought a ticket to attend Rushdie's lecture. Of course he was stalking Rushdie.

>143 msf59: I'm halfway through The Children of Men, Mark, and I'm less than enthusiastic. Slooooww pace. I didn't know there was a movie of it, but having looked it up, I read that the film departed from the novel. From the reviews here on LT, seems to be a novel that provoked extreme reactions. Folks either loved it or hated it.

I'm such a cluck. From Esquire magazine's site, I downloaded a list: "The 50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time." I even took note that there was no author who wrote two of the best; one to a customer. I'd read several of James' crime novels. I shall finish this one.

I've finished The Children of Men by P. D. James. Let's call it . Number 69 for the year.

Hi Bill.

I read The Children of Men a gazillion years. I remember liking it, not loving it.

I've pulled The Satanic Verses from my shelves. Will I read it? I hope to. Only time will tell.

>131 benitastrnad: He didn’t understand so I know that he never read the novel. Poor man. I know that I won’t see him at Rock City, Tennessee.
I love your story, and that you hoped the family there were fellow pilgrims :) I have wanted to travel to significant book places so many times after reading books....Next time I will get a map and plan a journey rather than just do it in my head. What a great idea for an itinerary!

>132 weird_O: I wasn't sold on American Gods either, Bill. I didn't know enough about the gods in question to see the significance. But I admire Neil Gaiman nonetheless.

>146 weird_O: I loved Children of Men ;)

>146 weird_O: >148 karenmarie: >149 LovingLit: As I said in >147 weird_O:, I'd rate The Children of Men "good+". The first half was slooow, though I recognize the value of setting the situation and the players with care. Of course, the story picked up, but at least a couple of key points were predictable. I thought some of the villainy drifted off target at the end, too. (From what I read of the film, it came off the tracks.)

Karen, I too got The Satanic Verses out of the stack down the basement. I read the first page. As you said: Will I read it? I hope to. Only time will tell. Just how I feel about it. "Hope to."

I'm reading The Third Policeman, by Irish writer Flann O'Brien (a pen name; real name Brian O'Nolan). His first novel, At-Swim-Two-Birds, was published in 1939 on the recommendation of Graham Greene. Among others, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce praised the book. But the second O'Brien novel was rejected by every publisher offered it. The disappointed author claimed he lost the ms, but it turned up after his death (hmmm) and was published in 1967.

Anyway, it's pretty bizarre.

Bill, I enjoy seeing the images of your books! I remember the large tote you had at the Bethlehem Library book sales! You came away from there with some mighty find reads!

>151 Whisper1: Of course I still have and use that BIG tote, along with smaller ones—from the Boston Public Library and from the Strand, and also an insulated bag from Food Lion. I keep 'em in the car for grocery shopping as well as book shopping.
----------------------
I did a numbskull thing last evening. I've got 50 pages of The Third Policeman to read. To establish that count, I flipped to the end of the text; it ends on a lefthand page. Oh, but there on the right was the text of a letter the author sent to William Saroyan. It was missing the crucial heading. You know the one: * S P O I L E R !!! * I read only a couple of sentences, but you can't unsee it. So now I know. Shit.

I've added At-Swim-Two-Birds to The WANT! List™. It's O'Brien's first novel.

Hi Bill. I somehow missed you when picking threads to follow back in January, but you just popped up on my thread, so now you have a new follower. (Presently disgustingly behind on everyone's threads.)

>1 weird_O: >2 weird_O: I love the pictures of your book stacks and well stocked book shelves.

>152 weird_O: so sorry about the spoiler, Bill. That's unfortunate! I often skip introductions for that reason, especially on "classics" where they seem to assume everyone already knows the plot points. But I flip to the end for a page count all the time and it never occurred to me that could happen. Yikes.

Happy Saturday, Bill. I hope you are enjoying a book-fueled weekend. I just started Angle of Repose. This one is going to take some time to get through but the amazing prose will help turn the pages.

I had no idea you were a spoilerphobe, Bill. I enjoy seeing HOW we are led as much as WHERE we're going, so haven't the need to remain "unspoiled" and simply can not comprehend the extreme members of the tribe.

Been away from my own thread for days. Torpor is setting in. I do surf through the threads, but actually registering a response or reply? Little or nothing. I might burst out. You never know.

I finished The Third Policeman and I've started John Banville's Booker winner (in 2005) The Sea. I've also sampled Typical American by Gish Jen. Jen was the AAC author for July, so I'm catching up.

>153 ArlieS: Glad you stopped by, Arlie. I've read a lot of your thoughtful reviews, but seldom comment. I did put The Velvet Rope Economy on my want list. I'm not a gamer, not always chatty. There it is. :-)

>155 msf59: Keep on enjoying your re-read of the Stegner. He was the AAC pick for June 2015 (as you know because you picked him), the year I enlisted here at LT. I read The Spectator Bird (which is very good) and Joe Hill (also good). Looking at my reading log, I see I read Angle of Repose in 2014. Anyway, I'm currently avoiding re-reads and group reads, just because.

>154 lauralkeet:, >156 richardderus: Oh, goodness. Spoilers. I'm not a strict spoilerphobe, as Richard put it. But I thought I was committed to learning the Big Reveal at the point that the author had chosen to divulge it. I say "thought" because maybe this was my subconscious shortcutting my conscious self.

I do know the basics: If there's an intro or preface by the author, go ahead and read it. If it is by someone other than the author, DO NOT read it. Any back matter—afterword, post-script, notes—by anyone, even the author, don't read it until after you've finished the book.

But as Richard also put it, "I enjoy seeing HOW we are led as much as WHERE we're going". I agree. I'm not intransigent. But in this particular case, I wanted to be surprised.

The Sea has washed over me. I am done. I could very much relate to Max Morden's state of mind, his recall of people he knew and their impact on him (and his on them), and his reflections. Not for everyone, but I enjoyed Banville's command of language, and I enjoyed his story.

Next up: Typical American by Gish Jen.

Hiya, Bill. I was very happy to see up there that you read Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and enjoyed it. For me, that’s one of his very best.

Great to hear you had such a good time on your Urp vacation. For some reason I couldn’t access the linked photos, darn it.

I enjoyed all the American Gods and Gaiman talk. We visited House on the Rock many years ago - so bizarre! It was so fun to have it pop up in American Gods.

If you haven’t checked out Gaiman’s Sandman on Netflix, I heartily recommend it. It’s faithful to, and does a great job of telling those complicated GN stories.

Hi Joe! Swell to have you drop by. I've been thinking longly and deeply about a reply for the last two days. Heh.

I can't account for the nonfunctioning of the photo links. Works for me—Duh! It's my Google Photos account and I can't hide that from my digital overlords. So of course it works for me. RD decorated the first album with lots of stars, so he got into that album at least. Sorry. We are photographically beleaguered, you and me.

I did like Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Up there in >29 weird_O:, I explained: John McWhorley, a linguistics scholar, a NY Time columnist, and a Black man, published an encomium of Mosley under the head; Walter Mosley Brilliantly Depicted Black English — and Black Thought. Also plus, I have a copy in hand." As I'm sure you know, Mosley published two more Socrates Fortlow novels, the last of which I have somewhere. Still have to acquire the middle book in the series.

I am chagrinned by your recommendation of Sandman. I haven't read the series. And I have not tried to watch anything—ANYTHING—on the flat screen in months. My scheme to access traditional broadcast stations using a digital antenna has been an embarrassing (to me) bust. But I just may spring for a streaming account, what with the onset of football season. (What a lame excuse for spending the money.)

Stop by again some time, Joe. I can brew you a 4-shot cuppa.

Hard to believe, it is, but I've completed a book. Thirteen stories by Oscar Wilde in a hardcover edition measuring just about 4" X 6". I bought it at his birthplace in Dublin a couple of months ago. Nice little rubber stamp icon on the half-title page.

                  

I have about 75 pages to read in Gish Jen's first novel, Typical American. She was the AAC selection for July, and I am playing catch-up.

>1 weird_O: Hi - just read that count Leo Tolstoy held up his book shelves with:

"...big wooden beams...."

(from Ilya Tolstoy's Reminiscences of Tolstoy

>162 m.belljackson: Interesting, Marianne. A panoply of images flash past my mind's eye, but I'd enjoy seeing a sketch of exactly what's meant. I'm making a shelving unit myself, but it's a fits-and-starts project. I'm waiting now for the finish to cure so I can rub it out.

Hiya, Bill! I hope you’ve gone on the much-needed food run.

>150 weird_O: Sigh. I’ve added The Third Policeman to my wish list. Sounds good.

>152 weird_O: I have learned, also the hard way, to never go to the end of a Kindle book for the count until I’ve actually finished the book. I’m sorry you read spoiler stuff.

>156 richardderus: RD – how enchanting. I now know I’m a spoilerphobe, and I’m proud of it. I’ve even been known to cover a page – paper or Kindle, to avoid end-of-chapter spoilers – only freeing up the next sentence as I go. I have wandering eyes…

>157 weird_O: I do surf through the threads, but actually registering a response or reply? Little or nothing. I might burst out. You never know. Alas, I’m in the same boat right now.

You definitely sound like you’re in the doldrums, my friend. I hope you do spend the money on a streaming service. We like Amazon Prime Streaming video, although I originally got Prime in 2005. We have sprung for Netflix, and we have to have Spectrum Platinum as part of our rural consortium for high speed wifi. I currently have BritBox, too, but it’s a disappointment.

The Hectic Quotient is building. I have things I want to do, but I'm more and more easily stymied. Bah! Slept too long and won't get done today those things I wanted to, so that I DO accomplish those that have a deadline with consequences.

More later.

>165 weird_O: The peril I've found with living a very lightly structured life. Ah well. So few things have more than the most modest "consequences" in my little orbit that it really isn't important.

Here's to hoping the muddle turns into an omelette all by itself.

>7 weird_O: Great reading selections! I read Interior Chinatown last year and loved it.

Happy Weekend, Bill. I have not seen you around much. How are those books treating you? Anything grabbing you at the moment? Hope you are not in a slump. Shudders...

Hi Bill!

deadline with consequences I have a few of those too. They suck. I hope you have tons of energy and motivation today. If not, there's always reading...

I didn't get too much done, or better I should say I did get about half the mowing done. It wasn't too much, but perhaps not enough. More tomorrow.

Last night (Friday night) we toasted Gracie who notched a hat trick in her field hockey team's third game of the season, third shut-out win. Gracie scored all three of her goals in the first quarter. Next week, her team will face two teams with equivalent records. Hope they play as well then as they did yesterday.

         She will not be intimidated.

What? What what? While I was sleeping, some digital miscreants vandalized my carefully curated homepage, changing the order of modules and jumbling the formats of each. Naturally, I don't remember what settings I had. Bah! Starting over, kinda sorta.

I have the idea that this happened to me before. I should take screenshots of whatever setup I settle on, so I can return to it if ever this happens again. I imagine it will.

                                 

>170 weird_O: Great picture of Gracie. Go, girl!

Whoohoo on the hat trick!! Boohoo on the digital miscreants.

Big news! I finished a book today. A whole book. Two hundred sixty-three pages filled with words, the words arranged to form sentences. The sentences organized to tell a story, a mystery story. It was a good one, too. Taken at the Flood, a Hercule Poirot case by Agatha Christie.

>174 weird_O: Yay for a whole read completed! It was a good Poirot, as I recall, and that helps the pages turn.

Hoping your weekend keeps up with Gracie's record.

Book Splash! I attended a library sale on Wednesday. Bought used books at pretty good prices. How many? Thirty-nine altogether.



Heres's the list:

Here, Richard McGuire (hc, GN)
Mathew Brady, Barry Pritzker (hc, oversize)
Imagine John Yoko, John Lennon and Yoko Ono (hc,oversize )
The Master Set, Part 1, Annie Leibovitz (hc, oversize)
The Public Library: A Photographic Essay, Robert Dawson (hc, )
Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel (hc, GN)
Oh William!, Elizabeth Strout (hc)
The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings, 1936–1941, John Steinbeck (hc)
Barracoon, Zora Neale Hurston (hc)
The Bostonians, Henry James (hc, ML)
William Faulkner, M. Thomas Inge (hc)
Rules for Others to Live By, Richard Greenberg (hc)
Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions, Frank Harris (hc) no jacket

In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, Tobias Wolff (pbk)
An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare, Joanna Bourke (pbk)
Collected Stories of William Faulkner, William Faulkner (pbk)
The Thief and the Dogs, Naguib Mahfouz (pbk)
Introducing Machiavelli, Patrick Curry and Oscar Zarate (pbk, GN)
Exile and the Kingdom, Albert Camus (pbk)
Mathilda, Mary Shelley (pbk)
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie (pbk)
Walker Evans, Walker Evans (pbk)
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (pbk)
The Photograph, Graham Clarke (pbk)
Life & Times of Michael K, J. M. Coetzee (pbk)
Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee (pbk)

The Camera: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Great Photographers: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photojournalism: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
The Print: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Light and Film: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1974 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1975 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1976 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1977 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1978 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1979 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1980 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)
Photography Year/1981 Edition: Life Library of Photography, the editors of Life-Time Books (hc, oversize)

Altogether satisfying. I do believe I'll go back for more tomorrow. My time was limited, and I didn't get to shop in the hardcover fiction section, or the paperbacks, genres like mysteries, sci-fi, NF. Tomorrow then.

Having completed Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie, I've picked a Pulitzer winner to read for this month's AAC: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Read the first chapter last night. Delta Wedding awaits my renewed attention, and I intend to give it that attention ASAP.

>176 weird_O: That's quite a haul!

Breaking! I attended that library sale again today. Yeah, I bought more used books at slightly better prices than Wednesday. How many this time? Forty-seven! Including a Banker's Box load of 19 volumes of the Time-Life Library of Art. $12.

Stand by for details.

>179 weird_O: Good gravy!! I am so very, very jealous, Bill. On top of the haul In >176 weird_O:, I could *plotz* from outraged concupiscence.

Top Story _{of yesterday}



Yes. Once again I was able to rescue precious books from the shredder. YOU should try it! It's fun and rewarding. When I think of the hours and hours of reading enjoyment these books will provide, I just glow inside.

I'll bet you want to see the list. Here it is:

The World of Michelangelo, 1475-1564, Robert Coughlan (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Rembrandt, 1606-1669, Robert Wallace (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Robert Wallace (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Picasso, 1881-1973, Lael Wertenbaker (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Leonardo, 1452-1519, Robert Wallace (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Giotto, c. 1267-1337, Sarel Eimerl (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Watteau, 1684-1721, Pierre Schneider (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Delacroix, 1798-1863, Tom Prideaux (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Goya, 1746-1828, Richard Schickel (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Gainsborough, 1727-1788, Jonathan Norton Leonard (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, James Thomas Flexner (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Turner, 1775-1851, Diana Hirsh (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Vermeer, 1632-1675, Hans Koning (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Dürer, 1471-1528, Francis Russell (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Rodin, 1840-1917, William Harlan Hale (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Rubens, 1577-1640, C. V. Wedgwood (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Bernini, 1598-1680, Robert Wallace (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Copley, 1738-1815, Alfred Victor Frankenstein (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc, slipcase)
The World of Manet, 1832-1883, Pierre Schneider (Time-Life Library of Art) (hc)

More Book Lust, Nancy Pearl (pbk)
I Am the Messenger, Marcus Zusak (pbk)
Dublin: A Cultural History, Siobhán Kilfeather (pbk)
Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery, Wendy Lesser (pbk)
Rumpole on Trial, John Mortimer (pbk)
Lost in the City: Stories, Edward P. Jones (pbk)
Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger Jr. (pbk)
Milkman, Anna Burns (pbk)
20th Century Photography, Museum Ludwig Cologne (pbk)
American Heiress, Jeffrey Toobin (pbk)
The Man with the Golden Arm, Nelson Algren (pbk)
Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960, John Szarkowski (pbk, oversize)

Cold Comfort Farm (Folio Society), Stella Gibbons, illus. Quentin Blake (hc, slipcase)
The Nightmare Years: 1930–1940: A Memoir of a Life and the Times, William Shirer (hc)
My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City, David Haskell and Adam Moss editors (hc)
Power: The Ultimate Aphrodisiac, Dr. Ruth Westheimer with Dr. Steven Kaplan (hc)
Wandering Home, Bill McKibben (hc)
Virginia Woolf (Penguin Lives), Nigel Nicolson (hc)
Big Sky, Kate Atkinson (hc)
All That Is, James Salter (hc)
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic, Daniel Mendelsohn (hc)
Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents, Pete Souza (hc)
The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel (hc)
Voyager: Travel Writing, Russell Banks (hc)
The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly (hc)
Floating Cities, Stephen Wiltshire (hc, oversize)
America Worked. The 1950s Photographs of Dan Weiner, William Ewing (hc, oversize)
What Is American in American Art?, Jean Lipman editor, (hc, oversize)

You know you will have to live forever to read them all, don't you? You have discovered the secret of immortality! ;-)

Hey, i'm new here, and I was just seeing if anyone wanted to pm?

Hi Bill!

>170 weird_O: Half the mowing is better than no mowing. My husband’s now lazy about mowing since Jenna’s home. I pay her $20/hour on the side. Congrats to Gracie on her hat trick. Impressive.

>174 weird_O: Bravo for finishing a book. I myownself have continued to read what my daughter calls smut and my friend Karen in Montana calls soft porn. Easy reads, can’t remember if I’ve ever read this many books in a year, EVER. I wonder when I’ll get back to ‘serious’ books since I’ve been powering through ‘contemporary fiction’ since May.

>176 weird_O: What a lovely mix! The newest Strout, along with a classic Steinbeck. I also see Barracoon, which I read in January of 2019. It was a stunner.

I hope to get interesting books at our sale this week. Very little fiction because we had category sales in April and May, but lots of other categories.

>181 weird_O: You’re a Good Samaritan, rescuing all those books from the shredder. I especially love the the pic of the books on the laptop with the pic of the books.

>182 weird_O: Which one is the (Folio edition?) slipcased title? Ah, never mind...I've figured it out. It's Cold Comfort Farm isn't it? I loved that one.

Wow! Double Wow! Some monster hauls up there, Bill. Many terrific titles. I particularly loved American Heiress. Also, nice to see a couple GNs in the mix. How is your reading going? Pulling out of that slump?

>186 laytonwoman3rd: The Folio Society edition of Cold Comfort Farm, Linda, is just below the blue Hilary Mantel. Published in 1977. Not flashy at all.

I'm still failing to make reading time, Mark. Little projects turn into time-consuming muddles, and when I get 'em finished, I'm unwinding by surfing rather than by opening a book. But The Sympathizer is good, and actually I have no idea where the story is going. It's totally unknown to me; that too is good.

>188 weird_O: The Sympathizer is a very interesting story, Bill. I'm glad it's casting a spell on you. There's something so satisfying about not being SURE everything is heading to {place}!

I'm thrilled to report to New York's attorney general has (finally) taken Trump, his three children, and miscellaneous executives of The Trump Organization to court. It's a civil lawsuit, but seeks to fine the organization $250 million and to bar the family members from doing business in NY State.

What the hell, it's a start anyway.

>190 weird_O: - Long overdue. Why hasn't he been behind bars already?

Don't hold your breath, though. The man is not human. He is made of teflon and he will somehow manage - yet again - to be above the law and avoid jail. Sad but I truly believe it.

It's a start, Shelley. Think dominoes. This is the first that's wobbling. Allen Weisselberg, formerly the T_______ crime family's chief financial officer, has already copped a plea and has agreed to testify about much of the operation. Especially if this first domino topples, it's going to make its neighbors to wobble.

It takes a good woman... Fani T. Willis of Fulton County, Georgia, seems to be another good, tenacious woman. E. Jean Carroll, who says T_______ raped her in a department store changing room almost 30 years ago, plans to sue Mr Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act. A previously filed suit for defamation, stemming from T______'s response to Carroll's accusation, is set to go to trial in February. Her attorney would like to see the new suit joined to the defamation suit, and have both tried at the same time.

This is all good, not?

>192 weird_O: AND, this morning I see that a judge has said the DOJ can have access to all those documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, to proceed with its investigation. Donnie must be flinging things left and right, in full tantrum mode.

Hi Bill, I've seen your comments on Mark's thread and finally wandered over to check out your thread. I share your enthusiastic love of library book sales, and will be going to one tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Edited to add, we share 595 books :-)

>157 weird_O: I tried to read John Banville's Booker winner The Sea, but as I was under the influence of post-surgery opioids, I was completely unwilling and unable to concentrate. I believe the wallpaper ended up entertaining me for a good few hours!

>181 weird_O: You are the king of the stacks!

Shopping yesterday at my hometown library's on-going $5-a-bag book sale, I noticed an (apparently) mis-shelved novel in in a section reserved for religion books. Hint: Look for the powder-blue cover. Was it a prank?

           

>196 weird_O: Someone could get a slight shock if they picked that one up expecting theology.

>196 weird_O: Whether intentional or not, it was a darn good prank!

It has been a while since I visited, Bill, so I figured I would stick my head in.

>196 weird_O: >198 richardderus: I agree with RD.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for the help in keeping my thread warm lately.

Shelving God's Little Acre in the religion/theology section was a laugh. But the whole day was quite fine. Y'all know I seldom leave the scene of a library book sale empty handed. I came away with 20 books in two totes, so $10.

   

...And The List:

Old Money, Wendy Wasserstein (hc)
In Review: Pictures I've Kept: A Concise Pictorial "Autobiography", Dwight D. Eisenhower (hc)
A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate, Marc Reisner (hc)
Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins, Paul Jordan (hc)
Who Let the Dogs In?, Molly Ivins (hc)
Back Home, Bill Mauldin (hc)
Nathanael West, edited by Jay Martin (hc)
Loving Frank: A Novel, Nancy Horan (hc)
A Dangerous Friend, Ward Just (hc)
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, Chris Van Allsburg (hc)
Madison: Writings, James Madison (LoA
The Debate on the Constitution: Federalist and Antifederalist Speeches, Articles, and Letters During the Struggle Over Ratification, Part One (LoA)
Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, Abraham Lincoln (LoA)
Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, & Later Writings, Benjamin Franklin (LoA)

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Tony Judt (pbk)
Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges, adapted and edited by Sandy Sturges (pbk)
The Essential Book of Useless Information, Don Vorhees (pbk)
Explaining America: The Federalist, Garry Wills (pbk)
The Paris Library, Janet Skeslien Charles (pbk)
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel, Heather Morris (pbk)

Nice to find those LoA slipcased editions. I'm intrigued by the Eisenhower "pictorial biography".
ETA: I note that the description attached to this title on the book page clearly belongs to something else.

Who Let the Dogs In? amused me no end when it was new. Interesting to see what twenty years will do to a political landscape.

>200 weird_O: Great haul, Bill. Looks like you have some heavy reading there. Good luck.

I have a copy of Tony Judt's book Postwar and I should sit down and read it. It is a chunkster.

>201 laytonwoman3rd: You know, I noticed that mismatched squib when I had to correct which book the Touchstone referred to. How's this for a fix: a couple of 'graphs from the flap copy.

Dwight David Eisenhower edited...portions of his four previous books to reflect, in one volume, the life that he himself remembered. A number of the photographs are shown here for the first time outside the Eisenhower family album.
  Together, the General's words and their accompanying photographs provide a self-portrait or sketch who dignity and fidelity can never be surpassed.

I like the LoA editions too. I have to say that most of the ones I've acquired don't really show evidence of having been read. The one (of the four) that interested me was Franklin, because it does include his autobiography, which I'd like to re-read. And my copy...



is from the 10th printing of the Pocket Books edition, just off the press in 1948; the binding, as you might imagine, is frail. The LoA edition was read; the reader stuck Post-Its to several pages.

>202 richardderus: I'm counting on being amused by the late Ms. Ivins' views of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Shrub administrations, RD. I'm sure I've read some of her work, though I have nothing by her in my library.

>203 msf59: Heavy reading in that stack for sure, Mark. But I'm looking at the less weighty tomes just now. I'm reading the Bill Mauldin book and collection of useless information right now, and I might tackle Marc Reisner and Ike after those two. Wendy Wasserstein...Preston Sturges.

>204 benitastrnad: My brother's wife lent me Tony Judt's doorstop years ago, urging me to read it. I got mired and had to be airlifted to fairer terrain. Nice clear copy. 50¢. Maybe I'll try again. :-)

I finished a book. Whaddaya know? Back Home by Bill Mauldin.

>207 weird_O: That looks interesting. What did you think of it?

What I'm reading now:

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Essential Book of Useless Information by Don Voorhees
A Dangerous Place by Marc Reisner
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Nguyen's novel won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2016. I'm reading it for the September AAC. Didn't get it finished in September, but I'll polish it off soon. 145 pages of 367.

Two of the books I'm reading (plus one I finished yesterday) I am reading because I got them just last week and they all snagged my attention. Being fairly short added luster. I tend to set new acquisitions aside in favor of TBRs, and I consciously wanted to avoid that habit.

...Useless Information is, of course, an accumulation of trivia. It engages the mind fleetingly. No plot, no memorable characters. But your mind is busy nodding, ooo-ing and ahh-ing and awk-ing, chuckling and otherwise enjoying the entertainment. I don't believe any calculus or physics or high-end cogitating is required.

Marc Reisner spent a decade researching and writing Cadillac Desert, which was published in 1986. It's a history of land development and water policy in the western United States. It's awfully timely, given the impacts of climate change. A Dangerous Place is Reisner's story of California's transformation from a vast desert into the nation's most populous state and mightiest economic engine. And of its inescapable fate. For both Los Angeles and San Francisco are sited astride two of the planet's most violently seismic zones. I read Cadillac Desert a dozen years ago, and I shall read A Dangerous Place this month.

I started reading Delta Wedding at the beginning of September, as an (unreliable) group read member. I got 43 pages into the thing and skidded away from it in favor of completing a collection of Oscar Wilde stories, followed by a Gish Jen novel for the August AAC. Kept on avoiding a return to that Mississippi delta thing by, among other dodges, starting The Sympathizer—a Pulitzer winner, recall—for September's AAC. On that I'm running a little late. So naturally, I've been beguiled by a wee tome I spotted on my DiL's mantel on Friday evening: Small Things Like These That I've promised to finish Tuesday so I can turn it over to DiL's mother. Got all that?

As for DW, which I've been evading the longest, I'm not ready to tag it DNF just yet, but I am aware that it wasn't enthusiastically reviewed. So there.

Sorry DW hasn't worked well for you, but I completely understand. I appreciated it more than I enjoyed it, if that makes sense. I was more engaged in analyzing Welty's craft (from my amateurish perspective), than engaged in the story.

It's been a skittish year, Laura. Miz Welty didn't grab me with her tale of a wedding there in Miz'sippi. I may go back to it, but there are lots of books I do want read. I did complete Small Things Like These, for example. I wasn't so sure I was going to, but heavy rain triggered a 5-6 hour power outage that led to a schedule revamp.

For some reason, we didn't get the Ian rain on Saturday or Sunday or Monday, though Penn State and the Eagles played in absolute deluges. Oh, but today! Geez-o-whiz. My DiL texted me in the early afternoon that Gracie's field hockey match was postponed until tomorrow because of the rain. Power exited within 15 minutes. One upshot is that Gracie's team will have its two most challenging games on consecutive days. Last games of the regular season. They've clinch a playoff spot, so more games will follow.

>211 weird_O: Eudora Welty has had the same impact (or lack thereof) upon my own reading, Bill. I have read two of her short novels; The Optimist's Daughter and The Ponder Heart and neither got my rapt attention.

I am still reading Delta Wedding. I read two pages a day. At that rate it will take me months to get it read.

And so it goes. Today...Thursday...is bright and sunny. I still must get organized; why is that so hard? (It IS for me.) On Tuesday it rained and rained. And the power washed away for about 6 hours. I am grateful for the dedicated utility workers who mess around with very high voltage wiring in the worst conditions. Be that as it may, I donned my LED headlight to finish reading Small Things Like These. Terrific book. Since then, I've been alternating 'twixt A Dangerous Place and that trivia book. Then, according to my Master Plan, I'll take up The Sympathizer once again. Then Delta Wedding. Then John McPhee.

>212 PaulCranswick: I agree with you, Paul. I too read those Welty works, and while I gave 'em good grades, I didn't really get sucked in by them. But I do want to finish DW...

>213 benitastrnad: even if I join Benita and read two pages a day. :-) I'm sure you're absorbing other books, Benita, and not limiting your literary intake to two pages a day.

>207 weird_O: *woop woop* congratulations :)

I am fully engaged reading A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate by Marc Reisner. I'm just beginning "III", page 85 of 181. The passage labeled "I" focuses on California's water history, a topic Reisner covered in much greater detail and length in Cadillac Desert. His concluding comment:

...[L]ike everyone in Los Angeles, we who live in the Bay Area are hooked on imported water. Also, at the risk of californicating the simple, we are in denial. We never imagine that, someday, the water might not arrive.

"II" is about California's seismic history, recounting what's known about quakes in 1812 in Southern California, in 1836 and in 1838 in the Bay Area, in 1857, the so-called the Fort Tejon quake, in 1865 and again in 1868, this latter quake being the one that "would reign for four decades as the Big One." Of course the 1906 San Francisco quake that, together with epic fires, destroyed much of the city, is recounted, as well as more recent quakes known as the Northridge, the San Fernando, and the Loma Prieta. In every case, it seems, the data and regulations resulting from the previous quake were proven inadequate or misapplied.

So I am tiptoeing into "III". Good grief! What'll I learn? I already know the book's 20 years old.

-----------------

I'm into Reisner's book because I finished 257 pages of trivia packaged as The Essential Book of Useless Information. As I expected, it was just "ok".

Well into "III". Chaos, of course. Reisner imagines a bad case scenario (not the worst, but really bad) of a shift in the Hayward Fault, which extends parallel to the Bay, to its east. Buildings collapse, Road surfaces shift and crumble, bridges are damaged. Power's out. Water mains are severed. Wow.

Finished A Dangerous Place. Frightening.

Back to The Sympathizer now, picking up on page 145, where I left off what seems like a month ago. But is not.

But first, I've got to root root root for Gracie's f. h. team in their final regular season game. Facing a very good team on their field. But last Thursday, Gracie's team tied the only undefeated team in the...I don't know what, conference? division? Tensions are high.

Be back later. Ta ta.

The whole entire Bay Area is a place I can not go back to...not since 1992, not likely to bother ever again. *shudder* Since the 1964 earthquake I have not wanted to be there. A Dangerous Place is preachin' to the choir here.

The Sympathizer, OTOH, gets my unreserved cheers and fistpumps.

Cheer hearty, Weirdness.

Dropping in to say hello. Whatcha reading?

Sweet Thursday, Bill. I also loved Small Things Like These. Good luck with The Sympathizer. I am a big fan of that one and I also liked the follow-up The Committed.

BTW- Congrats to Gracie!

Haven't finished a book today (yet). I'm being domestic, as in six loads of laundry. Sittin' in me skivvies whilst those appliances do their best for me. I've done some vacuuming, with more to do. The library/dining table is totally cleared for the first time in at least a year. I discovered that the underside of the carpet under the table is turning to dust/sand/powder/whatevs. Time to oust it.

At the same time—concurrently—I'm applying finish to the counter for the base unit of the new shelves. Final coat goes on in a few minutes, and I'm going to apply it in just a few minutes. Rub it out probably Tuesday, and then install it. Then assemble the upper unit.

I just might do some lawn mowing on Sunday.

Monday is oral surgery, first thing. I hope to be recovered enough to go to the district playoffs in field hockey at 5 p.m.

I have but 100 pages to read in The Sympathizer. Tonight and tomorrow night. Then done.

I'm still rolling. Monday's events got me to throttle down, but I never came to a halt. I be picking up some speed.

I got to the oral surgeon in good time. The doc said he'd probably anesthetize me, and I said I was counting on it. *blink* Awake, tooth extracted, I was driven home. Took a two hour nap. Got up, shuffled around a bit, then slept another four hours. Today, I feel pretty darn good. The site is pain-free. The doc and his team do great work, as far as I am concerned.

The other big event was field hockey playoffs, and I didn't get to the game. My favorite team lost their game 3-2. I was told the reffing and the coaching were sub-par. So it goes.

I gave myself most of yesterday off, so I'm still shy of The Sympathizer's conclusion. But I did start Silk Parachute by John McPhee. The titular piece, "Silk Parachute," is only three pages. Both new to me and satisfying to me.

So...

Interesting comments on Eudora Welty. I often find authors who write superlative short stories don't quite make it as novelists. Ethan Canin, Laurie Colwin, and Welty herself come to mind. Superb short fiction, novels not so much.

I finished The Sympathizer for September's AAC (Pulitzer winners) on the 18th, and I recorded Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers as completed on the 19th.

Today, I completed John McPhee's 2010 collection, Silk Parachute. I really enjoyed this collection, even the article about the chalk strata that extends from England, under the Channel. through the champaign-producing region of France, and on under the Netherlands. Geology, don't you know.

Bookcase project coming along.

>226 weird_O: I must confess I love John McPhee's geology books. And I don't have that one. Hm.

>226 weird_O:
Silk Parachute is one of McPhee's that I don't have as well. It might be a good Inter-Library Loan candidate since my library system doesn't have it either.

Dithering lately. For myself, I am sorry about it. But it IS something I am good at.

I have been doing a little more reading, focussing on the work of John McPhee. I did finish Silk Parachute, a collection, as I mentioned above. Half through Table of Contents, another collection, published in 1985. And I've read the first chapter of Outcroppings, a book that combines text selections from three of McPhee's books on the natural environment and geology with photos shot by Tom Till. Dipping a metaphorical toe into McPhee's Pulitzer-Prize winning Annals of the Former World. (I've mentioned that I drifted away from Basin and Range without finishing it, and avoiding subsequent books in that series. Maybe I go back to it if I get Outcroppings read.

>229 weird_O: I think I should admire your dedication to reading McPhee's works. After reading Assembling California I sampled three other of McPhee's books and I can say without reservation I do not like his writing style. I even read the last third from The Control of Nature - Los Angeles Against the Mountains. It makes me feel like I'm from another planet with all the praise the man gets. I know why I don't like him, and I don't have a need to detail it. I am just surprised at how much love he gets and is getting. The answer is clear that I am from another planet.

Happy Saturday, Bill. I hope all is well with you. What are your thoughts on The Sympathizer? Courting Mr. Lincoln turned out to be a very nice surprise. Have you read it or Bayard? This was my first rodeo.

>230 RBeffa: John McPhee doesn't quite cross my annoying line in the couple of works of his I read recently (I'm pretty sure I encountered Oranges in my previous way pre-LT life) but I could see if I were in a different mood or he got dialed up, tossing the book across the room.

Basin and Range, like all the Former World books, is probably the toughest sledding in McPhee's œuvre. He's, um, well...yeah.

>230 RBeffa: I should admire your dedication to reading McPhee's works. Oh, please do. I'll gladly take all the admiration you give. :-) If you don't like his writing, by all means avoid McPhee. I avoid quite a few writers. (Of course, I run counter to you being mystified by "all the love he gets." How can you not love the guy's articles?)

>232 quondame: I'm bemused still.

>233 richardderus: True.

>231 msf59: I'll collect my thoughts on The Sympathizer pretty soon, Mark. I'm taken by Nguyen's plays on "freedom," and all the ways freedom's champions feel at liberty to stifle the freedom of others. But you're not thinking of that, you're think of ocean and beaches and twittering tropical birdies.

Today I finished Table of Contents, a collection of articles by John McPhee. So two books for the October AAC. I'm backing quietly away from Outcroppings. You know, geology.

I'm sampling a few books and I'll settle on something right quick.

The only McPhee I've read was Levels of the Game, which I enjoyed immensely, but doesn't entirely seem typical of his writing.

Hope you've selected your next read and enjoy it, Bill!

>236 bell7: What would be typical of McPhee's writing, Mary? I haven't read the book you read, but he produced an interesting article about lacrosse that was in Silk Parachute.

>237 weird_O: I don't know, to be honest, but his most popular books seem to be collections of articles and/or about the environment. Levels of the Game was a full book on an Arthur Ashe semifinal match at the U.S. Open. Is there any you would recommend as a good title to start with? (Or, well, read next in my case)

Most of McPhee's books are collections. He's been a staff writer for The New Yorker for decades, so he's been writing magazine pieces for most of his career. Silk Parachute, which I just read, had a number of pieces that appealed to me. Hey, and it was published only a dozen years ago. Table of Contents dates from the mid-80s, and several of the articles left me hanging. I want to know what's happened in the realm since then.

>237 weird_O: & >238 bell7:
I have read four books by John McPhee and liked all of them. Assembling California was geology and it went very deep into that subject (pun intended.) :-) I thought this book was OK, but it took me a long time to read it, as it was very descriptive and explanatory. All of that is important to what he was trying to get across to the reader, but it was very in-depth. If you like science writing you will like this one. Control of Nature was a book of three long articles about how man has tried to alter the course of Nature and either succeeded - or failed. I liked this one. There was lots of history and human interest in this book - it was full of interesting characters, not the least of it was William Mulholland. Oranges was a short book that was all about the history of the citrus fruit - Oranges. How that fruit came to the U.S., where it is grown, and what is happening with this industry now. I enjoyed this book and have recommended it to several people. My favorite McPhee - so far - is Survival of the Bark Canoe. In this book, McPhee takes a canoe trip with a young man who is absolutely obsessed with hiking and canoeing. So much so that he learned, on his own, how to make a genuine birch bark canoe. It was these canoes that the Native American's invented and used to great effect for all kinds of transportation purposes. In the book a group of selected people traveled with the bark canoeist on a hiking canoeing trip that recreated the trip that Henry David Thoreau made. It was from this trip that he wrote his book Maine Woods. The group recreated the trip in the modern day using the birch bark canoe just as Thoreau did. McPhee's book reminded me of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. It was part travelogue, part history, and part lengthy interview with a craft person obsessed with a chosen craft, with a whole lot of humor and sarcasm thrown in.

My next book by McPhee is going to be Pine Barrens and then I want to read Uncommon Carriers.

I never really thought about it, that McPhee was a nature writer. I guess he is, but the books always seemed to me to be part history, part travelogue, part human interest, and part character study. I think of him as more as a writer of narrative nonfiction. I think that McPhee set the standard and wrote the template for good narrative nonfiction. Nobody can hold a candle to him in that genre.

I love all the McPhee talk (although I could wish some of it made an appearance on his AAC thread!). I've always considered him a "nature writer", I guess. I got a chuckle out of the criticisms of Thoreau from some of his companions on that bark canoe expedition.

Oh my, so much McPhee to read! I love his writing on geology, but there's a lot of it I haven't read. Five books on my shelf, and I think I've only read one of them. I know Jim recommends 'Looking for a Ship'.

Just to report that I finished a short novel called So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood, written by Nobelist Patrick Modiano. I'm starting Life & Times of Michael K by another Nobelist, J. M. Coetzee.