richardderus's third 2021 thread

The 1981 Houghton Mifflin edition of Chris Van Allsburg's mega hit Jumanji

It was just a simple, solid picture book, the second written and illustrated by Dutch-American Michigander Van Allsburg. His first, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, had been a runner-up for the ALA's very prestigious Caldecott Medal; this one was his winner. It's such a lovely tale of "always read the directions" and "be careful what you wish for;" its focus is on the siblings who play the enchanted game.

Not so Peter Guber's 1995 film! A raft of adults get bookhorned in. This is, however, the reason the story's lived on as the book is pluggin' along but the film was A HIT!! The animated series, from 1996 to 1999, was...okay; the 2017 and 2019 sequels I haven't seen, but I expect they're just fine.

Nothing, at least to me, beats the beautiful, dreamlike, simple book.

In 2021, I stated a goal of posting 15 book reviews a month on my blog. This year's total of 180 (there are a lot of individual stories that don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; I need to do more to sync the data this year) reads shows it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.

I've Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I give up. I just don't care about this goal, so out it goes.




My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

First five reviews? 1st 2021 thread..

Reviews 6 all the way through 25 can be viewed in the thread to which I have posted a link at left.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

26 Less truly was, post 16.

27 Milkman was maximally pleasurable, post 20.

28 Lincoln in the Bardo...egads!, post 22.

29 ŠRDN - From Bronze and Darkness was a dark supernatural fantasy, post 57.

30 Dueling Banjos: The Deliverance of Drew was delightful, post 62.

31 The Invisible Husband of Frick Island did not make the cut, post 159.

32 The Man Who Lost the Sea pleased me a lot, post 203.

33 Breakheart Pass did what I asked, post 208.

34 Four and Twenty Blackbirds: short story did its job, post 217.

35 The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly is just not filmable, post 231.

36 Kitchen gets the sharp edge of my tongue, post 293.

2020's five-star or damn-near five-star reviews totaled 46. Almost half were short stories and/or series reads. While a lot of authors saw their book launches rescheduled, publishers canceled their tours, and everyone was hugely distracted by the nightmare of COVID-19 (I had it, you do not want it), no one can fault the astoundingly wonderful literature we got this year. My own annual six-stars-of-five read was Zaina Arafat's extraordinary debut novel YOU EXIST TOO MUCH (review lives here), a thirtysomething Palestinian woman telling me my life, my family, my very experience of relationships of all sorts. I cannot stress enough to you, this is the book you need to read in 2021. A sixtysomething man is here, in your email/feed, saying: This is the power. This is the glory. The writing I look for, the read I long to find, and all of it delivered in a young woman's debut novel. This is as good an omen for the Great Conjunction's power being bent to the positive outcomes as any I've seen.

In 2020, I posted over 180 reviews here. In 2021, my goals are: –to post 150 reviews on my blog
–to post at least 99 three-sentence Burgoines
–to complete at least 190 total reviews

Most important to me is to report on DRCs I don't care enough about to review at my usual level. I don't want to keep just leaving them unacknowledged. There are publishers who want to see a solid, positive relationship between DRCs granted and reviews posted, and I do not blame them a bit.

Ask and ye shall receive! Nathan Burgoine's Twitter account hath taught me. See >7 richardderus: below.

I stole this from PC's thread. I like these prompts!
***
1. Name any book you read at any time that was published in the year you turned 18:
Faggots by Larry Kramer
2. Name a book you have on in your TBR pile that is over 500 pages long:
The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream
by Michael Wood
3. What is the last book you read with a mostly blue cover?
Wasps' Nest by Agatha Christie
4. What is the last book you didn’t finish (and why didn’t you finish it?)
The Perfect Fascist by Victoria de Grazia; paper book of 512pp, can't hold it
5. What is the last book that scared the bejeebers out of you?
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
6. Name the book that read either this year or last year that takes place geographically closest to where you live? How close would you estimate it was?
The Trump book; set in Queens and the Hamptons, so just down the road a piece
7.What were the topics of the last two nonfiction books you read?
The last successful rebellion on US soil and caffeine
8. Name a recent book you read which could be considered a popular book?
The Only Good Indians, a horror novel that's really, really good
9. What was the last book you gave a rating of 5-stars to? And when did you read it?
Restored, a Regency-era romantic historical novel about men in their 40s seizing their second chance at luuuv
10. Name a book you read that led you to specifically to read another book (and what was the other book, and what was the connection)
Potiki, which Kerry Aluf gave me; led me to read The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera
11. Name the author you have most recently become infatuated with.
P. Djeli Clark
12. What is the setting of the first novel you read this year?
Hawaii and PNW
13. What is the last book you read, fiction or nonfiction, that featured a war in some way (and what war was it)?
The Fighting Bunch; WWII
14. What was the last book you acquired or borrowed based on an LTer’s review or casual recommendation? And who was the LTer, if you care to say.
There isn't enough space for all the book-bullets y'all careless, inconsiderate-of-my-poverty fiends pepper me with
15. What the last book you read that involved the future in some way?
Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason
16. Name the last book you read that featured a body of water, river, marsh, or significant rainfall?
Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky by David Connerly Nahm
17. What is last book you read by an author from the Southern Hemisphere?
Red Heir by Lisa Henry
18. What is the last book you read that you thought had a terrible cover?
please don't ask me this
19. Who was the most recent dead author you read? And what year did they die?
Agatha Christie, 1976
20. What was the last children’s book (not YA) you read?
good goddesses, I don't remember...Goodnight Moon to my daughter?
21. What was the name of the detective or crime-solver in the most recent crime novel you read?
Poirot by Dame Ags
22. What was the shortest book of any kind you’ve read so far this year?
The World Well Lost, ~28pp
23. Name the last book that you struggled with (and what do you think was behind the struggle?)
Lon Chaney Speaks, because I really, really don't like comic books
24. What is the most recent book you added to your library here on LT?
see #23
25. Name a book you read this year that had a visual component (i.e. illustrations, photos, art, comics)
see #23
I liked Sandy's Bonus Question for the meme above, so I adopted it:

26. What is the title and year of the oldest book you have reviewed on LT in 2020? (modification in itals)
The Sittaford Mystery by Dame Aggie, 1931.

I really hadn't considered doing this until recently...tracking my Pulitzer Prize in Fiction winners read, and Booker Prize winners read might actually prove useful to me in planning my reading.

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole **
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington *
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton *
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington **
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather **
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber *
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined) *
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder *
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck *
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell *
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings *
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck *
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow *
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey *
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren *
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway *
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner *
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor *
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee *
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury *
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee *
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner *
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron *
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner *
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty *
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara *
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow *
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever *
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer *
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole *
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike *
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker *
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy *
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry *
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison *
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos *
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike *
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley *
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler *
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx *
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides *
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz *
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD - Jennifer Egan
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr **
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen **
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead **
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles ** (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) -
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea *
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children *
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac *
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People **
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger *
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda *
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day *
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance *
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient * ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road *
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin *
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang *
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little **
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty *
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question *
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending **
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings *
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think's important and not try to dig for more.

Think about using it yourselves!

And, at long last, the floor is open.

Am I the first? That would be lovely! My last message on your last thread was to celebrate your healthy heart, and I'd like to give it another HUZZAH!

Happy new thread, RD, and a happy Sunday to you.

I've never read Jumanji but saw the movie with Robin Williams and loved it.

Happy new one Rdear and happy Sunday 😀

>9 London_StJ: Thank you again, Miss Londondearie, and yes indeed you're first past the post!

I am early on this one!

Just went back to your last thread to read up on your healthy heart. How did I miss that? Sorry! In any case, excellent news and a big sigh of relief!

>13 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! You're very early indeed. Welcome.

>11 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara!

>10 karenmarie: Horrible! How lovely. *smooch*

I read the book to my girl when she was just a little too old for it but *I* loved it.

Happy new thread!!

26 Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Rating: 2.5* of five

Mildly amusing. I smiled a few times.

The reason for my dead-middle rating is that I *loathe* Arthur Less. His faux-witty and deeply narcissistic view of Others is unpleasant. His dilemma is no kind of dilemma at all, just say "no" to your ex, you're ex for a reason. Saying "yes" to everything and everyone else is an excuse to snark at people who aren't Like Us.

The ending, mentioned as both superb and awful in many reviews, was also completely unsurprising and practically tattooed on the character from the start. I can see this appealing to someone looking for a few hours' diversion, say on a plane or a cruise ship, who already had it Kindled. I got it from my library and was perfectly happy not having paid for the experience.

My example-quote:

He kisses—how do I explain it? Like someone in love. Like he has nothing to lose. Like someone who has just learned a foreign language and can use only the present tense and only the second person. Only now, only you. There are some men who have never been kissed like that. There are some men who discover, after Arthur Less, that they never will be again.

There is less here than meets the eye....

>15 ChelleBearss: Hiya Chelle!

Happy new thread. I'm going to pass on the Pearl Buck in your last thread. Thanks for the notice.

>18 Helenliz: Permaybehaps if it was fifty years ago....

Welcome anyway, Helen!

27 Milkman by Anna Burns

Rating: 4.75* of five

This book is nominated for a Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize, named for a British Ambassador to Ireland whose 1976 murder by the IRA inspired this £7,500 annual award for literary works...including, this year, nominations for a #Brexit-analyzing Twitter account and the TV show Derry Girls...promoting cultural understanding between Ireland and England. (Yes yes yes, it's officially "the UK" but Wales and Scotland don't present historical problems to Ireland and Ulster's been fightin' 'em since Tara was the capital.)

Anyway. If you haven't read this wonderful book by now, what's stopping you from doing it right now? You really cannot go wrong...either you'll love it (like me) or you'll know that the Booker committee was off its game this time. (I hope it's the former; the latter is a distant second but still useful information.)

ETA I forgot to put in my two example quotes! Foolish me:

According to the police, of course, our community was a rogue community. It was we who were the enemy, we who were the terrorists, the civilian terrorists, the associates of terrorists or simply individuals suspected of being but not yet discovered to be terrorists. That being the case, and understood by both parties to be the case, the only time you’d call the police in my area would be if you were going to shoot them, and naturally they would know this and so wouldn’t come.
–and–
Of course there was the big one, the biggest reason for not marrying the right spouse. If you married that one, the one you loved and desired and who loved and desired you back, with the union providing true and good and replete with the most fulfilling happiness, well, what if this wonderful spouse didn't fall out of love with you, or you with them, and neither of you either, got killed in the political problems? All those joyful evers and infinites? Are you sure, really, really sure, you could cope with the prospect of that? The community decided that no, it couldn't.

Happy new one!

28 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Rating: 2.75* of five

Goodness knows I understand parental grief on losing a child, but this story is trying too hard to be clever for me to empathize with it. While many praise its near-perfection of style, I am left wishing the author would just belt uo already and tell this incredibly moving and deeply personal story. I'm not going to recommend the read.

My example quote:

His mind was freshly inclined toward sorrow; toward the fact that the world was full of sorrow; that everyone labored under some burden of sorrow; that all were suffering; that whatever way one took in this world, one must try to remember that all were suffering (none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood), and therefore one must do what one could to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact; that his current state of sorrow was not uniquely his, not at all, but, rather, its like had been felt, would be felt, by scores of others, in all times, in every time, and must not be prolonged or exaggerated, because, in this state, he could be of no help to anyone and, given that his position in the world situated him to be either of great help, or great harm, it would not do to stay low, if he could help it.

If you like Saunders, you'll like this; I don't, and I *really* don't.

>21 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

Happy new thread Dear Richard.

Happy new thread!

>22 richardderus: I don't know if I like Saunders, but I remember feeling almost exactly as your quoted passage when I experience my first sharp, unambiguous, irretrievable loss.

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>22 richardderus: I rated Lincoln in the Bardo exactly the same.

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Richard. Hope you are having a good Sunday. I am trying to be productive and going through two attic boxes a day. Just finishing up today's lot and anguishing over some poetry anthologies.

>28 ronincats: Welcome, Roni, and thanks for the well-wishes. Good luck deciding about those anthologies!

>27 drneutron: Thank you, Jim!

>26 FAMeulstee: Great minds, Anita, thinking alike again.

>25 quondame: Maybe the book's the right one for you, Susan, we're all of us just that little bit different, so why not try it?

>24 johnsimpson: Thank you kindly, John!

>20 richardderus: You liked Milkman far more than I did, and I liked Lincoln in the Bardo slightly more than you did.

Happy new one, RD. xx

>16 richardderus: "There is less here than meets the eye...."

*snerk*

Happy newness, BigDaddy! I am adding Milkman to The List just because you said so. And I thought I was the only one who was not a huge Saunders' fan. I had to DNF both Tenth of December and Lincoln in the Bardo. However, I loved his Fox 8 and had to purchase my own copy.

>29 richardderus: Just having those feelings doesn't mean I found them well expressed. Blunter and more brutally desperate would be my preference.

>32 justchris:

>31 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

>30 thornton37814: Vive le différance!

>21 figsfromthistle: & >22 richardderus: Two recent Booker winners and two very different results. I have to say that I agree with you on Saunders. My heart sank when he won the Booker and not just because I don't think the prize should have been opened up to writers from the USA. I have read his collection Tenth of December and disliked it immensely. Have the book on the shelves and I will read it as I am a completist nutcase who wants to be able to tell himself he has read all the Bookers, but I will do so with some trepidation.

I had started Milkman when it first came out and was enjoying it but somehow didn't finish it at the time probably because I was in a bad place at the time. I will definitely read it this year.

Happy new one, RD.

>36 PaulCranswick: Thank you, PC! I think you will approve of Milkman. Such a deeply Irish book...very much about the gesture theater of youth and the deadly games of rebellion.

Saunders is like Franzen and Eugenides and DFW. Yes, yes, clever clever, now either tell me a story or go to bed and let the grown-ups talk.

>34 quondame: There is never a time Saunders uses one word where fourteen will do.

>33 Crazymamie: I haven't read Fox 8 but will take a stab at it if you loved it while not loving the others. Only fair! You're reading Milkman on my say-so, after all.

Happy New Thread!

>37 richardderus: Okay, but be warned that you are going to need tissues.

>37 richardderus: Yes for me I need to be told a story, RD. That is what recent reads like Shuggie Bain, The Nickel Boys and Carrie's War all deliver in spades.

>40 PaulCranswick: They all do indeed, in spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. I also am more likely to like those books.

>39 Crazymamie: Tissues: check. *smooch*

>38 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy New Thread, Richard!

>37 richardderus: I have read, and not liked, Saunders and Eugenides. I might try Franzen, and glad I am warned ahead. Who is DFW?

Happy New Thread, Richard. We have our first major snowstorm arriving here later today. It could add up to 10". I am sure glad I don't have to work in it anymore. Whew!

Hope you have - and can enjoy - the sun that's currently shining. And no wind!

Have a happy day, RD.

29 ŠRDN - From Bronze and Darkness by Andrea Atzori

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The year is 1278 B.C. and the Mediterranean Sea is shared among the most powerful civilizations of ancient times. Greeks, Egyptians, and Phoenicians sail from port to port, ready to fight to protect their trade from the "Sea People," marauders who loot and disappear like ghosts. Among them are the fierce Shardan, who come from the "Island of Towers," from fortresses of basalt stone called nuraghes. These rise up all over the Shardan's land and, since the dawn of time, hide a curse feared by the people of the Mediterranean: the Island is the gateway to the netherworld. The Shardan live as hell-keepers, offering their loot to the Gods who protect their position. Now they are in Egypt, ready to wage war against the pharaohs when a messenger arrives from the netherworld with a warning: the Mamuthone demons have awakened.

My Review: You've heard tell of the Bronze Age collapse...the thing that probably triggered the historical Trojan War, caused Minoan, Mycenaean, and Hittite states to collapse, rocked the New Kingdom in Egypt to its core, and was blamed by them on the SRDN, the WSHSH, and a bunch of other "Sea Peoples." Oh, sure you have, the History Channel's made like a zillion documentaries about it! Eric Cline was all over YouTube after his book 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed came out in 2014.

No? Well, good lord, go read or at least watch that amazing story, and then you'll appreciate the opportunity this represents to a fiction writer.

Author Atzori, a Sardinian by birth, decided that his native island's Nuragic civilization was the "Shardan" of the Egyptian stelae complaining about the Sea Peoples. He flew that flag high and proud in this terrific dark fantasy.

The fall of the very interdependent, highly globalized world led to a Dark Age, one without writing or advanced technology...let's be clear, this is a *relative* term, no there have not been computer-using nuclear-armed civilizations before now!...that lasted four hundred years. The myth-making that led to Homer's long-ass poems and the Jewish Torah and so on and so forth are used here as grist for a supernatural explanation for the collapse.

The monstrous Old Ones awake!

Karnak, our PoV character, is in Egypt to extract tribute for the Mamuthone (demons his homeland, Sardinia, has the "honor" of keeping bottled up) when he gets the word that, well, it's too late. And then the loud pedal goes down, the battles begin to spread from all sides to all points, the world's on fire!

We're not going to do any good recounting the Collapse. Either you know and it doesn't matter what I say, or you don't and should get yourself to a bookery to find out about this shocking, amazing event in human history. What matters here is what kind of read this book is: Good. Quite good. A bit underdeveloped in character terms, but I don't think they're so attenuated as to be uninvolving.

You're going to experience a battle-heavy, demon-fighting, very visual tale of what I suspect was the model for the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The battle of Troy...Wilusa as it was known in this era...and the Olympian battles against the Titans, the Philistines battling Saul...all are echoes of this Collapse, and the story here makes the entire period a background for the eternal battle of good and evil. Karnak is a stand-up guy, but very ready to resort to violence.

But trust me, if you like the Antique epics, this story will make your taste for them purr.

>46 katiekrug: Hey Katie, it's really, really sunny all right...but the cold wind from the sea doesn't make trotting around outside very much fun, so I'll stay hunkered down, thankyouverymuch.

>45 msf59: Ha!! The joy of retirement expressed right there..."sucky weather we're having, innit? time for another splash of single-malt!"

>44 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita. David Foster Wallace is my very, very least favorite of these clever-clever laddies who think throwing lots of words at an idea is a way of exploring it.

>43 connie53: Thanks, Connie! I somehow managed not to find your thread when I went looking...eye-glitch or brain-lacuna, can't tell. But I will have another look today.

>42 humouress: Nina, how lovely! *smooch*

Derp. I forgot about the sea "breeze" :)

>47 richardderus: Sounds good. Thanks for the review

>50 calm: I think you would enjoy it, calm, and it's got the virtue of being unusual in setting and action.

>49 katiekrug: Yes, a little matter of 25mph breezes when it's 35° is...perceptible, shall we say.

>47 richardderus: I loved this review and now added to my BB list. What an awesome epic. I may have to wait on finding it, though. Not in my PL. It looks worh buying, in fact.

In my world, the BB's are a higher order of WL books!

>5 richardderus: Every time I read your Pulitzer list I think of books I could introduce to my Book Group.

Be fun to try them out on Booth Tarkington but seventeen? or The Magnificant Ambersons?

So want to try an Edna Ferber but go with So Big or just jump right in with Showboat?

Remember A Bell for Adono as a pretty good play ; wonder how it is as a book?

Love to look in on Herman Wouk but The Caine Mutiny or Marjorie Morningstar?

But its a great list and always make me think

>16 richardderus: Thank you for reading Less so now i dont have to

>30 thornton37814: everyone was reading Lincoln in the Bardo a few years ago ; sadly everyone semed to have come to the same conclusion you did.

>47 richardderus: adding SRDN to the TBD pile - a historical period i know less than nothing about (Yet!)

and happy new thread (belatedly)

Happy new thread, Richard. I was never tempted to read Lincoln in the Bardo although I do read other books about Lincoln. Too much dwelling on death from the description.

>54 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Thanks for the well-wishes, and while I won't encourage you to read Bardo, it's really less about death than about musing on what Death Means. It's less substantive than focusing on death, is what I'm getting at...just altogether less than it could and should (in my opinion) have been.

>53 magicians_nephew: Thanks, Jim, well-wishes are never belated. I'm always glad to have 'em. Your Pulitzer musings are thoughtful...I'm never going to recommend anyone read The Magnificent Ambersons because it's so so so dated, the foibles of the wealthy and privileged are *glossy* and *interesting*!. Alice Adams is as well, but for my tastes less offensively so.

Ferber? Anywhere.

Wouk? Really, why? He was competent, readable, and the more time passes since I've read his work, the more I realize how little I care.

Enjoy the Atzori when its turn comes up!

>52 SandyAMcPherson: Thank you, Sandy!

Happy new thread, Richard! Enjoying your reviews, though sorry to see some of your reads could've been better. I am not yet ready to read Milkman though I'm slightly more tempted by your high rating. I simply have too many library books out right now and I'm starting to feel the pressure...

Almost-Tuesday *smooches*

>56 bell7: Hi Mary! I'm glad you're enjoying the reviews, but you know what? The best books will still be there when you get to them...and if they aren't that great because they aren't new, they weren't that great to begin with. It's one reason I've stopped racing to get New! Now! Happenin'! books...quality endures, even if all too often it does so in obscurity.

Wow, here I cannot even keep up with your thread and I find you are just a reading and reviewing machine! Congrats on the good news on the medical front. The Bernie memes are what got me through last week.... some of them are so funny!

Happy thread #3, RD and wishing you a wonderful week.

>55 richardderus: I heard a radio adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons. I don't need to get any closer than that.

Just dropping by before I miss an entire thread :)

We're supposed to get some snow later. I'll believe it when I see it....

*Tuesday smooch*

30 Dueling Banjos: The Deliverance of Drew by Ronny Cox and Barbara Bowser

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher's Synopsis is *really* long, so you can see everything at my blog.

I RECEIVED A DRC OF THIS BOOK VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

This is the oldest DRC I possess. How old is that, you ask? It was sent to me when this book was brand new, and film was 40 (forty) years old; and it is 50 (fifty) years old now, filming as it did in 1971.

Ronny Cox, aka "Drew" from this film or "Captain Jellico" from Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Chain of Command" sixth-season two-part episode, was a struggling actor with a theater resume as long as a rap sheet when John Boorman, still a small-time film director from England, met him and immediately cast him as Drew in the film.

What a break for the struggling actor married to a post-doc chemist with two kids to support! And to be in such a loud project...Deliverance was splashy, famous poet writes novel!...reviews in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Nation...well, my god, what more could a first-time movie actor want? Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight, up and coming movie stars, as cast mates? Done. An old actor-friend as the fourth cast mate? Insert Ned Beatty! (Sorry, a bit on-the-nose, that metaphor.)

James Dickey's books as a poet of renown had bigged him up publicly...a Guggenheim Fellow, a National Book Award for Poetry, and a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress...what we've called "United States Poet Laureate" since 1985. Just listen to Ronny describe the first time he's seen the man:

Jim was a big mountain of a man, well over 200 pounds, big and hulking, and spoke with a really redolent Southern accent. And so, there he was up in front of the room holding forth. He was reading his poetry and he was so into this one poem. It was mesmerizing to hear him read the poem, and I'll never forget—he got to this one place and he read this line of poetry and he stopped and he looked up and he said, "GODDAMN, that's a good line!", and I was blown away.

That, you can almost hear from there and then, is one BIG personality. So big, in fact, he was taking up too much space in Director Boorman's film set, especially with Dickey's favorite actor Ronny. So a terribly embarrassing "please leave" scene played out that Ronny really delves into.

Here, then, is raconteur Ronny Cox's strongest point: Telling you, decades later, how what happened made him, and others, feel and what they said to hide or cover or point it up. Yes, it's his version. He stipulates that to Barbara Bowers, the editor who made this book what it is. He even names Christopher Dickey, the Great Man's Son, as someone whose own book, a memoir, presents...let's be Trumpian and call them "alternative facts." He's sure he's got his reasons, says Ronny, for saying what he does. That isn't what someone who was in the room would've seen, Ronny reminds us.

This isn't a long book. This is a deep book about the film Deliverance and how it got made, who did what, and why it mattered to audiences in 1972 theaters. I was one of those ticket-buyers. There's a shocking rape scene in this film. It is viscerally awful and completely honest for the first time I know anything about, forty-nine years later, concerning the vile crime of rape. More powerfully so, for that day and time, by making the raped party a man.

Did nothing for the advancement of gay rights, and sadly perpetuated many harmful and hurtful stereotypes about the South, but what it *should* have done is sparked a million public and private conversations about the victimization, the humiliation, the utter lack of compassionate care for its survivors.

I look around me and wonder if #MeToo is enough, can dent a rape culture that survived this horrible, brutal, completely honest rape scene.

Back to the book. I rocked along at a happy clip, ending the read with smiles, and appreciating the well-chosen but not numerous photos illustrating key moments Ronny is remembering in those sections. In about two hours, I felt I'd been given a private audience with someone whose impact on my visual and aesthetic life was significant. I am so delighted that three of the four leads in this film are still with us, as is John Boorman, and I surely hope someone has some Golden Anniversary hoopla planned COVID or no.

I want to leave you with a glimpse into Ronny Cox, Performer Extraordinaire for almost sixty years, as he ruminates on the reason people still care about Deliverance...it's the same reason he does:

Deliverance is one of the few novels that has been made into a film that I like both the novel and the film. For me, at least, if I like the book, the I normally hate the film. Or vice versa. The reason I liked both the book and the film of Deliverance is even though they are both telling exactly the same story, they are telling it in two completely different ways.

Morning, BigDaddy! I was very happy to leave Monday behind me. Happy Tuesdaying!

Hi RD! Happy Tuesday to you.

>16 richardderus: >20 richardderus: and >22 richardderus: I love the two you didn’t and don’t want to read the one you do. ATD this time.

>37 richardderus: Are you talking about the fiction DFW or the essays DFW or both? I haven’t read the fiction DFW yet although I have The Broom of the System on my shelves. I love his essays.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>61 katiekrug: *snort* Don't sprain your believer. Don't be thinkin' so myownself.

*smooch*

>60 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! Welcome!

>59 justchris: It's so, what's the word, it's...overheated. Too, too much.

>58 lkernagh: Hiya Lori, good to see you here!

>64 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! Happy Tuesday. *smooch*

I like DFW's essays, I think they've got some, um, fact problems but they are terrific reads and make my inner literary lizard bask and blink slowly.

We can always ATD, because it's not necessary for you to agree with me to validate my taste and vice versa.

>63 Crazymamie: Mamie darling! Happy Tuesdaying to you, too. Bagels?

Yes, please! I had to come back and see the spread. I love everything bagels.

>66 richardderus: Can I have crackers with mine instead of bagels? Or tbh just eat the rest. YUM!

I miss spring, when I can occasionally be bothered to make a platter of yumminess. And not (in the words of Dylan Moran) sit on the sofa dipping bread in anything runnier than bread...

>68 BekkaJo: Of course, Bekka, here you go:

>66 richardderus: Munch, mumble, munch, munch, munch. May I have a side of capers, please?

>70 quondame: Here you are, dear:

I brought the caper berries too, just in case.

ETA size!

Happy New Thread, Richard.

I'm happy that you loved Milkman! Me, too. I was unschooled when I read it, so it took me a bit to figure where I was and that it was set during the Troubles. With that Aha! I was off and running.

Sounds like I enjoyed Lincoln in the Bardo more than you, but I understand your somewhat low rating.

I'm reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle right now on Becca's recommendation. I'm about halfway through, and so far I'm enjoying its bizarreness.

>71 richardderus: Oh special yum! Now I'm set! Thank you!

>73 quondame: De rien, ma amie.

>72 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! Everyone enjoyed Lincoln in the Bardo more than me. The only reason it doesn't have a one-star rating, really, is that I don't want to hear about how I'm wrong and it's a work of genius and Saunders's excellence just surpasses my ability to apprehend it.

I hope the oddly-numbered deaths book tickles your fancy from giddy-up to whoa.

>62 richardderus: I saw Deliverance in Florence in 1982 dubbed into Italian, which was a slightly odd experience. It must have been some sort of retrospective showing as it was out so much earlier. I lived in Italy for about 10 months in 1982 /83 and it’s the time of my life when I went to the cinema most frequently, probably about twice a week. So I’ve got some quite confused memories about films from the earlier part of that period when my Italian really wasn’t up to working out what was going on. I remember I had absolutely no idea at all what was happening in Bladerunner until I saw it on the T.V. years later.

>62 richardderus: I'm 50, so I've heard the jokes and innuendo and other pop culture references to Deliverance my whole life. I finally, finally saw the movie maybe 10 years ago and thought it was brilliant and harrowing, even with half a lifetime of experience under my belt (ha!) and knowing what to expect.

Since most of the references to it are joking, mocking, parodies, yeah, we as a country didn't have the hard conversations then, and we're not really having them now, despite the #metoo movement (moment?). At least the latter did spark *some* discussions and lots of feelings. In the decades since then, at least we have more tools to conceptualize and talk about the violence, humiliation, trauma, and maybe even healing around rape. Back then, I think we lacked the basic tools to even begin to deal with it.

Awesome review, as always!

>77 benitastrnad:
I join you on your rating of Lincoln in the Bardo. I did give it 1 star. I hated the book. Pure junk. I do not believe it is, or ever will be a work of genius. I think a hundred years from nobody will have read it and will rank it right up there with Pamela. (another book I hated.)

>22 richardderus: Ha! I am glad to see that I am not the only one doling out low ratings ;) I started that book last year. Could not make it through yet. It's on a shelf somewhere waiting for a retry (not any time soon).

>78 figsfromthistle: Don't look at me for encouragement! The only thing I'll say about its place on your shelf is, "just think of all the good books that would fit there...."

>77 benitastrnad: Absolutely, Benita, and may it and Pamela pollute the shelves no more.

>76 justchris: The conversations are finally, finally coming to be. It's a start. But the problems are coming to terms with the contents and fallout of them plus coming to terms with what needs to be done: Boys must learn, therefore be taught, proper personal responsibility.

Now what will that look like?

>75 SandDune: Heh. A tenth-anniversary showing in Italy! What a thing for a young Welshwoman to come across...culture shock on every conceivable front!

The 1982 cut of Bladerunner made no sense whatever. Modern recuts are infinitely more comprehensible, so you were not alone.

>79 richardderus: Wait, can you diss a classic like Pamela, beloved by generations? Is that allowed? Won't the literature police come knocking on your door?

I think it's an abyss that we collectively dread looking into because sexual violence is just so fucking endemic. And so we've spent generations humming under our breaths and glancing away over and over rather than acknowledge the hugeness of this problem that undergirds our society--the foundation is rotten, has been from the start, and that's a pretty overwhelming situation to be in. Boys must learn responsibility, sure, yet also all of us must not condone or minimize any aspect of the rape culture we're saturated in.

>77 benitastrnad: If it has the merit you assign it it will lag behind Pamela which is still read not because of any merit, but because of its position in the development of novels and the more memorable reactions to it.

'Morning, RD. Happy Wednesday.

I'm on my first mug of coffee and slowly waking up.

*smooch*

>82 karenmarie: Wake well, Horrible, and without loud noises or awful surprises. I'm delighted to say that's what I'm doing!

>81 quondame: Pamela is a form of literary hazing inflicted by professors onto students.

>80 justchris: It's not a simple task to turn this boat around!

>62 richardderus: Great review of Dueling Banjos: The Deliverance of Drew. I am a big fan of the film and I might want to read this. I read somewhere that Cox could dislocate his shoulder on demand and he did this for the film. Wow!

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Snow has moved out. It is just cold. I can deal with it.

Morning, BigDaddy! Hoping your Wednesday is full of happy.

>85 Crazymamie: Hiya Mamie! It's Vaccine Day. People are getting them in their rooms, to avoid the inevitable rush if they were given in a central location. I'm so pleased. Practical thinking! And no superspreader crowds!

>84 msf59: Hey there Mark, it's true about his shoulder, and there's an illustration of the event in his photos. It's a fun read, and I'm more than mildly shocked I've had it ten years...long enough for the 50th anniversary to come!

Hooray fro Vaccine Day!

>86 richardderus: how marvellous.

>57 richardderus: This is true! My reading skews heavily towards new because those are the reviews i'm reading and books more front-and-center while I'm working at the library, but I'll happily send some back unread and get to them later when needed.

Glad to hear you're getting the vaccine today!

>89 bell7: My relief is enormous. I'm not a bit sure that the virus will obligingly stop mutating, but I'm still hoping for a return to normalcy before I die.

...best hurry it up...

>88 Helenliz: Yay for me, Helen! Are you getting the vaccines by you any time soon?

>87 Crazymamie: *smooch* Thank you, sweetness.

>83 richardderus: I'm starting to realize it's much more like an iceberg than a boat, so much less steerable.

>86 richardderus: Congratulations on getting the first shot! Glad to hear you're at the forefront of people being protected. We can't afford to lose your words.

>90 richardderus: not me. I'm choosing to be flattered that at nearly 50 I'm considered "young" and that, despite carrying too much weight, I'm considered "healthy", so not in any of the 9 priority groups. >:-)
I do know several NHS staff who have had both doses, so it is certainly getting out there. An elderly couple we know went to the local drive through vaccination centre. He got jabbed in the right arm, through the driver's window. At the same time, she was jabbed in the left arm through the passenger window. All without leaving the car - how completely fab!

>92 Helenliz: That's a great place to be, ineligible due to health and age! ::jealous::

>91 justchris: Apt simile.

So far, I'm not having any sort of reaction to the vaccine...may that continue. Since most allergic reactions come within the first ~5min, it's unlikely to start now!

Three weeks to dose #2....

And that's very kind of you, Chris, I appreciate the compliment...but my words are modestly effective at best, surely?

SO GLAD to hear you're getting jabbed today!

>94 katiekrug: Got jabbed. Had a *terrible* reaction! Anaphylactic shock, idiopathic malaria, severe urticaria...you name it! And now I'm dying of the Plague! (The bubonic kind, triggered by the microchip Gates slipped into the antifreeze that causes cancer.)

My arm isn't even sore. Kinda disappointed, I must say.

>95 richardderus:
It will be. Mine didn't get sore until about 12 hours after I got the vaccination.

>95 richardderus: >:-D I'm told the second one hurts more. More like DOMS than anything else.

>95 richardderus: - Snork.

May you stay pain free. My nurse friend wasn't sore at all. Everyone will react differently :)

>98 katiekrug: My roommate was all "ohh owww it's so cold!" and there's me, already vaccinated, looking at him like he'd lost his remaining marble.

Literally no sensation at all, apart from the usual one of "what's that goop doing in my vein?"

>97 Helenliz: Well, that's mid-February, so no sense borrowing owwies from the future.

>96 benitastrnad: Twelve hours! Really! That's never happened to me, so it will be interesting to see if it does this time.

Judy and I have been calling around looking for people who have the juice but so far no luck.

We're both sort of in the over 65 cohort but so are a heck of a lot of other people in New York.

>100 magicians_nephew: Persevere! It's quite a mood-lifter, Jim, I'm already much happier than I was yesterday because steps were taken.

I'm not sure how I've been away for 100 posts. What do I do with my time???

I am agreeing with you about *Lincoln/Bardo*, and then I look and see that I gave it four stars. I won't change them - think I was bemused by the concept - but my retrospect says 3½.

Read on, my friend, read on!

As to the vaccine here in the boonies. Our hospital is out of it, so they canceled my mother's appointment for Friday. My DH and I are due for our second next week. It's too early to say what that story will be.

Congrats on getting jabbed! I have no idea when my turn will arrive. I am over 65, and do have a couple of underlying health issues, albeit rather mild and not something I would consider aa priority for getting vaccinated. Still, Canada's vaccine rollout is a mess. Zero vaccines arriving in the country this week, and possibly not next week either. I would want to know that all long-term care residents, and all frontline health care workers have their shots first before I even ask when my turn might be.

>103 jessibud2: Hi Shelley, that's not encouraging news about Canada's vaccine rollout...many states here are in similar chaos, though. It makes me extra-happy again that I live where I do and that where I do is located where it is.

And still I worry about all y'all elsewhere, so there's that....

>102 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Don't know what you're doing with your time, but the pace of the group is much faster thanks to ongoing/renewed restrictions on what we're allowed to do outside our homes. I've already lost some threads, too.

Dig we must. *shovelshovel*

Happy Wednesday, Richard dear, happy to read you got your vaccination.

I am under 60, and so is Frank, we will be somewhere in the last round of vaccinations.
My father, who is 90, got his letter today to call for an appointment. He will get his first vaccination next Saturday.

>105 FAMeulstee: One advantage of living in "congregate care" as it's called here is that the majority of deaths early on took place in facilities like this one, so the authorities are *keen* to keep us out of the headlines this time.

Your father's vaccine will be a huge relief for you, I know, so I hope it will take place very soon.

Yay for getting your vaccine today, Richard! I’m so glad to hear it - and don’t you feel such a wonderful sense of relief?!

Happy to hear you had no side effects as well and hope that has continued tonight. Except for the arm soreness, the side effects I had after the first shot were very mild.

Glad to hear that you received your vaccine.. big yay...

take care

xo

>108 mckait: *smooch*

>107 Copperskye: It's a very good feeling indeed, Joanne, and goodness knows I'm actually eager for the second jab.

Congrats on receiving your first dose!

Good news on the vaccine, RD. Stay safe dear fellow and I do hope that your reaction to it is a mild one if at all.

Hey, Richard, saw a great interview on Colbert last night with Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci about their new film Supernova--looks like it's been getting a lot of positive buzz.

'Morning, RD, and happy Thursday.

Glad you didn't have any reaction to the vaccine, glad you got it.

I'm offended that I had to register with the county - why couldn't they have started working on a master list months ago, culled from doctors offices and voter rolls, even the census? Privacy be damned in this case.

Hello Richard, Paul and all the other regulars from the old times. I came by to check some new book recommendations. Glad to see that you are OK and still going strong in this forum and that you got 2020 behind you unscathed.

>114 trandism: Nick! It's lovely to see you here. I am no longer on FB, so it's an extra pleasure.

Come by any time, we're all here, or most of us anyway.

>113 karenmarie: Efficiency? In government?! Do you know how many Repulsivecans would be up in their fake outrage mode? There would be bombings and kidnappings and all the other tools of totalitarianism the right-wingers use to force their way on people they can't force to vote for their regressive, unjust policies.

My arm's still not sore! Not even a site-specific owwie. I wuz robbed.

Nope, sorry, I don't want the government accessing my health records. It's little enough to ask people who are able to to register, so that limited resources can be spent on trying to reach those without internet access, regular medical care, or even permanent addresses.

>112 ronincats: Buzz is good, maybe the awards will follow the trail. I doubt it, but that's just the way it is. I'll be watching! *smooch*

>111 PaulCranswick: It's like nothing happened, PC, I'm a little disappointed. No tiny twinge, even. But maybe the second one will feel like they lit a fire in me, or at least hurt going in!

>110 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita! Twenty days and counting before it happens again.

>11 Ameise1: They already can, and do. Your doctor has a legal responsibility to maintain your identity in their files, as does your pharmacy.

And if you're worried about unauthorized snooping on your health, get rid of your half-bit fruit watches and phones and their fitness apps...the devices' transponders tell the surveillers where you eat, where you drive. etc etc all without warrants because the devices are empowered to do so "for performance-enhancement purposes" and to show you "relevant ads" and how else does satnav work?

You've never been alive during a time where people had privacy. I barely existed before it really started eroding.

Popping in to add my congratulations for the vaccine. First step back toward normalcy.

>119 Oberon: Thank you, Erik! I'm extra pleased because my response to the vaccine is simply to take it in stride...my immune system appears to have looked at it, said, "oh yeah, you again," and gone about its business.

Happy almost weekend! I can't wait until I can have the vaccine. It will be awhile for me though.

Morning Richard. I enjoyed perusing your reviews up there. I also loved Milkman. I have Less on my shelves and keep feeling ambivalent about starting it. I liked Lincoln in the Bardo more than you did but it's less memorable than some of the praise it has received would suggest.

Other than that, it's Thursday, I'm dealing with a boatload of unnecessary and annoying drama at work, and it's 3 days, 7 hours, and 34 minutes until I wrap up Dry January.

Happy Thursday, Richard! I loved your reflection on The Sacrament on the book's page. I have Less sitting on my night stand ready to go and I had already been ambivalent about it. I bought it when in London and it seemed like a can't miss airplane read for the trip home but it was a miss (I chalked it up to being too tired). Then my book club chose it at my suggestion. Ironically, I wasn't able to read the book at the time they that did and the group was split between loved it and hated it factions. I'll probably give it a go and Pearl Rule it if it still isn't doing anything for me.

ETA: Great news from your cardiologist! Something to celebrate.

>123 AMQS: Hi Anne! Yes, my cardio report has left me very, very satisfied with my stroke risk. The new blood-pressure regimen at night is also allowing me to sleep 4 hours at a time, which is a lovely change, and adds up to a bit over 7 hours a night. That's plenty.

Thanks re: The Sacrament, a book that's more effective in my memory than it even was as I read it. Less, well the less I say the better. Haw.

>122 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! Thank you for visiting...and HISSBOOHISS on unnecessary drama. That first sip of wine will be so welcome, I just know. I refer you to my comment about Less above, though this time with a curled lip. You'll see why when you decide to start it....

>121 leperdbunny: Hi Tamara, and thanks for the weekend wishes, which goodness knows I'm happy to receive.

Did I forget to mention before that back in the day I was a big Chris Van Allsburg fan? The two you mention, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi and Jumanji, were two favorites. I haven't kept up with him more recently, and should take a look.

I liked Less a lot. I hope it clicks with Anne.

Congratulations on getting your first vaccination shot! I'm getting mine tomorrow morning. I'm gobsmacked - I never expected it to be possible in January.

>125 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe, it's still irritatingly inactive...like nothing happened at all. Makes me a little nervous...unless it means big brawny immuno-me is just underwhelmed by this virus. After all, the only symptoms I had when I tested positive were anosmia and fatigue...and a few years ago when my body tried to kill me to get the Krystexxa outta there, it seems I was monstering an immune response that couldn't even be tamed by methotrexate.

I'd always prefer people to love their reads, fer sher, otherwise good reading time is lost forever.

Wait...doesn't your age shuffle you to the head of the line? I thought superseniors got it earliest! Must be some perks to having three digits in one's age.

Congrats on finishing the vaccine process, Richard, and without any major side effects. Still waiting here for the supply to catch up...I am not quite ancient enough to qualify for the highest priority group.

Go to my thread and look at what I discovered in the attic today!

>127 ronincats: Hi Roni! I shall coddiwomple thitherward directly.

Yay for vaccination! Excellent news :) We are still on the over 75s over here, so *shrug*

Oh gosh, it's so lovely to hear that you've had your first jab in an efficient and safe and timely manner!

>130 London_StJ: It made me feel so much better, my dear, so much more like I was an actual person! It's easy to feel deeply how sidelined people in my situation inevitably are, so this was a relief to my abraded ego.

Now if Gates would stop yammering in my brainpan about GameStop....

>129 BekkaJo: It sounds like the bungling continues, sadly. I'm so sorry, Bekka.

I got confirmation of my first jab (had the date, but they sent me a time yesterday) and an appointment for the 2nd a month later. Moderna. Just need to stay uninfected for 25 more days!

So cold and windy here. Like stupid windy. Can't imagine what it's like on the water... Stay warm!

>132 katiekrug: Yay!! You'll be fine, I'm sure, since y'all don't take looney chances and also aren't unhealthy in the ways that predict high COVID risks.

So so so windy, and as a result freezing cold in my room! I'm on the windtunnel side...all the way from the Atlantic to the bay uninterrupted on Laurelton Avenue. The winds are *fierce* and, baseboard heaters cranked to 80°, it's only 55° in here.

*brr*

Sending you warm thoughts, BigDaddy!

>133 richardderus: - Okay, no more complaining from me! Hope you have a pile of blankets!

Glad you’ve got you jab. I had a text today for my appointment, so I’ve got it booked in for next Wednesday.

>136 SandDune: Yay! It really was just...nothing, Rhian, so I hope it's the same for you.

>135 katiekrug: Two blankys and a comforter. As long as I stay under them, I'm roasty-toasty warm. And the sun's on this side of the building now, so I've got the blinds up to let it in.

>134 Crazymamie: OOoooOOoOOOooo
*slurpslurpgobble
mmfffmmmooo
(translation: thank you sweetiedarling)

Ooof, I do not miss my apartments with baseboard heaters which were not always up to competing with winter temperatures. Soup tonight?

>138 MickyFine: Chili! (With Mexican Rice-a-Roni.)

Thank GOODNESS the wind's died down! That and the afternoon sun shining directly in the windows have mitigated the chill.

^What a great story about the snowy in Central Park, eh? Happy Friday, Richard!

>139 richardderus: Ooh chili is an excellent choice also! I'd ship you some of the cornmeal muffins I made to go with our chili earlier this week but I don't think they'd make it in time.

Our living room upstairs has SW exposure, which is wonderful in the winter, although on weekdays I have to watch about opening blinds up there as it's close to the thermostat and it'll fool the furnace into thinking I don't need heat where I work in the basement. :P

>141 MickyFine: Oh, nonono, no basement-unheaties to go with the bad-day lockout! The heating of the westering sun is very welcome!

Just turned off the crockpot full of cornbread. Just a step ahead of ya there...:-P

>140 msf59: Isn't it?! I love this pause in human-blocked nature, don't you?

My brain wasn't working this morning and I forgot to stop in and say hi.

Hi.

*smooch*

>143 karenmarie: *smooch*

You're here now, that'll do just fine.

>142 richardderus: Perfect dinner then. *weekend smooches*

>145 MickyFine: It really was. Hit every spot.

adding my *weekend smooches* to the bunch

>147 EBT1002: Thank you, Ellen! *smooch*

And a respectful fist-bump to P.

Oh no! Heres something that should warm you up. Hot chocolate with Tequila and a dash of cayenne.

>48 richardderus: Glad I could bring a smile to your day.

Congratulations on getting your jab with every/ no side effects. Myself, I hate needles *shudder*

Wishing you a happy Saturday. And a warm one. Nothing worse than being chilled.
And, >149 figsfromthistle:, please may I have one of those, light on the tequila, before elevenses is a bit early to be drunk in charge of a human being.

>151 Helenliz: ... but sometimes may be preferable. ;0)

>152 humouress:, >151 Helenliz:, >150 humouress: What Nina said

>149 figsfromthistle: I hope you brought a BIIIG bottle....

Hiya, RDear. Happy Saturday to you. I hope you're much improved from yesterday's coldcoldcold and dehydrated from BP meds as reported on Mamie's thread.

*smooch*

>149 figsfromthistle: - WANT.

Good Saturday morning to you, RD. No wind here but still cold. Very sunny. Not a bad day, really. I think we are forecasted for snow on Monday. I hope it doesn't impede the delivery of our new car...

Have a happy day!

>155 katiekrug: Hm, an Onion-Ring Teaser invasion. Goody. *grumblegrumble*

Oh, I really hope no one's weenie enough to say "it's too cold" about delivering the new car! How exciting. Post pictures, k?

>154 karenmarie: Greetings Onion-Ring Teaser. *grumble*

Still feeling the effects of not upping hydration, annoyingly, but in general more sanguine because the wind's died down. It's not as frosty, thank dog.

*smooch*

Hi RD,
Did you post anything in the reviews on Talk last fall for The Invisible Husband of Frick Island (Colleen Oakley)?
I requested this way last fall and only just was approved last week. So far, I'm just not engaging very well with the theme (concept, I mean) of the story.
If I saw some reviews, it might just perhaps encourage me to persevere. There seemed to be such a good buzz about the book.

>157 SandyAMcPherson: No, I might have reported that I got a DRC of it from Berkley; I couldn't get past the first 25%. Just blah, characterless writing, though I really really liked the idea. Grief is deeply fascinating to me, I've done so much of it.

31 The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

Rating: 2.5* of five

I received a DRC of this title from the publisher. I made it 25% of the way through and just didn't care to be tediously muttered at one more minute. Flat, uninvolving prose, which is very, very much not what I expected.

I absolutely love the idea for this book, since I've spent so much of my own life grieving, and was really bitterly disappointed in the execution of the story.

(since >157 SandyAMcPherson: asked....)

>159 richardderus: I'm very relieved to read that review, especially the candid "... didn't care to be tediously muttered at one more minute." Indeed.

You know that thing one tends to do? "Is it me? Or is this just prose that is killed by lots of words but nothing evocative?"

Or as Richard says,"uninvolving prose". Thanks for the report, we need a few of the less than 3-star book reviews. It is sort of like science research needing a Journal of Negative Results. Except that'll never happen.
So, I will abandon Colleen Oakley's boring little novel without a backward look.

>160 SandyAMcPherson: It was a real disappointment. I was just not prepared to spend my remaining life-force forcing myself to encounter this plodding stuff.

Good decision, Sandy! I'm all for leaving stuff behind that's fodder for that urgently necessary Journal of Negative Reviews.

>161 richardderus: I love this: Journal of Negative Reviews.
As a community service, maybe there should be a thread with that as its title? (Nope, not going to start such a thing!).

>162 SandyAMcPherson: Neither me! I get lots of nastygrams when I dare not to like something, or not like it in the way that particular woman wants me to. So nevermore.

Oh, January went well >3 richardderus:-goals-wise. Thirteen posts on my blog of thirteen needed to reach my goal of 150; 31 total reviews of 16 needed to reach the total-reviews-posted goal of 190; comfortably ahead of the 8 posted Burgoines needed to make the totally arbitrary 99 for the year. (I don't expect to finish review #32 before tomorrow ends. I'm kind of under the weather.)

I really, really owe 'Nathan Burgoine a debt of gratitude for this technique. Less stress, more productivity, a golden combo.

>149 figsfromthistle: *Slurp!* Thanks for sharing.

>163 richardderus: Boo, hiss! to people who can't take constructive negative feedback.

>159 richardderus: Thanks for suffering so the rest of us don't have to.

I'm hoping that you are over the weather when you wake up in the morning and that you finish the weekend in fine style. Stay warm! Read something good!

>162 SandyAMcPherson: >163 richardderus: I've got some reviews I could contribute. Although usually when I think of a book that I wasn't impressed by and thought I had dissed, if I go back and look at my review, I've given it 3 stars. I mean, fair enough, they've written the book and got it published, which is more than I've done.

>149 figsfromthistle: make that a double :)

Hey RD, did the tequila ho cho perk you up?

Good morning, RDear.

Coffee, books, rain. Sorta blech today, so far, coffee notwithstanding.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>169 karenmarie: Horrible! Glumness has invaded?! Cast it out: More coffee, books, and pork chops on that grim ol' rain.

I'm looking at dull grey skies, too, though precipitationless blessedly.

>168 LovingLit: *wince*ooch* juuust fine *wince* if they'd just turn off that damned spotlight

>167 humouress: Having been inside that machine, Nina, I'm less likely to give them that credit. It's a total crap-shoot who gets published and, believe you me, there is no reward for quality in that industry.

>166 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! That's the plan for today. Happy you're here!

Morning, BigDaddy! Grey dull skies here, too, but I like them. I made breakfast burritos yesterday, and they were so good that I am wanting more, so I might have to make those. I put some of that Hot Pepper Bacon Jam in them and they were da Bomb. I also like the sounds of the Mexican hot chocolate laced with tequila up thread.

>171 Crazymamie: Morning, Mamie dear. The addition of Hot Pepper Bacon Jam to the brekkie burritos sounds exquisitely scrummy, must must try that soon.

The Cafe Corona near my old house in Austin made a breakfast burrito with *literally*everything* on it...bacon, refritos, sour cream or crema if you asked for it, jalapeños fresh and/or pickled, cheese, guacamole on the side the list went on...and the only time I've ever spent $7 on one breakfast burrito was there. Worth it!

I'm all in for laced-up hocho.

Just flying by in my Tardis to say I hope you are well.

>173 BBGirl55: So YOU're the new Companion! Lucky you.

Happy that you swung by, Bryony!

Man, that burrito sounds good! I’m firmly convinced that a breakfast burrito is The Perfect Food.

>175 drneutron: I'm a breakfast burrito fan but ... not that one, LOL.

Glad your reading is going well, and I also want to thank the OP for that method of reviewing. It is great.

>176 majkia: Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted it on Twitter a couple years ago, Jean, and I located it late last year. It's a life-saver!

Apparently he was a book-store manager once upon a time, and needed a structure to empower his staff to write come-ons for the books they picked to feature.

>175 drneutron: I think the Mexican place about 3/4 of a mile from my house would blench if I asked them to recreate that!

>164 richardderus: A productive start of the year, Richard dear, and on track for your goals!
I wish I could write reviews like you do, I don't even manage to do that in Dutch. Although my incidental Dutch reviews (on a Dutch book site) come out better. In Englsh I have to look up to many words.

>178 FAMeulstee: Thank you for the compliment, Anita, I appreciate it...but your reviews are exemplary partly because this isn't your first language but also because you're so very clear and concise in conveying the subject as well as your own opinion.

Snowmageddon has begun!

Well done on your reviews this month. You're an inspiration *smooch*

>179 richardderus: Thank you, Richard dear.

Congrats on your January reading and reviews! Now off to February!

>182 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori! It's a nice change to have a small cushion to start a plague year with. I hope to build on it in February, wish me luck.

>181 FAMeulstee: Honest observation, my friend!

>180 katiekrug: *eeek*

Thank you, my dear. I'm most grateful.

>183 richardderus: Fingers crossed!

>183 richardderus: Because you've had more experience with plagues than the rest of us? You fell short with your books in the 17th century, perhaps? ;0)

>185 humouress: Yyyeeesss...the early 80s were, shall we say, busier for me than for straight people, and isolation garb isn't as new to me as others.

Hope you are staying warm, Richard. I see our rain storm from the other day is almost there and a whole lot colder.

>164 richardderus: Way to crush those goals :) *waves pompoms*

'Morning, RD! Looks like you've got weather - "Snow Blowing Snow Freezing Fog and Windy" and 7-11 inches of snow predicted by the NWS.

Stay warm, stay safe, enjoy books coffee, and etc.

*smooch*

>189 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! The NWS is spot-on. It's snowing to beat the band and the wind's from the east so I'm on the lee side of the building, for a wonder. I love watching snow fall. I won't be walking around in it, it's true, so I'm going to be aesthetically unchallenged by cold feet, yucky sludgy boots, and a soggy hat.

*smooch*

>188 BekkaJo: Thanks, Bekka! I'm right pleased by my performance. And it's really all down to 'Nathan Burgoine and his Method!

>187 ronincats: It's toasty in here, Roni, because I'm on the lee side of the building and so don't have the wind whistling in the windowframes. What a difference it makes.

Morning, RD!

Enjoy that snow fall from the comfort of your abode!

>164 richardderus: A book a day - way to go, RD. I guess getting snowed in will only make you read more.

>192 PaulCranswick: For decades, finishing a book a day was the norm for me. I've grown so much slower in my reading!

>191 katiekrug: It's SO pretty today, I can barely stand it. Parking lots look so *elegant* in the snow. A feat they never, ever manage otherwise.

>193 richardderus: I have never quite been able to maintain that pace RD - I hope that when I don't have my projects pressing my time so much I might be able to settle into a rhythm of say 5 books a week.

>194 PaulCranswick: To be fair, PC, that pace was me reading in peace almost all the time. After 1982, no kids on a daily basis, after 1992 no man living with me, nothing I didn't invite in distracting me. It makes a *huge* difference!

>195 richardderus: A clear mind with no stressful distractions does lend itself to many life improvements. I am no golfer by any means but without any feeling of guilt at spending much of my off day not with the family (i.e. with SWMBOs blessing) I have been known to actually be able to hit the ball straight occasionally.
A weekend free of appointments can see me read four or five books so it could be doable I suppose for me too.

^We got 20 inches or so that time but we still got a solid foot this time around. I am sure glad my days of trudging through it are gone. Sounds like the N.E. is getting hammered now.

Happy Monday, Richard. The Only Good Indians is not a smooth read but I am finding it interesting, never the less.

>197 msf59: Gadzooks! I'm looking at, at most, 3in outside my window. But here next to the ocean we really don't get heavy snows all that often. The storm needs to be powerful to deposit too much this close to the wildly unpredictable winds that prevail beachside.

I'm a bit surprised you don't think The Only Good Indians is not-smooth!

>196 PaulCranswick: Dig we must, eh what?

Hope your Monday is warm and book filled!

>199 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle, you pretty much called it. I'm toasty due to the wind cooperatively blowing its storm-breath from the east; and I'm flitting among books I am only slightly enjoying because I still feel punk and will for a few more days while the new dosages kick in.

Breakheart Pass is the current occupant of the pole position. First time in almost 50 years that I've read it.

>186 richardderus: :200 Glad you're warm and toasty alee of the wind. We got lovely, lovely snow, and I was out on skis this morning. Happy day!

>200 richardderus: That's a MacLean story I've never heard of. I went through a MacLean kick in the 1990s since my FWB of the time had a whole collection of mmpbs. I can well believe it's been 50 years since your last read of it. I saw Where Eagles Dare on tv not long ago, and boy, did it evoke some nostalgia. Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood were so young!!

>200 richardderus: Blimy, that's a blast from the past. I read any number of his books as a teen and sobbed my heart out over HMS Ulysses. Probably not read any of his books since.

32 The Man Who Lost the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon

Rating: 4* of five

To his left is only starlit sea, windless. In front of him across the valley, rounded hills with dim white epaulettes of light. To his right, the jutting corner of the black wall against which his helmet rests. (He thinks the distant moundings of nausea becalmed, but will not look back yet.) So he scans the sky, black and bright, calling Sirius, calling Pleiades, Polaris, Ursa Minor, calling that...that...Why, it moves! It is a fleck of light, seeming to be wrinkled, fissured, rather like a chip of boiled cauliflower in the sky.

There are few craftmasters whose voice allows them to make the process of proprioception explicit and unequivocal while inducing in the reader an actual memory of sea-sickness, and *still* reinforcing the Otherness of a science-fictional setting. How? Boiled cauliflower-like light!(Anyone who's been up high enough to see Earth's *many* satellites' stochastically changing albedo will recognize how exactly that description fits.) And in October 1959, when this story came out, Sturgeon was far from alone in having viewed Sputnik ("...madly, dawning a little north of west"), Earth's very first artificial moon, in its very low, very visible orbit.

...but where is he...? The finely trained brain of a man with a scientific education has not been taxed by the man's odd, unchanging position or his echoing breaths. He's noted the winking vegetal floret of light in the sky has a strangely long period...a matter of almost eight hours...derived from his observations of its parallax. And the more he thinks, the more he remembers the glorious moment when...what? What memories is he reliving? The moment when he damn near killed himself through a combination of pride and hubris while diving a tropical reef. That moment, half-formed manchild became the man who...is here...but where is here? What is here? What has happened?

I won't spoil the ending. It's a nine-page read and well worth your eyeblinks. The title is a link to a free online read. I definitely think you should devote a bit of time to celebrating science.

>202 Helenliz: No special reason you should, Helen, he's not really a stylist extraordinaire. Story, propulsive story, is his specialty. Nuance? Um...well...so, yeah, no.

>201 justchris: The film of this one was a Charles Bronson–Jill Ireland pulse-pounder, remember? Not the finest cinema, but a pretty exciting movie.

Alastair MacLean - Oh my goodness! Yep. I was there sometime in the 60s or 70s.

Glad you can enjoy the sights from inside, Richard.

>205 LizzieD: I am too, Peggy, very very glad indeed. The east wind's picked up quite a lot, and the blown-snow effect is getting worse but the actual snowfall's pretty puny. Not quite 6" yet.

He wrote such awful women...names with a tic or two to prevent them from melting into the walls too far...but he was *aces* at "whathappensnextomigawd"ness. And, to my surprise, at the greyness of real-life motivations. His Native Americans (called in period style "Indians") aren't Bad Guys. They want what they want to reclaim their ancestral way of life, not to blood-thirstily murder white folks and rape they womens.

>200 richardderus: & >205 LizzieD: Grew up with Alistair MacLean and Hammond Innes and have re-read most of them at least once. Quite right that the literary merit is dubious but they do set the pulse racing. Most of MacLean's books were filmed at some stage.

33 Breakheart Pass by Alistair MacLean

Rating: 3.5* of five

Precisely ninety-eight minutes after I started this re-read, I completed it. Well, no sense in dawdling, now is there, when there's really nothing much to "see" or what-have-you. MacLean wasn't a descriptive writer, had no ear for dialogue, and wasn't familiar with the US West; go fight them odds.

He also wrote such awful women...names with a tic or two to prevent them from melting into the walls too far to be even detected...but he was *aces* at "omigawdwhathappensnextomigawd"ness. And, to my surprise, at the greyness of real-life motivations. His Native American (called in period style "Paiutes" which, well, just ain't one thing and...nevermind) aren't Bad Guys. They want what they want to reclaim their ancestral way of life, not to blood-thirstily murder white mens and rape they womens.

The first time I read this ancient hardcover was in 1974. My older sister the bookstore lady was going to send it back to the publisher unsold and I successfully wheedled it out of her. I don't remember how long it took me to read the book, but it couldn't have been a lot longer than this re-read took. There simply isn't enough there there to demand a close, attentive read.

It did pass the ninety-eight minutes well enough, which is really all I asked of it.

>204 richardderus: and >207 PaulCranswick: Action was what I wanted when I was in my 20s, so I really enjoyed MacLean's oeuvre back when. But yeah, terrible about women.

Morning, BigDaddy! I got nothing, but I wanted to share it with you.

'Morning, RD, and happy Tuesday to you. Have a toasty-warm, coffee-infused, and book-filled day.

*smooch*

Hope your punk funk lifts soon!

V jealous of >197 msf59: We get so little snow - and nothing ever like that! It looks like royal icing.

That said, the island grinds to a halt at the merest idea of more than one flake so maybe I'm not jealous. There is little enough open at the moment without anything else shutting down!

>190 richardderus: always wondered if the proper term was "Snowing to beat the band" or "Snowing to beat the ban"?

I've heard it both ways

>200 richardderus: I used to read Alistair Maclean for lazy days or comfort food. Love the can-you-top-this elements of some of his plots. Liked the Charles Bronson movie of Breakheart Pass rather more than it deserved.

But When Eight Bells Toll was my drug of choice at the MacLean counter. By the time he got to Puppet on a Chain he had fallen splat! into self-parody

>203 richardderus: Theodore Sturgeon --- happy sigh. There's craft and there is passion and there is such! good! writing! in his books. (burrowing in the stack to find my dog eared copy of More Than Human, just to revisit "Die Maestro Die!"

I'm rather envious of the snow folks are getting, mostly because I worry about the impact this summer of having such a dry winter. Of course, as I write that, we are having a day of steady rain. But it would be better for the wheat fields and forests if it were a steady snow. Oh well.

I love your review of Breakheart Pass. Not sure the book is my cuppa but I love your review.

Happy Tuesday!!

>149 figsfromthistle: That looks delightful!

Happy Tuesday Richard!

34 Four and Twenty Blackbirds: Short Story by Agatha Christie

Rating: 2.5* of five

The truth is this midnight library borrow took less time to read than I took watching its film; I suppose that was to be expected. It wasn't any great shakes as a mystery but it was just what I needed. Poirot being a tiny bit obtuse? Even by phone?!

It wasn't great but I wasn't expecting that it would be.

Agatha Christie's Poirot S01E04

Rating: 3* of five

The need to fill an entire (fifty-minute) hour with this simple story of greed and murder led the dramatizers Russell Murray and Clive Exton to spin a more elaborate web...adding an estrangement between twins, a strangely publicly known *absence* of testamentary dispositions, a muddled though believable plot to Do the Deed though lacking in the malice that usually activates the greedy perp's actions.

Still not top-drawer stuff but lovely. That is, if one simply tunes out the most stunningly tedious Hastings subplot ever. Cricket? Ew.

Well, it was a blah little storm. About 6in actual snow but windy, and so drifts accumulated. Our phones and wifi went out about 4am and just came back on at 11am, so I got more reading done...doing a second read of Stina Leicht's Persephone Station for a review. Plus dove head-first into A Master of Djinn and am übergruntled. Steampunk Cairo with Arabian-Nights majgickq? More please.

Slept badly, am still adjusting to the new med regime and it is not proving easy. So I might be spottily around if the napbeast grabs me. Rob and I talked all night, with our main topic how insane straight people are...the *instant* Valentine's Day dine-in became possible, the place was booked. And the special-meal orders for their delivery guys? Completely booked as well. Anyone who just happens to call for delivery is S.O.L.

>216 leperdbunny: Thank you, Tamara, the same to you!

>215 EBT1002: I know what you mean, Ellen...Bonnie in Buffalo talking about a snowless winter scares me leaky. Weather varies, of course, but the widespread instability of what we're getting-vs-what we expect makes me afraid it's the climate not the weather.

I'm so glad you liked my review! Do not, under any circumstances, read the book. You will loathe it.

*smooch*

>214 magicians_nephew: I had to look up Puppet on a Chain as I don't so much as possess a wisp of memory of it.

'I am sorry, Miss Lemay. This must have been a great shock to you and it’s all my fault. Will you come and have a drink with me? You look as if you need one.’
She dabbed her cheek some more and looked at me in a manner that demolished all thoughts of instant friendship.
‘I wouldn’t even cross the road with you,’ she said tonelessly. The way she said it indicated that she would willingly have gone half-way across a busy street with me and then abandoned me there. If I had been a blind man.
‘Welcome to Amsterdam,’ I said drearily and trudged off in the direction of the nearest bar.

The "drearily" part is spot-on, but gawd what a hot mess.

Sturgeon's greatest strength was short fiction, and preferably the high-concept kind. His novels were weirdly misshapen. Still, we have the complete short fiction in, what?, twelve or thirteen volumes. It's a genuine service to fankind to make that all available.

>213 BekkaJo: Like the American South, the existence of actual frozen flakes on the ground is An Occasion and needs must be experienced by all hands up close and personal.

Me, I'm blasé about it now.

>212 ChelleBearss: Me too, Chelle, and thanks!!

>211 karenmarie: Thank'ee Horrible, I intend to follow your directions as near to the letter as I can manage. *smooch*

>210 Crazymamie: Mamie dear! My day is brightened with every stop-in. *smooch*

>209 justchris: *Terrible* and so weirdly so. I mean, it's not like he was a dab-hand at characterization anyway, but since he clearly lusted after women, one would think he'd have A Type. But no...all of 'em were protoplasmic lumps that moved by teleportation for all the affect they had on the world.

>207 PaulCranswick: Hammond Innes...I *must* have some tanned old mmpbs around here somewhere. I know I've got some Geoffrey Households, too. And an Eric Ambler sampling. I mean,when all one wants is a little kinetic skulduggery, them's the mens to do it for you!

>218 richardderus: Ooh, Cairo steampunk? Sign me up!

>219 richardderus: It is the climate. People around here exclaim with joy when we have balmy, sunny days above freezing, and while I appreciate them, I also experience so much dread. Like, we're celebrating Earth's fever, folks! Can't you see it?

You know what one of my favorite things about retirement will be? Having the time to visit your thread more regularly, because it is interesting, funny, engaging, and friendly.

And I agree that it's the climate. The science is unequivocal (if not entirely refined - but that is so normal). In the early days of this pandemic, one interpretation that I appreciated was that the virus was actually Earth's immune system kicking in, trying to rid itself of its greatest threat.

It's weird how incorrigibly optimistic I can be while at the same time deeply pessimistic about the long-term future of so many things (democracy, the Earth, etc.). I love having a sane administration in the White House but honestly, I think our republic is in deep doodoo.

On that cheerful note, *another smooch* !!!!

Must be some perks to having three digits in one's age. I do get a discount on candles for the birthday cake, but that's about it. Having a fast computer and a savvy daughter telling me where to apply seems to have helped the most with getting the vaccine appointment.

You'll be happy to hear that I'm reading and enjoying Penelope Fitzgerald's Human Voices. I've also got the new Easy Rawlins book, Blood Grove, arriving any minute.

>224 jnwelch: *chuckle*

YAY! for newbookness! I got my much-desired copy of The Politics of Petulance today, a giftie from Stephanie, and am annoyingly not in the right frame to read it.

>223 EBT1002: Humanity is a scourge on the Earth and will, in the way of all scourges, rid the planet of itself. Yippee.

I'm looking forward to the days we can have more Ellen time around the whole place, and am just so chuffed you're game to spend some of the time here! *smooch*

>222 justchris: It's SO good, Chris. SO.GOOD. The first story's free at Tor.com!

I came here from a link you posted on my thread ~ but I seem to have landed at Post #164. Was that what you meantt? Sure is succinct!

Thanks for the push this way.

>226 SandyAMcPherson: Yes, Sandy, that was the place I put the January stats report! I'm deeply pleased with myself that, this year, I've started off with a tidy little productivity cushion. So I pointed you to my brag-post in >164 richardderus: so you could be duly impressed.

>227 richardderus: *Impressed* for sure. I am blown away by how speed-ready you are!
And very insightful reviews.
I've really fallen down because I used to put in too many spoilers and then I stopped and now my reviews are probably mainly useful to me.

I see you’re on to the next Clarke. Cairo steampunk indeed! Gotta get to that one.

35 The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly by Agatha Christie

Rating: 3.5* of five

The sheer bloodyminded awfulness of the British Country Squire is on flagrant display here, as is Poirot's tinge of snobbishness in his willingness to cater to the dreadful man. As the story progresses, the unkidnappèd kid who is the focus of an escalating set of written ransom demands to *not* nab him is, finally, snatched. Mother and Father each react peculiarly...but Poirot, with a series of tiny details and a low opinion of Humanity, sifts, collates, and solves.

The ending was delightful.

Agatha Christie's Poirot S01E03

Rating: 2.5* of five

The kid was awful, the dad was *terrible*, and what worked well on the page decidedly did not on screen. The ending, which I thoroughly enjoyed in writing, came across as distastefully and avoidably callous and uncaring. It was the first season so there's a mitigating factor but overall stick to the story version.

>229 drneutron: Haste! Haste! It is a very good read indeed. I'm not quite ready to drop off but too woolly to waste the wonderful Clark-words, so I borrowed another Poirot shorty.

>228 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy, but most of these are re-reads so they don't require a lot of concentration.

>230 richardderus: Plenty of material to go at with Poirot, non? Apart from the very famous ones I do like Dumb Witness.

Have a good Wednesday when you get to it, RD.

Morning, BigDaddy! I am wanting to get to that Clark book, too - it's in the stacks.

>233 Crazymamie: Hiya Mamie!Oh, it's a really good read, so don't wait too long. You'll do less self-kicking than you will the longer you wait.

>232 PaulCranswick: Heh, well, Dame Ags got tired of him so how can we not?

Hiya, RD!

I'm caller 150 in the scheduling queue for a vaccine appointment. 11 minutes in... speakerphone... we'll see if I get cut off or actually get to speak with a human being.

I hope you are feeling better after med regime change.

*smooch*

>235 karenmarie: Oh good, sort of...in the queue is annoying but inevitable since the roll-out has been so wildly uneven. I'll drop back by your place to see if you've got your jab date.

My Young Gentleman Caller, who is 25 for a few more weeks, sent this to me today with lots of LOLs and heart-eyes emojis.

I'm going with it.

>237 richardderus: - Perfect!

I know, right?! Hilarious!

>237 richardderus: Brilliant. I always say I'm actually only 26 on the inside. We'll ignore the outside. >;-)

>186 richardderus: You seem to be miffed at my teasing you about your age. It takes all the fun out of it; you might consider my feelings, you know. But, since you bring up AIDS in the '80s, have you come across a series called 'It's a Sin'? It's new in the UK, I suspect, so it might take a while to reach us folks out in the colonies.

>237 richardderus: Sadly, shipping & handling to Singapore often costs more than the product being shipped. Especially for lower cost items.

>241 humouress: No, not miffed; that is a subject of the greatest possible sensitivity to me, who lost so many (including a longtime companion) to it. It isn't your intention to cause me pain, but nonetheless that one time your words did, because it sounded like you were devaluing the life of those I loved and lost by not counting the time as one of plague.

Not at all what you intended, as you've made obvious. I apologize for being short with you.

Considering how many miles I've been shipped and handled, I relate to that cost! It's such a hilarious photo, too.

Hiya, RD and happy Thursday.

>237 richardderus: That’s great.

I’m back from my first dose of vaccine and scheduled for the second dose on the 24th. I got the Pfizer vaccine. Relief. Since Bill’s younger than me and turns 65 on the 20th, he can’t even try to get scheduled until the 20th.

>243 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! Isn't it? I love that Rob knows I'll laugh at that sort of silliness.

I'm delighted that you're first-dosed. Kinda stinks that Bill can't even *schedule* one until The Day Of.
***
I decided that, since I need to pay for the phone, I'd go out and buy the $6 gift card I need to use since I don't have a driver's license and therefore can't get a bank account. Sunshiney, 40°, melty slush...boots on, coat buttoned and gloves gloved, let's go!

Sigh.

A Ford F350 dualie decided to speed down the main road where I was walking on the sidewalk, and she hit a *giant* meltwater puddle as I was walking by...everything I was wearing got drenched in salty, stinky meltwater, the coat is now at the dry cleaners, and I threw the trousers away. I didn't want them in with the rest of the laundry.

I will note here that she had her Trump flags flying.

Expensive trip in more ways than one.

>244 richardderus: oh noes! That deserves a stern stare at such an inconsiderate driver. Just don't go catch a cold on us after that drenching.

>246 quondame: Some people.

People are trash.

>244 richardderus: Ugh she's terrible. I'm sorry, Richard.

Thanks for the sympathy, Helen, Susan, Katie, and Tamara. The coat cleaning will cost $10 and the tossed-away trousers just might not get replaced. I don't think an added ~$50 (if I decide to replace the trousers) on top of the usual it's-expensive-to-be-poor tax is anything other than sucky annoyance, but the sheer perfection of the filthy rotten flags coupled with the selfish behavior...she had to swing out of traffic, drive in the gutter, and get to the right turn *before* others...could've made me any angrier.

>244 richardderus: So sorry this happened to you, Richar dear. Some car drivers are so inconsiderate.

>250 FAMeulstee: Yes, it was *her* need to rush that had consequences she neither foresaw, nor gave any consideration to, that cost me a very significant fraction of my monthly income.

And she got wherever she wanted to be a few seconds faster.
***
This article on the Senate filibuster is very, very important reading: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/examining-the-case-against-the-fil...

Sheesh. I think my response would have been a lot ruder than the *stare*...hopefully, she gets a ticket or a flat tire before her day is over. That would seem about right.

>252 jessibud2: I concur! (My response was to focus on getting as much crud off me as I could.)

>249 richardderus: A pox on her tires

>244 richardderus: Yikes. That's terrible. It sucks to have your day ruined, and I think it's worse when the ruin isn't even noticed, or even worse considered appropriate for being poor in public (ie, a pedestrian on the sidewalk).

>255 justchris: Thanks for the sympathy, Chris. Those people are low in all meanings of the word.

>254 London_StJ: Ha!! Perfect. They cost the earth, those tires.

ETA spelling!

>244 richardderus: Sorry to hear that, Richard. May she hit every red light for the rest of her driving life ;)

>257 figsfromthistle: Ooo! Creative and cruel! I'm impressed, Anita. Canadians are supposedly so nice....
***
Spend a few minutes learning the science of why our reading slows down as we age: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSlM2yV7ZcM/

>242 richardderus: And I apologise for causing you pain, unintentional as it was, as you noted.

>243 karenmarie: Eugh. We tend not to have that experience here (despite all the rain) because a) they're always and forever digging up the roads to fill in potholes that don't exist yet (no just dumping asphalt in a hole; it's the full works) and b) if there are floods, it makes national headlines.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>244 richardderus: No DL. Okay. But it appears that NY has an Identification Card. NC does too, and at least here it can be used to set up a bank account.

I’m sorry about the drenching. And a trumpie on top of it.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>259 humouress: *smooch*

>260 karenmarie: Oh, the megilla behind that ID card. Not today.

Happy Friday, Horrible! *smooch*
***
SOMEone woke up mad. Heh.

I'm sure I visited your thread, Richard, but it ain't this one.

I just say 'nHi! How are you?'

>262 connie53: Hi there, Connie! I'm fine, and you?

>261 richardderus: Wow, and I thought *I* was grumpy today. 😂

>264 drneutron: I know, right?! Whoo-EE he's gone mad!

>244 richardderus: I am infuriated on your behalf, and grossed out the 'that' flag is still made visible, presumably on purpose.

>266 LovingLit: Thanks, dearie, and while I'm all for people expressing themselves re: politics, it's telling that the ones who SHOUT IT IN YOUR FACE are also the ones who behave like bratty children...speeding past stopped traffic in the gutter is illegal, as well as stupid, and the absolute worst of it is that she could've done harm to someone when she ran the red light to make her turn. (No right turns on red because of heavy pedestrian traffic in the city.)

Stupid. On many levels.

>261 richardderus: He loves me again *happy tears*

>263 richardderus: I'm fine too, Richard. We are expecting lots of snow. The amount of snow we haven't seen since 1979. So we are prepared to stay home for 4 of 5 days and not having to venture out.

>1 richardderus: How is it possible that, in my yute, I overlooked a book with a table full of phallic images on its front cover?

>244 richardderus: Dear God, I hope she picked up a nail. I mean it only happened because she was impatient and broke the law.

I know you love all creatures great and small so I don't mind telling you that Parker the Great! aka Tinykin Skywalker aka Brother Fluffy has forgiven me for taking him to the new house that was empty and echoey and scary.

Morning, Richard! Happy Saturday. I am back from my trip to the Great White North. Funny, colder here than it was there. It will stay frigid here through next week, keeping me indoors. I can catch up on my reading, since I read nothing on my trip.

'Morning, RD! I hope you have a good day.

Coffee. Books. Take out for lunch. Normal Saturday stuff for me.

Happy Saturday *smooches*, Richard!

Good morning, RD! Rise and/or shine, as my father used to say...

>274 katiekrug: Heh, Dad was a wiseacre, wasn't he. Good on 'im. I've risen, shining is looking reasonably likely, so all is well it seems. *smooch*

>273 bell7: Hiya Mary! Happy weekend *smooches* back!

>272 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible, if one needs must be in a rut let it be as pleasant as yours is. *smooch*

>271 msf59: Perfect frigidation timing, then. Anything that assists you in overcoming the reading deficit (really, the only one that *actually* needs Washington's legislative intervention). Flip those pages!

>270 SomeGuyInVirginia: Well,it came out in 1981 and I seriously doubt you went into kids' book vending venues about that time.

Parker? Did you get a dog at last?!

>269 connie53: Wise to stay in, Connie. Those supersnows are best seen from the safety of the warm, dry house in my experience. Besides, books don't like snow almost as much as they don't like rain.

>268 humouress: Of course, silly supervillainess!

>276 richardderus: Excuse me. But supervillainesses are never silly.

Alright
a joke's a joke
'fess up
who sent me Charles Dickens: The Complete Novels?
ha ha ha

>276 richardderus: Well, no. Parker has made it plain that if I get another animal that's not a goldfish he will suffocate me while I'm asleep and then make a tiny superhero cape and domino mask out of my skin. And that's why I love him! He's so inventive!

>279 SomeGuyInVirginia: mmm

yes

inventive and just lightly murdery and sociopathic...so a c-a-t, then

>277 humouress: LOL

I hear and I obey, O Supervillainess

>278 richardderus: hahaha. It wasn't me, but whoever did ...Good one!

It wasn't me that sent you The Complete Novels of Charles Dickens, although sending you a box of his books has crossed my mind.

>237 richardderus: LOL!

I'm enjoying your Dame Agatha book and screen project. Did they ever adapt Dumb Witness, or did I miss your comments on that? Like Paul, that's one of hers that sticks in my mind, mainly because of the dog.

>278 richardderus: Gosh; wish I'd thought of that. Sadly, the postage from Singapore is prohibitive ... I'll have to think of something else.

>283 humouress: They were too cheap/smart for that. This was the 60¢ Kindle collection of all 15 novels. The actual books...! My goddesses, don't give this sadist ideas!

>282 jnwelch: They did adapt Dumb Witness, Joe, but Rob hasn't read it yet so I haven't reviewed it. We watch them together...he does some witchcrafty wizarding and we have them in our picturephone chats.

>281 mckait: mmm hmmm

You are still the prime suspect since you have my email addy and are annoyed with me.

>284 richardderus: There are worse ways to express annoyance.

Sorry to hear about your drenching by an inconsiderate driver, Richard, but nice to hear you got the jab. Not sure if we’ll get ours any time soon. No vaccine so restrictions no in place indefinitely.

>286 Familyhistorian: Oh, that's awful Meg. I'm sure it's better than having no restrictions therefore massive infection rates.

>285 quondame: There are? Well, possibly by w-bombing the victim, too. That would be worse.

>285 quondame: We could send him a cat. :0D

My age group keeps getting pushed later and later. I suspect I'll be lucky to get the Fauci ouchee by mid-summer.

>289 thornton37814: Oh for heaven's sake! These bureaucrats and their procrustean rules!

Godzilla all over 'em.

>288 humouress: No. We could not. Ha ha! I live in a state where live deliveries of non-husbanded animals is illegal, and I *guarantee* you I won't marry a cat.

Hiya, RDear! I hope that you’re back on an even keel meds-wise.

>275 richardderus: Yes, ruts are not to be sneezed at, to mix metaphors. I like things to be uneventful. I don’t like rigid schedules, however. That’s why I still do happy dances every day I don’t have to wake up to an alarm. This morning I didn't stir until 10 a.m. and Bill was contemplating coming upstairs to see how if I was alive. He has such bad knees that I know he was really worried.

>279 SomeGuyInVirginia: Parker’s very talented, isn’t he?

>289 thornton37814: Fauci ouchee – hadn’t heard that one, Lori.

My, my, discussions of you-know-whats. And someone giving you the novels of Chuckles the Dick. Life’s gotten very strange over here.

*smooch* from your own dear Horrible

>291 karenmarie: Yes, it *is* weird isn't it. Well, you know what I always say, "Progress is nothing but the victory of laughter over dogma."

(Not really, just learned it a few minutes ago in an article about Benjamin De Casseres.)

Ha! Bill really must've been concerned, climbing stairs on bad knees is a chore. How big a relief it must've been for him to find you groggily arising.

36 Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

I finally Burgoined this (read it in 2006) because I read Mamie's bleat of dissatisfaction with it. I really don't like the book at all.

I was exactly 2.5* impressed with it because transsexuals in Japanese (or US) literature are not common. As a value proposition, I encourage you to read representative sample quotes to see if your tolerance for glutinous prose is high enough to endure this. In general, I think it will give the greatest pleasure for specialist audiences.

>288 humouress: Nah, he'd just fallback on it's not being allowed - There is a book with the w-word as a title though.

Luis Feito, Composition (1962)

A Spanish Abstract Expressionist painter of global renown, Feito died of COVID 19 complications today. His work has always excited me, deep and lush colors with fascinating anarchic images and shapes! Purty, no?
***
>294 quondame: Darn tootin' I would. W-bombs are merely briefly unpleasant, rather like farts.

>295 richardderus: What a facinating painting, it is hard to keep the eyes from the bright red to see the whole.
Thanks for sharing, Richard, sorry it was because of sad news.

>296 FAMeulstee: Well, Anita, it's not like he was young...91...but still it's sad when we reckon the losses the plague has inflicted. Makes me so angry when I think of the unnecessary problems idiot ignorant science-deniers have inflicted on us.