Marissa Hits the Books in 2023

But I promise not to hit them too hard. 2022 was a weird year, and my reading more or less dried up apart from research material for work; I hope to strike a better balance this year.

Just finished the first book of the year: Blitz, the third book in the Chequey series. I enjoyed it and agree with clam and others that while it didn't quite reach the level of The Rook, it was more satisfying than Stiletto (which wasn't a bad book, but when compared with The Rook...) I did grin when I noticed the easter egg about Lady Sara Carmichael being Sara Crewe from Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess.

>1 Marissa_Doyle: I've been meaning to tell you how much I've been enjoying your Ladies of Almacks series. If I had actually kept up my reading journal last year, I would have posted about it, but that didn't happen.

Happy new year and happy new thread!

>1 Marissa_Doyle: Have a great 2023. Happy New Thread.

Happy new year to you, and much success on both sides of the page. Still following.

Happy New Year; happy new thread!

>1 Marissa_Doyle: Happy New Year, and may your reading and your writing bring you joy and the accolades you richly deserve.

I'm glad you enjoyed the book! How did I miss that Easter Egg!??! Probably because I'd forgotten that surname.

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Happy New Year and happy new thread! I know I mostly lurk here, but I do enjoy reading your thread.

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Happy reading in 2023!

Happy New Year! I hope it brings you lots of good books which I will undoubtedly take a hit on!

>2 NorthernStar: Oh my gosh, thank you. That means a great deal to me!
>8 clamairy: He snuck a few other details in there that made me say, "wait a minute..." and then a few other names that clinched it.
>3 haydninvienna:, >4 pgmcc:, >5 Meredy:, >6 hfglen:, >7 Bookmarque:, >8 clamairy:, >9 majkia:, >10 Karlstar:, >11 Narilka:, >12 libraryperilous:, >13 Sakerfalcon: Thank you all. It's really nice to be back and posting; I did read your threads last year when I could, and look forward to continuing to do so.

Second book of the year was a hit from Sakerfalcon, Gobbelino London and a Scourge of Pleasantries. While it definitely improved as the book went on, the voice and characters just didn't grab me for some indefinable reason...but I expect I'm an outlier.

>14 Marissa_Doyle: I read that author's first Toot Hansell book, which I had expected to be about dragons solving a mystery. It mostly was about the humans. :(

A little over a quarter of the way through Her Majesty's Royal Coven and enjoying it very much--definitely not light-hearted fantasy, though. Strong writing and strong female focus.

>16 Marissa_Doyle: Glad you're enjoying HMRC, but sorry Gobbelino didn't work for you.

Well. Her Majesty's Royal Coven packed a wallop (and ended on a heck of an "eeeeek!!" moment*). I'll be waiting anxiously to read the next one when it comes out. I noticed that the reviews of it here on LT are all over the place, which is hardly surprising: the book inserts the same issues concerning acceptance of identity and sexuality that are happening in the world today into a near-identical contemporary setting with magic. It works very well--can a trans woman be accepted into a coven in a world where women hold most of the magical power? So there are TERF issues and so on, and the circumstances of the story make a great vehicle for exploring them. Don't expect a light read--it's quite serious in tone: women's fiction that just happens to deal with witches and demons along with the usual other women's fiction themes.

Onto a bit on non-fiction to clear the reading palate--Lady Jane Grey, Nine Days Queen. It gives a great deal of interesting background and seems so far to be even-handed and informative if not very long (then again, neither was her life) but I confess myself irritated by the title. Should there be an apostrophe after "Days", or shouldn't there? Depends on how one views the function of the word, and I keep waffling on that. Perhaps I need a lie-down.

*It's not quite a cliffhanger, but sets up all sorts of trouble and conflict for the next book. Totally didn't see it coming!

I'm late finding your 2023 thread and in wishing you a happy new year and yet you still manage to target me with your recommendation! of Her Majesty's Royal Coven. I feel as if I really ought to give it a go! Is this part of a series that ought to be read in a specific order?

>18 Marissa_Doyle: My book club agreed to read Her Majesty’s Royal Coven for our February read. I’m super excited by your review! (It was a BB for me from someone else on here; can’t remember who.)

>19 jillmwo: Happy New Year to you as well! It's the first in a series (trilogy?), so the rest have not yet been released.

>20 catzteach: You'll have to report back--I'll be curious to hear what they think!

>18 Marissa_Doyle: The ending of HMRC took me by surprise too! Thinking about it, it makes sense because with Helena gone we need a new villain but I still didn't expect that.
Your comments behind the spoiler cover are spot on.

Finished Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain which I expected to enjoy very much and sort of...didn't. I found it unfocused; the author seemed to be inspired by several losses in his personal life (death, divorce, the Covid pandemic) to write about places in Britain that no longer exist for one reason or another. I picked it up because there was a chapter on a lost village in Yorkshire, Wharram Percy, which I had the good fortune to visit in a tour by Maurice Beresford, one of the lead archaeologists excavating it (and quite a character.) The chapters on Skara Brae and St. Kilda's were the most interesting in my opinion, but after a while, the book just felt like a lot of wallowing in loss.

On to The Changeling Garden which I picked up on sale at Barnes and Noble and which may turn into a DNF. The plot is intriguing--sentient plants are involved--but the writing is flat and just not very good, and peeking at reviews on Amazon reveal that the plot evidently whirls into melodramatic WTFery, so I may cut my losses and move on.

ETA: Yup, it's now officially a DNF after the main character referred to her mother, evidently a distinguished philologist, as "overeducated." I can't even.

>23 Marissa_Doyle: Shadowlands sounds very similar to Ghostland which I read a couple of years ago. The places the author visits are those which influenced Gothic and horror writers and filmmakers in the UK, but also driven by the author's personal losses. I enjoyed it but similarly found it to be unfocused, going from place to place at random. It did grow my wishlist considerably though.

>24 Sakerfalcon: I have Ghostland in my TBR pile as a BB from you. :) But my need to read something at the corner of travel and personal essay required further feeding, so I've moved on to Outlandish: Walking Europe's Unlikely Landscapes. It is much more satisfying a read than Shadowlands was; the writing is elegant, the background research is more gracefully introduced, not wielded as a bludgeon.

Also read, mostly over breakfast and lunch: A Georgian Cookery Book, which doesn't attempt to cover up the fact that food tastes have changed since the 18th century, but makes it possible to explore those changes by translating past recipes into modern ingredients and methods. Well done (if you'll excuse the pun.)

>25 Marissa_Doyle: Outlandish sounds excellent! Adding it to my wishlist ...

>25 Marissa_Doyle: So the Georgian in your cookbook refers to an era? Not the country or the state?

>27 MrsLee: Yes--basically 18th century England.

>27 MrsLee: and >28 Marissa_Doyle: You appear to be the only person holding that title here on LT.

>29 jillmwo: Heh. That happens not infrequently with my research books. Like Volume VII (1810-1811) of The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770-1812. That one's reasonably interesting, too.

Finished Outlandish and enjoyed it, though it did stray into the depressing when discussing how climate change is affecting some of the places he walked--not to mention the harm caused to them by greed and politics. I'm still glad I read it.

On to Lady Rosamund and the Plague of Suitors, the third book of a Regency mystery series I'm enjoying a great deal. Lady Rosamund is not your typical heroine of a Regency novel, being (in modern parlance) possessed of a moderate obsessive-compulsive disorder and demisexual. My reading will slow as work gears up, so I expect to be able to wallow happily for some days in this one.

>31 Marissa_Doyle: I had never heard the term demisexual. I Googled it. Interesting.

>31 Marissa_Doyle: and >32 catzteach: I had to check with Google up as well!

Re-read Venetia for a group read in the Georgette Heyer group on Goodreads. I wish our GH group here were active.

Also read a Regency mystery by Jane Aiken Hodge, Watch the Wall, My Darling. I have to assume it was an early effort because...yeah. I'll say no more.

Lady M: The Life and Loves of Elizabeth Lamb 1751-1818 Grumpy grump grump. A fascinating subject, poorly written about. Lady Melbourne was the mother of William Lamb, Queen Victoria's first prime minister, mother-in-law of Caro Lamb (lover of Lord Byron), and aunt of Annabella Millbanke, Byron's wife, as well as an important political hostess and general mover and shaker of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. So yes, interesting family situations, but even more so, a most interesting personality...but this book was so poorly organized and often badly written. One of the things which drove me to distraction was that the author, himself British, didn't seem to have the faintest clue on how to use titles--and evidently, neither did the book's copyeditor. That added a whole 'nother layer of confusion about who was who in a time where given names were often repeated between generations and social advancement frequent. Hence the grumping above.

On to some nice soothing science--The Brilliant Abyss, which has been sitting in my bedside TBR pile for a bit and should be read because I really need to dust there...

>35 Marissa_Doyle: Ouch! That sounds awful. But I do think you're going to love The Brilliant Abyss!

Dreadfully behind listing my reading here; I do need to catch up. But I had to come and say how much I'm enjoying Paul Park's Roumania series. It's part portal fantasy, part historical fantasy, and wholly original. I'm putting it on the same mental shelf as James Treadwell's Advent trilogy and Jan Siegel's Fern Capel series--complex, sprawling, literary in tone, and utterly captivating. I'm nearly through the second book, The Tourmaline; looking forward to the next two books.

Back here to hop up and down on one foot in praise of another series I'm absorbed in: Kage Baker's The Company books. similar to Connie Willis in that they involve time travel, but in a more complicated way: enhanced humans--cyborgs--are recruited and created throughout pre-history and history to work for a secret, all-powerful corporate entity of the future...but things are not always what they seem. The author takes a deep dive into the history of her past settings, and I'm loving the heck out of it. Highly recommended. I'm on the fourth book, The Graveyard Game; the series begins with In the Garden of Iden.

And I enjoyed the rest of the Roumania series very much.

>38 Marissa_Doyle: Oh I love the Company series! I'm only 2 books from the end, and I've been saving them because I don't want it to be over!

>39 Sakerfalcon: There are a lot of connected short stories as well; have you read them?

>40 Marissa_Doyle: Only a couple that have been in anthologies. I will get to the others, I hope.

Stopping by to mention how much I'm currently enjoying Strange Practice, the first in the Dr. Greta Helsing series. Yes, that Helsing family: Greta is a doctor to the supernatural of London, who with some of her patients (including a couple of vampires, a retired demon, and a ghoul on antidepressants) are trying to figure out who is attacking Londoners, both supernatural and mundane. Cozy urban fantasy, which is just what I needed after my last read, The Change--which was enjoyable, but not cozy.

>42 Marissa_Doyle:. You've been on my mind the past few days, I have a review of a Jane Austen-related title going up on an industry blog at some point during the week of Aug 28. (I don't know if you've run across Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen's England by Brenda Cox?) Reading it I was wondering about her decision to self-publish the book. Knowing that you have some familiarity with folks doing that, I would have reached out to you directly for background input before hand, but I didn't know whether you were available at all. You'd been quiet here.

Brenda Cox spoke at the Regency Fiction Writers' conference in 2022. I don't recall if she said why she had self-published her book, unfortunately. There are a lot of reasons people choose to self-publish, from sensible to deeply misinformed ones. I can't imagine, in her case, that it was the latter; it might well be that she tried to interest a publisher and couldn't.

>42 Marissa_Doyle:
I enjoyed Strange Practice. It is, as you say, "cozy".

>44 Marissa_Doyle: & >43 jillmwo:
My experience of self-published books is that non-fiction self-published works have a higher likelihood of being good than do self-published novels.

>46 pgmcc: I've found a number of interesting self-published film or literary studies/criticism over the years. >43 jillmwo: sounds interesting, and, thanks to visiting Cox's blog, I have added the self-published novel Pride and Prejudice and Planets to my TBR.

>46 pgmcc: I've actually had the opposite experience--the self-published non-fiction I've read has been lackluster or downright bad, while I've found some new favorite authors (Victoria Goddard* for one) in self-published fiction.

I finished the Greta Helsing series, which unfortunately fizzled for me, and have read a few others since then...but wanted to comment on The Three Dahlias, which I finished this morning, since others in the pub are reading it as well. I thought it was a terrific premise, but felt the writing did not do it justice--much clunky prose and shallow characterization, plus poor foreshadowing and/or establishing of possible character motivations. I'll read the next one if I find it on sale, but won't bother otherwise.

*Speaking of whom, she's started a new series. I'd love to see more in the Greenwing and Dart line, but will try to be patient.

>48 Marissa_Doyle: Good luck with the storm! Hope it passes well out to sea.

I'm having a little trouble making myself pick up The Three Dahlias. Never a good sign.

The only Victoria Goddard I've read was her magnificent The Hands of the Emperor. I've already bought the sequel but I'm saving it for crappier weather.

>49 clamairy: You could read The Return of Fitzroy Angursell if you're not feeling up to At the Feet of the Sun yet (which, understandable, it's a million pages long). Did we already have this conversation? Anyway, I love those books.

>50 reconditereader: I might do that. If you haven't recommended it to me already someone did. :o) And yes, a million pages and then some...

>49 clamairy: The Three Dahlias was a slow start for me as well, but I enjoyed it by the end. I like the premise a bit more than the execution, but hope it is a first novel and that the author will improve.

>52 MrsLee: Someone finally got murdered. The pace has picked up nicely.

>53 clamairy: Haha!

>42 Marissa_Doyle: I'm still gasping from my last round of book bullets (the entirety-so-far of all the Caimh McDonnell series), but you just got me with Strange Practice.

>55 Meredy: I love the Greta Helsing books a lot.

>56 reconditereader: I just got a $6.99 bargain for the Kindle, and I was tempted to go ahead and pick up the first three, but that hasn't always been a good idea. I'll read at least a dozen pages before I do that.

>55 Meredy: Mua ha ha... It's pure brain candy, but sometimes that's what's needed.

Started Uncanny Times after a DNF on The Vanishing. It's promising to be much better.

>58 Marissa_Doyle: I liked Uncanny Times, and I plan to read the sequel after it's published this November.

>59 libraryperilous: I enjoyed it too, though I found Rosemary and Aaron's characters underdeveloped. Maybe the next one will develop them a little more.

Starting Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, which seems to have good ratings. I'm a tad put off as the main character is reminding me of Lady Trent in A Natural History of Dragons which was a DNF for me, but I'll give it more than the fifteen pages I've read so far.

Okay, my apprehension was unfounded: the main character in Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries is NOT a Lady Trent, and the book is a delight.

>61 Marissa_Doyle: I'm glad you're delighted by it!

>62 libraryperilous: It was great fun, and I'll definitely be getting the second book in January. Have you read anything else of hers?

On now to a rather flavorless but workmanlike mystery, The Other Devil's Name. Picked it up as a 1.99 deal on B&N. We'll see if it perks up...

>63 Marissa_Doyle: I haven't. I tried her middle grade Anne of Green Gables retelling and DNFed it. I definitely am continuing with Dr. Wilde's field journals, though!

Edited: numbering

>61 Marissa_Doyle: I have this on kindle! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

>65 Sakerfalcon: I definitely recommend it. She's clearly read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which is, of course, a Very Good Thing. The writing is good and she did her research.

Thanks to much BB crossfire, I obtained The Stranger Times, which I will read after I've finished The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (which promises to be fun--I mean, "You've Got Mail" with undertakers and zombie killers?)

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was a winner! Yes, at its structural core it was a romance, but the fantasy world-building--a contemporary feel but a completely different world) set it far apart from the usual run-of-the-mill paranormal romance. Pure unadulterated escapist fun. Recommended.

>66 Marissa_Doyle: I've started Emily Wilde and am glad you warned us about the unprepossessing start. I worried that it was going to be superior British woman patronises the natives and dismisses their warnings ("superstitions") but it seems to be going in quite a different direction.

>67 Marissa_Doyle: It happens that I am looking for something of that ilk. Thank you for the recommendation because I'm putting on a TBR list.

>69 jillmwo: I hope you have fun with it--it's not the common kind of fluff.

Finished Stranger Times and on to This Charming Man. They're great fun, and now my husband is hooked after I read him the story snippet about the Loch Ness monster's intemperate encounter with a Volkswagen I thought he would do himself an injury, he laughed so hard. My put-on Scottish accent may have contributed to the effect.

>70 Marissa_Doyle: I'm well past halfway with Strange Practice, thanking you for that. Now I'm sure you can see why it seems such a fit follow-on to the Stranger Times series that they could almost have been conceived together.

>71 Meredy: It is in that neighborhood, isn't it?

I've finished This Charming Man and have started Love Will Tear Us Apart. I am enjoying the heck out of these books!

After that, I have a pair of anthologies appropriate to the season, one old and one new: Famous Modern Ghost Stories (which was compiled in the 1920s) and Ghosts From the Library, a collection of only-published-once ghosts stories exhumed from the grave (see what I did there?) from authors like Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and M.R. James.

>72 Marissa_Doyle: Those Ghost story books sound fun!

>72 Marissa_Doyle:
What >73 MrsLee: said.

I've finished Famous Modern Ghost Stories and am well into Ghosts From the Library, the latter of which I'm enjoying more than the former. There were too many "Ghosts? Hogwash! This is the 19th century!", muscular Christianity-type characters in Famous Modern who became annoying very quickly, as well as too much Victorian melodrama; I find my patience with Edward Allen Poe ("Ligeia") has rather dwindled since I was eleven. That being said, there are some surprising stories in it, not always particularly spine-tingling ("The Beast With Five Fingers" was almost comedy horror at times) but sufficiently eerie and tensely atmospheric: I especially liked Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" and Wilbur Daniel Steele's "The Woman at Seven Brothers". Of especial interest was Arthur Machen's "The Bowmen", not particularly exciting in itself but the origin of the WWI "Angels of Mons" legend that still circulates.

More on Ghosts From the Library when I've completed it.

>75 Marissa_Doyle: I loved Bennett Cerf (ed.)'s 1947 Famous Ghost Stories even as an adolescent. "The Willows" still chills.

>75 Marissa_Doyle: The one in that collection that *really* got me was "The Witch" by Christiana Brand. But others were equally good and I was surprised how many I didn't know or recognize.

>77 jillmwo: Oh, I'm just starting that one!

>76 Meredy: I see the Cerf contains my favorite Ambrose Bierce story, The Damned Thing.

>78 Marissa_Doyle: My very first grown-up spooky story was in that book: "The Monkey's Paw." What a place to start.

"The Damned Thing" chilled me right there on the sofa. I still remember the last line!

>79 Meredy: That last line was a grabber, wasn't it?

Finished Ghosts From the Library, which was a pleasant enough read but perhaps more suited to completionists. And I'm in the middle of The Navigating Fox which is wonderful. I'm waiting to see if what I'm speculating might happen actually happens. :)

>79 Meredy: >80 Marissa_Doyle: I must admit that it's ages (like back to the late Pleistocene) since I last read "The Damned Thing", and yet I remember the last line. (Just checked in the Project Gutenberg text and I had all the words right, although not in the right order — I remembered it as "And, God help me! Of such a colour is the Damned Thing!".) I long wondered how an actor uttering this line would accent it. Do you emphasise the words "Damned Thing" or not? If you do, those words become something like a name or handle for the thing described; if not, they are just a reference to it. I think Bierce's version, together with Harker's reference to it earlier, means the words are the equivalent of a name and should be emphasised.

>81 haydninvienna: I remember it as "The Damned Thing is of such a colour!". Now I'm going to have to go look.

>82 Meredy: That's similar to how I remember it as well. I'll have to go dig out my collection of Bierce's ghost stories and see.

>82 Meredy: >83 Marissa_Doyle: The Project Gutenberg text is "And, God help me! the Damned Thing is of such a color!". So >82 Meredy: , you're basically right.

>80 Marissa_Doyle: Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I wonder if you're anticipating what I think you're anticipating. I await your next update. ;)

>79 Meredy: and >80 Marissa_Doyle: Well now I must make a point of finding and reading 'That Damned Thing". I haven't read a whole lot of Ambrose Bierce.

>86 jillmwo: I have a Dover Books collection of his stories, Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce, that contains a good selection.

>67 Marissa_Doyle: - I recently read that as well, and agree that the fantasy worldbuilding sets it above many others.

>85 libraryperilous: No, what I wondered about didn't happen. This was an uneven read for me--some aspects highly developed, others glossed over.

On to The Hexologists, which I picked up on offer at B&N a bit ago. Jury is still out around page 50; the style's a tad baroquely precious for my tastes and I haven't warmed up to Iz and War yet, but we'll see.

can some body recommend a book about war

>90 zy56: You might want to try this group: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23175/Book-Recommendations-Requests

>91 clamairy: Thanks, clam. Sheesh.

Finished The Hexologists; I ended up enjoying it for the plotting and worldbuilding, but still didn't warm up very much to the characters. I'll read the next one, but won't pre-order it months in advance and check several times to see when it's releasing (looking at you, System Collapse. Seven more days...)

And speaking of clam, I picked up The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which so far is a pleasant confection.

>92 Marissa_Doyle: I assumed it was a youngling.

Yes, it's fluff, but it's atmospheric well-aged fluff.

>93 clamairy: I've had this on my TBR for years. I think I'll read it soon. I'm doing a spooky holiday season this year.

>92 Marissa_Doyle: I keep checking my local big, corporate bookstore to see if they've put it on the shelves early, which they often do if books aren't embargoed.

>92 Marissa_Doyle: and >93 clamairy:. Excellent assessment of that book; it is indeed fluff, but it's atmospheric well-aged fluff.

>93 clamairy: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir was all that--a period piece, but a surprising one at times. I'm glad I read it.

I was listening to a podcast with my daughter which mentioned the Dyatlov Pass Incident--the bizarre, inexplicable deaths of a group of experienced, healthy hikers in Russia in 1959--and have jumped into Dead Mountain: the Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident before I metaphorically snuggle up with System Collapse.

heyy

And there is Dead Mountain by Douglas Preston & Lee Child which uses that same story (and book title) for their own, similar adventure set in the American southwest.

Holidays and viruses intervened, but I'm back and want to say that Dead Mountain was engrossing--one of the best non-fiction I've read this year. The theory presented by the author --that the party was overcome by naturally generated infrasound from very strong storm winds blowing from a specific direction over a mountain-- makes sense to me. Very well done.

After falling ill I mostly read a lot of highly untaxing stuff about local folklore and legends, but have since managed to read A Haunting on the Hill, which I might have enjoyed more if it weren't a sequel to Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. As a sequel, it didn't work for me--it strayed too far into modern horror sensibilities and went too often for the "gross out" schtick. But she (Hand) is a good author, and I'll likely go look up some of her original work.

On now to Uncanny Vows, the second in the Huntsman series after Uncanny Times, which I enjoyed.

>99 Marissa_Doyle: I hope you are feeling much better, and can get back to your usual shenanigans. (I think I will be saving that Hand book for next October.)

Edited to add that I just read your post on Jill's thread. I'm sorry it was the plague, but on the upside this means that you will be immune through most of Winter.

Hand is really hit and miss with me. Her Cass Neary books are the best, it's the rest that gives me trouble, especially the more mystical/woo woo novels. I'm probably going to pass on the Haunting.

>101 Bookmarque: I would have passed as well, if I'd known. :) I'll check out the Cass Neary books.

Catching up...

Uncanny Vows was... I think "unsatisfactory" is the best word. I like the setting and premise of this series (ca. 1912 or so US, with hereditary Hunters who keep the "uncanny" at bay--especially the Fey). But the characters, despite all the paragraphs spent on their inner thoughts, still haven't quite come to life for me...and this particular book felt almost as if it were missing a post-denouement chapter that should have been there to wind a few things up and lay out another hint or two for the next book. I'll read the next when it comes out, but I'm less invested than I should be.

After that, though...Things Half in Shadow was excellent, and I'm grumbling that the author hasn't followed up on the loose ends left waving enticingly in the breeze. Set in Philadelphia in the early 1870s, when interest in ghosts and mediums had jumped as grieving families dealt with the loss of their sons, brothers, and husbands in the Civil War. What starts as an assignment for the journalist hero--to investigate and debunk these mediums--soon turns personal, and dangerous. I can think of several GD members with connections to Philly who would enjoy this (not mentioning any names, jillmwo or Sakerfalcon)

I started but set aside The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster--the writing needed a lot more polish (starting four sentences in a row with participial phrases near made me throw my Nook at the wall), plus the characters and style were just a little too twee. Reading reviews indicates that there are interesting twists and turns further into the book, but I didn't have the patience to get there.

At that point, I knew it was time...so I dove joyfully into rereading the entire Murderbot series in preparation for reading the newest. I'm currently in the middle of Network Effect and can't put it down. Oh, Murderbot. You're giving me an emotion. :)

Also, might I beg the favor of a piffle party to boost my thread past the 150-post threshold before the new year? All pifflation welcome...

Did you just invite everyone to a piffle party?

Do you have enough cheese and wine?

Count me in.

I nearly forgot; what is the dress-code?

Now, I understand you are on the East coast of the USA. That would put the hard stop for the party at 5am on new year’s day for me. That should be time enough to get you to 150 posts.

Are you sure the invitations went out? This party does not have many people at present. Perhaps you should bring more of the smellier cheeses out.

My apologies for being late. The new butler didn't properly hand me the piffle party invitation. (He was unaccustomed apparently to the use of the silver salver in this household!!!) Clearly has not worked for royalty before...

>109 jillmwo:
Hi, Jill.

Where did you find that butler? On the subject of butlers, we watched My Man Godfrey the other night. It was quite funny.

My favorite line from My Man Godfrey is the father noting that all it takes to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.

(And the butler came to us from an agency rather than being someone recommended by one of the more reliable Pub denizens...I mean if Marissa Doyle had recommended someone to me, she would be fully aware all of the right qualifications needed in a proper butler. I should have consulted Marissa...)

>111 jillmwo: My manga-loving daughters have informed me of the existence of Combat Butlers, and now I want one.

>108 pgmcc: We will be hosting a "New Year's Eve in Brussels" party for elderly friends on Sunday late afternoon US Eastern Time at which cheese will be playing a prominent role. Roasted feta with olives will be part of it. Not stinky, though.

>112 Marissa_Doyle: Well, that's not one I saw coming...Combat butlers. Hmmm.

>115 Bookmarque: Ooh, a graphic! Excellent!

>115 Bookmarque: I'm going to need one too (as long as you're passing them around)!

I have some lovely Italian and German pastries my daughter brought to me. May I contribute? I think they would be lovely with wine or coffee. Depends how far we want to delve into this asylum issue.

In the evenings I've been watching "Captain Marleau," a French TV murder series. May we please invite her to the party? She would liven it up considerably. Mustn't plan the murder during the party though. She's awfully good at sniffing out who done it.

>112 Marissa_Doyle: Have they read Black Butler?

>118 MrsLee: I would love some to eat with my eggnog!

>113 Marissa_Doyle: Or you could have a "New Year's Eve in Sydney" party at 8 am on Sunday your time, and then start a "New Year's Eve in Brisbane" one an hour later. Yeah, time zones are weird.

I'll even send you some prawns and bugs* if you want.

*That's what they're called here. And very tasty too.

Is this like where Murderbot thinks about their favorite soap opera?

Well, the party has certainly livened up since I last looked.

>122 haydninvienna: I've seen pictures of Bugs in Masterchef Australia. They look tasty and very expensive.

>125 hfglen: they are indeed both tasty and expensive. And of course like oysters they were once so cheap that you couldn't give them away.

Pifflers need sustenance!

>122 haydninvienna:. The things one learns hanging out in the Pub!! Crayfish are nicknamed as bugs in other parts of the world.

>120 reconditereader:. Another book on butlers!

>111 jillmwo: That is a great line.

>119 MrsLee:
I must look that up. Is it on Netflix?

This year, thanks to the book club I am constantly complaining about, I discovered books by Fred Vargas. She is French murder mystery writer and she has published many books. I have read two so far and am hooked. What attracts me to her work is how French the stories are. The reader gets to learn about how French police carry out investigations, French attitudes to life and eating, and what life is like in France. The mysteries are good too.

>112 Marissa_Doyle: Yes! We're just amused by the whole concept of Combat Butler, though.

>122 haydninvienna: I will welcome the prawns wholeheartedly, but if the bugs are similar to the American lobster, I'll pass. I think I'm one of the only people in my part of the country who doesn't have a Pavlovian response to the name.

>132 pgmcc: It is on Amazon Prime, a channel I subscribe to called MHz. They feature TV murder series from countries other than America and Britain, although they have some of those as well.

It shows a side of France I am not used to seeing, the part that isn't food or drink centered. She is assigned to a new location in France every episode, so it is a lovely way to tour, aside from the odd dead body now and again The character is an oddball genius styled after Colombo. The show has many subtle gests about the classic TV and literature detectives. My favorite so far was an episode featuring David Suchet as a retired Scotland Yard detective. Many references to Poirot without an outright mention of him. That one was very fun.

>135 MrsLee: oh, that sounds good. We're looking for something new to watch, as the new season of Midsomer Murders coming in February won't last us very long.

>118 MrsLee: Speaking of Italian pastries, I had some Italian shortbread cookies that I think I prefer to Scottish shortbread--less heavy, but still the same luxuriousness.

>137 Marissa_Doyle: Right now I have biscotti with an edge of chocolate, an almond tort (4") and a stollen on my table. Not products or my own making; given me by my daughter who lives where such bakeries exist

>138 MrsLee: Mmm, almond torte. One of my favorites is pear and almond torte.

>127 clamairy: In case pifflers also need liquid refreshment, the services of this establishment may help.



The bar at Darling Brewery in the Western Cape. The place is named after the town it's in, and that is named after one or another eminently forgettable Victorian bigwig whose surname, inevitably, was Darling.

Hi, I'm a bit late to the party, but happy to be here.

>141 NorthernStar: Welcome!! I'll be looking forward to your reads in 2024.

>140 hfglen: That looks like a very convivial place. I've always felt a little sorry for persons with Darling as a surname. I imagine some more insecure ones might object to being called "darling" by their mates.

>144 haydninvienna: Pretty common in England to be called “darling” or “my love” by shop assistants or random people. It always irritated me a tiny bit, but then I tend to address everybody as “mate”, so fair’s fair.

>140 hfglen:
Very Blackadder.

>143 Marissa_Doyle: Some distant relatives of Better Half farm not far from the town. There is a family meme about a teenage lad trying to make friends with a lass he fancied (as a Capetonian, she should have known better), and the dialogue went
She: Where do you come from?
He: Darling ...
*POW*

**crash**
Hey, people, I heard there was a party going on.

Butlers are so often overlooked and ignored. Somebody should create a list of feisty butlers in fiction. Eh?

I’ve been sitting quietly in the corner. I thought I’d finally speak up. I’m just sitting here on my iPad eating chips and hummus.

Well, Marissa. One more post to go. Great party.

>147 2wonderY: First on my list of course would be Bunter. Formidable enough to put Lors Peter in his place now and again, useful as an assistant investigator and possibly even trained to use a sword if necessary, but certainly competent with a gun.

>150 MrsLee: Okay, you're over the mark of 150!! Here's hoping that the new year brings you a butler with all of the skills and talents that Bunter would deliver (were he to leave his Lordship).

>147 2wonderY: Part of the art of being a really good butler was to be invisible, wasn't it? Anyway:

Crichton (The Admirable) (though I've never read it)
"Baine", in To Say Nothing of the Dog (he is described as a butler, although he goes far beyond just butlering)

>150 MrsLee: Respectfully disagree about Bunter, feisty though he certainly is. He is Lord Peter's personal servant, not his butler. In fact he stands to Lord Peter as Jeeves does to Bertie (leaving aside the question of Jeeves' ability to keep removing Bertie from the soup). Jeeves isn't a butler either, although he once or twice functions as one and can "buttle with the best of them". Undoubtedly Lord Peter would have had a butler once he had a proper household after he and Harriet married, but I don't remember the butler ever being mentioned.

Check me on this, Marissa, but I understand that in "proper" households the duties of the various domestic staff were clearly defined and any attempt to cross those boundaries (by other servants or the master or mistress or any of their hangers-on) would be resented.

There was some discussion somewhere recently about the butler's pantry. That's what butlers are for.

>152 haydninvienna: I would never argue with anyone on the qualities of who can be who as master, Lord or servant in Britain or elsewhere. The details are far beyond me. I don't remember a mention of a proper butler in the story of Lord Peter and Harriet in their home with children, but it has been years since I've read them. I bow to your knowledge and no longer desire a Butler, since I have no silver, but a personal servant of Bunter's qualities would suit me fine.

Georgette Heyer has some delightful butlers and some less delightful but deeply amusing. There's also a masterful feud between valets in her The Unknown Ajax that is unequaled (as is the conclusion of the story.)

Excellent piffling, all! Thank you! Now we must go piffle more at jill...

>140 hfglen: I am just seeing this now! I hope the pilferers enjoyed their quaffs!