Sibyx Reads in January-February 2016!

Currently Reading (March)
♬

new Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois Bujold sf
new My Struggle Book 2 Karl Ove Knausgaard contemp fic
♬ Lamentation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 5) hist mys
✔ Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy Flora Thompson eng country life
Ongoing
Murdoch Marathon resumed!:NEXT UP: ??? IM readers group is HERE
Virago Soon?
The New Yorker September 2015 issues (0 of 4)

25. ♬ Heartstone C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 5) mys ****
26. new Casting Off Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazelet 4) contemp fic ****1/2
27. new Look to Windward Iain Banks sf
28. new All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazelet 5) contemp fic ****
29. ✔ The Janissary Tree Jason Goodwin mys ****
30. August 2015 New Yorkers
31. ✔ The Last Light of the Sun Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy
32. new The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes contemp fic
33. ✔ Destroyer C.J. Cherryh (bk 7) sf ***1/2
34. ✔ Pretender C.J. Cherryh (bk 8 Foreigner) sf ****1/2
35. ✔ Deliverer C.J. Cherryh (bk 9 Foreigner) sf

RoT-Quit in March:
2. Gardens of the Moon Steven Erikson fantasy

Guide to symbols
new=year or less on shelf
♬ = audio
✔ = Year plus on shelf
RoT= Read or Toss

January Round-up
1. new Corambis (bk 5) Sarah Monette fantasy ****
2. ✔ Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery **** (Thinga read #1)
3. ✔ Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose contemp fic ***1/2
4. The New Yorker June 2015
5. new Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery (Thinga read #2!) ****
6. ♬(reread) Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon contemp fic *****
7. ✔ Foreigner C.J. Cherryh sf (Thinga read #4) ****1/2!
8. new Into the Silence Wade Davis nf *****!!!!!!
9. ✔ Invader C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 2) sf ****1/2
10. ✔Inheritor C.J. Cherryh sf (Foreigner #3) ****1/2
11. new The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic (Thinga read #3!) ****
12. new H is for Hawk Helen Maconald natural history

Total: 12
Men: 3
Women: 5
M/W writing together: 0 (mostly Liaden series)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 3
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 0
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 1

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 5
Read it or Get Rid of It: 0

Housekeeping

Physical In/Out Totals:
IN Total=1
OUT Total=3

Best of January
Into the Silence Wade Davis

January Reflections
As I was trying to choose a "Best of" book (just one) for the month, I realized what a superb reading month it has been. It also highlights the arbitrariness of the "star" system. Truthfully I didn't "enjoy" Gravity's Rainbow as I have enjoyed Pynchon's later work, certainly I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. I may, at another time, avail myself of a copy with decent print (my own is a beat up paperback, the one I read it in the first time round). I don't think the audio format was the right way to take on Pynchon, so that also may have had a big effect on my understanding as well as enjoyment. I certainly DID enjoy some parts of it hugely and the full five star salute is because I do recognize it for the achievement it is. Now, having said that, Wade Davis's Into the Silence is a remarkable and truly worthwhile book, five-star-worthy from any and every angle. I read it slowly because it is not a book to gobble up, but toward the end, the last three chapters, I just pasted myself to the sofa and read. H is for Hawk also was an extraordinary read and I'm not sure why I'm withholding half a star, except that it took me awhile to come around, I felt somewhat put off in the beginning for reasons I can't begin to sort out, and I don't know if it was me or MacDonald, but something, I think changes part way, and, once again, for the last 100 or so pages, I pasted myself back in that sofa. All that is to say that this was a stellar non-fiction month. Which is not to say that the fiction wasn't fabulous too - I began two great series (Cazelet, Foreigner) and finished one excellent one (Doctor of Labyrinths), indulged in two Aaronovitches . . . Every month should be so good.

February Books Read
13. new Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf *****
14. new Curious Incidents in King Philip's War Edward Lodi history **?
15. ✔ Inversions Iain Banks sf ****
16. new Marking Time (2 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic
17. The New Yorker July 2015 (noted at >5 sibylline:)
18. ✔ The Cold Dish Craig Johnson mys ****
19. new Confusion (3 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic ****
20. ✔ Precursor C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 4) sf **** 1/2
21. ♬ Revelation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 4) ****
22. ✔Defender C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 5) sf **** 1/2
23. ✔ Explorer C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 6) sf *****
24. ✔ A God in the House; poets talk about faith Ilya Kaminsky ed.

Total: 12
Men: 4
Women: 3 (multiples)
M/W writing together: 1 (two editors, essays both genders)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 2
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 1
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 1 (essays and poems)
New author: 3
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 6
Read it or Get Rid of It: 1

Housekeeping

IN February= 14
2016 Total IN=15
OUT February Total=3
2016 Total OUT=6

Books IN: February 2016
2.My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante
3. The Story of a New Name Elena Ferrante
4.Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Elena Ferrante
5.The Story of the Lost Child Elena Ferrante
6. Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
7. All Clear Connie Willis
8. The Pull of the Moon Elizabeth Berg
9. The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield
10. Tenth of December George Saunders
11. Blue Latitudes Tony Horwitz
12. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois Bujold
13. Matter Iain M. Banks
14. Look to Windward Iain M. Banks
15. All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard

February Reflections

Best of February
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf *****

I had to choose between two terrific "conclusions" of series and I gave first to the Ann Leckie since she is the newer author. Many stunning things about it, both the groundedness of the invented universe and the consistency and charm of the small details (pins, gloves, tea sets). On a deeper level, the lack of use of single gender pronoun -- everyone being a "she" -- creates an interesting conflict in the reader -- you know you are assigning "female" attributes to them all, even as you know that in fact, they have different physical attributes . . . this is a society that has moved beyond thinking the soul has a gender. Beautiful. There is also a theme of the splintered and whole self that can intrigue the mind like a hall of mirrors. Who is real? What makes a real person? I look forward to rereading this series, more slowly this time, as I won't be gobbling it up to find out "what happens." The runner-up was the final book in the second sequence of .J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (Book 6), which simply did not let up from beginning to end. Can't really go into details, but Cherryh's style is to lay the groundwork slowly and methodically and sometimes maddeningly, until towards the end of a book, or in this case, a sequence, things pick up and you have to hold on to your hat. Close behind these are books 2 and 3 of the Cazelet Chronicles - both of these set during ww2. Howard captures how thoroughly people put their lives 'on hold' - and how adolescents and young adults were deeply affected by everything, from losing lovers and friends, to feeling young and helpless, to watching things fall apart - it's wonderfully done. The adults too just postpone everything they can. Iain Banks' Inversions is not one of his stronger or more exciting novels, but it was good read, and A God in the House definitely had merit. So a good strong month!

In other news - this was, for me, a highly acquisitive month! And on my trip even though I gave away two books, I received two new books, which I will list under March, just to try to keep the numbers down!

RoT Tally
1. The Book of Strange New Things Michael Faber

Started in 2016
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh (4 of 18) READING: Defender #5
Cazelet Chronicles Elizabeth Jane Howard (3 of 5) READING: Casting Off

Continued in 2016
Matthew Shardlake C.J. Sansom (3 of 6) READING: Bk 5 Heartstone
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch (5 of 6) Next up: The Hanging Tree
The Culture Iain Banks (5 of 9) Next up: Look to Windward

Completed or caught up with in 2016
Doctor of Labyrinths series Sarah Monette (4 of 4)
Imperial Radch (3 of 3)

To be continued?
Blue Remembered Earth Alastair Reynolds (1 of 3) NEXT UP: On the Steel Breeze
Discworld (2 of 35) NEXT UP: Mort
Matthew Shardlake C.J. Sansom (3 of 6) NEXT UP: Bk 4 Revelation
Shetland Ann Cleeves (5 of 6): NEXT UP: (6) Thin Air
Lady Trent's Memoirs (1 of 3) NEXT UP : The Tropic of Serpents (2)
My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgaard (1 of 6) NEXT UP: (Book 2)
Chronicles of St. Mary's (2 of 5 ) NEXT UP: A Second Chance (3)
Culture Iain Banks (10) NEXT UP: Inversions (5th of 10)
Walk to Constantinople Patrick Leigh Fermor (2 of 3) Next Up: The Broken Road
The Seven Kingdoms Kristin Cashore (2 of 3) Next up: Bitterblue
KingKiller Chronicles Patrick Rothfuss 2 of 3. Doors of Stone forthcoming (undeclared)
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch (3 of 6) Next up Broken Homes

Rereading!
Liaden Universe Starting Over! 2 of 19. Not sure what's next! Maybe Theo

Completed or caught up with in 2015
Ki and Vandien Quartet (4 of 4)
Cormoran Strike (3 of 3)
Trade Pact Universe Julie E. Czerneda (3 of 3)*
Lens of the World (3 of 3)
The Entire and the Rose Kay Kenyon (4 of 4)
Flavia de Luce Alan Bradley (7 of 7)
Liaden Universe Sharon Lee Steve Miller
Medicus Ruth Downie mys (6 of 6)
The High Lord Trudi Canavan (3 of 3)
Pegasus 1 of 1 (more forthcoming.....)
Serrano Legacy Elizabeth Moon(3 of 3)
The Old Kingdom Garth Nix(4 of 4)
Chronicles of Josan (3 of 3)

*Series is continued in Reunification 1 This Gulf in Time and Stars

1. fantasy ****
Corambis Sarah Monette

It's always a bit hard to finish a series that you've fallen in love with--and I do assume that this one is done, although it does feel that the door might have been left just slightly open, things are very satisfactorily concluded. The unwinding of the master plot in this last volume is masterful and interesting, and the parallel development of the two brothers--both their relationship and their inner selves--balances and complements. It's just great. I can accept the violence of the first book and a half because of where Monette goes with it. Highly recommended unless you really really loathe violence. **** 1/2 for the series as a whole.

This time of year when the thermometer dips down to 0 F. I tend to want to curl up and read almost purely for entertainment in the various genres. In order to keep things moving, however, I've decided that I have to read 100 pages of each of my other books before starting another purely fun book. I little puritanical of me, but hey, that's kind of my heritage anyway so it comes naturally! And I am enjoying the Prose and the Davis very much when I dive into them.

My New Year's guests have all gone home, but left me with a cold, the dears.

Keeping track of where one is in various series sounds like a fantastic and also a terrible idea.

Someone else was doing something similar (several do, in fact) and I read enough series that I thought I'd try it. I tend to let it get out-of-date now and then, but it is a help and reminds me too, to get back to this or that series.

GR 11
My listening this last few weeks has been very scattered and thus my memory and comprehension of what transpired during this section of my reading is going to be thin . . . but I think I might have a grasp of the big picture. Slothrop continues to wander around in the Zone. I am not sure how, but I am finally getting it that he is supposed to be "programmed" to find and "destroy" the leader of the Schwarzkommando, Enzian, but somehow or other, the programming has failed. Slothrop is, au fond, a decent guy and doesn't like to hurt anyone. Tchitcherine the Russian spy is trying to locate Slothrop but also worrying about this other russian spy he keeps hearing about who is . . . in fact . . . yep.... our very own Slothrop who was in a disguise for awhile. He was, in fact, instrumental in helping the Schwarzkommando to avoid being obliterated. Lots of things go on, but you can feel convergence and that in the end Enzien, Slothrop and Tchitcherine will somehow connect and something will happen. For awhile Slothrop ends up running around in a pig suit (don't ask!) but takes it off at a brothel. The brothel is raided by a special ops group looking for Slothrop while none other than the revolting Captain Marvy, one of Slothrop's nemesii is also cavorting in a pool and he, not wanting to be discovered by the MP's dons the pig suit which is a very very bad idea as the main thing this S.O.'s want to do is, (for some reason I don't quite get, except that sex and the rocket and Slothrop are entangled) is castrate Slothrop. Uh oh.

So Slothrop slopes onward to nowhere in particular, while everyone is looking for him. He is even beginning not to care about finding the 0000 rocket. He's feeling tired and homesick and wants to go home.

Several other characters are running about -- Pirate Prentice (who opens the novel), Roger Mexico (a sort of colleague of Slothrop who has figured out what is going on and is appalled)--there is one passage where he interrupts a meeting of business/military magnates and pees all over them, not kidding. Roger really wants to find and rescue Slothrop.

This does NOT do justice to the 100 or so pages it represents, but it is better than nothing.

Have you tried FictFact for keeping track of series? Laura (laurelkeet) had pointed me to that one.

>8 sibylline: Pynchon is a very strange author.

Understatement!

Yes, true.

Is he really so strange? Seriously. He is. Yes, but he also isn't strange at all. We are the strange ones, maybe. What he has studied and written about steadily, throughout his writing life, is how technology is misused by the powerful, he is alternately completely on target (sorry), funny, serious, gross, and passionate --that would include Mason and Dixon (which is my favourite of all, so far).

2. urban fantasy/mys ****
Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch

This series continues strongly and entertainingly with twists and turns. The magic is really the best thing, wonderfully humorous and well-thought out. No need to say more, is there? ****

>14 sibylline: I really need to continue that series - I've only read the first one. Glad to hear it keeps going strong!

>13 sibylline: well, true about us. I'll have to read more to see what you mean about him (Pynchon).

>15 thebookmagpie: Aloha! Skittering over to your home page I see you are reading Pynchon also?

3. fic ***1/2
Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose

When someone describes what I'm doing as "ambitious" I groan inwardly. I've fallen short of my goal. But I've also learned it's rarely meant cruelly and is often, in its own way, a compliment. Lovers at the Chameleon Club is ambitious and comes close. Although imperfect, it is very much worth reading, both for the story and for the way Prose puts the story together. I can see exactly what drew Prose to write about Lou, the ultimate anti-heroine, a cross-dressing Nazi collaborator (based on a real person); it's the question of what it is that draws a non-sociopathic person into committing acts of evil. That is the great mystery that historians especially struggle with. Prose is imagining a person who, by the accident of family, of difference, of unusual gifts, alienated and rejected and unloved being vulnerable to the allure of fascism. Lou is a person of somewhat average (or less?) intelligence and curiosity and is unable to distinguish the difference between real love and being used as a means to an end, vulnerable to flattery and unable to look deeper into herself to question her own motives or think about larger consequences. It crossed my mind at some point, that it could be, in some ways, a portrait of Hitler himself, just reduced to a bit part. So why doesn't it work? Well, parts of it do. Prose chooses to tell the story from a number of different viewpoints, mostly the memoirs of people who knew Lou and a biographer. Some of those voices work and feel reasonably authentic, some of them waver a bit, and some of them don't really work at all. The other piece, for me, is that ultimately I don't feel Prose herself quite believes her story of Lou. I use the word "feel" carefully because it's just that, a feeling. What works is the setting and atmosphere, the photographer, Tsenyi and his friend Lionel. Prose shows how desperately everyone clung to the idea that the war wasn't going to happen, especially in Paris, even when they knew it was inevitable and thus the car racing and partying and life going on as usual. Because Prose writes so well, too, it isn't difficult to read. I did miss her customary humor, though, so much a part of her other novels. There is one dinner, in Berlin, just before the Olympic games open, which really was in its ghastly way, surreal and almost comical, almost what I would have to say is Pynchon-y when Lou finds herself sitting beside Hitler at dinner. Anyhow, the Mitford sisters are in attendance, a great touch. Worth reading? Yes. And I do think it is a book different kinds of readers might absorb differently. ***1/2

I think Prose's last novel was about a skinhead who actually does think his way out of it A Changed Man so she is circling around subject matter that really matters to her. This is a gloomier take on the subject of evil.

Intriguing review. I've loved Prose's essays and Reading like a Writer, but I have yet to read any of her fiction.

>19 RidgewayGirl: Ditto, but I actually bought Lovers at the Chameleon Club and mean to read it. Thanks for reminding me of it.

>18 sibylline: interesting - I didn't realise she'd dabbled in her own fiction (although should have been obvious}. Not sure I'm totally sold on this one, but I enjoyed your review.

She wrote her first novel when she was maybe just barely or still at Radcliffe. The early ones are quite interesting. I've liked them all well enough. There was one other I didn't care for, but I can't think of the title at the moment. I've mentioned she was one of my mentors in the writing program I attended. She is an AMAZING teacher and reader. Just amazing. Absolutely batshit for Chekhov and Flaubert, which comes across in her book about reading!

5. urban fantasy/mystery ****

Oh I just love this series. This one was set out in the country and had mean unicorns and all sorts of fun stuff. Hurrah for Peter Grant! ****

6. ♬contemp fic *****
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon

It's tempting not to write a review at all for two reasons, one that the scope of the novel really is beyond my ability to summarize or otherwise comment about. The other being that although I fully recognize the extraordinary range of the novel, it wasn't really the right thing to listen to. The plot such as it is would appear to be about an American soldier, Tyrone Slothrop of western Massachusetts, a swamp yankee sprig, stationed in Special Ops in London who slowly realizes he is somehow connected with the V-2 rocket. By the end of the novel he is wandering around in "the Zone"--post-war Germany looking for a rumoured final type of V-2--the 00000. Adolescent (and earlier) exuberance (yeah the porn, the scatological, the silly puns and songs and so on) alternates with "moments" of blindingly empathic writing and extraordinary description (the latter often just tossed so casually into the mix its easy to overlook). By the end though, everything is fragmenting and even time is not anchored firmly. As always with Pynchon, events and ideas are either 100% accurate and factual or quite firmly based on things people were thinking and things that happened. He doesn't "make up" all that much stuff, if you allow for the fantastical flights of fancy. (There was a plot between GE and several other big manufacturers, for example, to make lightbulbs burn out - the first instance of "planned obsolescence".) My grandparents had an ancient lightbulb in a bathroom in their house from when electricity was installed that is now well over a hundred years old--one of my brothers has the house now and the bulb is still going strong. Maybe it is Byron himself!) Pynchon's deft handling of such facts, twisting into more monstrous--and unavoidable--shapes is what has given him the reputation of being paranoid. Is he? I think he is a realist and uses his sense of humor to keep from falling into utter despair. The idea is that the technological advances that arise during the pressures of warfare have made death just another regrettable side effect of progress and moneymaking. If you're looking for a straightforward story this is so not for you, but if you are willing to look things up as you read, take it slow, savor the richness, then you should read it. *****

I was listening to this for about 2 1/2 months!

Book picture - review? Don't get it

Oh whoops! Fixed now! I also tweaked the review a bit, tidied it up and added some stuff. I've had a terrible cold, it really does make on stupid! (I'm better now.)

7. sf ****1/2
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh

Classic Cherryh set-up! Some poor schmuck ends up alone among an alien group (sometimes human) trying to figure out what he/she has to do to survive. In this case a spaceship en route to set up a new space station along a trade corridor is thrown of course, like, wayyyyy of course, into an utterly unrecognizable galaxy. The culture on the ship is divided in two--the Guild of pilots and the civilians who will build the station. After a long search they find a habitable planet and build a station around it. They know there is an advancing culture down there (they have steam, for ex). The pilots want to keep exploring, the civs want to go live on the planet. A deal is struck. Down they go. The real story begins 200 years after, with Bren Cameron, the designated Paidhi, whose job is to act as the speaker of humans to atevi. Humans are, bit by bit, doling out the technology they think the atevi can "handle" ecologically and culturally (e.g. peacefully), but things are coming to a crisis and Bren is caught in the vortex of change. The atevi are marvelous. You can say "humanoid"-- their basic structure is similar to ours, but the point is that they have evolved differently and do not have the same emotions or social structures as humans. No words for "trust" or "friend", no tears, adult are not so much organized by family groups as a web of alliances and allegiances. They are brilliant with number, the atevi, so humans are nervously aware that likely they are progressing secretly, in ways they can't control, less and less, as they approach a tipping-point of knowledge of physics. There are atevi factions that fear and loathe humans, are convinced that they plan to take over the entire planet, etc. that have kept them banished on a large island, isolated and apart, and the paidhi is the only human who interacts with them (and only at the highest level) and then something unexpected happens which triggers . . . major upheaval. And a lot of pain and suffering for poor old Bren. The atevi around him, mainly the guard, Banichi and Jago, come through as individuals, and as truly different, fearfully unknowable. There is a feisty grandma who rides their version of a horse like a whirlwind. . . and the atevi, Tabini, who runs the Western Association, Bren's lifeline. I love it, I'll be reading this like a mad thing all winter, I expect. ****1/2

The New Yorker June 2015
Noteworthy articles: (this is extremely subjective!!!)

I've been lazy about doing this because I didn't remember to save some indexes which means looking them up on line, which means remembering my password and so on and so forth!

June 8-15 Fiction issue. Loved the Karen Russell story, "The Prospector's" Exceptional ghost story! Otherwise, not too impressed. Loathed the Levi story, just found it . . . off, mean, nasty in every possible way. Some of the little vignettes were OK. McGuane on Fall River, for ex.

June 22 - most drawn to the piece on euthanasia issues in Belgium. Such a complex issue! I know my mother would have chosen it at a certain if it had been an option. (Terrible rheumatoid arthritis, CHF and mini-strokes . . . ). Her last three years were not proper living at all and yet . . . I loved my mother dearly and had a very hard time letting her go. Very hard to think about. Many other worthy articles, Feinstein's fight against torture, a piece on the young Muslim students who were murdered in Chapel Hill. The story by Ben Marcus was ok, in the shoes of DFW . . .

8. bio *****
Into the Silence Wade Davis

From beginning to end, Wade Davis unfolds a staggering tale with superb skill and sensitivity. To show us who these first men attempting to climb Everest were, he begins by describing the shared experience of the majority: trench warfare in France in WW1. By giving us a pocket biography of each expedition member, we come to understand that these were all men of exceptional toughness, intelligence, and courage. The majority had seen, not scores, but thousands of men dying or dead, had done extraordinary things, hardly believable in a "normal life" context, making them, in the way of those things, not perhaps very suited to living ordinary everyday lives. (Because really, the "why do this at all?" question looms as hugely as Everest herself.) Davis's descriptions of combat are the most literal and gruesome of any I have encountered. Davis also makes the point that most of the expedition members were members of a pivotal generation, not the commanding officers, but lesser officers and medical men, younger men who had, miraculously, survived. The generals who had commanded them, for the most part, were men of the 19th century, gentlemen one and all, Victorians, with no concept of how modern warfare was being transformed by technology. These younger men while having been born into that llife, (most, though not all, were "gentlemen") had suffered the consequences of the abysmally out of touch leadership that sent thousands upon thousands of their own generation to pointless and painful deaths. As a result, these men, this generation, had feet in both worlds, the past and the future. They were at once fearless and tougher than we can fathom, but also deeply ambivalent, giving rise to an inconsistency, both in their emotional and practical approaches to technology and to men of other classes and cultures. Truly you can hardly believe what these men considered adequate clothing and equipment: the frail tents, the cotton rope, the rudimentary gear, not to mention the often ridiculous food, and worst of all their scorn, at least initially, of using oxygen or adopting the down coat invented by the non-gentleman of the second climb. Davis carefully sets this background in relief to make the context clear for the kinds of errors in judgement that were made comprehensible as he describes the three attempts made on Everest in 1921, 1922 which culminate in the last disastrous attempt of 1924 when George Mallory, the rock star of the group, and the youngest member of that expedition, Andrew Irvine (the first climber too young to have participated in the war) disappeared on the mountain and brought an era to a close. It's a tremendously gripping and moving read. *****

Excellent review of Into the Silence. I have a copy of this on my tbr shelf. It's good to get your opinion.

Wot >30 VivienneR: said. I keep putting it off due to its size...

>30 VivienneR: Thank you! I advise reading it in the winter and even stepping outside when it is very windy and very cold. Definitely NOT a book to read in warm weather or you just won't get the full intensity of what they endured in ridiculous clothing.

>31 Helenliz: Yes, it is a big book, but once I started I didn't think about that. It only took me about three weeks-- I didn't read all that many pages at a time but steadily. The last two chapters I did have to read all at once, stayed up a little late to do so!

I like the sound of Into the Silence pun intended' added to my wishlist. You will be spending the rest of the winter on the Foreigner series (there seems to be eighteen of them ) The prognosis looks good.

It is a near perfect title and just thinking of it now makes me well up slightly. It's actually pretty noisy for the climber on Everest, I think, because being alive means hearing the constant wind, tent fabric flapping, snow and hail falling, the cookstove whooshing, feet crunching on snow, ice picks hammering, and so on.

18! Holy moly! I generally do my "series" reading in the darker months so it will be interesting to see how far I get. I have some of them, maybe the first seven or eight . . . but I had purposefully not looked to see the total number! I hear that they get better and better, so it's all good news!

>29 sibylline: Great review--I'll be looking for this one.

>29 sibylline: That's a terrific review of a book that I wouldn't normally choose. It sounds as though I'd have to gird myself emotionally before reading it, but that it would be worth it.

You've given me a bit of a push on Into the Silence, as it's been on my to-read list for quite a while. I'm mostly an audio listening so the length was daunting (plus still feeling annoyed at Davis over The Serpent and the Rainbow which I had to read in high school).

>7 sibylline: I've also been reading the Foreigner series -- I've made it through book six -- but I fear it's going to take me much, much longer than one winter to get through them all. I've been spacing them out over the course of months because, much as I like Cherryh, her writing is so dense that I find I can't read too much of it at once.

35-37 Totally worth reading! Yes, some girding must go on, but Davis's approach, at least for me, mitigates that.

>38 bragan: I'm with you there, Cherryh is a master of "inclueing" (or whatever you call it) - you're as much at sea as the protagonist usually is! Hard work. I bet I'll only read three or four of these this winter . . . but with Cherryh too, I look forward to some rereading.

>39 sibylline: Yes, and you get to see every painful detail of the poor things pondering over just how at sea they are! At some point, the reader needs a break from that, even if the protagonists might not be lucky enough to get one.

>24 sibylline: i was happy to read your review of Gravity's Rainbow. (And I like your musical note indicating audio.) I think I might try it with a companion guide.

>27 sibylline: I tried Foreigner once, didn't get very far. I'm still thinking I should have been more patient

>29 sibylline: into the silence sounds terrific, (pun unintended).

9. sf ****1/2
Invader C.J. Cherryh

Book 2. Loved it. Picks up a couple of days after the end of Book 1. Makes it hard to say anything without spoiling! While Bren was away and not communicating with his superiors on the island of Mospheira (where the human population lives sequestered from the atevi) they sent his alternate. And she drops a bomb, in this case, the FTL bomb. Mathematical principles are integrated into every aspect of atevi life. In Book One we learn they do not have the same emotional make-up as we do, so concepts like "love" and "friendship" are meaningless, in Book Two we learn more about the underpinnings of the culture, what drives them. They do nothing without being sure it fits harmoniously into the pre-existing philosophical framework of the culture. Just the idea of faster-than-light, even if it is really about moving through folded space, not actually directly exceeding the speed of light, is enough to put the atevi around the bend. The problem is to get the atevi to work on the concept of folded space for themselves, in their own mathematical language before the conservative forces can move to shut the aiji Tabini down. The crisis, precipitated in Book 1, is also developing as different interest groups try to gain the upper hand. The question is how soon and in what form, as partners or subordinates, humans and atevi will get into space. Cherryh never hurries. One has to learn to have faith and read at the pace she wants you to, so you can follow, step-by-step how the characters solve whatever problem they face. ****1/2

>41 dchaikin: I think it takes time to appreciate the Cherryh method, and some may never get into it. I am awed by her attention to detail -- and by that I mean the nuances of behaviour and the complexities of her plots and how they get worked out.

Into the Silence sounds very good. I'm adding to my wishlist.

10. sf ****1/2
Inheritor C.J. Cherryh

Couldn't put it down! Best one yet! I can't say much of anything without spoiling, but Bren has to weave his way through a diplomatic minefield and the plot of this one is truly a thing of beauty, hingeing around atevi loyalities and human conniving. My only complaint is that Cherryh does sometimes create some situations that feel a bit contrived (I'm thinking of Bren's sort of girlfriend, Barb) or the problems Bren has with his mother. Mospherians really are just too complacent, to be believed sometimes. It also seems to me strange that the Atevi haven't worked harder to figure humans out--unless not feeling any 'man-chi' about or for them prevents interest or effort. ****1/2

11. contemp fic ****
The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard

It is 1937 and the prosperous Cazelet family is setting about to enjoy summer at the family home, Home Place, in Sussex (I think?) not too far from the coast. Over the usual family complexities looms the threat of war, casting a dark shadow over adults and children alike. There are four principal families, three brothers and their wives and then the sister of one of the wives, (there is also an unmarried Cazelet sister) as well as a number of other lesser but not unimportant characters from the family tutor (of the girls), a "friend" of the daughter of the family to "friend" of the unmarried sister. There were moments when the book reminds of Thirkell (babies in baths), but then it swirls and plunges into deep and difficult matters, that is to say, sex and violence, evoking Wesley, Fitzgerald, or Murdoch. It's quite astonishing how many characters Howard presents with convincing sharpness of detail. It was a little hard, at first, to keep the children straight, but never difficult to keep the adults in mind. Two of the brothers fought as very young man in the first war, one last a hand and has shrapnel in his head, the other was unscathed physically . . . the third was too young, but not too young to be part of this war, if indeed it comes. He is a painter, but he has made a rash second marriage, has three children to support, and is realizing he will have to give it up:"Perhaps I'm not a real painter, at all, he thought. It needs to be put first, and I never do that." He is asked by his father if he would join the family firm (quality lumber) and he is considering it over the course of the summer. The women have, of course, given any idea of independent careers (if they had any) upon marriage, but some of them are aware of the emptiness in their lives even as they love their families. At heart they all know that Hitler, not being an honorable person, will not honor any terms no matter how hopeful Chamberlain is, and I think that Howard catches that breathless wishful pause, the disbelief that it was all going to have to happen again. I will plunge immediately into the next installment, Marking Time. ****

12. nat hist ****1/2
H is for Hawk Helen MacDonald

This book is about many things: about grief upon the sudden death of a beloved father, about falconry, about T.H. White, about passion, about depression, about cruelty, about metamorphosis, about the English landscape, about predators and prey, about wildness, about lonelinessabout change . . . After MacDonald's father dies, a father she adored (and rightly so), she adopts a goshawk. She has been interested in hawks since childhood, she had trained other kinds of hawks, but never one as wild and challenging as the goshawk. So it should be easy to write about what I thought of it, right? Wrong. Throughout I was aware that while Helen MacDonald and I share some characteristics from a love of language to a practical attitude about hunting, there is an intensity, an edge, even a ferocity about her that intimidated me. It isn't only that I can't imagine ever wanting to train a hawk, it isn't only that I felt wistfulness at the idea of a father so marvelous that you would grieve over his death to such an extent, or that while I spend hours out of doors walking, I am not, as she is, a "watcher." I'm more of a "noticer" or "finder" I think, although perhaps those aren't so very different except that I am too restless to sit and observe for very long. Perhaps what I am saying is that it was an effort to shift myself into MacDonald's point of view, to be willing to go along with someone in such a state, to accompany her into this downward spiral into wildness and strangeness, trusting that we would emerge from it? I kept wondering, in the first half of the book, what her identification with White was--she couldn't seem more different--but in the second half that becomes quite apparent and that is where I became fully engaged. It's a very good book indeed! And anyone who can use the word 'palimpsest' as a verb has my total admiration. Lots of fabulous vocabulary here too. ****1/2

I have only one more of my Thingaversary books left to finish. It didn't take me long! All books I wanted very much to read and none of them, so far, disappointing.

>47 sibylline: This thought is interesting: Throughout I was aware that while Helen MacDonald and I share some characteristics...
I have also lost an adored father. In my case I didn't deal with it well; I didn't actually start to process emotion until I broke down. I didn't find anything in her account that I recognised from my experience. I grant we all deal with loss differently, but I could find very little that I could relate to. The only points of commonality were the retreat from people and the visit to the GP at which point it all comes tumbling out.
Maybe it's that not being able to find myself in her description of the experience that made me find it curiously lacking in emotion.

I attributed that to a genuine aspect of her personality - the thing that drew her to hawks in the first place, and then the experience of such strong identification with an animal as wild and alien as a hawk. The interest in White, too, couldn't be that powerful if she didn't feel linked to him in some way, could it? I suspect she is a rather "cool" person to know, not one to bother with the usual social niceties. And as such, I didn't "like" her particularly, as in, thinking "Oh this is someone I want to meet!"

And I am sorry for your own loss of a beloved father. My own was . . . complicated . . . so difficult in fact that not one of eight children rose to say a single word about him at his memorial service. I'm still mulling that over 7 years later.

>46 sibylline: I was just reading an article in one of Saturday's newspapers in which Hilary Mantel said she always told people to read Elizabeth Jane Howard. Nice coincidence to see such a glowing review here.

>50 wandering_star: I'm glad to hear that Mantel likes her so much.

I do like to keep track of what I'm reading and thinking about my reading:

January Round-up
1. new Corambis (bk 5) Sarah Monette fantasy ****
2. ��� Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery **** (Thinga read #1)
3. ✔ Lovers at the Chameleon Club Francine Prose contemp fic ***1/2
4. The New Yorker June 2015
5. new Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch urban fantasy/mystery (Thinga read #2!) ****
6. ♬(reread) Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon contemp fic *****
7. ✔ Foreigner C.J. Cherryh sf (Thinga read #4) ****1/2!
8. new Into the Silence Wade Davis nf *****!!!!!!
9. ✔ Invader C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 2) sf ****1/2
10. ✔Inheritor C.J. Cherryh sf (Foreigner #3) ****1/2
11. new The Light Years Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic (Thinga read #3!) ****
12. new H is for Hawk Helen Maconald natural history

Total: 12
Men: 3
Women: 5
M/W writing together: 0 (mostly Liaden series)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 3
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 0
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 0
New author: 1
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 1

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 5
Read it or Get Rid of It: 0

Housekeeping

Physical In/Out Totals:
IN Total=1
OUT Total=3

Best of January
Into the Silence Wade Davis

January Reflections
As I was trying to choose a "Best of" book (just one) for the month, I realized what a superb reading month it has been. It also highlights the arbitrariness of the "star" system. Truthfully I didn't "enjoy" Gravity's Rainbow as I have enjoyed Pynchon's later work, certainly I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. I may, at another time, avail myself of a copy with decent print (my own is a beat up paperback, the one I read it in the first time round). I don't think the audio format was the right way to take on Pynchon, so that also may have had a big effect on my understanding as well as enjoyment. I certainly DID enjoy some parts of it hugely and the full five star salute is because I do recognize it for the achievement it is. Now, having said that, Wade Davis's Into the Silence is a remarkable and truly worthwhile book, five-star-worthy from any and every angle. I read it slowly because it is not a book to gobble up, but toward the end, the last three chapters, I just pasted myself to the sofa and read. H is for Hawk also was an extraordinary read and I'm not sure why I'm withholding half a star, except that it took me awhile to come around, I felt somewhat put off in the beginning for reasons I can't begin to sort out, and I don't know if it was me or MacDonald, but something, I think changes part way, and, once again, for the last 100 or so pages, I pasted myself back in that sofa. All that is to say that this was a stellar non-fiction month. Which is not to say that the fiction wasn't fabulous too - I began two great series (Cazelet, Foreigner) and finished one excellent one (Doctor of Labyrinths), indulged in two Aaronovitches . . . Every month should be so good.

Interesting statistics and reflections. Good for you for doing this once a month.

I've added The Light Years to my wishlist thanks to your review.

>53 rebeccanyc: Of course, I scare myself. But thank you. It does seem to help me think about my reading, not that it changes, really, the choices I make.

13. sf *****
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie

Basically, I can't wait to read all three of the Ancillarys again. Or maybe listen to them, or maybe both. This is sf at its best: provocative, smart, funny, but with serious enough matters at the core. Every detail, from plot to tea rituals, is so well thought out, so consistent, so convincing. Oh and did I say, so much fun? Breq, a former Ancillary (think, basically, Borg) of a long-ago destroyed ship named Justice of Toren, now independent and thousands of years old (having been on ice) surprises herself and everyone else by breaking free and insisting that AI's are Persons of Significance as entitled as any human, any Radchh citizen. Her enemy is a ruler at war with herself -- cloned thousands of times and virtually everywhere and with absolute power. Brilliant! *****

14. history, sort of, **
Curious Incidents in King Philip's War Edward Lodi

Fortunately a very short book. It was, I think an impulse purchase, by a friend (non LT) who knows I'm interested in New England history and gave it to me as a gift. I hesitate to even review it - a collection of a few primary sources from the time of the war, with cute titles and introductory remarks to each "chapter". Virtually none of the incidents seemed particularly curious to me, more like, tragic and even more tragic. Clearly Lodi is deeply interested in the topic and I think he probably knows a great deal, but this is not the place to go to learn anything useful or illuminating. The one take-away though is he degree to which this war was utterly devastating to both colonists and native americans alike, a total disaster all around. I knew it was bad, but it was even worse than that. Treachery and mayhem on both sides, underlining how the misunderstandings and prejudices of the time had built up into a veritable firestorm, unavoidable, in some form or other too. **

>57 sibylline: I have a book on my TBR by an author I love (Jill Lepore) about King Phillip's War. I should get to it someday. It's called The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity.

>58 rebeccanyc: I expect that is a book very much worth reading. I like Lepore very much also. I've Wl'ed it.

>57 sibylline:, >58 rebeccanyc:, >59 sibylline: - King Philip's War was covered in Philbrick's Mayflower and left me fascinated. I would love to read Lepore's take, but maybe not Lodi's primary sources.

You have been doing some great reading Lucy. I enjoyed catching up. Encouraging to to see as positive review of H is for Hawk. I'm hoping to read that.

15. sf
Inversions Iain Banks

This is an odd one, a tale that is and isn't a Culture book . . . The planet is one that has experience massive upheaval from a series of meteors; things are just settling down again. In this late medieval world (muskets have come into play) the social order is everything and women are sexualized and have no other purpose than to serve men and procreate. There are two protagonists, Doctor Vosill, a woman, and DeWar, the first is the King's official doctor, the second is the bodyguard of an upstart General; the story alternates back and forth and the reader assumes there is some kind of connection . . . and maybe there is and maybe there isn't. Either way the doctor is a novelty, unusual in many ways, and unsettling to the men around the king. The king, however, accepts her, listens to her, and recognizes her superiority as a doctor and a person. DeWar similarly is an extraordinarily effective body-guard, respected, for the most part, by the general he serves. There are also occasional stories told within the narrative, usually something rather fanciful made up by Vosill or DeWar, but the stories resonate with a secondary meaning, with possible other interpretations. The narrative structure is awkward (journals, autobiographies found years later) although the narrative itself is smooth enough. The idea is that the doctor's apprentice, collected and wrote out these stories. It is a testament to Banks' confidence as a writer that I just accepted it and kept on reading. In a lesser writer it would have flopped and been too convoluted and possibly for many other readers it was. The apprentice never explains, either, why he connects Vosill and DeWar except that they were both very unusual people, with skills and abilities far beyond the norm of the times; they appeared and then disappeared within the same time period. I think Banks was, basically, enjoying writing a puzzle--how two agents of the Culture might appear to a person knowing nothing of them. My surmise is that they were sent to investigate the planet's condition after the meteor blasts, and maybe got stuck there somehow or other. But that's just my thought. I don't think I'm spoiling anything to say that--I made that assumption from the very first chapter. ****

I am reading and rereading through all The Culture books in honor of Iain M Banks. This is the 5th of 9, although there is also a book of short stories which I will no doubt read last.

16. contemp fic ****
Marking Time (2 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard

In the first book the challenge was becoming familiar with the huge cast of characters and the various tensions and relationships, although by the end the narrative spotlight has settled mostly on the three adolescent cousins, Clary, Louise, Polly, daughters each of one of the three Cazelet brothers. In book 2 any novelty factor the war had is well over and the three cousins are growing up aware that the war is cheating them of a "normal" growing-up time (equally aware that things are changing quickly because of the war, some of it in their favour.) The grandparents are hanging in there, but the parental generation are all struggling with losses and responsibilities. I can't really say any more than that without spoiling. New characters are introduced, love interests rise and fall, the help is restive. Things can't go on like this, breath held, as it were. I no longer have to consult the charts about who belongs to whom and I do feel satisfied that no character has been mysteriously dropped, which is an achievement in a story this big and complex. ****

Interesting to follow your readings of Ian M Banks.

We have a vixen living very near by and she has quite regular rounds, lately showing up pretty much every early afternoon on the other side of the pond. Today she hung about and I got some pics, but not very good ones since my camera is just on my phone and not that good. She also skulks about in the woods behind the house barking. We suspect she thinks Posey is a rival because she leaves poops and pee everywhere in a big circle around the house.

One morning a couple of weeks ago she was sitting on the frozen pond when I took Po out first thing - just sat watching us!

I have read and enjoyed several of his novels published by Ian Banks, but never picked up to read any of the novels published by Ian M Banks (they are the same author, I know.).

It will be interesting to follow your reviews.

I'm very interested in reading the Cazalet books someday. Enjoying your reviews!

>64 sibylline: that's pretty cool

I hadn't heard of the Cazalet books before. Sounds like a good series.

I found the Cazelet's through LT too!

-25 on my trustiest thermo (Teensy). The Quitter quit at -2 (now reads, pitifully Lo) and the Pessimist says something silly, as usual, like -30 which I really think is not true. Not going above - F at any time today, even with sun. Must be winter.

18. mys ****

A Cold Dish has a nice easy tone, without sacrificing any doubts that our protagonist, Longmire, is one smart dude. Yeah, he's the usual mixed-up law enforcement person, lonely but somehow, not a good judge of what's good for him . . . even if his instincts are superb in every other way. The plot, well, it was fine, I don't really read these for the plot, to be frank, and the revenge them is one of my least favorites in any case. I kind of got an inkling who it might be after awhile, and I thought the clues were laid down carefully but not too obviously, so that was well enough done. I particularly liked the "dream" section when he is rescuing his friend in the blizzard, and also some of the funnier/awful aspects, such as the lad George constantly escaping. I ADORE Vic. I'll be reading more of these. ****

I checked out the teev series spun off from this and Vic is played by one of my favorite actresses--played Starbuck in, oh jeez, the one with the Cylons. Battlestar Galactica? Is that it? The series is great so far too, two episodes. I don't even know her name, only that I love her spirit.

I have had a corgi around and about most of my life:



Stay warm today!

19. contemp fic ****
Confusion Elizabeth Jane Howard (Cazalet 3)

The war drags on . . . and on and on. What Howard conveys, better than anyone else ever has to me, is how the war affected childhood and adolescence over the long haul. I've read plenty of books about the war with children and young adults in them but never one that stays quite this focussed, quite this thoroughly. The three cousins, Polly, Louise, and Clary even speculate at some point how it might have been different for them or how it might not have been growing up in the midst of this. The biggest difference, for this family, anyway, was how the war keeps them together, at Home Place, where it was safe and there was room for everyone. For some this delays events, for others it is life-saving. The girls are not just expected to be ornamental and find husbands, either, they learn to do practical things and look after themselves (more or less). With the war everything is hard work, decisions are hard to make, some couples spend too much time apart and get themselves into various forms of trouble or unhappiness. . . Confusion is the right name for this volume! Couldn't put it down!

Perfect for this subzero weather!

The Cazalet series sounds very interesting.

Great review of Confusion. Love the corgi picture.

You're getting me interested in the Cazalet series...

20. sf ****
Precursor C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 4)

Let's just admit that I was a bit late to the airport to pick up the spousal unit because I.Had.To.Finish.
Like most Cherryh's there is an elaborate plot that takes time to unfold and time to reach critical mass - generally it is the last fifty to one hundred or so pages of each book that contain the real excitement, although the build-up is critical. I feel too, that I am beginning to understand better just how different the atevi are from humans, and how much Bren is changed by talking and thinking like them so intensely, and, how much more appealing, in some ways, their way of life and their culture might be. To them humans are just so random and chaotic and inconsistent! All too true! My one criticism remains stead--that Bren's family in Mosphei, his mother, his old girlfriend that whole scenario is just so boringly stereotypical. At least Ginny Kroger, the Science person in this one turns out to be a decent person . . . I'm sometimes puzzled by Cherryh's choices of how to develop characters, or who to develop. And she does seem less able to create a strong confident woman character than you would expect. If those pieces were stronger her work would be five star across the board. **** 1/2

21. ♬ mys ****
Revelation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 4)

Romping my way through Shardlake. I listen to these and basically, I love them enough that I am not daunted by long drives. This one got pretty gross - a religious serial killer following ideas gleaned from the Book of Revelation. Very icky. But the cameos of Catherine Parr, of Bealknapp (I'm listening so I don't know how to spell any names!), the marital woes of Barack, the doctor's troubles with his apprentice and his aiding the young obsessive man . . . all had me utterly absorbed as always. Also loved the portrait of Thomas Seymour, poor Jane's brother and Cranmer. Sansom really does bring home the religious furor and madness of the reign of Henry VIII. ****

Every once in a while I'll notice that my books fall, quite randomly, into an aesthetically pleasing grouping of covers:

♬

>73 sibylline: I don't know much about Howard, but I will tell you that one of the best novels I've read on war era youth is called To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield. It is one of my all time favorites. It actually takes place between WWI and WWII, but focuses on a young veteran who takes a job at a public school. It bridges the gap of his war experience and the next generation of kids that he is ultimately sending off the next war.

>79 sibylline: Speaking of covers, I was just going to comment on the covers for the Elizabeth Jane Howard books you've listed. The English country manor paintings are welcoming and peaceful. The inner content may not be, but covers are pleasing a and calming.

>80 brodiew2: To Serve Them All My Days was one of my favorite Delderfield books. It is one I've thought about re-reading several times. Did you ever see the television adaptation?

>79 sibylline:

Mine do that as well. I can't tell if it's a mood that dictates what I want to read and thus those similar books share similar moods in their covers. Or, if the color and feel of the covers dictates my reading mood. Two years ago though was my year for reading red covers, apparently. I'm guessing those just stood out on my shelf the most (most of my books are white due to being part of the French Folio collection) so I thought it was time to read them.

>80 brodiew2: Yes, someone did many many paintings of the same house at different times of day and year and the effect is wonderful. Unusually thoughtful and successful cover art! Gives me an idea - when I do finish I will put them all up together.

>81 NanaCC: I read a good bit of Delderfield eons ago - I'll take a look for it.

>82 lilisin: I'm not sure how it happens - the audio books come in via audible and I barely notice the covers, so that part is entirely random -- I find it fascinating how it happens. They'll go all out of sync for weeks and then, bingo!

And, gathering my courage--a few years ago I wrote a novella, writing weekly on a blog. Having finished my other big writing project (for the time being, until another round of editing) I have been working on it. It is what it is, no pretense here at high art or innovation, just good storytelling, I hope. It is contemporary fiction, my first love, even though I have deviated far into the world of speculative fiction in the last few years.

Apologies ahead of time as I am sure there are still all sorts of niggling errors of punctuation, spelling and etc. If you do read, I would love a comment either here by PM or on the site at Wordpress. Feel no obligation, however.

Hounds of Spring

22. sf (Foreigner 5)**** 1/2
Defender C.J. Cherryh

One has to be prepared to read the Foreigner series in sets of three, as the story arcs follow that pattern. This is, btw, appropriate to the auspicious three of the Atevi culture . . . but never mind. Captain Ramirez, senior of the ship Phoenix, dies suddenly and it becomes evident that only the topmost layer of lies to do with where and what the ship was up to before returning to the atevi planet and station has been uncovered. Bren finds himself feeling abandoned by Tabini, but events sweep him onto the ship and out into space, accompanied, to his surprise and chagrin, by the incomparable Illisidi, Tabini's grandmother and Tabini's six year old son (already as tall as a human adolescent). They are to go to the "lost" space station, Reunion, which, it turns out may still have people living on it, might have been attacked for good reason after some human (Ramirez) trespassed on yet another alien culture. It's all very touchy as the ship crew have family who were left there and had thought them all dead. Bren is now "Lord of the Heavens" as appointed by Tabini, to negotiate atevi interests as needed. More powerful than he ever imagined. But at Illisidi is (predictably) at loggerheads with Sabin, the senior captain on the mission, whose motives are ambiguous and loyalties unknown. The dreaded Pilot's Guild, are they in charge of this mission? Find out in Book 6. Bad idea to start these any time you know you will be too busy to sneak off to read them. ****

>84 sibylline: I read the first page. Is there more?

If you go to the bottom of the page you should find the four posts -- start with Morning. I'm not that impressed, ultimately, with how Wordpress is put together. Thank you so much!

23. sf ***** (Foreigner 6)
Explorer C.J. Cherryh

This last, #6 in the series, concluding the second story arc, was a doozy! Thrilling from start to finish. They (the Ship, filled with humans from Mospheira and with Atevi along with the original crew) reach the space station, planning to rescue the inhabitants and blow it up--having deduced that there is an alien presence that doesn't want anyone there--and find a "situation" - an alien ship lurking on the periphery. Bren and Jase have to figure out, quick, how to communicate with it. Sabin, the senior captain, doesn't thwart them, but doesn't like it either. No one is sure to whom she owes her real allegiance, Ship or the Pilot's Guild. Treachery lurks. The Pilot's Guild is so entrenched in power they have lost all ability to imagine compromise or flexibility, phobic of aliens, you have to wonder why they are in space at all! Opportunities for misunderstandings abound. In the end, the presence of Illisidi, the grandmother and Cajeira, the young ateva boy play a critical role. I'm completely immersed and comfortable with the uni now, and so it was a breathless read from start to finish. *****

You're reading the Foreigner books much more quickly than I am -- you're caught up to me now! I really need to get to the next one soon.

>89 bragan: Only because I did almost NOTHING else this last weekend! Not necessarily a good thing. My reading opportunities will be far less this week and the next. I'm in a quandary about it all really, a rather small and unimportant quandary. Once I start one of these "sequences" and it gets going, I find it a bit hard to do anything else, so I have decided to let Foreigner cool off a bit. I'll read the next sequence in March, I think, and after that I don't have all the books! And it will be spring and I generally don't plunge so wildly into these big series (note: generally, not a rule!).

I thought this second sequence was superb, btw.

I think it's back to the Cazelets for the time being.

24. poetry ****
A God in the House; poets talk about faith Ilya Kaminsky ed.

Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler interviewed about 20 poets, asking them to talk freely about matters of spirituality, religion, faith and how it affects them as working poets. The result is extremely various because these were interviews, later written up in a condensed form, without the give and take of the Q/A format. Every piece is remarkably different in feeling and focus which has to do with how each poet chose to answer; chose, you might say, how to regard what the question was asking of them. Some speak very intimately, some from a greater distance. The answers are surprising--it's all here, Wiccan, Native American, Anabaptist, Observant Judaism, to careful Atheism. I was riveted by several pieces, even by poets already well known to me: Grace Paley, Eleanor Wilner, Gregory Orr, and Joy Harjo. Many others were revelatory, Annie Finch and Dunya Mikhail. All the pieces were of great interest and I'm glad to know more about each poet. At the end of each essay, a poem, all very well chosen. A very worthwhile book to anyone interested in what "feeds" a poet. The only "awkwardness" is from the conversion from a dialogue to this written format, the result occasionally a bit disjointed; very well edited though to smooth out those problems as much as one could. ****

>91 sibylline: I would normally be hesitant to try this kind of book just because of how many ways it can go wrong. It sounds like this was nicely done and rewarding. Interesting.

A friend of mine was the editor and I have some involvement with the press that brought it out. Otherwise, no, I never would have read it. But I'm happy I did.

I've got your story up in a tab on my browser. It will be a bit before I get enough quiet, uninterrupted time at my laptop to read it, but I'm looking forward to it. You may have a publishing deal by then, however.

>94 RidgewayGirl: Thank you! Knowing that someone will be reading "it" seems to be a great inspiration to keep the editing process going. Still needs tweaking and endless "correcting". Incredibly difficult to proofread oneself.

I am presently, btw, driving from Vermont to Florida - stopping along the way to visit a variety of friends - harp and irish music, and a dear LT friend from over on the other thread I frequent -- the 75 group. It's amazing to drive into the warm and the green! As for as North Carolina now, almost into South Carolina. Camellias! Wow! Crocii are done! Daffiodils. We won't see those up north until . . . April, even early May! I've been very lucky with beautiful weather.

In four days I think I've read about 20 pages. But I've been listening to those super Shardlake mysteries.

>96 sibylline:. I loved the Shardlakes on audio. I hope there will be more of them. Enjoy Florida. I'm headed there next week.

I've arrived in Florida, lots of listening time in the car.
My current reading landscape looks like this:

Currently Reading (March)
♬

February Books Read
13. new Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf *****
14. new Curious Incidents in King Philip's War Edward Lodi history **?
15. ✔ Inversions Iain Banks sf ****
16. new Marking Time (2 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic
17. The New Yorker July 2015 (noted at >5 sibylline:)
18. ✔ The Cold Dish Craig Johnson mys ****
19. new Confusion (3 Cazelet) Elizabeth Jane Howard contemp fic ****
20. ✔ Precursor C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 4) sf **** 1/2
21. ♬ Revelation C.J. Sansom (Shardlake 4) ****
22. ✔Defender C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 5) sf **** 1/2
23. ✔ Explorer C.J. Cherryh (Foreigner 6) sf *****
24. ✔ A God in the House; poets talk about faith Ilya Kaminsky ed.

Total: 12
Men: 4
Women: 3 (multiples)
M/W writing together: 1 (two editors, essays both genders)
Non-fiction: 2
Contemp/Classic Fiction: 2
SF/F: 6
Mystery: 1
YA or J: 0
Poetry: 1 (essays and poems)
New author: 3
Months of NYers: 1
Reread: 0

Book origins/type:
From library or borrowed: 0 (inc audio):
Audio: 1
New: 4
Off Shelf: 6
Read it or Get Rid of It: 1

Housekeeping

IN February= 14
2016 Total IN=15
OUT February Total=3
2016 Total OUT=6

Books IN: February 2016
2.My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante
3. The Story of a New Name Elena Ferrante
4.Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Elena Ferrante
5.The Story of the Lost Child Elena Ferrante
6. Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
7. All Clear Connie Willis
8. The Pull of the Moon Elizabeth Berg
9. The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield
10. Tenth of December George Saunders
11. Blue Latitudes Tony Horwitz
12. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois Bujold
13. Matter Iain M. Banks
14. Look to Windward Iain M. Banks
15. All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard

February Reflections

Best of February
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie sf *****

I had to choose between two terrific "conclusions" of series and I gave first to the Ann Leckie since she is the newer author. Many stunning things about it, both the groundedness of the invented universe and the consistency and charm of the small details (pins, gloves, tea sets). On a deeper level, the lack of use of both gender pronouns: everyone is a "she" -- creating an interesting tension in the reader as you know you are assigning "female" attributes to them all, even as you know that in fact, they have different physical attributes . . . this is a society that has moved beyond thinking the soul has a gender. Beautiful. There is also a theme of the splintered and whole self that can intrigue the mind like a hall of mirrors. Who is real? What makes a real person? I look forward to rereading this series, more slowly this time, as I won't be gobbling it up to find out "what happens." The runner-up was the final book in the second sequence of .J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (Book 6), which simply did not let up from beginning to end. Can't really go into details, but Cherryh's style is to lay the groundwork slowly and methodically and sometimes maddeningly, until towards the end of a book, or in this case, a sequence, things pick up and you have to hold on to your hat. Close behind these are books 2 and 3 of the Cazelet Chronicles - both of these set during ww2. Howard captures how thoroughly people put their lives 'on hold' - and how adolescents and young adults were deeply affected by everything, from losing lovers and friends, to feeling young and helpless, to watching things fall apart - it's wonderfully done. The adults too just postpone everything they can. Iain Banks' Inversions is not one of his stronger or more exciting novels, but it was good read, and A God in the House definitely had merit. So a good strong month!

In other news - this was, for me, a highly acquisitive month! And on my trip even though I gave away two books, I received two new books, which I will list under March, just to try to keep the numbers down!

RoT Tally
1. The Book of Strange New Things Michael Faber

Quit RoT (Read or Toss)
2. Gardens of the Moon Steven Erikson

Usually I don't bother writing up anything about a book I've quit reading but I trudged through 200 pages because the two main characters, a sorceress Tattersail and a soldier, Paran, have so much potential as characters, but this is top-heavy with "tromp, tromp, tromp, fight, fight, fight" without enough of anything else, like, say, character development or just . . . relief. I read fantasy mainly for original worldbuilding and forms of magic, as well as character development. All of which is present here but . . . just not happening. Furthermore there is in-clueing and then there is no-clueing. 200 pages in I am only just barely getting who is fighting whom and why (echoes of some of USA's stupider busy engagements far from home). Not for me.

27. sf ****1/2
Look to Windward Iain Banks

Either I'm getting accustomed to Banks or the plot of this one was fairly straightforward. Probably a bit of both. Really, what's not to love about the Ships, every aspect from names, classes, minds and not to mention the whole concept of the Culture and all their fantastic works on a galactic and epic scale . . . Trying to outfox Special Circumstances to wreak revenge on the Culture? Go ahead, give it a whirl, I say! Marvelous!

There's a LFL (Little Free Library) on a nearby street (I'm still in Florida) and I've had the fun of putting two books in and taking one book out (poems by Galway Kinnell.

The current line-up, shifting to a faded pastel look:

♬

28. contemp fic **** (series=****1/2)
All Change Elizabeth Jane Howard

The fifth and last of the Cazelet Chronicles, it seemed a bit choppy and superficial at first, but I was also reading it in choppy little bits which didn't help. I waited for the opportunity to read most of it in a few long sittings, and even though it ends on a somber note and I had a lump in my throat for the final one hundred pages, I think Howard did fine with this last volume. Book Four, like a fairy tale, ended on a very happy note all around, except for one or two characters everyone was settled romatically or practically-speaking and was more or less thriving, although, it is true there were storm clouds lurking on the horizon. I see now that Howard had a larger arc in mind, a harder, tougher arc that includes real failures, real endings, the not-a-fairy-tale ending of literature. All along, while reading I kept thinking of other writers from Angela Thirkell (at the lighter end) to Mary Wesley and Penelope Fitzgerald (at the darker end, and many many in-between, say, Barbara Pym.) Howard manages an orchestral piece (music plays a large part in the book--the Cazelets are anything but ordinary; they are attractive and talented if flawed in all the usual ways) that can go from light to dark in a matter of pages. In the four previous novels I don't think Howard reaches quite as deeply, except perhaps with the death of the Duchy, the grandmother, and Rupert's difficulties and that is where the choppiness arises. She is describing upheaval of the kind that can break a family apart definitively and it is dark stuff so that when the children are being funny in this volume it can be a little hard to make the shift. And yet, that is exactly how life is. One character mulls how you can be with a small child, playing along with them, and still frantically worried about an adult matter of huge importance. It's not as comfortable a read as the previous books, but I think it lifts the whole Chronicle up a level. Yet one could also argue that this last book does not fit so well with the mood of the previous four. It isn't quite as well edited or fleshed out, but overall it is remarkable how Howard takes leave of almost every character in a satisfactory, realistic way. **** for Book 5 and ****1/2 for the whole.

29. mys ****
The Janissary Tree Jason Goodwin

This was a lively read in an absorbing setting, Istanbul in 1836. A world on the cusp of change. Yashim, a eunuch in the service of the sultan, is an investigator with a gift for not being noticed. Because of his status he can move quietly between the inside and outside of the palace and he is employed to investigate the disappearance of four young officers from the New Guard, which has replaced the Janissaries, the former entrenched and utterly corrupt soldiery that ten years earlier had been violently removed from power. The forces of "keep the old ways" versus the steady creep of new ideas of democracy and equality from the west, are about to clash and Yashim finds himself at the center of the plotting. You'll be looking things up and summoning maps of Istanbul as you read. By a fine coincidence I was also reading (months late) a New Yorker article on archaeological finds in Istanbul that held up the completion of a subway tunnel under the Bosphorus for a decade. If you like historical mysteries this is, apparently, the start of a series. Hooray! ****

>104 sibylline: Based largely on your recommendations, I've begun The Light Years and am totally absorbed. It reminds me of how it felt to read huge family sagas when I was in my teens, and which I can sadly no longer enjoy due to them being so poorly written. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Many happy hours ahead :)

>106 ChocolateMuse: It is a delight to find a sprawling "saga" that is worth reading. It always amazes me when books like these surface years later - I have to wonder why I didn't hear about it at the time. Or maybe I did and just didn't notice? Wasn't the right time? Who can say.

Enjoy!

The Janissary Tree sounds fun, and I'm definitely looking for some replacement historical mystery series for the ones I've finished.

Does anyone have have any recommendations for historical mysteries? I like listening to them on long drives - I've done the Medicus books and am just finishing up the Matthew Shardlake set. I would do the Janissary ones only I think we'll end up getting the books since my spousal unit liked this first one a lot too. It drives me bonkers spending $ to have a book in several media formats . . .

31. hist. fantasy ***1/2
The Last Light of the Sun Guy Gavriel Kay

Yet another sub-category of fantasy, historical fantasy, that is, fantasy loosely based on our own earthly history, but in a fantasy form (a light touch of faerie). I read happily along with it because it is very nicely and deftly done. The norsemen sweep down and attack the various tribal peoples on two coasts, one clearly Britain the other the coast of France. We mainly follow the characters of the up and coming generation of fledgling adults, in all three categories of Viking, Saxon, and Celt. (Everything is quaintly but not annoyingly renamed and I know I won't retain it, so I won't even try.) But this is a time of change, a single new god has swept away most of the old beliefs, and there is an urge to ally rather than fight between themselves as before so as to be able to repel the norsemen when they come. There is a mystical spirit wood, there are romances, some gore, some heartbreak, a lost father, a hidden sword and some very satisfying resolutions. What is most well done are the relationships between these young adults. I was not keen on Kay's Fionavar books but I loved Tigana. This falls somewhere in between. Not terribly original, but quite satisfying. ***1/2

32. contemp fic ***
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes

Oh well, call me a philistine, but in the words of Veronica, the "antagonist" of this novel, I just didn't get it. The story felt pseudo-weighty and contrived. And this from me, the gleeful reader of extremely contrived genre literature. But that stuff is supposed to be contrived! The problem here for me is that Barnes is a serious writer, and serious literature, for me, mustn't feel contrived, I must be convinced that what happens is what had to happen and is rooted in something fundamental about human nature. Barnes writes wonderfully well, by the way and I loved Flaubert's Parrot. So it's not the writing, or even, in some ways the characters. It's just that . . . in this novel the story at the core seemed ridiculous to me. Ridiculous and a bit pompous or something. It's just not credible to hold someone accountable in this way--and for that person to be such a dope as to take on that burden! I felt like the dude in Blazing Saddles who just shoots the guy who is spinning his pistols around. If I say anything more it would be a spoiler. I recognize that some people love this kind of book: bright and contained, polished and accomplished like an intricate and clever puzzle box. Not for me. ***

>112 sibylline: I didn't get it either.

>113 ELiz_M: I am so glad not to be alone. I haven't checked out the other reviews yet.

And I will repeat my plea from above for suggestions for historical mysteries! I'm just finishing up the Shardlakes and before that the marvelous Medicus series. I either don't go anywhere at all or else I drive long distances and the hist myst turns out to be the best. Travel books are good also. I have a Theroux lined up.

>112 sibylline: - I'm with you. Read it last year and it annoyed me.

>115 sibylline: I've Alan Hollinghurst's The Folding Star on order from the library. Think it might fit into your historical mystery category, but obviously can't yet vouch for how good it is. I've enjoyed 3 of his other novels to date, though.

I love Lindsey Davis' Falco books (1st century AD Rome). The audio editions used to be good but I see they're all being re-released with Simon Prebble as the reader (he sounds too posh for Falco, in my opinion, and too monotone in the narration). Libraries will still have older versions in physical collections. I'm not a huge fan of his, but mostly once I start with one reader I like I just can't deal with a reader change. Some of the early ones are less focused on the mystery element and more focused on character development, but I'd say the first seven or so can be read out of order. I've not been so impressed by her sort of spin-off from Falco (he was really getting too old).

I've also really liked Ellis Peters' Cadfael books (12th century English monk), and found them read well by both Derek Jacobi and Stephen Thorne.

I'm only two books in, but enjoying Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books (late Victorian Egyptologists). The first was really easy to figure out mystery wise, but that element isn't the main reason I read any of these. There's a lot of humor in them, and I think Peters succeeds at creating a progressive but believable character (vs a totally modern character inserted into a historical setting). The author herself got a PhD in Egyptology in 1952 prior to writing fiction.

>118 mabith: Thank you! I used to read the E. Peters - I loved them! I didn't like the Cadfael series all that much on the teev, but I should give the books a try, I think! And I have wondered about the Falco's, whether I'd like them. I know exactly what you mean about Simon Prebble. And some of these readers, good as they are, are just too ubiquitous.

Are there any others (besides Amelia P) that anyone knows off with a woman protagonist??? That might make for a refreshing change.

>119 sibylline: I don't read historical mysteries, but a friend that loves the Shardlakes series also rates the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King quite highly.

The Falco spin-off features his adopted daughter as the protagonist, and I know there's a historical mystery series with a nun as detective, though I can't think of it off-hand. There's actually a Historical Mysteries group here on LT that should be a good resource:
https://www.librarything.com/groups/historicalmysteries

The Cadfael TV show doesn't work well for me either, I think because the compression of events and characterization is SO extreme.

I don't know if you like Josephine Tey's mysteries, but there's a new series by Nicola Upson, which uses Tey herself as the detective. The first one is An Expert in Murder (I haven't read it yet but my mom recommends reading the afterward first, which talks about the factual basis). They're set in the 1930s.

>112 sibylline: I agree with your thoughts on The sense of an Ending. I was unimpressed.

>120 ELiz_M: Thank you. I will investigate!

>121 mabith: I have a tickle of a thought that Antonia Fraser may have written some mysteries featuring a nun . . . am I out of my head? Must investigate that idea. And thanks for the historical mysteries thread, I will go there and see what I can learn! Good to know about Cadfael. I should definitely try the books. And I have read most of Tey's mysteries, but a series featuring her as the detective could be fun.

>122 baswood: That's a relief to me - I feel that I've only encountered accolades.

Meanwhile, the line-up presently looks like this:

Currently Reading (March)
♬

I've started the Knausgaard and already, well, he careens from the banal, spending time with his three very young children at a tawdry amusement park, to the examination of a Norwegian author, Dag Solstad, and ruminations about whether it is ultimately nature or nurture that makes a person into who they are. Does it matter what family you are born into? Some time periods think yes, others think no. It is a most critical belief, for all it is, ultimately, is a belief. For nurture implies culpability for bad "parenting" and nature, well, it kind of throws one to the dogs, survival of the fittest, etcetera. It makes some aspects of ethics look shaky, that's for sure. Anyway, Book 1 started with an extended meditation on death. This one plunges right into the aftermath of love and marriage: offspring and what that does to a person. I used to cry in playgrounds--I was so bored and my daughter always wanted to run around an explore. I was 44 when she was three, so used to a free life, it was very very difficult sometimes, no matter how much I loved and treasured her. I can't help but respect Knausgaard for his candour! The adoration, the boredom, the terror that they might hurt themselves if vigilance ceases for even a second. . . he's nailed it.

Otherwise I'm romping through Foreigner 7 and slowly reading the three-in-one offering of Flora Thompson's extraordinary "fictionalization" of her childhood and youth, Lark Rise to Candleford in Oxfordshire. I'm looking forward to seeing the BBC production of it.

I'm in the third "chapter" of my four part Florida trek, Part 1 was the drive down where I stopped in on the way to see various music friends. Part 2 once I had arrived was highly social, friends visiting, daughter flying in and out, lots of cooking and chores. Now everyone but me and the dawg are gone and I am embarked on Part 3 which is a brief writing retreat. Part 4, the exact start of which hasn't been decided quite yet, will be "The Trip Home." That I hope to accomplish swiftly and uneventfully. I've been working hard on the itinerary and on being sure I have the perfect audio books.

>115 sibylline: I don't read mysteries with a history theme often, but The French Executioner (about Ann Boleyn) was fun. The author has written other mysteries including Vlad: The Last Confession, which was an interesting perspective.

http://cchumphreys.com/

Interesting suggestions! I am a sucker for Vlad. Loved The Historian.

>126 sibylline: I'm a sucker for Vlad too. I seem be filling an entire shelf with serious and not so serious books about him. The Historian was a good one.

>124 sibylline: Book 2 is great. I also admired his candour about the boredom of looking after young kids and loss of your own freedom. I'm sure you'll love it from start to finish.

Catching up with numerous reviews. You're not the only one around here to wonder about that Barnes. I was interested in your thoughts on Knausgaard 2. What part of FL are you in?

>127 SassyLassy: What IS it about Vlad????? I'm not into vampires, generally, just Vlad.

>128 AlisonY: Yes, I think I will.

>129 dchaikin: I'm in Sarasota. Just got home from playing at a terrific irish music session held down Tamiami, ten min. from my abode here, so I'm all hyped up.

Flaubert's Parrot was very good. I wonder, maybe he got the prize more for overall achievement, not this book in particular? That does seem to sometimes happen.

Catching up. . . but on the subject of historical mysteries, Louis Bayard writes excellent historical mysteries, but not in a series. Mr. Timothy was especially good, but he is one of my favorite authors. There's a series of loosely connected mysteries that begins with The Alienist by Caleb Carr that are very well done. And there's a series by Phillip Kerr set in Germany before, during and after the war that begins with March Violets (also published as an omnibus called Berlin Noir). It's written in the classic fast-talking hard-boiled style and is a lot of fun. And if you consider the 1980s as historic, Denise Mina has a trilogy centered on a Glasgow journalist.

>131 RidgewayGirl: I will investigate all of these writers! Marvelous!

33. sf ***1/2
Destroyer C.J. Cherryh (Bk 7 Foreigner

As ever with the first book in a felicitous three-sequence, things get off to a meticulously spelled out start. In this one, I think, we learn much more about how atevi man'chi really works as we watch Tabini's son, Cajeiri begin to mature and attract others, and as Bren observes and experiences the matriarch dowager Illisidi make her magnificent moves to recapture the territory lost after the coup by the southern association. Oh, right, Bren and co. get home from their successful two-year mission out to Reunion station to find that Tabini has disappeared, the conservative forces deemed this time, with illisidi and other powerful figures out of the picture, as a good one to attack. Tabini with the human paidhi Bren at his side, have pushed the atevi too fast and too far technologically and this is the push back. I was especially impressed in this one by how well Cajeiri was, once again, woven into the story. But, overall, it was slower reading, a little hard to concentrate as so much of it was about the ins and outs of atevi alliances. Barb, a character I don't care for at all, turns up again, but thankfully only briefly, but I'm afraid she's around for good, given her new love focus. Hopefully she will behave herself. I look forward to the next two, and have no doubt things will heat up and get red hot! ***1/2

>131 RidgewayGirl: The mention of the Bernie Gunther novels reminded me of the "Station" novels of David Downing, also in and around WWII. I'm another Bernie fan.

>134 SassyLassy: thank you! More leads to investigate!

34. sf ****
Pretender C.J. Cherryh

Pretender starts off at a gallop (well, explosions, roaring of engines) and never lets up! By plane train and automobile it's a race to the capitol, Shejidan. Aiji Tabini has problems to overcome before fully reasserting himself as the head of the Western side of the continent--in two directions, one the usurper Murini and second the Assassin's Guild itself which is revealed to be in disarray. Luckily Tabini has not only his grandmother Ilisidi, and Bren the paidhi-ji, the world's foremost worrywort, but his now 8 yr. old son Cajeiri is showing signs of true precocity. Lots of fun! This is book 2 of a three part sequence (7-9 in the larger series). ****

After this one I have to stop for a bit as I actually don't have any but one of the next six or seven in the series!

It is a bit difficult to choose to read Knausgaard when this is the other fiction choice!

>115 sibylline: (a bit late, but better late than never) On the historical mysteries front, I would second (or third or maybe even forth) the Ellis Peters Cadfael series. And the TV series was just as wrong as a very very wrong thing, so don't even go there.

There are 2 series I'd add that are both set in the early medieval period. The first is featuring a Cambridge academic, set at about the founding of the University, he's Matthew Bartholomew and the author is Susanna Gregory. The second is set in York and features Owen Archer, a veteran of service to the Duke of York who has lost an eye and finds himself not sure where life will turn next. That's by Candace Robb.

I'd also suggest the Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne. Set in 6th Century Ireland, the detecting is done my Fidelma, who is the sister of the king of one of the 5 counties, is legally trained and is a Nun. She has a Saxon Monk as a sidekick, who can be reassuringly dense at times.

>134 SassyLassy: On my last trip to Berlin, I would get a thrill every time I used a station named in one of the Downing books. The Hauptbahnhof used to be called Lehrter Station.

>137 Helenliz: and >138 RidgewayGirl: Thank you for even more ideas and that's cool! I spent some time in Berlin before Germany reunified and I liked the city enormously.

Here are a few quotes from Struggle #2. The first two are of a piece, from a very long paragraph, and are serious, the last one is funny: The first, in fact, addresses Knausgaard's "struggle" - makes it very clear that this is the word that best describes his constant internal conflict. I can't think what other word he could use. I will also admit that it was startling in the extreme to read this, for I've been, yes, struggling, with very similar issues all my life, but never articulated this strongly or this well.

He's been at a children's party and is leaving: "There was nothing left of my feelings for those I had just spent several hours with. The whole crowd of them could have burned in hell for all I cared. This was a rule in my life. When I was with other people I was bound to them, the nearness I felt was immense, the empathy great. Indeed so great that their well-being was always more important than my own. I subordinated myself, almost to the verge of self-effacement; some uncontrollable internalmechansim caused me to put their thoughts and opinions mine. But the moment I was alone others meant nothing to me. " He then goes on to say some ameliorating things about his feelings for various types of people, nothing to do whether he likes them or not.

Then this - he is split, constantly, in two, back and forth depending whether he is alone or with others:

"And in between them is where my daily life lay. Perhaps that was why I had such a hard time living it. Everyday life, with its duties and routines, was something I endured, not a thing I enjoyed, nor something that was meaningful or that made me happy. This had nothing to do with a lack of desire to wash floors or change diapers but rather with something more fundamental: the life around me was not meaningful. I always longed to be away from it. So the life I led was not my own, I tried to make it mine, this was my struggle, because of course I wanted it, but I failed, the longing for something else undermined all my efforts."

This, I think, is the torment of, although it makes me cringe to write it, "the true artist" - or creative person, or what have you. Some unreal place that you get to inhabit in your mind, but never for long enough, has more allure, impact, and meaning than the real world, even though you know that is an illusion, entirely.

OK. So enough of that:

"I stopped for a few seconds by the newspaper stand wondering whether to buy the two evening papers here, the two biggest publications. Reading them was like emptying a bag of trash over your head. Now and then I did buy them, when it felt as though a bit more trash up there wouldn't make any difference."

Enjoyed the Knaussgaard quotes, Lucy.

Today I depart Sarasota for points north - fingers crossed for weather and traffic being mild.

This is slightly lame, but anyone who might stop by if you could put up a comment? I'd like to start a new Spring thread, partly as the header for this one is getting to be stale . . . Just need, um, seven more and I'm good.

Six needed now!

>143 sibylline: Oh, so 150 messages is the magic number to trigger the "continue this topic" link/function? I didn't know that (and now you need only 5)!

Just catching up after my vacation in Florida. It looks like you've been doing some fun reading. I love CJ Sansome's series. Hopefully there will be more.

I had this issue last year in my thread in another group. So frustrating to have to wait to do the nice automatic link to a new thread.

Hello!

I'll help too.

And this should be the magic number!

You are all quite wonderful!! The magic number used to be much higher, 250 I think, but they lowered it to 150 which works quite well for me. I think I can label my threads by seasons and hope they'll last about three months.

Tonight I am in Lumberton NC and visiting a bit with an LT friend from the 75 group. How wonderful is that! Nice easy drive today although there were plenty of cars. Mercifully no accidents. The congestion eased as I got past Charleston. I'm getting very close to the end of the last Shardlake, Lamentation and after that? On a total whim I loaded up a Dorothy Dunnett The Game of Kings that my brother was raving about, and something else that was recommended here, but now I can't remember the title. So if one doesn't work, surely the other will. It's amazing to me how much I don't mind driving for hours on end when I have a good book to listen to!

I've heard the Dorothy Dunnett books raved about by eminent people (e.g. TomcatMurr).

One friend I just mentioned it to thought it might be a difficult listen - lots of names and so on. But we'll see. German, no, but French and Italian and small amounts of Latin I can manage. I can't imagine (silly of me to say this probably) that it would be harder than listening to Gravity's Rainbow.

I loved the audio version of the Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler. Also the Louise Penny Three Pines series is a good one in audio. They are not historical fiction though. The Bryant and May series is full of historical information even though it takes place in present day.

>151 sibylline: >152 ChocolateMuse: I read a Dorothy Dunnett years ago and didn't like it, but perhaps I should try again.

Well I think this thread should carry on till over 250.

Enjoyed those extracts from My Struggle; Knausgaard book 2

>156 baswood: If I hadn't called it January-February I would be fine with leaving it be. Perhaps my next thread should have something more open-ended up top.

35. sf ****1/2
Deliverer C.J. Cherryh

This final book of the third Foreigner "sequence" #9 in the felicitous threesomes, was tight and action-packed. Of greatest interest, of course, is that Cajeiri, the heir, Tabini's son has been profoundly affected by his two years on "the ship." He is the first atevi child to have been exposed to humans at a very young age and he has an ease with humans that is going to change things down the road, for good or bad, remains to be seen, I suspect, in later books. He has become almost as important character as paidhi Bren, the human interpreter for the atevi.

I will now take a break from reading these as I haven't got anymore, well, I have one, book 11, I think it is, but that's it.

Travel update: Tonight I am in Fredericksburg. Took quite a nice walk around Chatham Hall ( I think that is what it is called) that overlooks the Rappahannock and was the site of fierce fighting in the Civil War.

Yesterday my spousal unit sent a clip of Tenzing (one of our cats) watching it snow and at one rest area someone came up to my car, a couple traveling from Florida to Vermont (where one was born) and when I told them it was snowing up there, he called his mother who started laughing. Vermont is one of those states where, since it does have such a small population, people do that, see that green license plate and figure they might know someone you know. And weirdly often one does.