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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Sep 17 2019, 5:05pm
Post #1 of 9
(432 views)
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It's the equinox reading thread!
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Whether it's the beginning of spring or of autumn depends on where you are, of course. Suffice it to say Texas has no idea where it is, and is on track for the hottest September ever.
I listened to The Careful Use of Compliments, one of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie books, because I wanted something quiet and familiar. I enjoy McCall Smith's writing, and the way Isabel thinks, but you don't read these books looking for a complex plot!
I'm now listening to an abridged version of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which he reads himself in a comfortable, pleasant voice. This is simply an account of him and his friend Katz hiking part of the Appalachian Trail, filled with small incidents, funny descriptions, and serious thoughts on all manner of topics.
I'm reading on---well, on my e-reader, not paper---Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. Our main characters are witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat, each distinctive in her own way. As always, the prose is stunningly funny and profound at the same time. His Discworld is both a creative fantasy construction and a mirror of our own world. I'm savoring every word.
If you're guessing that all of the above are comfort reads, then you'd be right.
So what have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Annael
Immortal
Sep 18 2019, 3:57pm
Post #2 of 9
(370 views)
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Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
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She's terrific at the descriptions; she evokes the marsh where an abandoned girl manages to survive quite vividly. I found the plot a bit far-fetched and the characters a tad simplistic, but overall I enjoyed it.
I've also been reading In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende, which has a complicated plot, complicated characters, and plenty of description. Allende is a master, no doubt about it. This novel is much lighter on the magical realism (although there's a bit) that usually characterizes her work, and she has a lot to say about the plight of illegal immigrants from south & central America - both the horrors they're trying to flee, and what happens to them on their flights and after. If this were a movie it would come with warnings about graphic scenes of violence.
I ended up re-reading the entire "Crystal Cave" series by Mary Stewart as a running start to reading the final book, The Wicked Day, but once Merlin departed the scene it just wasn't as interesting (despite her beautiful writing). She works hard to make Mordred understandable and even sympathetic, but making him the central character robbed the story of some of its power, I thought.
Next up: The Bookseller of Kabul, a nonfiction book about a man who sold books on the sly to people in Kabul, and The Embodied Self: Friedrich Schleiermacher's Solution to Kant's Problem of the Empirical Self by the Rev. Thandeka for a little light reading 
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
my blog: https://jodybower.com/myths-archetypes-in-film/
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Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea
Sep 21 2019, 1:28am
Post #3 of 9
(339 views)
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I loved Terry's word craft.
I saw they cast Sam Vimes for The Watch based on the characters of Discworld. It's not an adaptation of the books from what I understand, but a tv series set in Discworld with the City Watch characters. I hope they do Sam justice - Night Watch is one of my all time favorite books.
_
Heed WBA when building blanket forts.
ITLs don't get enough FAS. :)
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Sep 21 2019, 3:24pm
Post #4 of 9
(327 views)
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Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea
Sep 21 2019, 8:18pm
Post #5 of 9
(313 views)
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https://www.imdb.com/...nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2
Richard Dormer has been cast as Sam Vimes.
Fingers crossed. Sam is such a complicated character. It would be a shame to make him into a stupid thug.
_
Heed WBA when building blanket forts.
ITLs don't get enough FAS. :)
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Sep 21 2019, 8:58pm
Post #6 of 9
(306 views)
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Well, Dormer looks the part in his IMDB photo. We'll see how it works out. Thanks!
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Sep 22 2019, 5:00pm
Post #7 of 9
(290 views)
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which I haven't read for 20+ years, so it's time for a re-read. I find I'm much more patient with Le Guin's slow buildup at the beginning, and more tolerant of the darker aspects. I first read it as a child and thought it gloomy, then again in college for a course and thought it okay, a philosophical book that wasn't quite in line with my own philosophies at the time. (I wish Harry Potter had been around when I was a kid--that was what I wanted to read then, over and over.) Anyway, I'm appreciating her subtlety a lot more now.
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Elberbeth
Tol Eressea
Sep 22 2019, 5:59pm
Post #8 of 9
(286 views)
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How The French Won Waterloo (Or Think They Did)
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by satirical writer Stephen Clarke. I see that he has written several other books, all aimed squarely at the French people. He had researched Waterloo in depth, but although quite funny in parts, a little too snide for my taste. I might try another one, just to confirm.
"There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Sep 24 2019, 2:49pm
Post #9 of 9
(264 views)
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It's the Baggins birthday reading thread!
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A very happy, if somewhat belated, birthday to two of our favorite hobbitses!!
Last week I listened to one of Rhys Bowen's Lady Georgiana books, Malice at the Palace. This episode takes place during the run-up to the wedding of Prince George (an uncle of the present-day queen) and Princess Marina of Greece. The mystery element is entertaining, if predictable, but I feel there's too much of the actual history---social and political---of 1930s Britain, with many nudge-wink references to events that will occur in the future.
This is the first one of Bowen's series I've listened to rather than read. The narrator uses heavy, almost Pythonesque accents for the characters, especially the upper-class ones.
I'm now listening to my favorite of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books, The Virgin in the Ice. The female narrator seems a bit out of place for a book whose characters are almost exclusively male, but is unobtrusive enough. As for the underlying mystery story, Peters' writing, plotting, and characters are exceptionally fine in this installment of the series. I can feel the chill of the winter as Cadfael and Hugh search for a missing heiress.
On paper I'm having another magazine catch-up, reading a Smithsonian and an Archaeology. It's the former that has a great article on the excavations at Pompeii, while the latter's topics range from England to Afghanistan. The current issue of Smithsonian is waiting for me, with a cover story on George Washington's youthful service in the British army during the French and Indian war.
What have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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