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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Aug 18 2022, 7:22pm
Post #1 of 7
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It's the occasional reading thread!
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I'm sorry to take so long to post another thread. I honestly don't know where the time goes!
On paper I've read Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain, by Matthrew Green. In each chapter, Green visits the site of a vanished village somewhere in the UK, including the famous site of Dunwich in Norfolk, a town that was gradually eaten by the sea but a version of which lives on in the work of H. P. Lovecraft. The book veers from personal to academic and back again, but still I found it entertaining and informative.
I also read on paper a delightful small book, In My Mind's Eye: A Thought Diary by the late essayist and travel writer Jan Morris. These are very short essays from her 92nd year. Beautifully written as I'd expect, funny, touching, and perceptive in turn.
I've just started Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes. Scholar and novelist Haynes examines the women of the Greek myths in the light of modern scholarship and gender studies. So far I've read only about Pandora and Jocasta, but am anticipating the rest of the characters, such as Medea and Penelope. Haynes writes clearly, thoughtfully, and with good humor. These are the same old stories made new and fresh.
Annael, have you read this one? If not, it's right up your alley.
I read the ebook of Still Life, not Louise Penny's Armand Gamache mystery of the same title but a Karen Pirie mystery by Val McDermid. Pirie investigate cold cases for the Edinburgh, Scotland, police. In this installment she finds her skills called upon by a new murder with old roots, as well as a cold case. McDermid makes a point of setting the book in early 2020, with the pandemic looming. Well done, as always, even though the two separate mysteries never did quite meet in the middle.
I've listened to a short story by Laurie King, Stately Holmes, in which Holmes and his wife Mary Russell are called to attend a family Christmas in the country. It was amusing, but I've never been able to get into King's version of Holmes.
I'm now listening to Quick Service, a short novel by P. G. Wodehouse. This isn't a Jeeves and Bertie story but has the same enjoyable elements: sparkling prose, witty characters, farcical plots and romances.
I'm still listening to Andy Serkis's brilliant reading of LotR and have just finished the first book of The Two Towers as Pippin and Gandalf ride for Minas Tirith
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
Elvenhome
Aug 19 2022, 5:04pm
Post #2 of 7
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ooh, thanks for the recommendation!
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I have not read that book but sounds like I need to! (Especially as I've just signed on to review yet another dissertation on heroines . . .)
I'm reading Wayfaring: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World by M. R. O'Connor. I'm one of those people who almost always knows where she is - I carry a mental image of the land around me in my head at all times, and if I ever get "off" with it, I actually feel physical discomfort. For instance when I go to the East Coast and am at the ocean I have to wrench the map around in my head (that's how it feels, like a real physical effort) because I'm so oriented to the ocean being WEST.
I'm also reading about mushrooms, because without quite intending it I seem to be becoming a mycophile. I'm in a book club now with an expert and hoping to start going out with her this fall.
Also reading How Emotions are Made. I'm just fascinated by neuropsychology, if that's not obvious.
But one must throw a bit of fiction into the midst, so I re-read The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. I read it once years ago and it wasn't my favorite Peter Wimsey (Murder Must Advertise is), but this time around I enjoyed it much more. And then I found the old BBC adaptation (VERY true to the book) with Ian Carmichael, on youtube, so I watched it.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Aug 19 2022, 7:00pm
Post #3 of 7
(762 views)
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I almost described the Wodehouse book as "entertaining piffle", which is what I think Harriet says of Wimsey's conversation. 
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....
(This post was edited by Lily Fairbairn on Aug 19 2022, 7:06pm)
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Annael
Elvenhome
Aug 19 2022, 8:58pm
Post #4 of 7
(758 views)
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While chasing various videos on youtube I came across a radio production of "Leave it to Psmith" with Simon Jones as Psmith and Sir John Gielgud narrating as Plum.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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ElanorTX
Tol Eressea
Aug 20 2022, 5:18am
Post #5 of 7
(750 views)
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At the recent MythCon I attended virtually, there was mention of Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn. I checked the public library catalog online and discovered that she also wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring, so I checked them both out. Because I don't enjoy seductions, unwanted pregnancies, etc., as plot devices, I much preferred Earring.
Does anyone recommend her other books?
"I shall not wholly fail if anything can still grow fair in days to come."
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Starling
Half-elven
Aug 20 2022, 10:27am
Post #6 of 7
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I really enjoyed Falling Angels
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It's a long time since I read it, but from memory it has multiple narrators and is set in Edwardian times, with the suffrage movement referenced quite a bit.
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Aug 20 2022, 1:54pm
Post #7 of 7
(720 views)
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I'm afraid I'm quite predictable
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I'm into my fall(ish) venture with the Fellowship reading The Lord of the Rings. Frodo and Sam are following Gollum to the entrance of a long tunnel. It's wild how I still anticipate so much of what's coming in the story and am still so moved.
I'm also reading a 1990 book about the history of the township where I grew up near Pontiac, Michigan called "In Remembrance". The maternal side of the family was pretty huge in farming and settling the area resulting in several streets and roads named after various relatives (mostly g'g-parents). I borrowed the book from my Aunt (Mom's surviving sib) and have been trying to get someone affiliated with its publication to see if I can find a copy for myself. This also relates to the genealogy thread going on. So much fun to see pics and stories in a proper book :D
We have been there and back again.
Join the "Tolkien Fandom Oral History Project"
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