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pontalba's 2016 reading list


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The Man of Feeling  by Javier Marias  5/5

This early novel by Marias shows all the earmarks of his loquacious formatting. His prose interrupts itself constantly, twisting about like any good maze should. I know that annoys some people, but it is music to my eyes. He makes this fairly simple tale of (would be?) lovers into something that sings. How reliable his narration is must be decided by each reader for themselves.

Suffice it to say I loved it. :)
                  

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I gave the entire collection of James Bond paperback books to the library about 10 years ago. I enjoyed each and everyone of them.

 

How is the rain situation.....or rather....how are you making out "after" the rain.

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I gave the entire collection of James Bond paperback books to the library about 10 years ago. I enjoyed each and everyone of them.

 

How is the rain situation.....or rather....how are you making out "after" the rain.

  

 

I still have the original, much tattered copies from the '60's-'70's. :). Plus the "new" set I purchased about 15 years ago. LOL

 

Re: the rain/flooding around here......we are on about the highest land in the area, so no problems in my immediate area. Can't say the same a few miles from us though. It hit some folks pretty badly. I was very surprised at some of the areas that were wiped out. :(

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your latest read, Kate :). How are things?

Thanks, Gaia. :). We're doing fine, as mentioned above, no flooding right here, and I've almost got my whole strength back after the Flu. Makes me wish I could take the Flu shot, but I'm allergic.

Charles has about finished setting up his "new" computer, and is happy with it.

Our weather is absolutely gorgeous! Hah, compensation for all the miserable rain and local flooding!

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I hadn`t seen any news about you flooding ( and normally, we have pretty good foreign news ). I`ve just looked online - yikes - and now mosquitos are on the way ? I feel so bad for people ; we flooded twice this Winter, but the flood pumps and flood wall kept the house nice and dry. 

 

Kate, I had the flu vaccination for 2015/16, and then got flu three times. Those viruses are sneaky !  ;)

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Thanks, Gaia. :). We're doing fine, as mentioned above, no flooding right here, and I've almost got my whole strength back after the Flu. Makes me wish I could take the Flu shot, but I'm allergic.

Charles has about finished setting up his "new" computer, and is happy with it.

Our weather is absolutely gorgeous! Hah, compensation for all the miserable rain and local flooding!

I'm glad you and Charles are both doing fine :). Wow, it must be awkward being allergic to the flu shot. It's nice you have nice weather :). The weather here has been nice too.

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I hadn`t seen any news about you flooding ( and normally, we have pretty good foreign news ). I`ve just looked online - yikes - and now mosquitos are on the way ? I feel so bad for people ; we flooded twice this Winter, but the flood pumps and flood wall kept the house nice and dry. 

 

Kate, I had the flu vaccination for 2015/16, and then got flu three times. Those viruses are sneaky !  ;)

 

I'm glad you were able to fight the floods off!  Do you have to keep the flood wall maintained yourselves, or is it something that protects the area?

 

Good grief!!  Sneaky, they are.  Charles had a light case, if anything to do with it can be called "light".  He came down with it first, and I followed in two days. 

 

I'm glad you and Charles are both doing fine :). Wow, it must be awkward being allergic to the flu shot. It's nice you have nice weather :). The weather here has been nice too.

 

Thanks, Gaia. :)  Funny thing is, my allergic reaction to the flu itself was a milder version of the reaction I had 15 years ago when I had the vaccination.  Weird.

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Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus  4/5

Layered, convoluted, a plethora of characters are intertwined in this mystery, but seemingly unconnected until the detectives manage to slowly pick the threads apart.

Two young women, girls really, disappear. No bodies, no trace found. The courts managed to convict a young man through circumstantial evidence. He serves his allotted time, and is released from prison and returns home. Then the fun begins.

Red herrings abound.
Recommended.

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I've started rereading The Sacketts by Louis L'Amour, along with The Sackett Companion that I recently purchased.  The Companion lists the basic story along with a listing and description of all the characters, be they human or places/land.  It's a nice combination, and expands knowledge of the background of places. 

 

So far I've read the first three, they being:

Sackett's Land, To the Far Blue Mountains, and The Warrior's Path.

 

They tell the trials and tribulations of (obviously) the Sackett family in the early 1600's, both in England and America.  Barnabas Sackett is the patriarch of the family and the story begins with his forced flight from England as a wanted man.  But it's through no fault of his own, as he is an honorable man through and through.  The second and third books tell the stories of his sons, mostly in America.  L'Amour writes beautifully of the people and land.  He has a pure view, but presents the bad along with the good.  His knowledge of history is astounding, and he brings it to bear well in his stories.  I love the way he presents the family as seekers, longing to know what lies beyond the Blue Mountain Range.   These men were explorers, family men, and lovers of truth, honorable as Barnabas was, and treated others as they wished to be treated.

 

These early books are not "westerns" as such, although the later ones are of that genre.  These speak of early Boston, before almost anyone was there, of Jamestown, etc.  L'Amour tells the stories of explorers that came to this land hundreds of years before Columbus and his ilk.  

Recommended.

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I've started rereading The Sacketts by Louis L'Amour, along with The Sackett Companion that I recently purchased.  The Companion lists the basic story along with a listing and description of all the characters, be they human or places/land.  It's a nice combination, and expands knowledge of the background of places. 

 

So far I've read the first three, they being:

Sackett's Land, To the Far Blue Mountains, and The Warrior's Path.

 

They tell the trials and tribulations of (obviously) the Sackett family in the early 1600's, both in England and America.  Barnabas Sackett is the patriarch of the family and the story begins with his forced flight from England as a wanted man.  But it's through no fault of his own, as he is an honorable man through and through.  The second and third books tell the stories of his sons, mostly in America.  L'Amour writes beautifully of the people and land.  He has a pure view, but presents the bad along with the good.  His knowledge of history is astounding, and he brings it to bear well in his stories.  I love the way he presents the family as seekers, longing to know what lies beyond the Blue Mountain Range.   These men were explorers, family men, and lovers of truth, honorable as Barnabas was, and treated others as they wished to be treated.

 

These early books are not "westerns" as such, although the later ones are of that genre.  These speak of early Boston, before almost anyone was there, of Jamestown, etc.  L'Amour tells the stories of explorers that came to this land hundreds of years before Columbus and his ilk.  

Recommended.

Mu complements to you. I hope you enjoy them the second time around as the books are great reading. You may tempt me to do the same in another reread. :)

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Thanks, Gaia. :)  Funny thing is, my allergic reaction to the flu itself was a milder version of the reaction I had 15 years ago when I had the vaccination.  Weird.

That is quite weird. 

 

Red herrings abound.

Recommended.

What are red herrings :blush2:?

 

I'm glad you've been enjoying your reading lately :).

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I'm glad you were able to fight the floods off!  Do you have to keep the flood wall maintained yourselves, or is it something that protects the area?

 

It`s this :

 

It joins into the neighbours` flood defences to protect 10-12 houses ; there`s an aluminium flood gate for the gap in the wall, and pumps on the house-side of the wall, to pump out the water that gets in ( `cos nothing`s 100% waterproof ). We got some Govt. money towards the cost of the wall, but maintenance is up to us now. :)

 

What you can`t see, is that the flood wall goes down quite a way ; there`s a concrete trench and a metal lattice to strengthen the wall.

 

In the worst flood, there was 1m of water in the downstairs` rooms for 3 weeks. Sooo cold. 

 

BTW, if you`re looking for next door`s flood defences - they have clicky aluminium planks which slot into place, instead of a permanent wall. 

post-9890-0-14760400-1459089572_thumb.jpg

Edited by Little Pixie
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Mu complements to you. I hope you enjoy them the second time around as the books are great reading. You may tempt me to do the same in another reread. :)

 

Thanks, muggle! :)  Hope you do reread them. :)

 

 

That is quite weird. 

 

 

What are red herrings :blush2:?

 

I'm glad you've been enjoying your reading lately :).

 

Thanks, Gaia.  See below for addition to Sara's link.

 

It`s this :

 

It joins into the neighbours` flood defences to protect 10-12 houses ; there`s an aluminium flood gate for the gap in the wall, and pumps on the house-side of the wall, to pump out the water that gets in ( `cos nothing`s 100% waterproof ). We got some Govt. money towards the cost of the wall, but maintenance is up to us now. :)

 

What you can`t see, is that the flood wall goes down quite a way ; there`s a concrete trench and a metal lattice to strengthen the wall.

 

In the worst flood, there was 1m of water in the downstairs` rooms for 3 weeks. Sooo cold. 

 

BTW, if you`re looking for next door`s flood defences - they have clicky aluminium planks which slot into place, instead of a permanent wall. 

 

Wowee!  That's quite a system y'all have.  I wish we'd had that 20 years ago in our old house.

Man, that much water in the house is horrible.  The reason we moved to the Northshore to begin with was a flooding of that nature.  We had 16 to 24 inches of water in the house, but it flowed out in a couple of days.  I said, that's IT, we're moving.  It was because we had a super duper rainstorm that the weather people call "training", iow, a row of thunderstorms that crosses  long-ways.  It rained for 24 hours, straight......the total rainfall total was 20 inches in 24 hours.  Phew!  That was not fun. :)

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I`ll save Kate an explanation while I`m here ;)  -  Red Herrings.   :smile:

 

 

Thanks :), that sounds complicated :o! I guess it is something that happens in quite a few books though.

 

Thanks, Sara. :)  That's a great link.

 

Gaia, I'd add a bit.  The very best mysteries/detective stories have "red herrings", but use them in a subtle manner in that the detective is mislead along the way as he sorts out the suspects.  There could be, and usually are multiple suspects with varying motives and alibis for whatever the crime is.  The detective sorts them out through whatever means he has available and since he doesn't know the people (usually) he has no real way of categorizing them until he checks out everything multiple times. 

 

It's hardly ever the first one that is suspected, although sometimes the detective comes back around to that original suspect.  It's lots of fun to read.  :D

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LOL, I will add to the subject of Red Herrings. The following is a book by an author that I and some others on BCF really enjoy. It has Red Herring in the title. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Herring-Without-Mustard-Flavia-ebook/dp/B004C43FTS/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459188641&sr=1-8&keywords=alan+bradley

 

A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley

Alan Bradley, author of the most award-winning series debut of any year, returns with another irresistible Flavia de Luce novel

In the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune—never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

Edited by muggle not
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Wowee!  That's quite a system y'all have.  I wish we'd had that 20 years ago in our old house.

Man, that much water in the house is horrible.  The reason we moved to the Northshore to begin with was a flooding of that nature.  We had 16 to 24 inches of water in the house, but it flowed out in a couple of days.  I said, that's IT, we're moving.  It was because we had a super duper rainstorm that the weather people call "training", iow, a row of thunderstorms that crosses  long-ways.  It rained for 24 hours, straight......the total rainfall total was 20 inches in 24 hours.  Phew!  That was not fun. :)

 

Wow, that`s really a tropical level of rain.  Do you know how your old house did in the cataclysmic New Orleans flood ?  :hide:

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  • 2 weeks later...

LOL, I will add to the subject of Red Herrings. The following is a book by an author that I and some others on BCF really enjoy. It has Red Herring in the title. :)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Herring-Without-Mustard-Flavia-ebook/dp/B004C43FTS/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459188641&sr=1-8&keywords=alan+bradley

 

A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley

 

Alan Bradley, author of the most award-winning series debut of any year, returns with another irresistible Flavia de Luce novel

 

In the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune—never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

 

Great quote, muggle!! :D

 

 

Thanks, Kate, Sarah and Muggle Not, it makes a lot more sense now what it means :). I don't think we have a term for it in Dutch, at least I don't think I know of one.

 

/giggle/  Glad we could clear it up. :D

 

 

Wow, that`s really a tropical level of rain.  Do you know how your old house did in the cataclysmic New Orleans flood ?  :hide:

 

Yeah, no fun at all! :)

um.......which cataclysmic New Orleans flood?  There have been several. Oy.

In 1977 the water came within about an inch of coming in my house.  In 1995 it did come into my Grandparents house (in which I was living at the time), the 16 inches worth mentioned above.  That's when we (my Aunt and myself) moved to the North Shore.  After we sold that property, the builder came in and built three houses on the lots.  I've often wondered if they ever flooded.  Perhaps not, as the contractor seems to have filled in several feet worth of dirt to bring up the level. 

 

Meant to add that New Orleans is classified as semi-tropical. 

Edited by pontalba
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Prime Suspect by Lynda LaPlante  4/5

 

This is first in the Prime Suspect series that the BBC TV series with Helen Mirren starred in beginning in 1991 and ended in 2006.  This book is quite close to the episodes that were based on it, with only a handful of changes that as I recall didn't affect it too much.  Since my viewing and reading was a couple of years apart I could be a bit off in that judgment.

 

Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison is fighting against the chauvinistic police force that she has literally clawed her way into and made quite a name for herself.  Hard to believe it was only 25 years ago that women faced such nasty and mean chauvinistic battles.  Not fair doesn't even begin to cover it.  But Jane is a fighter and has developed a tough skin.  At that time hardly any women made it as far up in the chain of command as she had, and her fight was not over, by any means. 

 

The story centers around what turns out to be a serial rapist/killer/torturer.  Proof.  That's what is needed by the Force, and this man is meticulous in his crimes, leaving no trace of himself.  It takes dogged police work to get the proof that is needed, just Jane's specialty.  

An excellent police procedural, well worth the read.  I look forward to more in the series.

Edited by pontalba
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Great review, I'm glad you enjoyed the book :). It sounds nice.

 

Thanks, Gaia. :) 

It was, I've ordered the next two to follow up on it. :D

 

 

How are things? Still reading the Sackett's?

 

Going great here. :)  Gorgeous weather, not too hot, not too cold.......just right. :cool:   I wish we could keep something similar all year long. 

Cataract surgery, flu all over with, thankfully!  Howze 'bout you?

 

Not reading Sackett's for the moment, I might get back to them after I finish A Darker Domain.....it's by Val Mc Dermid.  It's the first by her I've read and I'm enjoying it. The edition of The Sackett's that I have is a 5 volume one, each containing several of the books.  I thought I'd tackle one volume at the time, for evenness sake. 

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