pontalba

I read GWTW a couple of times when I was a young teenager, and again I guess in my 20's and 30's, and again fairly recently, in my late 50's.....each time it is different. The perspective of ages reading that book, as with most books I suppose, changes drastically. I'd have to say that from my teens to now, it is a totally different book. Today I got started on Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. It's a different sort of book, for me at least. It's the story of all the people buried in a particular cemetery...told individually in prose poetry. Written in 1915, it holds just as true and fresh today as when it was written. I'm about 1/3rd of the way through.

As long as I don't have to pick it, I'll eat it, love it. Never have I crossed the ocean. [want to though!]

It was only due to Smilla's Sense of Snow being a Reading Circle choice this month that I got on my horse and finally extracted it from the deepening TBR stacks. I'm very happy I have, unlike many others in the group it seems. I didn't find Smilla to be anymore contradictory than any other character in fiction. An introverted, prickly pear she was, but feeling abandoned by her parents, rightly or wrongly will do that to a person. She was at a vulnerable age when her mother disappeared and her erstwhile father uprooted her to a culture that was so unlike anything she'd known before. Her method of dealing with reality is, I think, fairly common and certainly understandable. She retreated as much as possible. The mystery of why the child Isaiah died reached a bit for my taste, but was plausible to me all the same. I loved the explanation of her 'sense of snow' and her curious and brilliant mind. I'd recommend it for readers that like a slow moving sort of literary mystery with loads of introspection.

The Day of the Triffids was, I think, the first sci-fi book I read unless I count Jules Verne or H.G. Wells when I was a young child.

Ouch! Lexie...hope you are ok. Not much on the book-reading front today, but we strolled into Barnes & Noble, honestly, only for coffee!! There was an "under 5.00 USD stack" right at the front door, and well, really, what's a book addicted couple to do?? /innocent/ We bought: The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence On Liberty by John Stuart Mill Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Why do you say that it doesn't make sense for her? Won't be for a while I'm afraid, The tbr stacks are too high, but one day the mood will strike me.

Smilla was certainly harsh on her father, I fully agree. But in her heart of hearts, she knew/felt that he had tried to do his best, and most of all, she knew he loved her, and her mother. The book implied that he loved her because she was a part of her mother more than for herself. In a way that isn't fair because she was such a prickly pear he wasn't given much of a chance to know her. If she had not been deep down sure of his love, I doubt she'd have gone to him for any sort of help at all. I didn't get the impression that she was only "using" him. The way Hoeg used the eyeliner and good clothes, I got the impression she only used them as a form of defense against the world. She felt she had little enough defense, and used whatever she thought would work on "civilized" people. I think I'll be rereading this book, because I feel I may have missed details along the way.

She wasn't just any civilian, she'd been on many Arctic explorations and evidently her father was an influential person. Although, that wasn't as clear in the beginning of the book. I don't see any science fiction aspects to it really. The meteor is a fairly common object, yes it's in a God awful place to get to, and Tork seems to have given it all sorts of mythical powers, it did historically as well, but to me that didn't qualify it for sci-fi. As y'all have stated, the "worm" is a sort of urban myth item, not sci-fi [to me]. I'd classify it as a literary mystery. The book doesn't strike me as that unusual. The setting makes it different for me, but most depictions of detectives, and Smilla was at heart a detective, show them as loners that buck the system. Her breakdown of the different types of snow, and how to use them to walk across the water certainly showed off her powers of observation. This is the first I've read by Hoeg, but I have another on the shelf to read. Regarding the German, after the phrases in German, it was paraphrased in English.

It was my impression that Smilla felt too deeply, and given the upheaval in her early life was afraid to show it, or even admit to feeling any real emotion. I found myself wondering if it was a part of her cultural heritage from her Inuit mother. Although I must bear in mind that the impression Hoeg gives is that the Danish people are on the repressed side as well. [true or false?] Hoeg presented her emotional dilemma accurately, whether for a man or a woman. So, with the independent aspects of her mother, and a perhaps repressive side of her father [whether cultural or personal] combined with the early death of her mother, and her removal from all she'd known, I can certainly understand a certain reluctance on her part to commit, or show any commitment to any human relationship. However, when she was backed up against a wall by the circumstances of the stories events, she knew she could count on her father's support, both financial, and when betrayed by his wife, his help in getting away from the authorities. She admitted to herself that he'd done the best he knew how for her, and truly loved her. I found her study of the forms of ice fascinating. She was a brilliant and eccentric woman and I think Hoeg presented her in a reasonable and true fashion. She was not a typical, or even truly feminine woman and I don't think he went overboard in showing her one way or the other. Whilst reading, I found the section on the ship to be a bit long. Perhaps, in retrospect I am changing my mind...I believe it was necessary.

Congratulations on the progress! That's always a good feeling.

Both this and The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber have been in my TBR stack for quite a while. I'll have to organize myself a bit more and get to them. Thanks for the good review.

Well, I still am, and just checked my pages, and I'm up to p. 280, she's just gotten settled on the ship.

Only about half way through, and enjoying it so far. I remarked over on the activity thread that she reminds me a bit of Lisabeth Sander, I hadn't seen your post mentioning that Kylie. Smilla is far more interactive with society than Lisabeth, and while she has had a rough time of it, not half as bad as Lisabeth. When I've finished I'll address the questions above, but at this point, I'm liking the mechanic character, he is a total mystery at this point in the book. And I rather like Lander, he is such a contradiction. This is the first one by Hoeg I've read, although I have another one on my TBR stack, only recently acquired, The Quiet Girl. Some of the more introspective bits remind me of Mankell's Wallander character. Or, maybe it's all that darned snow!

I'm 134 pages into Smila's Sense of Snow, and throughly enjoying it. There are so many parallels in her character to Lisbeth in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! Very different too, but I see her in much the same light.

The Red Shoes predictable, but good. Sad.

That's what encouraged me to pick it up, I've had it in the stack for several years, never quite getting around to it. I've read the posts in the thread, and it piqued my curiosity. I'll concentrate in it. Also we visited the second hand book shop today, and found several books.... Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay An Opened Grave by L. Frank James Bluesman by Andre Dubus III The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell and at the library, for sale... The Dark Tide and The Blue Zone by Andrew Gross Good Morning, Midnight by Reginald Hill

I'm still reading The Wolf by Guilliatt and Hohnen, the blurb on the front of the book says "How one German raider terrorized the Allies in the most epic voyabe of WWI". From the synopsis on the inner flap it seemed to be more a personal story of the prisoners/victims of the Germans. However it goes into great detail about the politics of England/Australia et als and why the public was not informed of the happenings. Too much politics IMO. Oh well. So, I'm about half way through that, but have picked up Smila's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg, and The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin. This morning I picked up Storms by Maria Fernandez Snitzer. It's the story, basically, of the lives of a family in the way of a particularly nasty hurricane, headed for the Louisiana coast.

Magazines that charge the subscription fee on my credit card, and I haven't authorized it. GRRRRRRRRR:motz: Just discovered the charge on my bill...they call it a renewal, and when I phoned, all I can get is the canned recording, press 1 for _____, press 2_____, etc. Supposedly I've canceled it, but I'm calling the bank tomorrow and blocking them from EVER doing that again.

They are showing their own ignorance then. Just think if you or your spouse had to actually pay [cash] someone to do all the things you take for granted doing every day, 24/7/365...mind boggling. You have the most important job in the world, raising the next generation. Phooey on those types that attempt to denigrate that!

I have all of the Robicheaux series, but have only read up to The Confederate Dead in the Electric Mist. It is difficult to read more than 2 or so at the time. I'd put that down to the rather depressive violence that is throughout the books. I have loved reading them, and am from the New Orleans area, so much is familiar to me. There is something to what you both have posted, there is a sameness to them, and even Burke's beautiful prose cannot mask that. From what I've read recently regarding his newest Robicheaux entry, it looks like he may be coming to the end of that series. It might be time.

It Happened One Night -- Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert I'd only seen the middle before, never the whole thing. Wonderful.

Shadow of a Doubt with Joseph Cotton and Theresa Wright. A boyish, adorably young Hume Cronyn was in it too. /sigh/

I loved it, just finished tonight. Invisible has so many layers and unreliable narrator that I doubt I'll ever make up my mind who was actually telling the truth, if anyone was!

Sometimes I'll give a little low growl, and people that know me, don't think anything of it. However, a couple of months ago a group from our writer's group were sitting in a coffee house afterwards, drinking coffee, natch. The conversation took a turn to a subject that irritated me, and I growled. The guy sitting next to me, who had just that afternoon visited our group, said in an incredulous tone.....Did you just growl??...I replied, [a bit abruptly], yes. A good friend, to the other side of me said...oh, she's always like that, don't worry..... I do believe he backed off a bit, and we haven't seen him since......

Started Invisible by Paul Auster this morning, about 117 pages in, didn't want to put it down.