pontalba

......forget the cares of life for at least a little while.

Finished Bitter Steel by Charles Allen Gramlich tonight. New genre for me, and most enjoyable. Now I guess I'll go back to The Wolf, or maybe......Knight's Gambit [six Mystery Stories] by William Faulkner.

I just finished Bitter Steel by Charles Allen Gramlich, it is sub-titled "Tales and Poems of Epic Fantasy". I'm not usually too much of a fan of Fantasy as a genre, I believe I posted somewhere else here that the author is in our writing group, leads it in fact. He is an interesting fellow, and his prose is wonderful. So when a new book came out I thought I'd give it a shot. I've very glad I did. As mentioned Gramlich's prose is beautiful, and the world he has created in this series of short stories and poems is both fearsome and familiar. Six of the stories feature a particular character, Thal Kyrin, a strong and versatile warrior that I hope shows up in more of Gramlich's work. Fans of Fantasy genre should definitely take a closer look.

The Brooklyn Follies is the 5th Auster I've read, that's not counting his New York Trilogy......I couldn't finish that one, and was quite discouraged about ever trying another Paul Auster book. Wrong!! I love his voice. It's different, quirky, possibly heart breaking on occasion. He knows the human condition and makes fun of it beautifully. Makes fun in a way that isn't hurtful, sarcastic or mean, only in a truthful, self deprecating manner. The Brooklyn Follies is a families story told through one Nathan Glass who has returned to Brooklyn supposedly to die. Doesn't sound too funny? Well, he isn't dying [anymore] and his dry sense of humor regarding himself, his humorless ex-wife and extended family is wonderful. That's not to say there isn't plenty of pathos, there is enough to go around, and then some. Deliciously written, I highly recommend it.

I'm reading two at the moment. The Wolf by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen "How one German raider terrorized the Allies in the most epic voyage of WWI" I'd never heard of this, not too surprising because I haven't read much about WWI, I'd mostly stuck to WWII, but this is fascinating. Also... Bitter Steel by Charles Allen Gramlich "Tales and Poems of Epic Fantasy" The author to the latter happens to be in a writer's group we are part of, and his writing is really wonderful. I'm not usually much into fantasy but this is good stuff.

The Herriot books are definitely some of my "comfort" books, in spite of the fact they bring tears to my eyes half the time. They are great. I used to re-re-reread the Merlin Trilogy of Mary Stewart's. The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment. I think each one was my favorite at one time or the other. Just wonderful portrayals of the relationships. Another comfort favorite is Malevil by Robert Merle. No matter how many times I read it, I love it all over again.

I did have my books in some semblance of order, for a while. I had some built in book shelves put in the small study/computer room and that helped tremendously. There is one free standing bookshelf in there, primarily dedicated to science fiction. I also had shelves built into a hall coat closet. I had the books sorted out in general subject order, authors grouped etc. In the hallway downstairs we have 4 tall and one short bookcases, sorted out in History, Spies, certain authors. In the upstairs hall there are 3 short bookcases with miscellaneous books, gardening etc. In the kitchen there is one tall bookcase with all the cookbooks, some gardening and then the health/nutritional books. In the dining room there are 3 short bookcases with miscellaneous books, and a tallish glassed in bookshelf with some of my great-grandfather's books. In the sitting room adjacent to the bedroom we have two short bookcases, one with DVD's and one with books, and a tall bookcase as well. Pictures on my profile page. Anyhow, it's a losing battle to keep them organized in any real manner. For us at least. I hope we never move. /shudder/

There is something fairly new out, the Kobo eReader. It's loads cheaper than any of the other at 149 USD. http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_koboereader?sc_eid2=bannerkobo-52410&ereader=true I doubt I'd buy one unless we start traveling. But it's awfully nice to see the prices so far down from the original Kindle.

Oh, there's no getting around it, I think Grant was the tops, but James Mason is a definite favorite of mine. We watched Good Night and Good Luck tonight. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433383/ Wowee, great film, but a little to narrowly focused. I was a young child during that time frame, and remember very little of the 'mood" of the time, even though I've heard about it all my life.

I'm reading through these threads anyhow, even though we haven't seen Season 6 at all yet. Spoilers never have bothered us, so I'm enjoying reading all the comments. We just finished watching seasons 1 - 5 on DVD last night.....for the second time. We got soooo much more out of it the second go round! I loved The Constant as well, I don't cry easily at all, but it had me in tears. And when Charlie died, I just yelled at the screen.....'get out of there you idiot!'...he coulda. grrrrr. I know. But still. In the last episode in Season 5, when Juliet went down the chute and Sawyer was trying to save her....wowee! I thought for sure Ben would stab fake-Locke instead of Jacob. I was a bit disappointed he didn't. Favorite line? When Locke went over to Ben sitting on the beach looking out to sea and asked was it alright to ask Ben a question. Ben quickly replied............"I'm a Pisces..." ROTFALOL

I voted for Elaine, but I'd have to say Jerry is a close second. For some reason I could never "like" George, even though he had some of the funniest lines and scenarios in the show. Man Hands. Shrinkage. Hello Newman..... You should care I'm going to hell, but I'm not! Elaine had a line in the episode where she and Jerry had gone to a party in the 'suburbs', all I can remember is that Elaine put on this fakey accent and said...."The dingos ate your baby...". Then there is her "dancing".

Finished The Loves of Charles II by Jean Plaidy yesterday, and tonight I've started The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. I've only read the first few pages, but I love Auster's voice here. So dry and downright funny.

Loved it, only thing wrong with it as far as I am concerned is that James Mason didn't have enough screen time.

Last night we watched Brazil, way out there, and absolutely terrific. Dystopian farce is the closest I can come to describing it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/ Tonight we watched Butterfield 8. Disappointing to say the least. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053622/

Yes! I didn't even notice. U.K. version is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest U.S. version is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest What's up with that??

Just finished a Weetabix biscuit liberally smeared with cream cheese, and a glass of tea.

Bought a couple of books at the library. They keep a table of both hardbacks and paperbacks for sale. Justice by Dominick Dunne The Last Spy by Bob Reiss and from Amazon, my U.S. Hardback of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I already had the U.K. trade paperback, but wanted the set in hardback as well. It's a lovely silver cover. Happily, as in the pictures of it, I thought it was a plain gray. It's quite pretty.

We watched The Illusionist last night. Loved it!

Last night and this morning I made a couple of hundred pages in Jean Plaidy's The Loves of Charles II. It's a trilogy mostly covering the same time frame, The Restoration basically, but from different viewpoints. I almost gave up on it as in the first two there wasn't anything I had not read about before, but here, in the last one, there are new POVs that I find interesting. So, all in all I am glad I persevered.

I've only read one of Karen Fossum's books, and I found the same thing, it felt a bit unfinished and jerky. Jo Nesbo's The Redbreast is terrific, I have two more of his, unread as of yet, but they're definite TBRs.

OH and I strolled into Barnes & Noble 30 minutes before they closed tonight, and bought: The Arabian Nights translated by Sir Richard F. Burton and Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales...both of which are beautiful leather, gold trimmed B&N hardbacks. Just gorgeous books! and... The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes The Lost City of Z by David Grann Beowulf on the Beach by Jack Murnighan

...as luck would have it, Wal-Mart is open 24/7 and sell Starbuck's Hot Chocolate Ice Cream, so.....

I seem to read in spurts. I'll read 2 or 3 right in a row, no space in-between, then go a while starting and putting down books till I find exactly the right one. I ordinarily have a couple going at the time anyhow, and sometimes as many as 7 or 8 started...then I'll concentrate on one or two of them. I guess I'm a bit moody where reading is concerned. So, I suppose "the gap" can be anything from an hour to a week, depending on what else I have going elsewhere.

New Orleans, La, USA