pontalba

Someone on another forum mentioned that in her experience with other readers, she found that people that enjoyed Jane Eyre, didn't enjoy Wuthering Heights as well, I haven't read WH yet, so can't say if that's the case for me or not. /sigh/ It's 'in the stack'. I began Wide Sargasso Sea, and couldn't get into it. Perhaps I didn't give it enough time, but their view of Rochester was too irritating for me to put up with, he is one of my favorite characters in literature. That's the version I love as well!

My most sentimental book is, I suppose, my mother's copy of Jane Eyre, it was sent to her by an Aunt in England for Christmas in 1937. It's a well loved, and well read copy. As far as most valuable, I guess my great-grandfather's books, he had a lot of different sets...history, poets, Gibbons, and I still have them in his glass-door bookcase. The bindings are beautiful, I hate to take them out too much as I don't want to get peanut butter on them, but I do on occasion.

I've read London and Sarum, ages ago, and thoroughly enjoyed them, but Russka stopped me for some reason, I guess I should try again, I will eventually as it's on my shelf. I also have The Forest and the Irish books to be read.

1. What do you normally have for breakfast? One Weetabix, slathered with plain cream cheese, then in a bit come back and have oatmeal toast with butter and peanut butter, along side a pot of tea. 2. What is your favorite breakfast? Scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon and grits with toast and tea.

It follows what they call the 'major case squad'. High profile murder cases that can involve fraud and other crimes as well. Usually something with intricate reasoning and twisty thinking.

I quite enjoy D'Onofrio's scenery chewing, makes Criminal Intent my favorite of the L&Os, I think his partner stands up to him quite well. I didn't realize the UK had a version now. I found that they develop the characters pretty well, and what I like is that the endings are not cut and dried, and are sometimes even ambiguous.

I've read two of them, The Laughing Policeman and Roseanna, I did enjoy them, but probably not as much as the Wallander series by Mankell. Beck is a little more low key, at least in those two.

Ahhh, well, I loved The Sea, granted the first time I read it, I missed some of the time shifts, and markers. However with careful reading I managed to keep the time lines straight and it just fell into place with the second reading a few months later. A very fulfilling and satisfying story to me. I found it quite different to Book of Evidence, Freddie's saga. Kylie, if you enjoyed BoE, please, please read Ghost and Athena, they are a continuation of Freddie's story. I kind of wish Banville would continue with Freddie.

I can only go by my own experience with aspartame. When if first came out, at least when I first learned of it in the earlyish '80's, in Coca Cola and the sweetner Equal I was happy to see something come out of that type that was supposedly "natural". That's the way it was advertised, as a "natural" product. I used to drink a lot of Coca Cola and put lots of sugar in my tea, and started drinking the stuff with aspartame. In about a week I noticed a swelling in my lip, rather pronounced on one side. The only new thing I could think of was the diet Coke, so I stopped drinking it, and in the same week's time frame, the swelling went down. Disappeared completely. Well, about a year later, I was again taken in by all the adverts on TV and thought I'd try again, surely it must have been a fluke! This time, the reaction was in the same week, but it was a numb spot that began on my eyebrow, at the end, and over the next several days the same numb spot progressed along the eyebrow's bony ridge. I could literally knock on my eyebrow and not feel it. I stopped the diet stuff again...in the same week's time frame the numbness left me. I'll never ever try it again I can tell you. Perhaps I have an allergy to it, perhaps it is as bad as some of the websites say. I don't know. I only know that it affects ME in a disturbing manner. That's my evidence, I may be stubborn, but I don't need a brick wall to fall on me. At least not twice.

When I was little I wanted to be Dale Evans, Queen of the West. Married to Roy Rogers of course. With horses and dogs in tow.

LOL re Scarlett, another mule headed Southerner. heh But yes, I've always been one to want closure, apparently some would rather not know in case it is unpleasant to them. It's just a shame the book [so called sequel to GWTW] was so. . . . unsatisfying. But that's another thread.

Oh poppy! Fiddle-faddle. Thanks.

I'm from the Southern part of the U.S., but don't have the typical "Suthrn Accent". I'm from New Orleans and our accent is a little different, even sections of the city have different accents. I'm told you can definitely tell I am from the South though...think Harry Connick, Jr. accent. http://www.harryconnickjr.com/

I think that might be exactly that poppy, if you love someone as much as she purported to love him...wouldn't you go to the ends of the earth to find out what happened to him? I know I would. I wouldn't care who I badgered and aggravated. I'd find out if it was humanly possible. But I'm pretty stubborn. Janet, thanks for posting that excerpt. I appreciate the reminder.

Oh, ok, I didn't remember that. But. If she'd persisted, she probably could have. :?:

I loved it, it's one of the few books and films that could make me cry, when I read the book, it had been quite a while since I'd seen the film, and actually, come to think of it I haven't seen the whole film from beginning to end. The end of the film is one of the most heart wrenching scenes I have ever witnessed, no dialog, but the facial expressions in trucks in the pouring rain. /sigh/ I'm not a huge Eastwood fan, can take or leave him, but in this he was perfect. Streep always is. Hmmm, as to why she didn't contact him after her husband died, I can only wonder...but could it have been that their interlude was so perfect, such a wonderful memory that she was afraid to sully it with present reality? I just don't know.

I've started the book, and am enjoying it, real life however is snapping at my heels a little more than usual. I will however make more of an effort to read and finish Madding. Oak is a most stolid character, probably typical of the farmer of the time, maybe most times as far as I know, but I have to observe he is not the brightest bulb on the tree. The very thing that led to his bankruptcy could have been avoided by a simple check on why an untrained and obviously flighty dog was up to when it should have been back home. It seems to me any real farmer would have checked on any animal of his that it's location was unknown. But then there wouldn't have been a story.

I've recently finished American Pastoral, and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was somewhat like going 10 rounds with Mohammad Ali. Battering from all sides simultaneously.

I only managed 61 books read this year, but the last couple of months have been dry reading wise, real life impinging on reading...imagine the cheek! I have only managed to read short stories this month for the most part and find that squeezes in nicely. I'd recommend The Art of the Story edited by Daniel Halpern for a great variety. I did manage though earlier in the year to read some wonderful books even series that I've been wanting to get to for a while. The Ripley series, several Paul Auster, and four by John Banville all authors that I'd long wanted to get to. Also...finally got to read my first Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale...long promised and I was well pleased with it. One serious disappointment was Quincunx by Charles Palliser. At 800 and something pages I got half way through and couldn't manage anymore. At that point I didn't care who cheated who and as to the inheritance, couldn't have cared less! I find I have left out several favorites. The Road by McCarthy, Specimen Days by Cunningham, and Moviegoer by Percy.

American Pastoral by Philip Roth...finished last month and it is one of those books that hammer at you and doesn't let up, and even then it doesn't let go of the reader. Some books seem to be more interesting in retrospect than during the actual reading and this one qualifies as such. Certainly a reread down the road is in the cards. It's certainly discussion worthy reaching [at present] 375 posts over on Constant Reader on Good Reads. The possibilities are endless.

Not yet, I have it and am saving it for when I finally read Pale Fire. I understand it is most helpful. Have you?

I considered it grimly amusing, all the bureaucrats sitting around talking about something they knew nothing of, a fact proved by the cavalier manner in which they spoke of the characters plights we'd just read about. They didn't have a clue as to the heartbreak and terrible events that had happened. It was a blip on the radar to them, and an uninteresting one at that.

Quite possibly. Perhaps in the end it shows that men and women need each other to have a balanced civilization, fair to both sexes and a huge imbalance simply won't work. The close also was almost amusing too I thought. The other countries didn't seem to think too much of what was going on over the pond and seemed to minimize the plight of the women. It's been many months since I read it and the details are blurring, but wasn't it a quite a while after the fact all this was brought out? I recall thinking they treated it as a blip in history that wasn't very interesting to them.