pontalba

I just finished A Morning for Flamingos. It knocked me out. Man, this guy just gets better and better. Have you read his other series Muggle, or his first novel.....The Lost Get-Back Boogie? I've got A Stained White Radiance sitting right in fron of me now, I pulled it from the shelf as it's the next one in line. Can't make up my mind if I'll start it now, or read something else in between.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes! I suspect he is under rated by some because of the genre, but that is really unfair. His New Orleans is my New Orleans. Oh, and this one features the Pontalba Apts!

Muggle, I just had to tell you that I think JLB must be the master of understatement. I've started A Morning for Flamingos, and Dave is back in N.O. for you know what....anyway, when he is talking to the DEA agent on p.87, I had to laugh out loud. Right after the DEA guy gives a list of Clete's......um...activities lately, Dave says......... "Clete's had a checkered career." Duh!! Ya think?? ROTFALOL !! That boy's gotta have at least 9 lives!

True, but I've tried pizza with spinach on it, and of course if way over cooked, and has a particularly nasty flavor.

Especially spinach! Yuck on overcooked spinach.

Not only British cooking, it's almost a ritual in the South! Every vegetable is overcooked and has bacon or ham added to it. Now I love bacon and ham, but not in veggies. If they are cooked properly they taste great, and they don't need much at all. Just a little butter and salt. Besides, if I want to add taste I melt cheese over it, cheese covers a multitude of sins.

Cloud Atlas just moved up in the stacks.

No, I don't usually follow any set recipe either, even when I do look one up. For one thing, we don't eat beef, so substitutions are automatic there and I can't eat really really hot stuff, although I love Mexican seasonings. But for future reference regarding brussel sprouts...we always just boiled them for about 5 minutes...do you cut the ends off and make incisions at the base? Two incisions that cross, maybe a bit more than an eighth of an inch deep. Makes them cook faster. Not that I eat them, yuck, but others in the family do. That and okra............ewwwwwww! and Yuck.

I have at least three quarters of a shelf of cook books............gathering dust. :018: I'm not a terribly ambitious cook, simple, simple, simple!

Right-o, night.

It is true....never say never.

Yeah, right, I can tell. grumble-grumble......

Oh Curses! Y'all are getting me way too interested in this book! grrrrr!

I started the third in the series today too...Black Cherry Blues really good.

I'm trying for optimism.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger...I have enough TRB to keep me 10 years.

I finished it last night, er this morning. All in all I liked it. I found it did drag a bit about three quarters through, and I wish more information had been given on certain character points. I actually wonder if she is going to make the detective, Simon Waterhouse part of a series. There was plenty of room left for that as he was a fully developed, but mysterious character. There is an interesting twist that you might not see coming. Can't wait till some others finish.

Wow, just watched the trailer....what a change for Judi Dench! Looks like a good movie, and the book is in my TBR stack thanks to the original review in this thread. Thanks for posting the link Kell.

No, I haven't read any of Cather, although I think there is one in my TBR stack. I'll look for it.

How terrible for him and the entire family. That war was certainly a different type, the War to end all Wars...Hah! What an outrage. Anyway about more books for the stack....glad to be of "help".

Kenny, I ordered and received The Night in Lisbon it came yesterday along with Arch of Triumph which I could not resist ordering as well. Well, I'm half way through chapter 4 of Arch of Triumph.....it is terrific! I'll get to Lisbon...right after The Sea, Amsterdam....yeah, but now I am enjoying myself with Arch! Thanks for reminding me.

OK, dawn breaks on the eastern front.

Um, abc...your rating system...??? Huh? I'll tell you what though, I certainly admire the sheer volume of books you manage to get through! Amazing concentration. I am too easily distracted.

Glad to hear that Louiseog. I agree in a way, the story is almost secondary to the characters and ambiance...but I think as you go along in the series, so much expands and then the story and the characters and ambiance sort of absorb each other and are so intertwined as to be inseparable. Granted I have still only read the first two........but that is my take on the series. I know more characters are brought in, another main character, so it builds and grows.