pontalba

Done!! : LOL Done! Well, as I mentioned above, our weather is variable. Very much so. Today we have a high of almost 80F/26.6C. heh But a low around 43F/6.1C. Go figure! I think that's true. Last year I hit 99, and this year I've already hit 100, so who knows!? Oh, absolutely!!!!! LOL Done, and done!

I know. If he'd attempted to answer those questions, it would have been a let down! I've ordered two more of his, second hand from Amazon. Thanks, Kylie. Being retired does have it's perks. Re the weather....it's much warmer now, and aside from the rain expected tonight will be pretty temperate for the next several days. Up and down. heh Thanks Alexi. It's definitely a first for me! Glad to hear it, I'll be glad to read your opinion when you can get to it. Thanks, Gaia. Our winters are variable, but the last couple have been colder, it seems. More freezes at night, I think. It is, last year I didn't quite make it.....99 last year and that was a first as well! Edit: due to this announcement...... "You have posted a message with more emoticons than this community allows. Please reduce the number of emoticons you've added to the message" I've edited some emoticons out.....sorry. /sigh/

Sometimes it's just fascinating to see how some people think, how they handle situations. Situations that we've either been in ourselves, or even ones we probably will never encounter. Just part of seeing what makes some people tick.

I did read that bit about his wanting the Socialist Party to get his estate.....I'd completely forgotten about that. So, I agree, what was her beef?? Perhaps she thought she'd have a better chance at obtaining the estate and actually planned to carry out his wishes. I wonder. Agreed. A will is mandatory. Otherwise the State will inherit. Unless of course you are married, then I think the spouse automatically inherits. Not sure how that works. I do know it's more expensive for those left behind to sort it out. Anyhow, I hope the new author will stay true to Stieg's vision of the characters.

The Girl on the Train sounds right up my alley! It's not coming out over here till the middle of January..... Also like the sound of Black Roses...interestingly enough the author is married to Philip Kerr...one of my favorite authors. He also writes in that time frame. Oy, I need to stay away from your thread!! LOL

We'd had to keep her separate from the other cats for a couple of years because as she aged and became weaker, they became more aggressive around her. Of course that didn't make her back down even a little bit... she'd stand there and scream right in their faces. Oy. Scared me to death, I can tell you. So, they hadn't seen much of her in the last couple of years. She had the studio to herself, with her own couch, TV, DVD player and exercise equipment! She was a good cat, and her name fit well.

LOL Not so much for us, we are far enough South that we were only brushed with the cold....we went down in the low to mid 20's two nights in a row. The pipes are all wrapped and we let the water run a little during the freezing hours. It could be a lot worse! Temperature example.... 25F equals minus 3.88C. A friend in New York told us last week that we were actually having colder weather up to that point then they were! That rather shocked us. That's changed by now though. Oh, also, BTW, the last book I read, reviewed up above was my 100th! That was my goal, and if I'd kept reading at the rate I read the first 8 months of the year, I'd have read a lot more, but I'm happy with this. First time I've broken a hundred. Nothing like some of you guys though!!

Nice catch! I've started Shadow of the Shadow by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. The reviewer quoted on the front of the book says: "A blending of the roman noir with magic realism, a cross between Raymond Chandler and Gabriel Garcia Marquez." (Roger Simon, Los Angeles Times Book Review) We'll see. heh.

That is what I'd read as well, ian. And, it is certainly understandable. What isn't understandable, and we'll never know, is why he didn't take other legal precautions for her sake. If he was that afraid of people knowing where he lived, it follows that he was in fear of his life. I'd think what would follow is one taking the suitable precautions for loved ones in case the worst happened.

Just finished missing person by Patrick Mondiano, the Nobel Prize winner for this year. Well worth the read. Review over on my thread.

missing person by Patrick Mondiano 4/5 Mondiano weaves a mesmerizing tale of search for what one once was. The setting, post WWII France, lends layers of mystery to his search for himself. Our protagonist has memory only of the last 10 years of his life and has reached the point that he cannot continue to live in ignorance of his past. He follows faint threads, some leading nowhere, some bearing slight fruit. The success or failure of his quest is not the most important part of the story. The quest is the thing, the searching, probing, meeting and interviewing people he may or may not have known in his previous life. Does it matter who we were in the past? Is it possible to insert ourselves into another's life? Would we even want to. Are we able to manufacture a past for ourselves? While these questions are not answered, the fact that they are asked makes for a fascinating story. Highly Recommended.

Truman's Spy, A Cold War Thriller by Noel Hynd 2.5/5 I wanted to love this Cold War spy story, taking place in Harry S. Truman's Presidency. Most of the action takes place in the early part of 1950. The world has had five years to begin to recover from the very hot World War II, but the Cold War is revving up and the world is about to be shaken up again. The story is told from several seemingly unconnected perspectives that finally coalesce and make perfect sense. An ex-FBI agent, an FBI agent still in the field, some Soviet spies/assassins with a hodge-podge of miscellaneous characters, many of which are not (duh) what they seem to be. It all comes down to one grand chase that peters out, drags out, and finally fizzles to a predictable ending. And, predictably is one of the main problems with this story. Hynd telegraphs every major twist and turn so far ahead of himself that it's almost laughable. I found the prose to be rather stilted, even given the setting is more than half a century ago. Final verdict: Predictable and uninspired.

Finally received, in the mail, the Nobel Price for Literature winner....... Missing Person by Patrick Modiano. Now to get to it! Other newbies are: Malice by Keigo Higashino (author of The Devotion of Suspect X) 41 A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush Peripheral by William Gibson

Good news! I hope (and imagine they will) expand pretty soon. I suppose they'll see how many people they capture there.

Two good series! There seem to be some attachments that you can purchase that will stream shows....Amazon has one, and I've seen others advertised. Not sure how that will turn out. But at least one can be selective with it.

Some States have what is called Common Law Marriage.....live together for a certain number of years as man and wife and you are considered "married". Only a handful of States still recognize that though. Used to be all over. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage In general, if there is no will the spouse will automatically inherit half of the estate, and the other half is divided among the children. If no children, all to the spouse. This is unless there is a will that stipulates other divisions. However as far as I know, in all the States a parent is, by law, not able to completely disinherit a child completely. And, if a parent wants to give more than the legal division to one child there is what is called "the disposable portion", a certain percentage that is allowed above the customary division. Of course an unmarried couple can make a will and provide for their partner as long as any children from a legal marriage are not left out.

Wow, you are just tearing up the books, Gaia!! Congratulations, well done. I have a few of the Sjöwall & Wahlöo books, both of us really liked them a lot.

Love your review/take on I Am Pilgrim! Very happy you liked it so much.

Kylie, Interesting about Whiskas, I haven't tried the dry one. And, last week we had to have Tuffy, the 21 year old put to sleep. The last month or so she'd really gone down, strength wise. She got so she couldn't maneuver for the most ordinary things. Miserable day, that was. I think you are taking the Wise Course....... Good Luck with that one! As long as some real estate developer can make some money off of it, that won't happen. Yikes! Glad she has improved! Poor baby. Downloaded to my Kindle.......somehow.....

Good reviews, BB. I couldn't finish Penumbra.....just put it down and backed away, slowly. bleech!

Ratcatcher (John Purkiss Book 1) by Tim Stevens 3/5 According to this story, a Ratcatcher is "...the outsider, tracks down Service personnel who've broken the rules...." (page 133). We are of course speaking of the (British) SIS and the Security Service, or Six and Five. Also known as Little Sister and Big Sister. John Purkiss is a disillusioned ex-SIS agent now working outside of the system in much the same manner as when he was a member. The story is rather basic fare, nicely packaged, a planned assassination coupled with unreliable sources and agents our protagonist cannot trust but must work with. There are some interesting twists and turns that make Ratcatcher a worthy read, and, obviously, being the first in a series is always a hard thing. So the next few in the series are definitely on my list to follow up on later.

I can't believe I didn't think of one of my all time favorites!!! William Faulkner and Paul Auster C.J. Sansom Jo Nesbo Stuart Neville John Irving Julian Barnes Marguerite Duras Back when I think of more..........

Me too. The family was very mean to her, uncalled for! It's hard to fathom how Stieg could not have protected her either with a will or marriage, but of course he didn't think he'd drop dead at 50 either. I understand that lots of people don't want to take the legal step of marriage for a plethora of reasons, but not to protect her from his family when he knew of their hostility to her is not very understandable to me. And, yes, last I read she had a partial manuscript and papers with projections for the series. I believe he envisioned 8 for the series, in all.

I remember that, she is very talented.

That is one I get as well, but in leaf form. It is lovely!Also from Amazon.