pontalba

Hey James, welcome in! The more the merrier. Have some !! I think Julie has explained the Southern attraction pretty darned well. I remember the first time I read Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, it was like coming home. I know these people, heck, I'm related to them! The opening of AA!, features someone that could certainly be my paternal Aunt. No doubt about it. Julie! I've not heard of them either, wowee! I guess, Grau and Faulkner are really the only two Southerners I've really read. Although I did read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was a child. Don't remember a bit of it. Have to reread at some point. It too is sitting on the shelf here, waiting. heh I've read a little of Eudora Welty, and liked it a lot.

Oh dear! More for The List! The only one on the second list that I have read is the Shirley Ann Grau.....many decades ago.

:( oh, peacefield. I am so very, very sorry. Kidney failure and feline leukemia are the most common problems of cats. Kidney failure, because they eat only (for the most part) protein. That is very hard on the kidneys. There is a vaccination against fe-leuk, but nothing I know of to help guard the kidneys. Some cats are just more prone than others. You gave her a happy life, remember that. /hugs/

Wow! You've given me a whole new list to look up! Thanks, Julie.

From what you said over yonder, that's probably the best course. There is the off chance they'll straighten up and fly right, but that's rather slim.

Oh, you're welcome, Peacefield. I hope it turns out that it's "only" the UTI, but if it isn't, diabetes isn't that difficult to deal with.

Hey! Nope, haven't heard of Alabaster, Alabama. Lemme take a look-see on the map.........Oh, ok. Looks to be a little south of Birmingham. I bet those get togethers were fun! What all did y'all discuss? Do you remember some of the books? I didn't get online till 2001.

I haven't been adding our new/used purchases, thought I'd catch up some. Well, to begin with, the one I am presently reading now, The First Man of Rome by Colleen McCullough. Just today the second in the series came, a beautiful first edition, used...of course. The Grass Crown. I already had the next 4 in the series. Also today came The Last Ship by William Brinkley. We saw it the other day in Barnes & Noble, but first of all it was bent and a bit damaged, and secondly.......Full Price. So when we got home Amazon came through. It sounds a bit along the lines of On the Beach. So, now for the backlog. A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti The Map Their: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare Map Dealer Who Made Millions by Michael Blanding A Devil is Waiting by Jack Higgins The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe The Face-Changers: A Jane Whitefield novel by Thomas Perry The October Horse by Coleen McCullough Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh (already read, review above) Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture by Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd Dead Beat and Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher (these are paperbacks, the other Dresden File books I have are e-books) A Treacherous Paradise by Henning Mankell (NOT a Wallander) Dance for the Dead, A Jane Whitefield novel by Thomas Perry A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler The Duel, The Parallel Lives of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton by Judith St. George Fallen Founder, the Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg The Son by Jo Nesbo That is most of them!

LOl, Julie! No, I can't explain my early distaste for Southern Writers. It doesn't make a lick of sense. And, I'm rather happy I've gotten over it. Haven't read Dogtown yet. Def on the list. In fact I have converted the shelves on the Buffet that used to hold my teapot collection, and it is now our TBR shelf(ves). I haven't read Tobacco Road, although I think I have it around here. I'm so glad you are back here!!!

Poor baby! I hope Sascha feels better soon. Re the diabetes, there is a Prescription Diet food that helps control diabetes. Science Diet puts it out. Not sure if it is in both canned and dry though. Probably is. I've had cats with diabetes, and pretty easily controlled it with pills. BTW, another cat, about 20(ish) years ago that we had was diagnosed with diabetes, and we had to give him injections, but he got over the disease! The vet told us at the time that cats are the only animals that get over it. Amazing!

The Sound and the Fury is hard. It took me three starts to finally get through that first part. And I still haven't finished As I Lay Dying. The first Faulkner I read was Absalom, Absalom!. I loved it. The Unvanquished takes place around the Civil War and is about the same Sartoris family that is chronicled in Flags in the Dust.

Julie, Julie, Julie!!!! (in best Cary Grant voice). First of all, . Really happy to see you back in here. Secondly.....awfully sorry about all the problems you are enduring right now. It's scary being out of work, and the older we are, the scarier it is. But Hubster is pulling it out of the fire, Boy, I hope the new job he is going about and all the tests they want to run mean he has it. Thirdly, (although not least, by any means!) Very, very sorry you are in so much pain with your knee. I know that's miserable. And the insurance situation is insane. Just insane. Don't get me started on that political crap. It simply infuriates me. At least you are turning the worrying into positive action on the phone search. But you know as well as I do that worrying doesn't solve a thing. So, phone, arrange, do what you can, and let it go. Boy, I know how hard that it. Me, the original Worry Wart. It ain't easy to let worry go, but you are a strong person, Julie. Kick that worry in the butt and down the street. Good that you've been able to read, sometimes that is the only escape. And you've had some interesting reads.

Loved Cloud Atlas!

That's great, Gaia.....you will make it easily!

Now I want to read Daniel Deronda! So, it stays in the current stack.

Thanks! I've only discovered Faulkner in the last six or seven years. Stupidly, I had a sort of mental block about a Southern authors. No more!!

Have fun, June. Take lots of pictures!!!

We saw Noah.....the book was much better. Heh. I thought the movie was rather off the mark, and uncomfortably sordid. Saw Godzilla today. I loved it, faithful to original. But a wonderful twist at the end made it special to me. No Statue of Liberty. Shot in Toyko and San Francisco, and some in Nevada. Oh, I really want to see this!!!

Thank you, muggle! I so much hope you love it as I did! . Can't wait to hear your opinion.

. I started with Neon Rain years ago , after you recommended JLB. I like to read series in order if possible. AIE: finished above, review later. Have started The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough.

Hey Julie.....hope you are ok. Come home!

Wow! You'll certainly get to a hundred by the end of the month at that rate...so that will be at the half year! Impressive!

Last night I started Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke. I didn't think I had read it, but at almost a third of the way in, it is coming back to me.

Great reviews, Ruth! I really like the sound of The Never List. I have Howard's End is on the Landing, unread. I started out this year with the intention of not buying anymore books till I'd read lots more of what we already have. Didn't work out that way.

I was a little surprised as well. But that may be the egotistical (only) English-speaker in full mode.