pontalba

That was awfully nice of them to give you the day off, Virginia. Shows a certain amount of thoughtfulness for their employees. Poured down rain most of the day yesterday and most of the night as well. We were puttering around down South of the Lake for part of the afternoon and when we drove back North, we ran right into more black clouds and rain. heh Such fun driving the Causeway Bridge in the rain!

Driven by James Sallis 4/5 The sequel to Sallis's Drive has just as much nail biting action as it's predecessor. It's 7 years later and Drive has taken a name, Paul West. Although we don't see much of that name as Drive has to fade into the background again as sins of the past are catching up to him. Seemingly out of nowhere killers are after him again, and it's a cat and mouse adventure ride. Nothing makes sense to him, the facts just don't jive. Sallis, again, gives us a fast paced, concise adventure. Lots of action and lots of driving. Recommended.

Drive by James Sallis 4/5 The protagonist of this story is not named, he is only known by what he does. Drive. He drives. A man alone, not necessarily lonely. He drives stunt cars for the movies, and on the side he sometimes drives a getaway car for burglaries. Nothing else, he isn't in on the planning or execution of said crimes. He drives. But sometimes, as we all know, the best laid plans of mice and men go astray. Involvement, or more importantly, perceived involvement, is inescapable. Blame is laid, consequences follow. Sallis grabs the reader by the throat on the first page, and doesn't let go. Recommended.

Heatwave, indeed. hahahaha Our highs right now are in the mid 80's, and will be in the mid 90's pretty soon. When it hits in the mid 90's is when I'll call it a heatwave, not before!

Oh! I have to add at least one.....The Grandmaster. Fabulous. Cinematography. Just fabulous!

If that's the one I think it is, ME TOO! /shiver/ emelee, rotfalol, but I have to say that in spite of agreeing with you on the Austin Powers movie(s), I laughed myself silly. Maybe because I lived through the 60's, and so many of the nails were hit on the head with the film. The only one I can think of at the moment is Surviving Picasso.....we were watching it on Amazon streaming and I couldn't stand anymore of it, turned it off maybe a half hour into it. And I really like Anthony Hopkins, so it had to be bad!

Casino Royale - 2006 version Lolita - either version although I do favor the James Mason, because I favor James Mason. Star Wars - the original trilogy South Pacific - the original version Shadow of A Doubt - Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright Memento Inception 2046 In the Mood for Love The Day the Earth Stood Still - the original (1950) FAR superior to another version that I won't mention.

Yesterday I started Drive by James Sallis. There is a sequel, Driven, as well. That'll be next. Both fairly short books. James Sallis is the same author that writes the Lew Griffin (I think that's the correct spelling) series about a private investigator in New Orleans back in the 1960's or so. He also writes stand alone stories. Very distinctive.

Now that you mention.....yeah, I did as well. The various nicknames had me going. Then connecting those various names with the correct woman was not easy. We have the film, and I suppose we'll be watching it soon. It is pretty amusing that they downgraded her handicap though. Oy. Re the memory coming back in West's story.......I've heard of incidents of that nature. Something traumatic from the past being brought suddenly to the attention of the amnesiac being effective. I'd like to read that afterword you mention, KM. I got my copy of The Return of the Soldier for free off Amazon, and it didn't include it. I'll poke around and see what I can find. To add to my previous answer.....as far as ranking is concerned, I'd have to place the Yorkshire area in A Month in the Country at the top of the list. Partially on account of the isolation of the place, and then there is Carr's descriptions. Just wonderful. Then the places in The Return of the Soldier. Actually, I liked Margaret's home...her youthful home...the best. The garden by the Thames really spoke to me. Just the sort of place I'd like to have. Chris's home was, of course, lovely. But in the end, too manicured for my taste. Hah, that's Kitty's influence of course and I couldn't stand her! The French countryside didn't seem any different to any other countryside, in it's description. Lovely, but certainly not unique to France. Only the battlefields. And I have to say I've read more evocative descriptions in other books of the same battlefields. I'm sure I've superimposed those past descriptions onto the ones in A Very Long Engagement.

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny 4/5 The 9th in Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series does not disappoint. It brings resolution to some of the overarching storylines of the series and opens up fresh possibilities. Of course there is a murder that brings Gamache to the beautiful but slightly mysterious village of Three Pines. But Penny's interweaving of the long running stories plays a large part as well. To say more would get into spoiler country. Recommended.

The Return of the Solider by Rebecca West 4/5 Chris returns from the WWI battlefields of France, a man that cannot remember his wife, deceased child, or the last 15 years of his life. His last memory before being injured is that of a lost love. West beautifully portrays the agony and rethinking of each of their lives. Her prose is evocative, yet rather straightforward. She shows us the agony of the women in Chris's life, and makes us feel it. She shows us the motivations, for good or bad of each woman without telling us. Recommended.

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr 4/5 Tom Birkin, World War I veteran arrives in the Yorkshire area in the summer of 1920. He is there to uncover and restore a mural in a local church that has been covered over for, probably, hundreds of years. He is the right man for the job, and the bucolic countryside is soothing to his shell shocked psyche. The author beautifully portrays a man searching for peace. A man that has been through hell and managed to survive. Barely. The relationships that Birkin forms are healing to his body and his soul. His month in the country is that oasis of peace he so desperately needs. Recommended.

While not enough for the read-a-thon, I did manage to read three books yesterday. The last two of the RC books, A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr and The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. (both short books, the latter really a novella). Then I read How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny. About as far from WWI as I could get! /giggle/ What's next?, what's next? Ah jes dunno!

P. 15 of the hardback: "He was afraid of the war and of death, like almost everyone, but he was also afraid of the wind, that harbinger of gas attacks, afraid of a flare tearing through the night, afraid of himself for he never knew what he might do when he was afraid, afraid of his own side's artillery, afraid of his own gun, afraid of the whine of aerial torpedoes, afraid of mines that explode and engulf a whole section of infantry, afraid................." The third person narration, to me, comes across in a rather sterile fashion. We are being told of his fear. If we were shown Cornflower cowering (for example) when the wind blew, or when he saw a flare, or handling his own gun in a tentative or fearful manner, I believe it would have been more effective. It just sounded like a dry recitation of factoids, to me at least. But that comes down to personal taste, and to each his own. I enjoyed the book, in general, I just wanted more.

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot 3/5 The World War I French battlefields vie for the most terrible time and place in all of the history of war. Horribly enough so called enemies fight each other, but when your own turn upon you and so callously treat you.....well, that is the epitome of horror. Five French soldiers, hands tied behind their backs, accused of self-mutilation to get out of service are put into No Man's Land.....the area between the armies. They are left to die by whatever means the enemy can muster. The story revolves around whether or not one, or any, of the men actually manage to survive. The fiancé of one of the men searches for the truth, never giving up until she can find what has actually happened to her man. The Army, for obvious reasons, wants to keep the secret and has done it's bureaucratic best to do so. Her quest forms the nugget of the tale. It takes her into many directions, some false leads and finally, the truth. A certain amount of repetition is necessary to the story, but I did find it bit much after a while. I would have appreciated more depth to the characterization of at least the main protagonists. I felt I didn't know any of them as well as I could or should have. In some ways they were stock characters. The plucky heroine, the avuncular family friend, the simple soul, and more. I've read several other novels of WWI, recently A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry, which was far more evocative of the feelings and effects of the so called Great War. And there is, of course Pat Barker's fantastic Regeneration Trilogy that just hits the ball right out of the ball park. For me A Very Long Engagement did not show the effects, it told of them. It could have been so much better.

Nice reviews! I've only read one by Thompson, The Killer Inside Me.....really good stuff. And I definitely have to get to The Double! Thanks. Have you ever read any of Bill James? I've only read a couple, but thought he was pretty good. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Bill%20James&search-alias=books-uk Scroll down to the Harpur and Isles Mysteries.

It isn't that it is exactly missing. But at least in A Very Long Engagement, it is told, rather than shown. At no time did I feel that the depth of despair was truly put across to the reader. Told, but not shown. That's about the best way I can describe it. Now however, I've finished the second book, A Month in the Country. The effects of the war are particularly shown in the second half of the book. Shown, not told. Carr's description of the people and places is so evocative and poignant, absolutely breathtaking. Yes. I thought Carr showed this brilliantly.

When I was a kid I had a recurring dream taking place in an office setting. Finally, after school, I worked full time in an office, and one day the dream was replicated....just walking down a certain hall, with certain wallpaper, etc....it was the same. I knew it, and felt it, immediately at the time. Never had the dream again. I still have at least one occasional recurring dream. A house, sheer, white billowing curtains.....just walking through. But I know, in the dream, it's home.

1. In summary, what did you think of the book(s)? I've only read the first one, A Very Long Engagement, so far, so will limit my answer. Although I enjoyed the book, in general, I found that it dragged on a bit in places and was too repetitive. A certain amount of the repetitiveness would have been effective, but for me at least, it was too much. I felt the characters only superficially developed. They were what one would expect, nothing more. The plucky heroine, the faithful servant, the admonishing family attorney....that sort of thing. 2. Had you read any of the authors before? Would you want to read any of them again? I will look for Japrisot's books again, there was more than enough in this one for me to want to try again. 3. Did you have expectations about any of the books beforehand? How did they match up? I recently read A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry, and found it quite grueling with it's descriptions of the trench warfare. It also combined the actual warfare with the effect it was having on various loved ones back home, so I suppose I expected the same sort of intensity that Barry exhibited. Or even some of the angst and terror of Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy. I felt none of that with this book. For me there was a certain flatness to the experience of this book. A detachment that I found unnerving. 4. Different locations (France, London, North Yorkshire), different styles (mystery, humour/elegiac idyll, social drama), very different books. Which, if any, did you prefer (can you rank them)? Why? Will answer later, as I'm only a third of the way through Carr's book. 5. Japrisot's is a view of WW1 from a French point of view. Did it provide you with a different or fresh perspective on the war compared to what you already knew? How about the other two books? Japrisot's POV didn't seem that far off any other to me. The only thing that brought me up short a bit was when they could drive in a short while to the battle fields. I wondered at some of the coarse language that was used quite casually by the male characters in front of Mathilde. In that day and time.....I was quite surprised at it. 6. Did the characterisation in the Japrisot novel work for you? Any favourite characters? Any in either of the other two books? Somehow, I felt the characters were not delved into deeply enough, I didn't have the same visceral reaction to them as I've had from other WWI, or any other, books. The words were there, but the feeling just was not as strong as I'd have thought. 8. Mathilde is confined to a wheelchair. Was this important? Does it have any real effect on the story, or on your perception of it or her? I admired the way she treated her wheels as though they were her legs, and didn't allow her handicap to impede her in any way. Although, lets face it, her father's money was a great help in greasing the wheels of her life. So to speak. But to give her all credit, she had a great attitude, and was an admirable person. 9. Tina Lombardi reacted very differently to Mathilde to the same event. Did this contrast play any useful part in the story? They were the opposite sides of the coin, really. One, Mathilde, had everything in life handed to her on a silver platter......except the use of her legs. Tina had absolutely nothing in the way of advantages, except the ability to walk. They both had the grit and determination to find out what happened to their loved one. Different advantages, different paths to the same conclusion. 10. Did the conclusion surprise you? What did you think of it? Not a bit. There were really only two possible conclusions. One, he was dead, killed at the time of the incident. Two, he survived in some manner, probably in a totally shell shocked state, saved by a woman, whether it was a mother figure, or a lover figure. Considering that this was this type of fiction, it had to be the latter. 11. The conclusions in the other two books are equally important. What did you think of them? More on that later.

Hmmmm, difficult question. For escape movies, I usually like "action", with lots of racing cars, chase scenes and the like. There is my favorite chase scene from one of the Bond films...Diamonds Are Forever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuh2L-_yf3M Ya have to watch 'till the end, that is the best. Not one of my favorite films though. Must think on it.

A little over halfway through the May RC........A Very Long Engagement .........really enjoying it!

Great reviews, Weave. The Day of the Triffids is one of my all times favorites! I have The Chrysalids on the shelf......have to get to it.

What everyone said. What an awful thing to happen, even once. But the horrible fact is that sort of thing is increasing, and will until some measures are taken to start true punishment of those bullies. From what I've read in some news articles, they mostly get off scott free, with little to no repercussions. Deepest sympathies to you and yours, Virginia, and the families that endure this horror.

Thanks, Athena. Saw this today, and just couldn't resist posting and keeping it. I love the deep cynicism. Waiting For The Barbarians by Constantine P. Cavafy --What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. --Why isn't anything going on in the senate? Why are the senators sitting there without legislating? Because the barbarians are coming today. What's the point of senators making laws now? Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating. --Why did our emperor get up so early, and why is he sitting enthroned at the city's main gate, in state, wearing the crown? Because the barbarians are coming today and the emperor's waiting to receive their leader. He's even got a scroll to give him, loaded with titles, with imposing names. --Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas? Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts, rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds? Why are they carrying elegant canes beautifully worked in silver and gold? Because the barbarians are coming today and things like that dazzle the barbarians. --Why don't our distinguished orators turn up as usual to make their speeches, say what they have to say? Because the barbarians are coming today and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking. --Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion? (How serious people's faces have become.) Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly, everyone going home lost in thought? Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come. And some of our men who have just returned from the border say there are no barbarians any longer. Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians? Those people were a kind of solution.

Finished Naoko by Keigo Higashino, loved it, review over on my thread. Starting A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot for the May RC.