dogmatix

PP I loved this book!!!

9. I'm back to Perfume - Patrick Suskind now and hope to finish it this weekend. next up: 11. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

10. The Half Brother - Lars Saabye Christensen is now finished. It was a BOTM at another forum I vist and I've spent a lot of time discussing so I'll not post a review here, except to say this is a sweeping and beautiful epic in the style of Irving and a definite STRONG recommendation. It won the Nordic Prize for Literature. He's the review from Amazon: Epic yet startlingly contemporary, this massive novel charts 50 years in the life of an unconventional Oslo family, lighted by gleams of the frozen north and the glow of movie screens. Narrator Barnum, an award-winning screenwriter, retraces his family's history, which begins with the rape of his mother, Vera, as a young girl at the end of World War II. From this crime, Barnum's half-brother, Fred, is conceived. Fred is angry, prone to mood swings and outbursts of verbal cruelty. But he is also street-smart, self-reliant and fiercely—if erratically—protective of Barnum, a small, sensitive boy who never grows to full height. The boys live with Vera and an extended family of spirited, loving women, including the Old One, Barnum's great grandmother (a former silent movie actress), and his beer-drinking grandmother, Boletta. Barnum's father is Arnold Nilsen, an itinerant con man, who woos and marries Vera. When Barnum is almost grown up, unpredictable Fred goes to sea and disappears, leaving Barnum angry and confused. Barnum finds companionship and love through his relationships with friends Peder and Vivian, eventually marrying Vivian, but their connection unravels, particularly with Vivian's pregnancy—a pregnancy that torments Barnum, who is secretly infertile. Barnum's conflicted, complicated love for his brother anchors the novel, but Christensen tenderly explores all sorts of human connection, examining the emotions aroused by absence and persistence, and the complex nature of family and forgiveness. Like Péter Nádas's Book of Memories and Péter Esterházy's Celestial Harmonies, this is a challenging, marvelously rich novel steeped in European history and charged by present-day anxieties. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Kell I wanted to love this book, but alas, I also hated it. I just found it dull and emotionless. I recognize and appreciate that the text was written in this manner to mimic the abscence of emotion/reactions in the students but I just didn't buy it.

Im not getting trapped in this discussion but I will discuss the book:blush: The Rule of Four had SO much potential and while reading it I found it a haunting page turner. I have to agree with Kell though, in the end I found it lacking something and a bit short in cohesiveness. This book would benefit form a re-work after these two have matured a bit as writers. I would certainly read it again and found the premise fascinating. I truly did enjoy it, warts and all.

I didn't know that. He certainly was a strange fellow.

Gosh, I don't know about that Andy. I think about K stabbing himself to death and our cockroach buddy dying from an infected apple wound. I'll have to ruminate on that idea for a bit. You may have something but I've never thought of Kafka that way.

Finished Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (review posted) Started 9. Perfume - Patrick Suskind AND 10. The Half Brother - Lars Saabye Chrinstensen

Great story (you can't really call it a novel) and very reminiscent of The Trial. Kafka has a way of horrifying me despite (or maybe because of) his eerie scarcity of words and images. This is a work to be studied and I'd like to read at least one or two analyses to feel I've really reaped all the delicious nuggets to be found in this book. If you're not familier Metamorphosis it's the story of a man that wakes one morning to find he has become a giant insect. Locked in his bedroom within the family's small apartment we watch as he is pitied, tolerated, and eventually rejected as a member of the family. With a scarce, dry dessert of words (virtually none) describing the emotions of the small handful of characters, somehow we are able to intimately feel the gordian knot of horror, disgust, and sorrow that plagues them all. Is it possible to feel pity for a cockroach... well yes it really is and Kafka proves it.

Impossible task! Impossible! I don't want to leave any of the great books out:irked: and I can't even bring myself to try. I can only list my single most favorite book of all times "Watership Down" - Richard Adams Now I could list my favorite authors no problem..... Ecco, Saramago, Irving

I've read Saturday, Amsterdam, and Comfort of Strangers Regarding Saturday, it's just gorgeous prose, gorgeous!

Well I'll stray from the pack and say that most "new" wine drinkers that want a red can safely start with a Merlot. Merlots are smooth and really easy on the undeveloped wine palette. From there you can venture in many directions depending on your preferences. A couple of easy to finds Merlots that are good are Coppola's Diamond and Toasted Head. Both are from California and are reasonably priced. Salut'

Red or white Pontalba?

My first non fiction book of the year. I've always had an interest in Darwin's Theory of Evolution and how it changed the way in which we view the natural world and ourselves as a part of it. Last year I picked up a novel The Darwin Conspiracy, a fictional tale proposing that Darwin stole his theory from The HMS Beagle's Surgeon. It was light but enjoyable historical fiction and it re-stoked my interest in Darwin. (The author is Charles Darnton if you are so inclined) Darwin and the Barnacle (The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough) Rebecca Stott Eighteen years passed between Darwin's famous voyage aboard the HMS Beagle and the publishing of his Origin of Species. For 18 years the notes and outlines of his revolutionary idea remained in a sealed envelope, locked in his study desk with instructions to his wife as to what she should do with them should he die before unlocking the drawer. What was happening for all of that time? As this work explains almost 10 of those years was dedicated to the research and writing of an ambitious 4 volume set categorizing all families of barnacles and one unique, tiny specimen affectionately named Mr. Arthrobalanus, A specimen that sparked an idea which grew and grew. After sailing the world Darwin settled at Bound House in England and for nearly ten years with a tenacity difficult even to imagine he studied, dissected and described his barnacles from the confines of a small personal study to which he was as cemented as many of the barnacles he loved. Darwin came to see the "universe in a barnacle shell" and from that universe he saw everything. Stott's book describes with insight how Darwin's research solidified his radical theory and leant authority to what otherwise might have dismissed as "Munchausen Science" (Darwin's own term), castles in the air with no foundation in solid research. In the early and mid 1800's the idea of evolution wasn't completely new and as the years passed Darwin lived in constant fear that someone would "beat him to the punch" with a theory similar or even superior to his own. He stuck to his microscope however, and after a silence of 18 years he not only published his theory on the mutability of species but also explained and demonstrated the how and most importantly the why. With his army of infinitely varied barnacles to back him up Darwin illuminated the gossamer line linking and separating novel species. Darwin, famous for his finches, owes far much more to the barnacle. Hardly a dry biography Stott also paints a lovely picture of Darwin the man. Coloring and fleshing out Darwin with details of a satisfying and fulfilling family life, Stott share's with the reader Darwin's love for his wife and many children (one whom he helplessly watched die of consumption), his well worn and affectionately cultivated friendships, and his struggle, questioning, and eventual abandonment of faith during the death of his father a, confirmed non-believer. Stott invites, you quite successfully, to like Darwin the man. A very good read!

Finished Darwin and the Barnacle (Review posted) 8. Metamorphosis: Franz Kafka

Started 7. Darwin and the Barnacle (The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough) - Rebecca Stott First non fiction work this year.

6. The Comfort of Strangers - Ian McEwan (review posted)

McEwan has a delicious way with sensual details, be it fish soup, potted gardenias, or sex. The Comfort of Strangers is no exception. A month long vacation shared by a well worn couple, Colin and Mary, is gorgeously described, inserting the reader firmly within a relationship cultivated with care and the routines of a shared life; quiet and content, certainly not passionate, much like many a well seasoned marriage. A chance encouter in a darkened alley with Robert, a native of this exotic city, awakens a lost awareness of each other's sexuality. Colin and Mary become enchanted with this machoistic stranger and his imprisioned, meek, injued bird of a wife and in turn - once again- with each other. Somehow this strange and desperate relationship awakens a lost sexual longing in Colin and Mary. A series of sensual meals and frantic sexual encouters is punctuated ever so gradully with the tiniest stabs of blackness as an insidious sense of dread grows within the belly of this erotic tale. The progression and development of tension is insidious, masterful, unpredicatble, and complete. McEwan's ending is shocking and disturbing but leaves you wondering, "Was it fate, chance, or a subconscious will that brought about this unexpected and disturbing denoument?" THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY lest my review lead you to think otherwise. I read this bewithcing tale in one sitting and was both disgusted and arosed by the macabre ending. The Comfort of Strangers is McEwan at his best.

5. The Grey King - Susan Cooper I've got one day to tuck something in. Last year I bought a nice hardcover set of a series of children's book which I loved as a kid and I can now afford to own The Dark is Rising (series) - Susan Cooper and I've been reading them in snatches. Today I'll be reading The Grey King the fourth book in the series. I'll not be posting a review on this one book but this is a lovely childrens series and I do recommend it if you've got kids in your life. The entire series is 1. Over Sea, Under Stone 2. The Dark is Rising 3. Greenwich 4. The Grey King 5. Silver on the Tree. If you're not familiar the stories they revolve around Grail Legend and the adventures of the Drew Children and their mysterious Uncle Merriman Lyon. The books reference some very ancient Welsh legends and older English legends in them that I had to research a bit as they were so foreign to me. Well written and recommended as a series for children. 'Nuf said.

I fold over the page.......I know I know you don't have to tell me:irked:

Finished up The Flander's Panel this afternoon. My overall impression would have to be mediocre at best. Reverte's characters become increasingly flat and predictable as this book plods along. With the one notable exception of Cesar, the ageing dandy who turns out to hold a few surprises. Still, the mystery is solid and the chess play interesting (this from someone knowing little more than the directions on which the pieces move). Reverte throws in some nice thematic play with mirror images and scenes within scenes but he seems to be overeaching his skill level here and his efforts fail to develp to their full potential. Really I have little more to say. It's so much easier writing a review for a book you enjoyed and found myself having to work to finish this one. Want to try Reverte? - read The Club Dumas (much better book)

Finished up The Flander's Panel - posting review now.

The teacher can certainly make all the diference in the world. I've had a few gems in my past that I still credit to my success as an adult. Big HUg for Teachers!!!!

Thanks for the link. I use the Food Network website a ton can't remember the url but I think it's http://www.foodtv.com It's nice because you can search by food item, by chef, by show. You can also save an online recipe collection. Oh and welcome to our site. Hope you like it.

I'm on my way over there today actually. Pulls out scrap of paper and pencil V-I-N-A A-L-A-R-B-A