Kylie

Also, I wanted to share a quote from the book that resonated with me and made me think of the whole debate about Atticus being 'ruined' for people in this book. It's almost as though Harper Lee foresaw this happening (the parts in square brackets are mine). This is Scout's uncle talking to her about Atticus: “… now you, Miss, born with your own conscience, somewhere along the line fastened it like a barnacle onto your father’s. As you grew up, when you were grown, totally unknown to yourself, you confused your father with God. You never saw him as a man with a man’s heart, and a man’s failings—I’ll grant you it may have been hard to see, he makes so few mistakes, but he makes ’em like all of us. You were an emotional cripple, leaning on him, getting the answers from him, assuming that your answers would always be his answers.”

Aw, nicely said, Paul. I can't remember...have you read To Kill A Mockingbird? If so, did you enjoy it, and do you want to read Go Set a Watchman? Angury, I finished reading the book the other day, and I have to say that I completely agree with everything you said. Really, I couldn't have said it better myself, and I hope everyone reading this thread carefully reads your review, because everything you've said about the novel is absolutely spot on. My perspective of Atticus didn't change either, and my opinion of Scout (or Jean Louise, as she's more commonly called in GSaW) grew and grew. She reminds me a lot of myself in terms of her opinions and ideals. The scenes towards the end had me on the edge of my seat as the tension grew, and then I cried rather a lot. As you said, the writing was exquisite. During the flashback scenes, I actually felt like I was reading TKaM. Those scenes could have easily been removed from the latter and inserted in the former. Lee's such a good storyteller. I also agree re the plot, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment. I rated it 10/10 immediately after finishing, although I did dither about giving it a 9. I decided to go with my gut feeling upon immediately finishing the book, when my emotions were still heightened. I went into it with fairly low expectations—I knew it could never be as good as TKaM—but I was blown away by it...especially the last couple of chapters. Lastly, to anyone who might check out the reviews on Goodreads when trying to decide whether to read it, please don't just read the first few 'most popular' reviews (many of which are actually just comments by people saying they're not going to read the book). Try filtering the comments to see some of the higher ratings so you can get a broader understanding of people's feelings.

Don't forget to run around nekkid!! What fun is having a place to yourself if you have to keep wearing clothes? I'm glad the old flatmate is gone and you have some time to yourself. And I'm glad you're being optimistic about finding a new place for yourself. Have you started looking yet?

I've just finished it. It was incredible. I've given it 10/10. I'll post more extensive thoughts later.

Hmm, so I should bump it up my TBR pile then? I'm still making my way through the delightful Go Set a Watchman, and I've also started the second Flavia de Luce book.

Hello Alice. Looking forward to following your book blog! Have you read anything else by Le Fanu? I read Carmilla a few years back and loved it. Actually, we did a comparison reading circle on the forum of Dracula and Carmilla (said to have inspired Broker's Dracula) several years ago. I have his short story collection called In a Glass Darkly on my TBR pile, and I've had Uncle Silas on my wish list for a while, so I'll be awaiting your thoughts with interest.

Nursenblack, I agree with everything you said. I received my copy in the mail today. I'd already started reading the ebook because I couldn't wait, but now I'll continue on with the hard copy. I'm about 95 pages in, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's really well written (hardly surprising!) and, well, I'll put the next bit in spoilers, although it doesn't discuss any elements of the plot (I just don't want to risk ruining anything for anyone). Anyway,

<sigh> I have to say that everyone's negativity (not just here, but everywhere around the Internet) is quite a bummer. I really wanted to be excited about this once-in-a-lifetime literary event, but it's a bit hard with so much negativity around. I should just avoid everyone's comments. For the record, there was reportedly an investigation into whether Harper Lee was coerced into publishing the novel, and no wrongdoing was found. That's good enough for me. I think everyone should give her a little more credit. I completely disagree with your last sentence, Muggles. If anything, GSAW will show us how the author originally intended Atticus to be because it was written first. Here's an interesting article regarding Atticus and racism in TKAM, which suggests that we have indeed been placing Atticus on a pedestal all these years. Food for thought.

New Horizons made its closest pass to Pluto around an hour ago. Exciting stuff! NASA will be receiving lots of data and the clearest pictures ever taken of Pluto. Here's the best picture taken to date.

I've read a few more chapters of The Winter Queen. Nearing the end now. And I've read the first couple of chapters of Go Set a Watchman.

I'm surprised too, Angury. I thought I'd have a whole forum full of people to be excited with, but I was starting to think I was the only one! I'm glad you share my excitement. TKAM is basically the perfect book, in my opinion, so there's no way I expect GSAW to live up to it, but I still think it will be very good. And you're right, Angury...Atticus is human after all, and a product of his time. I think perhaps he has been put on too high a pedestal.

Is that a euphemism or do you often apply makeup in the middle of the night? On another note, I hate being woken up during a pleasant dream! Ooh, I have a question for you. As you know, I'm reading The Winter Queen, and there's a Finnish-related joke that I don't get. I'm not sure if something has been lost in translation or whether you can help me. The person behind the counter at a post office is sort of describing his day. It says he 'handed over a package from Revel to an elderly Finnish woman with the amusing name of Pyrvu'. Does that name have a funny meaning in Finnish? Or do you think it's supposed to be funny if translated to Russian?

I've had my TV disconnected for a few days while I do some renovations. But I've still got the Internet. I just watched the first episode of Wayward Pines after seeing it mentioned a million times around the forum. I'd never heard of the books before and have no interest in reading them, but I'll continue on with the show—it's good so far.

Oh my goodness! That's a heck of a lot of books! Very nice.

I admire your courage for saying that on a forum with many DW fans. But yes, there are hundreds of old Doctor Who episodes for fans to watch. Sherlock should be the priority now. *runs and hides from DW fans*

Can't wait! Apparently this special is all we'll be getting for a while. They haven't even started writing season 4 yet.

That's great news! I'm so pleased you're enjoying it. You'll definitely have to read The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear at some stage. I thought it was much better than Rumo. I read it years ago and didn't exactly love it. I disliked most of the characters and I agree with your other criticisms.

I haven't read anything, Noll. I find it hard to believe though. Why would his position change later in life?

I fell in love with Omar because of his eyes in Doctor Zhivago.

It would be fun indeed! The bookcase we put together is still going strong, but that bloomin' door is the bane of my existence! I never got rid of it and it just gets moved around the house from one place to another. It's always in the way! I'll post a pic of my garage later to show how it's full of all my downstairs stuff, and you'll see the door there, getting in the way as usual. I've been thinking of putting it on a local classifieds site for a few dollars, or even for free. Surely someone out there can take it off my hands!

Yeah, if I didn't have help it would have taken me another week just to decide what colour to paint the wall, and then at least another week to do it all! Thank goodness not everyone's as indecisive or lazy as me. I woke up and thought 'Thank goodness I dreamed about Frankie too, or she'd be annoyed that I dreamed about someone else and not her!' And then I thought 'Typical Frankie to get in on my dreams of other BCF members!'

Thanks. I got a couple of before shots of my kitchen, but I forgot to do the rest before my ex started ripping up the carpet (see below)! I asked my ex ('N') to spare a couple of hours on Thursday to help me move the bigger items of furniture. Then I was planning to spend most of the weekend pulling up the carpet etc. I figured I wouldn't have a chance to paint until after the flooring was done. So he came over at lunch time on Thursday and ended up staying until late evening. He wouldn't stop at the furniture but insisted on pulling up all of the carpet and underlay and removing my skirting boards and pulling up the horrid wooden boards that had been nailing the carpet down. He was incredible!! I was relegated to following him with a dustpan and broom to clean up. I felt terrible that he was working so hard, but he refused to stop. He reminded me of my Dad in that once he starts a project, he just won't stop until it's done (I never inherited my Dad's hard-working genes; I tend to work for an hour and then give myself the rest of the day off ). He literally saved me a full weekend of work. Then we went to Bunnings (biggest hardware chain in the country) and bought my new skirting boards, paint and other bits and bobs. But it doesn't end there. At the end of the evening I thanked N profusely and said that I'd start painting tomorrow. Then he insisted that he and his son would be back the next day to start painting! He knew that I have a big editing job due on the morning that the workmen are arriving to install the flooring (I have no idea how I thought I'd get everything done by myself, but I thought I could!) He wanted me to be able to focus on that while they worked. I tried saying no again (because I felt so bad about taking up all of their time, and it's the second-last day of holidays for them both) but he's extremely stubborn. By lunchtime they had arrived, and by the time they left I had a first coat of paint on everything! All I had to do was provide lunch. Again, I thanked them profusely and said that I would finish the rest myself, but N has again insisted on coming over tomorrow to help me finish it off. At this rate I'll be able to start moving furniture back in on Monday evening or Tuesday...and I thought it'd be another week or something! I'm so incredibly grateful. I've been rather overwhelmed by the whole process. I don't think I initially realised just how much work (or money *gulp*) would be involved, and it's more overwhelming when you live by yourself and don't really know what you're doing. In the past my Dad would have done absolutely everything for me (he was a helluva handyman), and I took that for granted. Dad would have been so proud of N for doing all of this for me. On his deathbed he specifically asked N to look after me. Aw. Ha, definitely a mystery! I'd certainly never get cream carpet with children around! Thanks Athena. About halfway through now! Hey, I had a dream about you last night! I went to visit you at your house. You were living with your mum and dad (who were really nice) and a slightly older sister (who was really nice, but you didn't get along with her). I think there was a really good-looking brother too. You took me sight-seeing around your town. And then I was looking at a map and trying to work out how far Frankie lived from you so I could go and visit her. I know the feeling! I guess mine is pretty small as renovations go, but my whole downstairs area looks perfectly hideous right now. The walls are half-painted and the concrete foundations are all exposed, and because it's winter here, the surface is freezing to walk on. My TV is disconnected and the only lounge I left in the room is covered in a drop sheet, so I've decided to just stay in my bedroom for the next couple of days and only venture down there for food and drink. Oh, and to do some painting later. It's warmer in bed anyway!

Yay! I can't wait to hear what you think. I've read a little more of The Winter Queen. It's getting really good (actually, it's maintained a high standard from the beginning) but I have so little time for reading at the moment.

I was dithering about whether to wait for the paperback, Janet, but an online site enticed me to buy the hardback by offering a much cheaper price for a lovely hardback edition of To Kill A Mockingbird if I bought them together. I had been eyeing it at a bookstore only a day or two earlier, so naturally I had to go for it. I usually prefer paperbacks, but I've started buying a few of my absolute favourite books in hardback (usually classics reprinted in their original cover).