PGMCC explores the Biblioverse in 2024: Fourth instalment

Books completed in 2024

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett Reading 19/12/2023 - 15/01/2024 445 Pages
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino 05/01/2024 - 27/01/2024 272 Pages
Relight my Fire by C. K. McDonnell 27/1/2024 - 01/02/2024 518 Pages
Berlin Game by Len Deighton 01/02/2024 - 07/02/2024 296 Pages
The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas 08/02/2024 - 12/02/2024 247 Pages
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth 12/02/2024 - 27/02/2024 369 Pages
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson 27/02/2024 - 05/03/2024 350 Pages
The Accordionist by Fred Vargas 05/03/2024 - 10/03/2024 249 Pages
Poor Things by Alistair Gray 11/03/2024 - 15/03/2024 336 Pages
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka 16/03/2024 - 27/03/2024 408 Pages
Leadership Magic by Grahame Pitts 28/03/2024 - 01/04/2024 129 Pages
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 02/04/2024 - 06/04/2024 468 Pages
The Leaky Establishment by David Langford 07 /04/2024 - ? Pages
Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas and translated by David Bellos12/04/2014 - 18/04/2024 359 Pages
The Fog Horn (Short Story) by Ray Bradbury BB from jillmwo 14/04/2024 - 14/04/2024 6 Pages
Mexico Set by Len Deighton 19/04/2024 - 03/05/2024 364 Pages
Bunny McGarry Shorts by Caimh McDonnell 04/05/24 - 06/05/2024 288 Pages
Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey 07/05/2024 - 17/05/2024 532 Pages
Beyond the Light Horizon by Ken MacLeod 17/05/2024 - 01/06/2024 380 Pages
Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas 02/06/2024 - 06/06/2024 371 Pages
2024 Hugo Awards Short Story short-list 07/06/2024 - 10/06/2024
- Answerless Journey 10 Pages
- Tasting the Future Delicacies Three Times 20 Pages
- Better Living Through Algorithms 13 Pages
- Children of the Mausoleum
- The Sound of Children Screaming
- How to Raise a Kraken

My voting:
1 Tasting the Future Delicacies Three Times
2 Better Living Through Algorithms
3 How to Raise a Kraken
4 The Sound of Children Screaming
5 Children of the Mausoleum
6 Answerless Journey

West Heart Kill by Dan McDorman 10/06/2024 - 19/06/2024 272 Pages
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry 19/06/2024 - 25/06/2024 225 Pages
Portable Magic by Emma Smith 26/06/2024 - 17/07/2024 297 Pages
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson 17/07/2014 294 Pages
The Hymn Tune Mystery by George A. Birmingham 11/08/2024 - ? Pages.

And not ten minutes after your post about thinking it was time to start on a new thread, I'm sending best wishes for a happy NEW thread! You're gulping down the books at a great rate here.

>2 jillmwo:
Thank you, Jill. I am getting through the books thanks to deliberately taking time to read. I find that the more time I devote to reading the more reading I get done. Have you noticed that?

:-)

I just checked the Worldcon attendees list and Shannon Chakraborty is planning to be there. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is on the Hugo shortlist for best novel. It was the only novel I nominated that made it to the shortlist. It would be great if she won it, but there are several very popular authors in the final list and popularity appears to count more in the Hugo voting than quality.

As you will have seen from my posts, I really enjoyed the third Commissaire Adamsberg novel. I am fortunate to have read both The Three Evangelist and Commissaire Adamsberg stories in chronological order so far. Vargas is developing Adamsberg's character nicely as we progress through the stories.

Happy New Thread!

Happy new thread!

What >4 clamairy: and >5 Karlstar: said, Pete!

Happy new thread!

Thank you all for the new thread good wishes.

I have chosen Len Deighton's Mexico Set for my next read. A physical book so no botheration about the battery going flat at the most tense part of a chapter.



This is the second novel in the Game, Set, Match trilogy, the first being Berlin Game and the final one being London Match.

I like to pace my reads in a series or trilogy, that is why I only brought one Len Deighton and one Fred Vargas books with me.

ETA: A new Caimh McDonnell book came out on the 16th April. I almost missed it. It is a collection of short stories involving Bunny McGarry and is entitled, Shorts: A Bunny McGarry Short Fiction Collection and is part of Dublin Trilogy series. That will have to be my next read after Mexico Set

Congratulations Peter! Your posts about Seeking whom he may devour have prompted me to order a copy of Ghost riders of Ordebec, the missing volume which I need in order to proceed with the Adamsberg series. Thank you for your service!

>9 Sakerfalcon:
I am glad my efforts have been of benefit to you.

OK, so I cracked and ordered the third and fourth books in Fred Vargas's Commissaire Adamsberg series. I am weak, but at least I admit it.

>11 pgmcc: Laughing out loud -- so much for "dance with the one that brung ya". That huge stack of books that you packed and carted with you to France and you still went and ordered TWO more.

I'm also quietly giggling with a certain amount of victorious glee. (Now, let me also share with you that you need to go out and get your hands on Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand. I mean, really. Bookmarque and Marissa_Doyle got me with it and now I'm popping off a BB in your direction.) It's something like Imprimatur in terms of complexity and yet nothing like. Certainly worth your consideration.

>12 jillmwo:
I read your posts about it in the reading thread and, I think, on your own thread. I was going to ask you if you thought I was the right demographic for this book. You have answered my question without my asking it. Given the quality of your BBs in the past, and the fact that you compare this book to Imprimatur* convinces me that I will have to go for Mortal Love. Isn't this the book you were complaining was full of sex?

Chalk it up. I am off to catch the Kindle version.

* I read the first three books by Monaldi & Sorti and was hoping to read the fourth, but the fourth has not been translated into English. I contacted the publisher of the first three and they said they had no plans to translate the fourth. The third one was not as good as the first two, but I wanted to read the fourth to complete the series. Imprimatur was the best of the three I have read.

OOPS!
There appears to be no Kindle version, the hardbacks are starting at €82.00, and the paperback is not directly available from Amazon. Mmmmmm!

There's more!
I ordered it from US Amazon. Including postage it was costing over €40. Then I checked French Amazon and they had it sourced from the UK. Including postage it is costing €28. Cancelled US order and ordered from France/UK.

I hope you are happy with all the trouble I am going to for the wound you inflicted on me.

>13 pgmcc: Did you try bookfinder? I looked up ISBN on Amazon, then ran a search and came up with...

Mortal Love Hardcover, (destination set to 'UK').

You can also try entering the paperback ISBN to see those results. Or do an author/title search, (I prefer ISBN because it limits results to the edition I am seeking). I dunno, it might not work the same from outside the US but could be worth a try...? Consider it a side-mission...

Edit: Ah, I see you already ordered while I was posting. Hope you enjoy the book!

I have just been checking my pre-orders and there are some very interesting books arriving in the next few months.

14th May: Beyond the Light Horizon by Ken MacLeod


26th September: The Wilding by Ian McDonald
No cover image available yet.

24th October: Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway


26th November: The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami


My favourite authors are being very productive. This will be some great reading.

>15 pgmcc:

Ah hah! So I can finally start reading Beyond the Hallowed Sky?!? I have been waiting for the full trilogy to be published before embarking on book 1.

Do you know if this will be the final book in the series?

>16 ScoLgo:
It is a trilogy, so this is the final book.

>14 ScoLgo: I used to love using Bookfinder back when I was reading paper.

>12 jillmwo: Jill, you really made me cackle with that first sentence. Are you sure Peter can handle that book? He might have an attack of the vapors.

>14 ScoLgo:
I have never used bookfinder. I must have look at it. I did try abebooks but most of the sellers would not post to France.

>17 pgmcc: Thank you. I will move books 1 and 2 up on my TBR in anticipation of purchasing Beyond the Light Horizon when it becomes available. (I also did not miss your mention of the new Nick Harkaway. He is a 'buy on release' author for me ever since I read Angelmaker.)

>18 clamairy: I still buy a fair amount of print books. I figure authors I like can probably use the sales to help them keep going. I also am suspicious of purchasing e-books ever since Amazon's 1984 kerfuffle of 2009. I still buy a few here and there but the vast majority of e-books I read are either freebies, (TOR, Book Gorilla, etc), or borrowed via Overdrive/Libby.

>19 pgmcc: Bookfinder is great because results will include nearly all sellers out there, including Abe Books. Give it a try!

>18 clamairy: Are you kidding? If pgmcc had ever met Elizabeth Hand in real life, I might have thought he was a model for one or two of the male characters appearing in Mortal Love. (Okay, maybe not. But given his fondness for the Gothic...). The thing is that Mortal Love is neither derivative of Possession nor of Imprimatur, but there's that same hovering play with light and darkness. As one character describes one of the properties, think "Manderley on bad acid.". (And yes, there's a certain amount of sex. And you, the reader, thinks it's going to be a male dominated thing, and then you find -- oh, wait, I don't want to spoil it.)

As clamairy so often says, Bwa-ha-hah-ha!

>13 pgmcc: Things are happening back behind the curtain with warehouses and distribution centers, I think. The copy I purchased ("new" from Amazon) has a remainder mark on the bottom of the physical pages. I wasn't upset, because the book fit the industry standard for a book in "new" condition. But what happens to backlist titles these days where the publisher hasn't nailed down electronic rights is anybody's guess.

And I did read research w/in the past 24 months that indicated that 75% of scholarly monographs sold to libraries these days are print-on-demand. Still trying to work out what that actually means in terms of business practices.

>21 jillmwo:
The third person in your discussion has been used as a character in a story; The Bleeding Horse, by Brian J. Showers. The character is the publican who owns and runs The Bleeding Horse pub in Dublin. My father was a publican and Brian thought it would be interesting to put me in as the publican.

On another occasion, I was the MC for a game of Pictionary at Phoenix Convention VI. The subjects for the contestants to sketch were winners of the Hugo Awards. There were two teams made up of the guest authors at the convention. Paul Cornell was the captain of one team and Catie Murphy was the captain of the other team. Paul Cornell had written several episodes of the recently re-introduced Dr Who series.

I was laying down the ground-rules and stated that my word on any dispute was final.

Catie then said, "Peter, I could make you one of the characters in my next book."

Paul's response was, "Peter, you could be the next Doctor."

>20 ScoLgo:
I really enjoyed Angelmaker.

>23 pgmcc: Gee, and all I can counter with (in terms of 15 seconds of fame) is inclusion as a female priest in one of Peter David's comic books for Marvel. I suspect you are the one to take the gold medal in this instance!

>25 jillmwo:
Well, I was never ordained.

>20 ScoLgo:
The 1984 affair has coloured my view of “buying” e-books. However, I often go for them as a quick way to obtain the story. If it is a really good book I will try to get a physical copy too.

>22 jillmwo:
My supply chain background would lead me to believe that the cost accountants working for publishers love PoD. It greatly reduces up-front print costs, warehousing costs, and reduces the working capital requirement. Books are not printed until they are ordered and so there is limited, in fact no, risk in printing before hand. There is no need to handled books sent back on sale-or-return as not books are taken in advance of an actual sale.

PoD is a cost accountants wet dream. Along with forcing authors to do more of the upfront editing, i.e. not putting as much money into proofreading and letting the authors know that any errors in the final product are likely their own, and also putting a heavier load on the author for marketing and promotion, the accountants can show their financial performance to be A1. By emphasising on-line sales of physical books the publishers can weight the trend to PoD while reducing the number of books required to fill any physical store pipeline.

In terms of academic books I can see this being a very popular approach with the cost accountants. These books were traditionally very expensive to buy because of their limited circulation and hence high per copy production costs. While the publisher can now eliminate much of their high per copy production costs by waiting for orders before printing the book and at the same time keeping the price high and, as always, only giving the author a pittance. The academic author is just so happy to have their work in a book they do not look for any serious financial reward. I do not know how it works in the US, but here I have heard of academics being approached by publishers to produce a book on their speciality. The academic is thrilled, puts a lot of effort into writing the book, and is then surprised when the initial flurry of sales to academic libraries, which could be a few hundred books, there are precious few additional sales and hence limited or no royalties.

The publisher's need to make a profit drives them into these practices and the world moves on.

Does any of the above make sense to you?

>18 clamairy:
I am touched by your concern for my wellbeing. I will keep the smelling-salts close by to save me from the suffering of the vapours.

Also, I always have your suggestion of using dolls to understand what is happening in the book, or do you think that could accelerate my succumbing victim of the vapours?

>28 pgmcc: One issue I can see coming with PoD is that sooner or later somebody is going to start asking why they are paying for server space to store thousands of old books. Data storage might be orders of magnitude cheaper than it was 20 years ago but it's still not free. Assuming that somebody does want to keep a copy of a book, the cheapest way might be to keep a physical copy and scan it periodically. Given a few generations of this, with the attendant scan errors, will we need a new generation of textual critics to arrive at a correct text?

And yes, after Amazon's funny business with 1984 I avoid kindle for anything I care to keep long term.

Paper (of decent quality) has the advantage that it lasts. There are paper books 600 years old that are still in excellent condition. But I remember reading that a good deal of the data from early space research is at risk because it's stored on 60s-vintage magnetic tape. The tape drives are no longer made and can't even be maintained. (Only the other day I saw someone refer to a 90s Zip drive as a relic.)

On the economics of publishing: some time back I read Rupert Hart-Davis — Man of Letters. Hart-Davis founded his own publishing firm after the Second World War, and the initial capital came from family members and friends (one of whom was Peter Fleming, Ian's brother). The firm's books were well designed and well printed but RHD refused to publish a book that he didn't think good enough, even if it would make money. OTOH, he published a good few money-losers for their literary quality*. The firm always had a large stock of unsold backlist. It never (I believe) made a profit, was kept afloat by the shareholders, and was eventually bought out by one of the major British publishers of the day. Happy days, and how unlike the present.

*One notable author for whom RHD was the first UK publisher was Pay Bradbury, although RHD probably didn't lose by that.

>23 pgmcc: "Paul's response was, "Peter, you could be the next Doctor."

The pieces are falling into place. Fellow pub denizens, we have not been dealing with a spy, it was all a misdirection. We've been hanging out with The Doctor!

>31 MrsLee:
Hmmmmm! The only one who would want to leak The Doctor's cover like that would be their arch nemesis, The Master!

Duh! Duh! Duh!

>32 pgmcc: taptaptap tap, taptaptap tap, taptaptap tap.

>32 pgmcc: and >33 MrsLee: I'm feeling very concerned here. Have I walked into a duel between two time lords? I mean, are Daleks or Cybermen en route? (I'm seriously creeped out by the Weeping Angels. Also those aliens who you only ever see out of the corner of your eye.)

Scurrying from the room now.

>34 jillmwo:
Don’t blink!

>29 pgmcc: I believe it was puppets I suggested, so I guess it would all depend on the manner of puppets you are using. :o)

>36 clamairy:
Hand puppets or string operated? Each would introduce its own set of complexities and intensity of feelings.

I am really enjoying The Mexico Set by Len Deighton. The plot is twisty and full of crafty machinations by the various espionage players. If you are planning to read this book, which is the second in a set of three referred to as the Game, Set, Match series, I recommend reading them in the correct sequence. Events in the first book, Berlin Game, play a significant part in setting up the second book events. While each book is a standalone novel one would be asking questions reading the second book not having read the first one. I presume the same goes for the third.

Deighton's stories are good, but he is pipped at the post by the works of John Le Carré,

It has just gone 11pm. I am in that danger zone where I only have 50 pages left in my book and the action is heating up. Will I get to sleep tonight? Will I be awake to 3am reading the rest of the book? Will I read 45 pages and fall asleep before reaching the end?

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Peter Reads in the Night.

>40 pgmcc: Ha! I tried to finish a book the other night, but my eyeballs wouldn't cooperate. Best of luck with it! I have faith in you.

>40 pgmcc: You got this!

>40 pgmcc: 4 hours later, who was victorious? I believe the odds are in Peter's favor, wonder what Vegas says?

I fell asleep after 12 pages but finished the rest this morning.

A good read.

I have finished Mexico Set by Len Deighton.

Would I read another book by this author?
Definitely.

Would I recommend this book?
Yes.

To whom would I recommend this book?
To anyone who enjoys good, thoughtful espionage novels based on realistic activities of existing intelligence agencies. This is a Cold War related espionage story and hence anyone interested in spying during the Cold War era would be interested.

Did this book inspire me to do anything?
It has inspired me to reaffirm my liking of the books of Len Deighton.

Len Deighton is not John Le Carré, but his books are very good and involve plots that come close to the intricacy of Le Carré's stories. ScoLgo gave a link to The Literature Map in the Science Fiction Fans Group thread, "Our Reads in May 2024", and it is fascinating. Thank you, ScoLgo. The closest author to Le Carré on the Literature Map is Len Deighton and I would have to agree with that.

Mexico Set is the second book in Deighton's Game, Set, Match trilogy and I found it a good second book. It has sufficient story to work as a standalone but to get full value from it one should already have read the first in the series, Berlin Game. I am looking forward to the third, London Match.

I give this story four stars.

I found many comments and conversations in Mexican Set interesting and worth quoting. I present a selection below.

1. The difference between recruiting someone to be an agent and convincing a professional spy from the other side to defect. Apparently the latter is referred to as "enrolling".

"It's very different," said Werner. "When you recruit someone, and start them spying, you paint romantic pictures for them. You show them the glamour and make them feel courageous and important. But the agent you enrol knows all the answers already. Enrolment is tricky. You are telling lies to highly skilled liars. They're cynical and demanding. It's easy to start it off but it usually goes sour some way along the line and everyone ends up mad at everyone else."
"You make it sound like getting a divorce," said Zena.
"It's a bit like that," I said. "But it gets more violent."
"More violent than a divorce?" Zena fluttered her eyelashes.

2. Automation.

"Registry, eh?" It was the most unpopular job in the Department and nearly one-third of all the staff were employed there. The theory was that the computer in the Data Centre would gradually replace the thousands of dusty files, and Registry would eventually disappear. But, true to the rules of all bureaucracy, the staff at the Data Centre grew and grew but the staff in Registry did not decrease.

3. Dicky's first love.
"An affair. How romantic. It wasn't an affair, darling. No one could have an affair with Dicky; he's having an imperishable love affair with himself. What woman could compete with Dicky's first and only love?"

>46 pgmcc: Wonderful quotes, I am very impressed. Spy novels have never been my genre (I was just never interested for some reason), but you make these books sound tempting ;)

>46 pgmcc: Your second quote reminds me that in my experience, every much-trumpeted introduction of the "paperless office" results in a doubling of the paperwork and consumption of dead-tree paper.

>48 hfglen:
I have tales I could tell but I would be in breach of confidentiality agreements. Perhaps I can write a fictional story about them. :-)

Once upon a time there was a company that had a process for recording people's attendance and leave usage. There were two administrative people involved in maintaining this system. The HR Director decided to introduce a time and attendance system for everyone to clock in. He said it would save on administration effort. I informed him, in this hypothetical and fictitious situation, that he would require at least five full-time people to administer the system and that every manager would have to spend on average half-an-hour a day to approve the transactions.

He poo, pooed my comments (which had been based on a carefully researched and carried out analysis) and said the benefits would be tremendous.

When the system was introduced a new department within HR was established to administer the system. It had five full-time people and three reserves.

In this hypothetical situation I think his real objective was to create attendance statistics that would comply with the EU Working Time Directive. This belief was supported when it became clear that people could not report more time at work than they were scheduled to carry out. In other words no effort over and above the contracted hours was recognised by the system. In this imaginary world I knew the HR Director from a previous situation and knew him to be the type of person who would do such a thing.

>49 pgmcc: So all hours of overtime worked went unrecorded, unrecognized and I'm sure unrewarded... Sheesh.

>50 clamairy: Exactly.

In that fictitious world.

One of my objections to it was that salaried people were put on the system. Their pay did not improve with additional hours worked, but they worked a lot of extra hours without financial reward. They just wanted to do a good job and get their work done.

Come review time, as you pointed out, there was no record of their extra effort, so managers could ignore such extra effort when looking at any bonus payment.

This was all fictional of course. It never really happened.

As suggested in >8 pgmcc:, I am reading Caimh McDonnell's Bunny McGarry Shorts, a collection of the short fiction about Bunny McGarry. I have read most of the stories before in earlier books. There are two new stories and I am enjoying them.

>51 pgmcc: That reminds me of the policy of a certain company to require some salaried people to work no less than 10% overtime - but to never mention said policy officially. That company has been sued, twice, over not paying for required hours.

>53 Karlstar:
That company has been sued, twice, over not paying for required hours.

Rightly so!

I have started reading Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey, the fifth book in The Expanse series. It is rattling along nicely. I am back with Amos, Alex, Naomi and John Holden, the captain and least colourful of all the characters.

Some pictures from a beautiful day we spent in Montlivault.

The twelfth century church, Saint Pierre Église.



The château arch. The arch provided the occupants of the château to cross over the road to access their private fishing pound.



The trees in the car park that my wife thought looked like something from Dr Who.

White wisteria. Included here because they are pretty.

Lovely photos, thank you for sharing.

>56 pgmcc: Thank you for sharing your photos! What a lovely place :)

So beautiful! What glorious weather you are having!

>56 pgmcc: >57 pgmcc: Great pictures, thank you. Are those trees living?

I am glad you all appreciated the pictures. We had a lovely day filled with impromptu activity.

It is time I gave an update on my reading, as this is a reading thread.

As you might imagine, sunny weather and impromptu activities have taken priority over my reading, but I am still making progress with Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey.

I am really enjoying the book. Despite having watched the screen adaption and having a good idea of what is happening next I am still enjoying the book a lot. Having watched the screen adaptation I am seeing the actors playing the roles of the characters in the book. Having enjoyed the screen version and liked the characters I am finding this book, and all the previous Expanse novels I have read, a great comfort read. I am really relaxing when I read it.

While I am enjoying mixing with the familiar characters and enjoying the story and action, I am also finding some clever ideas and turns of phrase. I quote a couple below:

#1 Situation: Amos is back on Earth and is looking for something to eat. This is set in a time when The Moon and Mars have been colonised, and there are people living an working throughout the solar system.

... A short walk took him to a food cart where he bought what the sign optimistically called a Belgian sausage. Unless the Belgians were famous for their flavoured bean curd products, the optimism seemed misplaced. Not that it mattered. Amos realised that while he knew the orbital period of every Jovian moon by heart, he had no idea where Belgium was. He didn't think it was a North American territory, but that was about the best he could do. He was hardly in a position to criticise assertions about their cuisine.

He walked towards the old rotting docks he played on as a child, not for any reason more profound than needing a destination and knowing which direction the water was. He finished the last of his sausage and then, not seeing a convenient recycling bin, he chewed up and swallowed the wrapper too. It was made of spun corn starch and tasted like stale breakfast cereal.

I found this section a commentary on the future of recycling, plant based food and packaging material, and the meandering of someone visiting their old neighbourhood decades after they had last been there.

#2 Developing leadership qualities.

Even back on the Rokku, Marco had been cultivating himself as a leader. He's been good at it. No matter how bad things got, he'd always managed to make it seem like each new hurdle was something he'd factored in, every solution - even ones he'd logically had nothing to do with - was somehow his brilliance. He'd explained once how he managed it.

The trick, he said, is to have a simple plan that more or less can't go wrong so that you always have something, and then stack your risks on that. Have another alternative that won't work but maybe one time in a hundred, and if it happens, you look like god. And then one that won't work but one time in twenty, and that if it lands you look like you're the smartest one in the room. And then one that's only one time in five, but you look like you knew you could do it. And if everything else fails, you've still got the on that would always win.

I thought this was amusing and an interesting idea for appearing to be brilliant.

Now, back to reading.

DILEMMA!

Beyond the Light Horizon by Ken Macleod arrived on my Kindle on Monday. I am at high-burn, experiencing many Gs, to reach the end of Nemesis Games so that I can get to Beyond the Light Horizon. This is a real dilemma. I have a new Ken MacLeod novel and I am not ready to read it just yet. About 150 pages to go in Nemesis Games.

My usual practice is to start reading Ken's books the day I get them, usually the day of publication. This is a deviation from the norm.

I am really enjoying Nemesis Games.

>63 pgmcc: I have another day to wait before I can order a print copy of Beyond the Light Horizon from Blackwell's. Hmmm... it is probably time to begin reading book #1 of The Lightspeed Trilogy now.

Your touchstone issue may be due to the title being Nemesis Games, (not 'Gates').

>64 ScoLgo:
I think you might be on to something there. The interesting thing is that the options offered included The Expanse series and two omnibus editions of The Expanse. Curiouser and curiouser.

Now off to fix my posts.

Thank you. You pass the test
:-)

>63 pgmcc: Is that the third book in the Lightspeed trilogy?

>66 Karlstar:
Yes. And as with Book 2, he has included a brief outline of what happened previously to save people having to reread earlier books to remeber the story.

>67 pgmcc: Thanks, time for me to pick up book 2!

>65 pgmcc: I suspected you were simply testing us and am relieved to hear that we passed your stringent qualifiers. ;)

An oddity: Amazon would like me to order Beyond the Light Horizon for $10.99 USD with FREE delivery Monday, November 25, 2024. Meanwhile, I can order today for immediate shipment from Blackwell's for $12.25. Both appear to be the Orbit trade paperback edition as shown in >63 pgmcc:.

Amazon also offers a Pyr trade paperback edition for $21.00 that will deliver on June 25. Because I have Orbit editions of the first two books I am not interested in the Pyr edition.

I find the whole thing confusing but am ordering from Blackwell's today. The extra $1.26 is worth having the book here before Thanksgiving looms!

>69 ScoLgo:
It sounds to me that Amazon has a few gremlins in the works.

My dilemma has come to an end. I have finished Nemesis Games and started Beyond the Light Horizon.



Memesis Games lived up to the standard of the previous four books in the series and I have enjoyed mixing with the familiar characters of the crew of the Rocinante. These books are quite the comfort read for me. The political intrigue is one strand of the story, the rapid pace of the events does not let you get bored, and the characters are well drawn and are internally consistent in their actions and thoughts, and everyone of them grows as proceedings progress. Wonderful storytelling.

Beyond the Light Horizon includes brief summaries of Books 1 & 2 which is very useful. I had forgotten how much happened in the first two books. Having read the summaries I am not into the continuing story as presented in the third book. I have some inklings of what is going to happen, and how Ken MacLeod will explain the phenomenon of the story, but, as is normally the case, I am sure my inklings will prove to be totally inaccurate.

Thank you for sharing the lovely photos, Peter. I'm especially intrigued by the Wisteria. I just bought one today and I'm all abuzz trying to figure out where I'm going to put it because it can grow up to 15 ft in a year. Once I get it in the ground I don't think I'll be moving it.

We went to the market in Amboise today. While there I took some pictures of clouds in the distance that were the embryos of the storms that afflicted us from 3pm to 4pm. It was a beautiful view, and the subsequent thunder was brilliant to hear.

>73 pgmcc: Ooooh. Lovely cloud definition in that shot.

>74 clamairy: I am pleased with it. It is four shots from my iPhone merged using MS ICE.

>75 pgmcc: Oh, very cool.

>73 pgmcc: beautiful! What a place for a vacation. So peaceful!

>73 pgmcc: Very nice!

>73 pgmcc: Are the afternoon storms a usual feature of spring and summer in France? I ask because I was wondering about whether you were suffering through a good deal of humidity or not.

>79 jillmwo:
Normally the weather is hot and dry this time of year in France. The wet weather is totally anomalous. I have never seen it so wet in France in May. The weather is normally much better from March onwards.

Fields and vineyards are laden with water. I can see the wine, wheat, maize and sunflower crops suffering badly this year. The Wisteria has not been as virulent as last year and the flowers that did appear were quickly battered by heavy downpours.

Humidity is high, but temperature is lower than normal.

>79 jillmwo: For comparison, the Highveld in summer has what Pretorians call "civil servants' rain": five days a week, a violent thunderstorm lasting half-an-hour or less but very wet while it lasts, starting about 4:20 p.m. -- just in time and long enough to soak the civil servants going home. Humidity outside these showers is almost always low on the Highveld.

I really enjoyed the Lightspeed Trilogy. The last book is Beyond the Light Horizon and it is a great ending to a very good trilogy. Ken's final book always unites the full trilogy and everything clicks into place.

I have just finished Ken MacLeod’s Beyond the Light Horizon, book 3 of his Lightspeed Trilogy. As with Ken’s other trilogies the third book creates a great whole with its two companion novels and generates meaning and awareness of various aspects of life, the universe and geo-political manoeuvring. I love SF that uses the medium to explore themes that are relevant to the here and now and explore the possibilities available to avoid many of the blunders countries have fallen into repeatedly.

My tags for this book are:

Read, Science Fiction, Trilogy, Light-speed, AI, Ecology, Exoplanets, Politics, Exploration, Indigenous Populations, Justice, Societal Memory, Equality, Inequality, Oppression, Insurrection, Co-operation, Power Blocs, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Libertarianism, Colonisation, Sustainability, Communications, FLT, Quantum Computing, Family 2024Jun

>82 pgmcc: I put book 2 on my 'reminder' list today, I'll get it soon and try to catch up on this trilogy.

>83 Karlstar: Do it! Ken's books are always a worthwhile read for me. I finished book #1 a couple of nights ago and have started into Beyond the Reach of Earth. It picks up right where Beyond the Hallowed Sky ended. As Peter has mentioned, there is a brief synopsis at the beginning to get the reader up to (light) speed. One thing I really like about Macleod's writing is that he keeps his books relatively short while packing a lot of story into the pages. His uncanny ability to avoid bloat is a large reason why I have so many of his books on my shelf.

I have started reading Fred Vargas's Have Mercy on Us All. It is engrossing and interesting. I have had to stop my forging my way through the story because my Kindle battery died. :-(

I finished Have Mercy on Us All about 17:30 today. It is another great story from Fred Vargas. I am really liking her stories. The characters continue to grow and learn, or don’t learn, lessons from their behaviour and experience.
This story had an interesting interaction between the characters in this Commissaire Adamsberg series and the characters in Vargas’s Three Evangelists series showing that both sets of books are set in the same period in Paris. I must check the relative publication dates to see if The Three Evangelistssprang from the Adamsberg stories or if this particular story was inspired by The Three Evangelists.

I am firmly of the belief that this series benefits from being read in sequence. The character development is much clearer that wsy.

>86 pgmcc:

The Chalk Circle Man (1st of the Adamsberg books) - 1991
The Three Evangelists (1st of that series) - 1995
Have Mercy on Us All - 2001

Not sure if there are any more crossovers between the 2 series. Can't recall any off-hand but may be time for a re-read for me.

>87 AHS-Wolfy:
Thank you for that. My question answered.

I am in France at the moment and am enjoying the lifestyle. The French lifestyle in Vargas’s books is borne out in our surroundings, the people we meet, and the tabacs and cafés we frequent. I love it.

I have started reading the short stories on the 2024 Hugo Awards short-list.

So far I have read:

Answerless Journey by Han Song & translated by Alex Woodend

Tasting Future Delicacies Three Times by Baoshu & translated by Xueting C. Ni

Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer

My ranking at this stage is:
#1: Tasting Future Delicacies Three Times

#2: Better Living Through Algorithms

#3: Answerless Journey

>90 pgmcc: A productive reading holiday!

>90 pgmcc: I always have mixed feelings about short stories. There's never enough meat there to chew on in this format. (There's a punchline perhaps but not always enough to sort through if the message or theme is a complex one.)

>92 jillmwo:
I quite like short stories. There is so much written about the purpose of a short story, the does and don'ts for writing short stories, and the how and how-not to end a short that it is amazing that any short stories are accepted as being short stories. My liking of them is based on not having a preconceived idea of what a short story is. I let the storyteller tell their story and accept that the form may not be sufficient to give a full beginning, middle and end. Many of life's real stories can be without middle or end. I will not judge a short story on its compliance with a set specification for short stories, but will judge it on whether it had a good effect on me, even if it just raises and idea, presents a strange viewpoint, or gives the potted version of a twenty generation saga in five pages.

>86 pgmcc: That was the first of the Adamsberg novels that I read and it got me hooked on the series. I too loved the crossover with the Three Evangelists. I do agree with you that the books are best read in order, and I am doing that now that I have filled the gaps in my collection.

I'm glad you are continuing to enjoy la vie Francaise. I am very envious.

>94 Sakerfalcon:
No need to be envious. We only have another seven weeks to go.

:-)

>93 pgmcc: Don't misunderstand me. I READ short stories, but they don't usually stick with me (always allowing for a few exceptions by specific authors). That is, I may read every story in a collection, but don't really retain anything from them. Full length novels I can hold onto, but not the average short story. My exceptions have been things like The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas or stuff assigned in school like The Lottery. But otherwise, I do better with long form.

I have finished reading the Hugo Awards Short Story Short-list. My voting:

1 Tasting the Future Delicacies Three Times
2 Better Living Through Algorithms
3 How to Raise a Kraken
4 The Sound of Children Screaming
5 Children of the Mausoleum
6 Answerless Journey



I have started West Heart Kill. I am only about ten pages in but am enjoying it a lot. The author is describing the stages of a murder mystery novel and the presenting this story's detail as he describes the appropriate stage. This sound a bit clumsy but McDorman is pulling it off in an enjoyable fashion.

>96 jillmwo: Your comment on retaining anything from short stories triggered my thinking about the short stories I recall. There was a collection of short stories we had to read in school and I recall some of those quite well. There was one from the viewpoint of a man about to be hanged, and his experience of escape; another about a man who kept referring to "lectric" in his body that stopped any watch he wore; a G.K. Chesterton story about an invisible murderer; a story which included three different choices in life for a man, but each path through his life ended with him being killed with the same pistol.

Non-school stories I recall are:
The Lottery
Most of Robert Aickman's weird tales (definitely recommended), The Hospice being particularly memorable
Most of M. R. James's ghost stories
Dickens's Signalman
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
Beyond lies the Wub; We Can Remember it for you Wholesale; Minority Report by Philip K. Dick
Beer Trip to Llandudno and several other stories by Kevin Barry
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
A story from Ray Russell's Haunted Castles that is about a scheming queen and her destiny
The Doll by Daphne du Maurier

That was a lovely trip down memory lane. Thank you for prompting it.

I am enjoying West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman. I find it very interesting given my liking for murder mysteries and my recent readings about writing in this genre. This book combines both the murder mystery novel and the discussion of the book's structure and the tricks and ploys an author can use to reveal the clues fairly while at the same time ensuring sufficient misdirection to keep the reader guessing. I was concerned that combining the two might lead to a cumbersome interaction of narrative and analysis. However, McDorman has pulled it off for me. He quite smoothly combines the two and provides a rewarding story.

There is one part where he discusses the rules for writing a murder mystery and mentions the main purveyors of such rules, namely, T. S. Eliot; Jorge Luis Borges; Ronald Knox; S. S. Van Dine. He comments that "Agatha Christie, of course, knew all the rules and broke most of them, brilliantly."

I know there are certain people here who might find it interesting, jillmwo.

>99 pgmcc: As soon as I get my next discount coupon, I will make a point of picking up West Heart Kill. It hadn't been on my radar at all so I do appreciate the BB.

>98 pgmcc: I think short stories (for me) represent an area where the authorship really make a difference. I will read short stories by Le Guin in a heartbeat and I tend to remember hers. I enjoy those by M.R. James but can't always remember specifics about individual ghost stories. I find Ellery Queen short stories to be fun and easy bed-time reading, but not overly memorable (which is how I end up re-reading so many of his).

For my brain the longer the word count the better for purposes of retention. (In two or three years, I may deny ever having said this...)

>100 jillmwo:

For my brain the longer the word count the better for purposes of retention. (In two or three years, I may deny ever having said this...)


I have taken screen-shots, printed copies, and stored them in safe-deposit boxes in several banks. You are denied plausible deniability.

West Heart Kill was published only last year. It was a book that Dubray's bookshop sent to me as part of the book a month present my friend got for my retirement. I might never have come across it otherwise.

There have been book acquisitions in the past few weeks. I did mention above that I had ordered Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand, less of a book bullet from jillmwo and more of a direct command. I must admit I was a willing and obedient underling. So, yes, Mortal Love arrived and is sitting on a shelf awaiting attention.



Ken MacLeod's Beyond the Light Horizon arrived after Mortal Love but as it is a Ken MacLeod book, and is the third volume in a trilogy that I have been reading, it took priority. I have written about it briefly in >82 pgmcc:

I ordered two Maigret novels on the kindle to keep my wife in reading material. These were Maigret's Dead Man and Maigret's Holiday. We share a kindle account to I record these in my catalogue too. I have also been known to read a Maigret of two and am likely to read these in the future.



Last Sunday we visited the local village. In the central square (which is in the shape of a triangle) a charity event was in full swing. It was a bring and take event. People brought stuff along and people took what they wanted. If you felt the need you could donate to the charity that was benefitting from the event, but there was no pressure to donate. It was a very civilised event. We were there on Sunday afternoon and the event had been running from Saturday morning so there was very little left. There were, however, some books.

I picked up The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslave Hašek in French. I have read it in English and thought getting it in French might help my language development. (Two chances.)



A couple of days ago we ended up in a supermarket. Well, I did. As we have our dog with us we cannot go into supermarkets together. Usually I stay with the dog and my wife goes into the shop. On this visit my wife decided to stay with the dog and I got to go into the shop. Having put all the things on our list in the trolley I had a look at the book section. While my French is not necessarily at the level of reading a novel in the language I have discovered books in French bookshops that have been published before English language editions. That is how I came across Umberto Eco's Prague Cemetery.

Well, I spotted a new Fred Vargas Commissaire Adamsberg novel which has not yet been published in English. Yes, I bought it...to help my French...of course.



Ooops! Almost forgot. On foot of a Facebook notification from a friend I picked up The Beekeeper's Apprentice on Kindle for £0.00 from Amazon. Apparently it was only an Amazon(dot)co(dot)uk offer. Had I looked more closely at the book before I "bought" it I might not have bothered. Apparently it is a story involving Sherlock Holmes. I am not really in favour of stories by one author using another author's characters. I will read it with a prejudiced view and see if it knocks the prejudice out of me.



ETA:
How could I have forgotten to report my acquisition of a new novel by Kevin Barry, one of my favourite authors. I got the Kindle version of his new book, The Heart in Winter.



Yes, jillmwo, these are all in addition to the stack of books I brought to France with me. :-) Bibliophilia is such a delight.

Sure. Blame me for your buying spree in the shops "on behalf of charity". I'm standing invisibly behind you and FORCING you to buy all these books. But don't come crying to me when the dust settles and you find that you're a broke out-of-work espionage agent living in the drafty attic of a French chateau. One with dragons.

Note: We met with a financial planner last week and he actually asked me how much I spent on books. I fudged and named a dollar amount that made his eyebrows go up, although my husband assured him it wasn't quite that astronomical a figure.

(Just to get it on the record, I don't think you're the target audience for The Beekeeper's Apprentice but I will be interested to hear your view of it. It's been quite a while since I read it, but I did go out and buy subsequent volumes in the series to see how King played with the set-up. I found the earlier titles in the series to be the most intriguing.)

I will be interested as well in hearing how you respond to the Gothic environment of Mortal Love.

Good on you for practicing your language skills by reading novels in French. You're ahead of me there.

>102 pgmcc: I also read The Beekeeper's Apprentice with extreme prejudice, for the same reasons. Laurie R. King is the author who changed my mind, and actually made me like the Holmes series better. I will be interested to see what you think.

>103 jillmwo:
I'm standing invisibly behind you and FORCING you to buy all these books.
It must be the strength of your psychic powers. I do feel you on my shoulder when I am in a bookshop or browsing a book site. I hear you saying, "Peter, that would be a great one. It matches your interests in the..." Your ethereal presence is a great comfort as your book bullets/recommendations have never proved anything other than excellent.

But don't come crying to me when the dust settles and you find that you're a broke out-of-work espionage agent living in the draughty attic of a French chateau.
You make me sound very romantic.

Your financial planner ought to be ashamed of themselves asking such a personal question.

Your suggestion that I am not the target audience for The Beekeeper's Apprentice is very reassuring, but MrsLee says she had the same reservations I have and despite her prejudices she ended up liking the series. I have to read it now whether I am the right demographic or not. There is too much that is unknown to let me live in continuing ignorance. The mystery of will I like this book or not has to be investigated.

Good on you for practicing your language skills by reading novels in French. You're ahead of me there.

You can say that when I have successfully finished a book in French, or maybe when I have read and understood a full page chapter. At the moment all I have are the books and the intention.

>104 MrsLee:
I reserve judgement, but note your experience.

I have finished Kevin Barry's The Heart in Winter and given it 3.5 stars. Kevin Barry is someone whose books I will buy and read as soon as they are published. While this one is well written and has some memorable quotes, it is not as good as his other novels and collections of short stories. I will continue to buy his work as it is published.

It is about the Irish living out West in the US in the 1800s. There is a wide range of characters and they each have their value and interest, but the sum of all the elements did not add up to Barry's best.

The book contains what amounts to commentary on the attitude of Irish people living in the US at that time; in particular about how their reminiscing about home amplifies the positives in their memories and ignores, if not totally deletes, the hardships and problems.

Interesting quote:

The comments of a Swedish man are being translated by a young boy.

"In a country like this, the boy said, all they give you is fairy tales.

De kommer att berätta är att lycka är möjlig och i själva verket är det ditt öde.

In this country? the boy said. They’ll tell you that you can be happy. That it’s your right and destiny.

Det här är hästskit.

Now that’s a bunch of horseshit."

Part of a description of a person:

"Eyes of wren’s-egg blue and one inclined to say hello to the other but not unattractively."

I have been photographing a few wild flowers around our secret base holiday village and thought I might share a few of them. Hugh (hfglen) helped me with some of the identifications. He also told me about a soldier in WW2 who sent home samples of plants he had found. He could not say in his communication where he found the plants, but the censors did not realise that the botanists who received them could tell exactly where they were from once they had made an identification. This makes me a bit nervous about sharing these images in a public forum, but hey, what the heck.


Prunella vulgaris – Heal-all


Ophrys apifera – The Bee Orchid


Himantoglossum hircinum – The Lizard Orchid


Lotus uliginosus – Large Bird’s-Foot Trefoil

Oooh, lovely flowers. So fresh!

Pretty!

Terrific photos! I'll be there soon. ;)

I have "Heal-all" and the Trefoil (or something very similar) in my yard, but how I would love it if those orchids grew here!

I am glad people like the pictures. I was amazed to find so many beautiful species growing wild around here, especially a couple of orchids.

In book news I have started Portable Magic by Emma Smith. I cannot say I agree with every last thing she says but she is saying it in a very endearing fashion. Some of her comments are dragging me back to my childhood days when I discovered libraries and fell in love with books.

Such lovely photos!

>108 pgmcc: Great pictures and such really interesting flowers, thanks for posting them.

After the thunderstorms that raged last week, one of our neighbours had their garden flooded. It is a shame they have had this trouble, but in a way it looks quite beautiful. It reminds me of a visit to a Japanese garden. Everything in balance.

>112 pgmcc:. Some of her comments are dragging me back to my childhood days when I discovered libraries and fell in love with books.. I agree that those tugs back in time represent part of the book's charm.

>116 jillmwo:
...those tugs back in time represent part of the book's charm.

I would suggest the words "a major" be inserted before "part", and I am very happy with that.

Two particular memories are:
- my use of the mobile library that parked around the corner from our house for a couple of hours once a week. I would religiously keep track of the days and time so that I could return my book(s) and look for more.

- my 0.8 mile walk to the local library. I have just checked Google maps and the old library building is still there. All the old buildings around it have been demolished and new residential housing built.

"...
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”



I am enjoying this trip down memory lane. I am thinking of the times I spent on the floor of the library browsing the books on the lower shelves and reading extracts to see if I liked the book. It was always sunny and the rough carpeted floor always had bright sunlight patterns in the shape of the windows skewed by the angle of the sunshine. I have to admit to a bit of an emotional tug when I saw the building was still there. The location of the library was not in the best of locations so I could only go when it was considered safe to do so, hence my visits were not that frequent, but I enjoyed them all the same.

Loved the orchids, Peter. It's surprising how people don't realise that there are native orchids in Europe, and some of them are beautiful. Shout-out here to The Military Orchid by Jocelyn Brooke, which I vaguely remember reading many years ago.

We need a thread about "my first library". I'nm pleased to say that the library where I first knew the joys of book-borrowing is still alive and well, and delighted to see that it's now heritage-listed: Annerley branch of the Brisbane city library system. A bit more than 0.8 miles away though: it was a tram ride to go there.

>117 pgmcc: By a curious coincidence my "first library" was about the same distance from home; I once walked it in 9 minutes, but usually took between 10 and 15. The architectural style is, unfortunately, 1950s face-brick, but it is still much as I remember it. Here is its web site.

>117 pgmcc:. It may not have been my first library, but I remember fondly the library in Texas where my grandmother served as a volunteer librarian. She ordered the books (and some summers, I got to see them before she had a chance to et them up on the shelf). She had a workroom that was a mix of her painting supplies and newly acquired library materials. It was a small white frame wooden building on a little town square.

>117 pgmcc: >119 hfglen: >120 jillmwo: Thank you for the library stories.

My first library was/is the Lockport Public library, which is still in its original location, but they added on a new wing. The library is now in the new wing, the old library building is reading rooms and the stacks, mostly. My Mom took my sister and I there weekly on Wednesdays, where we both took out the maximum number of books allowed. At one point my Father worked there part time as their book-keeper.

One quick follow-up to my post about my grandmother's work for the library in Blanco, Texas. When I thought to check whether there was a picture of the old building, there wasn't. However, the "About Page" offered the following:

The library officially opened November 19th, 1938 with the 400 books that the Texas State Library loaned as a starter collection. For 47 years the Blanco Library received no public funds and was mainly supported by a per capita assessment from the membership of the Blanco Woman's Club plus fundraisers such as bake sales, cake walks, luncheons, and book sales and private donations and memorials.

I do remember that my grandmother was a staunch pillar of the Blanco Woman's Club.

Those flowers are so beautiful!

I didn’t even know public libraries existed until I was 13 and a friend took me to ours. My parents were voracious readers. Not sure why they didn’t use the library. I do remember sitting on the floor of the school library and looking at books to check out. So many books! I love just hanging out in libraries. I am sad that they aren’t the super quiet places they used to be, at least not here. And at school, ours is more tech focused than book focus, which really breaks my heart.

>123 catzteach: "the super quiet places they used to be". Not only libraries but museums, sadly. Some years ago I went to Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, part of which was being refurbished. When the jackhammer started up, I was not best pleased to discover that it was less noisy than their "wonderful new" exhibits.

Last week my elder son started a new job; storyteller in The Leprechaun Museum. He loves it.

I remember when the museum opened in 2010. We all thought it was a joke and that it would be a ridiculous place. Having been to it for a tour I can assure you that any thoughts of its being codology and a bit of a daft, childish endeavour are totally off the mark. People here in the Green Dragon will appreciate my next comment with understanding. It is an establishment dedicated to the truthful and accurate relating of Irish mythology and legend. It is not a garish, money grabbing enterprise, but a place where visitors learn about the original, pre-commercialised mythology and folklore of Ireland. I thought the starting presentation was so good I was thinking of inviting the speaker to attend a convention I was organising as a guest speaker.

My visit there started with what could be described as an almost academic standard presentation that debunked the commercialised image of the leprechaun (ginger beard; green waistcoat; stove hat; etc...) and put the original leprechaun in the context of Irish mythology. The tour continued with visits to rooms that helped you imagine yourself as one of the little people, and sessions with a storyteller who told the audience the unadulterated tales of Irish mythology and folklore. The tour ends in the café and shop, but the shop is not selling the expected blow up leprechauns, ginger beards, etc..., but has a selection of books of Irish mythology as originally told in days of yore. If you ever find yourselves in Dublin I recommend that, if you have a morning or afternoon slot that is vacant, book yourself into a tour at The Leprechaun Museum.

Full disclosure: Apart from my son just starting work at the place I have no connection with the museum, and am receiving no gratuity or other benefit from promoting the establishment. I just think it is a worthwhile place to visit despite how ridiculous people might think the idea of it is.

>125 pgmcc: Sounds like a fun museum. I hope he enjoys the job.

>125 pgmcc: That sounds like a wonderful museum! I highly approve. I would hate it if it were along the lines of the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

Just a quick to say I am continuing to enjoy Portable Magic. Every chapter is a joy.

By the way, in keeping with the book’s praise of the physical nature of books I am reading the hardback edition. I wonder how Emma Smith justifies receiving royalties from sales of the Kindle version. Probably very easily I should think. :-)

>124 hfglen: I haven’t been to a proper museum in ages. We do not have one here in Bend.

>125 pgmcc: That museum sounds amazing! I’ve always loved leprechaun lore and would love to see the real history and stories about them. Dublin is on my bucket list. Hopefully some day I can visit this museum.

Just catching up on your thread, Peter. The flower photos are exquisite. (So were the ones on Facebook.) I'm very interested in your son's new museum job. I hope it goes well for him. Many cultures have a little people, don't they? It's just that the leprechaun has spread worldwide along with St Patrick's Day.

>129 catzteach: No museum in Bend? Did the pioneer museum close? I've been told that the Bend museum has much about my family history in it.

ETA; Granted, so far as I know, none of my ancestors were of the fair folk.

>131 MrsLee: Honestly, I forgot about our historical museum! Oops. :) Probably because when I went to ask for help on a research project they didn’t help me, then a few years later I find out they had tons of info I could’ve used, they just didn’t let me see it. But now I’ll have to go back to the historical museum to look for your family! That’s so cool! I didn’t realize your family was all the way up here, I thought they were just around the Red Bluff area.

>132 catzteach: Haha, no, I'm the only one in Red Bluff. A recent immigrant.. The Arnold side of my family was in Ben's and Sisters OR when they came across the plains in the 1860s. Also Healys.

I'm sorry about the poor service. Probably ran into a volunteer that didn't want to make the effort, although most volunteers are quite dedicated and helpful.

This day fortnight we set out for home at the end our short four month mission holiday in France. Where did the time go?

Still reading and enjoying Portable Magic. Progress has been slow because a lot of fellow agents friends are here and there have been lots of briefings, training sessions and assault courses dinner parties, afternoon teas, soirées, catching up and chin-wagging.

Currently sitting under a parasol, drinking coffee and writing this post. Can’t wait to get home…not.

By the way, despite earlier comments, I will have a short wine and cheese update.

>134 pgmcc:. No rest for the wary - erm, I mean weary.

>134 pgmcc: I can't believe it's been 4 months already either, and I'm not even there! Hope you absorbed enough of the beauty to get you through until you can return.

>134 pgmcc: Make the most of what remains. (I hope the temperature has been comfortable the whole time.)

Weather has been mixed. April and May were very wet and mostly cold. We had one warm week but that disappeared very quickly. June was quite cold and many days were wet. My mother used a humorous phrase, "Chilly for June", when the weather was cold in any other month but June. It had people having a double think. Well, this year in France June was chilly for June.

July has not been bad, but not as hot as usual and a little more rain than one would was. The past two days have been pretty hot, but it is to get cooler tomorrow. This is not like the climate pattern France has been used to.



Today I finished Portable Magic by Emma Smith. This is a book about the history of books and their readers. It is a very comprehensive look at the development of physical books from medieval times to the present day. Smith deliberately limits herself to physical books. She has some discussion on e-books and audio-books, but her focus was deliberately physical books, and primarily physical books in The West.

In her introduction she suggests the book is more suited to popping into rather than reading straight through. I was not convinced and enjoyed my right through read.

Many of her discussions included humorous sections, and I loved her bringing up Flann O'Brien's "book handling" services. These services were aimed at adding an "actually read" look to a gentleman's library. I read the relevant O'Brien articles decades ago and I loved having them recapped by Smith.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in books. It destroys myths, such as printing was born in Gütenberg, and describes how some books have evolved through interaction between author and reader.

The question "What is a book?" was raised and discussed. Interesting points were made, but definitive conclusions were not made.

I definitely recommend this book for knowledge enhancement and entertainment.

>138 pgmcc: Point blank! Going on my Libby wishlist. I think I might prefer this one as an audiobook. (Edited to add: this was already on my wishlist, but as an e-book... so I switched it.)

I'm sorry your vacation weather hasn't been quite what you might want. On the other hand you aren't having any of those killer heat waves Europe has gotten slapped with in the last few years. How's this weather for the grapes?

>138 pgmcc: This book! It sounds absolutely wonderful :)

>139 clamairy:
Thankfully the weather has improved, but rain occurs sporadically and different weather apps give conflicting forecasts. How is one expected to enjoy a four month holiday under such conditions?

As it happens we have enjoyed the time despite the weather. One of the annoying things has been having to dry the dog after every walk. Thankfully it is a small dog. Our friend has a labradoodle. It is more of a small horse rather than a large dog. Photos to follow.

>140 Alexandra_book_life: I certainly enjoyed the book.

>138 pgmcc: I read Portable Magic a couple of summers ago. I bought it because a book about books! And because it was a beautiful cover. Mine is a hardback with a green cover and gold lettering. Unfortunately, while reading it, the gold letters faded off. :( It was a very good read, though!

A rare wine and cheese update from La Belle France.

About two weeks ago we had guests coming for dinner. I was despatched to the local shop to find cheese for the cheese course. We only has some compté and some cheddar. I found Saint Agur blue cheese and a soft cheese called Galet de la Loire. The shop keeper, Fred, made a point of telling me the "Galet de la Loire, c'est superbe!"

He was not telling lies. It is delicious.

He is obviously not a blue cheese fan, but I found the Saint Agur to be also superb.

On the wine side, Chinon red is excellent, as is Milady rosé.

>142 catzteach:
My copy is hardcover, red with black writing. I left the dustcover at home to avoid damaging it while travelling and reading. The book will be united with its cover when I get home and will be placed with the books about books and books about writing and books about storytelling that I have loved and hope to dip into again and again.

>138 pgmcc: That does sound like a great book.

>143 pgmcc: I'm glad you enjoyed your cheeses, they sound excellent.

>143 pgmcc: Seconded on the Saint-Agur, Peter. I used to buy it in Doha, but haven’t seen it here so far.

>143 pgmcc: Mmmm! Duly noted, and the photo of the labels has been saved. Thank you.

>143 pgmcc: I second Saint Agur, it is superb :) I haven't tried the other one, but I am sure it's delicious too. Cheers!

>146 haydninvienna: & 148
I am not used to people agreeing with me. This is a new experience. Thank you for your support.

By the way, I finished off a packet of Saint Agur at dinner this evening. Delicious. Also, I have another packet in the fridge. :-)

>147 clamairy: I hope you can track them down and enjoy the experience of eating them. If you can't get them in the US you will just have to come to our secret base holiday home in France and we will provide the cheese.

At 7am this morning I spotted enemy agents conducting aerial surveillance of our secret base some adventurous holiday makers gliding over our holiday home.

>145 Karlstar:
It is a great book and they are nice cheeses. We are having a relaxing time here.

>149 pgmcc: Do you know what you did? I went and bought Saint Agur today! I believe this is called a cheese bullet :D

>152 Alexandra_book_life:
Nice. I hope you enjoy it.

>150 pgmcc: How could you not recognize Phineas Fogg and Passpartout attempting to improve their time for circumventing the globe?

But on second thought, I wonder whether James Bond ever did go up in a hot air balloon? (I have never read Ian Fleming, other than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I have no idea.)

>153 pgmcc: I enjoyed it very much!

>155 Alexandra_book_life:
Excellent!

>154 jillmwo:
I have not seen the film "A View to a Kill" but have seen clips, and I believe James Bond was in a blimp over The Golden Gate Bridge, was thrown out, managed to grab a rope dangling from the blimp, tied the blimp to the bridge, and climbed back up to the blimp to defeat the bad guys. Possibly not the most accurate description of the action but I believe it is roughly what happened. A typical day's work for a secret agent, or intelligence officer.

End of our four month mission holiday in France. Long day driving yesterday in 32C and no AC working in the car. Spent the night in hotel and heading to the port shortly for a 12:30hrs ferry. Arrive in Ireland at 6am tomorrow with another 140km drive home.
I say “home”, but it looks like we will be heading to my sister-in-law’s house as our son has tested positive for COVID so we cannot go to our own house for a while. He has had it for a few days so we are hoping it will clear soon so that he is not prevented from attending Worldcon. He is fully up to date with vaccines, so his body will be able to fight it off quickly.

Safe travels! There is a definite surge in Covid cases at the moment. Our manager is the latest to fall victim from our team. I hope your son has a mild case and will be healthy again soon.

Safe travelling, Peter and Mrs Peter, and best to son.

Well poop. Covid just sucks. I think it's with us forever now. My husband has it now and had to cancel some surgery (nothing too major) today and can't have it done for another month!

>157 pgmcc: I'm sure it's a bit of a wrench to leave such a lovely region. Safe travels and best wishes for your son's quick recovery.

>157 pgmcc: Not a great ending to the adventure, but may you have a nice time with the relatives and hope your son heals quickly.

>160 Bookmarque: Sorry to hear about your husband, too. Well wishes going your way also.

>157 pgmcc: Oh! Well, I hope your stay with your SIL is short, and that you have managed to hide all of the wine & cheese you are smuggling home very carefully. Then again, if there is no working AC in your car maybe you should ditch the cheeses.

>160 Bookmarque: Yikes! Well, now you have him around, but I guess you are staying as far apart as possible.

Yeah kinda...he sleeps in the guest room for now and there isn't a lot of hugging, etc but we're not being nuts. If I get it, I get it. Won't be the first time.

>164 Bookmarque:
“Get well soon!” wishes to your husband.

>158 Sakerfalcon:, >159 haydninvienna:, >160 Bookmarque:, >161 jillmwo:, >162 MrsLee:, >163 clamairy:
Thank you for the good wishes.

Making a positive out of a negative. We are deliberately dragging our feet on our way to Dublin. Stopped in Wexford Town and had a lively breakfast in a delightful establishment with a very friendly, professional, efficient and accommodating team of people serving excellent, tasty food in comfortable and trendy surroundings. In my experience comfortably and trendy do not always go together.

Currently sitting by the sea at Kilmore Quay and considering staying for a night or two.

:-)

>165 pgmcc: You are making the trip home into a relaxing re-entry back. I hope your son is feeling better.

>157 pgmcc: Safe and comfortable travels to you! I hope your son soon recovers from covid.

>160 Bookmarque: Wishing your husband a quick recovery!

Thanks. He's got a mild case and not much in the way of symptoms, which is good. Compared to when we both had it for the first time back in 2022, it was much worse. A month of misery.

>165 pgmcc: Your photos on Facebook suggest that your plan for a phased re-entry has been successful! It all looks beautiful.

Book acquisitions on Wednesday, 31st July, 2024.

At 6am on the morning of Wednesday, 31st August, 2024, we arrived in Rosslare, County Wexford, by ferry from Cherbourg. When docking we did not know where we were going to be staying that night as our youngest son was at home testing positive for Covid. We were not going home but we did not know exactly what we were doing. In that state of unknowing we decided to head for Wexford town and find breakfast. As it happened we found a lovely spot for breakfast and had a delightful meal with very helpful and friendly staff. (Westgate Design Café. Highly recommended if you are in the area.)

During breakfast my wife suggested I could visit The Book Centre, a lovely bookshop in Wexford town where, in the 1980s, I first discovered the work of Iain Banks, or more correctly, Iain M. Banks as it was Consider Phlebas that grabbed my attention and set me on a voyage of literary discovery.

Well, I entered The Book Centre and the first book that grabbed my attention was The Milkman in the Night by Andreï Kurkov. It was the name "Kurkov" that attracted me to the book as I had read one of his books that I received as part of the book a month for twelve months gift that I received from a friend. I loved the book which is Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv. I decided to buy this book. Having picked up the book I wondered if there were more of his books present. To my great satisfaction I found a copy of Death and the Penguin, a book that was strongly recommended and which I had been searching for.


The Milkman in the Night by Andreï Kurkov.



I considered it most fortuitous to find Death and the Penguin when I had not been thinking about it at all.

Another book that caught my attention was, The Story Collector, by Elvie Woods.



The title was the first thing that grabbed my attention as I like stories, storytelling, and story collecting. Having picked up the book the story outline in the blurb attracted me enough to buy this book too.

>171 pgmcc: There you go again, time travelling and bragging about it to the rest of us poor slobs who have to live day by day.

>172 MrsLee: & >171 pgmcc: That's a handy trick. Maybe the books don't count if you buy them a month in the future and sneak them back into the present.

>172 MrsLee: & >173 clamairy:
LOL
I did not spot that until it was pointed out. Future book purchases I have already made. It would be a neat trick if you wanted to read a book before its publication date.

>171 pgmcc: What a nice book hunt :)

I liked Kurkov's Grey Bees a lot. (Did we already talk about this book here, in some other thread? I forget.) I've been meaning to read his other stuff.

>175 Alexandra_book_life:
I do not recall discussing Grey Bees. That has to go on to my list as well. :-)

>171 pgmcc: I'm getting behind in my Kurkov acquisitions as that's another I haven't yet picked up. Also, there's a lesser known sequel to Death and the Penguin called Penguin Lost in case you haven't noticed.

>174 pgmcc: "It would be a neat trick if you wanted to read a book before its publication date."

Or obfuscate your trail from the enforcers...

>178 ScoLgo:. I had the same thought. Although it could be that pgmcc is simply testing out the latest innovative espionage technology for his -- ahem -- handlers. (I've begun to suspect that the man is actually sitting on the top rung of the organization.)

I am intrigued by some of his choices, most particularly The Story Collector which is not yet out in the U.S.

>179 jillmwo:

I am intrigued by some of his choices, most particularly The Story Collector which is not yet out in the U.S.

Well, you will insist on living in a literary backwater.

>180 pgmcc:. Jill blows a raspberry from her hovel in lower Slobovia to Peter in his palatial Irish country house.

>181 jillmwo:
LOL

I should be seeing T J in the next few days.

>178 ScoLgo:
Smokescreens are cool.

>177 AHS-Wolfy:
I love how everyone is so helpful by adding books onto my list of books to buy. :-)

I am off to Glasgow tomorrow to attend WorldCon 2024.

The last hour has been spent identifying the locations used by Alasdair Gray in Poor Things. I hope to visit these locations and take some snaps. If I succeed in this endeavour I promise to share the pictures here.

>185 pgmcc: Have a great time!

>186 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you!

>185 pgmcc: Have a wonderful time! :)

>188 Alexandra_book_life:
Thank you! I will do my best to obey.

>185 pgmcc: Keep an ear out for good forthcoming titles that we will want to read. How much room did you leave in your luggage for books bought on-site in the dealers room? Seriously, I hope you enjoy every hour of the event. Worldcons can be overwhelming.

>185 pgmcc: Have a great time! I'm jealous. Will you be getting any books signed while you are there?

>190 jillmwo:
I booked a check-in bag of up to 20kg. The bag is not full so I have weight capacity for a few books.

I will keep my eyes open for books we might read as you suggest.

Shannon Chakraborty is here and I brought over my copy of her pirate queen book in the hope she might dign it for me.

There are not that many seasons I plan attending but hope to meet up with friends and do a little exploring of Glasgow. When i walked into the main convention building I immediately met two friends. On our (my son is with me) out after registering I bumped into another friend. A good start.

ETA:
I asked Cheryl Morgan, the brains behind Wizard Tower Press to bring a set of Chaz Brenchley’s Crater School Books to the con for me. I will need the checkin capacity. Wizard Tower publishes those books.

>191 Karlstar:
I hope Shannon Chakraborty will sign my copy of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: A Novel.

Ken MacLeod has a new book being launched here by Newcon Press. I hope to get a copy and have Ian sign it.

>185 pgmcc: I expect photos of the locations! Did you take a ferry? Also, how is the weather there this time of year?

I'm envious!

Best wishes for the Con, Peter! Full account (with pictures|) expected, natch.

>194 clamairy:
I plan to take photos. I have planned my route for tomorrow. Well, later this morning.

Weather was dry Wednesday evening. Rain promised for Thursday. Hopefully not till afternoon. Rest of days look wet.
Temperature in mid to high teens.

We flew! Turbo-prop. I have a picture of our plane. Pic posts will have to await my return home.

>195 haydninvienna:
Natch. I have been grabbing a few snaps already.

Oh, sounds like a very cool trip!!

>196 pgmcc: Well, I'm no expert but if you managed to do the flight in a turbo-prop, then I suppose you didn't spend much more time in the air than people do when they grab the Delta shuttle between DC and NYC. (Maybe 45 minutes in the air?)

I don't know if you can tell, but like >194 clamairy: I'm quite envious.

>199 jillmwo:
1 hour 15 minutes was the scheduled flight time but it took about 1 hour 30 minutes as the pilot had to circle to burn off excess fuel before landing. There was a lot of turbulence. One of your compatriots in the seat behind me was voicing her concern. :-)

I picked up Ken MacLeod’s new book of short stories, A Jura for Julia. I have just read the title story and it is brilliant.

The book launch is happening at the convention.

>201 pgmcc: Will you be seeing Caimh McDonnell? Just wondering. Give him a shout out from California if you do. :) Very happy for you to be enjoying the convention.

>202 MrsLee:
I am not sure if he is here. His books are available.

ETA: I have just checked the convention system and Caimh foes not appesr to be attending.

>203 pgmcc: Ah well.

I have started The Hymn Tune Mystery by George A. Birmingham. It is excellent. A crime novel set in an imaginary cathedral town during the 1930s-ish. Very funny and full of great characters. Reminiscent of Trollope. (I wonder if I was thinking of you, jillmwo, when I wrote that last comment.)

>205 pgmcc: This sounds like one I would enjoy. I do like a cathedral setting, and if music is involved too then so much the better. You may add another notch to your BB gun!

>205 pgmcc: and >206 Sakerfalcon:, I may tarnish up the halo and succumb. I feel propelled by the same BB and for the same reasons as Sakerfalcon. Literary cathedrals are a delight. (Real ones tend to be rather drafty...)

>207 jillmwo:
I love it when a plan comes together.
:-)

This volume contains two golden age detective novels:
"The Hymn Tune Mystery", and
"Wild Justice".

My copy is a Kindle edition from Amazon.

>209 pgmcc: "My copy is a Kindle edition from Amazon" Sadly, this is one of those instances where here in the U.S. we can't get that particular omnibus edition. Yet another example of the luck of the Irish...

>210 jillmwo:
:-(

Have I been firing blanks?

>209 pgmcc: Thanks for the information! I hadn't even thought to look for a kindle edition, but now I have purchased that collection.

>211 pgmcc: No, you haven't been firing blanks. I have ordered the paperback (that contains just the single title The Hymn Tune Mystery). But receipt is not instantaneous in such a case. One must wait patiently for the postman.

>213 jillmwo:
I hope you like it. I think you will.

It was worrying me that you might not be able to get your hands on any version of the book.

George A. Birmingham was big in both the US and this side of the Atlantic. His name has almost disappeared at this stage, which is s pity as his books are both interesting and funny. His real name was Canon James Owen Hannay. At one point he was Douglas Hyde’s right-hand-man in The Gaelic Land League. Douglas Hyde was the first President of Ireland.

>213 jillmwo: Sadly, The Hymn Tune Mystery and Wild Justice are not included, but there are a few Birmingham titles available on Project Gutenberg

>214 pgmcc: and >215 ScoLgo:. The paperback that I ordered is from an imprint, Odeon Press, apparently owned by an indie, The Oleander Press. Most of their stuff falls in the public domain or titles that are nearly there. I'd actually looked at Gutenberg to see if this particular title might be downloadable, but it was not.

The nice postman will deliver this title to me by Friday. I am more unhappy about the secondhand title ordered through a third-party seller that appears to be coming via a very, very slow boat from the UK. When the parcel arrives, it will undoubtedly be transferred over to an elderly and near-sighted camel and will take another week to reach me. They tell me that the book won't arrive until some date falling between August 15 and August 30. I loathe some of these deceptive outfits. (It's a specialized title -- one about Cathedral life in the 19th century.)

Time to start a new thread.