Kate Keeps on part 3

Favorite Reads from 3rd quarter
James - Percival Everett - 4.5
The Radetsky March - Joseph’s Roth - 4.5
Job, the Story of a Simple Man - Joseph Roth - 4.5 stars
Right and Left: The Legend of the Holy Drinker Joseph Roth 4.5 stars
Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac B Singer - Reviewed
Held by Anne Michaels - Reviewed
The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits - Reviewed
Dog Island by Philippe Claudel - Reviewed
The Door by Magda Szabo - 4 stars
Novermber’s Readings
Clear - Carys Davies - Reviewd
This House of Grief - Helen Garner - Reviewed
October Reading
Lies of Silence - Brian Moore - Reviewed
The Painter of Signs - R.ovember’s Reading
K. Naryan - Reviewd
Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner - Reviewed
The Drowned - John Banville - 3 stars
Momento Mori -Muriel Spark - 4 stars
In the Winter Dark - Tim Winton - 3 stars
The Husbands - Holly Gramazio - 3.5 stars

Welcome to my books and thoughts for Autumn/Spring 2024.

Sir Austen Chamberlain purportedly said in 1936, “May you live in interesting times”. Since then this sentence has ben attributed to others, even to a Chinese mystic who supposedly said it as a curse.

I fear that we do live in such times, and that they may well become more interesting as the final quarter of 2024 approaches its end. As one of Issac B Singers’ characters quipped in Enemies a Love Story, “in the camps at least we had hope.”

When Raman Met Daisy

The Painter of Signs
By R. K. Narayan
Read by Lester Rawlings
Reading time: ~5 hours
Rating: 4 stars

Raman is an unmarried man in his thirties living with his elderly aunt in a small town in India in the 1970s. He paints signs for local businesses and groups. Outwardly a simple man, Raman has a rich inner life.

He goes along with Hindu traditions but questions the meaning of life as he goes about his craft (as he sees it), working hard, with once a week breaks at The Boardless. The Boardless is a coffee shop where men meet to talk to discuss their woes and the state of the world. As you can tell by its name it has no signage.

One day Ramon meets a young woman called Daisy and falls in love with her instantly. When he discovers she’s working for a group promoting birth control, he offers to make a sign for the group’s local head quarters.

Ramon will do anything for Daisy. He travels the local countryside with her, putting up signs promoting birth control meetings. Together they visit remote villages, traveling by horse-drawn carts or by foot when necessary, so that Daisy can educate the villagers on birth control. Ramon finds the concept somewhat ridiculous. Although a non-practicing Hindu he goes along with many of its traditional beliefs. But he dare not speak his mind to Daisy who is obsessed and humorless. His wry jokes and ironic comments annoy her. So he tries to suppress them, and obeys all her wishes in order to stay with her.

Though his love for Daisy is absolute, she’s only interested in promoting birth control and barely tolerates him, berating him when he slips up and unthinkingly speaks his mind. He treads softly avoiding the mention of the word “love”. At times when he decides to say what he’s thinking, he immediately regrets it, but as is his way accepts the anticipated consequences with humor. "Love is the same in any society," he said, after all venturing to utter the term 'love.' If she was going to push him into the river for it, well, he'd face it ...

Most of the story is seen through Raman’s thoughts. His humor, his impeccable logic and his kindness surely will endear him to anyone who reads this story. We are in there batting for Ramon - will Daisy soften and marry him? Will she forsake her independence for marriage. Narayan makes us wait til the very end to find out.

Similar couples appear in other Naryan stories. Waiting for the Mahatma is one of them. The strict young woman set on a path she sees as righteous and the adoring young lover. One has to wonder, was R.K. himself once hopelessly in love with such a woman?

Narayan’s stories are gems. They transport the reader to simpler times, places if not times of peace. Stories to be savored and to take our minds from this troubled world.

I just discovered, but haven't tried to use it yet, Windows 11 has a feature described this way:

How can I translate audio to text in Windows 11?

Windows 11 has built-in voice typing that can turn your spoken words into typed text. This feature can allow you to type as fast as you can talk, which can be helpful if you’re multitasking. Here’s how to turn on voice typing so you can start dictating:

To turn on voice typing in Windows 11, press Windows key + H on your PC’s hardware keyboard. If your device has a touch keyboard, press the microphone key, next to the spacebar.

Once voice typing is turned on, your computer will automatically start listening. Wait for the “listening” alert before you start speaking, so that you don’t have to repeat yourself, or risk any important thoughts being missed.

When you’re ready to stop voice typing, you have two options: say “Stop listening” or tap the microphone button on the voice typing menu.
To access the voice typing menu, press Windows keys + Alt + H. From here, you’ll be able to navigate through the options. There’s also a list of helpful phrases and punctuation to make your dictation experience easier and more effective.

If you use an Apple computer they must have the same feature.

>4 JoeB1934: Yes Apple has this feature but it isn’t suitable for me. I ned to write my thoughts, and in any case the editing involved in fixing errors and punctuation make it a whole lot harder. Thanks anyway Joe.

Being visually impaired isn’t so much about using the keyboard - it’s that I can’t see what I type (or speak). It’s more for people who can’t control their hand movements. My problem is I can’t see well. I can se the keyboard as I have it enlarged. So voice typing is not really necessary and would just make writing more difficult for me.

I have explored all options and have specialists for the visually-impaired alert me to any advances in what is available. I’m now considering Braille.

—- Edited for typos

A while ago a few of us CR members agreed a that draft facility would be good for those of us especially who post reviews.
I proposed the idea in Recommended Site Improvements ,and it has generated some discussion. Those of you interested can see or comment at Posting made easier

You say you want a revolution

Creation Lake
By Rachel Kushner
Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
Rating: 4.5

Any book that starts off with a Beat generation veteran sending out email blasts from his cave dwelling in France in order to educate his followers about cigarette-smoking Neanderthals, just has to grab one’s attention.

It also should let the reader know that what follows is going to be fiction rather than fact.

With her sharp dead-pan wit and her incredible powers of observation Kushner has managed to craft an intelligent novel where her imagination examines human behavior, especially its fallibilities.

The heroine is a sexy young American who goes by the name of Sadie Smith. Sadie is a spy who will work for anyone. She is not only intelligent but she’s sexy, a ruthless seductress capable of pulling off both espionage and counter-espionage with ease. Or so she tells us.

The story uses a loose plot of Sadie’s assignments in order to comment on modern society and its critics. Her projects are a: to have a sub-minister of the French government assassinated, and b: to infiltrate a commune of eco-warrior wannabes. She manages to combine these two projects so that both aims are achieved simultaneously.

The commune - Moulin is set somewhere in southern France. Its people are adherents of the pseudo-philosophies of the old Beat Bruno - the one who sends out emails about Neanderthals - and a couple of his cronies. Their aim is to destroy “the system”, and they go about this by persuading young eco-protesters to form a commune to implement their ideas, which of course, as is the practice of so many revolutions, recreates the very things that they are destroying.

The Les Moulinards turn out to be a vacant lot, only too wiling to believe that the Neanderthals were a superior type of human, prone to depression and easily addicted. They had big noses and brains and were tall. Bruno liked to refer to them as The Talls. The members of the commune believe their leaders, partly because they were morally hampered by their parents who grew up in the culturally-dead eighties. Or are they are those parents? In the commune of the Moulinards anything is posible.

The idea of the leaders of the commune is that by looking to the distant past, modern humans could live in harmony blah blah. Sadie takes all this nonsense in her stride, and as the novel progreses she plans her two projects - the assassination and the infiltration of the Moulinages, on the fly in situ. She improvises, has sex, drinks fine and not so fine wine, all the while observing wryly the actions of those who will believe.

I enjoyed Creation Lake. It’s sharp, witty and does not lecture.

A couple of nice reviews, Kate. I'm glad you have been able to write this week and hope that means you are feeling a little better.

>7 kjuliff: You have me adding Creation Lake to the list of books to read soon. Excellent review.

>3 kjuliff: "Narayan’s stories are gems. They transport the reader to simpler times, places if not times of peace. Stories to be savored and to take our minds from this troubled world"

This is so true. A peaceful retreat from the world. I enjoyed your review.

>7 kjuliff: I'm on the waitlist for Creation Lake: your review really makes it sound enticing.

I have a couple of flights in my future this week, so I'm cuing up Creation Lake.

>7 kjuliff: Great review, Kate! I’m definitely going to read it, and will probably listen along. Thanks for the nudge.
BTW, I’ve been trying to get into The Family Moskat, but it’s just not working for me at the moment. The story is interesting, but it’s the thought of another Singer novel with some of the same dilemmas as the two of his I read last month—The Manor and The Estate—that’s turning me off right now. I feel sure that CL will be a totally different experience.

>8 labfs39: >9 RidgewayGirl: >10 rv1988:>11 >12 dianelouise100: Thanks for your comments on my recent two reviews. It’s always good to get feedback. Creation Lake is an interesting one as rarely is a book so divided in terms of its perceived quality. I do think a lot of this is due to differences in readers’ sense of humor. I’d like to do a statistical analysis on the male/female divide as well as I have my suspicions.

>12 dianelouise100: Diane I’m with you 10% on this. I would however suggest that you try Singer at his most humorous in Enemies, a Love Story at some later date. Yiddish humor at its best.

Creation Lake

Had to laugh. There’s a doco on Neanderthals on Netflix. The warning in the beginning before the film commences is -
GORE,
SMOKING

BTW it’s not a very interesting doco. I join FB about twice a year for one month, as I rarely find anything great on it and can’t read subtitles so am limited to French and English. But if anyone can recommend anything on there now I’d really appreciate it.

I’m trying hard to read Olga Tokarczuk’s new book, The Empusium but it’s not grabbing me. Has anyone in CR read it? It’s meant to be an over-riff on The Magic Mountain but I’m not enjoying it.

Being bogged down by The Empusium I needed something light and easy to read. So I was pleased to see some suggestions at the Booker site. 13 of the best page-turners from the Booker Library.

I chose Brian Moores’s Lies of Silence, a 1990’s book set during The Troubles in Ireland. It’s a book about a moral dilemma. The plot is solid. The prose a bit blah. But what struck me most was that it’s so nineties. How innocent we were back then.

I might review Lies of Silence. It’s certainly not the calibre of The Empusium but it did the job.

Toils and Troubles

Lies of Silence
By Brian Moore

Read by Steven Crossley 🎧
Length: `7 hours
Rating: 3 stars

I decided to read this short novel as I needed something with a plot.

After stumbling through several Booker long-listed novels, I needed to put my mind straight. So I decided to go back to an earlier decade’s Booker shortlist - to 1990’s thriller by Brian Moore.

Set in Belfast in the 1990s’ Moores novel tells a plot-driven story of adultery, terrorism and moral dilemma that may not be as thrilling to readers of the third decade of the 20th century.

The plot is solid, the prose god but not memorable, but good solid stuff. And though the characters were somewhat bland, the book did bring back memories for those of us old enough to remember, The Troubles in what is now Northern Ireland.

But thirty years and several wars later, ISIS, the Arab Spring, Sri Lanka, Palestine/Israel, Timorese Leste and so on and so on, The Troubles are indeed now history.

The book starts off well, but in the unsophisticated manner of the past, the real action takes place in the first few chapters. There’s not the build-up of tension. What tension is there lessens after the early chapters, as the jaded reader knows what will happen, and the rest of the novel slowly reveals how the initial actions resolve into a status quo.

There remains but one question. Which one of the three participants will die. Or will they all die. Or live.

You will need to read this fast burn to find out.

>15 kjuliff: Ive tried several times but I have yet to complete one of her books.

btw I have Singers the family moskat so we could set up that group read

>18 cindydavid4: Let's check with dianelouise100 as she posted a reply to you on starting in October when I was unwell. Can you find her post. Or we can message her?

ill message her, stay tuned

I’ve just started my first Muriel Sparks - The Drivers Seat 🎧, published 1970 and shortlisted for the Booker that year.

You would have thought the sixties never happened. I’m really intrigued. It so old-fashioned in style and content. Quite quaint really.

I find it interesting to see which books were nominated way back then, in what is now surely the olden days.

Ive read several of her books and liked them,Havent read that but saw the synopsis and not sure about it but if you think its good I can give it a try

>21 kjuliff: momento mori is really good as is a far cry from kensington

Im hesitant to read that after seeing the synosis, But ill try it if you think is good

>24 cindydavid4: The Driver’s Seat? I’ve hardly read enough t to know if I wil like it - I picked it from 13 recommended books on 13 of the best page-turners from the Booker Library.

>23 cindydavid4: Reading Momento Mori 🎧 now. Love it. Thanks.

>26 kjuliff: as my dad would say "another satisfied customer" glad you are liking it

I would classify The Driver's Seat as 'extreme' Spark. It's brilliant IMO, but takes no prisoners. Its a while since I read it, but it left quite a mark! Not one I'd perhaps recommend as a starting point, but if you do enjoy it, the rest should be fine!

My favourite is actually her classic, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, whilst The Abbess of Crewe has a special place for its wicked take on Watergate - not many books make me laugh, especially satire, but this did. But, TBH, having read about half her output, I've yet to find any I didn't enjoy, as varied as they are, several outstanding. Ironically, Memento Mori, whilst one of her most popular, was perhaps the most marginal to date for me. Still very good though! (I'd totally agree about Far Cry too!).

oh duh how did i forget jean brodie? actually saw the film first starring the late great maggie smith but later read the book and loved it

>28 Willoyd: I didn’t ‘get’ The Driver’s Seat straight off, probably because I’d never read any Muriel Spark. So I put it aside, and am enjoying Momento Mori 🎧 and am now into the Britishness of it all. I get the humor, the upstairs/downstairs class system, and so on.
However I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more in times gone by. I’ve ben somewhat jaded by many of this century’s books - desensitized to the subtly of Spark’s wit. But in true British fashion I will keep calm and carry on.

I finished Momento Mori but I was sick and a bit down so I didn’t enjoy it as I should have.
I’m now reading 🎧 the sequel to The Radetzky March, The Emperor’s Tomb by Joseph Roth.I think I just up to that light English humor. Sparks books were not fitting in with my mood.

>30 kjuliff: That's a really interesting point you make about desensitisation. Spark was a one-off, although I find strong echoes in books by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and, less so, Barbara Pym. There are occasions when I do feel rather bludgeoned by some modern writers! I do agree, there is something peculiarly British about her writing.

I was unable to respond to your message last night because your new LT privacy control didn't accept my reply message. Because of your inquiry about what I have been doing with PP I will add more postings to my decluttering thread.

I need to treat that thread as what I am learning from my process even if viewers are silent. What I put up later today will be quite informative, I hope.

>33 JoeB1934: Thanks for letting me know - I’ll fix it.

To all, my private messages should now be working.

Am now reading The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth. This collection contains all of Roth’s short works (17), Perfect for reading when not up to a novel. Beautifully and intelligent writing on a variety of themes. Early 20th C. 🎧

>32 Willoyd: I sometimes find that younger writers won’t leave well-enough alone. They strive for a different structure, and go overboard on time shifts.

To write time shifts effectively a writer needs to put in the hard work, lest we get a stream-of-consciousness mess. Both Held and to a lesser extent Creation Lake achieved moving around in time-space expertly.

Right now I’m back to reading some early 20thC short stories. Plots and slices of life are what my mind needs right now.

>37 kjuliff:
Both Held and to a lesser extent Creation Lake achieved moving around in time-space expertly.
Oh good! I have a copy of the latter to read, and intend to read the former soon too (both being on a Booker shortlist that, for once in a while, actually looks promising - certainly my first read, Orbital, was IMO outstanding!). Mind you, if we're talking of time shifts, I've just finished Tristram Shandy, which takes timeshifts into realms I've rarely if ever explored!

This sounds good
Oscar is a B-list novelist in his forties. He used to be an alcoholic and a cokehead, but now he keeps himself busy by ranting on social media. When Rebecca, an actress whose looks he insulted, sends him an angry email, they strike up a combative correspondence at the very moment that Oscar is accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist.

Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes

See NY Times review A French Punk Feminist Takes on #MeToo and Addiction

>39 kjuliff: I certainly liked it, but it's not to everyone's taste. And you have to have a good ear for irony and second degree.

>40 Dilara86: I think I’m qualified 😜

>41 kjuliff: I'd be interested in your opinion of it if you do decide to read it then!

>42 Dilara86: I have to wait till they are available in audio as I’m functionally blind :(

Kate can you get someone you know to read it for you?

>44 cindydavid4: No. I don’t know anyone with free time in the day. It’s very frustrating - there are so many books I’d like to read but can’t.

Sometimes I find it really depressing, but mostly I’m ok with it. A few weeks ago I was discouraged on LT when I made a suggestion to help people like me use the site.

I am posting a photo here from a site for the visually impaired who have the same or similar disease as me, to give full-sighted people an idea as to how we see the world.

hugs to you

I’m more worried about the looming election. I just can’t stay here if Trump wins.

>45 kjuliff: That is tough, Kate. I'm sorry that your vision has declined to that degree.

>48 kidzdoc: it’s a rare disease that they now think is inherited. I was diagnosed with it - adult-onset vitelliform. When is was first diagnosed it was at an optometrists and I didn't even know I had a problem. But the sight loss has been gradual over the past 18 years and I’m now wondering should I learn Braille.

Luckily advances in tech have lead to a number of aides that help me cope.

Learning Braille might be a good option if there are lots of written materials available in it. I admire your determination to read despite the challenges. When my uncle lost his sight to the point of not being able to read, he gave up. No audio, no Braille, nothing but TV (2 of them) 24x7. It was sad to see, as he had been a huge reader before then.

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this. It sounds really tough.

>51 Julie_in_the_Library: Thanks. it’s ok. I’m used to it. I’ve been going through it for about 7 years.

>50 labfs39: I need to find out what’s currently available in Braille. But it should not be hard to electronically automate the process of transcribing from any spoken language to Braille. It’s not like translating to another language or to another media -🎧. It’s word for word, character for character.

A question - when your uncle lost his sight, how could he watch tv? I can’t even operate |a tv - I can’t see the buttons on the remote, or read the smart TV icons in order to change channels, select shows.

Many people associate Braille only with reading books, but Braille is everywhere. It’s on elevator buttons for example. So it’s possible there could come a day I’d need Braille for day to day functioning,

Recently I saw them on dr offices doors. a question Ive long wondered-how would you know where these are place? Is there a standard placement, or something else?

>54 cindydavid4: I don’t know. I’ve only recently been looking at Braille. There are now small devices that work with iPhones etc for input, and automated processes for output. I’m interested academically as a tech person, but also to be prepared. There’s no way of predicting how long and how much visual depreciation I’ll get.

It’s so strange. In my thirties I was a volunteer for Talking Books Australia. I had no relatives who were blind. I just got it in my head I should do something for blind people. Little did I know at the time …

>53 kjuliff: He listened to the tvs and channel surfed to find programs. His remote had very large buttons, and he learned where the different ones were. Mostly he listened to the news and ball games, but some PBS as well. He never lost his sight completely, but couldn't read, drive, or do anything requiring the ability to see detail.

>56 labfs39: I understand. A lot of listening would have been involved. I watch some movies on an iPad. I suppose having it up close is the same as having a huge big screen tv. I’m ok with movies if the main characters have distinctive looks. But there’s not much on to tempt me.

Still slugging my way through Tim Winton’s In the Winter Dark. I’m not sure whether it’s the book or me, but I can’t get engrossed in it.

You know that lovely moment a few pages in to a new book when you just know that it’s going to be a good read? Wel it hasn’t happened yet and I’ve nearly finished.

What has kept me going is Winton’s exquisite way of describing the Australian bush. Oh I’m so homesick. For the bush and the southern sky, full of stars. So many. So bright. So missed.

>47 kjuliff: I have to agree with you! And how beautifully you describe Australia in #58. Looking forward to our group read of The Family Moskat. (I can’t find Enemies: A Love Story anywhere—must go to ILL)

>59 dianelouise100: Enemies is on kindle and free for members. I just watched the film on Amazon Prime. It’s not badly done. Of course it’s not as deep and as detailed as the book, but it’s faithful to the core of it.

I’m in my slump. Just borrowed a crime thriller Kala 🎧 . Will it capture my attention? I don’t hold high hopes.

I’m very anxious and all over the place. But I’m ready to go with the The Family Moskat whenever you and Cindy are.

Thanks for the Amazon tip. And I see you will be reading The Family Moskat. I could let you and Cindy know when my copy comes from the library and we start then?

>61 dianelouise100: OK. I’ll fit in with whenever you want to start

should I pass the word on to those in th Oct Montly Author group? expecting rocketjk would be interested

>63 cindydavid4: Good idea!!!

I’m hoping The Family Moskat will cure my latest reading slump as they are becoming longer and longer . It’s to do with being confined to audio and my depression no doubt.

I thinking I’ll soon have the face facts and give up reading altogether.

Some tv shows and movies have an udio description option specifically for blind people and those with vision problems, sort of an equivalent to closed captioning. I don't know exactly how you access it, but I'm sure there are lists and guides online if you do some light searching.

>65 kjuliff: Maybe part of this reading rut is the stress the election is causing you? Once that is done, you may well find your ability to follow a book returns. Hang in there, less than two weeks.

>67 RidgewayGirl: Yes that’s playing a big part but it’s mostly chronic illnesses and vision problems.

>67 RidgewayGirl: Yeah. Maybe you’re ight. From The NY Times reporting on Trump rally at MSG today,

“ Former President Donald J. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday opened with a standup comic who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” in a set that also included derogatory remarks about Latinos generally, African Americans, Palestinians and Jews.”

>69 kjuliff: And now Boricua from Bad Bunny to Ricky Martin are making sure every single voter with any connection to Puerto Rico know that's what Trump thinks of them. This isn't a win for Trump, I can't imagine him openly harkening back to the infamous Nazi rally at MSG in 1939 will win him any votes. He already has the racists and Nationalists in the bag, he's losing votes elsewhere. But it's ugly stuff and that any Americans will cast a vote for him is disheartening.

>70 RidgewayGirl: "the infamous Nazi rally at MSG"

The other precursor would be the 1968 MSG presidential campaign rally of George Wallace, whose racist demagoguery now looks timid in comparison to Trump.

I am so stressed over this. a few days ago I told myself to stop watching news. but then theres some shocker that is impossible to ignore. I cannot wait for this to be over, tho suspect its not going to be over for a while

>72 cindydavid4: I totally agree. I wonder how we’ll be when it’s “over”.

Given your sight issues I have been looking at how I can offer you access to my life history story when I get it finished. Who know how long that will be, but I believe I have somewhat of an approach which might be useful.

As you are aware, I am 'writing' this history using PowerPoint presentations. In such a methodology they advise making the slides have not much text and to accompany each slide with narration to explain the intent of the slide.

My idea is to produce all of the narration similarly to what authors do some time as happens in audio versions of books we read.

If I do a good job of my narration, you should be able to listen to my life history stories similarly to sitting in a room and me telling the stories to you.

I promise I will be thinking of you when I create my narrations.

>72 cindydavid4: well it was quicker than anyone thought. I’ve taken it more badly than I expected, and my white look cell count (never good) has shot up with the stress.

I need a good book with a plot. Nothing grabs me right now. Finding it hard to concentrate.

>76 kjuliff: Nothing grabs me right now. Finding it hard to concentrate.

You and me both, sister.

An old friend from Australia said it best, for me,
This is a note

Sorry about the election result. Time for reflection. Time for Dems to reflect. Can’t talk peace while sending money & bombs to support a genocide. A cautionary tale. No one seems to know the improvements Biden implemented. Trump will rewind all the good. He’s unhinged & unflappable.

the lack of advertising Bidens actions bugged me for the last four years. Yes if you read papers or pay attention to the news you find out what they are, but you need to ensure that people know exactly how this action will help them, and not doing the same during the election esp when Harris took over was just stupid. People wanted to know what she did in four years, she could have talked about how she supported these action, but she didnt , So many of her answers were non answers. So voters decided that Trump will fix it all, and there was no responce from dems Im angry at the people who voted for him but angry at the party for letting so much be unsaid

>79 cindydavid4: Yes, there was nothing positive about Biden’s reforms expressed, and the immigration issues were not properly addressed . I also think there was an element of anti extreme-wokism, especially on the gender/sex issue.

A person like Trump however is a rarity. I’m beginning to understand how other fascists came to power. It wasn’t just the people we saw at Trump rallies that voted for him. And he managed to turn the tables. To many low-middle income workers he’s sen as a hero.

But in all this, what I feel mostly disturbing is the number of evangelicals speaking as if Trump has the backing of god.

I may have found a book that I’ve managed to get a few pages into.
Clear by Carys Davies. Short, another country, another century - giving it a go.

>79 cindydavid4: yeah
>80 kjuliff: so many American idiots
>81 kjuliff: but back to books, i’m glad something is catching and I’m interested in Clear.

Yes, Another Island Book

Clear
By Carys Davies
Read by: Russ Bain
Length: ~3hours
Rating: 4 stars

This is a short review about a short book. A page-turner of a book that broke my reading slump this November. For that I gave Clear 4 stars.

Set on a remote island in the North Sea, during a month in the lives of three main characters in 19th century Scotland, Clear has a both a political and an ecumenical background. Scottish law in the mid 19th century allowed for the forced return of small rented plots of land to the landlords, similar to the enclosure laws of England. Of the two main male characters in the novel, John is a minister of a break-away movement from the Church of Scotland. The other is the tenant, Iver. The female is John’s wife. She’s a well-educated empathetic writer who married John in her middle age.

John has been sent to a tiny island in order to prepare tenant Iver - the island’s sole inhabitant - for his upcoming forced eviction. John doing this short-term project for money, in order to rent a building for the New Scottish church where he plans to have his ministry.

There’s a bit of back and forth about the characters’ lives before the island for the three people whose lives are affected by John’s short project, but the main tug of the book centers on the bond that grows between the two men.

I really enjoyed Clear up to around chapter 30 of 42 short chapters when the denouement begins. It was around that chapter that I felt that the story lost its course. I was spellbound as the two men learned each other’s languages. Iver has never left the island and is the sole survivor of the island’s language. John knows a bit of Scottish but his first language is English. Together John and Iver spend time working out each others’ languages, using gestures and pointing, and eventually John builds up a basic vocabulary. In doing so he develops subtle feelings of betrayal, as he’s learning Iver’s language knowing he’s acquiring it in order to prime Iver for eviction.

What is to become of all this? Mary was against John’s trip from the get-go. She is against the monetary motive but is tolerant of her husband’s aims, even though she’s not particularly religious. Iver has seen a daguerreotype of Mary and has hidden it from John. I read on.

It’s a tale that can have no ending. Or can it? Obviously I can’t say. I found the book to be a much-needed distraction at a time when I needed it. The characters are well-drawn - if - and it’s a big if - you can accept 21st century values as being acceptable to 19th century Victorians. It’s well-crafted, and the reader gets a feel of the island’s environment and how a people’s vocabulary is formed by their unique environments - such as the Inuit’s having seven words for snow, sort-of-thing.

Despite misgivings about the 21st century values, particularly in regard to Mary, for lovers of linguistics and stories of semi-deserted islands this is a book well-worth reading.

—- edited for typos

terrific review! A book I want to read, more now than previously.

>83 kjuliff: I'm glad you found a book that grabbed you. I really liked Clear, although I thought the author soft-pedaled the ending.

>84 dchaikin: I think you’ll enjoy the story and characters Dan. Plus it’s free on Audible now, and well narrated.

>85 RidgewayGirl: I know what you mean by the ending Kay, but can’t comment much on the ending for spoiler reasons. I think you were being kind by terming it “soft-pedaled”.

But it’s a great read.

>83 kjuliff: A great review. I'll echo >84 dchaikin: and say I already wanted to read but this really solidifies it.

>84 dchaikin: >87 rv1988: Ditto! You moved it up the TBR pile.

>86 kjuliff: ooh. Thanks. I’ll finish my current audiobook this week. So maybe Clear next!

>83 kjuliff: Clear is one of the few books I have read over the last several months while I have been retracing my life history. I was very interested in this book because of my Scottish Mother coming from Scotland. I hadn't ever heard of the clearance policy, and I don't believe my ancestors were caught up in it. What an incredible story this turned out to be.

I didn't have time to write even my normal set of observations about the book.

Your review is so outstanding, and per usual gets to the heart of the story in a way that conveys so much that I appreciate the book even more.

Thank you, thank you.

>83 kjuliff: Enjoyed your review of a book I read and enjoyed a while back. I remember being fascinated with the language obstacles and how they were overcome, and also with the sheer energy of some of its descriptive passages—I’m so glad you found the right book at the right time to alleviate some of the bleakness!

Thanks to >90 JoeB1934:, >89 dchaikin:, >88 labfs39: , >87 rv1988:, >84 dchaikin: for your positive comments on my review of Clear. Getting feedback is so encouraging and when I’m feeling lazy I often have to remind myself how important it is to participate as both a reader and writer of reviews.

>91 dianelouise100: I see you also like Emma Donoghue’s Haven. I enjoyed Room but haven’t been as impressed by other of her works. But seeing I am into islands at the moment, perhaps Haven should be on of my next reads.
I have a few on my tbr - Dan has me convinced I’d like Oh William and I tried to read Mantel’s A Change of Climate. But since reading the delicious The Husbands I’m a bit reluctant to get serious on unintentional comedic men. Holly Gramazio’s light-hearted book has put me in the wrong mood, and I can’t take a whole lot of husbands seriously atm. But I will get back to them surely. Beryl Bainbridge did the couples thing so well - hard to beat.

Haven is incredible, one of her best books

>92 kjuliff: I did enjoy Haven. But I have to say that a major attraction for me was its setting on her fictional version of The Skellig Islands off the Irish coast, which I have seen but was not able to visit because of weather. I found Donoghue’s imaginative account of the earliest monastic settlement there very readable. I’ve not read her other books.

>94 dianelouise100: >93 cindydavid4: I’m finding it hard to get into it. For some reason I have a problem getting into historical fiction written before the 12th century!

>95 kjuliff: I expect an interest in and some familiarity with early Christian monastic culture, as well as Ireland, helped to hold my interest, especially in the beginning. Somehow I didn’t expect that (the monasticism) to be something you’d be into, Kate?

>96 dianelouise100: You are absolutely correct Diane 😉

>95 kjuliff: I do, too, and I didn't love Haven, although I do love the beauty of those remote islands.

>98 RidgewayGirl: >96 dianelouise100: I’m not into early Christian history but I like the feel of islands and I’m interested in Irish history. I’m just not getting that feel you get when you know you want to read on. I’m going to keep with it for now though.

the christian history is background; its a story that can be written in every era, just change the names, place, leaving the characters with the same qualities as the first

Once there was a hard-working bloke who lived in a small Victorian country town with his wife and three young sons. They’d battled along on his cleaner’s wage slowly building themselves a bigger house. One day out of the blue his wife told him that she was no longer in love with him. She did not want to go on with the marriage. She asked him to move out, the kids would live with her. She said he could see them whenever he liked. She urged him to take anything he wanted from the house; the only thing she asked for, and got, was the newer of the two cars.

So begins Helen Garner’s excellent book This House Of Grief, excellently narrated by Kate Hood.

It’s a griping tale of a case that grabbed Australia’s attention in the early 21st century. A man returning his children to his ex-wife after a weekend custody visit, swerves the car off the road into a dam, drowning their three young sons, but managing to free himself from the car as it sank to the bottom.

Accidentally or murder? Garner became obsessed with the case and This House of Grief is her account of her extensive background research , and the murder trial.

Well-written in Garner’s crisp style, I’m now listening to it on Audible where it’s free right now.

It’s still griping on the second read and what’s more, it’s set in my true home of Australia. Garner evokes the small town life and the city that I called home for most of my life.

I can’t return. I can’t read the book’s print. I can’t smell the Australian bush. But with this work by Ms Garner, it all comes flooding back.

How sad of a story. And how interesting where it brings you.

>101 kjuliff: oh how sad but I want to read it

>101 kjuliff: Excellent review. I'll give this a listen.

>102 dchaikin: It was a spring day. We passed Geelong and were soon flying along between paddocks yellow with Caper weed, their fence lines marked by the occasional wind-break of dark cypresses . Across the huge sky sailed flat-bottomed clouds of brilliant white. My companion and I had spent years of our childhoods in this region. We were familiar with its melancholy beauty, the grand smooth sweeps of its terrain. Rolling west along the two-lane highway we opened the windows and let the air stream through.

To your comment - it’s the setting, and the way Helen Garner, who I’ve met at various social gatherings, and who is a little older than me, but of my generation, describes the environment I grew up in. I know the road she’s describing like the back of my hand. Australia’s huge sky, the like of which in all my travels, I’ve never come across. The melancholy of the landscape. She captures it so.

>103 cindydavid4: >104 RidgewayGirl: - I think you will both like it. It’s so well-researched and Garner is an objective observer. She’s always prepared to make a stand, even if it’s against popular opinion as in The First Stone - an account of how a respected academics’s career and marriage were ruined by accusations of two university students who alleged inappropriate behavior at a college party. Pre Me-Too.

>105 kjuliff: marvelous quote. I think i understand what you mean even though I’ve never been there

On reading the criminal trial parts of This House of Grief (>101 kjuliff:) I’m realizing how Americanized I’ve become.

I was taken aback when I first noticed the use of “The Crown” for the prosecutor rather than “The People”. And the lawyers and judges and “Queen’s” councillors wearing 17th century style white wigs.

Three judges sat in a row above him in scarlet robes with huge white fur cuffs. Their wigs were not the grey dead-rat ones of the lower court, but foaming and globular, as pale as raw cauliflower with a texture reminiscent of brain tissue.

One practice I did notice and prefer was that the problem of individual jurors being unable to continue is resolved differently in Australia than in the U.S. Instead of alternates, a jury of 14 is selected. Then at the end of the closing statements, 12 of the 14 are picked at random to deliberate. This must ensure that all 12 of the jury that decides the fate of the accused, have been attending to the arguments from both sides equally.

Back to the book - I loved the way Helen Garner inserts her feelings into the trial that takes up much of the book. Her descriptions of all the participants is impeccably done. It’s as if we, the reader is there watching the trial in real time.

After reading This House of Grief I feel the need to read another true crime book. Any suggestions welcome. I’m not interested in books about serial killers, and prefer something like Garner’s approach with a lot of background about the characters. Location NYC or UK.

Tia.

>109 kjuliff: I don't read true crime, but I did read Killers of the Flower Moon, which was very good. Set in Oklahoma though. That's all I've got.

And then lo and behold, I came across this on a friend's thread:

https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/aussie-crime-2024-recent-australian-crime-no...

>111 labfs39: interesting. When it came out I was excited about Everyone On This Train is a Suspect as it’s set on the famous Australian railway running vertically through central Australia - the Ghan is named after the Afghan camel drivers who previously serviced that route.

But apparently there’s very little of the Ghan in the book, and I gave it a miss.

— I’m getting very depressed now as there are so many books I want to read that are not in audio form. Reading has been my major means of entertainment , but I’m reading less and less now partly because the books I want to read are unavailable to me. I don’t know what I will replace it with.

I just finished V13: Chronicle of a Trial by Emmanuel Carrière, an account of him following the trial of the people involved in the Bataclan and related murders. He also wrong The Adversary, an account of a man who murdered his family, centered on the trial. He's very good at looking at all angles and getting people to talk to him.

And if you haven't read anything by Janet Malcolm, she did much the same, especially with Iphigenia in Forest Hills and The Journalist and the Murderer.

edited to add: V13 and The Journalist and the Murderer are available on audible. The other two books I mentioned are not.

>112 kjuliff: that must be frustrating. I’m sorry. What is it you can’t get on audio?

>111 labfs39: That's a terrific link! Thanks!

I don't know what the selection is like, but have you looked at Librivox? They offer free older public domain books read by volunteers. I'm sure the quality varies, but it might be worth a look. I also get a fair number of children's audiobooks through YouTube, read by librarians or teachers, some are quite good. Not sure what the adult offerings are like.

Hopefully AI enhanced text to speech will soon make it quicker and cheaper to produce audio books. I did a quick search and found this, I'm sure there are others.

Revoicer Bing - AI text to speech online - Emotion-based AI Voices Generator

I have another idea, have one of your LT friends search for you. I fully recognize that each of us has unique interests but if you could categorize your interests by author, calendar period, geography, sub-genre, etc. someone else could do a search.

For example, I recently discovered BookBrowse, which concentrates on what they call exceptional books, Four-stars and above when reviewed by critics as well as regular reviewers. They have Main Genres, Subgenres/Themes, Settings, Time Period. I can search under any combination of these descriptors.

I could create an audio for you to listen to that lists the choices in each of these descriptors. You would be very surprised at their comprehension in categories.

Come to think about it, I will contact them to see if they have, or could produce such an audio. They are VERY dedicated to filling the needs of their members.

If you can read this let me know if you are interested.

>121 JoeB1934: Thanks Joe. It’s not that I need to browse books. I can do that myself. I don’t do that though. It’s not the way I find books I want to read. I find the names of books and authors by a variety of methods including word of mouth, but the problem is that I have to search three sites in order to find *if* the books are available in audio. 9 times out of 10 they are not.

So thanks anyway. I appreciate the thought you have given to my problem.

It is healthier for me to accept my condition which worsens every few months. There had to come a time and the time is now.

what it’s like.

thanks for that article, how sad for her

>125 cindydavid4: That’s what I have. I’m the same. It’s terrible.

Kate, I’m so sorry your condition has reached this point. I’ll miss you a great deal.

>123 kjuliff: Sorry that I misunderstood it before. Now I know what you mean and it's really frustrating.

Kate, I'm listening to This House of Grief now and it's really good. Thank you for pointing it out.

Kate, I'm sorry to hear about this. Wishing you all the best! I've really enjoyed our interactions on LT.

>101 kjuliff: Fascinating, and what a tragic story. It can be so difficult to handle subjects of real incidents like this in a way that is respectful, but also beautifully narrated. I don't think I'm up to reading this right now, but I'll bookmark it for later.

I'm very sorry to hear about how frustrating it is to find books in an accessible format (and more so, the condition that requires this). I hope that you're holding up well.

Thanks to all who have sent me messages re my reading - lack thereof. I have a number of DMs that I’ll be answering soon. I’ve not been well enough to type much.

Meanwhile I’m reading Joe Cinque’s Consolation but it’s a bit of a struggle. I read it about ten years ago and so I thought I’d try it on audio. Garner is the narrator, and not nearly as good as the narrator in This House of Grief.

I accidentally deleted the post where Judy Dench describes her macular disease. It’s not the same disease as mine but the symptoms are the same. So here is the link for those who missed it. Judi Dench opens up about her struggle with her failing eyesight . I hope it gives you an idea as to what’s involved in searching for individual books, only to find there is no audible version.

Update - I still haven’t answered several posts and DMs. I apologise. I’m so unwell and have zero enargy, and I’m having trouble reading anything. I’m so sorry. Missing all my mates on LT

>133 kjuliff: No need to apologise, Kate! Be well and take your time. I miss you too - take care of yourself.

>134 rv1988: Thanks R. Things are going from bad to worse health wise. I do miss LT but can no longer to keep up with the threads.

I am managing to keep up with world news from the BBC website, US news from NY Times, and Australian news from Australia’s ABC.

In the past few days a bill has made its way through Australian parliament banning social media access to children under 16. See MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Parliament on Friday in a world-first law.
The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

Having recently tried to read Slenderman and remembering following the case, I’m inclined to support this. It has bi-partisan support in Australia’s House of Reps and Senate.

This brings up the issue of freedom of speech, and book banning and many commentators see this as representative of Australia’s “nanny state”.

I tried reading Slenderman as I recently read Helen Garner’s This House of Grief - the last book I’ve read to completion. It’s a true crime story too, but Garner injects herself into the story and it’s a much better read, and excellently narrated. Unlike Slenderman it does not involve children and social media. I mention it as an aside only. Oh, and if anyone can recommend god true crime book please let me know. It’s about all I can handle atm.

have you read any Cadfael? Hes a monk during the middle ages who solves crime on the side. very well written by Edith Peters. Im not generally into mystery but this is in a different time, so history is involved, whichI love

I agree the the aussie bill, and Id expand it with a bill mandating that all phones be turned off during class time.

BBC has to be better then we have. but Ive not really been watching news much anyway

be well

>136 kjuliff: i find that law so interesting. Wonder how it would have affected my kids, if at all

>137 cindydavid4: The news is pretty scary and I’m not as immersed in knowing what’s happening, but I like reading the Australian news as it’s relatively calm, if you exclude the Northern Territory.
No I haven’t read any Cadfael though I’ll give it a try as I see it’s all short stories? I think I’d have more luck with short stories or novellas now.

>138 dchaikin: What I’m concerned about is communal or group contagion (as in the Slenderman phenomenon. I’m not concerned with negative effects on my grandson as his access is monitored, but not all parents know what their children are doing, and the internet can be a dangerous playground. Also concerned with the effects of AI in social medias on impressionable minds. It will be interesting how it goes in Australia.

I think the Australian bill is an appalling idea that will be impossible to enforce. I expect it to be a useless fiasco that will only make things worse.

>140 KeithChaffee: Why?They can still text, watch films, red ebooks, email…

The responsibility for parenting children belongs to parents, not to social media companies. Those companies don’t want to do it, aren’t equipped to do it, and won’t do it well.

Social media is not, despite what the propagandists will tell you, inherently a bad thing. If your children are being messed up by it, that says a lot more about your parenting than it does about social media. Should a 15-year-old who loves reading and talking about books be banned from Library Thing?

>142 KeithChaffee: Those companies don’t want to do it, aren’t equipped to do it, and won’t do it well. Precisely.

The Bill is not targeting groups like LT. it targeting groups likeTikTok which may very well be banned in the US anyway.

Most governments ban kids under 16 from driving cars and drinking alcohol. There are some things that children are not equipped to handle,

Like Cindy - >137 cindydavid4:, I’d expand it with a bill mandating that all phones be turned off during class time.

Yes social media is not “inherently bad”, neither are cars. But there’s a time and place.

>142 KeithChaffee: I'm always wary of trying to solve social issues by banning things, but I have become even more wary of the neo-liberal tendency to pile up responsibility on individuals, while leaving large companies free to exploit our personal and social vulnerabilities to make money off them. Seems to me there is a tiny inequality of power here.

I'm not a parent but I question the level of control parents have over their children's behavior, especially when it comes to poor parents who haven't the time or the education necessary for it.

That said, I'm not sure the Australian law will help, supposing it has any effect at all. Social media can help the young too.

Do they still rate movies as not suitable for children? There are so many areas where communities have decided on rules - such as when children can vote, can buy stock, take out mortgages, can stand for Congress, can have tattoos, changer gender, decide medical treatment, drink alcohol, leave school, join the armed forces, marry, consent to sexual intercourse , the list goes on.

The human brain is not fully developed at 15. Why on earth should we expose children to activities we cannot see and which have the capacity to harm?

I’m not talking about banning knowledge. My children were grown before we had social media. So were the majority of parents of teenagers . So how can they decide on activities they know nothing about? Maybe the new Australian law won’t work, but it can’t harm.

As to leaving it up to parents - the problem is that many parents cannot supervise their children adequately, the resulting in having vulnerable children exposed to potentially dangerous situations.

Labeling the new Australian regulations as woke or liberal is just a slur on a legislation that is attempting to regulate a new technology.

I remember the same labeling happened when seat-belt legislation was introduced in America.

There are plenty of appropriate activities children can use their phones for. Exposing them to the activities and influences to everyone on the internet isn’t one of them.

>136 kjuliff: For true crime book I recently read The Devil at His Elbow by Valerie Bauerlein, which is available on audio. It's about the crimes and trial of Alex Murdaugh in South Carolina. At the time it was all in the news I wasn't that interested, but the book is fascinating. There's a great review by rderus of the 75 group on the book's LT page.

>146 arubabookwoman: Thanks so much - and for letting me know that it is on audio. Yes I too wasn’t so interested when that case was all over the news, but a well-written real-crime book can be good, regardless of the criminal case.

>139 kjuliff: I wouldnt call them short stories about 200 pages or so. Maybe novella! anyway give one a try

>146 arubabookwoman: Since I was living in South Carolina as the whole Murdaugh saga was unfolding, I feel like I don't need to hear anything more about it, but it's certainly a fascinating and strange story. It does not make SC look good, but there is a good old boy network that allows for corruption and crimes like this.

>137 cindydavid4: Over 60 countries have already banned the use of smart phones in schools. See here.

>149 RidgewayGirl: I found the interplay between the crimes of violence (murder), crimes of greed and corruption, the interplay with politics, and the feelings of entitlement and escape from accountability on the part of this wealthy criminal, to be fascinating, and I really wasn't expecting that.

>151 arubabookwoman: >149 RidgewayGirl: Did the book help you to understand the murder at all? I found it so bizarre ad incomprehensible from the news stories.

>152 kjuliff: It would probably be a diverting listen, in any case. The whole thing was so rooted in the good old boy culture that still prevails, especially with how Murdaugh was able to embezzle so much money with the help of officials and bank managers who felt it was more important to help out a fellow Good Old Boy than it was to obey the law.

The short explanation was that Murdaugh had been embezzling money and cheating his own clients for years and eventually it all caught up with him and his attempts to get out of any consequences quickly escalated to murders.

>153 RidgewayGirl: I’ve started it and I’m sure it will be diverting. I believe that a true-crime book well-written doesn’t need to be a mystery. You can know the outcome. As in In Cold Blood and though not the masterpiece that Capote’s novel is, This House of Grief is also fine reading though many living in Australia at the time know the ending.

>154 kjuliff: I found it fascinating as a non-Australian who has never even visited. Garner did a great job of taking the reader through her changing opinions and emotions and she was great at just observing people during the trial. I don't have an opinion on what happened and I'm very glad I wasn't on that jury.

>155 RidgewayGirl: Yes I too am glad I wasn’t on that jury. Helen Garner is so empathetic and capable of being dispassionate. You might like her The First Stone which was written pre MeeToo.

Edited to add- worth listening to the forward written by another woman 20 years after the incident in question, on Audible preview/sample.

>150 kjuliff: interesting, did not know that. wonder about what push back theyll find, and whether in ultimately is accepted and ultimately helps kids learn

>154 kjuliff: The Murdaugh book is quite different than the 2 Helen Garner true crime books you've mentioned, which I have also read, This House of Grief and Joe Cinque's Consolation. Helen Garner's books were much more literary and analytical than I think you will find the Murdaugh book. The author is reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and her book is more of a journalistic accounting, "Just the facts, ma'am" kind of book. In Helen Garner's books she inserted herself, her feelings and how she investigated the story, into the book. This Murdaugh accounting is a very different kind of book. I liked it, and also liked the garner books.

>157 cindydavid4: I expect the under 16 it will be accepted. It’s certain to be passed into law as it’s passed both houses and Australia doesn’t have a political president. As to no phones in school or class rom, it’s accepted. Had the support of Teachers’ Union. Thee kids can have phones at school but can’t turn them on in school grounds,

Re the under 16 law. Many parents relieved at not having to stop kids themselves.

>158 arubabookwoman: I’ve started the Murdough book and liking it so far. I’ve read similar true crime stories by good journalists so I expect I’ll enjoy it for what it is.

It looks like Garner is winding down. She’s a very interesting woman.

>159 kjuliff: I'm curious as to how social media companies are supposed to enforce this law. How will people in Australia prove that they are over 16? What is to stop kids from lying about their age?

>161 labfs39: It's only just been passed. I’d have to read Hansard! But Reuters summary is here. I’ll post more as I find out.

Man points to date:
Ban to apply to Instagram, X, Snapchat and others
From late 2025, Australians must be over 16 to use social media
Tech giants face fines of A$49.5m for repeated non-compliance
Child rights groups opposed the law, parent groups supported it

>161 labfs39: >162 kjuliff:

More info here - NPR A social media ban in Australia for children under 16 is first in the world

And here The Guardian: Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from social media despite safety concerns

>161 labfs39: ive wondered too;

>164 cindydavid4: They will do it. Aussies are a tough lot. The internet seems to know all about most of us anyway, especially those of us who use social media and are exposed to Al. Just look at the ads that appear on your screen after you’ve googled something - ads customized for you.

And now with AI. If Meta, Apple and Google can do what they are currently doing, surely IT companies can ensure some responsibility in what they present to children.

All sorts of commodities and services are currently regulated by law - it can’t be impossible. Whether it’s a good thing or not, I think it depends on which social media platforms are targeted.

My son attempted to open a Facebook account when he was underage (most social media require that the user be 13 or older) and he might have gotten away with it except the only person he could find to try and "friend" was the mother of one of his friends who gave me a call. We did laugh at my criminal mastermind.

I'm sure that more tech savvy and less supervised kids will have no trouble evading the ban, but I'm interested in seeing what happens.

>166 RidgewayGirl: Yes I’m sure there will be evasion. There’s evasion on buying alcohol. But it will have some effect.

That’s funny about your son.

I’m lapsing back I fear into non-reading mode. There was a little spark there a few days ago. A tender little flame. I have no idea how to ignite it.

I am so ill and can’t get into my primary doctor till March 2025 unless I have a specific complaint. I feel nauseous (the Sartre type) and can only breath with auxiliary oxygen, my back aches in spasms all over the place, my retinal disease is bothering me, and my rs is not available till May - I was booked 6 months ago for last week but he cancelled. I have severe digestive probs but just came across my gastroenterologist on an old YouTube video filmed when he was attending to Joan Rivers when she died while he was supervising her routine endoscopy.

I got one of my appointments set up at Mount Sinai and then I got a message from a robot calling itself Joseph offering to fix my appointment. He ended up ruining it so I had to call. The phone disconnected soon after I came off hold. I suspect one of the rep’s children was playing with her iPhone. I’d said my name and other credentials and was then promptly put on to a digital service satisfaction survey.

Then robot Joseph messaged me offering to change a different doctor’s appointment. I messaged back saying I only corresponded with humans. He responded thanking me for my interest and informed me that he had changed my appointment seeing I was unhappy.

My next medical appointment is in the same building as the Israeli consulate. It’s always a problem getting through the police and some very Israeli-looking seals. So every time I go to that doctor I check the morning news to se if there’s been any trouble in the Midle East. What am I thinking?

There’s more. I was leaving the worst to last but I think I’ve said enuff already yet.

"The social media ban legislation has been released and passed within a week and, as a result, no one can confidently explain how it will work in practice – the community and platforms are in the dark about what exactly is required of them," DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said.

The amendments passed on Friday bolster privacy protections. Platforms would not be allowed to compel users to provide government-issued identity documents including passports or driver's licenses, nor could they demand digital identification through a government system.

So if the platforms can't require identity documents, how is this supposed to work? No one knows. Also interesting that YouTube and WhatsApp are excluded. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm sure lots of advocacy groups will be watching.

>168 kjuliff: I've never had a robot message me to change an appointment. Bizarre

The world we live in is scary on so many fronts.

>169 labfs39:
Re rapid legislation sans detail. I’ve had many Americans comment on how quickly government bills are passed into law in Australia. Until I came to the US I didn’t understand why these Americans seemed so flummoxed. Now I’m here and I can see how different the Westminster system is.

If the government wants something done it can be passed into law quite quickly and the details worked out later. IF there is a substantial parliamentary majority (can’t remember the exact %age). It’s like they are passing the principle of the thing.

This is sometimes good and sometimes not. It’s just different. Here in the US executive orders seem to be able to be done quickly only by a President who may not have majority in Congress.

So yes. Australia wants to restrict access of young people to certain types of social media. We could sit around till the cows come home. Or not.

Re Robot
Well I’m assuming it was a bot. It had the hallmarks of an automated response. It didn’t answer my questions. When I called customer service I said I’d received a message from Joseph and I think he made a mistake and made me a wrong appointment. And she answered (voice) oh I see that’s wrong I’ll fix it, - he’s made you a follow-up but he’d messaged you for something else. And after hanging up, I got another message from “Joseph” telling me he’d made another appointment. All very strange.

AI is cropping up everywhere. Subtitles, closed captioning. Probably I listen more carefully because I can barely read. I find the whole AI thing quite frightening.

>169 labfs39: more on Social media legislation
Australian News

I'm sorry for that labyrinth of frustration. AI and bots in general are making medical scheduling so much more difficult.

>166 RidgewayGirl: That's funny. I honestly don't know how parents of young kids navigate the issue of screens. When my son was little it was easy—we just didn't have a TV, and all I had to deal with was his endless grousing about it. But there's so much more in play now, between platforms/devices and implications (safety, mental health, information literacy, literacy in general, you name it). My hat is off to anyone raising children now and dealing with all that in a thoughtful way, truly.

>172 lisapeet: Good point. I don’t understand how parent can monitor their kids’ use of screens either. This would be especially true of parents born in the seventies, who grew up pre-internet. My grandson is 13 and needs a phone as his school bus stop is on a rural road with no houses nearby. I know he uses SnapChat but doubt my daughter knows what SnapChat even is.

It’s a real dilema as the AI companies do not have the interests of children high on their priority list.

The Australian law was prompted by a series of rapes and murders of young teens who had been groomed online.

Re medical scheduling - it’s a nightmare in. New York. Certainly the ability to book online has cut customer service costs, but the software to schedule appointments is relatively new. So I’m pretty sure that double booking and empty time slots are increasing. I’m very disappointed that I now have to wait 4 months for a visit that I scheduled six months ago for yesterday. The doctor canceled it, and now he’s fully booked for 4 months.

>173 kjuliff: oh my can you call the office and explain what happened? sounds like you need a drs care right away. Or do you automatically get a bot answer?

I called the office and was told scheduling a mess nowadays. Would not give me a better appointment. I am so fed up with the medical system here?

Bot relatively new for scheduling but was legit sms. Shows up on my Will Cornell history log along with bot’s name. Maybe it WAS a human using menu options for responses. Whatever it’s really annoying.

I don’t necessarily need immediate medical care for the condition I had the appointment for. It’s a regular 6 monthly retinal eye scan appointment to see any changes to see if eye injections are needed to stop further vision loss. If injections needed and not given it can leas to total blindness.

Well that was a brief spell. The fire flickered but didn’t fully ignite. Seems I might be coming down with pneumonia. COPD is degenerative so I can’t “get better”. I have about an hour a day when I am alert enough to drop by to comment on my favorite threads, and hope to do so. But till further notice will not be doing reviews .

Ugh. My sister had pneumonia twice last year after a lung embolism post-Covid. She was saying the other day how little she appreciated breathing until she couldn't.

>177 labfs39: Was your sister hospitalized with it; that’s what I’m fearing. Each time I come back with less lung capacity due to emphysema.

Yeah, she was. I worry that her lung capacity was diminished too.

Hugs Kate! 🙁

Thanks everyone for putting up with my changes in activity and mood. I expect my reading activity will continue to be up and down forever now. I have been trying to read Baumgartner which I can tell is good but I keep drifting off to sleep. The Devil at his Elbow (thanks arubabookwoman) was interesting but I need something a bit less Southern. It is however a book I would normally like.

I prefer women narrators so might try Scaffolding recommended by simone2.

Strangely enough I’m not depressed, just a little sad . I don’t have a holiday season so it gets a bit lonely round now. Will try to stay positive.

I’m reading when not sleeping as I hover on the edge of pneumonia. I feel it would be so easy to just sink quietly into this illness. But fortunately I’d bought Scaffolding🎧 after reading a reading a review by Simone2. It’s a very intelligent, perceptive and readable debut novel by ex-pat New Yorker Lauren Elkin writer and translator who moved to Paris 10 years ago.

After a few pages I was hooked and checked a few newspaper reviews - reviews which surely must have ben written by, or with the aid of AI. Described by the Guardian as an erudite first novel with horny energy, words fail. Yes there are a few references to sexual intercourse - after all it’s a book about relationships - but in no way is it a sex romp.

If you are interested in linguistics, psychology, friendship, womanhood, good literature and an a work by an author who has some new things to say, an author who doesn’t just put a clever new spin on old themes, then read this book.

For those of us finding it hard to get back into reading Scaffolding might do the trick.

The title is apt, metaphorically and physically. Both NYC and Paris have laws requiring periodic resurfacing of their buildings,

Here’s a photo of me in happier times, underneath my apartment building’s scaffolding. And yes, that’s pre-Covid and the scaffolding is still there.

>182 kjuliff: A friend of mine is reading Scaffolding now and enjoying it a lot. It's good to put a face to your name, Kate.

>182 kjuliff: I had to laugh at the AI summation of the book. I'll have to look for Scaffolding (grr, the touchstone keeps wanting to be a different book). I'm hoping my library request for The Husbands comes in soon. It's another recommendation from you that may help defeat my reading doldrums.

>182 kjuliff: I was taught scaffolding teaching in my first semester in Deaf Ed masters program. It made perfect sense to me, cant imagine teaching any other way I used it all my career, not just for the kids who were deaf, but for a vast array of different kids, and it was successful for many. Its also a method that isnt dated because you can easily upchange an older lesson to a newer concept later on

>185 cindydavid4: Ah I see. I hadn’t thought of its meaning in the educational sense. I’ll bear that in mind as I finish the book. Sadly however in my building’s case, the meaning of “temporary” for scaffolding is a far stretch. The photo was taken pre Covid. I’m starting to wonder when our balconies will be accessible.

oh, the touch store description of the book goes directly to ESL instruction so thats where I thought this book was going. NP Im hoping your scaffolding lasts!

>187 cindydavid4: Ah I see Now fixed Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin

This is not about a book but is a question about the American language. I don’t know where else to ask it.

It’s a form of speech that I’m pretty sure wasn’t here when I arrived in 1996. I started hearing it infrequently about ten years ago but now it’s in common parlance (spoken).

It’s the use of “at”. Instead of saying “Where are you”, people are saying “Where are you at?”.

It’s almost as annoying as the use of “went” instead of “gone”. As in “I had went fishing”.

Am I wrong. Is this “at” thing new?

I don’t know where I’m at!

>189 kjuliff: "where you at?" has been around a while and is definitely still teen speak. I mainly hear boys saying it, rather than girls, for whatever reason.

My boys (14 and 11) have all kinds of slang and different speech patterns that I've had to learn/decipher.

no cap - not lying
that "slaps" - that's awesome
AFK - "away from keyboard"
rizz - someone who is really attractive and confident - I think this comes from "chaRISma"
Lit - cool or popular
ship - from relationship but usually used to predict that two people will get together "I ship Will and Isabel"

There are so many more, but I can't recall them because I've gotten so used to them. I think every generation has their spoken slang and new words, including grammar changes. But both of my kids only speak this way (and text). They wouldn't write that way in an email or obviously not in a paper for school.

I heard a podcast about this sort of thing that interviewed the author of Like, Literally, Dude, Valerie Friedman, and I've been meaning to read it. I don't think it's a very mainstream book (only 67 amazon reviews!), so I'm not sure if there would be an audio version for you, but the author was interesting.

When I went to New Orleans in 1968 to go to college, a commonly used greeting among NO natives was "Where y'at?" (Where are you at). As far as I know the phrase had been in use forever in NO. New Orleans natives (particularly those not of a high social status or uneducated) were sometimes referred to in a derogatory way as "Yats" because of the use of this phrase. (Akin to ethnic slurs used to describe other ethnicities in the past, no longer used, although as far as I recall it was not a term applied to black New Orleanians.)

>191 arubabookwoman: >190 japaul22: It’s not shorthand. It’s “Where are you at” in spoken speech. I have a13 year old grandson so I’m used to his mode of texting.
idk
yep
Nitr

Though sometimes I’ll get something like,
“Grandma, I’ve broken my iPhone; it accidentally landed on the concrete floor and it’s totally ruined”
🥲
But I’ve come across “where are you at?” In adults well over 25 in tv interviews. They are adding “at” to the verb.

>192 kjuliff: interesting. I don’t think I’ve noticed it the way you’re describing.
I predict I’ll now hear it everywhere since you’ve pointed it out!

>189 kjuliff: "Where are you at" and "I had went..." are both standard features of AAVE/Black English. Perfectly grammatical within that context; you're just hearing people whose dialect is different than yours.

>194 KeithChaffee: I see. But it not specific to Blacks? I thought I was pretty familiar with AAVE but I am pretty sure I’ve only noticed white adults use it. I know words like aks (ask) are standard but the “where are you at” doesn’t seem to belong to any racial group.

My natural dialect remains Australian but I’ve lived and worked in America for 25 years and the “at” usage stands out. Living in NYC one gets used to a variety of accents and I rarely even hear my own.

A lot of features of AAVE slip out of that specific community, and that process happens faster than it used to now that rap and hip-hop are such a major part of pop music.

>188 kjuliff: Ha! yes I can see how that would be confusing :)

>191 arubabookwoman: that was my thought too - very New Orleans-y

>189 kjuliff: "Where're you at?" is a really common expression in informal English in Atlantic Canada, and has been forever. It demonstrates to me that the location is the important thing - you're "at" a place, not just a more existential "Where are you?"!

Then there's the "Stay where you're at til I comes where you're to." This also has the emphasis on location. It's more a Newfoundland way of speaking, but again, seems to have been around forever.

"had went" isn't used in these parts

I remember in the hipppie days Where you at? referred more to state of mind then place.havent heard that in a while tho

>200 cindydavid4: >199 SassyLassy: These are both very interesting usages. Both make a lot of sense.

I remember now where I heard it most. Being unable to read I’ve been watching true crime series and the 911 responders\ caller says “Where are you at?” So North American - using actual words rather than nuanced inflection.

That dreadful British comedian Michael McIntyre does a skit on it.
British - American
Horse riding - horseback-riding
Pavement- sidewalk
Bin - waste paper basket
Glasses - eyeglasses
Squash - racquet ball

>202 kjuliff: Once more, for the 911 responders, it is the location which is critical, so "Where are you at? There is no time in an emergency for nuanced inflection.

>203 SassyLassy: I know. But I I’ve heard it other times as well. As I stated. It’s new to me and is obviously used in different dialects as others have mentioned. Now, where was I at in my reading? New topic ….

>182 kjuliff: Back to Scaffolding - I foolishly recommend it without finishing. The problem is me, and not the book, as I’m so ill and drifting easily to sleep, but I sort of lost the thread and vibe of the book, just after I was third of the way through.

And yes it did turn into a sex romp as the Guardian headline put it. I’m too mentally and physically exhausted to even think of activities sexual, and the antics of the freedom-loving no-holds barred French did nothing for my self-absorbed mood. .

I not unrecommending, Scaffolding - just my comments.

>206 kjuliff: I will pick up this book prepared for shenanigans.

>191 arubabookwoman: You are right about New Orleans and "Yats," though in my time living in New Orleans I came to understand that Yats, and the dialect (if that's what linguists would call it) that are/were associated with them, sprung from a particular neighborhood known as the Ninth Ward. It seemed to me that Yats was more a fond appellation rather than a derogatory one, though maybe it had evolved in that direction between the 60s, when you were there, and my seven New Orleans years during the 80s. In the 1980s there was a very popular cartoonist/columnist named Bunny Mathews who lovingly spoofed the Yats via a Ninth Ward couple he created, Vic and Nat'ly. The humor was definitely affectionate.

Just for fun, here's a couple:





Sadly, the Ninth Ward got inundated during Katrina, and during the build back got significantly gentrified.

>200 cindydavid4: I agree that the 60s phrase, "Where are you at?" had more to do with "What do you think," or "What's your attitude?" than, literally, "Where are you?" And then there was also the phrase that designated approval or agreement: "That's where it's at!"

And then there is the joke about the country youth who gets into Harvard and on his first day on campus goes up to a random student and asks, "Hey, friend, can you tell me where the student union is at?" The student says, "At Harvard, we don't end our sentences with prepositions," to which our hero replies, "All right, can you tell me where the student union is at, asshole?"

>208 rocketjk: A great explanation of the various meanings explaining my Antipodean question.

>208 rocketjk: fun stuff - those cartoons

>208 rocketjk: Oh my, those cartoons. They bring back such memories of the NO accent. I hadn't thought of "urnge" (for orange) in years!
As I recall in the 60's most "yats" were considered to be from the "Irish Channel"--uptown between Magazine and the river. Maybe I caught the derogatory connotation from the rarified atmosphere prevalent among some groups on the Tulane campus.

I don't come across 'Where are you at' much in the UK, but I do struggle with 'outside of' and 'inside of' in the mouths of British speakers (although not as bad as 'would of' etc!). And as for 'gotten'!

>211 arubabookwoman: "As I recall in the 60's most "yats" were considered to be from the 'Irish Channel'"

Interesting! Once I read your mention of the Irish Channel, that seemed right to me, too. I looked it up on wikipedia, on which the page for "New Orleans English" says "Irish Channel" in one place and "Ninth Ward" in another. I think really it became a ubiquitous white working class accent. One other interesting facet of that particular accent is that it's much more akin to some New York/New Jersey working class accents than to what we normally think of as a Southern accent. From that wikipedia page:

"Plausible origins of the accent are described in A. J. Liebling's book The Earl of Louisiana.

There is a New Orleans city accent ... associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and Irish Third Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smith inflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans."

Here's the Wikipedia page, which is interesting and discusses a few different NOLA dialects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_English

And, it just occurs to me, if you were good friends with somebody he or she might greet you with, "Where y'at, cat?"

I remember Vic and Nat'ly! That cartoon appeared in Figaro, the city's free weekly newspaper.

I had two great aunts who lived there, one in Uptown who lived close to where the St Charles streetcar turned onto Carrollton Avenue, and her sister, who lived close to Freret Street and Napoleon Avenue; thanks to the streetcar and the "Freret Jet" I could visit them for Sunday dinners practically every weekend instead of dining in Bruff Commons 🤢 when I was a student at Tulane. They were both common laborers, as were the two sons of one of therm, and they sounded like Vic and Nat'ly, including their frequent use of words such as "berl" (boil) and "urnge" (orange). The daughter of the other aunt graduated from one of the city's universities and was a staff member for the mayor, and although she and her daughters spoke with a slight and recognizable New Orleans accent (e.g., Wynton Marsalis) it was nowhere near as harsh. My girlfriend at the time lived in Gentilly close to St Bernard Avenue, and her and her family's accent were closer to my aunt's, IIRC, but a close friend and study buddy of mine at Tulane from New Orleans East was a Creole who could pass for White, and her NOLA accent was very subtle, as were probably many of the Creole people who lived there.

Another well known NOLA saying was "Yeah you right!"

I remember freshman students getting an orientation guide to the university, which also included information about New Orleans, its residents, and its unique customs. One greeting which frequently confused visitors was the question "How do you want that po' boy dressed?" 😂

ETA: One book about NOLA that I absolutely loved was New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City by Andrei Codrescu, which consists mainly if not all of his columns in Gambit. I loved listening to him on NPR, on a variety of topics.

I have a pile of started unfinished boks o- all promising but various factors have led me to discarding them for now.

Then today I managed to borrow an 🎧 copy of Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst. It’s rather long and I wasn’t really looking for a book about gays, the theatre and UK politics BUT it’s so exquisitely as all Hollinghurst’s books are that I just might have a chance of reading it to the end.

Surely I owe it to the writer. And UK politics might take my mind of US ones.

Hollinghurst writing is so exquisite it feels almost an insult not to keep on keeping on.

Enjoy Hollinghurst. This is an author I need to read.

I read, and very much enjoyed, Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty several years ago.

>217 rocketjk: I loved The Line of Beauty too. And his new our Evenings might be even better . I sense it may be -semi autobiographical.

>216 dchaikin: Yes Dan, I hope you get around to him as I think you would appreciate his works. I’ve recently read an article by Hollinghurst on books that have played a part in his reading. At the time of writing he was reading Creation Lake of which he comments

I’m in the grip of Rachel Kushner’s coolly brilliant and suspenseful Creation Lake. It is, I suppose, a “novel of ideas”, a class of fiction I have never before found so wonderfully seductive.

Praise indeed. It gave me a bit of a much needed uplift to feel I was in good company.

It’s an interesting article - Alan Hollinghurst: ‘I wrote letters to my schoolfriends in dwarfish runes’

>219 kjuliff: - well, I reluctantly see his point on CL. But you’re the one making me want to read him. 6 hours left in my current audiobook - so I’ll need a new one soon.

More on Our Evenings - I seem to be having a problem with sex scenes lately. Probably because my sexual life is in the distant past.

I gave up on Scaffolding partly because of the increasing amount of heterosexual sexual activity content, and now Hollinghurst is pushing the limit in Our Evenings. Of course the sex theme came as no surprise, but I’m just not that interested in reading about gay sex. Nevertheless I think I will battle on as the book is so much more substantial than other books that are piling up in my “put aside” pile.

Then again my chronic illnesses are getting worse, plus it’s the Christmas season, a time of year that holds no joy for me.

It’s like the world’s gone to sleep and every one else is having fun with “loved ones”. It’s the loneliness time of year for people like me.

I'm glad you will keep at Our Evenings. It's a possible 2025 Booker. I wish you warmth. Hugs.

>222 dchaikin: 😊 Thanks Dan for the encouragement. I really feel Our Evenings will be worth the effort. From what I’ve read to date I too think it could make the next Booker long list at the very least .

I keep you in my thoughts Hugs!

I have to take a break from Our Evenings. It’s the sexual desire of the MC which pervades everything that he comes across in his path through life. A teapot, a leaf floating in the wind, a folded-up newspaper. Anything and everything is a turn-on. Half his luck but I need a break.

Being restricted to 🎧 drives me crazy - there are so many books I want to read that are unavailable to me.

After going through some Guardian recommendations I came across a writer who I’ve never heard of - Tessa Hadley and am going to give a collection of her short stories After the Funeral a go. Maybe I’ll get back to the testosterone-soaked virtual pages of Our Evenings, but right now I’m in need of the voice of a woman.

Just catching up, your thread's been hopping. Thanks for encouraging me to read The Husbands, it was a perfect book for my mood. I too dislike this time of year, always have. Hanukkah comes late this year, so I don't even have candles (yet) to brighten my mood.

Update. Well, After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley has given me some respite from Our Evenings.

This collection of twelve short stories is light but not frothy, insightful at times but sometimes a bit bland. A little bit twee and a little bit Kate Atkinson. But worth it if in need of English comfort food with a touch of sardonic.

A little bit Kate Atkinson doesn't sound bad at all. (On FB, Kenneth Williams messaged me on getting a little frustrated around the middle of Our Evenings. But eventually he came to embrace it.)

>228 dchaikin: Even Kate Atkinson can be a little too Kate Atkinson. Her characters all seem as if they have just stepped out of an English novel, to put it mildly.

As do many of Hollingshurst’s now I come to think of it. I’d love to read a novel where Atkinson’s lasses frolic with Hollinghurst’s lads.

>229 kjuliff: i really need to read Hollinghurst...

>230 dchaikin: He’s not my pick for you Dan. I’m beginning to think he’s over-rated. But I’ll be interested to read your take on his work. Do you plan to read his latest first?

>231 kjuliff: maybe. Yes, on audio

Since her illness began, at least in the intervals when she felt well enough to read, she had immersed herself in books, almost frantically trying not to leave open any chip in her consciousness through which she could be waylaid by awareness of her body or by fear or disgust. She read only fiction, not history or politics and nothing experimental or difficult that would require her to pause for reflection or argument. She had read a lot of novels recently that she would’ve disdained in the past.

From Tessa Hadley’s short story “Under the Sin of the Moon” in her collection Bad Dreams and Other Stories.

Yep

I’m going to read more of Tessa Hadley. The quality of her stories are rather variable, but they do the trick. Easy to listen to with the occasional insight.

I’ve decided it’s pointless to persevere with Our Evenings - I appreciate the writing but the content is of little interest or consequence to me.

Not sure of my next read. The Plot looks promising but the audio version is just so badly done I had to stop after a page.

>234 kjuliff: I’m curious about Hadley

>235 dchaikin: I can’t remember how I came across Tessa Hadley, but it was through a post on LT, maybe by cariola .

I usually look to see if LT member framji has read a book if I’m unsure, and he had. It’s strange - I know little about Framji Minwalla who describes himself as a vagrant academic, though I’ve seen him on a literary podcast or two, but he’s never failed me.

>229 kjuliff: "Even Kate Atkinson can be a little too Kate Atkinson." What a very precise and accurate way of putting it.

In 2000 Helen Garner published the The Spare Room which is based on a real life event involving one of her friends. There was a lot of debate at the time about the ethics of writing about friends, even if those friends were not public figures and could only be identified by someone in Helen’s circle.

I have a friend who has been writing a book where the central character is an amalgamation of me and two other friends. She’s been writing this for years and all of us thought it was ridiculous. Not only could such a person never exist, but Sarah would never finish the book.

Then last night I read an article on Sarah - it was an interview where she talked about the publication of her first book!

In horror I read on. The book was about her mother. Phew. But continuing on I read that Sarah would soon be publishing her second novel. I could not believe it. I have no desire to read or have others read Sarah’s description of my private world.

Then this morning an email came from Sarah. She’s traveling to NYC in a few months to see me. She has something to celebrate….

>238 kjuliff: Well, that doesn't sound good at all. Just what you need is more stress.

>237 rv1988: 😊

>239 rocketjk: I’ve filed it in the too-hard basket. .

Yikes! can you change your phone number or address? or be honest with her and tell her you are not comfortable with knowing about her book

>242 cindydavid4: I can’t change my phone number or address. I hope she doesn’t write a second book. All our mutual friends know what she’s like and at least the MC is an amalgamation. I’ll try to find out more from other friends.

I did send one friend who doesn’t know Sarah well a copy of the first book - the one about the mother - and she answered - “oo that sounds interesting; I’d read that book.”

>238 kjuliff: Oh dear. Yes, this does feel terribly invasive. I know all writers do this to some extent, but this seems very up close and personal.

It reminds me - someone from my university wrote a book about his time there. It caused quite a hassle: many people recognised themselves and didn't care for their portrayal. Fortunately, half the student population was safe: he didn't see women as people and he didn't write them as characters in his book: they were just background. I'm in there somewhere, name-checked only but I still didn't enjoy the feeling of it.

>229 kjuliff: >237 rv1988:
Light bulb moment! I've been wondering why I so enjoyed much of her earlier work, but have increasingly struggled to even finish more recent books (I've not been reading her Jackson Brodies though, although loved Case Histories), and was (along with most of book group) massively underwhelmed by Normal Rules Don't Apply. Reading that para, it all fell into place - you sum up my problem perfectly! Thank you!

>245 Willoyd: Thank you! Interestingly I went off herr about the same time as you did. And there was I thinking I was the only one. Yes the Kate-Atkinson magic did not evolve.

I am very ill now so won’t be posting or reading CR for a while if at all. Thanks to everyone for opening up my reading library and for offering me their friendships.

Hope I will pull through.

No Christian prayers please

>247 kjuliff: I'm pulling for you, Kate.

thoughts and love for you. heal soon

Thinking of you

Wish in well in any un-Christian manner you so desire. Hugs. Thinking of you.

Hey Kate, ducking in to send good wishes.

>247 kjuliff: Hope you feel better soon!

>247 kjuliff: Very sorry to hear this, Kate. Really hope you are back with us again soon.