I shall go and search for you there, forthwith!
True crime...I go through phases on it. LOL, my ex used to worry about it a lot, especially when I was bringing home book after book about women who had murdered abusive spouses.
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All Things Books And Reading Thread - 2018
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True crime...I go through phases on it. LOL, my ex used to worry about it a lot, especially when I was bringing home book after book about women who had murdered abusive spouses.
I recently read What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty and I really enjoyed it. There haven't been a lot of books lately that have had me desperately wanting to get back to reading it when I had to be an adult, but this one was one.
Regarding Tom Bombadil; he can't be a Maia. I just found this in the chapter "The White Rider" of The Two Towers; Gandalf is speaking to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, explaining whom Merry and Pippin have met and where they've gone:
Margret
Mentally and emotionally, yes. And wanted to be physically, but the first time he drew back his fist, before he could let fly, I told him, "I'll make you a deal. You NEVER EVER hit me in anger, and I'll let you sleep with both eyes shut." He believed me. I, however, was too idiotic to realize that the emotional and mental stuff was just as bad, if not quite so immediately lethal. Took me a while.
WELL SPIT! I forgot to say that most of my new order of books has come in. There are a few still in transit. I have most of Shirley Damsgaard's "Ophelia and Abby" series now, I just have to order one more, and a good start on Caroline Burn's "Fear Familiar Mystery" series. AND #2, 3 & 4 of Patricia Fry's "Klepto Cat" series (that's the series that I reviewed #27 & 28). LOTS of books to get in that series, and it will be slow-going, as they aren't generally available used.
Right now, I'm re-reading "The Whole Cat and Caboodle," which was really just to keep me busy while waiting for this shipment to arrive.
Right now, I'm re-reading "The Whole Cat and Caboodle," which was really just to keep me busy while waiting for this shipment to arrive.
That's not idiotic, that's young and naive. It was also the popular wisdom of the time - only physical abuse officially counted as abuse back when you and I were young. And even physical abuse was often blamed on the victim. I remember a case that happened in Colorado Springs decades ago: A woman left her abusive husband and went to a women's shelter with their young son, but she was a devout woman and remained a member of her church. So one Sunday the husband, who had been unable to find out where the shelter was, went to her church and hid in the parking lot. When she came out after church he shot and killed her.
At his murder trial the judge determined that the victim was partially responsible for her own death, not because she'd gone somewhere predictable, but because she'd left her husband without warning him first, so his anger was perfectly understandable. Also, the poor man was now a single father and had to care for his young son all by himself (can't you just hear the violins weeping in the background?); therefore the judge sentenced this convicted murderer to work release. Never mind that telling him would probably have gotten her killed before she could ever reach the shelter, and never mind that there was clear evidence of premeditation, and never mind that the man was clearly unfit to raise the son whose mother he had murdered. Poor kid. I wonder what happened to him.
Margret
I recall that a great-Aunt of mine was on tranquilizers for years. The reason? Her first husband beat her, and the doctor medicated her so that she wouldn't upset him!
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
I'm still re-reading the Second Chance Cat series, "Buy a Whisker" while I wait for the rest of this shipment of books to come in. I ordered books from THREE series...one is not here at all yet, and of the other two, I'm missing the first TWO BOOKS! That's my ONLY issue with Thriftbooks. It isn't an actually place, it is a consortium of several used book stores, so one large order could possibly ship from seven or eight places, all shipping on different dates and arriving several days apart. HOWEVER...their prices are excellent, I've only had to contact customer service twice out of 50 or 60 orders, my issues were resolved IMMEDIATELY and politely, and I couldn't afford books otherwise, or at least, not in the numbers I read them!
I keep forgetting to post my reading updates in this tread.
I got bored of Gulliver's Travels. Too many made-up words and detailed descriptions. And the English teacher in me got fed-up with The Random Capitalization of words that Do Not Need to be capitalized.
I've just finished reading Truman Capote "Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Stories." I really enjoyed that.
I started Pride and Prejudice last night. I've read it a coupe of times before, but it will keep me going until I find something else.
I got bored of Gulliver's Travels. Too many made-up words and detailed descriptions. And the English teacher in me got fed-up with The Random Capitalization of words that Do Not Need to be capitalized.
I've just finished reading Truman Capote "Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Stories." I really enjoyed that.
I started Pride and Prejudice last night. I've read it a coupe of times before, but it will keep me going until I find something else.
The English teacher in you is obviously too modern; this was a "thing" when Jonathan Swift was writing.
And yet you enjoy Pride and Prejudice?!
It's extremely high on my list of most boring books ever written.Did you ever watch a movie named "Cold Comfort Farm" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112701/)? Someone in my Women's Group rented it back in the late '90s and we all went over to her house and watched it. Utterly hilarious, and I hadn't read Pride and Prejudice at the time; I suspect it would have been even funnier if I had. And in looking it up just now I discover that it's based on a book of the same name by Stella Gibbons; I think I need to put it on my BookBub Wanted list.
Edit: GoodReads reviews: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
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Well, last night I got almost as far as the battle at Helm's Deep; I suspect I'll finish that off tonight, and then it's off to Isengard to be briefly reunited with Merry and Pippin before the group fragments further.Margret
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You're right, Pride and Prejudice is dull and really silly in the way it goes on about manners and clothes and etiquette and all that. I'm just glad I didn't live in those days.
Yes, I have seen Cold Comfort Farm but it was a long time ago. Some how the Pride and Prejudice connection was lost on me. Maybe I'll try and get a copy of that to read soon.
Yes, I have seen Cold Comfort Farm but it was a long time ago. Some how the Pride and Prejudice connection was lost on me. Maybe I'll try and get a copy of that to read soon.
Norachan
, Cold Comfort Farm (the novel) was actually a send-up of the whole genre of melodramatic books about rural life, from Thomas Hardy to the Brontë sisters to a whole slew of books that were being written between the two World Wars. Stella Gibbons worked as a book reviewer at a magazine named "The Lady," and had gotten tired of reviewing these books (The 100 best novels: No 57 – Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (1932)). Many of the names in the book/movie (both place names and people's names) seem rather Dickensian (though I don't recall that Dickens was guilty of writing rural melodramas). I haven't read any of the between-war books that truly inspired Cold Comfort Farm, and only a few of the Victorian novels; I'd say it owes more to Jane Eyre than Pride and Prejudice (Aunt Ada Doom is reminiscent of Bertha Mason, for instance, and there's a big mystery around her - what did she see in the wood shed that blighted her life at the age of two? - a mystery that's never solved, plus there's the whole thing about being well-educated but unqualified for any job that might pay well), but there are links to all of those books and, frankly, I'm unwilling to read more of them just to search for the links.I know that when I saw the movie many of the women I saw it with were linking it primarily to Pride and Prejudice; I think they may have just been reading it and were ripe for something that pricked holes in the whole genre.
Margret
Then you Need Not read my Collection of old Letters from my Family, dated back to the Eighteenth Century. They would Drive you Crazy in short Order!
God knows, they do me!
That is hereby and forthwith going on my list! Almost capitalized "list" just to mess with
Norachan
!The rest of the books came in today, so I'll finish up "Buy a Whisker" and start in on the new ones. I think I'll start with 2, 3, and 4 of the Klepto Cat series, then to the Ophelia and Abby series, and save the Fear Familiar series for last. I don't usually do Harlequins, but the Intrique books are a bit better than most of their stuff, and, HEY...cat.
The only thing that sticks in my mind about Cold Comfort Farm is Rufus Sewell looking rather dashing as Seth (or was it Rubins?), one of the Starkadder boys.
Worth watching the movie just for that
Mamanyt1953
Worth watching the movie just for that
Mamanyt1953
I just started Jacqueline Winspear's To Die but Once. I love her gentle English mysteries. And BTW,
mani
, she's British, but she doesn't overuse British slang!
mani
, she's British, but she doesn't overuse British slang!
I'll see if I can find a copy of the movie, as well!Worth watching the movie just for that
I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.I just started Jacqueline Winspear's To Die but Once. I love her gentle English mysteries. And BTW,
I'm fine with a working class British character using that kind of language. 
Yes, of course, and Winspear's Billy does use slang, but she doesn't use it in her narrative, which is what I found annoying. She does use British words, which is fine with me as the setting is southern England and she's English by birth.I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.
I'm now on the third Klepto Cat book by Patricia Fry. "Sleight of Paw." Still enjoying the series. I have one more on hand...and then a BUNCH to get, a bit at a time. They don't turn up on used sites often at all, so I order them new, 1-2 every month or so, as the budget allows.
I'm reading a three book set by Eric R. Asher. Good steampunk fiction.
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