The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
General Non-Book Discussions
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Café Quito: 'pub' thread for general discussions
WndyJW wrote: "We got a puppy today. An 8 week old chocolate English Labrador Retriever. We named him Brutus (he’s English so we had to.) No matter how awful and frightening and sad the world is a puppy makes th..."
Congratulations! Winnie Fred Boxer and Stella Artois Dachshund welcome Brutus to the Dogs-whose-humans-read-a-lot family.
As does Darcey the Golden Retriever - but surely we need a new Avatar/Profile Pic Wendy to commemorate it.
I know SO many people who have gotten puppies or kittens during this last few months, I'm starting to feel like I should join in. (But my old disgruntled tomcat would be very upset with me. He doesn't even like to see other cats out the window.)congrats on your puppy, Wendy!
Welcome to Brutus from Panzer Patterdale (Black Fell Terrier) as well. The name is not a Heinz Guderian reference, but Panz likes to sit on my feet when I'm reading.
Thank you everyone! Brutus feels very welcome. We felt a bit guilty buying from a breeder when so many wonderful dogs need homes, but our friends with rescues and the rescue sites all said rescues can iffy with very young children and we have 2 under 7 and there will be more over the next several years, and my husband is leery of dogs because their childhood dogs bit them all. (It’s a mystery to my grown in-laws that they all voted to keep a dog they were afraid of.) So, he only wanted a lab. We figured if we are getting a particular breed we might as well plan for chaos and get a puppy. I will post pics of him on my page. He’s pretty cute.
Yes that thinking is very much in line with why we acquired my profile pic Golden Retreiver Wendy (although the leeryness from me as husband was more due to snappy dogs on my childhood paper round).
WndyJW wrote: "Thank you everyone! Brutus feels very welcome. We felt a bit guilty buying from a breeder when so many wonderful dogs need homes, but our friends with rescues and the rescue sites all said rescues ..."That’s why we went with a boxer breeder, too. We don’t have grandkids yet, but probably will in the next few years.
Brutus is a cutie, but I have to admit Golden Retrievers are the most photogenic. The only negative is the amount of shedding with labs, I’m looking into a riding vacuum cleaner.I had to stop myself from posting the pic of my grandson, who is equally as adorable, holding Brutus because that is a very charming photo, but even I don’t want this site to become about the grandkids; dogs, yes, grandkids no, they take up enough of my life as it is. Books are for me alone!
Our dog has ruined several vacuums already
I pm getting a rubber rake type thing that gathers hair before we vacuum.
WndyJW wrote: "I pm getting a rubber rake type thing that gathers hair before we vacuum."I have several of these rubber tool things. The rake is awesome for animal hair, and if you have a dog/cat who likes to lounge on your giant cushions, like me, the smaller hand-held wand-looking ones are seriously awesome. I "rake" then vacuum, and it makes a huge difference. YMMV depending on how wiry or straight the animal's fur/hair is.
For U.S. based readers who may be paying close watch to our 2020 presidential election: Last evening, the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention, our future President, Joe Biden, referenced and quoted authors Soren Kierkegaard and Seamus Heaney during his official acceptance speech of his presidential nomination.
Heartwarmingly earlier in the evening, the DNC showed a video of a young teen who stutters, as Biden used to stutter. The teen, Brayden Harrington, spoke of how Joe Biden helped him to overcome his stutter, and went the extra mile by recommending a book of poems by William Butler Yeats for the teen to read.
It need not be said our election cycle is rough, but moments like last evening, not only because of the literary references, were invigorating and inspired awe. It is lovely to see that there are bibliophiles everywhere, especially in the rough & tumble of American politics.
Fun fact: President Barack Obama is an avid reader like many of us, and actually reads every book he recommends to the public.
C I N D L E wrote: "It need not be said our election cycle is rough, but moments like last evening, not only because of the literary references, were invigorating and inspired awe. It is lovely to see that there are bibliophiles everywhere, especially in the rough & tumble of American politics.Fun fact: President Barack Obama..."
I'm glad you mentioned this. I have been very comforted by this convention, and last night really did cap it off so well. I was very touched by the boy's story and the suggestion of Yates seemed just perfect to me. Also, I follow President Obama on Twitter for his book, movie & music picks more than any specific political reason.
Between the convention and the Edinburgh festival, I have felt more hope this week than I have in quite a while.
Our beloved UK Prime Minister did a press conference today in a school libraryThe attentive rapidly spotted that the school librarian seemed to be sending a message in the arrangement of the books behind him....
https://www.tes.com/news/boris-johnso...
[Though to ruin a good story, it seems the books were chosen delibarately, but had been like that for 6 months since the last librarian left, and she'd meant them as a message to the school leadership]
In the few situations I haven't decided for myself I tend to follow the Scottish government's rules. The rest of the UK usually adopt them a few days afterwards, they are announced in advance and they don't keep changing.
Confirmed that the books were left 6 months ago and not meant as a message against Borishttps://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Interestingly one of the books - The Resistance - is written by a close friend of ours - she was very pleased!
This may sound like a strange question, but does anyone remember in which book a woman sticks her finger up her arse because anal sex might be on the cards that night? (It might be by Ottessa Moshfegh.)
Hmm I don't remember that in an Otessa Moshfegh (if so it would have to be my year of rest and relaxation)
Thanks for trying Robert (and not saying 'You Are strange'). I think I mentioned the incident in my review and suggested she should have wrapped her finger in a tissue first, but if I did then the book is not My Year of Rest and Relaxation or The Pisces (by Melissa Broder).
I was going to mention the Pisces but I don’t remember that happening either. I thought maybe early Irvine welsh but neither
The book is mainly about the woman, so unlikely to be Irvine Welsh, but you are certainly thinking of books in the right general area.Oh well, I'll just leave the end of my review as it is then:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks for the nod to my warped sense of humour!
Paul wrote: "Thanks for the nod to my warped sense of humour!"You are not the only person who really enjoyed reading it, but you are the only person I know who did, so you can take it personally or not, as you prefer.
(Note to GY. Do not take from that, that I don't think you have a warped sense of humour.)
Karen Michele wrote: "It might have been in Queenie."That is another possibility, but my 'spoiler' comments at the bottom of that review are a discussion of whether I think certain incidents are racist or not. There are two reasons for hiding them, one that they give spoiler details and two that I don't want a load of responses saying old, middle-class, white women are not allowed to say whether something is racist or not.
Val wrote: "You are not the only person who really enjoyed reading it, but you are the only person I know who did"Well me, the judges of the UK's primary translated literary prize, most of the shadow jury and a large portion of the entire fiction-reading population of the Netherlands. I do genuinely wonder why the M&G forum seem to be such outliers on this novel.
Well - all those people and one of the librarians at my local library - who recommended it highly (on a display "librarians suggest" shelf) and apparently, rumor has it, got a mild spanking after several patrons were not pleased. I wish I had more time to get the real scoop, b/c if true this explains SO much about my local library.
Thank you Wndy. I don't usually post links to my reviews because I don't write them for this informed and eloquent audience, but I thought I should make an exception in this case. (I read reviews from members of this group and take part in discussions.)
Thats our loss if all of your reviews are as good as this one.
Not quite sure where to post this - but Goodreads came up on Twitter just now as trending in the UK.And it's this article:
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-...
which begins....
"Why Goodreads is bad for books
After years of complaints from users, Goodreads’ reign over the world of book talk might be coming to an end"
The main gripe is the obvious ones - the search function is poor and the recommendations are dreadful particularly given how much data they have.
Although it seems something of a puff piece for "The StoryGraph" - anyone heard of that?
"As each reader joins the platform they are prompted to choose from a detailed list of features, explaining what they do or don’t like. Genres, plot features, types of characters, turn-offs such as “flat characters”. Users can also fill in their own reading preferences (they give suggestions such as “family sagas” or “LGBTQ+ authors”). And Goodreads users can import their account data, so they can add all the books they’ve already read into their StoryGraph profile."
My immediate reaction would be that sounds better for mainstream genre type books that can be reduced to formulae. But actually the example the article gives is a Charco Press book:
"To test The StoryGraph for myself, I type in a relatively new and niche release, Holiday Heart (a translated Latin American novel by Margarita Garcia Robayo from Charco Press). On Goodreads, it was almost impossible to find: the first five suggestions were books that didn't even contain both words in their titles, despite the site having an entry for the book. On The StoryGraph, even with its comparatively tiny pool of readers, the book instantly pops up, with detailed descriptions already in place."
Never heard of The StoryGraph. As for GR search, it's gotten worse in recent years, but overall actually, in comparison to simple Google search (which usually offers 10 different links to amazon) or Amazon itself, GR is pretty good. Which means - searching books is hard on the internet often, no matter where you look. The more niche the book, the more difficult it gets.
But when I KNOW I want a certain edition etc, I often come to GR, grab the ISBN, and either click through to a bookstore or just search the store via the ISBN. But like everything, GR is easier once you learn its wily ways.
I haven't read the article yet - but I shall, when time is a thing again... Thanks Paul - muy interesante.
Paul wrote: "Not quite sure where to post this - but Goodreads came up on Twitter just now as trending in the UK.And it's this article:
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-......"
Never heard of Storygraph. It would not interest me as a substitute for Goodreads. I don't follow Goodreads for recommendations; I like it more for discussing books.
It also looks a bit rubbish having tried it - definitely seems to classify books by ticking boxes "slow-paced, emotional, suspense" etc
Ella wrote: "Which means - searching books is hard on the internet often, no matter where you look."This reminds me of something hilarious that happened once when I asked Amazon Alexa to play Churchill and Orwell: the Fight for Freedom on Audible.
Me (tripping over my words): Alexa, read Churchill and Orwell.
Alexa: “Sorry, I couldn’t find ‘Off Track: or How I Dropped Out of College and Came to be a Horse Trainer in the 1970s While All My Friends Were Still Doing Drugs’”
Note: It's an actual book sold on Amazon.
I've imported by Goodreads ratings into his Goodreadskiller site - that bit works very nicelyIt then analyses my books - apparently the dominant moods in my books are challenging and reflective - which sounds about right
Then it does its real star act, and recommends books I'll love
An Ann Patchett, The Bone People and Isabel Allende
I think Goodreads may survive the challenge!
Paul wrote: "An Ann Patchett, The Bone People and Isabel Allende"There are several times when Facebook's 'laughing my head off' emoji might be appropriate.
Kerewin Hulm was at least trying to write a book you would enjoy.
I see apps and websites for finding your next book advertised on Instagram. Those apps and sites, like Storygraph, are not for avid readers. Avid readers know where to find their books. Many of my neighbors are readers, but only read around a dozen or so books a year, I’m gathering from our conversations that none of them have a long list of books they know they want to read. They wait for someone to suggest a book or they find a best seller. For them Storygraph might be useful.
Still it would be nice if Goodreads would consider it competition and invest in an upgrade of their app for example
Agreed. Unfortunately I think this article was very overhyped in terms of this new competing app.
I came to Goodreads from Shelfari which was visually more appealing with bookshelves and nested discussions, but I’m so used to GR I’d not go back to Shelari even if I was able. A lot of people were devastated when Shelfari closed. I saw people who talked about their Shelfari group getting them through crisis in their life, and that they lost years of recorded group discussions, group reads and challenges, and not everyone knew how to transfer books from Shelfari to GR so they lost their stats and reviews. I enjoy GR, but for some people this platform is their social life and their book group are their only friends.
I only became interested in goodreads after discovering this group. Before I just saw it as a place to track my reading. Strangely I used to follow the M & G blog but never occurred to me that it moved to GRIs there a thread about book blogs?
The M&G forum moved here, Trevor’s blog still exists.
A friend and I met at my local Barnes & Nobel and I discovered that changes have begun there, at this point they’re just moving things around. One of the staff said that it was due to Daunt’s new role.I found a Sarah Perry book, After Me Comes the Flood and Strange Hotel, which surprised me so I picked both of those up.
I really wanted to ask one of the staff why they don’t have a display with the Booker Longlist and the Women’s Prize Longlist. Wouldn’t book awards be an obvious marketing tool? I also notice nyrb books here and there instead of a carousel of nyrb editions like other bookstores. Perhaps I should volunteer my suggestions. I would like to see displays for National Book Award, Pen/Faulkner, Pulitzer in Fiction, Hugo, etc., and arrangements of publishers with matching book covers.
The small independent bookshops tend to be better at knowing about their stock than the chain ones, I've found; there are not all that many of those left, unfortunately.
It would be great if Barnes and Noble improved due to Daunt, Wendy. I think Waterstones did.
The Mookse and the Gripes
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No matter how awful and frightening and sad the world is a puppy makes things a bit better.