What are we reading? 6/11/2023

[FrancesBurgundy]

CCCubbon wrote: "This one from today’s T

18. Under church, climbers will find badgers (7)

( i can understand how the answer is arrived at but I would spell it differently? Another letter. Do you agree?)"
Yes, I didn't even know it could be spelt with a single letter. But it can!

[CCCubbon]

Neither did I, Frances

[AB76]

Selva Almada is one of a superb cohort of South American female writers, of which the majority are from Argentina, aged roughly from 45-50

The Wind That Lays Waste is her 2012 novel set in the North of Argentina, Entre Rios province, covering an encounter between a Protestant preacher and his daughter and a mechanic and his son.

She also set her brilliant non fiction work Dead Girls in the same region of Argentina. A hot, rather frozen in time rural area of large open spaces and small towns

[CCCubbon]

Success!
I asked why my poem was modded and they said done in eroor and reinstated.

[Tam]

CCCubbon wrote: "Success!
I asked why my poem was modded and they said done in eroor and reinstated."

I'm so glad about that. I couldn't see why trees were such a 'difficult' subject! Unless, as in Macbeth... they 'branch out' and go on the march... to demand their emancipation... from us!...

[AB76]

Some good soul here mentioned Death Of A Hero to me a few months back. Despite being a fond devourer of WW1 fiction from all nations( I remember my stoic grandfather even finding Barbusse a bit too much, after i recommended it to him)), i had actually never heard of Aldington or the novel, so many thanks. Its my next read, after Chessex

[CCCubbon]

Two clues today as both illustrate common cryptic clues. Both from today’s T. Both play on words.

22. Son and daughter cuddling brown bear (5)
24. Tom, say, ingests hydrogen gas (4)


Yesterday’s answer was ‘chivies’. That’s ch for church followed by ivies for climbers. The whole word meaning badgers.
My query was that I thought it should be chivvies but learned it could be spelled with only one v.

[MK]

First, a confession - I am a news junkie. That leads me to the headline I saw last week about the 'high-class' brothel arrests in Boston and DC. It reminded me of Laura Lippman's book And When She Was Good which appeared some years earlier after there was another headline in the Washington Post about a DC Madam who also had high-class (read mostly politicians) clients. I don't know if there is a correlation, but it was enough for me to check the library and find that, yes, it has this book. I think I will download the audio version.

I also want to alert one member here about - And When She Was Good. Unfortunately, I have always been bad about remembering names, but I do remember that he thought What the Dead Know was a fair to middling read. So I will recommed this Laura Lippman stand alone for his TBR shelf.

[MK]

My bedtime paperback by Michael Gilbert is so good - The Crack in the Teacup - that it is tempting me to sit and read instead of what I should be doing. It is appealing when a young soliciter sees what might be malfeasance among local electeds and begins to dig.

I can always put the making of a spaghetti sauce on the stove to simmer first.

[AB76]

Quite a few of my swiss reads have involved lakes as central characters in the novels. Ramuz The Young Man From Savoy, Walser The Assistant and now The Tyrant by Jacques Chessex.



Chessex is a more modern swiss writer, like Ramuz from the French side of the country, around Lake Geneva. The novel starts with the death of the main characters father, a doctor and starts to follow the months after his passing, spent in Lausanne and Lutry on the lake shore. The son is in his late 30s, teaching at a school and haunted by the image and the presence of his late father.

The novel was the first non-french winner of the Prix Goncourt, published in 1973, and so far it is a top notch swiss classic or modern classic. It has aged well in 50 years, it feels timeless in many ways and follows two darker Chessex novels i read in last 10 years, both again set in Protestant Romandie (the french speaking area of Switzerland.

The great Ramuz gets a mention, his bust glaring from a desktop at the school. In some ways i would say there is a real strength in countries with two distinct linguistic cultures. The Swiss-German writers do seem to look more towards Germany(Gotthelf-Keller-Durrenmatt-Walser), albeit with a strong Swiss originality. While the Swiss-French writers (Ramuz, Chessex), seem to mix the French and German influences, though french speaking Switzerland is very different to France or French speaking Belgium, in that up till the 1980s at least it was majority Protestant, especially in the West.

I heartily recommend it to you all

[Gpfr]

Further to the talk of Shakespeare, this might be a Christmas present idea from the Globe theatre:
If you're searching for the perfect gift for the theatre lover in your life, we may have the answer. With a Globe Player Gift Subscription, they can stream our catalogue of over 40 titles in the comfort of their home.

[scarletnoir]

A little bit of fun for those who like quizzes and who are French or have a good knowledge of that country... in my present 'light' book - Black Money by Ross Macdonald - a suspect purports to be a well-educated Frenchman. Our hero - gumshoe Lew Archer - gets a professor of French to devise a quiz to test the man in question. Here it is, with the answers (the book was published in 1966 and Q1 refers to a film made shortly before that, in French - not a modern English-language version):

One. Who wrote the original Les Liaisons dangereuses and who made the modernized film version?
Two. Complete the phrase: ‘Hypocrite lecteur …’
Three. Name a great French painter who believed Dreyfus was guilty.
Four. What gland did Descartes designate as the residence of the human soul?
Five. Who was mainly responsible for getting Jean Genet released from prison?

(view spoiler)[
1. Choderlos de Laclos wrote the original, and Roger Vadim made the movie.
2. From the opening poem of Baudelaire’s Fleurs du mal: ‘Hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frère…’
3. Degas.
4. The pineal gland.
5. Jean-Paul Sartre. (hide spoiler)]

This is actually a pretty difficult test. The only Q I could answer confidently was Q5... I did know (but had forgotten) the answer to Q1. Madame knew the answer to Q2 but as I've never studied French I didn't.

[scarletnoir]

I think my previous post will show that Macdonald is not your bog-standard crime writer. This is from Wikipedia:

Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (/ˈmɪlər/; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer. Since the 1970s, Macdonald's works (particularly the Archer novels) have received attention in academic circles[1][2][3] for their psychological depth,[4][5] sense of place,[6][7][8] use of language,[9] sophisticated imagery[10] and integration of philosophy into genre fiction.[11]

Brought up in the province of Ontario, Canada, Macdonald eventually settled in the state of California, where he died in 1983.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ma...

[Berkley]

scarletnoir wrote: "A little bit of fun for those who like quizzes and who are French or have a good knowledge of that country... in my present 'light' book - Black Money by Ross Macdonald - a suspect pu..."

my attempts:

(view spoiler)[
Q1. author: de Laclos; film-maker: don't know
Q2: sounds familiar but can't place it
Q3: don't know
Q4: pituitary gland
Q5: Sartre
(hide spoiler)]

After checking the real answers, I see I was misguidedly confident about Q4 and I feel pretty dumb about not getting Q2.

[scarletnoir]

Berkley wrote: "After checking the real answers, I see I was misguidedly confident about Q4 and I feel pretty dumb about not getting Q2.."

Better than me, anyway - I could not call to mind the answer to Q1. YOu didn't miss Q4 by much (in a quiz) though I suppose it would matter in surgery! ;-)

[scarletnoir]

A word of explanation - or if you prefer, and excuse: whereas it takes me three days or so to read one of Ross Macdonald's amusing PI novels, it can take me several hours to get through a 3-page chapter of Désérable's Évariste, and for this reason you won't be getting a review any time soon...

Why? you may well ask. Is the language that complex? Partly, yes - the author's vocabulary is absurdly rich, and he employs a full panoply including modern French, archaic expressions ('la chemise du père la pudeur'), words from other languages (Latin, Italian) or terms borrowed into French ('sextape')... but it's not that. Those words can be looked up fairly quickly.

No... it's that he also refers to (for example): historical events and individuals (Borodino & Heraclea; Louis XVIII and Charles X); philosophers (e.g.Seneca, Zeno) - and by implication their philosophy (stoicism) and its influence on Évariste's mother; and idiomatic expressions. Much of this (for the non-French reader) requires research in order to fully understand and appreciate what is being said (or implied). (Those examples come from a passage of 2-3 pages.)

This may sound like hard work - but it isn't: it is great fun for this reader, if extremely time-consuming. Désérable is a brilliant writer who has great fun with language. This is a brief passage about Évariste's father, with jokes:

Cela ne suffit pas: il lui faut aussi un violon d'Ingres (1), dans quoi il pisse allègrement(2). Il fait des vers, directement dans le violon; du théâtre, dans le violon avec les vers. Gabriel Galois, on l'aura compris, aurait voulu embrasser les lettres, mais les lettres ne voulurent pas de lui.

The passage refers to the father's literary ambitions, which come in addition to his having successfully achieved a municipal position. There are two idiomatic expressions at the beginning which make the joke work - but also impossible to translate. First, a more or less literal translation:

"It wasn't enough: he also needed Ingres's violin, into which he cheerfully pissed. He wrote verses - directly into the violin; plays - into the violin with the verses. Gabriel Galois, we've understood, wished to embrace the world of letters, but the world of letters didn't want him."

That makes little sense in English, so to explain:
(1) le violon d'Ingres - this refers to the famous painter, who also fancied himself as a violinist - so, it means a hobby. Ingres liked his violin so much that he insisted that it be shown in a case in a museum dedicated to his works of art: https://wordhistories.net/2018/01/05/...
(2) 'pisser dans le violon' - means in effect to waste time by doing something daft - to 'piss/spit in the wind', or 'to herd cats'.

So to translate the meaning the passage starts:

"It wasn't enough: he also needed a hobby at which he wasted his time. He wrote verses, and pieces for the theatre - futilely.... etc."

But this version, though comprehensible, loses the brilliant play of words and idioms in the original.

(The book sends me down innumerable rabbit holes, from which I occasionally emerge into the light.)

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote: "'pisser dans le violon' ..."

I didn't know this expression. I found this, from France Musique:

C’est comme pisser dans un violon

Pour résumer l’inutilité d’une action, il n’y a pas mieux comme expression que « autant pisser dans un violon ». Si les premières traces de l’expression remontent aux années 1860, il existe également une autre variante avec plus de sens : « souffler / siffler dans un violon ». En effet, l’acte de souffler dans un instrument à cordes, dans l’espoir de provoquer le même son qu’un instrument à vent, ne sert strictement à rien. Le langage courant aurait transformé souffler en « pisser », dans une déformation comique et vulgaire.

TRANSLATION - To sum up the uselessness of an action, there's no better expression than "you might as well be pissing into a violin". Although the earliest traces of the expression date back to the 1860s, there is also another variant with more meaning: "to blow/whistle into a violin". The act of blowing into a stringed instrument, in the hope of producing the same sound as a wind instrument, serves no purpose whatsoever. Common parlance would have transformed 'blowing' into 'pissing', in a comical and vulgar distortion.

The article is about idiomatic expressions connected to music:
https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusi...

[[deleted user]]

scarletnoir wrote: "A little bit of fun for those who like quizzes and who are French or have a good knowledge of that country..."
Good quiz. I knew the answers to Q1 but got none of the others. I have comforted myself with the idea that at one stage I did know, or must have known, or seem to recall knowing, all the answers to Q2-Q5 but that temporarily they were eluding me, so, really, on any sensible view, that’s 5 out of 5. Pretty impressive, non?

[CCCubbon]

22. Son and daughter cuddling brown bear (5)
S for son and d for daughter with tan for brown in the middle gives us stand which means bear.


24. Tom, say, ingests hydrogen gas (4)

Tom here refers to cat with h for hydrogen added inside giving us chat . Gas can be used as slang for chat.

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "'pisser dans le violon' ..."

I didn't know this expression. I found this, from France Musique:C’est comme pisser dans un violon

Pour résumer l’inutilité d’une action, il n’y a..."

Very good - thanks for that!

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "...on any sensible view, that’s 5 out of 5. Pretty impressive, non?"

Oh, absolutely... ;-)

I reckon that at best, and even using that method, I only knew the answers to 1a, 3 (possibly...) and 5 (for sure).

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "I think my previous post will show that Macdonald is not your bog-standard crime writer. This is from Wikipedia:

Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime..."

You might enjoy Ross Macdonald's novels The Chill and The Buried Man.

[giveusaclue]

I never knew that stand was another word for bear.

Reading up thread and seeing the word Everiste reminded me of the Inspector Everiste Clovis Désiré Pel series, written by Mark Hebden, which I used to love. Has anyone else read:

www.fantasticfiction.com/h/mark-hebde... them?

Meantime, I am reading

The series is set in Scarborough. DCI Tom Raven, a former soldier and Met Police detective has returned to his home town after the breakdown of his marriage and the death of his father, whose very rundown house he has inherited. It is always good to read books set in an area you have visited. I am sure the other crime fiction lovers on here would like the books,

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "I never knew that stand was another word for bear."

Neither did I... or hang on! I assumed that we were talking about those furry creatures which do unspeakable things in the woods - but apparently not. I can't stand it!


Reading up thread and seeing the word Everiste reminded me of the Inspector Everiste Clovis Désiré Pel series, written by Mark Hebden, which I us..."

I'm to blame for the mentions of Évariste, and it occurs to me rather belatedly that I totally forgot to explain who he was in my enthusiasm for the quality of the writing. So, to fill that gap (from Wikipedia):

Évariste Galois (/ɡælˈwɑː/;[1] French: [evaʁist ɡalwa]; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem that had been open for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory,[2] two major branches of abstract algebra.

Galois was a staunch republican and was heavily involved in the political turmoil that surrounded the French Revolution of 1830. As a result of his political activism, he was arrested repeatedly, serving one jail sentence of several months. For reasons that remain obscure, shortly after his release from prison, Galois fought in a duel and died of the wounds he suffered.[3]

Galois was only 20 when he died...

(I have not read any of the series you mentioned.)

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: "You might enjoy Ross Macdonald's novels The Chill and The Buried Man."

I mentioned The Chill on 13 Nov. and have since finished it... I'm currently on Black Money. I don't think I have 'The Buried Man'... yet! ;-)

Although I don't seem to have an addictive personality for most things - foods, drink, drugs - I do seem to have a habit of bingeing on authors once I properly get into them. Macdonald is my current 'fix' - I bought six Archer novels on 23 October, have finished 4 and am near the end of the fifth!

[Greenfairy]

I just came to say RIP A.S Byatt.

[CCCubbon]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "I never knew that stand was another word for bear."

Neither did I... or hang on! I assumed that we were talking about those furry creatures which do unspeakable things in the w..."

That’s crptic crosswords for you! One assumes the clue is about something and often it is another meaning of a key word. Drives one mad sometimes.
Today there was a clue

5. Rejected cheque for unsafe delivery? (7)

That foxed me for ages. Around I went through postal services, cheques, payment when I should have been thinking about an unsafe delivery but not by the postman. Yes the answer was bouncer which is a cricket term for a non allowed bowl. Took me ages to get it as well as a bad cheque.

Very sad about ASByatt, enjoyed many of her books and loved her short stories

Ross MacDonald - a name from the past. Used to read all his books but not for a long time now. Must look back.

[CCCubbon]

Greenfairy wrote: "I just came to say RIP A.S Byatt."

These are the her books on my shelves;

Byatt AS Sugar and other Stoties
Byatt AS Still Life
Byatt AS Babel Tower
Byatt AS Possession
Byatt AS Elementals
Byatt AS The Matisse Stories
Byatt AS The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye
Byatt AS The Little Black Book of Stories
Byatt AS The Biographers Tale
Byatt AS A whistling woman

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "You might enjoy Ross Macdonald's novels The Chill and The Buried Man."

I mentioned The Chill on 13 Nov. and have since finished it... I'm currently on [book:Black Mone..."

I'm a bit the same. I want to know what happens next.

[Berkley]

CCCubbon wrote: "That’s crptic crosswords for you! One assumes the clue is about something and often it is another meaning of a key word. Drives one mad sometimes.
Today there was a clue

5. Rejected cheque for unsafe delivery? (7)

That foxed me for ages. Around I went through postal services, cheques, payment when I should have been thinking about an unsafe delivery but not by the postman. Yes the answer was bouncer which is a cricket term for a non allowed bowl. Took me ages to get it as well as a bad cheque.."

I never would have got that one, not being familiar with the cricket term, or chivvie/chivie, for the same reason. But that's part of the fun, learning new words and expressions.

[Gpfr]

CCCubbon wrote: "Greenfairy wrote: "I just came to say RIP A.S Byatt."

These are her books on my shelves..."

I prefer her sister ...
I've only read Angels and Insects and A Whistling Woman, and wasn't drawn to reading any more.

[CCCubbon]

Gpfr wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Greenfairy wrote: "I just came to say RIP A.S Byatt."

These are her books on my shelves..."

I prefer her sister ...
I've only read Angels and Insects and [book:A Wh..."
Her short stories are very good. Little collectable books.
I have and keep many Drabble too.

[AB76]

I finished the Chessex novel The Tryant quite quickly, it didnt quite sustain its early brilliance but it was a dark and disturbing swiss french blast of the senses.

In the course of about a year, Jean Calmet, in his late 30s, tries to come to terms with the loss of his domineering, pillar of society father. Doubt scrapes away at this soul, as the solemn autumn of his fathers passing moves on and the seasons change. Elements of the plot seemed to leap out of nowhere, a semi midlife crisis fling with a 19yo girl was normal, a sudden bizarre visit to a Nazi-sympathizers flat in Lausanne seemed a bit random.

Overall this was very in keeping with the stern Calvinistic traditions of Swiss-French literature, there is very little light and a lot of angst, questioning and wonder. The church may not be accepted but it is always there, the bedrock of Swiss-French life up to the 1980s, in the cantons where Chessex grew up.

Next up is my third Randolph Stow novel, the Australian great has really enthralled me in the previous two novels of his i read, which were:
To The Islands(1958)-set in a western australian mission for native peoples
Tourmaline(1963)- set in a western australian outback town decaying into the dust

The novel i am starting is his 1979 work Visitants, set in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea

LOL....looks like the G censored this post on WWR.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "You might enjoy Ross Macdonald's novels The Chill and The Buried Man."

I mentioned The Chill on 13 Nov. and have since finished it... I'm currently on [book:Black Mone..."

My error. I think it's "The Underground Man."

[AB76]

Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller and more advert filled but they have done a good job with the 60th anniversary

Its sad to think that the absurd oaf could possibly have a good chance of re-election in 2024 and what that would do for the USA and its positions around the world. I hope and pray that Trump is a jailbird by then and tainted, having lost the election but its a worry that he seems like teflon.

Its also a worry that a system based on conciliation and compromise hasnt managed to bar candidates with criminal records!. The Founding Fathers and the Federalist Papers offered so much good to improve the tricky balances of 18th century politics and statecraft but now, almost 250 years later, we have a lazy, wise cracking goon within a year of his second Presidency.....its appalling.

If Biden gets a second term, he needs to add more justices to the SC and to try and reform the constitution(ie get rid of electroal colleges), to make it safer and less reliant on reliable actors and their respect for the state. Which is again, sad but necessary.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller and more advert filled ..."

Sorry AB but the first thing I thought of was 'pot and kettle'.
After all Boris Johnson may not have prison looming. but . . .

The main problem that Biden has is lack of charisma which looks like the first criteria needed in this day and age. The only way Biden could add more moderate members to the SC is if someone dies - specifically someone like Alito or Thomas. And as much as I wish there were no such thing as the Electoral College, getting rid of it is a hill to tall to climb.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller and more a..."

I loathe Boris too, dont worry....he has managed similar feats but our system is far weaker in the UK. Prime Minister is a very powerful role to have, the electoral system elects non-majority popular vote parties with huge majorities in the commons

Our system has been broken for longer than the USA!

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller..."

It's interesting in a way AB, I think next year there is going to be an even bigger majority but the other way. This certainly will be the case unless the SNP make a miraculous recovery and all their votes don't go back to Labour. Should we have a PR system as they do in other countries (Italy not being the best example) or do as Belgium did - no government for 13 months.

But, as they say, a week is a long time in politics.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues ge..."

i would love a labour majority just to halt and reverse so many tory laws and ideas that are in the queue of bad things the torys have done..lol but the system still needs reform

[Bill]

AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller and more advert filled ..."

Here are 3 New Yorker reporters with an equally sobering discussion on the subject.
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/pol...

[[deleted user]]

Greenfairy wrote: "I just came to say RIP A.S Byatt."

The news of her death prompted me to re-read her beautiful long poem The Fairy Melusine. It’s the one in the middle of Possession, a book which seems to me destined to be a classic.

[Robert]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller and more a..."

Oh, Presidential candidates aren't selected by charisma. They're chosen by money and attrition, and have been for decades. Even Biden, a charisma black hole who'd failed in three previous presidential runs, proved this.
No, Biden's problem is that he's a shrill, bullying, hollow man whose response to domestic crises is to avoid thinking about them. A recent poll of New York City residents shows this. The dissatisfaction with the federal response to the migrant crisis crosses party lines, revealing a rare consensus. Democrats show a 48% disapproval rate, while 91% of Republicans and 72% of independents are also dissatisfied, highlighting a broad-based demand for a different approach.
Biden's approach, of course, is to pretend that nothing is happening.
Since Trump, still looming on the horizon, is also a bully, and neither man is anywhere near as clever as he thinks he is, the choice looks grim. Perhaps if Biden realized that he's of no use whatever and promised not to run again... no, vanity and the stubbornness of advanced age stand against it.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller..."

Biden is more fondly thought of on this side of the pond but i do question him running again at almost 80, or maybe older. I dont think he has the qualities needed for four more years if i am being objective but i really dont want 4 years of the orange oaf.

i thought he would push Kamala foward and stand down for 2024 election but that was clearly way off the mark by me

[giveusaclue]

Negative covid test today, so only a week this time. Which makes the op postponement even more annoying. But I suppose I have to be glad of small mercies.

[MK]

Robert wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller..."

Wow! I'm not too far into The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future, but I admit that I would rather have Biden for a second term than anyone the GOP would put up.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues getting smaller..."

Can I point at Margaret Thatcher for you folks, as I do Reagan for us? It seems to me the rich folks are never satisfied, that they always want more money and things, and gawd forbid - help the little guy by paying taxes.

I hope you can read this link. So often the poor are disparaged just for not having had the opportunity to not be poor. https://www.seattletimes.com/entertai...

And I am not immune. When the idea of not charging late fees at the library here was looked at, I thought, cmon on. But then I realized there are people who work but have no way to pay for childcare if their kid is sick and no sick pay from work, and other catastrophes that wouldn't affect me - like car breakdown or enough food in the pantry. So getting books back to the library on time is just too far down their worries list. I would rather everyone had access to books.

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "Negative covid test today, so only a week this time. Which makes the op postponement even more annoying. But I suppose I have to be glad of small mercies."

Feel free to insert eyeroll, but I don't even have a covid test kit. At the same time I don't think I've ever had it, but who knows?

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: "My error. I think it's "The Underground Man.".."

In which case, that was the first Macdonald I read (bought on 10 June '22, followed by 'The Drowning Pool' not long after). One of those had a silly plot dependent on too many improbable circumstances, so I 'paused' until having my interest reignited recently by a blogger in another forum. I'm going to finish the series, now.

[Diana]

I do recall admiring and enjoying reading A.S. Byatt‘s „Possession“ , but, like Gpfr.., I prefer Margaret Drabble‘s writing. I have quite a collection on my shelves but added The Millstone (1965) only quite recently. I read it this weekend. Margaret Drabble wrote in her early novels about young middle class women’s lives and motherhood in the 60s, and we have a fascinating insight into or reminder of the social milieu of that time.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sobering article on Trump in the impressive 60th anniversary edition of the NYRB. Its been a shrinking journal for a good 4 years, every one of its 20 issues ..."

Anyone here who is interested in Trump's legal woes might want to sign up for - https://joycevance.substack.com/ newsletter. You can even pay if you want to get extra stuff. It's USA lawyerly, but is worth a weekday read. There may be chicken pictures on a weekend day, though.