Kevin's Watch

I enjoyed Eats, Shoots & Leaves, so a couple of days ago I got Lynne Truss' Talk To The Hand. Finished it today.

BLACK RIBBON by Susan Conant, 8th in the Dog Lover's Mystery series. I got the most recent one for Christmas (the 17th), so it's time I caught up on the series. I don't remember them very well, but so far this one is whimsically entertaining. I do remember the author is quite knowledgeable about dog training and showing.

CROWN OF DESTINY, 2nd in Sandra Worth's trilogy about Richard III of England. I've never found an author who has a better feel for Richard.

Various stuff: Comics are a big thing since I work in the industry, and any novel we are adapting to graphic novel form I will try to read. Biggest thing has been the Riftwar saga, and I've come to like Feist's writing (not mentally challenging, but still a fun, good, addictive read).

I like Feist myself, for exactly that reason. Fun and immersive.

--A

About to start 1914-1918 The History of the First World War.

Finished Susan Conant's Dog Lovers' mystery ANIMAL APPETITE. Starting LITTLE PIECES OF HEAVEN, a meditation book by Oluwadahunsi, for review. I'd guess the author is a preacher in a non-affiliated, charismatic church. Mostly one-liners and short paragraphs.

Just got all of the Lord Wimsey books and starting with 'Whose Body?' and 'Clouds of Witness'.

Finally read The Princess Bride - the nice 30th anniversary edition with extra author's intro and Buttercup's Baby (which I haven't actually read yet).

Still not enough time to just sit down and immerse myself in Mason & Dixon again. It's been sitting on the shelf for months. My current reading consists largely of my chemistry book.

Currently rereading all books written by Australian writer Tim Winton. Gosh his writing is *beautiful*.

Seareach - totally agree with you about Tim Winton, he's brilliant, both literary and popular, and his prose is magical. He is able to capture the essence of what it is to be Australian (and in Australia) on pretty much every page of his stories. He's just so damn Australian!

On topic - I'm currently reading his latest book of short stories, "The Turning".

Well, since Runes, I've been reading "The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality" by the Dalai Lama. Interesting stuff.-jay

(I feel like I have to read it, being a Tibetan Buddhist and all. It's not my fault though, Alynna converted me without my knowledge.)

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. It tells the story of a horrible blizzard that hit the nothern US plains in 1888 and killed hundreds of people, many of the victims being children trying to get home from school. Depressing stuff, but well written.

Multilingualism, Literacy & Dyslexia

Gilgamesh
Homer (iliad)
Virgil (the aeneid)
Euripides (herakles)

then...

beowulf
sir gawain and the green knight
the nibelungenlied
and macbeth

then...

alice in wonderland
heart of darkness
metamorphosis
hemingway short story
maria concepcion by porter
and last but not least fear & loathing in las vegas

all the while reading

anatomy of criticism northrup frye
hero with a thousand faces
and morphology of the folktale

phew...

Some really great ones in there LuciMay, not least Fear and Loathing, Gawain and the Green Knight and my favourite Kafka, Metamorphosis.

Hope you're enjoying them all.

Is this a dagger I see before me?

--A

I have been reading Life Studies by one of my favorite writers, Susan Vreeland. She writes about art and artists, the affects of art upon the lives of those it touches. This particular book is a short story collection, about well known artists and the people they interact with from the era of the French Impressionists forward in time.

The stories vary from a gentle story of a grieving man who rediscovers the beauty of the world after he encounters Renoir at a graden party to the story of Modigliani's daughter, and how she found out about the dramatic and tortured lives of her deceased parents when she was still a young and sheltered girl.

Mordants Need, for the first time. Am enjoying it immensely.

Join us in the Mordants Need forum when you've finished the two of them.

--A