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March 2019 – Lioness at Large

Month: March 2019

BookLikes Imports Linked Items Literature Reviews

Matin Durrani & Liz Kalaugher: Furry Logic – The Physics of Animal Life

A bit on the fluffy side … … but I’m at the point where I basically celebrate any Flat Book Society group read that actually makes a serious effort to deliver (popular) science content without authorial grandstanding, fashion commentary and similar distractions — and notwithstanding a few silly jokes too many, this book certainly does […]

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Barbara Pym: Quartet in Autumn

Sonata in a Minor Key Wow.  What a depressing read — particularly so, the first half of the book (or thereabouts).  We’re meeting four main characters who thoroughly seem to be passengers, not drivers of their own lives, in a trajectory from nowhere to nowhere (and not necessarily a different part of nowhere, either) — […]

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The April Buddy Reads

Reblogged from: Moonlight Reader All right, everyone, open thread for April buddy reads/readalongs/etc. What I know so far: April 1: Discworld is reading the 4th Discworld book, Mort, which is also the first in the “Death” subseries. The buddy read starts on April 1, and continues through the end of April, so you can jump […]

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Africa Reading List – Seeking Recommendations

In connection with my Around the World in 80 Books reading project, I have created, as an additional reference point, a reading list containing the books currently on my TBR with an “Africa” shelving: http://booklikes.com/apps/reading-lists/974/africa The list includes the three books set in Africa I already read in 2019, but none read prior to this […]

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Dorothy L. Sayers: Whose Body? (Narrated by Mark Meadows)

Finally an audio version that does justice to this particular book. I don’t know if this January 2019 release signals a new series of audios of all of Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, but if it does, please God let them all be narrated by Mark Meadows.  Although my overall favorites still remain […]

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Patricia Wentworth: The Gazebo

This is more like it. (More than The Alington Inheritance, that is.) — Still a bit too much of a whiny heroine, but at least we’re firmly back in true and trusted Maudie territory.  And it has to be said, while the victim is no Mrs. Boynton (cf. Agatha Christie, Appointment With Death), by the […]

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Barbara Pym: Quartet in Autumn — Reading progress update: 99 of 186 Pages

Is this the fate that would have awaited Pym’s heroine from Excellent Women, Mildred Lathbury, if she had decided upon permanent “spinsterhood”? So quintessentially late 1970s — cheap drabness (the cityscape and office life mirroring the four protagonists’s personal lives), occasionally contrasted with and punctuated by the visceral shocks of the psychedelic age.  Pym (1913-1980) […]

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Patricia Wentworth: The Alington Inheritance

If you thought Patricia Wentworth couldn’t go any lower than “Grey Mask” … … don’t go anywhere near this one. Whiny, immature, TSTL special snowflake heroine.  Insta-love.  Completely implausible, “fortuitous” (*major headdesk moment*) first encounter between hero and heroine.  Weak plotline that is further weakened by an “inverse mystery” structure — it certainly does NOT […]

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Matin Durrani & Liz Kalaugher: Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life – Reading Progress Update: 127 of 304 Pages

Almost done with chapter 3 and so far, so fluffy and easily digestible.  It reminds me a lot of some of the animal-related science programs on TV that I used to be glued to as a kid (and that I sometimes still enjoy watching) — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; they did / do […]

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Rosario Ferré: The House on the Lagoon / La casa de la laguna

A Poor Man’s (or Woman’s) “House of the Spirits” Ugh.  If this hadn’t been my final “Snakes and Ladders” book I’d have DNF’d it.  This is essentially a Puerto Rican version of House of the Spirits minus magical realism, plus a plethora of characters and episodes that don’t greatly advance the plot (think 500-episode telenovela) […]

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Those old cheating dissembling tricks …

“To the office, where all the morning sitting and did discover three or four fresh instances of Sir W. Pen’s old cheating dissembling tricks, he being as false a fellow as ever was born.” — Samuel Pepys (@samuelpepys) March 8, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js   This (originally from Pepys’s diary of March 8, 1666) was the first […]

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Good Omens …

Armageddon is coming to a screen near you on May 31! Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1855536/post   Related Posts: Good Omens Book Review Good Omens Screen Adaptation Review Good Omens: Favorite Characters   Narrativium: Where the Falling Angel Meets the Rising Ape – Terry Pratchett and Discworld Project Page Reviews and Blog Posts

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Snakes and Ladders Poll: TA’s Final Book to Read? – Decision

OK, executive decision time then! Of the two books that are ahead of the others by just about a nose (1 vote) at this point — namely, Chitra Banerjee Divakarumi’s Sister of my Heart and Rosario Ferré’s House on the Lagoon — Ferré’s House on the Lagoon is calling more to me at this point.  […]

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Snakes and Ladders Poll: TA’s Final Book to Read?

I’ve made it to square 100 (yey!), which calls for letting the BookLikes crowd decide my next read.  So, please vote: Which book should I read next? Chitra Banerjee Divakarumi: Sister of My Heart                   Rosario Ferré: The House on the Lagoon Alexandra Fuller: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight Elif Shafak: Three […]

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What a Nice Discovery

I was listening to the Agatha Christie Close Up CD while adding covers to some of the books imported by MbD earlier this afternoon — and guess what I discovered?  Penguin Random House is publishing a new series of Christie editions under the Vintage imprint!  And very pretty covers they have, as well …   […]

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For Linda: Richard III / Leicester

“The” parking lot Commemorative / explanatory plaque on a wall near the parking lot gates (right-click on the top image and select “display” for a larger view) The parking lot is down a narrow alley from Leicester Cathedral The Tomb in Leicester Cathedral (Usually surrounded by people — luckily I was travelling alone, because I […]

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Agatha Christie: The Lost Plays (Butter in a Lordly Dish / Personal Call / Murder in the Mews)

Buddy Read Invitation: HERE. Listening Progess Updates 29 of 160 Minutes: First one down, Butter in a Lordly Dish … so far, so fiendish!  (Even if I had an inkling what was going on partway through.) No implicit connection with After the Funeral intended, however, I think.  (MR?)     Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1853284/reading-progress-update-i-ve-listened-29-out-of-160-minutes   55 of […]

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Agatha Christie: The Unexpected Guest

Good news … … for those of us looking for a quick Christie audio fix but who want to make sure they’re listening to Dame Agatha’s own words and not one of the novelizations of her plays by Charles Osborne: You can do just that! The 1981 full cast BBC audio version of The Unexpected […]

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