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Elfphan7

Elfphan7

I read all kinds of stories and books. All I want is a good story and then I'll read it.

I am going to Berks Technical Institute and am majoring in Graphic Design while trying to be a scriptwriter.

Even though I am an author I will not 'friend' you in the hopes that you'll buy my book (although that would be really nice). I... more »
  • PA, USA
  • member since July 31 2007

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Elfphan7’s last login was Sunday, May 24 2009.

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Public Notes

  • mossflower

    mossflower says

    Round Table: This is to remind all members we are reading The Once and Future King by T.H. White this month and next. Hope you will enjoy it

    posted 6 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Lisa Unger

    Lisa Unger says

    Just dropping by to say "hello". Sorry I have not had more time to spend here in Shelfari. Hope you've been reading a lot of good books!

    Lisa Unger
    New York Times bestselling author of DIE FOR YOU

    posted 6 months ago. ( send a note )
  • mossflower

    mossflower says

    Please could you post to the Round Table group your feelings about a merger with a Arthur group

    posted 9 months ago. ( send a note )
  • JC_Angelminks

    JC_Angelminks says

    Notice from your group: “Dean Koontz”
    February’s group read and discussion is “Fear Nothing”

    posted 10 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jeff Reid

    Jeff Reid says

    Our fun, new website, Storycasting.com, has many "victorian" titles - but I'm sure not enough. I didn't recognize several of the authors you mentioned. Could you take a look at our site and then suggest a (short) list of authors and titles that we "should" have on? Plus, let me know some more about your book, and we'll put that on, too. Every good story that needs a cast should be on storycasting.com!

    jeff.reid@storycasting.com
    "for the movie in your mind"

    posted 11 months ago. ( send a note )
  • JC_Angelminks

    JC_Angelminks says

    Notice from your group: “Dean Koontz”
    January’s group read and discussion is “Intensity”

    posted 11 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    I hope you had a Merry Christmas. Good to hear from you again. And thank you for you nice letter. I like getting nice long letters, and yours was so nice.

    There has not been too much new going on in my life. Yes, I recovered from my cold, so I got that out of the way. I expect I will get one more before spring gets here, but life will go on. And you may have heard in the news, Southern California has been a very exciting place these last few months. We had our wild-fire season just awhile ago, and it seemed everything not fireproof was going to burn down. But that passed and I was not affected with that. There was bad damage in the hilly areas of north Orange County, but nothing happened where I live in South County.

    Lately we’ve gotten a lot of cold rain. We usually have mild winters here, but this winter has been unusually cold. Our daytime highs have only been in the low to mid 50s, while our nighttime lows have been near freezing. We’re just not used to that here in sunny Southern California.

    I had a very nice Christmas, but it was wet and cold.

    Wow, I read your letter, and you have been busy! But that’s good; it’s better than the alternative. And yes, I would very much like to read your screenplay. If you cannot forward it to me as a WORD document, you can snail mail it to me at:
    Ray Acosta
    18 Lansdale Ct.
    Ladera Ranch, CA 92694

    Go ahead and throw in a Christmas card too; I’d love to see your work.

    I smiled when I read that you had a small part in a play. That’s cool, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I was in a play a couple of years ago. The church I sometimes go to decided to stage a passion play for Easter, and I volunteered to be one of the actors. I was one of the Pharisees, and only had a couple of lines, most of which consisted of some variation of, “Crucify Him!” It was fun playing a villain.

    What did you do for Christmas? Over here I have two traditions: On Christmas Eve, my large extended family gathered at my cousin’s house. We had a Christmas dinner consisting mostly of Mexican food. We exchanged presents, but we did not open them. It was be a large party of about 30 or 40 people. My youngest sister did not attend because she and her baby were both down with a cold.

    Then on Christmas morning, we had a much smaller breakfast at my other sister’s house. She made us a waffle and bacon breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice. There were just 4 of us; my mother, my sister, and my son Daniel. After breakfast, we opened presents. We’ve been doing this routine for years now. Normally, my other sister, my brother-in-law, and their baby would have joined us.

    As for reading, I’ve given up on the Obama book. While I found the book well written, and the author very intelligent, I still had a hard time staying interested. I think several things were going on. First, I was asked to read the book by a lady friend, and I always seem to have difficulty reading things when I have to read them by obligation. Second, I have a major philosophic disagreement with the author. I am very anti-government; what I mean is, I too am cynical, and I don’t believe any one individual is going to save the day. I believe any government action plans are likely not going to work, and if they work, they will have other untended bad consequences. So when I read about all the things Obama believes can be done by working together, I think, yea, right. I probably need an attitude adjustment. I hope for the best, but expect the worst. I may pick it up again later.

    So I picked up ‘The Blind Watch Maker’ again. I think I’m going to finish this one. Like you, I’ve been busy shopping for Christmas, etc., so I haven’t been able to do all the reading I would have liked to do, but I’m finding this book interesting. Basically, this book is a pro-Evolution book, and his intent is to counter the Intelligent Design supporters. I’m enjoying the book because I was a life-science major before I switched to math back in my college days. I enjoyed my life-science courses, but I never did well in them, so I switched majors to something I was doing good in. Anyway, in my life-science courses, I studied Evolution. For me, then, the matter was closed; Evolution is how it all works, and life goes on without thinking too much about it anymore.

    But some time ago, oh, maybe early summer, or late spring, I got into a discussion with a Jehovah’s Witness. I should have never have done that, but I kind of get my kicks debating with them. Anyway, he knew more about Evolution than I could remember, and I couldn’t hold-up my end of the argument very well. So, I felt I’d bone up. I haven’t gotten too far, but so far I’m enjoying it. I’ll keep you up to date.

    Did you get any books for Christmas? I got two. My sister Terry gave me a very nice coffee table book called ‘The Historical Atlas of California.’ It’s kind of neat. It is an illustrated history of California told through historical maps, starting in the late 1600s when the Spanish claimed it, and thought it was an island. As you get into the book, you see the maps change as they discover that it is not an island, and then they discover San Francisco Bay. Then the maps get a little more detailed as the interior is explored. I’ve just browsed through it without reading the articles accompanying the maps, but I’m like a little boy with a new train set. Towards the end of the book, there are articles about the large interurban transit systems that used to cover the San Francisco area and the Los Angeles area. They both went into decline with our infatuation with the automobile in the 1950s. By the end of the 1960s, the lines were all abandoned. Today, both San Francisco have new interurban systems, and they use many of the old right-of-ways.

    My cousin David gave me a copy of Carlos Fuentes’s ‘The Crystal Frontier.’ Don’t know anything about the book or the author, except I’ve heard of the author but I’ve never read anything by him. It’s a paperback book, and this is what it says on the back: Leonardo Barroso is a powerful business tycoon in northern Mexico who successfully exploits his connections to the United States. Barroso controls the fate of strngers as well of his family, and his many decisions—whether to marry his son to his goddaughter and future mistress, for instance, or whether to sponsor a young gay medical student for his studies at Cornell—carry long-term effects for anyone trapped within his web. Bestselling author Carlos Fuentes mingles generations and classes in this remarkable novel, vividly illuminating the cultural conflict that rages between Mexico and the United States. In extraordinary prose, the dramas that ensue epitomize the strange, invisible, and dangerous frontier that divides the two nations.

    Carlos Fuentes has intimate knowledge of both countries and has built an international literary reputation on the knowledge and his compassionate championship of the poor and oppressed. ‘The Crystal Frontier,’ with its powerful writing and many fine passages, reinforces that reputation.

    I have to close now. I hope you are well and warm, and that you will have a Happy New Year.

    Cheers

    Ray

    posted 11 months ago. ( send a note )
  • JC_Angelminks

    JC_Angelminks says

    Notice from your Dean Koontz Group:
    December’s group read is “Your Heart Belongs to Me”

    Happy Holidays, Happy reading.

    posted 12 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    How are you? I hope you are well and in good spirits. Thank you for your last nice letter. I smiled when I read that you were recovering from a cold because just as I got your letter, I came down with a cold, and I’ve been down about a week now. I must have caught it from you :-)

    Southern California and Orange County has been in the news recently; we’ve had a bad wildfire here. Fortunately for me, the fire was not near me; it was in north county, and I live in south county, about 30-40 miles away. Every fall we have wildfire season, but this fire was one of the worst in recent history. All the hillsides are dry from the summer heat, and then in the fall we traditionally get these hot dry winds that blow in from the desert. It doesn’t take much for the wind to kick-up any small flame.

    Now we are ready for the mud-slide season. If we get a rainy winter, the burned out hillsides will not be able to absorb the water, and the hillsides will slide. That just life here in paradise.

    Thank you for your kind words on my proposed novel. The idea was the easy part. Now we’ll have to see if I’ll actually sit down and write it. There’s always something else more exciting to do, but don’t ask me what. Still, it’s nice to have a dream, something big that can’t easily be accomplished.

    I’m impressed with the books you’re reading, wow, good stuff. Keep me up-to-date with how it goes.

    Myself, I gave up on ‘Son of the Morning Star,’ the book about General Custer and his Last Stand. The book just wandered around too much for me, way too much trivial details. I suspect this book would be perfect for someone who has done some extensive reading on the subject already and is looking for much more detail, but I was looking for more of an overview; something like an encyclopedia article, only larger.

    So I gave up on it. Instead, with the downturn in the economy, I picked up a book I have here that I’ve wanted to read for some time. It’s called ‘The Great Depression: An Inquiry into the Causes, Course, and Consequences of the Worldwide Depression of the 1930s.” Yes, it’s a long title. But I figured I might learn something from past events, just in case things get really ugly.

    I got about 50 pages into the book when I got distracted. I was having dinner with a lady friend of mine, and she is an excited supporter of Barack Obama. Last Christmas, she gave me a copy of his book, ‘The Audacity of Hope.’ Unfortunately, I have not gotten around to reading it. So anyway, Jessica is gushing about how great and wonderful things are going to be soon, and I’m kind of being cynical and saying the guy is just a man, and I’m sure he has all the faults and short-comings of any other man and all this enthusiasm is shortly going to bump up against reality soon, and its not going to be pretty.

    Well, she won’t hear that, and she made me promise to read the book. OK, I guess now that the guy is going to be president, I should familiarize myself with him before I throw rocks at him. So that’s where I am now; I kind of have a commitment. We’ll see how it goes because generally I don’t like to read things I’m required to read, even if it’s good for me. In fact, generally speaking, I don’t like to do anything that is required of me, even if it’s good for me. There might be a small stubborn streak in me.

    Anyway, that’s about all that going on over here. I hope you have recovered from your cold. I too am susceptible to colds too, and I normally get two each winter. One down, one more to go.

    If we don’t write before Thanksgiving, have a real nice Thanksgiving. I’ll be enjoying the day with my extended family at my sister’s house.

    Cheers

    Ray

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • JC_Angelminks

    JC_Angelminks says

    Notice from your group: Dean Koontz
    The November group book we will be reviewing/ discussing is “Lightning”

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    How are you? I hope you are well and in good spirits. I’m in good spirits, but I’ve come down with a cold and sore throat. Bummer. I normally get about two colds in the fall or winter, so this one appears to be the first of the season.

    I sent you an excerpt from ‘The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench.’ I sent it to your regular e-mail address, I hope you got it. I assume you did because I didn’t get any notice that it bounced back.

    Thank you for your flattering comments on my notes. Not bad for a kid who’s always hated English and the Humanities, huh? Perhaps it’s because I’ve read so much, but only after college when I got to read just what I wanted. I had to read stuff for high school and college, but I don’t remember a thing about them except that I hated the experience. If I never see a book by Sinclair Lewis again, that would be fine by me.

    But like all readers, I too have fantasies about being a writer. Someday in the ‘future’ I’m going to write the Great Novel about the Mexican Revolution. It is going to be a cross of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ and Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone With the Wind.’ The main character will be a beautiful headstrong young woman who will be a cross between Natasha Rostov and Scarlet O’Hara. She and her family will be scattered across Mexico and witness the various events of the Revolution, that way I can tell the history of the Revolution painlessly.

    I would also have a male hero who would end up with the heroine at the end. I would pattern him and the plot after one of the minor participants of the Revolution, Lucio Blanco. Check out the article I wrote about him on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucio_Blanco I would change a couple of things, mainly the end, as the real Blanco comes to a bad end, but I’d like my hero to have a good ending. I’d have to give my hero a different name; I’m working on that.

    Ah, what a dream. I’ve been retired since 1998, and I have not written anything except for an outline. Still, one must have a dream.

    I just started reading ‘Son of the Morning Star’ by Evan Connell. It’s non-fiction concerning Custer’s Last Stand. Connell is a well respected writer, but I have not read anything by him before. I’ve only gotten into about 15 pages, and I’m having difficulty. The guy is going to put me to sleep with his trivia and minutia. I like history, but I like high overviews. Tell me the philosophical ideas that motivated people. For instance, this is what it says on page 5:

    “He also found [on the battlefield] a gunnysack full of letters which must have been taken from a stagecoach or post office, and somebody’s account book containing a list of about twenty names together with amounts charged against them. On several pages of this book were Indian drawings presumably made by whoever had stolen it, but these drawings did not interest him. He gave the letter and the account book to a Chicago journalist who was traveling with the army. The book has now disappeared.”

    OK. I mean, who cares? Page 5, and the battle is over already, and we’re picking through the stuff remaining of the battlefield, give me a break! Well, I’m not going to give up so easily, but there are so many good books to read that I have not read, I don’t have time for bad books.

    OK, enough ranting. I’ll close now. I hope you are well and in good spirits. Chat with you later.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    How are you? I hope you are well and in good spirits. I am in both. Thank you for your nice letter. I’ll see if I can do it justice.

    I smile when you say you were never good at mathematics. I was never good at term papers. I got through college by taking courses that didn’t require term papers, so that was mainly math and science courses. The nice thing about college math is that you can get by on partial credit; you get almost as much credit for just setting up the problem correctly as you do for getting the right answer. Many times, getting the right answer is not as important as setting up the problem. Anyway, it got me a degree, and the degree got me a job, and the job allowed me to retire, and I am now the world’s oldest teenager.

    As for when I got to California, I’ve been here most of my life. I was born and raised here in Southern California, mostly around Los Angeles. In the late ‘70s, I lived and worked in San Francisco for 3 years, and then in 1998 I took a job in Dallas for 3 years. Other than that, I’ve always been in Southern California. Even when I was in the Navy in the late ‘60s, I never left the state of California. I was stationed on a ship called the USS Norton Sound that was ported in Oxnard, about 80 miles up the coast from Los Angeles. We never went anywhere. Every morning at 8AM, we left port and steamed around all day, and came back to port around 5 PM. I tell you, war was hell :-)

    I’ve decided to read ‘The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench’ by Richard McKenna. I’m almost done with it. I’m really pleased with the book, and I wish McKenna had lived longer so he could write some more. This book can be divided into three parts: the first third consists of three short stories about life in the engine room of a Navy ship in the 1930s. McKenna is a champion of the ‘common man,’ a man who has taken the trouble to learn his trade well, and follows his own conscience. The three stories all concern a tension between those with knowledge and those with experience.

    The second third consists of three essays. The best essay is titled ‘The Wreck of Uncle Josephus,’ a short biography of Josephus Daniels, Secretary of Navy during the Woodrow Wilson administration. I specifically purchased this book several years ago because I wanted this essay. It started off as a commencement speech, and was later reworked into this essay. Again, his theme is the advancement of the common man, in this case, the advancement of the common sailor. Prior to Josephus Daniels, the common sailor was trash. He was told he was trash, and so he behaved like trash. Daniels was the first to see something different, and McKenna outlines the changes that occurred in the Navy during the time Josephus Daniels was Secretary of the Navy.

    Unfortunately, I had a problem with the other two essays. Not with McKenna, but with the book publisher. I book is defective! I’m reading along to page 118, and then it stops and continues with page 151. Pages 119 through 150 are missing. So I’m missing the last part of one essay, and the start and most of another essay. Bummer.

    The final third of the book consists of four chapters of his unpublished novel ‘The Sons of Martha.’ It was what he was working on when he died. Now the title is interesting. It comes from Kipling and from the Bible. Here is what the introduction says:

    “McKenna took the title for his second novel from a Kipling poem, ‘The Sons of Martha.’ Kipling’s title refers to the Biblical parable in which Jesus is talking to Mary while her sister Martha serves him dinner. Martha, upset that she is performing her labor without help, and asks Jesus if Mary can be spared for work. Jesus refused the request. Traditionally, the parable is said to illustrate the superiority of the contemplative to the active life, but Kipling would have none of that. The world of his poem is peopled by the sons of these two women, the anxious and industrious descendents of Martha and their scornful cousins, the progeny of Mary. But the sons of Martha are the more important, as Kipling explains:
    It is their care in all the ages to take one buffet and cushion the shock.
    It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
    It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
    Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.
    McKenna apparently agreed with the poet that the working man was superior. And although McKenna himself had ultimately opted for the contemplative career of a writer, in his plan to have the protagonist of this autobiographical novel eventually choose to make the Navy his career, the author was reconsidering and reaffirming his own twenty-two year naval commitment.”

    I am into this part of the book now, and I should finish it soon. I’ll keep you up to date.

    I’d like to share with you the essay ‘The Wreck of Uncle Josephus.’ I have it typed out in a WORD document. Would it be asking too much if you share with me your e-mail address, and I’ll forward it to you. No big deal, but I like to share things that excite me, and this is a good article. My address is ramon4@yahoo.com.

    The series of vampire books you are reading sounds interesting. I notice that they get a lot of attention on Shelfari. They are consistently highly rated week after week. Unfortunately, I was not aware of them. I started to read an Ann Rice vampire book once, but I really could not get into it. I’ve even forgotten the name of the book now, but I think it was the one that became a Tom Cruise movie. Ann Rice has a big following, but I got left behind.

    I’m surprised to see that in the books we shared, you read and liked ‘Like Water for Chocolate,’ one of my favorites. What made an east coast girl like you read it? And then, even more of a surprise, you’ve read ‘Zoot Suit’! I liked the play ‘Zoot Suit’ and I liked the movie. But I was blown away with the play ‘I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinkin’ Badges.’ It came to me in a difficult time in my life when I was not in the best space, and I learned from this play that I have no obligation in my life to prove anything to anybody. It is sufficient to be true to one’s self. ‘To thy own self be true.’ It’s a Mexican-American story set in Los Angeles, and I’m surprised and pleased to learn that you’ve read it. And, if you haven’t guessed, I’m Mexican-American. My parents were born here, but my four grandparents came from Mexico around 1915 to escape a bloody civil war.

    I’d best close now; this letter is way too long. I can get wordy, I hope you don’t mind. In any case, I hope you are well and in good spirits. Hope to chat with you soon.

    Ray

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    How are you? I hope everything is well with you. I’m doing fine. I finished “Tell No One” last night, and I enjoyed it very much. The ending was a bit different than the movie. I think I like the movie ending better. I think the screenwriter did a good job of keeping the basic story but improving on some of the odd loose ends. There were one or two things that didn’t ring true in the book that were resolved in the film. But then it’s possible I’m a bit biased because I saw the film first.

    Generally I like to see the film first because then I know what the characters look like and I have a good idea what the over-all story is going to be. Then the book fills out in better detail the complete story. If I read the book first, I’m almost always disappointed with the actors chosen because they don’t look like I imagined them.

    Don’t apologize for living in Pennsylvania. I visited Penn in late ’06 and enjoyed it very much. I visited the Gettysburg battle site and I had to drive through some pretty country there. Everything looks pretty much like I’ve seen the pictures in the Civil War books. It seemed like pretty county to me.

    It was in October 2006 that I visited a friend who was living in Washington DC, and I took several side trips to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Valley Forge and Annapolis. I had a great time. But if you get a chance to visit California, let me know, I’ll show you around. I’m pretty good at it now.

    We have been having crazy weather out here too. The week I got back it got cold, and I figured, OK, summer’s over, time to break-out the long sleeve shirts and put away the short sleeve ones. Then the next week and since then, we’re back to hot weather. We’ve been in the high 80’s the last several days, and I’m back to short sleeves. Who knows when Fall will get here.

    You asked about my degree. I have a BS in mathematics from Cal State Los Angeles. I’m retired now, but I spent most of my time as a telephone company engineer. Any time you see a guy working on the telephone wires in the air or in the street, some engineer had to draw up the plans to tell the technician what to do. It was a cool job; you get to work outside a lot with not too much supervision. Now I mostly help my friend Richard doing Excel spreadsheet work, simple stuff.

    I’m not sure what I’m going to read next. I have two books that I’ve started and put down that I want to start again. One is a book of short stories and essays by Richard McKenna called “A Left-Handed Monkey Wrench,” mostly about his experiences in the Navy in the 1920s. The other is “Son of the Morning Star” by Evan Connell, a biography of George Armstrong Custer with emphases on the battle of Little Bighorn. I’ll decide which one this weekend. Which sounds more interesting to you?

    Tell me about "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer. What is it about? What is the Twilight Series about? Have you read any others in the series?

    I’ll close now. I hope everything is well with you.

    Ray

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    How are you? I hope everything is going well with you. Things are fine here in sunny Southern California. I’m back from my trip, and life has pretty much returned to its old routine. That is, except for the stock market: I’ve lost quite a bit of money and I’m at a loss as to what I should do next. It is very depressing because I don’t see anything good happening until after the inauguration of the next president in January.

    I’m sorry to hear you won’t be able to get into ‘Eleanor’ anytime soon. Alison Weir is a good writer and it’s amazing to see what’s she’s done with so little evidence or written record. If you can’t get to the book soon, I’d recommend you rent the film ‘A Lion in Winter’ about Eleanor and Henry and their children; it captures the spirit of the book very well, and Katherine Hepburn is perfect as the aged Eleanor.

    I’ve finished ‘Six Frigates’ and enjoyed it very much. It is a history of the early US Navy from the Revolution until the War of 1812, with an emphases on six warships the US build right after the Revolution. With your permission, this is what it says on the inside of the dust jacket:

    “Before the ink was dry on the Constitution of the United States, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the young republic. Would a standing army be the beginning of a dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce from the Barbary pirates, or would it drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great European powers? The founders—particularly Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Adams—debated these question fiercely and switched sides more than once. How large a navy would suffice? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships.

    “In 1794, President Washington signed legislation authorizing the construction of six heavy frigates. (Frigates were smaller than the English warships called ‘ships of the line’ or battleships, but larger than sloops. They represented a unique combination of power, speed and tactical versatility. In any navy, the frigates were sent on the most daring missions, and they fought the most dramatic single ship action of the Napoleonic era.)

    “The American frigates were built at the six major seaports. Entirely new domestic industries would be created, relying heavily on the extraction of local resources—hemp, jute, flax, and hardwoods. It was the first great appropriation of federal money and the first demonstration of the power of the new central government.

    “From the complicated politics of the initial decision through the cliffhanger campaign against the Tripoli pirates, to the war that shook the world of 1812, Ian Toll tells this grand tale with the political insights of ‘Founding Brothers’ and a narrative flair worthy of Patrick O’Brian. In the words of Henry Adams, the 1812 encounter between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriére ‘raised the United States in one half hour to the rank of a first class power in the world.’ ”

    I’m now reading ‘Tell No One’ by Harlan Coben. I hadn’t heard of Coben before, but apparently he has written many mysteries and has a large following. I’m about a third of the way into this 360 page thriller. As I mentioned to you before, I saw the movie, so I know how its all going to end, so that takes some of the edge off it, but I’m still enjoying it just for the difference between the book and the film. The film was a French film set in France, the book is set in the US. One disappointment is the handling of the villain: in the film, we don’t know who the villain is; his henchmen are apparent, but we don’t know who they work for, or what their motivation is. In the book, the author tells us right away who the villain is. It seems to me that that takes some of the mystery out of the story. But other than that, I’m enjoying every page.

    That is about all that is going on in my life. I don’t know if I mention it to you, but I am semi-retired. I work 5 hours a day, 5 days a week for a friend of mine doing computer/clerical work. It is easy work, but I am a contractor not an employee. That means I only get paid for work that can be charged to a specific client. That means that even though I’m in the office 5 hours a day, I don’t normally get paid for 5 hours of work. Still, I’m with a friend, and we goof off a lot and it give this old guy a place to go each day.

    I hope all is well with you.

    Cheers

    Ray

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • JC_Angelminks

    JC_Angelminks says

    Notice from your group: Dean Koontz
    The Octobers group book we will be Reviewing/ Discussing is “ Darkfall”

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    How are you doing? I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to reply to you, but I was on the road on vacation. Some friends of mine came into town and asked me to show them around the state of California. We had a wonderful time touring Hearst’s Castle, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, San Francisco, the Napa valley wine area, and finally Yosemite National Park. All together I was gone 15 days.

    I finished the bio on ‘Eleanor of Aquitaine’ and enjoyed it very much. I’ll give you some more details in another note after I get my act together here at home.

    While I was on the trip, I was reading ‘Six Frigates’ by Ian Toll, a history of the founding of the US Navy. It’s a great read and I’m almost done with it; should be finished with it in three or four evenings. I was in the Navy for a short time during the Vietnam war, so the book has a special interest for me.

    That’s about all for now. I hope you are well and in good spirits.

    Cheers

    Ray

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • cool hand luke

    cool hand luke says

    Hi Kara, listen Absolute Beginners now resides in the Abyss of Books at the Si-Fan Club where it belongs. I can only add that it was a hjuge disappointment, coming across as a counter culture book but morphing into left-liberal-wing idealised rubbish, where the good guys are plain to see. And I do mean Absolute trite. My horror reading was done years back but I still dig reading the odd tale or two. Your shelf is unbalanced but curious and I see you liked Salems Lot, but tell me, who doesn't? just when the vampire novel was dying in the sun King revitalised the whole thing.

    CLL

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    Thank you for your kind note. I hope things are well with you.

    Yes, I’m reading Eleanor and enjoying it very much. I’m over half way through and at a very exciting part. Eleanor’s husband, Henry II has had troubles with Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The principle issue is control of the church in England, and the dividing issue is the trial of priests and monks in lenient church courts. Henry wants men who break civil law tried in the King’s courts. The church has traditionally tried its own members, and does not want to change.

    The argument has been going on for several years, and in anger and frustration, the King asks, “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?” Four knights leave the King’s court, and proceed to murder the Archbishop. All of Europe is shocked at this murder. Eleanor, who has been supporting Henry all this time, is also shocked. Here is a little bit of what Weir says,

    Chapter 12

    “The Cubs Shall Awake”

    “News of the murder of the primate of England sent the whole of Europe into shock. Some declared it was the worst atrocity since the crucifixion of Christ. The Archbishop of Sens asserted that it surpassed the wickedness of Nero and the cruelty of Herod. Louis, the King of France, wrote to the Pope: ‘Such unprecedented cruelty demands unprecedented retribution. Let the sword of St. Peter be unleashed to avenge the martyr of Canterbury.' Almost everyone laid the death of Becket at the King’s door, and Henry was reviled throughout Christendom. His reputation never fully recovered.

    “Was it the murder of Becket that turned Eleanor against Henry? Certainly, between the Christmas of 1170 and that of 1172, something occurred to turn her feelings for her estranged husband into revulsion. Prior to Becket’s murder, there is nothing to suggest that their separation was anything but amicable; indeed, Eleanor had spent most of the year supporting Henry’s policies. … Eleanor seems to have supported Henry throughout his quarrel with Becket, but while quarreling was one thing, the brutal murder of an archbishop was quite another—an outrage that inspired extreme revulsion in most God-fearing people. Even though there were other, contributory factors, it might not be too fanciful to conjecture that the murder went some way towards alienating Eleanor from Henry.”

    I’ve just finished this chapter and it talks about the efforts Henry made to restore his image, but it also talks about how Eleanor at this time started to become closer to her sons, especially Prince Richard. For some time now, Eleanor has been ruling her French lands in Henry’s name while Henry wages wars. Prince Richard becomes 15 at this time, and so he is named the Duke of Aquitaine, and will succeed his mother. So Eleanor spends most of her time co-ruling with her son, preparing him to rule after her.

    The chapter ends by saying, “The stage was now set for the most dangerous rebellion ever to confront Henry. The origins of the conspiracy are unknown, but it is clear that different people had different objectives. Henry, the young King, and his brothers wanted autonomous power in the lands assigned to them, even if it meant the overthrow of their father; Eleanor wanted justice for her sons and consequently more power and influence for herself. This, she must have known, could only be achieved through the removal of her husband from the political scene. She was prepared to countenance this, which is surely proof that whatever feelings she had had for him had long since died. Henry’s vassals wanted an end to his dictatorial government, and were therefore prepared to support anyone who could offer an alternative.”

    Did you see the movie ‘Becket’? It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, but I remember it as sympathetic to Becket. Weir presents the same story, but she appears sympathetic to Henry as Becket comes across as power hungry.

    I have to close now. I hope you are well.

    Cheers

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • CodeMonkey

    CodeMonkey says

    You nailed it! Code Monkey, by Jonathan Coulton. I heard the song early on direct from Coulton's website, before all of the youtube videos starting coming out, and absolutely loved it. Story of my life kinda thing. I've checked out a number of the Code Monkey videos since then; some of them are absolutely marvelous.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ray A

    Ray A says

    Hi Kara,

    That 50 book challenge sounds interesting, but I think I’m going to have to pass on that. I just don’t have the time to read that many books! I’m lucky if I can finish one a month. There is just too much ‘stuff’ competing with reading time, especially the Internet! I waste way too much time. And I don’t watch TV anymore, no time for it. But don’t ask where my time goes, it just goes.

    But I am going to finish ‘Eleanor of Aquitaine’ before the month is out. This is a mental trick I perform: I promise it to somebody, and now I have made a commitment. But it should not be difficult, it’s an interesting book.

    But as a distraction, I picked up a new book the other day at the bookstore. This is an American history book called ‘Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy,’ by Ian Toll. I served two years in the Navy in the late ‘60’s, so I kind of like this kind of stuff. I started reading a bit in the bookstore, and I got hooked. It starts with a prologue about how mighty the English sea power is at the end of the 1700’s. Nelson’s navy rules waves, and no other European power dares challenge this mighty superpower. No one except a shaky new United States, a brand new country hugging the Atlantic seaboard, barely 60 miles deep, and no money in its treasury. Stay tuned for more details.

    Cheers

    Ray

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )


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