Michael’s Comments (group member since Apr 03, 2016)

Michael’s comments from the Crossroads group.

I love how you alternate between historical fiction and fantasy, Karin. I find a nice complementarity with such leaps.

I am in a really Dickensian place and time with Oliver Twist and in a far futuŕe epic Empire of Silence, which many say is like "Name of the Wind" in space.

Crossroads has such a great system for placing reviews for settings about the world. But we never had quite the volume of users to count on significant discussion around the reviews. And they aren't that easy to get to.

I could imagine an intereting merger of the two groups. Geography tags might be selected each month in parallel with the topical tag choices. The collection of reviews on Crossroads could be archived and the nucleus for fresh additions each month. Discussion sections could be added for the Crossroads themes that we bring to the group. Because their group is getting up to 1,000 I imagine they could accommodate an extra axis. Maybe if Booknblues post on a reading set in, say, Sri Lanka, there might be a few who could respond about several other worthy books set there.

The group, like it did on Shelfari, focuses on a topic to read on for a month, which are defined by the top 200 tags (shelves in GR). Not sticklish on judgment of fitting the tag. Posting reviews for tags earns points (and lesser points for posting in "Other books" slot. The points really don't matter much since their only use is in padding your votes for each month's choice.

Like Crossroads just a nice way to expand reading horizons and make a comfortable place to talk. Mostly about books, but room for more like here with Yakedty Yak. Like your Proustian query of the week from a couple of years back, someone there is now posing odd queries each week to generate discussions.

What a hungry and wonderful mind and spirit she brought to our literary explorations. It is particularly sad that reviews disappear when GR membership is terminated (I presume comments too). It is equally sad when they are left up and those not aware of their passing try to make dialog. GR should have some option of at least leaving reviews but indexing somehow their status.

I am in Rome with a son of a famous arrist growing up as best as he can with a father in NY and mother strugfling with mental illness, The Italian Teacher, by Tom Rachman. Am also in northwestern India (future Pakistan) in the 20s in an autobiography of a British officer serving in a Gurkha brigade, Bugles and a Tiger: My Life in the Gurkhas, by novelist John Masters.

On my drives during the week I am doing House of Mirth, set among the affluent in turn of century NYC. Each week I read two chapters of The Odyssey for a GR group devoted to a new translation by U Penn prof Emily Wilson.

I am in the resort town of Brighton in the 30s with some dog-eat-dog members of criminal gangs reaxhing for some kind of grace, Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. I am also in the last stages of war on the plains before Troy, doing an audio version of Pope's 18th century translation of The Iliad. Kicking off some reads this year of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Booknblues wrote: "She passed away on October 30. ..."

So sorry to learn of that, Fran. Glad you had the courage to speak at the service--am sure people will remember that.

Storyheart wrote: "I'm in an Irish village in the 1820s immersed in the world of The Good People (Thar be fairies....)"

I am around the same time in Germany, on the path of a doctor scientist under the wing of Mephistopleles, Faust: First Part. Fortunately, things are more lively for me in contemporary Manhattan North, in the corrupt kingdom of Da Force: The Force.

Blueberry wrote: "I'm in 1930's Los Angelos with Philip Marlowe ...I just left 1800's England, mostly Bath, in Persuasion..."

That's a charming combination. And so is Karin's doing Persuasion with a space opera that has some comic aspects too. I also just love how BnB tours mystery/thrillers over all history and nation.

I am in remote rural Norway in mid-19th century with a dedicated farmer, Hamsun's Growth of the Soil. I am also with a Tasmanian doctor in Adelaide alternating with his time as a Japanese prisoner being worked to death with nearly 1,000 others on the Thai-Burma railroad in WW2, Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Loved Lucy Barton and its followup of Lucy connections. Out of the Robinson set of 3 set in Ames Iowa, I liked Lila the best (order not that important). It kind pf left me speechless and never completed a review. In some sense an unreviewed read is an uncomplete reading.

Am spending one long day in Dublin 1904 in the minds of some charming humans and their warm hearted visions, Joyce's Ulysses. I avoided it for so long. A free audio version from LibriVox makes it so accessible.

Karin wrote: "Blueberry wrote: "I'm learning to row and heading to the 1936 Olympics in German. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics"I ..."

It was a great read. Just saw a wonderful PBS show on the "boys", their leaders, and the race. Wonderfully done with lots of great film and discussions from the author.

I am attending the long, digressive prequel of the birth of a gentleman in 1650 or so in England, Sterne'S The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. I am also with a squad of plucky Norwegians carrying out a daring and hairy raid on the heavy water production facility critical to Hitler's nuclear program, Grossman's The Saboteur.

Denizen wrote: "...For anyone who hasn't seen it, the movie is a delight - Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis. ..."

The scene where the men play like kids and chase each other naked through the woods before being discovered by the proper ladies was especially fun.

I am in Florence with an ensemble of British tourists near the turn of the 20th century, Forster's A Room with a View. I am also in various places in the midwest alternating between a present man's search for his grandfather's role in putting famous gangsters out of business in 1934 and the actions then of those gangsters and his grandfather, a sheriff from Arkansas employed by the FBI for his skills: Stephen Hunter's "G-Men".

To continue my Russian fling I am listerning to Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. I am also deep into last year's popular and well crafted mystery that starts with the crash of a private plane leaving Martha's Vinyard and 10 mile swim by washed up artist who saves a 4 year old boy, Before the Fall.

Quicksilver is so ambitious. Am hungry for his new one, which blends sci fi, fantasy, and historical fiction, I understand.

For me I am in Russia about 1840 with a chameleon huckster, Gogol's Dead Souls. I am also with a private military outfit that contracts for jobs in dangerous parts of the world, such as hostage extraction. This near future tale does a great job projecting coming developments in AI directed drones and robots in combat and a plausible scenario involving competitor companies going after each other in the U.S. Linda Nagata's The Last Good Man.

I am following a theme of book by or about Russia, so I took up Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, which features army officers in the Caucasus circa 1850 with leisure enough to get into dangerous shenanigans with various Asians of the region. This is a LibriVox audio. For library books, I am in western Mass with a grouchy young academic woman, trying to fill a yawning gap in her life by trying to find her biological father, Dennis Lehane's Since We Fell. (That will make 11 out his 12 books I've read--u.e am a fan).

I am in a London suburb mid-19th century with a charming busybody whose efforts at matchmaking for others tends to backfire, Austen's Emma. I am also with a Latina police officer, Bernie Manuelito, in Navaho country, trying solve crimes with her native honey, Jim Chee--Anne Hillerman's Song of the Lion (Tony's daughter keeping the series very much alive).