David Stone > Recent Status Updates

“I never knew clams could be so threatening.” A “meet cute” over a bucket of steamers. It must be the 80s if they’re the cheapest thing on the menu!

Enjoying this more than any other McCall Smith novel in years. It's light as a spoonful of whipped Parmesan and yet it contains some fairly sophisticated references to Italian painters, wine and history. And then there's that bulldozer!

Totally worth reading just for the childhood flashback of Jem, Dill (Truman Capote) and Scout holding a mock church revival. I am really enjoying the character of Jean Louise and her feeling that her hometown Maycomb is the only place that is real. The opening section on the train is masterful, reminiscent of Robert Penn Warren and William Styron.

Totally worth reading just for the childhood flashback of Jem, Dill (Truman Capote) and Scout holding a mock church revival. I am really enjoying The character of Jean Louise and her feeling that Her hometown Maycomb is the only place that is real. The opening section on the train is masterful, reminiscent of Robert Penn Warren and William Styron.

The booksellers at Mitchell's in Nantucket we're excited when I asked for this, though it took some time to locate a copy. The first two chapters are gripping. The servant who is Will's guardian is amusingly addicted to luxury. I look forward to seeing him get his anti sumptuary law comeuppance.

i really hope Dwight Silverwind will be back!

I'm reading this to get me into the Hawaiian mindset for my upcoming trip. The "Minor Wars" section is such an incredible combination of comedy and tragedy, a tone which the film captured too.

I'm beginning to think Norway will be warmer than I expected in June. I knew that sun sets very late in summer but not that it rises early as well. The police procedural parts of the story have started nicely. Sheldon is like an 80 year old Liam Neesom: sad, eccentric, easy to dismiss and certainly lethal when angered.

This is to get me in the mood for my trip to Norway in June. Also, this is the book selected for this year's read across Rhode Island. Sheldon is a very engaging old grump.

Even the photo captions are funny. His childhood cat's name was Cosette!

Stephen Sondheim contributed a verse to NPH's memoir! And, once again, Sondheim has contributed a new word to my vocabulary: clerihew.

The Scott Caan feud is really funny, but even more amusing is the way the choose your own adventure structure builds it up into epic proportions.

I finally understand what the Spanish Civil War was all about. The section on Mosley and the British Fascists was fascinating. Deborah Mitford's death this week made it especially interesting to learn how real the Fascist threat was in England.

The first thirty pages reminded me of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I love little things in this novel so far, like the clarinetist lodger and the story of the LeCoultre watch. Thomas writes about the Irish in a way that is different. His focus on real estate and success drives the plot from the earliest pages. It's no wonder the section headings come from The Great Gatsby.

This community is diametrically opposed to the one in the Giver. Love, hate, animals, rudeness. But with perhaps a little more justice.

JK Rowling is back, in the real streets of London, not Diagon Alley. Every meeting in this book seems to start with a personal assistant fetching coffee or tea. I wonder if this still happens in England or if it's just a convention of the cozy mystery. The plot hasn't heated up yet but the simmering romance between Robin and Cormorant sure has...Robin's middle name is Venetia?

The geography, the battles, the strange names, the castles and turrets, the invasions, the history, the genealogies: this small peninsula in Greece makes Game of Thrones look tame. And I've barely made it into the map of the Mani.