Mutterings - Sept 27

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Brace :: Girdle (I had to look it up to realise the connection - Lord of the Rings!)
2. Upgrade :: System
3. Run :: Test
4. Construction :: Under (remember those logos on websites a few years ago now!)
5. Lazy :: Evaluation
6. Email :: SMTP
7. Hide :: Bird (finally I get my mind away from computers!!)
8. Hornet :: Stripe
9. Wonder :: Wall
10. Hesitate :: Lost

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 22

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

To make matters worse, the last youth chosen to play Apollo had died shortly after the ceremony, the one before had left and gone to the shrine at Delos, the birthplace of the god. Only Menoetheus, a man with a face racked in a permanent frown - hard to envisage as a beautiful youth - remained of those who had played Apollo before me.

from Salley Vickers Where three roads meet a re-telling of the Oedipus story to a dying Sigmund Freud. Trivium (for those that know Stravinsky) hovered over the spectral retelling.

Mutterings - Sep 20

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Flat :: Tyre
2. Machine :: State (an IT reference!)
3. Arthritis :: Osteo
4. Forks :: Tuning
5. Task force :: Invasion
6. Beads :: Rosary
7. Striped :: Pajamas (or convicts!)
8. Dumpster :: Truck
9. Piggy :: Bank
10. Badge :: Pride

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 6

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The next stage of advance, lasting a mere 200,000 years or so, reveals a growing use of intelligence in the more careful selection of stones, and more sophisticated methods of knocking them into shape. It was only with the arrival some 100,000 years ago, of homo sapiens, and still more brainpower, that the real acceleration began, visible nowadays in the increasingly numerous and complex artefacts which eventually became the main evidences of civilized life.

from The Concept of Nature by John Habgood. Habgood was the archbishop of York back in the 1980-90s and this book is the text of his Gifford lectures of 2000. I've had this book for a number of years and struggled to start it a few times, this time I've completed and found that once I'd got past the first chapter it was much more interesting as it deals with the environment and medical ethics (amongst other things).

Mutterings - Sep 6

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Holiday :: Memories
2. Rotted :: Palm (maybe I read that as Potted!)
3. Pain :: Emotional
4. Confused :: Dazed
5. Surprised :: Joy (the CS Lewis autobiography)
6. Joint :: Rolled
7. Desert :: Music (Steve Reich)
8. Solicit :: Vaz (current political scandal/debate)
9. Affection :: Tender
10. Memories :: Holiday (no I didn't see this when I did no 1!)

Mutterings - Sep 3

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Electrical :: Circuit
2. Glasses :: Musical
3. Comics :: Satire
4. Satellite :: Telstar (what a throwback!)
5. Tonight :: Michelmore
6. Sweater :: Chunky
7. Clipboard :: Paste
8. Unglued :: Hanging off (Unglued goes nicely with my above association!)
9. Plaid :: Martin (Dead men don't wear...)
10. Upsetting :: Emotion

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 24

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Nombeko answered him in English and told the truth: that the Israeli Mossad had just barged into the house with the aim of commandeering the atomic bomb in the potato truck. And maybe, while he was at it, killing one or two of the people in the room.

I don't think this is really a spoiler, nothing would surprise me with this plot of The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (Jonas Jonasson). But I found it hard to be involved - or amused.

Mutterings - Aug 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Passive :: Voice
2. Crumbs :: Bread
3. Grave :: Slow (as in the Italian musical speed indication)
4. Believe :: Make
5. Stifle :: Sneeze
6. Fish :: out of water
7. Crunch :: Point
8. Bonus :: Point
9. Flat :: Fish
10. Bubbled :: Champagne

Mutterings - Aug 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Hiding :: in plain sight
2. Grip :: Bag
3. Sticky :: Wicket
4. Games :: Monitor
5. Tunnel :: Channel
6. Japan :: Haiku
7. Super :: Mario
8. Map :: Scale
9. Costume :: Drama
10. Secret :: Garden
I was going to go with Compton Burnett as an author but I see it's Frances Burnett (but I've not read it for 10s of years!)

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 9

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

But perhaps this arrangement was the solution to Nombeko's dilemma. She could move in with the engineer, let her wounds heal and run away on the day she felt that the National Library in Pretoria could no longer wait.

The Girl who saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson. Our book group book of the month - I think this was a book set in a foreign country. Fast paced but maybe a little too fast for its own good? Early days yet! Here's the goodreads comments - looks like a book to either love or hate!

Mutterings - Aug 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Cackle :: Witch's
2. $5 :: $10
3. Olympics :: Rings
4. Stink :: Bomb
5. Announcement :: Railway
6. Polish :: French
7. Frizzy :: Hair
8. Name :: Given
9. Endings :: Happy
10. Misty :: Glen

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 4

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He was a great worker, something unsuspected by those who knew him only in his public role, dressed in his festive robes to conduct the great Games, or receiving delegations from abroad. He was said to be a cool, even icy rationalist, whose relationship to the arts was one of mere distant civility

Hermann Hesse The Glass Bead Game I've been meaning to re-read this for a number of years - I'd lost the copy I used to have - so eventually picked up a copy in a charity shop. I read it last - I think -at University - and I seemed to have moved from one elite to another! I find it a fascinating tale of the tussle between elegant systems and the 'real' world. Not to everyone's taste! Here's an enthousiastic review. Hesse writing pre internet (and before television was popular) of isolated elites and the long slow death of culture.

Mutterings - Aug 3

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Substandard :: Connection
2. Rude :: Mechanicals (Shakespeare!)
3. Equality :: LGBT
4. Smile! :: God loves you
5. Presidential? :: Pardon? (especially if it's Trump!)
6. Fish :: Bicycle (needs a !)
7. Cloudy :: Liquor
8. Wondering :: Mind (or is that wandering?)
9. Thought :: Quick (as)
10. Calculator :: Pocket

Teaser Tuesday - July 28

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He knew he had not thought sufficiently of this, that he had been carried away by enthusiasm, and had hitherto not brought home to himself the full reality of his position.
He thought most about his daughter, naturally.

From Anthony Trollope's The Warden - our BATS book of the month - a classic read category - which I've quite enjoyed his dissection of the foibles of the Victorian Church. (getting to this post in the end!)

Mutterings - July 27

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Ridiculous :: Charade
2. Fearful :: Cave
3. Data :: Card
4. Beyond :: Wide blue
5. Gossip :: Huddle
6. Guessing game :: I-Spy
7. Portal :: Internet
8. Bracket :: Hinge (and Brackett)
9. Party :: Pooper
10. Transparent :: Stratagem

Teaser Tuesday - July 20

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

"Then where has she gone?"
He began to cry and I let him act out his desperation, sobs that began fake and became real.

The beginning of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend - having read the second in this series within our book group I thought I'd try the first novel. Here's my teaser of the second novel.

Mutterings - July 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Breach :: Once more (unto..)
2. Cloudy :: Cumulus
3. Fish :: Flat
4. Heather :: Moor
5. Lips :: Purse
6. Click :: Mouse
7. Cap :: School
8. Suggested :: Completion
9. Infatuation :: Hopeless
10. Move :: Chess

Teaser Tuesday - July 12

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

She hears the tap, tap, tap of the women's tobacco pipes.
During the night, fleas or lice feasted on her neck, breast and midriff.

This is a re-read of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumn's of Jacob de Zoet. I originally read it back in 2010 and had been hoping our book group would get around to it, but it is a bit long for a month and there's some bits that are tough to read! But as a historical novel of the interaction between East and West it is fascinating. Set at the end of the 18th century in Nagasaki, I am much enjoying the re-read - here's my (few) thoughts from first time (with the other entry tagged so that it can be found!).

Mutterings - July 12

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Devastated :: Area
2. Hello :: Sailor!
3. Agency :: Job
4. Guide :: Alpine
5. Air :: Londonderry
6. Expectation :: Great (a singular Dicken!)
7. Click :: Bait
8. Result :: Return
9. Member :: Honourable
10. Infertile :: Leadsom (sorry - but not very!)

Mutterings - July 5

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Argument :: No (or maybe No!)
2. Firing :: Cylinders
3. Gesture :: Rude
4. Conventional :: Staid
5. Calories :: Desserts
6. Glasses :: Wine
7. Clients :: Servers (an IT reference!)
8. Reception :: Office
9. Shaving :: Cream
10. Catastrophe :: Earthquake