This is an interesting book with great full page photographs…2 pictures
Posts tagged ‘book’
Started this book last night…
Enjoying it very much. Highlights all the fabulous women of the times, the rebels and the fabulous. Great photographs.
Okay, so…
Every time I wonder why I’ve never lived anywhere but CHICAGO, I mean even the dinosaurs were confused, asking what the blond thing walking around was doing there– surviving the winters, and DARKNESS– I think…somewhere the sun is actually shining and it’s WARM.
So, today I was happy about the sun being out, and celebrating the hot 35 degree day, but I was also thinking about Holly telling me about the flowers BLOOMING where she lives. I looked outside at the dirty snow and mud. Hmmm…
Anyway, I was moving the dust around, pretending to clean (it’s hard to clean when one is always looking through books), and I picked up my favorite book on CHICAGO (see below).
I opened the book and immediately fell madly in love, just like I always do whenI see pictures of the city. Not only that, the quotes all stuck in my throat, one on top of another, because they were perfect and they were the reasons I was here and they were…me.
It is possible to become the place you live. When that happens, there is no difference between yourself and the city, or place. Maybe most of us do that. I think it’s true for those who love where they are.
Obama said, “Let me tell you something. I’m from Chicago. I don’t break.”
I read that and my heart fluttered, recognizing the truth of it.
Studs (Terkel) said, “Chicago is America’s dream, writ large and flamboyantly. It has-as they used to whisper of the town’s fast women-a reputation. ”
Mike Royko said, “One of the hallmarks of Chicago is that we do so many things in an original manner. What other city has made a river flow backwards? What other city makes traffic flow backwards?”
Nelson Algren (he loved the city), said, “Chicago is an October sort of city, even in spring.”
Seriously, who could ever argue with THAT?”
Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Eventually, I think that Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the modern world.”
Those are just a couple of quotes that made me see the mud in a new way. LOLOL Okay, I would live in Paris for awhile, that’s true. At least I think I would. Maybe I wouldn’t like it there, if I had all the time in the world, instead of two weeks at a time, but I really can’t imagine that.
Anyway, this, book is beautiful and for those of you who want to see what Chicago looks like, from different angles, in all weather, from different photographers…you really need to see this.
Okay, so…
I was reading a book, this morning, about a woman who moved to Paris and was writing about chocolate and working for a famous designer. The desserts were a side gig. Anyway, it was kind of boring, but it was about Paris, and that’s why I was reading it. I picked the book up on sale, a long time ago.
I got to a part where she was walking through the streets and called the pigeons filthy vermin. WHAT? She didn’t want to rush them, so they would fly away, and have the FILTHY DUST FROM THEIR WINGS FALL ON HER.
End of book for me. She disparaged pigeons. She became a non entity. She said other bad things about the birds and all of them were hateful. The book will be ripped up and recycled.
How mean was that? I won’t read books by people who are that mean. I felt so bad for the pigeons, even though they don’t know or care. I do.
Vermin is just another ugly word made up by ugly humans. Ever wonder what the “vermin” call us? Besides killers and death on two legs, I mean? I suppose they are kinder than we are, which wouldn’t be hard.
So one garbage book in the garbage, where it belongs.
I put this book on every once in awhile because it’s the most important book you can ever read…so SPINFLUENCE once again.
It’s all pictures/artwork and big bold writing. It’s absolutely FANTASTIC! SHOULD BE A TEXT BOOK IN ALL SCHOOLS.
Battle Ground, by Jim Butcher…
Butcher doesn’t lose any time starting the battle and it lasts for almost the entire book. Amazing how so much fighting can make you want to skip pages, since fighting is fighting and even that gets a boring. He’s very creative, but there are only so many ways to kill someone. And really, how many times can the same person keep getting up?
Having said that, all the characters play a part in this story, even if briefly. Mack is barely in it at all, so are a few of the other characters, but everyone is represented. I was almost sure this this book would be the end of the series, but it isn’t. I’m happy about that.
Winter Knight or not, there’s no way a body can take the damage his took and still be breathing but hey, it’s fantasy, right?
All the books take place in Chicago, so for those of us who are from there, we can really get behind the wizard and his crew. It’s fun when all the stuff takes place where you live. The Bean plays a role…that’s where some of the action take place during the final phase of the battle. So that was fun.
Mab is riding a very cool animal and she does her thing with style. More and more we catch a glimpse of her humanity, but only for a second. I missed Thomas but feel that he’ll be back in a big way in the next book, at least I hope he will be. And where is Chandler?
So, the battle for the city is fierce, insane and weirder than anyone can imagine, since all the things that hate humans have decided to come to Chicago and fight it out for who gets to run the world…without humans in it.
The whole time I was reading I saw the politics being played out in front of us everyday, as akin to the enemy in the book. trump could easily have been the horror who was filled with hatred and wanted us all dead. Actually, he may have been the model for Butcher, who knows.
Some of Harry’s bff’s turn on him. People are also lost, and the city is attacked in a big way.
The ending has some surprises that are funny, depending on your pov. There are still some questions to be answered and no one will answer them for him, which, I admit, is starting to get a bit old. But I’m looking forward to seeing what Harry will do next, now that Mab has set him a new and funny, or scary, task. Relationships with key players have changed.
Hey, Harry is Chicago’s only wizard. He’s listed in the phone book after all. He is trying to save MY city, so what’s not to like. He’s not for everyone, you can read why not in the one star reviews on Amazon. But these books are for me. I hope Butcher doesn’t take years for the next one to come out. He gets like that sometimes. After writing a million page battle, he probably needs a rest. 🙂
Book…
I just finished listening to, The Poet X. It’s written like a poetry/novel and the reader is excellent.
It’s a book about how religion can destroy a person’s life/mind and how that can destroy the family living with the fanatic. The daughter, Poet X, is bullied, controlled and constantly verbally abused by her mother, who wanted to be a nun but was made to marry.
The woman’s mind is twisted by her catholic beliefs, and she takes out her hatred for being female, and for not being able to be marry her god, on her daughter. She’s a horrible woman, and no one tries to stop her from what she does to her child, until she does something terrible.
She hates her daughter, as she hates herself. She makes her kneel on rice, constantly pray for forgiveness for imaginary sins, and for having a female body. All of the ugly thoughts she has, she thinks her daughter is thinking, or living out. All of her hatred and fears are directed toward her daughter. Everyone around her is mistreated and suffers from her insanity, but NO ONE STOPS HER FROM DOING WHAT SHE DOES.
Eventually the girl runs away for ONE night.
The ending was a huge disappointment. We are expected to believe that the horrible mother somehow miraculously changes overnight, and turns into a more normal person, after which everyone makes up. The girl knows that she and her mother will never be best friends, accepts the new relationship they have, and it’s over.
The daughter survives through her poetry which, of course, her mother finds. Her mother thinks her daughters words are filthy and disgusting and that finally push the woman over the edge into a pit of burning hatred for her child, since it proves that she was right about her all along.
Up until the completely unrealistic ending, the book was interesting. Just as unbelievable, the girl, who has, throughout the book questioned her religion, tells us that she doesn’t think she’ll be as religious as her mother. Her mother, was insane and horribly destructive, but the daughter doesn’t think she’ll be like her mother.
What kind of message does that send to kids trapped in situations not of their own making? Take the abuse, forgive and forget, never escape your nightmare? Terrible ending. Ruined the whole book, since the reader would be hoping the girl could escape the entire time.
picture: overdrive.com
PEACE TALKS…read it…loved it…
As I said, PEACE TALKS came out today. Read it immediately. It was lots of fun and the next one comes out in September. This is great news, since we have been waiting for this one for what seems like a million years.
I have to admit, that I’m concerned about the one that’s coming out next. I don’t want it to be the end of the series but it might be. I hope not but. I realllllly hope not. If it turns out that I’m right, you may hear a collective scream for his many fans. I still miss Nightside, by Simon Green. Some characters just grow on you…well in Nightside, that was probably possible. LOLOL But the characters in The Dresden Files, are like family. After 17 books, how could they be anything else?
So fingers crossed that the series keeps going and while we’re waiting for September book, start the series, if you haven’t read them, and catch up.
Anyway, this one was good and if you’re a fan, I hope you enjoyed it. I love the characters and the writing is always wonderful.
Written
on October 8, 2020