I'd like to gently say that perhaps we should not be overquick to categorize Pachinko? I only read two chapters but it's a new book and I doubt it has any relation to a 15 year old movie? It's very much like Pearl Buck's The Good Earth in the first two chapters and the only reason I only read two was I put it down so I could sink into it sometime and be totally immersed when the holidays were over.
It was that good, initially. Let's give it another consideration down the line, it's much too big to consider for a read in a month or two. Of course it might be the worst book ever written, but I don't think we want to eliminate something none of us have even read on the basis of reviews. We made that mistake with Wolf Hall, I would not like to see us do it again. Karen will get to it before I do, I am interested in her opinion once she's read it.
The pachinko thing might be enlightening, actually. Of course I'm talking through my hat because I haven't read it and apparently none of the rest of you have, either.
We could discuss Fire and Fury: the new Trump/ Bannon sensation. hahahaha I'm 73 pages into it, it's not a book that demands much of the reader: a commuter type of read. I don't see anything surprising, but it's not quite, to me, what I expected. Sometimes I wonder if it's a hoax to sell the thing.
I came IN to say I am so glad to read that others have been experiencing in the past Those Who Blurt: thank you for saying that. Misery Loves Company and I am glad to see I am not the only person who has had to encounter and deal with such behavior. I used to think, in the case of the two people I was talking about, it was stupidity, and I still think so in one of the cases. In the second case, I am worried that it might be something more, both people seem totally unaware of the reactions of others and would be, and have been when one tries however kindly to stop it, crushed if reacted TO in any way.
Sometimes I wish I still lived in New Jersey, they know how to handle that type of thing, but I now live in the polite South. So one sighs and mushes on. I'm not sure what's worse, the remarks or the sense of being victimized because you can't defend yourself. And that's just the one on one, most of the time there are other people involved, making it worse.
The deal is, as was said to Bellamarie, those who say they should say what they think need to be prepared to take the result of that , and they never are.
That's one reason I like EF Benson's deft hand with such things. If the world today was as he portrays in his comedies of manners, it might be a better, (and funnier) place. At any rate, I'm enjoying reading a few lines before drifting off at night. Oh and on the new Mapp and Lucia series, I do now very much like the new actor playing Georgie. He does an interview on YouTube and he seems a perfect foil for the new Lucia. Amazon has written that the one DVD they apparently they had of the new series is no longer available, darn it.
Rosemary, did you see that article from the BBC on people getting to run a bookstore for a... week or whatever it was, having the experience of running a bookstore, somewhere in Scotland? It came out over Christmas but is not a new thing, apparently. I am trying to understand the appeal.
It could be Wigtown, but I can't find anything on it now except old news about an Airbnb. I guess you pay for the privilege...The town is small and has TONS of bookstores already. How stressful would that be, to try to keep up with the appeal of the others. Or would one be able to encourage people to one's own tastes in that short time. Or? Obviously there is something I don't understand. Sounds a clever idea, actually, people pay to run your business for you. I've had my head in the sand.
Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas now almost over.
