Jane Austen: Catharine 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Catharine
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Romance
Pages: 62
Words: 17K
Publish: 1793

This is another unfinished novel that Austen began as a younger person and thus it is classed with her juvenilia works.

I didn’t hate it despite the lower rating, but the main reason it is getting this lower rating is because the characters just didn’t feel like characters that Jane Austen would create later in her life. Some of the “ideas” were there, just like the names of familiar characters were in A Collection of Letters, but the heart and soul were totally absent. That made this hard to power through.

I do not regret reading these bits and bobs, because I am a fan of Austen’s and I am also a completionist. But I can’t say that I am having a wonderful time. It’s almost like being back in school again, sigh.

★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia

Catharine (Kitty) Percival (the name is sometimes given as Peterson) is an orphan, ward of her aunt, Mrs. Percival, who is strict with her. Kitty has lost her dear friends, Cecilia and Mary Wynne, whose clergyman father's death scattered the family; Cecilia Wynne was sent to India to be married to a much older man she dislikes, and Mary is serving as a companion in the household of a distant relative, Lady Halifax, dependent on that family for even the clothes on her back. Together Kitty, Cecilia, and Mary had planted a bower in Mrs. Percival’s garden, which, now grown to maturity, is Kitty’s haven and chief comfort.

Mrs. Percival goes to great lengths to prevent Kitty from meeting possibly unsuitable young men. Kitty is allowed to socialize only with Mr. and Mrs. Dudley and their daughter, an arrogant and quarrelsome family. Mrs. Percival even refuses visits from the Stanleys, relatives of Mrs. Percival and Catharine, who are a wealthy family with political and social influence, because they have a son, Edward, of marriageable age.

However, Edward has now moved to France, and the Stanleys come to visit. Kitty excitedly anticipates their arrival. She is disappointed to find that their daughter, Camilla, has little in common with her. While Camilla's "ideas where towards the Eleagance of the appearance", she seemed to be "devoid of taste or judgment" (p. 169). Camilla "professed a love of books without reading, was lively without wit, and generally good humoured without merit" (p. 169). Kitty wants to discuss things like books and politics, but Camilla leads the conversation back to subjects Kitty views as frivolous, such as fashion and social life. Camilla is acquainted with the Halifaxes, and she and Kitty disagree over the Halifaxes and the Wynne sisters. Camilla thinks that the sisters are fortunate, while Kitty views their situation as tragic and thinks that the Wynnes have been ill-treated by their benefactors.

Kitty concludes that she and Camilla will not come to an agreement, and escapes to her bower. Camilla later comes to the bower, excited, to tell Kitty that they have all been invited to the Dudleys’ ball the next evening. In the morning, Kitty wakes up with a violent toothache that prevents her from attending the ball. Camilla, her parents, and Mrs. Percival decide to attend the ball without her.

Mrs. Stanley and Mrs. Percival discuss the friendship between Camilla and Kitty. Mrs. Percival see their relationship as detrimental and tells Mrs. Stanley that she, herself, did not have such a companion. Mrs. Percival quips that perhaps it would have changed her for the better, and talks about the friend of her own girlhood, with whom she still keeps acquaintance.

Edward Stanley turns up at the Percivals’ home, having returned to England unexpectedly, and convinces Kitty to go with him to the ball after all. Mrs. Percival is not pleased. In the following days, Edward flirts with Kitty, and it becomes apparent that he has much more in common with her than Camilla does. He makes a point of kissing her hand when Mrs. Percival is approaching and can witness it. Kitty begins to fall in love with Edward. Her aunt doesn't approve of him and chastises Kitty for scandalous behavior.

Mr. Stanley is also displeased by Edward’s flirting with Kitty, and sends him back to the Continent. Kitty is hurt by his abrupt departure, but Camilla tells her that he was sorry to leave, obviously because he is in love with Kitty. Kitty is in a "state of satisfaction."

The book was never completed, so we do not know where the story would have gone next.

• All My “Jane Austen” Reviews

• Reading Austen 2025 Master Post

The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle #2) 5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Tombs of Atuan
Series: Earthsea Cycle #2
Author: Ursula LeGuin
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy / Middle Grade
Pages: 117
Words: 46K
Publish: 1971

Another wonderful coming of age story that is so different from A Wizard of Earthsea and yet tells a story that I love.

Most of the time, when an author tells a completely different tale in a series, I have issues with it. I usually want more of the same, more of the familiar, more of what I enjoyed in the previous book. Thankfully, LeGuin’s skill is such that she can change everything and yet keep the essentials that I loved and thus make me love this new creation.

The characters, the land and the perspective have all changed but what didn’t change was the style. We still get the world building with just a few brief sentences. Whole histories are conveyed in less than a paragraph. Peoples’ characters fleshed out with the perfectly chosen word. Simplicity is still LeGuin’s choice here and it continues to work very well. While the story appears to be about Tennar the young girl, it is just as much about the Ring of Erreth Akbe, which when the broken pieces are found and united, will bring peace to the land. It takes real skill to be able to tell both stories at the same time without one overshadowing the other.

I am also very happy that Tennar’s story ends on a happy note. She has left everything behind her, going to a new land, to a people she doesn’t know, with a man who has told her he can’t stay with her, but she will be given protection and teaching by Ogion the wizard and have wealth should she want it. The blackness of LeGuin’s soul hadn’t yet destroyed everything good…

I was hoping to showcase the cover for the first edition, which was another woodcut style drawing, but sadly, every version I could find had this huge “Award” on it, since it won several childrens’ awards. So I’m choosing to go with the Bantam Spectra cover from the mid 80’s. This was the copy my local library had I believe. I’m going to include the covers for each book because I want a complete collection and I have zero idea what I’ll showcase for the next book’s cover.

★★★★★

From Wikipedia

The story follows a girl named Tenar, born on the Kargish island of Atuan. Born on the day that the high priestess of the Tombs of Atuan died, she is believed to be her reincarnation. Tenar is taken from her family when she was five years old and goes to the Tombs.[14] Her name is taken from her in a ceremony, and she is referred to as "Arha", or the "eaten one",[24] after being consecrated to the service of the "Nameless Ones" at the age of six with a ceremony involving a symbolic sacrifice.[28] She moves into her own tiny house, and is given a eunuch servant, Manan, with whom she develops a bond of affection.

Arha's childhood and youth are lonely; her only friends are Manan and Penthe, a priestess her own age. She is trained in her duties by Thar and Kossil, the priestesses of the two other major deities. Thar tells her of the undertomb and the labyrinth beneath the Tombs, teaching her how to find her way around them. She tells of the treasure hidden within the labyrinth, which wizards from the archipelago have tried to steal. When Arha asks about the wizards, Thar tells her that they are unbelievers who can work magic. When she turns fourteen, Arha assumes all the responsibilities of her position, becoming the highest ranked priestess in the Tombs. She is required to order the death of prisoners sent to the Tombs by the God-King of the Kargad lands; she has them killed by starvation, an act which haunts her for a long time. After Thar dies of old age, Arha becomes increasingly isolated: although stern, Thar had been fair to her. Kossil despises Arha and sees the Nameless Ones as a threat to her power.

Arha's routine is disrupted by her discovery of the wizard Ged (the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea) in the undertomb. She traps him in the labyrinth by slamming the door on him, and through a peephole sees him unsuccessfully attempt to open the door with a spell.[29] Trapped in the labyrinth, Ged eventually collapses out of exhaustion, and Arha has him chained up while debating what to do with him. After questioning him, she learns that he has come to the Tombs for the long-lost half of the ring of Erreth-Akbe, a magical talisman broken centuries before, necessary for peace in Earthsea.[14] The other half had come into his possession by pure chance, and a dragon later told him what it was. Arha is drawn to him as he tells her of the outside world, and keeps him prisoner in the tombs, bringing him food and water.[30] However, Kossil learns of Ged's existence, forcing Arha to promise that Ged will be sacrificed to the Nameless Ones; however, she realizes that she cannot go through with it. She instructs Manan to dig a false grave underground, while she herself takes Ged to hide in the treasury of the Tombs.

Arha and Kossil have a public falling out, in which Kossil says that nobody believes in the Nameless Ones anymore. In response, Arha curses her in the name of the Nameless Ones. Realizing that Kossil will now be determined to kill her, she heads to the labyrinth and sees Kossil uncovering the false grave. Evading her, Arha goes to the treasury and confesses everything to Ged, who has found the other half of Erreth-Akbe's ring in the treasury. He tells Arha that she must either kill him or escape with him, and says that the Nameless Ones demand her service, but give nothing and create nothing in return. He tells her his true name, Ged, in return for the trust she has shown him. They escape together, though Manan, who has come looking for Arha, falls into a pit in the labyrinth and is killed when he attempts to attack Ged. The tombs begin to collapse in on themselves; Ged holds them off until they leave. Arha reverts to calling herself Tenar as she and Ged travel to the coast where his boat is hidden. While waiting for the tide, she feels an urge to kill Ged for destroying her life, but realizes while gazing at him that she has no anger left. Ged and Tenar sail to Havnor, where they are received in triumph.

The Mother Hunt (Nero Wolfe #38) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Mother Hunt
Series: Nero Wolfe #38
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 157
Words: 57K
Publish: 1963

Wolfe leaves his house, yet again. I almost deducted a half-star for that because I’m tired of being “told” that Wolfe never leaves his house but being “shown” that he actually does whenever it is convenient for the author. You failed me Rex Stout. It’s the Toaster Bath for you!

[please see my Rant from Sunday if you don’t understand that reference]

Other than that, I once again thoroughly enjoyed Rex Stout chauffeuring me around in style. I was quite content with that.

The cover I’ve used is quite different from the usual variety. That is because apparently this book was used as the basis for one of the tv episodes and so all of the other covers have that big red ugly “as seen on tv” blurb on them. It’s disgusting and I hate it, so instead I get this very odd cover. I’ll take Odd over Disgusting any day!

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia

Lucy Valdon has recently been widowed by the accidental death of her husband, the novelist Richard Valdon. Lucy has a surprise waiting for her in her vestibule one evening: an abandoned baby, dressed, with a note pinned to a blanket. The note claims that the baby is Richard's son. Lucy wants to learn who the mother is. That information would help determine whether her husband and the mother had been intimate, and therefore the likelihood that the child is in fact Richard's.

Wolfe is reluctant as always, but agrees to investigate. Archie examines the clothes that the baby was wearing and spots an unusual item: the baby's overalls have horsehair buttons, apparently handmade. After Archie draws a blank trying to track the buttons down via businesses in the garment trade, Wolfe tries a tactic that he uses to good effect in other cases. He advertises for information.

The advertisement succeeds in prompting a call from someone who has seen a similar button, and when Archie follows up he eventually locates Ellen Tenzer in Mahopac, about fifty miles north of New York City. Miss Tenzer is a retired nurse who from time to time cares for babies temporarily. She is unwilling to help Archie, though, and orders him off her property. Archie complies, Miss Tenzer disappears, and the next day she is found, strangled, in her car on a Manhattan street.

With that line of investigation closed to them, Wolfe and Archie try another. Lucy arranges for several of Richard's acquaintances to come to the brownstone. Wolfe asks that they each supply him with a list of all the women with whom Richard was in contact during a three-month period roughly corresponding to the date of the baby's conception. A list of 148 names results, and it takes nearly four weeks for Archie, Saul, Fred and Orrie to verify that none of the women had an unaccounted for baby following the period in question.

Finally, Wolfe decides to go for the swindle. His plan involves the Gazette, Lon Cohen's employer, and it succeeds in flushing the baby's mother from hiding. But then she is found dead, also strangled.

When Inspector Cramer learns that there is a connection between the dead woman and Wolfe, he shows up at the front stoop, forcing Wolfe and Archie to flee via the back door. Wolfe is furious about the murders, particularly the second, and desperately wants to expose the killer himself. But if Cramer finds him, he will either have to tell Cramer about the search for the baby's mother or withhold evidence in a capital case.

To avoid having to make that choice, Wolfe and Archie hole up in Lucy's house—she, her baby and her staff are away for a few days. While there, Wolfe has an insight about how the murderer and Ellen Tenzer might have become acquainted. That insight leads to the traditional Wolfe finale, with witnesses and suspects gathered together, but this time it's in someone else's house.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

Ironroot Treefolk - MTG 4E

 

More than you EVER wanted to know about the mating habits of treefolk. But if you're a perv and into that kind of thing, then this is the card for you!

The [Rant] I Had To Trash

 

Preachin' ahead!

I wrote a Rant post about authors and writers and how I perceived them and interacted with them and my thoughts on them in general. It was a powerful post (in my opinion) and I really let go. But as the week went on, I began to wonder. So I went back and read what I had written. The words I had written were not ones I wanted coming out of my mouth or thoughts I wanted in my head.

So I deleted that rant. Just because I "feel" something, even strongly, doesn't give me the license to just shoot my mouth off about it. What's more, because I am a Christian, I am supposed to be showing Jesus' character to those around me, including those I hang out with online. When "funny angry" turns into "real vitriolic disgust", that is crossing a line that I as a Christian cannot countenance.

Ordinarily, I'd just delete the post and you'd never know it was written. But I had written in my monthly roundup that that rant was coming. I probably could have gotten away with just ignoring it and nobody would have cared. Maybe.

Sometimes keeping my mouth shut is the right thing to do. A lot of the time that IS the right thing. But when I write or say something that is wrong, it behooves me to admit it, apologize for it and get rid of it. And I wrote and scheduled that rant. You didn't read it, but I sure as shooting wrote it and I know what I said. I don't mind being the slightly (or even very) grumpy curmudgeon who shakes his fist at those kids on the lawn but I NEVER want to be the kind of Christian who says things about other people that Jesus wouldn't say or go against the precepts of the Bible.

I cannot view anyone as my enemy, because I was God's enemy at one time and He sent Jesus to die for me and for everyone else too. If God can sacrifice like that, then it is my duty as a follower of Him to emulate that. That includes watching the words I write and not misusing them.

I want my rants, even when serious, to be amusing and at most to make you think. I never want them to wound people or be filled with so much vitriol that it hurts to read them. I cannot promise that there will never be vitriol on this blog, but I can promise that I will do my best not allow it. To end this, I think the following picture is the perfect fit. Dark humor is for everyone, not just those of us with good taste!

Tool of the Trade

 

Last week I bought myself a really nice machete for work. Now, we are supplied with them, as they are an essential tool of our trade, but what the management gets is trying to balance the reality that we beat the ever living daylights out of our machetes with not buying total crap.

Oh, total crap. We had one office dubber who was in charge of supplies for about a year. He's no longer with our company, for a variety of reasons. But he bought a bulk order of machetes for wicked cheap one time. Turns out they were that super cheap chinese steel. It would bend when you tried to cut something and the blade would fold and warp. It was like having a bit of aluminum foil. They were total garbage and we all (the field crew who actually used them) complained like it was the end of the world and they bought us some better ones. Which I've been using. But there comes a time when you just want a really good tool and you are willing to pay for it yourself so it is YOURS and yours alone.

I settled on the Condor Yoshimi machete. It has a tanto blade (it is a sharp angle at the end of the blade instead of the usual rounded curve on most machetes) and has a hand and a half grip. It is also a bit heavier, weighing in at almost 3 pounds, but it is balanced so well that even one handed I haven't found it putting any strain on the forearm that is doing the cutting. Part of the reason it weighs so much is because the blade is pretty thick. That prevents the blade from warping or twisting. It also gives it some nice heft when cutting, so gravity is helping me cut every time I use it ;-) The blade is 19inches long, which is just about the size I like. Any shorter and you can't hack from a distance. Much longer and the machete gets tangled up as you're trying to swing it. The handle is wood, which grips a lot better when your hand is wet from either sweating like a pig or it is raining out. Trust me, I've seen enough machetes go flying out of people's hands over the years to realize it is a basic safety requisite to have a good grip.

The sheath is kydex, a fancy name for plastic. We'll see how it holds up over the winter when the temps plunge below freezing for weeks or months on end. A leather sheath will eventually get a hole torn down in the lower extremity where the blade pushes down on it or the blade will cut the leather siding. And the strips of leather where the sheath attaches to your belt is always thinner and those are usually the first things to go. This kydex sheath will obviate those problems. I'll just have to hang around and see what problems do arise with it instead :-)

Since it is mine, bought and paid for, I don't have to worry about getting "leftovers" from the lot of garbage machetes we have on hand. While the office is now buying better UK steel machetes, we still have those chinese crap ones in case of emergencies. We have found they are good for about 1 week of hard use and then they crap out on us.

And that is that. I got a new toy and I wanted to share. Class dismissed!

Farsight: Empire of Lies (Warhammer 40K: Tau) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Farsight: Empire of Lies
Series: Warhammer 40K: Tau
Author: Gave Thorpe
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Phil Kelly
Pages: 313
Words: 103K
Publish: 2020

The continuing story of Commander Farsight, an alien Tau trying to do his best for his species, which has a rigid and unbending view of themselves, other xeno species and the cosmos itself. Which is a very bad thing when that view doesn’t take into account the forces of Chaos itself.

From what I can gather, the Tau are a species that can be played in the Warhammer 40,000 game and the lore of the game has Commander Farsight being separated from the main Tau species, a breakaway faction. These “Farsight” books are the backstory to that. Basically Farsight is questioning the foundations upon which the Tau Empire are built and is leading him and others who follow him, to go their own way so as to prevent the extinction of the Tau.

The frustrating thing about these Tau novels is that there are lots of hints about the conspiracy by the Ethereals (the highest caste in Tau society) but nothing concrete is ever given. Most of that is because the WH:40K novels are simply adjuncts to the game and thus are just riders on the game’s success, meant to extract that little bit of extra money from the customers. But as a reader, I want answers and these books definitely do not provide that. They are deliberately at a loss when it comes to answers.

My other frustration about this faction is how they are blind to the forces of Chaos. The Tau are “psychically” blind, which means they don’t have psykers and the like who can wield the power of the nether, but it does mean they can’t be possessed by demons and run amuck like the psykers in the Empire of Man can do. This gives them a modicum of protection, but it also means that they simply turn a blind eye to it. THAT is what gets my goat. They can see the evidence but they just ignore it. In this book they finally have to fight the forces of Chaos face to face without being able to ignore it and the higher caste STILL ignores it. Farsight at least acknowledges there are forces beyond his comprehension that exist. I think that is where the split happens.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher:

High Commander Farsight, fresh from his victory against the Imperium over the Damocles Gulf, looks to his borders and finds his old enemies – the savage and warlike orks – assailing his worlds and threatening to ravage the heart of the T’au Empire. Farsight’s obsessive crusade will see him locked in an escalating conflict with the greenskins, and he will stop at nothing until their infestation is purged. In the background, foul forces are at work, however – forces that will do whatever they can to see the military genius of Farsight fall on the daemon-haunted world of Arthas Moloch. Can Farsight stand in the face of new truths, and will the T’au Empire stand with him?

• Farsight

• Farsight: Crisis of Faith

• Blades of Damocles