What BOOK are you reading right now?

I used to play with an Acol nut for a partner.

It's a great word. I would distinguish it from gossip because gossip is scenting the surroundings. Clabber is just right for nothing noise. Like comparisons of frocks or holiday destinations. Culinary delicacies . Officers.

Speculation, in Mansfield Park, seems like the sort of card game you have in mind.

I can't read the expression "hobby horse" without Widow Wadman appearing in my mind's eye.

Never finished Istanbul either, but Red is much better. As for Snow, it is an absolute masterpiece IMO. Haunting.

City of Bohane by Kevin Barry

Fantastic!

Kevin Barry? This the same fella who 'gave his young life for the cause of liberty'?

Is there any other kind? Once in London, I and a couple of others were coerced into foregoing contract bridge in favour of learning Acol. What could we say? ... it was the hostess's call, her house and her cards, etc. It wasn't the grandest evening I ever spent.

It did evolve into a natter o' sorts ... it were a bluidy girt row is what it was! I'm not saying the hostess was dhrunk, jist in good fightin' thrim and two tirds of the rest were the same. I, of course, was the exception. We eventually bound and gagged the hostess and had a decent game of Bismarck, which somewhat salvaged the evening.

No. He's alive and swilling.

It helps to be Irish and love language as the Irish do.

To anyone who hasn't read J.G. Farrell's trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip) I recommend it.

Farrell was an excellent novelist who died in his 40's. Apparently, he drowned while fishing in southwestern Ireland, having fallen from rocks into the sea.

As long as yer not after fishin' from the sea cliffs.

It looks to me like it was being Irish, 40, drowning, rocks, cliffs, fishing, writing or the sea that killed this guy. My guess goes to a famous Irish pastime.

Coulda been doin' all that at one and the same time that did him in. They're a clever race and well known for their luck, but there's a limit to everything, savin' perhaps garrulity.

I read Hamlet last night. I still find myself excited by the play. Now, I am reading Shakespeare at the Cineplex: The Branagh Years by Samuel Crowl. I find some of his insights fascinating but I can not believe that Crowl holds an endowed chair at Ohio University. His writing is awful. He repeats and repeats and repeats himself.

Perhaps, the book is based on his lecture notes but why didn't an editor go through the thing? Also, since he offers a discussion of many films I not only never saw but never heard of, an index of the films discussed would have been a nice addition to the book.

Did I say he repeats himself?

I just checked it out on Amazon. No one has reviewed it yet. I suspect that Crowl's repetition had driven all would be readers batty. Perhaps, no one has ever finished it.

Glad I borrowed it from the library but can't figure out why the library shelled out money for it.

In summation, this is a book marred by repetition.

So true, so true - just to think of all the Irish we have lost, oh, wait a second, I got a fair amount of Irish in me!

Just started Michael Burlingames ABRAHAM LINCOLN-a life.
Its a two volume work and it relies heavily upon the work of guys like Howell(but so far Burlingames book, while not a page turner, is far more interesting than others who wrote exhaustively of the same subject)

This one has had good reviews, but that's all I can say about it.

Looking for Lincoln : the making of an American icon / Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. ; foreword by David Herbert Donald ; introduction by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Years ago I sloggered through Sandburg. I don't know how exhaustive it was as compared to present day studies, but it exhausted me. I wouldn't have undertaken it voluntarily; it was an assigned chore.

I am reading the book "The Alchemist". It's a great love story novel, very heart touching.

I'm reading Michael Ondaatje's The Cat's Table. Superb so far and I expect to continue to find it so.

I'm reading David Rhodes Jewelweed. Super book. Super writer. Super super. In other words, it's a superb book.

To The Bright And Shining Sun - by James Lee Burke.

I just find that I like his style of writing. Most of his early stuff was about the deep south, Louisiana, New Orleans and New Mexico but this one I've found is set in Kentucky and thereabouts, during the coal miner's strikes of the 30's.
He's one author I always look out for, as he's normally pretty good at spinning a yarn.
Good page turner so far.....