Derogatory term used by his competitors in reference to the paintings of the Anglo-Irish painter, Francis Bacon. Art made by decorating eggshells, such as the Ukrainian pysanka. I've heard that, properly prepared, eelibate can be good seelibate , but that over-consumption can leave a person celibate. The prefix pnue is pnue to me. Now, if you'll excuse me, my duties at the volcanic silicon mines are calling me. The interweaving of comments on this list, on reesetee's knot list, as well as c-b's ongoing fixation with specific excrement renders the Wordie experience more surreal than usual this morning.

Archaic term for bastard. It started around seven o'clock, when employees noticed dead birds falling in the parking lot and on nearby streets. Hospital officials tell NEWS10 they hired a licensed, professional extermination company to help them with a pigeon problem. And that company used corn feed laced with a common pesticide to kill the birds. We are told there is no health threat to anyone living in the area. As a precaution, the parking lot and ER was shut down while crews investigated; but the hospital remained open during the incident.

Maybe I can wear my fox costume and terrorize skipvia. I have never played Boggle in my life. But I can generally claw my way to level 50 at FreeRice. Medically described as 'mucopurulent discharge'. The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you. A surgical sponge accidentally left inside a patient's body.

Has nothing to do with the English word casualty. Spanish for chance ; 'por casualidad' means 'by chance'. If you can have a meatloaf sundae , why not a casu marzu sundae? With a little absinthe, now legally available in the U. To make a loud noise. By extension of 1 , to celebrate or revel. By extension of 1 , to experience the noise of asteroids, comets or meteors coming through the upper atmosphere. See also make the welkin ring. Not to be confused with the word welkin , whose meaning I just learned, and doesn't have anything obvious to do with the phrase make the welkin ring.

Weirdnet seems to disagree with you, seanahan. Mightn't it also be a size-challenged booklover, someone barely visible to the naked eye? Spending a lot of time on the Internet to see how often your name appears and what others are saying about you. Used in a sentence: You probably think this blog is about you. Strictly speaking, shouldn't this be 'x for y'? The two substituents need not be the same - the constraint is presumably that x is less than or equal to y. To be fair, the sign that says "Park on Grass. Get toad" could be a correctly spelled incitement to anti-batrachian action. Then there's Hiddenite , home of the famous hiddenite deposits.

Mayberry , or - if you don't allow fictional places - the town upon which it is said to have been modeled - Mount Airy. I will include it, but you should go ahead and list it first, as I had never heard of it until now coverage of pre-civil war American history in Irish high schools is, how shall I put it? The suits for managers at a company. One wonders what an appropriate metonym might be for, e. Any of four heritable malformation syndromes recognizable at birth and characterized by premature craniosynostosis, syndactyly, and polydactyly; also: Having the teeth attached to the upper surface of the jaw rather than encased in a socket, a condition seen in many lizards and fish.

The teeth of some reptiles that have no roots and are joined to the jawbone. Among Ecclesiastical writers, the end of a verse or psalm, or something added thereto to be sung by the people. The variety of speech that is closest to a standard prestige language, especially in an area in which a creole is spoken. Any variety of language in a creole continuum that is intermediate between the basilect and the acrolect.

See also acrolect , mesolect. Spanish for 'eleven'; it is also an acronym for one of the lotteries popular in Spain, run by the national organization for the blind. In English, inhabitable is a synonym of habitable. In Spanish, the two words are antonyms. Peculiarly, Spanish subscribes to the same lack of logic as English when it comes to burning things:.

Note that the double-m of the English word does not carry over to Spanish, because of the orthographical rule known as the 'rule of Carolina', which states that the only consonants which can be doubled in Spanish are those appearing in the word 'Carolina'. Exceptions to this rule are generally confined to words borrowed unchanged from another language.

My Spanish is not all that good, so there are a lot of words that I will not know. Someone whose job is to cut the tops off okra before cooking. Also, a song from a lesser-known musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Gashlycrumb Tinies on YouTube. There is also the beloved Christmas character, a favorite of lemur s and Malagasy children alike: Petey the prodnosed phalarope. Now I have this ineradicable image of Johnny Depp playing skipvia in " Skipvia: Which would make skipvia an okra-mohel I think there's a song about it: German for bitter , or dry, in the case of wine.

I'm still working on the French ones. Spanish still to come. How do you feel about nuncheon? Sn is the chemical symbol for tin. A 'j' looks like an upside-down 'r': I've heard it used as a term of endearment in Ireland, though I think it would generally be preceded by an adjective, most likely 'old' or 'oul'. As expected, Terence Patrick Dolan's ridonkulous "Dictionary of Hiberno-English" is of no help at all, disallowing the possibility that cock may be used as a noun. I too am getting the dreaded 'gone all ' error. Another term, more frequently used in Munster, is 'madra rua' literally, red dog.

Did I mention that hot foxes are waiting to talk to you at my subsidiary website www. Included because it returns one, and only one, google hit. Though, because I'm listing it here, now there will probably be two. What's a body to do - the very act of reporting on google hit frequencies can change those frequencies. What are your thoughts about battlements? And I have an idea that emoluments are generally plural, but nothing to back this up. Someone gave me a book of nasty words for Christmas and I've been perusing it with childish and sometimes horrified fascination. It should have occurred to me that not everyone necessarily wants to join in being horrified.

I will cease and desist and look for words in less deviant pastures. To subject to repeated enemas, especially as a form of initiation. I followed the link here, as you suggested I'm forgiving you the appalling teachable moment reference because, like all my fellow-wordies, I love you to death. I was a bit surprised at the reaction to metaphotography 's posting, and appreciate your taking the time to respond.

I confess that I've been enjoying the pleasant atmosphere here at Wordie general lack of disturbing imagery, unobtrusive ads, virtually no irritating drive-by spammers or textually garbled links to sites or products of dubious legitimacy without giving too much thought to what enforcement safeguards might be necessary to maintain a pleasant environment. Examining my feelings on the matter, the type of link which interests me most tends to be one which leads to further non-pornographic intellectual or artistic content. Links to products and services don't interest me so much, but if clearly identified as such, wouldn't bother me particularly either, I think.

Of course many links included in commentary are highlighted in the same way as words can be, but that just seems like good HTML practice, replacing an address that is potentially very long by a shorter label. Also, a blanket ban on linking to the word vialis might be a little too draconian. There are linguistic contexts which legitimize its use, as the following Wiki excerpt indicates:.

The prolative case also vialis case is a declension of a noun or pronoun that has the basic meaning of "by way of". In the Finnish language, it has a highly restricted, almost fossilized meaning "by medium of transaction ". The vialis case in Eskimo-Aleut languages has a similar interpretation, used to express movement using a surface or way. For example, by way of or through the house. If your literary view of Newfoundland has been shaped by the dismal 'Shipping News', might I take this opportunity to recommend the fine underappreciated book by Howard Norman, "The Bird Artist"?

Yet I murdered the lighthouse keeper, Botho August, and that is an equal part of how I think of myself. Why the hostility, folks? For that matter, why the spam tag? I've seen only one posting of this word, and doesn't 'spam' imply multiple, unsolicited postings? Whatever happened to freedom of expression?

Not to mention civility. Or am I missing something? Well, isn't that just dandy?! What can we expect next - Rin-Tin-Tin ragout? A sad end to a beloved television icon - to be baked in a pie and served by barbaric island folk for the discomfiture of non-local visitors. I think you are mixing up marshmallow delicious, delicious, marshmallow with the yuckiness that is coconut.

Common contributing environmental factors are i going commando ii exiting a limousine. Given the ubiquity of paparazzi , stalkerazzi , and random onlookers with camera-ready cellphones, the estimated time between occurrence of a gashflash and its photographic documentation across the internet has decreased to less than a quarter of an hour. Cynical commentators argue that the gashflash , common in , is just the inevitable next step following the many well-publicized nipslip s ushered in by the infamous Janet Jackson Superbowl wardrobe malfunction.

Do not think, Mr Justin 'cock-in-a-box' Timberlake, that your overall role in the coarsening of the culture has gone unnoticed. Eventually you will be called to account, and no amount of fancy footwork or soulful crooning will be sufficient to escape retribution. Safer not to inspect either end too closely. The poor beastie could have been feague d or bishop ped.

See, I really have learned something on Wordie - a year ago, I didn't know either of those words. I feel obliged to put in a good word for twitter and, by extension, flutter , as it forms the basis for one of my favorite constructions: Furthermore chavish doesn't rhyme with knavish runs the risk of being confused with the descriptor meaning 'having the properties of a chav ':.

That would have been Governer Diamerdis and his feculent followers, I'll wager. The condition of being so constipated that one vomits one's own feces. Dung of dogs or hyenas, which becomes white by exposure to air. It is used in dressing leather, and was formerly used in medicine. Who knew that the Tudors were so bdolotic?

Perhaps it was some carminative agent in their diet that led to such an epidemic of flatus and meteorism? What would one call the raccoonnookkeeper 's accountant one wonders? And suppose that accountant had a special place to work, kind of like an alcove or something, which needed to be kept neat and tidy at all times. Who would be charged with the responsibility of doing so?

One possible designation might be the raccoonnookkeeper-bookkeeper-nookkeeper. The Jacob's chocolate Kimberley biscuit takes the deliciousness of the regular Kimberley to a whole new level by the simple process of enrobing it in chocolate. Both types of Kimberely biscuit are members of the exclusive club of schpring-schprong biscuits , so-called because of the schpringiness of their delectable marshmallow filling.

Mikado and coconut creams are also in this category. Mere words can not do justice to the delicious combination of the slightly gingery soft biscuity parts of this sandwich, the delicate fluffiness of the marshmallow filling, combined with the decadent indulgence of the rich milk chocolatey covering. I have a theory that everyone likes words with both a 'p' and a 'z' sound in them. Maybe this is the real reason people seem to want to comment on this word. Sam had already profited handsomely from the public's esurient craving for fresh Tickle-Me-Elmo paraphernalia, when he figured out a clever way of making "Elmo sampan s" by deft evagination of old sporran s, and his market research team was already investigating potential demand for a series of "Elmo's Everest adventures" manufactured, using the best faux- samizdat techniques, to look like actual sherpa journals.

I hear all the girls over in the brothel at clap hill are fireship s. Arthur's life as an actuary was an ordered one - his work dealt with the empirical , the rational , and when work was done, there was nothing that pleased him more than to spend the evenings sequestered away from his fellow man, preparing his favorite delicacy of shark's fin soup, a state of affairs that changed considerably after his expert testimony at the trial of Paulina the punk pole dancer, who was suing her former employers for negligence, following a painful mishap involving a disco ball, a bottle of Kristall vodka and the bachelor party of his own nephew Arnold, about whose behavior the less said the better.

Ireland is associated with harp s and bog s, New Zealand with the kiwi , and Australia is inextricably linked in my mind with convicts and that porcine battleaxe with the wonderful bel canto voice, Dame Joan Sutherland. I don't really think Joan Sutherland is a porcine battleaxe - but am claiming poetic license as my excuse. As the majestic initial chordal progression of Debussy's Submerged Cathedral filled the concert hall, evoking the faint sacerdotal chant of some ancient lacustrine brotherhood, Leopold looked at his wife's hugely tumescent belly, winced at the wave of pain that washed over his body in sympathetic contraction, and prayed that their health insurance was adequate to cover his-'n-her epidurals in cases of severe couvade.

I second what bilby wrote - rolig 's comments and citations are da bomb! If all of your words were laid end to end right now, they would stretch for a mile. What is it with Thai names anyway? Why are the Chinese able to come up with apparently unique identifiers that can be written in as few as four letters a colleague at work was called 'Xu Lu'. Whereas any self-respecting Thai name takes up at least several lines in the phone directory. Check out the names of the cabinet members at the government website sometime and you'll see what I mean.

A man who chases women during the month after his wife has given birth. Fresh new words coming soon to lists near you. Ooh, a new denizen word - goody gumdrops! I guess they go after rats that are catching some Z's in the drainpipe, and give them a rude awakening. Do I have to ship them to Guantanamo first, before locking them in a confined environment and applying heat? Then, of course, there's Knock in County mayo, home to assorted Marian visitations, and one papal visit back in And Gorey , County Wexford, a hotbed of Fenian rebellion in the rising of I'd call this prairie-dogging myself.

An even better word might be meerkatting or using a meerkat excavation strategy , by analogy with wildcat miners. Ever since the accident with the machete, his decaudate companion had been restive , and prone to malarkey such as snatching Pierre's treasured oenological guide to the region, upon which he liked to chew, while remaining tantalizingly out of reach, prompting the Belgian to reflect that this was the absolute last trip he was going to take with a prepubescent monkey in tow, with or without an intact tail. Fatima was without doubt a paragon of pulchritude , but as she typed the incendiary message into her blackberry , while simultaneously using her glue-stick to tape a poison-pen note to her rival's locker, she proved once again that she was the unrivalled queen of mean at Tigris and Euphrates Junior High.

Occasionally, two sets of challenge words back up, so that the requirement is to construct a sentence which uses 10 specified words, rather than just 5. Avoiding clunkiness in this situation is well-nigh impossible. Zoroaster contumely pettifogging tampon peripatetic faun caste domino starvation lamp. The gazebo, an exact replica of the Cinili Kiosk at the Topkapi, provided excellent protection against the steady defilade of the opposing team, so Reginald felt confident that he could lead his team to victory in the day's wargames, that is, until he made the connection between the gritty feeling in his shorts, the increasing burning sensation in his perineum , and the supercilious smirk on the face of Basil Ponsonby-Smith, the opposing team captain, who Reginald had found earlier in the day doing something furtive with a peppermill in the laundry room, at which point he let loose an involuntary howl of panic - "Nooooooooooo!

There's something really satisfying about seeing that I have listed words. It seems like a natural milestone. So much so that I am reluctant to add any more, lest I disturb the fearful symmetry of that delightful I didn't realize that Hummers were now sufficiently advanced to be able to fly as well. I shall dash right out and buy one. It will be my fine four-fendered friend. And I will stock it with toot sweets. Let's not forget lizard lick , North Carolina. Which could be related to frog lick. Is this derived from 'bum-pass' or 'bump-ass'?

Enquiring minds need to know. More like a crossroads and a pub, actually. But then that goes for most towns in Ireland, if I think about it. I think there is a subliminal confusion over at Weirdnet between drivel and dribble. For some reason, wardrobe malfunction fails to meet my entirely arbitrary criteria for inclusion. I am adding kaftan , and also nipslip. Clearly I was wrong to say you were "just" a walking bag of b.

Anyway, wouldn't you rather be a w. Though, personally, I think that bilby made an uncharacteristic error in using this term - the more correct designation would be the sultana of scat. That's what he would like you to believe, right up until the moment that he scoops you into his mouth, tasty morsel that you are. Better to have diatoms producing kudzu than to have prions producing kuru. On the whole, I think it is preferable to be classified in the 'walking bag of bodily fluids' category. The alternative, after all, is to be a Ringwraith.

Which, despite a certain Goth appeal, is a fairly high-stress occupation. The Vulture eats between his meals, And that's the reason why. The Dromedary is a cheerful bird: I cannot say the same about the Kurd. Look, ma, no lemurs. I can now reveal that I am not actually a lemur, nor do I know any lemurs personally.

Reesetee, on the other hand, is just a walking bag of bodily fluids. As they taught us in our pharmacokinetics class, to a pharmacokineticist, humans are just walking buckets of well-mixed blood. It was Dick Dennison's doctoral dissertation: Given the atrocities that Mildred had perpetrated on the language during her first six months as president of the Ladies' skeet-shooting and mole-whacking club, the sentiment that her come-uppance was overdue flickered, smoldered, then erupted at the by-now-infamous June meeting wherein the other members voted unanimously to impeach her, then proceeded to pillory her mercilessly, with a ferocity the memory of which still causes some of the meeker members to blush with residual shame.

As Sir Hosis took another swig of eau-de-vie , his pet kinkajou perched on his shoulder like a harbinger of doom, the xiphoid scar on his cheek throbbing as a reminder of previous battles, he cackled evilly: As she shimmered down the red carpet like a mirage , bedecked and bedizened with bling, all eyes locked upon those fabled breasts , the effect was spoiled only by the wardrobe malfunction during which her right nipple escaped the confines of her Secret Embrace strapless demibra and popped out in search of air, like a prairie dog on patrol in the grand canyon , granting the assembled paparazzi, and estimated million viewers at home, their first, and most memorable, nipslip of the evening.

We should just call the site birdie and have done with it. I'm going to pretend that this makes sense. And grudgingly admit that the Yule festival has an intrinsic northern-hemispheric bias, whether we like it or not. What you wear at a repast of giblets , riblets , and corn niblets with your younger brothers and sisters, aka siblets.

I remain puzzled about the etymology of rumchunder. I'm leaving uncommented for now, as a challenge to my fellow Wordie members. What is the approved term for a Wordie member anyway? Has this been determined? Then there is that certain feeling you get in the pit of your stomach on a bad Monday morning, with the accompanying question "Why bother? Surely evidence that uselessness has an extra-Wordie existence. Related to the attacks of September 11th, see once-m I don't have a separate entry for 'once-s'.

Assorted suggestions for an epicene third-person pronoun are taken from the list at. I've heard 'Attentat' used in German to mean 'terrorist attack'. But I agree that it doesn't work in English, in part because of the awkwardness of that plural. This was a kind of cheese spreadable, came in those round packages of individually wrapped wedges where I grew up. Made by the same people who bring you Kerrygold butter.


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Here in the forests of Madagascar, when the yuletide season swings around, we too become inspissated with the holiday spirit. Despite its reputation as a Nordic observance, it may interest you to know that we here in the lemur community have been rocking out at Christmas for well over a century, decorating our monkey-puzzle trees with assorted lemurine trinkets, exchanging food treats, and keeping neighboring villagers awake with the famed dawn rendition of the 'Lemurlujah Chorus'.

Thus, it came as a distinct shock, not to say an affront to the entire community of lemurs, to find ourselves included on your 'That is not a Christmas word' list. We feel sure that this is an inadvertent error on your part, and look forward to its immediate rectification. An apology would be gracious, but we will be content with the prompt deletion of our names from the list. Failure to correct this scurrilous libel against our good name will result in subsequent lemurine legal action.

A footwear combination worn only by the fashion-challenged. If it's hot enough for sandals, it's too hot to wear socks. If it's cold enough to wear socks, it's too cold for sandals. A combover is a hairstyle worn by bald or balding men in which the hair on one side of the head is grown long and then combed over the bald area to minimize the display of baldness. A variation of the combover whereby baldness is concealed by long hairs combed in three separate directions has a U.

Patent 4,, by Donald J. Smith and his father, Frank J. A native of Sutherland, a rare palindromic demonym. When capitalized, a native of Slough, England. Uncapitalized, it appears to be an adjective meaning 'marshy', pertaining to a bog, or bogland. Oxonian for a native of Oxford. Lancastrian for a native of Lancashire. Sooite for a resident of Sault Ste. I wonder if this is related at all to the word stravag? It doesn't quite seem to fit the context, the way stravag is used in the translation of the Villon poem. Also, it's hard to look at 'stravag' and not want to add an egg at the beginning and an ant at the end, which suggests a different etymology.

Does this have anything to do with the word boiling? The Flushing Remonstrance , considered by many to be in some ways a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights, was signed on December 27, in Flushing, at the time, part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland now part of Queens, New York by a group of English citizens who were affronted by persecution of Quakers and the religious policies of the Governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant.

Stuyvesant had formally banned all other religions outside of the Dutch Reformed Church from being practised in the colony, in accordance with the laws of the Dutch Republic. With Darien as its likely first destination, the fleet at last set its course in the spring of for Florida, the Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles. On an island in the latter group, probably near Guadeloupe, Verrazzano landed with a party and was taken by Caribs, killed, and eaten within sight of his crew. When used as a verb, to catch up by association with ketchup. See, for instance, slang or schizophrenia? See also this list: I would have guessed "joy upon returning to Cincinnati".

I will be playing host to my adopted U. Hope everyone has a great time. The wren, the wren, the king of all birds. St Steven's Day was caught in the furze. The boar's head in hand bear I bedecked with bays and rosemary. Award given annually for the best muckraking journalism in the area of Poultry Science.

Following its introduction to Skull Island, plants proliferated faster than kudzu and reached freakishly ginormous sizes, prompting speculation that the introduced species may have fallen prey to the infamous Skull Island mutation. A popular gorilla staple. One might even say that definition 2 is specious. Also, since when are subtle and specious interchangeable? Remind me to lock up Paddy-the-melon when that mollusque character comes a-calling. The Australian police have declared him a 'person of interest' in the Melbourne marsupial murders.

They say he has a necklace made up from the teeth of his victims. When I think of the wanton numbat slaughter at that monster's hands, it leaves me heartscalded. Then there's the helmeted homeyeater , an endangered species in the era of today's Don't ask, don't tell army. Probably counting fewer than individuals. Yeah, the champagne melon stand is right up there next to the pademelon booth. Smeagol's treasure, the bane of Isildur, was fashioned out of precious metal. When they took it away from him, it left him contorted in a manner quite fetal. He vowed revenge, that his next meal would involve Al's liver, some fava beans and a nice chianti.

A nicely balanced vegetal snack. The postillion has been struck by lightning," signalled Emily. One of my favorite placenames on this little planet of ours has always been Lizard Lick , North Carolina. There's something intrinsically exciting about saurian salivation. Especially where those thunder lizards are involved. Yes, bronto- is the thunder prefix. Except in certain parts of Yorkshire.

One set of cojones does not a festival make. Besides, you were the one who listed bollocks. Person of mixed-blood who appears to bear the characteristics of only the lighter skinned parent; sometimes referred to in English as being "yellow. I came across this word while reading "The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao". The sheep were transhumant, migrating from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to Castile and back according to the season.

The Dishley Leicester is a breed of sheep developed and made famous by Robert Bakewell of Dishley, Leicestershire. Townshend but it is in the field of livestock and especially sheep that Bakewell particularly excelled. At this time all sheep were run together, breeding at random resulting in many different breeds all with their own unique, but random characteristics. Bakewell segregated the sexes, allowed mating only to occur deliberately and specifically.

These New Leicester sheep very quickly found favour with famers in surrounding counties and Bakewell began hiring his rams out. He started in hiring at 17sh 6d per ram, by he let 20 rams for gns and rose to gns for just 3 rams in See also the bends. A very talkative and excitable person. Could also be a bunny boiler. Obsessive and possessive woman. After Glenn Close in the film, "Fatal Attraction". Non-PC British slang for senior citizen. British slang for a fat person see also person of size.

Not considered to be politically correct. Let's get back to the subject "return to our sheep". In contrast to elfsex, there is something warm and comforting about spooning with a hobbit. Unless of course your partner's last name happens to be Bobbitt. Some of my friends with a taste for rough trade have been known to hang out in some pretty shady haunts in Mordor, in an effort to hook up with a Nazgul. Myself, if I'm struck with an irresistible urge to mate with some large ugly feathered thing, I just stop by the avian sanctuary and pick myself out a wounded bird.

Comments by sionnach

In the popular mind, we tend to think of elves as creatures that are elegant, ephemeral and - well - elfish. But the reality is that, when it comes to sexual fulfillment, the denizens of Lothlorien are capable of being remarkably selfish. Which is why knocking little furry boots with some elven beauty, no matter if she's a swell dish,. Is likely to leave you as annoyed and frustrated as if you had spent your time trying to get it on with a shellfish.

French for 'disgusting'; arguably the word is self-referential, or if that term is too loaded, self-documenting. Though I suppose some people might find the 'gueul' sequence innocuous. To me it's right up there with that unnaturally ugly 'ijk' sequence the Dutch are so fond of. A person who smells bicycle seats for sexual pleasure. CEO or chief executive officer. Taoiseach is an Irish word, originally meaning "leader" or "chieftain". Now mainly used to refer to Ireland's prime minister; useful in alliterative phrases such as the "teflon taoiseach".

Then there's Hirudin, an anti-coagulant derived from the salivary secretions of leeches. This word is inextricably linked in my mind with the word hornswoggle. The BBC was famous for a particular breed of jobsworth. One of these is supposed to have been on duty at Broadcasting House when King Haakon of Norway appeared at the Security Desk, gave the jobsworth his name and told him that he was due to participate in a programme in studio 6.

The jobsworth went to ring the studio. A moment later he put his hand over the phone and called out,"Excuse me, Sir, where was it you said you was King of? I used to work for a drug company. Occasionally, they would generate names by soliciting employee suggestions. None of my suggestions ever won. A type of decompression sickness, caused by gases primarily nitrogen coming out of solution in the body following a rapid decrease in pressure. Also known as caisson disease: Decompression sickness became known as "The Bends" because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs in a manner reminiscent of a then popular women's fashion called the Grecian Bend.

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Actually, it appears that skipvia was the first to think of ED My first shared list. Which probably means that my ideas will immediately dry up. Does this have something to do with bladder control? CAS compulsive accountancy syndrome? Alternatively, a bumptious little prat. French for dandelion greens literally "piss-in-beds". Seen Beowulf recently, bilby? Answer is insolent , to see why, check the geographic location of the Isle of Wight. In one source, I have seen this as having the meaning 'to die'.

Other sources give the auxiliary meaning "to have the shakes". Literally "to sugar the strawberries". And Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World", which is an amusing book, but one whose accuracy has been widely questioned on a number of fronts. The 'have the shakes' meaning is confirmed in several sources; I have not been able to find corroboration of de Boinod's assertion that it means 'to die'. Clear as mud, right? Would it help if I replaced 'hot dog' by 'Frankfurter', and 'burger' by 'Burger'?

Clue 3 is also related to atomic numbers: The logic derives from S. What's less understandable is her decision to make Thomas Hope, an actual historical personage, the hero of her tale - particularly since that makes for a squicky but unmentioned twenty-five year age difference between the main characters. Seriously, yo, just insert an unacknowledged younger bastard into the family line.

Hope has abandoned his youthful career in wartime espionage in favor of banking, but when his former spymaster literally appears out of nowhere in his office the start of a repeating gag that quickly grows in age and absurdity asking for his help locating the missing French Blue of the stolen Bourbon crown jewels, he finds himself quickly back in the game and in need of a place to hide from the French spies who chase him into the bordello run by his ex-mistress. As it happens, debutante Sophia Blaise, who spends her time acting as amanuensis to the madam, is also less than keen on being caught there, and the two start a big adventure involving jewel thieves, Princess Caroline, and Napoleon by sharing one very small closet.

The plot, such as it is, shows promise, but Peterson's execution of it is middling at best. Much of the issue - well, aside from the picking and choosing of which historical facts to use or mention - seems to be related to the author's decision to write a trilogy of novels that happen concurrently rather than in sequence, which results in scenes that feel simultaneously repetitive and half-complete as she leapfrogs over things that are clearly major plot points in the other novels which I admit I haven't read It's possible that this deficit could have been made up through the steady application of charm and banter, but sadly the characters aren't up to the task, too busy working through their muddled motivations exactly why is it needs-to-marry-for-money Sophia isn't considering the hottie millionaire banker as a prospect again?

The history of the Hope Diamond is thick with high drama waiting for an author other than Wilkie Collins to exploit it.

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Unfortunately, by stacking her stories atop each other in , Peterson robs herself of the chance to make use of most of it; I'd have loved to see a series that starts with the heist of the diamond in France then moves to Regency England to fill in the gap in the stone's history before jumping forward to to introduce an explanation for why Cartier suddenly believed the jewel to be cursed.

Perhaps readers who come to The Millionaire Rogue with less historical context will enjoy it more, and leave feeling less like Peterson's trying to pass off a hunk of cubic zirconia as the real thing. Devil's Cut The Bourbon Kings, 3. What happens when a Yankee romance writer marries a good Southern boy, moves to Kentucky, and decides to write a cross between Dallas and a three-volu What happens when a Yankee romance writer marries a good Southern boy, moves to Kentucky, and decides to write a cross between Dallas and a three-volume novel?

Readers familiar with Ward from her Black Dagger Brotherhood may be in for a bit of a culture shock, and not just because the author trades in her male characters' signature leathers for seersucker suits and gives everyone a pulse; despite having some sexy-times and star-crossing, The Bourbon Kings is very much a family drama rather than a romance, and the series lacks the traditional romance pattern of each book being punctuated with a happily ever after.

In fact, the three books - The Bourbon Kings, The Angel's Share , and Devil's Cut - would, with a judicious edit, make much more sense as an page saga. At heart, it's exactly the kind of conflicted-looking-pretty-people-staring-off-the-cover-in-profile-facing-different-directions door-stopper we used to file in general fiction, where it would wait until someone picked it up to turn it into a miniseries, and since the individual volumes would be virtually impossible to read as standalones, I've chosen to review it as one long work.

Two years ago Lane Baldwine, playboy youngest son of the Kentucky dynasty running Bradford Bourbon, left his family estate and family drama behind for New York, including the wife he didn't love and the woman he can't forget. One phone call letting him know that his adoptive mother is ailing is all it takes to drag him back in, though, and soon he's home at Easterly trying to deal with all the baggage he thought he'd abandoned, including his damaged older brother, Edward, his acting-out-is-my-coping-mechanism-of-choice younger sister, Gin, and downstairs-love-of-his-life, Lizzie King, the estate's head-gardener.

When his abusive and very unlovable father turns up dead in suspicious circumstances and the family business is put in jeopardy, Lane must put aside his personal desires to deal with the Who Shot J. Which is about two and a half too many for a couple as flat and uninteresting as Lane and Lizzie whose only personality characteristics are she owns her own home and likes to garden. Promising side-romances, such as that between Edward and head of a rival bourbon company Sutton Smythe who deserves her own damn book, thanks , never rise above the level of secondary plots.

In the case of Gin and her off-again-on-again lover Samuel T.

Ward's series offers all the insane plot whiplash of an '80s prime time soap or, if you're too young for that, a CW drama: I'm here for all that drama, and am not deeply concerned about its innate absurdity. What I'm less on board with is the surface-Southern of it all; after a decade of living in Kentucky, all Ward seems to have absorbed is that we take our sports seriously and drink sweet tea, and her characters feel like an upper crust recast of The Duke of Hazzard.

This frequently leads the reader into sketchy stereotypical territory, particularly regarding side characters like Jeff Stern, an investment banker friend of Lane's who Ward repeatedly points out is Jewish for no plot-pertinent reason, and Miss Aurora, Lane's black adoptive "momma" whose only role in the book is to - I shit you not - cook and take care of her white adoptive children. And when her family does show up?

Her only named male relatives are all professional ball players. Also, I'm not sure about you, but I don't really feel like this is the right moment in time for romance heroes who feel comfortable with the fact - and expect! The Bourbon Kings is so packed with crackpot twists and random romantic subplots that it feels like something Ward originally envisioned as an eight book series before realizing she didn't know enough about high finance and Bourbon-making to stretch it out that far and just cramming it into three. Worse, it feels just like every other outsider's looking at you, Hollywood!

Frankly, if that's all you have to offer, I'd rather get mine from Tennessee Williams and bypass Ward's Kentucky altogether. In fact, the three books - The Bourbon Kings , The Angel's Share , and Devil's Cut - would, with a judicious edit, make much more sense as an page saga. All Chained Up Devil's Rock, 1. I broke glass on Sophie Jordan's All Chained Up the day after the Kavanaugh hearing, and while convict romance might not normally be my bag, ladies, l I broke glass on Sophie Jordan's All Chained Up the day after the Kavanaugh hearing, and while convict romance might not normally be my bag, ladies, let me tell you: Knox Callaghan is serving out the tail end of a ten year sentence at Devil's Rock after he and his brother took vigilante justice too far and wound up killing a guy.

Too much of a pain in the ass to expect an early parole, Knox is focused on keeping his head down and his guard up until he makes it out - that is, until Briar Davis starts volunteering as a nurse in the prison clinic. Briar would rather be anywhere else, particularly after a disturbingly hot inmate shows up for treatment after a fight, but she's determined to make a good impression on her civic-minded boss and put herself in line for a promotion. She's horrified by the immediate connection she feels to Callaghan, but when a pair of prisoners take everyone in the clinic hostage, he may be the only thing that can save her.

I want to make it very, very clear that this book is not about plot. Sure, some stuff happens, and there's minor conflict and Knox faces some minor but unrealistically simple - most ex-cons don't have family businesses that are happy to employ them when they get out challenges when he gets out which delay the HEA, but mostly this is about a girl next door meeting an unrealistically hot bad boy who happens to be a marshmallow deep down under those washboard abs and just needs the love of a good woman.

Three times a night. I did mention it was a steamer, didn't I? So on behalf of women everywhere who needed to exercise a little self-care last week, I'd just like to say: Thank you, Sophie Jordan. And feel free to give Knox my number. In Sophie Jordan's The Scandal of it All , a friend's sudden death jolts Graciela, Duchess of Autenberry, out of the comfortable routine she's maintained since the death of her husband a decade ago.

Spurred to an impulsive trip to a scandalous sex club in the hopes of feeling more like the vibrant young woman she remembers being and less like the 35 year old widow she is, she finds she's bitten off a bit more unconventional than she can chew After years of suppressing an inappropriate attraction to Stacy's - er, sorry, Autenberry's step Mom, Colin is both horrified and oddly hopeful when he realizes just who it is he's rescuing from a bawdyhouse, and takes it as a sign for him to apply for the position of lover that her presence in the club seems to indicate a desire to fill.

Uh, so to speak. And here's where things go wrong. Because Graciela, whose ducal stepson is a little too conscious of his own consequence for her not to guess how bad his reaction would be to such a relationship and whose stepdaughter is half in love with the man who's applying to shag Ela senseless, gives Colin a resounding NO. And then another no. All of which he breezes past with a handwave and a but-look-how-good-we-could-be-baby application of sexual chemistry. So instead of the novel I wanted about a woman in her prime taking charge of her sexuality with a hot young thing who's vaguely but not really inappropriate, I get a novel where a grown-ass man violates the boundaries of a woman he's known and supposedly respected all his life while she vacillates between shame and abject terror that her stepson - who, let's all take a minute to remember, completely controls her financial assets - will uncover the affair.

Not sure about you guys, but that's distinctly not my kink. Jordan, who has a tendency to substitute sex for actual relationship-building in many of her novels, doesn't do much work to convince the reader that this collection of escalatingly problematic encounters equals a love match. Personally, I thought a few judicious flashback scenes to their relationship pre-sex-club would have helped better establish that these are two people who've always liked and been attracted to each other, rather than just a couple with an itch okay, a lot of itches to scratch.

I've read several books by Jordan and enjoyed most of them, so this one misfire probably won't put me off her work. I just hope that one day she, like Graciela, will decide to give herself a do-over on this trope, and that it involves a hell of a lot less NOPE. If there's one lesson to be taken from Joanna Shupe's A Scandalous Deal it's probably Make sure you get the last name of your hot shipboard hookup in If there's one lesson to be taken from Joanna Shupe's A Scandalous Deal it's probably Make sure you get the last name of your hot shipboard hookup in advance.

Lady Eva Hyde, traveling to New York City to oversee the construction of a luxury hotel she may have deceived the builder into believing was actually designed by her famous architect father rather than herself, learns that lesson too late, alas. Both she and wealthy businessman Phillip Mansfield are shocked when they show up on the site the first day and recognize each other from the Love Boat, and Phillip is more than a little annoyed that instead of the internationally renowned architect he's been promised for a project manager he's saddled with a woman whose three dead fiances have earned her the nickname "Lady Unlucky.

Ava pales in comparison to Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle and the women on which Shupe based her lead character, and Phillip's very-era-appropriate-yet-still-hella-annoying doubts about women in the workplace don't feel quite redeemed by the one grand gesture the author has him make at the end of the novel. Shupe also fails to account for the several attempts made on the heroine's life throughout the novel, something which frankly only works if you're Raymond Chandler writing The Big Sleep.

Though I generally enjoy Shupe's work - and novels where the hero tries to win the heroine's heart by taking her on an architectural tour of New York City - the less-than-inspiring leads make me wish this Deal had a little less scandal and a little more character and plot development. In The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband , Julia Quinn gives readers a charming, effervescent story that takes place thirty years before and entirely In The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband , Julia Quinn gives readers a charming, effervescent story that takes place thirty years before and entirely off to the side of her famous Bridgerton series.

When Cecilia Harcourt receives news that her beloved brother has been wounded in action in the war against the Colonies that's us, y'all , her options are to stick around Derbyshire fending off the oily and on-the-make cousin attempting to secure her and her deceased father's entailed property or to pack up and head west to New York. Given that Cousin Horace is strongly channeling Mr. Collins, it's not surprising that Cecilia opts for the sea voyage. Arriving in Manhattan, however, she finds no sign of her brother, only his friend and fellow soldier Edward Rokesby, laid low with a head wound.

Propriety and the military being what they are, no one will allow Cecilia Harcourt close enough to Edward to nurse him And so Cecilia tells one little lie, which quickly multiplies when Edward wakes up unable to remember the events of the last few months, or that he's never actually met his "wife" before. Quinn has the delightful dialed up to eleven for her characters, both of whom carry the banter and burden of an amnesia plot flawlessly.

We can, of course, quibble about the length of time Cecilia holds out before copping to the truth, but Quinn's careful enough to provide solid reasons for her silence that it doesn't seem egregious. The author also dodges the silliness bullet that is Love at First Sight! The excerpts from these epistles, which begin each chapter, are enough to make one judge one's partner's text messages harshly in comparison. One of the most interesting things about Girl to me is how Quinn structurally handles being out of her Regency England literary comfort zone.

While it's clear she's done some research regarding Colonial New York, the Dutch who lived there, and the Revolutionary War, she carefully limits the scope of her narrative - mostly to the hospital where Edward wakes up and the inn where the couple stay after he leaves there - to avoid having to carefully describe or gloss over her setting. It's a brilliant solution, and one which allows her to get the most traction out of the handful of historical details she does include.

The only problem I had with it is that I didn't have a good name for the result. A Locked Room Romance? Julia Quinn yet again demonstrates her command of the genre by having The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband skip nimbly past all of its plot's potential pitfalls - the unfamiliar historical setting! An Interactive Romance Novel. Zageris and Curran's romantic choose-your-own-adventure novel My Lady's Choosing is what happens when two authors dial their romance cliches up to ele Zageris and Curran's romantic choose-your-own-adventure novel My Lady's Choosing is what happens when two authors dial their romance cliches up to eleven, glance at each other and say "Nah, not tropey enough!

If that does not sound like your bag, dear reader, then turn to page one of some other book, and leave this one for fans of the romance genre who are okay with having their sacred cows slaughtered and served to them with pickles, mustard, and relish. Oh, so much relish. Despite what some have said, Choosing is not a romance novel; it's a send-up of romance novels that brilliantly uses the choose-your-own-adventure format to allow the authors to explore multiple romance genres and cliches.

Readers can opt to have their young, plucky, and penniless Regency era lady's companion engage in a bantery battle of wits with a high-society Mr. Darcy look-alike, enjoy the charitable charms of a Scottish captain who's just-not-Jamie-Fraser-enough to keep Gabaldon from suing, take up a position as governess in the Gothic castle of a possibly paranormally cursed lord, or leave all those idiots to handle their own problems and run off to Egypt with a gorgeous and charming lady adventuress.

I'm one of those people who marks the choice pages so that I can come back and explore all the options, which means I read every single turgid, overblown page of My Lady's Choosing , most of which featured at least one sex euphemism so ridiculous that it left me howling with laughter. The writing here isn't so much good as deliberately, gloriously bad, but the authors clearly have enough affection for their subject matter to know exactly how best to skewer it.

Curran and Zageris not only deliver a hysterical whirlwind tour through the romance genre, they do it with a wink and smile, offering sly asides in the directions at the bottom of the page that direct readers through the adventures of a sexually-empowered lead who follows her heart and her loins to whoever man, woman, or monster they may lead her.

Though the format may be nontraditional and the authors' tongues firmly in their cheeks, there's nothing more quintessentially romance than that. Twin of Ice Chandler Twins, 2. Everyone remembers their first, and Jude Deveraux was mine. I'm fairly certain that the novel my summer camp roommate mailed me after we'd gone home fo Everyone remembers their first, and Jude Deveraux was mine.

I'm fairly certain that the novel my summer camp roommate mailed me after we'd gone home for the fall was actually The Taming , which I don't remember at all. After that first free hit I was hooked, though, and spent the next several months burning my way through Deveraux's oeuvre, mostly while I was at school, where I passed her novels around in what became a long-running communal reading session. To this day, I vividly remember a group of us getting into a Taggert vs. Montgomery argument at a sleepover.

All of which is to say I have a nostalgic attachment to Twin of Ice , which while not my technical first was at least one of my first favorite romance novels. Given that I started reading romances in and would have been largely constrained to older titles carried by the public library, I'm just grateful that my first love isn't more problematic.

Written in , during a decade where "no" frequently got heard as "yes" even in romance novels, Twin of Ice follows the story of Houston Chandler, whose decision to change places with her twin sister for one night in order to accept a dinner invitation from Kane Taggert, the mysterious stable-boy turned millionaire whose gigantic house looms over their small Colorado town, up-ends her life.

Rough-around-the-edges Taggert has reasons of his own for wanting to marry a lady and immediately proposes to Houston; a proposal she dismisses until she discovers that her sister Blair slept with Houston's fiance the night they traded places. Attracted to Taggert, his offer to let her decorate and run his beautiful house, and the chance not to be completely humiliated in front of the entire town, Houston agrees to become his wife, and much Pygmalion -ing ensues.

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While Twin of Ice has some of the major flaws of its genre and time - Kane's unsubstantiated jealousy, for instance, or Houston's fiance's shaming her about the frigidity that's actually a serious case of She's Just Not That Into You - it has a surprisingly strong dose of girl power, especially for a novel that begins with a woman shagging her sister's fiance. The women of Chandler have deep ties, and celebrate them through subversive political and charitable action, and it's not hard to picture all of them wearing pink proto-pussy hats.

When a crisis arises in the third act, it's the women who mobilize immediately to deal with it. Admittedly, this does draw some attention away from the main romance toward the end of the novel, but given that's usually the time when authors start spinning their wheels and making their characters do idiot things to drag the tension out for another fifty pages I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's always gratifying to discover that the things you loved in your youth hold up - or at least aren't so awful they require burning all your fond memories to ash and mentally dis-inheriting them.

Compared to today's more-or-less standard badass heroines, Twin of Ice doesn't look particularly progressive. The thing about first loves, though, is that they're rarely your perfect match, just an early iteration on the path to helping you figure out what you really want. And it turns out that what I wanted and what Jude Deveraux gave a generation of us was a love story about a woman who had her own hobbies and priorities and a man who was secure enough to be comfortable with that.

As first times go, that's not half bad. If you're a fan of historical romance, chances are good you've spent a good portion of you The American West. If you're a fan of historical romance, chances are good you've spent a good portion of your reading life in those locales, where - for reasons either of popularity or publishing - most stories seem to cluster. I, for one, have spent the better part of two decades slumming with the ton, drinking ratafia at Almacks and admiring the cut of the men's cravats, but even ices at Gunters get old after a while and one longs for a literary vacation.

After deliberately being discovered en flagrante with her starving artist lover by her father and six of his closest peers of the realm, Lady Nora Parker is forced to embark on the world's longest walk of shame to New York City. Her father's hoping she'll lie low until the scandal blows over, and maybe find a suitable husband in the meantime, but Nora's got other plans - mainly, arranging a fake engagement with the most disreputable man she can find in the hopes of making her father see her starving artist boytoy as a good option by contrast.

Luckily for Nora, she's dining on the first floor of an exclusive restaurant the same night millionaire financier Julius Hatcher decides to host a drunken birthday bacchanal on horseback on the second floor. She immediately propositions him and for reasons of his own only a few of which involve immediate physical attraction he says yes. In fact, we're reading The Children of God as an ancillary text in a philosophy reading group that I lead. I liked A Thread of Grace , but I didn't think it came anywhere near the level of Russell 's first two book; consequently, I've put off reading Dreamers of the Day.

Paola, why doesn't it surprise me that you're out there pushing Italian writers. Loy is a new name to me. Doesn't he write mysteries? The Name of the Rose is my idea of the perfect mystery. Hoffmann or Robertson Davies or both? I ask because of your name. As it turns out, A Dictionary of Maqiao is winding its way to me via abebooks.

It is interesting that you should note the paucity of Chinese fiction in my library. I read a bit more than shows up, but I've sent it on its way. While I'm not going to hand out the humanitarian of the century award to Mao, I can't help but feel that the pervasiveness of the anti-Maoist theme is anything but accidental.

I think it suits the propaganda machines of China and the US at the moment. Furthermore, I suspect publishers seize on this particular themed work because Americans read it and feel so self-congratulatory afterward. I'm all for popping that little self-congratulatory balloon. We have a lot to answer for in this country. That said, I've recently been on an Asian kick, but going back quite a bit further in time. I will definitely check out the titles you have recommended and would be curious to hear your thoughts on the state of contemporary Chinese literature.

I have been spouting off without the least bit of firm knowledge. You are one of the few people I know who has read Geek Love. I found it an "interesting" book and I would recommend it to others under certain conditions. Have you read any Kathy Acker perchance? Douglas Adams I love, and I'm really pissed off that he died before writing one more book. And yes, Hitchhikers' is a hoot. I'm not familiar with John Wyndham. I couldn't tell you a thing about Steppenwolf now I must have been to world weary to pay attention or else I was distracted by the splendour of my high eyebrows.

I was also in my Carlos Castaneda phase had the time. I have read Hesse's collection of fairy tales recently and quite enjoyed them. Raymond Queneau has been on my list of authors to investigate for a while. As for Life of Pi , I've avoided it like the plague. I even regifted an unread copy. Give me five really sound reasons why I should read this book, which sounds like philosophy-lite - a sort of Sophie's World for non-Scandinavians. And last but certainly not least - Julie. I see you're still being coy and won't commit to a book.

Perhaps a mutual friend of ours might be willing to join book nudgers and offer some suggestions. Would you like to invite her? I wonder what she would have to say? Only really half a reason, I admit. Maybe someone else can find another 4.


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  6. Another short story collection that was wonderful: All of the stories involve recent immigrants to Ireland, whose booming economy has apparently made the country an attractive haven. The stories are extremely varied in tone and content, but many of them had me in tears--tears of laughter. The title story is about Jimmy, the lead character in The Commitments , who is now in his forties, married, with three kids two of whom are named Smoky and Mahalia. He wants to resurrect the group and sends out a call: Others, including one about a boy who recently arrived from a war-torn African nation and another about a Russian girlfriend, are a bit more serious.

    It's a grreat collection and spurred me to read a lot more of Doyle's work. No, Mary, Gadda did not write mysteries. His books are pervaded with a very subtle sense of humour. In my opinion he stands alone in the panorama of Italian lit, not because he is the greatest, but because his style and stories are peculiar. I think you should give it a try.

    I would not suggest mysteries as I know you are not fond of the genre. Incidentally, I agree with you on The Name of the Rose I've transported over from the Virago group, and find myself overwhelmed with the number of messages already posted. I agree with you and Paola about how wonderful Italo Calvino is. Invisible Cities is astoundingly beautiful. You are so well-read, it is a formidable task to attempt to nudge you. But here are some suggestions of books that are on my To Re-Read List: Charles Wheelan's Naked Economics. I'm also in the midst of a two-year project of reading all of The Federalist.

    Best to take it slow. Want to join me? Again, its based on political historical events but covers trading in the 18th century. The protagonist is a Chinese orphan who becomes the first female Chinese trader. I can also recommend Myself a Mandarin by the same author, a biographical account of his experience as a Special Magistrate in the 's in Hong Kong.

    And I enjoyed Heaven Lake a lot. I agree with you that publishers are keen to translate and make available to Western readers those books that they feel are going to sell, i. However, I think a lot of Chinese writers are only recently feeling liberated enough to start writing about those experiences.

    What lifts the Dictionary of Maqiao above other contemporary works, imo, is that it is also an extended meditation on how the language has been changed by recent Chinese history. And its those changes in the language, ironically, that restrict contemporary writers. I'm very interested to hear what you have to say about it.

    Another Chinese writer from the early revolutionary period that you might like to try is Lu Xun Diary of a Madman. His works have only recently become available in translation, but he is one of the key voices from what I call the Shanghai renaissance, of which Eileen Chang was a part. Cariola, You certainly make a strong case for Doyle's book.

    I'm accumulating a great list here. I have read both of the books you mentioned. Her Music and Silence is on my top books of all times. Paola, thanks for clearing up my misconceptions about Gadda. He's on NYRB isn't he? I need to take stock and do a group order from Symposium or Book Culture. I'm so glad you're here. I've got At Swims-Two-Birds. I started it a couple of summers ago but was interrupted and didn't pick it up again. I remember thinking it was funny, reminiscent of Joyce perhaps if my memory is correct here.

    Funny you should mention that The Federalist Papers is one of your long-term projects. An Interpretation for Our Time. Are you familiar with his work? His book draws heavily on the The Federalist Papers, and I found myself ashamed that I was so ill versed in the political literature of my own country. Would you like a reading partner? I realize I'd have to catch up with you. I've read the Woolf. As an undergraduate, I took a seminar completely devoted to her work, so my library is pretty "Flush" with her texts.

    I've spent the past week trying to explain to my Swedish relatives, the strong strain of anti-intellectualism that runs through American culture and how it affects everything. I don't think they believe me. Perhaps we could read that one together as well if you're interested. I'm accumulating quite a wishlist from everyone's recommendations. Mary, it is a little scary trying to recommend a book to you, even with that little profile you give of yourself at the top. Let me ask a question before I do. Do you find Kafka's The Metamorphosis funny? The invitation for an open nudge is generating great discussion!

    A lot of really interesting books out there I'll look into the Harris too. I've thought a bit more about your criteria and have a few more suggestions. W;t by Margaret Edson is witty yet profound and so so brilliant. It's a play about a professor of 17th century poetry John Donne's Holy Sonnets who is dying of ovarian cancer. Harrowing at times, but so illuminating. It has a memoir-like narrative structure, in which Krog, a South African journalist, is the "I". Anyway, that's my two bits. I don't envy you your task of choosing just one of the many fascinating books people have recommended!

    I guess that's a problem we all face every day. May the force be with you This is the book that led to charges against the author they were dropped in Turkey. I heard an interview with Safak and was interested to learn that she grew up in a house of women almost like the characters in her novel.

    Regarding Barbara Kingsolver , for some reason I cannot get into Kingsolver's work even though everyone I know loves her. Possibly, I have not yet reached the right stage in my life to appreciate her work. Certainly, this has been true for a number of books that I now dearly love but once found uninteresting or worse. I enjoyed Nickled and Dimed and have taught it a number of times in freshman composition classes.

    The Allende book sounds interesting as does The Binding chair. I read a scholarly work on footbinding this summer Cinderella's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. I'm still considering the author's thesis and haven't made up my mind. Additionally, my knowledge of the practice is limited. Being a lover of John Donne's poetry and having been treated for cancer, the play resonated with me. Your other suggestions sound interesting as well although I can take Coover or leave him most of the time.

    And you're right, I'm going to need the force here. I see what you mean re Shadow and Claw. I don't recall anything particularly gruesome in The Fifth Head of Cerberus , but maybe my standards have become debased A couple more nudges: Alasdair Gray has been on my "authors I need to get around to reading " list for a long time now.

    Vis a vis Shadow and Claw , I read it because a colleague and a quite conservative one at that recommended the series. I was fascinated because after reading the book, I found it quite revealing about the colleague. I think the book was interesting though. I'm not familiar with Elizabeth Knox. Andrew - what does it mean if one finds Kafka's Metamorphosis funny? I think I could fall into that category. It's not Fawlty Towers funny, and there's a lot more going on than just humour, but yes, it's funny in its own way.

    Do I need to get therapy or something? Lanark is pretty much sui generis maybe Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective" is the nearest equivalent in a different medium. Not always easy, but it has stuck in my mind for a long time. Elizabeth Knox started out in the New Zealand heads-down, no-nonsense realist tradition, but has branched out into various forms of fantasy and fabulation, though still with very much a literary sensibility.

    The Vintner's Luck is about the relationship, sexual and otherwise, between a French vintner and an angel. I'm not a huge fan of her work in general, but she does write very well, and I enjoyed this one. Nov 14, , 7: I have three suggestions none of which I have read - but all of which I have bouncing around in my mind at present: From the comments on the radio, it would appear to be up to the standard of his non fiction - which is a very high standard indeed. R C Hutchinson has had some press recently as the author of several 'lost masterpieces'.

    His book Recollection of a Journey seems particularly interesting. His name came up in an article in the Guardian newspaper over here in the Uk several months back. The key is that the demand can be very small and still provoke a print run. If you Google ' R C Huthinson lost masterpieces' it should take you to an on line Guardian article where authors talk about their favourite 'lost masterpieces' - it might give you more reading ideas You may have already come across this, but it is considered, I think, another lost masterpiece of the twentieth century.

    And like most authors of 'lost masterpieces' I think this author's own life would make a good book. I believe this last book may keep you from LT for a period of time - it seems to have taken Musil most of his life and resources to complete. The Faber imprint mentioned in zenomax's post is Faber Finds , and it has lots of interesting stuff on. They started with an initial print run of only a handful of titles, but I believe the list has expanded to over already. Includes things like now-out-of-print Booker winner P.

    Not just fiction either. You can also email suggestions of out-of-print titles you'd like to see to their 'Lost and Found' - lostandfound faber.

    Touchstones

    No guarantees obviously but it's an interesting idea. It will be interesting to see the developments provided there are any. I found The Metamorphosis very funny, while most readers, I believe, do not. I am most pleased you do. Well, sure, doesn't everyone? Here then, Mary, are three works you may already know, but if not should go on a future reading pile: A very recent small, amusing book by Paul Torday called Salmon Fishing in the Yemen , a novel about fishing combined with political satire, bureaucrats, the Middle East, the war in Iraq, and a sheikh who is really a mystic.

    Good Soldier Schweik probably still the most important novel written in Czech even though it was first published in A key anti-war novel, influencing both Remarque and Heller, who said if he had not read it, he would not have been able to write Catch The Aleph by Borges. I also find Borges funny. Right from reading my first - Blumfield, an elderly batchelor - I have found his writing amusing, I often smile to myself while reading him.

    Okay, then, I think I'll start off with some aromatherapy before I commit to the psychotherapy. What would be the point of finding Kafka, Dostoyevsky or Camus funny? It would be sacrelige, like turning up to a funeral with a crimson carnation button hole that squirted water. Chekhov's plays are achingly melancholic. I hate it when people start laughing and pointing out that Chekhov thought them tragi-comedies.

    Can't you leave us depressives to enjoy our sombre, melancholic classics without turning up like Krusty the Clown with custard pies and bicycle horns telling us how funny they are? Wolf, but Krusty the Clown is not funny. Come on--a guy wakes up to find he's turned into a giant bug, and his biggest concern is "how am I going to get to work" --now THAT'S funny. Well, OK but, you know, that is reading the book as though it was meant to be realistic. Poor Gregor has become transformed into something repulsive and he does what we all do, he attempts to hide it by acting as though nothing is wrong, even when that is obviously impossible.

    This is a horrifying situation not a comic one. Yes, I know, that sounds all a bit pompous, but I don't think it's right to ignore the genre and act as though Kafka was PG Wodehouse. Now Woody Allen, say, writing on Kakfa, that is funny. Nov 14, , Surely even melancholics can have fun sometimes? A melancholics idea of of fun is to stare out a rain streaked window past the bare trees to the dredger clanking tirelessly by some rusted dockyards.

    It is possible I'm just a bit grouchy. It's been a long week and I'm tired. Sorry Joyce and Paola! The concept of finding Kafka funny seemed to touch a nerve like someone giggling in church during a memorial service. Yes, it is, is not, sure it is, no way LOL As Zenomax said in 51, polutropos - perhaps the world can be divided into three types of people - those who find Kafka funny, those who don't find Kafka funny, and those who don't know who or what a Kafka is.

    I am all for melancholia, and have been seen as morose and depressive, even manic-depressive sometimes. I don't find Chekhov funny, but will allow some may. And perhaps we should now leave poor Gregor Samsa to his struggles, and get back to recommending books to Urania1. Kevin, perhaps it could be tragicomic? And the giggling at a memorial service might be a nervous reaction??? OK Andrew, it is a bit unfair on Urania1.

    One last Kafka joke though Franz Kafka walks into a bar. He orders a dry martini. Wow, this thread gets ever more interesting. Dylanwolf, I'm sorry you're having a gritchy week, but I am working hard to repress a giggle.