Austen to Zafónhttp://booklikes.com/photo/crop/50/50/upload/avatar/e/9/azure_e98f5c1da7034aed6924f13b99d01028.jpgAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com2024-03-28T12:32:36+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/rsstext: importing doesn't import everything2014-05-05T00:01:00+01:002014-05-05T00:01:00+01:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874480/importing-doesn-t-import-everythingAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com
I'm still very confused about importing books from Goodreads. I keep trying. I've re-exported from GR and re-imported to Booklikes several times and I am still missing 155 books. And it's not just in one category; it's throughout. A few titles missing in each of my categories. I asked about this before, but didn't really get an answer. Is anyone else having this problem? I don't want to shut my GR account down unless I know for sure I can get everything out of it. Trying to go through 1500+ titles to figure out what exactly is missing is not an option.
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review: Paris - Germany: Europäische Reportagen 1931-19502014-05-04T00:00:00+01:002014-05-04T00:00:00+01:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874406/paris-germany-europaische-reportagen-1931-1950AustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com She loved Paris though and it really shows in the stories and mini biographies in this book, all written before 1940, and published in a variety of places including Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar. I enjoyed most of them. I also found her very dated bio of Hitler, written in 1935 before we knew much about him, interesting from a historical perspective.
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review: Bertie Plays the Blues: A 44 Scotland Street Novel (7)2014-05-03T00:00:00+01:002014-05-03T00:00:00+01:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874437/bertie-plays-the-blues-a-44-scotland-street-novel-7AustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: Mister Pip2014-04-27T00:00:00+01:002014-04-27T00:00:00+01:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874438/mister-pipAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: The Mountain Lion (New York Review Books Classics)2014-04-13T00:00:00+01:002014-04-13T00:00:00+01:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874439/the-mountain-lion-new-york-review-books-classicsAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: London Was Yesterday, 1934-1939 (A Studio Book)2014-04-06T00:00:00+01:002014-04-06T00:00:00+01:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874430/london-was-yesterday-1934-1939-a-studio-bookAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com Perhaps I'm spoiled by Mollie Panter-Downes who succeeded Flanner and wrote the "Letter from London" column for the next 45 years (The New Yorker must've been really good to its writers!). Her letters, which I read in [b:London War Notes, 1939-1945|1683766|London War Notes, 1939-1945|Mollie Panter-Downes|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387726325s/1683766.jpg|234232], give a good feel for the time and place and not just what it was like for the wealthy and socially privileged. She was a Londoner and right at home, but able to communicate that particular culture to the American reader.
I give this book three stars for its stellar, although somewhat obsequious, portrait of Queen Elizabeth (mother of the current Queen) and her reports on the love affair and abdication of King Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor). She paints a sympathetic portrait of Wallis Simpson.
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review: The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics)2014-03-30T00:00:00+00:002014-03-30T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874457/the-summer-book-new-york-review-books-classicsAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com
The writing is poetry. One review said, "[Jansson's] writing is all magical deception, her sentences simple and loaded; the novel reads like looking through clear water and seeing, suddenly, the depth." Exactly. It's amazing how such clear, simple prose can hold so much meaning. The main event that pervades this particular summer is the death of Sophia's mother:
"Sophia woke up and remembered that they had come back to the island and that she had a bed to herself because her mother was dead."
It's the only time the death is mentioned, but you feel it in every chapter, you see how the family is coping with it, absorbing it, and moving forward.
The relationship between the young girl, Sophia, and her grandmother is lovely; they are so close they can get mad at one another and shout and it's fine because they are deeply, irretrievably connected. It's safe to show one another their true selves. They share the feeling of needing to escape the confines of Sophia's father, who naturally worries about them both taking unsafe risks. They each indulge in small rebellions.
Here is a sample. (Note: In a previous chapter, Sophia takes to saying "bloody" all the time and she and her grandmother discuss it. It becomes kind of a joke.]:
**************** The channel marker was a high wall of well-spaced horizontal planks, like a section of picket fence turned on its side...The distance from one plank to the next was so great that Sophia's legs just barely reached, and after each step her knees began to shake--not much, just enough so that she had to wait until they stopped. Then came the next rung. Sophia had made it almost to the top before Grandmother saw her. Grandmother realized right away that she mustn't scream. She would have to wait for the child to come back down. It wasn't dangerous. Children have a lot of ape in them; they're good climbers and never fall unless they're startled.
Sophia was climbing very slowly now, with long pauses between steps. Grandmother could see she was scared. The old woman stood up too quickly. Her walking stick rolled down into the pool, and the whole rock became an uncertain, hostile surface, arching and twisting in front of her. Sophia took another step. "You're doing fine," Grandmother called. "You're almost there!" Sophia took another step. She got her hands over the topmost plank and didn't move.
"Now come back down here," Grandmother said.
But the child didn't move. It was so hot in the sun that the channel marker shimmered and quaked in the waves.
"Sophia!" Grandmother called. "My stick fell down in the pool and I can't walk." She waited and then called again, "It's bloody awful, do you hear me? My balance is bloody awful today, and I've got to have my cane!"
Sophia started down. She moved steadily, one step at a time.
Damned child, Grandmother thought. Confounded children. But that's what happens when people won't let you do anything fun. The people who are old enough.
Sophia was back down on the rock. She waded out into the pool for the stick and handed it to Grandmother without looking at her.
"You're a very good climber," said Grandmother sternly. "And brave, too, because I could see you were scared. Shall I tell him about it? Or shouldn't I?"
Sophia shrugged one shoulder and looked at her grandmother. "I guess maybe not," she said. "But you can tell it on your deathbed so it doesn't go to waste."
"That's a bloody good idea," Grandmother said. She walked off across the rock and sat down beside the air mattress, just outside the shade of the violet parasol. ******************
My favorite chapters are the one in which they create a miniature Venice in a marsh pool, including a palace in which a family lives; and the one one in which Grandmother and Sophia trespass on a neighbor's island.
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review: 101 Animal Stories2014-03-29T00:00:00+00:002014-03-29T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874408/101-animal-storiesAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: Catland2014-03-29T00:00:00+00:002014-03-29T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874409/catlandAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: The Voice of the Wood2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:002014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874410/the-voice-of-the-woodAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: Medieval World: 300-1300 (Ideas & Institutions in W.Civilization)2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:002014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874411/medieval-world-300-1300-ideas-institutions-in-w-civilizationAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: Mrs. Peter Rabbit2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:002014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874412/mrs-peter-rabbitAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: Mother West Wind 'When' Stories2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:002014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874413/mother-west-wind-when-storiesAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: The Annotated Alice: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:002014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874440/the-annotated-alice-alice-s-adventures-in-wonderland-through-the-looking-glassAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.comreview: Eyewitness to History2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:002014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00http://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com/post/874441/eyewitness-to-historyAustenToZafonhttp://AustenToZafon.booklikes.com