Why it is imperative that I determine whether or not I like Heyer‘s writing RIGHT NOW.
I got them all free from the Buy Nothing group, but I can‘t have them taking up valuable book space if I‘m not going to read them.
They are amusing 1970´s paperbacks, though. The covers! ?

1. Tag a favorite mystery you‘ve read
Louise Penny is fan-freaking-tastic. I still think about this one.

2.What‘s your favorite way to prepare eggs?
Scramble them & add to sautéed scallions in the pan, then don‘t touch them When they‘re halfway cooked throw a buttered tortilla on top, then flip the whole thing over til the eggs are cooked & the tortilla‘s toasted. Roll it up and eat. Mmmmmmmm.

#nationaleggmonthchallenge
@WildAlaskaBibliophile

My first Heyer. Will it be the first of many, or the last? Stay tuned.

Look, the only way I can explain this is that my parents were divorced and my dad loved movies, so that‘s what we did on weekends. The man bought a BETAMAX for goodness sakes!
This also explains why I watch so few movies now. I‘ve seen 2 this year. 😂

#TLT
#threelistthursday
@dabbe

Lemon basil is having none of your nonsense, missy!

I bought a copy of this book when it came out in 1992-in a bookstore! Without computer assistance!- then purged it at some point among our many military moves. This year‘s herbs springing up made me think of it, so obviously I had to buy another copy. 😄

I‘m not Catholic, but I grew up in an area that was VERY Catholic, so I was familiar with the basics of modern day Catholicism. What Agata goes through to avoid being used in the financial plans of her family, and the plotting of the church, is astounding. I enjoyed watching her grow even while cloistered, and learning the many reasons one might become a nun at that time. Well done, though the ending was a bit abrupt for me.
#nunlitquarterly

Tired of being confused w/ Naomi Wolf (90s era feminist, now a conspiracy loving schmoozer of the far right) Klein explores the almost-but-w/-a-dark-side doubling that‘s happening across society now, largely thanks to info overload, mistrust of authority and the rise of"personal branding" which is being exploited by the "far right and the far out" for ?,power,& political gain. Scary stuff but now I understand anti-vaxxers motivations. Kind of.

Read along with the 2003 production with Paul Neuman (because I loved him and he and Joanne Woodward used to stay at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires when my brother was a manager there) as the Stage Manager. The intro to this edition listed the other popular Broadway shows running at the same time - none endured as this one has.
I‘d never seen it, but wanted to before I dove in to Tom Lake. Lotta deep thoughts now.

Epilogue C3

When they began to fill in the grave, he suddenly began to point worriedly at the falling earth…and he suddenly fell quiet. At that point they reminded him that he must crumble the crust of bread, and he grew terribly agitated, whipped out the crust and began to break it in his fingers, throwing the morsels about the little grave: ‘Now come flying, little birds, now come flying, little sparrows!‘ he muttered, worriedly.

Eclipse with collander and dog nose

Epilogue, C2

‘Well, so this is what I have decided, Alyosha, listen!‘ he began again, having suppressed his excitement. ‘Grusha and I will go there – and at once we shall till the land, work, with the wild bears, in solitude, somewhere as far away as possible. After all, there too there will be a place that is far away!"

#MatryoshkaBros

Epilogue, 1

On the fifth day after Mitya‘s trial, very early in the morning, Alyosha arrived at Katerina Ivanovna‘s house in order to come to a final arrangement concerning a certain important matter and, in addition, with an errand to discuss with her. She sat and talked with him in that same room where once she had received Grushenka; near by, in the next room, Ivan Fyodorovich lay in acute fever and unconscious.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C14

Up aloft, in the gallery, in the very furthest corner there resounded a piercing woman‘s wail: it was Grushenka. She had earlier gone to someone with entreaties, and had been readmitted to the chamber before the onset of the judicial pleadings. Mitya was led away.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C13

Here the orator was interrupted by clapping that was uncontainable and almost frenzied. Of course, not all the chamber applauded, but all the same a half of the chamber applauded. The fathers and mothers applauded. From above, where the ladies sat, came shrieks and cries. Handkerchiefs were waved. The chairman began with all his might to ring the bell.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C12

"But above all, above all I am troubled, driven out of myself by the thought that of all the mass of facts that the prosecution has heaped on the defendant, there is not a single one that is in any way precise or irrefutable, and that the unhappy man is going to perish solely on account of the combined weight of those facts."

#MatryoshkaBros

I now have the first cold I‘ve had since before Covid. Ugh. All I want to do is drink tea and read this new Margaret Atwood story, but *someone* is of the opinion that my presence is required outside to play ball. Double ugh, pup!

B12C11

By a computation of time it was proven that the defendant, having run out of the kitchen…was in the constant company of others, and so could not have divided the three thousand and hidden it somewhere in the town. It was this that that formed the grounds for the prosecutor‘s assumption that the money was hidden in some cleft or crevice in Mokroye. Why, might it not indeed be in the dungeons of the castle of Udolpho?

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C10

But psychology,though it is a deep thing, resembles a stick with two ends‘…But here is an example.The defendant, running away at night, climbs the fence and casts down by a blow from a brass pestle the lackey who has seized him by the leg. Thereupon he immediately leaps back into the garden and spends an entire five minutes troubling himself over the man whom he has cast down, to find out whether he has killed him or not.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C9

Much frenzy, wild Karamazovian unrestraint and emotionality– & also something more, something that clamours in the heart; that something is conscience, its terrible gnawings! But the pistol is the only way out – I do not know whether Karamazov thought about “what will be there”, and is Karamazov capable of thinking, in Hamletian style, about what will be there? No,other lands have Hamlets, but ours has only Karamazovs!‘
#MatryoshkaBros

B12C8

‘but others, too, have testified to the same thing: the defendant himself, his brother and even the manservant Grigory, all those who might be expected to have known him most intimately. In addition to his being dispirited by the falling sickness, Smerdyakov was “cowardly as a hen”. “He fell at my feet and kissed them,” the defendant informed us, “he is a hen with the falling sickness”

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C7

And indeed, behind this letter there lies a programme and premeditation. It is known to us that two whole days before the execution of his terrible design, the defendant declared that if he did not obtain the money he would kill his father & take the money from under his pillow “if only Ivan has gone away”. Here it was all considered – and what do we see: the whole thing was subsequently executed as if out of a book!

#MayryoshkaBros

B12C6

Ippolit Kirillovich began his speech for the prosecution feeling chill and fever by turns in all his body. He later described it thus. He considered this speech the chef d‘oeuvre of his entire life, his swansong. To be sure, nine months later he died of an acute consumption, and had he had an early premonition of his end, he really would with justification have been able to compare himself to a swan singing its final song.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C5

She betrayed Mitya, but also betrayed herself! And, it goes without saying, no sooner had she succeeded in speaking her mind than the tension snapped and she was crushed by shame. Again her hysterics began, and she fell down, sobbing and screaming. She was carried out. At the moment she was carried out, with a howl Grushenka rushed towards Mitya from her place before anyone could manage to restrain her.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C4

The questioning of Katerina Ivanovna began. As soon as she made her appearance there was an unusual stir in the chamber. The ladies seized their lorgnettes and opera-glasses, the men began to show some signs of life, and several stood up in order to see better. Everyone subsequently asserted that Mitya had gone ‘as white as a sheet‘ as soon as she came in.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C3
I felt sorry for the boy, and I asked myself: why do I not buy him one pound … Now let me see, yes, a pound of what? I have forgotten what they are called,‘ the doctor said. ‘They grow on trees, and then are picked and given as presents …‘ ‘Apples?‘ ‘Oh, n-n-o-o! No, there are many of them, and they are all small,one puts them in the mouth and Kr-r-rach! …‘ ‘Nuts?‘ ‘Yes, nuts, that is what I am saying,‘ the doctor confirmed

#MatryoshkaBros

Having read Doyle‘s original recently, this feminist take on Sherlock is a delight. The social conditions necessitating the ruse are not.

B12C2

In his questioning of Rakitin, the defence counsel deployed his resources with the same considerable skill. Rakitin was a most important witness, and one whom the public procurator valued greatly. It turned out that Rakitin knew everything, an extraordinary amount, had been to visit everyone, seen everything, spoken to everyone, and possessed a most detailed knowledge of Fyodor Pavlovich and all the Karamazovs.

#MatryoshkaBros

B12C1
In the centre of the chamber stood a table of ‘material evidence‘. On it lay the bloodied white silk dressing-gown of Fyodor Pavlovich, the fateful brass pestle, Mitya‘s shirt with its blood-bespattered sleeve, the handkerchief, now quite stiff with blood, the envelope with the inscription in which Grushenka‘s 3000 had been kept, the slender ribbon in which it had been tied, and other various objects I do not recall.

#MatryoshkaBros

Reading for a long standing (since Shelfari days!!!) virtual book group. Really, really enjoying this one. Dean Atta narrates and does a fantastic job.

B11C10

Ivan allowed himself to be led over to the bed, Alyosha somehow managed to get his clothes off and make him lie down. He remained sitting over him for another hour or two. The sick man slept deeply, without movement, his breath coming quietly and evenly. Alyosha picked up a pillow and lay down on the sofa without undressing. As he fell asleep he prayed for Mitya and for Ivan.

##MatryoshkaBros

B11 C9

Someone, God knew how he had entered, for he had not been in the room when Ivan Fyodorovich had entered it, had suddenly turned out to be sitting there. He was some kind of Russian ‘gentleman‘…no longer young in years, and looked as though he belonged to the class of former lily-fingered landowners who flourished in the days of serfdom; but gradually having turned, as it were, into a kind of sponge…

#MatryoshkaBros

B11C8

Ivan stepped into the room. It was heated just as fiercely, but several changes were noticeable:there had appeared a large, old, leather-covered sofa. On it a bed had been made up with white pillows. On the bedding sat Smerdyakov, still wearing his dressing-gown. The table had been drawn up to the sofa…On the table lay a fat book in a yellow cover, but Smerdyakov was not reading it; he seemed to be sitting doing nothing.

#MatryoshkaBros

B11C7

The walls were resplendent with blue wallpaper, all of it torn,and in the cracks there swarmed cockroaches which made an incessant rustling…There were two chairs beside a table…On the table stood a samovar and a tray on which there were two cups. He was sitting at the table on one of the benches and, looking at an exercise book,was scrawling something with a pen. A bottle of ink stood alongside,together with a candlestick.

#MatryoshkaBros

B11C6

Ivan Fyodorovich was unquestionably convinced that Smerdyakov was in a state of complete & extreme morbidity: he was very weak & spoke slowly, as though it were difficult for him to move his tongue; he had lost a great deal of weight and his skin had a yellow appearance…he kept complaining of headache & pain in all his limbs. His dried-up face seemed to have become much smaller, his sidewhiskers were matted…

#MatryoshkaBros

B11C5

‘Well, in any case, that will do,‘ Ivan cut in. ‘I am going now. I shall return tomorrow.‘ And he walked out of the room and without further ado descended the stairs. Katerina Ivanovna suddenly seized Alyosha by both hands. ‘Please go after him! Do not leave him alone for a single moment,‘ she whispered rapidly. ‘He is mad. Do you not know that he has gone mad? He has a fever, a nerve fever! The doctor told me, now go …‘

#MatryoshkaBros

As others have said, this is an incredible novel, & Berest has captured what it must have been like to live through the Holocaust in Europe, surviving from day to day, the heart pounding terror of near escapes and the numbing sameness of hiding/not drawing attention, of not knowing what has happened to family & friends, but holding out hope that they‘re still out there, somewhere. Terrifying and devastating in equal measure.
#EuropaCollective

B11C4

Look that‘s all I got, people. If you read it, you know!

B11C3
I sometimes have dreams about devils, it‘s night, I‘m in my room with a candle, and suddenly there are devils everywhere, in every corner, & outside the doors there is a crowd of them, & they want to come in & catch hold of me. And then they come up to me and seize me. But I make the sign of the Cross over myself, &they all shrink back, afraid, they don‘t go away altogether, but stand by the doors and in the corners,waiting.

#MatryoshkaBros

B11C2

Mrs Khokhlakova had been indisposed for three weeks now:she had for some reason developed a swollen foot and she spent the afternoons reclining on a couch in her boudoir dressed in an attractive but proper déshabillé. Alyosha had observed that in spite of her illness Mrs Khoklakova had begun to play the fashionable lady: there had appeared certain items of headgear, certain bow-ribbons and matinée jackets…

#MatryoshkaBros

B11C1

Cards lay on the table, and a game of durachki had been dealt. On the leather sofa at the other side of the sofa a bed had been made, and on it reclined, in a dressing-gown and a cotton nightcap, Maksimov, plainly ill and enfeebled, though sweetly smiling. On returning with Grushenka from Mokroye that day some two months earlier, the homeless old fellow had stayed with her and had been inseparable from her ever since.

#MatryoshkaBros

B10C7
‘Dear little Ilyusha… the doctor said … you will be well … the doctor …‘ the second-grade captain began. ‘Oh, papa! I know what the new doctor told you about me … I mean, I saw him!‘ Ilyusha exclaimed and again tightly, pressed them toward him, hiding his face in his father‘s shoulder. ‘Papa, don‘t cry … and when I die you must get a good boy, another boy …and call him Ilyusha and love him instead of me …‘

#MatryoshkaBros

B10C6

‘So you have read Voltaire, have you?‘ Alyosha said. ‘Well, not really … Though I have read Candide, in Russian translation … an old, outlandish translation, a comical one …‘ ‘And you understood it?‘ ‘Oh yes, all of it … or at least … but why do you suppose I would not understand it? It does, of course, contain many indecencies … But I am capable of understanding that it was written in order to advance an idea …‘

#MatryoshkaBros

B10C5

‘Smurov, open the door!‘ – & Kolya blew his whistle. Perezvon came charging into the room. ‘Up, Perezvon! Beg, beg!‘ Kolya roared, leaping up from his seat, and the dog drew itself up right in front of Ilyusha‘s little bed. Ilyusha gave a start and leaned violently forward, bent down to Perezvon and stared at him. ‘This is … Zhuchka!‘ he shouted suddenly in a little voice that was cracked with suffering and happiness.

#MatryoshkaBros

Somehow he had entered into contact with the lackey of your deceased father, Smerdyakov, who had taught the little fool a stupid trick, a brutal trick, a vile trick – to take a piece of bread,stick a pin in it & throw it to some yard dog, the kind of dog that is always hungry and will swallow anything without chewing,& see what happens. So they made up a piece of bread like that and then threw it to that shaggy-coated dog Zhuchka…

#MatryoshkaBros

B10C3
As he went out through the front gate he looked round…set off straight up the street & then right along the lane that led to the market-square.Upon reaching the last house before the square he stopped outside the gate,took a whistle from his pocket & blew it with all his might...He had to wait no more than a minute,and then suddenly towards him from the wicket gate ran a ruddy-faced boy of about 11. This was the boy Smurov

#MatryoshkaBros

‘Oh, I shall have to resort to Perezvon. Ici, Perezvon!‘ And Kolya began to issue instructions to the dog, and the dog began to perform. He was a shaggy-coated dog, the size of an ordinary mongrel…His right eye was blind, and his left ear for some reason had a tear in it. He yelped and jumped, begged, walked on his hindlegs, threw himself on his back with all four paws in the air and lay without motion, as though he were dead.

#MatryoshkaBros

B10C1

But at that time there just so happened to be several boys there, with whom he struck up an acquaintance…The boys played together, organized pranks…and the stupid young fellows got up a most impossible two-rouble wager, Kolya… proposed that at night, when the eleven o‘clock train arrived, he should lie down on his back between the rails and remain there without moving as the train passed over him at full steam.

#MatryoshkaBros

Oh, D.E. Stevenson, you made me laugh! So pleased to have come across someone who knows Miss Buncle! 😂

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

Hooray! My prize for the #noplacelikeholmes quiz arrived today and I am thrilled! Charlie was also excited, as she thinks everything is for her.
Thank you, @Cuilin and @dabbe !!!