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Now Playing -  Here I Go Again by Whitesnake   Life -   Last weekend Linz and I traveled with her folks to Great Falls, MT for the memorial of her grandmother, Ethel Graves. Rich, my father-in-law has been driving a lot lately, so I volunteered to be the driver for this trip. As it turns out, 6-7 hour drive to Great Falls for a weekend is a pretty short drive for me, now that

Now Playing - Nothing, Lindsay's asleep in the other room... Life -  Man has the weather changed in the last two days. Tuesday, I was wearing shorts and contemplating mowing my lawn. Wednesday morning, we got near-freezing temperatures and snow in the mountains, along with a good chunk of rain in the valley. My mom's house started leaking where a windstorm had torn off her sattelite dish and

Now Playing - Closer by Kings Of Leon Life -  Didn't do much of anything Saturday, really. Read my Hard Case Crime book, worked on some Halloween stuff, Started cooking some lasagna before realizing that I'd forgotten an important ingredient, watched a movie. That's about it. Movie Reviews -  JOHNNY ENGLISH 2003, 87 mins. Cheesy Spy Comedy  --  Atkinson is a brilliant physical

Life - Spent an hour or two wrestling with a hot water heater in the depths of my mother's root cellar. Again. If this current tact doesn't work then it's on to actually buying and installing an all new one. Frankly, at this point, that's something they should have done a loooong time ago.I also went on a quest for some Gruyere cheese for a recipe we planned to make. Found some at Fred Meyers,

Life -It's been cooler here in sunny Pocatello, lately. Huzzah, I say. Since returning from Wyoming, there hasn't been a lot on the docket for "Life" really, just some dishes and some weed pulling. It takes me an entire afternoon to water my lawn, thanks largely to a strangely shaped yard, but I'm finally seeing some green in areas where there was none last year, and our various squashes,

Instead of recent books I’ve read, I thought I’d discuss some of the books I haven’t finished this year. I’ve actually finished nearly all of the books I’ve properly started (i.e. not just read a few pages and decided it wasn’t for me) this year and was starting to think I’m either mellowing with age or getting better at picking out books. But recently I’ve had to give up, at least temporarily, on a few books that I’m sure are quite good but just didn't suit me at the time.

First up is Robert Grave’s Claudius the God. Despite enjoying the Big Read of I, Claudius and racing through the first half of this book, I just stalled and haven’t summoned enough enthusiasm to finish it off. I don’t know if it’s the thought of remembering the huge cast of characters or the dense prose but it’s time for it to go back to the library, perhaps to be borrowed out another day.

Then there’s a Josephine Tey, Privateer. This is a novel about the 17th century privateer Henry Morgan. Despite generally liking the setting and the idea of the story, I just go stuck half way through and realised I don’t have the interest to keep going. I can't point at anything in the book that's irritating me, it’s just not my cuppa tea.

A book that will probably hang around the house a little longer while I wait to see if I will go back to it is Green dolphin country by Elizabeth Goudge. I have just realised my library system here has lots of Goudge books (I’d previously only read the wonderful The little white horse) including adult romances like this one. It’s set in the nineteenth century and is split between the Channel Islands and New Zealand. Although I am interested in reading how Goudge depicted New Zealand, I’m not sure I can stomach much more of the unnecessarily complicated romance or the characters that seem to have had the same personalities and motivations etc since they were children.

Another book I’m still leery about returning to the library as I keep thinking that surely I’ll pick it up to finish is Haruki Murakami’s The wind-up bird chronicle. I think the writing is wonderful and have enjoyed what I’ve read but again, am stuck. I think it’s the length combined with the slow plot that’s stumping me. I’ll definitely try another Murakami even if I don’t finish this one off.

Spain was great! I’ll write a post about it soon (with piccies! Hopefully great ones as one of my travelling companions had a very nice camera and an awe-inspiring dedication to good shots).

I admit once I was free of posting along with the group I just gobbled down I, Claudius. And any virtuous thoughts I had about keeping notes went out the window once Sangria and the Prado and the Alhambra entered the picture. So I’ll just post thoughts about all of the chapters in the last half of the book in a big jumble.



Germanicus died in such a typical way – he just wouldn’t face up to the truth and hunt down the source of his problems, but rather preferred to be noble and superstitious and die. I’m sure he would have been a good emperor, though, so it was poor old Rome’s loss.

It was bad Claudius’ house burned down and he was broke and had to move out of Rome, but it sounded like a lovely life. A countryside villa, no strange wife, snarky mother or murderous grandmother in sight and lots of interesting historical research to carry out. What a pity he had to be sucked back into Roman life (even if it made for a better story in the end).

Posthumus was so frustrating! He was alive and then frittered away his advantages of connections and popularity by swanning around simply ASKING Livia and Tiberius to bump him off! Grrr. I’m with Claudius. It was far more upsetting when he had already survived a murder attempt.

Livia demonstrates her awesome efficiency by referring to her bound and indexed copies of Augustus’ letters! How cool is that?! She is one devious woman.

And in the end Livia turns out to be far preferable to Tiberius. At least she was less destructive to the actual empire. Plus she’s openly ambitious and mean, not like whiny and shifty Tiberius. This part of the book was even more violent than earlier parts with lots of horrible details about people’s deaths. I cheered when Tiberius finally died, even if I knew Caligula’s rule wasn’t going to be a party.

Claudius does a great job at riding out Caligula’s madness. Unlike everyone else – this last part saw a bunch more people knocked off. Really, those Romans must have been quite fertile with the way they seemed to be able to recover from purges. I’m surprised it took so long for there to be a mutiny to kill him. I knew Cassius would pull through in the end.

The ending was satisfying. Hurrah for Claudius! Is there any better encapsulation of what has made him an engaging narrator than this: “I was thinking, “So I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I’ll be able to make people read my books now. Public recitals to large audiences. And good books, too, thirty-five years hard work in them. It won’t be unfair.”



I, Claudius was a great book to read. It was slow at times with the lack of dialogue and the name-heavy prose. But the sly humour and the sheer madness of the storyline (and the fact that many of the bits were true!) made it worthwhile. I just wish I had been around more to do it justice in my blog.

Claudius the God is on hold at my library. I’m eager to read it. Will Claudius revenge Caligula’s death as he promised even though it was a Good Thing that the mad emperor was offed? Will his fourth (? I’m losing track) wife turn out better than the previous two? Will he make Livia a Goddess? Will the population of Rome boom now that people can survive a year without being poisoned? Good times ahead, my friends!

I ran late putting this entry up as I was going out for dinner last night with work friends and at the last minute arranged to give one of them a lift, which involved very hasty tidying of the house so I would not be reported to the relevant health authorities.

I don't think I can talk about this book without spoilers. I personally wouldn't heed the spoiler warning as there are so many names and corpses and so on but in case you have a good memory: SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!! FOR EVERY I CLAUDIUS ENTRY FROM NOW ON!!

OK. I was dithering over whether I liked Livia or not. As I said at Bookshelves of Doom, she's evil but in an admirably manipulative and efficient manner. Well, no more dithering after she bumped off Claudius' poor little fiancee! She is very bad and must be stopped!

I liked all the stuff about Augustus hectoring the bachelors for not getting married and it turning out that it's the noble women who don't want to let themselves in for childbirth and the loss of their dowries. However, all the betrothals and marriages and divorces are quite complex, especially as they seem to be keeping it within the same extended family. Say what you will about the role of divorce in society, you have to admit it would be easier to keep track of people's relationships in a society where it was not allowed!

Cladius continues to be shown as learning lots of useful skills about speaking and writing history. But I'm glad Livia seems to be continuing to underestimate Claudius - it seems like a far safer position to be in.

Don't forget there are plenty of insightful comments over at Bookshelves of Doom!

I wonder if I'm the only one getting a Jerome K Jerome vibe? I think it's the self-conscious, witty manner, the random asides and the discussion of ill health (although Claudius is more self-mocking than J).

The stakes of the story are raised as further hints (in the subtle form of a BABY WOLF FALLING OUT OF THE TALONS OF AN EAGLE INTO HIS ARMS) are given that Claudius is going to play a key role in the fate of Rome.

These chapters are very dense with storylines! I can't imagine how the miniseries covered them without dedicating hours and hours of episodes. There are enough things happening to keep any soap opera happy for a few seasons. Livia alone chalks up an impressive body count. I wonder if she's going to be knocked off in the same way - surely someone will think to poison her at some stage?

I don't hold out hope for Postumus having a long and happy life now that he's is the only one of Julia's sons left alive. Run, Postumus, run!

I had so much fun reading and blogging about Rebecca that I'm taking part in The Big Read II at Bookshelves of Doom. I'll be away for the last part of the reading schedule, and can't even promise to post frequently in the first couple of weeks, but I'll give it my best.

We're reading I, Claudius by Robert Graves, with today's portion being chapters 1-3. I admit this isn't a book I probably would have picked up on my own. I sure didn't vote for it. I'm a bit over Roman history, and the boring cover on my copy isn't doing the story any favours. But when I read the first lines, I relaxed a bit:

Author and storyteller Norah Dooley’s four-part series of “Everybody” books, illustrated by Peter Thornton, explores the similarities between different cultures through food. The titles in the series, published by Carolrhoda/Lerner are: Everybody Cooks Rice, Everybody Bakes Bread, Everybody Serves Soup and Everybody Brings Noodles. Widely read in homes, libraries and schools throughout the United States, these stories follow young Carrie as she discovers a strong sense of community – and the role food plays in bringing her and her neighbors together – while going around her multiethnic inner-city neighborhood in search of something else (her brother, a rolling pin, a gift for her mom). The neighborhood featured is the author’s own: “Most of the characters in the Everybody Bakes Bread and Everybody Cooks Rice series are based on my friends and their families. The mutual affection and respect we have for one another is, to me, the most important ‘ingredient’ in these books.” Recipes are included at the end of each title.