The Stone Diaries (from 2006)
Carol Shields, who died too young, was a Canadian writer who was once one of the triumvirate with Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. And I would include Margaret Laurence as another great Canadian writer. THE STONE DIARIES takes a character from early in the 1900s to the 1990s and we watch the world change repeatedly over that time.
My "didn't do" list would include smoking pot, diving, learning a magic trick, skating backward, living alone. The woman in my group talked most about the last one. Most of us had never lived alone--going right from our parent's house or a college dorm to living with a husband. We were all born in the late 1940s.. (Ten years later, more of us live alone).
What would your list include if you're old enough to make one?What did you never do?
Sergio Angelini, FIDDLERS, Ed McBain
Mark Baker, VOID MOON, Michael Connelly
Yvette Banek, IT WALKS BY NIGHT, John Dickson Carr
Bill Crider, PRIME SUCKER, Harry Whittington
Martin Edwards, THE HOUSE OF DOCTOR EDWARDES, Francis Beeding
Richard Horton, THE GREEN QUEEN, Margaret St. Clair/THREE THOUSAND YEARS, Thomas Calvert McClary
Jerry House, SOMEBODY'S WALKING OVER MY GRAVE, Robert Arthur
Nick Jones, P.M Hubbard short stories in the magazine of FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION
George Kelley, THE BIG BOOK OF THE CONTINENTAL OP, Dashiell Hammett
Margot Kinberg, DAYS ARE LIKE GRASS, Sue Younger
Rob Kitchin, THE SELLOUT, Paul Beatty
B.V. Lawson, HARD-BOILED DAMES, ed. by Bernard Drew
Steve Lewis.Barry Gardner, CHARLIE'S APPRENTICE, Brian Freemantle
Todd Mason, THE OVERLOOK FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA: HORROR, edited by Phil Hardy ROMANCING THE VAMPIRE by David J. Skal
J.F. Norris, FLASHPOINT, John Russell Fearn
Matt Paust, SINGLE AND SINGLE, John LeCarre
James Reasoner, ON A SILVER DESERT: THE LIFE OF ERNEST HAYCOX, Ernest Haycox, Jr.
Gerard Saylor, THE BOYS OF '67, Andrew Wiest
TomCat, DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF RAIN, Zu Yen Lin
TracyK, BANKING ON DEATH, Emma Lathen
Prashant Trikannad, DEAD LINE, Stella Rimington
13 comments:
Thanks! Sorry to run late,didn't get my books done in time, so redux again:
Todd Mason: THE OVERLOOK FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA: HORROR, ed. Phil Hardy; ROMANCING THE VAMPIRE, David J. Skal
Sky diving
I ran late too, Patti. Sorry. My post is now up and running. :)
It's 10:30 and that means... Mine's up, too!
Flashpoint by Hugo Blayn (aka John Russell Fearn)
"One of the most interesting things for me was the list made by the protagonist near the end of the book of things she never did. Included are items such as oil painting, nude bathing, reading science fiction, oral sex, driving a car." I haven't painted in oil artistically (as opposed to a wall or door) nor swam in the nude since childhood, but I'll have no regrets in any of these. The most obvious things I haven't done would include leaving the US for more than a day or so (when I was five, my parents drove us from Alaska to Oklahoma, so I was briefly in Yukon and BC; have been over international water on my way to or from Oahu a number of times since); never marrying in any formal way (have lived platonically with one woman for most of the last 21 years, have had long-term romance with two women over the years for about nine years each, not simultaneously, lived with one, lots of long stayovers with the other); haven't published enough (no books of my own, certainly); never sky-dived (no great desire) nor SCUBA-dived (wouldn't mind); body-surfed and boogie-boarded but have never stood on a board.
'My "didn't do" list would include smoking pot, diving, learning a magic trick, skating backward, living alone.'
I've only dived poorly and skated backward even more poorly (and unintentionally). Learned one or two weak bits of sleight of hand, and find smoking pot not my pipe of tea, living alone has a few pluses and a number of minuses.
In the ten years since I listed those, so many more have come along. One thing would be licking some of my fears.
Jackie wants to go up in a hot air balloon.
That is very interesting about not living alone. I have never lived alone and I was born in the late forties. I was in a dorm, then moved in with my first husband, then moved directly from living with my first husband to living with my current husband (of 37 years).
Thanks very much for including my review, Patti.
So many things come immediately to mind that I never did that I would sob hysterically were I to try listing them all. In fact I feel like crying right now just contemplating such a downer. But suddenly now I'm laffing, so maybe my omissions aren't so bad after all. (Or maybe I should top the list with "Never did psychotherapy")
Didn't Do: have children; serve in the military; visit Europe (or Asia or Africa or South America); gamble for significant money; fly in a helicopter or hot air balloon; spend any time in jail/prison; break any bones larger than a toe; learn a language well enough to feel comfortable speaking it.
Denny Lien
Afraid to gamble, fly in helicopter or balloon, go to jail, break bones or too lazy learn a language well.
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