Cindy, I would love to hear your reaction to Marilynne Robinson's essay on liberal Christianity in this month's Harper's.

Is it online, Corwood? I went to harpers.org and didn't find it, but I've only had a cup of coffee. Google is being similarly stingey with the love.

It doesn't look like it's online yet. Harpers.org still has last month's cover up on the current issue page (way to keep current, guys!), and I can't seem to find it elsewhere, either. Definitely worth a read, although this issue isn't one of the standouts elsewhere.

Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it. It sounds like it could be similar to other Robinson pieces I can find on line. I haven't looked at them in-depth, but I suspect I'm going to be nodding in agreement at least as often as I'm thinking, "But no, wait..." Theologically speaking, I'm actually pretty conservative, but how I think that should play out leaves me somewhat of an orphan in all sorts of arenas.

Hey, that's why I want to hear your perspective.

New Pynchon book in the works.

So anyone reading/read the latest Kushiel book? I'm about 3/4 done now...

I finished Kushiel's Scion over the weekend. I liked it. It did what I needed and expected to do, which was provide with an excuse to revisit a favorite place. It doesn't compare to my deep love for the first series (especially Kushiel's Dart ), but I was surprised by how easily I was able to accept this as Imriel's story. I appreciated that I didn't anticipate parts of the plot.

Carey has some stylistic touches (continuous repetition of choice phrases) that tend to drive me nuts. I thought she had grown past them throughout the first trilogy, but I noticed them here and it occasionally took me out of the story. Maybe I had just gotten used to the style over the course of the first three books and stopped letting it bug me.

I missed Phedre and Joscelin though.

I found it odd (not reallly a spoiler) that since her voice was so similar in this one as in the Phedre ones, in some ways, that it didn't feel that different. Which doesn't sound like what i mean. Um. Imriel. Boy. V. different from Phedre. All that jazz. And yet, Carey's voice is so overpowering...but I LIKE it, so not *really* a problem, just a little odd. Generally did enjoy it, though not as much as the original books (or rather, the original book--the other two got a bit too freaky for me in places, though always interesting). This one was....easier. Which made it slightly less interesting, but I so continue to love the world she's created...Next time, more kinky sex!!

I wonder when the next book will come out. The first three seemed to come out pretty quickly, but I hate to hope "quickly" and then have them suck because they were written fast!

Picked up copies of Anthony Bourdain's THE NASTY BITS (basically an anthology of short pieces) and Bill Burford's HEAT.

Read several of the Bourdain pieces, which are amusing as usual, though he's mellowed a bit, and last night started in on the Burford, which is more of straight narrative. Just from the opening where Burford describes how he met Mario Batali, decided to go work for him, and also gives a bit of background on Batali's life and career, Malto Mario already makes Bourdain look like a piker in the excessive living department, which I find hella amusing.