to say nothing of the dog by connie willis

With all the research she has obviously put into this book, she must have known how many words and phrases she has included that would never have been used in Victorian England, and are unlikely to have crept into our language in the future. Too many Americanisms for easy listening.Įither Connie Willis bowed to pressure from her American editors ,which I doubt, or she shows a disdainful attitude to both her American readers (by assuming they are uneducated) and to her British readers (by dismissing them as unimportant).

And now I can expunge the dog and the stump and the cat and the whole boring menagerie from my library and breathe a welcome sigh of relief. But after procrastinating for a very long time in the knowledge that I would invite a flood of angry dissent, I decided I needed to raise a small flag of warning among the banners of homage. I was delighted to find that Audible is now giving refunds for books you feel wasted your time and money. The dog and the cat are simply not enough. For me it was definitely not enough to sustain a fairly long book filled with useless nobs who wander around in a vapid haze, constantly failing to add two and two. Those who love complex puzzles will revel in the intricately convoluted time travel plot Willis constructs. If you are not careful, you end up with a menagerie of nitwits and oafs being 'clever' and clueless by turns with nary a character in the mix that you can really care about. Unfortunately, however, CoM is tricky to write. Even 'Friends' used to manage it rather nicely at times. 'A Civil Campaign,' by Lois McMaster Bujold, is a wonderful example of comedy of manners by a contemporary writer. Great fun, well plotted with more twists than Chubby Checker. I listened to this book on a very long drive to California and it was perfect, I found myself yelling at the IPod and making remarks as one might at a movie when you know the answer but the character just doesn't see it. I would love to see them off on another adventure through time together. I felt like I knew these people by the time the book was over. The boat scenes are marvelous, complete with a bulldog and various other well-drawn characters. Connie Willis does an astonishing job of weaving together a plethora of odd and loose ends, reeling through well-researched historical tidbits all set in England of various eras from the 13th century to World War II and the blitz and on to punting on the Thames. Wodehouse which somehow got crossed up with several centuries of time travel and the hunt for the world's ugliest vase. I felt like I had landed in the England of P.G. I LOVED this book and was very sad when it was over! Steven Crossley did an amazing job with his narration.

To say nothing of the dog by connie willis