Wasn't me, didn't do a thing

[samvara]

Any reports of half naked women swimming in South Perth can be attributed to Yours Truely, since the dogs were totally BLIND and happy to swim in circles and after shells I threw in to help give directions, I had to do the fetching myself. Ugh, it was squishy and yucky underfoot. Thank goodness I was wearing nice underwear. [waves to various picnickers]

Training was fabulous, am very carefully stopping when when my hip starts to pull but I still feel like skipping senior training and only training 2-3 times a week is finking out. [guilt] Was accidentally clocked in the head but I had my revenge.

BSG 13 and 14 were disappointing, I feel more like someone watching specific buttons being pushed than someone engaged with a storyline. 15 was more interesting but I guess I shouldn't spoil.

Close Range by Annie Proulx is breaking my heart, it's so ugly, surreal and depressing. I've read seven of the eleven short stories and I'm saving Brokeback Mountain for last assuming I have the emotional stamina to go the distance. The Blood Bay was definitely the easiest to relate to with it's macabre, awful yet funny ending.

Comments

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Close Range - my copy of BBM is a stand-alone paperback.

I'm not keen on horror/ultra-dark so might get your recs for which stories to avoid!

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Same, I read my life's quota of horror when I was 15.

The Half-Skinned Steer I can only say avoid then. It's a hallucinatory story of an old man driving to visit his family for the first time in years while being haunted by his memories which include a steer that was stunned, half skinned and had its tongue cut out before it woke up and staggered off.

The Mud Below is about bullriding and self hatred and social conditioning.

Job History is a short gruelling ride through a gruelling life.

The Blood Bay is macabre and dark and yet the only one that I could have laughed in.

People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water is just fkn tragic; it's about family, crude social justice and pain.

Pair a Spurs is about being old, isolated and going crazy.

I plan to find the courage to read A Lonely Coast tomorrow.

I'd like to hear what maharetr thinks of them as she left the book here for me. I whine but the writing is immediate, atmospheric and affecting and reminds me of Steinbeck who I also read with a certain amount of regret.