Welcome to BookCrossing!
Thanks for coming to the site and journaling the book to let me know you have it. I hope you decide to let the book continue on a journey by releasing it (either by giving it to someone or leaving it somewhere.)
Happy reading!



Moral Disorder is a new collection of short interrelated stories that trace the course of a life, and also the lives intertwined with it- those of parents, siblings, children. friends, enemies, teachers and even animals.

Atwood at her best.Inter-related stories that track Nell's life and the lives of relatives and friends from small towns to cities to a farm back to the city and finally to Labrador.great story-telling.

Sending this out on a bookray. participants and shipping preferences:
1.Fran-kinstein(Can/US can ship int'l)
2.lauraloo29(Can/US)
3.aremena(US)
4.Maurean(US/Intl)
5.kizmiaz(EU)
6.darkhorse4460(EU)
7madmadge(EU/Intl)
8.LaPitchoune(EU)
9.ArabellaFigg(Intl)
11.kiyoitsukikage(EU]
12.deadendmind(Intl)asked to be skipped Apr 7/09
13.klaradyn(Intl) Asks to be skipped, she has a Library copy[Aug6/08]
14.amberC July29/09 ray is completed.

RELEASE NOTES:

mailed to Fran-Kinstein to start the bookray.

arrived safely in yorkton. thx kobie03

I liked it. I think I missed some of the connections that were there. It would have been good to read it a bit more carefully. What I did follow, I thought was pretty neat. And the parts where I didn't understand the connection completely, I still enjoyed. Really I should read it one more time through to squeeze an 8/10 out of it, but alas, I should keep it going, so maybe another time. It will be sent to Edmonton soon.

This arrived today, along with another ring. I will keep it moving. Thank you!

It took me a while to get into this book. But I really wanted to read it. Glad I pressed on. Although I'm not sure why. Parts were very frustrating to me and unrealistic. Not that a story has to be completely real, I just didn't get Nell.

This will be on its way next week. Thank you for sharing!

Arrived today! I'm currently reading Atwood's Alias Grace and should finish it this weekend, so this is perfect timing!

I very much enjoyed this collection of stories. Margaret Atwood's writing is just so easy to read, it just flows and before you know it you've sailed through half a book (though I did not feel that way about Alias Grace, my least favorite of her books). I especially liked The Headless Horseman, and through the rest of the book hoped to read more about Nell's sister.

I thought I'd already PMd Maurean for her address but I guess I hadn't, so I did so today, and will mail this on as soon as I get it. Thanks for starting this ring Kobie03!

Edited: Got Maurean's address and dropping at post office on my home tonight!

A thousand Mea Cuplas for not journaling this sooner, but I've been sans internet for about a month now, and am just getting back online....the good news, it HAS arrived safe-and-sound here in Florida, I've read this wonderful series of inter-related short stories (I'm a big Atwood fan, and this one was just as good as I had anticipated) and am off to request Kismiaz's addy right now so that I can send this along to continue its journey as soon as possible.
*mailed 10/13

Just got it, thanks everybody.
I still ahve one on the go but it shouldn't take long.

I usually like Atwood’s books, I love the way she writes and the brilliant stories she comes up with but this book just fell short of my expectations. At first I couldn’t figure what was up, and then the Nell character just failed to excite me and ended up boring me with that subservience. There were some parts that I really enjoyed and thought Atwood was at the top of her game but this didn’t happen often enough. Anyway I liked the way she wrote some of the stories but on the whole felt a little let down by the book.
I’ll be sending it along when I get an address.

Received safely today from kizmiaz - thank you kindly.

I have a couple of other bookray books to read but I'll maybe try to dip into this as well.

Its a while since I read any Atwood - one of my favorite authors.

I think Margaret Atwood is a brilliant writer and I don’t think I would have been drawn to this had it not been by her.

This is supposedly a series of short stories and they probably each could stand on their own but as they all revolve around the life of one woman, I think I read it more as a novel.

Its about a life and the other lives that intertwine with it and nothing exceptional happens but the ordinary and sometimes messy elements of that life. Atwood is brilliant at getting inside her characters heads and in particular – something I’ve always admired – the minds of children and teenagers through the difficult process of growing up and trying to understand the adult world. She’s also pretty good at the feelings and frustrations engendered by ageing.

She touches on all sorts of themes, including attitudes to mental health and to marriage and adultery, to survival at various levels – but most of all I think this is about memory and story telling and how they intertwine, an appropriate theme for an author with a long career and rich life behind her.

I enjoyed this – its perhaps not up there with her best work, but there’s no doubt about the quality of the writing.

Will be passing on to madmadge soon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to madmadge. Happy Reading!

The book has arrived along with a lovely belated Christmas card from darkhorse4460 - thank you darkhorse!

This will only be my second Margaret Atwood and it looks very readable. I have one book to complete before I can get to it so it shouldn't take me long.

Thank you too to kobie03 for including me in the ring.

I wasn't too sure about this book to begin with but I enjoyed most of the interlinked stories. I didn't find it a particularly uplifting read but on the whole I'm glad I read it.

I will PM the next in line and send it on ASAP.

Thank you kobie03 for incuding me in the ring.

This book will be on its way to LaPitchoune today.

The book (book)crossed land & sea and arrived in my mailbox today. Thanks for the clear instructions that came with the book! I'm looking forward to reading the stories.

Moral Disorder is quite an accurate name for this compilation of short stories. The characters are faced with small everyday dilemmas, mostly of the inner kind that aren't taking anyone anywhere, even if they were - or could be - solved. The disorder is the reigning state of affairs, like it is in our perfect reality.

'The Bad News' sets the context and states the rules: it's about different ages, where temporary beings ceaselessly turn the present into the past.

Teenage dilemmas dealt with in 'The Other Place'...
- Why are you living in this dump? What are you doing with your time? Why are you with that creep? Why can't you accomplish anything? Get enough sleep! You'll ruin your health! Wear less black! (p.100)
- I'd stay lean and wolflike, and skirt the edges. I would be a creature of the night, in a trench coat with the collar turned up, pacing between streetlights, my heels making an impressively hollow and echoing sound, casting a long shadow before me, having serious thoughts about topics of importance. (p.102)

..and escaping skills in 'Monopoly':
the best thing to do when running away is not to run. Just walk. Just troll. A combination of ease and purposefulness is desirable. Then no one will notice you're running. - - - Leave everything behind you except what's in your pockets. Lightest is best. (p.116)

A house ad planned in 'The Entities': Charming studio. Built-in cat box. Entities. (p.237)

'The Headless Horseman' was my favourite because of the Halloween theme and the intertextual link to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which is a brilliant text (and filmatisation). Atwood even drops the name Washington Irving somewhere. This story epitomizes the classic role of horror in our conception: innocent playing-around turns to anxiety and guilt, which in turn, breed mental disorder on a larger scale. So this story functions as an impetus to all that follows.

'The Last Duchess' was another favorite of mine. Two teens quarreling over a poem is an juicy theme. It invites the reader to step in and try to solve the poetic dilemmas together with the young readers. The frustration and growing stress conveyed through the pages makes the reader smile. Still, the story is very real. Who hasn't struggled with intellectual challenges under the demanding gaze of the authority of a discontented teacher? Luckily there are keys embedded in this text to deciphering poetry. You must follow the poem on several surfaces: form, function, message. And whichever point of view you find of most value defines you as a reader and an analyst. But, since Bill can't follow the girl where she's going, he'll have to be 'The Last Boyfriend'. Here goes Atwood the modern feminist, again!

The stories in between convey and mark the transitions from one moment, character and age to the next. I must admit that the end, to me, was a loose end. I would linger on pondering over the significance of Labrador if I didn't have to pass this ring book on. But luckily there's no book examination for me!

Oh, and here, you figure out what this means!

My Last Duchess
Robert Browning

That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
"Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
"Must never hope to reproduce the faint
"Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart how shall I say? too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 'twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men good! but thanked
Somehow I know not how as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech which I have not to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
"Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
"Or there exceed the mark" and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and make excuse,
E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

Book arrived this morning, thankyou LaPitchoune. Will start reading it today.

I didn't enjoy this as much as other Atwood's I've read but it was OK. I read the first few stories quite easily and could really identify with what the character went through as a child and a teenager. But after that I struggled to finish the book and was a bit puzzled by the last two stories.

it's here, thank you for sending!

=====

edit: unfortunately, I couldn't really get the hang of the book. Will be passing on soon. Thank you for sharing!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

on the long way to Australia...

Arrived today.

As usual with Margaret Atwood's books it has left me feeling quietly satisfied and rather thoughtful.

I always enjoy reading her books and find that they linger in my mind.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

August Be An Angel Exchange‏

I'd never heard of this book and I love Margaret Atwood. Thanks!

Finally got around to reading this one. Sorry it's been sitting on my shelf for so long!

The main theme I got out of the book was that of ageing - of growing up and then growing old.

It has been a long time since I read a 'proper' literature book for adults, I was amazed at how much I missed it! Atwood is simply fantastic. She has a way of writing emotionally without being brash. My favourite part of the book was the section set on the farm; reading about the animals made me smile.

Left in the bus stop.