Chatterbox Indulges Her Bibliomania -- The Twelfth Episode!

Autumn Day
by Rainer Maria Rilke
1875-1926

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander on the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

From The Book of Pictures; 1902/1906

I had been reading Auden, but didn't want to use another of his poems so soon after the last one. Then I thought of Verlaine or Rimbaud, but couldn't find a translation I liked. So I turned to a selected poems edition of Rilke that I bought back in 1984, and am dismayed to find that the binding by the spine (it's a trade paperback) has completely cracked, and when I turn a page gently, pages fall out. The volume has sentimental value, but I think it's not pretty much unreadable. Still, the translations, by Stephen Mitchell, are decent, especially of the Duino Elegies, and it's a parallel text with a great introduction by Robert Hass.

It's time to debut my fifth batch of 75 books for 2011 -- and definitely my final one! It will be a challenge to wrap this up by December 31...

As usual, anyone wondering what I read in prior batches can turn to my previous thread here and wend their way back... It's a bit easier (for me, at least) than posting all the threads individually.

Here's a running tally of the total number of books I've read so far in 2011:




Last year's tally hit 506 books; you can see the highlights on my profile page, along with the highlights of this year to date. I don't think I'll reach 500 this year, however.

And here's the new ticker for the fifth 75-book challenge of 2011. As always, I'll comment on everything I've read in these threads (one-stop shopping...) But you won't find the books for my 11 in 11 challenge on the list below. You can make your way over to that group and peruse my thread if you're curious...




The list starts below....
(The touchstones get all messed up; if I include book #9, all the other touchstones vanish; meanwhile, there is still no touchstone avail. for book #1.)

1. The Innocent by Taylor Stevens, ***, STARTED 11/3/11, FINISHED 11/6/11 (fiction)
2. The Very Picture of You by Isabel Wolff, ***, STARTED 11/7/11, FINISHED 11/8/11 (fiction)
3. The Warlord's Son by Dan Fesperman, ****, STARTED 10/28/11, FINISHED 11/8/11 (fiction)
4. An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin, ****, STARTED 11/8/11, FINISHED 11/9/11 (fiction)
5. The Chinese Shawl by Patricia Wentworth, ***, STARTED 11/9/11, FINISHED 11/10/11 (fiction)*
6. Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo, ****, STARTED 11/10/11, FINISHED 11/11/11 (fiction)
7. A Christmas Homecoming by Anne Perry, **1/2, READ 11/12/11 (fiction)
8. Kissing the Demons by Joe Plantagenet, ***, STARTED 11/13/11, FINISHED 11/14/11 (fiction)
9. The Roots of Betrayal by James Forrester, ***1/2, STARTED 11/13/11, FINISHED 11/17/11 (fiction)
10. Radio Shangri-la by Lisa Napoli, ***1/2, STARTED 11/5/11, FINISHED 11/17/11 (non-fiction)
11. A Murder in Tuscany by Christobel Kent, ***, STARTED 11/14/11, FINISHED 11/18/11 (fiction)
12. Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath, ****, STARTED 11/19/11, FINISHED 11/21/11 (fiction)
13. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, ***1/2, STARTED 11/19/11, FINISHED 11/25/11 (fiction)
14. A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander, ***1/2, STARTED 11/25/11, FINISHED 11/28/11 (fiction)
15. I'm Gone by Jean Echenoz, ****, READ 11/28/11 (fiction)
16. How to Be a Rogue Trader by John Gapper, *****, READ 11/29/11 (non-fiction)
17. Too Early Lilac by E.M. Almedingen (no touchstone), ****, STARTED 11/27/11, FINISHED 11/29/11 (fiction)*
18. I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley, ****, STARTED 11/28/11, FINISHED 11/30/11 (fiction)
19. Kill Me if You Can by James Patterson, **, READ 11/30/11 (fiction)
20. The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart, ****, STARTED 11/30/11, FINISHED 12/2/11 (fiction)
21. The Favored Queen by Carolly Erickson, 1/2 star, STARTED 12/2/11, FINISHED 12/3/11 (fiction)
22. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James, ****, STARTED 12/3/11, FINISHED 12/4/11 (fiction)
23. All That I Am by Anna Funder, ****, STARTED 12/4/11, FINISHED 12/5/11 (fiction)
24. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, ****, STARTED 11/30/11, FINISHED 12/9/11 (fiction)
25. Need You Now by James Grippando, ***, STARTED 12/4/11, FINISHED 12/9/11 (fiction)
26. The Christmas Angel by Marcia Willett, ***, STARTED 12/5/11, FINISHED 12/6/11 (fiction)
27. Love Lies Bleeding by Jess McConkey, ***1/2, READ 12/10/11 (fiction)
28. The Litigators by John Grisham, ***, STARTED 12/9/11, FINISHED 12/10/11 (fiction)
29. Walking With the Comrades by Arundhati Roy, ***1/2, STARTED 11/3/11, FINISHED 12/12/11 (non-fiction)
30. Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones, ****, STARTED 12/8/11, FINISHED 12/13/11 (fiction)
31. Time's Legaacy by Barbara Erskine **** STARTED 12/16/11, FINISHED 12/17/11 (fiction)

* - re-read

Hey I may be first! I am! Love the poem Suzanne.

Beautiful poem, Suz. And a very pretty holiday counter too. Hope you stayed indoors today while the marathon was being run.

Except for the "boulevards"...you've got my home..

Love the poem...but I've always loved Rilke

Have you **STARRED**...forever...always

;-}

I am like a tomcat marking his place.

Robert

You are, Bonnie!

Well, have to start the new thread with a so-so book, read for my 11 in 11 challenge. I know that Avatiakh/Kerry found Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz to be captivating, but it didn't work for me, on several levels -- yes, even though Graham Greene called it the book of the year when it was first published back in 1980 or 1981. I can see why it might have appealed to Greene, but I found this novel, revolving around the lonely Alexander Abramov, Israeli spy who finds his dreamed-of woman sitting on a bus in front of him while he's on an assignment in England on his 41st birthday, to be disjointed. The premise is unnerving -- and while that can be a good thing, unconvincingly unnerving isn't. After spotting Thea and instantly recognizing in her the woman he believes he has always been intended to love, he starts sending her anonymous letters, accompanied by music that he asks her to play at certain hours of the day; the girl (she is in her final year of high school) does so, and writes back to "Franz Kafka" at a poste restante. He begins to manipulate her life, stalking her but deliberately refusing to encounter her as a real person, even as he woos her via the letters, making it impossible for her to build her own independent life. The icy character of Alexander makes him one of the most unlikeable figures I've read about in a long time, but not in a way that intrigues me. He's too remote for that, and Tammuz is juggling with too many ideas, too many points of view and an unclear narrative line. The interactions between Alexander and Thea at the beginning and end of the book bracket two segments seen through the eyes of her fiance, G.R., who dies tragically just before their wedding, and Nikos, a Greek Levantine, who becomes enraptured by Thea as instantly as both G.R. and Alexander, but has the advantage of being able to woo in person: both men have encounters with Alexander, to boot. At one point, a humorously exasperated Thea cries out, "God, why do you send me nothing but madmen?" and I couldn't say it better myself. There are elements of a great novel, and it's clear Tammuz is a thoughtful and careful writer, but there wasn't enough here to love to set against the muddled plot and disturbing stalking/manipulation theme to make me enjoy it. 3.2 stars; I can see why Tammuz isn't as well known today as someone like Amos Oz.

Now off to finish Arriving in Avignon, another quirky book that I thought I'd like less than Minotaur but now may end up preferring, and the current light read, a quite good suspense novel that is a sequel to The Informationist by Taylor Stevens. I think my next non-fiction book will be Mr. Langshaw's Square Piano by Madeline Goold, which has been on my TBR list for nearly two years. It's a natural segue from reading about Bach -- Gaines refers late in the book to the gradual morphing of the harpsichord to the clavichord and ultimately the fortepiano, which Bach tried and came to enjoy as the instrument was developed.

***Jeesh, Robert...I think she left us..in the proverbial "dust"***

Sorry -- I was writing while you were posting! *smooches* to you both...

No problem, Suze

I was being sarcastic.....as is my Nature

;-}

Your "reading" leaves me "in the dust"

You do good, girl....*no sarcasm intended*

Hi Suz

I'm simply stopping by and waving hello.

Lovely idea Suzanne starting each thread with a poem and, again a very good choice. Don't usually read poetry in translation as often the rhythmn, flow and the poet's intention seem to get submerged - this one works though.

Hello, all!

Paul, I don't know whether it makes it simpler or more difficult to translate a poem that is quasi-prose poetry (eg Rimbaud). I can read poetry in French and sometimes Russian, but I'd never dare try to translate it. I think someone needs to be not only extraordinarily proficient in the language, but be nearly a poet themselves. The challenge is far greater than translating prose, I think, because so much of the meaning is encased in the structure, the meter, the sound and feel of the words and those can never be precisely replicated. A novel or short story is far more forgiving.

Well, I have read what may be the first book I've ever read translated from Flemish! (Despite those high school years in Brussels...) Daniel Robberechts committed suicide in 1992; this slim volume, Arriving in Avignon, was published, I think, in the 1980s. It's hard to categorize: definitely a work of prose, but is it memoir? travelogue? history? novel? Ultimately, a blend of all of these that resists categorization. Its central character is up for debate -- is it the city of Avignon or the third-person anonymous narrator who seems endlessly to skirt it, en route to other destinations. (The notes to the Dalkey Press edition inform us that this is a metaphor for his reluctance to fully engage with real life as a mature adult; I'll accept that, but it wasn't something I was always conscious of while reading.) To me, the interesting part of this was the way in which a sense of place coexists with a sense of self, and the way the two act on each other. What imposes a place on our memory? Is it a frozen, static memory or one that is fluid? For the narrator -- Avignon is "a collection of streets that proceed at the speed of a pedestrian in a hurry, of boulevards that glide past at the speed of a bus; a town that revolves like a turntable with the increasing or decreasing speed of an arriving or departing train..." The city -- viewed only through the prism of a tourist moving briskly -- is contrasted with the anonymous Provencal town to which the narrator returns repeatedly, and which he explores so that every vista is imprinted on his memory. If you enjoy writers like WG Sebald (I loved Austerlitz) or even Georges Perec, this is a kind of experimental hybrid prose work that recalls some of their writing, and you might enjoy it. It's not going to be for all tastes, however. For some of the almost painfully beautiful descriptions, however, I'm giving it 3.8 stars. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

Popping in to say hello! Still completely in awe of the number of books you read!

Suzanne will certainly give Arriving in Avignon a try - Chelle is not the only one agog (very little pun intended Chelle) with your reading volume. Can you get to 500 this year with over 54 days to go!

Paul, definitely NOT 500 this year! It was a bit of an aggressive target... Last year was the first year I ever tracked my reading, and I was slightly astounded myself. The only reason I'm where I am now is that the last few months have been so slow with work that I've been able to spend more time reading to stop myself from going nuts.

Hi Suzanne - just checking into the new thread. Love the poem but can't say that your last two reads appeal to me. I'll wait and see what else come along - there are sure to be some BBs before the end of the year:)

Hope the marathon wasn't too disruptive and also that you get some better news from your agent/ publishers soon.

Oh my goodness! I can recommend a book I presume was written originally in Flemish: Willem Elsschot Villa des Roses -- I was just looking at it the other day (although now I have no idea where I put it) and thinking I would like to reread it. Short. That might be my only Flemish book but it was a winner.

Lucy I have read another by Willem Elsschot called Cheese which is a quirky tale that some people love and others despise - it made the 1001 book list at least once I think. Reminds me that I need to track down Villa des Roses too.

So, I've been invited to be a member of the selection committee for an award for the most innovative financial industry regulator. Just saw the info for the award is out online, and had to chuckle a bit -- "which of these things does not belong?" Not only is my bio much shorter than the others, I'm not a distinguished scholar, accomplished lawyer, etc. etc... This will be interesting...

Finished The Innocent by Taylor Stevens, the sequel to last year's The Informationist. The latter was unexpectedly fresh and intriguing, with a kind of androgynous hero named Michael Vanessa Munroe, who goes into tough places and is kind of a female action hero, able to accomplish impossible feats (like speaking 22 languages). What saved the first from being banal was the setting (little-known parts of West Africa) and a plot with some unexpected twists. Those elements are largely absent from this sequel, in which Vanessa is asked by her closest friend to rescue a young girl from a cult; the girl is being held in Buenos Aires. There's lots of action, but it's of the very predictable variety. Equally predictable, Munroe is being marketed as a new Lisbeth Salander, but this book has none of the complex themes of Stieg Larsson's trilogy. I finished it, but over three days, when normally I'd whip through a book like this in a few hours. Don't misunderstand me -- if you like classic "black and white" thrillers, with heroes who take no BS from bad guys, this is a very readable suspense novel. It just doesn't have any subtlety or nuance, and its "twists" fell flat for me. Perhaps this is just sophomore slump? 3.1 stars.

Hoping for some more compelling books, whether mindless or serious, soon!!

Congratulations on being invited onto an award selection committee - it's great that they've recognised you've got something to contribute to the mix - you will bring in a different perspective from that of a lawyer or scholar - and I suspect it's about the quality of your perceptions rather than the length of your bio. Do you get paid for it? If not, I hope the publicity will be helpful for securing other work at least.

Evening in the Palace of Reason sounded very interesting. I know too little about the period but I love the music of Bach so might look out for that. And I read The Talisman Ring last year and had great fun with that - especially loved the sensible older female character whose name I've forgotten.

Thank you for your review of the follow-up to The Informationist. I enjoyed The Informationist for exactly the reasons you give, and appreciate the heads-up on the differences in the second one.

Genny, nope it will cost me time but earn me no money! It is an addition to my CV/resume, however, which can never hurt.

I have to figure out how to pull my own weight on the committee, however.

Book du jour: deeply underwhelming. The Very Picture of You by Isabel Wolff should have been fun and lively chick lit, based on her last book and US breakthrough novel, A Vintage Affair. Instead, it was just irritating. All the plot points were laid. out. so. carefully. that. it. was. very. hard. to. try. to. focus. on. the. narrative. Especially as it was a tissue thin one. Portraitist Ella learns life lessons from her subjects, including a troubled MP and an 80 year old woman. She falls in love with her sister's fiance, and uncovers a family secret. But she was very irritating; she prides herself (over and over and over again) on uncovering the truths of the people who sit for their portraits, but is particularly dense when it comes to the members of her own family. This has all the worst faults of chick lit: an unreal happy ever after plot; lack of dramatic tension; predictability; two-dimensional characters and improbably parallel situations in past and present. I admit that it was at least an entertaining enough book to read, but after I'd finished I rolled my eyes and flung it at the wall and went in search of something meatier. 2.7 stars. Go for A Vintage Affair instead; it's witty and interesting. At least this one was an Amazon Vine galley, so no damage done to my budget.

So, I started off reading The Accident by Ismail Kadare instead, but found it sent me to sleep on the subway. Not sure if that's because I was tired or whether it was really that dull and unrewarding. So I moved on to a thriller by Dan Fesperman, whose books I really enjoy and think are under-appreciated by readers (they are infinitely better than those by Linwood Barclay or Alex Kava, for instance; are great for fans of early Daniel Silva.) I'm reading The Warlord's Son, set (so far) in Peshawar circa 2002.

ETA: this was my 400th book of the year!!!

Death comes to Pemberley by PD James showed up on my doorstep today, and the new mystery by Gary Corby, Ionia Sanction. Also got approved for two NetGalley books from Bloomsbury -- am v. excited they appear to be jumping on that bandwagon!!

Congrats on 400, Suzanne!

Yowza!

Well done on 400 Suzanne (seems surreal but still - with jaw widely agape!) only 100 to go. I love stats and arithmetic so I calculate that at your present rate of reading you are on course for 467 books - Go Suz!

Paul, if you're running calculations that precise, you have waaay too much time on your hands!

At any rate, I'm now up to #401, having just finished reading The Warlord's Son. It isn't the best of Dan Fesperman's books, but it's a solid thriller, with jaded newspaper reporter Stan Kelly (aka Skelly) in Peshawar and trying to get into Afghanistan in the closing days of 2002. He becomes entangled with tribal politics, gets a great story -- but will he ever be able to file it? His fixer, Najeeb, has secrets of his own, including the reason he was banished from his home village. Fesperman does a great job of capturing the complexities of tribal and clan relationships, and the ending is a real humdinger, but it doesn't all hang together quite as well as, say, The Arms Maker of Berlin. That would be 4.3 stars; this was 3.8. Solid, but not spectacular.

Now off to decide what will be book #402! Although I have to be up early tomorrow in order to be in midtown Manhattan by 8:30. No reading on rush hour subways... :-(

Just saw that Esi Edugyan's novel, Half Blood Blues, won this year's Giller Prize for the best Canadian novel published this year. I haven't read it yet, but admit I'm surprised it beat out The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje.

400 books. Amazing! And you write such interesting comments about each book. Even more amazing!

Suzanne, I'm curious about the new P.D. James. I'll be watching for your comments on it. No hurry, though. I'm reading her books in order of publication... and I'm still in the 1980s. ;-)

Donna, I think I'm going to save it as a treat for myself on Thanksgiving weekend! That is normally a bit boring and even depressing; it's a family occasion but my (Canadian) family doesn't celebrate, so even after 17 years, it's still a bit isolating. The most fun Thanksgiving I've had was the one I had in England!!

Book du jour: An Evil Eye is the fourth and by far the best yet in a series of Ottoman-era mysteries by Jason Goodwin (who also wrote a non-fiction book about the Ottoman Empire.) Yashim, the eunuch and chief investigator of untoward doings on behalf of the sultan, the valide (the sultan's mother) and the court, sets off to tackle a mystery involving a dead body found in an Orthodox monastery's well. But the trail leads back to the seraglio of the new young sultan who has just ascended the throne, where idle women plot and scheme. I love the characters Goodwin has created, and this great addition features Yashim serving as mentor to a boy who is attending the imperial school, as he did decades earlier. 4 stars, recommended, but start with the first book in the series, The Janissary Tree.

I love Sebald, and like Perec quite a lot, plus LT says I will LOVE it, so I will check out Arriving in Avignon.

Well, I hope the LT algorithm nails it! and that you enjoy the admittedly quirky appeal of Arriving in Avignon.

A very mixed bag to report on today. First of all, I had to abandon The Redeemed by M.R. Hall. I had tried four or five times to read it and couldn't get past the first 50 pages. The main character, Jenny Cooper, is so deeply annoying... I should have realized, as I got the previous book from Amazon Vine and didn't like that. Oh well. I think I gave it half a star, but I'm obviously not counting it toward the challenge(s).

Only slightly better was a book by Albanian literary eminence, Ismail Kadare. I've read one or two of his novels before this, and my only question is which group of aliens abducted the real Kadare? On the surface this is an opaque, tortuous look at the relationship between Besfort Y. and Rovena. We know from the first pages that they day in an odd traffic accident (hence the title of The Accident) and that all kinds of folks are desperately seeking to understand why, but no explanation fits the facts until an anonymous researcher works to re-establish the very weird and dysfunctional relationship between the two. The story lurches from one encounter to another, where the two appear to argue about banalities and their relationship. Unless the whole novel is simply a giant metaphor, in which case I simply didn't get it at all. (i.e. the Balkans and mutual incomprehension between "races"??) There were parts that put me to sleep (on the subway) and parts that had me wrinkling my nose in distaste, as when Rovena inexplicably lifts her skirt to show her public hair to a gypsy woman who had encouraged her, when younger, to have many lovers, as a kind of boast that she had done so, possibly? I don't know and I don't care. I finished it, but I wonder why. 1.3 stars. One of the worst novels I've read this year, and from an author who is revered. Go figure. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

I scurried off to the comfort zone of Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries to help compensate for the above, and whipped through The Chinese Shawl. Tanis Lyle is a "fast" young woman who loves to shock; when she is found murdered at a house party the suspects include her distant cousin, Laura Fane, now in love with a man that Tanis had toyed with. Laura is a bit too good to be true and the whole thing feels very dated, but as before, it's a decent comfort read. 3 stars, with some of that coming from sentiment.

After this string of bad luck, I'm going to have to find something that is a home run...

An extra poem for this thread, in honor of November 11, the day the guns stopped firing at the end of World War I. The poet, Wilfred Owen, was killed a week earlier and the news of his death reached his parents on the same day as the Armistice.

Anthem for Doomed Youth
by Wilfred Owen
1893-1918

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Beautiful, and so sad.

I have to give a short address at our Remembrance Sunday ceremony around the war memorial this weekend. I take it in turns with the neighbouring vicar. It's never easy knowing what to say, and I have to time it to finish at exactly 2 minutes before 11... I have been thinking I might read some poetry, rather than use my own inadequate words - so thanks for that one, which I've noted down as a possible.

I wonder if anyone is writing poetry in the midst of the current conflicts?

I'm sure they are, Genny....

In fact, here's a link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5126583

Owen is great; Brooke -- who died of dysentry or something en route to the Dardanelles -- wrote poetry that glorified war more than did Sassoon or Owen, who saw trench warfare firsthand.

One I'd really urge you to look at is "Strange Meeting" by Owen, which is more reflective; the anger is a bit more in the background. It ends with the following lines:

I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now . . ."

Today's book du jour was Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo. The third in a series of mysteries featuring Kate Burkholder, chief of police in the small Ohio town of Painter's Mill where she grew up as a member of an Amish family, it made me wonder whether Castillo is going to run out of ideas for crime/mystery plots revolving around the Amish, who, after all, are a pretty low-key bunch of folks and certainly not big criminals. This one involves a dual plot -- one strand dealing with a bunch of hate crimes against the Amish and the other the mysterious death of the adult members of an Amish family, asphyxiated or drowned in their own manure pit. Are they connected? For the most part this is a straightforward, plain vanilla kinda tale, although good for that genre, but there's a good twist at the end which bumped it up to 3.8 stars for me. Recommended if you're following the series.

The First World War produced many fine poets but for me Owen represented their ilk most splendidly and what a sad irony he met his own end in sight of the armistice.

Well, I started reading Between Two Seas by Carmine Abate -- and ended up not being able to put it down. After reading some v. mediocre or bad stuff, and some OK genre fiction, this book was utter delight; just what the biblio-doctor ordered. It's the story of a place -- a location in Calabria, in southern Italy, called Roccalba, that lies literally between two seas, the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian. It's here that Giorgio Bellusci lives and dreams of restoring the Fondaco del Fico, the inn where once travellers all stayed; even Dumas passed by and accidentally left behind a notebook with comments on his impressions, now a heirloom cherished by Bellusci. A chance encounter between the young Italian and a young German embarking on a photographic odyssey and career on a dusty road in Calabria ends up shaping both their lives -- because of it, both will fulfill dreams of different kinds but will end up paying heavy prices. The story is told through the eyes of Florian, their mutual grandson, who initially rather resents his chidlhood summer visits to Roccalba, where his mother is too delighted to spend time with her friends and relatives to take him to the beach, and where his grandfather Giorgio Bellusci's "thuggish" eyes rather scare him. After a tragic upheaval in the family, Florian doesn't go back until he's 18, when a series of events begin that will bring the lives of his two grandfathers full circle and Florian's resistance to what Giorgio wants of him begins to dissipate, with resentment giving way to understanding and love; he develops a sense of purpose along with maturity. While it's the story of a family, Abate's beautiful novel is really more of a love letter to a place and the prose descriptions of this part of Calabria just shine; they are so vivid and evocative they literally brought tears to my eyes. In some ways this is a romance, in the sense of deep connections between people and between people and places, but it's never sentimental. Abate's characters are all flawed and human, but they are portrayed through loving eyes. I'm going to race off and find his other Europa-published book, The Homecoming Party. This one won the Fenice-Europa prize for Fiction; I hope Europa rushes more of his books into English. 4.5 stars; definitely recommended. This was a library book, but I'm going to have to go out and buy a copy someday soon, as it's one I'll want around permanently. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

Another point of agreement between Lizzie and Paul. I wonder whether most people who read the WWI poets wouldn't agree?
Congratulations on finding a winner, Suz, and I have Abate listed.

Book du jour: Mr. Langshaw's Square Piano by Madeline Goold; finishing this earns me kudos for getting a book off my TBR list AND for finishing another 11 in 11 challenge book. It was an excellent choice to read after the book about Bach as it deals with the shift from the harpsichord to the piano (and even mentions Frederick the Great's challenge to Bach that is at the center of Gaines's book -- see my earlier review.) The author buys a "square piano", made in 1807, one of the early generation of pianofortes and an instrument that helped make music part of popular culture and not just something reserved for the elite. She uses her new instrument -- originally shipped to Mr. Langshaw, an organist in Lancaster, as a way to explore the relationship between the makers of the pianos and their agents (like Langshaw) as trade opened up globally; to discuss the shifts in musical tastes; etc. Then she sets this against the social, cultural, political and economic upheavals of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It's a very, very clever concept, and when she confines herself to that, the book is mostly quite fascinating, despite occasional but frequent repetitions of some elements, and inadequate information provided about others, such as the technical details surrounding piano manufacture and the causes of the Gordon riots, both of which references were so puzzling or opaque that I had to go scurrying off to Wikipedia. But those failings and the occasional lapse into fancifulness, where she tries to write about the people involved in making, transporting, playing the Broadwood piano as if they were characters in a novel. An example: she deduces that the piano might have been for Langshaw's daughter, simply because of a picture of the latter showing her hair might have been arranged by someone who is left-handed, while the piano shows signs of having been used by someone with a strong left hand. That's taking 2 and 2 and reaching 27, methinks. Those shortcomings trimmed half a star off this book and left it at 3.7 stars. I'd still recommend it mildly as a social/cultural history -- there is some fascinating stuff about the Wesley family and their ties to music and the Langshaws, for instance -- although it's likely to be more appealing to people who actually play the piano and can follow the poorly-explained technical stuff.

Gah. Upstairs neighbors have guests over, including (I surmise) one young child. It's nearly ten and the two youngsters are running amok, screaming and banging. One of the guests keeps coming out on to the front porch to smoke, and the cigarette smoke leaks in through my windows. Only quiet place is the bathroom, which isn't set up as a place of refuge. How to have tactful conversation on this with people who are typically pleasant and considerate, without sounding like an irrational harpy? My migraine is getting worse...

One more: I read Anne Perry's Christmas novellas more out of habit than anything else by now, and I always get them from the library -- they are a blatant ripoff in their pricing. Some are actually quite good (the earliest ones); a few are actively bad (A Christmas Promise); all feature some of the characters, often the peripheral characters, from Perry's two Victorian-era mystery series. This one, A Christmas Homecoming, was kinda in between -- started off somewhat intriguing as Charlotte Pitt's mother travels to Yorkshire with her much younger actor husband, Joshua Fielding, to stage an amateur and amateurishly written dramatic version of Dracula for the aspiring female playwright and her parents, possible patrons. The plot is skeleton thin; a mysterious man appears in a blizzard seeking refuge; he transforms the play into something workable. Then there's a murder. But the solution appears out of thin air. Even by the standards of a mystery novella, by Perry this was thin fare indeed. 2.3 stars; don't read it unless you're an avid fan of the Pitt series AND you're not feeling judgmental. And I have no idea what the title means, even after reading it.

For Suz

For Suz2

Better size hopefully

Thank you, Paul! Maybe it's my thread that doesn't like pics, since the first two didn't work!!

#47 is one of the places that I think is the most beautiful in the world, Lantic Bay, along the southern coast of Cornwall, near Fowey/Polruan. (See Paul's thread for a discussion of our mutual affection for this area, which was home to Daphne du Maurier, Quiller-Couch (aka Q) and other literary folks).

#48 is a view of Fowey -- which is actually the world's tiniest deep water port. If you can imagine a giant cruiseship perched in this apparently tiny harbor, surrounded by fishing boats and small sailboats... The area around the church is 15th/16th century; the terraced houses mostly Victorian. Fowey has a small bookstore right in front of the church area, called Bookends of Fowey. When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy it....

Final two Coastal path and yacht

Thanks, Paul! I'm sorry they were so obstreperous... The yacht is a Troy class boat (with spinnaker flying), an all-wood two-person boat named in honor of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, who inspired Helene Hanff to begin the correspondence collected in 84 Charing Cross Road. Some of these boats are built by the builders whose history Daphne du Maurier fictionalized in her first book, The Loving Spirit.
The coastal path runs all the way around Cornwall -- one day I'll do the whole thing from end to end! This is the kind of segment that features in Elizabeth George's mystery, Careless in Red. So, a very literary part of the world!

I wasn't aware of the impact of the WWI poets until I read Vera Brittain's wonderful autobiography Testament of Youth. I wonder why other wars didn't produce poetic effects of such proportion? Beautiful pictures here in a travelogue mode. Of course I'm adding Between Two Seas. I'm getting a nice little Europa collection too. I picked up Gail Jones' Sorry from B&N yesterday for Orange January.

Suz- Finally found my way back over here! I guess I get lost sometimes. Maybe I need to leave a trail of popcorn or something or how about little book-marks?
Wish you would re-consider and join us on The Night Circus G.R. Would love to have you. I think it's going to be a good book and a lot of fun.
I'm toying with doing another G.R. of Sea of Poppies, early December. Have you read this one?

Love the coastal path photo. The path continues on round the Devon coast, north and south - and many (many) years ago I spent 6 weeks in the summer as part of a volunteer team repairing and maintaining those coastal paths - building steps, repairing stiles, cutting back encroaching gorse etc. The paths become quite heavily eroded in places because they are a very popular long distance trail, and quite a tough one with lot of steep ups and downs as well as miles to cover - so I'll be very impressed with your fitness Suz if you manage the whole of the Cornwall coastal path. Not sure what literary connections there were with the Devon sections of the path - though I suppose we were close to Lorna Doone territory in places.

Mark, I put a hold on the Night Circus, but I'm #186 in line for 90 copies, so... it will depend on when the group read ends! I just can't afford to buy a book that I'm not sure I will love.

I haven't read Sea of Poppies, and I might be interested in doing that. It's already on my Kindle.

Genny, those are only the literary connections for that part of the Cornish path! Down at the bottom, around Zennor, you've got the spot where DH Lawrence lived for a while during WW1. Isn't Mary Wesley's The Camomile Lawn set around there somewhere, too? Nicola Upson set one of her mysteries in a venue very reminiscent of the Minack theatre. And on the north coast, you've got all the Poldark stories, which would include Truro as well.

Yes it is Suz, modeled on a house she loved.

Horrible dreadful migraine, so I'll make this short. Finished Prague Fatale, the latest Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr. This one fills in some of the gaps between Bernie's pre-war adventures as a detective and private eye in 1930s Berlin and his postwar misadventures across Latin America; it's 1941 and Heydrich -- a guy who doesn't take "no" for an answer -- invites Bernie to Prague to investigate what he claims was an attempt on his life from inside the ranks of those in power in the Third Reich. Then another murder intervenes, and Bernie ends up in a position where he can't deliver justice -- or can he? Although this is chock-full of Bernie's trademark cynicism and wise cracks typical of a 30s/40s "noir" detective, it's also perhaps more bleak than some of his other books. But those who haven't liked some of the more recent books that jump back and forth too much in time, but who liked the earlier books, will still find plenty of stuff here to relish. Not for the faint of heart -- it's gritty and some of the characters are deeply nasty individuals (the author's note details their ultimate fate...) Recommended to series fans; 4.2 stars. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

OK, back to the ice packs. Hurts too much to read.

So sorry! I wandered back to add that I gleaned the Wesley info from the brief biography about her that came out... last year? Wild Mary.

Hope you feel better soon...

Suz, do like the Bernie Gunther novels - this one is not out yet in Malaysia but I will certainly keep an eye out for it.

Paul, it's only just out in the UK. I'd offer to mail it, but think the postage would cripple me!

Think I need head transplant.

To distract self from pain, finished Kissing the Demons, a very mediocre mystery by Kate Ellis in a different series from her archaeology focused crime stories. If this is the best she can do without a cool hook like a dig and links between historic and current crimes, it's not encouraging, and it will be the last I read in this series featuring Joe Plantagenet, toiling away as a DI in a thinly-disguised city of York. In this instance, it's an overly-complicated story of multiple crimes, mostly against young women, and a house where a man allegedly murdered his entire family (and was hung for his crime) back in the Victorian era. There's an effort to make ties to demons and the devil etc., but the evil is human and not supernatural and although gruesome, rather 'ordinary' (as far as crime novels go...) This isn't subtle or interesting enough to really satisfy -- too bare bones to work as a thriller (not up to the standards of Val McDermid) and too rushed to work as a police procedural. 2.9 stars, not really recommended.

Suz - head transplant what an interesting concept! If I could choose I guess I'd go Daniel Craig or Sean Connery (early sixties version) it would be nice to be shaken but not stirred occasionally!
Do sometimes suffer from migraines myself - normally my beleagured eyes telling me to slow down a bit or visit the opticians.

Kate Ellis doesn't look very promising - a character called Joe Plantagenet has pastiche written all over it.

Paul, yes, if I recall the first book clearly, he's supposed to be some illegitimate descendant of York's favorite son, Richard III. *eyes roll* It's not actively bad just not worth spending money on.

OK, back to the ice packs. Losing the entire day here...

He is? I don't remember that. I quite liked the first 2 JP books but don't know if the library will ever get no 3, and I've fallen behind with the Wesley Peterson books and am not sure how to work out whether the last I read was #7 or #8 - ie they're not different enough to make working it out from the blurbs easy, and the library only seems to have later ones. I've never bought Kate Ellis' books new, though I did download The Devil's Priest to Kindle as it was less than £2.

Luci, yes, it was a throwaway reference in the first book, explaining his name. I'm not sure where that book now is or I'd go look for it, but it stuck in my mind. Enjoyed the first in the series, was underwhelmed by the second as with this one. Def. prefer the Wesley Peterson series. I notice that this latest book was published by Severn House, which tells me her regular publisher dropped it. Alas, the only way to read many of these books in the US is buy them -- there is a single copy of The Armada Boy available in the entire Brooklyn Public Library, and none of her earlier titles. That may change, as I see the publishers have started, since last year, making more available for sale here, but until last year anyone who wanted to read them had to buy imported editions somewhere or order from the UK. I usually get mine from Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto, but they've gotten too expensive. Oh, and there's still a one-year lag on publication; not as big a deal now as I've let myself fall behind the Wesley Peterson series. But it still means buying them, as is the case with at least half the English mystery series I enjoy.

Thanks for the photos on both threads, I'd love a chance to explore this area of England one day. I've added The Loving Spirit and The Camomile Lawn to my tbr.

Luci , Suz I think I have enough reading to do to clear a space for SHE-WHO-MUST-BE-OBEYED's cosmetics to worry about Mr. Plantagenet at the moment! Avid Yorkist by the way being born and bred under the white rose in West Yorkshire so forfend that good King Dick ever did anything illegitimately!

Paul, whereabouts? I'm from Leeds.

Luci who would have thought the world was so small....I was born in a village called Crofton near Wakefield and grew up in another South Hiendley which is next to Hemsworth. One of my abiding passions is Leeds United which normally attracts sniggers from all and sundry here as only the EPL is considered de rigeur. My family are still in the Wakefield (Sandal & Newmillerdam) area. Which part of Leeds?....sorry Suz to ambush your thread with local geography. (btw hi Suz!)

Hijack away... It will be a day or two before I'm back, reading full-throttle. The headache is improving as long as I don't move around too much, thank god, but v. bad attacks like this just leave me flattened for days afterward. So I'll let you Yorkshire lads & lasses hang out here while I take a back seat...

Woodhouse and Headingley, Leeds 6. I was almost born in Leeds 6 but actually just across the border in the then Maternity hospital.

Just a quick update; finished the last few pages of two books last night/this morning.

One was Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, which I can only describe as bleakly hilarious. Two men, old friends, but also rivals who despise each other in ways I think only men can. When a mutual friend dies, they both embark on projects that take them to a dangerous moral place -- and their ultimate self-destruction. Replete with irony, if not always a comfortable book. I loved McEwan's descriptions of hill walking and Clive's efforts to compose a symphonic masterpiece. 4.1 stars, for my 11 in 11 challenge.

The other was The Roots of Betrayal a historical suspense novel by James Forrester, a kind of nom de plume for historian Ian Mortimer. (It's his two middle names.) I really enjoyed Forrester's debut featuring William Harley, the Clarenceux King at Arms (aka, a herald) and his efforts to live peacably in Elizabethan England as a loyal Catholic. But this time, Forrester is just repeating the same basic plot -- the tug of war between rabid Catholics who want to boot Elizabeth off the throne and William Cecil and Francis Walsingham, who want to keep her on it -- and it's still all about the same document dealt with in the first book, Sacred Treason. There's a lot of racing around, chasing people, and derring do. Maybe it was just that I wasn't in the mood for this, but it didn't work for me; I would have preferred either a completely fresh story or new characters or even a different style than poor Mr. Clarenceux having to fight his way out of one tight corner after another. Doubt if I'll read another of these, assuming Forrester plans to continue this as a series. 3.3 stars.

While I wait to see who has won the National Book Award (I really don't want it to go to The Buddha in the Attic and I'm rooting for Binocular Vision instead), I finished another book. This one was Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli, about the author's trip to work at a fledgling radio station in Bhutan and her subsequent trips to see her friends there. Alas, it doesn't really deliver as much as it promises; there's more about the author's apparently random encounters with locals than about the country; it all has a very desultory feel to it. There's a lot that's obvious -- the Gross National Happiness Concept gets trotted out; discussion of the modernization of Bhutan and the introduction of mass media; Napoli tsk-tsks in amazement at the realization that "it's human nature to want an easier way of life. And more stuff." Yes, even in Bhutan! This left me wanting more than endless comments about spicy food and the author's patting herself on the back at how much happier she feels with her life. I'm happy for her, sure, but that's not what I hoped to get from this book. Read it if you know nothing about Bhutan and are curious, but it's still a library book. 3.3 stars. Now back to following the NBA tweets... (by which I mean not the National Basketball Association, but the National Book Awards...)

Suz- I have an advanced copy of Radio Shangri-La. It doesn't look like I'll be moving it up the pile.

Salvage the Bones just won the NBA for 2011 for fiction -- I confess I'm relieved it wasn't either The Tiger's Wife or The Buddha in the Attic, though I wonder whether Binocular Vision would have won had it not been a collection of short stories.

My fave nominee for the non-fiction prize got it! The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt is about Lucretius and Poggio Bracciolini. And I'll tell you more about it when I've finished it. But any book about Poggio was gonna be my fave.

OK, off to bed.

Today's Amazon vine picks: the new upcoming novel by Tatiana de Rosnay and a new book by Cullen Murphy, author of Are We Rome?, which I thought was fun to read, which is about the Inquisition -- right up to the modern day. Short list, but I was happy to find two interesting books on it for a change.

The books du jour; not sure how I managed to read that much in between headaches and work this week. Am exhausted.

Old Filth by Jane Gardam managed to be that unique book, something that is utterly different than anything else I've read, elegantly written, quirky and dark, all at the same time. Filth is Sir Edward Feathers, who, so folks whisper, is said to have coined the phrase "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong." Not that Feathers/Filth failed in London, but it was in Hong Kong that he made a fortune, only fitting given his origins as a Raj orphan, shipped home at the age of 4 or 5 to be 'educated'. Now, however, at the end of a very long life, nobody can remember much else about Filth beyond the acronym -- he's well known among fellow members of the Bar, but all of his judgments, opinions, etc. have proved evanescent. What is coming back to him, in the twilight of his years, are memories and the reader is treated to a constant stream of them as they return to him: of his time at "Sir's" "Outfit" that prepared him for boarding school; of a bizarre effort by his father to repatriate him at the age of 17 to avoid war in Europe; of guarding Queen Mary and helping wind her wool as a Guards officer; of encounters with former adversaries and long-lost cousins; of the women he loved and lost. But it's really a story of isolation; of how the young Filth ended up being moulded into the kind of person who is at heart cold, and yet who recognizes and regrets that state of affairs without being able to change it -- the epitome of the stiff upper lip. His aunts are preoccupied with golf and delighted to take his father's money and pass off all responsibility for him; his closest schoolfriend, with whom he spends all holidays growing up; casually makes it known that no one considers him to be one of the family. It's a poignant story, but one that Gardam's wit saves from tipping over into the maudlin. (At his wife's memorial service, for instance, she writes "Filth was not taken with flowers. He found them unresponsive, even hostile.") Definitely recommended; something I'm going to have to re-read. And I'll be looking for more by Gardam. For my 11 in 11 Challenge.

Less impressive was Murder in Tuscany by Christobel Kent, which was a bit of a slog. Originally thought I'd read the debut novel in this new series featuring Florentine detective turned private investigator Sandro Cellini, but I'm not sure after this. The story of a mysterious death at an artist's colony in the Castello Orfeo outside Florence should have been promising material to work with, but I never felt a connection to any of the characters, including some with whom I was clearly intended to connect, such as Caterina, the young woman at the castle through whose eyes part of the story is told. It's a bit ponderous and a bit disjointed and never really grabbed me. 3 stars.

Appreciate your comments on Old Filth which I have around here somewhere, along with a few other Gardams (all lovely Europas which I purchase indiscriminately...). I am planning on it for next year. I'm thinking of having a category in my 12/12 devoted just to Europas and NYRBs to try to clear some of them off the "to read" shelves.

I have an 11/11 Europa challenge category, partly because I'm participating in Europa's own blogger challenge. I think I've probably read more than a dozen since the challenge began, and all but a few were big hits with me. I've certainly discovered some great new authors thanks to them.

A quick summary:

Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz -- underwhelming
Limassol by Yishai Sarid -- intriguing, but not top notch.
Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson -- hilarious and high snark
Amazing Disgrace by James Hamilton-Paterson -- #2 and the weakest of the trilogy
Rancid Pansies by James Hamilton Paterson -- vol. 3 of that trilogy, v. funny
From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus -- I was underwhelmed; others have loved it.
Eros by Helmut Krausser -- fascinating and slightly eerie
Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon -- not that successful dystopian lit
An Accident in August by Laurence Cosse -- a very compelling "what if"
Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous -- excellent riff on Euro multiculturalism
The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris by Leila Marouane -- will twist your mind, but it's good
The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal -- Excellent, and one of my faves
French Leave by Anna Gavalda -- Liked it but not really memorable
Between Two Seas by Carmine Abate -- Loved it and will look for his other translated book
Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky -- Enjoyed, bar the kind of odd anticlimactic ending
The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepulveda -- not groundbreaking, but beautifully told
Carte Blanche by Carlo Lucarelli -- noirish mystery, good

Read before the Europa Challenge began:

Rondo by Kazimierz Brandys -- one of my fave books of the year
A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse -- really enjoyed this last year
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery -- Liked it; the ubiquitous success of 2008/9
Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery -- Linked to the former book, not quite as good.

Still sitting here waiting to be read:

Swell by Ioanna Karystiani (starting now)
Heliopolis by James Scudamore
You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik (got ARC at BookExpo)
Everybody's Right by Paolo Sorrentino (ditto)
Bone China by Roma Tearne
The Woman with the Bouquet by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Wow, that's a lot of Europas...

Oh, Lord - now I have more to add to my wish list. Honestly, though, I have been known to just scan bookstore shelves for the little bird on the spine and snatch up whatever I see... Same thing with the NYRBs and the old dark green Viragos. Blerg - I need help.

Suz - I like the Europas too. Have a couple or three that you have not listed there. Dog Day, One Day a Year and Little Criminals being amongst them. Great collection of books and very stylish book covers!

Old Filth sounds interesting - and the local library has it. Now where can I find some time:)

Argh, unbelievable. I was finally having Time Warner come and install new Internet, phone & cable today. Dude shows up, asks how he gets to the back yard and while I'm wrestling with the new padlock, he turns on his heel and walks out. Comes back 10 mins later, tells me it's a job for a supervisor; that someone will be here by 3:30. At 5:30, I finally check e-mail. They have confirmed that they have installed my new cable (wtf???) I call them, they tell me someone will come back on Tuesday, as I requested. I requested no such thing, as I will be out on Tuesday. So I'm going to be struggling to communicate with the outer world until next SATURDAY.

WTF is right. I loathe Time Warner. I so hate dealing with them that I have yet to call about the malfunctioning DVR in my bedroom (which I am paying for despite not being able to use it)....

Hi Suz- Wow, that 11/11 Europa challenge sounds like...well like a challenge. Most of those titles I haven't even heard of. I admire your tenacity.
Sorry to hear about the Time Warner fiasco!

Yeah Suz we have something similar over here with something inaptly calling itself UNIFY. Promises the wind and the moon and deliver nothing but headaches. They are owned by the national telecom company and I switched to them for better service and cost effectiveness but finished up being billed by both of them this month because I was supposed to inform their other department I had switched!

Yes, I have finally given up on Verizon (my other option); after completely messing up my phone and DSL communication in late August, by late September they had managed to route one phone line as far as my kitchen. But repeated requests to have my other phone line restored (vs just forwarded to my cell, which is a pay as you go cell, making me pay twice for the calls) and to fix the completely kaput DSL, have been futile. Hence the decision to move to Time Warner. Sadly, there is no third provider. I can call out using my gmail account (free in the US! Sound is just as good as a landline, even though I'm talking at my laptop it doesn't sound like speakerphone) but can't call for free internationally and as far as I can figure out no one can call me.

Reading my latest Europa, Swell, which is, I fear, rather ineptly translated. I find myself having to re-read sentences and paragraphs to understand what the author is saying. The premise of the novel is intriguing, but the reading of it is frustrating and slow. For fun, I'm reading the first of a new mystery series by Michael Ridpath, set in Iceland, Where the Shadows Lie, which I'm really enjoying, and "for serious", I'm toward the end of The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt, which focuses in part on the feats of one of my favorite literary figures, Poggio Bracciolini. (The other is Aldus Manutius; hmm, maybe should write a novel about him??)

Suz - are you doing anything next Saturday? If not, how about meeting up with Richard and me?

And this invite goes out to anyone else who finds themselves in NYC over the T'giving Day weekend.

I'm looking forward to Old Filth in January Suzanne so glad to see your comments about it. I have accumulated a few Europas but nothing like the list you have. I did pick up one at the Borders closing days sale by Eric-Emmanuel Schmidt, The Most Beautiful Book in the World: Eight Novellas as well as Gail Jones' Sorry and Broken Glass Parkwhich came to me via B&N.

Sorry to hear about phone/internet headaches -something you could well do without. How do these utility companies manage to get things so comprehensively wrong so often?

Limited competition makes them bold, I think. Personally, I've had little trouble with Time Warner, but I live in a huge high-rise where staff can give access to everything, so they have fewer excuses. Of course, they can (and often have been) late!

Oh, Suze

Personally, I know nothing about Verizon...but my neighbors went through hell, with their "non" service....myself, I have ATT for my landline...Sitestar for my DSL (which means, it's piggybacked on my ATT line, but they don't charge me, directly....) and a Tracfone for my cell.....life is so complicated any more

much ado about nothing...

I love your Europa list...dutifully "copy & pasted"

;-}

Hey Caro -- thanks, but it appears as if I'm going to be waiting for Time Warner again -- and I can't postpone being without a phone # that people can call for yet another week. What time are you guys meeting?

Books du jour, or whatever they are at this stage:

Where the Shadows Lie is by Michael Ridpath, a new departure after a long hiatus for a solid English mystery/suspense writer. Ridpath used to write financial world mysteries back in the 1990s; I used to joke that he anticipated every single bubble going bust, from emerging markets in the mid 90s to the dot.com bust in 2000. This is the first of a new series set in Iceland (second is apparently out already), featuring an American detective, born in Iceland but who grew up partly in Boston. Now he's back in one of his homelands, asked to leave for his own safety pending the trial of a corrupt cop, and asked to help the Icelandic police prepare for the impact of globalization on a society that is so small that names are listed in the phone book by the first name. The day he arrives, a university professor is found dead and possibly murdered; the rather good plot revolves around a possible link between a long-hidden and unknown Icelandic saga and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings -- and even the possibility that someone has discovered a thousand-year-old golden ring associated with the saga... It's fun and lively and different. 3.9 stars.

Swell by Ioanna Karystiani was a real disappointment from Europa. I suspect some of the blame belongs to the translator, unless some of the deeply weird turns of phrase and puzzling sentences were what the author intended, in which case I confess I'm baffled. (I don't care enough to go and seek out examples; it was too difficult the first time.) It's the story of a Greek shipping captain who, at 75, is addicted to life on board his ship with his cat and his crew and hasn't left the vessel for a dozen years. He's got a wife and a mistress and kids he hasn't seen and wouldn't recognize. But his bosses want him to retire and he's hiding a secret. The premise is intriguing and there are moments when it clicks, mostly when Karystiani is focusing on Mitsos's relationship with life at sea, but most of it is a drag. I couldn't read more than a dozen pages at a time. Not recommended; for my 11 in 11 challenge. 2.8 stars.

I'll add Where the shadows lie to my tbr but will stay away from Swell.

Books I've borrowed from the library or have ARCs of that I'm going to have to buy my own "real" copies of one day...

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
Between Two Seas by Carmine Abate
What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen
Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forma
Young Romantics by Daisy Hay
Old Filth by Jane Gardam

Roll on paperback half-price book sales!!

Was Old Filth your first Jane Gardam?

Yes, Luci, though I'm hoping to find another at the library this evening or tomorrow...

Some good options on Amazon's second Vine list. Did anyone know that Anna Funder, author of Stasiland, has a novel coming out? It's set in the 1930s, and looked interesting, so I may bump that to the top of my TBR list when it arrives. My other pick, after a lot of dithering, was a rather ordinary thriller by James Grippando, but it's set in the world of finance, so def. worth trying.

Oooh, just won a giveaway on Twitter!! I'm getting books from so many sources these days; it's amazing. This one is a history of WW1, published by Knopf: The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund. Helps brighten up a gloomy, busy late afternoon.

Suz - No fixed time... it was just an idea I threw out to Richard seeing as how I was going to be on LI over the holidays after all. There was talk at one point of all of us going to Cooperstown but the in-laws nixed the plans at the last minute (as they are often wont to ...and since they're elderly, we will gnash our teeth at the sudden change of plans, cancel all reservations, and troop over valiantly to the latest venue they've decided we'll all LOVE.

Is there a time you can make it, or will you be waiting for TW all day? If you can't make it, no sweat ... do you need me to come over with food so you're not starving while you wait? I'm sure I can convince Richard to care package call on you. ;-) *Oh yes, first I have to convince him to come out from his writing shell for the day.*

I'm not surprised at all that everyone wants to be giving you books Suz, given the rate at which you read and review them. A publisher's dream as far as word-of-mouth advertising goes!

I had Old Filth on my wishlist already since I saw a recommendation by Gail (bohemima) for it a while back , but I'll add you as a recommender in my tags too. I like to keep track of what path led me to reading a book, whenever possible.

Thanks for the Europa list of titles with comments. Now I'm thinking I should have made it one of my categories for the 12/12 challenge, as I want to read a lot more books fro them, but then again, I guess they'll fit into my "Going Places" category. I was one of the people who absolutely LOVED From the Land of the Moon. So much so that I'll probably end up purchasing it so I can return to it a few times in future. Different strokes...

I'm glad to see someone else reading Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. I read Mr. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran a while back and fell in love with him, and have been recommending that book to anyone who'll listen. Omar Sharif played the leading role in the movie version and won a César for best male character. This month I read and reviewed another book by him for the TIOLI challenge (read a book by an author you've only read ONE book by), and while I didn't exactly adore La femme au miroir, I certainly look forward to reading more of his books. I have L'enfant de Noé somewhere in my stacks, have you read that one?

It's been a while since I've been here and there's too much to comment on, but I will add that I thought the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke you posted at the top of your thread was terrific, and the other by Wilfred Owen haunting. This from someone who hardly ever reads poetry. I've always found poetry intimidating in the same way I find Shakespeare intimidating. It's a 'language' I wasn't taught properly in school and put me off early, what with my bad retention capacity on top of everything (couldn't recite them if my life depended on it). But I'm slowly coming 'round to them. I believe I've read other Rilke poems before and also found them quite great. I've yet to read his Letters to a Young Poet, which has been sitting on my shelf far too long.

Ilana, I never "learned" poetry either, and there's a lot I either don't get or simply don't enjoy. (I don't find Shakespeare intimidating, but I admit I prefer seeing his plays performed to reading them -- somehow the meaning that may be a bit unclear when written is usually clear when well performed.) An ex-bf of mine was one of those annoying people who have vast reservoirs of poetry memorized as well as the ability to come out with just the right lines at the right time. I'd be envious and irritated simultaneously! I think the trick is to just dip in and try a poem now and again -- pick up an anthology and try that. It's not like reading a book. I may never read Four Quartets or Ezra Pound, but there's a lot of other stuff that I'll read and relish.

Caro, the window I have to be here is from 2 to 5, which means being on my way home by 1:15 at the latest. I have to try to do some shopping for commestibles at some point before that, as 5, 6 p.m. is too late to accomplish that. Not sure that Richard wants to do a drive-by dropoff given (a) his writing, (b) any aches & pains and (c) my cats, but if you guys wanted to meet for an early-ish brunch at 11 or so near Union Square, I could manage that (and you could then go to Strand without me...) But it wld still be tight... The other option is early evening. Once it gets dark, these guys aren't going to be doing anything. So I'm assuming I'd be free from 5 or 5:30 onward. It would be nice to try, anyway, as I always feel so out of the loop at Thanksgiving, given that I don't got no American family to celebrate with! (and it is such a big holiday, and almost exclusively a family holiday.)

I don't know about you Suz, but I always blame whatever I missed in school on the fact that we moved around every year or two and that I went back and forth between two continents a few times. I seem to have entirely missed grammar classes in all three languages I managed to be fluent at, at some point. Poetry, I think, is one of those things one can especially appreciate when one is deeply familiar with any given language, because it's about so much more than just the words and their initial meaning. I've never been much good at interpreting messages in novels or movies or what have you unless they're "in your face", which always made me feel like a dunce, but so it is. As for Shakespeare, I simply don't understand ye olde English. Old French is hard enough, but somehow simpler for me (I think, it's been a while since I've read any), but I think to understand his written plays, I'd have to read one of those versions 'translated' into modern English, which sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? It's been a long while since I tried watching his plays, and I keep meaning to, as I know there are some excellent movie versions. Someday, eventually, soon enough...

As for anthologies, I did get a whole series of them when I saw them on sale at Chapters one day. I have the selected poems of Ovid, the Brönte sisters, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare (!), and Baudelaire (don't know what I was thinking getting the last in English translation, though they were quite well translated, I thought, and I've gotten Les fleurs du mal in original version since). I even read from several of them, and quite enjoyed the experience, but then I put them aside and forget about them. Maybe a challenge for 13/13?

#98: Yes, Anna Funder's All that I am has been in the bookshops here for a few weeks and I've seen both good and less enthralled reviews of it so have decided to wait before I read it. There's an interview with her here.

I've had Old Filth on my tbr pile for several years and should read it as well. I read Bilgewater which I really liked a couple of years ago and have seen good things said about A long way from Verona here on LT threads.

Suz, let me check in with Richard, and I'll PM you

Suz, Ilana - I think the "feel" of poetry and plays but especially poetry is so different from prose reading. With both the temptation for me is always to declaim and I get enjoyment and sometimes funny looks while doing so. Had this debate with Darryl before and I don't enjoy reading poetry from start to finish as you would with a novel. With anthologies it is much nicer to dip in and out until you've exhausted the thing. Having said that I am reading aloud Summoned by Bells by Betjeman at the moment which is a poetic autobiography of sorts and so is read in order. Am enjoying it but SWMBO regularly complains as to why I seem to have lost my senses talking loudly to myself in the bathroom!

Ilana, Shakespeare is not as 'old English' as you might think. For instance, if you watch Kenneth Branagh's film of Henry V, you will understand all of it. My sister asked me how modernized the language was. Not a word. Feel free to read along and see how it all makes sense on the page!

Among historians of English, the language of Shakespeare is modern English. I can understand it, but I'm 67 and have been reading widely for a long time; I still prefer annotated editions of the plays. I can understand most of a performance without preparing myself.

It is poetic language, and Elizabethan English was not the same in common structures and in a lot of the verbiage (different words, different meanings to similar words), so it is not a breeze. But I've always felt it worthwhile to sit through a performance and usually after the fact to have read one of the plays.

Robert

I liked All That I Am by Anna Funder and look forward to hearing what you make of it. I still have to write a review for Curious Book Fans, though as it turned out it was a Vine pick here too.

A Long Way from Verona and Bilgewater were originally published as children's books or YA, it was my first Jane Gardam I think when I was quite young, and I read her other books which I could find. It's about a girl who spends a lot of time reading, working her way through the classics in her local library. I thought about reading The Queen of the Tambourine for the instrument challenge but have decided on something else.

Robert despite being a learned and sprightly 67 this doesn't make you Edwardian never mind Victorian or Elizabethan! Agree with you that whilst Shakespeare's language (beautiful though it is certainly) is less accessible to me than writers such as the 19th century novelists but he is certainly less a slog than Chaucer.

Ilana, I agree completely with Judy/ffortsa. Branagh's Henry V is immensely accessible, and even if you don't grasp every word, you get caught up in the drama of it all and grasp the sense of even the most complex phrases. When you read Shakespeare, if you're not a frequent reader of his plays, you can get bogged down in the language, which is incredibly complex. (Hey, the guy invented more words and used them for the first time than any single other writer in the history of our world...) So I'd recommend renting a DVD of Henry V -- I defy you to avoid getting chills up and down your spine after the St. Crispin's day speech. (There's also a good Branagh version of Much Ado -- or at least one that I like!) You could also try audio versions -- just listen, don't try to follow along. I'd recommend Julius Caesar -- great speeches -- the lean and hungry Cassius, etc. Maybe The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Macbeth. Enjoy them as stories, first and foremost, then as poetry, and perhaps only later worry about the double or treble hidden meanings.

I do think that learning more languages can actually help. You know when you're at that stage in learning a new language, when you only grasp perhaps 30% of the words, but nearly 90% of the meaning?? That's the same skill that helps with Shakespeare, or poetry, etc. And I think a lot of highly literary works can be enjoyed on multiple levels. Sure, there are some whose works are hard to read and obviously intended to reshape our understanding of what literature and language can do. (Semiotics makes my brain turn somersaults and take on strange distorted shapes, for instance...) Some books I read, I know I'm not getting the whole picture. Sometimes it's the historical context; on other occasions, it's a hidden parody or satire, or a new direction or tone. If the plot and characters are well done and the writing is excellent -- as it's more likely to be with a literary novel -- I don't care. I may only discern one level of meaning beneath the obvious, but that's just fine. I know there's more there to explore, and maybe I will or maybe I won't. I do like figuring it out for myself, rather than taking classes and being pointed in certain directions. As for grammar; well, I just made a grammar error today. Put a period inside a parenthesis instead of outside. Whoops. I couldn't tell you what a gerund is if you paid me. But I read so much that it has rubbed off on my brain, which most of the time seems to know by instinct when something works and when it doesn't while I'm writing. Dunno why it works, but I do know whether it works.

Re anthologies of poetry, I was thinking of something more eclectic, not a single poet - maybe a Norton Anthology or the Oxford or Cambridge anthologies of English poetry. That way you can explore across genres, styles, and centuries. You may stumble across something by a poet you've never heard of that way. I still cite "Dover Beach" as one of my fave poems, and I would never have discovered this if a friend's mother hadn't given me a paperback anthology for my high school graduation -- I still have it, battered and worn, 32 years later -- and while paging through it, I happened to stop and read that poem. I suspect this is some of that stuff that feels like an insider's club -- until you take the first step inside and realize it isn't, that it's really very accessible.

Luci, meant to add that I picked up two more Gardam books at the library tonight -- The People on Privilege Hill and The man in the Wooden Hat. I'm not quite ready to let go of "Filth" yet... he's still on my mind!

Just finished my incredible work slog. Wrote two stories and one mini-story today; edited two others. Transcribed a 90 minute interview. It's 3:40 a.m. and I can go to bed. All I have to write tomorrow is my daily mini-item!! Although I'll probably be dealing with copy editors on some stuff I've already sent.

Did you know Wooden Hat is Betty's story? (his wife) I've not read it yet but plan to soon. Maybe we can work it into next month's TIOLI as a shared read?

>111 Chatterbox: slog, yeah, but if it pays the bills...

I'm so with you on semiotics! It definitely turns my brain into something unrecognizable.

Ilanna, if you're interested in boning up on your approach to poetry, there's a book named 'The Logic of Poetry' that I recommend. It might not be in print now, but it's very helpful in organizing one's approach.

On the Shakespeare question - I agree that a good performance which brings the language alive off the page can help you appreciate it more readily than reading - certainly than the rather slow, pulling it all to pieces and checking every obscure reference kind of reading that some of us did in school.

I did quite a lot of Shakespeare at school - including two of the biggies, Hamlet and Lear, as A level set texts. And I came away from school unconvinced of the genius of Shakespeare, and sure that people were only saying he was great because they were expected to say/think that. I couldn't see it myself. (And for me it wasn't the 'old' nature of the language because I already loved Chaucer by then and was happily off to study even older versions of English). But I hadn't seen any good productions at that point; and in my first couple of years at college I saw a few poor student productions which didn't help much more.

But then, being required to take a Shakespeare paper as part of my degree, I spent 8 weeks with my tutor reading through almost all of the plays, 2 or 3 a week. No time to look up many notes, just had to keep reading and letting it all flow over me - and by the end of that term I was bowled over with the sheer inventive, playful, creative richness and power of his language - and the breadth and humanity of his characters. Shortly after that I was able to see some really good productions, including Ben Kingsley in Othello - and had the same experience of grasping the essence of the meaning without necessarily following every line or understanding every pun. But whether I'd ever have got to the point of discovering that I enjoyed Shakespeare and could indeed appreciate his genius, without the discipline of sticking with reading a lot in a short time, I don't know. It's a difficult one with the 'classics' and great writers of the past, as well as with poetry, how to encourage people to read/watch/discover them without over-burdening them with expectations or make them feel inadequate for not 'getting it' somehow.

Another recommendation for a compelling and (I think) easy to follow Shakespeare performance is David Tennant's recent Hamlet - which was shown on BBC around Christmas last year so is probably available by now as a DVD also.

There are some amazing performances on DVD from the BBC filming of the canon about 20 years ago. I noticed they were on DVD, because I'd love to get rid of my VCR tapes, most of them poor quality as I taped them from a not-very-clear TV station many years ago. The libraries should have them. I heartily recommend Derek Jacobi in Richard II, and also in Hamlet. For most of that performance, I thought he was hamming it up a bit, but when it got to the end, the contrast of quiet was astonishing.

There's also a terrific performance in that series by Kate Nelligan in Measure for Measure, and a very sexy MacBeth. I could go on - I love collecting fine Shakespeare films.

>112 elkiedee: I'm thoroughly enjoying Old Filth so far, so I'd be interested in joining a group read of The Man in the Wooden Hat.

Oh yes, that BBC series was utterly wonderful and I'm thrilled to know it's out on DVD. Will check with the library. And I do like Jacobi. Saw him do Lear at BAM in the summer -- was great!!

If folks are up for a group read of The Man in the Wooden Hat next month, I'm happy to postpone it until then. I may tackle the other -- which includes stories featuring Filth -- sooner, though. I did know it was Betty's story, Luci -- that's why I opted for that rather than for some of the other Gardams; I wanted to read it before the details of Old Filth slipped my mind.

Just heard that my father's oldest friend -- they have known each other since they were 5, so nearly 70 years, had a mild stroke a few days ago. They discovered yesterday that one of the arteries in his neck is nearly 70% blocked, and he's in hospital awaiting surgery. The only upside is that it's the hospital where he spent his entire career practicing, the Ottawa Civic. He's the closest thing I have to "family" beyond my parents (both of whom are only children) and I've known him since the day I was born; he and his wife are the only people who still call me "Suzie".Prayers, good vibes etc. all very welcome at this point.

Snap Darryl ... I picked up Old Filth this morning to read over the holidays.

Suz, if you can bear to wait until December, I'd love to do a GR of The Man in the Wooden Hat which I have in my TBR Tower.

I'm sorry to hear of your dad's friend's stroke, but I'm glad it was mild rather than a severe one and that he's scheduled for surgery. He'll be in my prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.

Sure, Caro, I can wait until Dec, at least until the 12th. After that, some other library patron may slap a hold on the book and I'd have to return it. Unlikely, but possible.

Yes, when I stop to think about what it COULD have been, this is really not that bad. I've lost younger friends to cancer, accidents, terrorism, etc., but this would be the first "family" loss since my grandparents died in the 80s and early 90s. An unwelcome reminder that my parents are now in their 70s.

So sorry about your family friend, Suzanne. I hope he recovers completely and well. Great discussion here about reading/watching the plays of Shakespeare. I love reading them. I enjoy a good performance, but I also lose a lot. Maybe it's because I just can't listen fast enough. I did love Branagh's Henry V. As I remember, the music in that one added so much.

Oh, wait. I didn't realize that you guys were going to read The Man in the Wooden Hat next month. I'm still on my book buying ban, so I'll bow out for now.

Thank heavens; just heard that Grant came through the operation well and the blockage is cleared. He could be home in a few days, assuming all else goes well, then into whatever rehab is needed for the stroke, which was mild. What a sharp reminder, though, that it's not just my parents whom I need to worry about.

Darryl -- there these little things called "public libraries".... *grin* Actually it's all just a devious plan to make you break your self-imposed ban.

I have been reading, but too stressed to update books. Will try to do that later. I'm going to my upstairs neighbors' for turkey dinner; I suppose they took pity on the idea of a hapless quasi-American eating sausages and baked beans (that was plan #1....!) Theo, the 3 1/2 year old, is very excited at being able to "help cook" the turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving to all...

I popped in to wish you a happy holiday, and see I've missed a Shakespeare discussion...

I feel that it is best to read and see plays. A performance is always an interpretation, no matter how close a director tries to stay with the original source.

I am very glad to have the chance to see so much Shakespeare, thanks to The Shakespeare Theatre and The Folger. Some are more successful than others, but seeing plays tends to be rewarding regardless.

Happy day, and best wishes for your family friend.

Happy quasi-Thanksgiving, Suz!

Paul, Judy, Robert, Genny and of course Suzanne thank you all so much for your helpful comments and suggestions on how to help me gain a better understanding and appreciation for Shakespeare and poetry. These are two major currents which I've always felt were sorely lacking from my reading life.

#105 Paul, your comment about declaiming poetry in the bathroom made me smile because I recall reading a book of poems by Oscar Wilde in the same part of the house and feeling spontaneously prompted to start reading the poems out loud, and with a pale imitation of a British accent no less, and how the verse suddenly came alive for me.

Suzanne, thanks for all the great recommendations, that was very helpful. Your analogy of knowing only 30% of the words in a language yet grasping 90% of the meaning makes a lot of sense to me, having experienced it for myself. I also like your suggestion to listen to audios—a medium I'm very comfortable with, along with your advice not to try to understand it all on first, or even second or third reading. When I was very little, my mum used to give me books to read with essentially the same recommendation, saying "you might not understand most of it now, but don't worry about it, just listen for the sound of the words, and then later when you read it again, you'll understand more". I find this is true as an adult with almost any book that is worth reading more than once as there are often layers of meaning that we can only grasp when we keep revisiting what might seem like familiar ground.

I've favourited your message #110 to keep track of all your suggestions. They don't have a wide selection of audio plays at the library, but I've already reserved two different interpretations of Hamlet, and one of King Lear, and put the DVD's of Branagh's Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It on my wishlist. Then there are lots of other options on Audible.com, where I've wish listed Julius Caesar, Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew. I guess I've got my work cut out for me!

#113 Judy, I tried to see if there was a copy of The Logic of Poetry at the library, but no such luck. Is the touchstone pointing to Richard Monaco as the author accurate? I see you listed as having entered it here on LT.

#114 It's a difficult one with the 'classics' and great writers of the past, as well as with poetry, how to encourage people to read/watch/discover them without over-burdening them with expectations or make them feel inadequate for not 'getting it' somehow.

So true Genny, but harder still is not setting up that expectation for ourselves, I'd say. This is one of the things that has kept me from reading Shakespeare, mostly because I don't like that feeling of not 'getting it' which inevitably makes me feel inadequate. This is why a discussion and recommendations such as you've all been making are so useful for someone like me, who's been afraid to even dip her toes in. Receiving positive encouragement and being assured that immediate understanding is not necessarily to be expected takes a lot of that burden away.

Thanks for the recommendation of the David Tennant's recent Hamlet too Genny, I found it listed at the library and I've added it to the wishlist, along with Branagh's version featuring Derek Jacobi.

Happy Thanksgiving Suz. How did the turkey the 3 1/2 year helped cook turn out?

Happy Thanksgiving a little late! I'd love to join a GR of The Man in the Wooden Hat. I just finished Old Filth last month and passed it on to Stasia. I couldn't wait to get a copy of Betty's story, so it's here and all I have to do is read it instead of something else. I'd also enjoy reading some Shakespeare with this group down the road if other people are interested in a play or so next year. If you talked about it, I missed it.

Hi Suz ... does Dec 26 work for you, for the NYC LT meet up?

Probably, Caro, insofar as I know my Xmas schedule this far in advance. But I'll work around it as best as possible. The wild card is that it's technically Boxing Day, which is a day I often spend with some English friends. I know I'm not traveling, at least.

Back later, when I've recovered from Turkey Day and then working until 3:30 a.m. Not to mention the nightmare in which my agent told me I had made my next book impossible to sell...

>129 Chatterbox:. Well, you made that comment impossible to ignore. Details?

Caro, I might be able to join in on Dec. 26th. Let me know what the plans are, and I'll see what I can arrange. Jim too, maybe.

Details of what, Becky?? Dinner last night was with my upstairs neighbors, Paul, Courtney & young Theo (age 3), Paul's brother & his family, and a friend of Paul's. Actually had wine with dinner, then went out with Paul & his buddy for a nightcap. So it was a much longer evening than I'd anticipated, and came back to face having to edit something for my new gig, plus draft a piece for it from scratch and based on skimpy materials, also the need to write a quick hit for my new risk/return column, all before I could drawl into bed. No wonder I ended up with the nightmare, which I don't think requires much elucidation...! I'm now off to buy new knitting needles and then upstairs to babysit Theo and his two older cousins so that the brothers & wives get to spend some quality adult time to themselves over a nice dinner. Assuming, that is, that I don't just keel over from narcolepsy!!

Oh--your ms/agent. Sorry. Oh, that was a literal nighmare, not a waking nightmare? Thank goodness.

Caroline, I'll touch base with Jane (janepriceestrada), to see if she (& her husband?) would be interested in joining us again.

Whoopeee.... NYC LT meet up is on then. I'll start a new thread just for this tomorrow

Glad you didn't end up spending Thanksgiving all by yourself!

Hello, just a little note to say how much I'd love to go back to NYC *sigh* and with the added bonus of an LT meet up *double sigh*
Sounds great fun, enjoy!

RE: Internet/Phone/TV Service
I'm in DC, and hated working with Verizon and Comcast (cable provider). We switched to DirecTV for TV, and Clear for internet and VOIP phone service. We are very happy with Clear, and have had it for a few years now. We had a bad receiver when we first got the service, but they sent us a new one right away. It is as easy as setting up a wireless router, so it is no problem really. I think we pay $50 or $60 a month for internet and phone. International calls are inexpensive as well. Once in a while we have a problem if we are on the internet and phone at the same time, but that is pretty rare.

#138 -- Jennifer, how did you set up the VOIP? The internet packages look appealing, especially being able to combine home & mobile stuff if I want, but I didn't see anything on their site re voip providers. I definitely need a land line on which people can call me (i.e. an assigned phone #); while calling out is great on Gmail's voip, I don't have a number where people can count on reaching me. Will have to wait and see what happens today...

A quick update on books:

The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt was utterly fabulous, and deserved the national book award. It's really a triumph, a work of intellectual and social history that crosses disciplinary borders (philosophy, religion, history) and yet remains completely accessible even to a reader who isn't remotely familiar with the subject. As far as I'm concerned, any book that deals extensively with the bibliomaniac tendencies and book-hunting exploits of Poggio Bracciolini was going to be a winner; Greenblatt ensures this by not being hagiographic in the least. (Oh, and it mentions the equally admirable Aldus Manutius, too!) I'm amazed that I can read big massive books about the history of reading (think Basbanes) and never read about Poggio; that I can read big books about Venice with nary a mention of Aldus, who invented the paperback in the v. early years of the 16th century. Anyway... This tome is the story of the rediscovery of one of the great works of classical literature, De rerum natura by Lucretius, and its impact on the formation of the modern world, one in which man could question the gods and those who purport to speak for them. (Lucretius didn't know how atoms worked, but he nailed the concept thousands of years before Watson & Crick analyzed the structure of DNA...) I would have loved to see a bit more late in the book about the ways in which later philosophies echoed Lucretius's ideas, and perhaps a bit more analysis of some other ideas/books that might also have led people in the same direction -- it's a bit deterministic -- but that's a very minor quibble about a fascinating book. More people should think/write like Greenblatt. 4.8 stars, for my 11 in 11.

Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes is one of those books that creeps up on you. I didn't like it much at all for the first 40 pages; was very irritated by the omniscient style -- lots of remarks like, he would remember this day many years later, as he stood on a dusty road near Hanoi, long after she had gone from him blah blah blah -- as well as from the ruminative narrative style that is more description and quotation from letters and journals than dialog. Then the story and the characters snuck up on me, and I found myself captivated by and immersed in the author's ability to capture a sense of time and place. Rarely have I FELT what it must have been like to be alive in the 1930s, feeling a sense of looming threat and being under attack. It's still haunting me, days later. That helps offset the strangely distancing impact of the author's style. I'm dithering between rounding up or rounding down, but this was 4.25 stars for me. Definitely worth a try. For my 11 in 11. Written because the author felt Spain (her home nation) owed a tribute to Gerda Taro (as the young Polish Jew and accidental photographer) and Robert Capa (the Hungarian who fled his homeland and met Gerta/Gerda in Paris, when he was still known as Andre Friedmann.) If you're interested in photography, this is a must.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton was interesting enough in a formulaic way, but a bit of a slog, too. I found myself very able to put it down, sometimes for days at a time, then pick it up and read 100 pages. But there are too many mysteries embedded in the quasi-Gothic plot that revolves around the three daughters of a man who became famous writing a chilling novel about "the Mud Man" -- Morton spends 100 pages about two twin sisters waiting for sister #3 to arrive for tea in 1941 with her suitor, hinting wildly at all kinds of stuff and yet making the reader wait so long that by the time all the big "reveals" come, some you've already guessed and others you don't care about. Why doesn't Saffy rebel? What happened to Tom? Who was the Mud Man? What's responsible for the tension between 'Percy' and Lucy the housekeeper? Why does Raymond Blythe change his will? And those are only the 1940s era mysteries; the other part of the book is about a young woman in the 1990s, whose mother was an evacuee at the Blythe castle, home to the three sisters, during the early days of WW2. Overly complicated, and marked down accordingly, even if what is there is readable. 3.4 stars, not really recommended.

The Swerve sounds very good Suzanne.

I have The Swerve on The List. (I've even read some De Rerum!) Meanwhile, Elizabeth Chadwick: yes or no? I'm looking at the Daily Kindle Deal and don't want to bother with something unreadable or miss something unmissable.
And thank you for helping me miss The Distant Hours.

Peggy, Chadwick is neither unmissable nor unreadable. I'd say it's worth $1.99; I've read a few of hers and they are very well researched (she's like Penman in her mastery of detail). She's no Hilary Mantel -- the closest comparisons would be Penman, CW Gortner, but she's the kind of author who calls her main early 13th century character by a nickname (Mahelt becomes Matty) without compromising the fact that she's writing about history. They're more lively than Jean Plaidy. I'm not in love with them, but I'm certainly happy to read them. Does that sound ambivalent enough to make it hard for you to decide???!! Seriously, for $1.99, definitely worth trying. If you don't like it, you've invested less than the price of a Starbucks coffee. And if you do, there are a lot more waiting. ETA: I'd pay $1.99 for it -- if I hadn't already done so in the last big Kindle sale!!

Nice review of The Swerve, although I probably won't want to read it anytime soon, as there are too many nonfiction books on Mt TBR that I'm eager to get to first.

Sorry to hear The Distant Hours didn't work for you, Suz ... and thanks for the heads up. I had this on my obese wish list because I had liked The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden but I think I can perhaps move this one off my OWL for now.

By the way, the link to the NYC LT Meet up is here

As usual Suz hats off for three very able reviews of three quite different books all of which look more than worth the effort. The Swerve especially looks unmissable. Good inversion of the usual publisher's blurb in making Morton's book "put downable" lol.

Darryl, I suspect there are probably other NF books that would be of more immediate interest to you, too. Caro, I liked Morton's other books as well; it's not that this one was bad, it was more like being on a very long hike that was enjoyable enough, but not quite compelling enough to make you forget the blisters on your heels.

The cable guy is here! In contrast to the dude last week, he's lovely and helpful and I should have real phone, cable and Internet within the next hour....

Hooray for competent service providers!

Well, I spoke too soon. The cable TV is working. I suspect the phone is working. But the Internet? Nope. Still piggybacking on my neighbor's. An hour on the phone with the help desk and I'm being escalated to "Level Three", whatever that is...

ETA: Level Three appears to be when they send someone BACK to your house. On Monday. Oh well, third time lucky -- I hope!

I didn't see the VOIP either. But it should be just included. For example, I am charged $25 for internet and $25 for phone on my bill. I think my package is similar to the 4GHome Faster package. My package is call WiMAX Home Internet.

>148 Chatterbox: - Well, hell. I jinxed it :(

yet remains completely accessible even to a reader who isn't remotely familiar with the subject
which means that maybe even I might like it! Thanks Suzanne.

Adding Waiting for Robert Capa to the wishlist. I happen to love that photographer for his talent and work ethics.

Yes indeed -- thank you from me too about Distant Hours -- I just brought that home from the library thinking it looked like it might be fun. But when you have better books waiting around then......

Hi Suz- The Swerve sounds fantastic! Good review! I've been hearing about this title, a lot lately, glad it lives up to it's praise. Have you read in the Garden of Beasts yet? I just started it and its been very good.

The Swerve does sound great, Suzanne. I was quite taken by his Will in the World.

My daughter loved The Garden of Beasts, Mark. I've got that one on my radar, too.

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of In the Garden of Beasts from Amazon Vine, and thought it was excellent. I definitely preferred it to Larson's book about Marconi, where the technical details had my head spinning in circles. What I found fascinating was that it was about those very early days of the Nazi regime, when no one could imagine what would be coming in the future (even some of the new regime's supporters, it seems) and there was tremendous willingness to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, so great had the crisis of the Depression been. I'd known a bit about Martha Dodd, whose name comes up in all kinds of journalistic histories of the period (like Shirer's) so I was v. pleased to read a comprehensive history, especially the ambassador's tussle on two fronts. We forget now that at the time America's power wasn't really fully developed -- it had retreated from global entanglements post Versailles.

Finishing up A Crimson Warning, which is OK. More later...

Sorry to hear you're still having to piggyback on your neighbor's internet, Suz. Hopefully the level 3 guy tomorrow will fix it and you'll have it back again.

If we lost our internet connectivity here, we'd be completely bereft because all our neighbors (including us) encrypt our networks, so no chance of piggybacking on anyone around here.

The neighbors have it encrypted, too -- but they were kind enough to give me the password. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to slow down their access... The biggest headache has been the phone -- no incoming # other than my cell, which gets crummy service indoors thanks to the brownstone's walls and no international calling out. The big challenge will now become the first phone # change I've had in 8 or 9 years!!!

Why do you need to change your number?

Because, foolishly, I told Verizon I was going to close my account in November. So when Time Warner tried to move the existing phone #, it had been put in some weird zone for "termination" and couldn't be shifted. It's not a tragedy; it will just be a headache. Another one. On top of the fact that my agent is very pessimistic about the prospects for my genealogy book. He doesn't understand it, but... We've agreed not to send it out again until the New Year.

Kindle sale alert: looks like a big sale of stuff, with prices from $1.99 to $4.99. I'm looking through the mysteries now and they've got a lot of old titles from Ruth Rendell, what looks like the complete oeuvre of Jack Higgins, Lawrence Block, Thomas H. Cook and scads of others. Very interesting -- they have all the Miss Silver novels by Patricia Wentworth for $2.99 apiece... I'm going to nab some now in case the price shoots up again. Looks as if this only runs until midnight or so...

ETA: Lots by William Styron, the complete Thomas Pitt mysteries by Anne Perry, Erskine Caldwell, Iris Murdoch, LOTS of Rebecca West.

Wow, I'm envious. Though as the summer sale showed it can be dangerous having a lot of titles on offer at once.

Just a quick book update:

I'm Gone by Jean Echenoz is easily one of my faves by this author, second only to Ravel. The author's prose is deceptively spare and the perspective shifts from that of Ferrer, the restless art dealer who tosses the keys to the apartment into his wife's lap and sets off on a quest to the Arctic aboard an icebreaker, to that of an omniscient observer, wryly amused by Ferrer's misadventures, as he lurches from one encounter and experience to another. I suppose you could describe it as a crime caper novel, or even a mid-life crisis novel, but the enjoyment I got came largely from he fact I found it uncategorizable. Definitely one to add to my personal library at some point. 4.2 stars.

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander is kind of meh -- not bad, but not intriguing or compulsive reading, as a good mystery should be. Another series that is running out of steam? Lady Emily is back in London society after her extended honeymoon, when somebody decides to begin exposing the secrets of the social elite, with dire consequences, including a kidnapping and murder. What are the reasons behind this? It's a bit obvious and a bit fanciful, so I found myself picking this up and putting it down rather often. Glad it was a library book. What really struck me was how similar these books are to the Lady Julia Grey mysteries by Deanna Raybourn. In both cases, noblewomen lose first husbands to murder, fall in love with the investigator (who gets royal patronage despite some lowly upbringing in one case), join their husbands in investigating crime, have miscarriages related to their sleuthing, etc. etc. There are differences, but the similarities are uncanny... (Sorry for any spoilers...) 3.3 stars.

Rez Life by David Treuer is a book I got from NetGalley that ended up being more fascinating than I had anticipated, despite the fact that I got bogged down somewhat in the second chapter (which spent too much time opining drearily on fishing and treaty rights). Once past that point, and despite some bumpy points where the author likes to repeat himself, I found this a fascinating look at the Indian experience today, told with the author's own Ojibwe background at the heart of it but digressing whenever necessary to explore anything from residential schools to casinos. Treuer cherishes his heritage, but doesn't blind himself to the realities of "rez life" -- even those reservations made newly wealthy by casinos may be rich but their health is still poor, the kids still don't finish high school and are still more likely to end up binge drinking. At times the anger -- rightfully so -- creeps through Treuer's prose, as when he shows how the Dawes Act wreaked havoc on Indian land rights and how his forebears were deprived of access to basic services until they agreed to send their children to a boarding school, where those children would be taught to despise their native heritage and beaten for speaking their own languages. But the anger never takes over, and Treuer is as scathing about the lack of focus of the American Indian Movement (AIM) of the 1970s as he is about the whites today who don't understand the nature of "treaty rights". Fascinating, generally well-written and one of the most informative books on the subject I can imagine reading, especially since it comes from someone who comes from "the rez". 4.3 stars, recommended; for my 11 in 11 challenge.

OK, another book update....

Just finished an advance copy of an e-book that will be making its debut on Thursday (Dec. 1) and I'd urge anyone with the remotest interest in Wall Street or finance to run out and download How to Be a Rogue Trader by John Gapper. Gapper wrote the book (literally) about Nick Leeson, the rogue who brought down Baring's; I covered some aspects of that story for the WSJ back then, and went on to lead coverage of a later rogue, Yasuo Hamanaka, who tried to corner the copper market and turned it into a $2.6 billion bloodbath. Gapper has done a fabulous job in this short book of analyzing how these rogues fit into the financial system and how the needs of the institutions create the environment in which they can execute their frauds (as he points out, it's notable that Goldman Sachs has yet to have a rogue...) Gapper takes no prisoners in this informative, knowledgeable look at everything from behavioral finance (what makes bankers the way they are??) to risk management. I'm giving it 4.8 stars, and not 5 only because I'm annoyed that I didn't write this myself!

Zone One was a creepy novel by Colson Whitehead. The guy can definitely write - he has turned a dystopian zombie story into a literary tour de force and the way he wrote this had me wondering whether he doesn't think of the living/dead victims of the plague that become either flesh-devouring monsters or catatonic "stragglers" as a kind of metaphor for our society. But even on the basic level, this is a thumping good read, as Mark Spitz (a nom de guerre for one survivor) survives the immediate aftermath of the "Last Night" when the flesh-eating zombies descend, and now finds himself in the vanguard of an effort to salvage Manhattan on behalf of the new "phoenix" government in Buffalo. But just as Mark Spitz himself remembers being drawn inexorably to Manhattan as a boy, so the plague victims don't seem to want to leave. The book moves back and forth in time, telling us about the narrator's post-apocalypse experiences in flashbacks, and giving us a sense of the efforts made to rebuild. It's good, but not great, despite the writing -- I kept feeling that Whitehead's ideas were vast, but that he didn't have the time, focus or energy to develop them as much as he may have wanted to. Still, very good, recommended. 4.3 stars. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

My antidote to the above while I was reading it (I needed one in order to avoid zombies!) was a re-read of a book by a favorite childhood author, E.M. Almedingen. She grew up in the Tsarist Russia of the late 19th and early 20th century, and wrote a lot of children's books from the point of view (imagined) of women in her family -- eg Little Katia, Frossia, Dasha and several others. This is aimed at older readers, and focuses on the story of a teenage girl coming of age just prior to the Revolution, realizing that she lives in a demimonde household that is not quite comme il faut, and trying to carve out a path for herself. It's a great story of how a young woman moves from a hothouse environment and becomes a thoughtful and scholarly person. The story culminates around 1905, making me wish the author had written a sequel. A bit dated, but I'm glad I was able to find a copy of this via Abebooks recently. 3.9 stars. Worth checking out for anyone with a taste for non-bodice ripper historical novels.

Scored a Early Reviewer copy of Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo; it's about Mumbai. Know nothing about the author, so will be intrigued. Noticed that all the Patricia Wentworth books are now $10, and kind of kicking myself for not downloading a few more when I could at $3 apiece. Hopefully they'll be on sale again soon.

... and one more.

Could it be that I'm finally warming up to Flavia de Luce, the precocious and not really convincingly real heroine of Alan Bradley's mystery series? I certainly enjoyed I am Half-Sick of Shadows far more than I did the previous three books in this series, so either I'm more accustomed to the idiosyncratic characters and less annoyed by the almost toxic relationship between Flavia and her elder sisters, or Bradley is getting better. Whatever it is, this book was well-crafted, quirky and to some extent convincing, and a quick and lively read. It's Christmas, a movie company has taken over Flavia's home, half the village's population is trapped there in a blizzard -- and then there's a murder. "Although it is pleasant to think about poison at any season, there is something special about Christmas..." Flavia muses to herself. 3.8 stars.

Not surprisingly, I want How to Be a Rogue Trader. Sadly it is available, at least from BN.COM, only as an e-book.

Alas,

Robert

Zone One is in my wishlist already, so no book bullet this time, but I'll add you as a recommender in my tags so I can thank you later.

Did I miss the title of the book by E.M. Almedingen you mentioned? Sounds like something I might like.

Glad you liked the latest Alan Bradley.
Flavia is on my to-read list already. I bought the 3rd book at a library sale, now I just need to get the first one before I can start.

Ilana, I think you might like this -- it's Too Early Lilac. Oddly, the touchstone comes up here, but not in my list. If you don't spot the title here, you can get it from the list that is in post #2, unless it's clearly marked that it's for my 11 in 11 challenge.

Robert, you can get the Kindle version and then read it on your laptop/desktop with the Kindle for computers application -- you don't need the device. I do think you'd really enjoy it, it's smart and savvy.

Chelle, Flavia has grown on me. At first I found her annoying, and the author's approach to his characters almost cartoonish -- everyone/thing is slightly exaggerated. But either I'm appreciating the calibre of his writing more (he's very good) or I've become more tolerant of the quirkiness of everyone. Whimsy is great, it's just that such a precocious kid as Flavia is in some ways, who is also very naive in others, is still not entirely convincing to me.

Hurrah! My local library -- which is almost literally across the street from me -- has just reopened, after about two months of renovations. Don't have to pay subway fares and budget an hour of my day to get/return library books!!

....And interestingly I also scored an ER copy of Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It's the only book I requested because it looked fascinating to me.

Only you, Suzanne, could pique my interest in flesh-eating zombies. I'm Gone and Rez Life also go onto the teetering tower. Jeesh.

I can hear book bullets exploding everywhere!!! *grin*

.....And interestingly I also snagged and ER copy of Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It's the only book I requested because it sounded fascinating to me.

Only you, Suzanne, could pique my interest for flesh-eating zombies. I'm Gone (available at PBS, yay) and Rez Life go onto the teetering tower. Jeesh.

Oh, almost forgot to update the book I finished this morning. FINALLY completed The Dogs of Rome, which I kept picking up and putting down all summer and fall. It wasn't really the book's fault, more that it never really captivated me and forced me to keep reading. Conor Fitzgerald conjures up an intriguing plot set in Rome (revolving around dog fighting, so animal lovers may think twice -- it wasn't in your face as a lot of animal violence is in books, but still...) but I couldn't warm up to his hero, Alec Blume, who has a high opinion of himself and trips over his own two feet. I don't need to like a character to enjoy a mystery, but in this case, Blume's persona left me cold and leaves this book with a 3.9 star rating. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

Hi Suz- I'm so glad you liked Zone One. Good comments too! I bought a copy a few weeks ago and plan on starting it, the middle of next month.

Book du jour: I sometimes indulge in james patterson thrillers from the library. Until about halfway through Kill Me If you Can I was ready to ditch this one as not even half a star, but then there was a great twist that did keep me reading through the rest of the book. The story of an art student who finds a bunch of diamonds and who may be more than he seems never becomes even a good chase story -- there are way too many improbable twists and turns and frankly a couple of subplots that should never have seen the light of day, crossing the good taste threshold -- but I finished it. Hey, it's a library book that cost me nothing and entertained me for 2 or 3 hours. 2 stars, not recommended even to those who mostly enjoy Patterson.

OK, off to finish another mystery and maybe make it through the final pages of Dava Sobel's new book about Copernicus -- then to bed & sleep!

Suz, I think I'm going to order a copy of Too Early Lilac from AbeBooks as well, as seems there are still a couple of copies in decent condition kicking about. December is sort of "last call" before I start a book-buying restricted diet.

I've been meaning to ask you for a while why it is you don't post your reviews on the work pages... I use those a lot when trying to determine whether I should wishlist/buy any given title I come across elsewhere than LT. Of course, I can come and read them here on your thread, but I just think your reviews would be a real boon to all LT members.

Thanks, Ilana, but they are micro-reviews and while I'll sometimes do that when there aren't reviews on the page, it honestly feels like too much work to repost, elaborate, etc... But thanks for the kind words!

Just finished re-reading Aspects of the Novel, but I'll refrain from commenting until tomorrow, when my brain kicks in again.

I noticed your E M Almedingen listed, Too Early Lilac is one I don't have. The first I read was Fanny and I have Frossia and Dasha and I think one other.

How to Be a Rogue Trader goes onto the wishlist. I'm going electronic for fiction, but not for non-fiction. Also, I want to read Chasing Goldman Sachs first... Soon! I'm behind in reviews, reading lightish books until I catch up.

qebo, How to be a Rogue Trader is only an e-book, but it's a shortish book -- longer than the typical Kindle single, but not by much -- so it's worth breaking your no Kindle non-fiction vow. Am not sure that Penguin plans to release these e-books in non-cyber form. I picked up two more today for less than $3 apiece when they were released, a short story by Helen Dunmore (or poss novella, we shall see) and something by the Turkish writer, Elif Shafak with the intriguing title of The Happiness of Blond People.

Luci, I have Frossia coming from the library now; the one I remember liking is "Ellen", but not only is there no touchstone, I can't find a copy locally. Will see what I can do when my budget position improves.

180: It's a matter of purity... I got the Nook a couple months ago, and I've just begun buying books. Fiction is OK because I don't have much anyway, but if I start with non-fiction I'll mess up my organization.

Oh, Elif Batuman had an article in the New Yorker that I read recently... an October issue? A portrait of an ornithologist friend, and of Turkey, and it was funny too. So I have her memoir in my cart, but I'm waiting until January to click the checkout button.

Got it; for me the decision comes down to whether it's a book I'll want to be able to pull off my shelves and use as a reference vs one to read through, or one where being able to flip easily to the notes or bibliography or index is going to be important to me. I confess that sometimes the price is a factor, too! But yes, with a few exceptions, the books I am more likely to buy for my Kindle are the novels.

Btw, I'm selling my Nook; is anyone interested? Hardly ever use it, now that both the library and NetGalley offer Kindle-friendly options.

What are you asking for it?

$65, includes the cover (a bright blue neoprene zip cover, worth $15). It's about 10 months old, scarcely ever used (because I much preferred the Kindle.) It's the black & white version, not the color one. Works well, just not my thing. ETA: includes a copy of We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

Gak! I got behind and am now paying the price... I got Zone One from the library but couldn't rouse any interest in it so it went back unread. I've kept it on The List, thinking I'll be interested some day. I keep adding and removing the Flavia books from The List. Guess I should just try the first one and see... And now I want to check out that Dunmore short. I read one of her early novels - Burning Bright - a few months ago and it was definitely creepy, but not in a cheap way, which I liked. And, finally, a little disappointed to hear your thoughts on The Dogs of Rome as I have that one on my Kindle. And the dog fighting issue could be a problem (thanks for the heads up).

Well, here's one that probably won't arouse much reading interest on anyone's part. Finished Ancestors and Relatives by Eviatar Zerubavel, which is a largely academic analysis of the genealogy mania from the point of view of a sociologist. It's fascinating when it comes to identifying issues like "genealogical identity", and why we persist in identifying Obama as a black man with a white mother rather than as a white man with a black father -- and the human tendency to select what ancestors they want to emphasize and which they choose to ignore. Ultimately, while it raised some issues that will be helpful if I'm able to forge ahead with my own book, I don't think there's much of a wider appeal here. A big part of it is self-evident facts and nothing about the methodology strikes me as provocative or fresh. 3 stars, for my 11 in 11 challenge.

Man Booker folks just announced a heavyweight panel for the 2013 International Prize: Sir Christopher Ricks (Chair), Elif Batuman, Aminatta Forna, Yiyun Li, Tim Parks. Not taking any chances on lack of credentials!!

'the human tendency to select what ancestors they want to emphasize and which they choose to ignore' That is so huge, isn't it? We tend to make such a big deal out of the one name that stays with us, but it ignores so much else! I wonder how this genome, haplotype stuff is changing how people think too -- I know that my gggggg...grandmother' of 25,000 (or more, I forget) years ago lived somewhere in the Caucasus, for example, so now I feel this odd connection to the area.....

I had National Geographic or someone check my chromosomes, and they said that my ancestors carved or cast the Venus of Willendorf. I got on my computer and ordered a couple of replicas.



From my one exposure to Elif Batuman, The Possessed, I don't think that she is a heavyweight despite her credentials.

Robert

That's an entertaining image, Robert! I'm not sure I'd want to live with it... I actually meant to write that the short e-book is by Elif Shafak, not Elif Batuman. Heavens, my brain is getting dysfunctional; I'm sure it's old age!

Book du jour: The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart. I whipped through the first two books in this Arthurian trilogy (which is followed by two more stand-alone type books) very rapidly, but then stalled on picking up the third. I didn't find it as compelling as the first two, perhaps because Stewart is now dealing with Arthur's kingship and better known territory, but it's still interesting, especially looking at how she combines legend with the written legacy of a 9th century monk and with what is known of British history in the dark ages. I'm not big on fantasy/magic, so I liked having characters who can be grounded in time and place as well as a magical element. 3.9 stars, recommended only after reading the first two books. Also, there is less emphasis on character development, so Morgan's shift in personality takes the reader a bit aback.

OK, I confess that I pretty much knew that The Favored Queen by Carolly Erickson would be dismal; the author delights in making up events about real historical people and writing bizarre novels that lead readers to think this stuff really happened. This time she tackles Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife -- when I saw this on the new release shelf at the library, I decided what the heck, at least it won't cost me more than an hour or two of my time and there's a chance it might be a 2.5 star book. Actually, it makes Plain Jane by Laurien Gardner (which I disliked intensely, and delivered several unintentional bloopers) look fabulous by comparison. Erickson dials it in in terms of writing -- sentences are like lead, and would be enough to sink the most appealing book. I will say that there are moments that probably weren't intended to be extremely funny (and that never happened in history), such as Catherine of Aragon's chamberlain, on finding that Anne Boleyn was suffering from the sweating sickness, trying to stuff her through a window of the castle and into a moat, only to be stopped by the queen. wtf??? I hereby swear that I will refrain from even touching one of this author's books in future, even out of macabre curiosity, and in spite of my tolerance for mediocre historical novels. Because this stuff isn't mediocre, it's utterly dreadful, on every level. *shudder* 1/2 star. Oh well, at least it was bizarrely entertaining!

ETA: If anyone does want a decent historical novel about Jane Seymour, by far the best is Jane Seymour by Frances Clark. I read it in the 70s, when I was v. young, and re-read it a lot; then re-read it last year for the first time in decades to find that it miraculously held up. There's one that is OK, Pour the Dark Wine, that deals with Jane and her brothers, both of whom had fatal encounters with Tudor executioners in the Tower of London.

Listening to Sibelius, and about to pick up Death Comes to Pemberley for my next "light" read.

Can't find a pattern for the metallic silver yarn, slightly ribbon-like, that I can make into a scarf for my sis-in-law for Xmas, so slightly irritable.

Argh, woke up this morning with a toothache instead of the migraine. Not a great swap. Can't afford the dentist. Keep fingers crossed that it goes away...

You might try NYU Dental Clinic if it doesn't - supervised work by eager young dentists and greatly reduced prices. Or so I'm told.

Hope for your sake the toothache goes away Suz.

Your review of The Last Enchantment leads me to ask whether you think this would be a good series for someone like me, who has a very minimal familiarity with the Arthurian legend and it's protagonists. I'm all set to wishlist The Crystal Cave based on your response!

Must tell you that I loved your panning of The Favored Queen. Very amusing, and one I'll stay well clear of.

Judy, I've tried those guys in the past, but the magnitude of the total work required kinda freaks them out. Plus, they won't use nitrous, and without it I routinely have major panic attacks in the dentist's chair, for a very good reason that I don't want to go into. I do have an excellent and patient dentist, but he ain't cheap.

Ilana, I'd definitely give the series a chance. By the time you get to book #3, the one I have just finished, it makes sense to go off and read even a kid's summary of the Arthurian legends, to remind yourself of the personalities and make the linkages. You can certainly read it without that -- it's been decades since I read anything Arthurian -- but you'll probably get more out of book 3 in particular with that perspective. But the first two books I found fascinating in their own right -- they offer intriguing glimpses of what life in England might have been like when Roman rule was only a century or two distant, recent enough for the Roman camps to look like ruined buildings rather than archaeological artifacts, but distant enough that the line between myth and reality had begun to blur.

Got Orajel, got a Vicodin. Doing some work to distract me, and in case tomorrow is worse. I looked at my accounts receivable and my cash in hand -- the former dwarfs the latter at a rate of about 4 to 1. Absurd. If not quite as absurd as Carolly Erickson's idea of "historical" fiction.

Suz, a YA or children's book I borrowed a couple of months ago renewed my interest in the Arthurian legend. It was a volume of three stories; one about Arthur, the other about Lancelot, and finally about Perceval. So I guess I followed your advice before you'd even given it! :-) Going ahead and adding The Crystal Cave to the WL.

Hope to Orajel and Vicodin work, but mostly that the toothache is just a temporary, migraine-related type thing.

Sadly, Ilana, I inherited the bad teeth gene along with the migraine gene, and the migraine meds I have taken apparently have exacerbated the teeth issue. Sigh. But tks for the good wishes...!

I'm wishlisting Mary Stewart also, for the combo of legend and reality, both of which I should know more about. I have little familiarity with Merlin / Arthur, and I do typically go for the kid's summary. I manage details more easily when I can attach them to a skeletal concept or plot.

Will your excellent and patient dentist do emergency repair and hold off on the billing for awhile?

I would love to reread those Stewarts. I have them all so just let me know! Another fine Arthurian book is the T.H. White The Once and Future King. Now I'm wishing I had an 'Arthur legends' tag so I could go see what I have read because I have a feeling I've read a lot....... both fiction and non -- the most readable 'historical' Merlin book I've read is by Norma Lorre Goodrich Merlin. I think she wrote an Arthur one as well. It felt reasonably well done too. If I'm remembering right the main point is that there were a few men about who retained the mathematical and astronomical knowledge that was 'lost' during 'the Dark Ages' and so were able to do things like predict eclipses, or even make 'magics' -- can't remember quite what, but things like mists and small explosions that really wowed folks..... kind of Druidish, but not so much that as actually educated especially in what we would call loosely 'the sciences'. It does take a bit of the romance out of it, I guess, but not really. Not for me anyway -- there is still a huge mystery about how the legend evolved, how that knowledge was kept alive and past on, and I love a mystery!

qebo -- sadly, nope. No dentist I have ever encountered will do work that he knows he won't get paid in full for. Sadly, also, my pain is much worse this morning. I'm trying to reach someone who may be able to help if the cost of whatever has to be done exceeds my resources, and then I'll try and get in to see the dentist. Pls keep your fingers & toes crossed....

So sorry to hear that Suzanne. Keeping everything crossed and hoping for the best for your sake.

#199 Lucy, even if you haven't tagged your collection with 'Arthur legends' or 'Arthurian legend', you can still do a search in your collection using those search terms (keep them in quote marks). You'll probably be surprised at what comes up. You can also do the search on the whole site, click on 'tags' next and select the one you're looking for (normally the first on the list) and see what books are most commonly tagged that way.

On the Arthurian theme, what about Mists of Avalon? It's the Arthurian legend told from the women's POV. I read it 16 years ago and enjoyed it. It also caused me to take a more critical view of "historic" reading -- from legend to the Bible to history books -- and consider the voices that are NOT heard in those accounts.

Suzanne, could you offer your Nook as partial payment on the dental work? Just a thought. ;-)
I'm eagerly awaiting your verdict on the new P.D. James book. Trying to decide if it's Christmas list worthy.

HI Donna, tks for reminding me about the PD James.... I would say it's Christmas list worthy, if not up to the high standards of Austen or PD James at their best. Death Comes to Pemberley would probably rank very high on the list of Austen sequels and tributes, which has become considerably more than a cottage industry by now, but since most of those are rather poor quality books, that doesn't say very much. Whereas Austen writes domestic dramas of manners and relationships, PD James paints her plot on an altogether larger canvas -- there is murder at the heart of it, something that would never have crossed Austen's mind to use as a plot device. And the nature of the crime is so immense that it reduces the characters, leaving them in the shadows. Her Darcy and Elizabeth are in line with Austen's creations, but never quite spring to life; Jane is a cipher, as is Lydia. It's all about the plot... It's a good plot, one that ties together some answers to questions raised in Pride and Prejudice) and (wink wink) refers in passing to characters from Emma and Persuasion. But it never quite feels right. Don't misunderstand, it's a compelling yarn and an enjoyable way to pass a few hours. But the combination of the cerebral Adam Dalgliesh (PD James's creation) and Austen's characters somehow ends up being slightly less than the sum of the parts. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but while I was amused and entertained, this won't become a classic in its own right. 3.9 stars, recommended but not with hyper-enthusiasm.

If I showed up offering up my Nook as part of the deal, perhaps it would drive home how bad things are?? :-) pain is def bad. But it's worth probably what I'm asking, which would be about 2% of the value of the dental services!!

Not a great day all around. A friend from college and I were talking today about a mutual friend (and former housemate of each of us, at different points) who has been battling a particularly nasty form of breast cancer -- metastic (sp??), when diagnosed, stage 3 -- and has now been told her long-term survival outlook is rather bleak. She is actually remarkable, as she has been saying this for a while now, only the docs kept telling her to think positive. Her retort is that this form of breast cancer is not something that you survive with for years, like AIDS in the developed world, and live with and battle with, but that when it's contained in one spot it tends to spread quite rapidly to another. She herself has never expected to live to the end of 2012, and it seems the docs are finally coming around to that POV themselves, or at least admitting there is a limit to what they can do. So I mustn't whine abt toothache, however bad.

Please whine (and as far as I'm concerned, you haven't whined yet) if that would make you feel better for even 10 seconds. I'm sorry that you're dealing with the dental problems and wish you may get through them soonest.
I thought I'd let you know that I'm reading some in *Novel in Viola* and liking it well enough. It reads like one of the 50's romances by Mary Stewart, and I was actually enjoying it the earlier bit more than I am now that the young man of the house is present and romance is threatening. I think it's just what I need right now, so thank you a lot for sending it.
When Arthur rears his royal head, I always recommend Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset, yet another thing that I should reread along with *Crystal Cave* and those. Thanks for the thoughts about James and Pemberley. I can certainly wait for it.

Oooh, won a book from the bonus batch of ER offerings! it's the upcoming spy thriller by Alex Berenson (harumph, he's a business reporter that has carved out a dual identity -- can't I do the same??). Enjoy the novels, but wouldn't spend money on them, so this is good news indeed. Not enough to offset the sore jaw, but still...

Sorry to hear you are in pain. I feel for you though, I have a strong phobia of dentists and have been putting off going for much too long. I grind my teeth though and should probably go soon to see how much damage I have done (even with my mouth guard!)

Also sorry about your friend. Cancer can be such a horrible thing to deal with. Hopefully she has lots of friends and family to support her emotionally through this.

Congrats on the bonus ER win! :)

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, Suz. It does put tooth- and headaches into perspective. But I still hope you feel better soon.

So sorry about the pain, Suz. I had my first major tooth-related issue a few years ago - ended up having to have a double root canal and three crowns. Bah.

Wow you're having quite a time of it Suzanne. I'm sorry about your friend and good luck with that bad tooth. There's no pain like tooth pain. Unless it's the pain of the dental bill.

This year has been pretty much a stinker, I admit. Oh well, there's always 2012!

Suz, sorry to read about your problems with your teeth. It could well be that your migraine and the toothache problems are linked.
It is always devastating to hear about friends being diagnosed with serious illnesses of which breast cancer is a particularly scary one. Our neighbour battled back from stage 3 breast cancer and is presently in the peak of health so there is always hope no matter how sanguine is the prognocis. Does put into perspective as you say some of our less life threatening concerns - some of the difficulties faced by friends and business partners recently have certainly given me insights into the appreciation and enjoyment of life and also to be thankful of SWMBO no matter how po-faced and/or fearsome she can sometimes appear to be. I also hope you have a more enjoyable and rewarding 2012 although in simple reading terms your 2011 has hardly been a wash-out! (Let's dream about a small investment in a niche second hand book emporium in a quaint smugglers cove in deepest Cornwall!)

Paul, yes, when I win the lottery I will be making an offer to acquire Bookends of Fowey...

The toothache has become more of an ache in the lower part of my jaw now, which is goodish news. I probably need antibiotics, but not $200 appointment required to obtain them. Well, I'll see how it goes in the next few days. At least it's less painful today. The migraine flared up, probably because I haven't been eating -- that's on the other side of my head and squarely in my skull, though. I did look at whether there's a connection btwn dental issues and migraines but since there was nearly a 20-year gap btwn my first migraine and the first serious dental woes, most folks feel it's unlikely. I got the bad teeth gene from my father, it seems, and the one connection that does exist is that the meds I've taken for the migraines for 30 years have had a nasty effect on the teeth (apparently, Prozac does the same); that and never earning quite enough in any given year to afford the dentist treatment needed (hey, there's an annual cap of $2,500 on even the most lavish dental plan here, and with root canals costing $2,000 apiece, with insurance only covering half, you can see how easy it is to save for two months for needed treatment), the gap between what I was able to do and what had to be done widened every year. Dental plans are great for people who have teeth in good shape (and whose parents could afford/were willing to pay for braces) and only need cleanings and the occasional filling, but not for anything more significant. It's as if medical insurance only covered preventative care and treatment for broken limbs and flu.

OK, rant over. I'll see how things are tomorrow.

Meanwhile, two books to report back on:

All That I Am by Anna Funder turned out to be a book that I warmed up to over the first third, and read through the remainder almost compulsively. At first, I was annoyed by retrospective, memoirish tone, as the story is alternately told through the eyes of Ernst Toller, in exile in New York in May 1939, and by Ruth Becker, living in Australia at the beginning of the 21st century, looking back on her youth at the end of a very long life. Together, they were part of a group of German exiles who fled the Nazi regime in its very embryonic stages, after becoming aware that their names appeared on the top of hit lists -- along with Ruth's cousin and Toller's lover, Dora Fabian, and Ruth's husband, Hans. All of these are historical characters (with some minor characters being based on historical figures) and I found the fact that I was unaware of their story almost as startling as the story itself -- one of the post-WW1 period in which all the rules of political discourse in a defeated Germany were being rewritten and new political parties formed. Toller, Dora, and Ruth end up on the losing side, at least temporarily, but even in exile, they are still viewed by a Nazi government eager to protect its image as enemies who must be destroyed. Despite the author's sometimes too-scholarly tone, there's a sense of looming menace that builds as the pages are turned, and that made it impossible for me to think about getting some sleep last night until I had read to the end. It made me really vividly imagine what it must have been like to try to live in exile, always fearful of betrayal; to not be aware that by 1945, Hitler's name would be a byword for evil and his regime destroyed but rather to waitresssee the countries around me try to appease him. (In her ability to capture this atmosphere, Funder's novel reminded me of Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes, which I read last month and whose central characters were also fleeing German rule, ending up in Paris rather than London. This wasn't a perfect novel, by any means, but it was an unforgettable one, and one well worth reading. 4.1 stars.

The Beautiful and the Damned by Siddhartha Deb is a collection of portraits of individuals who, to him, represent the face of the new India, struggling to realize its de facto power in the global economy. There are portraits of the ubiquitous Indian engineers as a new kind of social caste; of a Gatsby-esque mogul who takes advantage of the hunger among Indians for professional credentials via his questionable management schools; of a from the Northeast near the Burmese border eager to carve out a future for herself in Delhi's "f&b" or food and beverages industry. They collectively serve as stark reminders that even as India spawns new millionaires every year, folks who snap up luxury brands with aplomb to reconfirm their status, the numbers of those who still struggle to eke out a living, like the hordes of migrant workers, grow even more rapidly, as does the wealth gap. It's the untold story of the transformation of the "BRIC" nations, and Deb paints a detailed and compelling portrait; what is to be done, he wonders, with the 400 million Indians who cannot become software engineers? Simply because farming is less productive doesn't mean that encouraging its dramatic transformation is the correct approach, at least insofar as social stability is concerned. From outside countries like India and China, we can look on at the transformations they are experiencing and see the risks -- that they are creating a world like that of Victorian London, divided between the very affluent merchant classes and the somewhat prosperous (or at least respectable middle classes) and an almost-Dickensian underclass. But as with environmental issues, those critiques aren't likely to be heeded; perhaps Deb's will, given his nationality. Still, this is far from a flawless book. Made up of five different profiles, with the overview and the broader messages introduced obliquely, it's choppy and sometimes Deb gets distracted, wandering off into his own ruminations, or making the same point over and over again. (One minor gripe -- figures throughout are given Indian style, in crore or lakh rupees, with a lakh being 100,000 and a crore 10 million. That may be common in Indian English, but Deb is writing for a much wider audience, and aside from one initial footnote, translating these numbers mentally first into the appropriate numbers of rupees and then into dollars was a major pain. Footnotes would have been just dandy...) More importantly, The book was in serious need of a more clearly presented thesis, one that the reader could bear in mind while reading each of Deb's mini-profiles. I've started reading a galley of Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy, which -- as it deals with the ongoing Maoist insurgency within India, rarely reported -- will serve as a kind of companion piece to this. This was for my 11 in 11 challenge.

Started reading my library copy of Lucky Break by Esther Freud, which should have been my September ER book but still hasn't arrived. I don't think I've been missing all that much. After 60 pages or so, I'm underwhelmed by both the story and the characters. It just feels like the author saying, oooh, I love this world, so I'll write about it. I'll give it another shot, but after the seriousness of Deb's book and Funder's novel I need something light and undemanding, so I've picked up the ARC of James Grippando's new thriller, the kind of book that the phrase "action-packed" was coined to describe. Meanwhile, I need to keep reading Proust; our book circle is meeting on Thursday and there's little chance I'll have finished, but need to make an effort. Won't go if I'm still in any pain, though.

206: upcoming spy thriller by Alex Berenson (harumph, he's a business reporter that has carved out a dual identity -- can't I do the same??)
Well, can you?
213: the gap between what I was able to do and what had to be done widened every year... It's as if medical insurance only covered preventative care and treatment for broken limbs and flu.
Yeesh. Never had a dental plan, was completely unaware.
I read a review of The Beautiful and the Damned somewhere recently (New Yorker maybe?), that registered it in my mind. Now it's on the official wishlist. Thanks for a useful critique.

qebo -- I'm trying!! I talked to my agent yesterday and it seems that one of the reasons that book #2 hasn't found a home yet is that I don't have a platform; that me as a writer is not associated automatically with the subject. Maybe I need to write a financial thriller?? That's what Grippando has done, kinda, although he's borrowing from the headlines pretty indiscriminately.

I really don't think dental plans are worthy buying on your own. It's almost impossible to derive enough benefit from them to offset the cost of the policies. (Probably different if it's a family policy, but not an individual policy.) If you get it as a company benefit, well, that's fabulous.

Just hope that the jaw-ache isn't a symptom of something more ominous. Def. on the agenda for 2012 is finding some kind of affordable healthcare.

>204 Chatterbox:: Suz, thank you for that detailed report on Death Comes to Pemberley. I think I'll get it from the library. Lol. I was kind of thinking along those lines anyway. From what I had read about it, I doubted that it would merit a reread which is my new standard for "purchased new" books. I have a long enough list as it is.

I'm another one that is ready for 2012. I've had some ups -- and some real downers this year. May we ALL have a Happy New Year!

Donna, yes, that's my criteria -- actually, multiple re-reads, and/or an interest in referring back to it, or if it's a book by a favorite author that I just can't rationalize not having in my personal library. For instance, I was hoping to get the new book in Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series from either Vine or ER, but it wasn't offered, so I ended up getting it on Kindle -- still a discount from the "real" price. But even though I had to return Reamde to the library when I didn't get to it over an unexpectedly busy Thanksgiving, I'm refusing to buy it.

OK, off to boot Molly-the-cat off the sofa so I can occupy it and do some more reading...

How's your toothache, Suz? The hubster has had a tooth crowned 3 times in the last 3 years, and his dentist recommended an implant or a bridge, but our dental insurance doesn't cover much of the $4,000 ticket.

Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well, Suz.

It has never made sense to me that health benefits don't include dental costs. It's just not logical, particularily with preventative care.

The toothache has abated but spread, Caro, if that makes sense. Instead of an acute tooth pain, it's more of the kind of ache that you feel after a fall, lower down in my jaw near the chin -- not actually painful but tender. I'm hoping that will be less painful tomorrow, and I'll be able to postpone a dental visit until I can afford it. Yes, I probably need multiple implants, but that will never be possible, financially. That price for a bridge is reasonable and he should prob do it, but implants can run $8k per tooth or more. I know several people who are convinced that, being in their 50s or so and never having had a high enough salary to do the magnitude of work required, are now in even more dire shape than I. The teaching clinics also don't tend to accept patients that need a lot of complex work -- they want people who need a straightforward root canal.

Joanne, in the UK the NHS offers dental care as well, I believe. Canada still doesn't. Even if the dental care policies took the same approach as the healthcare ones, it would be reasonable. If your doctor comes to you and says you need $50,000 or orthopaedic surgery to save your leg or something, let's say after a skiing accident or perhaps because you have diabetes, insurance for many people will pick up the lion's share. If your dentist tells you you need $50,000 of dental work, you'll get no more than $2,500 of that covered per year, even though the long-term alternative might be dentures. There aren't that many people who would need that, but for those who do it would make an incredible difference.

Not that Canadian healthcare is flawless. My friend Nora, for instance, can't get her Nexium for side-effects of her chemo and other cancer treatments, covered by Canadian government insurance. The good part? All the surgery, chemo, herceptin, etc. have been covered without her needing to worry. She was en route to surgery within a week of diagnosis, which was only a week after she found the lump. Stories about massive delays and rationing of healthcare don't jibe with anything I hear from anyone I know. My friend's partner gets gout treatment promptly (sorry, Richard); my brother even got elective back surgery quickly.

Wow, Proust really works as a narcoleptic. 50 pages and I was off in a two-hour nap.

Yes, Canadian health care is nice but doesn't cover everything. I didn't have dental coverage or prescription coverage until my fiance got hired with the military and his work benefits cover that now.
But when I was hospitalized last year it was fully covered, but I paid for the prescriptions.

I have never attempted Proust before .. maybe I should try it before a dayshift when I need to sleep well ;)

#221, very true on the dental/prescription; the upside is that the prescriptions tend to be a bit cheaper. My migraine medication that costs me $483 here per month would cost me $105 in Toronto. When I tried to see if I could get Nexium for Nora here, it would have been 2x what she ended up paying in Ottawa. There's no perfect system...

Proust is kinda growing on me, but it's dense and requires a lot of attention. Think I'm going to go off and read something lighter for a little while and start doing some work.

There is NHS dental care here but you still have to pay for treatment unless you qualify for an exemption, one way to do so is to be pregnant or have had a baby in the last 12 months, so I went to the dentist quite a lot during my last maternity leave. Also, and more seriously, only a few dentists actually offer NHS treatment rather than practising privately.

Well, keep your fingers crossed I can find something affordable on the healthcare front. The only individual policy available in NY state is now nearly $2,000 and would go up another 8% after I turn 50 next year. Dental at $350 a month is just not happening at all, makes no sense. Add to that the fact that no health policy will cover my medications...

Hawk of May
Kingdom of Summer
and
In Winter's Shadow

by Gillian Bradshaw is the trilogy I like to point people to who are interested in Arthurian legend.

This series (recently back in print and Kindle) shows the period with all the blood and the mud and the weather not prettied up for modern consumption.

And it faces Arthur's sin of incest squarely and honestly - which a lot of the Arthurian retellers try to burke.

Great writing - called YA but a lot more than that - and great storytelling.

Stewart did tackle the incest issue -- only she put the blame squarely on the evil sister (in her version, Morgause) rather than anything willful or even conscious on Arthur's part. I'll keep my eyes open for Bradshaw when I feel ready to venture back into Arthurian waters...

Rejoining your thread probably just as you're about to start a new one, but hey... ;o)

Hmmm. Minotaur sounds interesting to me, despite your dislike. Probably I've got far too much on my TBR pile already though...

#36 - 38 Thanks for the Wlifred Owen quote - we read a lot of WWI poetry at school and he was always my favourite (now why does he have no touchstone?) - closely followed by Sassoon, since you mention him...

#41 Oh, Between Two Seas is definitely going on the Wishlist!

#47 Lovely Cornwall pics - thought they looked familiar. I do love that part of England...

vicinity of #106 I so agree about seeing Shakespeare performed and reading poetry aloud. I've never been much of a poetry reader, but there are definitely certain poets or poems that do hit my buttons - and the reading aloud makes such a big difference. I suppose that makes sense given the great importance of rhythm...

Re Kenneth Branagh, ffortsa, he is excellent at Shakespeare, isn't he? - just has a knack of making the language sound natural. He and Emma Thompson are easily the best thing about the otherwise mediocre film adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing (as Beatrice and Benedick - so, it's true, they do have a headstart in easily the best characters...)

...ah and Suzanne, I spy I'm belatedly saying more or less what you did in #110 - I'll agree I do enjoy that version of Much Ado, but I always end up skipping through most of the scenes without at least one of the Bs...! Keanu Reeves may have a thankless role in Don John, but I don't think he could be more wooden if he tried...

#110 also, very interesting your thoughts on foreign languages vs Shakespearean English etc. I don't usually have too much trouble with Shakespearean English and I think it's for exactly the reason you describe - although I'm not a natural linguist at all, I'm quite good at picking up the gist of what people are saying in other languages and it's the same with Shakespeare. I'm sure that there are things that I'm missing (particularly with the Shakespeare plays I don't know well), but I'm happy to let them them lie as long as I understand the drift!

I'd also add that I think knowing even a little Latin is hugely helpful both with foreign languages, with Shakespeare and with new words...

#114 Oh yes, another recommendation for David Tennant's Hamlet! ...and the 1996 film of Twelfth Night (my favourite) with Ben Kingsley as Feste, Imogen Stubbs as Viola and Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia - which I think is wonderful...

#164 I like the sound of the children's books by E.M. Almedingen, particularly Too Early Lilac - I've never come across her before. "non-bodice ripper historical novels" ;o)

#190 I'm with you on The Last Enchantment - I quite enjoyed it, but nothing like as much as The Hollow Hills and (particularly) The Crystal Cave - it's one reason why, despite my love of the latter (and much rereading), I still don't seem to have got around to reading The Wicked Day. I'm just less interested in Arthur than I am in Merlin... Was thinking I might (re)read the lot this Christmas though...

#194 Definitely read The Crystal Cave! ;o)

#204 Ah, was looking forward to your comments on Death Comes to Pemberley - I've steered clear of Austen "sequels" since I had my fingers badly burned reading Emma Tennant's Pemberley years ago. I have, however, had a copy of The Watsons by Austen "and Another" for years that I thought was worth a shot (The Watsons being deserted and only a couple of chapters long, so not attached to quite as much affection as the novels). Finally read it this weekend. Definitely a mistake.

...BUT, when I saw that P.D. James had joined the bandwagon, I actually thought I might give it a shot - I've not read any of her books (not being much of a crime buff), but something about switching genres makes me feel like it might be OK... Your comments make me think that perhaps I should avoid it, but I think I'm going to risk it anyway - library it is!

#223 Luci, I don't think that's entirely true - locally to me, there are lots of NHS dentists, they've just all got huge waiting lists ;o) My dentist is NHS, but, as you say, the fact that I'm employed means that I still have to pay, although it's only £24 for a check up which sounds considerably less thank Suzanne's!

Suzanne, sorry about your teeth/migrane issues - I do hope the toothache starts to ease up before you have to cave in to go to the dentist.

Suzanne, even getting my dental insurance through my employer for free (or at least as a benefit I don't have to deduct for), it's almost not worth it. The $2500 limit applies through them as well. However, my implant, as I recall, was partly covered by my medical plan, since it was the result of some surgery below the gumline. Not that I was happy about that, but every little bit helps.

And I just wanted to say I don't know how you do it. I would be a basket case without medical insurance, even if nothing went wrong with me for the year. It's the one thing I've been very careful to maintain when changing jobs, and the one time I was fired. Did you catch the episode when the new congresspeople were seated, when a new Republican, tea-party type stood up and insisted that he couldn't possibly wait 30 days for his insurance to kick in? Horrible, isn't it, when real life collides with principles?

There were parts of 'Swann in Love' that put me right out, i agree. It takes work to untangle some of those long sentences and paragraphs and find the subject and predicate.

I'm still laboring through "Combray", I'm afraid, may just jump to "Swann in Love", which if I recall correctly, is the mandatory part to have read by tomorrow night.

Wow, Fliss, fab long post & great to see you back on the thread! I just got a copy of Almedingen's Frossia from the library today. Not sure I'll get it read before the holidays, but one never knows!

A quick update of mostly quite underwhelming books.

The standout was definitely Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, read for my RL book circle even though I didn't manage to get there to discuss it. This is to most novels what a repast at Maxim's circa 1900 or chez Henry Tudor circa 1530 must be compared to nouvelle cuisine -- richly detailed and occasionally almost smothering, but just when you feel you're suffocating in verbiage, the narrative line emerges clearly and vividly. I'm still not entirely sure why there are so many Proust maniacs, but the vivid portrayals of characters and situations will be enough to ensure that I forge ahead with the rest of the massive oeuvre, a translation of which I've had sitting on my shelves since the mid 1980s, when my father brought them back to Tokyo for me after I had complained about the dearth of books in a language I could read. 4.3 stars.

Speaking of Tokyo, was very disappointed in Tokyo Fiancee by Amelie Nothomb. Let's leave aside lots of little inaccuracies and silly comments that seem to be intended to look smart but really aren't. This was a memoir/novel that didn't endear me at all to the author, not because of the overall theme or the writing, but simply her perspective on the world. Early on, Amelie meets a young American woman, to whom she takes instant offense: "her presence obliged us to speak English, which made her hateful to me. I disliked her even more when I realized that she had been invited in the hope of making me feel more at ease." She recounts an odd experience at a Japanese inn on Sado Island, where an old man lurking to see her get out of the bath pretends not to understand her when she tells him to scram, responding he doesn't speak English. This, she comments scathingly, was a blatant lie. In fact, anyone who has spent any time in Japan in the 1980s probably had countless experiences of Japanese people being so freaked out to hear a foreigner speaking their language that they assumed that the individual must be speaking English and thus made that kind of reply. This happened to people with only a basic knowledge of Japanese (my most memorable one was when an almost hysterical taxi driver nearly ran into a concrete wall while screaming he didn't speak English) but also to a close friend who grew up attending Japanese schools in Osaka and sounded Japanese over the phone. She writes that there are almost no ski resorts in Japan -- there are hundreds, and certainly most of them existed when she set this book, in 1989. I know, I skiied at several of them. And so on, and so on. Maybe she's trying to make some kind of point, but it falls flat. Perhaps this book would be of interest to someone who has never been to Japan and wants to read a literary cross-cultural romance, but nothing about it rang true. Amelie claims to love Japan, but shows no sign of understanding it, even as she claims to cherish it -- and I don't think this was ironic. This left me in no hurry whatsoever to read any more of her books, regardless of how lionized she is. I rated it 2.9 stars, but purely for the writing, which often shines. But it wasn't an enjoyable read for me, on any level at all. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

My mindless novels didn't hold up too well, either.

Need You Now by James Grippando was an effort to turn Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme into the basis for a financial crime/suspense novel. It kind of worked, although I was nearly halfway through the ARC before I figured out what he was trying to do. It was intriguing on one level, but also overly complex: Grippando muddles up the plot and makes it unduly hard to follow for this kind of book by introducing all kinds of levels of rogues and malefactors. That made for a crowded and noisy plot, so the only solution was to follow the action, which offered some suspense, but not enough to keep me engaged. I kept putting the book down and not returning to it for at least a day. Meh. 3 stars.

The Christmas Angel by Marcia Willett was better, but only because I knew what to expect from this "hen lit" author -- a novel as soft as a soft-focus painting by Thomas Kinkade. It worked for me as a feel-good/feel-better novel early this week when I was in too much pain to focus much on anything serious. But I think one of the only reasons I keep reading Willett's books is that she often sets them in Cornwall, my fave place in the world, and that they are feel-good books. No real surprises in this novel of a group of people linked together by their various ties to an aging community of Anglican nuns near the north Cornish community of Boscastle. 3 stars, out of a probable maximum of 3.5 (I'm unlikely ever to rate a Willett book more highly than that.) That said, some of her earliest books, like The Courtyard are still good to re-read when I'm in the mood for something light.

Hoping that the next batch of books will be more rewarding! I'm kind of hungry for another book like The Cat's Table, I confess.

I hope you are feeling better this weekend. I've taken note of a few of the Arthurian and historical novels talked about further up the thread. I remember that you weren't that taken with Natasha Solomon's The Novel in the Viola, I'm currently reading it and am completely underwhelmed, I can't believe this is the same writer who wrote the fabulously quirky Mr Rosenblum's List.
Anyway wishing that you find a hidden gem in your next batch of reading.

Kerry, thanks. Yes, am feeling mostly better, but just overwhelmed by stuff. Oh well, just need to find a hidden surge of energy as well as a hidden gem of a book! And yes, The Novel in the Viola struck me as a bit banal, ultimately. But I'd be very interested in hearing what you think of Anna Funder's novel, All That I Am, which impresses me more the more I think back on it.

Hi Suz - I'm just cruising through trying to catch up on what I've missed... Sorry your books have been a bit disappointing lately. I have a couple of books by Willett on my "fluff" shelves - haven't read either one yet. The descriptions remind me a bit of Rosamunde Pilcher, whom I loved when I was about 13 or 14, I think... I hold on to some books that I think would be good if I ever came down with the flu or something. Fortunately, that's never happened (knock wood), but unfortunately, it means I don't clear things off the shelves... Enough rambling. Have a good day!

Books du jour:

O Pioneers is the first book by Willa Cather that I read, and it was enough to encourage me to read more widely among her works. This story of Alexandra Bergson, who arrives with her family as a young child from Sweden in the Nebraska farmlands, is compelling on many levels, particularly when Cather deals with the ties between people and their settings -- Alexandra, who is utterly at home and in the right place, her two brothers, Oscar and Lou, who are dissatisfied and perhaps ill-suited to farming but have no talent for anything else, and the youngest, Emil, who as he reaches adulthood, is clearly the one member of the Bergson family able and prepared to tackle the new country on its own terms on a wider stage. Until, that is, tragedy intervenes. The nature of that tragedy, and Alexandra's response to it, probably reflects the manners and mores of the time in which she was writing -- I found her ideas of justice to be a bit bizarre, honestly. But overall, I was fascinated by the small character sketches throughout this book, of the mishmash of French, Bohemians, Germans and Scandinavians who have tried to carve out a future for themselves in a land that no one had ever tried to bend to his will before. 4 stars. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

Also finished, for entertainment value & because it's due back at the library next week with no renewal possible, The Litigators by John Grisham. Immensely predictable, and it reads almost like a composite of a few of his earlier books, but by the time I was halfway through I was entertained enough to invest another hour or two to finish it on a Saturday afternoon. There are a few Grisham novels that are can't-put-'em-down good, like The Firm, Runaway Jury and even The Brethren, but this ain't one of them. 2.9 stars, OK for an airplane (I read chunks of this while waiting endlessly for a subway today), but not really recommended unless you're a die-hard Grisham fan.

... and one more

Love Lies Bleeding by Jess McConkey is a perfectly adequate "woman in peril" novel: this is the kind of book that is the reason libraries exist because you wouldn't want to spend a lot of money on it. This was a mindless and entertaining read that kept my brain from brooding on real life for a few hours. Samantha (Sam) is sent to a community by a lake to recover from an attack that has left her lame; she emerged from her coma only to find herself still suffering blackouts, nightmares, etc. But is there some reason why she starts imagining something very specific about the cottage she is living in and one of its previous owners; something that rattles those around her? And why are her father and fiance being so controlling? OK, this is very banal and predictable, a bit in the tradition of some of Barbara Michaels' novels; if it weren't for the improbable twist or two along the way it would get a 3.5 or 3.6 instead of a 3.3. Good escapist fare. And now one more book can be returned to the library!!

#232: I gave up on my chance to read All that I am a while back when I had it out of the library though I do want to read t as I liked Stasiland. Probably try to tackle it next year.

I'm in the mood for some mindless reading, I'm finding it hard going on quite a few of my current reads.

#230 Fascinated by your comments on Tokyo Fiancee - Amelie Nothomb is a writer I just can't make up my mind about - I've only read a few of her books but I found them simultaneously nasty and absorbing to read. The not-quite exception (not quite as nasty) being the more autobiographical Fear and Trembling, which I had a less complicated relationship with - but then I've never been to Japan. Have you read it? I'd be interested in your thoughts if you have, given your comments.

Funnily enough, the overriding impression I've had from all 3 that I've read is that she is not a person I'd particularly like to meet, so was amused that you say exactly the same thing.

#235 Ah, there's nothing better than a fluffy novel when you feel the need a bit of escapism!

Many sympathies for all the teeth related trauma you've been having lately - hope the massive bills at least fix the problem! ...and that you find a good, satisfying read soon!

Fliss, fascinating thoughts on Nothomb. I just read the reviews of Fear and Trembling and had to laugh out loud. I worked within a large Japanese corporation (Nikon, aka Nippon Kogaku KK) as a summer job for two summers and then as a part-time job when I was at grad school, so it sounds as if she skewers the absurdities of that. By the same token, though, I have very little interest in reading it. I think what grated on me most was Nothomb's weird combination of "oh, I'm so in touch with the Japanese soul" stuff and her writing showing that whenever that conflicted with some other belief, etc., she really wasn't! That said, I just remembered last night the difficulty that she wrote of having with her language classes, where she was harangued for asking questions. At my grad school, where I was taking some seminars toward an MA, I was told by both fellow students and my teachers that I talked too much for a woman and asked too many questions; my Japanese teacher just refused to teach me because when I didn't understand quirky things in grammatical rules, I asked questions and that infuriated her. Sigh...

Good mindless reading is hard to come by...

Will be back to update my reading later; struggling with deadlines and a cold, which is very boring...

Thanks for the heads up on Tokyo Fiancee, Suz ... I'm definitely keeping away from that one. I get very annoyed with writers who write about cultures they clearly either don't understand or adopt a superior condescension to. So brilliant writing notwithstanding, I'll pass.

Sorry to hear you're battling a cold .... hot tea with honey?

Yes, doing the hot tea thing... Colds are boring and annoying, aren't they? Not sick enough to real feel like you can just focus on feeling better, just miserable enough to wish you could. And at every stage, I keep thinking this is the worst -- I'm at the beginning now, with v. sore throat, shivery feverish feelings, etc, and admit I'm yearning for when it's just a stuffed up nose. At which point, I will doubtless realize how misguided I was, etc. etc.

Ugh, sore throat is the worst.

Suz did you ever read Lost Girls and Love Hotels? Someone sent it to me a few years ago. Also a story semi-autographical of an American girl who speaks Japanese living and loving in modern Japan.

Thought she got modern Japan down pretty well though the book is nothing much, plot-wise.

Sorry to hear you're feeling ill, Suz - I'm at the tail end of one of those myself, and actually took yesterday off to recover. Of course, I was on the computer link to work for a few hours anyway - bah humbug.

If it's any consolation, the thing we both seem to have caught is very much going around, and should be gone in a couple of days. Fingers crossed.

I think I only owe reports on two more books, but I'm not sure! Anyway, here they are:

Hand me Down World was a mostly very good novel by Lloyd Jones, one of whose prior books was nominated for the Booker. What intrigued me was the structure -- when we first meet the anonymous narrator, we see her only through the eyes of others, the people she encounters on her journey across the Mediterranean to Germany, where her baby son was taken by its father. (not a spoiler; that's in the first chapter.) We see her through their eyes, a mysterious figure on whom they graft their own preconceptions. The final section, told in the narrator's own words, is revelatory because she is now reading these testimonies (that's how they read and what they are) for the first time, and matching them up with her own recollections, making them fully-rounded. Those two segments really make the book fascinating to read, as an example of how we can't really know another person and our temptation to believe we understand them. Truth vs. reality. The middle segment, a longer contribution by someone named "Defoe", a lodger at the home where "Ines" is working as a maid in Berlin, really didn't work for me, and knocked it down a few points. It's obviously intended to bridge the two segments and provide more food for thought on the ways people fail to communicate and misunderstand motives and actions, but while it introduced us to a more unscrupulous side of "Ines", it was too long to really "click" in the same way. 4.1 stars, could have been 4.5, but still recommended.

Walking With the Comrades is written by a very, very angry and very, very sarcastic Arundhati Roy. Her diagnosis of India's maladies is squarely on target, and very biting, but in this selection of three essays that revolve around the Naxalite/Maoist rebellions, particularly among India's oppressed tribal peoples, she over-romanticizes these rebels and even acknowledging that she is doing so, glamorizes their own violence as somehow legitimate. That makes this narrative as troubling in its own way as the "official" truth of Indian government propaganda and the country's horrific inequalities. She'll come out with phrases that just jar, such as: "I have a sensor for this sort of thing, and I am impressed" when writing about the relations between the young comrades in the forest; "from the way she hugs me, I can tell she's a reader" (really???? how???). On the other hand, this tells a fascinating counter-narrative about India, where 1.5 million children die every year before they reach their first birthday. So it's probably as valuable as it is annoying... 3.6 stars.

Just another quick update. The cold, which was a bad one, is finally abating, but has left me with my first earache since I was ten years old. Which is a lot of decades... Which means a trip to a doctor on Monday (assuming I can find one who will see me without insurance; no luck with that yet -- us uninsured go to the back of the ranks, with appointments in January...) to get antibiotics. I'm so fed up. This month is the perfect storm; a perfect end to a rather unpleasant year.

Time's Legacy by Barbara Erskine was amusing and, if not brain candy, at least reading purely for entertainment. Erskine has a kind of formula involving the supernatural, time-travel (kinda), parallel narratives and demonic forces threatening her heroines in past and present. This novel revolves around the ancient lore that in the lost years before Jesus took up his ministry, he travelled to Glastonbury with his relative, Joseph of Arimathea and studied with the Druids. It's hard not to go pshaw at this book on any number of fronts, but it turned out to be a decent read. 3.8 stars.

Never Say Die by Susan Jacoby is a book that all 30 year olds should read (but probably won't) and that will scare the wits out of any 50 year old (or anyone older). It's a sharp and pointed reminder that despite all the propaganda and hype, the odds are that the longer we live, the more unpleasant those lives will be post 80, 85, 90. Sure, there are exceptions -- but you can't count on being one of 'em. And that has policy consequences. A big plus, IMO, is that Jacoby focuses on separating the hype from the reality and largely leaves us to figure out what the implications are, although she points out the stupidity of research into prolonging life without extra research into everything from Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Mandatory reading, given that those of us lucky enough to make it out of our 60s and 70s alive will be heading here. But deeply depressing... 4.2 stars. For my 11 in 11 challenge, as was the next book:

Vienna Waltz is a sometimes fun and lively historical mystery/romance by Tracy Grant, aka Teresa Grant. The author has written two other novels, published more than a decade ago, which I read and enjoyed; this time, not only has she changed her name but those of her two main characters, so it's just as well I had forgotten most of the plot details! This one is set during the great Congress of Vienna, when the European powers met to divvy up territory after Napoleon's defeat; a Russian princess is murdered and the hero and heroine must find the culprit. The usual ups and downs ensue. Ultimately, a forgettable plot but an intriguing setting, which has made me resolve to read a non-fiction book on the subject. I was also reminded of how interesting a character Talleyrand was, and my curiosity about his niece by marriage, Dorothee of Courland, was also piqued. Alas, her memoirs extend to (gulp) six volumes... 3 stars.

Sorry I've not been visiting any threads, but between work and battling bugs & stuff, energy levels are rock-bottom, to put it mildly.

Sorry that 2011 is not ending on a positive upswing for you, Suz. Here's to a better next year!

Katie, thanks. Sorry to gripe; it's just that I feel I've been nibbled to death by ducks. Nothing catastrophic, but every week something going wrong -- a bad cold, a bad migraine, collapsing phones, work vanishing, blah blah blah.

Here's to 2012!

One more book finished tonight:

Wit's End by James Gaines is a quasi-history of the "Vicious Circle" of the Round Table at the Algonquin Hotel, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, etc. Group bios are always perilous endeavours, and this book doesn't work on that level at all, but then I think Gaines was more trying to provide an overview of this group and how they came together and interacted. It's sketchy, so we see the superficial interactions but never really gain insights into what drove this collection of wits and journalists. He does make a convincing case for the argument that they were very much of their time, when the art of "public relations" was being born, and people began to be famous for being famous -- at least many of these writers were skilled, if not always as much so as those who didn't form part of their very closed circle. About a third of the book is made up of a series of fabulous illustrations. 3.4 stars, not nearly as good as Gaines's book on Bach & Frederick the Great. I'll have to look further afield for a book on the Round Table circle, although this book has kind of convinced me that they may not warrant the attention that the Bloomsbury types got -- with reason. For my 11 in 11 challenge.

Hard not to worry just a little bit about yr. overall state, Suzanne, I really do hope that 2012 is going to be better.

And yet -- I think the Algonquin group were aware of themselves as being seen as a group, and this in that Schrodinger sort of way had an effect on them even if they weren't as close, like the Bloomsberries or the Transcendentalists or other more cohesive groups - this can be said of any group of artists who are recognized by a critic or the public or whatever, while they are still very active, as representing something original or different or whatever..... of course, some of them were pretty good friends. I was a bit obsessed with that bunch in my very late teens and early twenties.

Echoing Sib's comment, I do hope you can find some safety-net components. Have you checked into the Free Lancer's Union (or whatever it's called). I would assume you qualify for membership, and their group insurance might be (sort of) affordable. Not counting dental care, of course, which seems to be outlandishly expensive with or without insurance.

Sorry if this post is naive. I know a friend of mine who is free-lance doesn't earn enough to be eligible, which defeats the purpose, IMO.

Glad to hear you liked Hand Me Down World, Suz. That's already in my TBR Tower and I was planning on reading it over the Christmas weekend.

How's the earache? I'm sorry to hear that you're afflicted with this, just as your cold is abating. I certainly wish you a much better and healthier 2012.

Will you be joining us on Dec 26, do you think?

Caro, will try to join y'all on Boxing Day, energy levels/health permitting.

Judy, I did have Freelancer's Union insurance for a year, and then lost it when I was working on the book, as writing a book didn't meet their standards of being a "freelancer" (you have to have written for a certain # of enterprises, and I no longer had enough clients to qualify after one of them shut down and I hadn't done actual work for a couple of others while writing the book.) I think I'm now just able to qualify again, with the new freelance editing gig -- you have to provide work samples AND a letter from each entity proving that you have worked for them in the last 12 months or last calendar year, I can't remember which. The process is a big one, and it's complicated by the fact that my income flows through an LLC, which may also affect my eligibility. Anyway, I've started it, so here's hoping...

Lucy, yes, the group was VERY self-aware -- indeed, Gaines comes back repeatedly to the issue of "logrolling" or the extent to which they promoted each others' work and/or denigrated that of non-members. I got the impression that he, too, had been a fan of the concept, but in his case when he dug into it, had found less there to admire than he had hoped. There was certainly an element of the disillusioned admirer in the tone of the writing.

Sticking to bed & rest as much as possible today. I've got books; all I have to file is my mini-column for Monday, about 400 words on gold & potash. (Don't ask...) And Cassie the deli kitten (she's the cat I acquired as an 8 week old kitten from the local deli, whose owners were prepared to kill her because she was "killing" bags of potato chips rather than mice in their basement -- the feline version of being a galley slave??) has taken up residence at my side. She doesn't like being downstairs too much -- too many strange people come to the door or walk past on the street and she loathes other people -- but she follows me from point A to point B upstairs, and in the last few weeks hasn't left my side at night. We're still negotiating who gets to use the extra pillow, though. She's very comforting, as only animals can be.

Cassie the potato chip bag terrorist - I love it! I'm glad you rescued her from a horrible end, Suz. Certainly hope I'll get to see you next Monday....... even though the thought of Christmas hurtling towards me is frightening.

I hope you can get into a doctor soon Suz and the Freelancer Union insurance comes through. That's so funny about your potato chip attacking kitten!

When you find the good non-fiction book about the divvying up after Napoleon's defeat, let me know. I was keen to read more about that period after I finished War and Peace, but haven't yet.

Whoops, went to look at the Freelancers Union site, and now I don't qualify on two counts -- I don't have a certificate of some sort for my LLC and I haven't earned $10k in the last six months. The fact that I have invoices out doesn't count, as proof of payment is required. Looked at other options again, and those really just boil down to the BlueCross/BlueShield at about $2k a month in premiums. There are a couple of other plans that are hospital-only coverage, but those are useless, and the HealthyNY plans that are aimed at low-wage people, which is me some months but not others -- they aren't designed for freelancers, that's for sure.

That freelancers thing is ridiculous. We can't get to universal coverage soon enough, can we? I keep forgetting if you are a US or Canadian citizen these days. Anyway, it stinks. And I don't know how you live so frugally, either, especially in this town. You are definitely a tougher lady than I am.

That said, will we be seeing you on the 28th?

I'm a dual, Judy. And the trick this year has been lots of peanut butter and Kraft Dinner, sadly. But it did get cold enuf today indoors as well as out that I was forced to turn on the heat again. I'm OK until indoor temps hit the high/mid 50s, it seems. It's either be hyper-vigilant about the heating, or pay $300 a month in gas bills or even more.

the 26th or 28th??? I had the 26th down...

Cushla, the book I'm thinking of -- I don't know if it's good yet -- is Vienna 1814 by David King.

Yes, of course the 26th. My sister is coming in the 28th - I had a little brain slip there.

Judy, just saw the thread. Nope, I won't be going as the choice was a dim sum place. I simply can't touch Chinese food because of the MSG issue; my neurologist has warned me off that & Vietnamese totally after my last bad headaches. And honestly, wouldn't be much fun if I just sat there at watched y'all eat!

258: I don't know how the decision got made, but surely it can be unmade.

Suz : It's the 26th. Please check the thread. We've changed the venue so that you can join us.

Suz - sorry to read that you are not in the happiest of places everything considered at the moment and I send you positive vibes across the ether hoping that it will be helpful! Seems that your mood is set by the tone of the doleful Rilke poem which prefaces your thread. I trust that the forthcoming holiday and new year find you seeking brighter verse!

btw Jealous that a whole buch of you are able to meet up when my resort would be discuss books with SWMBO who would then insist that I try to find alternative locations for their storage.

Thanks, Caro; appreciate it. The thread had vanished in the last few days; at least, I hadn't been able to pull it up. I just confirmed early this week that the friends I had thought I might spend Boxing Day with are leaving early that afternoon to head somewhere else for the New Year's so I'll see them after they get back.

Paul, ooof, yes, that doesn't sound like a fun "literary" discussion at all! I'm pondering Anna Akhmatova for the next thread, but maybe I'll do limericks in 2012!!