I just got your parcel. What a treat!
Running in the Family, of course, looks as wonderful as I hoped it would be, and Watching the English will be great fun to read. I'd heard the title but really nothing else about it, so I'm looking forward to discovering a new book/author.

Thank you very much!

Mona

posted by monarchi at 7:47 am (EST) on Sep 20, 2008

Hi,
Just popped by to thank you for recommending Funny Boy (several months ago now, after my unhappy Carl Muller experience). I finally got hold of a copy - it arrived yesterday from BookMooch, and I can't put it down.

Rachel

posted by rachbxl at 3:36 am (EST) on Sep 9, 2008

You suggested that I should "start a thread" to generate interest in this Chinese American history group. I don't know how to do that. Any suggestions?
gary

posted by paladin at 2:50 pm (EST) on Sep 7, 2008

Just passing by.
You are a member of some really interesting groups, a few for me to check out, and I thought I'd already found all those that I'd like.

posted by reading_fox at 11:19 am (EST) on Sep 3, 2008

Did you like Leila Aboulela's Minaret?.. I really liked it.

posted by Kizzie at 4:06 pm (EST) on Sep 1, 2008

Wandering_Star,
I'd highly recommend Southern Fried Rice is you have an interest in a memoir of a man who grew up in a Chinese laundry in Macon, GA, mid-20th century. As I said, I'm working on a history of Maine's Chinese and I found this memoir of a person who grew up Chinese far away from a Chinatown or cohesive Chinese community interesting both in itself and as a comparison to the situation here in Maine.
gary

posted by paladin at 3:55 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2008

I'm happy you joined me in the Chinese American History group. I'm in the process of doing research for a book on the history of Maine's Chinese community. What's your interest in this subject?
gary w. libby

posted by paladin at 11:09 am (EST) on Aug 30, 2008

Hi. Thanks for your note. It would be great if you become as enthusiastic about Raven as I am. I've had very little luck in proselytizing for his work.

I read Alms in the order published, the order, that is, the order in which they are printed in the three volume set, and didn't find it to be a problem at all. I'm not sure anything would be gained (or lost) by reading them in chronological order.

Best,

David

posted by dcozy at 7:01 pm (EST) on Aug 1, 2008

Yes, I am sorry, I meant to come let you know before now! I am in the midst of buying a house, so I am very limited in my online time. I am just finishing up a book I borrowed from someone else, though, and then I am very excited to read that next. Thanks again!

posted by sussabmax at 11:12 am (EST) on Jul 13, 2008

Oh no! Although I would love to hear Ondaatje read, I'm afraid I no longer own a cassette player.
Would you mind terribly if I took you up on your offer of a paper copy instead?

As far as where to send it, I can send you the address, but I don't think I can accept packages there until September. Maybe I should message you when the date gets closer?

I feel this is all getting rather complicated. Let me know what works for you.

~Mona

posted by monarchi at 6:18 pm (EST) on Jun 21, 2008

Thanks! I'd very much enjoy either a paper or an audio copy of the book, so whatever's easier for you is good for me.
I'm glad to hear it comes so highly recommended.

~Mona

posted by monarchi at 1:47 pm (EST) on Jun 20, 2008

Thanks for adding me to the list for "Mr Y"! I'm looking forward to reading it!

posted by thetometraveller at 12:57 am (EST) on Jun 20, 2008

A book would be great.
Do you still have the copy of Running in the Family listed on your Book Mooch account? I fell in love with Ondaatje when I read Anil's Ghost a few months ago...I'd love to read more.

I'm heading to the post office today. I think it should take 6-10 business days for the book to get to you.
Enjoy!

Mona

posted by monarchi at 12:12 pm (EST) on Jun 16, 2008

"The Genizah at the House of Shepher" *is* already an international bookray, and you can be in on it. I do need you to sign on as a member of Bookcrossing first in order to add you to be on the participant list. Thanks!

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6201...

I see a "wanderingstar" on BookCrossing who lives in Sri Lanka. I'm thinking that is not you!

posted by SqueakyChu at 6:37 pm (EST) on Jun 8, 2008

Hello,
I'm in the US but would be glad to send it along anywhere it needs to go, please add me to the list! Thank you!

Carey

posted by thetometraveller at 10:48 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2008

I'm in the US, but I could probably send it anywhere. Please do add me to the list! I will try very hard not to hoarde the book for myself, much as I like to own my own books, ;-).

posted by sussabmax at 6:35 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2008

Hi,

I would be interested in The End of Mr Y. I'm not a member of bookcrossing, so let me know....

Carey

posted by thetometraveller at 10:36 pm (EST) on Jun 4, 2008

feel free to put my reviews on the wiki!

Thank you! I'll start adding them in now.

posted by InigoMontoya at 7:56 am (EST) on May 19, 2008

Hi wandering_star, I came across your review of Elizabeth Bowen's "The Last September" when I was scanning the cover of the edition I picked up at a library sale yesterday (a beautiful cover, btw - a 1979 edition). I admit to only skimming the review, not wanting to come across spoilers or be too influenced by it, but it seemed like a well-done review (I should go back and give it a thumbs up, eh? *off to do so*). Well. any coming-of-age story of a character named Lois ought to be interesting:-) Thanks for doing that review. Best, Lois

posted by avaland at 9:24 am (EST) on May 17, 2008

Hi. On Go Review That Book!, I've created a group Wiki page to keep track of the progress of the game and the reviews that have been generated. Some may find it easier to read the reviews by having them in one handy place. There's a discussion thread in the group and this is the first Wiki page if you are interested in having a look. To avoid any difficulties with copyright, I'm seeking your consent to add your reviews to the group Wiki page.

posted by InigoMontoya at 8:49 am (EST) on May 9, 2008

Just a quick note to let you know that I sent you the BM book Vale of Tears today. It should make its way across the pond to you in a a fews or so. I hope that you enjoy it. =)

posted by Irisheyz77 at 10:22 am (EST) on Apr 12, 2008

Wandering_star (great name, btw), I was just catching up with the post on the March theme reads (even though, yes I know, it's already april!) and saw that you are a fellow Pym fan. She is such a wonderfully funny and insightful writer, but when I say "the writer Barbara Pym" so many folks have never even heard of her.

posted by megwaiteclayton at 6:07 pm (EST) on Apr 6, 2008

P.S. Glad you enjoyed "Tiny Deaths" also! That story about the little girl being reincarnated as an ashtray stayed with me a long time. Did you leave Rob a note on his profile page? I'm sure he'd love to hear from anyone who has read it. - Lois

posted by avaland at 8:33 am (EST) on Mar 23, 2008

wandering_star, I put the direction for posting pictures including book covers in the 'kitchen' message #100 of the 75 Book Challenge Group. I use photobucket and download a copy of the cover from somewhere to my computer and upload to Photobucket and so on. It seems like a bit of work, and perhaps it is, but I enjoy seeing it - I like to mix up text and graphics (old desktop publishing habit, I suppose). The other day I thought to put them into my challenge thread. I figured I already had most of them in photobucket because I put them on my profile page, so voila! I haven't master getting them all the same size as some seem to, but I'm guessing that if I wanted to put the covers on Photoshop and resize them first there, it would do it but I retain a certain degree of laziness:-) This is a rather long-winded way of pointing you to the message in the kitchen, isn't it? Best, Lois

posted by avaland at 8:30 am (EST) on Mar 23, 2008

Wandering_star (what a lovely user name!),

I'm happy to elaborate on Mary Butts' work to the best of my ability. I can certainly see how my rather gnomic pronouncement on her Taverner novels might have left you wondering whether she's an author worth checking out or one better avoided at all costs! ;-)

I did end up adding 'Armed with Madness' (but not the second Taverner novel, 'The Death of Felicity Taverner') to my year-end top 10 and, while I can't unequivocally recommend it to every reader (those who don't like modernism, literary landscape-painting, or Grail mysticism are best warned off), I think it's a remarkable work, one of great beauty and great strangeness, albeit annoying and exasperating as all hell.

Virginia Woolf termed 'Armed with Madness' "indecent", not because of anything explicitly sexual or socially unseemly in the book, but simply because it was so over-the-top: heavily laden with swoony Grail mysticism, just barely suppressed male-male desire and XX exclusionary homosociality, childishly naive and viciously ugly theories of culture and class (embodied more explicitly and less acceptably in the second Taverner novel, where genuine anti-Semitism is rife), and many long passages elaborately painting landscapes of an idyllic Southern England that never was. The book begins with stand-ins for Adam and Eve (and their friend, Steve ;-)), sunning themselves by the sea, naked, sexless and without sin, and ends with a quite literal crucifixion. It's some seriously weird stuff-I certainly get where Woolf was coming from. But 'Armed with Madness' is also occasionally exquisitely written and compulsively readable. As annoyed as I often was (and was I ever!), I found I couldn't put the book down and had to keep reading to the end.

I'm not sure how illuminating the novel will be if you're only seeking to understand a rural, Southern England long gone (you may want to check out Butts' memoir of her childhood and youth, 'The Crystal Cabinet', instead), but if you enjoy high modernism, lush language, and a curiously hard-eyed, very 20th century pagan sensibility, than I think you might like Mary Butts and even 'Armed with Madness'.

Kind regards,
MT

P.S. If you like historical novels of any kind, but especially those given to introspection in the vein of Broch's 'Death of Virgil' and Yourcenar's 'Memoirs of Hadrian', as well as Lagerkvist's work, I highly recommend reading Butts' two late historical novels: 'The Macedonian' (about Alexander the Great) and 'Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra'. They're both truly superb and I really wish she'd written more like this.

posted by marietherese at 1:09 am (EST) on Mar 9, 2008

Thanks so much for the suggestion, Wandering-star. I will have to read the Barrett book now, after that recommendation.

Cheers,

Karen

posted by kiwidoc at 10:55 am (EST) on Mar 2, 2008

Hello,

I recently joined the All Books Africa Group. As a publisher who has just released a novel about the Angolan Civil War, I thought it might be worth bringing to your attention. Ondjaki's Good morning Comrades has just been released (indeed, i'm not sure amazon has changed it status yet). Ondjaki is a Lusophone writer of international reputation, and our edition of Good morning Comrades introduces him to an English speaking audience for the first time. It will not be the last: Aflame Books in the UK is set to release his fable The Whistler, and I know New Directions is also looking at publishing something by him soon. We expect he will become one of the most celebrated African novelists of his generation.

Anyway, if you would like further information on Comrades, you can chcekc out our website at www.biblioasis.com. It is also available online on amazon and elsewhere, and available through any good bookstore.

Thansk for your time, and I do hope that this was not too intrusive. (We're a small literary press based in Canada, and we're just trying to do whatever we can to let potential readers know about the book.

Best wishes,

Dan Wells

posted by biblioasis at 10:04 pm (EST) on Feb 29, 2008

Interested to see your excellent review of 'The Terrors of Ice and Darkness' which I really enjoyed. Have you any other suggestions like this book or have you read any of Ransmayr's other works? It was really one of the best of 2007 for me.

Cheers,

Karen

posted by kiwidoc at 11:29 am (EST) on Feb 20, 2008

Is your user name taken from the Portishead song of the same name?

posted by poetontheone at 9:19 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2008

I finished the 1000p book I was reading when my santa things came in, so was ripe for a good mystery. read sybil in her grave and loved it! thanks again. I've already passed it on to my friend and neighbor who returned the favor by lending me sue grafton's "T" in hardcover that she hadn't even started yet. now onto the winter queen (I actually didn't get any other "reading" books for my birthday & christmas this year!)
-kate

posted by library_kate at 10:23 pm (EST) on Jan 3, 2008

Hi, Wandering Star

Thanks for your comments about Virginia Woolf's the Waves. I'm putting it aside to read at the end of next term (I'll get to it in mid-April, I hope). From what you said, it sounds totally intriguing.

posted by Nickelini at 6:36 pm (EST) on Dec 27, 2007

I'll let you know how I liked them when I am done. I never would have found these myself, but I would be surprised if I didn't like them.

posted by library_kate at 12:13 am (EST) on Dec 19, 2007

Got my santa thing books today! Thank you! they look really wonderful! I'm looking forward to reading them over the holidays.

posted by library_kate at 4:54 pm (EST) on Dec 18, 2007

I am glad you like it :) The Bengali cookbook sounds great too, I'll have a look into it. Ah, I wished I could have signed my book also, I just stalked one of my professors to have him sign a huge coffee table book on Maya architecture. I think he felt flattered :D

Happy holidays,

É.

posted by elenasimona at 2:35 am (EST) on Dec 18, 2007

Somehow the book title - The Handmaiden's Tale - was dropped from my earlier message. I agree with what you said earlier, too, about being torn between reading for the plot vs reading for an understanding of the text. I find the plot sucks me in too, which, after, all, is what the author is trying to do. The only thing to do is to read it a second time, paying attention to theme, style etc, but, who has the time? Since I've been doing my LT challenge and I've been reading two or more books at once (something I would never do pre-LT), textual elements are more apparent because you are carrying them together in your head and can spot differences straight off.

posted by Bookful at 2:50 am (EST) on Dec 7, 2007

Thanks for your message. I'd never heard of Bookmooch until I checked out your profile, and your list is very interesting. I do love finding new books and authors - like little unwrapped presents. One of my favourite authors is also Margaret Atwood, in fact, is the only book about which I've thought, I'd wish I'd written this.

posted by Bookful at 2:41 am (EST) on Dec 7, 2007

thanks for the recommendation on the book about Trieste; been meaning to get to it and this is a good nudge...

posted by elle.wilson at 9:04 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2007

I love your pic!

posted by varielle at 10:01 am (EST) on Nov 8, 2007

Yes, the dangers of LT!!!!!

posted by avaland at 7:18 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007

So sorry for my late response. I have only read the trilogy but have acquired another one or two for future reading. A friend recommended her to me originally. Have you read Gish Jen's "Love Wife"? - I thought it quite wonderful.

Have you started your own 'read around the world' thread on Reading Globally? Could be fun! I'm not really committed to reading a book from every country so that's why I haven't bothered to start one. Perhaps at some later date.

Best, Lois

posted by avaland at 5:50 pm (EST) on Oct 28, 2007

You're right--I didn't realize how bad the Dewey challenge would be for my TBR pile until I started. I had thought it might encourage me to get through the more obscure ones that I already own, but now I'm just buying and planning to buy even more!

posted by _Zoe_ at 12:08 pm (EST) on Oct 28, 2007

Hi,

I haven't read The Guards yet, so I can't comment on it. I enjoyed London Bridges though and that led me to Simon Raven, as a blurb on the cover compared the two, but I can't say that I saw the similarity, except perhaps in Roses of Picardy. I think Andrew Taylor's MacDougal books have a little of the same vibe.

posted by quartzite at 12:08 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2007

Hello,

In response to your suggestions of Funny Boy, well, it's funny that you mention it. I keep picking it up at the bookstore, but I'm trying to buy fewer books, so it keeps getting back on the shelves somehow. I have Cinnamon Gardens, by the same author, packed in my suitcase for my upcoming trip to Maui. I like to read books set in the tropics when I'm in the tropics.

Thanks for your message.

posted by Nickelini at 12:19 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2007

I just finished Eucalyptus, and you're right, it is a wonderful book. Been reading it sitting outside in a town in Western NSW - I almost felt I was there, swaying in and out of the stories.

posted by goanna at 2:33 am (EST) on Sep 30, 2007

Hi, saw your post in the forum about a love story with 50 apples. I don't know what it is. But you might like Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult. It also has a romance with apples... Have a great day!

posted by VictoriaPL at 9:48 am (EST) on Sep 24, 2007

I love that little wine bar. Don't often get there myself, except when with visitors, you know how it is, I suppose, living in a "tourist" town yourself. Thanks for the tip on book, will look it up. Do get someone to buy you Isolarion. Wishing you a Happy Birthday.

Gerald

posted by botanica at 3:16 am (EST) on Sep 24, 2007

I saw your post about Cookbooks from Ceylon. Just checking in because today I was looking at those from Goa. Really surprised to see Isolarion on our shared books. I thought this was the best book I have read in ages.

Botanica

Gerald
Sintra, Portugal

posted by botanica at 5:37 pm (EST) on Sep 21, 2007