RidgewayGirl and the Museums of Munich -- Part Two

Time for a fresh, new thread!

I really like the museums here in my temporary home. I like them a lot. So I thought I'd combine them with my 2015 Challenge this year. I've also decided that my only real goal for this year is to increase the proportion of books written by women from 50% to 60%. As I've done for a while, I'm doing ten categories with a goal of ten books in each.



Currently Reading



Recently Read



Recently Acquired

Category One.

Books By Women

The Lenbachhaus is the home of The Blue Rider, an expressionist art movement that began in Munich and included Kandinsky, Klee, Marc, Macke and Münter. Gabriele Münter was Wassily Kandinsky's partner and a fellow artist. She remained in Germany and even after he returned to Russia and married, she saved his paintings and many others in the house they'd purchased in Murnau. Their work was considered "degenerate art" by the Nazis, and much was destroyed. Münter saved hundreds of works and donated them to the Lenbachhause in Munich. Recently, the museum was renovated and expanded, giving the works of The Blue Rider room to shine. Since a woman saved art, this is my category for books by women. Also, Gabriele Münter was friends with Marianne von Werefkin, and the warmth of their friendship is apparent in the paintings they did of each other.

Here is a painting Münter did of Werefkin next to Werefkin's self-portrait.



1. Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates
2. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
3. Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes
4. The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
5. Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum

Category Two.

Books set in Cities

The Munich City Museum (Münchner Stadtmuseum) is located in the middle of the old city, within the long gone city walls in an old arsenal and stables. The exhibits I've seen so far include photographs of Greenland by a local artist/actor and a collection of silver pieces made by a local Jewish business that was forced to close when Hitler came to power.



1. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs (Newark, NJ)
2. After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (Baltimore, MD)
3. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (London, UK)
4. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Levy (Los Angeles, CA)
5. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Naples, Italy)
6. Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm (Queens, New York)

Category Three.

Books I Brought with Me to Munich

The State Museum of Egyptian Art (Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst) is full of amazing things carefully taken/looted from Egyptian tombs and brought to Munich. Europe is full of Egyptian things, although there are fewer mummies than there should be due to the idea that pulverized mummies were good for you. I brought a fair number of books with me to Germany and would like to read them.



1. In Matto's Realm by Friedrich Glauser
2. Our Daily Bread by Lauren B. Davis
3. A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash
4. Addition by Toni Jordan

Category Four.

New Books I Have Brought Home

The Haus der Kunst was built by the Nazis to celebrate the kind of art they liked. They burnt the stuff they didn't, called it degenerate and many artists either fled Germany, committed suicide or stopped painting altogether. The Haus der Kunst is a cold, haughty building. It was also one of the very few buildings in Munich to escape bomb damage, due to it being cleverly camouflaged and located at the end of the large Englischer Garten. After the war, it was first used as the recreation and mess hall for American officers (The lines painted on the marble floors to make basketball courts are still visible (although I haven't seen them). There was a debate as to what to do with the building, with many feeling that the best solution was to tear it down. Instead, it's been turned into a venue for visiting exhibitions of cutting edge art, the very stuff Hitler hated.





1. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
2. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
3. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
4. Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Rodi
5. Stoner by John Williams
6. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

Category Five.

Borrowed and Library Books

The Hypo Kunsthalle holds temporary art exhibits that range from artifacts from Pompeii to Jean Paul Gautier. The museum is on Munich's most expensive shopping street, which joins Odeonsplatz to the Marienplatz.



1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
2. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
3. Adam by Ariel Schrag
4. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
5. The Mad and the Bad by Jean-Patrick Manchette

Category Six.

Books that Catch My Eye

The Brandhorst Museum not only houses the kind of art that people want to see (Richard Avedon, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, etc...), but the building is gorgeous. The exterior is covered in ceramic rods in 23 different colors. It's a lot of fun to look at, especially on grey, rainy days, when the historic buildings around it look grim.



1. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
2. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
4. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories by Hilary Mantel
5. Like a Charm edited by Karin Slaughter

Category Seven.

Books Published Within the Last Five Years

The Pinakothek der Moderne has become the museum that I've visited the most since arriving in Munich. It houses art from 1900 to the present, along with excellent temporary exhibits. The two exhibits that I've liked the most were a retrospective of Canadian Jeff Walls' photography and a close look at Ernst Ludwig Kirschner's paintings.



1. The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith (published in 2014)
2. Us by David Nicholls (published in 2014)
3. Let Me Go by Chelsea Cain (published in 2013)
4. A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison (published in 2014)
5. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen (published in 2014)
6. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill (published in 2014)

Category Eight.

Books That Have Been Nominated for an Award

The Alte Pinakothek is an enormous building that was once the largest museum in the world and holds the great masterpieces of Holbein, Dürer, Rembrandt, Raphael and many, many others. Despite its size, only a portion of the collection can be shown as there is a lot of it.





1. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (National Book Award Winner)
2. Outline by Rachel Cusk (Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist)
3. All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (Costa Prize for Fiction Shortlist)
4. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (NYT Notable Book of the Year)
5. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Tournament of Books Shortlist)
6. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (Nebula Award and Hugo Award)

Category Nine.

CATs

The Neue Pinakothek houses art of the 18th and 19th century. The CATs are themed side challenges with a new topic each month. The CATs for this year are the HistoryCAT, the SFFFCAT and the RandomCAT. There is no connection between the Neue Pinakothek and the CATs.



1. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (January HistoryCAT - Myths and Legends)
2. The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher (April RandomCAT)
3. The Day of Atonement by David Liss (May HistoryCAT - Plagues and Disasters)
4. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (May SFFFCAT - Girl Power)
5. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (May RandomCAT - Place name in title)
6. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (June RandomCAT - On the water)

Category Ten.

Books Set in the Past

Villa Stuck is a museum dedicated to the works of Franz Stuck, and also a mansion decorated in the art deco style.





1. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
2. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
3. Longbourn by Jo Baker
4. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
5. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

2. The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
3. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
7. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
9. In Matto's Realm by Friedrich Glauser
11. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
12. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
14. The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith
15. Our Daily Bread by Lauren B. Davis
17. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
19. Longbourn by Jo Baker
20. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
21. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
22. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
23. Adam by Ariel Schrag

Happy new thread and almost bingo!

I liked your review of So You've Been Publicly Shamed in the last thread. That's a subject that interests me, and I didn't realize there was a book on it. I'll have to look out for it.

I also found your review of the Jon Ronson book very interesting. I'm going to keep an eye out for it at the library.

Shannon, it's really interesting. I was aware, in a vague sort of way, of two of the instances he examines, and how that sort of thing affects the unmasked, as well as the un-masker, was fascinating.

Roro8, Ronson writes well and this was a hard book to put down.

>15 RidgewayGirl: It looks like I already read an excerpt from this book and didn't know it. I had bookmarked this article from the NYT Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-s...

Really fascinating stuff.

ETA In fact, I disabled my Twitter account after reading that article.

Recently all the employees of my school district were asked to take a survey which would give the powers-that-be an idea of the social media and technology used by its employees, both at home and at work. In the comments section I said that I couldn't take anything I read on Twitter seriously and if they wanted to send me anything on my cell phone they could pay for my service plan.

I saw one of our teachers give an assignment where her students created Facebook pages for various illnesses. I guess that's what teachers have to do these days to keep their students' interest.

Happy new thread!!

Happy New Thread, Kay!

Yay, new thread! :)

Mamzel, my son loved his assignment to create a book trailer for YouTube. Of course, this was in his tech class, but I thought it was a good way to combine subjects in a way that made both more fun for their students. It had him thinking about the book more and in different ways than if he'd been assigned a three paragraph essay.

Thanks, Eva, Lori and rp!

Your Munich museums are making me want to take a trip. I was in Bremen last year and was just amazed at the beautiful Paula Modersohn Becker museum. I came away with my weight in postcards (sadly/fortunately the catalogue had long since sold out). I had decided that I had enough John Ronson in my life, but perhaps I should rethink given the love I've seen for the book on some smart threads...

Happy New Thread. :)

Sarah Waters sets her latest novel, The Paying Guests, in suburban London in 1922. Frances Wray and her mother are still recovering from losing not only both of the sons in their family, but also Frances's father, who died leaving much less money than either woman had anticipated. Faced with her mother's helplessness, Frances set aside her own plans and stayed at home to do the work of the servants who were let go and to prepare the house for lodgers, which Mrs Wray calls "paying visitors" so as to keep up appearances. Leonard Barber and his wife Lilian move into the house, which is uncomfortable at first for the Wrays. Slowly, Lilian and Frances become friends, despite the class difference.

The Paying Guests is a book that takes its time, preferring to pace itself on the slow tempo of life in a quiet, upmarket neighborhood, where although everything is observed, not much happens. Frances is being strangled by her life in her mother's house, doing all the housekeeping and budgeting while her mother frets about how things look and wonders when the servants can be rehired. Still, she's going to do the right thing, even as she slips away to walk the streets of London and visit friends her mother disapproves of. Lilian is a breath of fresh air to her, and they share an enjoyment of Anna Karenina and a longing for more.

For a book encompassing lesbian sex, a secret love affair and murder, The Paying Guests proceeds at an outrageously measured pace. I was in the odd position of both being able to set the book aside for days at a time, and to be unable to put the book down when I was reading it. The specific atmosphere of London between the wars permeates every page of the novel. Frances is a fascinating character; brave enough to want to let go of propriety and live as she longs to do and yet responsible and loving enough to set all that aside for a parent who is not altogether appreciative, or even fully aware of Frances's sacrifice. I enjoyed The Paying Guests quite a bit despite its slow and deliberate pace.

With Bad Feminist: Essays, Roxane Gay has written a combination of memoir, pop cultural critique and a series of essays on serious subjects like racism, sexism and rape culture. It has to be the first book to discuss the Sweet Valley High series, comedian Daniel Tosh, competitive Scrabble and being on the tenure track. It's more like a late night conversation, moving from topic to topic, sometimes serious, sometimes funny, but always involving. Gay is interested in the world around her and she often likes problematic things like danceable songs with terrible lyrics.

Among my favorite parts of Bad Feminist are the parts where Gay discusses the books she's read, and it's clear that Gay reads as voraciously as anyone here. She's even read Fifty Shades of Grey and her comments on the series are tremendously funny. Gay also writes about writing and the publishing industry (there is really very little not touched on in this book.)

If readers discount certain topics as unworthy of their attention, if readers are going to judge a book by its cover or feel excluded from a certain kind of book because the cover is, say, pink, the failure is with the reader, not the writer. To read narrowly and shallowly is to read from a place of ignorance, and women writers can't fix that ignorance no matter what kind of books we write or how those books are marketed.

If you're looking for a textbook on feminist theory or for something unrelentingly serious, this isn't the book for you. Of course, this is also the wrong book if you just want something light and easy and amusing. Gay's book may be a hodge podge, and she may consider herself to be bad at feminism, but this is very much a book worth reading, whether or not you consider yourself a feminist.

I've previously read Lost at Sea and The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson which were both awesome. So, I'll have to add So You've been Publicly Shamed to the list of about 8 or 9 book bullets I've picked up in your threads here!

You found some great pictures to illustrate your categories.

Bad Feminist sounds interesting.

Lisa, if you can find a copy of Them: Adventures with Extremists, grab it. I thought it was the best one of Ronson's books.

Thanks, Joyce. And while Bad Feminist taught me nothing new, it can be useful to rehear things, especially from someone who is upbeat and funny while also not sugar-coating anything.

>28 RidgewayGirl:: Them: Adventures with Extremists - grabbing it!

Outline by Rachel Cusk follows a woman teaching a week-long writing class in Athens, Greece. Or rather, we follow what other people tell her about themselves during this week. Faye, newly divorced, is figuring out the new shape of her life. She's being deliberately passive, allowing events to happen to her rather than trying to shape her experiences. And she's allowing other people to talk to her, without requiring that they then listen to her, which turns out to make them quite talkative, from the man in the seat next to hers in the plane on the way to Athens, to the teacher taking the apartment she's been staying in after she leaves.

Outline has the feel of a writing exercise. It should feel like less than a novel, being essentially a collection of monologues tied together by Faye's listening presence. There's no plot and little structure, although most of the pieces had to do with relationships and how we frame them when describing them to others. Since it only encompasses a week, and many of the people only speak to her once, there's an unfinished feel to them. Despite all of this, I found Outline to be both beautifully written and compelling in an odd way. I missed my train stop because of this book, which never happens. Despite the fact that each segment was just a portion of a person's view of their life and that none of the characters who spoke to Faye had any real connection to her or any of the other characters, each story was utterly fascinating.

>30 RidgewayGirl: That's an interesting book. I am always drawn to books about writers. And I love the cover.

Yes, the cover is stunning.

I enjoyed this too (although my cover was not so beautiful, being orange. I have no idea what they were thinking).

>24 RidgewayGirl: I started reading The Paying Guests but didn't get very far before I had to return it to the library. It did seem very promising, and after reading your review, I think I really ought to get back to it soon.

>25 RidgewayGirl: Being a former tournament player, I'd love to hear Roxane Gay's thoughts on competitive Scrabble ... but the rest of it sounds intriguing too.

Charlotte, it does look vaguely Greek?

Paulina, she makes competitive Scrabble sound pretty hard-ass, actually. She even has a nemesis, which is something I've always wanted.

So, I'm not sure if I'll be on LT at all next week. We're off for a week in Tuscany, which sounds very posh until you realize it will take us about as long to drive there as it does to drive to Disneyworld from our usual house. Also, we have rented a rustic farmhouse, and the price seems to indicate that plumbing may be optional. But we can bring the dog and it is Italy and the kids are even excited. Also, we have a tradition at stopping at the first gas station across the border for coffee, because it does taste better. I have no idea whether is actually does or that is just us being tourists in Italy, but there you go. The gelato is empirically better. We will eat a lot of it.

See you next week!

Enjoy the gelato. I will be off on vacation next week too, although nowhere near as exotic as Tuscany!

Mmmmmm gelato! That sounds like an excellent trip. Have a great time!

Lucky you! All that gelato! I'd love to go back to Italy. We did a two-week, multi-city bus tour and living out of a suitcase was not that great. Can't wait to hear about it!

I love gelato! Enjoy your time in Tuscany!

Where are you going in Tuscany? My husband's family and friends live in Lucca, so that's the area that I know best. Enjoy the coffee--you're right, it is fabulous.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday in Tuscany. It sounds like a fabulous destination.

Have a great trip! My SIL, who lived in Florence for several years, says it is mandatory to eat gelato daily when you're in Italy. I'm glad you know the rules. That's one rule you certainly don't want to break.

Buon viaggio!

Have fun in Tuscany. Enjoy some great wine. :)

Although the "optional plumbing" doesn't sound great, it's still Tuscany. Envy galore over here! Have a great time.

Enjoy Italy! I'm sure the food there will be wonderful.

Thank you all, so much! The renovated farmhouse was lovely, with everything one needed. The downside was that it was so nice and it was surrounded by olive groves and woods so that the kids couldn't see the point to going to look at things.

Joyce, we were just south of Lucca, near Arezzo. We did have one day in Florence - where I got a gorgeous handbag.

We ate gelato several times, saw Arezzo, Florence, Poppi, Sansepolcro and Anghiari, which were all beautiful, and except for Florence quiet and full of atmosphere.

So after our day in Arezzo, we watched Life is Beautiful, which the kids loved and then Max, who is eleven, cried and cried. Amazing how a single death, off-screen and only alluded to can have more of an effect than all the zombie or superhero extravaganzas put together.

Now back to ordinary life.

Sounds like a perfect getaway!

Marian Keyes writes pure chick-lit, but with more substance than most. Her characters are three-dimensional and interested more in shopping and boys. She's my go-to choice for vacation reading. Sushi for Beginners is one of her lesser works, but it's still easy reading despite that.

Lisa's an ambitious editor at a London fashion magazine who has her sights set on New York, but she's sent to oversee the launch of a new magazine in the fashion hinterlands of Dublin, Ireland. Ashling is hired as her new assistant. Ashling feels compelled to help out wherever she sees a need, from handing a band-aid to her new boss to worrying about the homeless guy who sometimes sleeps in the doorway of her apartment building. Clodaugh has been Ashling's best friend since they started elementary school. She's got the life she wanted; married to a great guy with two kids and a big house, but she's dissatisfied with the pattern of her days.

Sushi for Beginners follows each woman as they find their way through daily life, struggling with failed marriages, depression and the ups and downs of relationships. While Keyes has written better books (Rachel's Holiday, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married) this was still fun if you like that kind of thing.

>47 RidgewayGirl: I love Florence! I spent a week there with my SIL but I barely scratched the surface of all there is to see. A day trip to San Gimignano and an overnight trip to Cinque Terre only left a couple of full days for Florence. Most days we went to a local bar for breakfast for pastries and cappuccino. The dual use of the space seems very practical to me - coffee in the morning and alcohol in the evening.

Taking part in the group read of Mansfield Park gave me an excuse to get a copy of Robert Rodi's Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen From the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps (Volume 1). Along with Mansfield Park, it also contains his witty, opinionated and intelligent commentary on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Reading each chapter in Austen followed by Rodi's commentary was like having an animated discussion with a good friend. He made me look at Mansfield Park from a different angle. I disagreed with him on some things (he dislikes Fanny Price!) and found myself agreeing with him on others.

I had thought to save the other commentaries for my next reread of those books, but found myself unable to do so, having had so much fun with Mansfield Park. Rodi, who is very familiar with Austen's personal correspondence as well as her published books, sees her as not the genteel romantic she's stereo-typed as, but as an astute observer of social practices with a cutting wit that would make Mary Crawford blush. He points out the sly humor and finds both Elinor Dashwood and Lizzie Bennet to be utterly hilarious and charming women.

This is an excellent companion for any reread of Austen, but also great fun for those who are familiar with her novels.

Bitch in a Bonnet sounds like a fun form of literary criticism. :)

So much fun, Andrea!

Bitch in a Bonnet sounds like a perfect Austen companion book! I'll have to look for this one.

LOL! Austen was not a genteel romantic! She's just from a different time, one where women often were truly genteel. She just learned how to blend in with the genteel ones. ;) Bitch is going on the WL!

How could anyone resist a classic French noir called The Mad and the Bad? I couldn't and for the most part Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel lived up to my expectations. Published in 1972, Manchette was influenced by American hard-boiled tales and wrote one of his own, adding a certain French sensibility to the genre.

Julie is released from a psychiatric institute in order to care for the nephew of a creepy, entitled businessman who ended up in charge of both the nephew and an enormous fortune when his brother dies. Julie's not someone one would naturally choose as the caregiver to a young child. There's that whole "just been released from a psychiatric institute" thing, but also her tendency to drink or take any drugs she finds available and an apparent lack of any nurturing skills. In her first encounter with the admittedly uncharming Peter, she slaps him while his guardian stands back and observes. This is not a book where the characters will bare their feelings or anything heartwarming will occur. And, sure enough, by the following day the reader is treated to a full helping of bad events when Julie and Peter are kidnapped.

There's a cinematic feel to this book, with chase scenes set inside supermarkets and large countryside houses that seem designed for film. There's not much down time, with some really bad guys chasing a surprisingly adaptable young woman and her charge through the south of France, bullets flying. This is a noir in the classic sense, with lots of attention paid to what's happening and less to the motivations, reasons and development of the characters involved.

I am sighing with envy over your trip to Tuscany, and perhaps will have to go an get a gelato to help myself feel better!

I also have often picked up a Marion Keyes when I need a light read and chick-lit but with more substance is the perfect description of her books.

I'm pleased to hear you had such a lovely time in Tuscany. It's sounds wonderful.

Keyes is good, isn't she, Judy? Which one is your favorite?

Roro8, I highly recommend Tuscany, although it can get really crowded. The eastern part is less touristed and it's fun to walk around hill towns without hearing anything but Italian.

>59 RidgewayGirl: I love her books about the Irish sisters and my favorites of those would be Angels and Anybody Out There?. I also remember really being engrossed in Last Chance Saloon as well. She's a pretty reliable author for me.

Let Me Go is the sixth installment in Chelsea Cain's series about a serial killer and the cop who has been involved with her in many ways. I've enjoyed this series quite a bit, but it's becoming clear that it has run its course. The characters are less vivid than they've been and Gretchen Lowell, the serial killer, has slowly changed into someone who can do anything, manipulate anyone and go anywhere undetected despite being extraordinarily beautiful. It's boring. Even Susan, the disorganized journalist with amazing googling skills and a quirky personality, was flat. The actual plot was interesting enough, even if it took Gretchen acting as a sort of Deus ex Machina to resolve things. Really, this one is only for the die hard fans who have trouble letting go.

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy is about the murder of a police officer's son in South Central Los Angeles and the investigation into his death. It's also about that part of Los Angeles, where the murder rate remains high and the victims are disproportionately young African American men, how these murders receive less resources than murders in other parts of the city and less attention than other policing strategies that are more visible and play better with voters. Leovy spend years embedded with the detectives of the 77th Street Division and her familiarity with and respect for the detectives and the residents of the area are apparent throughout this book.

Ghettoside would be a good companion book to The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Leovy posits that the high murder rate is caused by the failure of the authorities to call murderers to justice. Crime is deterred not by the severity of the potential punishment, but by the certainty an offender will be called to account. With just a third of murders leading to an arrest, the solve rate is dramatically lower than in other parts of the city. Police resources are concentrated on popular prevention initiatives, which leave residents feeling both targeted and unprotected. The detectives who work these cases are largely rookies and will leave the area for better positions before they are fully effective. Still, there are a few cops who have decided to remain, buying their own office supplies and working long hours in order to serve a community they value.

Leovy's book concerns one area in one city, but what she learns and takes from her experiences are important and should influence how we police our communities in every part of the country.

>61 RidgewayGirl: - Thanks for the heads up Kay. I've only read book 1 so far, but I recently got book 2 at a library sale so I have a while to go before I get that far - if I even do. I have book 3 too so I'll probably stay with the series at least that far.

Our Daily Bread by Lauren B. Davis is set in a small community in New York state. The town's residents fear and are contemptuous of those who live on the mountain. The story centers on a town family that is falling apart. Tom Evans went all the way to the city and brought back Patty, who is, years later, still viewed with suspicion as an outsider. She's struggling to cope, while her husband watches helplessly. Her ten-year-old daughter is being bullied at school but finds a refuge of sorts with the widow who runs an antique store. And her son, Bobby, a teenager, finds a new and exciting friend in Albert, who is 22 and one of the Erskine clan who live on the mountain.

This novel starts like a firecracker, combining a rural noir setting that Donald Ray Pollock and Daniel Woodrell would envy, pulling no punches as she describes what life is like for the Erskine clan through the eyes of Albert, who would dreams of leaving, but is trapped by both the family code of honor, where no one snitches and no one leaves, and his inability to leave the children trapped there to their fates. His uncles have decided to start making meth, which increases the level of danger for everyone in their small community. Add to this an End Times church with an outspoken, firebrand pastor and the scene is set for a dark and fascinating story.

And then Davis retreats. She moves the story into the small town at the base of the mountain, where everyone may be in each other's business, but they are respectable and law-abiding. The story of the Evans family is a good one, but after the raw power of that first chapter, it feels like a milder, less interesting story than what is happening a few miles away. Davis returns to the mountain at the end of the book, but by then that hard-edged approach feels tacked on for the shock value. This is a good book lessened in impact by the killer first chapter, the ending a disappointment of easy solutions. I'd love to see what Davis could write if she let herself go for an entire book. And the central story was interesting and worth reading, but so overshadowed by the framing chapters that its impact was lost.

Kay, I have to agree with you on Let Me Go... a less than satisfying effort this go around. Sad to see from one of our favorite series.

Hi, Victoria! Have you read One Kick, Chelsea Cain's start of a new series? I'm thinking of giving it a try to see if she regains her spark there.

I have read One Kick and while I didn't love it, I would be willing to give a sequel a chance.
I'd have to say Cain has a bit of goodwill saved up in my ledger, LOL.

>64 RidgewayGirl: Too bad that one was disappointing.

Thanks for the detailed review of Our Daily Bread. I had seen that title on the Giller list a few years back and it looked very intriguing. Too bad it didn't live up to its promise, but I will keep the author in mind.

This weekend there is "Lange Nacht der Museen" in Hamburg, where 57 museums are open from 6pm to 2am, with a shuttle service and a great extra programme, such as workshops, short movies, music, food and lots of see/touch/do yourself. I had to think of your thread when I saw the announcements. I'll probably go with some friends. Do they have something similar in Munich as well?

Chrischi_HH, yes, they do. I haven't tried it yet because I'm lucky enough to be able to go on weekday mornings, when they are uncrowded and I'm so not a late night person anymore! I really should do it once to say I have, if nothing else.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories is my first encounter with Hilary Mantel's short stories, as well as with her writing outside of her historical novels. She's good at them, if anyone was wondering about that. The stories here range from the odd and off-beat to stories which feel personal, as though they closely mirror events in her own life (I have no idea if that is actually the case and, really, it's unimportant. The important thing is that they feel real). They were all different and all very good, from the story of a young woman living as an expat in a Muslim country, to a marriage ending, to the title story, where a woman waiting for the plumber has a surprising day. The stand-out story in this collection was a quiet story called How Shall I Know You?, which seemed until the very end like the kind of story that rambles on, just narrating a few days in a particular woman's life, until the final lines, which turn the story over and into a tightly written whole.

So I bought some books this week, for no good reason. Wednesday, I had my hair cut and then went by a small English-language bookstore called Words Worth. I picked up A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing because it won the Prize-formerly-known-as-Orange last year and the cover is pleasingly retro. I also picked up a collection of four novellas by Joyce Carol Oates which looks like it will be suitably unsettling. Then, as I was paying, I noticed a copy of A Spool of Blue Thread, which is shortlisted for this year's PfkaO, and so it came home with me, too.

Today, we were downtown and stopped by the Hugendubel, which is lavishly spread over five floors and is always busy. I picked up a book in German called Honigtot, which is about a woman discovering family secrets from WWII and it's set in Munich, complete with a map. And then I went up to the English language stuff and found the new Kate Atkinson, the sequel to Life After Life, and it came home with me as well.

Ooh, that is a nicely retro cover! Enjoy your haul!

Great haul! I heard a lot of good things about A Spool of Blue Thread.

"for no good reason"
That's the best reason when it comes to book-shopping. :)

Lovely books there - I'm looking forward to the new Kate Atkinson.

>71 RidgewayGirl: I can really recommend those museum nights. You are right, if you want to concentrate on a specific topic or just enjoy the exhibition, then you should go on normal opening days. But what I enjoyed the most was the extra programme. There were pieces of art which usually are not shown, outdoor areas that typically are closed in the dark, literature readings, and lovely concerts in places where you wouldn't expect live music - and so much more. Also the atmosphere was very relaxed, which made the night really enjoyable. I will write a bit more and post a few pictures over in my thread the next days. :)

Nice book haul, by the way!

Oh, I missed this before - they have 'Light Night' coming up in Liverpool, where they do a similar thing in the evening. Such a fun idea.

Very envious that you have the new Kate Atkinson - I didn't realize it was going to be a sequel. Might have to rush off to go buy a copy for myself now.

Thanks, rp. Our own hauls are always the most attractive ones.

I've liked the Anne Tylers I've read before, Judy, so I expect to enjoy this one. Dinner at the Homesick Cafe and Searching for Caleb are my favorites.

I'm glad it's the best reason, Eva, because it is my only reason! I've been very good since the start of the year, and even though I've browsed bookstores several times, I've always managed to leave without anything. And this week, that mood ended.

Me, too, Charlotte! I hadn't known that it had been released (my book brain is on the US publishing schedule) so it was a fun surprise.

Chrischi_HH, I'm going to have to take advantage of the next one. I have annual passes to my favorites (the Pinakotheken, the Haus der Kunst and the Lenbachhaus) so I tend to visit those (and a wee, few others), so it would be fun to go to the smaller ones that I haven't seen. I am visiting a museum I haven't been to before on Thursday called the Sammlung Goetz. It requires a reservation to go, so I haven't managed to plan ahead until now.

I know, Stacy! I was so excited to see it.

So the first meeting of the book club I joined was today, and it was much better than I'd anticipated. Everyone had interesting things to say and we all liked Slaughterhouse Five. I brought a small(ish) stack of possibilities for the June meeting (we've picked a book for next month already) and we chose the one the most similar to Slaughterhouse Five, Flowers for Algernon, which I was hoping would be picked as I've only heard good things about it. (Thanks, Stacy!)

I have not been able to get into the used-book-browsing mood. I'm not even certain if I'm going to the used sale this weekend. I can't go into Merovan without you Kay!

As soon as I'm back, we're hitting that next sale, Victoria!

>83 RidgewayGirl: you better believe it Kay. No excuses!

As if I would make any! : )

LOL

Im going to my favorite book sale next week. I'm making a list of books to look for, but I always find some other interesting books.

John Williams's novel Stoner is a difficult book to review. First published in 1965, Stoner tells the story of a quiet man who becomes an associate professor of English at the state university in Missouri, living a quiet and dignified life that makes no lasting impression. I know, right? You want to run to the bookstore right now and get your own copy.

Yet this low-key book packs a punch. Stoner may keep his emotions to himself and his life may be a routine and expected one, but the story is oddly gripping, how a boy from dour parents farming dying land went to college to study agriculture and ended up falling in love with literature and language, how he belonged at that university and how he ordered his days to reach something approaching contentment.

And here, since yesterday was 4/20 I expected a totally different definition of Stoner! ;-)

>88 RidgewayGirl:
It's not a riveting synopsis, for sure. :) But I don't think I've heard one person who didn't find it quite mesmerizing. It's on the wishlist.

>89 mamzel:
Ha!

>88 RidgewayGirl: the Missouri Readers Group did a group read of Stoner a couple of years ago. http://www.librarything.com/topic/143409 It appears that we mostly liked it - some more than others. Looking back on my own notes, I seem to have liked it quite a lot, maybe more than the rest of the group. However, I see the very last comment in the thread mentioned the ending being "superb", but I don't remember it - can you remind me?

I know, mamzel. The first time I heard about the book, that's what I assumed!

Eva, it is really excellent. I'm going to have to read more by John Williams.

Sandy, was it the way he decided to remain at the university, despite his enemy's determination for him to retire on time, and then his final illness, which derailed his plans to teach as long as possible? I did think the ending was in character and it was a nice touch, the dinner held in his honor when he did have to retire and the people who said he'd been important to him.

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash tells the story of the Hall family. Growing up north of Asheville, North Carolina in the Appalachian mountains, Jess loves his father, a tobacco farmer, his mother and his older brother, nicknamed Stump, who doesn't talk, but who is his constant companion. His mother is involved in the local Church of God with Signs Following, a small, secretive pentecostal congregation led by a charismatic pastor. In this rural community, everyone knows everyone else and what their parents did. And then one event precipitates another and things go badly wrong.

This is a book whose sum is greater than its parts. Yes, there's fantastic atmosphere and a solid sense of place. And the characters are complex and even the secondary ones are fully fleshed out. The plot is well put together and moves with a sort of inevitable speed toward the conclusion, but this book just works. There are a few false notes. Cash missed a step by not fully exploring the beliefs of the church, which are more complex than he set forth, but as a whole, this was a fantastic book that fully deserves its reputation.

>93 RidgewayGirl: That one sounds like an interesting book with a local setting.

>93 RidgewayGirl:, I think I might like that one.

Lori, the setting will be familiar to you, I think. The mountains aren't that different on the other side.

Roro8, it's a good depiction of the area, aside from the plot. (The plot was good, too.)

Sometime in my early teens, I tried to read Catch-22 and gave up partway through. Somehow, I've had the idea that Slaughterhouse Five was even odder and more difficult to understand, leading me to ignore it until now. Slaughterhouse Five is an odd book, to be sure, but also entirely readable and one that brings the horrors of war in general, and of the bombing of Dresden specifically, to life in an oblique, almost humorous way.

The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, endures much in his life, from being a prisoner of war to being abducted by aliens, he experiences his life in a non-linear fashion, switching back and forth between the different events in his life, but always he's taken back to those dying days of the war. It's an unusual structure and one that works in a way a more straight forward accounting would not.

There's a lot to think about regarding this book, from the nature of war, to the nature of time to how Billy's personality and life experiences were shaped by the war. Also, Kurt Vonnegut makes a funny comment about Norman Mailer.

>97 RidgewayGirl: You liked it better than I did. It was not my type of book at all.

So now I've found you. Those are wonderful pics and bios on the museums heading your categories, and I've been hit with a couple of BBs, for Bad Feminist and The Mad and the Bad.

>97 RidgewayGirl: I loved both Slaughterhouse-Five and Catch-22. Have you ever thought about giving Catch-22 another go?

Lori, it surprised me. I didn't expect to like it at all.

Hi, Jennifer! Book bullets are only fair, since you've shot so many at me.

Shannon, I will read Catch-22.

>93 RidgewayGirl: I think you liked this more than I did. But it may well have been disadvantaged coming straight after a book that I *really* loved. It was certainly a memorable story, which is usually a good sign.

Charlotte, the poor books that have to follow our favorites. I recently read a book in a similar setting that didn't work, so I was so happy this one did.

>97 RidgewayGirl:
I had pretty much the same reaction to Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five, liking Slaughterhouse Five much better. Like you said, it was interesting and a book that could evoke a lot of discussion. I've also read Cat's Cradle and enjoyed it to about the same degree.

So Gone Girl was wildly successful and ever since new books have been compared to it, with the hope that we'll all buy just as many copies. A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison is one of those books. It does share a certain similarity to Gone Girl; the author is female and the book is a psychological thriller type story involving relationships and the main character is not easy to like. Beyond that, the comparison is tenuous.

Moving back and forth in time, A Small Indiscretion tells the story of Annie Black, who spent time working in London when she was a young woman, but who has since settled happily down in the San Francisco Bay area, married, raising her three children and running a small, successful store. The book is told from Annie's point of view, with the conceit of it being the story she is writing down for her son, who at the beginning of the book, was in a car accident which sent him into a coma. Annie's love life in London was complicated and things happened, which not only explain things in her present but are also revealed slowly, as the events triggered by them unfold as she tells her story.

It's a good enough story, although any tension relies wholly on the reader not being privy to what happened earlier; events that the protagonist narrator withholds from the reader. Hints are laid about liberally, but she skips over the missing information, sometimes clumsily. The book is suspenseful because the main character is being coy, not from any tension naturally arising from the plot. There is a big, dramatic conclusion, but with the big reveal from Annie's past coming just pages before the dramatic conclusion, there's no time to explain how x caused y. What happened in Annie's past was a little tawdry, but she was less an actor than a passive bystander and much too tangential to make the reverberations in her present make sense.

This wasn't a bad book; it just wasn't a good one, either.

I see you had a similar reaction to A Small Indiscretion as I did. Good review!

Thanks, Lori. While we all get to like different books, it was good to see you saw the same flaws that I did. There's a good book in there, but it needed a substantial rewrite. And a better Horrible-Thing-She-Did, because when I got to that part of the book I was sure there must have been something else still to be revealed (besides the crazy girl we barely saw before the climactic scene, that is.)

My 14 year-old daughter is going in for surgery in mid-May. I've been collecting graphic novels for her and have, so far, ordered Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy, Through the Woods and Ms Marvel. Does anyone else have a good suggestion? She's got Cress by Marissa Meyer set aside for a regular book if she's up for it and I've got most of Veronica Mars downloaded (we've watched several episodes and she loves it, because she has both taste and intelligence).

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher begins in 1974 and follows two families living in Sheffield, England for the next twenty years. The Glover family holds a party, to which many in the neighborhood are invited. When Katherine conceived of the idea, it was with the assumption that the empty house across the street would have new owners, but it isn't until later that the Sellers family arrives from London to take up residence. Over the years, the two families become more entwined as they experience the changes brought by those two eventful decades, from the miners' strike to the changes caused by their children growing up and beginning life as adults.

I love novels like this, where ordinary people live ordinary lives, relationships strengthen or fail under adversity, children struggle through adolescence and find a place in the world, events swirl around them, some affecting them greatly, others barely noticed as they go about their lives.

For the most part, this was an excellent book. Hensher writes with compassion and understanding for the weaknesses and desires of his characters. It's only at the very end, when the least fleshed-out character behaves oddly and is treated unsympathetically by the author that I felt my interest flag a bit. It's like the author needed an event, for something more dramatic than the usual family crises, when the novel's strength lies in just those mundane affairs and relationships. Still, this was a solid novel and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Very glad to see you have read and liked Philip Hensher. I am planning on reading Scenes From Early Life for my Commonwealth Challenge. Originally was hoping to read it this month, but couldn't fit it in so perhaps I'll get to it in June or July.

>109 RidgewayGirl: That one does sound interesting. I enjoy novels like that if I'm in the mood for them. If I'm not in the mood, I tend to become frustrated by the slower pace and want a bit more action.

Judy, I look forward to finding out what you think about Scenes from Early Life. The Northern Clemency is his best known novel, it having been shortlisted for the Booker, so it will be interesting to see what another of his novels is like.

Lori, since it follows two families through their normal lives, there's no real plot, and pages are spent wishing a child would move out or wondering why life was less exciting than they'd thought it would be. But if you're in the mood for ordinary lives, this is a wonderful book. Of course, to me, Sheffield is exotic.

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I've never read any Philip Hensher, but you've made me think I should put it on the list. Of course, to me, Sheffield is exotic. Major giggles here at the idea Sheffield could be exotic to anyone. Leeds, now...

Charlotte, I heard some song by a British singer invoking Ontario as an exotic, faraway place. And here in Munich I'm occasionally asked why I'd come to live here, when America is so much more interesting. So I guess what's exotic depends on where you are.

>97 RidgewayGirl: I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Slaughterhouse Five. I've read that novel and Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut, and while I can appreciate Vonnegut's genius, his style of satire is not really my thing. However, one of my book clubs is doing Cat's Cradle this month, so I'll get a chance to reread it and perhaps re-evaluate.

>114 RidgewayGirl: My biggest surprise was seeing people drinking Coors Light in British pubs when I visited England. :)

>114 RidgewayGirl: Just seen that Jarvis Cocker (famous Sheffield native) is doing a radio tour of his home city in music - should be on the bbc player internationally too. Often thought books should come with 'recommended listening' lists, for that atmospheric touch...

Paulina, I need to read more Vonnegut. I liked his odd style. And I saw the same thing regarding beer drinkers. The Budweiser was more expensive, but was still being drunk by the more stylish denizens of some of the pubs we visited. Then my SO became passionate about the "real ale" thing there and we went to a different sort of pub. Beer drinkers can be snobbier than wine drinkers!

Charlotte, there are a few authors who would probably happily supply a playlist for their books. You can't tell me Ian Rankin wouldn't love to do that.

>114 RidgewayGirl: Although I haven't posted much recently, I've been reading posts and just have to comment on "a British singer invoking Ontario as an exotic, faraway place". My SIL in Australia is coming to visit us in British Columbia and is charmed by some of the "exotic" places around here. I don't know whether to tell her the truth or wait and see her response. She particularly liked the sound of Osoyoos.

>117 RidgewayGirl: Agree about Rankin. He could have fun with that! Peter Robinson might enjoy creating a playlist too. I often wished Kate Atkinson had provided a playlist with the Jackson Brodie series. I had to make notes as I was reading.

Vivienne, Kamloops. That's all I have to say. What could be more exotic than Kamloops?

>119 RidgewayGirl: Bwah ha ha ha ha. No offence to people who live in Kamloops.

>118 VivienneR: Osoyoos isn't my favourite place but it is kinda neat. The view from the top of the hill on the east side is spectacular. If you take her there, go to Burrowing Owl winery for lunch. Tin Horn Creek is also a really pretty winery--we used to go there to go hiking in the hills behind it. They are both up toward Oliver.

Hmmm, what's my favourite exotic BC place name? Nanaimo, perhaps? Spuzzum? Yahk? I guess living with these names makes them very ho hum. Oddly enough, I find some of the names in Washington state--just a few miles south of me--so much more fun. Issaquah, Snohomish, Sammamish, Enamclaw, Tulalip, Tukwila, and then down in Oregon, Tillamook. Those names are great.

>119 RidgewayGirl: Kamloops! Good one, Kay! But we'll give it a miss.

>120 Nickelini: Thanks for the travel tips Joyce. I'll make a note of them. We'll be doing Vancouver, Victoria, then back through the southern interior to the Kootenays via other exotic candidates like Keremeos, Grand Forks, Nakusp and on to Banff (that my SIL curiously spelled with a ph).

>121 VivienneR: Nice! And Banph is funny. I don't know why, but I like Keremeos. I spend about 30 minutes there every year buying fruit. Looks like you'll be driving by the famous spotted lake just north of Osoyoos--the one that people on the internet get all excited about but in real life looks more like a disgusting cesspool. Other nice places along your route that are really nice are Rossland and Christina Lake, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that ;-) Have you considered taking her to Bountiful?

RidgewayGirl-- sorry to take over your thread!

>122 Nickelini: I believe we'll be driving past Bountiful. Definitely stopping for fruit at Keremeos.

Kay, you can have your thread back now! I hope your daughter's surgery is successful and uneventful.

As a child growing up in Edmonton, most of our vacations were spend in Jasper or Banff. The other side of the mountains seemed so wild and exciting. I'm enjoying just seeing the place names. Some day, I will see the beauties of Kamloops, or as my best friend and I call it - Kamloops, eh?

The Uninvited Guests is the first book that I've read by Sadie Jones. I read it knowing nothing about it, but that Jones is a well-respected author, the cover is striking and it was there on the English language shelf at the local bookstore. This is the kind of book which should be read all in one go, or as close to that as possible. It has the feel of an Oscar Wilde play, were Wilde to have written about a disastrous birthday party.

Emerald is turning twenty. Her stepfather, whom she does't love, but also doesn't hate the way her brother Clovis does, won't be there. He's on his way to Birmingham in a last ditch attempt to get the money that would allow them to stay in their beloved home. But her best friend, Patience, will be there, along with her brother. The housekeeper has prepared an elaborate menu, everyone is dressed up, including Clovis and Emerald's much younger sister, Smudge and the celebration is about to begin when news comes of a horrible train derailment on the branch line, and that the survivors are to sheltered at Sterne until the railroad can collect them.

What follows is an unusual evening, where the celebrants try to continue as though nothing is different, and despite one of the travelers having insinuated himself into their festivities. The survivors, sequestered in the morning room, are growing increasingly unhappy and, it seems, numerous. And Smudge has brilliant plan of her own.

This is pure entertainment, of the kind involving crossed communications and new reactions to old friends, but also high comedy and an increasing feeling that things are very much not right.

>125 RidgewayGirl: Excellent review of The Uninvited Guests. And added to my out-of-control reading list.

Love your review of The Uninvited Guests. Hit me with a book bullet on that one.

Oooohhhh.... I must keep a look out for The Uninvited Guests! The only Sadie Jones book I have read so far is Small Wars, which I thought was a great examination of a marriage in jeopardy and a country (Cyprus) on the brink of change just prior to the Suez Crisis.

Vivienne, I can relate to the exploding wishlist. Mine comes with a correspondingly enormous TBR.

Andrea, I loved it. It was very Edwardian in feel. It also balanced the lightness with a sense of foreboding, with things just getting odder as the story progressed. Smudge is a wonderful character.

Lori, I'm going to have to read her other books soon. I have a copy of The Outcast.

>125 RidgewayGirl: Great review! And a BB for me...

The Day of Atonement by David Liss is set in Lisbon in the mid-eighteenth century. The inquisition, having wound down in Spain, is still going strong in Portugal. New Christians, those Jews whose grandparents converted long ago, are still carefully watched and are restricted as to what professions they can enter and who they can marry. The British are there in order to make money, and New Christians often lend them money for their financial transactions. Sebastian was thirteen when his parents were taken in for questioning and he was smuggled out of the country by a British businessman. Now, a decade later, he returns to Lisbon, to find the priest who arrested his parents and to kill him. But it all ends up becoming more complicated, as he discovers more about what happened to his parents and the friends they had.

This is an action-filled thriller with a protagonist who shares his skill set with Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne. He's young and often misled, but he can always fight his own way out of a bad situation, or successfully rescue whomever needs rescuing. Despite this, there was clearly a great deal of research that went into this book, and it was a fun way to learn about what life was like in Lisbon at that time.

I spent last weekend in Berlin, and would like to recommend it. It was certainly the friendliest big city I've ever visited and the museums were impressive. I also managed to visit two bookstores. One was called Another Country and it was a charmingly ramshackle place near a Nepalese restaurant that sold used books and ran an informal lending library. They offered to let me check books out, reasoning that I'd get back to Berlin someday. There, I bought these books:



I also went to Dussmanns, a giant store that calls itself a KulturKaufhaus. It's ginormous, with four floors, each larger than any B&N I've been in. There's an entire English language bookstore inside and they were kind enough to let me bring home these books:

Are you new to Return of the Soldier, or are you just buying yourself a copy? If you've never read it, you're in for a treat. It was one of my favourite books that I had the luck to study at university.

Joyce, I've been keeping my eye out for a copy. I'm looking forward to reading it!

Ah, Berlin! I had a great time when I was there, too. Such a fun and friendly city. You make me want to go back. :)

Great book haul. I need to pick up some more Rainbow Rowell myself.

Yay, Attachments! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I loved Berlin when I visited three years ago! I wish I'd had more than a weekend there.

The U.S. is so far behind on teaching more than one language. Except for Spanish I can't think of any language featured in our bookstores and that is more about supporting the immigrant population than bilingual speakers. That they have a whole floor dedicated to English speaks highly for their English learners.

Looking at your excellent haul of books reminded me that I have The Return of the Soldier gathering dust on the shelf. Time to get to it.

Andrea, Berlin is fun and friendly. I'm going back. Someday. You know. And I've loved every book by Rainbow Rowell that I've read, so I'm pretty sure I'll like Attachments.

And now I'm sure I'll like it, Christina!

Carrie, I didn't expect Berlin, which is after all a very big city, to be so friendly and easy going.

mamzel, as an English speaker, I'm not so sure it's such a great thing for me to always have it easier than everyone else! But I can't complain when it comes to bookstores.

Vivienne, when you pick it up, let me know and if the timing is right we can read it together.

Like a Charm is a collection of short stories based on a common premise; a charm bracelet that brings something terrible on its possessor. They stories follow chronologically, with the bracelet passing on to the next unfortunate owner at the start of each new story/author. There's a solid collection of authors participating, from Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman and Lee Child to Denise Mina and Emma Donoghue, but the result is uneven. In general, the stories are best read on their own, with a good pause before the next, as there is a feeling of sameness to many of the chapters. Still, it was fun to read something new by a few favorite authors and get a chance to sample a few writers I'd never encountered before.



Addition by Australian author Toni Jordan is the surprisingly charming story of Grace, who's need to count everything and to regiment her life means she can no longer work as a schoolteacher. Instead, she spends her days carefully consuming her meals in precisely the correct number of bites, of counting her footsteps and in thinking about her hero, Nikola Tesla. Then she meets Seamus, who destroys her careful scheduling in a way that she doesn't even mind.

What's fun about this variation on the usual chick-lit novel is that Grace doesn't shop, she measures. And falling in love doesn't cure her, but provides a catalyst for her to work toward a less constrained existence which, in the end, may well not include Seamus at all.

I like the idea of having the stories be interconnected in Like a Charm, but I can see how the premise would get repetitive after a while.

Sounds like you had a fun time in Berlin!

Also, you got me with The Uninvited Guests ...

Andrea, it was a fun read (as far as horror/suspense goes) because the writers were clearly having a good time, but there were an awful lot of dead women by the end of it all.

hailelib, Berlin is amazing. I heartily recommend it. Also, The Uninvited Guests, which was fun, but in a different way.

I first heard about Jill Alexander Essbaum's novel, Hausfrau, when it was mentioned as the next Fifty Shades of Grey, which pretty much made me dismiss it out of hand. Then I began to run into laudatory mentions, including in The New York Times Book Review podcast, and a review here by a reader whose opinion I think highly of. So when I saw it in the bookstore, I had to pick it up and read it right away.

It really, really is not like Fifty Shades of Grey. The protagonist, Anna, lacks agency, preferring to just go along with whatever anyone with a stronger personality suggests. She gets married and has three children without putting much thought into it and, now living in Switzerland, near Zurich, she lives as a stay-at-home mom, not so much by choice, but simply because she hasn't made an effort to do anything on her own. She neither drives nor has a bank account. Her mother-in-law does a large part of the childcare duties, leaving Anna adrift and depressed. She eventually, at the urging of her husband, begins therapy and, after nine years in Switzerland, begins learning German. She falls into various affairs, and it's here that things begin to get messy for Anna. She keeps the affairs to herself, of course, but they adds a level of chaos to a life she already has no control over.

Hausfrau is told solely from Anna's perspective, which is often frustrating and myopic. She's entirely consumed by her own unhappiness, and is unable to care about the feelings of those around her. Essbaum manages to pull this off; Anna is not a sympathetic character but she is understandable and her actions, or lack of action, make sense. And Essbaum's descriptions of being a foreigner in a strange land are written with the eye for detail of someone who has been in that position.

The story jumps around in time, but this works well. What is less effective are the scenes between Anna and her therapist. Sometimes the writing in these snippets is extraordinary, but too often the questions Anna asks are so trite as to be silly. Anna's no deep thinker and is committed to living an unexamined life, which is an integral part of her character, but it does make these encounters the dullest moments of the book. There's a watching-a-train-wreck-happen feel to this book, as from the inside of her head, the reader sees Anna fail to take action or fail to express herself over and over again.

Great review! I can see the character of Anna driving me up the wall, but I'd still give this one a try based on your review. You've examined Anna's life way more than she has. ; )

Sometimes publishers don't do a book any favors by matching it with another that has enjoyed popularity (or infamy).

Jennifer, she was frustrating, but the story had so much momentum that it made up for Anna's immobility. I think it's worth reading, although it won't make it onto my best books of the year list. It's been a very good reading year so far.

mamzel, you're right about that. Imagine the poor readers thinking they're in for a sexy romp with Jamie Dornan and instead you get central European angst. I read one book because it was advertised as a literary crime novel. It was really a straight-forward mystery novel. I might have liked it, but I kept waiting for the author to do something unexpected for the genre and by the time I realized that wasn't going to happen, I was enraged at the book.

So, this is the eighth day I've spent sitting in a hospital room. My daughter had surgery on her femur, which is now enhanced with six drywall screws (I am sure that they were not purchased at the local Home Depot, but that is what they look like) and a big metal plate. She's doing well, and we'll be out of here on Thursday, probably. Some reading has been done, but there is something about a hospital room to suck all initiative out of a person.

Still, there are books to review!

Sarah Addison Allen writes heartwarming books full of charm and set in perfectly preserved small towns full of quirky and whimsical people. Which should make me avoid her novels like my cat avoids worming treatments, but somehow they work for me. I think it's because Allen has a sly feminist streak and an ability to feel compassion for even her most hostile characters. She also writes with a light touch that lets her add odd, magical elements without making her books feel twee.

In First Frost, Allen returns to the world of Bascom, North Carolina and the Waverley family from Garden Spells, continuing their stories and adding their children to the list of characters. The premise is that until the magical apple tree blossoms, at first frost, the female members of the family are unsettled and liable to commit rash acts.

It's a fun read, as are all of her books, but this one, with so many characters to corral, ends up giving far too few pages to each individual. What results is a series of vignettes instead of a coherent story. It was fun, but too insubstantial even for an escapist read.

>148 RidgewayGirl: All the best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Thanks, Birgit!

Sending good wishes to your daughter! I hope she's feeling better very soon.

Sorry to hear about your daughter, hope she's (literally) back on her feet soon.

Best wishes to your daughter for a speedy recovery!

Good wishes to your daughter!

About Berlin ... I agree about the museums. Our family was there for only a couple of days last year but we would really like to return for a longer visit. One museum we found particularly interesting was the Bauhaus Archive.

Hope your daughter is better soon, Kay.

Having spent the weekend in the hospital with my husband, I agree that it's hard to get any reading done while there.

Thank you, all. I've started Jon Krakauer's new book, Missoula, and that is gripping and substantial enough to keep my attention, although I have to interrupt it every half hour or so to go on a walk with my daughter. They are very short walks, but we are gearing up to getting her back to school on Monday.

Paulina, The Bauhaus Archive was on my list, but not near enough to the top. Next time.

>157 RidgewayGirl: Sounds like she is on the way to recovery - hope she enjoys all the attention (of a cast? or do they not do that with screws?). Berlin is on my wishlist, having only managed to go through it on the way to conferences elsewhere. Some light reading sounds good, so will check out Sarah Addison Allen's back catalogue - new name to me.

Charlotte, no cast, which as it's the top of her femur, is a good thing! Just a six-inch scar to join the others and enough metal to have her worried about our trip to SC in August. We'll bring a print out of the X-ray. It's pretty gruesome.

And for Sarah Addison Allen, my favorite is The Sugar Queen.

As usual, book bullets are flying my way - The Uninvited Guests and Addition.

Best wishes to your daughter. I hope she gets to enthrall friends with the gruesome details - unless she is at an age when that is just not the done thing.

I wish your daughter a speedy recovery.

I liked your review on Addition, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed it when I read it.

Vivienne, she's quite proud of her battle scars. She has no problem with those showing at all.

Roro8, I liked that Addition was so very clearly Australian.

I am very happy that My Brilliant Friend is just the first book in Elena Ferrante's trilogy about two girls from Naples, Italy. Lena and Lila live in the same building, and first encounter each other as small girls. Lila is skinny, fearless and fiercely intelligent and the more ordinary Lena is challenged to keep up with her, first in acts of daring, then in excelling at school. But Lena's life, despite being the oldest daughter of a porter, is easier than Lila's, the daughter of a cobbler. Lena is allowed to continue beyond elementary school, while Lila stays home to help her mother and in her father's workshop. Lila never stops planning and dreaming of more and it's her determination that fuels Lena, until events conspire to take away Lila's hope as well.

This trilogy has been described as an Italian soap opera, and it is that, set in a colorful working class neighborhood where feuds between families are common and finances hang on shoestrings. Both Lena and Lila are wonderful characters and I'm eager to see what happens next in their story.

Fantastic review of Hausfrau, but it's definitely not my cup of tea.

...she couldn't have done it and she must have done it.

Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial tells the story of the trial of Mazoltuv Borukhova for the murder of her ex-husband Daniel Malakov, a trial that hit the newspapers because the couple were part of a small community of Bukharan Jews. Borukhova and Malakov had an acrimonious divorce, in which the point of contention was custody of their daughter. While Malakov was fine with Borukhova keeping primary custody, the law guardian hired to represent the child disliked Borukhova and was able to get primary custody awarded to Malakov. Borukhova grew increasingly desperate and is alleged to have hired a hit man to kill her husband.

Janet Malcolm covered the subsequent court case for The New Yorker, along the way speaking to as many of the people involved as she could. The culture of the Bukharan Jews, Russian-speaking immigrants who are considered outsiders even among the predominantly Jewish population of Forest Hills in Queens. Malcolm is curious and interested about their lives and they respond to her interest by speaking with her. While the book doesn't answer the question of why or if she did it, it does look at why a woman would behave in such an off-putting way as to alienate the people who make decisions about custody and how this whole mess has affected their daughter.

I admit to never having heard of the Bukharan Jews. This book sounds quite interesting with a murder trial being the background for learning about them.

>132 RidgewayGirl:
" they were kind enough to let me bring home these books"
Such generosity! :)

>148 RidgewayGirl:
"instead you get central European angst"
Haha!

Joining in with the well-wishes for your daughter - sounds like she's doing well for such a big surgery!

mamzel, I did end up looking up information on Bukharan Jews and then Bukhara, and it was all fascinating stuff that I had had no idea even existed.

Thanks, Eva. She's doing very well. I really like the German philosophy of keeping people until they are seen to be healing well and able to get around confidently. July 13th is our next big day, when she has x-rays to see if she can get off of her crutches.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer was an eye-opener for me. I'd thought I'd had a pretty good idea about how difficult it was for a rape victim to find justice, but things are much, much worse than I'd thought.

Which should make Missoula unreadable, but Krakauer uses a few individual cases while reminding the reader of the larger problem they represent. The women involved are brave and determined to call their attackers to account, despite the skepticism of the police, the unwillingness of the prosecutor's office to prosecute, even when the police felt they had a strong case (often with ample evidence and a confession from the rapist), and the general opprobrium of the public, who were quick to support their beloved football players.

Krakauer manages to remain nuanced and balanced in his journalism, while never down-playing or dismissing the scope of the issue or the deep impact being raped had on the women who were willing to speak with him. I was impressed by Missoula and finished it thinking that it should be required reading for everyone.

"keeping people until they are seen to be healing well and able to get around confidently"
Wish that was the rule over here too!!

Eva, my daughter has been comparing a less invasive surgery in the same place that she had in the US with her experience here. She is very much happier with the German experience. I just liked it when the doctors or nurses tried to speak English to be polite and chronically mixed up the v and w sounds. It was an empowering experience for me as I discovered that my German was up to the challenge of navigating the paperwork and many encounters in German without stumbling too often.

Heather O'Neill wrote the charming and gritty Lullabies for Little Criminals and so I was excited to see that she'd written another book, this one called The Girl Who Was Saturday Night. Set in the same hardscrabble, working class Montreal, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night is Nouschka Tremblay, who along with her twin brother Nicolas, are the children of a famous folk singer, now down on his luck. While they were paraded out as children in front of audiences, their father left their upbringing to their grandfather. Essentially alone in the world, the two children formed a close bond that continued into adulthood. Now twenty, Nouschka is beginning to see that charm, beauty and being the daughter of a local celebrity isn't enough and she begins to try to better herself, going back to school and looking for a better job. Meanwhile, the men in her life are still committed to the personas they took on when they were fourteen, unwilling to see that what was cool back then, might not look so admirable in adulthood.

Nouschka has a fantastic voice. She manages to survive in a rough setting and under difficult circumstances with grace and a poetic optimism, that she maintains even in her darkest hours. She also enjoys the life she has, even if she can see that it needs improving. It's the quality of O'Neill's writing that made this book so much fun to read and her ability to create outrageously colorful characters who feel as real as anyone. I'll continue to read whatever I find by her.

>171 RidgewayGirl:
Very nice - when you've gotten to the point where you can maneuver medical situations in a different language, you can really pat yourself on the back!! Well done, indeed!

>171 RidgewayGirl: Yes, what Eva said. Impressive!

I'm looking forward to The Girl Who Was Saturday Night because Lullabies was one of my favourite books of the last ten years. I'm happy to hear that you liked it.

Thanks, Eva and Joyce. I think you've failed to consider that the medical staff wanted me to understand them. It may be different when I run into someone who doesn't care. Although I did have a longish conversation, involving directions, when I asked the cashier at my local grocery store if there was an Asian market nearby. I think I know where she intends me to go, so I'll report back tomorrow after I've followed her instructions as I understood them. I will either have tamarind paste to make pad thai or just more knowledge about this part of Munich.

Joyce, O'Neill has a way with language that I find irresistable. I'm reading her book of short stories, Daydreams of Angels now and it has that odd, magical feel of something by Karen Russell or George Saunders. There's one story, The Man Without a Heart, that I want to memorize. And another, about the Soviet government attempting to create clones of Nureyev, the ballet dancer who defected, that is a triumph of an imagination gone wild.

>175 RidgewayGirl: - Added to my wishlist! Thanks for the recommendation.

Fingers crossed that you find your way to the Asian market and get pad thai as a reward!

Joyce, I'd love to hear what you think of her short stories. I was halfway through when the library took the book back. I'm back in line for it again, but it will be a few weeks.

Jennifer, I found the Thai grocery store! It was a great moment of triumph. And then I bought tamarind paste and made Pad Thai for dinner and my son, who can be slightly picky, ate three enormous helpings and ended up with a stomachache. My daughter, who had requested it, was less excited. She'd never actually eaten any, but had imagined it tasting different than it did. I'm a reasonably good cook, but I cannot cook meals based on imagined flavors. It tasted just like Pad Thai to me, and I've eaten it many times.

The extent of my knowledge of the sinking of theLusitania was that it was a ship that sunk, sometime soon before or after the Titanic, that a lot of people died and that it had something to do with WWI. Which is, admittedly, very little. So when Erik Larson wrote a book about it called Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, I was happy to pick up a copy and start reading. Larson writes accessible and interesting books of social history, and I'd read and enjoyed a few of his previous titles.

During WWI, the German navy was far smaller than the famous British equivalent, except that they had invested in U-Boats that could travel undetected and sink ships without being discovered. These early submarines were not the safest of environments, and their weapons were not entirely reliable. Still, they had a huge impact on naval warfare, leading to the end of large battles involving many ships. Instead, submarines patrolled the waters around harbors and shipping lanes, sinking merchant vessels carrying armaments and supplies. The problem came when British ships began flying the flags of neutral countries when moving through high-risk areas, and American ships began carrying armaments and other supplies.

The British were desperate for the US to join the war. Americans were just as determined to avoid Old World conflicts. Germany was angry about their ships being held in American ports. The Lusitania's planned voyage from New York to Liverpool in May, 1915 was a risky one, given that the Germans had posted warnings in the New York papers that directly mentioned her. But the travelers on board, as well as the crew, were confident that the ship's speed (much faster than that of any submarine) as well as the expectation of an escort of British destroyers as soon as the ship reached British waters, protected the ship from any potential harm.

The actual sinking of the Lusitania occurred only because of an unlikely conflux of events, not the least of which were confusing information sent to the ship, the British government's need for American involvement in the war, the weather, and the randomness of timing. Still, it was a disaster, with nearly 1,200 people dead as a result. The book's most interesting chapters naturally surrounded the events during and immediately after the ship was hit by a German torpedo. Despite the high number of dead, including many Americans, it would be another two years before the US entered WWI, but the sinking of the Lusitania did have a great affect on changing American attitudes towards that war.

Larson writes ably, and certainly researched the subject in an exhaustive manner. This sometimes resulted in a book that tried to pack too much in, with superfluous information about random passengers bogging down the narrative rather than enhancing the story. Still, this is a very readable and accessible book about an important event that is not well remembered. It was certainly worth the time it took to read and I enjoyed it.

>178 RidgewayGirl: Well, that's certainly a mixed reaction. I love Pad Thai and my husband is sick of me ordering it in restaurants, but I've never attempted to make it at home, I just assume it must be difficult.
>179 RidgewayGirl: I've been hearing about the Lusitania a lot lately, but knew very little about it. Great review and you hit me with a BB!

Jennifer, Pad Thai is an easy dish to make. It just depends on having fish sauce and tamarind paste, as well as the broad rice noodles on hand. But it is easy to make, much to my surprise. We'll be having it again soon.

And it was good to know at least the basic facts about the Lusitania.

Daydreams of Angels: Stories - interesting that your library has this book by a Canadian author but Amazon.ca says it won't be published until October 6. That doesn't seem fair.

I'm a reasonably good cook, but I cannot cook meals based on imagined flavors.

That's a really great sentence.

Pad Thai is one of my staple dishes--I find it easy to make too. I use a few different recipes and none of them include tamarind paste. Next time I see that item at a grocery store I will buy it and give it a try.

>178 RidgewayGirl: I have also never thought of trying to make Pad Thai at home, but like Jennifer, it's a dish I order pretty much everytime we eat at a Thai restaurant.

>179 RidgewayGirl: I really miss not having a non-fiction category this year and I know that isn't really an excuse for not reading non-fiction as I could probably fit it into other categories, but it certainly helps me to focus when I have a category dedicated to a particular genre. Dead Wake is one of a number of non-fiction books that I am looking forward to.

>179 RidgewayGirl:
From your review alone I've learned more about the Lusitania than I ever have before. Sounds like a fascinating read.

Joyce, a Canadian friend who does not read ebooks has given me her electronic library account information. It's out at least for libraries in Canada. And I'd love to see your recipe for Pad Thai, if you're willing to share.

Judy, it's an easy meal to prepare. I was pleased, because it's always good to discover another meal to add to the family rotation. I kind of wish I'd done a non-fiction category, too. It would be nice to put it all in one spot instead of shoehorning it into another category. Next year!

Andrea, it was an easy read. I think it would be a good vacation book.

And I'd love to see your recipe for Pad Thai, if you're willing to share.

Usually I use the packets of Pad Thai seasoning that I find at the grocery store and sort of follow the recipe on the back, but if I don't have it (they aren't always in stock), then I kind of follow this one:

Rice noodles (the wide ones), prepared according to package directions

Boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces (I've used prawns too), stir fried in butter. Remove from pan.

1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp white sugar
1/8 tbsp crushed red pepper
2 cups bean sprouts
1/4 c crushed peanuts
3 green onions, chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges.

Heat oil over med-high heat. Crack eggs into hot oil and cook until firm. Stir in chicken, cook 5 min. Add softened noodles, vinegar, fish sauce, sugar and red pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste. Mix while cooking. Add bean sprouts, and mix for three minutes. Garnish with peanuts, green onion, and lemon.

That's the recipe I have printed out, but I don't do that.

First, we eat very little meat, so I often don't use chicken. We add a lot more vegetables--I particularly like thin strips of bell peppers (red, orange, and yellow). Sometimes I slice a yellow onion into the mix too. I replace the wine vinegar with rice vinegar. Instead of red pepper flakes I use chili garlic sauce, and definitely more than 1/8 tbsp. I skip the lemon garnish, and instead squeeze in the juice of one lime (if I have it). I usually add a few dashes of ponzu sauce, again, if I have it. I buy lemon grass in a tube, and I put in about a tbsp of that (I was taught that lemon grass is the key ingredient). And I add the eggs near the end so they're not just dried up bits of nothing. And I'm too lazy to crush peanuts, so I just add a scoop of crunchy natural peanut butter. Basically I look in my fridge and cupboards and add anything that I think will work. I also never measure anything.

But other than that, I follow the recipe exactly. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the excellent reviews! Erik Larson and Jon Krakauer are both authors whose work I've enjoyed very much so I'm happy to see your thoughts on their new books. Missoula is definitely on my wishlist. Also, a friend lent me The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and I plan to start it shortly. I too liked Lullabies for Little Criminals very much.

Thanks, Joyce. It looks like vinegar replaces the tamarind paste in your version. Good to know in case I run out. We used a mix of crushed peanuts and cashews, cilantro, mint leaves and lime wedges for garnish.

Paulina, I look forward to finding out what you think about all three of those.

We used a mix of crushed peanuts and cashews, cilantro, mint leaves and lime wedges for garnish.

Yum!!

>186 Nickelini: Thanks! That will come in handy.

Getting caught up after a bit of an absence from LT and loving the book reviews! I cringed when I heard about your daughter's surgery... I don't do hospitals well as a visitor and just the thought of surgery makes me go a bit queasy. Joining the rest with quick recovery wishes for your daughter!

*Making note of the Pad Thai recipe*

I read a book years and years ago on the Lusitania, but I have no idea what it was. I vaguely seem to remember the cover was blue with a drawing of the ship on it.

Just being reminded of making Pad Thai is making me consider making it again tonight. I'll see what the offspring think.

I joined a book club made up of mothers from the kids' school. And, a few meetings in, I've decided to look at it as a nice time chatting and not as a book group at all. The group zeitgeist is to read nice books with recipes included and nothing that is too challenging - we've managed to read Slaughterhouse Five and Flowers for Algernon because the women who are against anything challenging don't tend to have books to suggest and these won because they are short. Oh, well. I'm glad you guys and LT exist!

Lori, my son hates hospitals and had a hard time with the two short visits he was obligated to make. I liked this one, mainly because the last time my daughter had a similar surgery, the hospital in the US kept her for only 15 hours. She was groggy and bled all over the car on the way home. I much prefer her days after surgery to be ones where she is cared for by people with the training and experience to make things comfortable for her. She was grateful as well - she was able to leave on crutches, comfortably negotiating the stairs and knowing that she is healing well.

>193 RidgewayGirl: My book club had some success recently with a read whatever you want month, when we just talked about what we had been reading and recommended books. Sort of acknowledging that we are really a chat group with a similar interest in books.

As for a nice book with recipes, why not suggest The Debt to Pleasure? Although that might just be the end of your book club. :-)

She had never been without a book for as long as she could remember. An only child never is. Literature had fueled her childhood fantasies and convinced her that one day she would be the heroine o her own narrative. Throughout her teens she inhabited the nineteenth century, roaming the moors with the Bröntes, feeling vexed at the constraints of Austen's drawing rooms. Dickens was her -- rather sentimental -- friend, George Eliot her more rigorous one.

A God in Ruins is a companion novel to Kate Atkinson's amazing Life After Life, and follows the life of Ursula's younger brother, Teddy. It's a very different book from Life After Life, for all the connections. While Ursula's life is characterized by flux and change, Teddy's is characterized by a resigned steadiness. A bomber pilot during the Second Word War, Teddy survives raid after raid, seeing his friends and companions die is horrible ways, and fully understanding the repercussions of his actions. For him, the bombings of German cities is never an abstract or patriotic event. He vows that if he survives the war, he will live quietly, and he does his best to fulfill that vow.

A God in Ruins is deceptively quiet, with the only drama outside of his war years being his contentious relationship with his daughter, Viola, who is a prickly, off-putting person. I'll admit that I liked her, although the consensus clearly goes the other way. Viola was a sullen child, whose personality did not mesh well with her nature-loving father's, and her teenage years and adulthood proved no easier for her. Becoming a mother much too young, she was never a good paarent, although her parenting skills far surpassed those of their father. Atkinson has a talent for creating characters who are very different from one another, and having each of them come to life. The book gathers power slowly as it progresses. The parts set during Teddy's flying years are especially compelling, which echoes the pattern of his life.

Shannon, A Debt to Pleasure is an excellent book! If I brought my copy with me to Germany, I'll definitely suggest that. It may fly in the face of coziness and niceness, however. I'm resigned to reading one crap book a month, I think. I'm going to suggest All the Light We Cannot See, because it's popular with book groups.

>186 Nickelini: I recently tried a recipe for pad thai using spaghetti squash instead of noodles. I won't be making that one again!

>197 mamzel: Yikes. I imagine the texture on that was not good! I have used spaghetti squash with traditional Italian tomato sauce and it works well.

>196 RidgewayGirl: All the Light We Cannot See would also fit the July RandomCAT!

What about some of the ToB nominations for your book club, or are they not safe enough? I was thinking that Everything I Never Told You might be a good choice.

mamzel, just because they look like noodles, doesn't mean they can be used in place of noodles in every dish!

You're right, RP. I guess it's time to actually read it.

Stacy, they aren't really interested in reading anything that will make them think, although I'm being unkinder than I need to be with that statement. Rather, I think that while the stated purpose of meeting is for a book group, the real reason is just to chat for a few hours, with an excuse that allows it to be scheduled and prioritized. And I'm fine with that. I'll choose books to suggest based on what I now know, and not expect more than a few minutes to be spent talking about the book. So, does anyone have any suggestions for light, easy books that are not written by an American (I'm the only American in the group and as we've already read three books by Americans, it's time to expand our range). I'm thinking of trying How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran. No recipes, but it's not too long and it's upbeat.

What about My Berlin Kitchen for your book club? It's a light memoir with recipes, the author is only half American (American father, Italian mother, German husband), and it would give you an opportunity to talk about Berlin.

I've moved!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/192188