Hi, everybody! I'm eager to get started, and I plan to coordinate this challenge with my upcoming Reading Globally thread, which will start in Chile.

Books Read in 2009:

January:
1. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (message #16)
2. The Illusion of Return by Samir El-Youssef (#20)
3. A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo (#29)
4. Mishima's Sword by Christopher Ross (#58)
5. Patriotism by Yukio Mishima (#58)
6. Does Your House Have Lions? by Sonia Sanchez (#59)
7. Mi Revalueshanary Fren by Linton Kwesi Johnson (#78)
8. The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso (#83, 109)
9. Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami (#94)
10. Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami (#97)
11. Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra (#106)
12. Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño (#112)

February:
13. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (#122)
14. Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky (#125)
15. The Interrogation by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (#132)
16. Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah (#137)
17. Novel 11, Book 18 by Dag Solstad (#138)
18. A Better Angel: Stories by Chris Adrian (#142)
19. The Cobra's Heart by Ryszard Kapuściński (#149)
20. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney (#150)
21. The Arrival by Shaun Tan (#154)
22. Travelling with Djinns by Jamal Mahjoub (#182)
23. The Conjure Woman by Charles W. Chesnutt (#162)
24. Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy (#183)
25. A Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy (#212)
26. Ül: Four Mapuche Poets, edited by Cecilia Vicuña (#214)
27. The Lemoine Affair by Marcel Proust (#215)

March:
28. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (#225)
29. My Floating Mother, City by Kazuko Shiraishi (#229)
30. The Oldest Orphan by Tierno Monénembo (#230)
31. Outcasts United: A Refugee Soccer Team, an American Town by Warren St. John (#233)
32. Resistance: The Human Struggle Against Infection by Norbert Gualde, M.D. (#234)
33. The United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi (#236)
34. The Winners by Julio Cortázar (#259)
35. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (#263)
36. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (#270)

Currently reading:
The Tango Singer by Tomás Eloy Martinez (Argentina)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Russia) {for the year long read}
Borges: A Life by Edwin Williamson

Other books I'm planning to read this month:
Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia)
The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)
Them by Nathan McCall (US)
Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (Italy)

Message edited by its author, Mar 15, 2009, 9:11pm.

Welcome!

Nice counter! I look forward to your reading list!

Here goes...even though I've gotten a 700 page headstart on 2666, I'll still count it as my first book when I finish it later this week.

Message edited by its author, Jan 1, 2009, 11:36am.

welcome, great to see u here! looking forward to ur reading travels this year.

I'm eager to hear what you think about 2666. I have it on order from B&N and it should be arriving any day now. Have you read any of his other books?

Donna, I read a little over half of The Savage Detectives, but I found it to be a bit tedious and unfocused, and I lost interest in the characters. 2666 is a much better book, although similar in style. After I finish it I'll collect my thoughts and post a review, probably in the next 1-3 days.

I stood at B&N debating on buying 2666 and I put it down. I wanted to check it out here on LT. I wished I would have followed my instincts and just bought the darn thing!

Cal7869, was it the size of the book that made you hesitant to purchase it?

I don't buy a lot of books and I didn't want to spend the money on an unread author. I could remember seeing the book here but I couldn't remember what people thought of it.

I did not care much for The Savage Detectives either, even though I did not make it as far in the book as you did. I may give 2666 a try, though.

About The Savage Detectives: I was ready to stop reading it many times, but people here on LT kept encouraging me to finish it, so I kept going, and in the end I both admired and liked it. It's hard to keep track of all the different characters who tell their own stories, but it gets a bit more focused as the book progresses. I'm looking forward to reading 2666 (which I got in the much more reading-friendly three-volume paperback edition).

I'm on page 786, only 112 pages to go!

The major theme of 2666 is the murder of hundreds of young women in the Mexican border town of Santa Teresa in the 1990s, which is a fictionalized account of the actual, and mainly unsolved, murders of maquiladora workers in and around Ciudad Juarez that began in 1993. The book consists of five chapters, and the longest chapter describes dozens of the victims and how they were killed, in a journalistic fashion. The other chapters are all, in some way, related to Santa Teresa at the time of these murders. Although the book is described as being full of sex and violence -- and it is -- I haven't found it to be overly grisly or distasteful.

More to come soon...

About sex and violence: when I first started reading The Savage Detectives, I had no idea how much sex (and violent sex) there was at the beginning. There I was reading it on the subway when I suddenly realized my seatmates on either side could read it too! That's when I picked a different subway read!

Ha ha! I can relate to that, Rebecca. I was reading 2666 when I visited my friends in Wisconsin two weeks ago, but I put the book away after I saw my friends' 6 yr old daughter flipping through it.

#1: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño



My rating: 1/2

My initial reaction is: "Hmm! So that's how Archimboldi ends up in Santa Teresa!" I'll collect my thoughts over the next day or two and come up with a more useful review.

Next book: Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine by Jonathan B. Imber. Mr. Imber is a professor of sociology at Wellesley College, and the book is about the transformation of the trust given by the American public to physicians as the profession has become more specialized and fragmented, and as the practice of medicine has moved away from its original ties to the Protestant and Catholic (and Jewish) religions to a nonsectarian, scientific and evidence-based -- and less humanistic and patient-centered -- system.

Message edited by its author, Jan 5, 2009, 8:27pm.

#16 kidzdoc: Would you recommend Trusting Doctors to someone who isn't one? It sounds interesting.

#17: I think Trusting Doctors would be of interest to anyone interested in the physician-patient relationship, and how it has changed over time. I've only read the first paragraph of the introduction, though.

Princeton University Press has the first chapter of the book here:

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s878...

Thanks, doc!

Book #: The Illusion of Return by Samir El-Youssef

My rating:


The narrator of this novella is a Palestinian who emigrated from war stricken 1980s Lebanon to London, who receives a phone call from a long lost friend who has also emigrated, to the United States, and wishes to meet with him during a layover at Heathrow Airport on his way back to Lebanon. They haven't spoken to each other or returned to Lebanon after a tragic day that deeply affected both men and their families.

The book's title refers not only to the narrator's belief that it is an illusion that Palestinians can return to their former homes, but also to the impossibility of accurately reexamining memories of the past. It is very well written, and the author, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, gives us a vivid portrayal of the complexity of life in wartime Lebanon, and the pain and isolation that is a daily experience of its exiles.

Next books: A Grain of Wheat by the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo, and The World Is What it Is, the authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French.

Message edited by its author, Jan 7, 2009, 12:33am.

Those large numbers look familiar...

#21 You're right; I looked at The Tortoise's posting earlier today, and used his source (http://www.deffler.com/lt/number_2.bmp).

book #2 seems very interesting. it recalls something i read recently, David Grossman's interviews of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank in his book The Yellow Wind, where they continue to dream of returning to their homes even as it is almost an impossible proposition, yet they seem incapable of making the connection in their minds. a very thought-provoking theme. such a timely read too...

great titles on your next-to-read!

I've come a bit late to this, but I wanted to chip in and say that I'm reading The Savage Detectives now and I'm loving it. I've had it for months, but things I'd read about it here on LT (about the length, mainly, and all the different voices) made me wait for the holidays and I'm glad I did - I spent all last week completely immersed in it (I went home for Christmas but my family barely saw me!) I can't keep track of exactly who is who and how they all fit together (or not), but this total immersion method seems to have worked and has made that seem unimportant. Unfortunately I went back to work today and I still have 200 pages left... Will definitely be reading more Bolano before long.

kidzdoc, book no 2 looks fascinating - I'll look out for it.

Book 2 looks really good, kidzdoc. I can vividly remember when I was about 6 and living in Egypt that we were for a while friends with a family who had escaped from Lebanon. Their kids used to completely freak out at the titles to most cartoon shows - all the flashing and banging was just too much like what they had run away from - but at the time I found it really difficult to grasp what exactly it was they had escaped from. I'm definitely going to try to seek this one out.

#23 - Deebee, The Yellow Wind sounds interesting; I'll add it to my wish list.

#24 - I didn't finish The Savage Detectives, but I'm tempted to give it another go.

#26 - Rachel: Wow. Those poor kids...have you kept in touch with them? Have you read anything by Elias Khoury? He is a Lebanese writer who also writes about exiled Palestinians. I've read Gate of the Sun, which was mesmerizing, and The Kingdom of Strangers, which was pretty good.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 1:24pm.

#20: Yet another one to add to the Continent. Sigh.

Book #3: A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo

My rating: (I would give it 10 stars if LT would permit it!)

This stunning and searing novel, which was written by Mr Thiong'o in 1967, is set in a village in Kenya just prior to the country's independence from Britain in 1963. However, much of the story takes place during the Emergency (referred to by the British as the Mau Mau Uprising) that took place from 1952-1960, which led to the deaths of a few dozen settlers and tens of thousands of Kenyans, and caused the destruction of numerous villages and the breakdown of Kenyan social and economic society. The main characters in this story were all caught up in the retribution that took place after a freedom fighter from the village kills a particularly violent District Officer, and each of them betrays someone dear to them or to the movement, with devastating results. I was unaware of how horrible the Emergency was, but Mr Thiong'o gives us an unforgettable view of colonial Kenya.

After lunch I will be heading to Borders to use this week's 40% off coupon to pick up Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction in 2006.

Next novels: One, Tilting Leaves by the Filipina author Edith L. Tiempo, and The Obscene Bird of Night by the Chilean author José Donoso Yáñez.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 4:57pm.

>3: Have you read The River Between and, if so, how do you compare them? That one is sitting second on my TBR pile right now, but I don't mind pushing it down if A Grain of Wheat is better.

I haven't read and don't yet own The River Between. According to Mr Thiong'o's Wikipedia page, this novel was written in 1965, before A Grain of Wheat, and takes place during the Emergency.

Has anyone (akeela? avaland? rebeccanyc? FlossieT? deebee?) read both books?

BTW, I found the following document helpful while reading A Grain of Wheat:

Notes on A Grain of Wheat

These notes list the main characters, and translate the Swahilian phrases and words in the book.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 2:40pm.

Thanks for finding them; they will help a lot.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 2:42pm.

Hi kidzdoc
I've been following your thread and reading all the interesting comments.

Thanks for the great review re. A Grain of Wheat. This one will now be added to my huge tbr in 2009 pile.

Welcome to our friendly, well read and kind group. I hope you will like it here.

Thanks, Whisper! I'm glad to be participating. Akeela & deebee told me about this group last year, and encouraged me to join for this year.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 5:36pm.

Thanks for your review of A Grain of Wheat--it progresses to the top of my pile--maybe for the Reading Globally February book--Africa.

The Obscene Bird of Night is in my pile too, so I look forward to your thoughts on it.

>31: kidzdoc

Well, perhaps I'll go ahead with The River Between and we can compare notes. The review consensus seems good enough that I'll probably end up reading both at some point.

Edit to fix touchstone from default.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 4:35pm.

#37 - I'll be going back to work tomorrow, so I probably won't finish The Obscene Bird of Night until next week.

#38 - Tad, RebeccaNYC read The River Between this week and reviewed it. I'll be on the lookout for it, too, but I'll probably read Petals of Blood first.

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 4:54pm.

Yes, I read The River Between, and haven't yet read A Grain of Wheat, although I'm going to buy it from that wonderful British site kidzdoc told me about. The River Between was fascinating and well written but not in the same league as Ngugi wa Thiong'o's later work such as Petals of Blood and Wizard of the Crow. The River Between takes place in the period when British settlers are first moving in on the Gikuyu area in Kenya and focuses on the conflicts this creates within the Gikuyu community.

Impressed with your global reading, kidzdoc. I also have added A Grain of Wheat to that mountaineous TBR. Thanks for the very thoughtful review.

A Grain of Wheat is on Continent TBR! I picked up Wizard of the Crow today from the library, but unfortunately it is the only book they have by Thiong'o. I am very much looking forward to trying yet another new (to me) author.

Thanks for all of the discussion about A Grain of Wheat; I've got a copy on the way after getting sucked in by a preview of the first page.

Kidzdoc - loved your review of A Grain of Wheat, but now you've added to my ever-growing wish list!

> 31 i've yet to be introduced to his apparently impressive writing... i'm closely following the discussion here, and don't need more convincing that he should be moved up my pile.

> 40 rebecca, i've been buying my books from the same site for a couple of years now and have only good things to say about their price, service, and delivery. and indeed they have titles which are not so easy to find elsewhere.

Message edited by its author, Jan 7, 2009, 6:28am.

>27: belatedly - sadly not - we lost touch when we moved to New Zealand. I have an idea that they went back to Lebanon at some point.

I'm glad that I could add to your personal Mt TBRs!

I agree with RebeccaNYC, Wizard of the Crow is also an excellent book; I haven't gotten to Petals of Blood yet, but I'll probably read it for next month's Reading Globally theme read (on Africa).

I had almost forgotten about this month's Reading Globally theme read, on Japan. So, I'll be starting Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend by Christopher Ross, which is about Ross' search for the 16th century sword that the writer Yukio Mishima used to commit seppuku in 1970, and his examination of Mishima's life in relation to his own. After that I'll read the Spring Snow, first book in Mishima's "The Sea of Fertility" tetralogy. Then I'll get back to the other books I mentioned.

So many books, so little time...

I've now ordered A Grain of Wheat from the Book Depository, thanks to you, kidzdoc (I can't believe the free shipping to the US!), and also ordered another book by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature.

In light of the discussion on A Grain of Wheat, might I recommend Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by David Anderson.

> 50 peter, the Histories looks like something i'd be very interested in. thanks for the recommendation.

#49 - Rebecca, let me know how you like Decolonising the Mind, it sounds very interesting. Even though I've received a dozen or more books from The Book Depository in the past year, I still can't believe it.

#50 - Thanks, Peter; I'll plan to read Histories of the Hanged along with Imperial Reckoning.

Oh kidzdoc - I am presently reading Ian Buruma and his Inventing Japan - from Empire to Economic miracle - so the Mishima's Sword would be an excellent follow-through. It presently sits at home waiting! Will wait to see if you like it.

(For anyone in Canada - you can get Mishima's Sword as a remainder book in Chapters for only a few dollars.)

> 53 kiwi, how are u liking the Buruma book? i first read an earlier book of his The Missionary and the Libertine years ago, and found his insights into the Asian psyche spot on, doing a far better job of it than most Western views claiming expertise on the region. kidzdoc, may i recommend this author, that is, if you've not yet discovered him.

>48 is Spring Song your first Mishima? i hope you enjoy it. i've read a few of his books, but only the second of the tetralogy, Runaway Horses. it was one of my best reads last year. looking forward to ur review of Mishima's Sword. Mishima's life would make a brilliant study on contrasts and radicalism.

#53 - Kiwidoc, I read Inventing Japan quite a few years ago, and really liked it. I'll be working from now through the weekend, and probably won't get to finish Mishima's Sword before next week.

#54 - Deebee, Spring Snow is my first Mishima, I think. I'll look for Runaway Horses after I finish it.

Lovely stuff going on here -- thx for your informative posts!

Thanks for the warm compliment, suslyn!

I hope to finish Mishima's Sword by tomorrow, and The Obscene Bird of Night by week's end.

Book #4: Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend by Christopher Ross

My rating: 1/2

The British writer Christopher Ross, who lived in Japan for five years, decides to return to Japan to search for the sword that Yukio Mishima used to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) in 1970, as a protest against the emasculation of the Japanese military and the removal of the Emperor as the head of the country after World War II. Ross expertly weaves his study of Mishima's life, influences, and major works with samurai culture, the art of sword making, and his own experiences as a practitioner of the martial arts and living as a Westerner in Japan.

Mishima's life is a series of contrasts. He is a married man with children, but also has numerous male lovers. He is fascinated with death and seppuku from an early age, yet loves kabuki, Noh theater, and other beautiful elements of Japanese culture. He wishes to be viewed as a serious artist and author, yet writes numerous articles for women's magazines and poses fully and partially nude in widely viewed photographs. He is a frail, sickly child who spends much of his childhood playing with female cousins and their dolls, who then transforms himself into a virile and skilled practitioner of kendo. He develops great strength in his upper body as a result of rigorous training, yet his lower body retains its tiny, almost feminine appearance.

This is a fascinating introduction to Mishima, especially for someone like myself who has not read any of his works.

Book #5: Patriotism by Yukio Mishima

My rating:

This disturbing but captivating novella takes place during the Feburary 26 Incident, an attempted coup d’état that took place in Tokyo in 1936 in which the Imperial Way, an ultranationalist faction of the Imperial Army, attempted to take over control of the entire army. A young lieutenant in the Imperial Army, who is devoted to the emperor and to his beautiful new bride, leaves home on the morning of February 26 after hearing a bugle call. He returns two days later, after many of his friends, who are members of the Imperial Way, are killed in the coup attempt. He is given the night off, but is ordered to return to duty the following day, and to assume command of a unit that will be ordered to attack the surviving members of the Imperial Way. This he cannot do, and he decides to commit seppuku, as a protest against these orders and in support of the Emperor. His wife, who is loyal to her husband and to the Emperor, agrees to also take her life. The last half of the novella describes their last act of lovemaking, and their ritual suicides, and the scenes are painted as heroic and full of joy and passion, despite the agonizing pain that the lieutenant experiences during seppuku.

BTW, that is a photo of Mishima on this book's cover.

After these two books, I need something a bit lighter...

Message edited by its author, Jan 15, 2009, 1:55pm.

Book #6: Does Your House Have Lions? by Sonia Sanchez



My rating: 1/2

Ms Sanchez is an African-American poet and playwright, who was a distinguished professor of English at Temple University in Philadelphia. Does Your House Have Lions?, which was nominated for both the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and the NAACP Image Award in 1997, is an epic poem in memory of Ms Sanchez's brother, who died of AIDS in the 1980s. It consists of short, electric bursts of anger, bitterness, fear, and ultimately love and reconciliation, from the voices of Ms Sanchez, her brother, their father, and his stepmother, along with the voices of African ancestors. My only regret is not hearing Ms Sanchez read this poem; if anyone is familiar with this book and knows of a performance or audio book of it, please let me know!

Message edited by its author, Jan 16, 2009, 10:03pm.

#59 kidzdoc: I did some checking at several of the websites that I regularly order audiobooks through and did not see that Does Your House Have Lions? was available in audio format. Sorry, doc. If I do find it available, I will let you know.

>58: Mishima's Sword sounds like it would be interesting introduction to the militaristic mindset of Japan. I'll give it a try.

I'll also see if answers the question of why, if he was so upset at the ending of World War II, it took him 21 years to act.

#60 - Thanks for checking, Stasia! I'll keep checking, though. She gave a lecture at John Carroll University and there is an audio file for Does Your House Have Lions?, but the file appears to have been removed. If I find an audio file online, I'll post its web address.

#61 - Tad, that's a great question, but one that wasn't answered in Mishima's Sword. I assume that you're referring to the 21 years between the time he published Confessions of a Mask in 1949, and his eventual act of hara-kiri in 1970.

kidzdoc...I'm having a difficult time importing book covers. TadAd is helping me. I thought I had this figured out and it worked, but alas today I am not able to import the covers using the same formula.

Can you give me guidance please?

Whisper1, I have no trouble importing them here. It's only inside a personal message that they don't seem to be working. You were trying to do Mozart's Ghost, right? The above was produced with:

<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312369115.01._SY190_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg">

except put in the full address (LT truncates automatically).

Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2009, 8:04pm.

I'd be happy to, Whisper!

Tad helped me out, too, but I didn't know how to do it until I looked at the "Basic HTML" thread in this group.

The way I do it is to go to Amazon, and find the book I'm looking for. Since I'll probably finish Mi Revalueshanary Fren, a book of poems by Linton Kwesi Johnson tonight, I'll use it as an example.

Mmm, scratch the page on Amazon, as it has a "Search This Book" image overlying the image of the book cover. I did find the book cover using Google Images. Once I find the book cover, I right click on it, choose "Properties", and highlight and copy the information on the "Location" section, which gives me:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/images/b...

Then, I'll format it, using , where the information above goes into the ellipsis:



I hope that this helps!

Arrgh! I now know how to do it, but the instructions didn't come out like I had hoped. However, I see that Tad has posted instructions (thanks again!).

Oh oh, the Ravens just scored a TD, so it's 13-7 Steelers.

Here's a couple more tips than those I put into Basic HTML:

* You can get at Amazon images that don't have the "Search This Book" overlay by going to the work page in LT, clicking on covers and then looking below the LT covers to the section that shows the Amazon covers.

* You should use Amazon (or any non-LT) cover when you can as the address of LT covers is in a temporary cache. This means they can disappear without notice. There's a way to regenerate them, but it's a manual process and you'd have to check your images regularly to find out whether they needed it.

* If you use Firefox as your browser, you don't have to go to the Properties page of an image, you can just right-click and select "Copy Image Location." It's a bit faster.

Good tips, Tad! Thanks again.

ok, I'll try one more time.
I am sorry for my ignorance. I feel dumb...

Here is my understanding of what to do:

1. Find the image by searching on the web, or using LT but ensuring to use Amazon covers as the default.

2. Then using Firefox as my browser (which I have),
right click copy image location.
a. I've been copying this to a microsoft word document and then I've been doing the following:

3. Then, I copy and paste this into my post a message in my LT thread.

This should work...right?
Thanks for your help!

You're 2a is missing any text, so I can't judge what you're doing there.

Try this:

a) Don't copy to a Word document, just Copy Image Location
b) Now go to where you want it and type exactly the following:

<img src="

c) Now paste
d) Now type exactly the following:

">

MS Word can cause problems. For example, the default setting replaces regular quotes with Smart Quotes, which look better, but totally mess up an HTML tag.

Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2009, 8:32pm.

Thanks for your patience and your time!

#59 I looooove this volume! I love Sonia Sanchez! May I suggest Like the Singing Coming Off the Drums and Wounded in the House of a Friend...

browngirl, thanks for those recommendations! I don't have either of those two, but I do have Homegirls and Handgrenades and Shake Loose My Skin.

I'll post a review of Mi Revalueshanary Fren by Linton Kwesi Johnson in the next day or two. Have you heard of him? He's a British reggae dub poet, originally of Jamaican descent, who recites his verse in Jamaican patois. I saw him interview Caryl Phillips at Foyles Bookshop in London two years ago, but he didn't give a reading at that time.

I saw Jayne Cortez perform with the Firespitters in San Francisco in the past year or two, and the unfortunately deceased Sekou Sundiata perform there a few years before that, and have his album longstoryshort, but I don't see that he published any of his works in written form.

I haven't acquired the 2 Sanchez books you mentioned, though they're on my wishlists. I have to check out Mi Revalueshanary Fren, it sounds awesome. I have heard of Johnson, I listen to him on last.fm. I'll have to check Jayne Cortez there as well. You can listen to some Saul Willliams, The Last Poets, The Watts Prophets, etc. etc....

browngirl, thanks for letting me know about last.fm; I had never heard of it!

That is the joy and the problem with this site.. you lear so many things, you fin new authors, new reads, spend more money, and your TBR pile grows and grows.

Isn't it great?

Book #7: Mi Revalueshanary Fren by Linton Kwesi Johnson

My rating:

Linton Kwesi Johnson, also known as LKJ, is the most celebrated of the dub poets, and Mi Revalueshanary Fren is an excellent introduction to LKJ and dub poetry. He was born in Jamaica, and moved to Britain as a child in the early 1960s, a period in which thousands of Jamaicans and other West Indians migrated to the UK. The new arrivals experienced a great deal of culture shock and prejudice, and most had to work in menial and degrading jobs. During the Thatcher administration there were several notable clashes between the residents of Brixton, a London neighborhood that was home for many of these immigrants, and the police, including the 1981 Brixton Riot. LKJ describes the simmering tension in Brixton in "All Wi Doin Is Defendin", which was written before the Brixton riot.

Other poems in this volume provide a history and commentary of the experiences of West Indian immigrants in London, both good and bad. There is a great deal of humor and joy in LKJ's poetry, along with the anger and bitterness that the community experienced. "New Crass Massakah" describes the tragic New Cross fire of 1981, in which 13 young blacks died during a house party, which many in the community felt was an act of arson.

LKJ is widely admired in the UK, and he is the second living poet to be published in the Penguin Classics series.

In addition to writing poetry, LKJ, along with other dub poets, reads his work over reggae music, and has released several albums under his label LKJ Records. This book also includes a CD, "A Cappella Live", which includes 14 poems from this volume.

The Guardian has a recent video of LKJ reading his poem "If I Woz a Tap Natch Poet" here: Linton Kwesi Johnson performs If I Woz A Tap Natch Poet

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2009, 11:26am.

Good news for anyone interested in books by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio: Penguin Classics and Vintage Classics in the UK have reissued his novels that were translated into English and were out of print. I have just ordered The Flood, The Giants, Terra Amata, and The Book of Flights, which cost between £5.89 and £6.98 (and, as I've mentioned previously, there is free shipping to the US and Canada, Europe, and other selected countries).

Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2009, 5:21pm.

>80: thanks kidzdoc! I ordered some of the Uni of Nebraska titles just after the Nobel announcement, but after much messing about my order was cancelled due to shortage of stock (sigh). By the time the titles were back in again I (a) had kind of lost interest (b) was too poor to afford them (academic press books have many things to recommend them but not their cost to the average reader relative to the average paperback...)

Oh, I forgot to mention that I ordered these books from The Book Depository!

His first novel, The Interrogation, was reissued in the US last month by Simon and Schuster.

Book #8: The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso Yáñez (438 pp)

My rating: Five Dalí heads (up from my original four Dalí head rating)


This book had my head spinning throughout. It was surreal, hallucinatory, and absolutely bizarre, confusing at times and almost indescribable, but very well written and unlike anything I've ever read.

I'll submit a more useful review once I return from the alternative universe that this book brought me to!

Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 12:07am.

that's something i would love to read! looking forward to your review...

I'm looking forward to your review too. I've had this book on my shelf for several years, and it was one I intended to finally read this year.

Wow! I must have it. Onto the wishlist.

Kidzdoc - you do pick some very interesting reads.

Thanks so much for the video clip of LKJ - that Carribean accent is wonderful. (My Dad lived in Barbados for four years in his youth and can slip into the lingo with ease). It is so rhythmical.

Three Percent, "A resource for international literature at the University of Rochester", announced the 10 fiction and poetry finalists for the "Best Translated Book for 2008" award yesterday.

These are the 10 fiction book finalists:

Tranquility by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein (Archipelago)

2666 by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

Voice Over by Céline Curiol, translated from the French by Sam Richard (Seven Stories)

The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke

Yalo by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux (Archipelago)

Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (New Directions)

Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge, translated from the French by Richard Greeman (New York Review Books)

Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Carolina De Robertis (Melville House)

The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg (New York Review Books)

The winner will be announced on February 19th.

These are the 10 poetry finalists for the Translated Book of the Year award:

Essential Poems and Writings by Robert Desnos, translated from the French by Mary Ann Caws, Terry Hale, Bill Zavatsky, Martin Sorrell, Jonathan Eburne, Katherine Connelly, Patricia Terry, and Paul Auster (Black Widow)

You Are the Business by Caroline Dubois, translated from the French by Cole Swensen (Burning Deck)

As It Turned Out by Dmitry Golynko, translated from the Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky, Rebecca Bella, and Simona Schneider (Ugly Duckling)

For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut by Takashi Hiraide, translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu (New Directions)

Poems of A.O. Barnabooth by Valery Larbaud, translated from the French by Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky (Black Widow)

Night Wraps the Sky by Vladimir Mayakovsky, translated from the Russian by Katya Apekina, Val Vinokur, and Matvei Yankelevich, and edited by Michael Almereyda (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

A Different Practice by Fredrik Nyberg, translated from the Swedish by Jennifer Hayashida (Ugly Duckling)

EyeSeas by Raymond Queneau, translated from the French by Daniela Hurezanu and Stephen Kessler (Black Widow)

Peregrinary by Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Zephyr)

Eternal Enemies by Adam Zagajewski, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Archipelago Books, "a not-for-profit literary press dedicated to promoting cross-cultural exchange through international literature in translation", is offering a 2009 anniversary subscription, which I just purchased. For $125, the company will send you a copy of each of the 10 books that it will publish this year, which is a significant discount off of the list prices of the books (and S&H is free, probably within the US only; the press is located in Brooklyn). Two of last year's books, Yalo and Tranquility, are on the shortlist of the Best Translated Book of 2008, and I have several other Archipelago Books that I've enjoyed. These are the 2009 books, in order of release:

A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar (early January)

Plants Don't Drink Coffee by Unai Elorriaga (March)

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (April)

Mouroir by Breyten Breytenbach (April)

Wonder by Hugo Claus (May)

Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss (June)

The Salt Smugglers by Gérard de Nerval (July)

Intimate Stranger by Breyten Breytenbach (September)

A Time For Everything by Karl O. Knausgaard (October)

To Mervas by Elisabeth Rynell (November)

I had already purchased A Mind at Peace, so my best friend's wife will probably get my second copy.

The web site has summaries of all these books, on the current or forthcoming titles pages.

Message edited by its author, Jan 28, 2009, 2:33pm.

oh thanks kidzdoc for reminding me, I want to read The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans again this year.
Last year I reread Beyond Sleep, we have some books by him and I think I should read at least one a year.

That sounds fascinating, kidzdoc. Will have to check out that web site when I have a moment to spare.

The NPR program News & Notes had a story this afternoon on a new series of books about contemporary African-American writers, which will be published annually. The books are Best African American Essays: 2009 and Best African American Fiction: 2009, which were released two weeks ago.

The NPR interview with one of the editors of both volumes, Gerald Early, can be found here:

Highlighting The Best Work Of Black Writers

Book #9: Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami (130 pp)

My rating: Hear the Wind Sing is the first novel by Murakami, which was published in 1979 but never released in the US (I bought my copy from a Japanese bookseller on eBay). This book and the subsequent one, Pinball, 1973, which I'll read next, serve as preludes to his third novel, A Wild Sheep Chase, which is available outside of Japan.

The narrator is a 29 year old man, but the story takes place several years before, when he is a college student on his summer break. The action centers around him and his friend The Rat, who both appear in A Wild Sheep Chase, who spend an inordinate amount of time in J's Bar. He also has a quirky and short relationship with a young woman who works in a record shop, who he finds passed out on the floor of the bathroom in the bar.

As compared to his later writing, the characters are sketchily portrayed, and the story seems to jump around in short, aimless fragments. It wasn't a bad read, but I'm certainly glad that this wasn't the first book by Murakami I picked up.

Thank you for your post about Does Your House Have Lions? going to have to go to waterstones now!

Book #10: Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami (216 pp)

My rating:

This is a much better novel than Hear the Wind Sing, and although not as good as his best novels, it is a very good read and uniquely "Murakamiesque".

I think I'll wait to post my review until this evening; I'll also review The Obscene Bird at Night tonight. Right now I'm too distracted by soon-to-be former Governor Blagojevich's closing statement at the end of impeachment trial.

I'm really enjoying the reviews, kidzdoc! I've only read Kafka on the Shore by Murakami (loved the characters, especially Nakata, but the plot left me wanting for more), what else would you recommend? I'd like to maybe try some of his short stories...

Edited because I wrote your nickname as kiwidoc :) I'm tempted to make a bad joke about that, but won't. Even my bad jokes are unsuccessful.

Message edited by its author, Jan 29, 2009, 1:07pm.

Seeing an almost joke above about my name, I will tentatively step in.....

I was wondering which of Murakami's books you consider his best, kidzdoc. I have only read Dance, Dance, Dance, but remember Kafka on the Shore as being one of his most renowned.

Thanks,
Kiwidoc!

haha okay see you're being funny without even bothering to make the joke! What does your name mean kiwidoc? I know kidzdoc = Kids' doc because of kidzdoc's profession, namely, paediatrician (I saw that in the how-did-you-get-your-nickname thread). But I don't assume you're a doctor for fruit, somehow.

Ha ha! I had assumed that kiwidoc was from New Zealand...

The first two Murakami books I read are still my favorites: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood. They are very different books, and the first one is more typical of Murakami. You could also start with his third book, A Wild Sheep Chase, which is his first book that was published in the US, but the main characters in the book (Kobu and the Rat) are derived from his first two novels. I read A Wild Sheep Chase several years ago, but I seem to remember feeling as if I had jumped in midway through the story (I'm eager to hear what others think, as I'm trying to decide if I should read it again after finishing Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973).

Kiwidoc, I had been meaning to ask you if you'd be interested in co-reviving the moribund Medicine thread. My thought was to have a Group Read about books of general interest that have some link to medicine, both fiction and non-fiction. One book that I always recommend to the medical students and residents is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, which might be a good place to start.

What do you -- and others -- think?

Ok - well it can get confusing but I am a New Zealander who is also a doctor (family MD). As I live in Canada and was born in England I could have resorted to Canuckdoc or POMMIEdoc, but they don't have the same ring to them.

Thanks for the recommends for Murakami, kidzdoc. I will try your two recommends first.

Oh, I forgot to mention that you can download a PDF copy of Pinball, 1973 from the Internet; bobmcconnaughey was kind enough to provide a link on my Club Read 2009 theme page:

Pinball, 1973

Message edited by its author, Jan 29, 2009, 2:16pm.

I'd be interested in a Medicine read (of general interest).

Book #11: Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra (90 pp.)

My rating: 1/2

This novella, by the Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra, is his first novel after he published two books of poems, Useless Bay and Change. Bonsai won the Chilean Critics' Award for the Best Novel of the Year in 2006, and it is one of the 10 shortlisted books for the Best Translated Book of 2008 by Three Percent.

The main characters are two Chilean university students, Emilia and Julio, who become lovers after a drunken study session. They are inseparable, almost indistinguishable in their likes and dislikes, and their lovemaking sessions are preceded by excerpts from their favorite works of literature. Eventually they begin to drift apart, and Emilia soon disappears from Chile.

Anita, Emilia's old roommate and best friend since childhood, eventually tracks her down years later in Madrid, and makes a startling and disturbing discovery, which is hinted at in the opening paragraph of the book.

Emilia and Julio are lovingly painted, and even though you know what will eventually happen to Julia, it is still shocking and achingly sad, and the ending is heartbreaking.

Edited to change to a different book cover image.

#105: Great! I'll make a mention of this on the Club Read 2009 page, to see who else might be interested.

#102, Although I'm not a doctor, I loved The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I thought it was an amazing and compassionate look at the tragic consequences of cultural misunderstanding, and I was awed by Anne Fadiman's writing. This was the book that started me reading everything she writes.

Here is my review of The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso Yáñez:

This masterpiece by the late Chilean author José Donoso centers around the Azcoitías, a family of Chilean aristocrats. However, the main character, Humberto Peñaloza, is an assistant to Don Jerónimo, the last male heir of this family, who is at times a deaf-mute, a nun, and the doll for an teenaged orphan in a convent who is having a miraculous pregnancy -- or not. The wife of the heir, Inés, cannot become pregnant, and there is great concern that the Azcoitía clan may fade into obscurity. Inés seeks assistance from Peta Ponce, the old woman who saved her life when she was a young child. Peta Ponce, who is feared to be a witch by Don Jerónimo, encourages Inés to lure Don Jerónimo to her own dark, dilapidated shack, and make love to him there. However, Humberto Peñaloza is also drawn to the shack at the same time, presumably by Peta Ponce's powers, as she is attracted to Humberto, and each man makes love to who he believes is Inés, although none of the characters, and certainly not the reader, is sure who makes love to whom. In any case, Inés becomes pregnant, but gives birth to a monstrous child, called Boy.

Don Jerónimo decides that Boy should view himself as normal, and he builds a fortress for Boy to live in. Humberto is given the task of rounding up the most dysmorphic "freaks" that can be found in the countryside, who become Boy's servants and companions.

Inés separates from Don Jerónimo, travels throughout Europe, has a nervous breakdown, and, upon her return to town, decides to take up residence in the Casa de Ejercicios Espirituales de la Encarnación, the church/orphanage/old widows' home that is owned by the Azcoitía family, but it becomes hers.

After Don Jerónimo "discovers" that Humberto has impregnated his wife during that fateful night and that he, in making love to Peta Ponce, has lost his manhood, Humberto is operated on by a doctor who is one of the "freaks". He is transformed into a dysmorphic deaf-mute, and banished to the Casa de Ejercicios Espirituales de la Encarnación.

The story only becomes more surreal from there!

It wasn't until I had completed about 1/3 of the book until I had a clue as to what was going on, probably because I wasn't giving the book the attention it deserved (rebeccanyc, this is not one to be read on the subway, unless your ability to concentrate is far better than mine!). However, once it came together for me, it was absolutely captivating; Nicola Barker, in her brilliant review that can be found on LT, describes the experience of reading this book as being a "tiny, sleeping gnat being sucked down a fabulously kaleidoscopic dream plughole". I completely agree!

Message edited by its author, Jan 30, 2009, 3:43am.

I am putting both the Zambra and Yunoz books on the Continent. Thanks for taking the time to write up such wonderful reviews!

Message edited by its author, Jan 30, 2009, 6:55am.

> 109, plenty of surrealism and magic-realism there it seems---hmm, just my cup of tea!

Book #12: Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño

My rating: 1/2

Nazi Literature in the Americas is an encyclopedic compilation of mini-biographies imagined far right-wing writers who are placed in realistic settings and interact with real authors and other famous people.

I stopped reading it after 80 pp., as I found it quite tedious. I would imagine that someone with a background in academic literature would find this much more enjoyable than I did; it is well written, and often humorous and/or disturbing. For me, however, there are way too many other books I'm more interested in reading right now!

Next book: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.

Good for you Kidzdoc! I must learn to do this more often -- ie stop reading a book when it doesn't hold my interest. I finished Grief by Andrew Holleran and long about page 70 I was thinking, when oh when is this going to end, and then thought, why the heck did I start this one anyway...

Thanks, Whisper. I do reserve the right, whenever I stop a book, to go back and revisit it, as my opinion may change. I'm also more likely to give a book a chance if it has been favorably reviewed; I had started to give up on The Obscene Bird of Night this year, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao last year, but I'm very glad that I stuck it out and finished both of them. Nazi Literature in the Americas, on the other hand, was going to be another 120 or so pp. of the same tedious entries, so it was easier to put it aside.

Hi kidzdoc! I haven't stopped in for a while, and now find a very busy thread. How did you like "Housekeeper"? I found it to be most touching. It has found a place on my keepers shelf...

Some of the books you have reviewed here look wonderful, and you write a mean review!

Hi mckait! Good to hear from you. Is your house all prepared for Sunday? Go Steelers!

I'm about a third of the way through "Housekeeper", and should finish it tonight (I have to take a course this afternoon, so I may not finish it until Sunday).

Thanks for your compliment on my reviews! I enjoy writing, but have little experience in it, and sometimes fear that my writing is puerile.

I put this on Whisper's thread but thought I'd add it here too.

Definitely for that age range (8-11). Your neice may also like The Twits and George's Marvelous Medicine which are for slightly younger than Matilda so might be a good intro for her. Oh, and The BFG which is my favourite Roald Dahl is fabulous :)

Thanks, lunacat! I see that Roald Dahl is a British writer, so he'll be someone her mother will be familiar with (she's from Belgium and grew up on British children's lit).

We are all ready~ except for the buffalo chicken dip..

None of the kids are home so I think my light fixture in the living room is safe this year. I will be SO glad to see football over for the year!

I am so glad that it will not be a Steelers/Eagle game. My daughter is a Steelers fan and her husband is an Eagles fan. I was actually hoping he would get a turn with his team instead, this year, but it was not to be.

The Steelers played in the Super Bowl only one of the years I was in Pittsburgh ('93-'97), and they lost, I think to the Cowboys (Neil O'Donnell had a horrible game, if I remember correctly). The city all but shut down that day!

I was hoping for a Steelers-Eagles Super Bowl, as I grew up in suburban Philadelphia (we moved there from northern NJ when I was 13, and my parents still live there). The Eagles are overdue, as they haven't won an NFL championship since 1960. But, the Cardinals are even more overdue than the Eagles!

At least the Phillies won the World Series this past year...

In some ways I don't like Super Bowl Sundays, as it occurs so late in the day, with seemingly 6-8+ hours of pregame hype. I'd love to see the game played at 3-4 pm (I'd say earlier, but I'm willing to accomodate the West Coast fans). I'll still be watching the game, though.

I agree, it is on way too late..

Places around here are closing down.. restaurants, stores, etc.
Pittsburgh public schools have a 2 hour delay on Monday!
craziness... lol

Well, have fun watching~ and make sure to nap at halftime :)

Book #13: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (192 pp.)

My rating: 1/2

The narrator is a young woman employed by a housekeeping agency, who is assigned to work in the cottage of a retired mathematics professor in 1992. The Professor suffered a traumatic brain injury after a motor vehicle accident in 1975. His long-term memory prior to the accident is intact, but his short-term memory is limited to 80 minutes.

She is a single mother of a 10 yr old boy, a latchkey child, and she has little time to spend with him, though she loves him deeply. The Professor insists that the child, who he calls Root, accompany his mother after school. The Professor takes to Root as if he was the son that he never had, and Root for the first time has an adult figure in his life who can provide him with love and attention.

This is a beautifully told, metaphorically rich story of memory and experience, and the characters are adorable and unforgettable. It is a novel to be savored and revisited.

Next books:
Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Message edited by its author, Feb 1, 2009, 11:09am.

sounds fantastic! Another one for my list! :)

I just picked up The Housekeeper and the Professor at Powell's last weekend, and am looking forward to reading it. I'm also reading Poor Folk as my first read for the Author Theme group. So many books so little time.

Book #14: Poor Folk by Dostoyevsky (112 pp.)

My rating:

I'll post a mini-review for now, and a longer review later this week.

This first novel by Dostoevsky, published in 1846, consists of a series of letters between two distant cousins, who happen to live across the street from each other in squalid apartments in St. Petersburg. Makar Dievushkin, by the older of the two, works as a copyist, and lives in the kitchen of an apartment that he shares with another impoverished family. He is completely devoted to his cousin and correspondent, Barbara Alexievna, a young woman who has experienced great tragedies and is in poor health. Dostoevsky is able to vividly portray mid-19th century St. Petersburg and the abject poverty through Makar's letters, and both cousins effectively describe the desperation that they face. Despite their dismal conditions, the story is infused with humor, irony, and wit. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and finished it in one sitting.

#125: One of Dostoyevsky's books that I have not read - I will definitely look for it. I am also putting The Housekeeper and the Professor on the Continent.

ditto Stasia's comments..two more added to the ever growing tbr pile.
Thanks. I'm especially interested in The Housekeeper and the Professor and enjoyed your reviews.

> 125 wow, you made short work of our first D book. i've not even opened mine yet... :-) you're off to a great start!

Well, I'm tired (left Baltimore at 4:15 this morning to get to work, but that was an exciting game last night. The ending of the first half was spectacular.

About the only down note was that I was disappointed in the number of deliberate, personal fouls by the Steelers. Oh well, it was still one of the best Superbowls ever.

#128: deebee, The Double is only 112 pp. long, so it doesn't take long to read.

#129: Tad, I missed the entire first half (as I was reading The Double and not paying attention to the time). The third quarter was nothing special, but the fourth quarter was incredible. Both teams had a number of silly penalties, much more than you'd see in a typical big game. When the Cardinals scored their last TD, I thought that it would be ironic that a former Pitt All-American (Larry Fitzgerald) would be the main reason that the Steelers would lose. Fortunately Big Ben had one more amazing drive, and pass, in his back pocket.

#129/130: Totally agree that it was one of the best Super Bowls ever. I would watch that one again in a heartbeat. I also agree about some of the unnecessary personal fouls on the parts of both teams.

Book #15: The Interrogation by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

My rating: The Interrogation is Le Clézio's debut novel, which won the Prix Renaudot in 1963, written when he was only 23.

Adam Pollo is an almost 30 year old man who "is not sure whether he has just left the army or a mental home", as Le Clézio mentions in the Introduction. He breaks into a deserted house at the top of a hill overlooking a town on the southern French coast, and spends his days alone at the house or on the beach, observing but not interacting with people. He identifies with certain animals, and even imagines himself as metamorphosing into them, in particular a dog on the beach and a rat that he discovers in the house.

His only meaningful contact is with Michèle, a young woman from the town, who seems to be attracted to him but clearly does not understand him, particularly his metaphysical outbursts.

His behavior becomes more erratic and his thoughts become nonlinear, and he is eventually arrested and committed to a mental institution, where he appears to be most content. The story ends as he is interviewed by several medical students, as he unsuccessfully attempts to explain to them how he has reached this state.

This was an interesting but uneven read, but quite impressive given Le Clézio's young age.

Kidzdoc
This most recent read reminds me of In the Lake of the Woods regarding a theme of emotional degeneration.

While you don't rate this book in the highest level, I sense you think it was worth your time reading.

Whisper, you are exactly right; I thought it was worth reading, as was Murakami's first novel, but it pales in comparison to the other books I've read by him, especially Onitsha.

In the Lake of the Woods is on the wish list; thanks!

Hi there doc :)
The weekend came back.. thank all the gods and goddesses!
Hope you have a good one..

Hi mckait! I take it that you survived the Post-Super Bowl hoopla. Now we can concentrate on Pitt basketball (the men and the women this year).

I have a half-day conference to go to tomorrow morning at Emory (on physician leadership...perhaps an oxymoron?). After that I'm free for the rest of the weekend, which is good, cuz I have a lot of reading to do! The weather will be great here this weekend, 65 degrees on Saturday and 66 degrees on Sunday, with sunny skies.

Enjoy your weekend!

Book #16: Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah (217 pp)

My rating: 1/2

The nameless narrator is a Zanzibarian man in his 40s who emigrates to the UK as a teenager, makes a life for himself in London, and decides to travel back home to visit his mother and family, who he hasn't seen in nearly 20 years.

He is a dishonest and deceitful, yet well meaning man, and is incapable of decisive action -- his life is chosen for him. His uncle in Zanzibar chooses to send him to the UK. His uncle with whom he stays in London makes arrangements for him to enter the University of London and become a teacher. While attending university he meets Emma, a white Londoner, and she chooses him to be her mate. Emma decides to stop taking The Pill, and as a result she becomes pregnant. Emma's love for him gives him the strength and courage to become a reasonably good student, but his career as a grade school teacher in the public school system is chosen for him. He can barely tolerate the school and his students, but he does not seek a more fulfilling position. His daughter Amelia learns to despise him, as does Emma.

His only actions involve the deception of those he loves: Emma, Amelia, and his mother and family in Zanzibar. Although he does not love them, he deceives Emma's parents as well, and no one truly knows him. For that matter, he deceives himself: he does not know what he wants from life, and believes that he is a failure, but does not hate himself for this, and does not do anything about it.

He is welcomed home as a success story, and quickly re-establishes close ties to his mother and siblings. However, he does not tell his family of his secret life in London with Emma and Amelia, and circumstances cause him to disgrace his family, and for his mother to disown him.

I enjoyed Admiring Silence, but not nearly as much as By the Sea or Desertion, as the main supporting characters were not as well described as they could have been, in particular Emma and the narrator's mother.

Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 10:30pm.

Book #17: Novel 11, Book 18 by Dag Solstad (218 pp)

My rating: 1/2

(I may bump this rating up to 5 stars once I've thought about this book a little more.)

Dag Solstad is perhaps the finest contemporary Norwegian writer, and this novel was awarded the Norwegian Critics' Prize for Literature in 1992. He is the only living Norwegian author to have received this award three times. The English translation of Novel 11, Book 18 was published at the end of last year in the UK, and is not currently available in the US.

The main character, Bjørn Hansen, is a respected government official in a small Norwegian town, who has just turned 50 and has recently separated from his long time partner. Despite his material comforts, he is unsatisfied with his life, and how chance has affected both his life and his relationship with his 20 yr old son from a previous marriage, who comes to live with him while attending university. He invents a plan that will dramatically change his life, and enlists another man in the town to help him carry out this act.

This subtle existential novel is one that I'll be thinking about for a while, and I'm sure I'll revisit it in the near future. I've already ordered another of Mr. Solstad's books that has been translated into English, Shyness and Dignity, and I'll be eagerly awaiting more translations of his works.

Message edited by its author, Feb 9, 2009, 10:53pm.

Dag Solstad's book sounds fascinating.

Is that a photo of a wheelchair on the cover, and does this play a part in the story?

Umm...maybe... :-)

Message edited by its author, Feb 8, 2009, 3:22am.

>138 Wow, the book sounds great! I'll definitely put this high on my wishlist.

Book #18: A Better Angel: Stories by Chris Adrian (228 pp)

My rating: A Better Angel is a collection of nine short stories by Chris Adrian, who was trained as a pediatrician and is currently a student at the Harvard Divinity School. The stories have a common theme of suffering or death, often involving children. However, this is not an overly morose or morbid book, and it is often wickedly funny. Adrian gives us a collection of way off center characters, including a drug addicted pediatrician who has an equally addicted guardian angel that gleefully and accurately predicts death; a innocent-looking young girl with an unquenchable desire to kill; and the spirit of a comatose woman, who travels unseen around the hospital and falls in love with a lab technician. My favorite was the ex-preemie short gut teenager who develops a crush on an incompetent intern during one of her frequent hospital stays, while working on a book of animals with terminal diseases, including "feline leukemic indecisiveness", "dreadful hoof dismay", and "crispy lung surprise".

Several of the stories, especially the one about the short gut teenager, were superb. Most of the others were very good, but two of them were puzzling to me. Overall this is definitely a good read, as was his novel The Children's Hospital.

Message edited by its author, Feb 8, 2009, 11:49pm.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! A new Chris Adrian book!!! Thanks so much for reading this and thus bringing it to my attention--The Children's Hospital is one of my all-time favorites and now I can't wait to read A Better Angel.

ok, that does it...I simply cannot read your thread any more...(I'm kidding of course)
Every time I stop by, I'm adding more and more and more books....Because....your thread is one of the most interesting, among many, here on on 75 book challenge group for 2009.

I am adding The Children's Hospital and A Better Angel both by Chris Adrian. I've never heard of this author and that is one of the many blessings of this group, ie we obtain such a broad range of knowledge.

Thanks!

I have also added them to the ever-expanding Continent. I have never heard of Chris Adrian before either.

Sounds worthwhile, Kidzdoc. Another author to watch out for. Thanks.

I'm disappointed; none of the kids I've seen in the hospital so far today have "crispy lung surprise" (lots of RSV, though).

I enjoyed The Children's Hospital so I'll be looking for A Better Angel.

Book #19: The Cobra's Heart by Ryszard Kapuściński (97 pp)

My rating:

This book is part of a series of short books, Penguin Press Classic Journeys, which features excerpts from works of famous travelers, including Herodotus, Marco Polo, Olaudah Equiano and Anton Chekhov. The chapters from this book are largely taken from The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life. Kapuściński gives us an unforgettable description of what it's like to have malaria, and how awful of a disease it is. Other sections deal with a 1966 coup in Nigeria, a brief history of the rise to power of Idi Amin, and his encounter with a sleeping cobra that is lying underneath his bed. This book is an excellent introduction to Mr. Kapuściński's writings.

Book #20: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney

My rating:

Greg just can't catch a break. As a skinny unpopular 7th grader, he's picked on by older kids and ignored by girls, especially Holly Hills. His best friend is more of a loser than he is, as he is the only 12 year old in the neighborhood who still has a babysitter. He is constantly tormented by both his younger brother, who has ratted him out since he was born, and his older brother, who plays tricks on him at every opportunity. Worst of all, his father is eager to enlist him in a military academy, to make a man out of him.

Jeff Kinney perfectly captures the horrors of the pre-teen years in this first of a series of cartoon novels. Although written for older kids, adults will find plenty to laugh -- and cringe -- at in this book.

Message edited by its author, Feb 15, 2009, 12:15pm.

Kidzdoc

I recently finished one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. The story line was different. I'm interested in reading the book you described above. Can you tell me if there was a specific series number on the cover.
Mine stated Diary of a Wimphy Kid: A novel in Cartoons and contained some quirky events such as Halloween trick or treat and Greg running for student Treasurer.

Thanks for taking time to respond.

Oh, sorry...wrong cover. The one I read is the latest one, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw.

Message edited by its author, Feb 14, 2009, 3:39pm.

no need to apologize....I'm simply wanting to learn more about the series...And, I enjoyed your description. I did a search and learned that my local library has a copy the book you read and I'm going to get it on Monday. These books are so refreshingly funny. Thanks very much for taking time to respond so that I can obtain the book you read.

Book 21: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

My rating: 1/2

This graphical wordless novel by the Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan, which has won numerous awards in Australia and was one of The New York Times's best illustrated books, is a moving story of a man who leaves his wife and young daughter to pursue opportunities in a foreign land. His new home, a major industrial city, is populated by strange people, pets and objects, but he manages to find work and meet friendly people, who have also migrated to the city from other strife torn lands. The illustrations are extremely well-drawn, and place the reader both in the past and in an uncertain, surreal future. This book will both resonate with young (preteen) readers and adults, who will better appreciate the complexity and history underneath the subplots.

I had originally purchased this book and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw to read and pass on to a friend's child. I'll have to get her another copy of The Arrival, as this is a keeper.

I posted this jazz album review on the Jazz thread on Club Read 2009 earlier today.

As promised, here is my review of the album Straight Ahead by Abbey Lincoln (1961):

My rating: easily 5 stars!

This reissue, which is currently available on iTunes and as a CD, is the first album led by Abbey Lincoln since her collaboration with her future husband, the legendary drummer Max Roach. It features Mr. Roach, along with the equally legendary tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, who is featured on nearly every song, Eric Dolphy (alto sax and flute), Booker Little (trumpet), and Mal Waldron (piano), amongst others. Abbey is simply brilliant on each of the tunes, with a deeply emotional, gutsy, and throat-grabbing performance. She demands your attention and does not let go easily. Coleman Hawkins is equally fantastic, especially on "Blue Monk" and "In the Red", a mournful and powerful statement about poverty. Booker Little has a nice solo on "When Malindy Sings", the famous Paul Lawrence Dunbar poem.

I am struggling to find words to describe how much I love this album. This has now displaced Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin as my favorite vocal album, and it has earned a place on my top 20 -- and probably top 10 -- all time favorite jazz recordings. My only criticism is that it's not enough: no solos by Roach, Dolphy or Waldron, not long enough, not enough songs, not enough Abbey!

Message edited by its author, Feb 15, 2009, 6:03pm.

Since you are a big jazz fan, I thought I would mention Gary Giddins' book Visions of Jazz which I read last year. It is a long read, and parts of it are technical, but I really learned a lot about jazz from it and thought I would mention it.

Thanks for your recommendation, alcottacre. I kept passing this book over, since I have quite a few jazz books that I haven't read yet, but I think I'll pick it up next time that I go to City Lights Bookstore.

#157: I admit I had to read it slowly and it took me a bit, but I thought it was well worth the effort. I hope you enjoy it.

> 149 Kapuściński is one of my favorite writers -- do try to read The Shadow of the Sun -- an insightful, beautifully written book affording us a glimpse into some little-known facts about the continent.

You've sold me, deebee; The Shadow of the Sun will move from my wish list to my must buy list.

Book #22: Travelling with Djinns by Jamal Mahjoub

My rating: 1/2

Fantastic book...bittersweet and emotionally engaging...I'll submit a review tomorrow.

Book #23: The Conjure Woman by Charles W. Chesnutt (132 pp)

My rating:

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was the first African-American author to achieve commercial success, writing three novels, a book of short stories, and numerous articles for The Atlantic Monthly and other national publications. According to The Library of America, "Chesnutt laid bare te deep contradictions at the heart of American attitudes toward race and history, and in the process created the modern African-American model."

Chesnutt was born in Cleveland to two free persons of color, but spent most of his early life in North Carolina before moving back to Ohio. Although he could pass for white, as his paternal grandfather was a white slaveholder, he identified himself as a Negro throughout his life. He wrote extensively on racial issues, particularly involving persons of mixed heritage.

His first book, The Conjure Woman, published in 1899, consists of a series of "conjure" tales set in post-Civil War North Carolina. The narrator is a white midwesterner who has purchased an abandoned plantation, who hires, amongst others, Julius McAdoo, a former slave on the plantation. The new owner and his wife are quite fond of "Uncle Julius" and his stories of plantation life, and each of the six tales are told in slave narrative form. These stories collectively provide a complex portrait of the lives of slaves, slaveowners, freedmen, and poor whites in the antebellum South, and the influence of conjurers on blacks and whites during that time.

Charles Chesnutt is one of my favorite writers. I loooove The Wife of His Youth, it's in my top ten.

I am always amazed at the selections I find throughout our group. And, I'm also curious how you discovered these latest two books. I've never heard of Charles Chesnutt, but after reading your reviews, will add him to the tbr pile.

Thanks very much.

I am adding both books 22 and 23 to Continent TBR and then forever forsaking reading your thread because my Continent is turning into Universe TBR before my very eyes!

(OK, I was just kidding about the forsaking your thread part. The other part is true, though).

I'm not sure what's going on, LT is flagging my own messages as abuse! Let's try it again...

browngirl,

The Library of America is currently selling Chesnutt: Selected Stories, Novels and Essays at half price (w/ free shipping in the US), which includes his two published short story collections, The Conjure Woman and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and two of his three novels, The House Behind the Cedars and The Marrow of Tradition, along with other short stories and essays. I'll probably read The Wife of His Youth next.

Whisper, akeela reviewed Travelling with Djinns on her Reading Globally thread last month. Unfortunately this book is out of print, and the last copy that I'm aware of was purchased by dchaikin from AbeBooks UK yesterday. Akeela is currently looking for other copies in South Africa and elsewhere; I'll post info on any copies that she or I locate. I'll also post my review later today. I've heard about Mr. Chesnutt for a number of years, especially during Black History Month, but I've never read anything by him until now.

alcottacre, the blame for Travelling with Djinns should be directed toward akeela! I'll take responsibility for The Conjure Woman.

I hope to finish two more books today, Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy, which is very good so far, and maybe The Lemoine Affair, a novella by Marcel Proust.

The shortlists for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize were announced earlier today. According to The Commonwealth Foundation web site, "The Commonwealth Writers' Prize, a much valued and sought-after award, aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience."

Africa regional shortlists:

Best Book
Damon Galgut (South Africa) The Impostor {Penguin}
Tim Keegan (South Africa ) My Life with the Duvals {Umuzi}
Sindiwe Magona (South Africa) Beauty's Gift {Kwela books}
Mandla Langa (South Africa) The Lost Colours of the Chameleon {Picador Africa}
Zoe Wicomb (South Africa) The One That Got Away {Umuzi}

Best First Book
Jassy Mackenzie (South Africa) Random Violence {Umuzi}
Uwem Akpan (Nigeria) Say You're One of Them {Abacus}
Megan Voysey-Braig (South Africa) Till We Can Keep An Animal {Jacana Media}
Chris Mamewick (South Africa) Shepherds and Butchers {Umuzi}
Sue Rabie (South Africa) Boston Snowplough {Human & Rousseau}
Jane Bennett (South Africa ) Porcupine {Kwela Books}

Canada and Caribbean regional shortlists:

Best Book
Marina Endicott (Canada) Good to a Fault {Freehand Books}
Kenneth J Harvey (Canada) Blackstrap Hawco {Random House Canada}
Nino Ricci (Canada) The Origin of Species {Doubleday Canada}
Jacob Ross(Grenada) Pynter Bender {Fourth Estate}
Jaspreet Singh (Canada) Chef {Véhicule Press}
Fred Stenson (Canada) The Great Karoo {Doubleday Canada}

Best First Book
Theanna Bischoff (Canada) Cleavage {NeWest Press}
Mark Blagrave (Canada) Silver Salts {Cormorant Books}
Craig Boyko (Canada) Blackouts {McClelland and Stewart}
Nila Gupta (Canada) The Sherpa and Other Fictions {Sumach Press}
Pasha Malla (Canada) The Withdrawal Method {House of Anansi Press}
Joan Thomas (Canada) Reading By Lightning {Goose Lane Editions}
Padma Viswanathan (Canada)The Toss of a Lemon {Random House Canada}

Europe and South Asia regional shortlists:

Best Book Award
Chris Cleave (United Kingdom) The Other Hand {Sceptre}
Shashi Deshpande (India) The Country of Deceit {Penguin}
Philip Hensher (United Kingdom) The Northern Clemency {Fourth Estate}
Jhumpa Lahiri (United Kingdom) Unaccustomed Earth {Bloomsbury Publishing}
David Lodge (United Kingdom) Deaf Sentence {Harvill Secker}
Salman Rushdie (United Kingdom) The Enchantress of Florence {Random House}

Best First Book Award
Sulaiman Addonia (United Kingdom) The Consequences of Love {Chatto and Windus}
Daniel Clay (United Kingdom) Broken {Harper Collins}
Joe Dunthorne (United Kingdom) Submarine {Penguin}
Mohammed Hanif (Pakistan) The Case of Exploding Mangoes {Jonathan Cape}
Murzaban Shroff (India) Breathless in Bombay {St. Martin's Griffin}

South East Asia and the Pacific regional shortlists :

Best Book
Aravind Adiga (Australia) Between The Assassinations {Picador India}
Helen Garner (Australia) The Spare Room {The Text Publishing Company}
Joan London (Australia) The Good Parents {Random House Australia (Vintage Imprint)}
Paula Morris (New Zealand) Forbidden Cities {Penguin New Zealand}
Christos Tsiolkas (Australia) The Slap {Allen and Unwin}
Tim Winton, (Australia) Breath {Picador}

Best First Book
Aravind Adiga (Australia), The White Tiger {Atlantic Books}
Nam Le (Australia) The Boat {Hamish Hamilton}
Mo Zhi Hong (New Zealand) The Year of The Shanghai Shark {Penguin New Zealand}
Bridget van der Zijpp (New Zealand) Misconduct {Victoria University Press}
Preeta Samarasan (Malaysian) Evening is the Whole Day {Fourth Estate}
Ashley Sievwright (Australia) The Shallow End {Clouds of Magellan}

The regional winners will be announced on 11 March. The overall winners will be announced on 16 May. Last year's overall winners were Lawrence Hill (Canada) for The Book of Negroes (released in the US as Someone Knows My Name), which won the Best Book Award, and Tahmima Anam (Bangladesh) for A Golden Age, which won the Best First Book Award.

The Chesnutt books and Travelling with Djinns sound like books I want to read. I'm going to try to track them down. Your book choices are so inspiring. Thanks for listing the nominees for the Commonwealth Prize--another great source for TBRs! (Have you read any of them?)

#170: What a great list! Thanks for posting it.

The Chesnutt book will be easy to find on the LoA website or Amazon. Travelling with Djinns, however, has not been published in the US, is currently out of print in the UK, and is about as rare as hen's teeth at the moment. I bought the last copy from Alibris last month. A couple of others have asked about the book, and the only copy I found online was purchased by another LTer yesterday. Akeela had recommended the book, and she is currently on the lookout for any copies in South Africa or elsewhere. If she or I (or anyone else) finds any copies, I'll post information here.

I still have to submit my review for Travelling with Djinns, but it's another book that is vying for a five star rating. I'll be on the lookout for more of his books.

Let's see...of the Commonwealth prize shortlisted books I've only read The Enchantress of Florence and A Case of Exploding Mangoes, which were both longlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize. The White Tiger, which won the Booker, The Spare Room, and The Boat. I have Unaccustomed Earth, The Northern Clemency, and Breath, but haven't gotten to them yet.

Message edited by its author, Feb 18, 2009, 10:59pm.

>170: kidzdoc, you're so good at this... it seems to have been a big day for prize announcements, there've been a tonne of them coming over my Twitter feed besides the Commonwealth.

So pleased to see Chris Cleave nominated. I've read The Other Hand, The Northern Clemency, The White Tiger and A Case of Exploding Mangoes; I have a signed copy of Deaf Sentence that I still haven't read, and I really really want to read Jhumpa Lahiri's book as I have loved all her others. Of the ones I've read, I didn't much care for either of White Tiger and Mangoes, but for very different reasons; Hanif's book was certainly interesting and entertaining though.

It would make an interesting reading list...

edit to correct touchstones, sorry

Message edited by its author, Feb 18, 2009, 5:58pm.

#174: Rachael, what other prize announcements did you hear about? The only other one I'm aware of this week is the Best Translated Book Award for 2008 by Three Percent at the U. of Rochester, which comes out tomorrow.

I'd be especially interested to hear about UK books that you & other Britons like. For example, my favorite book on the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Helen Garner's The Spare Room, is one that I learned about from the discussion groups on the Booker Prize web site, as its members were surprised that it wasn't longlisted last year. IMO, it was a better book that all of the longlisted books I read, save for A Sea of Poppies.

Have you read the Cleave or the Lodge? If so, would you recommend them?

Say You're One of Them, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Book of Negroes are on my tbr. Though, I haven't acquired Unaccustomed Earth yet.

I just finished Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy, which was excellent, a surreal combination of one part Sartre's No Exit, one part Kafka's The Trial, with a healthy portion of the Prague Spring 1968.

I'll submit a review for it and Travelling with Djinns tomorrow.

I haven't succeeded in locating any copies of the Mahjoub book, but I'm still scouting around. Besides publications in South Africa and the UK in 2003, it was also published by Random House in New Zealand and Australia. Perhaps our friends on that side of the world can have a look, too?!

ABW and Akeela,

Not much use to you, but it's in the Wellington library. I'll look when I go into one of my favourite bookshops soon - I've googled it, and it seemed to have tons of publicity here when it came out and is in lots of libraries, so chances are it'll be out there somewhere.

Funny how you want to read it even MORE when it is not available.......

>175: kidzdoc, some of them weren't national-level awards:
- Waterstone's Book Prize 2009 (Michelle Harrison - 13 Treasures - think this is a kids' one)
- Christopher Ewarts-Bigg prize (David Park - The Truth Commissioner)
- Oklahoma Center for the Book awards (Linda Hogan - The People of the Whale)
- the Jerusalem Prize (Haruki Murakami)

plus various publishers congratulating "their" nominees, plus a note that the UK Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist will be announced next week. That was in the last 48 hours...

Note: my brother-in-law comes from Oklahoma and I took my first steps in Oklahoma City, so let me state FOR THE RECORD that stating that the Oklahoma Center for the Book Award was not "national level" was in no way intended to slight Oklahoma. Just in case.

>179: nostalgia for Wellington city library. sniff.

Travelling with Djinns by Jamal Mahjoub (346 pp)

Thanks to akeela for recommending this wonderful book!

I'm bumping my rating up to five stars.

Yamin is a British citizen of mixed Sudanese and Anglo British descent, whose wife, Ellen, has publicly announced at a gathering of her family in Denmark that she intends to divorce him. She decides to stay with her family, and Yamin drives back to Britain with their 8 year old son, Leo, in an old Peugeot sedan. Yamin decides to use this opportunity to explore Europe with Leo, and to try to explain to his son who he is and where he is from. However, Yamin does not truly understand himself, why he has made the decisions he has, including why he stayed with Ellen in a loveless marriage as long as he did, and what he intends to do with his life after he returns to the UK. The only thing he seems to be certain of is that he loves his son deeply, and that his life is all but meaningless without him.

The story of the journey is interspersed with vignettes of Yamin's life in the UK and Sudan, including his strained relationships with his family and Ellen's parents. Despite holding two passports, he is not comfortable in either country, and his discussions of his past life and experiences with Leo leave his son confused and angry.

Their journeys take them throughout Germany, to Paris, and onto the final and most eventful terminus of the trip.

This is a wonderful and complex story of a father's love for his son, rootlessness and belonging. It is frequently hilarious, and often puzzling, with several heartbreaking moments; I was nearly moved to tears on a couple of occasions. The ending was well written, but I wished to know more about what happened to Yamin and Leo. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Book #24: Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy

My rating: 1/2

Metropole, which was published in 1970, is considered a classic of Hungarian literature, but it was not published in the US until 2008.

Budai is a Hungarian linguist who intends to travel to Helsinki for a conference. He unknowingly gets on a wrong plane, falls asleep for the entire flight, and finds himself in a most unfamiliar city. Despite his fluency in multiple language and his professional background, he cannot communicate with anyone and cannot decipher the strange characters that constitute the written language of the city. He is constantly surrounded by teeming masses of people who shove and kick each other to get anywhere, and he is carried with the crowd to a bus which takes him to a hotel in the city.

He manages to obtain a room in the hotel, but his passport is taken from him by a desk clerk who he never sees again. He spends his days in futile and often humorous attempts to accomplish the most basic tasks, such as ordering lunch. He befriends an attractive young elevator operator, but he never learns her name, and he gives her a new name every time he sees her.

His money eventually runs out, and his life spirals out of control, as he becomes more desperate and unstable. The story takes a surprising turn toward the end, as the neighborhood he is in descends into chaos and violence.

Thank you for all of your insightful reviews. I have new fun things to look for at the bookstore that I didn't even know existed.

Currently I'm reading Maeterlinck's The Life of the Bee and Testaments of Time by Deuel.

Kidzdoc...

Metropole sounds great. I'm wondering though if it is dark and bleak. I'm honing in on the violent end.

Still, it does sound worth the read and 4 1/2 stars is a very high rating.

Metropole sounds intriguing... but I'm with Linda, and wondering whether the chaos & violence at the end results in a disappointing ending or did it make the whole thing worthwhile?

Whisper and dk_phoenix, the ending was far from disappointing, and not unexpected (without giving too much away).

Metropole goes on my list. I have on my shelf waiting to be read another karinthy book (at least I think it's the same Karinthy) called A Journey Round My Skull which is his true life account of a brain surgery he had during the 1930's. He was awake during the surgery, and wasn't expected to survive, but lived to write about it.

Wow! A Journey Round My Skull sounds fantastic, I have to get this ASAP! It looks like my local Borders has it, so I'll pick it up later today.

The author is Karinthy Frigyes.

Thanks, arubabookwoman!

I am just adding everything to the Continent and having done with it!

Frigyes Karinthy, author of A Journey Round My Skull, is the father of Ferenc Karinthy, author of Metropole.

Message edited by its author, Feb 21, 2009, 1:30pm.

Oops--thanks for the clarification wunderkind and kidzdoc. I just saw the name Karinthy.

Thanks for the info, wunderkind. And thanks again, aruba, for telling me about A Journey Round My Skull. I just bought it from Borders, along with Notes from Underground.

I only made the connection because it said so in the mini-bio on the back of my copy of Metropole. It is the sum total of my knowledge of Hungarian literature.

wunderkind, you should keep that bit to yourself, and let everyone think you are an amazing expert.. !

Hi doc! how are you? I stopped by to see what you are reading these days.... A Journey Around My Skull sounds interesting, but... scary. Metropole sounds like a must have though..

Hi, kath! Right now I'm not reading anything, since this was my weekend to work (including 8 am to 11:30 pm on Sunday, the longest day of the week). I should have a short day on Monday, then I'm off for a little over a week, and should have time to read...although I'll be visiting my best friends and their kids in Madison, Wisconsin from Wednesday to Monday (provided that I can get into or out of the airport there!).

I'll probably read A Journey Round My Skull next, which sounds fascinating, then Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, and one or more of the three Dostoevsky books I've purchased recently, The Double, The Gambler, or Notes from Underground.

OK, off to bed...

oh my! Safe journey, dear! Take your wool socks :)

Hope you have fun in Wisconsin and don't wear yourself out with work, kidzdoc.

I have just started A Journey Around My Skull and am loving it so far. The forward is by Oliver Sacks (in the NYBR version)- and although good, he quotes heavily from the book so I would avoid it until the end.

kiwidoc, you'll probably be amused to learn that I am reading the introduction to A Journey Round My Skull right now! I had gotten to the point where Karinthy is describing the surgery. I think I'll take your advice, skip the rest of the introduction, and get right into it.

I should finish it either tomorrow or Wednesday. The friend that I'm visiting in Madison is a pediatric neurologist at UW Medical School, so he'll be especially interested in this book as well.

The past five days at work were rough, with lots of complicated kids. Fortunately I'll be off until Wednesday of next week.

Hope you get a bit of a breather, Kidzdoc!!! It can be quite frenetic this time of year in medicine - I am feeling quite frazzled myself.

It was busy, but it could have been worse this weekend. I was on call yesterday, and had 8 new admissions and one complicated consultation in 10 hours. One of the commiunity pediatricians that works with us one weekend/mo, got hammered on Saturday, though, with "TNTC admissions", in his words (maybe 15 or so in 10 hours).

That sounds punishing to me, Kidzdoc, knowing how complicated kids can be. My hubbie works in Children's ER and he has been seeing kids who have waited 6-7 hours - it doesn't make for easy consultations or happy parents. He just wishes that the non-urgent stuff - 6 month rashes, and toe-walkers, etc would see their GP instead of clogging up the ER waiting room.....

Right. It's the same in my hospital, too. We have the largest children's ED in the state, and kids come from all over the metro area, and on occasion from all over the state of Georgia, with a rare kid from an adjoining state (North Carolina, Alabama, or Tennessee). Many of the families use the ED for primary care, especially on nights and weekends. However, a lot of parents I've talked with say that their primary care providers refer the kids to the ED if they are SICK or give them an appointment for a day or two afterward. We're also seeing a lot more kids who are uninsured, and don't have primary care providers.

Well, of course, we don't have the insurance problem in Canada - everyone is covered under Universal Health Care and nobody is turned away from the ER or a GP office.

It is just that here we have a serious shortage of GPs - new graduates are steering clear of GP work and there is quite a large attrition rate amoungst GPs (especially females). Maybe with the new economic times, those part-time and early retirees will show up again in the work force?

>204: we have the opposite problem in the UK - GP training positions are highly sought after as the BMA negotiated hard over contracts a few years back, and they're generally considered to be the ideal job if you need flexibility in conditions and good pay (and you have the patience to deal with a lot of not-very-ill people - my husband doesn't....sadly). But we do have the same issue with emergency admissions for non-urgent conditions - not helped by the marvellous NHS Direct, which was meant to reduce the number of A&E admissions but has to be so overcautious in its diagnosis to avoid litigation that I don't believe that has actually been the case.

#197: Kath, I take my wool socks (and wool everything) whenever I visit Madison! Last year I visited them at the end of April, and they had snow even then. Fortunately it will be warmer than usual tomorrow (high temp 42 F), and I shouldn't be affected by the precipitation that they'll get tomorrow morning, as I have a mid-afternoon flight. It's a nonstop flight, so I don't have to go through O'Hell; I HATE that airport (but I love Chicago!).

Madison will get snow starting tomorrow evening there, but not as much as they will in Minneapolis and Green Bay. Then it will be a bit colder than usual (highs mainly in the upper 20s, lows in the single digits F), but that will still be much better than my visit there last February. Then the temperature didn't rise above zero F for several days, including a low of -17 degrees F (wind chill -37 degrees F) the day before I left.

#205: Rachael, I chose not to do primary care pediatrics because I'd rather take care of a smaller number of SICK kids in the hospital than massive numbers of kids with colds and ear infections in the office setting. This weekend I had a few SICK kids that kept me from sleeping at night (we have night docs that cover the hospital at night, but I was worried about two of them). Fortunately they both seem to have turned the corner.

BTW, when I saw your posting about your "floppy toddler" I gasped for a second. My first thought was botulism, or some other neurologic infection or metabolic/genetic process; however, I was pretty sure that you wouldn't have spent time posting about your toddler if he was that bad! I hope that you both are on the mend.

Message edited by its author, Feb 24, 2009, 5:33pm.

ye gods, doc...

"This weekend I had a few SICK kids that kept me from sleeping at night (we have night docs that cover the hospital at night, but I was worried about two of them). Fortunately they both seem to have turned the corner."

Parents would kill to have a doctor like you when their kids are sick. Too many just say~ nothing more I can do~ and do not go the extra mile. Too may do not research and worry? not too many. Once, there was a pediatrician ( had an office) who worked in a well baby clinic .. there was a poor family, kids ot thriving.. he would leave formula and baby food on their porch ( I caught him once)
nice!

I work with some really sick kids..
and some of them need better doctors anda few {new parents.. }

>206: kidzdoc, my husband would be thumping the table emphatically in agreement with your point about SICKNESS. He's a renal physician, so rarely has the opportunity to complain of having to deal with people who are "not really ill". Like Kath, I'm moved by your level of commitment.

Sorry also to have given you a shock with the toddler. "Floppy" obviously has a more serious meaning out there!! I'd definitely class myself as in sympathy with aspects of laissez-faire parenting but I'm not quite that neglectful. She's doing absolutely fine now - burned it off really quickly and was happily back at nursery within 48 hours. It seems to be taking me a bit longer but then I don't have the luxury of snoozing on the sofa in front of the TV all day ;)

#207: Right. A number of our kids would benefit from a parentectomy (removal of a parent)! In the past month we have had to deal with at least three parents who were stinking drunk or high as a kite in the hospital, and we're seeing more kids who are physically abused or neglected. The children's hospital I work at is not an inner-city hospital with its social ills, but a shining jewel in one of the wealthiest cities in the country (Sandy Springs, GA, which is just north of Atlanta and has a average annual household income of just under $170,000; I can't afford to live there!).

Message edited by its author, Feb 24, 2009, 7:47pm.

parentectomy hah! if only. The stories I could tell.. but we all have them.
Anyone who works even marginally with kids, especially sick or special needs kids.

doc... they are lucky to have you~

ok I go away for a week, all my stared threds have masive numbers of post and so many new books to add to my wish list. Thank you for your review of A Better Angel: Stories by Chris Adrian goes on the wish list!

edit: missed spelled words.

Message edited by its author, Feb 24, 2009, 7:24pm.

Book #25: A Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy (288 pp)

My rating: Frigyes Karinthy (1887-1938) was an influential Hungarian novelist, playwright, poet and journalist. A Journey Round My Skull is a literary account of the development and successful removal of his brain tumor, which occurred near the end of his life. His symptoms begin insidiously, with auditory hallucinations, followed by headaches and vomiting of increasing severity, and loss of visual acuity. Despite these symptoms, which are suggestive of a brain tumor or another process that would cause increased intracranial pressure, the doctors in Budapest ignore his symptoms and fail to reach an accurate diagnosis. He eventually travels to Vienna, where clinicians there eventually reach the correct diagnosis. He undergoes surgery in Stockholm by a brilliant young neurosurgeon who prefers to operate on Europeans while they are awake, to minimize postoperative morbidity. Karinthy's description of the surgery is unforgettable, as he is conscious for all but the last portion of the procedure.

I was in awe of the clinicians who were able to accurately diagnose his tumor without the benefit of advanced radiographic tools such as CT or MRI scans, but I was also horrified by the time it took to reach an accurate diagnosis and to remove the tumor, and the ineptitude and brusqueness of most of the clinicians Karinthy encountered - including his own wife, who was a renowned psychiatrist. Also of interest is the varied reactions of his friends and colleagues to his illness, especially when the seriousness of his condition became apparent.

There are a number of digressions throughout the book, which were a bit distracting and seemed to contribute little, if anything, to this amazing story. Nonetheless, it was a very good and enjoyable read.

#212: I am already searching for a copy. I am also glad I am not taking a journey round my skull - I am afraid of what I might find :)

Book #26: Ül: Four Mapuche Poets, edited by Cecilia Vicuña

My rating: 1/2

This is a collection of poetry by four poets of indigenous Chilean (Mapuchean) descent, most of which have not been published previously. The poems deal with the lives of Mapucheans, who make up approximately 1 million of the 14 million Chilean population, and who only recently have been accorded full rights and increasing recognition by the government and majority community. These works are about the history and ancestry of the Mapuchean culture, and their place in the world (according to one author, "Mapuche" means "People of the Earth", and the culture emphasizes that humans are part of the earth, but do not own it, and must respect all of its inhabitants). Other poems deal with the cultural displacement and discrimination faced by Mapucheans, and the death of beloved ancestors and family members. Most of the poems were good, and several were noteworthy.

This book was published in 1998 by the Latin American Literary Review Press, and is part of the Poetry in Indigenous Language series, along with Pichka Harawikuna: Five Quechua Poets.

Book 27: The Lemoine Affair by Marcel Proust

My rating:

#215: I have never read anything by Proust. Is The Lemoine Affair a good introduction to his work?

This is the first book by Proust that I've read. It had not been translated into English until last year, and was published by Melville House Publishing as part of its "Art of the Novella" series.

The Lemoine Affair is about a scandal involving Henri Lemoine, who claimed in 1905 that he could produce diamonds by heating coal. He was able to convince a governor of the De Beers Mining Company and several members of Parisian high society to give him large sums of money to be able to build a factory to make diamonds. The scam wasn't uncovered until 1908, but he fled France before he could be prosecuted.

The book consists of excerpts of accounts supposedly written about the scandal by the leading French novelists at the time, including Balzac, Flaubert and Saint-Simon, but it lampoons their writing styles, and these authors also skewer Flaubert's "insipid" works and questionable character.

I enjoyed reading this novella, but I suspect that anyone who is familiar with these authors would absolutely love it.

Message edited by its author, Feb 28, 2009, 8:56am.

Hey doc.. all I can say is brrrrrrrrrrrrr! a bit chilly way up there :)
It was in the fifties here for two days, but got really cold last night and about 30ish today. Atlanta may have snow tomorrow....cold here too. Sunday, is that when you travel?

One of my sons was visiting LA over last weekend. He said it took him three days to get warm when he got back to Annapolis... :P

Yes, it is chilly here, but I'm certainly used to it when I come here. As crazy as it may sound, I am more likely to visit them in the dead of winter than in the middle of summer. All things considered, it isn't that bad here, as there won't be any accumulating snow during this visit, and the temps will stay above zero F. It got up to about 25 degrees here today, but it was pretty raw and overcast. The kids and their mom went outside to play, but they came back within 10 minutes.

Wouldn't it be weird if there was more snow this week in Atlanta than in Madison?

I fly back to ATL on Monday afternoon, and I believe the weather will be fine here in Madison and there.

Was LA that cold last weekend? I'm thinking of taking a mid-March trip to San Francisco, so I'll have to pay attention to the weather. If I don't go then, I'll definitely go in April, as the San Francisco Jazz Spring Season will be in full swing then, with numerous concerts by great artists.

Cory would like that too... he is a huge jazz fan, listening and singing...
he once sag for a minute or two with Etta James :)

He is going back too, maybe in may he said.. definitely by years end.

It would be weird if there was more snow in Atlanta...
The last time I was there, a few years ago now, the fountain by the coca cola museum was dead frozen. BBBBRRRRRRRRR so much for traveling south to warmer weather....

Enjoy what is left of your time with friends and safe journey home.
I have not cracked a book in two days, I am off to open one right now..
take care..

The full text of the wonderful Ian McEwan profile from the Feb 23rd The New Yorker is now available:

The Background Hum: Ian McEwan’s art of unease

kidzdoc, you're a star!

Thanks, Rachael!

This week's New Yorker should also be interesting, with a profile on the late David Foster Wallace:

The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s struggle to surpass “Infinite Jest.”

Also included is an excerpt from his unfinished novel:

Wiggle Room by David Foster Wallace

Message edited by its author, Mar 2, 2009, 8:23am.

Thanks so much for the link on McEwan, Kidzdoc. I have just finished reading it and found it a wonderful description of his life and work.

Reading that, I realize just why I love his stuff so much - he has that scientific edge to his writing but yet has such a literary gift. I discovered him when The Cement Garden was published and have gobbled up every one of his books since.

Interesting to read that he could not give his books away to men. Also that he finds most novels boring!!!

Book #28: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (541 pp)

My rating: 5 stars

As much as I loved Travelling with Djinns and The Obscene Bird of Night, this is the best novel I've read this year. I'll submit a brief review here, and a longer review in the next week or so.

This sweeping, masterful first novel by Dr. Verghese, who is a professor of medicine at Stanford, describes the lives of two Siamese twins, Marion (the narrator) and Shiva, who are born in a mission hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Their mother, an Indian nun cum surgical nurse, dies in childbirth, and the father, who is the hospital's surgeon, flees after the babies are born. The boys are raised by the two other doctors in the hospital along with Genet, the daughter of the boys' nanny. The three children's fates are intertwined throughout the story, as rash decisions lead to tragic consequences.

Both boys become surgeons, but Marion is forced to flee to New York while Shiva stays at the mission hospital in Addis Ababa. After years of separation, both are successful, but one more fateful encounter leads to the final, unexpected set of events.

As Cariola pointed out in her excellent review earlier today, there are numerous medical and surgical terms and techniques in the book. However, I found it enjoyable and instructive; I'll be curious to learn the opinions of other LTers.

It is obvious that this novel involved an extensive amount of research into the political and cultural history of Ethiopia after WWII, the practice of modern medicine in a major African city, the sexual oppression of women in Africa and its consequences, including female genital mutilation and vaginal fistulas, and longstanding and modern surgical techniques. Dr. Verghese was trained as an infectious disease specialist, yet it was easy for me to envision the operations taking place. However, I think I am most impressed with the Dr. Verghese's storytelling ability, especially given all of the topics he covers in this book.

I've probably said this somewhere else before, but I would also highly recommend his first book, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, which recounts his experiences as a newly minted infectious disease expert who migrates from India to eastern Tennessee in the mid-1980s, at the time when HIV/AIDS started to appear in the area.

Edited to correct grammatical errors

Message edited by its author, Mar 3, 2009, 9:04pm.

I already ordered this book after reading Deborah's review, so this confirms that wisdom. Thanks for the enthusiastic review - his other book looks fab too.

kidzdoc, I knew if I followed your thread long enough, you would convince me of something I have to read. Cutting for Stone sounds wonderful.

Great review!

Book #29: My Floating Mother, City by Kazuko Shiraishi

My rating: 3 stars

Ms. Shirashi (1931-) was born in Vancouver, but has lived in Japan since the beginning of WWII. She is one of the most recognized of the Japanese modernists poets, and her poetry is infused with surrealism and is influenced by modern jazz. This book contains poems primarily from her most recent books, but also contains previous works, including a a poem that was translated from Japanese into English on a napkin by Allan Ginsberg.

I liked most of her poems, but several were very dense and difficult for me to grasp as fully as I would have liked. It was definitely a worthwhile read, though.

I've included a poem from this book, which also appeared in The American Poetry Review in 2004:

Even a Phantom Gets Thirsty

I asked what can you do while you're alive
a donkey doesn't have ears doesn't have a mouth
eyes with long lashes over them like umbrellas
holding up philosophy philosophy doesn't take any responsibility
for debt or unhappiness

people despair get depressed but
what can they see when they so indolently desperately head toward a hole and
darkness
look at the braying donkey a donkey doesn't
fall or anything get blindfolded all the time
she can see quite well in the dark can hear well
with no disability twirls round and round
like a merry-go-round
I wonder if suffering looks like the slobber of joy sometimes around that time
people get fed up with despair in despair
go to the other side other side there

people who come to pray in front of a guardian god and receive
the precious tears of the donkey never stop coming
Minoru Yoshioka1 appeared from time to time
to eat a bowl of shaved ice with sweet beans
even a phantom gets thirsty

phantoms appear all over the place
the peak of Mt. Yamamotoyama in Ojiya2 in deep fog
is no different from the London suburbs
he chanted like a spell the same English as at the time
he walked through the Kew Gardens
when the pronunciation stopped short the fog cleared up

while eating a bowl of soba noodles the donkey kept a journal this far
we don't know what will become of tomorrow
nevertheless there is also something I have understood
even a phantom gets thirsty.

1. Minoru Yoshioka is a close friend of Shiraishi, whom she considers the greatest of Japan's surrealist poets. It is a Buddhist custom to make an offering to the dead of a token of his favorite food.
2. The modernist poet Junzaburo Nishiwaki's home was in Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture, near the Mt. Yamamotoyama. He had studied in England as a young man and was familiar with Kew Garden.

Message edited by its author, Mar 12, 2009, 7:03am.

Book #30: The Oldest Orphan by Tierno Monénembo (96 pp)

My rating: Tierno Monénembo is an award winning novelist who was born in Guinea, fled his homeland in 1969 at the age of 22, and eventually moved to France in 1973. He earned a PhD in biochemistry there and taught for several years before he became a dedicated writer. His latest novel, Le roi de Kahel (The King of Kahel), was awarded the 2008 Prix Renaudot, one of the top literary prizes in France. His other novels are written in French, and, to my knowledge, The Bush Toads is the only other novel by Monénembo that has been translated into English.

Monénembo wrote the The Oldest Orphan after he and other notable African Francophone authors were invited to Rwanda after the 1994 Hutu-Tutsi massacre as part of a project by Fest'Africa entitled 'Rwanda: Writing so as not to forget.'

Faustin, the narrator of the novel, is a 15 year old orphan of the massacre, who is imprisoned and awaiting trial after he is convicted of murdering another orphan who is having sex with his sister. The dialogue shifts rapidly back and forth between the present and various events leading up to the massacre in his town and after he and his siblings are able to escape from it. He is benumbed by what he has experienced, and is unable to recall exactly what has happened to his family and neighbors. He, like Mersault in Camus' The Stranger, is free of remorse for his actions, and cannot comprehend why society views him as a monster, as guilty as the génocidaires who killed his parents.

The story is infused with true events that occurred in the massacre, yet it is not an overly grisly tale. The focus is on the mind of Faustin, and how he loses touch with his siblings and those around him, until it is too late for anyone to save him.

I enjoyed this book, as it was taut and well written, but the foglike character of the narrative made it somewhat difficult to identify with Faustin, his family or other victims of the massacre.

Message edited by its author, Mar 9, 2009, 7:46pm.

Adding The Oldest Orphan to the Continent. Sounds like a very powerful book. Thanks for the recommendation.

Oops, double post, sorry!

Message edited by its author, Mar 9, 2009, 7:35pm.

Book #31: Outcasts United: A Refugee Soccer Team, an American Town by Warren St. John

My rating: 1/2

Clarkston, Georgia, the setting for this fast-paced and entertaining book by The New York Times reporter Warren St. John, is only 10 miles west of downtown Atlanta, yet it seems further away from that, in distance and time. It is a town I'm quite familiar with, having worked in a pediatrician's office there for two afternoons a week during my final year of residency training. However, the average resident of the Atlanta metropolitan area wouldn't have the slightest idea how to get there. As you approach the city from Atlanta on East Ponce De Leon Avenue it looks like a small sleepy Southern town, with cracked two lane roads traveled by working class whites and blacks, the frequent mournful whistle of freight trains, and storefronts that seem to be frozen in the 1940s. However, as you head toward downtown Clarkston, you are surprised to see people in decidedly non-Western garb walking on the dirt-covered paths along the roads. These people were relocated to Clarkston by US government relief agencies, starting in the mid 1990s, from war torn lands such as Liberia, Kosovo, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

Those of you who have read Dave Eggers' "novel" What Is the What may recognize Clarkston as the town that the Sudanese narrator is placed after he is transported from a refugee camp in Africa.

Outcasts United is the story of three youth soccer teams, called the Fugees, who come from the refugee community in Clarkston. Their coach is Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman, who lives in nearby Decatur and gets the idea to form the Fugees after seeing a group of kids playing an impromptu game of soccer as she is driving through Clarkston. Mufleh somehow keeps these teams going, almost singlehandedly, and despite opposition from the older residents of the town and its obstructionist mayor, lack of support from incompetent bureaucrats of the local YMCA, and the struggles that she and her charges face.

However, the true heroes of this story are the kids, who range in age from 10-16, most of whom have seen death and suffering both in their home countries and in the US, whose parents are engaged in a daily struggle to survive. The teammates become family members, despite their different backgrounds and languages, and Mufleh is a source of stability of comfort that most of the kids do not have at home.

I received a copy of Outcasts United from the LT Early Reviewers program. It will be published on April 21st. I highly recommend this book, as it is an inspiring and delightful story told by a gifted writer.

Book #32: Resistance: The Human Struggle Against Infection by Norbert Gualde, MD, PhD

My rating:

This book, written by a French professor of immunology, concerns the re-emergence of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, leprosy and diphtheria, that most infectious disease experts of the mid-20th century thought would be eradicated by the 21st century. The book also discusses the emergence of highly drug-resistant microbes that are currently prevalent in the developed world, such as MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which causes skin infections such as cellulitis and abscesses, and occasionally invasive infections such as pneumonia and osteomyelitis (infection of the bone); pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae), a common cause of ear and sinus infections and pneumonia in children; and GABHS, or Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus, which causes strep throat but also severe skin infections, such as necrotizing fasciitis ("flesh-eating bacteria"), which is increasingly resistant to the penicillins.

Gualde also discusses the various factors responsible for the emergence of epidemics of tropical diseases such as Ebola virus, Marburg fever and Lassa fever, and the persistence of infectious illnesses such as malaria, leprosy and AIDS. These include deforestation, translocation of populations due to poverty or war, overcrowding, and the inadequacy of medical resources or affordable antimicrobial agents in developing countries, in addition to multiple drug resistant viruses and bacteria.

When I purchased this book I thought that the focus would be on the emergence of drug-resistant microbes in the developed and developing world. However, these topics were only superficially covered. The discussion of infectious diseases through history and their re-emergence in the 20th century in the first half of the book has been covered elsewhere, and in much greater detail and clarity, particularly in Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague. The second half of the book was divided into a detailed (and painful) discussion of human immunology and his attempt to use the Gaia hypothesis (the Earth is a living being) and chaos theory to explain the interaction between man, his environment, and infectious agents.

I was quite disappointed by this book, and reading it was a waste of a good afternoon.

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2009, 10:01pm.

Sorry Resistance: the Human Struggle against Infection was not better. I hope your next read is!

On the other hand, The Coming Plague sounds very good, and I am going to look for it, so I appreciate your mentioning it.

Book #33: In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi

My rating:

My biggest challenge in reading this book was determining how low of a rating to give it. I decided on one star, as it wasn't nearly as bad as the worst book I've attempted to read this decade, The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner, a worthless piece of chick lit that miserably failed at its attempt to describe the experiences of a Chinese-American young woman torn between these two cultures while growing up in San Francisco. That book gets a 1/2 star.

In In the United States of Africa, the world is literally turned upside down: Africa is the promised land that countless thousands of whites from poverty-stricken and war-torn Europe and the United States emigrate to. The Africans espouse stereotypes of these immigrants similar to those held by (some) Americans and Europeans. The main character is a white girl adopted from France by an African couple, who seeks to return to her homeland to find her mother and discover her true self.

The satire and wittiness that the book's reviewers noted were completely lost on me. This book might have been mildly relevant and amusing 50 years ago, when the countries of Europe were largely monocultural societies.

I quit after 50 pages. Reading this book reminded me of one of my father's favorite sayings: "The best thing about beating your head against a wall is stopping."

Message edited by its author, Mar 12, 2009, 6:22am.

#236: Hah! One I finally don't have to add from your thread.

I hope your aching head is better :)

Sorry to hear your last two books weren't that great! better luck with the next one ;)

Thanks girlunderglass; I've already started The Winners by Julio Cortázar, which I'm already enjoying infinitely more than the two previous books.

doc

Are you familiar with this book ? :

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders
by Kenneth Bock &, Cameron Stauth

mckait, no I'm not familiar with the book or the author. I looked up the author online, and found this link: http://www.rhinebeckhealth.com/rhc/bio_k...

The site indicates that he has "advanced proficiency in chelation therapy", a therapy that is purported by some alternative practitioners to have benefit for a variety of conditions, including autism and heart disease. The theory behind the use of chelation therapy for autism is that autism is linked to the use of thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury, in vaccines. Chelation therapy, which has proven therapeutic benefit for heavy metal poisonings, would supposedly remove the excess mercury from the body and decrease the effects of autism.

Numerous recent studies have not shown any link between thimerosal and the development of autism, as the incidence and prevalence of autism have not decreased despite the removal of thimerosal from vaccines.

Without getting too much into the vaccine controversy, I remain highly suspicious of certain alternative practices such as the use of chelation therapy for autism and barochamber treatments for cerebral palsy.

A book I will probably get to this month or next is Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul Offit, MD, who is the head of the Infectious Diseases division at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia). I would like to recommend this book, but I won't until I've read it first.

Message edited by its author, Mar 12, 2009, 6:34pm.

I was thinking of reading Quacks: Fakers & Charlatans in Medicine by Roy Porter, which is a history of medical malpractice in English history, next week. After that I'll probably read Dr. Offit's book.

yeah... we probably shouldn't get into the vaccine controversy here... pointless..
Thank you for taking the question seriously.. and mentioning the other book :)
I have no doubt that we could have a pretty interesting discussion on the subject :)

Message edited by its author, Mar 12, 2009, 7:11pm.

Crikey - I am not touching that topic with a barge pole, kidzdoc!!

I have no desire to discuss that topic any further, kiwidoc. I'd MUCH rather talk about good books! TMB, TLT...

On that note, I'm enjoying The Winners by Julio Cortázar so far. I'm a third of the way through it, and I hope to finish it tomorrow or Saturday.

Do you have to renew your board certification on a regular basis? Here all(?) physicians have to pass a recertification exam every seven years. I took -- and passed -- my first recertification exam in General Pediatrics last year, so I'm good until 2015.

I've been a bit lax in keeping up with my journal reading so far this year. I used to read 1-2 journal articles every day that I wasn't on long call, but I'm lucky if I read 1-2 articles a week. I'll get back on track starting tomorrow. Oh...I forgot that I'm doing journal club for my group next month, I really need to get started on that, too. Hmph. I may have to cut back on my pleasure reading for awhile...but not tonight.

You are reading some really interesting books, kidzdoc. I am impressed!!

We have no recertification exams here in Canada, but in paediatrics, they do require a certain number of CME hours. I think it is only a matter of time before we will be required to sit exams too. Big congrats on passing your exam.

Oi! You were having such a great run! Hope you're back on track with your latest read - it certainly sounds like it :)

kiwidoc: Thanks! I'm impressed by, and enjoying, your posts, too. I'll probably pick up The Drunkard's Walk from Borders this morning.

Each state in the US sets its own requirements for CME. In Georgia we are required to attain 40 hours every two years, which is a joke, IMO. I usually achieve >100 hours of CME/yr, by reading selected NEJM articles (20 hours/yr), Pediatrics in Review (36 hours/yr), and PREP, the AAP's Pediatric Review and Education Program, which consists of ~250 multiple-choice questions and detailed answers (40 hours/yr). There are plenty of opportunities for CME at work, as well.

Older physicians here originally had to only pass the certification exam to achieve lifelong certification. Apparently this has changed, as the guy I share an office with, who was grandfathered (awarded lifelong certification once the recertification requirements were originally announced) is now studying for the recertification exam. I don't know if this is a requirement to maintain hospital privileges, a state requirement (we have to renew our state medical licenses every two years, another thing I have to do this month), or an AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) requirement for fellowship.

akeela: Yes, I'm definitely back on track. Unless The Winners collapses in the second 2/3, I can't imagine it getting less than a 3-1/2 star rating from me.

I'm also looking forward to the other books I'm planning to read this month, although I've made a couple of changes. I think I'll give up on trying to read Virginia Woolf, the selected author for the min-author theme read, for the time being. I had voted for Carson McCullers, and I was disappointed that neither she nor Flannery O'Connor nor Bessie Head were selected by the group. I think I'll be a spoiled loser, and start reading one book by McCullers or O'Connor every month or two; I recently received the Library of America editions of their complete works. On the Southern writers theme, next year will be my first Faulkner year, as I have all but one of the Library of America editions of his works. I imagine I'll need two or three years to read all of his books at a leisurely pace.

Another new goal I have is to read one classic American novel every month. This month it will be Wise Blood by O'Connor, and next month I'll tackle The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by McCullers and/or The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow.

OK, back to Cortázar...

Message edited by its author, Mar 13, 2009, 8:34am.

Don't forget to add To Kill a Mockingbird to the American classics pile. I think you'll really appreciate it, and it'll be a very quick read for you.

Good luck with your reading goals!

chiming in on To Kill a Mockingbird to say that it is, in my opinion, the best book ever written!

Yes, To Kill a Mockingbird is high on the list of books I want to but have never read. Amazingly that was not a required book for any of my high school English classes (which killed my love of reading for a long time; too much Shakespeare!). Thanks for the reminders; I'll pick it up on my next trip to Borders.

I also haven't read Native Son or Black Boy by Richard Wright, and I don't think that I ever finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I want to get to several of Vladimir Nabokov's books, especially Lolita, Pnin, and Pale Fire, and I'll definitely participate in the J.D. Salinger mini-author read later this year (hmm, I wonder if there is a Library of America edition of his works). Bernard Malamud is another author who I'd like to become more familiar with, along with Hemingway. Later this year I'll read Just Enough Liebling, a collection of his best New Yorker stories.

"high school English classes (which killed my love of reading for a long time; too much Shakespeare!)"

well...I just found out what classes I'm gona have next semester at my University, and oh joy! I have an actual CLASS called simply "William Shakespeare". That doesn't score very high on my exciting-things-to-happen list, for some reason. :(

>252: Hmm. It was one of my favorite classes freshman year. It managed to undo the pain over Shakespeare that high school induced and turn it into something I loved.

>253 we'll see... I'm curious to find out what they're gonna be like, but I don't have any great expectations :)

>254: As someone who took not one, but two Shakespeare classes over my four-year degree, I sincerely hope you enjoy it Eliza! Let us know what plays you have to read!

Book #34: The Winners by Julio Cortázar

My rating: 1/2

Reviewed in message #259.

Message edited by its author, Mar 14, 2009, 9:34am.

Since you are recommending it, I have already decided The Winners must be a winner, review or not, so it is on the Continent!

That does look good... *adds to wishlist*

Book #34: The Winners by Julio Cortázar

My rating: 1/2

Julio Cortázar was one of the most influential and widely praised of the postmodern Argentinian writers. He was born in Brussels in 1914 but spent most of his formative years in Buenos Aires, after his parents divorced. He taught in secondary schools after college, where his career as a writer began. He emigrated to France in 1951, due to his opposition to the Perón government, and he remained an exile in Paris until his death in 1984.

Cortázar wrote several novels, plays, and collections of short stories and poems. His first novel, The Winners (Los premios), was published in Spanish in 1960, but it wasn't translated into English until 1965. He is best known for his stream of consciousness novel Hopscotch (Rayuela), published in 1963 in Spanish and in English in 1966, and his short story collections Blow-Up and Other Stories, All Fires the Fire, We Love Glenda So Much, and A Certain Lucas. His last book was Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, a humorous travelogue about an automobile trip between Paris and Marseilles that was co-authored by his companion and wife Carol Dunlop. It was re-translated and published in English by Archipelago Books in 2007.

I have to include this hilarious quote by Pablo Neruda about Cortázar from the back of my copy of Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: "Anyone who doesn't read Cortázar is doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease, which in time can have terrible consequences. Something similar to a man who has never tasted peaches. He would quietly become sadder...and, probably, little by little, he would lose his hair."

Here (finally!) is my review of The Winners:

Two dozen citizens of Buenos Aires, representing all facets of Argentinian society, are declared the winners of a state lottery. Their prize is a luxury oceanic cruise...but to where? And for how long? They are told to meet at a café on the day of departure, where they will be given more details about the voyage. A bureaucrat comes to the cafe, demands that everyone not going on the trip must leave immediately, and orders a policeman to lower the iron shutters of the café. Despite these mysterious precautions, the bureaucrat is unable or unwilling to tell them where they will be going, what ports they will visit, or even the name of the ship they will be traveling on. They are taken on a bus at night to the dimly lit ship, and told to board quickly and quietly.

The secrecy continues once the passengers board the vessel, as they are told that they cannot venture past the small section of the ship to which they are confined. Multiple disparate explanations are given for their sequestration and the delay in going out to sea. Some of the passengers accept these excuses without question, but several others are deeply troubled by the stories they are being told by the staff, who relay second-hand information from the captain. They decide to conduct their own investigation, but are unable to learn any more information or meet the captain. The tension builds between the passengers, which leads to an unexpected and unbelievable set of actions and conclusion to the story.

This is a captivating story of human nature, and how the actions and opinions of others can influence our own decisions and actions. All of the characters are unremarkable citizens prior to the journey, but several take extraordinary positions and actions, which in retrospect are unnecessary and absurd. I highly recommend this book!

Message edited by its author, Mar 14, 2009, 9:37am.

Great review! I wonder if Cortazar's writing is particularly difficult... I would love to read it in the original, but am worried that I might miss some words.

The most difficult parts of the book, IMO, were the stream of consciousness self dialogues that one of the characters had at various portions of the book. However, these were a small fraction of the book (maybe 30-40 pages, less than 10% of the novel's length). Most of it reads pretty quickly, and I was able to read the last 2/3 of the novel in one day with no problem.

Book #35: Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (232 pp)

My rating: 1/2

O'Connor's first novel was published in 1952, and is a classic Southern Gothic novel, filled with grotesque and disturbing characters. It is a darkly comic satire of Southern small town life and religion, although these themes are not limited to the South or the United States.

Hazel Motes is a young man who has been discharged from active military duty, and he is traveling by train to a small town in Tennessee. He is taciturn with an underlying mean streak, someone you would never turn your back on or trust with your least valued possession. As he mentions to a fellow passenger, "{I} Don't know nobody there, but I'm going to do some things."

Motes buys a used "rat-colored car", and becomes a street preacher for his new church, The Church Without Christ, proselytizing while standing on the hood of his car: "I believe in a new kind of jesus...one that can't waste his blood redeeming people with it, because he's all man and ain't got any God in him. My church is the Church Without Christ!"

He meets Enoch Emery, an unstable teenager abandoned by his father, who is unduly influenced by Motes, a miniaturized mummy in a museum, and a gorilla that is a movie star. Other key characters are Asa Hawks, a blind evangenical preacher who is neither blind nor a man of God; his illegitimate 15 year old daughter Sabbath, who is just as immoral as her father; and Hoover Shoats, a huckster masquerading as an evangelical preacher who tries to form an alliance with Motes, and when he is rebuffed, forms a rival "church", The Holy Church of Christ Without Christ, going so far as to hire a "twin" that looks and dresses exactly like Motes.

The novel is bizarre at the beginning, and only becomes more so as the plots develop. Heroes? There are none, nor any victims. Moral to the story? You won't find it here (at least I didn't). Who is the "new jesus", Motes or Enoch...or nobody?

It is a testament to O'Connor's skill as a writer that these thoroughly dislikable characters and this unlikely plot combine to form a fantastic novel, which I couldn't put down.

Message edited by its author, Mar 14, 2009, 8:51pm.

Two more added to the tbr pile...Thanks for the excellent reviews of both Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor and The Winners by Julio Cortázar.

I think I may check out Wise Blood as well. Great review, as always.

Great reviews. I'm adding Wise Blood to my TBR (I already have her Complete Short Stories on my shelf). My experience with Flannery is limited to very brief encounters in high school, and I'm looking forward to getting to know her better.

Re The Winners, I think I said over at Reading Globally, I'm reading Cortazar's Hopscotch this month, and maybe adding The Winners to the TBR (its plot sounds intriguing).

#263: Wise Blood, IMO, is O'Connor's best work. She wrote some other things that are good, but to me, her other novel (The Violent Bear It Away) and short stories do not live up to Wise Blood. Glad you liked it.

I remember reading O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find..It stays with me even though I read it many years ago.

I enjoyed O'Connor's short stories a great deal when I read them, so it's exciting to hear the Wise Blood is even better. I'll definitely look for it, and The Winners too, although like arubabookwoman I have Hopscotch and am planning on reading that for the Reading Globally Argentina read.

Book #36: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (176 pp)

My rating: Notes of a Native Son (1955) was Baldwin's first book of nonfiction, and consists of 10 previously published essays preceded by a brief autobiography. These essays appeared in Partisan Review, Commentary and Harper's Magazine. Several of the early essays are a bit stiff and stilted, not unexpected for a young writer. However, you also feel as if he is trying to walk a fine line, being a black writer writing for a predominantly white audience, one who is financially struggling and is dependent on these articles to eke out a meager living. It is in the later essays that the passion and wit of the Baldwin we know and love comes out.

The brightest jewel of this collection is "Notes of a Native Son", which is set in 1943, the year that his stepfather died. He vividly describes the racially charged climate, when black soldiers were brutally mistreated and the daily racial strife led to riots in several US cities; his experiences working at a munitions factory in New Jersey and a explosion of anger toward a waitress who refused to serve him at a restaurant, which nearly led to his death at the hands of a white mob; his diificult and complicated relationship with his father, who died just before Baldwin 19th birthday; and a Harlem riot that occurs just after his father's funeral, triggered by a confrontation between a white city policeman and a black soldier on leave.

Baldwin makes a powerful statement of the complexity of black and white relations, and each group's hatred toward the other:

"One is always in the position of having to decide between amputation and gangrene. Amputation is swift but time may prove that amputation was not necessary--or one may delay the amputation too long. Gangrene is slow, but it is impossible to be sure that one is reading one's symptoms right. The idea of going through life as a cripple is more than one can bear, and equally unbearable is the risk of swelling up slowly, in agony, with poison. And the trouble, finally, is that the risks are real even if the choices do not exist."

Baldwin's father was a preacher, but he was not very good, due to his bitterness and inability to connect with others. Baldwin was a successful child preacher, which won the admiration and love of his father. However, once Baldwin decided that he wanted to abandon the pulpit and dedicate his life to writing, he incurred the wrath of his father, and they rarely spoke after that.

Baldwin writes about a visit he took with his mother and aunt to visit his father at a hospital on Long Island, the last time he would see him alive:

"It was on the 28th of July...that I visited my father for the first time during his illness and for the last time in his life. The moment I saw him I knew why I had put off this visit so long. I had told my mother that I did not want to see him because I hated him. But this was not true. It was only that I had hated him and I wanted to hold on to this hatred. I did not want to look on him as a ruin: it was not a ruin I had hated. I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain."

The last part of the book concerns his life as an expatriate living in Europe after World War II. "Encounter on the Seine" describes the experiences of American blacks living in Paris, particularly the awkward interactions with white Americans, Parisians, and Africans. In "Equal in Paris" he is imprisoned in a Parisian jail for eight days for a crime that he did not commit. In the last essay, "Stranger in the Village", he is invited to spend time at the home of a friend in a small Swiss village whose residents have never seen a black man.

I did not enjoy this book as well as The Fire Next Time and The Evidence of Things Not Seen, two of his other nonfiction books. However, the title essay is searing and brilliant, and the book overall is a worthwhile read to learn about the black experience in America and Europe in the mid-20th century.

Have you read any of Baldwin's fiction?

I agree you should try his fiction. If Beale Street Could Talk is one of my fave's of Baldwin's.

Let's see...I've read the novels Go Tell it on the Mountain, Giovanni's Room, Another Country, and Just Above My Head, and the play The Amen Corner. The first three novels are fantastic, and I'd like to re-read all of them in the near future.

So that's a "yes" then. :) You seem to have implied that Just Above My Head is not fantastic...

Just Above My Head is good, but for me it's a second tier novel compared to the first three, which would all make my top 50 list.

Of his novels, I've read Giovanni's Room and Another Country, and like you said, both of those are among my favorite novels ever. I read Going to Meet the Man, a collection of short stories, and thought about half were great and half were mediocre (by Baldwin standards, anyway). I'm not sure the short story was the best vehicle for him.

I have had a couple of Baldwin's books on the Continent for a while now. Looks like I better get on the stick and read his works soon!

doc dear... time for a new thread? This one is heading for 300 posts :)

Ha! Great minds think alike, mckait. I had planned to do this today, at the start of the week.

So, here goes...

Here's the link to part 2:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/60252

Message edited by its author, Mar 16, 2009, 10:31am.