mstrust climbs Mount TBR

This year I'm tackling pirates, plays, short story collections and the Irish. I have a couple of tandem reads set up and I'm itching to reduce my TBR pile. Which won't happen because I'm always adding more.

I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone, and good luck!

Looking forward to your Pirates & Irish books!

So, to knock all your categories out, we need to find a play about Irish pirates who write short stories. Should be doable. Maybe something by Beckett.

Welcome back!

Hurray for pirates. And the Irish!

Here is a short list of books I enjoyed, you might have read, plan to, or will now gobble up.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini (This one is about an Irish physician who also had a career as a Captain. It is also loosely based on facts.)
Isle of Swords by Wayne Thomas Batson (Though it is young adult fiction, it's a nice read.

I like Richard's idea, Jennifer :) Glad to see you back with us again.

I've joined this Challenge as well as the 11 in 11 Challenge. Looking foward to following your reading this year, and our joint read in October.

Hi everyone! Good to see all the regulars will be here.
I'm looking forward to getting started.

Richard- Ah, it would have to be Irish pirates who write short stories about murder while vacationing in China. That book just has to exist.

Susie, Dr. and Stasia- thanks, I'll be watching your reviews. I'm looking forward to adding another couple of feet to the mountain. And thanks for setting this all up for us again, Dr!

Delta- I'm looking forward to it also. Too many good books ahead.

#8: it would have to be Irish pirates who write short stories about murder while vacationing in China.

Get Richard to write it for you!

I get "Based on an idea by..." credit.

Hi, passing through have you starred.

#10: That sounds reasonable.

Aha, so you'll be wanting books about Grace O'Malley, Irish pirate queen, then. Grania by Morgan Llywelyn was quite good, from what I remember, and I've also got Wild Irish by Robin Maxwell on my shelves, though I've not read that yet. Good luck with your themes!

Saying hello so I can follow your thread!

>13 Ygraine: Thanks for the recommendations, they're always welcome! I've read some about O'Malley and even saw a terrible musical about her in Chicago a couple of years ago.

>14 RosyLibrarian: Glad you found me, Marie!

>#5 Anna, Sorry I didn't reply earlier and thanks for the recommendations. I've read Treasure Island and Bloody Jack, (loved the first, not that attached to the second) and I've read parts of Gulliver's Travels but not the whole thing. I really should have by now. Swift's A Modest Proposal was my introduction to his work.

I see I've been beaten to the punch with the Grace O'Malley suggestion, but if you are reading about Irish pirates who write short stories about murder while vacationing in China, I am definitely following this thread!

Of course, the originally planned combination of those categories sounds pretty good too. :)

Glad you found me and I hope you'll find some good titles here. Who knew there were so many pirate fans on LT? The pirate group pretty much went dormant long ago.

That's because pirates aren't good at organized communication. Plundering and plotting, yes. Keeping up with group threads, no. We all have our limitations.

16> Bloody Jack is one of my favorite series. I picked it up shortly after the 2nd one was published and have read them as soon as Amazon delivered since, except the most recent, because school got in the way (it's near the top of Mt TBR, though).

I didn't think #2 was quite as fun the first time I read it, either, but the third book really did good. And then the fourth was also a bit of a sleeper, and the fifth is my favorite.The whole series is starting to get a bit awkward, though, like Meyers wants to wrap it up, but not quite... I'm still having a blast with the Over The Top Unbelievable aspects, at least.

19> very accurate, networking not their forte. Rum does make one scatterbrained.

20> I liked Bloody Jack until at some point I wondered why no one was noticing that this was a growing girl on board. I know that a few females were able to pass as males on board (Anne Bonny, Mary Read) but I couldn't stop thinking about that and at some point it overcame my enjoyment of the book. But I do have both Seafaring Women and She Captains lined up.
If Bonny and Read had been fictional, I would have said the author needed to work on believable characters.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. Looking forward to starting the Challenge when I get back in January.

Thank you, Judy, and Merry Christmas to you! I'm circling Mount TBR and looking for the first choice of the year.

Happy Christmas, Jennifer!

Thanks, Stasia, and I hope yours was great! I've been gone almost a week but I'm back and have a handful of bookstore gift cards. Time to shop.

#25: Ooo, gift cards! I love those. I spent mine already though :(

I spent and tried to spend nearly all of mine yesterday. From B&N I ordered:
The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World- very excited about this one. I looked through it at the New York Public Library last year.
Gastroanomalies
The Adventure on the High Teas
a subscription to Bon Appetit

Then I chose more on Amazon and tried to use my gift card. For some reason that has yet to be explained to me, the gift card was ignored and everything was billed to my credit card. Still waiting to hear from their customer service about that one.

I still have a Borders g.c. to use.

There was/is a PIRATE group here on LT????

26 - OOOH - Stasia, tell us what you got with your gift cards!

28> Yes, it's the Jolly Roger group. Nothing much going on there, unfortunately.

Yes, Stasia, spill it.

I went ahead and used my Border's card to get San Francisco Noir and Hetty:The Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon.
Forgot that I also got a collection of short stories from B&N by Kelly Link.

OK, I got Cloud Atlas for the group read, The Envoy, Why Translation Matters, The Englishman's Daughter, and The Lies That Bind.

So that's, what, three days worth of reading for you?

#31: Maybe, maybe not :)

And here is Number One!

Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost. Troost is the author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stones with Savages, about the years he lived in small South Pacific islands. This time, he leaves his family in California and spends months traveling throughout China. He started out with the idea that he might like to move his young family there, that it would be good for the kids to live in an exotic culture for a year. So he went to check it out, starting in Beijing, going south, then west, then going into Tibet and finally, literally, to the edge of North Korea. What he learned about China cured him of the idea of bringing his children there. While Troost writes humorously about the most frustrating times of being in a country where you don't speak the language, understand the system or trust the safety of the food, there is a lot more here than just a "fish out of water" story. He writes of air so polluted that it's a yellow-brown color that burns the lungs and village lakes that are so contaminated that they have a rainbow-colored film. Troost found that he was rarely allowed to sleep through the night in a hotel due to calls from prostitutes offering their services, and that beggars are so prevalent and aggressive that he was attacked by one for ignoring him. In marketplaces, he was offered the body parts of endangered tigers.
Troost did experience days of calm, mostly in the mountains, but even here he writes of the destruction of Tibetan tribal villages and gorges as the government works to expand its resources for Beijing.
This is a lot more than a travel book. Troost writes about his real experience, even when it's unbelievably awful. Seeing China through his eyes is to gain more prospective for the reader than usual, as he's Dutch-born, Canadian-raised with an American family and he's lived all over the world.
Even though it cured me of ever wanting to travel in China, it's a fascinating book. I'm glad I started the year with this one. 5 stars.

You know, I always read travel books that boast about the country they are visiting. I don't think I've ever read a book that was so nitty, gritty and real about the hardships facing a country. I need to look into this author!

Yes, all of his books are sugar-free. I really prefer to read the truth about a place rather than hearing, "It's so wonderful, it's paradise!" I think seeing a balance makes you better prepared for going or avoiding.

Wow, the first day of the year and I've just wishlisted two books from your thread. The China book sounds very interesting and of course I have to read the Hetty Green book - can't ignore a hometown girl now can I?

2011 is herewith requested to deliver unto Jennifer the best reading year she's ever had.

ETA pirates vacationing in China...hmmm...short stories about murder...hmmmm

I already have Lost on Planet China in the BlackHole, so I have successfully dodged the first BB thrown my way in 2011 :)

You got away this time, Stasia, but I'll get you sooner or later.

Thank you, Richard, and I wish the same for you. And it turns out that pirates wouldn't be able to get their ship to the shore of China, what with the sludge. They've headed for Sandals for a wild weekend.

>37 Fourpawz2: Paws- Glad to serve! I've read about Green since I was a kid, but only one or two page bios about how strange she was and what a miser. It'll be interesting to find out how she got to be so stingy yet clever in her business dealings.

2. How To Be A Complete Bastard by Adrian Edmondson. Ah, nostalgia... I was a young girl staying in England in 1987 and this book was everywhere in London. The Young Ones were huge (a four man comedy group on stage and television that was groundbreaking in that they played to the young, disenfranchised people who found the Thatcher-era unemployment not to their liking. Edmondson played the character of violent Vivian). My friend Mitzi and I would flip through this book in the shops and giggle.

Anyway, I found this online. Actually reading it this time, well, I'm not that young anymore and my tastes have changed and times have changed. This book is a product of that decade, when things like rudeness was rare and therefore shocking and funny, and the word 'anarchy' was bandied about a lot more.
This book was meant as a novelty, so not written with any notion of remaining relevant decades later, but I'm glad I finally found the book I had memories about. 3 stars

#34: That was one of my last books of 2010. I didn't really want to go to China in the first place, but his book definitely put me off going to any of the big cities, at least (except maybe Hong Kong). I hope he comes out with a new book soon.

#27: I bought Adventures on the High Teas a couple of years ago on a trip to London and STILL haven't read it! Not sure why . . .

#34 - Ah, first book added to the wish list for 2011. Thanks for the review. That sounds like a good one. I like Troost's style. I just finished Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, where the author traveled around Asian, following the path the Buddha would have traveled while teaching the dharma. He discussed the conditions in China, the air quality, etc, but mostly went into the forced destruction of Tibet. How the Chinese Army forced the people of Tibet to dismantle all the buildings, leaving vast piles of rubble everywhere.
Can't wait to read all about pirates and the Irish. Have a great reading year.

>42 carlym: carlym- I hope he does too. I'm hooked. I was cured of any desire to go to China very early in the book, from his first minutes in Beijing as he describes how everyone clears their sinuses in the streets.

>43 VioletBramble: Violet- that sounds like a good one. Yes, Troost also talks about the wreckage in Tibet and the of the Tibetan culture, which keeps taking a beating as more Chinese move into the Tibetan villages to open souvenir shops for the tourists.

I hope everyone's first reads of 2011 are 5 stars!

#41: I can safely dodge that BB too - not my cuppa. Thus far, I am two for two :)

Just wait. I'm only warming up.

One of Troost's books was recommended in Book Lust to Go, so I've been wanting to read something by that author. Maybe the China one is a good place to start.

3. Who The Hell is Pansy O' Hara by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy. This is a book of backstories to the most famous and groundbreaking books written in the western cultures over the past 200 years.
Beginning with Pride and Prejudice, this book researches how others such as Oliver Twist, War and Peace, The War of the Worlds, Peter Pan, The Catcher in the Rye, The Cat in the Hat, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Origin of Species and many more came to be written and how they became so famous.
If, like me, you adore books about books, or you like to read a book a chapter at a time, this is great. And FYI, "Pansy O' Hara" was Scarlett's name while Mitchell wrote her manuscript of Gone With The Wind". 3.5 stars

>>48 mstrust: - it may be more of the same, but I had read Why Not Catch-21? which was more of how some of the stories got their titles - not necessarily about why the story was written, although some of that was in there as well. I liked the book, but my biggest gripe was that a good chunk of the titles I had never heard of. For the ones I recognized, it was a good read.

Pansy O'Hara???? I cannot imagine that name working for her main character at ALL!

I went to see Barry Manilow in concert with my parents once, and he said that his famous song "Mandy" was written as "Brandy". His manager made him change it because "Brandy" was a famous song by The Looking Glass at about the same time. It's funny how these changes were made and became legendary.

This reminds me of finding out about the actors who auditioned for famous roles and didn't get them...sometimes that's mind blowing as well.

Added Pansy O'Hara to my wishlist now. Thanks for the recommendation!

#48: OK, you got me with that one!

>52 alcottacre: Stasia Aaa-hahahaha! rubs hands with evil glee I did it! I did it! Her TBR pile will grow!

>49 pbadeer: I've just heard of that one. It would be disappointing to not know the books referred to, unless it's something like Book Lust, where you're meant to be introduced to new ones.

>50 BookAngel_a: Angela I know, somehow I wouldn't expect a girl named Pansy to survive a war.
And aren't you glad that Gene Hackman didn't get the part of Mike Brady?

>51 KLmesoftly: You're welcome!

Found and starred you. I followed your reading last year and you added to the TBR mountain quite a bit so I will be interested to see what you read this year. Happy reading.

#53: Yeah, like the BlackHole needs any help! :)

Ha ha ha, I laughed out loud at Stasia's picture. So true!

Ok, I'm checking out Who The Hell is Pansy O' Hara as well now, and I only came into the thread to say that I picked up Decorating with Books at the library yesterday and have already drooled over half the photos. Thanks for alerting me to its existence.
And I got a nice little story out of the librarian about how she turned her garage into a library into the bargain. She took home a whole swag of shelves after a library renovation - lucky thing. What impressed me most was how young she was.

I'm already worried about the dangers of visiting your thread.

>54 dianestm: diane glad you found me and I hope you find some good stuff this year. I love how I've discovered so many authors on LT.

>55 alcottacre: when the piles start teetering and you fear being crushed, then you can stop accumulating.

>56 RosyLibrarian: it is the perfect picture of resignation.

>57 avatiakh: ava glad you were able to get that one. And that is one lucky librarian getting professional shelving. Obviously the books are more valuable than the car.
As to the dangers of my thread- sshhhh i'm stealthy. like a ninja.

De-lurking to say that I just had to add both Lost on Planet China and Who the Hell is Pansy O'Hara (and Why not Catch-21?) to the TBR-pile. 2/2 of the BBs! :)

#: when the piles start teetering and you fear being crushed, then you can stop accumulating.

I will tell my husband that, but I do not think he will agree.

>59 RedBowlingBallRuth: Ruth Those are good ones. I'm adding Why Not Catch 21 to my list too.

>60 alcottacre: Tell him he needs to walk through the house sideways. More room.

4. Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie. Another in my ongoing effort to read each Christie, this is a collection of Poirot short stories published in 1924. Each story is just 10-15 pages long, and each features the team of Poirot and Hastings solving crimes such as the kidnapping of the Prime Minister, the theft of a famous diamond, the murder of a wealthy old uncle and the superstition of an Egyptian curse.
While there are humorous moments of Poirot's vanity throughout, this isn't one of Christie's great ones. Probably due to the fact that the stories are so short that the characters, other than Poirot, are barely fleshed out. 3 stars

I really need to get my Christie books catalogued! I own a bunch, I just do not have them catalogued yet.

5. Gastroanomalies by James Lileks. This is one I bought after Christmas and it's a re-read for me. I adore books by Lileks; he just has a strange sense of humor.
It's a book that takes recipes, advertising and photos from the 1930's through the 70's and pokes fun. The pages featuring a 30's family and their love of Kellogg's All Bran cereal is worth the price alone. This is one of those books that you can pull out whenever you need a laugh. 5 Stars

#64: Unfortunately, my local library does not have that one. I have his Gallery of Regretable Food on hold there, but it is still 'in process' so who knows when I will actually get my hands on it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Also, see if they have his Interior Desecrations. That the one I haven't seen yet but I trust that it'll be good.

#66: Nope. I already know they do not have that one either. Rats.

After-Christmas book purchases are trickling in. So far: Stranger Things Happen, a short story collection.
Gastroanomalies
The Professionals Annual 1983
Adventures on the High Teas, my current read
San Francisco Noir
Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon
and the Coraline DVD.

*fingers tapping* Now where is my The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World?

6. Adventures on the High Teas by Stuart Maconie. Maconie is a London music writer and t.v. host from Middle England, what seems to be the equivalent of the Midwest in America. On the surface, this book has him traveling to small towns and villages that tend to be overlooked in favor of places like London or Birmingham. It appears to be essays that are sometimes funny, other times, like discussing musician Nick Drake, sad. But there's a lot more here: Maconie breaks it up into chapters that concentrate on food, music, literature or the British railway, and all along he goes into interesting biographies of the famous or infamous, such as when visiting the little hometown of Thatcher.

I'm so used to reading British slang that I usually have no problem, but perhaps because Maconie is from the north, he sometimes uses phrases or whole sentences that stop me. Still, that's a small complaint. This isn't so much a guide book as a book that proves that history is everywhere in England. 4 stars

That one sounds interesting, especially the essay on Nick Drake. On the list it goes. :)

7. Blue Guide: Hay-On-Wye. Hay-On-Wye, Wales is a booktown and one of my dream destinations. I've been to Wales before, but I was too young to care much about books, and I didn't know anything about Hay until reading the wonderful Sixpence House a couple of years ago.
Anyway, this guide covers just about anything you'd need to know about Hay, from the Norman history, the landscape, famous citizens and, of course, the names and addresses of the many bookshops and the genres they specialize in. It could do with a few more photos, but this is the first "Hay-On-Wye" edition, so no whining. 5 stars

8. The Professionals Annual 1983 Part of my ongoing obsession with the British t.v. series. They put out annuals for about seven years, I believe, and they're filled with articles, photos and fan fiction. 3.5 stars

Oh, why aren't the touchstones working?

Hay-On-Wye = dream destination for me too. :)

Though I don't think I could stand to read the guide unless I had real hope of getting there soon. Glad to know about it, though.

I think Hay-on-Wye must be a dream destination for any real bibliophile!

>71 mstrust:: So when are the 75ers going to Hay-On-Wye? We could take over the town for a few days. In the meantime, I'm adding Pansy O'Hara to my dream book and will take a look at Lost on Planet China. I think my hubby has given up on me ever wanting to go to China with him. When I read about the brown air, I lost interest!

Hay is a wonderful place to visit. My parents used to take me there every summer before the academic year started in September and I would spend a few hundred pounds picking up everything I could possibly want for the next year at university. I really must go back there sometime soon.

>72 beserene: beserene We had planned on going to Hay in the fall of 2009, but the economy caught up with me and I lost my job in March of that year. But things worked out just fine because someone lent us their apartment just outside of NYC, so we had a great time and I bought boxes of books at The Strand.

>Stasia- yes, and I didn't know about the one in Belgium either. But Hay is the BIG one.

>Oooh, group fare!
As Troost walked into the streets of Beijing and described seeing the air, I thought "He must be exaggerating." What really horrified me was right after that when he described seeing everyone hawking into the streets. Then I knew that no one would write about that unless they had to. I would be traumatized.

>Ygraine- *Napoleon Dynamite voice* Lucky.
And if you go back, post some pictures for us. I haven't licked my monitor screen in a while.

#76: I haven't licked my monitor screen in a while.

I know I did not need to know that, Jenn!

If you ever want to try a snarky Indian complement to Lost in Planet China, check out Holy Cow.

Oh, never mind, sorry. 'Not nice to pile onto a K2 sized TBR pile!

That's okay, always room for more. Except that I really am squeezing them. And I'm still receiving more from my end-of-the-year orders. And the ginormous sale of the year is a month away.
Anyway, I've seen the cover for Holy Cow and it looks fun, thanks for the recommendation.

And The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World finally showed up. And it is beautiful.

9. Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse. Johnny Pearce can't get married because his fiancee refuses to live with Johnny's old nursemaid, Nanny Bruce. Nanny won't leave until Johnny gives her 500 pounds, which he doesn't have. Respected barrister Beefy hates the younger generation, but they love his risque novel, Cocktail Time. Once Beefy's mooching nephew finds out who wrote it, he turns to blackmail. And setting up most of these complications is Uncle Fred.

Most of my Wodehouse reads have been of Wooster and Jeeves, but I'm glad I finally got one of Uncle Fred. This is so funny and clever. Wodehouse at his best with quick put-downs. 5 stars

80: I haven't read anything by Wodehouse. Looks like I need to!

10. The Professionals 4: Hunter Hunted by Ken Blake. I hope to read the rest of this series this year. For anyone unfamiliar, The Professionals were a huge hit show in the U.K. in the late 70's/early 80's about a government department called CI5. Think the CIA, but with less regulation. The top men were Bodie and Doyle, and their boss Mr. Cowley yells at them alot.

In this book, Bodie and Doyle track down a kidnapped Israeli Cabinet Minister, find a sniper with stolen submachine gun and defend the department's existence after a man dies in their care.Lots of action. 4 stars

11. The Royal Hunt of the Sun by Peter Shaffer. This play, written in the early 60's, deals with the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Pizarro, De Soto and their army of soldiers and priests travel to Peru in search of gold. They find a culture that has no hunger or sin and plenty of gold. The people are ruled by Atahuallpa, the son of the sun. He is held prisoner by the Spaniards until his people bring all the gold they possess to Pizarro, but over the months Pizarro and the king develop a friendship that threatens the Spanish army.
I wanted to read this one after seeing the movie a long time ago. It starred Robert Shaw as Pizarro and Christopher Plummer as Atahuallpa. Yes, Plummer played an Incan, and he was brilliant. Also, the movie has a massacre scene that was filmed in a strangely beautiful way. 3 stars

12. Interior Desecrations by James Lileks. This came in the mail today so I put everything else aside because I love me some Lileks. And, like him, I have always said the 70's was the ugliest decade. I remember my Brownie troop leader making us do tie-dye shirts and my babysitter had a living room full of macrame plant hangers. Yuck.
This book is full of hideous home scenes- shag carpet, orange kitchens, weird reflective wallpaper and yes, macrame plant hangers. Add in the snarky commentary and it's a lot of fun. 4 stars

13. Sundays with Sullivan by Bernie Ilson. This is an ER book from LibraryThing.
Ilson worked on The Ed Sullivan Show for eight years and met with many famous people like The Beatles and LBJ. He spent time with Sullivan while setting up interviews and promotional meetings for the show, and while the first few chapters are interesting as he discusses how Sullivan put together a live show every week, Ilson is not a natural storyteller. He has a halting way of writing and I noticed that hardly a paragraph went by without some common word or phrase put into quotation marks, such as "top ten".
When he writes about the hard work Sullivan did and the man's accomplishments, he really does give some insight, but the last few chapters seem like padding and towards the end he actually has a chapter of answers from a broad survey he sent out to people (nobody famous) who may have watched the show growing up. 2.5 stars

>49 pbadeer:- I felt exactly the same way about Why Not Catch 21

#84: Another Lileks book to add to the BlackHole. Thanks, Jenn!

You're welcome! * ha ha ha more for Stasia's pile*

#88: That's it - rub it in. I will get you yet :)

#85: Ugh. I can't stand that particular use of quotation marks. I tell my students that if they feel the need to put something in quotes like this (i.e. something that isn't an actual quote), then they need to stop themselves, back up, rethink and rephrase.

>89 alcottacre: You are probably responsible for a good 30 books being added to my mountain. Consider this payback. ;)

>90 scaifea: I had to mention this quirk of his because it kept jarring me. I wanted to slap his fingers every time he did it, which was so often that I began scanning for the quotation marks in each paragraph.

90-91: I hate that too. I have a contractor that writes one of our smaller publications. She puts "everything" in "quotes." I constantly have to rewrite her material. Drives me batty!

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

14. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link. A book of short stories, several based on fairy tales such as "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". Link's writing is like a surreal dream. Things may start out normal but the reader realizes quickly that there are no traditional boundaries. A woman receives the present of a talking cat from her boyfriend, who is then kidnapped by The Snow Queen. A man lives in the tree in front of the famous Girl Detective's house and follows her from tree to tree about town as she solves the mystery of the dancing princesses.
These stories don't have endings so much as final sentences that sort of drift off, but I found the stories to be beyond quirky and full of imagination. 4.5 stars

#94: 'Beyond quirky and full of imagination' sounds very good to me. Into the BlackHole it goes!

If you enjoy fairy tales and their retellings, I would recommend Lips Touch: Three Times to you, Jenn, if you have not already read it.

No, I haven't read that one but it sounds good so I'll look for it. Thanks, and pat yourself on the back for adding to my mountain.

Stopping by to say Hello! :)

#96: Nah, that makes me look funnier than I already do :)

Hi Angela, glad you visited!

>98 alcottacre: Ha! Then do a happy dance and sing "Gotcha!"

#99: Yeah, right. I see that happening. And me with two left feet.

15. You Are What You Eat by Gillian McKeith. I loved this show when it was on BBC and I'd been wanting to read this book for a long time. Probably the first half was about what I expected, with McKeith discussing what fruits and veg are best for certain health problems, looking at the tongue and the dreaded bowels (her obsession with feces seems like a fetish). I have started on Vitamin E, per her suggestion that this will rid me of red, scaly hands.
The last several chapters sort of lost me as she highly recommends algae (not gonna happen) and meditation, even including some chants. Which seems so un-Gillian McKeith to me. Where's the angry woman who stomps around the grocery store telling people they're fat and spotty?
Anyway, there is enough food info here to have me consulting it multiple times. 3.5 stars

#101: I am going to pass on that one. I do not see me chanting any time soon (probably just as well, lol)

Nor I. Which is why it was strange to come across that- she never mentions meditation or algae on the show.

I would not know, since I have never heard of her TV show.

New on me as well. Does the fecal fetish infiltrate the show? Because that would make me a little nervous. :)

>105 beserene: Oh lord, does it ever. And it doesn't stop at just discussing the topic either.

Happy happy joy joy

The enormous book sale was this weekend. I've come home with these:

All Quiet On The Western Front
Justine
Flaubert's Parrot
Scoop
How Green Was My Valley
The Thirteenth Tale
Olive Kitteridge
The Seven Year Itch
I'm A Stranger Here Myself
A Walk in the Woods
The Wings of a Dove
Geisha, A Life
Paris out of Hand
Secret Lives of Great Authors
Inadmissible Evidence
The Sun King
Historical Hotels of London
Literary Trips
Thomas Cook Guide to New Zealand
Living and Working in London
Book of British Villages

and a whole lot of mysteries:
Artists in Crime
Died in the Wool
Over My Dead Body
An Unkindness of Ravens
Behold, Here's Poison
On What Grounds
The Theban Mysteries
All Hallows Evil
Last Seen Wearing
Last Bus to Woodstock
The Remorseful Day
The Way Through The Woods
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
Jane and the Wandering Eye
A Flaw in the Blood
Death on the Nile and
The Getaway Guide to Agatha Christie's England

And I'm not kidding when I say that I have no shelf space for this. I may end up holding them.

Wow! Quite a haul! Hooray for book sales!

Well done. I'm sure you will find somewhere to put them.

What a great haul, Jenn!

Thanks everyone! After some creative manipulations, a little begging and whining and the sacrificing of some books I know I won't read again, I was able to fit them in!

16. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. This is the true account of the murder of Saville Kent, a three year old, in 1860 England. He was taken from his bed in the middle of the night and murdered, his body found in the family privy.
The murder quickly became a fascination with the British newspapers and the public. The family's dynamics were gossiped about and celebrities such as Charles Dickens backed which family member or servant they thought had done it.
Mr. Whicher was the top detective sent from Scotland Yard to find the murderer. Within two weeks he arrested one of the daughters, but through a missing nightdress and the lack of cooperation of the local police, Whicher's career was ruined.
I can't imagine how much time and work went into researching this book. Summerscale provides such detail into not only the murder and the Kent family, but also the investigators and English Victorian society. My only quibble was with the extensive amount of comparisons with authors such as Wilkie Collins, Dickens and Henry James. There are large chunks of quotes from the works of these authors throughout and I found myself having to skip over them, as I haven't read those books yet and hated that there were spoilers everywhere. 4 stars

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher sounds really interesting, I'm adding it to my wishlist. Thanks.

#112: I did not enjoy that one as much as you did, Jenn, I think primarily because I was already quite familiar with the case. I am glad to see you liked it though!

adding Whicher to the wishlist. Thanks!

113, 115 Hope you like it, I found it really interesting. But then I love English murder mysteries.

114 Stasia I'd never heard of this one before. I've read a lot about the Ripper and Borden murders. Are you a fan?

#116: Yep!

If you haven't read it, Uncovering Jack the Ripper's London is excellent. It was written by a guy who has been leading Ripper walks for years.

17. The Secret Of Chimneys by Agatha Christie. Anthony Cade agrees to do a little job for his friend. He takes the manuscript of a dead ruler to London in order to personally had it over to the publisher. He quickly learns that everyone knows he has the manuscript and he finds himself involved in multiple murders, a pretty widow, political movements and the family of an English estate.

I'm a big Christie fan so it actually pains me to say that this one was a clunker. I found little to draw me into caring about the characters, and that's so unlike Christie who can usually grab me so quickly. It seemed to take forever to finish this. I actually disliked the heroine a lot. She was described as charming and beguiling, but I saw her as smug and wanted her to stop with the rude banter that passed as flirting.
As I'm reading all A.C.'s in order of publication, I see this as nothing more than a fluke, as I know that she followed this one with the wonderful The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. 2.5 stars

#118: I had not heard of that one before. Thanks for the recommendation, Jenn!

I actually own the Mr. Whicher book, I just need to read it. Sigh.

Congrats on your book haul! You got some good books...I haven't read them all, but the ones I've read on your list were excellent!

Thanks, Angela, and you'll have to get back to me once you've read Mr. Whicher. I'd be interested to see your comments.

18. Something to Declare: Essays on France and French Culture by Julian Barnes. This book of essays covers many of the topics that are recognized as French territory: filmmaker Truffaut and the New Wave, the Tour de France, the singers of the 50's-60's who moaned on finding out that they were sharing their mistresses with others. And then there are the nine, yes nine, chapters on Barnes' favorite writer, Flaubert.

The writing is engaging from the beginning as Barnes describes his family vacations around France year after year, and his growing sense of comfort with the French culture. I especially appreciated his chapter on those singers such as Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens (though I can't understand why my favorite, Serge Gainsborg wasn't included) and the one on author Georges Simenon was full of decadent scandal and therefore wonderful.
But you should probably really, really like Flaubert in order to get through those eight chapters which discuss not just his work, but his childhood, his affairs and the many pages on whether or not he burned his ex-girlfriend's love letters. Barnes spends quite some time telling the reader why Satre's bio on Flaubert was wrong.
So, I guess I'm saying that if you're not so into Flaubert, the first eight chapters are still good reading, and if you love Flaubert, you'll be happy here. 3 stars

Also, for anyone with Netflix, there's a documentary called "Book Wars" about the people who sold books on the streets of NYC. It was filmed ten years ago when Bloomberg began trying to get rid of them.

I'm arriving late to your thread and found the post regarding all the books you obtained. What a haul. I'm sure you were quite happy that day.

Thanks for posting your June 16th birthday on the bd thread. I'll note it and add it to the spreadsheet.

I'm trailing Linda through the threads...

So cool you've been reading all those pirate books!

>125 Whisper1: Thanks, and I was all aflutter that day.

>126 jadebird: glad you found me!

19. The Professionals 5: Blind Run by Ken Blake. In the fifth installment of the series, Bodie and Doyle chauffeur a mysterious figure who keeps getting shot at, discover a crooked FBI informant working in London and take down a police chief who runs his city like a dictatorship.
Oh, you know Bodie and Doyle are badass because they're doing it all in a Capri and a Ford Fiesta. 4 stars

20. Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter. Inspector Morse takes on the case of a young woman found raped and murdered in a pub parking lot. The list of suspects gets longer as Morse and Sergeant Lewis, working together for the first time, discover that the victim was far from innocent.

This is the first of the Inspector Morse series, and the second that I've read (The Dead of Jericho a few months ago). The mystery here is done really well and is hard to figure out. The cons:the romance between Morse and a suspect's roommate is sudden and melodramatic, and the attitude towards rape victims is so outdated that it's jarring and reminds the reader that this was written in 1975. If it weren't for those flaws, this would read like a modern book set in those pre-DNA days. I enjoyed it. 4 stars

129- I read that one last year (thought it was pretty good), and I haven't continued with the series yet. I must get back to it one of these days....

I think I have four more on the shelf so I'll continue. Morse seems a lot more desperate for female companionship in the books than even the t.v. series lets on.

21. On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle. When coffee shop employee Annabelle falls down a flight of stairs at work one night and becomes comatose, the police think that it was probably an accident. But shop manager Clare thinks that Annabelle was pushed and begins looking for suspects. Annabelle knew quite a few people who would gain from her death- jealous rivals and a wealthy boyfriend who may not want a poor girlfriend anymore.

I expected this to be a fluff mystery, but though the crime takes place on the first pages, it doesn't become the focus of the story until nearly 100 pages in. Instead, so much is about Clare's problems with her ex-husband and her adoration of Madame, owner of the coffee shop. And yes, lots of coffee talk: how to make different coffee drinks, how to mess up coffee, how to store it, etc. Not a surprise in a book that is set in a coffee shop, but it really is non-stop preparation and consumption of coffee.
My other problem was why a coffee shop manager would investigate what turns out to be a very serious crime. The police are there and Clare has no experience in law, yet from the very beginning she is interviewing suspects.
Someone else may find this book charming, but I found it too out there to continue with this series. 2.5 stars

132- Even though I love cozies like that, I haven't started that series because I don't drink coffee, and I don't really want to get started on coffee. I do NOT need something else to be addicted to. I'm already enslaved by chocolate and salty snacks, argh. ;)

I drink coffee nearly every day, sometimes up to three cups, so the storage advice was good for me, as apparently I had been doing the wrong thing by keeping it in the freezer.
But when a tip like that is the most you get out of a book, it isn't a good match.
And I'm also a chocolate fiend. Luckily, my husband is too so he eats up more than his share.

LOVE coffee. I'd give up chocolate before I gave up coffee even though I drink decaff these days to deter calcium loss. So ---- where am I supposed to store my unground beans? I will definitely not be reading the Coyle, thanks to your review.
I'm more than impressed with your great book acquisition back in #107. I've been a Morse fan from the beginning, and I must say that if you haven't read Amanda Cross (Carolyn Heilbrun), you really really really should! I don't mean to teach my granny about eggs, but *Theban* is the second in the Kate Fansler series and the first that I read. Didn't hurt a bit. Enjoy!

According to Coyle, freshly ground coffee should be kept in a dark colored, air-tight container in a cool, dark space. It shouldn't be put in the freezer unless it's for long-term storage, as opening the coffee from the freezer daily exposes it to moisture, which then ruins the coffee.

I haven't read the Amanda Cross yet. When I finished On What Grounds I almost started The Theban Mysteries but I'd wanted to read The Murder Room since seeing the movie with Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh. Only about 25 pages in, but I really like it so far.

Oh yeah. It's hard to beat Phyllis Dorothy!
So I'm guessing that it's O.K. to keep beans in the freezer? This is DH's idea, btw. ("According to Coyle" is great!)

22. The Murder Room by P.D. James.
The Dupayne Museum is situated right outside London and houses a collection of artifacts about the years in between WWI and WWII. It also contains The Murder Room, filled with evidence of the most famous murders of the era.
The Dupayne children, all in their 40's-50's, have never loved each other or the father who founded the museum. When the lease on the property comes due, Neville announces that he has no intention of signing to keep the museum open and that he would rather see it close and be done with it. Guess who's the first to die?

This is my first of James' books and the twelfth in the Adam Dalgliesh series. I wanted to read some of her work after seeing a Youtube video of her making a fool of a BBC executive in an interview, and I started with this book because I saw the movie starring wonderful Martin Shaw as A.D. I will continue with the series. It's well-written, has plenty of twists, multiple murders (value for money!) and I like the characters. 4.5 stars

I have the first Dalgliesh mystery here on my shelves to try...but I just haven't picked it up yet. I think it's called Cover Her Face. Glad to hear you enjoyed the one you read. :)

Oh, and lol at multiple murders being value for your money...:)

I'm glad to hear that Cover Her Face is the first, because I happen to have that one. And I've ordered two more of the series.

Love your review of The Murder Room. I'm adding it to the obese tbr pile.

23. Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser.
This is a nice, thick non-fiction about the life of the French queen, from birth through to her execution. It's my first bio of Antoinette so even though Fraser writes from an almost completely sympathetic angle, and that isn't to say a skewed angle, I learned so much. I didn't even know that the woman wasn't French but Austrian!
After reading hundreds of pages, seeing her go from a rather neglected Austrian princess to a neglected French princess, living through the early years of her marriage to Louis XVI, who seems to have pretended she was invisible for about the first ten years until they became so attached to each other, it really was sad to read of how they and their children were treated by the men who drove the revolution.
Bios can seem a little dry in the beginning, but I never had my interest lag in this one, and now I actually understand what led up to the French Revolution. And no, she never said, "Let them eat cake." 5 stars

143- Okay, I'm going to have to wishlist that one. It sounds sad...but interesting...and worthwhile.

143: She is a fascinating woman!

Angela and Marie- I'll look for more from Fraser as I like her writing style.
Still on my shelf in French history: a bio of Madame du Pompador (spl?) and another of Madame Tussaud.

I envy your discovering James and Fraser in the same month. Good solid writers both!

I agree. I've been lucky this month up until now. I read three chapters of The Theban Mysteries and didn't like it enough to continue.
I'm on to my first Rex Stout, Over My Dead Body.

24. Frommer's San Francisco 2011. My husband and I love just about everything about this city- the food, the weather, Chinatown, the art, the food, the Ferry Building, the Aquarium by the Bay, the food...

But we haven't been since 2008 and we'll most likely take our vacation here this year, so time for the latest guide book. Especially since a guide book that is even a year old is outdated, what with all the businesses going under. I found out a few weeks ago that one of the best restaurants in North Beach, Iluna Basque, closed in December. And the shopping section in this year's guide has shrunk from previous years. Geez, there are only six independent bookstores?
But there are some new things that sound cool, like a new Disney museum and some revamped lounges and jazz clubs. I'm ready to go. 4 stars

And, if you come during the summer, don't forget to pack your parka!

Meandering my way through the threads..your last book on Marie Antoinette sounds really interesting! I don't read a lot of non-fiction but that one sounds really good. :)

Yes, our trips there have always been in the summer, and it's wonderful to get out of the 116 degree heat of Phoenix! Unless someone has actually experienced shivering in San Francisco in June, they don't believe it.

25. Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout. A young woman from the Balkans turns up in Nero Wolfe's office, screaming that he needs to save his daughter. This is news to both Wolfe and his assistant Goodwin, the narrator of this story, who learns a little more about his employer's past.
The mystery starts off with a diamond theft and leads to murder, and Wolfe's professional reputation could be ruined if his daughter is guilty.

This is my first Nero Wolfe and I love the snappy 30's dialogue where the law men greet each other with "Go to hell." Fun and a good mystery. 4 stars

Gotta love Nero Wolfe mysteries....they are a good example of comfort reading that never changes. Wolfe and Archie and the dialogue seem to be constant in every book.
And you don't even have to read them in order! I've only read a handful but I want to eventually read them all.

They're characters I want to keep reading, and I have Three Doors to Death on the shelf, but I'll be getting more. I love Archie's sarcasm.

I can see how slowly I've moved this month but it couldn't be helped. I'm expecting my fourth visitor of the month tomorrow and I'm just beat. I was able to finish this bit of fluff though.

26. Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke. Cookie shop owner Hannah begins working out with her sister at the local gym in order to shed a few pounds in time for their mother's book launch. Some of the classes are taught by Ronnie, a predatory woman who is loathed by every other female in town and who ends up dead in the gym jacuzzi. Hannah's boyfriend, her sister Michelle's boyfriend and her sister Andrea's husband are all sheriffs, but are taken off the case because they were all involved with the victim. So Hannah, her other boyfriend, Norman, her sisters and their mothers all work to find the killer and clear the men of murder.

Sound silly? It is. This is, I believe, the eleventh book of the popular series, and it's so unbelievably g-rated that even Disney would wonder where the action is. It's almost completely violence-free and the characters are as chaste as the Amish. Even when spending the night at Norman's, her supposed ex-fiancee, Hannah sleeps in a separate room. Not that I thought Norman was into it, what with his love of his cat, Cuddles, and his figuring out the calorie count of Hannah's food. But three sisters finding out that their partners are all suspected of having an affair with the town slut, and not a single fistfight? No "You motherf-----!"? Has the woman who writes these ever met a woman?
So I found this to be an easy-to-read bit of nothing and I think I will give up on culinary mysteries at this point. No hard feelings. BUT I will look into Fluke's recipes more because the ones in this book look really good. So that gets the book an extra half point. 3 stars

27. Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris. A how-to for learning how to make a mouse ghetto for any dying rodents you might find, an obscene fruit salad, a rusty nail wind chime and tampon ghosts. Crafts are arranged by topics such as "The Joy of Poverty", "Unreturnable Gift Giving", "Making Love" and "Sausages". Hidden amongst the bad advice are real recipes, and there are plenty of photos of the Sedaris type, which means weird 70's clothing and generally making herself look like a mental patient. I've been a fan since the "Strangers With Candy" days. 4.5 stars

28. 101 Places Not to See Before You Die by Catherine Price. Just as the title says, these are places all over the world that the author recommends you should avoid because of danger, probable revulsion or just because she finds them overrated. Not all the places are even possible to visit, such as Io, one of Jupiter's moons, and including Stonehenge and the entire state of Nevada will have many people who disagree with Price's taste. But there are some surprising places and experiences in here. 3.5 stars

>158 mstrust: ... and the entire state of Nevada will have many people who disagree with Price's taste.

Personally, I have no desire to visit Las Vegas or Reno, but I really really hope to visit Great Basin National Park before I die (heck, I'd like to beat Anna Pigeon there). So I guess I'm one who disagrees. The idea for the book sounds clever, though.

158: I don't think I would like that book being from Nevada. (The Great Basin part - I swear it has its own brand of beauty!)

> 159 & 160 It is hard to see judging a whole state by the one city (LV) you've been to. Personally, I love Vegas. I love the neon, the gambling, the Strip, Downtown. Of course it's tacky- it's meant to be.
And I agree, there are really beautiful places for hiking. We been saying we'd spend a weekend digging for opals for a couple of years now, but my parents live in Vegas so we rarely get outside the city.

161- I was in Vegas once in my life...a couple of years ago. I didn't think it was much to see in the day light, but at night I found it fascinating. Tacky, yes, but fascinating nonetheless! :)

And there's always something new to see because there is usually something opening, whether it's a new casino, a new show or a branch of a famous restaurant or chocolate shop.
It's only boring when you've lost all your money. ;)

29. Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon by Charles Slack. Hetty Green was known as The Witch of Wall Street around 1890, as she dressed in shabby old black gowns and outdated bonnets while she saw to her business about New York's financial district. I first read about her in The People's Almanac as a kid and thought she was fascinating, as did every newspaper during her decades as the wealthiest woman in America. She had an amazing business sense, which she gained from her wealthy father, to know when a piece of real estate or a bond would be valuable in the future and to keep her head when the stock market plunged. There were several times when NYC approached and received loans from Hetty Green of over a million dollars to keep public services running.

There are many stories about her greed and some are true. She actually did dress herself and her children as paupers to receive free medical attention. Sometimes she was recognized and made to pay the bill, which made her furious. She would haggle with merchants and waiters over charges as low as 15 cents at a time when she owned a railroad and some of the most valuable property on Michigan Ave. She refused to pay for a cab, instead walking miles every day to the bank. And she was suspected of forging her aunt's signature to a will that cut out most of the beneficiaries after the woman's death.

The surprises in this book are that Hetty actually did let go of some of her money, giving large anonymous donations to charities and speaking out for the working class. And the full story concerning her son's damaged leg is here.The claim that has been printed so many times- that she allowed the boy's leg to go without medical treatment until it had to be amputated rather than pay a doctor- is untrue. A very interesting read. 4.5 stars

I am going to try and catch up, Jenn, just stick with you from this point forward.

Your latest read looks like one I would enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation.

You're welcome, and great to have you back!

Oooh, the Hetty book looks really good - I know nothing about her, but she sounds fascinating!

30. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. Frost is a professor of psychology at Smith College who specializes in hoarding and Steketee is a professor at Boston University who has written a treatment manual on hoarding.
This book features case studies of hoarders they have worked with. While most hoarders tend to be older or elderly women, hoarders here run the gamut: male, female, elderly, children, poverty-level to very wealthy. Even a set of twins who hoard in almost the exact same way.

While I dislike most reality shows, I've seen every episode of A&E's "Hoarders". It's fascinating to me that someone can't throw things away and instead builds walls of stuff around them like a cocoon. Frost describes the steps that led to his case studies becoming hoarders and how their therapy progressed. He's honest and says when a hoarder refused further treatment or when the treatment didn't work. If you're interested in the subject, you'll like this. 4 stars

#168: Not something I am interested in, but I am glad you enjoyed the read, Jenn.

168- I am VERY anxious to read that book. Hoarding fascinates me and repells me at the same time! I enjoy watching the TV show, for the most part, although the people who say they want help, but then resist the help, frustrate me greatly. So sometimes I have to turn the channel because I'm getting too angry at those people!

Angela, "fascinates me and repels me" is exactly how I feel. Probably because I had a relative who hoarded. Not on the level of the people on the show, but filled her house with food and toiletries on a mass level.
I turn the channel when they show a nasty bathroom, but then after a minute I turn back. Cause I'm a masochist.

31. The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World by Guillaume de Laubier. Full of big color photos that make you feel like you're standing in the room. Some of them are centerfolds!
This heavy book also has lots of history of the libraries featured, such as owners and how they began, dates of the buildings and restorations, etc. But it's all about the photos here, which is book porn at it's finest.
I first saw this book on a visit to Manhattan where it was at the gift shop of the Fifth Ave. branch, which is glorious and of course, one of the libraries in the book. 5 stars

#172: Someone in the group recommended that one last year, so I know it is already in the BlackHole. I want a copy for my very own!

It's one of those books you can pull off the shelf whenever you want to see something really beautiful. Some people like landscapes; I like pictures of books.

32. The Big Four by Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot is thrilled to find that his friend Hastings has returned to England for a visit from his ranch in South America. No sooner do the friends meet again than they are involved in international espionage, as a secret group calling themselves "The Big Four" is putting themselves into position to rule the world.

This is a departure from Christie's usual English country estate plots, as Poirot and Hastings are traveling the world in order to save it from what is essentially a group of multi-national terrorists. It took a few chapters for me to get into it as it is such a change from Christie's norm, but as the body count got higher I enjoyed it more. 3.5 stars

I was a little behind - some great new reviews - adding more to my wishlist. Thanks!

You're very welcome!

33. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. The Queen climbs aboard the mobile library parked outside the palace and borrows a book so as not to be rude to the driver. The only other person there is Norman, a member of the palace kitchen staff. Their polite conversation and the discovery of books so late in life leads to a change that everyone isn't happy with.

Oh, I'll go ahead and say it- this is an adorable little book. The elderly Queen suddenly finding the world of books and devouring them with such enthusiasm that she begins slacking at her royal duties and even discovers that she is human. It's simply fun. 4.5 stars

>178 mstrust: That one goes on my wish list!

178- Yay! I'm so glad you liked it. :)

>179 thornton37814: Hope you get hold of it and like it too.

>180 BookAngel_a: Good to hear from you, Angela!

#178: Oh, I love that one. I have managed to read it annually since 2008. I am glad to see the book has found another fan :)

34. The Professionals 6: Fall Girl by Ken Blake. Doyle, Bodie and Cowley protecting the U.K. This round: Bodie is set-up as the scapegoat when his ex-girlfriend, an East German movie star involved in espionage, shows up. Also, Cowley finds out who is behind a crooked government building contract and a dying double-agent returns to London, prompting the Russians to try and get clever. 4 stars

#168: I've been watching some episodes of Hoarders and also find the subject fascinating. I'll have to check out that book.

>184 carlym: oooh, another hoarding fan! Do you think the people on those shows get fan letters? "Way to stockpile your empty soup cans!"

35. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. I've been meaning to read Moore for a couple of years now, as I enjoy short story collections and her name always comes up. And, finally, I find that it's well-deserved praise. These stories are character studies. Sometimes the character is an unusual personality, but mostly the stories are about people who are just getting by, but regardless, I have to know what's going to happen to them. Nothing good in most cases, but when the author is this good, I don't care.

My favorite story was "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People", about a grown daughter who books a flight to Ireland as an escape from her problems, only to find that her mother decides to go too.
Very recommended. 5 stars

36. Let's Kill Uncle by Rohan O' Grady. Barnaby and Christie are both sent to the small island off the coast of Canada to spend the summer. Christie has been sent by her hardworking mother to stay with "The Goat-Lady" of the island, while orphaned heir Barnaby has been sent by his uncle.
The two can't stand one another, but being the only children, they are forced to rely on each other for company. When Uncle arrives for a weekend it upsets Barnaby so much that he tells Christie why he is afraid of being around Uncle, and the two decide that the only way to save Barnaby's life is to kill Uncle first. Getting in the way at every turn is the Sergeant, a mountie of the highest morals.

This is a story about children having to fend for themselves, about how often adults don't know best and that telling truth sometimes gets you nowhere. Though the main characters are children, this isn't a children's book. 4 stars

Big book sale today!

The Obituary Writer
Brooklyn
Chang and Eng
The Light of Evening
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
Murder in the Bastille
The Worst Noel
Magic for Beginners
The Geography of Bliss
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction
Sock
Fruit of the Lemon
Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
The Skull Beneath the Skin
Original Sin
Devices and Desires
A Certain Justice
Postcards
The Snapper
The Tent
Homer and Langley
Juliet, Naked

Okay, No More!!! (until the next sale in September.)

Congrats on your great haul. I read a sample of The Geography of Bliss, which was good, and Homer and Langley is in my TBR pile. Enjoy your score!

Wow, I hope you had a box! Or a super large canvas bag...that's a great book sale haul! :)

Going to a book sale makes me so happy that my toes curl.
And I have something better than a bag- one of those rolling pushcarts, like old ladies use for their groceries. To be honest, when I see someone with just a bag at one of these things, I think "amateur".

191- Oh, my. I would be in serious trouble if I had one of those things. You are truly a professional book sale shopper. I'm in awe. :)

WOW! What a haul of books you aquired. Now, then, do you have space for them all? Or, are you like me and have them under the beds, in the closets, on multiple shelves? I swear I have NO more room!

Also, I want to say that you are reading some great books. The tbr pile now contains your recommendation of Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser.

I hope my local library has a copy of this. I very much enjoy Antonia Fraser's writing.

Thinking of you and hoping you are well.

Angela- while I was there a woman carrying her books in a plastic crate looked down at my cart and said, "Oh, you've done this before." Ha!

Whisper- I surprised myself this afternoon. After looking at my too-full shelves I started pulling things out, stacking books horizontally and squeezing my expanding section of P.D. James even more tightly. I only had to weed out two books, ones I don't need as I have others covering the same subjects. Also, stacking my Shakespeares, mythology and chocolate books on the armoire helps.
And I hope you get to read the Fraser, it's so worth the time. I hope you're well too!

37. Inadmissible Evidence by John Osborne. A play that centers on solicitor Bill Maitland, a man who stacks up mistresses by the dozen, has a bad word to say about most people he meets and who hates his business and employees. He is obsessed with recalling every woman he's ever known. Throughout, he forces his assistant to listen to his bile, observe him juggling his wife, long-time girlfriend, daughter and casual encounters, only to suddenly become a professional when a client walks in. At some point the reader becomes aware that while Bill claims to have no respect for most people, he desperately tries to keep them from leaving him.

This play was first performed in 1965 with Nicol Williamson as Bill and Peter Sallis as his assistant. Osborne was responsible for the enormous change in British theater nine years before, by writing the first "kitchen sink" drama, Look Back In Anger. While this play had nowhere near the impact of Anger, it is very much his voice coming through, and I'll bet Williamson did something amazing as Bill. 3.5 stars

38. Britannia in Brief by Leslie Banker and William Mullins. Author Banker is American and Mullins is English, and this is relevant because the book is relating British locations, history, speech, food and culture to the American audience. Very handy for explaining the pecking order of royals, the political parties, what marmite is made from, the different literary awards, what your choice of newspapers tells the world and who a person named Jordan is and why she's famous. 3.5 stars

39. The Snapper by Roddy Doyle. Twenty year-old Sharon Rabbitte is raped in a nightclub parking lot and discovers she's pregnant, but she was so blind drunk when the rape occurred that she can't remember who the man was.

Does this sound funny to you? No? Me neither, but the blurbs on the back say it is- "...another winning comedy about family life in north Dublin." And "Mr. Doyle has an astonishing talent for turning the humdrum into high comedy...Even the family dog rings true." Okay, the family dog gets left out in the rain and kicked by the mother. The pregnant girl continues to drink like a fish, encouraged by father and friends, and barely a sentence goes by without the word "fuck" in it. Seriously, it's used as an adjective, a noun and a verb on every page.

This is the third of the Barrytown Trilogy, which includes The Commitments, which I haven't read and The Van, which I read a few chapters of and didn't like enough to keep going. I really liked Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, so I guess it's the Rabbitte family that I don't like. 2 stars

197- Doesn't sound funny to me either.

I can't even express a commit about that book. Wow.

NOT funny at all!

Angela and Carrie- I enjoy dark humor, and it's something the Irish excel at, but...I think there has to be a sense of the absurd to it for it to really work.

I would say that if this was suppose to be funny, maybe the humor didn't make it across the pond.

40. Cover her Face by P.D. James. Young unwed mother Sally Jupp has just started as the housemaid to the Maxie family. It doesn't take long before she announces that son Stephen has proposed to her. When she is found strangled in her bed the next morning, the Maxies are horrified, but also very relieved. Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is sent to sort through the glut of suspects who would want to see the girl dead.

I'm going to get through at least a couple of the Dalgliesh mysteries this month, and Cover Her Face was the first, published in 1962. It's properly English, with an old estate, the secret between the maid and the family heir and the calm and polite detectives in charge. It's a good one, with realistic characters and an ending that kept me guessing. 4 stars

It has been a long time since I read Cover Her Face, but I must have liked it because it led me to read several other by P.D. James. Dalgliesh mysteries are just excellent.

I agree! Plus, I can't stop picturing actor Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh, which is a bonus.
I never paid attention to James before I saw her trouncing a BBC exec on Youtube. She's a very sharp woman.

LOL! I am definitely going to have to look for that video.

#196: Britannia in Brief looks interesting. I thought I was enough of an Anglophile to know all that stuff, but I'm in the middle of Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England and find myself confused by some of the references and phrases.

Jen
I'm adding Cover Her Face to the tbr pile.

202- I have that one on my shelves. Now I just need to get it read! :)

>206 carlym: I read Adventures on the High Teas a couple of months ago and really liked it. I have Pies and Prejudice waiting on the shelf.

>207 Whisper1: & 208 Whisper and Angela- I hope you find it as good as I did. I couldn't figure out the killer at all!

Checking in, Jenn, since I am once again behind on threads.

Congrats on the huge haul earlier! I am very jealous.

I enjoyed Let's Kill Uncle too. I am glad to see you did as well.

Hey, great to see you back! Glad you liked "...Uncle" too, and I suspect that with the way you go through books, a haul like mine is a twice a week occurrence in your house.

Stasia's on a book buying ban right now. Or maybe it's a strict book buying diet. So I suspect that makes her extra jealous of your haul at the moment, lol... :)

I've tried that same diet too. Much like other diets I've tried, it ends in carnage.

I'm a bit behind:

Those book hauls are truly impressive and as for #158, I am going to seek out that one. Hilarious!

41. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie. American Ruth Kettering is in an unhappy marriage with Derek, an impoverished English aristocrat who had become too indiscreet. When Ruth's millionaire father convinces her to file for divorce, the scheming begins. Ruth is found dead on the train to the Riviera and Poirot finds a number of suspects all circling round the victim.

I place this one firmly in the middle of Christie's work; it isn't one of her greats (And Then There Were None) and it certainly isn't one of her stinkers (hello, Elephants Can Remember). It's a solid Poirot that is difficult to figure out, mainly because the reader isn't given a vital piece of evidence until 20 pages from the end.
I detect the beginnings of her later Murder on the Orient Express here, with a murder of a wealthy, entitled person on a train, though that's where the similarities end. MotOE is a masterpiece. 3.5 stars

You remind me that I need to reread P.D. James again. Even though Cover Her Face was good, the woman got better and better and better. If anybody mentions a genre-transcending writer, I think about Phyllis Dorothy who transformed it if you ask me.

I've never heard of Dorothy. Is there one of hers that you can recommend?

Oh, I was just being flippant. "Phyllis Dorothy" = "P.D." James!

Ah, you had me there- I was ready to go searching for another author.

I never knew what the P.D. stood for, thanks! :)

#215: *sigh* I really must get my Christies catalogued and re-read.

Forgot to say that I've started a Part 2 here

Hope you can make it!

Uh oh. Your link took me back to your first thread.

Oooh, let me try to fix that.

Try this: here

Fingers crossed!

That got it! Thanks, Jennifer!

Thanks for letting me know!