Lisa reads on - labfs39 in 2011

I am returning to a single thread, as keeping two is too time consuming, and more importantly, good discussion points, get separated from points on the other thread. So, I am going to move back to Club Read exclusively.

Please come visit me on Club Read!

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Hitting my stride

June
51. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum* (Pulitzer Prize)
52. Partitions by Amit Majmudar*
53. Brodeck by Philippe Claudel*
54. The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
55. Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard (Booker Prize shortlist)
56. An Imperfect Lens by Anne Roiphe
57. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
58. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari*
59. The Pathseeker by Imre Kertesz

May
43. Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka*
44. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner*
45. Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
46. The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi
47. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard*
48. Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough*
49. Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra by Peter Kurth*
50. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

April
34. Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
35. White Masks by Elias Khoury*
36. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens*
37. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi*
38. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
39. Your Republic is Calling You by Young-ha Kim
40. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin*
41. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
42. My Forbidden Face: Growing up under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story by Latifa

Note: An asterisk means I would recommend it above others.

Off the Starter's Block

January
1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
2. The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore* (longlisted for Orange Prize)
3. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
4. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
5. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand*
6. The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger
7. City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris
8. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis* (Hugo Award winner)
9. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell* (Booker Prize shortlist)
10. Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques (audiobook)
11. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer* (longlisted for Orange Prize)
12. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis* (Hugo and Nebula winner)
13. Blackout by Connie Willis

February
14. The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
15. The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S. by Arnošt Lustig
16. All Clear by Connie Willis
17. The Waitress was New by Dominique Fabre*
18. A Bed of Red Flowers by Nelofer Pazira
19. Joseph the Bellmaker by Brian Jacques (audiobook)
20. The Line by Olga Grushin*
21. Ali and Nino by Kurban Said
22. I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish*
23. Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice*
24. Spring Tides by Jacques Poulin*

March
25. Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell*
26. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson*
27. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese*
28. Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Booker Prize)
29. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Pulitzer Prize)
30. Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives by Marthe Jocelyn
31. Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
32. Emergence: Labeled Autistic by Temple Grandin
33. A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton

TIOLI Challenges 2011

June
Challenge 11: about work/set in the workplace
Gulag

Challenge 21: read a short work
The Pathseeker

Challenge 22: word starting with letter z
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

May
4 TIOLI books

April
3 TIOLI books

March:
4 TIOLI books

February:
5 TIOLI books

January:
12 TIOLI books

2010 In-focus

83 books read
29 young adult audiobooks listened to with my daughter
=112 total

Personal reading focus on books about the Middle East or by authors from the region:
17 books read, 1 abandoned

Ten best reads of 2010:

The Gendarme by Mark Mustian
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Translation is a Love Affair by Jacques Poulin
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes

Best young adult books:

Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

What a great book to start off my 2011 reading!

It took me a while to get into The Book Thief, mainly because I had to get used to the narrator. In addition to telling the story, the narrator inserts his own story, sometimes changing the narrative or jumping ahead in the plot. Also rather annoying at first were the little asides, facts, and definitions that the narrator inserts at whim. But then, you can't expect it to be easy when the narrator is Death.

Once adjusted to the thought of Death narrating the book, I was able to became emotionally involved in the characters and lose myself in the plot. It is hard to describe the book without giving away too much. The main character is Liesel, a young girl growing up in a foster family in Nazi Germany. Suffering from nightmares caused by memories of her family of origin, Liesel adjusts to her new life and copes with her fears by learning to read. (The process of her learning to read is told with wonderful tenderness and reminded me a bit of Atticus and Scout.) Liesel and her friend, Rudy, share many childhood exploits, which range from the humorous to the tender. Liesel struggles against her foster mother’s authority, learns to trust her new Papa, and finally comes to terms with the meaning of Nazi doctrine through her friendship with a young Jewish man, Max.

In a sense, the entire book is about people’s actions. By their actions we are able to construct Himmel Street in our minds and picture the townspeople: Liesel and her need to steal books; Mama, who calls everyone a generic swear word; even the minor character Frau Holtzapfel, who spits on their door every morning. By their actions, we are able to see a wide range of German characters responding to Nazi propaganda and then Nazi action. We judge people by these actions or by their equally telling inaction.

However, it is words, says Max, that cause these actions. Word shakers have the power to call down the words that sway people to good or ill. Hitler was a master of the use of words to accumulate power. Words can shock, but then become so overused that we become desensitized to them. Words can bring people together in defense of a Fatherland (which is, after all, just a word or concept), and words read to a bunker full of scared people can bring them together in the solidarity of shared hardship. Words written down can even cause Death itself to stop, think, and remember.

Well-written, inventive, and with an interesting focus on the power of words, I would highly recommend The Book Thief to anyone interested in the Holocaust or young adult literature.

4 stars

ETA book number

Review of The Betrayal moved to posting #18.

Hi, Lisa! Good trip? Looking forward to hearing about The Betrayal since I'm going to be reading The Siege.

Lisa- Welcome to 2011! What a wonderful start! I'm a big fan of The Book Thief. I plan on getting to The Siege in the next couple of months!

Welcome!

Found you, yay!

I have The Book Thief here, and it was a present from my SIL for my birthday 3 years ago. Now I might try to read it! (I have no idea why I haven't, but I think it's something subconscious to do with mega-hyped books.)

I was saying over in the Orange Prize group yesterday that I sent The Siege back to Wellington library unread in 2009, and really wish I had got to it in time. I'm trying to be good this year and cut down what I buy, so I'll probably wait till 2012 to get it out of the library again...

Hi Lisa, I may not post much but I will be lurking. Look forward to seeing what you read this year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Bonnie-Had a wonderful relaxing time in Victoria. Took the Clipper for the first time. Of course hit Munro's Books bargain tables. Came away with

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Booker Prize)
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker (Booker Prize, but learned that it is third in trilogy, so will try to find other two in library)
War Trash by Ha Jin (which I have read, but liked so much that I wanted a copy for my library)

Was very disappointed not to find more books by Jacques Poulin. I enjoyed Translation is a Love Affair so much that I thought I would pick up some more while in Canada. No such luck. Evidently they used to carry all his works, but no longer have any.

Mark-Glad you stopped by. Yes, The Book Thief was an unexpected pleasure. Unfortunately, I am completely stalled in Revolution. I know you and several others really enjoyed it, but I am just not getting in to it. Not sure if I will finish. Am very much enjoying (if that is the right word), The Things They Carried. I didn't realize it is linked short stories. Very wonderful stuff. Are any of the characters real?

I'm glad you are planning to read The Siege. Hard to put down. And do plan on reading the sequel The Betrayal afterward. Quite edge of your seat writing about the Doctor's Plot in the last days of Stalin.

Jim-Don't know how you keep up with all the threads, welcoming people! I appreciate it. I see that you've recently added books by two authors I enjoy: Orson Scott Card and Simon Winchester. If you like Atlantic, you might try Heart of the Sea. I really enjoy Nathaniel Philbrick's sea histories. And one of my favorites, Samuel Eliot Morison's Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus. You'll never think of Columbus Day the same way!

Cushla-Hi! Finally got my 2011 thread up. Glad you found me. I tend to be leary of mega-hyped books too. Just hated Girl with a Dragon Tatoo for instance. But The Book Thief was inventive and just sophisticated enough as a young adult book to keep me engaged. Sorry you missed out on The Siege. I'm sure you have enough TBR books to keep you busy until you return to it!

Diane-Thank you for delurking to say hi. I see that we both have Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie on our TBR lists. We also have some of my favorite books in common!

Although I haven't finished reading The Things They Carried yet, I thought I would share a couple of quotes that have struck me as futher-thought-worthy:

I feel guilty sometimes. Forty-three years old and I'm still writing war stories. My daughter Kathleen tells me it's an obsession, that I should write about a little girl who finds a million dollars and spends it all on a Shetland pony. In a way, I guess, she's right: I should forget it. But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget. You take your materials where you find it, shich is in your life, at the intersection of past and present... That's the real obsession. All those stories.

Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a life-time ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.

What strikes me about these passages is how he conflates memories with stories. You remember so you don't forget, and yet what you remember is not the "reality" but the stories.

Had a lousy day with car trouble, so bought The Septembers of Shiraz and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand at Costco while getting groceries. Feel much better!

Lisa- Sorry Revolution didn't work out. I loved it. I think we both can agree The Things They Carried is incredible. I think the book is fiction but based on his own experiences. Congrats on landing a copy of Major Pettigrew.

Wow! Your reading year is off to a great start, Lisa. I cannot wait to see your review of The Betrayal.

2. The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore

Helen Dunmore has done it again! She has taken a page from Russian history and created a compelling novel that you just can’t put down. The Betrayal picks up roughly eleven years after The Siege. The war is over and the people of Leningrad are trying to rebuild their lives and their city. With over 1,500,000 dead and 1,400,000 evacuated, that is a difficult enough task. But 1952-53 is also the time of Stalin’s last Party purge before his death: The Doctor’s Plot.

The book begins with Anna still working at the nursery and living in her parents’ apartment, but she is now married to Andrei. He is still at the hospital and still a bit naïve. Kolya is sixteen and a typical difficult teenager. Andrei is asked to consult on a colleague’s case, the son of a senior member of the secret police, and the tension begins.

Those familiar with Soviet history and the final insane days of Stalin will be able to guess at much of the plot. But what made The Betrayal so interesting to me was not the historical aspect, or even the dramatic tension, although that was a fun ride. Instead, Dunmore’s book provides something that I have been unable to get from either history or memoirs: a dual perspective on the same events. Usually, the persecution is depicted from the victim’s point of view, or sometimes from that of a family member. Here we get both Andrei’s perspective as the accused and Anna’s as the desperate wife.

I found The Betrayal to be an engaging historical novel which addresses some larger moral issues. If you lived under such a regime, would you be able to be “heroically disinterested” in preserving your own life? Or would you sell out your moral convictions in order to see your family live another day? Where is the line between being reasonable and being in collusion with the enemy? With what small step does it begin?

ETA book number and remove one over the top sentence.

I am glad you liked that one too, Lisa. Nice review. I liked The Siege marginally better, but thought the tandem of the two books was terrific.

Found you Lisa. I agree with Stasia; liked The Siege marginally better than The Betrayal but both made my 2010 top reads list. Great review, BTW.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan

(This was the last book I read in 2010 and am just reviewing it now.)

After reading Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, I was eager to read more accounts of life behind the Kim curtain. Kang's book was referenced as one of the few personal narratives published in English, so I tracked down a copy. The book was born out of a collaboration with human rights activist, Pierre Rigoulot, and was originally published in French.

The history of Kang's family, their emigration to Japan, and the reception they received upon return is not uncommon, I think. In the 1930s many Koreans emigrated to Japan, then the occupiers of the Korean peninsula, in hopes of a better economic future. Many, like Kang’s grandmother, were very active in Korean communism while there. When the family decided to return to North Korea in the late 1960s, it did so with the intention of bolstering the Korean communist society. They donated most of their fortune to the Party and settled in Pyongyang.

Despite this voluntary return and substantial support, the family remained under suspicion for their time abroad, and in 1977 Kang’s grandfather was arrested and never seen again. Shortly after, the rest of the family, including ten year old Kang and his seven year old sister, were sent to the Yodok concentration camp. Such "root and branch" destruction of families is a common punishment for those suspected of not adhering to the Party line. When released in 1987, Kang had a hard time reintegrating into communist society, and eventually defected in 1992.

The account of Kang’s time in the camp is horrific and the fact that it has been published and widely read has bolstered international awareness of human rights violations in North Korea, and even led to Kang meeting with George W. Bush to discuss the issue. The personal account is therefore an import testimony to the atrocities committed by the Kim regime. As a narrative, however, I think it suffers a bit from being told to Rigoulot, through an interpreter, and then constructed. Instead of reflecting the natural gaps in memory and detail after so many years, the story has been fleshed out, much in the way that our waking minds reconstruct our dreams into a narrative. Such smoothing makes me cognizant of the effects time has on memory and story. Still, I would recommend the memoir, especially as a companion read with Nothing to Envy.

#21: Great review, Lisa. I cannot get my hands on Nothing to Envy yet, but one of the local college libraries has this one, so I will try and get it in the next few weeks. Thanks for the review! Thumbs up from me.

Thanks Stasia! Nothing to Envy is much better than Aquariums of Pyongyang, but it all expands my knowledge, which was pretty much nil until I read The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. On my Club Read thread, Trismegistus made the following recommendations:

If you're interested in reading more about the country, Hyok Kang's This is Paradise is another memoir in a similar vein, Mike Kim's Escaping North Korea is a great read about the trans-Asian networks that get people out, and Hyejin Kim's Jia: A Novel of North Korea is a fictionalized account of life in the North. All of them should be pretty easy to get through a library or your local bookbarn.

For a different take on my reading, I have started a new thread on Club Read. If maintaining two threads becomes too hard (I don't know how people manage so many!), I may migrate to Club Read, but I'll keep you posted.

#23: Thanks for passing along those suggestions, Lisa. I will see if my local library has any of them!

You've read some great books so far! I've read and loved The Book Thief and The Things They Carried.

Revolution I got for my birthday a few weeks ago and am planning to read it this month. I look forward to your review of that one!

Yup, too hard for me to try and maintain two threads. Please visit me now on Club Read here. I've posted my review of The Things They Carried there. Hope to see you there!

HI Lisa

Congratulations on your hot review for The Things They Carried. I read this book last year and it was one of my favorites.

Hi
I'm making a concerted effort to connect with each of our members because I'm compiling a list of birthdays.. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

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

labfs39: I saw your mention of I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on another thread, so I looked for your thread, and I see all sorts of interesting stuff here. I have Nothing to Envy and Aquariums of Pyongyang sitting on a table staring at me. (And I too disliked The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, well, it had its moments, but not enough to be worth slogging through the rest of it.)

Thanks for stopping by qebo. To catch up on my latest reads, come on over to my Club Read page. I moved there when I found I couldn't keep up two pages at once.

31: Oh dear, it's a whole 'nother world of threads...

Hi everyone! I missed my 75 Books friends am going to try again to keep both this and my Club Read thread going. Wish me luck!

I'm going to add the reviews of some of my reads from this year, just to get things rolling. For all my reviews, see Club Read (above link).

Here we go!

9. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Reading Cloud Atlas is like doing a jigsaw puzzle: bits and pieces, fragments, clues coming together to create a surprising whole when completed. The trick is to scrutinize each puzzle piece and yet not lose track of the big picture. So I felt with David Mitchell's "nesting dolls" book, a collection of six stories that interlock one within the other. I had to analyze the text for clues and at the same time hang on for the ride that was the plot. Not a book you polish off in a single sitting, but a satisfying and thought-provoking read that you can't leave behind when you close the book on the last page.

The structure of Mitchell's book is unusual. In the first half of the book you climb a mesa a step at a time as you read the first half of each story. The middle chapter is the only one to not be divided. The second half of the book you descend back to ground level, reading the second half of each story in reverse order. Thus the analogy of matroyshka's or nesting dolls.

The book also seems to be divided in terms of the author’s focus. In the first half, the question is one of "ascension", the name given to the process of becoming civilized through the acquisition of increasingly complex language. The first story is a diary excerpt, a written form intended for oneself. The second is a series of letters: correspondence being the written communication between two people. Each story increases its scope to include an increasingly wider audience until we reach the recording of history itself. In addition, each chapter uses successively more difficult language, until we read a projection of what language might look like in the future. This section was of the most interest for me because of the questions it raised, questions about the linkages between both language and intelligence, and language and civilization. The second half of the book is about the effect of power on microcosms and on civilization as a whole. I found the passages about truth in history to be interesting, but found the message about absolute power corrupting societies absolutely to be a bit heavy handed, especially at the very end of the book.

The interlocking plots of the six stories are by turns interesting, humorous, and depressing. Although I enjoyed the stories, it is the ideas and the language that will remain with me. Some of the images invoked in the first half are perfect, and I found myself reading them again just to enjoy the language.

The stationmaster's whistle blew on time, the locomotive strained like a gouty proctor on the pot before heaving itself into motion.

Sometimes the fluffy bunny of incredulity zooms round the bend so rapidly that the greyhound of language is left, agog, in the starting cage.

Overall, I enjoyed Cloud Atlas for the clever structure, interesting plot line(s), and above all for the questions it raised about language, power, and civilization.

17. The Waitress Was New by Dominique Fabre

This is the second Archipelago book which I have read in the last few months, both translated from the French, and I have been absolutely delighted with each.

The Waitress Was New is the story of an aging French bartender working in a small cafe in a middle-class neighborhood. Everything about the setting connotes ordinariness, and yet through the character of Pierre, we are gently reminded of the uniqueness of each life story. An internal monologue, the book relates the Pierre's thoughts over the course of a few pivotal days.

Pierre has worked at Le Cercle for many years, establishing cordial relationships with the regulars, the owners, and the two other employees. He is settled and content with the world inside the cafe, rarely looking outside. His internal life is preoccupied with his solitude, his age, and the respect he has earned from his customers and colleagues. Life is quiet, respectable, and secure. But things begin to unravel around him, and Pierre must weather the changes as best he can.

Only a hundred pages long, the novel resembles a vignette or a character study. Fabre's ability to draw a character is deft, and the language is delicate and by turns funny and bittersweet. The Waitress Was New is Fabre first book to be translated into English, and I will definitely look for more as they are (hopefully) published.

20. The Line by Olga Grushin

"Who's last in line? Are you last in line? What are they selling?"

Thus begins the story of a family. A family whose lives unravel and are re-knit as they spend a year waiting in line. A line that builds community as the people who wait befriend one another and betray one another. A story that spans three generations and is filled with secrets and unseen connections. A book that is beautifully written, philosophical, and inspired by an incident in the life of Stravinsky.

Anna is a middle-aged teacher, struggling to find meaning and hope in a world that is gray with disinterest. Life in Soviet Russia is bleak, and standing in line is a time-wasting fact of life. But it is the only way to get food, goods, and the little luxuries that brighten existence. One evening she sees a line and hastens to join it, hoping for something good. Every day she returns to her place in the line, convinced that whatever she will be able to buy will change her life for the better.

Sergei, her husband, is a man disappointed with his life. A brilliant music student, he is relegated under the Soviets to playing the tuba in parades celebrating "The Change". He spells his wife in line when he learns that the line is for tickets to a musical performance by a Russian master who escaped to the West before the border closed. In turn, Sergei relies on his son, Alexander, to hold his place in line while he is at work. Alexander is a teenager desperate for action in a world so proscribed that change seems impossible.

Grushin is able to take the simple act of standing in line and create an entire world full of rich characters, intricate winding plots, and relationships which depict how everyone has the capacity for wrong-doing and for forgiveness. And her language is evocative and emotion-laden.

Anna had already left when he awoke the next morning. His head ached after a bumpy night filled with potholed dreams, though for just one instant, before his headache had set in, he seemed to sense a piercing vibration in the air, a lingering coda of a winding, heartrending melody that swiftly faded out of his reach before he could fully hear it in his daytime mind, its silver shadow diving deeper into the murk of the night’s oblivion. In the kitchen he discovered lukewarm tea, a slice of ossified toast, and a folded note addressed to him in Anna’s most elaborate script. He shoved the toast into the trash can, and the note, unread, into his jacket pocket, and left for work.

Beautiful dreams fade into mundane life, hopes linger but remain forever out of reach, and missed opportunities are created from miscommunication. The Line is a wonderful story, and I can’t wait to read Grushin’s other, first, novel, The Dream Life of Sukhanov. Heartily recommended.

24. Spring Tides by Jacques Poulin

In the beginning he was alone on the island.

Thus begins a short novel loosely based on Genesis. We never learn our Adam's name, but he says his codename is Teddy Bear, short for TDB or Traducteur de Bandes Dessinees (translator of comic strips). He is working in a newspaper office doing translations when a new boss drops in and wants to know what would make Teddy Bear happy. "Would you have a desert island by any chance", he asks. As it happens, the boss does and transports him to Ile Madame.

Teddy Bear seems content on the island as caretaker of the two empty houses and the small grounds. He has his cat, whose name is a play on Methusaleh, and an automatic tennis ball machine, named Prince. But the boss, who visits weekly via helicopter, is unconvinced. So he brings a young woman to live on the island with Teddy Bear, and then slowly a few others, as the Boss tries to create a happy society.

This is my second book by Jacques Poulin; the first being the wonderfully poetic short novel, Translation is a Love Affair. Spring Tides shares some themes with Translation, namely the translator's strive for perfection and the relationships between small groups of people. For me, the difference is that Spring Tides has more complexity and Translation more poetry. Spring Tides challenges the readers with fun allusions and word plays, and was well worth the second reading I felt it deserved. Warmly recommended, and I shall continue looking for books by Jacques Poulin.

30. Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives by Marthe Jocelyn

Canadian author, Marthe Jocelyn's, latest book is a collection of eleven short biographies of interesting women, some popularly known, others not. The premise is that these women all felt compelled to write and "wrote it down, passed it along, told us they were here, and took the time to illuminate their worlds."

The first woman showcased is Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting who lived from 965-1010 in Japan. Her journal, known in English as The Pillow Book, sounds fascinating from the few snippets of poetry, lists, and gossip we are given. There are also chapters on Margaret Catchpole, an Englishwoman accused of stealing a horse and transported to Australia to serve her sentence; Mary Hayden Russell, whose letters to her sister were written on board a whaling ship; Ada Blackjack, an Inupiat who was the sole survivor of an Arctic exploration team; and Dang Thuy Tram, a communist doctor on the front lines of the Viet Nam war. Published authors include Harriet Ann Jacobs, Isabella Beeton, Mary Kingsley, Daisy Ashford, and Doris Pilkington Garimara.

The women profiled are all unusual in some way, and the excerpts included are tantalizing. At the close of each chapter, I was left wanting more: my interest was piqued. But unfortunately, I was also frustrated. Jocelyn’s mini-biographies contained little in the way of new information or insights, and, in some chapters, very little of the source material was included. Such a format would have been understandable if there had been opening or closing chapters that brought the biographies together in some way and addressed issues such as public versus private writing, how the format influences our perceptions of the writer, or the impact women’s writings as a whole have on our view of history. Without ideas to unite the biographies in some way, I felt as though I were reading entries in a women’s history encyclopedia. In sum, an unremarkable book about remarkable women.

Please note that at this time, touchstones are not working for either books or authors.

31. Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

Part puzzle, part mystery, and part postmodern commentary, I loved how this book kept me guessing until the very end when my head spun around so fast I had to go to the chiropractor. It's not your everyday straightforward narrative, but it's also not so esoteric that you start to snooze just from reading the jacket flap. It would make a great group read, because it's a book begging to be discussed.

Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be.

An old man wakes up to find himself alone in a small room with complete amnesia. The only clues are stickers conveniently labeling "wall", "lamp", "desk"; and a pile of photographs and several manuscripts on the desk.

He can't remember how long he has been here or the nature of the circumstances that precipitated his removal to this place. Perhaps he has always been here; perhaps this is where he has lived since the day he was born. What he knows is that his heart is filled with an implacable sense of guilt. At the same time, he can't escape the feeling that he is the victim of a terrible injustice.

In an existential kind of way, the old man begins to explore his physical and psychological boundaries. I don't want to give away too much, so I'll just say it's a fun read.

So that's a little of what I've been up to. Currently I'm reading Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury. I had started it a while ago, but gave up about 30 pages in. I should have stuck to the 50 page rule, because the book got much easier to read after page 44. Now I'm enjoying it, although I am continually ignorant of Palestinian politics and military alliances from the 1930s onward. I really need to read A History of the Arab Peoples, not just try to cherry pick from it.

I tried that book last year and possibly gave up after page 40, I feel very sheepish now (4 more pages!) and might have to give it another go. I generally try to stick with the 50 page rule as well but some books are really hard to keep going with.

Lisa, I am very behind on the threads, but I am glad to see you posting with the 75ers again. Hopefully, I can keep up with you here!

Lisa- Your reading selections are always so fascinating. I admire that. I enjoy your reviews too, especially Cloud Atlas.

#41 The stream of consciousness writing that is so confusing in the beginning of Gate of the Sun turns to a more readable conglomeration of stories. They still jump back and forth in time a bit and have so many characters that keeping names straight is a challenge. I've found that if I just sit back and let the narrative wash over me, I respond better to the "feel" of the novel and the tapestry of the narrative. Once I start trying to sort out who is who and is related to whom, I get lost again. The impressions that I am left with are overwhelmingly sad. A people without a country, feeling betrayed by the other Arab Nations in '48, and continually looking back to a past that has been distorted by memory and time. I do wish I knew more Palestinian-Jordanian history.

#42 Hi Stasia, Did you have a break from LT for a while? I set up an account on Good Reads to see what that site is like, but so far I'm just confused. Seems more like Facebook, and I've never been comfortable there either. Any tips to improve my GR experience? I think you said once that you keep all your TBRs on Good Reads, is that right?

#43 Hi Mark, Thanks for being such a devoted poster. You were one of the 75ers who was willing to cross over and visit me at Club Read. I appreaciate it!

Lisa- I go where the fun is!! :-}

Hey maybe we can hook up over on Good Reads too! It is a bit of a yawner, I must say!

>36 labfs39: Glad to see someone else who enjoyed The Line.

#44: Lisa, I keep the BlackHole over on GR but that is all I do over there. I started my account over there before collections were available here on LT and I refuse to move the books all over here, so that is where I keep them. I like being able to have the multiple shelves there so I can keep track of which library (if any) I can get a particular book from.

#45 You and Stasia are my GR buddies. Not sure if I'm put much effort in to that site though. At first glance, it seemed too Facebookish without the sorts of communities and discussions we have here.

#46 Welcome. I loved The Line and have The Dream Life of Sukhanov in the read soon pile. Have you read Dream Life? What did you like about The Line?

#47 Well, if you do want to move your books to LT at some point, it is really easy. It took me about two minutes to transfer all of my LT books to GR. I would be happy to tell you how, if you ever decide to jump ship. :-)

Yes, thanks to you it was easy importing my books to G.R. And I've backed 'em up on my computer too, which I had not done. You are good, my friend.
I can't say anything bad about Good Reads, at least not until I get back from the Retreat!

#48: Nah, I am perfectly happen with them right where they are. Thanks for the offer though!

34. Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury

The reviews of this book have been so laudatory that I began reading fully expecting to be swept away. Unfortunately, the only thing to be swept was the book, as I pushed it aside for something more readable. Months later, I began again and ground my way through the first forty pages, refusing to give up. The book did get easier to digest; it’s not a book I will read again, however.

Why so difficult? Khoury wrote the book as a stream of consciousness narration, with all the associative leaps and bounds of human thought. Stories are interrupted by other thoughts, the past and the present become interchanged, and the reader is left with a montage of images formed by the onslaught of storytelling. After a certain point, Khoury’s writing stabilizes a bit, and the reader has pieced together enough of the story to be able to follow along. Some stories are then told in a linear fashion, but those of the two main characters spiral around never ending and never seeming to find resolution.

The book is comprised of a young man’s internal monologue as he sits at the bedside of his aged mentor and father figure, Yunes. Khalil talks aloud, hoping that his voice will bring the old man out of his stroke-induced coma. He talks about what is happening in his life and reflects on how he ended up living in a derelict hospital, afraid he will be killed if he leaves, yet knowing the situation cannot continue indefinitely. But mostly Khalil tries to put together the things that he knows about Yunes, in an attempt to create a story that explains the old Palestinian freedom fighter’s life and his relationship with his wife. Along the way, Khalil tells the stories of countless others: the Palestinian midwife living out her life in a Jordanian refugee camp, a Jewish woman living in a house taken from the Palestinian woman who visits her, French actors who visit the camp hoping to improve a play they are doing on the massacre that took place there, the young Gazan fighter who learns his mother is Jewish.

The stories loosely hang together by themes which appear and reappear throughout the book. Primarily it is a book about the inanity of war and the cycles of violence that perpetuate a situation in which neither side can win. War is examined from both the general sense and the particulars of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Why do young men fight and die for a country in which they have never lived? Why does Yunes risk his life over and over to visit his family, rather than bring his family to Jordan? Why do Jews treat the Palestinians in ways that eerily resemble 1930’s Germany?

Others may find the patchwork of discombobulated stories a fascinating look at the situation of Palestinian exiles in Jordan and the themes a literary treasure hunt. Personally, I found the book exhausting. It was like reading Ulysses without a concordance. My recommendation? Read Khoury’s later book, White Masks, instead.

Edited to fix image

I am really pleased to read this review, I feel vindicated in not finishing it the first time round (for all the reasons you listed) and will instead look for White Masks to get a glimpse of Khoury. Thanks.

#51: I have Khoury's White Masks, but not that book. I sure I hope I like WM better than you did that one, Lisa!

Hopefully your next read will be a much better one for you.

#52 It's hard to say you don't care for a book when others are calling for the author's nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature! I guess I could appreciate parts of the books without being completely sold on it.

#52 and 53 In order to give Khoury his fair due, I read White Masks right after, and I enjoyed it much more. It is also his more recent book. Review to come soon. Later today?

35. White Masks by Elias Khoury

White Masks is a murder mystery told from the perspective of six different characters, and each account raises the possibility of one or more possible perpetrators. Statements by the narrator, a self-described disinterested party who is merely curious about this unusual murder, bookend the six versions. But this genre plot is merely a device for social commentary on the Lebanese Civil War and its effects on the ordinary people of Beirut.

Khalil Ahmad Jaber is a simple man, a minor civil servant in the post office, who derives a great deal of self-respect from the fame and then martyrdom of his son, Ahmed. Obsessed with his son’s death, Khalil gradually becomes benignly insane, wandering his neighborhood whitewashing the poster covered walls of the city. His death seems inexplicable. Who would want to torture and then murder this obsessed but harmless old man?

The narrator, a travel agent originally trained to be a journalist, becomes interested in the case and interviews the victim’s wife, a gossiping architect well-known in the neighborhood, the wife of the deceased caretaker of a local building, the garbage man who discovered the body, a young militiaman who witnessed the victim being brought in for questioning, and the deceased’s daughter. Also related is the story of the doctor who performed the autopsy. Each interview is not only another perspective on Khalil, but also the story of their life and, from their diverse experiences, a picture of life in an ordinary Beirut neighborhood is formed. Corruption, compromise, and crime form the backdrop against which these people try to survive.

I found it hard to put this book down, despite my usual avoidance of the murder mystery genre, and that is because the book is more about people caught in a vise of violence than it is about who killed Khalil. I was caught up in the lives of these people and in the theme Khoury weaves about the inanity and uselessness of war and violence in general. Parts of the book made for grim reading, but I was also inspired by the resilience and fortitude of these ordinary people. I would highly recommend White Masks as an introduction to the literature of Elias Khoury.

Ok, definitely will try that one instead. Thanks.

#56 I enjoyed it much more and felt like I was exposed to all the wonderful stories and descriptions that bring Khoury's books to life, without having to struggle just to stay focused.

Nice to see you back over here, even though I followed you in Club Read - this way you will pop up when I look at the Groups page as well.

Interesting how you found Gate of the Sun. I have it here, but haven't given it a good try yet. I did read the first page or 2 quickly last year when I was deciding what to read next, and remember not getting into it straight away.

Thanks, Cushla! It took me two tries and 44 pages before I finally got into Gate. Even then it took me a long time to get through the book. I think more people are going to be reading Khoury, and I look forward to other people's perspectives.

Phew, a few more pages into Oryx and Crake, and I'll be half way to 75 books! Before I got too excited and upped the ante though, I looked at my monthly figures:

January: 13 books
February: 11 books
March: 9 books
April: 4 so far

If I keep dropping by two books a month, I'll be down to 0 before the end of the summer!

Off to Florida for my daughter's spring break. She'll get to spend time with my parents and hopefully I will get some reading time. :-) May be offline a bit though...

Well, I'm back from another busy vacation and once again didn't get in as much reading time as I would have liked. Tired now, and dreading catching up on reviews. Here's what I have on the to review list:

36. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (Booker Prize)
37. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi*
38. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
39. Your Republic is Calling You by Young-ha Kim

Tried to read The Everglades: River of Grass since I visited them, but just couldn't get through much at all. Every time I started to read, my eyelids would begin to weigh more and more until I was nodding and rereading the same sentence as I drifted off. What little I did read had interesting facts, but the old style prose was just too hard for me to concentrate on this trip. It's going back to the library unread.

Currently I'm reading The Dream Life of Sukhanov, which is nearly as good as Grushin's second book, The Line. The only negative is that I feel as though she is trying too hard to be poetic, instead of just letting it happen.

I'm also currently listening to my daughter read Igraine the Brave aloud to me, and I must say, I am quite involved in the plot of this children's novel. I wish my daughter read larger chunks at a time!

(Edited to correct touchstones.)

Glad you're back. I was wondering where you were, though I'm sure Florida was a nice change of scenery.

Sure was. 90 and sunny every day.

April's 2011 weather for Seattle has brought unseasonably cool temperatures, very little sunshine, and a lot of rain after a cool, mostly cloudy, and very wet March. For April 1 - 22, there have been eight days with partly cloudy sky conditions and fourteen days with cloudy sky conditions. Precipitation for April 1 - 22 is running 1.14 inches above normal...

Sigh.

It was a nice change to try to figure out how to wear sunglasses over my reading glasses at the beach. :-)

Welcome back Lisa! We missed you! Sounds like you had a nice time. I finally read my 1st Atwood. Yah!

36. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

Bernice Rubens is an author I learned about on LibraryThing, and since The Elected Member is a Booker Prize winner (and I liked the cover), I started with it. Unfortunately the copy I received from the library had a different cover, but I managed to like the book anyway.

Norman Zweck is an intelligent, talented lawyer who has a nervous breakdown of sorts after becoming addicted to drugs. The reasons for his breakdown are numerous, but they all stem from the same source: his family. Much of the book is told from Norman’s perspective as he tries to deal with his peculiar afflictions, such as his disgust and hatred of silverfish which he sees everywhere when on the “white”. I have an irrational fear of silverfish myself, so I sympathized. But the heart of the story is the slow uncovering of layers of family relationships that have poisoned Norman’s psyche. His parents and siblings have made him the “elected member” of the family to bear the weight of all their thwarted hopes and dysfunctions.

They could not bear to make him miserable, though if she were honest, it was her own pain and her father’s that was unsupportable. And so they had both entered Norman’s derangement, making it workable, tidying it even, making it all ‘nice’.

Although a bit dated now, I can see why The Elected Member won the Booker Prize. The characters are complex and their relationships convoluted. Just as you start to like a character, another layer of family secrets is uncovered, and you must reevaluate your impressions. Using the family’s sad and codependent histories and the claustrophobic setting, the author was successful in making me uneasy yet involved. I marked many pages for further thought and will definitely look for more Rubens once I have fully digested this one.

37. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

I am new to graphic novels, with the exception of the Maus books which I read long ago. Persepolis renewed my appreciation for the genre and astonished me with its delivery. My only regret is that I read an edition that combined Persepolis I and II in a rather unattractive presentation.

Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran, and her family experienced the tyranny of the Shah and the effects of the Islamic Revolution. The first book is about her family’s history, the politics of her parents, and her growing understanding of how a dream of freedom led to a fundamentalist State. The Satrapi family is interesting in that it teeters on the edge of many contradictions. Connections with the Shahs’ reigns conflict with her parents’ ardent communism and participation in the protests leading to the Revolution. Her parents’ professed political values conflict with the luxury and privilege that Marjane experiences. And yet I think the family is typical in its disappointment in the usurpation of the Revolution and the decline of modern Iran into a repressive state. At the age of fourteen, Marjane is sent alone to Austria in an effort by her family to give her a better life, and the second book deals with her experiences there. Isolated by her inability to speak the language, as well as the nature of her childhood experiences, Marjane loses her sense of self. It is only reconnection with her family and her country that saves her.

Marjane is amazingly candid, and her story is extremely compelling, but what really blew me away was how much the format of the book affected my reading experience. Her illustrations convey an emotional intensity that would be hard, if not impossible, to recreate in words. I had a visceral response to some of the frames and instantly understood exactly what she meant in others. Her ability to tell a story through pictures is exceptional, and Persepolis has become a personal benchmark for judging other graphic novels. Highly recommended.

Edited to delete duplicate phrase

66: Thanks for this review. I too am new to the graphic format, recently read Pyongyang and as a consequence got Persepolis. It's not super high on my priority list at the moment, but I do have it physically in hand and suspect I'll be hooked once I begin.

In honor of Harper Lee's birthday today, I've added her to my list of favorite authors. I usually only add authors when I've read several of their books, but since she only wrote one, I think I can make an exception!

The Everglades: River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas

I am not counting this book in my 75 Book Challenge because I came no where near to finishing it. Not because there wasn't interesting information tucked away in the book, put because I literally could not keep my eyes open for more than ten minutes whenever I picked up the book. I'm rather disappointed, as I was visiting the Everglades at the time and keen to learn more about them.

Here is a paragraph from chapter one, part three:

The saw grass stands drying to old gold and rustling faintly, ready, if there is a spark anywhere, to burst into those boiling red flames which crackle even at a great distance like a vast frying pan, giving off rolling clouds of heavy cream-colored smoke, shadowed with mauve by day and by night mile-high pillars of roily tangerine and orange light. The fires move crackling outward as the winds blow them, black widening rings where slow embers burn and smolder down into the fibrous masses of the thousand-year-old peat."

38. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Hearing the buzz about the book on some of the threads, I requested it from the library for my vacation. I'm glad I didn't buy it. I didn't actively dislike the book, although I found the ending very frustrating, rather I was left completely indifferent.

Jimmy is a bright kid from a slightly dysfunctional family who becomes friends with the new kid in school, a cool geek everyone calls Crake. The story of Jimmy's childhood and early adulthood and relationship with Crake are told in flashbacks, as the real-time Jimmy struggles to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The author manages the transitions back and forth in time deftly, and the two threads come together at the end with a similar dilemma in each. Oryx, the other title character, is a child prostitute and porn star with whom both boys fall in love, with predictable results.

The strident message of the book concerns the moral quandary facing genetic scientists when the world has devolved to a violent and degenerate society whose members struggle to survive on the earth's depleted resources. The warning of "this could happen to you" is felt throughout. Both are typical themes of apocalyptic novels, and I was rather disappointed that I didn't find some special twist or flash of originality, which I expected from an Atwood novel. When the novel ends, or rather, doesn't end, I was left feeling like "so, what? Did I miss something?"

39. Your Republic is Calling You by Young-ha Kim (translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim)

I have been reading some nonfiction lately trying to educate myself about the Korean War and the subsequent North Korean regime. This novel was a different look at the complex situation existing between North and South Korea, and the preconceptions held by each of the other.

On the surface Ki-Yong is an ordinary South Korean businessman and content husband and father. But just below the surface are tangled relationships and allegiances, for Ki-Yong is also a North Korean agent. One day he receives a message that turns his world upside down: North Korea wants its sleeping agent back. Ki-Yong has one day to decide if the message is real, whether fellow agents have received the message, and how he is going to respond.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book, and for the most part, it delivered. Twists in the plot kept it interesting, and there were some gems of description whose images lingered:

He looked like a man who had seen all of his dreams and hopes sputter and managed only to survive, powered by the few drops of cynicism left in the bottom of his fuel can. Ennui dripped down his plant legs with his every step.

A cross between a spy novel and a social commentary, I found the combination entertaining with a few moments of reflective pause.

Stopped by the library today to pick up some books on hold and swung by the book sale shelf as usual. I was amazed to see eight or nine pristine Franklin Library classics. I brought some up to the counter and asked how much they were. The usual of $1 per hardcover, the librarian told an astonished me. She also told me that there were a few more in the back room, did I want them too? All together I got 14 books and to ease my conscience, made a donation to the Friends of the Library. I was very excited! Some I didn't own, and I only had terrible paperbacks of others, either yellowed with age or with miniscule print (Anna Karenina).

Crime and Punishment
Anna Karenina
The Sound and the Fury
The Scarlet Letter
Pride and Prejudice
Vanity Fair
David Copperfield
The Magic Mountain
Jane Eyre
Paradise Lost
Wuthering Heights
Canterbury Tales
Tom Jones
Faust

Wow, what a good selection of books! I miss library book sales (and, more importantly, library book sale prices). I'm jealous!

#73 Hi Marissa, thanks for stopping by. Does your library no longer do book sales? I would be heartbroken!

I've lived in the UK for the past 3 years, and I've never noticed my public libraries having book sales (and I visit them fairly frequently). I now do all of my book-buying from charity shops, but even then it's different - I'm used to the US thrift store method of just pricing all books at one cost, whereas all of the charity shops that I've been to here individually price each book! It drives me crazy.

>72 labfs39:: Wow, Lisa. Are all those books Franklin Library editions? I'm astonished right along with you! I have exactly one and pull it out occasionally to admire its heft and binding. I might actually read it someday. I paid $20 for it at a used bookstore! Oh yeah, it's The Magic Mountain. I guess I'm saving it for something special. Maybe an LT group read someday?

#76 I know! I still can't believe my luck. I had only one as well, Fathers and Sons, one of my favorite books. What luck I checked out the sale shelf that day!

Congratulations!

Oh dear. I'm so discouraged. I'm six books behind in reviewing! I feel like I'll never catch up. Do you ever skip books and go back, or review them out of order? I feel like I can do the more recent reads much faster than the older reads. Put the next book is the queue is one I want to review because it was so good. Aahhhh!!!

#75 I would definitely miss my library book sales. Around here the Friends of the Library maintain a book cart or few shelves with sale books year round. Then twice a year they hold a bigger sale. (Size depending on the size of the library.) I enjoy the serendipity of checking out the shelves, but often get frustrated at the semi-annual sales. Booksellers push and shove their way in to grab all the best books so that they can resell them. I understand that it is a good source of cheap stock for them, but it seems unfair to the local library supporters.

As for charity shop pricing, you wouldn't think it would be worth their time (money) to individually price books. I wonder if they make that much more with the slightly higher but time consuming pricing?

#76 I would really like to read The Magic Mountain someday. Now that I have a lovely copy, maybe that day will come sooner. And it's a book that would benefit from group insights, I'm sure. So when did you same you are organizing it? ;-)

#78 Thanks! I gave in and lined them up on the mantle for now, just so I can admire them. I was going to post a picture, but my new photo card is not playing nice.

Lisa, a few of us talked earlier this year on my thread and I think Nathalie's (Deern's) about reading the Magic Mountain - I have to have a look. I have a beautiful copy in German and am going to need a herd of book-loving elephants and a supportive group of LT friends to push me through it!! We were talking about May, but May is here and I am still in the middle of W&P. But it's on the horizon if you're keen.

79 (labfs39): I feel your pain. I was several books behind in reviewing in April. When I was one book behind, I assumed I'd catch up with the next. When I was two books behind, I felt obligated to review the first before the second, but the first had receded in my mind so I didn't review either. When I was three books behind... Well, at the end of the month, I felt that I had to wrap things up and be free in May, even if my reviews were skimpy. I started with the book that was most fresh in my mind, and when that was done I felt a burden had been lifted, and the others were easier.

40. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin

Olga Grushin is my newest favorite author. Although she has only written two books, The Dream Life of Sukhanov and The Line, they are both are so superb that I am convinced that anything she writes will be good.

Anatoly Sukhanov is a successful art magazine editor with a beautiful wife, an ambitious son, and a rebellious teenage daughter. At fifty-six, Anatoly has mastered the ability of writing about art without ruffling Soviet ministerial feathers: which topics to avoid, which names to redact, and whose opinion to follow. The key is not to think too much and definitely avoid remembering a different time, when he had different dreams, during the heady days of the Khrushchev Thaw. But overnight Sukhanov’s world is turned upside down. An uncomfortable meeting with an former friend, colleagues who talk about a new freedom to express themselves, and cracks within the comfortable routine of his home life, all come together to shake Sukhanov’s vow not to remember the past. Memories begin to leak into his mind until they become a torrent, and he finally has to face a decision he made many years before and its repercussions.

Grushin’s prose has a dream-like quality that perfectly suits the mood of the novel. Although the descriptions and phrasing seem a bit forced in the beginning (a first-time author trying too hard?), Grushin finds her voice, resulting in beautifully constructed images and descriptions. Equally impressive is how she is able to portray the life of an ordinary, long-time Soviet official suddenly faced with glasnost. Although too young to have experienced it herself, she was born in Moscow in 1971, Grushin is able to authentically portray the internal confusion of a man who made difficult choices in order to survive repressive regimes and is now faced with an openness that seemingly condemns those choices. It is a situation millions of Russians faced in the late 1980s, and the consequences of that internal dislocation have contributed to the backlash against free market democracy and the rise of a modern repressive state. Grushin does a nice job of creating a character that is fascinating on his own and yet representative of an entire generation.

Highly recommended.

41. April in Paris by Michael Wallner

I'm a sucker for novels of daring-do by the French Resistance, so I enjoyed April in Paris in this vein. It's not particularly well written (it is Wallner's first book), and the plot becomes extremely, almost irritatingly, far-fetched. Despite this it was a fun one night stand.

Corporal Roth is a rather placid young German working as a translator in occupied France. When he is transferred to work for the SS translating the interrogations of French Resistance suspects, Roth begins to show signs of stress. So he decides to escape the pressures by changing into a suit and wandering Paris as Monsieur Antoine. In this guise he meets and falls in love with a beautiful young women named Chantal. I'm sure you can guess at the rest of the plot.

The book reminded me of another, slightly more thoughtful examination of lovers from opposite sides of a conflict. The Girl Who Played Go is set in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation, and the action is a little more subtle.

#81 Cushla, you are so funny: I "am going to need a herd of book-loving elephants and a supportive group of LT friends to push me through it". Well, count me in the herd if you do a group read. As my husband would say, "suck it up, cupcake"!

#82 Thanks for stopping by, qebo. I'm glad I'm not the only one who suffers from review list anxiety!

42. My Forbidden Face: Growing up under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story by Latifa

In the past year I've been trying to read more authors from the Middle East and books about Middle Eastern history. During the process, I have gravitated toward women's memoirs from the region. I picked up My Forbidden Face months ago for this reason, as well as for the arresting cover photo.

Latifa is the pseudonym of a young woman, born in Kabul in 1980, who grew up during the Soviet occupation of her country and the subsequent struggle for power by rival factions. She was sixteen when the Taliban took control, ending the continuous battles and shelling she was used to, but completely changing her life with their fundamentalist policies. She now lives in Paris.

It is a story that we, as Americans, have become more familiar with in recent years. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the plight of Afghan women became a mainstream topic in the media, and more books by Afghan women were published as a result. Some authentically describe the demeaning and brutal treatment of women under Taliban rule. Other books seem to me to be tools used to sway public opinion about the war in Afghanistan. Unfortunately I felt as though My Forbidden Face was one of the latter.

Latifa’s story is touching and at times thought provoking in its unexpected honesty, such as when she says she would not choose to wear the chador, unless of course her husband desired it. But throughout I was conscious of her collaborator and translator, Shékéba Hachemi. As the Founder of Afghanistan Libre, Shékéba has an obvious agenda, and I felt manipulated by her control over Latifa’s story. Even though I agree with Shékéba‘s desire to improve the lives of Afghan women and girls, I didn’t like trying to find Latifa’s voice within a more educated, polished, and pointed narrative. Latifa’s story is an important one, I just wish I could have read or heard it in her own words.

43. Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka

Strawberry Fields, published as Two Caravans in the UK, is the rollicking, bawdy, heart-touching, and socially charged story of a group of migrant workers who meet while picking strawberries on an English farm. Chance has thrown them together in very tight quarters, and when Irina, an innocent nineteen-year-old Ukrainian girl, arrives with her sponsoring agent, a hulking “person of minimum culture”, the delicate balance existing among them is broken. With a cast of characters based loosely on those in Canterbury Tales, the story follows the travails of Irina and fellow immigrant Andriy as they try to navigate the undercurrents of illegal immigrant life.

Marina Lewycka is a quirky writer, and I can see how she may not appeal to everyone. I, however, laughed heartily at A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine and looked forward to reading this, her second novel. Although as humorous and unconventional as ever, Lewycka shows a darker side as she probes how agents bring illegal immigrants into a country, often confiscating their passports upon arrival, and how the bright dreams of the immigrants are dashed when reality falls far short of the easy money and social advancement they are promised. In addition, she takes a detour through a chicken processing plant guaranteed to make you think twice the next time you buy a plump breast. Nominated for the Orwell Prize, Strawberry Fields blends a fun story with social commentary and a look at the stereotypes we all have about one another.

Recommended for those looking for something a little different.

44. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

So much has been written about this classic of Southern literature, that I feel I have little to add to the conversation. So instead of a review per se, I am going to reflect on the introduction to The Sound and the Fury written by Robert Penn Warren in 1979, the fiftieth anniversary of the novel.

What we now think of as an American classic was met with skepticism in 1929, as illustrated by one review entitled "Signifying Nothing", says Warren. For many the book was "at first glance unreadable, idiotic, precious, or tricky." The idea of a book being unreadable or tricky is a subject that always comes up with books like Ulysses and more recently in our LibraryThing group read, Cloud Atlas. I find myself wondering how much of the difficulty is a result of self-conscious gimmicks on the part of the author, and whether the author did it deliberately to try and create a book that, as a result, is seen as intellectual. If it is a ploy of some sort by the author, does that make the book less valid, important, or enjoyable?

I don’t think any reader enjoys being mocked by the author, but in many cases I think the author is simply stretching the boundaries of what we consider proper literature. Until we become comfortable with the new boundaries, readers are ill at ease and left wondering if they are being duped. Hence, Warren’s “unreadable, idiotic, precious, or tricky”. Once the book has settled into the public’s consciousness, it becomes a signpost in the development of literature and is often then called a classic. That doesn’t always happen within the author’s lifetime.

In the case of The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner seems to have been struggling with inner demons and with how to exorcism them through his writing. Warren quotes him as saying, “So I, who had never had a sister and was fated to lose my daughter in infancy, set out to make myself a beautiful and tragic little girl.” What made the book “idiotic” to early readers was that Faulkner couldn’t find the right voice in which to tell Caddy’s story, and so ends up telling it in several: none of which is Caddy’s. To muddy the waters further, Faulkner wrote several versions of each point of view, and editors have differed on the definitive selections. From Warren’s introduction it seems that Faulkner may have been trying to write the story in one voice, but couldn’t decide which worked best. Wouldn’t it be ironic if one of today’s literary icons were actually a compilation of pieces never really intended to be a single work, but pieced together by default? Perhaps the real trick was played on Faulkner himself.

45. Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

Not being an artist or a frequent reader of graphic novels, I approach the genre with hesitation, almost as though it is not meant for me. Occasionally, I will be captivated by a story and how it is enhanced by the illustrations, other times I feel as though I'm looking for a cucumber in the cereal aisle. Such was my reaction to Radioactive.

The plot line was fascinating: the lives of Marie and Pierre Curie and their work as scientists. I immediately wanted to go out and get a more comprehensive memoir. This one is almost like a dream sequence or fable of their lives, although seemingly well-researched. The illustrations are bright and large, often covering both facing pages, and are interspersed with photographs. Although both text and art were good, together it felt a bit busy, and I enjoyed it more when I read and looked at pictures separately.

Recommended for fans of the genre and for those wanting a colorful introduction to the Curies.

See my Club Read thread if you are interested in my summary of Mary Doria Russell's remarks about Doc at her author talk last night.

Lisa

Thanks for posting the link about Mary Doria Russell's remarks.

Also, I like your comments about Radioactive: A Taleof Love and Fallout. My library doesn't have a copy of this yet.

Hi Lisa, I ventured over to Club Read to read your fascinating report on Mary Doria Russell. I enjoy hearing about authors in real life, especially those who are as personable as she seems to be. I loved the connection between Doc Holliday and Margaret Mitchell. I'm even tempted to reread Gone with the Wind in this new light...although, I must admit that Pat Conroy's reading memoir first tempted me.

I hope you are also going to attend the Geraldine Brooks appearance and give us your comments. I would love to have access to a bookstore that can host such wonderful authors.

Btw, I would join in the herd of elephants that might be reading The Magic Mountain along with Cushla. It would give me the opportunity to read my one and only Franklin Library book. ;-)

#72: Great haul, Lisa! Sorry to be so far behind on your thread :)

Hi Lisa, I may not comment as much as before, but I'm lurking, both here and on your CR-thread. You read some very interesting books, these days. Btw, it seems we're cruising through Bookland at more or less the same speed.

#91 Hi Linda, I'm still new to graphic novels and learning to appreciate them. The story of Marie and Pierre Curie is fascinating, however. I can't believe the radiation they were exposed to didn't kill them in their early years. Pierre even put some right on his skin to see what would happen.

#92 Thanks for dropping in, Donna. Sadly, I was unable to go hear Geraldine Brooks last night. Too much going on at home. I was very sad to miss it though. I think Cushla read Magic Mountain last year. She can be our inspiration and guide. When you get read, let me know, and I'll try to join you, and as many others as we can coerce encourage to join us.

#93 Thanks, Stasia. Don't apologize, I'm honored you found time to stop by at all!

#94 It's nice to know you are here, Monica. :-) I'm happily reading along, but disappointed every time you review another great book that isn't in English. It's an EU plot!

P.S. We are having four days of sunshine in a row this week. It's the first time in 6 months! Coldest, wettest spring on record. Not doing much for my garden...

90 (labfs39): I've been wanting to read The Sparrow, and your description of Mary Doria Russell further persuades me.

Hi qebo, thanks for stopping by. MDR's books are on wildly different topics (except for The Sparrow/Children of God which I'll refer to as one). None of her books are as different as this, her first. Two of my favorite aspects of the book are the way she illustrates an example of a cultural collision between two societies and the philosophical and moral questions raised. Very unusual book, but the last time I reread it, I decided it was one of my favorites books. If I had to compare it to anything, it would be Anathem by Neal Stephenson, if you've read that.

Well, life has been a bit of a bear lately, which is why I've been out of touch. Two weeks ago I was in a minor car accident, and although no one was hurt, it was very stressful. Then that weekend I led the girl scout troop on a two day camping trip. One day in I got a phone call that my aunt, who had just been diagnosed with cancer the week before, was dying. After a flurry of plan making, my daughter and I headed to Maine the next day. We had to run to make the plane, and the airline didn't even have food to buy, something I didn't know ahead of time, and crucial when travelling with a seven year old, but we made it. The next day my aunt was taken off the ventilator and died peacefully and quickly. That night her brother had a heart attack and died from the stress. The next night (Tues) around 11pm I get a call that my flight home had been cancelled because of the storms in the Midwest. Normally not a problem, but I was scheduled for hip surgery on Friday and wanted at least 24 hours at home beforehand. After spending most of the night on the phone and internet looking for flights, I managed to find us a flight home. I also submitted a request for refund for the first flight, which the customer rep said shouldn't be a problem, but until I have cash in hand I'm nervous. So, K and I make it home by midnight on Wed, my husband tootles in at 2am on Thurs/Fri from a business trip, and it's off to surgery for me. The surgeon found more than he bargained for in my hip, so the surgery went long, and once again, they had a very hard time waking me up. They even told my husband I might have had a stroke. Not true, but caused him a few difficult moments. So, now I'm hobbling around and sitting with ice packs on my fanny. Have gotten some reading done, but have not been on LT as we do not have a laptop anymore, and sitting is hard.

So that's the scoop. I'm looking forward to getting back to some reviews and book talk! :-)

Currently reading: Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
ER book I'm eagerly awaiting: Partitions: A Novel

A stunning first novel, set during the violent 1947 partition of India, about uprooted children and their journeys to safety

As India is rent into two nations, communal violence breaks out on both sides of the new border and streaming hordes of refugees flee from blood and chaos.

At an overrun train station, Shankar and Keshav, twin Hindu boys, lose sight of their mother and join the human mass to go in search of her. A young Sikh girl, Simran Kaur, has run away from her father, who would rather poison his daughter than see her defiled. And Ibrahim Masud, an elderly Muslim doctor driven from the town of his birth, limps toward the new Muslim state of Pakistan, rediscovering on the way his role as a healer. As the displaced face a variety of horrors, this unlikely quartet comes together, defying every rule of self-preservation to forge a future of hope.

A dramatic, luminous story of families and nations broken and formed, Partitions introduces an extraordinary novelist who writes with the force and lyricism of poetry.

46. The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi

I was supposed to receive this book as part of the Early Reviewer program, but the book never came, so I picked up a used copy.

This is one of those books which I expected to like more than I did. I have been reading more books set in the Middle East of late and found the dust jacket of this one intriguing. A young Kurdish boy is captured in a battle between his rugged Kurdish kin and the soldiers of the newly-founded Iran. Given a new name, that of the Shah, Reza learns to survive by becoming the soldier’s soldier and grows up virulently anti-Kurdish. At the apex of his impressive career, Reza marries and is given the captaincy of a new post on the edge of Kurdish-held territory. Who better to fight the Kurds than one of their own? But memories of his childhood come back to him, and he feels a sense of belonging to both the mountains and the people.

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately the book and I never clicked, so although I don’t dislike the book, I don’t feel compelled to rave either. I found Reza to be an annoying and unlikable character from the beginning and was therefore unable to empathize completely with his situation. Although his life as a servant in the army is horrible, there is also something a bit off in his character from the beginning. The trappings and insignia of success were always a siren song for him, and I don’t think I would have liked him even if he were never captured.

The theme of an identity crisis compelling a person to confront her past is always an interesting one. Certainly there is a long way for Reza to go to reconcile the person he has become with the child he was. But, once again, it just didn’t click for me. The crisis is described by Reza’s actions, not his thoughts, and I think I would have been more empathetic if I had known what he was thinking.

So I recommend the book to those who enjoy this setting, as they may have a completely different emotional reaction, but I’m in no hurry to chase down the next two volumes in this proposed trilogy.

Lisa, what a terrible time you've had - I'm so sorry about your aunt's and her brother's deaths. I hope you're recovering steadily now and some good things happen soon!

That books sounds skippable to me - thanks for the review.

98: Oh my, what an ordeal.

Oh my goodness, Lisa, but you have been through it lately! I hope things do improve for you soon. ((Hugs))

Lisa, I hope your recovery goes extra smoothly, after all the trouble and travail you had leading up to and including your surgery! Best wishes!

Lisa--What a terrible time you have had! It must have been very stressful for your daughter as well. I hope you recover quickly and uneventfully, and that you and your family can begin to return to normal life soon.

Lisa, I'm so sorry that life has been cruel to you lately. I hope you make a quick recovery from your hip surgery.

I'm not trying to be funny here, but when I was reading your post I couldn't help but think that if I had read this in a book I would have thought the author was going overboard with too many predicaments. That is just awful about your double loss of an aunt and uncle. And, I agree with Deborah that this must have been hard on your 7-year-old daughter as well. {{Hugs}} to you and your family.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. That's funny, Donna, about my life being like an over the top book. I always thought that if I ever wrote a book, it would be like Mama Makes Up Her Mind. Set in my rural New England village, instead of the south, with all my quirky relatives for characters. Lately my life reads more like The Overcoat by Gogol or Dostoevsky. Or maybe I think that just because I'm reading The Gulag by Anne Applebaum right now. My husband asked me the other day why I never read any happy books. I guess it's harder to find a good happy book or maybe there are just fewer out there. I was listening to another story on the radio last week about how many famous writers are depressed or otherwise mentally ill, but feel that their illness gives them their genius. To be sane or boring, that is the question. Phew, maybe my husband's right, and I need to put aside Solzhenitsyn for a little Erma Bombeck!

47. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

Hang on to your hats! The Bull Moose is loose in the Amazon!

Having just lost his third run for president, Theodore Roosevelt was feeling uncharacteristically hurt and adrift. A man of unusual energy and drive, he was lost without the constant clamor of politics around him. When he receives a letter from a museum in Argentina asking him to come and speak, he decides to combine post-presidential duties with a visit to his 23-year-old son, Kermit, who was working in Brazil. This combined with an encounter with a fellow adventure seeker and a nod from the American Museum of Natural History set Roosevelt on the path of his most physically arduous trek in a life of arduous treks: to do a first descent of a rapids-filled river through a huge swatch of uncharted Amazon filled with unknown tribes. In true Roosevelt fashion, he and Kermit survive a harrowing adventure filled with starvation, attacks, illness, drowning, and murder, and with the expert partnership of Brazilian explorer, Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, change the map of South America.

I received this book as a gift and felt compelled to begin reading it right away. Within a chapter, I was spellbound. I'm not a reader of presidential memoirs in general, but the combination of excellent writing, larger than life characters, and an unbelievable storyline kept me flipping pages like I was looking for a plumber in the phone book. The author weaves politics, natural history, and the story of Brazilian relations with native peoples into a tapestry that explains and augments the journey without dragging it down. So intrigued did I become with facets of Roosevelt's character, that I picked up another Roosevelt memoir as soon as the last page of this one was turned. Candice Millard is a storyteller, and she picked a good story to tell. I hope she finds another soon, because this was a great read.

107: Well that's a review that allows me no choice. Onto the wishlist!

So which TR memoir did you pick up?

#108 Thanks, qebo. I hope you find it as riveting as I did!

#109 Hi Jim, I read Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough. Another good book I hope to review today. Have you read either?

River of Doubt - and I liked it nearly as much as you did. I've seen Mornings on Horseback, but haven't read it yet. McCullough is a favorite, so I'll get to it eventually.

I'm up to TR in my US Presidents Challenge over in another group and decided to read Edmund Morris' 3-volume biography on TR. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt was very good! I'm starting Theodore Rex, covering his presidency as soon as I pick it up at the library, and will get to Colonel Roosevelt in July.

I liked River of Doubt so much that I bought a copy for my personal library. I am glad to see that you enjoyed the book too, Lisa.

#111 I have Theodore Rex on the bookshelf, a gift from my mother-in-law. It seems rather intimidating for a non-presidential-memoir reader. Someday!

#112 I was lucky and my daughter gave me River of Doubt for Mother's Day. :-) It's a keeper for sure.

Morris' trilogy is rather intimidating looking, isn't it. All three are around 800 pages of actual text (taking out notes and index, etc). I haven't read the later ones, but Rise was very readable, easily the equivalent of David McCullough's John Adams that HBO turned into a short series. I'll let you know in a week or two about Rex!

48. Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough

Although a frequent reader of memoirs, I’ve never been drawn to presidential ones. Recently, however, I was recently given a copy of River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard and, aside from the personal merits of the book, I was intrigued by the enormous personality of Teddy Roosevelt. In particular, some comments in the book about TR’s childhood struggles with asthma and his drive to overcome his physical weaknesses interested me. So a natural follow-up read was Mornings on Horseback which covers the childhood and youth of TR up to the age of twenty-eight.

Winner of the National Book Award and penned by the acclaimed social historian, David McCullough, I was not surprised that the book was well-researched and well-written. Mornings on Horseback begins with TR’s parents, interesting people in their own right, and widens to include not only the extended Roosevelt clan, but also the ideology of an entire class of people into which TR was born. McCullough blends this social history with the personal story of a boy who could have been a brilliant natural historian and subsequent young man who strives to meet his father’s expectations, a man he idolized for his compassion and strength. Where I think McCullough goes beyond a run of the mill biography is in his analysis of how TR was both a victim and a manipulator of his asthma; his relationship with the women in his life, especially his sister, Bamie; and the effect the idea of the West had on TR’s imagination.

Although not the page turner of River of Doubt, Mornings on Horseback was an enjoyable read, especially for a novice reader of presidential memoirs.

49. Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra by Peter Kurth

This lovely coffee table sized book contains hundreds of archival photographs taken by Nicholas and his family, as well as modern day shots of many of the residences and other locations related to the tsar. The text focuses on the personalities of Nicholas and Alexandra, the out of touch nature of Nicholas’ rule, and the tragic imprisonment and execution of the royal family. Not particularly well-researched, the text should serve as an embellishment to the photos, not as an authoritative history. But the beautiful photographs make the book well worth picking up, even if only to browse for an afternoon.

I agree with you regarding your most recent read. It truly is a pictorial account of the family. However, the photos are incredible and it is so sad seeing the happy faces and knowing the final outcome.

I'm currently reading The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy. The author notes the Tsar's treatment of Jews. While his family did not deserve their fate, reading about the terrible atrocities perpetrated by Nicholas gives a balanced side (a non-romantic look) at this multi-facted man.

50. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

He is coming on the Lord's Day. Though my father has not seen fit to give me the news, I have the whole of it.

Thus begins Geraldine Brook's newest novel, and therein lies a hint to my problem with the book: a female narrator from an earlier historic period that has implausible and impossible knowledge and modern insight. This same problem plagued her earlier novel, Year of Wonders.

Caleb's Crossing is based on a scrap of historic evidence: a letter written in Latin by Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665. This basis for an historic novel is thin, but interesting. How would a young man of the Wampanoag Tribe from Martha's Vineyard end up at Harvard? What would his experience there be like? How would he navigate the enormous social, cultural, and religious differences between his past and present?

Unfortunately, the author chooses to tell this story from the perspective of a young Puritan girl, Bethia. She becomes the vehicle through which the reader tries to hear Caleb's voice. In order to facilitate knowledge of Caleb's life with his tribe, the author has to engineer unlikely free time for a strictly raised Puritan girl to wander the woods, form a relationship with Caleb, and spy on Native ceremonies. Then when Caleb leaves the Island for Cambridge, the author again has to devise an unlikely situation in order for the narrator to stay with the subject. It is awkward and unbelievable. Equally so is Bethia's prodigious ability to learn languages and memorize lessons while eavesdropping from the scullery and her ability to keep a lifelong secret diary written in a most modern voice.

So although Geraldine Brooks has a good ear for story and an interest in historical research, I am becoming less and less impressed with her ability to convey a compelling narrative. Is People of the Book to remain her most accomplished work?

Thumbs up from me for your excellent review.

I have seen several good reviews of Caleb's Crossing, Lisa. Yours is the first negative one I have seen and gives me pause especially regarding the implausibility issues you mentioned. I think perhaps I will give the book a pass.

Hi Lisa, I have been following your thread (although very quietly, like most other threads nowadays), both on this thread and the CR-thread. I hope life is calming down a bit for you and your family and that you're swiftly recovering from the surgery. If your reading-rate is any indication, I think you're doing well.
I noticed you rated Brodeck's Report and The Twin lately. I guess it's no surprise that you rated exactly like I did last year :-) I'm glad you liked Brodeck's Report. It's still high on my list of all time favourites and I'm still looking for those books that give me the same feeling of overall, I don't know, contentment?, satisfaction?, gratification?
You mentioned your "penchant" towards sad books. I'm not sharing that aspect, at least not in this stage of my reading-life. I can put up with quite a bit of sadness, melancholy etc., but I try to let the cruelty of war, terror and other acts of inhumanity pass. I have more than enough when I watch the news on a daily basis. Well at least, I try to concentrate on hopeful books. It would be interesting to do some research on the psychology of a person in relation to his or her reading-choices. But I guess, those kinds of studies have already been made. I would love to read that book though :-).

Hi Lisa- As always, I love your book choices. I just requested the audio of River of Doubt, which I've been meaning to get to, forever. I had not heard of Mornings on Horseback but I am a fan of McCullough, so on the List it goes.
I know you mentioned not reading many presidential bios but have you read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt? It's the 1st of a trilogy and it was outstanding, probably my favorite presidential bio and I have read many of them.

#121 I don't know that I go out of my way to look for sad books, but I do read a lot of history and historical fiction, and so many are sad. As for fiction, I guess I don't know too many "happy" authors: Mark Twain (except for Joan of Arc, um, oh, Patrick McManus. Do you know any happy Russian authors, for instance? Here are my most recent reads:

June
51. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum* (about the Soviet labor camps)
52. Partitions by Amit Majmudar* (about the horrors of the India/Pakistan partition, although it ends hopeful)
53. Brodeck by Philippe Claudel* (about collaboration in WWII, beautiful but sad)
54. The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (about a lonely, unfulfilled man in a cruel relationship with his father)
55. Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard (about an 11 year old boy put in a concentration camp by the Japanese in WWII Shanghai)

The book I'm reading now is historical ficiton about cholera in Alexandria.

Hmm. Definitely a downer. Okay, I'm officially asking for an intervention, everyone: please send the title of a happy book that I should read, and I'll try to change my ways!

#122 Hi Mark, Jim suggested The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt too (post 111). I'll have to look for it. I have Morris's Theodore Rex, but as I said above, am pretty intimidated by it...

Happy Russian books? Have you tried Oblomov? That is as close as I can come.

Hm, I plead guilty as well, although my "literary misery" is more individual whilst yours is more large-scale :-). So don't worry, as long as you enjoy your reading-experiences.
Russian humour? How about Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. I started it a while ago and liked it but decided it's one of those books I want to read during a dark and gloomy winter. I'm still trying to find the right moment to continue George Elliot's Middlemarch. I know you read it and that's a happy book, right?

So sorry to hear of all your trials! I hope things get better from here on.

Lisa

For something fun, try The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt.

#125-126 Happy Russian novels? I must try them! It's true that Gogol's fantastic realism does come close to humor. I should look for Dead Souls; I've only read The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol.

#127 Thanks for the good wishes. My hip is going to take time, and I guess I don't make a very patient patient.

#128 Thanks, Linda, a good Newbery book may be just what the doctor ordered. And your review of it is fabulous!

I'm currently reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet for the Group Read. I don't know yet if it will be a depressing read, but it doesn't start very happily. I'm enjoying it though. :-)

51. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum

I can’t say enough good things about this book. Anne Applebaum has taken advantage of recent archive openings in Russia and conducted thorough and detailed research of the newly available material. Her findings are changing the way people think about the Soviet Gulag system. In the past, most historians had to rely on survivor memoirs and the classic history, The Gulag Archipelago, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn for their information. I think this caused a bias toward the point of view and experience of dissident writers. Applebaum’s use of newly opened archives allows her to uncover the government’s agenda, statistics, and methods; as well as prisoner records, including those of criminals, non-political prisoners, and collaborators who were less likely to share their stories. The result is a new perspective, one that Applebaum thoughtfully and articulately explores.

The first and last sections are chronological in structure, but in the middle section, Applebaum chose to break her material into topics, such as punishment and reward, guards, and women and children. These sections are particularly descriptive and evocative of life in the camps. In addition, I found her comparison of Nazi concentration camps and Soviet labor camps concise and convincing. Her explication of the Gulag as a deliberate and organized economic system was eye-opening: the extent to which the Soviets were willing to go to create and maintain such a system, even in the face of obvious losses, was shocking. I also learned how erroneous I was in my preconception that the Gulag was populated primarily by political prisoners.

Although I found the introduction to sound a bit like a graduate student’s paper, the rest of the book was engrossing and highly readable. I only wish there had been more photos, especially of some of the Central Asian camps. In any case, I highly recommend this Pulitzer Prize winning book.

Thanks to Rebecca (rebeccanyc) for the recommendation.

52. Partitions by Amit Majmudar

On August 15, 1947, British India became partitioned into two states: the Dominion of Pakistan (which then included modern day Bangladesh) and the Union of India. The birth pangs of these two nation states were violent and sectarian, displacing 12-14 million people, and killing hundreds of thousands. As Muslims headed one way across the new border into Pakistani territory, Hindus and Sikhs fled in the opposite direction. Atrocities were committed on all sides, and even neighbors and friends grew suspicious, if not outright hostile. The effects of this volatile partition are still felt today in the hostility between the two countries.

In this, his first novel, Amit Majmudar seeks to personalize this enormous tragedy by focusing on the fates of a few: Shankar and Keshav, two Hindu twins, who become separated from their mother while trying to cross the border; a young Sikh girl named Simran, whose father would rather see her dead than dishonored; and a Muslim pediatrician, Ibrahim Masud, who quietly continues to treat the needy without reference to their religion. It is a novel of great beauty and power. Majmudar is a poet, and the images he creates with his words are at once sad and hopeful, sweet and brutal. Although a difficult book to read, it is an important one for giving insight into the mindset that creates revenge and generational conflict.

…for all his personal loyalty to Dr. Masud, there is a part of Gul Singh, too, that believes what is happening is necessary. Some killing must be done. It is a form of communication, the only kind that can cross the partitions between this country and its neighbor, between this world and the next. Their enemies must hear the deaths and know fear; their dead must hear the deaths and know rest.

Highly recommended.

Lisa

I highly recommend Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins. It is excellent.

Thumbs up for your review of Gulag

I already have Gulag in the BlackHole (and have had it there for a while now - I really need to get to it!) but am adding Partitions there as well. Thanks for that recommendation, Lisa.

Great reviews of two tempting books. I recently purchased Gulag and hope to get to it soon. I think I tried to get Partitions (it was an ER book wasn't it?) but was unsuccessful. I'm definitely going to look for it.

You might want to consider the novel Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh, a novel on the same subject that I read recently. Although it's fiction, the edition I had contained photos taken by Margaret Bourke-White during the Partition which were very moving (and in some cases gruesome).

I hadn't heard about the TPB sale. When is it? I've already grossly exceeded my book budget for the month, but I know there would be some good finds waiting for me.

Hope your hip is improving.

#132 Thank you, Linda, for the recommendation. This is definitely an event in history about which I do not know enough.

#133 Both books are very good, though very different. I hope you enjoy them. Darryl liked Partitions as well, although I don't think he has written his review yet.

#134 Partitions was an ER book, and I consider myself fortunate to have gotten it. Train to Pakistan sounds very interesting and intense. So much for my "read more happy books" pledge!

The TPB sale is next weekend. 40% off their used books, which are already half price, is an incentive for sure. It still adds up though. I usually try to put back one or two after I pick out a pile. Nothing beats the library book cart sale. Let me know if you go and maybe we can have coffee/tea or something. Is Bonnie going, do you know?

Hip, schmip. I'm trying to ignore I have them. I was out pruning my hydrangea on crutches yesterday. Not exactly what the doctor ordered, but what can you do? ;-)

I started book two of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet today. Gets better and better, although I'm still not seeing the overarching themes that made Cloud Atlas such an amazing book.

Just catching up on your thread and can't believe the trials and tribulations you have been through lately. I decided against reading Caleb's Crossing as the subject matter didn't really interest me, I loved People of the Book.

Anyway a book that makes you laugh - Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson, To say nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, When we were bad by Charlotte Rubens, The Ponsonby Post or Mr Wakefield's Crusade by Bernice Rubens. Some of these are more black comedy but all should at times bring on a smile or two.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the David Mitchell book, I'll read it eventually.

Hi Kerry, Thanks for the book list. I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog, and I haven't read any of the others, so I will go look at the library catalog right now. The only Bernice Rubens I've read is The Elected Member, which was rather sadly pathetic.

I finished The Thousand Autumns last night. Although I would consider it an okay historical novel, it is certainly not the literary powerhouse that Cloud Atlas is. At the end of my edition of 1000 Autumns is a brief essay entitled "On Historical Fiction" written by Mitchell. That was fairly interesting, although I'll save my comments for the thread.

53. Brodeck (originally published as Brodeck's Report) by Philippe Claudel

Is collaboration in wartime an act of self-preservation or an opportunity to let out one’s secret distrust of The Other? Is collusion a collective, social act or a collection of single, personal decisions? How do you live with betrayal?

These are some of the questions explored in Philippe Claudel’s book, Brodeck’s Report. In a fairy tale village in the woods, a stranger has been murdered. Brodeck, a man recently returned from the camps, is asked to represent the village and write an official report of what occurred. At the same time, Brodeck writes a secret report, in his own voice, about what he learns and about his own life and the decisions he has made. The book begins:

I’m Brodeck and I had nothing to do with it.
I insist on that. I want everyone to know.
I had no part in it, and once I learned what had happened, I would have preferred never to mention it again, I would have liked to bind my memory fast and keep it that way, as subdued and still as a weasel in an iron trap.
But the others forced me.

From the first lines, before the reader even knows what has happened, she is asked to take sides. Is Brodeck innocent? Should some memories be allowed to fade away, or is there a moral imperative or human compulsion to share the truth?

I loved this book for the very ambiguity that makes the answers to these questions so difficult. In haunting imagery and beautiful language, Claudel leads Brodeck to the brink of the abyss and asks the reader to join him in looking in. A Holocaust novel without ever saying the words, Brodeck’s Report is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I recommend it for its plot, its language, and most importantly for its ability to make me think.

54. The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker

Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer, The Twin is the story of a middle-aged man in limbo. Helmer spends his days tending to his invalid father and to his father’s dairy farm. His entire life is a direct consequence, he feels, of the death of his brother thirty years before. Forced at that time to leave university and take care of the farm, Helmer nurses a grudge against his father for favoring his brother, Henk, and a conflicting sense of guilt and anger toward his dead brother. The book begins with a change, Helmer moving his father upstairs, and this small change leads to another and another until Helmer is able to make the biggest change of all.

Although I appreciated the deft way in which the author, Gerbrand Bakker, depicts the quiet angst of an emotionally frustrated man, I was not drawn into the story the way I usually am with a well-written book. Perhaps I was unable to empathize adequately with Helmer, being younger, female, and more decisive. Or perhaps the quiet, slow moving book was simply not meshing with my reading mood. The result is that although I could appreciate the book, I couldn’t like it. I have no doubt, however, that others will find it compelling.

55. Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard (Booker Prize shortlist)

I dislike books that claim to be autobiographies, but are actually fictionalized memoirs. I’m sure we can all think of a couple that have made headlines in recent years. In the forward to his book, the author, J.G. Ballard, writes:

Empire of the Sun describes my experiences in Shanghai, China, during the Second World War, and in Lunghua C.A.C (Civilian Assembly Center), where I was interned from 1942 to 1945. For the most part this novel is an eyewitness account of events I observed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and within the camp at Lunghua.

The story that he goes on to tell is heart-rending, yet inspirational. As a boy, Jim grew up in the luxurious world of a British ex-pat in Shanghai. Then, on the same day as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, eleven-year-old Jim’s life shatters. Separated from his parents in the chaos of the Japanese takeover, Jim lives in the houses of the international district until he joins forces with Basie, a lowlife who admits to trying to sell Jim and yet becomes a father figure that teaches him how to survive in this new world. Eventually caught and sent to Lunghua concentration camp, Jim works the system as he was taught, but is also helped by a friendly fellow captive, Dr. Ransome. When the war ends, danger continues to lurk as Jim strives to find his parents.

Action-packed, heart-rending, and inspirational, the story makes for a page-turning read. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the book was tainted by the knowledge that J.G. Ballard was never separated from his parents and sister and lived with them in Lunghua. The difference that this one fact makes is enormous. Although I can’t discount the vivid descriptions that Ballard gives of wartime Shanghai and Lunghua, neither can I believe them, as I am constantly wondering where the line between fact and fiction lies. Give me an autobiography or give me a historical novel loosely based on the author’s experiences, but please don’t try to pass one off as the other.

Today was our local Indie bookstore's 40% off all used books (which are 50% off original price). Not only did I get some books from my wishlist, but I met up with Deborah (arubabookwoman)! It was my first LT in RL meeting. I wore my LT t-shirt in honor of the occasion, but forgot to take a picture of us. :(

Here are my finds in no particular order:

The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah (rec by Tutu)
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell (Booker Prize finalist)
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (classic, rec by brenzi)
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (classic, rec by brenzi)
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (National Book Award, recs by rebeccanyc and bonniebooks)
Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Seattle Reads book)
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (group read with msf59)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (National Book Award, local author)
The Crazed by Ha Jin (because I loved Waiting and War Trash)
The Liar by Martin A. Hansen (rec by arubabookwoman)
Tinkers by Paul Harding (Pulitzer Prize, rec by bonniebooks, Maine)
Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron (rec by arubabookwoman)

56. An Imperfect Lens by Anne Roiphe

I picked this book up on a whim as the plot seemed intriguing. Louis Thuillier, a young protégé of Louis Pasteur, is sent to Alexandria with a French team of scientist trying to locate the source of the cholera epidemic of 1883. In a race against time to beat the Germans in isolating the organism causing the disease, and to save lives, the team members each deal with the situation differently. Louis falls in love. The object of his affection is a beautiful, intelligent, Jewish woman, whose family would never consider his suit.

The broad outlines of the novel are historically accurate. Louis, Émile Roux, and Edmond Nocard were real scientists sent on the mission, and Robert Koch is the German microbiologist with whom they had a scientific rivalry. The love story is fictitious. The author, Anne Roiphe, was inspired to write the novel in honor of her brother, a hematologist and laboratory scientist, who died of AIDS.

I would have loved to read a nonfiction account of the epidemic and of Louis and his teammates. This is one time when, in my opinion, the fictitious treatment did not add to the story. I found the love affair to be forced, and the setting wasn’t described as compellingly as it could have been. Never do the scientists seem concerned about, or even notice, the people dying around them, which struck me as a little odd. Cholera microbes are treated almost as a character in the story, with descriptions of where they are living and how close they come to infecting various people. It was interesting at first, but got a little old after the umpteenth time they wriggle within millimeters of someone’s hand or mouth.

Final verdict: fascinating episode in history, but writing falls short. Not recommended.

57. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

David Mitchell is a versatile writer willing to take chances on different literary devices and genres. In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Mitchell tries his hand at an historical novel. Having spent eight years in Japan as an English teacher, he is familiar with the landscape and culture and presumably the language. Certainly, Mitchell is able to play his usual linguistic tricks, despite representing both Dutch and Japanese in English. His ability to catch one’s ear with an unusual phrase is a trademark of his writing, but in this novel, he also explores the difficulties and misunderstandings that occur when two cultures and languages collide.

In 1799 Jacob de Zoet arrives on Dejima, an island connected to the mainland by a foot bridge and the only port foreigners, by treaty the Dutch, are allowed in the Japanese Empire. Jacob is the clerk assisting in the investigation into alleged mismanagement of funds, an uncomfortable position to hold when everyone on the island is involved in profiteering to some extent. Jacob too is hoping to make his fortune while on his five year contract, so that he can marry the woman he loves back home. Fate intervenes when he meets and is intrigued by a young Japanese midwife who is in the unique situation of being allowed to study with Dr. Marinus on Dejima. The results of this meeting have drastic and long-lasting effects for many on both sides of the bridge.

Mitchell divides his book into three parts: the first and last are told primarily from the point of view of Jacob. The middle section switches point of view to that of the midwife, Orito, and a Japanese translator named Ogawa. The middle section also switches writing style, becoming much more plot driven, whereas the Jacob sections are more about dialogue and verbal intrigue. Personally I preferred the Jacob sections, where I think Mitchell’s strengths as an author are played out: clever language and the exploration of language, in this case as the vehicle for cultural exchange.

The result is a solid historical novel that brings to light the moment in time when the Dutch Empire’s influence in Asia is waning, the British Empire’s is rising, and the Japanese are poised to make a fateful decision about engagement with foreign cultures. Mitchell’s writing is always fun to read because of its one-line zingers and language play. My one complaint is that his plot needed work. The middle section seemed out of place with its plot overtones of The Handmaid’s Tale crossed with Ronin. It felt disjointed from the rest of the book, almost as though he were inserting a myth into the middle of the story. It didn’t work for me. Overall, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book unless you are particularly interested in Mitchell’s writing.

Hi Lisa, I came to visit after your kind message on my thread. What a rough start to the summer you had! I'm so sorry, and hope you're feeling better now. I really enjoyed your reviews -- you've had a great reading year so far! A friend just gave me a copy of River of Doubt, which I really look forward to, even more so after your review!

144: I had something of the same reaction to part 2 of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: http://www.librarything.com/topic/104898#2781800. It was a page-turner, and I cared what happened to the characters, but I was weirded out by the cult plopped into the ostensibly historical novel. Since a Japanese shrine is an unknown entity to most westerners, I would've preferred a more realistic portrayal, partly for the information, and partly because it's troublesome that that the mysterious Other was made into the bad guy.

#145 Welcome, Anne. I enjoyed discovering another LTer with similar reading interests, in both adult and children's literature. I hope you enjoy River of Doubt. I liked that the author treated the native explorer, Rondon, with respect, while still allowing Roosevelt his primacy of place. I think a biography of Rondon would be fascinating reading.

#146 Thank you for sharing your review, qebo. I think your point about the shrine being treated as a cult, while European religions are treated respectfully, is a good one. To add to your point, I think Mitchell trivializes the role of the samurai as well. His portrayal in part two is like a Hollywood ninja movie. And thanks for pointing out which characters were based on history.

I am returning to a single thread, as keeping two is too time consuming, and more importantly, good discussion points (like qebo's above), get separated from points on the other thread. So, I am going to move back to Club Read exclusively. Qebo, I hope you don't mind if I copy your email onto the other thread where I think others will be interested in your comment.

Please come visit me on Club Read!

How great that you met Deborah! These LT meet ups are wonderful experiences!

We'll miss you here, Lisa, but I'll be glad to follow you in Club Read. I'm over there occasionally to catch up with Jenny (GCPLreader) anyway. You and Deborah both made great book hauls at that amazing sale! I hope you remember to take a picture or two next time. It sounds like you were too busy shopping!

mistletoe smooches!

Merry Christmas to you, Lisa, with best wishes!