kidzdoc: 75 from the shelves #2

Thread #1

Currently reading:
     The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
     All About H. Hatterr by G.V. Desani
     Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A. Offit, M.D.

January:
     1. Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox by Gareth Williams (review)
     2. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (review)
     3. The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt (review)
     4. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago (review)
     5. The Tenant and the Motive by Javier Cercas (review)
     6. Who Killed Palomino Molero? by Mario Vargas Llosa (review)
     7. An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie (review)
     8. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (review)
     9. The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
     10. Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes (review)
     11. Yalo by Elias Khoury

February:
     12. Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors by Brian Eule (review)
     13. Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman (review)
     14. Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman

My 11 in 11 challenge:

A. Read a book I already own by 11 different Nobel Prize laureates
     1. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago
     2. Who Killed Palomino Molero? by Mario Vargas Llosa

B. Read a New York Review Books book that I already own
     1. An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie

C. Read a nonfiction book (that doesn't fit in category H, I or K) that I already own

D. Read a Booker Prize winner that I already own
     1. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (1970)

E. Read a novel by an African-American author that I aleady own
     1. Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes

F. Read a novel from the 2011 Booker Prize longlist (or from longlists of previous years)
     1. The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut (2003)

G. Read a novel from the 2011 Orange Prize longlist (or from longlists of previous years)
     1. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (2010)

H. Read a medicine or science book that I already own
     1. Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox by Gareth Williams

I. Read a biography or autobiography that I already own
     1. Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman

J. Read a book published by Archipelago Books in 2009-2011
     1. Yalo by Elias Khoury

K. Read a novel by a public intellectual that I already own
     1. The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt

Here I am!!!
But where's the rest of the party??? *bemused*

Hmm, I managed to get all caught up on one of Darryl's threads. :)

>3 Chatterbox: Reading!

>4 Copperskye: Enjoy it, Joanne, it won't happen again for a while. I speak from experience.

And...Suzanne, your headache wins the predictive body-part competition! At 12:15a, snow began and now I can't even see the driveway!

*hands Suzanne a glass of wine and a party whistle*

Found you again, Darryl!

Hope you're able to get home soon, and that the snow eases up. I'm one of those that likes the snow from the inside, if I don't have to go out in it!

I can appreciate all of your caveats for your 2011 challenge - good choices!

It's day 4 of the siege, and the roads and sidewalks continue to be icy and treacherous. There are now more drivers on the roads, so there is more potential for accidents due to the tailgaters and NASCAR wannabes that seem to migrate to Atlanta. So, I'll sleep in the hospital for at least one more night, and see what conditions are like tomorrow.

#3: I left the "party" early last night to get some sleep. I slept worse than I did the night before, as I was the resident call area, so it was noisier than the room w/ bed in our office. I'll be able to sleep there tonight, so I'll definitely have a better night.

#4,5: You'll have a much easier time keeping track of my thread for the next 2-3 months, as I'll be on LT far less than I have been.

#6: It sounds as though the storm was far worse on LI than it was in the city. I hope that you guys don't have the icing problems that we've had.

#7: I'm not sure that either of those things (wine or a party whistle) will help Suz's headache go away.

#8: *waves at Stasia*

#9: In some ways I'd rather be at home, staying warm, but I'd be getting stir crazy by now, since I definitely wouldn't leave my place. Fortunately we've been sufficiently staffed with doctors and nurses this week, so it hasn't been as bad as it could have been.

#10: Thanks, Luxx. I hope that I can stick to my plan. So far I haven't bought any books this year, and I think that I'll be buying far less books in 2011 than in previous years.

I didn't get much reading done yesterday, but I'd like to get 100-150 pages done tonight, so that I can finish at least one book by Sunday.

*huff pant wheeze* ... I'm finally here, Darryl ... after hours of digging my car out under 19" of snow and shoveling the front steps and walkway. No way I'm even going to consider tackling the long driveway ... I'm leaving that for Edd when he gets back from NY

*also hands Suzanne bottle of aspirin and earplugs* ;)

Hope you get more sleep and more reading done tonight.

Whew!! Caught up! Again. I see the pictures on the news of the snow in Atlanta and think we haven't had it too bad this year. Hmmm, very interesting. On the news tonight it was reported that 49/50 states now have snow on the ground. That includes Hawaii! No snow in Florida. Crazy.

oooh I like how you have your headings set up and the book(s) underneath. You must be able to sleep on the top of a picnic table, to sleep in strange beds like that. Hope you get home to your own nest soon.

#12: Ouch, for the amount of snow you received and the work you had to do to clear it. Hopefully Edd will make it back before the remaining snow ices over.

#13: I just had dinner from the cafeteria (lean roast beef, cauliflower, and okra with tomatoes, which was pretty good), and I can barely keep my eyes open. I think I'll sleep for a little while, at least, and try to read later tonight. One good thing about staying here is that I can wake up an hour later than I usually do at home, since I don't have to iron clothes or drive to work.

#14: I also saw that report; I wonder when was the last time Florida had snow. Jill? Ruthie?

#15: I can sleep on anything short of a bed of nails, but I'm easily awakened by unfamiliar noises. The bed in our office is all mine, and my partner that is on night call is a quiet guy, so I should have a good night's sleep.

*waves*

Made the transition--here I am. Sweet dreams for tonight!

Woo! I'm finally home, after five straight days in the hospital. All of the roads have patches of ice, but are mostly clear. It took me well over an hour to make the 10+ mile journey from the hospital to home, but I arrived safely, which is all that matters.

Six days down, one day to go.

Yeah! Glad to know you made it home safe and sound.

I looked up the other night when the news was on to see someone trying to break up about 2 inches of ice on a road and knew immediately it was in Atlanta based on all your LT posts. Ice seems like the worst part of wintry weather. Hope your trip in tomorrow morning is OK.

Bet the shower when you got home felt good, huh, Darryl?

Black ice was all over the roads today .. made for a somewhat treacherous drive home. The plows also shoved more snow from the street back onto my driveway after I left for work, so I had to shovel the little snowbank they made before I could park my car. *sigh* ... but even after all that ... I really like winter. :-)

Bet access to clean clothes and a quiet bedroom isn't going to hurt, either??

Glad you made it safely...

I could hear the sigh of relief up here, Darryl. Hope everything in the fridge was ok!

Thanks, Pat. I haven't decided yet whether to drive to work or take the train. It will be bitterly cold (for Atlanta) tomorrow morning (about 15 degrees, which is nearly 20 degrees below normal), but Friday will be the first day that it will be significantly above freezing this week (40 degrees). The weather will warm up this weekend, so the ice and snow on the streets and sidewalks should be gone by Monday.

I did sleep well last night, for about nine hours. I'm still quite tired, but at least I'll be able to catch up this coming weekend.

#21: I haven't showered yet, as I took a shower every morning in the doctors' call area. It will be nice to take a shower with hot water tomorrow; the water in the hospital showers was barely tolerable.

#22: I did have clean clothes every day this week, since I packed a bag with two changes of clothes on Sunday. One of the nurse managers did laundry for several of us on Tuesday, which was a huge help. The only thing I forgot to bring was a razor, so I have four days' worth of peach fuzz that I'm eager to get rid of.

#23: Yep, everything here in and out of the fridge is in good shape. Fortunately there weren't many power outages on Sunday and Monday, and I have a good stock of food.

I did very little reading yesterday, but I'll try to read for a couple of hours tonight before I crash.

15 degrees is bitterly cold ANYWHERE, at least by my standards. (We're going to hit 16 tonight...)

Happy reading!

Today was the first day in several that our temperature was above freezing - barely. I think the high was 34, so I understand where you are coming from, Darryl. Last week it was in the 70s here.

I am glad you finally made it home - and safely, to boot!

Yay, you made it home :)

I've been hoping and hoping for warmer weather, we hadn't been much above freezing for a while and I was fed up of cold hands and feet, but it's now up to around 11C (low 50s) and all it's doing is raining. Nothing devastating like in other parts of the world so I shouldn't complain, but I'm thoroughly fed up of MUD!

Still, mud is better than ice. I can't bear to think what would happen in England with our small, narrow, twisty country roads if they iced over like that.

I'm pleased to hear the roads are better and you finally made it home last night, Darryl. Hope today's journeys were not too fraught or dangerous.

Here are some helpful hints for new parents, courtesy of a good friend of mine (who is a pediatrician and mother):

11 Step Program for those thinking of having kids

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

LOL ... OMG.... this is just too funny, Darryl. I especially love Lesson 5 about dressing the octopus in a mesh bag. What a great way to end my work day ... thanks for the belly laugh. I so needed it today.

#31: Same here, Caroline. I needed this after a LONG work week! I like lesson 7 the best, but there should be another lesson about bringing small children to a restaurant (which is always fraught with spilled drinks, exceptionally horrible table manners, an excessive consumption of sweets in comparison to real food ("I'm full; (two minutes later) can I have some ice cream?"), and flying utensils, plates, glasses, etc.).

I experienced lesson 11 twice today, when two of my cuter than cute patients tugged on my pants or yelled at me to get my attention; one (a 16 month old girl) wanted to play ball, so she kept saying "Ball! Ball!! Ball!!!" every two seconds until I played with her. She also squealed "Got it!!!" whenever I caught one of her wayward tosses. The other one, a 3 year old girl, shrieked "Dokta!!!" over and over, until she showed me the name tag that a nurse made for her last night, which had "Dr. Jayden" on it. She examined me with her stethoscope, but pouted when I had to leave, saying "You have to stay here and play with me!" These two cuties, and another one I sent home yesterday, helped keep my spirits high, especially the past 2-3 days.

I was able to leave work early today, as I was the backup doctor and only saw 7 patients (half of the normal amount for this time of year). The temperature did reach the low 40s this afternoon, and the drive home was much easier today than it was yesterday. I'm now off for the weekend (although I will work on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday), and I'll have to study the Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) manual the next couple of days, in preparation for next Saturday's course (I'm required to take, and pass, a course every two years as part of my job).

ZOMG Lessons 10 & 11 are *so*TRUE* it's not even funny! But I laughed at almost all of them. The garden-rake-to-the-car was too painful....

As the mother of Very Active twin boys, I hate to tell you how many of these are true. Ask me about the pyramid of dog food cans in the grocery store sometime...

#30: Wonderful, Darryl! Thanks for the laughs.

Sent that to my lads and one wrote back: "well that makes it easy...not having kids".

Darryl, I hope the siege is letting up. My husband told me that Atlanta has only eight snowplows? Can this be true? He travels there frequently, but is going to more gentle climates for the next few weeks. Silly me, I always thought Atlanta was in the south!

>30 kidzdoc:: That is hilarious and parts of it are so true! We haven't had kids in the house (other than grandkid visits - and those don't count as aggravations) for many years; unfortunately, my husband is still a bit of a kid according to the above criteria.

>36 tiffin:: I am so not sending this to my oldest son, the only one of mine without children!

Since everyone else is doing it, here are the New York Times bestsellers for the week I was born.

Fiction 1 THE LAST OF THE JUST by Andre Schwarz-Bart
Fiction 2 HAWAII by James Michener
Fiction 3 ADVISE AND CONSENT by Allen Drury
Fiction 4 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
Fiction 5 A BURNT-OUT CASE by Graham Greene
Fiction 6 SERMONS AND SODA WATER by John O'Hara
Fiction 7 WINNIE ILLE PU by A.A. Milne
Fiction 8 MIDCENTURY by John Dos Passos
Fiction 9 DECISION AT DELPHI by Helen MacInnes
Fiction 10 POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE by Noël Coward
Fiction 11 CHINA COURT by Rumer Godden
Fiction 12 THE CHESS PLAYERS by Frances Parkinson Keyes
Fiction 13 A SENSE OF VALUES by Sloan Wilson
Fiction 14 THE DEAN'S WATCH by Elizabeth Goudge
Fiction 15 MANILA GALLEON by F. Van Wyck Mason
Fiction 16 THROUGH THE FIELDS OF CLOVER by Peter De Vries

Non-Fiction 1 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH by William L. Shirer
Non-Fiction 3 THE WASTE MAKERS by Vance Packard
Non-Fiction 4 FATE IS THE HUNTER by Ernest K. Gann
Non-Fiction 5 THE WHITE NILE by Alan Moorehead
Non-Fiction 6 JAPANESE INN by Oliver Statler
Non-Fiction 7 THE SNAKE HAS ALL THE LINES by Jean Kerr
Non-Fiction 8 RING OF BRIGHT WATER by Gavin Maxwell
Non-Fiction 9 SKYLINE by Gene Fowler
Non-Fiction 10 PROFILES IN COURAGE by John F. Kennedy
Non-Fiction 11 BORN FREE by Joy Adamson
Non-Fiction 12 DR. TOM DOOLEY'S THREE GREAT BOOKS by Dr. Tom Dooley
Non-Fiction 13 SHADOWS ON THE GRASS by Isak Dinesen
Non-Fiction 14 RESISTANCE, REBELLION AND DEATH by Albert Camus
Non-Fiction 15 STAY YOUNG AND VITAL by Bob Cummings
Non-Fiction 16 MY THIRTY YEARS BACKSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE by Lilian Rogers

Hmm...not sure what happened to Non-Fiction 2.

Here we go. I found another source of NYT bestseller lists (http://www.hawes.com/pastlist.htm), and Who Killed Society? by Cleveland Amory was second on the bestseller list for the week ending March 26, 1961.

I haven't read any of the books on this list, with the possible exception of Born Free, but I own To Kill a Mockingbird and Resistance, Rebellion and Death.

Hmm (again)...are there any comparable historical lists of bestsellers in the UK?

My list is about a year after yours, Darryl, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is still on it. Makes me wonder how long the book stayed on the nonfiction best seller list.

#39: I found a list of all time best sellers from the NYT best seller list (http://nytbestsellerlist.com/book/bestselling), and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich spent 80 weeks on the list, last appearing on the May 13, 1962 list, which puts it in 42nd place. The number 1 book on the list is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which spent an incredible 216 weeks on the list!

I think you got a better list than I did, Darryl! I've read eight of yours (including the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh -- how did THAT get on the list??) and six of the non-fiction.

30- I'm seriously frightened now...thanks, I think! :)

Ah, Daryl, were you born in March, 1961? Our lists are very similar but I'm using the week of March 19th.

I, too enjoyed the lessons. Is there any hope of distributing this to 15 and 16 year olds (girls and boys)?

Left off the list:

Lesson 12

Take someone with you to the grocery store. Make them sit in the cart. Every item you put in the cart, they throw out. Do this for the entire hour that you're in the store. Continue for four years.

Also, take someone with you to the grocery store. Make them sit in the cart. Have them take something off the shelf and add it to the cart every minute and a half. Continue for one hour and the next four years.

Oh yeah, lived through that and all the others.

What is noggin? what a crack up post... I live the goats at the supermarket lol.

I've read six of those...as opposed to zero of those on my list. That's the most so far; my previous was five on Stasia's list.

38: I've read 0 of those books, but I remember seeing the Born Free movie at a drive-in theater when I was a kid.

#34 @Tui: Dog food pyramid + toddlers = disaster.

#35 @Stasia: You're welcome; I thought that folks here would enjoy it.

#36 @Tui: Ha! So the list of lessons has served its purpose.

#37 @Donna: Your husband is way off base by saying that Atlanta only has eight snow plows. We have 10, which is more than enough. ;-}

#41 @Suz: Winnie Ille Pu is the Latin version of Winnie the Pooh. It's the only book written in Latin to ever appear on the New York Times bestseller list. I'm not sure why it was so popular, though. Here's an excerpt from the book's home page on Amazon:

In English:
And then he got up, and said: 'And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it.' So he began to climb the tree.

He
climbed
and he
climbed
and he
climbed,
and as he
climbed
he
sang
a little
song
to himself.
It went

like this:

Isn't it funny
How a bear likes honey
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?

In Latin:

Et nisus est
et
nisus est
et
nisus est
et
nisus est
et nitens carmen sic coepit canere:

Cur ursus clamat?
Cur adeo mel amat?
Burr, burr, burr
Quid est causae cur?

I do like the book's cover:



Which of the books from my list did you like best?

#42 @Angela: No! You should be one of those who have kids, instead of the teenagers and ne'er do wells. Get thyself to Luxx's thread with the cute toddler photos, and ignore these lessons.

#43 @Lynda: Yes, I was born on 24 March 1961. Many of my friends and former high school and undergraduate college classmates have or soon will turn 50. My AARP membership application should be coming in the mail any day now...

#44 @Bonnie: Right. However, you left off the part where the toddler goes into a full blown temper tantrum in the middle of the aisle with the cookies and crackers, screaming in severe distress as if (s)he was getting a beating, and attracting the attention of the store manager, both security guards, and your nosy neighbors who think that your child rearing techniques are abysmal. (I don't have kids, but I have plenty of friends who do, so I'm a self proclaimed pseudo-expert on the subject. Hmm...maybe the reason I don't have kids is because I have so many friends who do.)

#45 @Lisa: I'm still not sure what a Noggin is supposed to refer to, although the Nick Jr. TV channel was originally called Noggin.

The goats at the supermarket lesson is classic, although they aren't loud enough and don't throw monumental temper tantrums as an average toddler would. BTW, why is it that little ones who normally have good table manners and are polite act like crazed wombats in restaurants and public places?

#46 @Tad: Which ones would you recommend, Tad?

My reading output has been rubbish since I returned from Wisconsin the week before last. I think I'm due for a personal mini-readathon, which I'll start at 11 am (unless there is already a readathon underway). Anyone who is interested is welcome to join me.

#47 @qebo: I'm pretty sure that I saw the movie Born Free as a kid as well, and I may have read the book way back when.

I'm having a hard time getting started, as I've spent the past couple of hours listening to the 1965 album The Temptin' Temptations, the third monster album by the famed R&B group. Several of the songs were produced and/or written by Smokey Robinson, and seven of the 12 selections were listed on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1964 and 1965, including Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue), Since I Lost My Baby, and The Girl's Alright With Me, with either Eddie Kendricks or David Ruffin as the lead singer. All of these songs will be familiar to Motown fans. However, the song that has its hooks in me is "Just Another Lonely Night", with backup singer Paul Williams taking the lead:

Just Another Lonely Night

oop shoop doo wahhhh!

Glad to hear that the weather is easing up a bit there!

I love those lessons . . . so true . . . ;)

I love Winnie-the-Pooh .. thanks for brightening my day with his little song, Darryl. I think it sounds better in English though. ;-)

That's right -- my grandfather had that one, which is why it sounded so familiar! (He also had and gave to me the Russian version...)
On that list, of the non-fiction, I really liked both the Camus and Shirer's book, also remember reading Japanese Inn in the early 80s.
On the fiction side -- China Court by Rumer Godden is lovely. I think a bunch of 75ers read it last year. Decision at Delphi reminded me that during the mid-1970s I went through a spy thriller phase and read my way through my mother's MacInnes books. May be worth a second read, though they were hard core Cold War tomes. Some names on there feel like another century (well, yes, I know...), like Sloan Wilson (remember Man in the Grey Flannel Suit?), Frances Parkinson Keyes (some of her books, however dated they are, I really loved for a while in the late 70s/early and mid 80s) and Elizabeth Goudge.

I think it was the bit about the heffalumpabum that cracked everybody up.

#50: Just another (just another) lonely niiiiiight (baby, baby)...

*singing in harmony and dancing in sync with Tui*



#51: Yes, it reached the low 50s today, which is probably the first time in two weeks or more that the temperature here has been above normal. There is still quite a bit of snow on the grass and sidewalks, but it should all be gone in the next day or two.

#52: You're welcome, Caroline. Will you be joining Tui and I after the Pats-Jets game? We need a soprano.

#53: Thanks, Suz. I'll have to look up China Court, at least. (Hmm, if Suz is a fourth, we only need a baritone, and we'll be ready to hit the road.)

#54: What's a heffalumpabum?

Hi Darryl

Simply stopping by to tell you how much I appreciate you.

48 - Yes, sir! ;) And thanks. I do want to have at least one child, and the baby photos on Luxx's thread are definitely helping. But in spite of that, your post scared me because I was thinking about what I was getting myself into, lol!

Darryl, my soprano will be all rusty and husky from uncontrollable sobbing after the Pats/Jets game if the Pats don't pull up their socks in the remaining 5 mins! grrr....

Heffalumpabum would be the Latin masculine nominative case for heffalump. Of course. *sigh*

I can, in a very dim light, manage a mezzo. But only for an audience that has had a lot to drink!

#56: Thanks, Linda! I'm glad to see you posting on LT again.

#57: You and Luxx need to make up for the rest of us childless types. I'm looking for at least four or five kids from each of you.

#58: WTH? Jets 28, Patriots 21??? What happened to the team that beat the Jets 45-3 a few weeks ago? I'm glad to see Bill Belichick lose, but I dislike Rex Ryan just as much, if not more. The Jets beat the Steelers a few weeks back, but I seriously doubt that they can go into Pittsburgh twice in the same season and come out with a win. So, I'm ready to predict a Packers-Steelers Super Bowl, with a seventh championship ring for the Black and Gold.

Ooh, a rusty and husky soprano voice? This act will be a hit!

#59: Okay, so we'll have to soften up the audiences with a good opening act (or maybe a really bad one) and plenty of hard liquor. Our profits won't be high, but we'll be popular.

It wasn't a great reading day or weekend, but I did finish An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie late Sunday evening, which was quite good (4 stars). I think my next nonfiction read will be Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka, a book that I've wanted to get to for several years. I'm working all week and have a course on Saturday, so I may not finish this until next Sunday.

I will be interested in seeing what you think of the Soyinka book. I can get that one through the local college library.

Good luck with your personal readathon tomorrow, Darryl. Wish I could join in, but I will be asleep :)

Actually my personal readathon was supposed to have been today. I failed to keep to a strict schedule, but I did read the last 200 pages of An African in Greenland, so I did get something accomplished.

There's a good chance I won't do any reading for pleasure until Saturday afternoon, after the PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) class that morning.

Oh sorry, Darryl. I forget that I am reading well after your post :)

Will you be reviewing An African in Greenland?

Robert

I'm so excited that you read the Kpomassie. An amazing person, an amazing story! I stumbled on that book right when it came out and I've been babbling about it ever since, giving it to people and etc. I can't wait for your review!

60- No sir. Nuh uh. Hopefully one child. Possibly two. 4 or 5? Not if I can help it, lol! Luxx? Your thoughts??? ;)

#48 - Sure, they're cute in photos. ;) I've seen those "lessons" around hundreds of times, and I am thankful that my experience hasn't been nearly that stressful! If it were, I probably would have stopped at one.

#60 - And, yes - I would just like to say "hell no" to 5 kids! I'd like to have some form of body, life, and future when I'm done. ;) It's hard enough finding childcare for two (and planning for a third) when you can only find part-time work in a specific field. Three has always been my limit (which is a lot better than the "none, ever" I swore when I was first married). Angela warned me about your request, and I would like you to take it back, sir. :-p

#58. What a weekend for football! I predict you're right about the Steelers beating the Jets (here!). Not willing to predict further than that in case I jinx anything.

I'd never heard of Ake: The Years of Childhood till today, when Soyinka was on my i-pod on the Guardian Books podcast and now here in your thread! Hmmm. I haven't listened to the podcast yet - got 2 minutes into it and was interrupted.

Have fun with the PALS manual...

Go! Steelers!!!!!

I'm ready to predict a Packers-Steelers Super Bowl, with a seventh championship ring for the Black and Gold.

Sounds like a classic to me!

I'm getting a new project started to get together great recommendations for books by themes. I've called it Books By Themes (BBT) and I'd love to have your suggestions! Here's the link.

Hey, Darryl!

#71 Woo hoo! Go Steelers!

I'm only just recovering from the dismal showing by the Pats last weekend. *sigh* I definitely want the Steelers to win their upcoming game.

Ugh. My brain is broken after this past week. I was barely able to put together a coherent sentence when I chatted with a neighbor after I arrived home a little while ago. Hopefully I can function during tomorrow's class, and I hope even more that I don't have to work on Monday and Tuesday, so that I can veg out for a few days.

I bought my first two books of the year, which arrived from Amazon earlier this week, both by Tony Judt: The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century, and Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. I'll start reading The Burden of Responsibility this weekend. I also received a gift book today, and I'll read and review it soon.

#65 @Robert: Yes, I'll review An African in Greenland this weekend or early next week.

#66 @Lucy: Right, An African in Greenland was an incredible story and journey. I'm glad that I finally got around to reading it.

#67 @Angela, #68 @Luxx: Sigh. People of my generation always followed doctor's orders, without back talk or refusal. I guess I'll have to convince other intelligent and well read childless LTers to have lots of kids. (Jenny? Fliss? Caty? What are you waiting for?)

#69, 71, 72, 74, 75: Go Steelers!

#70: I haven't listened to that Guardian Books podcast yet, but I've downloaded it to my notebook.

#73: Thanks, Ilana; I'll check out Books By Themes this weekend.

Off to bed...

I'll be looking forward to it. Too bad you can't sleep late.

Robert

Hmm, I guess you don't consider me well read or intelligent?? (or you know my chronological age...) Sigh!

I've got The Burden of Responsibility on my Kindle but am not quite up to reading something that intense at the moment. Maybe by spring?

Hope you have a restful and restorative weekend Darryl.

I'll be on a flight to Malaysia, and will miss the Steelers' game. Bah! You'll have to root for them doubly hard on my behalf, Darryl

#30 Thank you for clearing my sinuses! I snorted tea up my nose while reading your childrearing lessons!

#38 To Kill A Mockingbird is a wonderful story, and this is the perfect time to read it because there are some nice 50th anniversary editions out. I loved the relationship between Scout and Atticus. But as we know from #30, it is completely idealized...

Edited to add: What are you thinking of Yalo? I must confess that my bookmark is stuck halfway through.

It is incredibly wonderful that my all time favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird is still discussed lo these 50 years after publication.

Hi Darryl! I've added An African in Greenland to the 2011 reading list.

Hope your PALS class goes well later today, and that you can catch up on some rest on Sunday. When will you know whether you have to work Monday? Or is it more of an 'on call' thing?

*Looks wistfully at the single remaining copy of An African in Greenland on Amazon UK* *Looks guiltily at credit card bill* Sigh.

I'll have to convince other intelligent and well read childless LTers to have lots of kids. (Jenny? Fliss? Caty? What are you waiting for?)

Can't speak for the others, but I'm waiting for someone willing to supply the other half of the genetic material *and* to put up with my bad habits foibles on a permanent basis.

My 5 year old came home from preschool's black and gold day telling me that the Steelers were going to the Super Bowl because they sang a song about it. He also said the Jets were really fast, and you could tell by their name.

Here we go Pittsburgh! Go Steelers!

It seems to me that with every bank and grocery store merger Cleveland is becoming more and more a suburb of Pittsburgh ..........So, I say.....Go Steelers!
New management with the Browns could put them in contention in 2012. Ever the optimist.

I don't know if Browns fans hate Pittsburgh less, but our real (sports) enemy is the Ravens. I'd love to see the Browns improve (although only to a certain point, of course).

Pittsburgh and Cleveland are suburbs of one another, I think.

#83

Exactly my reason. Somehow, I'm quite difficult to live with :/. Plus I've got a horse now, and therefore couldn't afford to have a child at the moment, let alone more than one.

*slinks quietly away without shaking his green-and-white pompoms*

Woo! The PALS course is over, and I (and all of my partners) passed. So, naturally, it's time to do the Snoopy PALS dance.



Now I can read for pleasure, for the first time since last weekend.

#77 @ Robert: I'll probably review An African in Greenland tomorrow.

#78 @Suz: Well read? Yes. Intelligent? Definitely. Childbearing age? Sure, I see no reason why you couldn't crank out 4-5 kids. Okay, you're in.

#79 @Ilana: Thanks, I'll definitely relax the rest of today and tomorrow.

#80 @Caroline: I think it's time to break out the Terrible Towel (a Pittsburgh Steelers tradition):



#81 @Lisa: I haven't started Yalo yet, but hopefully I'll finish it early this week.

#82 @Linda: I'll definitely read To Kill a Mockingbird this year.

#83 @Caty: On Monday and Tuesday I'm the backup doctor for my group. I'll have to come in if there are more than 57 patients on the General Pediatrics census either day, or if someone calls out sick. There were 48 patients on the census this morning, but we do tend to get a lot of admissions on the weekend, so there's at least a fair chance that I'll have to work one or both days.

#84 @Nancy: I remember hearing a song when I lived in Pittsburgh that went "I've got a feeling Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl" or something like that. I think that the Steelers went to the Super Bowl one year that I lived there (1993-97), but I'm pretty sure they lost, I think to the Dallas Cowboys, a game in which their QB (Neil O'Donnell) played horribly.

#85 @Lynda: It would be great if the Browns were a more competitive rival to the Steelers, given the close proximity of the two cities.

#87 @Jenny: So you and Caty are out; it's all up to Fliss and Suz.

#88 @#$6*!!! No Jets fans allowed on this thread! However, the NYJ's best player is a former Pitt star, Darrelle Revis.

Speaking of Pitt, our basketball team is currently ranked #4 (USA Today/ESPN) or #5 (AP) in the country (19-1 overall, 7-0 in the Big East), and should move up to #2 or #3 on Monday, as we beat #3 Syracuse on Monday, and thrashed DePaul today 80-50. The #2 team in the country, the Kansas Jayhawks, lost to #10 Texas today, a team that Pitt beat earlier this year. H2P! (Hail to Pitt!)

How can I *not* be a Jets fan? Mark Sanchez. 'Nuff said.

LOVE the Snoopy dance. For that, I'll consider triplets. Though I'll probably need to get moving. And since I'll die of exhaustion before they turn four, I'll be bequeathing them to you to raise after that! Since you know all the rules already...

ETA: Politely bewildered by football mania.

#90: Hmph. We'll see if you still like Mr. Sanchez after the Steelers are done with him tomorrow.

#91: I can only imagine the horror and trauma that triplets would induce on your felines. If I get the triplets I'll share them with my childless and unmarried partners at work.

Football mania will soon be followed by March Madness on this thread (NCAA men's basketball tournament), especially since Pitt looks to be a serious contender for the national title this year.

I don't care if he wins or loses, so long as no one stomps his pretty face into mush.

Oh god, basketball...almost as dull as football. MUCH more exciting than cricket.

#93: I don't care if he wins or loses, so long as no one stomps his pretty face into mush.

Far be it for me to wish injury on the opponent's QB, especially since he seems like a nice guy.

Oh god, basketball...almost as dull as football. MUCH more exciting than cricket.

College basketball is about as exciting as it gets, especially when March Madness starts. The trash talking has already begun where I work, as there are several of us whose alma maters are doing well this year (#1 Ohio State, #4 Pitt, #5 Duke, and, surprisingly, UGA). I watched today's Kansas-Texas game, which was very exciting, as the Longhorns gave KU their first loss of the season and snapped the Jayhawks' 69 game home winning streak.

After the Packers are done (hopefully not til Feb 6), then it's time to move on to Spring Training. Cubs had their convention last weekend and the White Sox this weekend. Won't be long now til pitchers and catchers report.

March Madness will be fun, too. I'm going to Chicago games this year.

My consolation is that while I'll be missing the Steelers' game, I am at least getting to watch the Australian Tennis Open during the day here.

Darryl, I couldn't read past lesson 3 in #30. So it's probably a good thing I decided in my 30's that I'd only have furry kids with four paws and a tail and that now that I'm in my 40s, there's no looking back. :-)

Much prefer rugby.

Let me rephrase: politely bewildered by sports mania.
No problems with book mania.

:-)

#89 Hey, my bad habits are not that bad! ;) I haven't given up all hope of reproducing eventually!

Well done to all of you on passing the course.

Unable to summon a level of enthusiasm to match the sports mania, or to contribute intelligently to that conversation, but I can at least claim to be mildly interested. We do still get a little bit of American football on (satellite) TV here, and I usually see whichever 5 o'clock game they put on - 9pm start here - but this week I am not likely to get to watch either game properly: I shall probably get in half way through the Packers game and I shan't manage to stay awake to the end of the Steelers game.

Find me a man who I like, and will put up with me, and I'll oblige your wish for lunacat kittens ;)

#99 Not to worry, Suz

For me, book mania and sports mania are co-equal. If absolutely forced to choose, you'd probably be surprised which one I'd pick.

#95 @Linda: I'm definitely looking forward to spring training and the upcoming MLB season, after the Phillies' disappointing loss to the Giants in the playoffs last year.

#96 @Caroline: I started to agree with you, but after two seconds of thought I knew that I couldn't. Hopefully you'll be able to watch highlights or tape delay of one or both games.

#97 @Ilana: I love kids (it would be hard to be a pediatrician if I didn't), but I almost certainly won't have any now, unless I marry a much younger woman (possible but unlikely) or enter a relationship with a single mother (extremely unlikely).

#98 @Tui: Nope, no professional rugby in the US to my knowledge. The colleges in the US, including my alma maters, play this sport on a club level, and I suspect that their matches are attended by fewer people than Little League baseball games.

#99 @Suz: I'm more of a bibliomaniac than a sports maniac, although I can hold my own with the above average sports fan, excluding hockey.

#100 @Caty: I should have said that you and Jenny are out for the moment, but not permanently I hope!

The PALS course is a bit stressful, as its goal is to treat kids who are critically ill and close to death from a variety of causes. Each of us had to pass a written test with a score of 84% or higher, and pass oral evaluations for several scenarios as a team leader and a member of the team (airway, IV, medications, recorder), similar to the one in this excerpt from the class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRJwdmvw6Gg&feature=&p=B5F6620244E44745&a...

Even though these are mock scenarios we all take it very seriously, as if we were treating live patients. Fortunately we don't have codes on the regular patient care areas as much as we used to (only five in the three hospitals in our system in 2010), but we do take care of very sick kids on a regular basis. We've learned that the best way to treat a Code Blue is to prevent it from happening, so the doctors and especially the nurses have become much better in identifying the subtle signs that indicate that a child may be starting to "go bad".

Are the satellite stations that show NFL games UK stations (e.g., Sky Sports) or US stations (such as ESPN)?

#101 @Jenny: I'm on it.

#102 @Linda: I'll bet sports mania.

#103 You'd bet right, Darryl. Good thing I can enjoy both books and sports (and read about sports).

I could hold my own with anyone on baseball and hockey and with the above average fan on football. On basketball, maybe with just the average person.

It sounds as if the PALS course is very stressful, although clearly very important.

NFL is on Sky (which we have). MLB has moved to ESPN and requires an additional subscription, which we don't have. I used to enjoy following MLB when we used to get two or three games a week, late at night (so usually live) on non-subscription channels.

I am not a *massive* sports fan, but my brother is (he's a great Patriots fan), and over the years I have learned to follow/become *moderately* interested in quite a few different sports.

>94 kidzdoc:: Even I, a non-sportslovin' type of girl, can get into March Madness. Oh yes, I do like the Super Bowl for the commercials and half-time show!

>99 Chatterbox:: I'm with you on book mania, Suzanne. In fact, I plan to indulge in some uninterrupted reading this afternoon while my husband watches the playoff games. I'm rooting (in spirit) for the Packers and will be excited if they go to the Super Bowl.

>106 Donna828:: I'm kinda like you there, Donna. I'm not a sports maniac and thankfully my husband isn't either. He often puts sports on TV (while I read), but he doesn't organize his life around it and his current obsession is replaying "Downton Abbey" on our DVR. But ... March Madness still captures our attention, as does the Tour de France (July madness?)

The finalists for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced yesterday:

Fiction

Jennifer Egan, A Visit From The Goon Squad
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
David Grossman, To The End Of The Land
Hans Keilson, Comedy In A Minor Key
Paul Murray, Skippy Dies

Biography

Sarah Bakewell, How To Live, Or A Life Of Montaigne
Selina Hastings, The Secret Lives Of Somerset Maugham: A Biography
Yunte Huang, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story Of The Honorable Detective And His Rendezvous With American History
Thomas Powers, The Killing Of Crazy Horse
Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life And Legends

Autobiography

Kai Bird, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978
David Dow, The Autobiography of an Execution
Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Hiroshima in the Morning
Patti Smith, Just Kids
Darin Strauss, Half a Life

Criticism


Elif Batuman, The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

Terry Castle, The Professor and Other Writings
Clare Cavanagh, Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West
Susie Linfield, The Cruel Radiance

Ander Monson, Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir

Nonfiction

Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Jennifer Homans, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration



Poetry

Anne Carson, Nox

Kathleen Graber, The Eternal City: Poems 

Terrance Hayes, Lighthead

Kay Ryan, The Best of It

C.D. Wright, One with Others: a little book of her days

The winners will be announced on March 10th. More information:

The National Book Critics Circle Finalists for 2010 Awards

You could just marry me. That fixes everything. How are you with guinea-pigs??

#104 @Linda: I thought so, especially since you read several sports books last year.

#105 @Caty: Yes, PALS (which is also taught in the UK), when properly performed, can make the difference between life and death in critically ill kids. The American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other organziations are constantly evaluating data and incorporating evidence into PALS recommendations, so this year's course was different from the one I took two years ago, and we already know that there will be new AHA recommendations coming out this spring that will be incorporated into the 2011 or 2012 guidelines.

#106 @Donna: I'm watching the Bears-Packers game now (7-0 Green Bay early in the 2nd quarter, and the Packers are threatening to score again...they just did, so it's 14-0). If it stays like this I may get some reading in before the Jets-Steelers game.

#107 @Laura: Hmm...maybe we could set up a March Madness group for LTers on ESPN (it's free). One of my partners at work created a group for us last year, which was a lot of fun.

#109 @Jenny: Will your folks allow you to marry an old gray beard, and an American at that? Cats and gerbils make me sneeze and wheeze, so I imagine that guinea pigs would do the same thing. :-(

The Bears have driven into Green Bay territory, for the first time today.

What on earth makes you think I pay any attention to the parent? She wouldn't mind, she'd just be glad she no longer had to fund my book obsession as well as her own ;)

>110 kidzdoc:: what does one do in an ESPN March Madness group? Do we have to paint our faces?

#99 I'm with you on that, who wants to watch sports when you can be reading all that time?!

#103 possible but unlikely, extremely unlikely
Never say never Darryl, ya never know! But just admit it—you secretly HATE kids, right? :-D
No worries, just pulling your leg a little.

ETA: A pediatrician who hates kids might make for a good book topic, if it was a humorous kind of book...

We Are a Muslim, Please by Zaiba Malik



My rating:

I read this superb memoir of a British woman of Pakistani descent last year, and reviewed it in issue 9 of Belletrista, which was published today:

http://www.belletrista.com/2011/issue9/reviews_6.php

I just read your excellent review of We Are a Muslim, Please and will be adding this book to my WL.

I'm embarrassed to say that I've only read one of the books on the National Book Critics list--Freedom--and while I liked it at the time, it hasn't really stayed with me.

Are you off from work for awhile now?

#111: Wait; so I have to support your mum's book habit as well as your own? I demand a prenuptial agreement.

#112: *rolls eyes at Laura* Noooo. Someone creates a group, and invites others to join. Participants can create as many brackets as they want starting on Selection Sunday, and everyone can follow their own brackets and see where they stack up against the others as the tournament progresses. Here's a link to my group's challenge from last year's tournament:

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=8176&entryID=522287

It's a free challenge, and I don't think you have to register with ESPN to participate. I'd be happy to create a 75ers challenge if enough people are interested.

#113: Hmm, a book about a child-hating pediatrician. I could write that, if I had any talent.

The Steelers are absolutely dominating the jets (note the small "j"), as they are leading 24-3 at the half. The halftime announcers are already discussing a Steelers-Packers Super Bowl matchup, and it will be just short of a miracle if the jets pull out a win, especially on the road.

ETA: I forgot that my our March Madness group was a private one. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to publicly view one of my entries.

Well, the Jets have started the second half more strongly, but compared to their performance in the first half they need one heck of an improvement to score enough points to even take it close. And possibly a whole new defence, too.

The Jets are playing much better, but Pittsburgh is playing traditional Steelers football, with a potent and punishing running attack that will pay dividends in the 4th quarter. Hopefully the defense will stiffen and keep the Jets out of the end zone on this current New York drive.

Yes! The Steelers are the AFC champions, but they had to hold on to beat the Jets 24-19. Hats off to the Jets for a great (and nerve-wracking) comeback, but they ran out of time.

Steelers vs. Packers in the Super Bowl -- it doesn't get much better than that.

I must say, the Steelers had me kind of worried during the second half of tonights game. At one point, I was nervously chewing on the corner of my Terrible Towel!

Here We Go! That second half was insane, but we pulled it out.

Just waving as I catch up, Darryl. Congrats to the Steelers! I am looking forward to a great Super Bowl!

* ignoring football chatter *
An ESPN March Madness group for 75ers sounds fun, Darryl ...

I don't have to work today, yippee! I only read the first page of Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka yesterday and the first couple of paragraphs of The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, the 1970 Booker Prize winner, so I'm determined to finish both books by tomorrow (hopefully I'll be off on Tuesday, as well).

#120: I think the two teams have won nine Super Bowls between them (six for the Steelers, three for the Packers), so it's definitely a blue blood matchup. I think it will be a very good game, as both teams are evenly matched on offense and defense and are playing well.

I need to get a Terrible Towel, the enduring legacy of the late Myron Cope, the longtime Steelers color commentator. I nearly died laughing the first time I heard him on the radio, when I was driving on the PA Turnpike from Philly to Pittsburgh during my first year of medical school. What a character he was!

Here's a short video of Cope describing how he came up with the idea of the Terrible Towel:

Myron Cope-The Tale of the Terrible Towel

#121: The Steelers did just enough to win that game. The Jets and Mark Sanchez deserve a great deal of credit for that comeback, and I think they will be one of the favorites to win it all next year.

#122: I'll be looking forward to this Super Bowl as much as any other I've watched. I'll have to find out if anyone I know is having a Super Bowl party here.

#123: Laura, I would expect that you would root for your home state team (Steelers). I'm a bigger fan of the Eagles, but living for 4 years in Pittsburgh would make almost anyone a Steelers fan. Their fan base and love of and loyalty to the team is incredible, and I have great respect for the Rooneys, the family that has owned the team for years.

I'd love to participate in a 75er March Madness group, as I enjoyed participating in the group from work last year. I'll ask my partner, who created last year's group, if participants are required to register with ESPN; that may dissuade some from signing up.

Go Packers!

*snaps Richard with newly acquired Terrible Towel*

I agree about the Steelers fan base. I lived in Pittsburgh for 17 yrs (1974-1990) and since then have lived in Cleveland (the Browns) and now Baltimore (the Ravens) but I will forever be a Steelers fan. (My son lives here in Bmore and is a Ravens fan - we can't be in the same building when the two teams are playing)

When I lived in Pgh, I thought the Terrible Towel was silly - but it is such a unique Pgh thing and it is wonderful to see the swirling gold towels all over the stadium when they play. A great legacy for Myron Cope.

OW! Wha'd'I do?! I merely don't think a team that has a borderline rapist as a QB should be allowed in the Big Game, is all.

Go Packers!! Speaking as a Packer season ticket holder AND a Packers owner here.

I'm so excited that we've got an old school/blue collar/old timey Super Bowl. They ought to be playing it outdoors in the snow and cold though.

I'd love to be part of a 75er March Madness group. For bragging rights. I'm in another one--we use CBS SportsLine, I think.

Very excited to be going to my first-ever NCAA tourney, on March 18 in Chicago.

*Yawn* @sport-I-don't-understand-talk

Nope, you don't have to fund my mum's book habit. Only mine. Deal??

Darryl, PM me your address, and I will happily send you a towel to thank you for your ongoing love of our fair city and to make another contribution to Myron's legacy for his son.

Richard, I agree about the piggish (if not worse) qualities of our QB. They are, however, offset by the saintly qualities of our safety. After those two cancel one another out, we are on a par (human quality wise) with any football team.

Linda, so jealous of the ability to own the Packers. Not that we'd give up the Rooneys but I think many of us would happily get rid of the current scumbags that own the Pirates.

#131 Unfortunately, I'm not the descendant of an owner from the 1923 or 1950 offerings but I do have a share of Packer stock the last time they offered it, back in 1997.

Not too many cities with a population of 100,000 can make it to the championship game of a major professional sport. They really are a unique franchise.

>131 nancyewhite: *mmmf* Not sure I buy the logic, but not willing to argue about it. Point conceded.

>132 lindapanzo: Unique...yeah...and very, very interesting. Good call on buying the share!

Steelers vs. Packers...in a way I'm glad I'm going to be away for the game. Since the family comes from the Pittsburgh area, I'm a Steelers fan. Since I live in NJ, a substantial number of friends and acquaintances are pissed off at my team right about now. :-)

Seriously, though, I'm going to enjoy this Superbowl even though I'll only catch the last part of it.

#127 @catarina: I thought that Philadelphia fans were more passionate about their sports teams than anyone else, until I saw the love that Pittsburghers have for the Steelers.

#128 @Richard: Hmm...score a point for the man from Long Island. Aaron Rodgers is clearly a better person than Ben Roethlisberger is.

#129 @Linda: Yes, it seems as though it should be a throwback game, an NFL championship game played at Lambeau Field or Pitt Stadium (where the Steelers played until Three Rivers Stadium was built).

Pitt's men's basketball team celebrated its #2 ranking by losing to #15 Notre Dame at home tonight, 56-51, its first Big East loss of the season and first loss at home in just over a year. I'm not surprised, as we always have problems with the Irish (although we've owned Syracuse, UConn and Georgetown in recent years). We're still in first place in the conference, though.

So it seems as if there are a few 75ers interested in a March Madness group. If anyone else is interested, please let me know, and I'll set up a thread toward the end of the regular season.

Congratulations on going to your first NCAA tournament! I'll have to check to see if there are any games being played in the Georgia Dome this year; there have been tournament games played there in years past, but I haven't gone to any of them.

#130 @Jenny: It's a deal, provided that you learn about (and learn to love) professional and college sports in the US. ;-)

#131 @Nancy: Thanks, Nancy! I'll take you up on that offer.

Out of curiosity, how has the city responded to Roethlisberger's latest offense. It was a big deal in Atlanta, since the alleged (and probable) assault occurred in Georgia.

It's just short of criminal what the current management has done to the once proud Pirate franchise. Our generation remembers the glory days of the 1960s and 1970s, but anyone under 18 or 19 must think of the Pirates as a bunch of perpetual losers (1991 or 1992 was the team's last winning season, right?).

#132 @Linda: It's definitely a unique franchise, especially considering their continued success in reaching championship games over the past 40-50 years on a regular basis. I can't think of another professional sports team with such a small fan base, and most of the small market teams in the other three major sports (such as, um, the Pirates) struggle just to achieve mediocrity.

#133 @Richard: Unfortunately I think I agree with Richard on this one. Although he wasn't formally charged with sexual assault last year or a few years back, his off the field behavior (including his motorcycle accident in downtown Pittsburgh) has been abysmal and shameful. He would do well to avoid even a hint of impropriety over the remainder of his career, as he is skating on very thin ice IMO.

#134 @Tad: I'll be rooting for the Steelers, of course, but I wouldn't be too upset if the Packers won. My frequent trips to Wisconsin seem to be turning me into a Cheesehead.

I finished one book during today's Read-a-Thon, The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, a novel about the flawed but sympathetic members of a Jewish family in 1960s London which won the Booker Prize in 1970. It was a very good read (4 stars); I'll review it tomorrow, along with An African in Greenland.

Initially worried that I had missed out on something very major when I saw three dozen unread messages on this thread. Now that I'm relieved to see that much of it involved a discussion of football, I can return to my books... ;-)

I do enjoy hockey. When it's played well, vs just smashing into each other on ice. That may be a sport, but it ain't hockey.

Initially worried that I had missed out on something

Ditto. I was relieved to see it wasn't anything that concerns me. :-)

Darryl, I haven't read any of the three baseball books you mentioned but let me know when you do, please. I may join you. Turns out I do own the Roberto Clemente book, too. I'm actually hoping to get to the Maraniss bio of Vince Lombardi soon. When Pride Still Mattered. I don't think I've ever read anything by him before.

#136 Suz, for me, hockey is second only to baseball. Tonight is the Blackhawks' last game til after the All-Star game on Sunday. I will have to keep myself busy somehow in the meantime (reading more, no doubt).

I've had a productive reading day, as I finished two books that met my 11 in 11 challenge: The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut, which was shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize, and Blind Man with a Pistol by the late African-American writer Chester Himes.

I noticed that you mentioned in the readathon thread you were dipping into a Danton bio -- hadn't you read the Lawday one? Or is this another one?

My reading day was slightly less productive, due to too much organizational nonsense work, plus too little sleep. Actually slept through my alarm; bad thing, that.

#136: I developed a mild interest in hockey in high school, when the Philadelphia Flyers won two(?) Stanley Cups, and I did watch the famous 1980 Winter Olympics hockey final, when the heavily favored USSR team lost to the USA. Since then I've had almost no interest in the sport, as I was turned off by the frequent fights.

#137: There has been very little book discussion, and no book reviews, unfortunately. I did finish three books in the past two days, and I'll review them over the next couple of days, starting with An African in Greenland after I get home from work.

#138: I'll read the Clemente biography during Mac's spring training theme, probably sometime in March.

#140: I haven't read the Lawday biography yet, Suz. I will read it soon, as I want to read A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel in the spring or summer.

Yesterday was my best reading day of the year, as I finished two books from cover to cover, although it wasn't as enjoyable as spending New Year's Day reading with my friends in Madison. I didn't read well on Sunday, probably because I was so tired from the long work week. I hope that you caught up on sleep last night.

I enjoy your reviews Darryl, so I'll be looking forward to those.

>94 kidzdoc: I resemble that remark. As a KU alum--never missed a home game in 7 years of undergrad and graduate studies, I thought that was the worst half (the second one) I'd seen the Jayhawks play in a long time. And at home, too...

I went to my only NCAA tournament as a senior in college, when we lost to UCLA in the Final Four in Houston. Thank heavens for ESPN full court and digital cable and the computer--for many years it was very difficult to follow Kansas basketball out here in San Diego. And I always have withdrawal symptoms after the NCAA tournament--I have even been known to take the day off work the first week when they have games all day long on Thursday and Friday. Don't have to worry about that this year! ;-D

I am looking forward to the Super Bowl but I am not sure who to root for - I have been both a Packers fan and a Steelers fan for as long as I can remember. I am just hoping for a good game.

#142: Thanks, Ilana. I have to work late tonight, so I'll probably review these books Friday after work or over the weekend.

#143: I still haven't gone to a NCAA tournament game, mainly because neither Pitt nor Rutgers, two of my alma maters, has played any tournament games in Atlanta. I don't think Rutgers has been to the Dance since 1990, the year after I graduated, and Pitt usually ends up in the Midwest or West bracket.

Let's see...no tournament games will be played in Atlanta this year.

Pitt's loss on Monday to Notre Dame didn't hurt too much, as Villanova was upset by Providence last night. We're alone in first place, and we still have a good shot at picking up a #1 or #2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

#144: I can hardly wait for Super Bowl Sunday. I like both teams, and it should be an evenly matched game.

No pressure Darryl, I'll still be here by then. Must be nice to have a captive audience. :-)

#145: I agree with you about it being an evenly matched game, Darryl. I hope it is one for the ages.

#30 et al. Skipping all the sports talk, I'll return to a subject in which I have a vested interest, if not expertise: parenting. Has anyone read the now (in)famous publishing sensation Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother? I've been following some of the hoopla, including articles by David Brooks and a summary of an interview--at Davos of all places--between the author and Larry Summers. A case of parenting being as lucrative as the invention of silly bandz.

I've an invite to watch the Superbowl live at the American Club here in Singapore! Yaay ... gotta love the American expatriate community here that they're still big on their sports.

#146: I'll work on the reviews later today or on Sunday; I didn't get home from work until late last night, and barely managed to eat dinner before I fell asleep. I'll participate in the remainder of today's Read-a-Thon until 4 pm EST, starting with Yalo, a novel by the Palestinian author Elias Khoury.

#147: Same here, Stasia.

#148: I've read a couple of articles about Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, but I definitely won't read the book. Ms Chua seems to be just a bit sensationalistic and self-obsessed, which are traits that I don't associate with my Chinese friends or their parents.

#149: Excellent! I'm glad that you'll be able to watch the game, Caroline.

The fiction longlist for the 2011 Best Translated Book Awards was announced on Thursday:

The Literary Conference by César Aira, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (New Directions)

The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive)

The Rest Is Jungle and Other Stories by Mario Benedetti, translated from the Spanish by Harry Morales (Host Publications)

A Life on Paper by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin (Small Beer)

A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex, translated from the French by Donald Wilson (Bitter Lemon)

A Splendid Conspiracy by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Alyson Waters (New Directions)

The Jokers by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis (New York Review Books)

Eline Vere by Louis Couperus, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke (Archipelago)

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)

The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck, translated from the German by Anthea Bell (Grove)

Hocus Bogus by Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar), translated from the French by David Bellos (Yale University Press)

To the End of the Land by David Grossman, translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen (Knopf)

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal (New York Review Books)

The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito, translated from the French by Robyn Creswell (New Directions)

Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (New Directions)

Cyclops by Ranko Marinković, translated from the Croatian by Vlada Stojiljković, edited by Ellen Elias-Bursać (Yale University Press)

Hygiene and the Assassin by Amélie Nothomb, translated from the French by Alison Anderson (Europa Editions)

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund and the author (Graywolf Press)

A Thousand Peaceful Cities by Jerzy Pilch, translated from the Polish by David Frick (Open Letter)

Touch by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Paula Haydar (Clockroot)

The Black Minutes by Martín Solares, translated from the Spanish by Aura Estrada and John Pluecker (Grove/Black Cat)

On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui, translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey (Dalkey Archive)

Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk, translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns (Tin House)

Microscripts by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions/Christine Burgin)

Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg (Archipelago)

More information: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=3053

*pantwheezecough*

Just made it all the way through both of your threads and I feel like I need to lay down. Of course, several books were added to my wishlist, and that list of lessons for potential parents had me laughing out loud. As a non-parent myself, and a sitter for about 20 years off and on, all points seems hilariously accurate.

Glad to be caught up, and I promise not to let it happen again! Off to catch up on the reading shenanigans of Richard, Linda, Stasia, Caro, Jude, Luxx, Cate,....

Go Pack Go! It's guaranteed to be a great game no matter the outcome, though if the Packers lose I'll have to watch for a mass murder-suicide at my neighbors house. I swear they'd be only too happy to paint their house green and gold. I'm just looking forward to all of the wonderfully unhealthy food to eat - taco dip, here I come!

Are you planning on reading all of those on the list, Darryl? Or have you already read some of them, like George Letham which I remember you reviewing. I still remember the rats in that book!

#151: I am going to mark the list to come back to later, although I doubt my local library will have any of the titles. Thanks for posting it, Darryl!

#152: Good luck in catching up on those other threads, especially Richard's (I think he's up to his fifth thread of 2011!).

Although I have yet to see any green and gold houses in Madison, I'm sure that I wouldn't have to travel very far to find one.

#153: I've read three of the books on this list, Georg Letham, Touch and The Literary Conference, and I own but haven't read Eline Vere and To the End of the Land. Several others look interesting, and I'll probably purchase On Elegance While Sleeping for my new Kindle later this week.

I broke down and ordered the new Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi from Amazon this afternoon, which will arrive on Monday. I fell in love with it when my best friend bought it for his wife's birthday earlier this month, almost ordered it a couple of times in the past two weeks, and finally hit the "Purchase" button today. I've also purchased my first book for the Kindle, The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago, which I'll read next month.

Congrats on the new Kindle, Darryl!

It will be fun to see what you think of the Kindle, Darryl. I got one two years ago and went nuts with it for about 3 weeks, reading books, the New York Times, the New Yorker and numerous free downloads. Unfortunately, I've had trouble in the past with repetitive stress injuries in my arms from less than ergonomic use of the computer and all the clicking to turn the pages had my muscles in knots so I had to give it up. I've now got my eye on the iPad because you don't have click to turn the pages but I'm waiting for the price to come down.

Thanks, Stasia. I'm off on Monday, so I'll let y'all know what I think of it. I probably wouldn't have ordered one, or at least not this soon, if I didn't get a chance to try it earlier this month.

#157: I'll definitely start to use it right away, and I think that I'll use it a lot, although I'll probably continue to preferentially buy dead tree books, especially since many, if not most, of the books I read are from small publishers or ones that I buy in or order from the UK, such as The White Family and We Are a Muslim, Please.

Congratulations on joining the Kindle family. I have to say that I resisted getting an e-reader for a really long time but then I started to borrow my husband's Kindle last year on a couple of my long trips and while it in no way replaces the experience of reading a 'real' book, I didn't mind reading books on it as much as thought I might. And now I have my own, same version that you bought and I downloaded 30 books to bring with me on this trip.... my luggage relief alone was worth it.

You HAVE to read Eline Vere this year, Darryl. You just have to!

Darryl, I know you'll enjoy the Kindle .... I love my nook, and find it's especially nice for those of us who want to read chunksters, but whose arthritic hands won't allow us to hold any heavier than a paperback. i also just discovered tonite how to download MP3 music files, so I put a few very soft 'elevator music' songs (actually some monks chanting) on there and can now plug in the music to drown out hubby's awful 'shoot em up' shows while I'm reading. It's heaven, and it's so nice now leaving on vacation to be able to take a boatload of books with me in something not much bigger than my checkbook. And the best part is, that I find it much easier and nicer to read on than I ever thought I would. i'm hooked!!! and I suspect you will be too. Can't wait to hear what you think of the Saramago. he's my big reading project of the year.

Thanks, Caroline. I'll try to resist the temptation to buy books that I'm not planning to read in the near future. I assume that the Kindle books I purchased previously for my BlackBerry will be readable on the new Kindle.

I'll probably read Eline Vere next month, mainly due to your enticing review of it.

#161: Good point, Tina. I like reading chunksters on trips, especially on long airline flights, but I find it hard to hold up one of these books on a plane or train, especially now that I have progressive lenses for my glasses, in which the lowest third of the lens is used for reading. It's more comfortable for me to elevate the book above my lap, so that I don't have to bend my head back to look down too far. It will be much easier to read tomes on the Kindle than to try to read the dead tree book version.

It would be nice if dead tree books that one purchased from Amazon could be downloaded to the Kindle for free or minimal cost.

So far, I've been successful in downloading only free books on my Kindle. I think this will help me not download too many that I may never have a hope of getting to. Then too, if anything were to happen to my Kindle, eg. it self destructs because it was used as a tool by spies on a Mission Impossible, falls into the tub, gets run over by a car etc ... I won't feel too bad about losing the books on it. I will, however, feel really sad at the demise of my Kindle though.

#164: LOL! Hopefully none of those things, or anything else more improbable, will happen to your beloved Kindle, Caroline.

I would also love to learn if I can bypass Amazon's restriction on purchasing books outside of the US, so that I can order books from Amazon UK that haven't been published in the US.

#165

I don't believe there is a way for you to do it, but I think that if you got a UK Kindle user to buy the books for their own kindle, and they gave you their passwords etc, you should be able to then download the books onto your own kindle from their account.

Of course, you'd then need to send them the money back! But that's the only way I know to do it.

I could offer my services in this department to see if it would work? I have a Kindle but barely use it, can't afford to buy any books on it, so I could do this.

#164/165: The sad thing is, I can see any or all of those things happening. We are, after all, talking about Caro's Kindle.

#166: I did a Google search, and found a blog from nerdgirl, which seems to come up with a creative way to do this (if I'm reading this correctly):

amazon kindle outside the us

I'll probably give this a try tomorrow or later in the week, once my Kindle arrives.

#167: True. Sad, but true.

Stopping by to wave hello and wish you a Happy Sunday.

Planned reads for February:

White Egrets by Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize laureate category)
The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov (NYRB)
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (miscellaneous nonfiction)
Staying On by Paul Scott (Booker Prize winner)
Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone (African American novel)
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (Booker Prize longlisted novel)
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (Orange Prize longlisted novel)
Autism's False Prophets by Paul Offit (medicine)
Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka (memoir/biography)
Eline Vere by Louis Couperus (Archipelago book)
Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah (public intellectual)
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago
Sonata Mulattica by Rita Dove

Other possible reads:

So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa

#169: And a Happy Sunday to you too, Linda!

I'll finish Yalo today, and then read a biography, probably Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman.

Book #7: An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie



My rating:

This unique and highly entertaining travelogue begins in the west African country of Togo in the late 1950s, as the teenage author recuperates from a near fatal illness. Kpomassie, an avid reader, is enthralled by a book that he discovers at the town's evangelical bookshop, The Eskimos from Greenland to Alaska, with its descriptions of vast territory devoid of trees, eternal cold, hunters clothed in animal skins, and a society that valued the child above all else, which contrasted sharply with Togo's elder dominated society and its numerous tropical forests, blistering hot beaches, and dangerous snakes. He soon decides that his destiny is to travel to Greenland, instead of fulfilling his father's promise to entrust him to the healers that saved his life.

Kpomassie slowly makes his way to Greenland via the countries on the west African coast, France, Germany and Denmark, aided by relatives and benefactors who are impressed with and fond of the soft spoken but determined young man. He finally arrives in the southern Greenlandic town of Julianehåb, eight years after he left Togo, and is warmly welcomed by the town's Inuit and Danish inhabitants, who are entranced by the gentle black giant.

Kpomassie's descriptions of the different cultures in Greenland, the people he meets, and the unique if not exactly palatable cuisine are entertaining, often warm and humorous, and always evocative and pointedly descriptive. He becomes disenchanted with the culture of southern Greenland, and slowly travels to the even more isolated northern regions, in order to seek the true Inuit people that he read and dreamed about.

An African in Greenland is an improbable and unforgettable work of travel literature, which is easily my favorite in this genre. I suppose that my ultimate compliment is that it made me eager to accompany Kpomassie to Greenland, despite its brutal climate and horrid cuisine.

An African in Greenland sounds great, Darryl. I'm off to WL it and give your review a thumb.

It's nice to be back on LT after not being able to get on all day.

Thanks, Pat. I wrote that review just before LT crashed; hopefully everything has been straightened out now (although the touchstones don't seem to be working properly).

Good review Darryl. Sounds like an intriguing book. Congrats on the new kindle! I'm a Mac addict and keep thinking about getting an iPad, but can't justify the price for it.

Thanks for the review of An African In Greenland. I have the book, and began reading it maybe a couple years ago, set it aside for reasons I don't recall but more likely life discombobulation than the book. In general I am fascinated by idiosyncratic adventures, and this one has the added merit of beginning with a random encounter with a book. You're inspiring me to pluck it off the shelf again. If only so many others weren't inspiring me too...

I finished Yalo by Elias Khoury just before midnight, a novel about a young Lebanese man imprisoned and brutally interrogated in post-civil war Beirut, who is forced to write a testimony about his past life and the crimes he is accused of committing. It was a so-so read, and not up to the level of his outstanding novels Gate of the Sun and White Masks. I'll review it in the next few days, after I finish my other reviews.

An African in Greenland looks terrific! Thanks for the review and recommendation, Darryl. Into the BlackHole it goes!

Thanks for posting the Translated Books longlist. Of course, I haven't heard of most of these. But I do happen to have both Visitation and The True Deceiver sitting on my shelves, so I will try to at least read these, and see if I can find a couple of the others. When does the shortlist get announced?

So happy that you loved Kpomassie, and I loved your review.

#178: I think you'll like it, Stasia.

#179: Janet, The shortlist will be announced on March 24th (my birthday).

ETA: Thanks, Lucy!

Book #8: The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens



My rating:

This Booker Prize winning novel about a close-knit but dysfunctional Jewish family is set in the East End of London in the 1960s. Norman Zweck, the golden son of a rabbi and his late wife, whose promising career as a barrister has been derailed by drug use and mental illness brought on by his mother's incessant demands and his personal failings, is slowly becoming unhinged — again. He spends his days in his parents' old bedroom, locked away from his father and younger sister, popping amphetamine pills in a futile attempt to keep his demons at bay. His father and younger unmarried sister Bella, who deeply love Norman but fear his ever more worrisome outbursts, work together to place him in a mental institution, in a last ditch effort to get him back to his old self.

As he recuperates in the institution, the three members of the family, and Norman's estranged sister Esther, reflect on how they reached this critical point. Past actions, indiscretions, and tragic decisions haunt each of them, but none more than Norman. The Zuckers attempt to reconcile their differences once and for all, as Norman descends further into madness and as his father's health begins to fail.

The Elected Member was a enjoyable read, filled with humor despite its tragic elements, and hope in the face of despair and crisis.

I vowed to cut back on my wishlist this year so that I could return to the pre-LT days of serendipitous discovery. Alas I'm finding that impossible thanks to threads such as yours. I guess there are worse wagons to fall off of.

Book #10: Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes



My rating:

Harlem, a summer in the late 1960s: temperatures are sweltering, and its residents are becoming more agitated and tense, fueled by a series of protests and violent murders that threaten to tear the neighborhood's fragile structure apart. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, two of NYC's finest detectives, are called upon to solve these crimes and help restore order. The two encounter a variety of odd and unsavory characters, including a preacher who claims to be 100 years old and the father of innumerable children by the "nuns" who share a squalid flat with him, and an inscrutable gay counterman at a restaurant on 125th Street who knows far more than he will admit to. Despite their efforts, the tension and violence progressively escalate, as former allies become hated enemies.

The title of this book refers to Himes' comment about unorganized violence in the black community, fueled by community leaders that urged black men to act, often recklessly. I found this novel to be disjointed and difficult to follow, which made for an unpleasant read. I understand that his earlier novels are better than this one, particularly If He Hollers Let Him Go, so I'll try Himes again in the near future.

I was impressed by the comedy of Pinktoes decades ago and knew that if I found him (this before the internet) I would read more of him. I have read at least one of his short stories and was confirmed in my respect for him. He hasn't surfaced for me more than that, and I kinda wish he would.

I'm sorry that I can't just lift one of his books off the shelf, now that I've read your comments, and expect it to be solid.

Robert

#185: I'm not ready to give up on Chester Himes based on one book. I do have another Himes book, The Collected Stories of Chester Himes, a hefty collection of 60 of his short stories written over a 40 year period. I'll read that later this year, probably in the summer.

My new Kindle arrived from UPS today, and I'll start using it later tonight, after I finish Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman. I have the following paid books on it so far, which I would be happy to lend (once I figure out how to do this):

The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago (I'm planning to start this tonight or tomorrow; can I lend it while I'm reading it?)
Germinal by Emile Zola (I mistakenly bought the French edition, so I have that along with the English edition)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid by Percival Everett

I'm glad you enjoyed An African in Greenland. I have a paperback copy I picked up at a used book sale somewhere and I thought it an interesting read.

Since I don't plan on traveling to England anytime soon, do you have a recommendation on a place to buy books online without paying a fortune in shipping? I would love to get my hands on a copy of We are a Muslim, please, but it's not available in "dead tree" format here in the states that I can see.

Have fun playing with your new Kindle.

#187: Since I don't plan on traveling to England anytime soon, do you have a recommendation on a place to buy books online without paying a fortune in shipping?

Yes. I use The Book Depository, an online bookseller that will ship books for free from the UK to North America and most of Europe, usually at a discount from the list price, and with no minimum purchase required. My latest purchase was God's Philosophers by James Hannam, which JanetinLondon reviewed earlier this month. It lists for £9.99 ($15.85 US), but The Book Depository is selling it for £8.23 ($13.05 US), with no additional cost. It usually takes about two weeks for the books to arrive, via Royal Mail. Other LTers, especially Suzanne (Chatterbox), have had problems with The Book Depository, but I've ordered several dozen books from them over the past 2-3 years with no problems (except for two or three books that were out of stock after I placed the order).

I discovered the BookDepository just before Christmas because of SantaThing and have been very happy with them. I've already ordered quite a few books from them. Most of the time, they are cheaper than Amazon.ca (I'm in Canada) and it's nice to just be able to order one book at a time with the free shipping.

I have been very happy with The Book Depository too even getting reasonably prompt service during the holidays. But the participants in SantaThing are still reckoning arrivals from books shipped mid-December, not the fault of The Book Depository but the fault of their being a foreign source. I will order from them again, but most of my orders for new books are to BN.COM where shipping is free to members or to any order, if I have it correctly, over $25.

Robert

I just finished my first February book, Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors by Brian Eule, for challenge #16. It was written by the husband of a surgery resident, and describes the lives of three medical students as they go through the Match and enter residency in their chosen fields. I'll review this later today, and post a link here.

Thanks to Suz to lending this to me; it's the first book I read on my new Kindle, which I love so far!

3 books in one day?! Oh Darryl....

Great review on An African in Greenland and The Elected Member. Those 2 and Match Day just flew into my obese wish list like rabbits into the nearest burrow at the scent of a fox.

I've just realized that I haven't seen many detective mysteries in your reading list, but I seem to recall you saying that you used to read many of these in the past.

#192: Uh oh, I've invoked the Wrath of Caroline again.

Match Day was very good. I read half of it last night, woke up at 1 am, presumably after a troublesome dream, and read the rest of it early this morning since I couldn't get back to sleep.

I've never been a fan of detective mysteries, and I can't think of the last time that I read one. Chester Himes' other detective novels are supposed to be good, so I'll give him a try if I like The Collected Stories of Chester Himes.

Thankfully I don't have to work today, since I didn't get much sleep last night. I'll finish Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane this morning, and write a review or two this afternoon.

Darryl, I'll be curious to read about your thoughts on Match Day. I figure you have first-hand knowledge of it. I enjoyed reading it.

#188-190: Thanks for the info on the book depository. I've signed up for an account and got it bookmarked on del.icio.us so I can find it when I just can't wait for We are a Muslim please. My TBR pile just keeps expanding!

I see you plan to read In the Country of Men this month Darryl. I loved that book when I read it a couple years ago; sheer poetry.

I will also add my 2 cents for the Book Depository. I have never had a problem with them and have ordered from them multiple times.

Book #12: Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors by Brian Eule



My rating:

Match Day is the most important — and most nerve wracking — day for graduating students in every medical school in the United States, as more than 15,000 fourth years find out which residency program they have been matched to. The process involves a complicated dance, in which students interview at different hospitals and medical schools with their prospective program directors, attending physicians, and future resident colleagues, and both the students and the residency programs submit ranked lists; the students indicate which programs they would most prefer to attend, and the residency programs rate which students they desire the most. A computer program in a small room in the nation's capital compiles this data and spits out its results, in a process that cannot be challenged by the students or program directors.

On Match Day, each student is given a sealed envelope in an auditorium, in a ceremony filled with extreme tension and high emotions, as the students' career plans and the schools' reputation for placing their graduates in the top programs are on the line. Medical students are by nature competitive, highly driven, and even more highly anxious, and each has spent countless hours on the Match process and lost nearly as many hours of sleep worrying about it. At several schools, including my own, one or more local television news stations film the ceremony, which is broadcast on that evening's news. As each student opens his or her envelope, screams of joys are mingled with silent tears or looks of stunned disbelief, depending on the individual Match results.

For some students, generally those who are not married, in a serious relationship, or seeking a very unique career path,the program they match to is not critical, as long as they get into a solid one. However, many students do have fiancees, or spouses with or without children, whose lives are also deeply affected by the contents of those envelopes.

Brian Eule, the author of Match Day, writes poignantly of his experiences as a person removed from the process, yet deeply affected by it as his girlfriend, a surgeon who is now his wife, and two other couples go through the Match and intern year. All three women are in medicine, whereas two of the men are not, in keeping with the dramatic strides made to equalize the gender bias in U.S. medical schools in the past 25 years (my graduating class was the first in the 100-plus year history of the school to have more women than men, and practically all schools have achieved gender parity). Eule's description of the day to day lives of these interns, their spouses, and the effect of medical school and residency on their relationships is spot on; each doctor struggles daily with the soul crushing demands of intern year, each non-medical spouse tries to be as supportive as possible while putting their own needs and desires on a back burner, and each couple's love is challenged on a regular basis. This excerpt by Eule about his wife and their relationship is especially insightful:

It would always be a tug-of-war. I had come to terms with the idea that I was marrying a woman with a double identity. For the thirty seconds she sat in the car with me, she was the Stephanie I had known for the last six years. But running back into the hospital, she was a woman whose level of responsibility would always be hard for me to relate to, no matter how much I learned from her and from my friends about the culture of becoming a doctor.

Match Day is a superb book about the lives of young doctors and their partners, which would be of special interest to medical students, their significant others and families, but I would also recommended it to the general reader, as Eule tells a compelling and highly readable account of love under highly stressful circumstances.

Ooh, this sounds great, Darryl. I'm off to WL it and thumb your review.

#199: Another great review, Darryl! Duly added to the BlackHole.

Match Day looks great. Onto the Wishlist.

I'm currently reading The White Family which I learned about from you. It is tough but good so far - 50 pages in.

Going back to the sports talk and your question about our reaction to Rothelisberger's sexual misconduct (or worse) in Georgia. I'd say it ranges, but was generally quite bad. Remember he has had plenty of other mishaps and generally is widely known for asshole behavior.

We wanted him traded. The thrift stores are full of his shirts (including my son's) and remained so as recently as last week when I was trolling for team shirts. The Strip had tables of shirts and posters decrying him as a 'jagoff' and rapist. His misdeed was at least partially in our collective conscience even more by the Rooney's positioning of the Steelers as a team interested in players of good character. Something most of us take some pride in. How could both things co-exist? Good character and this pig?

That being said, for some people the only thing relevant is his play. For others, the fact that he wasn't charged equates to exoneration. And to more Pittsburghers than I like to admit, the fact that he has behaved himself this season and (more importantly) gotten the team to this current Superbowl overrides all other considerations. They know he did it but don't care as long as he gets us where we want to go.

For me, I have no use for him and wish that the Rooneys would have put their money where their mouth is. I cannot and will not boycott the team though because of its role in our civic pride and because even though I was joking with Richard, Rothelisberger is one man of many. Troy Polamalu and Charlie Batch in particular are men I'd call local heroes. Polamalu was amazing with (my) Ben - a kid who didn't care about football in the least. He often spent more than an hour in his room. Once when Ben thought Meg was trying to make him change his shirt into a football shirt, he started to cry (he hated exposing his port and tubes). Polamalu took the shirt and threw it on the floor and jumped up and down on it cracking Ben up. Meg was actually just looking for an autograph. Even Hines Ward visited the kids and was great although an obvious lover of attention. Tomlin bought a house in Shadyside (rather than Fox Chapel or some other rich man's land) and he and his wife became immediate public champions of urban life here - something we truly need.

I have no recollection of being present for or hearing about Rothelisberger visiting the hospital if that speaks at all to the measure of the man. I will observe that through injury and age he is physically slowly turning into Shrek and that is sort of entertaining to watch.

So I used many words to say, Pittsburgh's reaction to Rothelisberger is varied but primarily negative and more tied to his on-field performance than I'd like to admit.

Edited to make sure that there could be no possible confusion between my friend's son Ben and Rothelisberger.

And to say you should be getting your Towel tomorrow or Thursday.

Book #13: Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman



My rating:

Here's a one question quiz for you jazzheads: Who is Alice Coltrane?

a. Alice who?
b. That woman who replaced the legendary McCoy Tyner on piano in John Coltrane's classic 1960s band
c. A weird mystical being of limited talent, who corrupted Trane's legacy
d. None of the above.

The correct answer is d. Anyone who chose a, b or c will need to meet with me after class.

Alice Coltrane (1937-2007) was an accomplished musician well before she met John Coltrane, the legendary jazz saxophonist, in the early 1960s. Born Alice McLeod to a musical family on the East End of Detroit, she was exposed at a young age to black religious and folk music in her church, where she served as the three choirs' pianist and arranger, and to modern jazz at home, where her half-brother Ernest Farrow was an accomplished musician, and throughout the Motor City, as she studied under and played alongside well known artists such as Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Yusef Lateef and Sonny Stitt. Her fellow musicians described her as an innovative pianist, whose phrasing integrated her knowledge of those different musical genres into a unique style. Unfortunately her talent earned her little recognition, due to the double prejudice of race and gender, as many "girl musicians" who were not singers or hard driving musicians were not taken seriously, and because most jazz musicians gained their fame in New York, Los Angeles or elsewhere.

McLeod decided to further her career by moving to Paris along with a local scat singer, who she married before leaving Detroit, but she soon returned to her home town with her young daughter after she divorced him. She performed locally with Terry Gibbs' band, until she met John Coltrane on tour. The two married soon after, and after three years of being a mother to their three children, Trane invited her to replace McCoy Tyner as the group's pianist in 1965, as he replaced his classic quartet with musicians that better fit his abstract music that stretched the boundaries of jazz and incorporated elements of Eastern music. Trane's health failed, and he died in 1967 of liver cancer at the age of 41. However, Alice continued where her husband and teacher left off, and continued to explore his music in her own fashion, as she used her past experiences to produce her own music that incorporated avant garde jazz with Indian music. She recorded more than 20 albums over the next 40 years, including Ptah, the El Daoud (1970), Universal Consciousness (1972), Transcendence (1977) and Translinear Light (2004), and became a spiritual leader of a Hindu center in California. The success of Translinear Light led to a brief comeback in 2006, as she played with her son Ravi Coltrane, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Roy Haynes, but passed away the following year.

Alice Coltrane's life and music has long been under-recognized, and Franya Berkman chose her as the subject of her PhD thesis in ethnomusicology, which she extended into this work. Through interviews with Alice and those musicians who performed with her, Berkman effectively dispels the falsehoods about this talented musician and spiritual seeker, and the reader gains an appreciation for her talent prior to, during, and after her years with Trane. This book would be best appreciated by those with some familiarity with Alice Coltrane's music, as it is more of a musical analysis than a biography, but it is an excellent introduction to this amazingly talented artist.

Edited to correct troublesome touchstones.

#203: Whew! I get to skip the after class meeting with Darryl. Sounds scary to me :)

#200, 201: Thanks Pat and Stasia!

#202: Thanks for your thoughtful comments about Roethlisberger, Nancy. You confirmed my belief that most Pittsburghers founds his recent actions to be offensive and despicable, and that he was a poor role model for the city and the team. I agree with you, one man does not make a team, and I think it's possible to support the club without condoning the actions of its individuals. I will be interested to see how he is treated over the rest of his career, and especially after he leaves the Steelers or retires; I doubt that he will receive the same love and respect of past or present players and coaches.

Yoi! Thank you in advance for sending a Terrible Towel to me!

#204: Those who fail the quiz will be fitted with dunce caps for the rest of the semester.

Love your last two reviews, and I think that they are both books I will be on the lookout for!

As another Steelers fan, may I commenht on Big Ben? My perspective is a little different. I do think that if he did what they say he did, there should have been much harsher consequences. The reality is, under our American system, a person is supposed to be considered innocent until convicted in a court of law. For whatever reason, the whole thing never was prosecuted to get the answer one way or the other. What does that say about "the system?" You be the judge. I don't know. If it had been anyone else, would there have been a trial?

A basic part of my belief system is that people can change; I believe in redemption, that even the worst people can be reformed and become contributing members of society. Ben shows some signs of improvement; is he just being good because he knows he has to? Is he finally growing up? Would it maybe be a good thing for him and everyone around him if he would just be a good and decent person from now on?

As an Eagles fan, I have some of the same perspective about Michael Vick, except he was convicted and paid the legal penalty of his crime. I hope he learned something and is sorry for what he did and will be kind now to animals and to the people around him and try to make amends to society by trying to make the world a better place.

Maybe I am naive and an idealist, but that's kind of where I am on the subject.

Mmm. . . Match Day looks good. . .Stopping by to say hello!

I can't say whether or not you are naive or an idealist on the topic of redemption. I hope you are neither.

I do think you may be using the legal system as a standard of personal (rather than criminal) innocence and that doing so is next to useless particularly as it applies to stupid, drunken young women who are (minimally) taken advantage of and treated very, very poorly by wealthy and famous older men. Assumption of legal innocence of a crime until proven guilty (or to my way of thinking un-prosecutable because he got a young girl so drunk she has memory lapses and exercised the poor judgement of flirting with him and then he took her into a bathroom with off-duty police officers blocking the way so her friends could neither intervene nor bear witness) in no way implies being innocent of being a very, very bad guy. He has a long-standing reputation of being -as my friend a police officer who sees him regularly at clubs says - a predator of young women as well as generally a jerk. He plies girls with alcohol and then takes advantage of them sexually. Is it rape? Probably it is sometimes given that alcohol can interfere with consent. If it isn't, it is so stinking close that I'd personally try to physically prevent a young woman from spending time with him. One can no longer attribute this unacceptable behavior to Rothelisberger's youth or need to "grow up". He is a man and has been for quite a few years now. He has been given great gifts and chosen to think they entitled him to behave like a Neanderthal.

I also think that wealth and fame play a role in the decisions made by the legal team in Georgia and the young woman's family. He certainly victimized her enough that I may have encouraged her to make the same decision if I was her family. I in no way mean to state that I think that Innocent Until Proven Guilty isn't an important American entitlement just that it is purely a criminal one which is why the standards are much lower for civil trials.

I'm sorry but although I think real progress has been made, I think the legal system fails victims of sexual assault far, far too often. Sometimes this is complicated by circumstances - such as drunkenness in the case of this young woman and sometimes it is the nature of the situation (he said/she said). Either way, predatory people use these gray areas to get away with harming people weaker than themselves (this applies to other types of harm besides rape, of course) and know that it will result in people saying, "Well if they were really so bad they would have been prosecuted" etc.

Is Rothelisberger capable of redemption? Perhaps. Certainly not yet and absolutely not something to be accomplished by his performance on the football field or with members of the media. I hope that a few years from now he has done something to indicate that he has changed his attitude about women and sexuality.

In an unpopular stance around Pittsburgh, I agree with you about Michael Vick. He certainly seems to be trying to make meaningful change. I wonder if he would have done the same had he not been given the extraordinary opportunity to join the Eagles. We'll never know.

I think it is important to say that I find Rothelisberger to be repulsive and hate that he gets more attention than folks like Polamalu or Batch who have handled adversity, wealth and insane privilege (especially in Pittsburgh where we worship football) with class, decency and good humor. Both men have managed to better the lives of people around them in small and large-scale ways without the need for a redemption narrative (yet and hopefully not ever).

208 Very well-thought-out and stated, Nancy!

Going back to the more manageable topic of books...

I think you enjoyed Match Day more than I did, Darryl; not surprising, given your first-hand knowledge of the whole process and the strains and stresses it creates. I was intrigued, but I think ended up giving it a 3.5 rating or so. So I'm glad the book got a "second life" via your reading!!

If I read it correctly, that Amazon in the UK link was more aimed at people who wanted to download US books while overseas, no? The issue there was their lack of a US-registered credit card and US mailing address.

What I think folks like you & I will have to do is find some kindly, obliging person who will let us use their address, and then register a different Kindle (with international wi-fi) to that address (and have it mailed there etc.) via a completely new account. Then maintain two separate Kindles with two separate accounts, using gift certificates that we give ourselves to finance the book purchases. It's tricky, but not insurmountable, I think. I'm encountering more of these UK-published Kindle books that aren't available for me to purchase here, and it's making me slightly crazy. Especially because I'm sick to death of BD...

At some point, international copyright issues will have to be sorted out, so this kind of stuff is seamless. I'm sure it will happen, but it will take a while.

Interesting thoughts re Alice Coltrane. Looking at your pop quiz, I kept thinking Lennon/Ono... :-)

drive-by hug, Darryl

She's playing a harp!!!! Not only that but a lever harp that looks a lot like my own harp -- many jazz harpists use these!!!!!! Very cool indeed! I'm going to have to look into Alice.

Another drive by hug...

Caught up! Enjoyed the post at 208 even though I haven't a clue who or what it's about.

Woo! I'm off for three days, after a rough three day stretch. I'll catch up on some threads, and then join today's Readathon.

#206, 208: I enjoyed reading your comments about Roethlisberger. I agree with Nancy; I think his actions have been despicable, immature, and almost certainly illegal, but either there has not been enough inconclusive evidence to convict him, or the victims have been per$uaded to drop the charges, particularly if they were drunk at the time of the assault. If Roethlisberger has an ounce of non-football sense (and I'm not convinced he has), he will be the most upstanding citizen in the NFL; I suspect that the commissioner will not allow him to play in the league for a long time, if ever again, if he was accused of another sexual assault.

#207: Hi Tamara! I've missed you, especially at the Readathons, since you were the person who made them popular.

#210: Thanks again for sharing Match Day with me, Suz. You're right, I'm sure that I liked it more than you did because of my familiarity with the Match and with the stresses of intern year. My group includes 4-5 residents and 2-3 medical students at any time as part of the team, and we all interact with and observe them directly on hospital rounds and in case conferences every day. It's interesting to see how the residents (usually) develop from diffident and unorganized interns to confident and competent colleagues by the end of their three years of training.

I need to look at that link (about using the Kindle to buy UK books) more closely, which I'll probably do this weekend. I'm still baffled by the problems that you've had with The Book Depository, as I continue to receive excellent service from this company. My copy of God's Philosophers arrived yesterday, in perfect condition, and the price on the receipt was the price I was quoted, as usual.

#211, 213: Back at ya!

#212: I need to become more familiar with Alice Coltrane as well; I thought I had one of her albums on my iPod, but it's not there.

#214: Tui, we are referring to Ben Roethlisberger, the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will be playing against the Green Bay Packers in tomorrow's Super Bowl.

I saw this article on the front page of today's New York Times, which is about the sudden increase in popularity of e-readers in kids and adolescents, presumably due to many of them receiving e-readers as holiday presents last year. Interestingly, a couple of my partners and I were talking about e-readers last night, as many of us are avid readers and own e-readers, and we talked about e-readers for children.

E-Readers Catch Younger Eyes and Go in Backpacks

I loved the photo that accompanied this article:

Beautiful photo!

Cats, books, comfy sofa -- what's not to love about that photo!?!

Are you book-a-thonning today?

#218: I plan to join the Readathon, but I haven't been motivated to pick up a book yet. I think I'll take a nap, and get started afterward.

LOL... That's a great photo! I love how the cat appears to be reading along as well.

#220: I love how the cat appears to be reading along as well.

That is what I thought when I saw the photo!

#220, 221: Exactly.

I hardly read anything yesterday, as I was in a mental fog all day. I should do much better today and tomorrow.

Go Steelers!

Speaking of the Steelers and today's Super Bowl, one of my favorite nurses and I had fun taking these two photos on Friday. First, a friendly shot:



Then things got ugly:

Love the cat reading pic! I guess this is a big day for you football fans? Cute pic above, Darryl.

Go Packers!



Only NOW with a SuperBowl trophy!

And trophy #7 will be awarded today (otherwise I'll have to wear Amy's cheesehead at work next week).



That's just not a good look for me.

I bet the kids would love it tho', Darryl! And it would keep the rain off. What will Amy have to wear if your side wins?

#227: Amy said that she would wear a Steelers T-shirt, or put a Steelers logo on her cheek. She is from metro Atlanta, but her family is originally from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which is roughly midway between Milwaukee and Green Bay.

*bookmarks cheesehead sales on web for Darryl's use later today*

I have absolutely no comprehension or understanding of 'The Superbowl' or who the hell is playing, or even what they are playing really, but I definitely want whatever result will ensure you have to wear that lovely cheesehead hat thing.

Darryl, a hunk of cheese on the head is not a good look for ANYONE! *winces*

Darryl, a hunk of cheese on the head is not a good look for ANYONE! *winces*

Agreed!

How to tell that Darryl is Superbowl-addicted? He isn't reading or posting, even on a day off... *grin*

Well, it's over, and the Green Bay Packers are the champions of the National Football League, after an exciting 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. The Steelers made it an exciting game, after falling behind 21-3 in the 2nd quarter, and they had a chance to win the game at the end, but they were ultimately undone by too many costly turnovers and penalties. Hats off to the Packers, who were the better team on this day.

Back to books. Today hasn't been a great reading day either, although I'm enjoying my current book, Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman, which was published by Yale University Press last month. As the title implies, it's a comprehensive examination of Egypt from the bloodless coup that allowed Gamal Nasser to become president in 1952 through the present. I'm halfway through the second of eight chapters, and I hope to finish it by tomorrow.

Oh dear. He has to wear that cheese hat thing. {I hope there is photographic evidence}

ETA: almost a *snap*...you weren't here when I poked my nose in the door to see if you had survived the loss. At least it wasn't a rout. It's no fun when it's all lopsided. I didn't care who won but I was kind of hoping you didn' have to wear the cheese.

I can all but guarantee that there will be photographic evidence, as long as Amy remembers to bring her cheesehead. We'll both go back to work on Tuesday, and we both have smartphones that take pictures that can be transferred to Facebook.

*quiet, tasteful gloat*

I am looking forward to the cheesehead pictures :)

148/150: I'd quite like to read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - it's being serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week (a non fiction series) this week at 9.45 am and 12.30 am (4.45 am and 7.30 pm EST) and should be available to "listen again" for a week afterwards (until the next BOTW starts next Monday). She does sound OTT but she also admits that in the end her younger daughter rebelled and she conceded.

I'm also curious to know what my sister thinks - she now has two children - 2 this month and 3 months old - and her mum is Chinese although she's lived in Britain since childhood (we have the same dad). My stepmother wasn't as extreme as this one but she did want her kids to do well and they're both now doctors - Rachel works as a paediatrician and Matt's a GP.

#239: Thanks, Luci. I just listened to the first episode of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother on the BBC Radio 4 website (available here). I think Ms Chua does make some good points about the differences between Western parents and traditional Chinese parents, but she comes off as mean spirited and possibly dishonest. I'm not sure that I believe that she single-handedly dug the hole for her family's pool with a pick axe at the age of 14!

Three of my closest friends from medical school are Chinese, including my friend from Madison. Two of them are first-generation Chinese, one coming from Taipei and the other from Shanghai, who both live in California, and my friend from Madison is either second- or third-generation Chinese, who grew up in New Jersey. One of my work partners is also Chinese; she's third-generation, I think. I'll ask them what they think of the book, as I would imagine that they have all heard of it even if they haven't read it.

I'm halfway through Egypt on the Brink, and it continues to be a superb read. I'll definitely finish it today.

The latest issue of The New Republic includes an article by second generation Chinese American author Gish Jen on Amy Chua and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which I found interesting.

Mother Superior: How Chinese is the "Chinese mom"?

Hi, Darryl,
Sorry about your team (although I have to admit I have always had a bit of a soft spot for the Packers). Egypt on the Brink sounds good, as well as timely, so I'll look for that one soon.

Not at all qualified to comment on Chinese parenting, but just to say, happy kids who do lots of extra-curricular activities of their choice, and who play lots of playstation, can also get good grades. Both of mine are straight A students and I have never belittled anything they have done.

#242: No problem, Janet. Despite appearances to the contrary I'm not a diehard sports fan, and even when my favorite teams win the big one (World Series, Super Bowl, etc.) my excitement about it lasts for only a few hours. And, I think I've become an honorary Wisconsinite after my 20 or more trips to Madison in the past eight years, and I like the people there, so I'm not sorry to see the Packers get the win (and they played a better game than the Steelers did). I wouldn't be happy to see the Dallas Cowboys beat the Steelers, though.

The TNR article by Gish Jen raises a good point about the traditional Chinese method of parenting. The children of families from rural towns and of limited means in China have a lot more at stake, as those in their village or region who get a top grade on the college entry tests are more likely to gain a position in a good university and a lucrative job after graduation. As a result, these fortunate few can pull their family up into the middle class, and help their relatives get good jobs.

Good news for Kindle 3 owners: there is a software upgrade available (version 3.1) that provides several improvements, including the ability to view page numbers for certain books. I downloaded it a little while ago, and I can now view page numbers for some (but not most) of my books, including The Siege of Lisbon. The upgrade will be made automatically to all devices in the near future, but anyone who wants to upgrade now can do so by following the instructions on this page:

Kindle Software Update Version 3.1 -- Early Preview Release

ETA: I posted information about this upgrade on the eReader Comparisons thread, as well.

Woot! Go Packers! It was a great game to watch, very tense in the last quarter especially. I love the Packers, but am not psychotically crazy about football in general. It seemed like a fairly even match-up from the get-go, and I'm glad the Steelers caught up in points. No one likes to watch a one-sided game. I'm really looking forward to your cheesehead picture, and I think that you definitely qualify as a Wisconsinite!

Sheboygan is a great little city! One of my best friends is from there, and my favorite restaurant (Il Ritrovo) is there too. I haven't been to She-Vegas in a couple of years (my friend and her husband, another Sheboyganite) moved to Portland, Maine a couple of years ago), so I'm definitely overdue for a visit.

It will be interesting to see what your Chinese-descendent friends have to say about Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Amy forgot to bring her cheesehead to work today, so the photos will have to wait until tomorrow. And yes, there will be photos, as several of the nurses and doctors (and even some families) knew about our bet, and were disappointed that she didn't bring it today.

She said that she was stressed out by the Packers' uneven play in the second half, and she spouted a few choice (and not repeatable) words at her brother-in-law on Sunday when he began to root for the Steelers. Amy's husband calls her "Princess Potty Mouth", and after she told me what she said to her BIL I could see why.

I finished Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman late last night, and it was a superb and quite prescient read, given the events of the past two weeks there. I'll submit a review of it later this week.

I have already added the Osman book to the BlackHole based on your comments, Darryl. I hope my local library gets a copy in soon.

I am anxiously awaiting the cheesehead photos :)

> 243
Thank you for mentioning the update!

By popular request: the infamous cheesehead photo:



I am humiliated beyond words.

And I am speechless.
ETA: actually, you wear yellow very well.

Chortle, chortle.
Rarely have I seen such a chastened expression!!! *grin*

Love it, Darryl!

*snerk*

Worth waiting for! :)

You are a good sport, Darryl!

I'm betting the kids loved it!

Dear Cheese Head

Loved the photo! And love the books you are reading.
I've added The Elected Member to the huge TBR pile.

Back up to Nancy's message in #208. Nancy, I couldn't agree with you more.

Books, misbehavior, and cheeseheads . . . I've certainly missed a lot here!

Lots of interesting books on your planned February reads!

And count me as another Book Depository fan. There was a slowdown at the end of the year into January on deliveries to the US, which their website attributed to new US security requirements, but I got my latest order from them relatively promptly.

I will try to keep up from now on . . .

Hah! Love the pic, really made my day. I think it's pretty official now - you are a Wisconsinite. And you look so thrilled too - that's gotta be my favorite part! :)

Must have had the kids laughing their heads off!

Hi Darryl!

Love the cheesehead photo!

Yes, I miss participating in read a thons- I've been a little bit busy lately- but trying to make more time for socializing etc on LT. :D Miss ya! *hugs*!

New cheesehead-less thread here.