kidzdoc: 75 from the shelves #5

Frida Kahlo, Moses/Moisés, 1945







Thread #1
Thread #2
Thread #3
Thread #4

Currently reading:

     The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa
     Open City by Teju Cole
     White Egrets by Derek Walcott
     Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone by Nadine Cohodas

Completed books:
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
     15. Métaphysique des tubes (The Character of Rain) by Amélie Nothomb (review)
     16. The Seine Was Red: Paris, October 1961 by Leïla Sebbar (review)
     17. The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquéz (review)
     18. Staying On by Paul Scott (review)
     19. Hygiène de l'assassin (Hygiene and the Assassin) by Amélie Nothomb
     20. Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
     21. Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston (review)
     22. The Latino Challenge to Black America by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (review)
     23. Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb (review)

March:
     24. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (review)
     25.The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
     26. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss (review)
     27. The Book of Proper Names by Amélie Nothomb
     28. A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond (A Novel) by Percival Everett & James Kincaid
     29. I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey by Izzeldin Abuelaish (review)
     30. Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah (review)
     31. Little Mountain by Elias Khoury (review)
     32. Chinese Dreams (Kindle Single) by Anand Giridharadas (review)
     33. Harlem Is Nowhere by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (review)
     34. Morning and Evening Talk by Naguib Mahfouz (review)
     35. Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
     36. The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cercas (review)
     37. Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks (Kindle Single) by Sebastian Rotella
     38. Chopin's Move by Jean Echenoz

April:
     39. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne
     40. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
     41. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
     42. Dubliners by James Joyce
     43. A Murder of Crows by Larry D. Thomas
     44. The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas
     45. Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism by Kamran Nazeer
     46. On Elegance While Sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui
     47. Being Abbas el Abd by Ahmed Alaidy
     48. Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel (review)

May:
     49. The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed (review)
     50. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (review)
     51. The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec (review)
     52. Amigoland by Oscar Casares (review)
     53. The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach (review)
     54. The Chalupa Rules: A Latino Guide to Gringolandia by Mario Bosquez (review)
     55. Death to the Dictator! by Afsaneh Moqadam
     56. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer (review)
     57. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas
     58. The Instigators (Kindle Single) by David Wolman (review)
     59. The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepúlveda (review)
     60. I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston (review)
     61. Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck
     62. To Siberia by Per Petterson

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
     3. Morning and Evening Talk by Naguib Mahfouz

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
     1. The Latino Challenge to Black America by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
     2. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne
     3. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

D. Read a Booker Prize winner that I already own
     1. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (1970)
     2. Staying On by Paul Scott (1977)
     3. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (1992)

E. Read a novel by an African-American author that I aleady own
     1. Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes
     2. Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston
     3. A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel) by Percival Everett & James Kincaid

F. Read a novel from the 2011 Booker Prize longlist (or from longlists of previous years)
     1. The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut (2003 shortlist)
     2. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (2006 shortlist)

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 shortlist)
     2. Annabel by Kathleen Winter (2011 longlist)
     3. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (2011 shortlist)

H. Read a medicine or science book that I already own
     1. Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox by Gareth Williams
     2. Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A. Offit, M.D.

I. Read a biography or autobiography that I already own
     1. Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman
     2. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss

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

Oh, I'm first, wow, hi!

I love the Frida Kahlo painting. It reminds me that I want to read more about her.

I'm impressed with how perfect your list of books read looks. All the touchstones are in place!

Wow, what an eye popping introduction to your new thread, Darryl. Very nice, indeed and so appropriate to celebrate victory at The Battle of Puebla.

#2: Hi, Janet! Hmm, there should be a prize for the first person that posts to a new thread.

#3: Thanks, Pat. I posted that painting because I'm planning to read several books by Mexican or Chicano authors in May, in honor of Cinco de Mayo (my May TIOLI challenge). I'll also read Frida Kahlo, the museum book that I bought when I attended the 100th anniversary Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008, which has three lengthy essays about her. I've read two other books recently in which Kahlo was prominently featured, Frida's Bed by Slavenka Drakulic, and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, which were both superb.

#4: Thanks, Lynda. I don't remember seeing this portrait at the Kahlo exhibition, but it was in my museum book and I liked it.

After reading the last post of your old thread, I think I need a more upscale car, if only for the more upscale repair place! The coffee is undrinkable at mine.

Darryl, those are the two books I have about Frida Kahlo that I'm hoping to read soon (i.e. Frida's Bed and The Lacuna). I also have a biography (that I believe you recommended) on my PBS wishlist. I'll be interested in what you think of the museum book. I've seen that on Amazon or PBS, I can't remember which.

Hi Darryl!

I love the Kahlo picture you have on this thread, Darryl. I've seen a few of her paintings in art museums but the only things I know about her are from the movie Frieda, where Selma Hayek played her. I should look for an autobiography .... *heading out Amazon*

#6: I hadn't been to my local BMW service station for a couple of years (and yes, this means that my 12 year old car is still providing me with great service). The old service area waiting lounge was nice enough, but this was simply absurd; I was waiting to see if an attractive young woman would offer free cigars and glasses of champagne. In the few minutes I was there, I thought, "Someone is paying for all of this, probably me!" I will go back there in a couple of weeks, for a 75,000 mile check (and "free" champagne).

#7: I'll read Frida Kahlo after I come back to town next week. I'm way behind on reviews, but I'll give you my thoughts about it ASAP.

#8: Hi, Brit!

#9: Thanks, Caroline. You may also want to look at Ilana's Books By Theme thread on Frida Kahlo (http://www.librarything.com/topic/107838). It's nearly impossible for me to comprehend how she accomplished what she did, and what a rich life she read, considering the obstacles she had to overcome. I haven't read a formal biography about her (and I haven't seen the movie), but I found Frida's Bed to be an excellent book about her life and work.

ETA: Was it Richard that began the trend of putting works of art in the first message of a new thread? It was a great idea, and I'll do it from now on.

I'm pretty sure it was Richard. I'm planning to jump in with my next thread.

I love the painting too, Darryl ! I am also enjoying the artwork on people's threads. It's very interesting to see so many different works. It's like our own little gallery!

Hearing stuff about tornados in Atlanta?? I see you're posting, so am going to assume you're OK -- glad to see that!!

Hi Darryl, I'm not too behind on this new thread, how exciting! Add me to the list of fans for that Kahlo painting. I'm thinking I should replace the current painting I have on the BBT thread with yours, what do you think? Speaking of BBT, it seems to have more or less died out, but then, after the initial posts, I didn't exactly continue *pushing* them. But then, who wants to be pushing?

I'm waiting for the library to make In search of Klingsor available so I can read it for your challenge. Hopefully they'll get it to me this month...

I've been hearing about the tornadoes in the South today. Truly awful.

#13: There were no tornadoes in Atlanta, but several passed to the north and to the south of the immediate metropolitan area on Wednesday night, which caused 14 fatalities in Georgia. However, nearby Alabama (just east of Georgia) did far worse, with over 200 deaths reported so far. This will likely end up being the second deadliest tornado outbreak in US history, and probably the costliest one ever.

#14: I'd rather see a different Kahlo work of art on your BBT thread, especially one that is stylistically distinct from the one that is already there and from "Moses". A problem for me is that several of her most powerful works were disturbing and not ones I'd choose to put on a thread, especially "A Few Small Nips", "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale", and "The Deceased Dimas Rosas (at Three Years of Age)".

I hope that you do receive In Search of Klingsor next month, as I intend to read it in the near future. I read Volpi's latest novel Season of Ash last year, which I enjoyed.

I'm shocked and very saddened by the extent of the damage and loss of live from the tornadoes, and all of us in Atlanta feel incredibly lucky that the storms didn't cause any damage here. It rained hard in Midtown, where I live, for about 20 minutes, and I lost power for less than a minute; that was it.

No, I'm not awake to watch the royal wedding! I meant to take a short nap after dinner, and woke up several hours later.

I'm sorry to hear about your pesky car problems, and am glad to hear that you are okay after all of those horrifying storms in the South. I've been trying to find some kind of a map showing where the tornadoes were, but no such luck for me yet. Of course, I've been distracted by the wedding, so that doesn't help matters!

I hope you're having a nice Friday, Darryl!

Happy Friday Darryl.

I hope you have a lovely trip to see your parents. I'm intrigued by the art work at the beginning of your thread. What a powerful visual image she portrays.

I know so little of Frida Khalo. Your comments prompt me to learn more.

Back up to message #5, I laughed right out loud remembering that a few Lehigh students went to that exhibit. They wrote an article for the yearbook. They reported that they went via car to the Philadelphia museum with Frida Kahlo.

When I edited the story I asked how they excavated her body when she drove in the car with them.

Now, whenever I see her name I think of that story.

>17 Whisper1:: great story, Linda! I love a good grammar faux pas.

No, I'm not awake to watch the royal wedding

I didn't bother this time around either, but it was an altogether different story for Charles and Lady Di's wedding. I was 12 then and still believed in fairy tales...

I know what you mean about the disturbing quality of Frida Kahlo's work. I have to be in the right kind of mood to enter her world. She was a brilliant artist, no doubt about it, but all that suffering comes through so strongly in her work that a lot of it is difficult to look at in the best of times. I would never put up her work on my walls, as it would be sure to cause even scarier nightmares than the ones I already get!

As for In Search of Klingsor, I put in a request for the English translation, but it looks like they only have two copies of that version, one of which is apparently lost, which is why I'm not sure I'll get it on time. On the other hand, they've got a more than half a dozen copies in French. Normally I don't hesitate to read Latin languages in the French translation, but for some reason, with Mexico so close to the USA (and I don't mean just physically), plus the fact that the protagonist is an American... it just seems like English is the way to go. What would you suggest Darryl?

I watched bits of the wedding after the event via streaming video online -- I love both "Jersualem" and the "Crown Imperial" march, as well as Parry's "I was Glad". Besides, I admit I wanted to see the dress.

Still, sad to think that she's now part of the meat-grinder that is royal life. What a yucky tradeoff -- security and glamour, but she loses privacy, the ability to direct her own life, etc. etc. William is lucky to have found anyone sane willing to take on this job.

I'd weigh in in favor of the French translation, Ilana. I think it's actually likely to be closer to the original version, at least; perhaps that much more fluid; there are more grammatical and stylistic parallels between Spanish and French.

I made it to Philadelphia with no problems (car or airplane), and I'm enjoying the wonderful weather here. I won't attend today's PEN World Voices Festival in NYC today, but I'll probably go tomorrow.

#12: Laura, I watched very little of yesterday's Phillies-Mets game last night, but I did see Ryan Howard's majestic grand slam HR.

#16: I did find an interactive map of the tornadoes, on the New York Times web site:

Map of the Tornadoes Across the South

This is a small portion of the map:



The Atlanta metro area is in gray, near the right hand border of that map. The red dots are tornadoes that passed to our south, but you can't see the tornadoes that hit north of us.

#17: Hi Linda! I'm glad to be home, and I'm sure we'll have a good time together. I'd definitely recommend learning more about Frida Kahlo; she's a fabulous and inspirational artist, and apparently a spirited and irreverent person. The Kahlo exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was fabulous, one of the best I've ever attended, along with the recent Dalí and Picasso exhibitions there. I'll probably go to the museum this week, as one of my favorite artists, Marc Chagall, is being featured (Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle)

That's a great story about the students who attended the Kahlo exhibition. If there was one person who could have risen from the grave and entertained them, it would have been her!

#19: I have copies of paintings by Kahlo, Dalí and Picasso in my office at work, including "The Deceased Dimas Rosas (at Three Years of Age)", which is the one I'm asked about most often.

I agree with Suz; I think that the French version would be fine to read.

#20: I'm adding the phrase "royal wedding" to the list of words and phrases that are explicitly banned from this thread; "Miracle Whip", "Yankees", "Dallas Cowboys", "Sarah Palin", "Rick Santorum" and "Dick Cheney" are also forbidden.

Ha, what about "birth certificate" or "Donald Trump"? (Please don't throw a shoe at me or anything. American politics is endlessly fascinating...)

I watched that thing that you've banned from your thread to see the dress, and a day later my husband is still spluttering that I'm a traitor to the NZ republican cause. The music was beautiful though.

Have been reading about the tornadoes - such terrible loss of life. Glad Atlanta wasn't hit.

#22: Those two phrases, along with "Tea Party", definitely make the list. I can think of other adjectives to describe American politics, some of which cannot be repeated here.

Despite the horrific loss of life, it could have been far worse if the storm had passed through the University of Alabama's main campus in Tuscaloosa, or central Birmingham or Atlanta.

>21 kidzdoc:: Welcome to Philly, Darryl! Although today's weather has not turned out as nice as I'd hoped. I'm about 1 hr west-ish of the city, so maybe you are luckier than me.

And Ryan Howard was amazing in last night's game !!

I love your banned list, though I confess the 4 day weekend is lovely. Monday is a bank holiday too though it may be our last one as the current government want to take away May Day with its working class/left wing political associations and replace it with a more right wing celebration. Shame as some years Danny's birthday actually falls on the holiday weekend.

I'm just hoping various online friends and acquaintances are ok, one of the loveliest people I know (who I've met several times in real life) lives in the affected area.

I was worried that the bad weather would be passing through your way too, Darryl. I'm so glad you are ok.

#25, Luci, that idea of banning May Day is downright silly! It's been celebrated since at least the early medieval days, LOOONG before "socialism" and dating back to the days when serfs belonged to their masters. Ye gods...

OK, rant over.

I didn't finish any of my current books yesterday, as I had hoped, but I did download and read Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel, an ethereal and haunting novella about an elderly man who flees from his war torn (and unnamed) southeast Asian country along with his granddaughter to a modern and unfriendly western European city. I'll review it later today after I return from NYC, but it was very good and definitely recommended.

#24: I thought this weekend's weather has been near perfect, Laura; I prefer cool mornings and high temps in the 60s to low 70s. We're in Bucks County (Middletown Township), about 25 miles north of Center City.

I watched the end of yesterday's Phillies game after we came back home, from their 7th inning rally to the final out. Tonight's game is on ESPN, so I'll watch some of the game after I return home.

#25: Four day weekends are great, especially if Monday is included. I love Sundays, except that I have to think about returning to work at the end of the day (apologizes to those who have to work tomorrow).

From what I understand, all of my relatives in Alabama are okay. Most of them live in southern Alabama, which escaped the worst of the storms. Unfortunately, we're still in the middle of spring, and severe weather in the South is still a threat, including this week.

#26: Thanks, Caroline. Atlanta was very fortunate this time around.

#27: That is a horrible idea, to replace May Day with a right wing holiday; one shudders to think of what or who could be "celebrated".

A last minute change in plans. It's going to be such a nice day that I'm not eager to spend it indoors listening to talks. I think I'll go to Philadelphia instead, as it has several tree-laden parks that are conducive for quiet reading, and go to NYC later in the week.

Hi Darryl. Sounds like you are having a wonderful time and that the weather's cooperating. I'm glad to hear all your relatives are OK after those horrible storms.

I'll be looking forward to your review of Claudel's novella. I read a book by him called By a Slow River years ago which I loved and have been meaning to read more by him ever since.

Hi Pat; yes, it's absolutely perfect outside, sunny with high clouds, and a temperature in the mid 60s. I'm sitting in the park immediately behind Independence Hall, which is one of my favorite places to sit and read or people watch. It's quiet enough to read (so much so that I nearly fell asleep), but there are just enough people walking through the park and vehicles passing by to keep it from feeling too isolated. I'll stay here for another hour or two, and then head to Reading Terminal Marketplace for lunch.

Unfortunately the next few days will be rainy, so I'm glad I decided to spend the day outdoors. One of the best thing about where my parents live is that the Trenton, NJ Amtrak train station is nearby (15 minutes by car), and there is frequent commuter train service to NYC to the north and Philadelphia to the south.

There was a nice review of "Monsieur Linh and His Child" by Maya Jaggi, my favorite book reviewer, in yesterday's Guardian. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is currently available in the US for the Kindle, so I downloaded it right away. I started reading it, and couldn't put it down.

I'm back to reading "The Collaborator" by Mirza Waheed, a newly published novel set in Kashmir near the Line of Control that separates Indian from Pakistani controlled areas. I should finish it no later than tomorrow.

Darryl, if you had finished The Collaborator that would have been my number one choice for Most Striking Cover Art in the April TIOLI challenge.

I'm going to check out the Guardian review. I "favorited" the link to Maya Jaggi's reviews when you mentioned her earlier.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Sounds like you're having such a wonderful day Darryl, and I'm glad to hear your loved ones are all ok. You've made me very curious about Monsieur Linh and His Child, and I see they have the original French title at the library here, which I'll be borrowing for sure. Very curious to see your review. I'm not familiar with Philipe Claudel (though the name seems to ring a bell) and I see he's written quite a lot of novels, novellas, short stories, and won quite a few awards too. He must be quite known in the Francophone world.

Hi Darryl, I'm glad you enjoyed Monsieur Linh and His Child. I think there's something about Claudel's style that's enchanting. Have you read other books by Claudel? I'm slowly reading all of his works and although I have a preference or rather an order of appreciation, they all are among my favourite reads. And you know how picky I am :-)

JustJoey4, what books of his have you read that you would recommend? I'm really curious about this author now that I've finally found him, and our library has a very large selection of his works.

# 35 - I really loved Brodeck's Report with Grey Souls (By a slow river) as a close second. I also loved Meuse l'oubli but I'm not sure this one is available in English yet. So these are my personal top 3. I think that should keep you busy for a while :-). I guess Claudel is not to everyone's taste but if you like one book, you'll probably like the rest as well. Enjoy!

Thanks! I just up the library catalogue and they have them all in various versions; large print, audiobook, etc. I'll start with Monsieur Linh and His Child, a short story, to get a feel for his work and will go from there, but I have a good feeling about this writer.

Hi Darryl, just catching up with your thread...no easy task. Love you list of things banned. One of those things, that happened last Friday........I had to satisfy my curiosity about the dress. After all, my daughter's getting married in October :)

Ilana, Ames grises is my fave by Claudel. Very evocative.

Interesting; I'm wondering if more non-English writers are tilting toward short novels or novellas -- Echenoz, Claudel, Jenny Erpenbeck, even Schlink and Nothomb's books are trending to be shorter. Thoughts, anyone??

Breaking news: Multiple sources report that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. President Obama will make an address to the nation, and to the world, shortly.

#32: Thanks for your vote, Pat. However, the book that won, The Various Flavors of Coffee, had the most impressive cover, IMO.

Several books that Maya Jaggi has recommended have been among my favorites, and I've enjoyed her profiles of several prominent international authors. The Guardian Books section has a link to her articles and reviews:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/mayajaggi?INTCMP=SRCH

President Obama has just confirmed that OBL was killed in a targeted operation earlier today in Pakistan, near Rawalpindi. I'm grateful that OBL has been taken out of commission, but I expect that al-Qaeda will step up their attempts to attack the US, Americans, and other Westerners in the near future.

#33: I hadn't heard of Philippe Claudel until last year, when Brodeck's Report was awarded the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. I bought that last summer after arubabookwoman's glowing review of it, but I haven't read it yet.

#34: You're a discerning reader, not a picky one, Monica.

#38: I should clarify that I have nothing against the newlyweds; they both seem like admirable people. The coverage of the wedding in the US was way over the top, though, and I was especially turned off once the major US news outlets (except for PBS and NPR) spent more time covering the wedding than the storms in the South last week.

OBL is no loss to the world, but the "I'm so proud of my country" for killing him festivities are rather -- distasteful? I'm hardly sad, I'm rather glad he's dead, but it feels like the the other side of the coin from the street celebrations in Amman and places like that after 9/11. I'd rather see street celebrations in honor of the events in Egypt and Tunisia this year, quite frankly. That's more worthy of celebrating, and more constructive in terms of building a relationship of mutual respect with the Middle East. And I say that as someone who witnessed some of the deaths on 9/11, narrowly escaped with my own life and who continues to have nightmares about the people I know who did die that day.

Sigh, another rant.

Apologies for the thread hijack...

>42 Chatterbox:: second your rant, Suz.

No apologies needed, Suz; I completely agree with you. I was a bit dismayed to see the live footage of the crowds celebrating around the White House, as I thought that it would inflame the desire of religious terrorists to strike against the US and the Western world. I also find any celebration of a human being's death, no matter how despicable he or she is, to be in extremely poor taste, although I'm not opposed to the death penalty for the most heinous crimes.

I agree - the celebrations are adolescent and distasteful. While we might approve victory, we should never rejoice over someone's death.

On a completely different note, Darryl, if you do plan to be in NYC, please consider spending the time to see Tony Kushner's play at the Public, It's not an expensive ticket (I think we paid $25). You too, Suz, assuming you like theater. 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism...' is a marvelously, powerfully acted drama centered on a family, but carrying the weight of deep social themes as well. I thought I'd be really annoyed at the 4 hour playing time - not a bit - I was glued to the stage.

Thanks for that recommendation, Judy. I'll consider going to see it, but not on this current trip. Hopefully I can get back up here before the play closes.

> 32

if you had finished The Collaborator that would have been my number one choice for Most Striking Cover Art in the April TIOLI challenge

That was, indeed, quite a striking cover!

I should finish The Collaborator today, as I made good progress on it yesterday. So far it's been a very good read.

My planned reads for May (open to revision and derision):

The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed - COMPLETED
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna - COMPLETED
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach - COMPLETED
White Egrets by Derek Walcott - Reading
Amigoland by Oscar Casares - COMPLETED
Friction by Eloy Urroz
The Chalupa Rules by Mario Bosquez - COMPLETED
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck - COMPLETED
The Prospector by J.M.G. Le Clézio
The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa - Reading
The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan
Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas - COMPLETED
Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War by Assia Djebar
Americus, Book 1 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Frida Kahlo edited by Elizabeth Carpenter

The famed Argentinian writer Ernesto Sábato, author of The Tunnel, On Heroes and Tombs, and The Angel of Darkness, died on Saturday at the age of 99. The obituary in today's New York Times is pretty weak, but there is a much better one in yesterday's Guardian:

Ernesto Sábato obituary

I haven't read any of Sábato's novels, but The Tunnel has been on my wish list for awhile. I downloaded it to my Kindle yesterday, and I'll probably read it in the next month or two.

Darryl, I have just read Visitation, still thinking about what to say about it, but am desperate to see what you think, so move it up to the top of your list, will you? :)

#50: Yes, ma'am!

*attempts to salute, uses wrong hand, pokes self in eye*

I always admire how you plan our reads in advance, Darryl, and so many of these titles sound intriguing. As you know, I'm a big fan of Great House, and I will be interested in what you think of The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, and all the others too, of course.

I have to say that although I find the celebrations adolescent too, I do not think it's never OK to be glad someone's dead. In addition to OBL, who isn't in the same league, there are other people I'm glad are dead and in fact wish they had died sooner to spare the world suffering, including the big two of Hitler and Stalin. If any of the attempts on Hitler's life had succeeded, probably millions fewer people would have been killed both in the war and the holocaust. It may be distasteful, but some people need to be killed to stop them from doing much worse. (However, I do not believe in the death penalty because it is not a deterrent and doesn't do anything life imprisonment wouldn't do except give people a feeling of revenge.)

Darryl, thanks for the link to the obit. I've never heard of Ernesto Sabato, which isn't surprising, as my reading has been very provincial compared to yours. I'll have to pay attention to your reading lists and get myself off the continent more.

Rebecca, agree with you very largely, although I'd still prefer "never been born" to "bumped off at a young age". I'd like to think I would have volunteered to assassinate Hitler, certainly... and admire people like von Stauffenberg who put their lives on the line, even though their motivations weren't as altruistic as we'd like to think of them as being. (They tended to be reactionary conservative militarist types, most of whom had gone along with the Nazis in the 30s.)

I also agree that there the death penalty is not a solution to anything, beyond revenge (and is that something we want to encourage/reward?) Put the offenders in a deep, dark, dank cell and make them wish for death, sez I.

I loved The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (to bring the discussion back to books...). It felt like reading a cubist novel, if that makes sense!

Visitation is on my May reading list, too. But I have some fluff reading and some non-fiction to read first!

#49> Hi Darryl, I'm in Buenos Aires at the moment and the BA Herald also has a good obituary of Ernesto Sábato. I haven't read any of his books but will try to track one down when I return home. Very political few days here with the International Day of the Worker celebrated with several large demonstrations - lots of drums, loud explosive fireworks,and patriotic singing. We walked through a massive demonstration on Friday and I found a great news item that describes it to a 't'. Our hotel is also right by the rally point.
This is such a literary city but unfortunately 99.9% of the books are in Spanish! I've just visited the BA International Bookfair and had my late afternoon coffee in the fab El Ateneo bookstore. Mario Vargas Llosa is one of the guest speakers and there was some controversy over him coming to Argentina.

I did finish The Collaborator tonight, and I'll review it first thing in the morning. I'll give it 4-1/2 stars for now.

#52: I should finish The Three Christs of Ypsilanti this week, along with The Memory of Love. I'd like to complete the Orange Prize shortlist by June 8th, when the winner is announced. After I finish The Memory of Love I'll have read four of the six shortlisted novels, with only Great House and The Tiger's Wife left to read.

I don't believe that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to anyone, and I'm opposed to its use for that reason. However, I think there are some people whose crimes are so despicable or are individually so beyond redemption or rehabilitation that they have lost the right to live among civilized human beings. I'm opposed to spending a single penny toward the incarceration of people like this, and that's why I support the death penalty for people like this. If used in this manner, I think that the death penalty should be used very rarely, and only for people whose guilt is beyond any reasonable doubt and whose crimes are extreme in nature. Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind of the bombing at the federal building in Oklahoma City, would be the sort of person whose death by legal injection I completely supported. Celebrating a death, even for a person like McVeigh or OBL, is another matter altogether, and it diminishes those who acted like college students storming the field after their team won a big game.

#53: You're welcome, Judy. I'm not familiar with Ernesto Sábato, but I have seen him listed among the best Latin American writers of the 20th century.

#54: I'm glad to hear that you liked The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, Suz. I think I've only read one novel by MVL so far this year, so I need to pick it up (for the Author Theme Reads group).

#55: Ooh, I wish I was in Buenos Aires with you, Kerry! The El Ateneo bookstore is high on the list of places I want to visit someday. I did hear a little about the MVL controversy, but the article you highlighted was the best one I've read about it.

Very interesting conversations over here. I don't have anything to add at this point, but it's nice to see that you guys don't shy away from controversial topics. Oh, and I agree that celebrating in the streets does nothing to improve US/Arab relations. Pity.

I'm glad even you American/Canadian liberals think the idea of scrapping May Day is stupid, ok it won't stop it happening but.... I should say when I say "more rightwing" celebrations those mooted are St George's Day (but I don't identify with that as my mum's family is proudly Irish not English) and Trafalgar Day - but a very English model of patriotism. Yuk. May Day has a more international flavour and is understood by people from lots of other countries - the May Day march tends to be full of lots of rival left wing Turkish (and Kurdish) political party members.

Book #48: Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel



My rating:

Monsieur Linh, an elderly widower in a small war-torn southeast Asian village in an unnamed country, escapes with his infant granddaughter Sang diû and other refugees to a large and impersonal city somewhere in western Europe. He and his child are initially placed in a dormitory room with two other families from his country, who treat the older man with minimal respect and disdain, as Linh trusts no one to watch over or come close to Sang diû, his most precious possession. Lost and culturally isolated in his new home, he eventually ventures outside, where he meets Monsieur Bart, a portly man who has lived in the city for years and is equally lonely, having recently and suddenly lost his wife just before they were set to retire. Despite their language differences the two men become close friends, spending most of their days with each other, until Linh and Sang diû are suddenly relocated to another part of town.

Monsieur Linh and His Child, originally published in French in 2005 and released in English translation earlier this year, is a haunting and beautiful novella about friendship and love. Linh and Bart, despite their cultural differences, share a sense of isolation and loneliness that is both unique and universal. The ethereal narrative enhances the atmosphere of the story, and Claudel's light but firm touch made this a book that I could not put down once I started it. Highly recommended!

Monsieur Linh and His Child sounds wonderful Darryl and that was a beautiful review. I'll definitely be looking for this one.

Good; I'm glad that it was a useful review. My mother and father were talking to me as I was writing it, and the phone at home was ringing nonstop, so I'm happy that it made any sense at all!

ETA: I'm 3/4 of the way through The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna, which is vying to become the best novel I've read so far this year. Hopefully I'll finish it today. If I have time I'll also review The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed tonight.

(What's up with the touchstones today?)

Darryl, I lost you for a while! I have this thread starred now.

Lots of interesting conversation here -- as usual!

Thanks for stopping by, Terri! I've had a harder time keeping up with threads this year, but I hope to do a better job from now on.

Great review Darryl. La petite fille de Monsieur Linh is already on my wishlist, but I've now moved it up to my June tbr and reserved it at the library accordingly.

#56 'm opposed to spending a single penny toward the incarceration of people like this

I understand your feelings about this but it is my belief (I would have to check this to be sure since my data comes from anti-death penalty organizations like Amnesty International) that the whole death penalty process, with appeals, special prison conditions, etc., actually costs the taxpayers more than keeping someone in jail.

>65 rebeccanyc: I believe you are correct, Rebecca. And my two-cents: I live in Texas and the number of people on death row who have been proven innocent and set free in recent years thanks to DNA and other scientific advances, is staggering. Then there is the case of Cameron Todd Willingham who was recently executed for the murder, by arson, of his three young daughters. It now seems as though his conviction was based on bad science and he likely didn't do it (there is an excellent Frontline episode on the case). So long as there is a chance an innocent person could be convicted, sentenced to die, and executed, I cannot support the death penalty.

#66 - Friend, you speak my mind.

#59 - This sounds like a great read. I'm adding it to my wish list.

#66, Katie, there was a New Yorker article about that too; it was chilling and compelling.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon with Suz (Chatterbox) in NYC yesterday, starting with lunch at the Museum of Modern Art café. We saw three exhibits, Picasso's Guitars (excellent), Impressions from South Africa (very good), and Performance in Photography since 1960 (strange and disturbing). From there we went to Book Culture, and I came away with these books (* indicates a book from the top of my wish list):

*The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
*Juice! by Ishmael Reed
Talismano by Abdelwahab Meddeb
*The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepulveda
*I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston
Solar Throat Slashed by Aimé Césaire
*Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalist's Frontline Account of Life, Love, and War in His Homeland by Basharat Peer
Maps by Nurrudin Farah (the first book in his Blood in the Sun trilogy, on sale for $5)
Gifts by Nurrudin Farah (book two of the trilogy, also $5)

I thought I owned Secrets, the third book in Farah's trilogy, but I don't, so I'll have to go back for that one on a future trip.

(Hello, touchstones?)

I finished The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna this morning, the fourth book I've read from this year's Orange Prize longlist. It's the best novel I've read this year, and, like Luci (elkiedee), I'll also give it 5 stars. I'll read Great House this month, and finish the shortlist with The Tiger's Wife later this month or early next month.

Since today is Cinco de Mayo, I've started (and will hopefully finish) Amigoland by the Chicano author Oscar Casares today.

I'm flying back to Atlanta this afternoon, so I'll review The Memory of Love and The Collaborator either late tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Hmm...touchstones still aren't working. Maybe they are celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Now I can't escape a mental image of cavorting touchstones in mexican hats, singing cliche Mexican songs, and waving bottles of tequila in the air. Sigh. My mind works in truly peculiar ways sometimes...

Good Lord...........you read far too much high-brow stuff! Although it does make me feel more intelligent by simply reading your thread - now if I'd only actually read the books mentioned *sigh*

I have to say you have put me onto a new artist I am fascinated with. I've just spent half an hour studying various Kahlo paintings and they intrigue me. Not so much the self portraits, because people's faces bore me like that, but the more intricate ones. Interestingly, I wouldn't have put any of those titles you mentioned at the most disturbing: I was far more perturbed by 'My Birth'. The birth scene itself is fine, but the sheet over the woman's face made me feel extremely uneasy.

And in a week where one man's death has seemingly dispelled all other news - a far more poignant and moving death that deserves to have the same amount of attention given it. Last WWI Combat Veteran Dies Aged 110

#72 it does make me feel more intelligent by simply reading your thread

I had to laugh at that because I agree!

Glad you and Suzanne had such a good time. Hope you have a good trip home.

Jenny, thanks for posting that -- I've reposted on FB. Sigh. I remember the WW1 vets who had fought near Vimy & Arras visiting the trench/tunnel system where I worked as a guide, way back in the 70s. They were already v. elderly then... I have my great-uncle's embarkation ticket from Canada to England; his ration book, his leave passes, etc. Miraculously, he survived nearly 2 years on the Western front...

I will say it's v. daunting book shopping with Darryl. Not a sniff of anything middlebrow, much less lowbrow, even registers on his radar!!

Darryl,

It sounds like you had delightful travels! I love learning about your time in NYC with Suzanne. What a great haul of books! And, the art exhibits sound lovely.

I would have loved to join you guys at the MoMA! I always make a point of going there when I visit NYC. It's been 4 years since I've been there. Too long!

I completely agree with Jenny, Pat, and Suzanne on the high/middle/lowbrow thing. Personally, I like to jump around from one end to the other of the scale, but yes, every time I come visit here I think "now what new discoveries that I'm not likely to hear about anywhere else am I going to make this time?"

I hope the Georges Perec book comes in handy for you. :-)

I'm safely back in Atlanta, after a enjoyable but far too short visit home. Hopefully I can make it back up there at the end of June.

I finished How to Ask Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec on the flight, which was quite good (4 stars), and I'm over halfway through Amigoland by Oscar Casares, which I'll hopefully finish after midnight. I have to work Friday and Saturday nights (8 pm to 8 am), so I'll try to stay up all night, if possible.

#71: I'm not sure whose mind is more "peculiar", yours or mine, Suz. I think I've been reading too many surreal and absurd novels, as it probably accounts for a bit of my twisted humor.

#72: Hi Jenny! I'm glad to see you on my thread. I don't intentionally try to read "high brow" stuff to seem intelligent, I just happen to like these types of books more than most others.

I'm glad that you've become interested in Frida Kahlo, one of my most favorite artists. "The Deceased Dimas Rosas (at Three Years of Age)" is one of my favorite Kahlo paintings, but I do find "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale" and "A Few Small Nips" unsettling (but powerful and unforgettable), especially since both were based on actual events. I feel likewise about "My Birth" and "Henry Ford Hospital".

Thanks for posting that link from the BBC about the death of the last surviving World War I veteran. I saw a brief story about him this morning on BBC World News.

#73: Thanks, Pat. I had a great time with Suz, despite the inclement weather, and I'm glad I forced myself to get up on a rainy and bleak day and take the train to NYC. The flight home was uneventful, and I didn't notice any extra security in the airports in Philadelphia or Atlanta. Oh...that reminds me, I did see several firefighters descend from the main waiting area onto one of the Amtrak platforms at Penn Station on my way to NYC yesterday, a couple of whom were carrying stretchers, but I don't know what happened. I'll have to check today's New York Times, which I haven't read yet, for any info about this.

#74: I will say it's v. daunting book shopping with Darryl. Not a sniff of anything middlebrow, much less lowbrow, even registers on his radar!!

I'm not sure that Book Culture stocks many (if any) middle- or lowbrow books...

#75: The general admission line at MoMA was incredibly long, possibly due to the rainy weather, but the exhibition rooms were far less crowded than I thought they would be, especially for "Picasso's Guitars".

#76: The Perec book was interesting and humorous, but not recommended as a guide for anyone seeking a raise, as the hapless worker bee portrayed in the story spent decades in his ceaseless efforts to procure a meager raise. A better title would have been "How Not to Ask Your Boss for a Raise".

I picked up a copy of Julio Cortazar's 62: A Model Kit yesterday and the bookseller advised me to read Hopscotch and a couple of others by Cortazar before starting this one. How have you found his books? I also picked up a copy of Pagan Spain by Richard Wright that looked interesting when I traded in all my holiday reading in a well stocked English language bookshop here in BA.
I'll have to add The Memory of Love to my tbr list.

Oh, I spotted a few of the middlebrow variety. Although the fact that you didn't just validates my point above! *grin*

Life is surreal and absurd enough; I like books that reassure me it doesn't have to be nightmarish, or that offer enough of a contrast with my own nightmares. If that makes sense.

#78: Speaking of surreal...I like what I've read by Cortázar so far, particularly The Winners and Autonauts of the Cosmoroute. I haven't read Hopscotch or 62: A Model Kit yet, although I own both books.

I read Pagan Spain a couple of years ago, I think. I can't remember anything about it, so I'm led to conclude that it didn't have a strong impact on me.

I can't recommend The Memory of Love highly enough. It's definitely my favorite of the four Orange Prize shortlisted books I've read so far.

#79: I have no idea why I like surreal and absurd books. I didn't start reading books like this until fairly recently, my favorite being The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso.

I'm looking forward to reading Cortazar, the image on the cover is by Argentine surrealist artist, Xul Solar who was a good friend of Borges. I also like to try a surreal novel from time to time.
I'll let you know how I find Pagan Spain.

Is this the cover of your copy of 62: A Model Kit?



Do let me know when you decide to read it, as I may join you.

Yes that's the cover. I'll look at reading it in June/July. I have a couple of hefty tomes that I need to tackle first.

Sounds good. If you remind me a week or so in advance I'll join you.

Book #52: Amigoland by Oscar Casares



My rating:

Don Fidencio Rosales, a nonagenarian who has recently been weakened by a stroke, has been condemned by his daughter to a hellish old age home in south Texas near the Mexican border, appropriately named "Amigoland". He rebels against the rules that only serve to take away his remaining freedom, and he despises the staff and his fellow residents, giving them nicknames such as The One With the Flat Face and The One Who Cries Like a Dying Calf.

Soon after his internment he is visited by Don Celestino Rosales, his much younger widowed brother, and his even younger girlfriend Socorro, a divorced maid who cleans his house. The two men have been estranged from each other for years after a trivial argument, and Socorro has urged Don Celestino to visit Don Fidencio in the old age home. The two men reluctantly set aside their grudges, and the couple take Don Fidencio on a trip across the border to Linares, Mexico, in order to fulfill a promise he made to his grandfather many years ago.

Amigoland is a well written and pleasant novel, but the story and its characters were only mildly interesting to me, which made for a good but not particularly memorable read.

Too bad Amigoland wasn't a more memorable read. I loved the first two paragraphs of your review. I wonder just how many people consider moving to an old age home as internment.

Just catching up. Great haul!

I too notice your use of "internment" and thought it seemed appropriate for the circumstance you describe. Nice review too.

I just got a notification from the library that In Search of Klingsor is available for me. Off to pick it up shortly.

Your review of Amigoland and the word internment immediately brought to mind Cloud Atlas and The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. Cavendish is interred in a home for the elderly against his will and spends his time thinking up ways to escape. Very funny.

#86: Other reviewers liked Amigoland more than I did. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't enjoy it enough to give it four stars.

#86, 88, 89: BTW, I did look at the definition of "internment" as I was writing my review to be sure that it conveyed what I intended it to, and it did.

#87: Thanks, Rebecca. I did miss three books that I should have purchased, though: The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson (which won the Best Translated Book Award for Fiction this year), Erasure by Percival Everett (I saw multiple copies of it on the 2nd floor of the 112th St store but thought that I already owned it), and Secrets by Nuruddin Farah. The first two books are at the top of my wish list, but I'll at least look at the two Farah books I bought on Wednesday before I buy Secrets.

I thought you'd bought the Tove Jansson book? You did have it in your basket at one point...

I found one that I nearly bought at the library today -- Rondo by Kazimierz Brandys, a Europa edition book. Saved myself $20! *grin*

How are the Atlanta libraries???

Book #51: The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec

(Alternate title: The Art and Craft of Approaching Your Head of Department to Submit a Request for a Raise)



My rating:

In 1968 members of a French company that made supercomputers for industry were eager to learn if their computers could be used to create works of art. A Parisian computer expert wrote a flowchart for an employee of a large corporation to use to obtain a raise, which was given to the supercomputing company, who proposed the challenge to Georges Perec (one wonders if the company knew what it was getting into when Perec was chosen to write this book!).

The book consists of a one sentence monologue by a hapless employee of a large company, whose life and most of his work career seems to focus on obtaining a meager raise from his boss, Mr X. In his quest, which smacks of Kafka mixed with Don Quixote, our hero must navigate dangerous cafeteria food, the fickle moods of Mr X and Miss Y, recurrent outbreaks of measles, the all too frequent weekends that disrupt his plans, and, most importantly, his own incompetence and bad luck. This was a very entertaining, witty and quick read, which made for a perfect book to read on a short flight.

Anyone who wishes to get a taste of the book is encouraged to check out a flowchart based on it, at http://www.theartofaskingyourbossforaraise.com.

#91: I did buy Fair Play by Tove Jansson at Book Culture, but the novel I was looking for was The True Deceiver. After I typed that message I found out that my local Borders has it, so I'll pick it up there next week.

Nice pickup at your local library!

I haven't been to any of the Atlanta libraries in years. The Midtown branch is within walking distance, so I think I'll go there next week to see what it has.

I'm now experiencing the horror of realizing -- at only page 40 -- that the book is so good I'm going to end up buying a copy for myself anyway, because I'll "need" to have a copy on my shelves! Sigh... It was one of those that I picked up, intending just to skim the first few pages, and simply couldn't put down...

What will be my fate if I reach the point where whenever I see a Europa editions book, I am forced to buy it? Their hit rate has been v.v. high with all those that I've read. Gah.

Does Europa Editions have a subscription plan, similar to Archipelago Books?

Darryl, I managed to complete 26 steps and ask my boss for a raise, but I have to wait six months. Guess that gives me time to read the book. :-)

Sadly not. Although this book is affordable on Amazon, at least... Went to their website and found another interesting-looking one, French Leave by Anna Gavalda. (touchstones, where are yooouuu??) Will try the library first, however, after my book buying binges at Book Culture and amazon.co.uk...

Just went to look and found L'art et la manière d'aborder son chef de service pour lui demander une augmentation at the library. yay. Haven't read Georges Perec before, though the name sounds familiar enough, to the point where I wonder if I've read something by him before...

Have you read Life: A User's Manual?

Both English and French versions of the title sound longer than the book itself looks!

It's been an unusually quiet call night so far, with only four admissions in the first 10 hours of my 12 hour shift; by comparison, one of my partners had 16 admissions on her night shift earlier this week. As a result, I did finish The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach in the past hour. I'll give it 3 stars for now, and talk about it later today or tomorrow.

#96: You won't need six months to read this book, Ilana! However, you'll need considerably more than six months to get a raise using this algorithm.

#97: One of the books I bought on Wednesday was published by Europa Editions, The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepulveda.

#98: I haven't read Life A User's Manual yet, but I'm planning to read it this summer. I have read two other books by Perec: W, or the Memory of Childhood, and An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris. Anyone who wants to join me on Life A User's Manual?

#99: Ha! That's about right, Suz.

I'd be tempted to jump in on a Perec group read. The book has been sitting on a shelf (and I think I even know which one!) for an unconscionably long time. Maybe it's time for it to be used -- and who can resist a user's guide to life, really??

I might be tempted to join in. I'm a little bit intimidated by Perec though, because it finally came to me that I've grown up hearing about this legendary author, but always thought he was probably too clever for me to comprehend. I'll have to ask my mother, who is my go-to source for all things literary, what she can tell me about him from her perspective—other than what I might find on Wikipedia say, or from this recent Telegraph article.

Hallo Darryl!

#25 They're talking about taking away the May Day bank holiday?! How have I missed this?! Noooooooo! ...although thinking about it, I did hear that they were thinking of making St George's Day a bank holiday - I just didn't realise they meant it to be in place of May Day. Bah. Well, I suppose it might mean I actually remember when St George's Day is...

#29 Oh, that sounds like a wonderful day!

Re OBL, Suzanne, I'm with you. ...and of course now he becomes a martyr too...

#48 "open to revision and derision"

#101/2 I'd be on for a group read of the Perec - I've had it on my shelf a couple of years now and never seem to get to it.

I keep meaning to give Tove Jansson's novels a go - I've only read the Moomins (*beams*), which I thought were wonderful, but are, perhaps, not representative?!

Looking forward to your review of The Memory of Love Darryl - I picked up 3 Orange longlist books the other day, they were on 2 for 3 special offer, but I had a hard time chosing which 3 to come home with (only one of them seems to be on the shortlist).

Hi Darryl great reads here. Will pick up The Memory of Love soon.

Woo! My weekend of night call is over, after a moderately busy night (10 admissions in 12 hours). Fortunately I had help from one of our PAs (physician assistants) and a pediatric intern, which made a huge difference.

I managed to finish The Chalupa Rules: A Latino Guide to Gringolandia by Mario Bosquez late last night, before we got really busy. I started Death to the Dictator!: A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran's 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price by Afsaneh Moqadam early this morning, and I should finish it later today. I'll try to stay awake as long as I can, to make the transition from nocturnal to diurnal life, but I'll probably crash in the next couple of hours.

#101, 102, 103: What if we planned a group read of Life A User's Manual in August? I think that Deborah (arubabookwoman) was also interested in (re)reading it.

BTW, I'll probably host a group read of One Hundred Years of Solitude in July, either on Club Read or the 11 in 11 Challenge group (which I have badly neglected since January). Anyone who is interested is welcome to join us.

#103: Hi, Fliss! The Jansson novel I purchased last week, Fair Play, is exactly 100 pages (NYRB Classics edition). I'll pick up The True Deceiver either tomorrow or Tuesday from my local Borders bookshop.

#103, 104: I'll review The Memory of Love later this week, along with several other books that I need to get to. Fortunately I'm off from work until next Sunday night, so I'll have time to make a dent in my TBR pile and my backlog of unreviewed books.

Hi. Just want to wish you luck with those group reads of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Life A User's Manual. I think they would both be great group reads, and I might follow along silently, but I'm not reading either book, because I already have, and right now I'm not into re-reads.

Hey, Darryl! I would definitely be interested in trying the group read of One Hundred Years of Solitude as it has been sitting on my shelf neglected for far, far too long. I saw The Memory of Love at the library last week and now I'm wishing I had picked it up!

Hmm......I think that's probably the only way I could read One Hundred Years of Solitude. I've tried it before but always wandered off to something else. I don't know that I'd be any good at a group read though, I have a tendency to lurk with that kind of thing!

A week off??? I'm turning pea green with envy.

ETA: Admittedly, in your shoes, I'd be tempted to jump into my car (which I would have, and know how to drive, because I was in your shoes) and drive to Savannah or Charleston and lounge around there reading, and look for a place with ocean breezes. Maybe that's a sign that I need to head out to Jones Beach before the crowds descend one weekday and blow the cobwebs out of my own brain??

I'm not sure about the Marquez; read it in high school (so I suppose you could call it a group read!) very intensively, and don't really feel like delving back in. But yes on the Perec -- August would probably work for me...

I'll also say a tentative yes to the Perec GR, especially if it's in August or later. I read that Marquez a couple of years ago and have also read another of his recently - The General in his Labyrinth.
The Jansson novel sounds good, I picked up her Travelling Light a few months ago and should read it.

Okay, it sounds as if there is enough interest to go ahead with an August read of Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec. A new translation by David Bellos is now available, from Vintage Classics in the UK (my copy) and David R. Godine, Publisher in the US. Bellos originally translated Life A User's Manual into English in 1987, and the new edition has "many corrections".

Since it is a large book (>600 pp), I would propose starting it in early August, and maybe extending the read into mid to late September.

#106: You (and anyone else) are welcome to contribute to the discussion of either book, Janet.

#107: Hi, Marcia! I'll post info about the group reads of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Life A User's Manual sometime this week.

#108: Lurking is okay with me, Jenny!

#109: I do have a week off, assuming I don't have any hospital committee meetings to attend, but I will spend a couple of days with work related tasks (and I'll probably go to the hospital for 1-2 days even if I don't have to be there). My lectures to the first year physician assistant students at Emory are coming up next week, so I'll need to update and review my Power Point slides this week, as well. I have some other errands that I'd like to accomplish, so I'll be moderately busy, although I plan to read at least 3-4 books in that time.

I would consider going to Savannah or Charleston, if I didn't need to get some things done. However, it will be hot and humid in Atlanta and Savannah this week, with temps in the high 80s to low 90s starting tomorrow, and I wilt like overcooked cabbage in these conditions. Of course, this begs the question of why I would choose to live in Hotlanta if I can't stand the heat...

#110: How was The General in His Labyrinth, Kerry?

The word "masochism" springs immediately to mind...

Will look for the group read info.

I've been too busy to do much more than lurk recently, Darryl, but lurk indeed I must do because I always look forward to the many wonderful reviews that you post .... even though the titles end up on my obese wish list. I can credit you though, with expanding my reading list since you get to the award nominees and winners much sooner than I do. So on one hand, I've got newly polished boots at the ready to throw at you for expanding my obese wish list to dangerously teetering heights, but on the other hand, I stay my hand because I've also read some incredible books as a result of your recommendations.

I've read One Hundred Years of Solitude and found myself really captured by it. You all are in for a treat!

I'll look forward to the Life: A User's Manual group read this summer. I asked my mum about Perec the other day and she told me that she had never read him up till now, but that she had just the day before borrowed Life: A User's Manual from a friend. How's that for coincidence?

I found The General in His Labyrinth an interesting read though I was hampered by my lack of knowledge of Latin American history. It's based on the last few month's of Bolivar's life.
So now I'm dipping into Latin American Heroes: liberators and patriots from 1500 to the present which is a collection of mini-biographies of important political figures.

#113 I loved 0ne Hundred Years of Solitude as well. The colors, scents, and sensuality of the setting have stayed with me, even more clearly than the plot. One thing that helped me was to keep a list of characters (my book as least does not have one). Several generations mingle through time and many of the characters are named after one another. It can get rather complicated. Excellent book though and worth any difficulties, IMO.

Edited to fix touchstone

I am very behind on threads once again, Darryl, so hopefully I can keep up with this one from here on out!

#112: Yep, masochism is a good descriptor, especially if you know that Atlanta is the worst metropolitan area for people who have atopy (asthma, environmental allergies, and eczema, all of which I have). Atlanta is under a Code Orange Air Quality Alert today, so I probably won't go outside today.

#113: Hi, Caroline! I'm okay with hurled boots; just don't turn into Ignatz on me:



I've never read One Hundred Years of Solitude, so I'm looking forward to it.

#114: That is a coincidence, Ilana! Do let me know what your mum thinks of Life A User's Manual.

#115: I do want to learn more about Simón Bolívar, so I might pick up The General in His Labyrinth. I look forward to your comments about Latin American Heroes, which sounds interesting.

#116: Thanks for that tip, Lisa. I'll plan to do the same when I read One Hundred Years of Solitude.

#117: Hi, Stasia! I hope to see you here, but please don't feel obligated to keep up.

I was in a stupor last night, so I didn't finish Death to the Dictator!. I will finish it this morning, though.

I will be interested in seeing what you think of Death to the Dictator!, Darryl.

Good news: I won a free e-copy of We Need to Talk About Kevin from the Orange Prize Facebook page (100 copies were given away this morning). Bad news: I can't convert it from the Adobe Digital Editions version to read on my Kindle, as it is DRM protected.

I enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude more the first time I read it, decades ago, than I did when I reread it a few years ago after reading Garcia Marquez's autobiography (well, the first part of it), Living to Tell the Tale. I still like Love in the Time of Cholera best of the works I have read, although I also liked the novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold which I read last year. I see I have The General in His Labyrinth and The Autumn of the Patriarch, but I haven't read them.

I bought I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston, one of my favorite writers, last week, which is quite unique, as it is a biography written in verse form. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the book:

HOME

I am turning 65 years of age.
In 2 weeks I will be 65 years old.
I can accumulate time and lose
time? I sit here writing in the dark—
can't see to change these penciled words—
just like my mother, alone, bent over her writing,
just like my father bent over his writing, alone
but for me watching. She got out of bed,
wrapped herself in a blanket, and wrote down
the strange sounds Father, who was dead,
was intoning to her. He was reading aloud
calligraphy that he'd written—carved with inkbrush—
on his tombstone. She wasn't writing in answer.
She wasn't writing a letter. Who was she writing to?
Nobody.
This well-deep outpouring is not for
anything. Yet we have to put into exact words
what we are given to see, hear, know.
Mother's eyesight blurred; she saw trash
as flowers. ‟Oh. How very beautiful.”
She was lucky, seeing beauty, living
in beauty, whether or not it was there.

I think I'll start this after I finish Death to the Dictator! (24 pages to go).

#121: I agree, Love in the Time of Cholera is my favorite novel by Márquez. I thought that Chronicle of a Death Foretold was okay, but not great. I'm not a big fan of Márquez, especially in comparison to Vargas Llosa or Julio Cortázar, which is one reason why I haven't read One Hundred Years of Solitude yet.

What a great poem! I did not realize she was a poet - I have read some of her short stories and really liked them; maybe I'll go back for more. I heard her interviewed on the radio recently, where she talked about inventing Chinese-American literature (or I may be mis-remembering). She was not bragging, just discussing. She was really interesting. If I'm not wanting to read the autobiography, what else of hers would you recommend most?

I agree that Darryl reads very highbrow books. I wondered what you considered the middlebrow ones to be, Suzanne? Just wondering how we measure the brow height of books....

I just finished Death to the Dictator!, which was superb, and worth at least 4-1/2 stars. I'll review it shortly.

#124: I didn't realize MHK was a poet, either! I'll have to look for her poems. I would highly recommend three of her earlier books: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction); China Men (which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction); and The Fifth Book of Peace.

#125: LOL! Maybe books should come with a brow meter.

I also wondered what books Suz considered to be "middlebrow".

I personally don't think of myself as a highbrow reader, BTW, and I have no desire to impress anyone with the books I read.

The Maxine Hong Kingston sounds really interesting! Can't wait to hear more about it. It's been such a long time since I read any poetry, I really need to get going on that!

>120 kidzdoc:: I won a copy too. I've read it before but thought it was worth having nonetheless. And I got all excited because of my new Kindle. It was disappointing to get to the download screen and realize I couldn't get it on my new toy.

>120 kidzdoc: & 128, Have you guys tried removing the DRM and converting it for Kindle using calibre? I believe there's a plugin that would enable you to do that.

#127: I'm off until Sunday night, Marcia, so I'll definitely finish I Love a Broad Margin to My Life this week. I think I'll read Curfewed Night first, as I had originally planned, which I should be able to complete today.

#128, 129: I tried using Calibre to transfer We Need to Talk About Kevin to my Kindle. I was able to transfer two other Adobe Digital Editions books to my Kindle, but Calibre told me that it couldn't do the same with We Need to Talk About Kevin, due to its copyright protection. If anyone knows how to remove the DRM from books like this please let us know.

Hmm...I see that there are programs that will remove DRM protection from Adobe Digital Editions books, but they cost between $25-30. I'll look for cheaper or free programs that will do the same thing.

#126 - thanks. The one I read was The Woman Warrior, so I'll go look for the other two.

> 126

I personally don't think of myself as a highbrow reader,

I don't think of you as a highbrow reader either, Darryl. I think of you as an eclectic reader - just what I aspire to be!

> 125

*gives Darryl 3 out of 5 eyebrows*

ADE is why I got a Nook....

OK, middlebrow question: a couple of books that I spotted on the shelves that made me raise MY eyebrows (they just didn't seem to fit in with the overall zeitgeist) were The Sherlockian by Graham Moore and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. They also carried Stiegg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. So I am assuming they make an effort to stock middlebrow novels that have a degree of buzz about htem.

What I think is middle vs low vs highbrow will have to wait for when I don't have a migraine and it doesn't hurt to look at the computer monitor, I'm afraid!

>129 allthesedarnbooks:, 130: great idea ... Darryl, if you come up with a solution would you let me know please? I'll dig a bit on my own although it's not super high priority for me right now. But if I find anything I'll let you know.

Oh, and thanks for the tip... I hopped over to the Orange Prize site on FB and scored a copy of We Need to Talk About Kevin. So there are still some freebies left if you can answer the "skill" testing question!

#131: I also own her novel Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, but I haven't read it yet.

#132: I'd describe myself as an "eclectic" reader, too.

LOL at the eyebrow scale! So I'm midway between Marlene Dietrich (1 eyebrow) and Groucho Marx (5 eyebrows)?

#133: Ah, I see what you mean by middlebrow now. I didn't notice the Simonson or Larsson novels, so I suspect that you're right that those books didn't register on my radar.

#134: I downloaded one program, but it didn't seem to do anything. I'll try again later this week.

#135: Oh, good! I had assumed that the books would all be gone by now. The question to be answered is beyond easy, even for a non-film viewer like me.

Well if we're considering highbrow vs lowbrow, perhaps it works to think of what we consider individual people to be. I myself, due to my vast propensity for genre fiction, as well as a few scattered 'better' reads, would consider myself low-mediumbrow, with the occasional leap into highbrow.

My brain is very specific about how it automatically classes books in the low/medium/high spectrum, and far too stereotypical as it does so. Classics are considered highbrow, simply because of their age. The same for translated works. Chick-lit is automatically considered lowbrow. Genre fiction is low to medium, depending on the type.

I know it's terribly ignorant of me to allow my brain to slip books into categories so easily, when the lines are much more fluid than I initially perceive them to be.

#137: Interesting comments, Jenny. Several of my partners, colleagues (physicians in other groups), and nurses are avid readers (1-2 books per week), and some of them think of me as a "highbrow" reader and are simultaneously embarassed by the books that they prefer to read.

I think of highbrow literature as works that are challenging and difficult to read, which require a lot of work and possibly repeated readings to fully grasp and appreciate. The most recent book I've read that fits this description is C by Tom McCarthy, which I strongly disliked. I've been reluctant to tackle Ulysses, although I did recently download the free version to my Kindle. I'd much rather read books that are "thumping good reads", such as Wolf Hall, The Memory of Love, The Glass Room and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

I'm not sure I would automatically classify classic books as highbrow, and chicklit as lowbrow. I do agree that there is a lot of fluidity among different categories of books, and even among different books by the same author. I don't think it's ignorant of you to categorize books, as I know I do the same thing (and I suspect we're far from alone in doing this).

Issue 11 of Belletrista is now online, which includes a conversation about Annabel that Joyce (Nickelini), Cyrel (torontoc) and I had about the book:

Conversations: Annabel by Kathleen Winter

Darryl, I don't think you should be reluctant to tackle Ulysses. It is not the totally experimental work that Finnigan's Wake is (I haven't tackled that one myself), and is, in many ways, a good yarn.

But you will get more out of it if you track it against Homer's Odyssey (I recommend the Fagles translation - it's great to read out loud, if you are so inclined - or just Cliff's or Sparks notes). Joyce wrote a story of an older man (Leopold Bloom), Bloom's wife (Molly), and a younger man (Stephen Dedalus), structuring the story against the episodes of the Odyssey and its protagonists, Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus. I think you would find it quite readable, and frequently funny - and then there's that great, great monologue at the end.

I'm sure others have had group reads of this book, but if anyone wants to start one towards the fall of this year, I'd be happy to reread it.

#140: I'd be up for a group read of Ulysses in the fall, as long as it wasn't in late November or December. Thanks for your offer and encouragement, Judy!

If Darryl has 3 brows, I'm a Neanderthal brow -- overhanging forehead with a giant unibrow stretching across.... (as I read crap to keep me amused at times like this...)

I will probably not join in a James Joyce group read, f'rinstance. Mostly because I tried it and it didn't appeal. I admit it may well appeal if I try it again, but...

I wouldn't put books by Wilkie Collins and Jane Austen in a highbrow category simply because they have endured the test of time. I think they pioneered genre fiction (mystery and chick lit), and are much higher brow than contemporary practitioners who aren't inventing/reinventing any genres, but neither force me to rethink what is possible in fiction.

My biggest scorn isn't for lowbrow books, but rather middlebrow works with pretensions to be "literature". Some of these can pop up on award lists, which is why I can often be wary of longlists, in particular. For instance, if you look at the IMPAC longlist, it's truly bizarre. I have no time for books that pretend to be more than they are. For instance, Hilary Mantel did something fresh and creative for historical fiction in Wolf Hall; in contrast, until very recently, Philippa Gregory never pretended to be doing anything other than turning out a thumping good read. (Now she's under the delusion she's actually a historian turned novelist... and has become v. self-important.)

More on this when the headache abates...

I would love to join a group read of Life: A User's Manual. I read it several years ago, and it definitely merits a reread (or multiple rereads). It's also one you need to keep notes on (of characters, things etc.) as you read.

I might join in on a group read of One Hundred Years of Solitude. I really loved it when I read it, but I'm somehow afraid I won't like it the second time around.

I'm also working myself up for a reread of The Raj Quartet sometime soon. In fact, I was thinking that in 2012, I might try to focus on books I want to reread. Most of these would be classics (or other books I loved) which I read in college or in the 70's.

Hope your headache is better Suzanne.

#142

Don't get me started on Philippa Gregory. How an author can claim to be an established historian when her books contain such leaps of fiction and inaccuracies, or taking information entirely and completely out of context is beyond me. Not writing her characters in the mindset of the time also annoys me immensely. I could go on and on but I won't.....it did make me sigh to see her on a recent episode of a popular archaeological TV programme being an 'expert'. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

I'm going to rise -- a bit -- to the defense of Philippa Gregory, at least as far as The Boleyn Girl is concerned. A lot of what she did in that book was to take what isn't known and can never be known, eg birth order of the Boleyn siblings or within reasonable interpretation. For instance, it's unknown whether Henry fathered either of Mary Boleyn's children; it's a minor issue in the context of history as Henry never suggested legitimizing his only acknowledged bastard son (despite what others wanted.) The novel isn't written from the basis point that Henry the son should have been king, it's a dramatic device to heighten the tension between Anne and Mary, no more; so it didn't cause me to sit bolt upright and go WTF?? I found Gregory's book about Mary Queen of Scots reasonably true to fact (in the context of the bio of her by Antonia Fraser, which is extensively documented); the only one of her earlier Tudor novels that takes a major liberty with historical fact is The Constant Princess, where her interpretation of what "might" have happened between Katherine of Aragon and Arthur is controversial. Still, it's in line with what Henry persuaded himself happened in later years, so it's intriguing. Similarly, we don't KNOW what happened to Amy Dudley; while I really quibble with Gregory's view there was a sexual relationship with Robert Dudley (I think improbable in the least) people have been writing novels from that POV for years (I remember reading one at the age of 12 or 13) so that novel made me roll my eyes a bit but didn't make me crazy. My biggest beefs with Gregory so far are in The Queen's Fool, where the detail about a hidden Jewish community in London are odd and almost certainly inaccurate and, most of all, The White Queen. It's full of inaccuracies, and then there's that ridiculous magic, to boot. But again, the magic is nothing new, and none of the inaccuracies -- annoying as they are to anyone who has read the standard historical works and even some of the primary sources -- would really change anyone's perception of the historical facts. For instance, the fact that Elizabeth Woodville had already met Hastings years before the time in the novel won't change a reader's view of the historical facts. And while I find her solution to the princes in the tower bizarre in the extreme (hence my views of her flouncing around in the guise of a historian), the truth is that we simply don't know what happened. There are three decent candidates for murderer; and while an escape is unlikely in the extreme and neither of the later pretenders was "real", we don't know. So, IMO, it's fertile territory that has already been well explored. (Eg, Margaret Campbell Barnes's The Tudor Rose, published decades before.) Even Anya Seton's Katherine takes liberties with historical fact, mostly because historical facts about Katherine Swynford are very sparse indeed.

In fact, I think my biggest beef with PG is about the two books she wrote about the Tradescants (father and son, well-known gardeners). She spices them up beyond all recognition, making the father a closet homosexual, something for which there is NO evidence. (His paramour, according to PG, was the Duke of Buckingham, who was James I's wee "Steenie" but otherwise was definitely straight!) Sad, because the true story of their lives is v. intriguing.

I've got a long, long list of historical novelist who take far more egregious liberties with "history" and who never get called on it to the extent Gregory does, because they aren't as successful. IMO, by far the worst offender is Carolly Erickson with her novels, in which:
-- she has Mary Queen of Scots escaping captivity, giving birth to a daughter with Bothwell (who has been visiting her disguised as a peddler in prison), visiting the pope in Rome, camping out with soldiers in the Netherlands, then collecting eggs in a farmhouse in Normandy wiht her grandmother and daughter before returning voluntarily to be beheaded... Yeah, right...
-- she has Tatiana, the Grand Duchess murdered by the Bolsheviks, escaping that fate. Apparently Tatiana also used to sneak out of the Winter Palace and off to visit and help the poor people in Petersburg, without being noticed...
-- Marie Antoinette went off on a trip to Sweden with her lover, Axel Fersen.
etc, etc.
Anyone reading these and taking them as fictionalizations of what really happened would come away with a bizarre/warped view of history... My sis-in-law's mother has actually argued to me that Tatiana's descendants should become tsars, and refuses to believe that an author would have made that up.

Jean Plaidy's books are fine; I find them perhaps a bit TOO straightforward? She's taking the historical facts (she relies heavily on Agnes Strickland) and rendering them in dialogue. I loved them as a child; I'm v. lukewarm now. And even there, while she doesn't fill in the gaps, she is willing to ignore unpleasant sides of her characters. For instance, her book on Thomas More completely ignores the fact that he undoubtedly has a rather big S&M streak; her Catherine Howard is a sweet young thing. Others of her books I just find dull and pedantic.

I agree that writing anachronistic characters is annoying, but it's also the most common error in historical novels, and probably rather hard to avoid in contemporary works, simply because readers will give up. (Look at the reaction to Wolf Hall...). And I find it odd that some authors seem to "get it" in some books -- like Alison Weir's novel focusing on Lady Jane Grey -- and then really do a bad job in other cases, such as her dreadful novel focusing on Eleanor of Aquitaine. In fact, I can't think of a single good novel with Eleanor as a major character. And yes, that includes Sharon Penman's... I like Sharon, I like her books, but her Eleanor is, once again, little more than a two-dimensional character.

Just for context, I've been reading HF for 40 plus years now, and working on editing Solander, the HNS quarterly mag, as well as reading a great deal of the secondary and some of the primary sources for these periods (not Plantagenets, but 1450 to 1537 in both France & England.) I'm not a big Philippa Gregory fan, and find her books wildly uneven, but her worst offense IMO are her pretensions to be a historian.

Now -- there are a bunch of touchstones and authors that I am willing to bet will NEVER be seen on Darryl's thread again (in the light of the high/low/middlebrow discussion!) Indeed, I'm willing to bet BIG bucks on Darryl never ever being spotted with one of these books in his hands, Wolf Hall notwithstanding. (Oh, there were also some deliberate/conscious inaccuracies in that novel, in the interest of dramatic tension, but again, v. few people recognized them, the novel itself was so praised and the nature of Mantel's interpretations/filling in the gaps was in the order of 'what was the birth order of the Boleyn siblings' that no one ever really looked for them or made a fuss if they spotted them. It helped that Mantel never claimed to be a historian!!)

The only question: is HF middlebrow or lowbrow? For me, it depends on the context. There is some stuff out there that is more romance than historical fiction (Elizabeth Chadwick, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles), and some truly dreadful HF (think Sandra Worth, Sarah Hoyt, Christy English, some of Vanora Bennett's books). But then there are Hilary Mantel et. al.

Oops, I have written a screed. My head is starting to feel better, but I think I need one more painkiller and two more hours of sleep...

I finished Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalist's Frontline Account of Life, Love, and War in His Homeland by Basharat Peer early this morning, in which the author writes about his childhood growing up in Kashmir before, during and after the conflict between Indian forces and separatist militants in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the besieged inhabitants caught in the middle. It was a nice counterpart to The Collaborator, the novel by Mirza Waheed that was also set in Kashmir during that time.

I'd like to review both books today, but I'm having allergy issues, with itchy and irritated eyes, which makes it difficult to look at the computer screen or read a dead tree book for more than a few minutes at a time. Hopefully this will improve, now that I've taken some Dayquil. In the meantime I'll read Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas on my Kindle, a novel which takes place during the Spanish Civil War.

Both Curfewed Night and The Collaborator sound interesting, and well-suited for a paired reading. I'll look forward to your reviews, when you are feeling better, as neither currently has one.

Suzanne

Because, like you, I've read many HF books, I particularly enjoy conversations re. HF authors! Many thanks for sharing your opinions.

I think we previously shared views re. Philippa Gregory's books.
Earthly Joys was, in my opinion, terrible! I wanted to throw the book against the wall.

Anne Boleyn remains my favorite historical character. I'm curious to know if you have an opinion on the writings of Norah Lofts.

I walked out of the movie The Other Boleyn Girl. I also thought the book was terrible!

Have you read Elizabeth Norton's Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession? There is a member of LT (not a member of our 75 challenge group) who is also a history buff. Nellista (Amanda) reads a lot of HF. A few years ago she directed me to a historical fiction, non LT group. I received some excellent recommendations from the members. Unfortuantely, the group is no longer functioning.

While I loved the acting, setting and costumes of the Showtime series re. The Tudors, the inacuracies drove me nuts! For example, Thomas Woolsey did not commit suicide.

HF is a great way to wet the appetite of people who want to learn more about a particular time period. However, misrepresentation occurs when people mistake the word "fiction" for "fact".

Thanks for letting me highjack your thread Darryl.

Dayquil? - what, no Claritan, Zyrtec, Allegra, Alavert, Zaditor, Patinol, etc. etc. Using the same, here in Maryland, until the trees stop blooming.

Hijack alert:

Linda, Nellista is also a member of HistoricalFictionOnline.com, which is, I'm pretty sure, still functioning. A # of authors post there, including several who also hate PG. (I think they also have a dedicated YA board.) I don't hate her; I think some of her books are interesting because they offer different perspectives on tired old over-used topics (like Anne Boleyn) but I think she has possibly the world's most swollen head.

I like some of Norah Lofts' books; others are error-ridden tho I'm prepared to believe it's because of when she was wriiting vs. scholarship today. Yes, the Tudors -- I refused to watch because of the downright bizarre stuff. That was 100x worse than anything any novelist has perpetrated on the public.

Migraine got bad again, so I'm going offline once more. Wow, 3 days of this...

I'm feeling much better! Dayquil did nothing for me, but I found an Alavert (loratidine) tablet in my travel bag, and that did the trick. The pollen count here isn't sky high, but I'm having an allergic reaction to something out there.

I finished my second book of the day, Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas, a novel about the Spanish Civil War, which was very good (4-1/2 stars). I'll review it tomorrow.

#142: Suz, you are not a Neanderthal!

The IMPAC Dublin longlist is selected from books nominated by libraries in major cities around the world. I think that's why the nominated books vary in their 'literary merit'.

#143: Great! I'm glad that you'll be joining us in reading Life A User's Manual, Deborah, especially since you've already read it. I haven't read The Raj Quartet, so I would be interested in a group read of it next year.

#144: Philippa who?

#145: Whoa. Nothing to add here, except to say that none of the books or their authors are familiar to me. Onward...

#147: I'll review both books (The Collaborator and Curfewed Night) after I finish this message, and the books I've read about the Spanish Civil War (Homage to Catalonia, The Carpenter's Pencil, and Soldiers of Salamis) tomorrow.

#148: Hijack away!

#149: I was too lazy tired to go to the store for allergy medicine, which is why I took Dayquil initially. Thankfully I have one more Alavert pill, but I will go out tomorrow (although it will be in the low 90s again).

#150: From the comments of Suz, Jenny and Linda, I think that Philippa Gregory should join the list of banned subjects on this thread.

Book #49: The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed



My rating:

This novel is narrated by an unnamed young man, the son of a headman in a small predominantly Muslim village in Indian controlled Kashmir in the early 1990s, whose four closest childhood friends have crossed the border into Pakistan to become freedom fighters after brutal government reprisals against the separatist movement. After a particularly violent crackdown by the Indian Army, the young man is "encouraged" by the local army captain and his humiliated and defeated father to work as a special assistant to the captain, in opposition to the militants and his own desire to join them.

The narrator then travels back to his idyllic and carefree childhood with his friends and family, before the appointment of the virulently anti-Muslim head of Kashmir and the electoral fraud that served as triggers to the uprisings that led to the bloody conflict throughout the region. The villagers suffer great hardship, as the Indian Army brutally punishes the families whose sons have joined the separatist movement, aided by local collaborators (not including the narrator). As the conflict becomes more intense and more villagers are tortured or killed, each family and each person must decide to stay in the village, or flee to an unknown destination, and an uncertain destiny. The narrator is also torn between loyalty to his father, who begs with his son to stay in the village and work for the Indian Army captain who regularly insults and tortures his people, and his desire for revenge and justice for his friends and neighbors.

The Collaborator is a superb and gripping debut novel, which is also an insightful and instructive book about the recent crisis in Kashmir, which I found difficult to put down after the first 20 pages.

Great review of The Collaborator, Darryl. I'll definitely be looking for this one.

Thanks, Pat. I bought this from The Book Depository, after reading a glowing review of it by Kamila Shamsie in The Guardian earlier this year (I posted a link to her review on the book's home page on LT). I don't think it's been scheduled for publication in the US yet.

Book #56: Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalist's Frontline Account of Life, Love, and War in His Homeland by Basharat Peer



My rating:

This book served as an excellent counterpart to The Collaborator, Mirza Waheed's novel about the crisis in Kashmir in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the narrator of that novel and the author of this book are of similar ages and backgrounds. Peer, a studious young man whose father is a respected government official in Srinagar, the summertime capital of Kashmir, shares his personal experiences as his village, like others throughout the region, experience great hardship and tragedy during the Indian Army crackdown against separatist militants and those who support them. In contrast to the narrator of Waheed's novel, who seeks to travel to Pakistan to join his childhood friends and become a freedom fighter, Peer, with the help of his family, moves to Delhi to finish secondary school and attend law school. While working as a newspaper journalist there, he is assigned to write stories about the growing crisis in Kashmir. He travels back to his home village, and encounters former friends and neighbors, Hindu and Muslim, there and in Srinagar and Jammu. Deeply disturbed by what he sees there, and facing discrimination as a Muslim Kashmiri in Delhi, he decides to abandon his career as a journalist and write a book about the people he knew, those Kashmiris of different backgrounds he encounters, and the troubled past and recent history of the region.

Curfewed Night succeeds as a personal and an 'on the scene' account of life in Kashmir during the crisis, and in its hopeful aftermath following the peace resolution between India and Pakistan in 2004. However, a more detailed history of the region and the origins of the recent crisis would have made this a much better book, in my opinion, although I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who is unfamiliar with Kashmir or its people.

Are you feeling better tonight Darryl? I hope so.

#156: Yes, I'm feeling much better than I did this afternoon, Linda; thanks for asking! It generally takes me two days to recuperate after overnight call (not counting Sunday, since I worked 8 hours (12-8 am) that day). And, the Alavert (allergy medicine) has kicked in, so I'm free of the irritated and watery eyes and scratchy throat that I had this morning and afternoon. Even better, I don't have to work until Sunday night, so I have a few more days to recuperate.

Severly behind on your thread Darryl, but I think I am now caught up. I know exactly of the park you speak of behind Independence Hall. I have a very clear picture of it in my mind from a trip taken there a few years ago. So right you are, a pocket of serenity amidst urban chaos not to mention the history that took place there and the footsteps of those who came before and sought a pleasant place to stroll.

Darryl, hope your allergies subside soon, or at least that the antihistamines kick in enough to keep all the reactions in check.

#150 Suzanne, As a chronic migraine suffered myself, I just want to say I feel for you. I've been following your discussion on HF and find it very interesting, even though I'm a complete amateur.

eta: I have a hard time keeping up with this thread and just realized after I posted this message that I'd forgotten to refresh my screen since earlier this evening, so my message is kind of out of place. (sorry)

Darryl, there's another book out there about Kashmir that I've read in the recent past, In the Valley of Mist by Justine Hardy. It's a Kindle book, and I'll check to see if it's lend-able.

Lying in bed listening to ocean sounds, with lavender potpourri, practicing relaxing deep breathing, but it's not real working. Curses.

ETA -- Thanks, Ilana. I'm whining, I know, but I can't help it. This is interfering with my reading and my life, and has been for 33 years and counting. Sorry (again!) for hijack, D...

#158: Right, Lynda. The park is directly behind Independence Hall. From Wikipedia:



I took this photo using my BlackBerry while I sat in the park:



The building seen in the photo is the Curtis Building, the home of the Curtis Publishing Company since 1891, which published well known magazines such as The Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post.

Philadelphia, IMO, is very underrated as a place to visit and live.

#159: Thanks, Ilana. However, I'm sure that Suz is feeling much worse than I am (poor thing), so I have nothing to complain about.

#160: I hope that today is a better day for you, Suz.

Thank God, am emerging from a three-day brain fog induced by headaches. I'm hoping this is lasting, so I'm going to take it VERY slowly this morning. Half a week gone, vanished! All because of (multiple expletives deleted) migraines. They are rarely as bad as this one has been (tho I had a killer one last April). Dunno what the magic trick was, but it involved lavender sachets (for some reason, that sharp intense scent is soothing), ice packs, dark room, the new trick of playing downloaded sounds of ocean waves and painkillers.

The only good thing about a really bad migraine is that I feel reborn afterward, mentally and physically, once I get the painkillers out from my system. Which means I can get some of the household mess cleaned up, I hope!

Sadly, Darryl, the other Kashmir book is not lend-able. I did post a list of lendable Kindle tomes on my thread, however; first come, first served. (Remember, you can read them on a computer, Mac, 'droid or ipod or lotsa other gizmos, not just a Kindle.)

#162: A quiet "yay" to the hopeful end of your migraine hell, Suz. I agree with you, please take it easy today.

Thanks for letting me know about In the Valley of Mist. However, I think I'm ready to leave Kashmir for the time being, and move on to other regions of conflict and wars for the quarterly Reading Globally theme, specifically Algeria (during and after the civil war), other regions in north Africa, Sri Lanka, and Palestine.

Along that line, I did finish a Kindle Single today, The Instigators by David Wolman, which told the story of Ahmed Maher, the young Egyptian engineer that founded the April 6 Youth Movement, using Facebook to organize and mobilize supporters in the successful campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak as the country's head of state, which was a short (34 pp) but very good read. It is lendable, and I can send it to you if you'd like.

Philadelphia, IMO, is very underrated as a place to visit and live.

Agreed, Darryl. We only spent a day there during a vacation in the Pocono's. Had we known how much there was to see and do we would have extended our stay, but at least we have reasons to return.

>164 Carmenere:: I agree, too. I missed your original reference to that park but I also really like that space. Not long ago my husband and I found ourselves in Philly on a beautiful spring morning, and we took a long stroll from around 12th & Walnut down to 2nd & South and back. This included a brief stop in a lovely cemetery, and some other nice green areas that you would never know where there if you didn't get off the beaten path.

Ha, David Wolman and I share an agent!! *grin*

And yes, I would like to read it... We can stick it in my Orwell TIOLI challenge, since that includes books in the spirit of the Orwell prize...

I just downloaded (along with 14 free classic books) the Kindle single by Sebastian Rotella about the Mumbai attacks after seeing him pick up an Overseas Press Club Award at the dinner I was at 10 days ago. I'm a big big fan of ProPublica as a new model of journalism.

OK, it's yours.

I have read the Rotella Kindle Single, and it is good. I'm pretty sure that someone at Lendle has already borrowed my copy, though. Off to check...

ETA: Yes, someone borrowed the Rotella from me in February. I've sent The Instigators your way.

>167 kidzdoc:: oh, Lendle. That's a useful tip for a Kindle newbie.

Merci beaucoup!

I will download it in the next 24 hours...

Darryl --- I was able to remove the DRM and convert We Need to Talk About Kevin into Kindle format using calibre and a plug-in and instructions I found here: http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm-and-you-%E2%80%...

Calibre rocks! :-D

If nothing else, I use it to fix up bad titles, missing authors, etc. It's particularly common on books from Project Gutenberg.

I just finished The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepúlveda, a novel about elderly Chilean anarchists that get together to stage one final event. I'll give it 3-1/2 stars (marginally recommended).

#168: I haven't found any books on Lendle that I've wanted to borrow yet; most of the books are pretty pedestrian and mundane. Hopefully that will change as more Kindle owners join the site.

#169: De nada, señora.

#170: Thanks for that info, Marcia! I'll give it a try later tonight or tomorrow.

#171: Thanks, Tad. I'll check the free classic books I've downloaded from Amazon, to see if I can use Cailbre to fix any errors that you've mentioned.

#162 I didn't realize that Kindle books could be read on Mac and iPod (and iPhone too I suppose). Good to know!

There is even an app for buying and reading Kindle books on BlackBerry phones!

To be honest, I haven't seriously tried reading anything on my laptop or iPhone so far. The laptop doesn't appeal to me because I'm already on it so much of the time and reading is usually an opportunity to get away from it, and the iPhone offers such a small surface that it makes for a whole lot of "page turning". Has anyone here actually read anything off their iPod or Blackberry?

Thanks for the reminder, Darryl. I was meaning to sign up on Lendle, but it kept slipping my mind. I'm going to do it now before I forget again.

>170 allthesedarnbooks:: echoing Darryl's thanks ... will give that a try!

Just stopping by to say Hi, Darryl. I am having a hard time keeping up with threads.

Hi Darryl, great reviews for both the books based on Kashmir. Being an Indian I'm ashamed that I know so little about the Kashmiri conflict. I will try to get the books and read them for sure. Thanks again.

I've just added your last 2 books to my WL - thanks. The last thing I read that touched on Kashmir and Pakistan was Burnt Shadows, and that was ages ago. Thanks!

#175: I've read a few pages of a couple of Kindle books on my BlackBerry, but I doubt I'll ever read an entire book that way. However, if I'm ever in a "book emergency", where I need to read a book but I don't have my Kindle or a dead tree book, I can always read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down or The History of the Siege of Lisbon on my phone!

I would never admit that to my non-book loving friends...

#176, 177: You're welcome, Caroline & Laura. I haven't visited Lendle for a month or more, but I'll head over there now to see what books are available for borrowing.

Our fearless leader Jim has set up pages for 75ers to list lendable books from their Kindle or Nook libraries on the Wiki. Suz, Linda (lindapanzo) and I have listed our books on the Kindle , but I don't believe that anyone else has so far.

#178: Hi, Terri! I think we've all had a hard time keeping up with threads this year.

#179: Thanks, Gautam. The Collaborator was published by Penguin UK, and Curfewed Night is available in the UK from HarperPress. Are you able to get UK books easier than US books in India?

#180: Thanks, Cushla. I loved Burnt Shadows, and I need to get to the books by Kamila Shamsie I picked up in London last summer, Broken Verses and In the City By the Sea.

I'll finish I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston this morning, and then start Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck.

OK, how did I get 60+ messages behind again?! Geez louise.

#182: That's only three days' worth of messages!

#183: The people in this group just talk too much, that is all there is to it! :)

#184: Definitely. That doesn't include us, of course.

#185: Of course not! I mean, I have been pretty much gone since mid-February, so obviously I am not a problem :)

>175 Smiler69:: It's not my first choice but I read off my iPhone quite frequently when I'm stuck somewhere. With a careful selection of font size, the page turning isn't bad. Plus, since it's just a quick swipe of the finger across the screen, it's not a real issue anyway.

Damn. If this story from The Onion is true, then I'll be on the unemployment line shortly.

Study: Most Children Strongly Opposed to Children's Healthcare

#175 Tad, I've been listening to audiobooks whenever I'm in transit or just out and about, or just doing things with my hands that leave my mind free to listen. I'll get my hands on a free e-book and try it out anyway. Having options is always a good thing. So far I haven't felt the need to get an e-reader because I don't travel at all these days (whereas I used to fly every week for my job), but I'd get an iPad in a pinch otherwise.

#188 That's hilarious Darryl! Thanks for the laughs. I guess I speak for many Canadians when I say that we look at the healthcare situation in the states and just shake our heads. Mind you, facilities in the US are generally better than what we have here, and the taxes we pay sure are a b*tch, but I sure am glad we've got universal healthcare, or I'd be living on the streets by now. Literally.

Hi Darryl , I usually order books online. So it doesn't matter if its from the UK or the US.

I do wish the copyright issue would get sorted out so that I could get e-books that are available if I were a UK resident... It's v. frustrating!

Ilana, if it's any consolation, I'm paying more in taxes in NYC than I would be paying in Toronto at the same income level. Of course, I do get three garbage pickups a week. But not the free healthcare.

#191 Sheesh, that's a lot of picking up they're doing with your money. No wonder NYC is cleaner than it ever used to be. I didn't think anyone in the US could pay as much taxes than we pay here in Canada. How come? Mind you, I live in Montreal, and we Quebecers have the privilege of paying even more taxes than in Ontario.

>192 Smiler69:: Factor in what we pay for private health care and I wonder how the balance comes out? Anyone know?

Book #60: I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston



My rating:

In this fascinating and unforgettable memoir, Maxine Hong Kingston, an award-winning second generation Chinese-American writer and pacifist, shares the story of her past life and the experiences of her family in the United States and her extended relatives in her ancestral village in China, along with an extension of the story of Wittman Ah Sing, the protagonist of her novel Tripmaster Monkey. What makes this a unique read is that it is in verse form, often in the Chinese talk-story form that Kingston uses in her earlier books The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts and China Men.

The book begins in the present, as Kingston reflects on her upcoming 65th birthday in "Home":

I am turning 65 years of age.
In 2 weeks I will be 65 years old.
I can accumulate time and lose
time? I sit here writing in the dark—
can't see to change these penciled words—
just like my mother, alone, bent over her writing,
just like my father bent over his writing, alone
but for me watching. She got out of bed,
wrapped herself in a blanket, and wrote down
the strange sounds Father, who was dead,
was intoning to her. He was reading aloud
calligraphy that he'd written—carved with inkbrush—
on his tombstone. She wasn't writing in answer.
She wasn't writing a letter. Who was she writing to?
Nobody.
This well-deep outpouring is not for
anything. Yet we have to put into exact words
what we are given to see, hear, know.
Mother's eyesight blurred; she saw trash
as flowers. ‟Oh. How very beautiful.”
She was lucky, seeing beauty, living
in beauty, whether or not it was there.

In "Leaving Home", Wittman Ah Sing, an aging Chinese-American free spirit, decides to travel to China, alone from his wife:

"I need
to get to China, and I have to go
without helpmeet. I've been married to you
so long, my world is you. You
see a thing, I see it. The friends you
like, I like. The friends you can't
stand, I can't stand. My
perception is wedded to your perception.
You have artist's eyes. I'd wind up
seeing the China you see. I want
to see for myself my own true China."

In "Viet Nam Village" she writes about her experiences as a pacifist, including an all-woman demonstration against Operation Iraqi Freedom in front of the White House, for which she, Alice Walker, and others were arrested and temporarily detained. In this section, she compares her arrest with those of her father's, many years in the past:

I had nothing apposite to say, but
had to talk. "Now I'm on the trip
my father went on. In a paddy wagon to jail.
I'm reliving his arrests. I'm knowing his feelings.
Scared. Helpless. He wondered what would become
of him. Maybe deportation. They're driving
him to the border, never to see his family again.
Oh, but my father wasn't committing civil
disobedience like us. He committed crime,
ran gambling, half the take in the city.
It was his job—go to jail, regularly.
Once a month, they raided the gambling house,
and took just one guy, my father.
He was all alone in the paddy wagon
riding through the streets and out of town.
It was okay. By the end of the night, he
was home. They let him go. He gave them money
and whiskey and cigarettes, and they let him go.
He gave them a fake Chinese name,
a different Chinese name every time;
he doesn't have a record." BaBa
used to say, "I want the life
you live." Now I'm living
the life he lived.

In "Mother's Village", she travels with her husband, a "white demon", to her mother's ancestral village, where she learns about her family's past history. She is treated like royalty, not from her status as a famous American writer, but because she is a descendant of a former emperor of the region:

"Your names are here," said the mayoress, pointing
to branches nearest the door. A fear
went through me, that fear when I am about
to learn something. I asked carefully,
"Were we soldiers? Were we servants?"
I would've asked, "Were we courtiers?"
but didn't know courtier. Most likely,
we were courtiers. "No! No! You emperor!
You emperor!" You who left for America,
became American, you forget everything.
You forget who you are. Emperor!
Chew Sung Emperor. Emperor of the Northern Sung.
Emperor of the Southern Sung. A teacher of English
took my hand, bowed over it, and said,
laughing, "Your majesty."

As she leaves her ancestral village, she sits next to a younger woman from her village, who is leaving China for the first time to reunite with her husband in America:

Once I was on an airplane beside
a village girl in the window seat. At takeoff
I asked her, "Where are you going?"
"Waw!" She shouted in surprise, and grabbed
ahold of my hand, "You speak like me!"
"Yes, I speak Say Yup language."
"Are you from the village?" "No, my MaMa
and BaBa came from Say Yup villages.
They left for New York. They lived in New York,
then California. I was born in California."
I feel like a child, younger than this girl; I'm
telling about parents as if I still had them;
I'm talking in my baby language. "Waw!"
she exclaimed, loud as though yelling across fields.
"Iam going to New York! I
am meeting my husband in New York. He's
waiting for me in New York. He works
in a restaurant. He's rented a home. He sent
for me, and waits for me." She did not
let go of my hand; I held hers tightly
as we flew the night sky. She looked
in wonder at webs of lights below.

I'm hard pressed to put into words how much I enjoyed I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, but I would say that this is easily one of the best works of verse I've read. Maxine Hong Kingston is my favorite living American writer, and this book confirms my love of and respect for her work.

Just catching up on your thread Darryl and adding your last two books to my ever increasing pile.

#194: Into the BlackHole it goes!

Book #59: The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepúlveda



My rating:

In this short novel, which won the Premio Primavera de Novela in 2009, three aging Chilean anarchists are summoned by their former leader, Pedro Nolasco, to conduct one last revolutionary act, 30 years after a spectacular bank robbery after the fall of Salvador Allende's Marxist government to a coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet. Before the meeting can take place, Nolasco is felled in a bizarre accident by the wife of another former revolutionary, Coco Aravena, a bumbling dreamer who spends his days watching classic American crime novels and drinking red wine while his wife fantasizes about her past life in Berlin. Coco strips Nolasco of his gun and a piece of paper with a phone number on it, and attends the meeting, to the shock and chagrin of the other anarchists. The men decide to go ahead with their act despite the loss of Nolasco, in a tribute to the spirit of their former comrade.

Despite the interesting story line, this book was somewhat disappointing, as the characters and their motives were not as fully developed as they could have been, and the author spent too many pages on the political history of Chile before and after Pinochet, which I could not fully appreciate. I would guardedly recommend this novel for those readers familiar with Chilean history, but not for the general reader.

Book #54: The Chalupa Rules: A Latino Guide to Gringolandia by Mario Bosquez



My rating:

Mario Bosquez, a Chicano television journalist, playwright and producer, writes about his experiences growing up in an impoverished and abusive family in Texas, as he overcame overwhelming odds to become the first person in his family to graduate from college and have a successful professional career. He uses chalupa, the Mexican game of chance, to generate a list of rules for success for Chicanos to use in the United States, or Gringolandia, where many do not respect Mexican or Chicano culture. Some of these rules have broad applicability, such as respect for family and remembering where you came from originally, but his style of writing began to wear on me, particularly in the last section, which was written as if listening to a radio program about the Chalupa Rules called the author for personal advice. Although I admire Bosquez's personal story and his aims in writing The Chalupa Rules, I found this book to be tiresome and repetitive.

Well, open market healthcare for me would be about $1,500 a month on top of tax obligations. Which is why I don't have health insurance.

Ilana, there are a few cities in a few states that have higher tax burdens; you need the combination of a high state and high city tax. Another killer can be either high rents or high property taxes. NYC has the former; can't speak to the latter, but from what I hear those property taxes are higher in the 'burbs and rising at VERY rapid rates.

Tad, I'm sure there are places that do those calculations, but I'm a bit wary as none of the comparisons I've seen ever have figures that reflect my experience. It's like looking at cost of living calculations and wondering where, exactly, they are buying a quart of milk to get it at that price!

May have to lift that MHK poem for my genealogy book proposal...

>187 TadAD:: I would only read a Kindle book on my BlackBerry in the most dire of circumstances, but it's nice to know that it is an available option.

>189 Smiler69:: It's been easy for me to resist getting an iPad, as it isn't available for my cell phone carrier, T-Mobile.

Yes, the healthcare situation here is pretty bad, unless you are fortunate enough to have an employer that provides good insurance coverage or can afford to buy individual coverage for you and your family. A good friend of mine, who is a primary care pediatrician, had a very hard time getting affordable coverage when she changed jobs, as she has type I (juvenile onset) diabetes, even though she is excellent health.

>190 mausergem:: I have been having problems ordering UK books directly from The Book Depository in the past few months, as the web site frequently says that the book is out of stock. However, I've looked for several new UK books that haven't been published in the US on Amazon.com, and have been able to purchase the book, shipped from The Book Depository, for the listed price + $3.99 shipping, including The Swimmer, Roma Tearne's latest novel. I looked at the General Discussion thread on the Man Booker Prize web site, which is where I originally learned about The Book Depository, and there are several dozen messages about the change in TBD's policies for American readers over the past few months, especially once the company established itself in the US market, and about Amazon's strong armed tactics in forcing encouraging readers to buy books on the Kindle as opposed to the dead tree book format. The group has recently set up a thread to discuss buying options for people in North America who want to get books that are thought to be candidates for this year's award:

North American Purchase Options

>191 Chatterbox:: When I worked in NYC and lived in Pennsylvania I paid considerably more in taxes to the city and state than I would have if I had worked in PA, without the dubious benefit of frequent garbage pickups.

>193 TadAD:: I have no idea.

>195 brenzi:: Hi, Bonnie! It's good to see you here.

>196 alcottacre:: Thanks, Stasia. I would highly recommend the three books of hers that I've read, China Men, The Woman Warrior, and The Fifth Book of Peace. I haven't read Tripmaster Monkey yet, but it has shot up to the top of my wish list after reading about Wittman Ah Sing in I Love a Broad Margin to My Life.

>199 Chatterbox:: Which city is more expensive to live in, NYC or San Francisco?

>200 Chatterbox:: All of these are excerpts from much longer pieces. Unfortunately you'll have to wait for my demise to get my copy of this book (unless I decide to bring it with me, which is highly likely).

Darryl, you have definitely convinced me to read I Love a Broad Margin to My Life. Great review.

Suzanne, the cost of private health insurance in New York coupled with property taxes in the NYC suburbs are a big part of the reason I now live in Idaho. It's amazing the differences in costs of health insurance (and the ability to even get it) among the various states.

>201 kidzdoc:: Thanks for that information about The Book Depository, Darryl. I was not aware of this change. It's not clear to me which books they can no longer send (I just ordered a new Virago release from them with no problems), but I guess if it shows as "out of stock" I will just look elsewhere rather than wait.

#194 I'll come back to read the other poems when I'm in the right frame of mind, but I just love the first one, and especially the last two lines:

She was lucky, seeing beauty, living
in beauty, whether or not it was there.

That would be a blessing for anyone, I'm sure.

#199 Suzanne, I always assumed taxes were low all over the US, but I know better now.

#201 Yes, I was aware that insurance was covered by employers, and yes, anyone with a serious health problem is going to have difficulty getting decent coverage without paying outrageous premiums.

We have horror stories here with our health care system too of course. There are not enough family doctors, so that everybody ends up having to go to the emergency ward for even the most basic problems. Once there, no matter how urgent the need, unless it's a life or death situation, people typically have to wait 7-8 hours to be seen at all, and doctors are often too harried to take the time to order rounds of tests and end up sending people home with a take care, and good luck! For those admitted, there are never enough beds and patients can go many hours without being visited by nurses or orderlies to help with the most basic needs even. The waiting lists for specialized tests and to see specialists in general, typically start from six months onward. I've been followed by the same neurologist for my migraines for 3 years now, and can't get appointment less than six months apart, no matter what. In January, he ordered ECGs (which were done in March—super fast, granted) and an MRI (for seizures I had LAST summer) for which I was told that I would wait a MINIMUM of one year. Still haven't had a callback to book the appointment even. I had to go through an unfortunately all too typical nightmare situations to find a decent psychiatrist (also provided by health care) to fill out papers and get me medicated so that I could get coverage from my group insurance when I had a nervous breakdown. For anyone going through mental health problems, the only way to get seen at all is check oneself into the general emergency, and wait all day (as per above) before being seen by a clinician, who generally can't do anything anyway except enter people on a waiting list to see someone, who may or may not have the competence to begin a reasonable course of treatment (often not, and then, another waiting list, and so on). Truly scary.

So what happens is that the general population get half-*ssed care, while those who can afford it, get private care, either here or in the States. That's what I'd do too if I could afford it.

#202 199: Which city is more expensive to live in, NYC or San Francisco?

Er, would the correct answer be London, UK?

Speaking of which, what's this about ordering directly from the UK with BookDepository? I use them a lot and don't know anything about this.

eta: oy, so sorry about the wall of text above... :-S

Ilana, hate to tell you that the system re specialists is just as screwed up here if you are relying on insurance. Sure, you can jump the system if you are willing to pay 100% out of pocket for an MRI... Otherwise, you have to be prepared to fight for access to specialists. When I did have insurance, I simply gave up fighting for them to cover neurologist visits. In 9 years with insurance, not a SINGLE appointment was ever paid for. Also, emergency room visits are exactly the same here -- long waits.

That said, your experience with neurologists does sound extremely bad; I hope it's an anomaly. My mother has migraines, and she has a serious heart condition. Admittedly, she is in Toronto, where access is better, but happily she has never once had a problem accessing a physician for either routine or issue-specific care. Similarly, the wife of a childhood friend who lives alllll the way up north in Hurst, Ontario (VERY far away from civilization indeed) has a medical issue that requires access to several specialists and she has never had problems either. Perhaps it's something in the way it's administered in Quebec? My sis in law is, at present it seems, the only psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorder treatments for adults in Toronto, but even when she got a flood of referrals that she couldn't handle earlier this year, she was able to get each potential client seen by some other professional, if not someone as experienced as she is, within a week.

Going back to the BD issue: I'm VERY skeptical of BD's claims (and posted a screed on the Man Booker forum about it.) I did order five BD books earlier this year: on three, BD simply canceled the order unilaterally, telling me they didn't have stock (while at the same time offering the SAME book via Amazon.co.uk at a higher price). The other two did arrive, but they came via Royal Mail from the UK, not from some US warehouse. Personally, I think that what has happened is BD has just figured out that with publishers being more aggressive on limiting bookseller discounts in some circumstances, there are some titles they can't sell profitably, and has decided not to offer them. Given the situation described above -- where they tell me they don't have a book, only to offer it for immediate delivery via another website -- I think it's quite reasonable that they are being disingenuous about the reason for the book's unavailability; that they are blaming a business decision of their own on some mysterious conspiracy. If that were the case, surely Amazon.co.uk would be facing the same issues?

As for the argument about Amazon forcing people to buy e-books, that makes NO sense whatsoever. If you are a US buyer, you CAN'T buy many of these books, for copyright reasons!!!! So saying, whoops, sorry, here, have an e-book instead, simply isn't an option!!! That betrays a complete lack of knowledge of the way in which book retailing & publishing work. True, for a UK buyer, yes, they have that choice -- but the posters are complaining that being unable to find a cheap/no shipping fee option for a North American buyer is part of a plot to drive that N.Am. buyer to an e-book holds no water. Unless the dead-tree version of the book is available in the US already (in which case, a budget-conscious buyer wouldn't be trying to order from the UK anyway!), you simply CAN'T order the e-book. I know, I've tried. Indeed, I just asked the folks over at the Orange Prize bookshop the same question -- and got exactly that response. So that part is sheer nonsense, and I strongly suspect that BD is playing the PR card to cover up its own business decisions instead of being honest & saying, look, we can't supply all books at these prices without charging for shipping.

Rant(s) over. Back to reading as normally scheduled...

#202: My local library has 2 of the Kingston books you mentioned, Darryl, China Men and The Woman Warrior. I will have to give them a try.

>206 Chatterbox:: excellent explanation of the BD issue, Suz. Thanks!

I woke up extra early after another bizarre dream. I successfully completed a two part exam, which consisted of a multiple choice written test followed by a game of 2-on-2 basketball played in a living room. I didn't like my teammate, so I switched to the other side (3-on-1, win!). As a reward for passing the exam I was sent on a military cargo plane to an unknown destination, to serve in the U.S. Army. I woke up soon after that. Are there any dream interpreters (or psychiatrists) out there?

>204 lauralkeet:: I don't completely understand this recent change in policy, either. For example, when I try to order the hardback edition of The London Train by Tessa Hadley (longlisted for this year's Orange Prize and listed as a strong contender for the upcoming Booker Prize longlist, which I'll read for Orange July) from TBD, I get a message that says it is "Currently unavailable", although I can pre-order the paperback version (which comes out in the US on May 24). When I look for the book on Amazon US, I find out that the same paperback edition (and its Kindle version) will be available for purchase on May 24. I also see that the hardback edition is available for purchase by several sellers through Amazon, including The Book Depository ($14.46 + $3.99 shipping)! I've noticed this repeatedly over the past several months, as have several other North American members of the Booker Prize discussion group.

>205 Smiler69:: I'm pretty sure that London is a more expensive city to live in than NYC or SF, but I was curious to learn which of the two American cities was more expensive to live in. I did a quick Google search, and NYC is listed in multiple articles as the most expensive US city.

One major reason that I live and work in Atlanta, besides the fact that I like my job and my employer (ranked as one of the top 100 U.S. companies to work for by Forbes Magazine for the past several years), is that the cost of living is much less in Atlanta than it is in the Northeast, and the cost for me to practice here is far less than it would be in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or New York.

I can't remember the specifics, but I think that one member on the Booker Prize discussion thread mentioned that he was able to order UK books from TBD without any of the recent problems that the US members have been having.

>205 Smiler69:, 206: Whoa. I'll come back to these topics (health care, TBD and Amazon) when I'm more awake. As you were.

I absolutely love Visitation so far, and I can see why JanetinLondon and others liked it so much. I'll finish it later today.

I have seen very good reviews of Visitation thus far, Darryl. I am glad to see that you are loving the book too.

I am not even going to speculate on the meaning of your dream, lol.

>207 alcottacre:: Of the four books I've read by Kingston, none would earn less than 4-1/2 stars from me, including The Woman Warrior and China Men. Unfortunately (for me) she is not a prolific writer, as I Love a Broad Margin to My Life is only the fourth book she has written since 1989.

>210 alcottacre:: As I've mentioned before, I often have bizarre dreams, including the one from last year where LeBron James left the basketball court, to the chagrin of his teammates, to help me encourage my mother to pursue a PhD at Temple University (in Philadelphia).

#211: I am glad to see Kingston's books get such high rankings from you, Darryl. I will try and pick up at least one of her books next trip to the library.

The dreams I remember are nightmares. I do not remember just 'regular' dreams.

Fascinating but depressing news about the Book Depository. I've been puzzled by those unavailable notices and also by getting phantom e-mails that a book was back in stock (when I clicked "notify me") but finding it still "unavailable" or "out of stock" when I went to the web site (this happened to me first with The Finkler Question), and this explains it.

>212 alcottacre:: Right. The nightmares tend to wake me up, and I only remember the bizarro regular dreams that occur as I'm waking up.

>213 rebeccanyc:: Yes, I've received those puzzling e-mails, too; I've stopped requesting notifications for that reason.

#209 - SO glad you are liking Visitation!

Really interesting reading the BD stories - and I am dreading something like this happening when we move back to NZ, where new books are about $30 NZ or $22 US. I've only had one funny thing, which was with a brand new development economics book by Dani Rodrik that I'd pre-ordered. I got an email saying they were out of stock, and no response to follow-ups from me asking how that was possible when it was just out, and whether they'd be getting more stock in... I'll find it in London next week though I'm sure!

Darryl did you eat cheese before you went to sleep? I swear that gives me weird dreams. (If you've already covered this on your thread, ignore - I can't keep up!!)

One question on the BD stories: can anyone point me to actual policy as stated by The Book Depository? I just poked around their website and found nothing. The forum that Darryl linked to is useful, and people there are referencing things the BD "said" and I'm just wondering where I could find those original sources ... ?

>215 JanetinLondon:: I'm halfway through Visitation; it's absolutely an amazing read. I'm reading it very slowly, and I'm both eager to continue reading it and remorseful that it's such a short book.

>216 cushlareads:: I didn't eat cheese last night, Cushla. Let's see...I had spiced lentils over rice and spinach for dinner, water, coffee, and a fruit cereal bar for dessert, well before I went to bed. Maybe it was the spiced lentils?

>217 lauralkeet:: I didn't find an official statement about the new policy from TBD's web site, either. I did see that TBD has a close relationship with AbeBooks, which was acquired by Amazon in 2008, and TBD sells books through Amazon. However, one member of the Booker Prize discussion thread posted this comment, after she received a reply from TBD to her query:

Eventually I emailed them and they said its a combination of two things 1. deals with publishing houses now they have the US centre and 2. Kindle which has specific deals now to the rights of UK books. I found it very depressing actually as I hate using Amazon because of the shipping charge and generally read a lot of British books being an expat in New York.

The Booker Prize discussion group has a Thread for titles we have actually read, where members discuss books that are eligible for the prize (based on their authors being longlisted in previous years) or ones that seem "Booker worthy", and give their opinions about the book, and how likely they believe they are to make the longlist. These books seem to have received the most positive votes so far:

The London Train by Tessa Hadley (available in the US later this month)
Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy (not available in the US, released in the UK on April 1)
The Free World by David Bezmogis (currently available in the US)
We Had it So Good by Linda Grant (currently available in the US)

I'll plan to read the Hadley and Bezmogis over the summer. River of Smoke, Amitav Ghosh's new book which is the second book in his Ibis Trilogy after Sea of Poppies (which was shortlisted for the Booker in 2009), will be published in the UK on June 9, but not in the US until late September, so I'll order it once it comes out there (if I can!).

BTW, the Booker longlist will be announced on July 26, the shortlist on September 6, and the winner on October 18. I'll probably visit London in late August to early September, and pick up any longlisted books I don't already have at that time, as I did last year.

Back to Visitation...

The interesting thing I find out BD is that even when I intentionally go to the UK site (.co.uk) instead of the US site (.com), it still tells me things are unavailable so I guess their computer system associates me with my address just from entering my e-mail and password.

ETA As long as I've used BD, they've had a little "look for it on ABEBooks" link when they don't have a book, so it makes sense that their relationship with ABE means they also have a relationship with Amazon. Also, even when I ordered books from the US site, they were shipped from the UK.

Again, the BD explanations don't make any sense. Amazon has US and UK distribution centers; I can order from the UK site. Yes, publishers are cracking down on prices on ebooks, but not the availability of books. The explanation isn't rational. The bottom line is that they are exporting UK books (that have no copyright agreement with the US) from the UK, whether directly or indirectly. So is amazon.co.uk. Now, the latter often has high shipping costs, but frankly, publishers won't care about that. They would care (a) whether it's being done, (b) whether it MIGHT violate copyright & contracts with authors and (c) the price at which books are sold. If (b), then Amazon would be affected in the same way as BD and that clearly isn't happening. (They were happy to take my order yesterday.) There could be elements here that I'm missing; some obscure corner of the law, but as long as it's individuals buying the books and not a book retailer, I'm not sure why the publishers would care enough to crack down. It's all generating sales and buzz.

A comparable note: Rights to my book have not been sold to the UK. Nonetheless, the imported edition IS available to UK bookbuyers at a handful of outlets, those who have enough interested customers to invest in a US book and pay for the shipping. In this case, the publisher is happy to make the sales, and not in the least interested in driving sales to ebooks (which it CAN'T do, because a UK buyer can't order a Kindle copy.)

Just wanted to follow up on the healthcare issue; this highlights a different issue, the importance of having a primary care physician. My college friend Nora, living in Ottawa, has been one of those folks, like me, who figured if you feel healthy, you probably are. She didn't have a family doc (primary care) for eons and figured it didn't matter. She went to a walk in clinic for a mammogram; got called back for a follow-up and told it was OK after all; told to come back the next autumn. You can see where this is going. She now has metastic (sp??) breast cancer, with lymph node involvement, that has been growing for 2.5 years. There were small signs that a family doc may have caught -- but she wasn't going to one, even though that would have been free.

The good news? Despite all the public kerfuffle about limited access to resources, and with no 'clout' whatsoever, Nora went from feeling a lump to having an MRI, an aspiration and a diagnosis in less than a week. Indeed, the MRI was scheduled on 48 hours' notice, via a hospital clinic. And she won't have to pay for it, or for the treatments that will follow. The bad news? Well, the cancer is nasty and invasive. If she knows the stage, she hasn't made that public yet. But three tumors, one the size of a plum, are not good news. I'm v. sad. She was one of my first housemates when I bought my house in Toronto; we've known each other for nearly 30 years.

May I say that if anyone would like me to buy UK books that are unavailable in the USA and send them to you, then I would be happy to do so, asking only that people return the favour and send me books of the same value, such as purchasing them of an amazon wishlist.

For instance, I can get The Finkler Question for £3.98 with free postage, which would then cost me £1-2 to send onwards.

So can I get just a teensy bit anal on the Book Depository "North American" question?

I have read through the discussion here and on the Booker Prize site about changes in the Book Depository's policies. I haven't trawled every single thread on the Booker forums, only the one specifically about the issue. So I missed how this all started, but I have yet to see a policy statement directly attributed to The Book Depository.

So what are the actual confirmed facts?
1. Some books are not available for purchase to residents of North America.

Beyond that, I'm stumped because everything else I've read appears to be theories to explain #1, some of which get into the conspiracy realm (i.e.; Amazon & e-books).

As I said, I probably missed something. Anyone?

Laura, reading between the lines, I suspect that people have queried BD directly, and received e-mail responses, which they are then quoting. I don't know if the alleged Kindle conspiracy was originated in an e-mail from BD or in the mind of a poster; that's unclear to me from reading these.

Jenny, I'd love to take you up on that for my next orders!! And would be happy to return the favor. Feel free to PM me a link to your Amazon wishlist...

>223 Chatterbox:: thanks Suzanne. I guess my inner conspiracy theorist is wondering if all the angst is just as much a conspiracy theory as the Kindle one.

I think the angst is just angst at being book-deprived!!! *grin*

#220 YIkes. (making note to call for appointment with family doctor pronto.)

#225 LOL @ thought of book deprived LTers...

Book deprived LTers? That is an oxymoron if ever I heard one.

>227 alcottacre:: you bet!

I'm swearing off of Nyquil forever. I took half on an adult dose yesterday afternoon, as I wanted to sleep during the day and stay up as late as possible last night and this morning to prepare for my night call tomorrow night. I did sleep for 3-1/2 hours, but I was groggy for most of the night, and my vision was very blurry, which made it difficult to read Visitation, a book with relatively small print. I did finish it just after midnight, but it was a physical struggle to do so (which had nothing to do with the content of the book itself). I'll give it 4-1/2 stars for now, and revisit it later this month or next month, as I think it will end up getting a 5 star rating from me once I read it more closely.

My vision is returning back to normal, but words on the computer screen and in books are still blurry. I'll plan to start To Siberia by Per Petterson (an LT ER dead tree book from 2009 that I still haven't read yet), and alternate it with the Kindle version of Open City by Teju Cole if eye strain becomes a problem.

Suz, thanks for your input about Amazon and TBD. I'll look at this a bit more closely later today, but you've made some good and compelling points here.

There is a difference between being actually book deprived (which none of us are), and feeling book starved or deprived on a regular basis (*raises hand guiltily*).

The last time I took Nyquil I literally slept for 2 days straight. I have not taken it since - and that was 20+ years ago!

I think I'm becoming more sensitive to Nyquil, as I had this response to 15 ml instead of the 30 ml that I've taken in the past. I noticed this past weekend that I was groggy on both of my call nights, although I felt that I was functioning properly. I don't want to feel that way tomorrow night, so I'll forego Nyquil today and tomorrow, and find something that has less side effects, perhaps melatonin.

Unfortunately I have always been sensitive to drugs. Even dramamine will make me sleep for 2 days straight. I try not to take anything at all if I can possibly avoid it.

I hope that your plan to switch to some other meds works out, Darryl!

I haven't taken Dramamine in a long time, but Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxant) and Sudafed (phenylephrine) will knock me out quicker and more effectively than a right hook from Mike Tyson.

Yeah, but at least the drugs will not try and bite your ear off :)

Book #50: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna



My rating:

Shortlist, 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction
Winner, 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Africa)
Finalist, 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize

This enchanting novel is set in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, at the end of the country's civil war that lasted from 1991-2002. Adrian Lockheart, a British psychologist who has left his family to pursue a more personally fulfilling career, is at the bedside of Elias Cole, a former university professor and dean who is nearing the end of his life. Adrian encourages Elias to share his story with him on weekly therapeutic visits , and Cole tells him about his career, including his friendship with Julius Kamara, another university professor, and his young wife Saffia, who Julius sees for the first time at a faculty gathering just before the successful Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. He is immediately entranced by her, and spends much of his spare time thinking of ways to get closer to her.

The story of Elias and Saffia is interwined with Adrian's experiences in post-war Sierra Leone, along with his friendship with Kai, a talented young surgeon who has used Adrian's living quarters as a place to crash prior to the psychologist's arrival. The men become close friends, although Kai is clearly scarred by his experiences during the recent civil war, which he is unable to share with his friend.

Adrian's primary interest is in diagnosing and treating victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and he cares for several hospitalized patients who appear to suffer from this problem due to the civil war. He attempts to get several of them to talk about their experiences, but few of these poor souls are willing or able to share their stories or accede to his treatment plans. His colleagues and Kai are respectful of his work, but they tell him that his methods have little chance to make any impact on the lives of his patients, due to the country's lack of resources and the different cultural beliefs about mental health.

Elias is the only person who will talk freely about the past with Adrian, and through the life of the dying man and his relationships with Julius and Saffia he learns about the country's postcolonial history, including the devastating civil war that destroyed the fabric of the country and the will of thousands of Sierra Leoneans.

Adrian falls in love with a local woman, whose ties to the other major characters provide a tension to and deeper understanding of their stories. As their relationship deepens, Adrian is forced to decide whether to stay in Sierra Leone, where he is loved and believes he has much to offer, while Kai agonizes over his long held desire to move to the United States where he can practice medicine and exorcise the internal demons that plague his dreams and affect his work.

The Memory of Love is a stunning and deeply moving novel about love in its different forms, and how it can affect and be affected by greed, selfishness, personal ambition and war. The narrative is superb, and I found myself emotionally tied to the lives of the characters as much as any other book I've read in the past decade.

Great review, Darryl! I already have this one in the BlackHole or I would be adding it again.

Thanks, Stasia. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of her books, starting with Ancestor Stones, which received a glowing review from whymaggiemay here earlier this year.

#237: I had not heard anything of Ancestor Stones before. Thanks for the link to the review!

Book #53: The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach



My rating:

Milton Rokeach, a professor of social psychology, conducted a study at the Ypsilanti State Hospital from 1959 to 1961 of three men, who were all diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and each believed that he was Jesus Christ. The purpose of the study, which was based on the limited knowledge and lack of effective treatment options for patients with severe mental illness at the time, was to determine if a person with a deluded personal belief could change that claim, and any behaviors associated with it, if he encountered another person who shared that same, incongruent belief.

Rokeach and his partners, with the blessing of the Medical Superintendent of the hospital (as there were no Institutional Review Boards at that time), transferred the three men to a single ward and oversaw interviews and meetings in which the men were confronted with each others' claims. As expected, each man was initially upset and distraught by the presence of two other men who made the same claim as he, and each coped by adopting a view that permitted him to retain his own deeply held belief that he was the true Christ, where the others were either impostors or lesser gods. Interestingly, the men, who were not isolated from others on the hospital ward, preferred the company of the other Christs despite their frequent disagreements, and seemed to get along with each other better than the others.

After realizing that the men altered but did not fundamentally change their belief systems, Rokeach and his team decided to intervene, in a quite intrusive and ethically questionable manner, in the personal lives of each of the men, in order to force them to change their delusional beliefs without specifically addressing each one's view of himself as Christ. The experiments conducted on two of the men were described in detail in second half of the book. One man, who was never married but believed that he was, received letters from his "wife" on the outside, who urged him to give up his adopted name (Dr. Righteous Idealised Dung Sir) Another Christ, who frequently spoke of the Medical Superintendent of the hospital as "Dad", received fake letters from this doctor, who claimed that he loved him like a son, and encouraged him to take a new medication (potent-valuemiocene, which was a placebo) that would cure him of his untrue beliefs. These experiments were ultimately unsuccessful, and were deeply troubling to both men.

After two years, with nothing significant to show for the study, the team disbanded, and Dr. Rokeach left to pursue further study at Stanford and write this book.

Rokeach discusses the different types of personal belief systems prior to each set of experiments, from infancy through adulthood, and in mental health and illness, which provides context to the design of the study and the book, which consists of observations by the team, conversations by the men with the staff and each other, and the letters that were written to the men, and their replies.

The book concludes with an afterword, twenty years after The Three Christs of Ypsilanti was initially published in 1964. Rokeach updates us on the (lack of) progress made by each of the men, and reflects on the flawed methodology of the study, realizing that there was a fourth Christ in this experiment—himself:

And I would now also see the book as ending somewhat differently: while I had failed to cure the three Christs of their delusions, they had succeeded in curing me of mine—of my God-like delusion that I could change them by omnipotently and omnisciently arranging and rearranging their daily lives within the framework of a "total institution." I had terminated the project some two years after the initial confrontation when I came to realize—dimly at the time but increasingly more clearly as the years passed—that I really had no right, even in the name of science, to play God and interfere around-the-clock with their daily lives. Also, I became increasingly uncomfortable about the ethics of such a confrontation. I was cured when I was able to leave them in peace, and it was mainly Leon who somehow persuaded me that I should leave them in peace.

I initially gave The Three Christs of Ypsilanti a 3 star rating, as I viewed it with the eyes of a 21st century clinician, and was deeply offended at a study that I viewed as unethical and immoral—which it was. However, I now believe that this book is a valuable addition to the history of medicine, as it describes, in great detail, standards of medical experimentation and treatment of mental illness that modern practitioners and scientists should remember, learn from, and avoid.

Two fantastic reviews, Darryl. Obviously, the Nyquil didn't have any effect on your mental abilities.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti sounds interesting but disturbing. I'm glad you included that quote because it's good to know that the doctor realized his mistake.

Your review of The Memory of Love makes me want to run out and buy it. I'll probably avoid doing that for a couple of days and then give in.

I kept my mouth shut when you noted planning a Nyquil nap -- but wondered if that has anything to do with the ultra-vivid dreams? I certainly have very weird dreams if I take any kind of sleep aid. And even an over-the-counter caplet, if I take 1/3 of that, I'm knocked out instantly and remain groggy until 12 hours have passed. Melatonin is a migraine trigger. So I just have to work around my weird sleep patterns.

Oddly, the over-the-counter sleep aids have a MUCH greater effect on me than my prescription painkillers. Go figure. I suspect it would literally be possible to sleep through life with the latter.

>238 alcottacre:: I had forgotten about whymaggiemay's wonderful review of Ancestor Stones until I posted my review of The Memory of Love beneath hers in the Western Africa thread of the Reading Globally group. That book will be at the top of my wish list.

>240 phebj:: Thanks, Pat. I need to get new glasses, as I'm having a little bit of trouble reading with my progressive lenses, but the effect of the Nyquil on my vision was a bit disturbing until it improved this morning.

I'm glad that I waited to review The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, as I would have given it a much more negative review a couple of weeks ago after I finished it. New York Review Books made an interesting, and wise, decision to reissue this book, IMO. I have a sizable stack of unread NYRB titles, and I'd like to read one or two of them every month, starting with The Singapore Grip, the third book in J.G. Farrell's Empire Trilogy.

Several members of the Orange January/July group (and Luci (elkiedee)) are also very fond of The Memory of Love, and it seems to be the favorite of the OJJ group to win this year's prize.

>241 Chatterbox:: I'm just waking up from my nap, and I'm glad that I didn't take Nyquil, as I feel rested and not groggy, although my vision is still a bit blurrier than usual. I think I'll wait to try melatonin or any other sleep aid until a time that I don't have to work, as I don't need to be impaired tomorrow night.

Interesting that the OTC meds have a greater effect on you; I'm guessing that they are not more effective, though.

Back to the read-a-thon...

Well, I take the OTC meds to deal with occasional insomnia, although I have to plan it v.v. carefully indeed, and drink a lot of tea when I wake up until the effects wear off. With the painkillers, grogginess is supposed to be a side-effect, but I don't feel it.

FYI, I think you should think about writing your own book about medicine & literature, drawing on what is out there & the lessons for today's clinicians about being thoughtful practitioners. Remind me to give you my agent's name; bet he'd be interested.

ETA: it would be a way to monetize your book habit -- and make it partly tax-deductible...

>243 Chatterbox:: Most medications that have drowsiness as a side effect do make me drowsy, but I seem to be getting more sensitive to them.

Tea! That's a good idea, I think I'll brew a mug after I finish To Siberia.

I've thought about writing, but I think I'm far from ready to put anything to paper. There are courses for physicians who want to be writers, including an annual one that takes place on Cape Cod, I think. If I ever do something like this, I'd probably want to start with a short story, and submit it to the Bellevue Literary Review or a similar publication.

ETA: Did you renew your subscription to Archipelago Books for 2011? If so, did you receive The Chukchi Bible yet? I have my copy, and I'm planning to read it next month.

Nice review of The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, Darryl. Thanks for the recommendation.

>245 alcottacre:: You're welcome, Stasia. It was published last month by New York Review Books, and I downloaded the Kindle version after I read about it. Unfortunately it isn't a lendable book (I can't remember if you have an e-reader or not).

I have a Nook, Darryl :)

That's right; I was pretty sure that you didn't have a Kindle.

I didn't think I had renewed my Archipelago sub (i'm trying to cut costs wherever possible), but I got The Chukchi Bible anyway, so maybe it was an automatic renewal?

Short story? I was thinking non-fiction; kind of a combination memoir/lit crit, drawing on the kinds of thoughts that you had re The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. Book sounds intriguing, but probably not a "must read now" for me.

>249 Chatterbox:: I've never seen an option for automatic renewal from Archipelago Books, but I suppose it's possible. I think this is the third (or fourth) consecutive year that I've had an Archipelago subscription, and I've placed a renewal order every year.

Nonfiction would definitely be a better fit for me. I think I still have a long way to go, though.

I finished To Siberia by Per Petterson in the past hour, an LT Early Reviewer book from 2009 that I'm finally getting around to. It was an interesting story, but the portrayals of the main characters, including the narrator, were slight. I'll give it 3 stars, and review it tomorrow.

New thread here!

I hadn't been planning to read The Memory of Love soon but your review definitely intrigues me, and I had been waiting to buy The Three Christs of Ypsilanti after you mentioned how troubling it was, but now that I've read your review I may go a head and get it.

I enjoyed The Singapore Grip but it is not on the same level as Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur. Fascinating insight into a (to me) little known part of World War II.

I'll also be interested in what you think of Open City. I read To Siberia a few years ago, and I didn't find it up to Out Stealing Horses. I think the publisher rushed it into translation after the English-language success of OSH.

I don't think Archipelago has automatic renewals; they're a pretty small operation.

About drugs, I too find myself very susceptible to them and take them as rarely as possible. Years ago I took an OTC cold medicine because I had to go to a job interview and didn't want to be sneezing and having a runny nose all the way through it. It was one of those drugs that say you may become sleepy so don't drive or operated heavy machinery. Quite the opposite; I was bouncing off walls! And when I had minor surgery and was prescribed tylenol with codeine, even when I cut the pills in half they made me way too groggy.

>251 Smiler69:: Uh oh; a secret message from Ilana! ;-)

>252 rebeccanyc:: Luci (elkiedee) also posted a glowing review of The Memory of Love, and several other members of the Orange January/July that are reading it or have read it have also spoken highly of it, and it seems to be the favorite to win the prize within the group.

I remember that you and others said that The Singapore Grip isn't on the same level as Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur, but that it was still a good read; that's the main reason I haven't read it before now.

I'll put aside Open City until later this week or possibly next month, only because I want to read as many books from my May list as possible, along with another book that I need to read and review for the next issue of Belletrista, Above All, Don't Look Back by Maïssa Bey.

I didn't think that Archipelago Books had renewals, either.

I remember you mentioning your adverse reaction to an OTC cold medicine; antihistamines make most kids and adults sleepy, but they can have the opposite effect on a minority of people, including hyperacitivity, agitation, and occasionally hallucinations (and I've seen these reactions in several patients). Fortunately these reactions almost always go away in a few hours.

Darryl, I'm sooo confused! Don't you have a new thread ?

Apologies for repeating myself about the cold medicine; I obviously have a sieve for a brain! Thank goodness no hallucinations, though!

>254 lauralkeet:: Um...yes, I do have a new thread, Laura. I didn't want to be a rude host to Ilana and Rebecca, though.

>255 rebeccanyc:: No problem, Rebecca; I do the same thing on occasion, despite my internal pleas that I won't be like my father and tell stories on a repeated basis. :)

This thread is officially out of business.

Sorry Darryl, I didn't mean to be rude either.
Moving along to the new thread ....

I didn't think you were being the least bit rude, Laura!

:P